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Judgment Seat of Christ Arlen L. Chitwood
Contents/Foreword
FOREWORD
1. ETERNALLY SAVED, BUT . . .
2. WE MUST ALL APPEAR
3. THAT EVERY ONE MAY RECEIVE
4. TO HIM WHO OVERCOMES
5. THE TREE OF LIFE
6. THE SECOND DEATH
7. THE HIDDEN MANNA, WHITE STONE
8. POWER OVER THE NATIONS
9. CLOTHED IN WHITE RAIMENT
10. A PILLAR, A CITY
11. SEATED ON THE THRONE
12. CROWNED RULERS
13. KINGS OF THE KINGDOM
14. A ROD OF IRON
15. YOU CAN RULE AND REIGN
16. WHEN HE IS APPROVED
APPENDIX
Foreword
The judgment seat of Christ will be operable in one realm alone — man’s actions, following the birth from above. Nothing pertaining to man’s eternal salvation (based entirely upon that which Christ has done) can come into view at this judgment, for God has already judged sin in the person of His Son at Calvary. And God is satisfied with His Son’s finished work.
Thus, all judgment relative to eternal salvation is past and can never again be brought up as an issue. “He that believes in Him [Christ] is not condemned [Greek: krino; lit., ‘is not judged,’ i.e., the one who has believed on Christ can never be brought into judgment (for judgment has already occurred)] . . . .” (John 3:18a).
And this is what bothers some Christians about thoughts surrounding the judgment seat of Christ. Scriptures such as John 3:18 clearly state that no Christian can ever be brought into judgment. Yet, Scriptures such as 2 Corinthians 5:10 — “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ . . . .” — also clearly state that judgment awaits all Christians.
This can become quite confusing unless one recognizes that two entirely different matters are being dealt with. One has to do with God’s judgment upon sin, based upon His Son’s finished work at Calvary, which pertains to man’s eternal salvation. The other has to do with God’s subsequent judgment upon His household servants relative to their faithfulness or unfaithfulness as servants in the Lord’s house, with the Messianic Era in view.
The former judgment has to do with unsaved man and eternal verities; the later judgment has to do with saved man and millennial verities. And the difference between the two could be compared to the distance between the east and the west. It is only because of the former that the latter can occur; and the latter can have nothing to do with the former in the sense of nullifying, adding to, taking from, etc.
The two are completely separate in this respect. Once a person has believed on the Lord Jesus Christ—has passed “from death to life” — that individual comes into an entirely new relationship with God. He is born from above, becomes part of the family of God; and he then finds himself among household servants, who are being dealt with accordingly.
Following the birth from above, God deals with an individual on an entirely different plane — as a household servant, with a view to the Messianic Era lying out ahead. The individual is never again dealt with (during present or future time; or, at a future judgment) on the basis of that which is past — Christ's finished work, effecting his eternal salvation.
And this fact alone should put to rest any thought that saved man could ever one day become unsaved, lost. How could he? Such would be impossible, for God never deals with saved man in this respect (and this is all aside from the fact that man's salvation is not based on anything which he has done to begin with, but on that which Christ alone has done).
But that which numerous Christians fail to recognize is the fact that they are directly responsible, as household servants, to the One who sent His Son to die in their stead. And, as household servants, they will one day stand before their Savior (to whom God has committed all judgment) to give an account relative to faithfulness or unfaithfulness in the Lord’s house.
The judgment seat of Christ will be operable in this realm alone, and decisions and determinations emanating from findings at the judgment seat will result in two things: (1) reward on the one hand, or (2) loss on the other. And both will have to do with the Messianic Era, not with eternal life.
And within both there will be a just recompense (Hebrews 2:2; 11:26) receiving exactly what an individual deserves, receiving wages exactly commensurate with the person’s faithfulness or unfaithfulness as a servant in the Lord’s house (cf. Luke 12:42-46).
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