Some time ago, I did a series during the summer called “I’m glad you asked.” I asked the congregation to submit their questions during the week, and I would do my best to answer them on Sunday in my sermon. I had more questions than I could answer in any one sermon. To make sure that everyone’s questions got answered, I dealt with each one of the questions in my daily devotions if they didn’t make it into my sermons. One of the first questions I received for that first sermon was, If we accept Jesus as our savior and have eternal life, why are we judged when we get to heaven, and what effect does our judgment have on getting into heaven?”
First, let me assure everyone that the Bible teaches clearly that Jesus paid the penalty for the sins of all who believe. No one who has placed their faith in Christ will be judged for their sins. The debt that we owe God as a result of our sins has been paid. Christians will not stand before the great judgment seat of God to answer for and face the penalty for their sins. Jesus, as he said on the cross, assured us that they were “paid in full.” Instead, all believers will stand before what Paul calls “The judgment seat of Christ” (see 2 Cor 5:10). This is often called the “bema seat of Christ.” This judgment has no effect on our acceptance into heaven but is totally concerned with the rewards we earn in this life for our service. A key passage on this is 1 Corinthians 3:12-15. It says, “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.” One writer says, “The judgment seat does not involve a question of sin but one of service. The believer’s life will be examined and evaluated in regard to his faithfulness as a steward of the abilities and opportunities which God had entrusted to him. The primary purpose of the judgment seat of Christ is to reveal and review the Christian’s life and service and then to reward him for what God deems worthy of reward.”[1]
People are pardoned individually as they come to faith in Jesus. The result of the acceptance of God’s pardon offered in Christ is eternal life. Rewards will be given out to every believer who serves Christ in this life at the judgment seat of Christ. Just as there are degrees of punishment in hell, so too are there degrees of rewards in heaven. Each believer will receive the rewards he has earned for serving Christ in this life. Believers are always encouraged to live with an eternal perspective. In Matthew 6:19-20, Jesus said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”
[1] Sailer, William, J. Creighton Christman, David C. Greulich, Harold P. Scanlin, Stephen J. Lennox, and Phillip Guistwite. 2012. Religious and Theological Abstracts. Myerstown, PA: Religious and Theological Abstracts.