Day of Reckoning

2  Corinthians 5:10 "For we must all appear  before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Where the rubber meets the road"?  I feel obligated to give a brief warning this morning regarding a future event that none of us will escape.  It is the Judgment Seat of Christ.  As we see in the verse this is a real event that will happen and each of us must attend.

The word "appear" comes from a Greek word that means "to be made manifest."  The idea is that we shall be turned inside out, to be laid bare, stripped of every outward facade of respectability, and openly revealed in the full reality of one's character.  Every thought and deed will be open to the scrutiny of Jesus Christ.  Scary, huh?

We are establishing our future enjoyment of heaven with each day we live on earth. Regardless of how we live here on earth the believer will be saved.  But there will be a reckoning of how we lived our lives and we will be rewarded and/or suffer loss of that reward accordingly.  The reward is not only simply something tangible (a crown) received from Christ at the judgment seat but also the privilege to reign with Him in His earthly kingdom.  I do believe there will be a time when God wipes away the memory of wasted opportunities but this will be after the thousand year reign on earth and the great white throne judgment of the unsaved when the new Jerusalem will be introduced.  At this time the Bible says that God will wipe away all tears which I believe are shed by those who wasted their time on earth; maybe all of us will have some occasion to shed the tears of regret in heaven, but surely there will be those  whose weeping will be seen and heard for a thousand years.

God pleads with us to "set our affections on things above" (Colossians 3:2) that we may experience all that He has to give us through salvation.

1 John 2:28 "And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming."