By John Claeysi
A large number—perhaps a majority—of Christians believe that everyone will be the same in Christ’s kingdom.
Such thinking is wrong! Earl Radmacher related this anecdote:
A few years ago, I heard a seminary graduate with a doctorate state in a Sunday school class that when we get to heaven, we will all be equal there. I know of nothing further removed from the truth. There will be no equality in heaven. If there were, then the whole doctrine of rewards would mean absolutely nothing, and it would be utterly stupid for Paul to say, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others I myself should become disqualified” (1 Cor 9:27).ii
Dr. Radmacher was correct. In the kingdom of God, we will not all be equal.iii After all, would it seem fair and just to you if a believer who rarely goes to church and does not serve the Lord were to have the same eternal experience as the Apostle Paul, who suffered beating, stoning, imprisonment, shipwreck, deprivation, numerous dangerous situations (see 2 Cor 11:24-28), and eventual martyrdom because he served the Lord Jesus Christ? I think not.
At one time, early in my Christian life, I would have agreed with the Sunday school teacher with a doctorate. In fact, shortly after I believed in Jesus for everlasting life, a coed I knew well told me she had recently heard that Christians will one day be judged based on how faithfully they followed Jesus. I quickly retorted, “Of course, that isn’t true!”
How wrong I was! The more I studied the Bible, the more I saw the truth that believers are accountable. In fact, I wrote my master’s thesis at Dallas Seminary on “The Judgment Seat of Christ as a Motivation for Christian Living.” Now, forty years later, I can say that the concept of the Judgment Seat of Christ (the Bema) can be found on nearly every page of the Bible.iv
The Judgment Seat of Christ is coming, and we must prepare for it! Unfortunately, not every believer will heed this critical message. Those who do not will one day deeply regret it— and that is a great understatement. After all, one’s experience for all eternity will be announced at the Bema.
Randy Alcorn thinks of life “in terms of a dot and a line, signifying two phases. Our present life on earth is the dot. It begins. It ends. It is brief. However, from the dot, a line extends forever.”v Psalm 39 reveals the brevity of life (as symbolized by Alcorn’s dot):
LORD, make me to know my end, and what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths, and my age is as nothing before You; certainly every man at his best state is but vapor (verses 4-5).
Alcorn’s line represents a believer’s experience in God’s everlasting kingdom. What one does in the dot will have eternal results. The Judgment Seat of Christ will reveal the depth and value of a believer’s everlasting experience, based on what happens in the dot.
Everyone who has believed Jesus Christ for everlasting life will be in God’s kingdom. But each person’s experience in His kingdom will depend on how faithful he has been with what God has given him. Or, to put it another way, one’s eternal experience will depend on how one has lived with regard to God’s Word.
God calls each of His children to read, study, and live by His Word. If you do and are open to what God teaches, you will see that Scripture repeatedly teaches about the Judgment Seat of Christ and the importance of preparing for it.
There will be no excuse on that day. A believer cannot say, “Well, I didn’t know about the Judgment Seat,” or “I didn’t know I needed to prepare for it.” The Lord has clearly revealed it in His Word. In fact, plain common sense would say that since God has granted everlasting life as a gift—a gift that cost Jesus everything so that it can be given free of charge to the one who receives it—there must be a responsibility to serve the One who made this payment on our behalf. This responsibility has nothing to do with entering the kingdom of God; kingdom entrance is guaranteed the moment one believes in Jesus for everlasting life. However, as children of God, we should seek to please our Father and know that obedience brings blessing, while disobedience brings consequences.
How important is the Judgment Seat of Christ? It will reveal your everlasting experience. If you have prepared well for it, you will be immensely rewarded—forever—by the One who gave Himself for us. This reward will affect every aspect of your eternal experience. Suffice it to say that if you prepare well for this future judgment, you will be very glad you did!
To prepare for that assessment, it is critically important to understand it.
God wants to open your eyes to the truth and importance of this subject. It can motivate you to work toward having a greater experience in the kingdom. Learning about the Judgment Seat of Christ should move you to greater service for Him.
John Claeys holds degrees from the University of Northern Iowa (BA in English) and Dallas Theological Seminary (ThM in New Testament Greek) and has pursued doctoral work at Phoenix Seminary. He is also the author of The Impending Apocalypse, A New World Coming, and Unveiling Eternity, a three-part series on eschatology. He and his wife, Connie, have been married 40 years and have two sons.
i Editor’s note: This article is drawn from the “Introduction” of the new book, The Judgment Seat of Christ, by John Claeys. It should be available at the GES annual conference, May 18-21, 2026.
ii “Believers and the Bema,” Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society 8, no. 14 (Spring 1995): 35.
iii I use kingdom of God rather than heaven here because our eternal home will not be heaven; it will be on earth. It will begin with Jesus’ thousand-year reign on the present earth. Our home will then continue on the new earth in the new universe. For more on these concepts, see John R. Claeys, A New World Coming: Experiencing a Radically Different Future in the Kingdom of God (Longview, TX: 289Design, 2016); John Claeys, Unveiling Eternity: Discover Your Forever Future (Tyler, TX: Self-published, 2023); and John Claeys, Revelation: The Road to Reward (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2025), 411-496.
iv Bema is the Greek term for judgment seat.
v The Law of Rewards: Giving What You Can’t Keep to Gain What You Can’t Lose (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Books, 2024), 43.
