Question 110: Is it our life after our conversion that is manifested at the judgment seat of Christ? or, Is it all our life from our birth? If the latter, how are we to understand, “Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more”? M. H.
Answer: The judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10) takes place after the sleeping and changed saints have been caught up. They are glorified, therefore no thought of sins imputed can be raised. They are with and like the Lord. Their whole life is manifested there; all they did in the body, whether good or bad. The Lord will approve of what He can, and disapprove of what He sees was wrong, even to the hidden motives of the heart (1 Cor. 4:5). This will show us, as we never knew before, what grace has done for us, and how the Lord has borne with us all through our lives. Knowing we are to be manifested, should exercise us now to judge in the Lord’s presence our present ways (Psa. 138: 23-24).
Hebrews 10:17 is a quotation from Jeremiah 31, to show that the blessings of the new covenant already belong to the believer through the finished work of Christ. “By one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified” (Heb. 10:14).
Question 111: Are only the unsaved to stand at the Great White Throne? What does it mean by “books” and “another book”? T. N. L.
Answer: If you read the chapter you will see that the first resurrection, that is, of the blessed and holy, took place a thousand years before this scene. That was the resurrection of life This is the resurrection of the dead, the resurrection of judgment (John 5:29). Those seen standing at the great white throne are judged according to their works; they have no substitute, no Savior. There is no hope for them now. The book of life can only witness that their names are not written in it. One book contains each person’s account of what they have done. The other is the Word of God. (See John 12:48). They are therefore judged, and they get justice, fearful doom, fully merited; they are cast into the lake of fire. The believers are saved by grace.