"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."

                                                         2 Corinthians 5:14 

 One of the most sobering realities that every believer should keep close to heart is the fact that one day we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.  In all the years of my ministry, I have never quite grasped the fullness or the magnitude of what this entails as I have recently come to see.  First of all, this phrase described as "the judgment seat" is actually the Greek word BEMA.  It was a common word used in Paul's day referring to a platform that a ruler stood upon to judge a case when determining a person's guilt or innocence.  It was also used in the athletic games where a competitor who won a contest was crowned with a laurel wreath. 

The Spirit of God revealed to Paul, as part of the revelation of the church age, that there was coming a day when all believers would stand accountable for everything done whether good or bad, which he described as the Judgment Seat of Christ.  There is also the judgment seat of the Unbeliever, which is called the Great White Throne Judgment, when all the unrighteous will be called into a day of reckoning.  But this judgment called the BEMA is what we need to be concerned with.

In Paul's letter to the Romans, he writes: "But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.  So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Rom. 14:10-12).  Notice the words, "every one of us."  This applies only to the believer, not the unbeliever.  The Judgment seat of Christ is not to determine whether you will make it to heaven or not.  If you stand before the BEMA you are assured of spending eternity in the presence of the Lord. 

So what then is this judgment, and what will be the outcome? According to the apostle John, we will either stand openly and unashamedly before him at his coming or we will have regrets that will lay heavy on our hearts. Notice how John writes concerning this: "And now little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming" (1 John 2:29).  Later he declares: "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world" (1 John 4:17).  The Greek word for "boldness" is PARRESIA, which means to speak freely and openly without shame. The root meaning comes from the word RHEO. It refers to something poured forth as an utterance. In other words, when Paul said, "every tongue shall confess to God," he was letting us know that the BEMA is not only a Day of Judgment, but it is a Day of Confession. 

In the book of Hebrews, Christ is mentioned as the "Apostle and High Priest of our profession [or confession]" (Heb. 3:1).  This certainly applies to us confessing our faith in him and how our words play an important role in how we conduct our Christian life.  But it is more than that!  It is a reminder that there is a Day of Judgment, a Day of Confession that awaits us all! If we have confessed Jesus Christ as Lord of our lives, then he confesses us before his Father in heaven (Matt. 10:32).  This not only occurs now, but there is a day, yet to come, when the confession of our lives will speak and all will be revealed. Notice again John's words: "that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world."  Our ability to speak freely and openly without shame, before him at his coming, is all based upon the revelation we have in walking in our identity in Christ.  In other words, how we have perceived and implemented the revelation: "as he is, so are we in this world" will be the criteria that heaven will base its judgment, and what will pour forth out of the substance of our lives as an utterance concerning the way we have lived.

The BEMA will occur when Christ returns to receive the church to himself.  At that moment, the Lord will pull back the curtain of time and we will see face to face the finished man, the perfect man, the new creation man in all his fullness. I think this is what Paul had revealed to him when he was caught up into the third heaven.  He not only saw what our being in Christ looked like, but I think he understood that this is what we will be measured by when we stand before him (Eph 4:13-15; 2 Cor. 12:1-4).   

Here is what is so sobering about the BEMA: Suddenly and instantaneously, we will see what Christ made us to be in the new man.  In other words, everything that was deposited in us, in Christ, will become the criteria of this heavenly examination.  All the potential that each one of us was given will all be weighed in the balance.  We will be made acutely aware of every missed opportunity, every assignment that was not picked up and carried through; the limitations we allowed ourselves to live with instead of pressing through into the grace of God; every untapped, unreached, undeveloped resource and ability we possess in Christ, which may or may not have ever been acted upon or made use of, and most importantly, the comparison between what we did with what was given us and what could have been done had we walked in the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. All of it will be cast into the light of Christ's discerning eye.    

We will give account of what we did with what he accomplished for us in redemption! Did we use our time and stewardship appropriately?  Did we apply ourselves to know the call and destiny that was upon our life?  Did we take the finished work of Christ to the max and apply it to the best of our ability?  Did we capitalize on every opportunity we had to allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into all that God had planned for our lives?  I doubt very seriously that we will be held accountable for what we were completely ignorant of, but I believe with all certainty that we will be held accountable as to why we were ignorant! Especially, knowing that everything we needed that pertains to life and godliness was available to us through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, our teacher. 

The BEMA will carry our eternal rewards.  All that we took to heart and walked in will pass through the fire, and everything that does not hold any eternal significance will be burned up (1 Cor. 3:12-15).  The one good thing that will come of this day is, although there may be regrets, they will not remain with us. Jesus promised us that "he shall wipe away all tears from our eyes" (Rev. 21:4).  However, we must, with all diligence, kept in mind that although we shall be saved, it will only be those things that remain worthy before the eyes of him with whom we have to do, that will determine our rank and position in the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Therefore, everything we do will affect our eternal destiny! So we must not squander away our time, but we must redeem what time we have to give our best...to give our all...and to make what we do count!