Topic : Judgment Seat of Christ

• My greatest thought is my accountability to God. - Daniel Webster
• Those are fools who depend on man’s estimation, so as to reckon it enough to be approved by men, for then only will the work have praise and recompense—when it has stood the test of that day. - John Calvin

Source unknown

If He should come today
And find my hands so full
Of future plans, however fair,
In which my Saviour has no share,
What would He say'

If He should come today
And find my love so cold,
My faith so very weak and dim
I had not even looked for Him.
What would He say'

If He should come today
And find that I had not told
One soul about my Heavenly Friend
Whose blessings all my way attend,
What would He say'

If He should come today
Would I be glad, quite glad'
Remembering that He died for all
And none through me had heard His call,
What would He say?

Source unknown

• Tales of the Neverending, Mark Littleton, Moody, 1990, p. 223.

When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ
And He shows me His plan for me;
The plan of my life as it might have been
Had He had His way, and I see
How I blocked Him here and I checked Him there
And I would not yield my will,
Shall I see grief in my Savior’s eyes;
Grief though He loves me still'

Oh, He’d have me rich, and I stand there poor,
Stripped of all but His grace,
While my memory runs like a hunted thing
Down the paths I can’t retrace.
Then my desolate heart will well-nigh break
With tears that I cannot shed.
I’ll cover my face with my empty hands
And bow my uncrowned head.

No. Lord of the years that are left to me
I yield them to Thy hand.
Take me, make me, mold me
To the pattern Thou hast planned.

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.

Source unknown

It is Christians only who are in view here. All that we have hidden shall be revealed. The things we have done in the body will come back to us, whether good or bad. Every pious thought, and every thought of sin; every secret prayer, and every secret curse; every unknown deed of charity, and every hidden deed of selfishness; we will see them all again, and though we have not remembered them for years, and perhaps have forgotten them altogether, we shall have to acknowledge that they are our own.

Is not that a solemn thing to stand at the end of life?

James Denney, 1856-1917

Bema (judgment seat) in secular usage had four meanings:

1. One’s stride, or manner of walking (which reveals character).

2. A platform for a public official (cf. Acts 25:6, 10, 17).

3. A “rewards platform” in sporting contests. Because of this meaning, some claim the “bema” is only a place for rewards—not judgment. But in secular legal contexts it also denotes

4. The place where litigants stood for trial. Paul repeatedly stressed this meaning; Acts 25:10, Romans 14:12.

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