Judgment .What Happens on Judgment Day?

Is it the same for saints and sinners?

This judgment is according to what we have done, whether good or bad. This judgment is not related to our eternal life which is based on the grace of Christ. This judgment has to do with our eternal rewards/recompense.

Whenever we think of the Judgment Day we tend to think of sin, all sin, every sin, being exposed for condemnation. If this were so, we as Christians would find ourselves, along with everyone else, answering to the Great Judge with a plea of “Guilty, as charged!”

Worst of all, even before those words are uttered, there is the revelation to the entire universe of those shameful and embarrass­ing things we did or failed to do; many, until then, known only to God, ourselves and perhaps few if any others. Is this really so for the saints?

What has God revealed concerning the saints and their sin on the Judgment Day?

Well, firstly we can’t deny what we read in Scripture that “we shall all appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (2 Cor, 5:10). However, the Scriptures also teach that the nature of the assessment of each person before the “bar of Heaven” will vary.

In Matthew 25, as in most of the para­bles on the Judgment, our Lord divides “the nations” into two groups. These He pictures as the sheep and the goats (vs. 32, 33). To the sheep He speaks with commendation and invites them to receive their eternal reward (vs. 34, 35); to the goats He speaks with condemnation and assigns them to their eternal punishment (v. 41). Here as elsewhere our Lord is silent as to our past sin as His sheep.

So too the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 2:16 that there is to be a judging of the secrets of men, but only in terms of that division of the truly faithful from the hyp­ocrite. Earlier in Romans 2:5-10 he said that God shall “render to every man according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory and honour and immortality –– eternal life ... While there will be ‘tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil...’” Once again there is no reference to sin or shame for the saint.

Yes, there’s a judgment, and “deeds whether good or evil” are its subject, but curiously the saints’ sin is never specifically mentioned; and for good reason.

Those who did little or nothing with the resources and opportunities for service for God and others that the Lord had given them will not lose their gift of salvation, and they will still be accepted into Heaven. But they will receive little or no heavenly rewards for their earthly life, or as the case may be, no positions of responsibility and honor in God’s Kingdom to come.

Salvation—our entry pass to Heaven—is a gift from God that we cannot earn by our good works, but only through receiving Jesus as our Savior. However, the rewards we receive once we get to Heaven are earned through our works here on Earth. Those who were faithful to do good to others and obey God’s laws of “love the Lord your God with all your heart … [and] your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37,39) will “shine as the stars”—while those who do not manifest deeds of love on Earth will “awake to shame.”

The Lord is going to need and use those who were faithful on Earth before this time, who did what they could with the “talents” they had to further the Kingdom of God when it was still mostly a spiritual entity. God’s Kingdom will have been founded on the Earth but it will still be a big job to establish it from one end of the Earth to the other.

Those faithful to God now and in the past are going to be the ones entrusted to do it, and that will be part of their reward. Scripture tells us there will be many other rewards, most likely both spiritual and material blessings, although we don’t know all the specifics. The apostle Paul wrote that the “sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18). And Jesus promised a “crown of life” to those who are faithful to Him (Revelation 2:10).

The apostles Peter and Paul both wrote that those who are faithful to God in this life will receive crowns in the next. “Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8). “When the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away” (1 Peter 5:4). Perhaps they will resemble halos depicted around the heads of the saints in Christian art. As yet, we don’t know exactly what those crowns are, but certainly we won’t be disappointed when we receive them!

In Jeremiah 31:34 God makes a promise which is one of the terms of His new covenant with the future house of Israel. He said, “I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more.” In Christ God forgives and “remembers no more” our sin. We too are called to forgive others “from the heart” in a similar way for wronging us. Is not one of the marks of true forgiveness that of never raising the matter again?

So then, if God promises to forgive sin and “remember it no more” (and God can­not lie), and if He expects us to do the same, how can it be part of the proceedings of His court that Day?

Lastly, consider this: that most cher­ished of doctrines –– justifica­tion by faith –– supports this truth. Romans 8:1 sums up its implications by stating that “There is therefore no condem­nation for those in Christ Jesus...” and again that “those ... whom He called, He also justified ... Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the One who justifies, who is the one who condemns?”

Now let’s illustrate this from the work­ings of our own human legal system. If we break the law and are fined, but then refuse to pay, we still have a case to answer. But if the fine is paid for us, then, though we’re no less guilty, there’s no further case to answer; no court to front.

Similarly, if our confessed sin is truly atoned for by Christ’s death, as John in his first epistle clearly tells us (1:7-9), then surely here too we have no further case to answer regarding our sin.

But someone may well ask, is there no answering for their sin at all by the saints? And again, for what shall the saints be judged on the great Day if not for sin? The answers to these questions must wait for some future consideration.

But for now, we surely can see the blessedness and glory revealed in Jude’s benediction (v.24) which says: “Now unto Him who is able to keep you from falling and present you faultless before the pres­ence of His glory with exceeding joy...” Our joy will be exceedingly great because we will stand by faith clothed in the right­eousness of Christ. We will have been redeemed, sanctified and finally glorified through His blood and by His Spirit.

Far from living with the prospect of fac­ing the shame and condemnation of the ungodly, we who have believed can now know “that when He appears we may be confident and unashamed before Him at his coming” (1 John 2:28). To God be the Glory!