Understanding the Bema Seat: Rewards and Judgments in Faith

Posted on by korgrocker

“Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord. So whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.”
2 Corinthians 5:8-10 NLT

Paul wanted to please Christ. Don’t we all? But Paul’s drive and commitment to sharing the Gospel came from the assurance that, regardless of what happened to him in this life, he would one day be in Heaven with Jesus, his Lord. When he wrote these verses, we get the sense that Paul was feeling a bit weary and really wanted to leave his earthly body behind and put on his new Heavenly body. I’m sure many Christians feel the same, although there are also many who are perhaps not so sure of the future beyond the grave. Yes, they say all the right things and read the Scriptures, but perhaps there are a few doubts. It is natural to feel a bit wobbly about the future. Generally, people want to be in control of their lives and struggle to put their faith in God and His promises. But Paul had no doubts, and wrote, “Yes, we are fully confident”, not a little confident, or confident on every Sunday, but completely assured of his future.

Paul went on to write, “For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body”. It is not a nice thought that we will one day be called to give an account of how we have spent our lives. Every moment of our lives will be rolled out before Jesus, both good and bad, after which will come the words of His judgement. Note that there will be no exceptions. Paul will be there as well as you and me. However, we should note that this is not the “Great White Throne” judgement of Revelation 20. The judgement on this occasion is for believers, and we sometimes call in the Bema seat of judgement, bema being a Greek word describing a raised platform. We also know that Jesus will be the Judge. John 5:22, “In addition, the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge”. Paul said to the High Council in Athens, “For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead” (Acts 17:31). His statement didn’t go down very well with the Council members, although one or two joined Paul wanting to know more.

Paul is clear in his letters that this judgment is not about salvation. Christ will not declare in that moment whether someone will go to heaven or hell. In no sense is this verse implying that this judgment, or the deeds it examines, are what decide someone’s eternal fate. Salvation is a gift given to everyone who trusts in Christ. We all know the verse John 3:16, “… for whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life”. We also know that “We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God”, but through Jesus’ sacrifice at Calvary and our belief in Him and the confession of our sins, we are redeemed from the punishment we deserve and are counted as righteous before God.

In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul addresses the importance of what we build as followers of Christ. Much of what we do will not survive the “fire” of judgement day. Paul wrote, “Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames” (1 Corinthians 3:12-15). If we really took our Christian lives seriously, we would perhaps pay less attention to the church roof and more to applying Christ’s teachings in our daily lives. Another couple of verses worth noting are in Colossians 3:23-24, “Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ”. 

Note that Paul wrote that we will all receive a reward, or otherwise, for the things we have done while on this earth. Living in our earthly bodies is a preparation for eternity to come, and our stewardship in how we conduct our lives is important. The time we have is short compared to the eternity ahead of us. Paul mentioned the reward is connected to the good and bad things that we have done. The “good” things are those that are spiritually valuable and profitable in the Kingdom. And as we expect, the opposite of those things is worthlessness and unprofitability. But we do have the assurance of our salvation. The Bema seat of judgement is all about reward or otherwise.

“Well done, good and faithful servant”

So, how should we pilgrims live our lives? We must live daily with the awareness that one day we will leave this life and this earthly body and find ourselves in Heaven. In all that we do, we should bear in mind that we are doing it for Christ. I think it was Billy Graham’s wife who had a sign above her kitchen sink that said, “Worship services held here three times a day”. We must align our priorities and perspectives with the values of the Kingdom of God. Another thing we should consider is the motives behind what we are doing. If it is for human applause and affirmation, then it has no value at all. Above all, we must invest in what is of eternal value. I once asked someone I knew, who attended the Abbey Church in Dunfermline, if they thought all their hard work in looking after their building, wonderful and magnificent as it is, would get them into Heaven. It is a shame that the heavy burden borne by the fabric committee will have no value at all when they stand before Jesus. In the end, the one thing we aspire to hear is Jesus saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant”. That’s all that will matter.

Dear Lord Jesus. Please lead us and guide us in our commission as we work for You. We confess our sins and ask for Your forgiveness. In Your precious name. Amen.

Judgments

Posted on by korgrocker

“My conscience is clear, but that doesn’t prove I’m right. It is the Lord himself who will examine me and decide. So don’t make judgments about anyone ahead of time—before the Lord returns. For he will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due.”
1 Corinthians 4:4-5 NLT

Good news and bad news are coming on the Day of Judgment when the Lord returns. This will not be the time of the Great White Throne judgment, when all those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life will find out their ultimate destination, an eternity spent in the company of the devil and his demons in a place called hell. No, this will be the Bema Judgement Seat of Christ, so named after the Greek word “Bema” meaning “judgement seat”, that we find in Romans 14:10, which reads, “So why do you condemn another believer? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God”. Although this verse refers to God being the Judge, we know from John 5:22 that it will be Christ sitting on the Bema. This verse reads, “Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son”. So, the bad news for us believers is not having to fear the thought of spending eternity in hell, but that God “will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives”. That is for us pilgrims, and I don’t know about you, but the exposure of my “darkest secrets” will make for an uncomfortable time. The only mitigating factor is that everyone else’s “darkest secrets” are probably just as bad. But we also have some good news coming. Firstly, our salvation will be intact. This matter was settled by Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf ( 1 John 2:2, “He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world“) and our faith in Him (John 3:16, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life“). Secondly, Paul wrote that “God will give to each one whatever praise is due“. Will this be the time when we will hear Jesus say, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21, “The master was full of praise. ‘Well done, my good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in handling this small amount, so now I will give you many more responsibilities. Let’s celebrate together! ’”). 

Just as an aside, consider this word “eternity”. The natural view is to look at it from our perspective of time, meaning “eternity” is time without a beginning or an end. But “eternity” does not consist, in my view, of clocks ticking away forever. I prefer a definition of “eternity” as a state existing outside of time, meaning it is not subject to the passage of time as we experience it. Imagine all the things that are subject to the ravages of time lasting for all “eternity”. Our eternal bodies will never wear out, and many things more, but “eternity” is something that we will not be able to get our human-bound minds around in this life, but there is a time coming when we will be able to. 

But Paul was reflecting on the human tendency to judge others. We go through our lives making judgments all the time, purely because we have to. It is part of human existence. For example, if we see a person walking towards us, we subconsciously make a judgment to protect ourselves, just in case the person approaching us wants to do us harm. Most of the time, no action is required, but occasionally we will think it prudent to cross the road just in case. Or in a conversation, a statement made by the other person will require analysis and judgment to extract what it means for us. For example, if my boss at work starts talking about redundancies, I will immediately start to judge what he is saying, whether it will impact me. But on a more negative note, all the time we have our value systems at work, we judge others against them. And that is where the problem can lie, because most of the time our values are based on how a person looks, dresses or behaves, rather than what really exists within their hearts. Our values are established from an early age and reflect what we have been taught in the nurturing years. But our values do not provide us with a system for making judgments that is worth anything. God is the only Person qualified to judge. His “value system” is true, righteous, and just.

So what will happen when we give an account of our lives to Jesus? He will inspect our work. What did we do with the resources God gave us? How faithful were we? Were we yielded to the Spirit, seeking to honour Christ and further His work in the world? Did we neglect our opportunities to serve the Lord? In Matthew 10:41-42, Jesus said, “If you receive a prophet as one who speaks for God, you will be given the same reward as a prophet. And if you receive righteous people because of their righteousness, you will be given a reward like theirs. And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded“. It doesn’t matter how small something we have done for Jesus is, because each act of service will have a reward. The converse is also true, with neglect leading to a loss of reward. 

So, Paul advised the Corinthians to not get ahead of themselves and instead leave judgment to the Lord. Only Jesus is qualified to judge, and this will happen one day. If people, particularly other believers, act in ways that violate our values, we must not judge them, and instead we must pray for them. And if we can do that, it takes the pressure off us. One day, everyone will have to stand before one of two judgment seats and starting that process ourselves ahead of time is pointless.

Dear Heavenly Judge. We know that it is only You who is qualified to judge the human race. Please help us to look at our fellow members of society, believers and unbelievers, through Your eyes. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Wall of Flames

Posted on by korgrocker

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have—Jesus Christ. Anyone who builds on that foundation may use a variety of materials—gold, silver, jewels, wood, hay, or straw. But on the judgment day, fire will reveal what kind of work each builder has done. The fire will show if a person’s work has any value. If the work survives, that builder will receive a reward. But if the work is burned up, the builder will suffer great loss. The builder will be saved, but like someone barely escaping through a wall of flames.”
1 Corinthians 3:11-15 NLT

Paul wrote that there is a judgment day coming. But the description seemed to indicate that it will be a different occasion from the one in Revelation 20:11-12, “And I saw a great white throne and the one sitting on it. The earth and sky fled from his presence, but they found no place to hide. I saw the dead, both great and small, standing before God’s throne. And the books were opened, including the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to what they had done, as recorded in the books”. The judgment Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians 3:13 and 1 Corinthians 1:8 seemed to be for believers. Another Scripture to support this can be found in Romans 14:10-12, “So why do you condemn another believer? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For the Scriptures say, “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bend to me, and every tongue will declare allegiance to God.’” Yes, each of us will give a personal account to God”. Paul also made reference to this judgment day in his second epistle, 2 Corinthians 5:10 – “For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body”. So the conclusion that the theologians have drawn is quite clear – every person will one day have to stand before God to give an account of their lives. The unbelievers will be called to account in the Great White Throne judgment of Revelation 20, and the believers will be called to give an account of their lives to Christ. In the case of the believers’ judgement, the “builders”, those responsible for teaching and building up the people of God, will experience a judgement more severe than the believers they were teaching – James 3:1, “Dear brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers in the church, for we who teach will be judged more strictly”. Believers will be called to give an account before Christ, and this is referred to as the “bema” seat judgment, “bema” coming from the Greek version of Romans 14:12.

So what do we pilgrims think of all this? Of course, we will be very relieved that we will not be called to stand before the Great White Throne to explain, as unbelievers will, about why they never believed in Jesus. Much will be said in mitigation, and we can be assured that the judgment and punishment will be fair, but there is only one verdict for those whose names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life – “guilty”. And the punishment will be severe and eternal. There are only two places where mankind can end up after death, and that is either in Heaven or hell. There is nowhere else. People who have rejected Heaven as their final home will by default have to spend eternity in the other place, along with the devil and his demons. In Philippians 2:9-11, we read that regardless of what they believe in this life, everyone who has ever lived, believer and unbeliever, will have to acknowledge the Lordship of Christ, “Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honour and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father“.

Believers, however, will still be required to give an account of their lives before Christ. What will this look like? First of all, it will not be a place where sin will be discussed, because Jesus came and died for the forgiveness of sins. John 3:16, “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life“. About Jesus, John wrote in 1 John 2:2, “He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world”. So all our sins are forgiven, and we will not have to give an account for any of them. What a relief! What a Saviour! All glory to the One who gave Himself for us! The confirming verse comes from the lips of Jesus Himself, “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life” (John 5:24). No condemnation, as it says in Romans 8:1.

In Luke 19, Jesus told a parable about ten servants. They were each given a sum of money and were told to invest it. Other translations refer to “talents”, but either interpretation gives the picture of the King, God Himself, requesting His servants to use wisely the money, the gifts that He has given them. The picture also emerges that although different people had different amounts of gifts, they were nevertheless asked to account for how they used them, and importantly, the King did not ask for unrealistic returns. None of them were held to account for something that they did not have. But here’s the thing. The servant who had a gift, one talent, never used it, and suffered the consequences of having what he was given taken away from him. Note as well that the servants who did well with their gifts were given rewards. And that is the purpose of the believers’ judgment. It’s all about Jesus giving out rewards for faithful works of service. And will we hear Him say, “Well done …”? I hope so.

Near the end of his life, Paul wrote to Timothy and included the words, “And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing” (1 Timothy 4:8). One day, faithful servants of Jesus will be given a crown. There’s another crown in James 1:12, “God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him“. And I’m sure there will be more, each one appropriate to the believer standing before Him and in accordance with what they have done for Jesus in this life here on earth.

Back in 1 Corinthians 3, we see a picture of those teachers (this might include us pilgrims, of course) being held to account for the quality of their teaching. Was it of poor quality, and unable to survive proper examination, the result being that it would disappear in fire? Or was it of a top-quality Gold standard, worthy of a reward from Jesus? Only time will tell, but in the meantime, we do our best for Jesus, not slacking from the works of service He has requested us to do. 

Dear Heavenly Father. We are so grateful for Jesus. Because of our faith in His atoning sacrifice, we are assured a future in Your presence. And it was all part of Your plan for our salvation. What can we do, other than bow before You in the deepest worship? Thank You. Amen.