LIVING IN THE LIGHT OF THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST
You Will Never Be Tomorrow What You Are Not Becoming Today
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
— 2 Corinthians 5:10 (NKJV)
Yesterday, John Barnett released a teaching titled “LIVING IN THE LIGHT OF THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST.”
After watching his teaching “BREAKING THE SPELL—Living for Eternal Purpose” this morning, I realized how closely these two messages belong together.
The first message warns us about becoming hypnotized by the cares, pleasures, comforts, worries, and distractions of this temporary world.
But once the spell is broken, another question immediately follows:
What should we be living for instead?
Scripture gives us the answer.
We are living toward a coming appointment with Jesus Christ.
For every believer, there is a moment ahead when earthly life will be finished, service opportunities will have ended, and we will stand before the One who redeemed us.
Paul calls this appointment:
“the judgment seat of Christ.”
And understanding that coming moment should change how we live today.
There Is No Spiritual “Someday”
One statement from Barnett's teaching deserves serious consideration:
You will never be what you are not actively becoming today.
How often do we tell ourselves:
- Someday I'll pray more.
- Someday I'll study Scripture more seriously.
- Someday I'll serve.
- Someday I'll give.
- Someday I'll share Christ.
- Someday I'll deal with that sin.
- Someday I'll become the Christian God wants me to be.
But there is a problem with someday.
Someday never appears on the calendar.
When tomorrow arrives, it will simply be another today.
And if we continually postpone obedience today, we are actually training ourselves to postpone obedience tomorrow.
Spiritual maturity doesn't suddenly appear.
It develops through thousands of seemingly small decisions.
- One prayer.
- One act of obedience.
- One temptation resisted.
- One person encouraged.
- One sacrifice made.
- One opportunity taken.
- One day surrendered to Christ.
- Then another.
- Then another.
We are becoming something every day.
The question is:
What are we becoming?
Every Christian Has an Appointment
Paul writes:
“For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.”
— Romans 14:10
And then:
“So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.”
— Romans 14:12
Notice the words:
Each of us.
- This will be personal.
- We will not stand there as a denomination.
- We will not stand there as a church congregation.
- We will not stand there as a family.
- We will not stand there comparing ourselves with other Christians.
Each of us will give an account of himself to God.
There will be a personal roll call.
And when my name is called, the question will not be:
“What did everybody else do?”
The question will concern what I did with what God entrusted to me.
- My time.
- My abilities.
- My opportunities.
- My resources.
- My spiritual gifts.
- My influence.
- My relationships.
- My suffering.
- My circumstances.
- My life.
The Bema Seat Is Not the Great White Throne
This distinction is extremely important.
The Judgment Seat of Christ should not be confused with the Great White Throne judgment described in Revelation 20.
For the believer in Jesus Christ, the question of condemnation has already been settled.
Jesus said:
“He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”
— John 5:24
Paul likewise declared:
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”
— Romans 8:1
Our salvation was purchased by Jesus Christ.
We do not stand before the Bema to discover whether Christ's blood was sufficient.
It was.
We do not stand there to earn eternal life.
Eternal life is God's gift.
But salvation by grace does not mean that our lives after salvation are meaningless.
Quite the opposite.
God saved us for a purpose.
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
— Ephesians 2:10
The Bema concerns what we did with the life Christ gave us.
Our Work Will Be Tested
Paul gives us one of Scripture's clearest descriptions of this evaluation:
“Each one's work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire.”
— 1 Corinthians 3:13
Paul describes two categories of building materials:
Gold, silver, precious stones.
And:
Wood, hay, straw.
Everything may look impressive now.
But Christ sees what we cannot see.
- He sees the motive.
- He sees the heart.
- He sees whether something was done for His glory or ours.
- He sees faithfulness nobody applauded.
- He sees sacrifices nobody noticed.
- He sees opportunities we embraced.
- And He sees opportunities we ignored.
Then comes this remarkable statement:
“If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.”
— 1 Corinthians 3:14
And immediately afterward:
“If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”
— 1 Corinthians 3:15
That verse protects an essential biblical distinction.
The believer may suffer loss while still being saved.
Therefore, the issue here is not earning salvation.
The issue is what we did with our salvation.
Jesus Is Interested in More Than What We Did
This is where the Judgment Seat becomes even more searching.
God doesn't merely see our actions.
He sees why we performed them.
Paul wrote:
“Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts.”
— 1 Corinthians 4:5
That means two people could perform the same outward act while God evaluates them very differently.
- One person may give because he loves God.
- Another may give because he wants recognition.
- One may serve because she loves people.
- Another may serve because she wants applause.
- One may teach because Christ called him.
- Another may teach because he enjoys being admired.
- Human beings see the action.
Jesus sees the heart.
This should cause us to ask:
Why am I doing what I'm doing?
Imagine Standing There
Barnett's teaching encourages us to mentally transport ourselves out of this present world and contemplate the throne room of Heaven.
Revelation gives us a breathtaking glimpse.
- John sees a throne.
- Brilliant glory.
- A rainbow surrounding the throne.
- Lightning.
- Thunder.
- Living creatures continually declaring:
- “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was and is and is to come!”
- — Revelation 4:8
Later John describes an innumerable angelic multitude:
“And the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands.”
— Revelation 5:11
Try to imagine it.
- The noise of this world is gone.
- The advertisements are gone.
- The political arguments are gone.
- The schedules are gone.
- The bills are gone.
- The possessions are gone.
- The careers are finished.
- The houses are somewhere behind us.
- The things we worried about endlessly have disappeared.
And suddenly we are standing in the presence of eternal reality.
At that moment, what will matter?
- Only what mattered to Christ.
Perhaps We Should Visit That Moment Every Morning
What if we began every day by mentally standing before Christ?
- Before checking the phone.
- Before checking the news.
- Before beginning the day's work.
- Before worrying about everything demanding our attention.
- Suppose we simply prayed: “Lord Jesus, someday I will stand before You. Help me live this day so that I will be glad when You examine it.”
That one prayer could change our priorities.
- It could change how we treat our spouse.
- It could change how we conduct business.
- It could change how we spend money.
- It could change how we use our free time.
- It could change how quickly we forgive.
- It could change how we respond to interruptions.
- It could change how seriously we take opportunities to help people.
- It could change everything.
Because suddenly today becomes connected to eternity.
The Small Things May Be Much Bigger Than We Think
One of the world's great deceptions is convincing us that only spectacular accomplishments matter.
Jesus teaches almost the opposite.
He said:
“And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple...he shall by no means lose his reward.”
— Matthew 10:42
- A cup of water.
- Something almost insignificant.
- Yet Jesus remembers it.
- Perhaps Heaven's accounting system looks completely different from ours.
- Maybe some Christians who appeared enormously successful will discover that much of what they built was temporary.
- And perhaps some quiet believer whom almost nobody noticed will discover that Heaven recorded decades of prayer, generosity, faithfulness, kindness, suffering, forgiveness, and service.
God sees differently.
And that should encourage every ordinary believer.
Nothing done faithfully for Christ is insignificant.
We Are Not Preparing for Retirement—We Are Preparing for Eternity
Our culture teaches us to prepare carefully for retirement.
- We calculate.
- We save.
- We invest.
- We plan decades ahead.
- There is wisdom in responsible planning.
But how strange would it be to spend forty years preparing for perhaps twenty years of retirement while giving almost no thought to preparing for eternity?
Jesus said:
“Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven.”
— Matthew 6:20
That is not poetic language without practical meaning.
Jesus is telling us that decisions made here can have consequences there.
Something eternal is being built through the way we live right now.
Breaking the Spell—and Living for the Bema
This is why these two teachings belong together.
BREAKING THE SPELL says:
Wake up from the hypnosis of this temporary world.
LIVING IN THE LIGHT OF THE JUDGMENT SEAT OF CHRIST says:
- Now that you're awake, live intentionally for the world that is coming.
- One removes the distraction.
- The other provides the destination.
Together they confront us with a life-changing truth:
We are not merely passing time.
We are preparing to meet Christ.
You Cannot Change Yesterday
Perhaps you read something like this and immediately think about wasted years.
I do too.
- Opportunities missed.
- Time wasted.
- Things that seemed important then but mean very little now.
- But regret cannot recover yesterday.
- And God has not asked us to relive yesterday.
He has given us today.
That means the most important question isn't:
“Why didn't I live differently twenty years ago?”
The better question is:
“How does Jesus want me to live the day He has given me now?”
- If God gives us another week, we can give Him that week.
- If He gives us another year, we can give Him that year.
- If He gives us another twenty years, we can give Him those years.
- But it begins with today.
A Question Worth Asking Every Morning
Perhaps every follower of Christ should begin the day with three questions:
- What can I do today that will matter in eternity?
- Whom can I love or serve today in Jesus' name?
- What am I doing today that I would gladly place before Christ at His Judgment Seat?
We don't ask these questions because we are trying to earn Heaven.
We ask them because Heaven has already been given to us through Jesus Christ.
We don't serve so Christ will save us.
We serve because He has saved us.
- We don't pursue rewards because we want to glorify ourselves.
- We want our lives to please the One who gave Himself for us.
And perhaps someday, standing before the Savior who loved us and gave Himself for us, there could be no greater joy than hearing:
“Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Until that moment arrives, we still have something extraordinarily valuable in our hands.
Today.
- Don't waste it waiting for tomorrow.
- Don't allow the world to hypnotize you into forgetting eternity.
- Don't spend your entire life building something you cannot take with you.
Break the spell.
- Look toward the Bema.
- Lay up treasure in Heaven.
- Love God.
- Love people.
- Serve faithfully.
- And live today in light of the day when you will stand before Jesus Christ.
