“that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation
in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts
enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which
he has called you, what are THE RICHES OF HIS GLORIOUS
INHERITANCE IN THE SAINTS..." Ephesians 1:17-18
"According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled
master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is
building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon
it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which
is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the
foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay,
straw—each one's work will become manifest, for the Day
will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the
fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the
work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he
will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will
suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as
through fire. Do you not know that you are God's temple and
that God's Spirit dwells in you?" 1 Corinthians 3:10-16
The judgment seat of Christ is a time in the future when
believers will give an account of themselves to their Savior.
"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
so that each one may receive what is due for what he has
done in the body, whether good or evil." 2 Corinthians 5:10
This judgment is different than the final judgment
(Revelation 20:11-15). This judgment is subsequent to
that. This does not determine our salvation. The issue of
our salvation is forever and permanently settled by faith
in the finished work of Christ upon the cross. So even
though we are secure in Christ, we still have the privilege
and responsibility of appearing before the judgment seat
of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10). This is a response to our
Savior regarding how we have responsibly used our time,
energy, and resources to the glory of His name and the
advancement of His kingdom. This reckoning involves
the bestowal of rewards with the anticipated hope of
hearing, "Well done my good and faithful servants.”
In the present life, we live with anticipation of our glorious
reward and our responsibility to give an account to our
Lord (James 2:12).
APPLICATIONS:
1. We know we fight for a biblical and gospel awareness.
“Even to one without religious commitment and
theological convictions, it should be an unsettling thought
that this world is attempting to chart its way through some
of the most perilous waters in history, having now decided
to ignore what was for nearly two millennia its fixed point
of reference–its North Star. The certainty of judgment,
the longing for heaven, the dread of hell: these are not
prominent considerations in our modern discourse about
the important matters of life. But they once were.”
A.J. Conyers, Eclipse of Heaven, (1992), p. 21
2. We live with resolve.
“It becomes us to spend this life only as a journey toward
heaven… to which we should subordinate all other concerns of life. Why should we labor for or set our hearts
on anything else, but that, which is our proper end and
true happiness?” Jonathan Edwards
And as a young man, he wrote, “Resolved that I live so
as I shall wish I had done when I come to die… Resolve to
endeavor to my utmost to act as I can think I should do, if,
I had already seen the happiness of heaven, and
hell's torments.” Jonathan Edwards
3. Live with anticipation.
“And as He spoke, He no longer looked to them like a lion;
but the things that began to happen after that were so
great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us,
this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly
say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it
was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in
this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only
been the cover and the title page: now at last they were
beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one
on earth has read; which goes on forever; in which every
chapter is better than the one before.” C.S. Lewis,
The Last Battle