ANNOUNCER: Have you ever thought what is it going to be like at the Judgment Seat of Christ? How is Jesus going to carry Himself as He proclaims well done or not so well done? Let’s think about this a little bit today here on Grace in Focus. We’re delighted that you’re joining us and this is a ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society. Our website is www.faithalone.org. There you can subscribe to our magazine. It comes out six times per year. It is also called Grace in Focus. Lots of great articles, very well done, great coffee table piece. And it has a free subscription. Now what does free mean? Well, it’s free all except if you live outside of the 48 contiguous United States, you have to pay the postage. Otherwise, absolutely free. We want you to have it. Get signed up today at faithalone.org. 

Now with today’s discussion about the Judgment Seat here is Bob Wilkin, along with Sam Marr. 

SAM: All right, Bob. We’ve got a question from Donna about the Bema seat: At the Bema seat for believers, is it a good indication of how the Lord will approach us the same way he did the churches in Revelation? So basically the seven letters to the seven churches beginning of Revelation, the way He encouraged but also criticized and essentially judged those churches in the writing, is that similar to what we’re going to experience at the Bema seat? 

BOB: Okay. So first of all, the word Bema occurs, I can’t recall the exact number about five times in the New Testament, six times. For example, Jesus appeared before the Bema of Pilate. Bema means judgment seat. It’s a raised platform where a judge would sit and exercise judgment over people. Paul appeared before the Bema of Gallio, one of the Roman officials. He later appeared before the judgment seat of Caesar. All believers are going to appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ. Now that exact expression, bema Christou, the Judgment Seat of Christ, only occurs twice specifically in the New Testament, Romans 14:10, also it occurs in 2 Corinthians 5:9-10. But the concept of the Judgment Seat of Christ occurs a multitude of times in the New Testament without using those exact words. 

SAM: Right. And it’s a very important feature that we talk about a lot because when we’re talking about misunderstandings of Scripture, Calvinism, Lordship Salvation, they typically don’t explain this very well or at all because many Christian denominations view there just being one judgment. Everyone is going to be judged by God at the Great White Throne Judgment and He’ll decide whether you go to Heaven or Hell. Heaven is a reward for being, whatever their standards are, and then Hell is a punishment. But we would separate it into two. The Great White Throne Judgment is only for unbelievers. Anyone whose name is not written in the book of life will be cast in lake of fire.  But then the Judgment Seat of Christ is for those who are born again. And I think your view is that it’s after we receive our resurrected bodies, right? 

BOB: Yeah. According to 1 Thessalonians 4, the dead in Christ are raised first. Then we who are alive, are caught up and meet the Lord in the air. And then after that comes the Judgment Seat of Christ. You’re right. A lot of people think the Judgment Seat of Christ is another name for the Great White Throne Judgment, which is found, by the way, in Revelation 20:11-15. They all believe there’s one judgment; they call it the final judgment. In my estimation, that’s a mistake. 

But now let’s come back to Donna’s question. She’s saying, does Revelation 2 and 3 and the seven letters to the seven churches, does that give us an insight into what the Judgment Seat of Christ will be like? And I think the answer is yes and no. He’s not specifically talking about the Judgment Seat of Christ. He’s talking about what they need to do in order to get a good report at the Judgment Seat of Christ. 

SAM: Right. It’s important to mention Revelation. This is John writing what he’s been told and then later what he sees. I believe these were real physical letters that John was going to write and give to real physical people in these different cities in Asia Minor. Some people probably disagree with that and interpret it more spiritually or more eschatologically, but I think this occurs before the visions that he’s having. I think these were real letters that would have been passed to churches that still existed and still were in the midst of what Jesus is describing and had a chance to repent of whatever things they were doing and correct their churches. 

BOB: Yeah, now whether these circulated independent of the book of Revelation is not really that important because the book of Revelation would have gone to these seven churches. So they would have gotten not only the letter to Ephesus to their church, but they would have gotten more letters to Smyrna and Pergamum, etc. 

SAM: I think he sent the individual ones priority mail and then he sent the whole thing in the media mail. 

BOB: Oh, there you go. Okay. But here’s some things we see in the seven letters that I think Donna gives us a clue to what’s going to be important at the Judgment Seat of Christ. All seven letters, all of them, say I know your works. I know your works. I know your works. 

SAM: And that’s important. We were talking about the difference between the two judgments, one judgment, unbelievers sent to the lake of fire. That Judgment Seat of Christ is not a judgment to determine whether believers will go to heaven or hell or lake of fire or live on the new earth. The point of the Judgment Seat of Christ is it’s judging people who are born again. They have everlasting life. They’re eternally secure. 

So what’s the judgment for? It’s to determine their works. And this is where another teaching that’s completely lost in Calvinism and other works-based salvation is eternal rewards. The only reward to certain people is heaven, but that’s not what Christ teaches. Christ taught eternal rewards more than anybody else in the New Testament and all throughout the New Testament teaching, reaping what you sow, laying up treasures in heaven, many, many times, but also very critical and very painful or regretful, rebuking for those who didn’t lay up treasures in heaven, who didn’t live the way that He taught, who buried their talent or were not watchful at His return. So this is a time for rewarding and rebuking. 

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BOB: In 1 John 2:28, he says, “My little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears we may have confidence and not shrink back in shame at His coming.” There can be and will be shame at the coming of Christ for the believer who is not persevering in good works. And by the way, both the Judgement Seat of Christ and the Great White Throne Judgment involve judgment of works. In 2 Corinthians 5-10 Paul says, “I know we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done whether good or bad.” The things done in the body whether good or bad, refers to deeds. And if you look in Revelation 20:11-15, unbelievers are also judged according to deeds. It says there were books opened which were the books of deeds. And then there was a book, the book of life. Verse 15 says, “Anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire,” Revelation 20:15. It’s interesting that nobody is condemned by what’s in the books of deeds. They’re condemned if their name is not found in the book of life. In other words, if they never believed. Well, believers are not going to get into the kingdom because of our works, we’re going to get into the kingdom because we’re believers, because our names are in the book of life, but our deeds will be judged. 

There’s a few other things that are in the seven letters. All seven letters talk about overcoming. And the word overcome or in Greek is where we get the Greek sports name Nike. Nike is the Greek goddess of victory. The verb “he overcomes” is nikao. And it means one who is victorious. So all seven letters challenge believers to be victorious in our Christian lives. The way in which we’re victorious is by persevering to the end. Do you have the text? Look at 2:26. 

SAM: 2:26. This is in the letter to Thyatira and he says, “And he who overcomes and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations.” So notice “he who overcomes” and “keeps my works until the end.” This is perseverance. We’ve got to be victorious in our Christian life. There’s a parable in Matthew 24:45-51 where Jesus talks about this servant of his that’s doing a great job of feeding Jesus’s servants. And then he says, my Lord delays his coming and instead of continuing to feed his servants, he begins to beat them and he begins to drink with the drunkards and he’s not chosen to rule and reign. But it says earlier that the Lord was ready to make him in charge of all his goods in the kingdom to come. 

And so what we need to recognize is persevering to the end is not a condition of everlasting life. It’s a condition of ruling with Christ. And we see that in the seven letters. What we see in the seven letters is, we don’t want to lose our first love. That was I think the church at Ephesus had lost their first love. We want to be people who continue to love the Lord Jesus Christ, continue to serve Him, to keep His works until the end of our lives, whether that’s rapture or death. 

And like you mentioned earlier, we need to be watchful Christians, Gregory Christians, Gregoreo was the Greek word for watching. And we need to be watchful for Christ’s soon return because as I just mentioned in the Matthew 24:45-51 passage, if we say my Lord delays His coming, we can take our eyes off Christ and then we can stop living in light of a soon return. 

Every one of us should be focused on the Judgment Seat of Christ. We should long to hear him say, well done, good and faithful servant. I know I have everlasting life. I know it’s a free gift and I’m so grateful that I long to please Him who gave me that gift, who died for me and rose again for me so that it would be really the fulfillment of my life to have Him say, well done, good and faithful servant. 

SAM: Yeah. You know, it’s a great question Donna. Thank you for asking. The short answer is this a good picture of the Bema seat? I think yes, you have to read it with discernment. These letters were not written to individual people and they weren’t written specifically to you. So keep the original context in mind, but yeah, I think the first letter, Church of Ephesus is a great example of, He says, I know your works. I know your labor, your patience that you cannot bear those who are evil. So he gives a compliment there, but then he also says, I have this thing against you. You have left your first love. So this isn’t their judgment, but this is a warning. 

So for us at the Bema seat, it’ll be too late. That will just be the judgment. So see right now if you need warnings in your life to turn from what you’re doing. And if you are living victoriously right now, then keep on, keep running the race, finish victoriously so that we can hear that.

BOB: Yeah. And we, by the way, have a commentary on the entire New Testament where we talk about the seven letters. We also have a commentary on the book of Revelation that deals with this as well. And the study series on this so you can check all those out at faithalong.org. 

And in the meantime, Sam, let’s keep grace in focus. 

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On our next episode: what is redemption? And why is it important? Please join us again and until then, let’s keep grace in focus.