Audio Transcript

What future judgment will Christians face? The apostle Paul, writing to a church of believers, said to them, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:10). To Christians he said that. And he included himself — “we must all appear”! In another place, he interrogated Christians by asking them, “Why do you despise your brother?” Despising other believers is ridiculous. Why? “For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God,” again speaking of believers and including himself here — “we will all” (Romans 14:10). Those pointed texts arrest our attention and cause us to think about a future judgment to come for Christians. So, no surprise, come loads of questions to us about these and other texts, like this email from a listener named Mae: “Pastor John, can you explain what kind of judgments Christians will face when Jesus returns?”

Well, let’s start with the absolutely glorious news about the judgment that we will not face. I mean, the accomplishment of Christ in dying for us and rising for us can be stated positively and negatively. Positively, he died to “bring us to God” (1 Peter 3:18). The enjoyment of the presence of God forever is the positive achievement of the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus.

No Longer Under Wrath

But the New Testament reminds us over and over again that we can state the good news negatively as well as positively — namely, we do not come under the wrath of God. He achieved a negative thing. This is not going to happen. Christ bore our sins. We won’t be punished for them. John 5:24: “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has [that’s now] eternal [that’s forever] life. He does not come into judgment” — whoa — “but has passed from death to life.” What a verse.

That doesn’t mean we don’t go to court in the last day. It means we won’t be condemned in court in the last day. We’re already acquitted, and the court will prove it. Romans 8:1: “There is . . . now” — and forever — “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Or Romans 8:33: “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.” There will be no successful charge against us at the judgment — none. First John 3:14: “We know that we have passed out of death into life.”

“If we are believing in Jesus, his death was our death. His punishment was our punishment.”

So, the judgment of wrath and punishment and final death are passed. They’re over for us. Jesus endured all of that for us if we are in Christ. If we are believing in him, united to him, his death was our death. His punishment was our punishment. God’s wrath was exhausted on him toward us. Therefore, Paul exults (with the verse I go to sleep on almost every night), “God has not destined us for wrath” — sweet — “but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him.” I love those two verses. That’s 1 Thessalonians 5:9–10.

How God Judges Christians

So, if there is a judgment that will not condemn Christians, what other kind of judgment is there for us? That’s what’s being asked, I think. There is a dimension to the judgment that does not call into question our eternal life but determines what varieties of blessing or reward we will enjoy in the age to come.

And I know this can be disturbing to some people because “varieties of rewards” sounds like some people are going to be happy and others are not. But it’s plain from the Bible: there will be no unhappiness in heaven — none — no unhappiness in the age to come. Everyone will be as happy as he can be — all tears wiped away in the presence of the all-satisfying God (Revelation 21:4). But some people will evidently have greater capacities for happiness or greater avenues of happiness. Now, why do we think that? Why do we talk like that? We talk like that because the Bible teaches that we will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and we will be rewarded differently, yet everybody will be perfectly happy. That’s why we talk like that.

Remember Jesus’s parable? For example, the king goes away and then he returns, and he gives different rewards to those who invested his money differently. This is Luke 19:16–19. The first servant came to him, saying, “Lord, your mina . . .” Now, a mina is one hundred drachmas, and a drachma is about the price of a sheep. “Your mina has made ten minas more.” And he said to him, “Well done, good servant! Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.” And a second came to him saying, “‘Lord, your mina has made five minas.’ And he said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’” Now, that’s a picture, I think, of differing rewards in the last day of how we stewarded our lives for Christ in this world.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:5, “Do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive his commendation from God.” So, the judgment will take into account our heart motivations, not just our outward deeds themselves.

In Ephesians 6:8, Paul says one of the most amazing things about the final judgment for believers. He says, “Whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free.” In other words, every single large or tiny good thing you have ever done as a Christian, whether any other human knows about it or not, will come back to you for good at the last day. “Whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord.” What a great incentive not to worry about who sees us in what we do or what rewards we get in this life. Everything’s written down, and God will make sure that any good deed we’ve ever done, seen or unseen, will be properly rewarded.

God’s Response to Our Evil

Then in 2 Corinthians 5:10, Paul says, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” And that last word, “evil” — whoa! What does that mean? The new question that text raises is, What does Paul mean when he talks about us receiving what is due for evil things we’ve done? Now, if our sins are forgiven, which they are, and we’re acquitted in the court of heaven, which we are, does this mean there will be punishment to Christians for sins they’ve done? That doesn’t make sense, right? No, it doesn’t mean that.

I think Paul explains what he means in 1 Corinthians 3:11–15. It’s a very familiar text, but let me suggest this angle on it.

No one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 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 [that is, the day of judgment] 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.

What I think Paul meant when he said in 2 Corinthians 5:10, “each one [will] receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil” — what he meant was that the way one receives evil is by having his bad deeds burned up, meaning, he loses the reward he would have received if he had acted otherwise. This is not viewed by Paul as punishment but as loss of reward. It’s not owing to God’s wrath against his child. Mark that: It’s not owing to God’s wrath against his child. It is simply a fact that it would be unfitting for God to reward the sins of his children. They know that, we know that, Paul knew that.

Now, mark this: True Christians, when that happens — when some of their life is burned up because it was worthless — when that happens, true Christians will not begrudge God for this loss. They will rejoice in the grace that they do receive, and their cup of blessing will be full.

So, that’s my sketch of the coming judgment. We will not enter into condemnation or punishment, but we will receive varieties of blessing, varieties of reward, different avenues of joy, different sizes of cups — but every cup full.