WE read in the Ecclesiastes that God hath set the world in the hearts of the sons of men, and each day witnesses to the truth thereof. Men live on through their short lives as if there was nothing in eternity worth a thought. One man lives for pleasure, another for ambition, a third to provide for his family; but in every case where grace has not wrought, this short life, with its pleasures and cares, is the boundary of metes hopes and affections, and God is not in all their thoughts.
To arouse men from this fatal indifference to their eternal welfare, the Gospel of Christ addresses itself to the conscience, and brings the light of eternity to bear upon the present moment in words such as these which head this paper: " 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.”
Paul, who wrote these words under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, knew experimentally their searching power. He remembered well the anguish of his own soul, when, though three days blind, and unable either to eat or drink, he learnt the terror of the Lord, who can destroy both soul and body in hell. He remembered how he had been arrested by God's Son, when madly striving to blot out His name by the destruction of His people; and how he was laid bare as a blasphemer, a persecutor, and injurious in the light of that divine and heavenly glory, which shone upon him; and as one already manifested to Him, he now would sound in the ears of all careless sinners what had been to his soul of so overwhelming importance, "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.”
He was free in his own spirit from all fear of judgment to come, and therefore he was at leisure from himself to feel for perishing souls, whom the revelation of that day would put to eternal shame.
He looked hack with adoring gratitude to that moment, when the One who had appeared to him in glory, and had smitten him to the ground as the chief of sinners, sent His servant Ananias with a message of salvation. How sweet to his broken heart must have been those gracious words: "Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, who appeared unto thee in the way as thou earnest, hath sent me.”
Four days before, he was the mad destroyer of the saints; now Jesus sends Ananias to salute this object of sovereign mercy as "Brother Saul." Saul's guilty conscience might have expected to hear Ananias add, that he was sent to pronounce the doom of the arch enemy of God's Son; but no! Ananias brought a message of grace from the Lord Jesus: "He hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." From that moment Saul knew that all his sins were forgiven, and he could look up to the blessed Lord, who had stopped him in his mad career, and say, "He loved me, and gave Himself for me." From that moment his soul yearned after his fellow-sinners; and the sense of the terror of the Lord, which he had so deeply felt in his own soul, made him thus earnest in persuading others "to flee from the wrath to come.”
Let us dwell for a few moments on the solemn statement of the Apostle: "We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ." We may consider what that judgment seat will be. What it will be for each of us to appear individually there? Whom we shall meet there? And, finally, let the reader ask himself if all is settled between his soul and God, so that ha` can say with the Apostle John, that he has "boldness in the day of judgment!" What then will the judgment seat be? It will be the eternal settlement of man's loss in hell, or of the Lord's approval of those who are now justified by His blood for every act of service they have done according to His will. God has made man for Himself, and for His glory, and we must answer to Him for all that we are, and all that we have done. Let not the reader say, this is a future concern, and put away from himself the evil day. The Word of God reveals the future to cast light upon your present condition, that you may now be brought into God's presence about your sins. Your conscience sets its seal to this truth of revelation. The judgment seat is the necessary result of what God is, as a God of holiness and truth. God would deny Himself and outrage His majesty if He should, as men hope He may, pass by sin.
Away then with any vain hope that the judgment seat will display mercy to the guilty. Now indeed God’s throne is a throne of grace, where the vilest sinner is received through the mediation of God's Son. None are too vile, too sinful, too lost, to be forgiven and saved, who come as they are to God through Jesus Christ, resting on His infinite atonement. But the judgment seat is a throne of righteousness; and unless you appear before it as one whom God has justified, you will appear before it to be everlastingly condemned. The one and greatest proof of God's inflexible righteousness in dealing with sin is exhibited in the cross of Calvary, where God judged the sins of all people in the person of His sinless Son, making lids soul an offering for sin, making Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of god in Him. Did lie thus, deal in judgment with His own Son, and can He pass by sinners, without judging their sins? No, indeed; conscience and revelation declare the righteous character of the judgment seat, where we must all appear. But what will it be for each of us to appear individually before the judgment seat?
It will be far more than each of us being personally there. True we must all appear there, and each will stand there individually; but the word the Apostle uses conveys the truth, the solemn, awful truth, to all that are hiding themselves under vain excuses and false coverings, that we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ. Men will come out at that dread tribunal perfectly and exactly as God sees and knows them to be. The hypocrite, the self-deceiver, the formal professor, the self-righteous, will be manifested there. The Christ-rejecter, the infidel, the blasphemer, will be manifested there, in all the hatefulness and wickedness of their state in God's sight.
No scorning of the scorner will dare to lift its voice there. No human reasonings against the truth, so pleasing now to those who love darkness rather than light, will avail there. No human righteousness, however idolized now, will bear the testing of the light that shines there.
Reader, we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ. What a word is this to search our hearts with now! Let us take it home to ourselves. Let us ask ourselves the question; what would come cut as to my state before God, if I were at this moment Manifested there?
But if a poor Self-condemned and 'broken hearted sinner should read these lines, one who is ready to cry out, as one of old: "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, O Lord; for in Thy sight shall no flesh living be justified." Let such an one contemplate whom he shall meet there, seated on that judgment seat. This brings us to that part of our subject which fills the breast of the believer with unspeakable comfort. He who sits upon the judgment seat is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior. True, He will sit there as Judge; but will He forget His own redeeming blood, and those whose sins He bore on Calvary? Will He condemn those whom God has justified through believing on Him? No, indeed; we shall all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ. The sin-stained robe that has been washed white in the blood of the Lamb will shine unsullied in that day; the feeble faith, though now tried with fire, will be found then to praise, and honor, and glory; the least of all saints will share the likeness and the glory of Him who sits upon the judgment seat. Ah! trembling believer, what hast thou to fear in the presence of thy Savior's love, who regards thee as the travail of His soul? Thou wilt be manifested as His; manifest before Him, who settled thy judgment on the cross, and who left thy sin and condemnation behind Him in His opened grave. He has declared for the comfort of all His believing people, "He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, shall not come into judgment." His believing people, shall not come into judgment, for they shall be manifested at His judgment seat as those whom God has justified; they shall appear there glorified bodies, not to have, their acceptance in the beloved called into question, but to receive the approval of the Lord Himself, for every act of faith and love which they have done, while waiting for Him in this evil day.
Oh then, beloved reader, ask yourself, Am I amongst the justified of God, who shall shine forth in the glory of God's righteousness, in that day of manifestation? If all that must come out then has come out now, and you have found yourself consciously manifested to God in your sins, there is the answer to it all in the death of Christ; for God hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
To meet God now in grace is the sinner's eternal salvation. Can we, then, say "I am reconciled to God." "God was," says the Apostle, "in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them." The four Gospels narrate this wondrous fact. That meek, and gentle, and compassionate Jesus, of whom they speak, was God manifest in the flesh. Reader, has that blessed one won your heart? Does your heart find in Him its needs met, its desires satisfied, its hopes centered? What a blessing, if so, to know that He who has attracted and won your heart is the very God against whom you have sinned, and whose anger you have justly feared. But then He has not only become a man to win your heart by His grace, but He has died on the cross to bear your sins in His own body, that your conscience may be perfect towards God. Are you resting upon Him as your only righteousness before God? Then fear not. God is perfectly, eternally satisfied with that precious sacrifice. He delivered Him for your offences, and has raised Him again for your justification. As He looks out in love upon the glorified Jesus, He sees your justification. All the sins He bore on Calvary are gone forever, and God sees none now, as He looks upon Jesus and looks upon you in Him; therefore the Apostle declares, "He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." But what shall we say of those who are not reconciled to God through our Lord Jesus Christ? You, dear friends, unless God in His mercy give you grace and repentance before it be too late, will be manifested at the judgment seat of Christ, not only in all your sins, but as those who have heard of God's great love in Jesus Christ, and have heeded it not. What will you answer Him when you see Him on the throne with the marks of the nails and of the spear in His blessed body? You will lie dumb before Him, and you will perish as your own destroyers, for having heard and rejected all the dying love of Jesus Christ. Oh, once more would we beseech you to believe in Him now, and be reconciled to God!