The Judgment Seat of Christ

Introduction. (II Corinthians 4:16-5:11) Paul teaches us here (through the Holy Spirit some powerful points about life, death, the spirit, the body, judgment and our responsibility before God. Let’s look this morning at verses 9-11 of chapter five.

I. “We make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.” (II Corinthians 5:9).

  1. Our aim. Gr. philotimeomai lit. “love of honor” thus. “to be ambitious.” We strive for many things in life, how many are temporal and how many are eternal in nature? (Philippians 3:18,19).
  2. Absent or present. Refers to vss. 6 & 8. Being “present” in the body (i.e. our spirit -- the inner man still within the body) we are “absent from the Lord.” When death comes to the Christian, the opposite happens. (cf. Philippians 1:21-24).
         Leads us to ask how this harmonizes with the biblical teaching regarding Hades. Explanation: When someone dies they go to the place of the dead called Sheol in Hebrew and Hades in Greek. Jesus went there when He died (Acts 2:30-32). There is a separation of the righteous and the wicked (Luke 16:19-23; 26). At the judgment Hades gives up its dead, the dead are judged and Hades is thrown into “the lake of fire” (Revelation 20:13-15).
         Is Paul describing something different? Paul doesn’t address the place but the relationship. When the righteous die (awaiting the judgment) from what Paul suggests, there is interaction with “the Lord.” This doesn’t have to refer to the place of final reward.
  3. “Well pleasing to God.” Relationships involve people caring about each other to such an extent that they want to please the other person (e.g. I Corinthians 7:33,34 - husband & wife seeks to please each other). A careful concern for what God wants is not “legalistic” -- so long as it does not bind human traditions over Divine -- or neglect joy, love and mercy “straining out gnats.”
         A careful interest in doing exactly what our Father in heaven wants reflects a deep and heartfelt love for God and how we may be “well pleasing” to Him.

II. “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (II Corinthians 5:10a).

The New Testament reveals that Jesus will act as Judge on the day of judgment (John 5:22). His word will be the standard of judgment (John 12:47,48). Every soul who has ever lived one day will come before Christ in judgment (Matthew 25:31,32). This means a number of this for mankind...
  1. “That each one may receive the things done in the body...” (vs. 10b). We will have no second-chances after death. Example of rich man & Lazarus (Luke 16:23-31).
    1. False doctrine of Purgatory. i.e. Catholic teaching that some do not stand condemned or saved but go to a place where they experience temporary punishment or purification. Only verse I know that is used to defend this is talking the work of preachers (I Corinthians 3:9-15) not a place after death of purification.
  2. “...According to what he has done, whether good or bad.” (vs. 10c) It matters what we do. There are bad things for which we will have to answer to God. There are good things that God wants us to do in order to please Him (Romans 2:5-11).
         Any religious idea that results in the conclusion that we can do bad and the Lord doesn’t care -- or that we can’t do anything that is good (and thus pleasing to God) is a false doctrine, the product of human reasoning and contrary to Scripture!

III. “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord...” (II Corinthians 5:11a).

The fear of the Lord is always considered a valuable thing (Proverbs 9:10). Our relationship with God in Christ gives the Christian confidence (Hebrews 10:19,20). In one sense it “casts out fear” (I John 4:17,18). But this is not to suggest that we do not need to maintain a reverential fear of God. Paul says through the Holy Spirit that this leads us to do something...
  1. “...We persuade men...” (vs. 11b) (Acts 18:4). “persuade” Gr. peitho in KJV often translated “trust, obey, have confidence, believe.” Thayer says it is “to induce one by words to believe.” I.e. our understanding of the Christian faith leads us to “persuade” others to come to have the same understanding of the Faith.
         We do this in different ways (Jude 22,23). We must be the kind of people that try all that we can to “persuade” people. Example of Paul: (I Corinthians 9:19-23).
  2. “...But we are well known to God...” (vs. 11c). Acts 15:8 - Controversy over the circumcision of the Gentiles, in realizing that God had given them the Holy Spirit as He had the Jews, speaks of “God, who knows the heart.”
         God knows us -- better than anyone else -- better than ourselves! Do we accept this fact or do we imagine that we don’t have to answer to Him? “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ”