"For we 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" (2 Cor. 5:10).

It is for the glory of God that every work done by man should appear as it really is before Him
who is ordained by God Judge of living and dead. But let it be made very clear that as the believer
is by grace exempted from judgment both as a partaker of everlasting life and as having in Jesus
a perfectly efficacious Saviour, his standing before the judgment seat assumes the character of
manifestation, and in no way of a trial with the awful possibility of destruction. The child of God
is glorified before he stands there, and there will not be the slightest effect of the outcome upon
the salvation which he now enjoys by faith. He will give account of himself to God and be
manifested there. And it will be for God’s glory as well as for the perfect blessing of the believer
that everything in his life should come to light and that he himself should know even as he is
known (1 Cor. 13:12).

Nothing will blind the eye then, no unsuspected motive will warp the heart or mind before the
judgment seat of Christ. The merciful care, the overruling power of God in all our ways will
appear in their astonishing wisdom and goodness, no longer concealed by the mists of this life.
We shall know perfectly what debtors we were to grace, and the resources and activity of that
grace in our checkered history and experience_both the rich mercy of God at the first and His
boundless patience to the last. Even now what a comfort for us it is to have renounced the
dishonesty of the natural heart, to judge ourselves unsparingly in the presence of love that never
fails, to be in the light of God, and to have no guile in our spirit. Perfect love casts out fear; we
love Him who first loved us, and do not shirk but welcome the light which makes everything
manifest. We no longer walk in darkness as once when we had no true knowledge of God; we
walk in the light as He is in the light.

While our manifestation before the judgment seat of Christ is yet future, we have the privilege of
preparing for and anticipating that in this present life. God sometimes gives the Christian a period
of quiet, perhaps occasioned by sickness, during which he can review his ways and examine
himself alone with God, when human energy, self-love, or flattery do not stand in the way of a
holy self-judgment. And this is experienced all the more deeply as he firmly holds to the assurance
of God’s changeless favor. That self-review and self-judgment which is begun before God in this
life will be complete and perfect in that day when we_already caught up and glorified in the
body_shall be manifested before the judgment seat without a trace of the shame that either hides
or with pain confesses. It is great gain to have such times on earth, though the process be but
imperfect; even greater is the gain as this becomes a regular habit with us. And how full will be
the blessing when all is absolutely out in love and light with Christ!

The manifestation has this result, "That every one may receive the things done in his body,
according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad." While on the one hand God is not
unrighteous to forget the work of faith and labor of love, on the other hand, failure and wrong will
entail loss. And the soul itself will in full intelligence and unmurmuring adoration bow and bless
Him who orders the place of each in the kingdom, and who (while never abandoning His own

sovereignty) will take note of the greater or less fidelity and devotedness of each in service or
ways.

Thus will God be vindicated, displayed, and enjoyed in all that He is and does; and thus will the
saint have perfect communion with all, in not a single detail missing the joy and blessedness of
what He is to all His own and to each for ever.

The wicked will also be manifested, but it will be at a considerably later time and it will have a
wholly different character and effect. The judgment seat in this case will be the judgment of the
great white throne after the reign of the thousand years, when the dead small and great are not
manifested only, but judged each according to their works (Rev. 20). They refused the Saviour;
they stood in their own righteousness or were indifferent about the lack of it, thinking nothing of
God or counting Him like themselves. They had no life, no faith in Christ; they rise to a
resurrection not of life but of judgment, for God will judge all who do not believe. And if the
righteous be saved with difficulty, with a difficulty which nothing but sovereign grace in Christ
could surmount, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear? It is eternal judgment dealing with
evil, and the issues are as sure as they are awful and endless.

"Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men" (v. 11). That manifestation before
the judgment seat awakens no alarm for the believer, but rather anxiety for "men," for all in their
natural state who have not Christ. How deep and loud and constant is the call for those who
believe to arouse those who do not believe_to "persuade men" on the one hand of the wickedness,
the folly, and the danger of sin; and on the other of the reality, the freeness, the fulness, the
certainty of salvation in Christ.

(From Notes on Second Corinthians.)