The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Panorama City, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 45-21, titled "Bible Questions and Answers."  A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE.

Question

"I know that the works or service of Christians will be tested, but will there be any judgment on Christians for their sins?"

Answer

Now listen (here it comes) I will simplify this as much as I can. There are two elements of judgment in the life of a believer--one is past and one is present and future. Your sin will be judged. "The wages of sin is. . . ." What? "Death." That not only means the sins of the ungodly; it means yours too. Your sins require death. Now, let me ask you a question, "Who then died for those sins?" Christ! So in your case, the judgment on your sin has been paid. Right? "In full!"

People say, "Well, I thought that was only the sins that I committed up until I was saved. No, no, no, no! You were future tense when He died. Everything was in the future, all of them were covered (Ephesians 1:7). Your sins were forgiven, so the judgment for your sins is covered. That's why Romans 8:1 says, "There is therefore now no. . . ." what? "condemnation to them who are in Christ." Why? "Because the wages of sin is death," and that's it. For example, if you committed a crime . . . let's say you committed a heinous crime; you massacred a family or something; killed a bunch of children and their parents. And they took you to court and they found you guilty, first degree murder on eight counts, or whatever. And they took you to the executioner's chair, and they said, "We are going to electrocute you (capital punishment). And then they hit the switch and you went [you died].

Then they came in the place and you just lifted your head up and stretched a little and said, "I'm back." They would have to let you go, because the law only requires that you die once. If you are a Christian, dear friend, you died, because the moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ Galatians 2:20 was fulfilled, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless. . . ." what? "I live." Too bad. Too bad for sin, too bad for the law, too bad for the enemy. You're alive and the Law has no hold on those who have, in Christ, paid the penalty. So you have been judged (that's past tense), but there is a sense in which you will also be continually being chastened, and that's not final judgment, that's corrective discipline. I mean it would be one thing to kill your child, but it would be something else to spank them. The Lord disciplines us to conform us to the image of Christ. And so those are the two elements.

When I was a little kid I heard a sermon on this that someday all my sins were going to be flashed on a screen before all the world to see. Boy, that's scary. That is scary. It was 1 Corinthians 4 misinterpreted, "God's going to rap my knuckles with His big ruler." That isn't in the Bible. My sins are already paid for by Jesus Christ, and it is the Law's tough luck, it has no hold on me, that's Romans 6 and we will get into that in real detail in about two or three years! No, no, I am going to speed up. So that's been taken care of. The Lord will shape us and chasten us and so forth.

So, now what happens when we go to the Bema Seat? Let's look at 2 Corinthians 5 for a moment. Now here we are talking about believers, verse 10, well verse 9 is key, "We work or we labor, we serve the Lord, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of Him." And by this we don't mean saved, we are already saved. We already walk by faith, not by sight. We are already confident that we are going to be present with the Lord. We already know that we are saved, that's the whole process before we even get to verse 9. We know that we possess the Holy Spirit (verse 5), we know that we are talking about believers.

So we come down here, and here we are working so that even as Christians we may be accepted. In other words, that which we produce in our Christian life may be something that gives Him pleasure. We want to honor God. Right? "Well done good and faithful servant." Why? "For we must all appear before the Bema." It was a platform for rewards. I have stood on the one that they say is the ancient Bema in the city of Corinth. They have a little sign there. That's where they gave people reward. It was not a legal place, it was not a trial place. It was a place of rewards. And there we will all appear, at the place of reward. That is not the "Great White Throne." The "Great White Throne" is a long time after that, but I believe that this occurs immediately following the Rapture; "Absent from the body, present with the Lord" and appear before His judgment--His Bema. Not "krino" (Greek) judgment or "katakrino" (Greek) which is the final or furious judgment, but here a platform of rewards.

"And we will receive for the things we have done." See what I mean. Here we are back to this concept of works. We will be rewarded for what we have done as Christians. Now this isn't how we get saved, we already saved or we wouldn't even be here. Right? We have already been raptured. We are in the Lord's presence, and He will reward us (watch this) "according to what we have done, whether it be good or bad." That's the "Authorized." That's a poor translation. It should be translated, "Whether it be valuable or worthless."

We will not be judged (now listen carefully), we will not be judged for evil, that's been done. We will be rewarded for that which was good, the evil is taken care of, only the good remains and the useless. You know, like mowing the lawn and throwing a Frisbee and all that stuff--just the stuff. Watching a ball game, whatever--stuff. It's not bad, but it certainly doesn't advance the Kingdom--it's just stuff. And we will be rewarded for the good that's remaining after the stuff has been burned up, and the burning of the stuff occurs in 1 Corinthians 3. Go back to 1 Corinthians 3.

Now we have laid the foundation of Christ in verse 11, we have committed our life to Christ. And in verse 12, "If any man builds on the foundation," so this is talking about whom then? Christians. You have to have the foundation of Christ. Right? So then as you begin to live your life, you are building on that foundation, and some of us are building gold, and silver, and precious stones. Some of us are building wood, and hay, and stubble. Note there is all degrees. Gold, I mean that's the best, and silver, and precious stones. Then it starts to decrease: wood, wood is ok. I mean you could build a house with it or keep warm. Hay is good if you are a horse. Stubble is worthless.

So God is going to evaluate what we have done. There is no evil here, it is just from stubble to gold. "Every man's work will be manifest: the day will declare it," then the fire will be lit, and the fire is going to burn up (believe me) the stubble, the hay, and the wood, and leave the rest. "And then he shall (verse 14) receive a. . . ." what? "a reward." And if his stuff is burned up, he will suffer loss, but himself he will be what? saved! See that is not even the issue here. This is simply for reward.

If you go over to chapter 4, it follows the same theme. He says, verse 5, 1 Corinthians 4, "Don't judge anything before the time, when the Lord comes, He will bring to light the hidden things of darkness. He will make manifest the counsels of the hearts." You know, when it comes to that judgment time, God's going to get down inside and find out who really did it. But look at this next line, "and then shall every man have. . . ?" what? "praise from God." There will be nothing at the Bema but praise, praise, praise. It is just that some will have more than others, but none would be judged in a condemning way. Do you understand that? Because the judgment was paid for by Christ already. The chastening that we go through in this life is only for this life, Hebrews 12 makes that abundantly clear. Chastening is only for this little while. We won't need chastening up there because "When we see Him we will be. . . ?" what? "like Him!"

I believe that when a Christian is raptured he will go to the judgment seat, and at that point he will receive rewards. The stuff in his life will be burned up. The evil won't even be there, it's been taken care of. The neutral stuff will be burned up. The good works will remain after the fire is lit, and for those we will receive a reward. Now people always say, "Well, what is the reward?" Well, the Bible talks about a crown of life, a crown of righteousness, a martyr's crown, and so forth, all these crowns. Is that what it is? I remember speaking on crowns in a college deal one time, and a guy came to me afterwards and said, "I never heard such crassness in my life. What are you--the Imperial Margarine Man? You just want another crown?" "Crowns, crowns, crowns," he said. "Well, I serve God out of love!" I said, "I serve God out of love too; He just told me that He is going to give me a crown for it--that's His business."

You don't need to worry about that, if God wants to give us [a reward]. People say, "Well, why would God give rewards--that's favoritism?" That's God's choice. You know, C. S. Lewis wrote a good little thing called, "The Weight of Glory" which he talks about them. He says, "There are some things that demand a reward. They just demand it by their very nature."

For example, lets say that you love a girl--which happens. And someday you go to this girl and you say, "Girl, (whatever), I love you!" And you say, "I, I, I want to make you my own, I want to possess you, I want to care for you, I want to marry you." You don't expect her to look at you and say, "Crass! Possessive! Self-indulgent! It is not enough to love me--you have got to have me!" Now wait a minute, I mean there is such a thing as a natural reward for love. Isn't it? And it's marriage.

Or, if a guy runs a great race in the Olympics, and he wins, the announcer doesn't go up to him a say, "You again! You never let anyone else win. Why can't you be like this guy, he loses all the time. He's got a heart for others." Now, wait a minute, if a guy throws a race he's a bum! I mean when a general comes home from winning a great battle the president doesn't say to him, "You are just never content unless you win, are you?"

So there is a sense in which there is a sequence. There are some things that by their nature demand a response, and God has said that serving Him is one of those things. So the day will come when we will be rewarded. The only thing that you will ever see at the Bema Seat is a reward, "For every man will have praise from God." Isn't that a great promise? The whole issue beloved of your sins is in the past--if you know Christ. If you don't, the whole issue of your sins is still piling up (Romans 2) awaiting the day of wrath, and you will be at the Great White Throne Judgment.

Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur’s Questions and Answers" by:

Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
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Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
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