Today, Thursday January 06
“Therefore, We Make It Our Aim…” 2 Corinthians 5:6-11 “So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.”
One of the clearest passages in the New Testament on the fact of the Judgment Seat of Christ is this passage in 2 Corinthians 5. Paul was sure one day he would have to give an account of his life and work to Jesus Christ and he proclaimed that because of that knowledge, he was going to live by faith and please the Lord.
This reminds me of Hebrews 11:5-6: “By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, "and was not found, because God had taken him"; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
One of the most beautiful pictures of the Judgment Seat of Christ in the Old Testament is found in Genesis 49. Jacob was dying and he gathered his twelve sons around his bed, and beginning with the oldest, one by one, he prophesied what their future would be. Despite how sinful and shameful some of them had been, they did not lose their sonship and they still had a place in the future kingdom of Israel.
Remember, “Present Performance Determines Future Position in the Kingdom.” How we live for the Lord today by faith, will be judged at the Bema Seat and there, we will be rewarded or there we will be ashamed!
Revelation 20 teaches us several things about the sequence of events when the Tribulation ends. Satan will then be bound in the bottomless pit for one thousand years. We will return with Christ to the earth and will rule and reign with Christ over the earth over those who got saved in the Tribulation and entered into this time in their mortal bodies. At the end of the end of the thousand years Satan will be released (Revelation 20:7-10), and will go throughout the earth to deceive those who never really believed on Jesus for their salvation. Even in this thousand year period the people that are being born will have to trust Christ for their salvation just like we do now. And that is by grace through faith.
Can you believe it, Christ Himself in His physical body, is ruling on the earth from the Throne of David in Jerusalem and people still will not believe and trust Him by faith? But they dare not step out of line, because in this Kingdom, Jesus rules with a “rod of iron.” There will be instant judgment if you openly rebel against His rule. So millions will comply outwardly but inwardly they will resent Christ and His rule. So when Satan is loosed and comes to deceive them, they will willingly follow Him to go to Jerusalem with a great army to destroy Jesus! But fire comes out of heaven and instantly destroys them all! (Revelation 20:9)
That’s why Paul said, “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord…”, we live by faith to please the Lord and persuade others to also trust Christ! Are you living by faith today so that in all things you might be pleasing to the Lord? What is your “aim” today?
God bless!