![]() ![]() Justin Perdue: One other general comment from me before we look at particular passages. We’re going to look at the context and realize that this is not what the writers of the New Testament had in mind, specifically Paul and the writer of Hebrews. I believe that this idea of putting fear in someone’s Christian life, depending on what they’re doing because they’re going to stand before Christ, or motivating them towards reward is dangerous. We want to motivate you to demonstrate kindness and grace and mercy – we want to motivate you towards the gospel. What we here at Theocast want to always do is bring relief and rest for the Christian. It can cause comparative righteousness where we feel that we are better than others because of the labor that we put in. Does that mean that pastors have the greatest seats or missionaries have the greatest positions in heaven? What it turns into is that we become so focused on what we’re going to gain and what we’re going to get out of this Christian life as it relates to physical status and physical rewards in heaven that it can and does cause great discouragement. Justin Perdue: Even the parable of the talents, potentially. We are going to definitely do a podcast on this coming soon about the laborers in the vineyard. Your status here will determine your status in the new kingdom. You could have a kingdom, you could be a landowner, etc. When I was in seminary, I can remember an entire four classes where we were studying the different rewards and he had systematized the different rewards one could potentially have based upon their level of effort and work here. They just assume that it says, you’re going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, so you better be aware, and you better be fearful because what you do matters. They don’t take time to look at the tone, the purpose, and the goal. I would say that normally when this passage is presented, it’s never explained in context – the book and purpose of the book and the section of Scripture. We are going to several different texts threads and we’ll see links where this language is used to control the Christian from final justification to rewards to fear of standing before God because of judgment. Jon Moffitt: It has been used, I’ve seen it used my entire Christian life, and it pops up here and there. That’s where we’re headed: the judgment seat of Christ and heavenly reward. Justin Perdue: Sure, we’ll spend more time on those. Jon Moffitt: I would say those popular ones, for sure. ![]() But we’re going to try to highlight and survey all of them and hopefully bring some clarity into this conversation. We’re going to try to highlight each of those today and spend more time in a couple of them because they’re lengthier. There were really only a handful of passages that deal with reward and the judgment seat of Christ. We’re basically going to be answering the question, “how should we understand the judgment seat of Christ and the principle of heavenly reward for Christians?”īefore we dive into the particular passages, it is worth mentioning that there is not much ink spilled in the New Testament on this. The topic for today’s discussion is that of the judgment seat of Christ for believers, and in particular the judgment according to works or giving an account of our lives and heavenly reward for good works done. I think it’s one that has produced a lot of confusion in the church and people were just unsure of what to do with these particular passages that we’re going to be looking at today. Even in my time at Theocast, we’ve gotten correspondence about the topic that we’re going to be discussing today. So we got a listener question recently, and we get this question a decent amount. ![]() We hope that the conversation is clarifying, helpful, and encouraging. We will survey a number of the passages that are commonly referenced with respect to this. We get this question all the time at Theocast – about the judgment seat of Christ and about heavenly reward – and we want to look at it today from a biblical perspective. Are you ready to stand before the judgment seat of Christ? Are your good works the kind that will endure or are they all just going to be burned up? We answer a listener’s question about these very things. ![]()
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