2 Corinthians 5:10, ‘For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.’
Everyone, without any exception, will appear before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ. There will be no coverings, no hiding places, no excuses or defenses, only ourselves—naked to the depths and utterly unadorned—held before the blazing eyes of the Holy God.
Statements like this can seem impossible when we’re browsing Instagram on our phone in the well-known surroundings of school or work or home; when the sun is shining, when our hearts are beating, when our lungs are breathing, when—despite the ups and downs of life—everything is so *familiar*….In this context, ‘the Judgment Seat’ can feel as divided from our actual experience as ‘Middle Earth.’
But it will not always be that way. Whether at our death, or with Christ’s return, the steady-state status quo will be shattered like a clay pot thrown against the rocks. The sky will split, the heavens will be torn in two, the elements of this age will dissolve, and the form of the world we thought was so permanent will dissipate like morning mists before the rising sun….Then the very same eyes that are now reading this post will behold the mind-splintering glory of the risen Jesus Christ and the very same heart that is considering these words will be laid open before the gaze of the consuming fire.
And how will any of us survive? How will we endure the damning torrent of ‘what we have done in the body’? Only by what the Judge Himself has done in His Body…only because He bore the sins we’ve committed in our body in *His own Body* on the Tree (1 Pt.2:24). Yes, for any and all who cast themselves upon Him in the invincible powerlessness of faith, who receive THIS ONE as their God, who hide in THIS ONE as their shelter, who cling to THIS ONE as their all—for these ones, appearing before the Judgment Seat will be the blessed release of being known to the roots by the Love whose fire is our purification, in whose hand is our healing, and from whose side flows the spring of our everlasting life.
