WE

For 5 weeks now we have been on a journey through the foundations of faith. The writer of Hebrews gave us 6 foundations of faith. “So let us stop going over the basic teachings about Christ again and again. Let us go on instead and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start again with the fundamental importance of repenting from evil deeds and placing our faith in God. You don’t need further instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.” Hebrews 6:1-2 NLT. We’ve seen how there are three areas we build upon: Internal—Repentance and faith; External—Baptism and prayer; Eternal—Resurrection and Judgment. Each of these are underpinnings of life that bring us stability and strength to live our days for Jesus.

Today we finish our study of foundations of faith with the topic of eternal judgement. Speaking of judgement, did you know right now there is a contest going on in Alaska called Fat Bear week? The national park has taken photos of 16 “fat bears” and there is a national competition where people vote for the fattest bear. What did these bears do to warrant this kind of treatment? They spent all summer eating the delicious fish that swim up their river, doing exactly what they were meant to do, and now their pictures are plastered all over the internet for people to see.

While that competition is fun, the fact remains we all will stand for eternal judgement. This isn’t anything to fear— in fact, I believe today we’re going to see that the reality of eternal judgement can be a tremendous source of peace for us. Let’s Pray.

GOD

While the Bible mentions several different judgements, today we are going to focus on what is normally called the Judgement Seat of Christ. It’s not us judging Christ, but Christ judging those who have followed him.

At the Judgement Seat of Christ, we are judged by our actions. “So why do you condemn another believer? Why do you look down on another believer? Remember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.” Romans 14:10 NLT. The sure fact we can all depend on is that our actions will be all we are accountable for. This is both a relief and a responsibility. The actions of others don’t count against us. If you grew up in a home you wished was different, take hope in the fact that God doesn’t look at you through the lens of how others have acted. The other side of this is that we are not to compare ourselves to others. When we compare ourselves, we determine we are either ahead or behind. The call of the believer is not to be ahead or behind anybody; it’s to be in step with the Spirit of God in your life.

We are judged by our actions and our actions alone. The judgement seat of Christ is also a judgement of accountability. “For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.” 2 Corinthians 5:10 NLT. To be very clear, we will not get into heaven on the balance of our good and bad deeds, but we will be rewarded based on them. Imagine this moment, one day. There are going to be some very rewarded people in Heaven that no one has noticed in this life, and some very important people in this life that have no reward in heaven. Here’s where we must trust: we don’t know the accounting of this balance sheet, but we know that God is good, and his desire is goodness for us.

To better understand this verse, we have to define good and evil. Good, in this sense, is defined as any action that originates from God. This means mowing your neighbor's yard could be a good act. This means making a meal for someone who just got out of the hospital could be a good act. This means that not only if God calls you to it, He’ll see you through it, but He will reward you because of your faithfulness.

Evil literally means worthless. This means we have to confront not only what is inherently sinful but time-wasting pursuits that bear no eternal fruit. That’s a tough standard, but we have a high calling, an even greater God, and a limited number of days to live in this life.

This should take you to a natural question of what makes the same pursuit good or evil. It all has to do with your attitude. “If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:3 NLT. The same action done with the same outcome can be judged completely different in eternity. There is a principle of judgement in the eyes of God that determines not only the action and the accountability of our deeds, but the attitude of our heart while we do those deeds.

Maybe this has happened to you, but have you ever done the right thing with the wrong attitude and realized you might as well have done nothing at all? I’m not proud of this, but have you ever walked into a messy home and gone into power cleaning mode? There are times I want to clean my house with a flame thrower. Throw it all away! I want to open up the front door and take that toy I’ve asked to be picked up four times and punt it into the street.

In my moment of frustration over toys, I get to make a decision. I either pick up the house out of a desire to have a clean house for my family to live in, or I pick up the house out of anger and frustration. Both have the same outcome, but God cannot reward both motivations. The same is true when it comes to our lives lived as acts of worship to God. Everything we do and the attitude behind why we do it factors into eternity!

Eternal Judgement is multi-faceted so how do we take the aspects of actions, accountability, and attitude into our everyday lives?

YOU

Just being honest, I want to live an eternal life well rewarded. I don’t know exactly what these rewards are going to be, but I know I want them. Knowing rewards are coming, how do we live a life of anticipation of eternity?

Take Hold Of The Life That Is Truly Life. “Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.” 1 Timothy 6:17 NLT. Where has God made you rich and what are you doing with those riches? Oftentimes we most easily trust in what we can see. Money is one of those things. Life is easier with money than without it, but eternity is harder if your life is about money.

In the grand scheme of eternity, the money we have in this life will not matter, but the lives we impact for Christ will! How do you go about taking hold of the life that is truly life? Because this applies to money, but it also applies to every area of our life. We should remember this: as the Spirit leads, we follow.

The answer to eternal judgement isn’t anxiety; it’s obedience. Summing this up, we have two possible daily questions we can live by: “Did I earn a reward today?” and “What is God asking me to do today?”

Look at Galatians with me: “Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” Galatians 5:25 NLT. The days of our lives are meant to be lived one step at a time. We do not, and should not, attempt to carry the burden of knowing everything God wants us to do in this life. We simply have to be faithful in what He is calling us to do today.

It’s easy to imagine that laying up treasure in heaven requires doing something enormous. I believe most eternal treasure is probably accumulated through ordinary obedience. It’s meals, conversations, prayer, gifts, forgiveness, and faithfulness of a life lived to honor God.

One day you and I will stand before Christ to be judged. When that day comes, it won’t be about my success or failure in comparison to anyone else. It will be about the actions I did and didn’t do, the accountability I uniquely know, and the attitude of my heart that no one saw. Really it will all come down to whether we can say, “Jesus, where you led, I followed.”

WE

These six foundations were never meant to just be doctrines we could explain:

  • Repentance.
  • Faith.
  • Baptism.
  • Laying on of hands.
  • Resurrection.
  • Judgment.

They are foundations we build our lives upon. This final foundation reminds us that this life matters because this life is going somewhere. Our days matter. Our choices matter. Our generosity matters. Our love matters. Our obedience matters.

But we do not have to live afraid of the Judgment Seat of Christ. We can live prepared for it. We can live expectantly. We can live each day listening for the voice of the Spirit and responding when He leads.

So maybe the prayer we leave with today is incredibly simple: Holy Spirit, show me the next faithful step. And when You lead, help me follow. Because one day when we stand before Jesus, I believe the life we will be most grateful for will not be the life where we accomplished everything we wanted to accomplish. It will be the life where we faithfully did what He asked us to do.