We have lately received communications from various friends, in which they earnestly seek light as to the solemn subject of the judgment seat of Christ; and as it is more than probable that many others may be exercised on the same point, we are unwilling to give it a hasty notice in our answers to correspondents.
One dear friend writes thus: “I am, at present, in a difficulty. It is this: a very dear friend has, for some time past, been very unhappy in the thought that, at the judgment seat of Christ, every secret thought and every motive of the heart will be made manifest to all there. She has no fears or doubts as to her eternal salvation, or the forgiveness of her sins; but she shrinks with horror from the thought of having the secrets of her heart manifested to all there.”
Another writes as follows: “Remembering those blessed and eternally-important truths in John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24) John 1:7-9, 2:12; Heb. 10:1-17,1For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. 2For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 3But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 5Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me: 6In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. 7Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God. 8Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law; 9Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. 10By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: 12But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God; 13From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. 14For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. 15Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 16This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. (Hebrews 10:1‑17) I wish to know how you understand the following texts, which I shall transcribe in full, in order to point out the particular words to which I refer.
“It is on the above texts that I am anxious to be correct as to interpretation and application; and I have thought it probable that you would not regard it as trespassing on your time, if I were to ask your opinion on the subject.”
We have been much interested, of late, in looking into the various reasons of the perplexity which seems to prevail in reference to the solemn subject of “The judgment seat of Christ.’’ The very passages which our correspondent quotes are so plain, so pointed, and so definite on the question, that we have only just to take them as they stand, and allow them to have their due weight upon the heart and conscience. “We must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ.” “Every one of us must give account of himself to God.” “He that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong he hath done.”
These are plain statements. Should we desire to weaken their force—to blunt their edge—to turn away their point? God forbid! We should rather seek to make a holy use of them by keeping a pressure upon nature, in all its vanities, lusts, and tempers. The Lord intended we should use them thus. He never intended that we should use them, in a legal way, to shake our confidence in Christ and his full salvation. We shall never come into judgment as to our sins. John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24); Rom. 8:11There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Romans 8:1); 1 John 4:17,17Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. (1 John 4:17) are conclusive as to that point. But then our services must come under the Master’s eye. Every man’s work shall be tried of what sort it is. The day will make everything manifest. All this is very solemn, and should lead to great watchfulness and carefulness as to our works, ways, thoughts, words, motives, and desires. The deepest sense of grace, and the clearest apprehension of our perfect justification as sinners, will never weaken our sense of the deep solemnity of the judgment seat of Christ, or lessen our desire so to walk as that we may be accepted of Him.
It is well to see this. The apostle labored that he might be accepted. He kept his body under lest he should be disapproved of. Every saint should do the same. We are already accepted in Christ, and as such, we labor to be accepted of Him. We should seek to give every truth its proper place, and the way to do this, is to be much in the presence of God, and to view each truth in immediate connection with Christ. There is always a danger of making such a use of one truth as, practically, to displace some other truth. This should be carefully guarded against. We believe there will be a full manifestation of everyone and everything before the judgment seat of Christ. Everything will come out there. Things that looked very brilliant and praiseworthy, and that made a great noise amongst men, down here, will all be burned up as so much “wood, hay, and stubble.” Things that were blazed abroad, and made use of to surround the names of men with a halo of human applause, will all be submitted to the searching action of “the fire,” and, it may be, very much of them reduced to ashes. The counsels of all hearts will be made manifest. Every motive, every purpose, every design will be weighed in the balances of the sanctuary. The fire will try every man’s work, and nothing will be stamped as genuine save that which has been the fruit of divine grace in our hearts. All mixed motives will be judged, condemned, and burnt up. All prejudices, all erroneous judgments, all evil surmisings concerning others—all these and such like things will be exposed and cast into the fire. We shall see things then as Christ sees them, judge them as He judges them. No one will be better pleased than myself to see all my stubble consumed. Even now, as we grow in light, knowledge, and spirituality, as we get nearer and liker to Christ, we heartily condemn many things which we once deemed all right. How much more shall we do so when we stand in the full blaze of the light of the judgment seat of Christ?
Now, what should be the practical effect of all this upon the believer? To make him doubt his salvation? To leave him in a state of uncertainty as to whether he is accepted or not? To make him question his relationship to God in Christ? Surely not. What then? To lead him to walk in holy carefulness, from day to day, as under the eye of his Lord and Master—to produce watchfulness, sobriety, and self-judgment—to super induce faithfulness, diligence, and integrity in all his services and all his ways.
Take a simple illustration. A father leaves home for a time, and, when taking leave of his children, he appoints a certain work to be done, and a certain line of conduct to be adopted during his absence. Now, when he returns, he may have to praise some for their faithfulness and diligence, while he blames others for the very reverse. But does he disown the latter? Does he break the relationship? By no means. They are just as much his children as the others, though he faithfully points out their failure and censures them for it. If they have been biting and devouring one another, instead of doing his will; if one has been judging another’s work instead of attending to his own; if there has been envy and jealousy instead of an earnest hearty carrying out of the father’s intentions—all these things will meet with merited censure. How could it be otherwise?
But then some, like our correspondent’s friend, ‘shrink with horror from the thought of having the secrets of the heart manifested to all there.’ Well, the Holy Ghost declares that “The Lord will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the heart: and then shall every man have praise of God.” 1 Cor. 4; 5 He does not say to whom they shall be manifested; nor does this, in the least, affect the question, inasmuch as every true-hearted person will be far more deeply concerned about the judgment of the Master than about the judgment of a fellow-servant. Provided I please Christ, I need not trouble myself much about man’s judgment. And, on the other hand, if I am more troubled about the idea of having all my motives exposed to the view of man than I am about their being exposed to the view of Christ, it is plain there must be something wrong. It proves I am occupied about myself. I shrink from the exposure of “my secret motives.” Then it is very plain that my secret motives are not right, and the sooner they are judged the better.
And, after all, what difference would it make, though all our sins and failures were made manifest to everybody? Are Peter and David a whit less happy because untold millions have read the account of their shameful fall? Surely not. They know that the record of their sins only magnifies the grace of God, and illustrates the value of the blood of Christ, and hence they rejoice in it. Thus it is in every case. If we were more emptied of self and occupied with Christ, we should have more simple and correct thoughts about the judgment seat as well as about everything else.
May the Lord keep our hearts true to Himself in this the time of His absence, so that when He appears we may not be ashamed before Him! May all our works be so begun, continued, and ended in Him, that the thought of having them duly weighed and estimated in the presence of His glory may not disturb our hearts’. May we be constrained by the “love of Christ,” not by the fear of judgment, to live unto Him who died for us and rose again! We may safely and happily leave everything in His hands, seeing He has borne our sins in His own body on the tree. We have no reason to fear, inasmuch as we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. The moment Christ appears we shall be changed into His image, pass into the presence of His glory, and there review the past. We shall look back from that high and holy elevation, upon our course down here. We shall see things in a different light altogether then. It may be we shall be astonished to find that many things, of which we thought a great deal down here, will be found defective up there; and, on the other hand, many little things which were done in self-forgetfulness, and love to Jesus, will be sedulously recorded, and abundantly rewarded. We shall also be able to see, in the clear light of the Master’s presence, many mistakes and failures which had never before come within the range of our vision. What will be the effect of all this? Just to evoke from our hearts loud and rapturous hosannahs to the praise of Him, who has brought us through all our toils and dangers, borne with all our mistakes and failures, and assigned us a place in His own everlasting kingdom, there to bask in the bright beams of His glory, and shine in His image forever.
We shall not dwell further on this subject, just now; but we trust sufficient has been said to relieve the minds of those dear friends who have consulted us on the point. We shall ever regard it as a happy service to communicate with our readers on any question which may happen to present difficulty to their minds. We can truly say, our desire is that the Lord would make this little Magazine a channel of help and blessing to the souls of His people everywhere, and that the name of the Lord Jesus may be magnified.