Standing Before the Judgment Seat of God
 

        Judgment day—it calls forth images of a courtroom scene with a long line consisting of all men and women who ever lived waiting to be put on trial one at a time. As each person comes before the bench, the Judge opens up a book and looks at the list of each person’s good and bad deeds, then, after recounting their deeds, pronounces a judgment on where they will spend eternity. It seems that even many Christians have this view of the judgment day, with Christians standing in that same line with unbelievers. After all, isn’t that what the Scriptures teach? For example, 2 Cor 5.10 says: “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 what he has done, whether good or bad”  (cf. also Rom 14.10-11; Heb 9.27)? It sounds like the courtroom scene presented above is not far off the mark.
 

        On the other hand, Jesus said: "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (Jn 3.18). Also: "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life”  (Jn 5.24). Thus, there are those who will be exempted from the judgment.
 

        I once heard a person say of Christianity: “What do I need that guilt trip for?” Another person described Christians as “children of hell.” Unbelievers often envision Christianity in this way.  But the gospel is not a “guilt trip.” Rather, it is a “grace trip.” We are not children of hell, but children of heaven.

        Yet even Christians sometimes have the wrong picture. While the Bible says that all will stand before the judgment seat, not all will actually pass through judgment. There is no real decision to be made at that time, so what need will there be of a trial? After all, Christ knows those who are his, for they already have his seal upon them (2 Tim 2.19; 2 Cor 1.22; Eph 1.13-14). Thus, he will simply say, “Come…enter...inherit.”

        In Christ, there is no condemnation (Rom 8.1), for we have been justified by faith in him (Rom 5.1). And there is no charge (Rom 8.33), so of what need is there for a trial? God is not going to recount our sins, because he doesn’t even remember them (Heb 8.12).

        In what sense, then, will we stand before the judgment seat of Christ to be recompensed for our deeds? I think it can only be in the sense that those who have lived ungodly, faithless lives and who are found to be outside of Christ, unknown by him (Mt 7.21-23), will be judged by the law of God, and found to fall short. Their evil deeds will be recounted. But for those who have lived by faith in Christ, the only deeds recounted and “recompensed” (so-to-speak) are their good deeds, their deeds of faith. We will not stand before the judgment seat in order to be judged, but simply in order to receive our reward: the “crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will reward to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.” (2 Tim 4.8).

© 2006 Randy Hohf