Exam Time

Exam Time!

2 Corinthians 5:5-11a

Finals in school can be a time of high anxiety for most students. They can literally turn your stomach into knots. When I was in school, exam week was always a time of cramming. Someone wrote this parody about the mad rush to get ready:

And it came to pass,

Early in the morning toward the last day of the semester

There arose a great multitude smiting the books and wailing,

And there was much weeping and gnashing of teeth

For the Day of Judgment was at hand.

And they were sore afraid for they had left undone

Those things which they ought to have done.

And they had done those things which they ought not to have done.

But those who had prepared never had to scramble, they had no reason for any anxiety, they were ready for the final exam. As Christians there is a final exam that you and I must take. 2 Corinthians 5:10 says “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.” Daniel Webster said, “My greatest thought is my accountability to God.” It is sad to say that most Christians go through life giving little or no thought to this future day of examination.

Are you ready for exam time?

I. The Participants in the Examination

A. The Judgment Seat of Christ is reserved for the judgment of Christians only.

B. The unsaved will not be there. There is another judgment awaiting them. If a person is unsaved and dies without having repented of his or her sin and having received Christ as their Lord and Savior, he or she will be judged at the Great White Throne judgment as described in the closing chapters of the book of Revelation.

C. Revelation 20:11-15 “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

D. Born again believers in Christ Jesus.are the subjects whose lives will be examined.

E. This is not an examination of your credentials for admission into heaven. The Judgment Seat of Christ does not determine salvation. That matter is settled the minute a repentant sinner realizing his need for a savior receives the work that Jesus Christ did on his behalf.

F. John 5:24 “Truly, truly I say to you that the one who hears my word and who believes the one who sent me has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”

G. “The Judgment seat is meant for us professing Christians, real and imperfect Christians; and it tells us that there are degrees in that future blessedness proportioned to present faithfulness.” - Alexander Maclaren, 1826-1910

H. 2 Corinthians 5:10 “For we” [that is to say we believers] “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.”

II. The Questions that will be asked at the Examination

A. As we have said the purpose of the judgment seat of Christ is not to examine our credentials for entering heaven. Its purpose is to examine each believer’s entire life as a believer on earth, to reward you for what you’ve done for Jesus since you were saved.

B. 2 Corinthians 5:10 “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.”

C. 1 Corinthians 3:11-14 “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work remains which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.”