Judgment Seat of Christ

Judgment Seat of Christ

There are three thrones on which the Lord Jesus Christ will sit.

The judgment seat is in heaven after the rapture.

The throne in Jerusalem during the millennium.

The great white throne in heaven after the millennium.

There is a general principle of scripture that every member of the human race is accountable to God.

God will evaluate every man according to his deeds. Jer. 17:10; 32:19.

All unbelievers will be evaluated at the great white throne. Rev. 20:12.

All believers in Christ will be evaluated at the judgment seat. Matt. 26:34-40 and 2 Cor. 5:10

The judgment seat of Christ is an evaluation of a Christian’s production during his Christian life on earth. There is no judgment of sin at the judgment seat. Believer’s sins were judged at the cross and Christ was our atonement for sin. (2 Cor. 5:10)

In John 15 and Gal. 5, bad deeds (phaulos), refer to actions, which may not be sinful, but which are worthless in the sight of God. These are human choices which do not measure up to God’s standard of righteousness. These deeds are human good (wood, hay and stubble), which are produced by believers when they are in a carnal state, not filled with the Holy Spirit, during periods when sin is not being confessed on a regular basis.

Divine good (gold, silver and precious stones) is agathos, which is production by a believer who is walking in fellowship and who is controlled by the Holy Spirit. In fellowship, a Christian will be controlled by the Holy Spirit, will be occupied with Christ in his thoughts and speech, and will live in the Bible. The power for his production comes directly from God and not from himself.

All production of the Christian believer (phaulos or agathos) will be evaluated at the judgment seat of Christ. The instrument of evaluation is fire. The production which is not burned up during the evaluation (the gold, silver and precious stones) is the basis of eternal rewards for the believer.

1 Cor. 3:11-14

A believer should never try to evaluate another believer’s production. “To his own master he stands or falls…”

Matt. 7:1,2; Rom. 14:4