What will be judged at The Judgement Seat of Christ?

1 Corinthians 3:10-15 may provide further illumination for you:

10According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

11For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

12Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;

13Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.

14If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.

15If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

So yes, it is not your sins that are judged, rather your work done for your Lord.

Eccl. 12:14 reads:

For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

I think this means that every deed (act/word) will be evaluated, not as sins to determine heaven or hell, but as works for which we must give account.

What Will Be Evaluated?—EVERYTHING ABOUT US!

(much of this comes from Practical Christian Theology by Floyd Barackaman).

1. Every act/deed (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14; 2 Corinthians 5:10)

2. Every word we speak (Matthew 12:36-37)

3. Every disagreement/conflict with fellow believers (Romans 14:10-12; James 5:9)

4. All our hypocrisy (James 2:12-13, I Corinthians 9:26-27)

5. Every good thing (Ephesians 6:8)

6. Every unkind thing (Ephesians 6:9)

7. Every shameful act (I Corinthians 4:5)

8. The motives of all we do (I Corinthians 4:5)

9. Spiritual leadership: use of (James 3:1; Hebrews 13:17)

10. The Quality of our ministries (I Corinthians 3:10-15)

11. What we “asked for” (sowed) (Galatians 6:7)

I wonder how Romans 2, especially verses 5-11 play into this.

The missionary who spoke last week compared the 2Co 5:10 concept to the Mat 25:14 ff Parable of the Three Servants. His application was that the parable was an illustration of what will happen at the Judgement Seat of Christ. Our work will be reviewed for the purpose of determining the service for which we will be qualified in the Kingdom to come. (He likened it to an employment review prior to a promotion.) Would that be a valid use of the passages?

I am with the majority of interpreters on this: parables usually make one main point. Although some parables are allegories (like the sower), most of them make one main point. The idea is to focus on the point, not the details of the story. Misuse of parables can be compared to a pastor preaching a sermon, and people remember an illustration or joke but not the point of the sermon.

The viewpoint of your speaker is an old, seasoned one. I think it does an injustice to the teaching that everything will be evaluated. Yet we know that our sins are remembered no more. So those two truths need to be harmonized, and the position presented does not do that (it is not wrong, just incomplete). It is what he is not saying (“everything will be evaluated”) that bothers me. Also, we will suffer loss at the judgment seat, and we are to live in fear of it. Does his position elicit any sort of fear at all?

I was already judged and punished for all my sins. I actually paid the price for them by hanging on a cross and going through the experience of physical and spiritual death. Because of that, I have been given an exemption that declared all sins not just forgiven but paid for. I was also given a declaration that stated I had perfect performance in my life and lived a life as good as God. My conduct was looked at and declared perfect. No sins! WOW! What a relief.

When did all this happen? It happened outside Jerusalem. I was crucified between two thieves. That was about AD 27.

I was not born until 1939. However in 1959 I was miraculously united with a person called Jesus Christ. According to a simple promise, I believed in HIM and escaped any condemnation (John 3:16-18). I was united with Him and His death, burial, and resurrection (Rom. 6:1-11). I was seen as actually being crucified with him historically and eternally (Gal. 2:20). His righteous life was imputed to me and my sins were imputed to Him. I was declared justified before God so that I had peace with Him since 1959 and also rejoice in the hope of Glory to come (Rom. 5:1-2). The cost to me for all this was nothing. It was free. The cost however was great and terrible to Jesus Christ. My cost was based on Grace (the principle of gift).

Whatever doubts I may have had along the way have been perfectly cleared up by Paul in the book of Romans. All of mankind’s works and righteousness have been exposed as not only insufficient, but only mounting up debt in unrighteous judgment. All that God would accept was a simple believing in what had been done by God for me. My believing was contrasted to works (Rom. 4:4-6). So please excuse me at the Judgment seat of Christ. All that will be examined will be my stewardship as a believer. The issue is not eternal salvation but service and handling of given Christian responsibility. There may be loss of eternal reward. No one will be able to find my sins (Psalm 103:12).

Aren’t the provisions of salvation wonderful. A perfect Savior provides a perfect salvation that gives perfect assurance. The application of the blessings were complete at my conversion. Provision was even made for my continuing sin. The one who was crucified for me was raised from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father where he makes perfect intercession for me. So at my death I need no final rights and at my appearance before Christ my sins will not be an issue. Eternal forgiveness was been promptly handled on an ongoing basis. The only issue was temporal fellowship forgiveness which could be handled by me through 1 John 1:9. The Judge before whom I will stand has been my attorney understandingly pleading my case for my whole life (Heb. 4:14-16). So the attorney I had on a free lifetime retainer has a perfect relationship with the Judge (who is Himself).

Let there be no doubt. At the judgment seat of Christ mentioned at 2Cor. 5:10, all who are in Christ and Justified will not have their sins brought up by the Judge. He was crucified for them. Our assurance of this is the very essence of our faith.

In His earthly ministry Jesus spoke about the very explicit nature of God’s judgment. But these principles can only apply to those who await the judgment of their sins and remain under the wrath of God (John 3:36). He gave warning of the severe and explicit nature of God’s judgment. He also gave invitation to escape it.

I have not posted in awhile but this one intrigued me. Usually most efforts to deal with the Judgment seat of Christ focus on the judgment aspect of the phrase. Yet there will an element of Joy in the event. I take the event as much more joyous as the dross and the burdens we carry here on earth will finally be removed. Only that which is pleasing to the Lord will remain and have eternal consequences. I like all people see this as a judgment because in our flesh we often want to hold on to that wood, hay, and stubble because they are manifestations of our flesh.

It is a study I have put on the list of if I had the time:

There are three options regarding the idea some one brought up of the ruling of the nations during the millennium:

1, The church will remain in Jerusalem ever to be with Christ — Israel will assist in the nations.

2. Both Israel and the Church will assist in the rule of the nations

3. The church alone will assist in the rule of the nations.

I frankly have not studied it our in any detail and have heard sermons but never this aspect fully explained. Most have suggested either option two or three

In years gone by, Tom Farrell would say that if you do not believe that the believer’s sins will be judged, you must believe in 1) good works, 2) bad works and 3) sins; then go on to challenge you to distinguish between bad works and sins. His misstep is his dispensational bias. The biblical teaching that there will be a general resurrection and judgment resolves this confusion. It allows consistency between Rom. 8:1 and 2 Cor. 5:10 because there will be both sheep and goats (Matt 25:31-33) at this judgment.

What is the proper understanding of Matthew 12:36-37? Verse 37 says that men will be condemned and justified by their words. To me, this seems to be saying that our words will reflect our unbelief or our belief and we can thus be judged by them. But how does “every idle word” exactly fit into those that are justified? Is it every spoken word that is judged? A couple of possible interpretations of this come to mind:

(1) Christ’s blood has covered the believer’s bad words, so in effect all that will be seen at the judgment are the believer’s good words.

(2) Every single word will be accounted for, and the believer will be shamed at the bad ones, but because his overall speech reflects his true belief in Christ, he will be justified.

Are one of these correct, or is the correct interpretation something different?