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#8) 2 Corinthians 5:10
"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that
each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to
what he has done, whether good or bad."
Judgment
This verse reaffirms the truth that God is just. For unbelievers,
His eternal judgment will be quite fearful, but for believers it will
be a shining event of glory and justice.
The Great White Throne
The judgment of unbelievers will occur at the great white throne
(Revelation 20:11). The deeds of those unbelievers will be
examined, and all will be found lacking. Since they had not
placed their faith in Jesus Christ, their names will not be found in
the book of life, and they will suffer eternal separation from
God.
The Judgment Seat of Christ
However, the judgment of all believers will occur at the Judgment Seat
of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10, Romans 14:10). The Judgment Seat
introduce what the Bible calls "the Day of the Lord Jesus Christ" (1
Corinthians 1:8), and we're charged to be prepared for it, and to
remain blameless in this life until that day.
Works matter
In 1 Corinthians 3:12-15, we see that each person's "work will be shown
for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light."
Christ will test the quality of our works with fire, which will burn up the
wood, hay, and straw, but leave the pure gold, silver, and precious
stones. He will repay us for our deeds in the body, according
to what we've done, whether good or bad. He will reveal whether
our good works were only humanly good works produced by the flesh like the
wood, hay, and straw similar to that of "good" unbelievers, or whether
our good works came from the divine power of the Holy Spirit in the
form of gold, silver, and precious stones. Christ will credit
our account for the divine good works that survive the test of fire
(Philippians 4:17). For our human good works, we'll suffer
loss of rewards, although we'll keep our eternal life (1 Corinthians
3:15). God will repay us for our service to Him (Ephesians
6:8), and we'll receive ". . . an inheritance from the Lord as a reward"
(Colossians 3:24).
RewardsWe're not told many details of these rewards, but any reward from God
is wonderful and worthy of our service. Our rewards may be
personal commendations from Jesus, "Well done, good and faithful
servant" (Matthew 25:21, 23). They may be in the form of
crowns (1 Corinthians 9:25, Revelation 3:11, 1 Peter 5:4, 2 Timothy 4:8, James
1:12, Philippians 4:1, 2 Timothy 2:12, Revelation 20:6,
22:5). By 1 Corinthians 6:3). No matter what our rewards are, we know
that God will make all of our service to Him worthwhile. We need
to understand that the name of the game after salvation while we remain on
the earth is service to God and rewards from Jesus Christ.
However, there's a critical companion verse here, dealing with
humility. Matthew 6:1 says, "Be careful not to practice your
righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you
will have no reward from your Father in heaven." The choice
is ours: cheap rewards from men; or, eternal and priceless rewards from God.
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