Believers judgment seat of christ4/1/2023 ![]() ![]() Many Free Grace believers have concluded, from the verses dealing with forgiveness that I cited above, that when the Lord evaluates our Christian lives at the Bema He won’t take their sinful deeds into account. If a believer were to be judged concerning his eternal destiny, then the Lord lied in John 5:24. All three of these promises concern eternal security. And the believer shall not, future tense, come into judgment concerning his eternal destiny. The believer has passed, past tense, from spiritual death into everlasting life. The believer has, present tense, everlasting life. They are convinced that no Christian will be judged to determine his eternal destiny as the Lord promised in John 5:24: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.” 3 Three promises are made here using three verb tenses. 2įree Grace believers, however, see the Bema as a separate judgment. Some worry that the necessity of good works for final salvation denies the grace of the gospel, but we must be careful that we are not more Pauline than Paul! Paul did not think that his words contradicted the gospel of grace (see again Titus 2:11-12). 1Īnd most are convinced that at that judgment, which they call the final judgment, everyone will be judged according to their works and those whose works are good enough will obtain what they call final salvation. ![]() When I first encountered solutions like Wilkin proposes regarding the judgment, I found it impossible to remember in the judgment passages whether the judgment of believers or unbelievers was in view. ![]() But it must be said that the dispensational reading offered is artificial and strained. I don’t have space to unpack all that could be said here. If his kind of dispensationalism collapses, so does Wilkin’s interpretation. Rather, they think the Bema (2 Cor 5:9-11) is another name for the Great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20:11-15).įor example, in a recent four-views books to which Thomas Schreiner and I contributed chapters, he criticizes me for distinguishing between these two judgments: Most people in Christianity today do not believe that the Judgment Seat of Christ (henceforth, the Bema) is a separate judgment for Christians to determine eternal rewards. We are perfected forever in God’s sight (Heb 10:10, 14). ![]() He has hidden our lives with Christ (Col 3:3). It is wonderful to realize that “He remembers our sins no more” and that “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Ps 103:12). For with increasing maturity comes an increasing awareness of our sins and shortcomings. Indeed, the more one matures in the faith, the more he or she appreciates this doctrine. The forgiveness of sins is one of the most blessed teachings of Scripture. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross (Col 2:13-14). You, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. G od makes an amazing promise to anyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ: “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Heb 10:17 cf. Wilkin Executive Director Grace Evangelical Society I. ![]()
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