Believer's Rewards
Selected Scriptures
Tonight our subject in our prophecy series is the judgment seat of Christ or the believer's rewards. In the great closing chapter of Revelation Jesus gave us a clear statement introducing to us an event that would follow immediately the rapture. The statement that He made is in Revelation 22:12 and this is what He said: "Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give to every man according as his work shall be." Jesus said I am coming quickly or suddenly and when I come I will have with me rewards to give to men on the basis of what they have done.
Now this introduces to us the fact that there is going to be a time of reward for the believer. This is not the only Scripture that mentions it. In II Timothy 4, we read this, the words of Paul as he closes out his ministry: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only but unto them also that love His appearing." When Jesus comes for His church it will be immediately followed by a time of rewards. We leave this world, we meet Jesus Christ in the air, we go to the Father's house and there is a time of reward.
Now this even is called by the apostle Paul the judgment seat of Christ. That is the term that is used in II Corinthians 5:10. And there Paul says we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, and He's talking about believers as we shall see later on.
Now Paul also speaks of this judgment in Romans 14:10. "For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ." Again indicating the same things. Some manuscripts there read the judgment seat of God, but it's talking about the very same thing.
Now the question that we want to pose and then answer tonight from the Scripture is what is this judgment seat? What is this time of rewards that happens immediately after the Lord comes? When I look forward to the rapture and I look forward to it and I know that Jesus could come any moment, but when I look forward to that I also have to have in my mind's eye the whole concept of rewards because that is what is going to take place immediately after the rapture. And so as I'm anticipating the coming of Christ, I must also be anticipating a time of rewards for the service, which I have rendered to Him. Therefore, this is a very important subject to me. If I'm going to be at the judgment seat of Christ I want to know what it is and I want to be there in all of the best possible circumstances. We want to know what the Scripture says and so what we're going to do is bounce around in Scripture and you're going to have to move with us a little bit to kind of stay with it.
Now I just want to take this from a simple standpoint and just consider each aspect of it right down the line, the place and time of it, the person, the people, the purpose and the promise. And we'll just take one of those at a time.
First of all where is this going to happen and when is it going to happen? The place and time. Well I've already told you and having read those two Scriptures I hope substantiated that it's going to happen immediately after the rapture. "Behold I come quickly and my reward is with me to give to every man according as his works shall be." The picture is Christ coming and with Him is the reward. And then as I read from II Timothy 4, Paul says He's going to give me a crown of righteousness at that day and he talks about the day of His appearing.
And so we believe then that the judgment seat of Christ, as it is called by Paul, at least in a authorized version, is going to take place immediately following the rapture. Now what about the place of judgment? Well the place of judgment is clearly defined for us in the very term judgment. The translation of the Greek word into judgment is really not a fair translation because judgment conjures up all kinds of fearful thoughts. When we think about judgment in the classic sense of its use in Scripture we think about sin don't we? Because all the judgments that take place in the Bible are judgments upon sin except this one, except this one. And so it is really unfair to call this a judgment at all and perhaps it was unfair of the King James translators and all that followed in their train to use that term because it conjures up all kinds of fearful thoughts. The idea that we're going to stand before Jesus Christ and all of our sins are going be blown up on a screen. We're going to get so many supernatural slots for everything that happened after the cross and all of this kind of thing, and this is sort of a stop before we get into heaven. It's the St. Peter at the gate bit, you know, and do you pass? Well I'll check my list and all this. The idea of judgment has imposed upon our theology all kinds of misconceptions. Some have even decided, and of course this is basically what you come up with if you're a millennial, going back a few weeks you remember what that is, no kingdom. That everything happens at one big moment then you've got the judgment seat of Christ happening together with the great white throne and some people have everybody at the great white throne. And I think all of this basically has been conjured up by a misunderstanding of what the term means when it talks about the judgment seat of Christ.
Now let me just show you basically there are seven major judgments in Scripture. And I'm just going to list them for you. If you want to get them down you can study them on your own. I'll make a brief comment about each. And I want to show you something and I want you to keep it in mind. Every different judgment has its own time and its own place. God is very specific in all of them watch. The first we'll call the judgment of sin.
Now the judgment of sin is recorded in the four gospels. It happened in time about the year 30 or so A.D. It happened in place on Calvary's cross. That was the judgment of sin, was it not? For it was there that He who knew no sin became what? sin for us. God judged sin fully and finally in the death of Jesus Christ. That was the judgment of sin in time about the year 30 A.D. or a little later, in place Calvary. That was sin being judged. That was judgment falling upon the God-man Jesus Christ as He bore our sins. God was judging sin.
Second judgment: the judgment of self. Now the judgment of self goes on in time throughout the church age, throughout the age of the believer's life. The place: the earth. In I Corinthians 11:31, Paul said this: "If we judge ourselves we shall not, what? be judged. If we judge ourselves we'll not be judged. You know what He meant by that? If we're careful to evaluate our own lives spiritually we'll avoid the chastening of the Lord. The place is earth. The time is now. The judge is the Spirit-controlled believer. And this is my obligation to so evaluate and so pattern my life after the things of God that I am consistently dealing with issues in my life and because I am doing that and living a holy life I do not fall under the chastisement of God for my sin.
Now let me say this: Christ's death on the cross took care of the sin principle, but as we live the Christian life God will discipline us. That is not redemptive discipline in the sense of redeeming us under God. That is corrective discipline. That just shows us we shouldn't do that any more. It's for the sake of our own joy and for the sake of our testimony. And so if we judge ourselves here and now on this earth we're not going to suffer discipline, but believe me if we do sin and if we do not carefully bring our own lives into control by the Holy Spirit what happens? The Lord will discipline us. He will chasten us, and every son he scourges. We all fail. We all sin and consequently know the judgment of God in the sense of its chastisement or corrective quality.
The third kind of judgment is the judgment of believer's works. Now this is the judgment we're talking about tonight. The judgment of believer's works is going to take place after the rapture. The place is not the earth, but the place is heaven. And we'll get into detail on that.
The fourth judgment in the Bible is the judgment of Israel. Israel is going to be judged. Now this judgment is recorded in Ezekiel 20:33-44. And you remember that when Christ returns at the end of the tribulation it says at that point He judges Israel. Now remember we've talked about the fact that He will purge out of Israel what? The rebels and then he will take those that are left to believe into the kingdom. The judgment of Israel then, the place earth, the time at the end of the rapture, the beginning of the kingdom.
So you see each of the first four judgments involves a specific time and a specific place. The judgment of sin, Calvary around the year 30 A.D. The judgment of self, now, as the believer lives day by day and as he deals with sin in his own life and lives a holy and victorious life he avoids chastisement. And then the judgment of believer's works, future, the place, heaven. The judgment of earth, earth at the end of the tribulation. Now what I'm saying is this: you can't lump everything together. God is very clear about distinctions in judgment.
Fifthly there is the judgment of the Gentiles. The judgment of the nations. This judgment is explained in Matthew 25:31-46 where the Lord comes and separates the believing Gentiles from the unbelieving Gentiles. The unbelieving ones are cast into hell. The believing ones go into the kingdom. The place, earth. Remember how Christ comes down, His feet touch the Mount of Olives. He splits the Mount of Olives, all the nations are gathered into the Mount of Olives, and there He judges the nations. The place is earth. The time is the end of the tribulation.
Sixthly, there is the judgment of Satan and his demons in Scripture. Now this is announced to us in Jude 6. It says, "The angels who kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation and yet reserved an everlasting change on the darkness," watch, "unto the judgment of the great day." God has planned a special judgment for Satan and his angels. And of course, you know when this is? It is at the end of the thousand- year kingdom. You remember that Satan is loosed for a little season at the end of the millennial kingdom, and then God takes him and the Bible says, "They are committed to the place prepared for them, the Lake of Fire to be tormented day and night forever and ever. So, at the end of the thousand-year kingdom there's going to be a judgment on Satan and his demons, Revelation 20:10.
Seventh and lastly there is the judgment of the unsaved, the judgment, of all of the unsaved, of all of the ages, and that is recorded in Revelation 20:11-15. That is called the great white throne judgment, and that happens right after the kingdom, after the thousand-year reign of Christ there is a resurrection and all of the ungodly are brought before the throne and Christ judges them out of the books that are written. They cannot make it on the bases of good deeds and they're all thrown into the Lake of Fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
Now there you have the seven judgments that complete God's judgment plans. Now keep in mind that every one of those has a unique place and a unique time and so we do not want to fall in the error of throwing everything in the same bag when we talk about judgment. Now we're going to put out of that the one judgment that we want to study tonight and that is the judgment of the believer's works. In a real sense it is almost unfair to lump it with those judgments because all of those judgments are judgments on the basis of sin, you see? This one is really not a judgment on the basis of sin unless it would be an indirect judgment on the sin of omission, and in that sense it is a judgment on sin. And we'll see what we mean by that in a moment.
Now the word that is used for judgment seat will come clear to us if we'll look at II Corinthians 5 and we'll begin at that point. II Corinthians 5:10, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad." Now the word judgment seat is the word that we want to notice. The literal Greek term is the term Bema. If you're going to transliterate it's B-e-m-a. Now that describes the place of judgment. Literally Bema means a raised platform mounted by steps. That's literally what it means. Its simple meaning is just a raised platform. It is used in Acts 18 as the official seat of a judge. It is used as a place where a dignitary sat. For example, in the book of Acts when Herod wanted to have his big day and he had everything set up and he climbed up and sat on his throne he sat on a Bema. It's merely a seat of dignity or prominence or authority.
Now mark this: Bema is a place rather than an act. When you read the judgment seat of Christ the word judgment is not really intrinsic with the word. It really is just a plain old seat of authority. It's a place, a location. It doesn't have any connotation of penalty. It only has a connotation of prominence or authority or dignity.
Now the Corinthians had an interesting concept of Bema, which must be considered since this is II Corinthians and usually when the Spirit of God wrote to somebody in one of these letters He spoke in the language they understood and the terms that would relate to their culture. Outside Corinth was a large Olympic stadium and the Greeks, of course, were great on athletics and the Olympic games, of course, the heritage is obviously from back there. And the large Olympic stadium outside drew athletes from all over Greece. They would come and assemble periodically to compete in the Olympic games. In the midst of the stadium there was a raised platform. It was a platform of prominence. It was a platform of honor. It was a platform of dignity. It was called the Bema. There would be a contest. The winner of the contest would then be led to the Bema, he would ascend the Bema and stand on the top and he would be honored by a leading citizen who would take an oak leaf cluster or perhaps a laurel wreath or a garland for around his neck and he would step up and place that on him as the symbol of his triumph. So Bema does not significantly speak about penalty. It does not specifically speak about judgment. It really only specifically has reference to prominence or dignity or honor. And, of course, every believer is going to climb up on the honor stand. That's really what it's saying.
So you see, the judgment seat of Christ is not something that we're afraid of. Even in Corinthians we'll see later after everything has been done if says, "And every man shall have praise of God." Did you know that Christianity is the only thing I know of where everybody wins and nobody loses? There are no losers in Christianity. It's a can't lose proposition. We will all receive praise of God. We will all go up on the reward stand. Interestingly enough Bema is never used to speak of a judicial bench. It is associated only with honor and reward and dignity and prominence. So the place, the Bema. Where is the Bema? I'll tell you where it is. It's got to be in heaven. Why? Because Jesus said in John 14, "I'm going to come and I'm going to get you and I'm going to take you to the Father's house." And if we're going to meet Him in the air and go and be with Him then that's where it's got to be. The place, the time, after the rapture in heaven.
Now the person. Who is the judge? Who is the one that's running the show when we get there? Well, we know who it is. We must all appear before the judgment seat of whom? Christ. We meet Him in the air. I love what it says in I Thessalonians, "So shall we ever be with the Lord." So He's the one that's going to administer the rewards. Boy won't that be a blessed time? And I don't want to get you hung up on legalism so just remember there's not going to be a loser there. Everybody's going to rise to the Bema.
Now we'll talk about some things that need to be considered in terms of negatives in a minute. But from the positive side, first of all, no losers. And Christ is the judge. John 5, Jesus said, "God, the Father, has committed all judgment under the sun." And you see that's part of the exaltation of Christ. He will manifest authority in judgment. Revelation 22:12, "Behold I come quickly and My reward," watch this I love it, "My reward is with Me to give." You see? So the reward is going to come from Christ Himself. I mean just the thought of standing face to face with Jesus and having Him say, "This is for you from Me for your faithfulness." That's personal isn't it? That's personal. And the idea of the Scriptures always there's an individual kind of thing for every person. It's not all right everyone who scored 64 go to the left side of heaven. Everybody who scored less the right side of heaven and there'll be a group there passing out crowns.
God is always very personal in dealing with believers and in the case of the judgment seat of Christ face to face with Him and in each case individually. He is going to be the dispenser of the gifts that show the faithfulness exhibited in our life. He is constant companion. He is bridegroom. He is rewarder. All right that's the time and the place and that's the person.
What about the people? Who's going to be there? Well look at verse 10 again. I'll tell you who's going to be there, we. "For we must all appear." You say, "Well who is the we?" Well that's easy to figure out. It's the church. It's Christians. In the first place Paul is a Christian talking to Christians and so the pronoun would encompass him and them as well. But let me show you why we know it's Christians. Verses 1 to 9 couldn't be anything but Christians and to keep it in the context it has to be Christians in verse 10, verse 1. "We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Can an unbeliever say that? No. So whatever we it is it's the same we that have an eternal tabernacle with God.
What about this one? Verse 5, "Now He that hath wrought us for the very same thing as God who has given us the earnest of the Spirit." Can anybody say that but a believer? Anybody possess the Holy Spirit but a believer? No. And then he says, "Therefore we are always confident that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord." And then go down to verse 8. "We're are confident, I say, willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord." Can anybody say that but a believer? No. Only believers are going to be present with the Lord.
How about verse seven? "For we walk by faith, not by sight." That's for a believer and only a believer. You see it's got to be the we of faith. It's us who know Jesus Christ that are in view. We are going to mount the platform of rewards. What a marvelous promise. All of us are going to be there.
In I Corinthians 3:15 and we're going to be jumping from II Corinthians 5 to I Corinthians 3 to Romans 14 and so forth so get ready. But in I Corinthians 3:15, I want you to take a footnote here of this point. Here is the same scene detailed to us, the same occasion, the judgment seat of Christ. Now some of the works that we're going to have to offer aren't going to be very valuable. They're going to get burned up. But watch. "If any man's work shall be burned he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be," is going to be what? "saved." Everybody at the Bema is going to be what? saved. That's why I say it's a can't-loose proposition. There's going to be a certain amount of loss that you'll suffer, but in the end you can't loose. You're going to ascend the Bema, there will be some reward for every believer and ultimate salvation, of course.
So all at the judgment are saved. Look at verse 11. I mean everybody who even gets there is going to have the foundation that no man can lay. That which is laid, which is whom? Jesus Christ. So you won't even be there unless you've got the right foundation. And what about verse 16? "No ye not that ye are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you." This is all Christians. This is a time for believers and believers alone.
Now I mentioned earlier seven judgments. The Christian is only really subjected, in this day and age as we know it, the church age, to three of those. We are subjected, in a sense, to the judgment of sin. You say you mean I have to die for my own sin? No, but I am crucified what? with Christ. So in a sense I was nailed to the cross with Him. Then the believer participates in the judgment of self to avoid discipline. And thirdly the believer will participate in the judgment of works, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." Every believer is going to be there.
All right, we've seen the place and time, after the rapture in heaven. We've seen the person who is the judge, Jesus Christ Himself. And we've seen the people who are going to be there, the church. Now specifically, let's look at the purpose.
What is the point of this judgment? What is it going to be ultimately for? What is the reasoning involved? Well, in order to understand that we want to pick up on statement in Romans 14:12. Now here you're talking about the same judgment again. And here is the point: verse 12, "So then," Romans 14, "So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God." There's the purpose. That's it simply stated. Every believer is going to give account of himself to God. You know God knows everything and God knows humankind better than humankind know themselves. And God knows that we respond to motivation and one of the greatest factors in motivation is the factor of authority and accountability. A man once asked Daniel Webster what was the greatest thought he had in his life and he said, "The greatest thought I ever had was my personal accountability to God." God knows that we need to be accountable to somebody. If we never had any bosses or any authorities I mean this world would be chaotic more than it is now. That's why everybody kind of cringes in a corner whenever authority starts to crumble. Have you seen that? You look across the world whenever authority starts to crumble everybody starts to cringe because somebody's got to hold everybody in check. And that's what kind of panics us even in America as we watch what happens in something like Watergate and we see the crumbling of those that we are banking on to hold this thing together. Do you see? We respond to authority and authority has a great influence on us. You know what's the first law of safe driving? Watch for the police. Any body knows that. You go along going any speed you want until an officer pulls onto the street and then you go back to the speed limit and sing Praise the Lord and he pulls off and you floor it again. But you see we respond to authority. I mean it's the same in school when kids are in school and the teacher leaves the room. You go through the same process.
When I was a little kid one time and I got in a lot of trouble. One day in particular I was jumping to desk to desk when the teacher was out. She was gone and I didn't hear the pitter patter of those orthopedic wedgies coming and she came in and there I was between desks. And I was unaware of the presence of authority, but when I knew it was there, man did I shape up. There's a sense that God knows that humankind respond to authority, that authority plays a very important part in our behavior pattern. And the fact that we have to be accountable is a very overwhelming motivation. And so the Bible clearly says that the judgment seat of Christ is so that everyone of us, no exception, will be able to give account of himself to God.
And I think in a grace orientation very often we can be very free and easy about this accountability. But someday we're going to stand face to face with Jesus Christ and we're going to have to talk about the issue of our life.
Now there are many views of how this thing works. Some say this: some say this is a judgment, which will determine whether we get into heaven or not. That's a fairly common view. As I said earlier that's the Saint Peter at the gate routine where we all get up to the gate and we go through a little time of judgment and all the goods are weighed against all the bad's and if the goods out weigh the bad's we get into the place. Friends, that is absolutely ridiculous. In the first place what Scripture ever gave anybody the right to sit