If you don't know me there is likely no way that you could no, but when it comes to understanding the Bible, I am not a shy person. You know the thing my pastor said that I did understand or agree with about accountability? Well, I talked to him in person. I had not been able to put all of my thoughts into words, but what I do remember saying was that I knew that Christians would face the Bema Seat and that Romans 6 obviously discourages us to keep on sinning just because God will keep on forgiving. We were not able to finish the conversation then, but he texted me later to give me more information about what he was feeling. Names redacted for privacy, obviously:
Pastor: My apologies for the hurried nature of our conversation the other day. I would like to address some things we did not have time to cover during that conversation:
First, you mentioned the great white throne judgment, and more than one judgment that was to take place. I was confused, because I was unaware of more than one judgment. But upon further examination, the Book of Revelation speaks of judgment, with two sets of books (Revelation 20:11-15)! One book is the Book of Life, and the other is a set of books that record all the deeds of everyone who has ever lived. Those who have their names written in the Book of Life go to Heaven to be with Jesus, while those whose names are not written there are cast into the Lake of Fire (or Hell).
During my sermon, I indicated that Christians have their sins judged in the form of Jesus Christ. We deserve Hell for our sin, but He stepped into our place. Our sin was placed on Him, and God's justice was satisfied as He poured out His wrath upon Jesus. Therefore, everyone gets what they deserve except for us. For us, God's punishment is satisfied another way. So with the punishment removed, nothing is left for us but eternal, heavenly reward.
You expressed doubts about this. I dislike putting words into your mouth, or assuming too much about what you are thinking. But you seemed to dislike what I was saying. In your eyes, it created an incentive for a believer to sin with impunity, without any fear of punishment. You quoted Romans 6:1-2: "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means!" Furthermore, you saw no reason why Christians should be excluded from being judged according to their deeds. Shouldn't we, too, have our lives judged according to what is written in the books?
I honestly appreciate you asking me these questions, since it proves that you are paying attention, and that you care enough to be actively engaged. So let us address these issues in turn.
First, with respect to Romans 6: The Bible most certainly does not advise us to indulge in sin, secure in the knowledge that God will forgive us no matter what we do. Still less, it does not encourage us to sin more, so that God can forgive us more! Incidentally, this exact viewpoint was the theology of Grigori Rasputin, the evil monk who manipulated the Russian royal family in the days before the communist revolution. It was this belief (that we should sin more so that grace may increase) that led Rasputin to gorge himself, drink excessively, and carry on numerous affairs with every woman who would stand still. No, we must not be like that.
But nevertheless, salvation cannot in any way be something that is earned. If Jesus' blood covered 99.99% of my sin, and He left me to do the rest by carefully obeying God and staying away from evil, I still could not do it. Jesus must do it all for me, or He may as well have done nothing.
The themes of His substitutionary atonement are woven all through scripture. When Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, God provided a ram for the sacrifice, and Isaac was spared (Genesis 22). When God sent the plagues on Egypt, the Israelites killed a spotless lamb and painted their doorways with the blood, and their firstborn were spared (Exodus 12). When Moses gave the law to the Israelites, he commanded that all firstborn male animals should be sacrificed to the Lord. But each firstborn son was to be redeemed with the sacrifice of another animal, and the son would be spared. (Exodus 13) The prophet Isaiah predicted the coming of a suffering servant who would be "crushed for our iniquities" and "by His wounds we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). When Jesus was baptized, John the Baptist said "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29)
So here is the dilemma: We cannot endorse sin, or make light of it. However, all our sins must be taken away by Jesus, or else we have no hope.
I believe that the solution to this can be found in the place where we started: Romans 6. But let's read a bit farther, to include verses 1-7:
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
This passage, I believe, changes the rules of the game. Jesus' sacrifice on the cross takes all the punishment for our sins on Himself. No matter how great our sins, His blood covers them all. So of course, this seems to create an opportunity to sin more than ever before. And this is what I have concluded: Jesus has created the opportunity for us to sin all we want to. In the process, He changes us so that we do not want to anymore. Whoever is saved by the blood of Jesus is also given an indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit will change the hearts of every believer, so that they increasingly reject all that is evil, and ardently seek the Lord. As it is written in 2 Corinthians 3:18, "And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate[a] the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."
When Jesus is accepted in faith, salvation occurs. And where salvation occurs, the Spirit is given. And where the Spirit is given, the believer is sanctified. And if the so-called believer persists in ever-increasing sin throughout his life, he demonstrates that the Spirit is not in him, and that no salvation ever occurred.
Now, to address what happens at the great white throne judgment: I believe that Christians ARE judged according to what is written in the books. God's justice is applied to all humanity, and this means that all humanity gets what they deserve. The books record everything we do, good or bad. And the bad so completely outweighs the good, that none of us can have any fate other than Hell. Especially considering that in order to enter Heaven, the object is not to be more good than bad; it is to be good ENTIRELY. So humanity is judged by what is written in the books, and gets the damnation it deserves. But the Christians get something special.
There is another Book; the Book of Life. Christians have their names recorded in it, and gain a special privilege. Their sins will be punished, yes. God's justice will be satisfied. But it will be satisfied through the punishment that Jesus bore on Calvary. God will count His Justice satisfied because of what Jesus bore on our behalf.
So if Jesus removes God's just punishment for the evil we do, what then remains for the good that we do? For this, God allows us to receive eternal reward. And Jesus felt it was important that we know about these rewards, which is why He mentioned them throughout the Gospels.
What I have spoken of here runs counter to all intuition. But unbelievably, our God really is that good.
I hope this letter answers your question. If not, I look forward to speaking with you further.
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Me: I’m sorry that you heard that people need to work to earn salvation. I don’t believe that at all. I know that salvation is 100% Gods offer of redemption. It’s absolutely not something I could earn. And I agree, it’s not about “good outweighing bad” because God is a perfect God. He cannot allow anything less than perfection into His eternal presence.
I think I have figured out better how to word what I was trying to say. Most importantly to this issue, I believe that even though our sins (past, present, and future) are paid for on the cross, there are still consequences for the sins that we commit. So, my question is this: Are Christians not held accountable for their sins on judgment day? Are our sins not facing their final consequence then?
1 Corinthians 3:12-15 communicates that our “work” or our choices will be revealed on “the day” (which multiple sources call The Bema Seat). This passage even talks about us building on our foundation of Jesus Christ. There is no doubt this passage is talking to Christians.
2 Corinthians 5:10 states that we all (again, in a letter to the church) must stand before the judgement seat (again, many sources refer to this as the Bema Seat) to “receive what is due for what he/she has done in the body, whether good or evil.”
I can’t just ignore these passages in light of what you said on Sunday. I’m fast, I still go back to that passage in Matthew and nowhere does it say that “only unbelievers will give account for the words they say”. No, the passage says “people”.
I hope this helps you understand my perspective slightly better.
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Pastor: Ah! Now I have a better idea of what you were saying. I was right about you, you know. You really are deep.
I am glad that you recognize that Jesus fully and completely pays the price for all our sins, and that none of the penalty is left to us.
So in answer to your question, "Are Christians not held accountable for their sins on the judgment day?", the answer must inevitably be "no". How could we? If Jesus has already paid the penalty for every evil thing, what could possibly remain for us?
And in answer to your question "Are our sins not facing their final consequence then?", the answer must still be "no". Our sins had their final consequence on the cross. Nothing can be carried over to the future.
And yet. And yet the verses you quoted still exist. They must mean something, and they must mean something important. If they were not important, they would not be in the Bible. And I cannot deny that 1Corinthians 3 and 2 Corinthians 5 are clearly talking about believers. 2 Corinthians 5 makes clear that each of us will receive what is due for the things we have done. And 1 Corinthians 3 talks about building on the foundation of Jesus Christ, and promises that the one who builds poorly will suffer great "loss". It says that he will be saved, but only "as one escaping through the flames".
This is the part where the secular-minded throw up their hands and begin to laugh. "Ha!", they say. "The Bible cannot be true; it contradicts itself!" The careless Christian will likewise throw up his hands and surrender. "Oh, well!", he says. "I guess it's just a mystery". But we are not to be like that. When we do not understand something in the Bible, the answer is to continue trying to understand. Prayerfully, earnestly, and doggedly. And wherever an apparent contradiction exists in the scriptures, there is only a complicated Truth. When we find such a difficulty, we have really found an opportunity to improve our understanding.
How can the assertions of 1 Corinthians 3 and 2 Corinthians 5 be true, while Jesus still pays the price for ALL our sins? I propose this solution: For the Christian, it is not a matter of rewards and punishments. It is a matter of rewards and the lack thereof.
To understand this, I point to Luke 19:11-26, the Parable of the Ten Minas. In this Parable, the nobleman's subjects are divided into four categories: Those who use what He has given them extremely well, those who use what He has given them pretty well, those who do not use what He has given them well at all, and those who declare that they do not want this man to rule over them. At the end of the parable, this last group is executed: a metaphor for Hell. But what of the other three? If only the last group was executed, the other three servants must represent different kinds of believers.
So obviously, two of these servants are rewarded according to what they did. But what about the last one? He is a believer, to be sure, and he will live in his Master's kingdom. But he will not govern any cities. He did nothing, and is rewarded with nothing.
Of course, with a little imagination, we can surmise that he didn't do NOTHING. While his master was away, this servant likely wasted his time in all sorts of pursuits. But he did nothing to benefit his Master's kingdom. So when his Master's Kingdom arrived, there was no reward for him.
And now we come to a place where we can tie in 1 Corinthians 3. The passage describes workmen who build on the foundation of Jesus Christ with their deeds. Some of these deeds are good and strong, while others are worthless and falling apart. Everyone will have their work tested, and the ones whose work lasts will be rewarded. Those whose work is shown to be poor will be saved, but "as one escaping through the flames".
This last phrase is especially evocative. I believe that the Apostle Paul is trying to paint a word picture in our minds. We are meant to see a man whose house is burning down, and he is running out, narrowly avoiding the flames. Such a man would be grateful he is alive. But he would have nothing. That is what it will be like in the Kingdom of Heaven for the man who trusts in Jesus, but does nothing to work for His Kingdom. He will go to Heaven, but have no reward waiting for him.
2 Corinthians 5 is more of a challenge to understand. It blatantly states that each of us will "receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad". But how can we receive justice for our bad deeds, when Jesus has already paid the price for our sins? Here is where our resources that deal with the Greek language come in handy. When the NIV writes the word "bad", it is translating the word "phaulos". This is important, because the Greek words for moral evil are "kakos" or "poneros". "Phaulos", the word that is used, means "worthless" or "useless"! And this is consistent with what I have been saying: Christians receive their rewards, or lack thereof, according to the quality of their works in this life.
So now we have a reconciled, complicated Biblical truth. Unbelievers are judged for their sins. Christians are not, due to Christ's saving work. Christians receive their rewards, or lack thereof, according to the quality of their work in this life.
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Me: That does make sense. And I have heard it described that way. Lack of rewards vs. rewards.
I think one of the reasons why this has thrown me the most off is because of something else I brought up previously- working (aka good things) for a reward. Those same passages indicate that we are rewarded for the good we do. I can’t deny that. I guess what I’m trying to say is this: Does motive play a role in whether a deed is considered “good”? I’m not sure if there is scripture to back this up, but I’ve always assumed that if I did something FOR MY GAIN (for trying to gain rewards for myself) it means it “didn’t count”.
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Pastor: You are correct. And you don’t have to assume it. Jesus hit this point multiple times during the sermon on the mount. He made it clear that if you give gifts to the poor so that you will be seen, then you have already received the only reward you will ever get. And if you pray so that you will be seen by other people as pious, then you will be seen as pious, and God will give you no further reward.
Our motivations for doing righteous acts do not change the act, but they do affect the act’s righteous quality. And God, who understands all motives, factors all of this into his final judgment.
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Me: I believe that was what I was trying to put into words when you gave the chapel lesson on working towards heavenly rewards. I’ve always understood that if the purpose of doing good was for heavenly rewards, thus a selfish motive, it would be for naught. So I was confused by your encouragement of such practices.
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So what was the final conclusion? I think we are on the same page, and I know that my stance has not changed. I will not work to do good because of the rewards, nor will I purposefully do wrong because I know that I am held accountable for those choices as well. I know this is a niche topic in the realm of Christianity, so I hope this worry never comes up. But, I also hope that this conversation can aid you in better understanding this topic as well.
I am learning how to disagree with people, and this is one of the first times that I have ever had a pastor say something from the pulpit that I did disagree on. I am learning how to handle situations like this, and I recognize that I will never find a pastor that agrees with me on everything.
Have a blessed day!
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