The Judgement Seat of Christ
Recently, my diabetes was out of control. Even as I was physically active and, I was taking my meds, it did me no good as my diet was out of control. My sugar was in the four and five hundreds. To experience real changes, I needed to make some drastic modifications. My wife introduced me to a Keto approach to eating. I eliminated carbs and sugars as much as possible and, I am getting my energy from good fats, meats, protein, etc. The results? Literally, in one month my numbers are normal.
I am now looking forward to being able to stop my meds all together. However, the challenge is that every day I must make the right decisions. Every day I must eat right by an act of my will. If I do so, diabetes will not be an issue. However, if I keep eating trash diabetes will take me to the grave early.
In our lives is the same principle; what we do has consequences. Many times, as believers, we live our lives as if, with salvation, everything is taking care of and, as if, we have no responsibility and no need for accountability. This article is a reminder that we will be judged and, we will be made accountable. There is indeed a judgment for the believer, is called the Judgment Seat of Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:9-10 tells us,
Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.[1] (NASB95)
Much is said about having ambitions; but the greatest ambition for a believer should be to please God. The Judgment Seat of Christ is about judging every deed we have done while on this earth. The Judgment of Christ is not about the ultimate destination of our soul; it has to do with recompensing us for the good and bad we did on this earth.
There is a tendency to believe that there is nothing we can do to live better lives. To be better in our relationship with our families, better in our personal discipline and, must of all, better in our relationship with God. However, we can all do better! The Judgement Seat of Christ should activate the fear of God in us and motivate us to do better.
I mentioned my struggles with diabetes to make the point that we can do the same in matters of our character; day by day, making the right decisions; day by day focusing on pleasing Jesus. That does not mean that the struggle goes away; the Bible does say that the flesh is weak and at war against the Spirit. But the question is, are we engaging in the struggle or, are we just giving up and surrendering to the desires of the flesh?
To be continued…
[1] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), 2 Co 5:9–11.
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