Sermon Tone Analysis

The Judgment Seat of Christ

The Beama

Ron Dunn

2 Corinthians 5:9-11; 1 Corinthians 13:13-15

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:9-11,

9Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.

10For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

11Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

In a book a few days ago I came across a statement that gripped me.

The statement was this:  Do you realize that we are only a heartbeat away from a fixed state of reward, be it joy or shame.

The phrase that really got hold of me was that phrase a fixed state of reward.

Just one heartbeat, just one breath away from what I will be throughout all eternity.

More and more I began to think about this fixed state, realizing that where I take off in time, I take up in eternity.

As a man lives, he dies; and as he dies, he lives again in that condition throughout all eternity—just a heartbeat away from a fixed state of reward.

The thought that came to me is if this heart should take its last beat, and I come into that fixed state of reward, is it what I want it to be?  Realizing that there is nothing that can change it after that, that all I am going to do to determine my life, my existence in eternity, must be done this side of that heartbeat, what would it be?

Would it be of joy or of shame?

Paul realized that this life is just a prep room for eternity—that everything we do in this life, everything we do in our bodies in some way or another determines our fate, our condition, on the other side of that heartbeat.

As he writes to these Christians at Corinth, his mind is traveling to that judgment seat, and he recognizes that all of us will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and there receive for what we have done, good or bad.

So Paul, in verse 9 says, wherefore we labor, we endeavor, that whether we live or die, we may be well pleasing to him because we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

Here is what Paul is saying:  the most important issue is not whether I live or die, but it is what my condition will be before the judgment seat of Christ.

This issue is more important than the issue of life and death.

Whether I live or whether I die is beside the point.

That fades into insignificance in light of the judgment seat of Christ.

Whether I live or die, I labor, I work, I make it my ambition, the aim of my life, that when I stand in his presence, I will be well pleasing to him.

He is not talking about that judgment where those who do not know Christ will stand.

That is a different judgment when they will receive eternal punishment.

He is talking about that judgment seat to which every believer will someday appear.

The Christian is not going to be judged himself as to determine whether he is saved or lost.

It is not a matter of salvation; it is a matter of stewardship.

I thank God that Jesus said, he that believeth on me shall not come into condemnation but has passed from death unto life.

Romans 8:1 says:  He that is in Christ Jesus hath no condemnation.

The one that condemns us is Jesus Christ who died for us and is right now interceding for us.

The believer's condemnation is past and done with.

God judged me at Calvary, and I'll stand in jeopardy of my salvation.

I will never stand before God and receive salvation or loss of salvation.

I'll never come to that condemnation.

I myself will never be judged, but my life, my works, what I have done as a Christian will be judged.

The Greek word he uses here for judgment seat is the word beama which comes from the athletic games they used to have in those days.

The beama was where the judge sat and observed all the athletes as they participated in the games.

When the games were over, the athletes stood before that beama, that judgment seat, and there they received their wreaths, their crowns, their trophies—or they did not receive them.

There they received their reward, their prize, for running in the race.

God uses this same word to say that every Christian as he lives his life is living it in the sight of that judge and when our life is finished, which may be only a heartbeat away, we will stand before that beama, that judgment seat and there Christ will reward us according to what we have done in our body, whether it be good or bad.

That is going to be a day of revelation.

He says we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

To appear doesn't simply mean to put in an appearance or to make a showing.

The Greek word means we will be led into the light.

It means to be turned inside out, to be displayed as to our proved character.

So the judgment seat of Christ is a time of revelation.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:13-15:

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.

Paul says that we will all be led into the light of  Christ, of that judgment seat.

Our lives will be examined in the light of God.

We will appear, be made manifest (1 Cor.

3:13).

Every façade, every mask, every hypocrisy, every pretense will be ripped from us.

We will stand before the judgment seat of Christ turned inside out.

It will be a time of revelation.

The light is bad down here.

I often examine and judge my life in the light of your life.

I see what you do, and what you fail to do, and I judge my life in the light of your life and think I'm all right, pretty good.

Hardly a week goes by that I don't hear someone say, well, nobody is perfect.

We are always judging ourselves in the light of someone else's life.

The light is very bad.

Some of us have an idea that we are pretty good Christians and that when we were saved 15 or 20 years ago, baptized and joined the church, that's all there is to it.

We come on Sunday.

We may give an offering or tithe.

We support the work of the Lord.

That's it—all that God asks of us.

If somebody were to ask are you a faithful Christian?

You'd say, sure, I go to church and I pay my tithe.

There is so much more to it than that.

The day of judgment will be a day of revelation when we no longer judge and evaluate our lives by the preacher or this deacon or that Sunday school teacher, but now we evaluate our lives by the person of Jesus Christ.

What a revelation that will be—to see what we really are.

The truth of the matter is that none of us really knows what the other one is like.

One reason we get our feelings hurt so easily is because we think more highly of ourselves than we really are.

We have a wrong idea of what we are.

The Scripture I read a while ago in 1 Corinthians, chapter 3, says that He will try every man's work, of what sort it is.

Notice it doesn't say of what size.

Every man's work shall be made manifest.

The same word used there is shall be dragged into the light, and day shall reveal its true nature, everything I've done, everything you've done, in the name of Christ, or not in the name of Christ, shall be weighed in the balances.

God is not trying to figure out how big it is, the quantity of what we've done, but the quality of what we've done.

The important thing with God is the motive of the heart.

You may come to church, tithe, teach a Sunday school class but if your life as a whole is not lived for the glory of God, then you are not ready for this appearance before the judgment seat of Christ.

In Matthew, chapter 6, Jesus is talking about the way a Christian is supposed to live.

He says that some people when they do good deeds do them thinking about the praise they are going to receive from men.

They want men to reward them.

This is why if we do something in the church and nobody pats us on the back, we get a little bit hurt and upset about it.

He says some people pray, and when they pray, they are thinking more about how good they are, and how much more they pray than someone else, than they are thinking about what God thinks of their prayer life.

If you live for Christ—pray, go to church, teach Sunday school—and you are more conscious of the presence of the people than you are of the presence of God, verily you have your reward right now.

You will not receive a reward from your Father in heaven because the Father who sees knows the motive of what you are doing.

The biggest problem I have in my Christian life is evaluating my motives—why I preach, why I teach, why I live for Christ.

What a day of revelation it is going to be.

It is not only going to be a time of revelation, it is going to be a time of rewarding.

Notice what Paul says:  that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

In the 1 Corinthians passage, he talks about receiving a reward.

The purpose of it all is to reward us.

Notice that everybody is going to receive something.

Sometimes I've heard it preached and taught that only those of us who are good and faithful to the Lord are going to receive anything.

Verse 10 says that everybody is going to receive something.