There are two main reasons for this session
1) It Will Augment the Eternal Praise of God
First, as to the judgment seat’s future bearing, it will result in an increase of the praise of God in heaven. All believers agree that the Lord deserves the fullest praise from every redeemed person; the immediate result of the judgment seat review will do just that. There are three ways in which this will be accomplished:
A) The Lord will magnify the grace of God before our eyes, whereby our appreciation for it will be deepened significantly, and thus, produce a greater volume of praise from our hearts.
The Lord will review our lives and we will see our sins in the light of God’s infinite holiness. Things that we might think are not too terribly serious now, we will see then as sin indeed. We know our sins now as being quite an ugly pile—and we are certainly not proud of it—but in that day He is going to show us that they were a mountain! Everything will be seen in its true light then, and we will learn of the true badness of our fallen sin-natures.
Since it says, “things done in the body”—and we were all in our bodies before we were saved—this manifestation will be of our whole lives, not just after we were saved. If He didn’t review certain episodes of failure and shame in our lives, there would be some reserve on our part, and God doesn’t want that—and neither will we. The bright eternity before us would be clouded in part by the feeling that someday they might be dragged into the light. Therefore, God’s way is to have it all taken up and put out of the way forever. (We have in hand five or six respected expositors who state that this manifestation will not be a public affair before all the saints in heaven, but a private thing with the Lord.)
Then, after showing us our sins in the light of His holiness, we are going to see the grace of God rising over the top of all of them in putting them all away on the righteous basis of Christ’s finished work. We are going to understand the truth of Romans 5:20 in a deeper way, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” The result will be one loud, eternal burst of praise from the redeemed company. The volume of praise will be many times greater than if we had not gone through this process of review.
B) The Lord will reveal the wisdom of His ways with us on earth.
This will also add to the volume of praise. We have all had some difficult and perplexing things happen in our lives, and have often wondered why the Lord allowed it. The review at the judgment seat will justify God in His ways with us. The Lord is going to take us through our lives, step by step, and show us that He didn't make any mistakes in what He allowed us to pass through. In that day, He is going to answer every hard question that we have about our lives, and He will show us that there was a divine purpose of love behind it and a “needs be” for it all (1 Peter 1:6). At the judgment seat, the Lord will show us that we have not shed one unnoticed tear. We’ll learn that every ounce of suffering and sorrow that we have had to pass through was weighed in His divine balances in tenderest love before it was laid upon us. He will show us that it has been used to conform us to His own image (Rom. 8:28-29). And we will say, “As for God, His way is perfect” (Psa. 18:30). As a result, we will praise Him in a far greater and more meaningful way than we ever would have, if we hadn’t had the experience of the judgment seat.
C) The Lord will grant us rewards for things that we have done for His name’s sake.
He will use the occasion of the judgment seat to determine our rewards in the kingdom. When we receive a reward for the smallest thing that we’ve done for Him—even something as insignificant as giving a drink of water in His name (Matt. 10:42)—we will be taken aback by it, and we will praise Him that much more. In that day, He is going to find something to reward every believer. “Then shall every man have praise of God” (1 Cor. 4:5). He will find things done for Himself that we have long forgotten, and we’ll be amazed that He would give us a reward for it.
Deeds of greatness as we saw them,
He will show were but sin.
Acts of kindness, long forgotten,
He will show were for Him.
It’s even harder to believe that when we get there, He is going to praise us! “Every man shall have praise of God.” We may have thought that we were going to heaven to praise Him—which is certainly true—but when we get there He will also praise us! This is astounding. It won’t be in the common sense of worship, of course, but He will say to each of us, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant” (Matt. 25:21). We will be greatly humbled by His grace and goodness, and the grand result will be that we’ll fill the heavens with His praise because He is worthy.
2) It Motivates Us to Live for Christ
The other purpose for the judgment seat of Christ is to motivate us to live for Christ now. This is the context in which Paul was writing in this 5th chapter. God intends that this future event would have a present effect on us. When we realize that everything we do for the Lord is going to have a reward in the coming day, and that we could lose our reward if we live for self now, it ought to motivate us to start laying up treasure in heaven for that day (Matt. 6:20-21).
It has been said that we shouldn’t do things just to get a reward; all should be done out of a desire to please the Lord. This is true; our highest motive for the things that we do should be purely because we love the Lord and we want to please Him. However, Mr. Kohler used to say, “I want to get all the crowns I can get, because in that day I’ll have more to cast at His feet!” (Rev. 4:10).
Vs. 11—The reality of the review before the judgment seat of Christ in the near future produced a two-fold present effect in Paul and his fellow-workers. It should do the same in us. Firstly, they were motivated by “the terror of the Lord.” The thought of God’s “terror” against sin made them think of unbelievers and their lot before the judgment seat. This led them to use all their energy to “persuade men” to flee from the wrath to come. Thus, Paul threw himself into the work of the Lord. Note: he was fervent in his service, not to get a reward, but rather out of concern for those who lived without reference to eternity. Secondly, the thought of the judgment seat led him to live now as “manifest unto God” and also in the “consciences” of the saints. In other words, he wanted to be transparent before God and men in regard to his motives in service. He desired that all would see that his motives were pure:
As to the world—Paul sought to “persuade men.”
As to himself—Paul walked consciously under the all-seeing eye of the Lord as “manifest unto God.”
As to the saints—Paul sought to walk in a way that would “commend” himself to their consciences.
Knowing that we are soon going to be “manifest” before the judgment seat of Christ ought to bestir a present exercise in us to use our energy in the service of the Lord, and also to live openly and honestly before God and men.
Vss. 12-13—Realizing what he had just said could be misunderstood as being self-praise, Paul clarifies his statements by saying that he was not trying to “commend” himself. He was, rather, letting the saints know the godly sincerity of his life and ministry, so that they would have “somewhat to answer” those who attacked him with their slanderous reports.
The zeal that led Paul to serve the Lord with all his energy led his critics to label him as a fanatic who was “beside” himself. His passionate preaching and teaching was construed as being that of a man who was mentally unstable, and thus, not to be trusted. Paul answers this insinuation by saying that if his devotion to the Lord seemed that way, in either case (either ecstatic or sober), it was because his motives were entirely unselfish. He loved God and cared deeply for the saints of God.
3) The Love of Christ Constrains Us to Live Unto Him Who Died for Us and Rose Again
Vss. 14-21—This leads Paul to speak of a third great motivating force in his life and ministry. He was moved by “the love of Christ.” What a mighty power this is! His life of devotion to tireless service may have seemed like insanity to his critics, but it was really a result of the constraining power of the love of Christ.
Paul was not speaking of his love for Christ, but rather Christ’s love for him. The power of that love had so captured him that it entirely altered the course of his life. It is not the glory of Christ at the right hand of God that is before us here (as in chapter 3:18), but “the love of Christ” that moved Him to die. He died not only to put our sins away, but also to transform the whole purpose of our existence in this world. In saying, “Having judged this: that if one died for all, then were all dead,” Paul was stating that since Christ had to die for all mankind, it is a proof that the whole race was in a condition of spiritual death—all were but dead men before God (Eph. 2:1, 5). Though He “died for all,” the effect of His death was to alter the course of the lives of those who believe.
Vs. 15—Those who have been quickened out of the state of the spiritual death (mentioned in verse 14) are to find in Christ risen the Object and End of the new life they now live. Before conversion everything in a man’s life revolves around his own interests, but when Christ is his Saviour and Lord, there is an entirely new motive for living in his life. The aim and purpose of his life are the interests of Christ. This was the case with Paul and those who worked with him, and it should be the case with every right-hearted Christian. The mighty love of Christ constrained him not to live unto himself but for Him who died and rose again. We see from this that there are really only two ways that Christians can live: “unto themselves” or “unto Him.” We can’t do anything about the way we have lived our Christian lives in the past. If it has been for self, what has been done cannot be changed, but we all have a “henceforth.” There is “the rest of our time” (1 Peter 4:2); the great question for us is what we will do with it. The choices we make in our lives from henceforth will reflect where our affections are.
Hence, in these chapters we have had:
The transformation of our moral character (chap. 3:18).
The transformation of our bodies (chap. 5:1-4).
The transformation of our purpose in living (chap. 5:14-15).
Vss. 16-17—Paul shows that the life he now lived was in an entirely new sphere. When the Lord rose from the dead He left behind the sphere that belonged to the natural existence of the flesh and became the Head of a “new creation” race of men (Col. 1:18; Rev. 3:14). As believers, we are part of this new race, and our links with one another in this new sphere are not on the lines of natural relationships and natural interests. Paul says, “Henceforth know we no man after [according to] the flesh.” This doesn’t mean that we no longer have natural relationships and interests, but that in spiritual things (Christian fellowship and ministry) our links with one another are on spiritual lines. Hence, our fellowship in the new creation is not based on us having similar natural interests in recreation, arts and music, family relationships, national distinctions, etc.
Moreover, as Christians, our relationship with the Lord is not on earthly lines—as He was to Israel as their Messiah. Paul says, “Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more.” As head of a new creation race, we know the Lord in a new and different way. The Lord indicated this to Mary when He rose from the dead, saying, “Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father” (John 20:17). The relationship that Mary and the other disciples had with the Lord prior to His death (as Israel’s Messiah) was now to be no more. There was a new creation relationship about to be established for believers with Him in connection with His resurrection and ascension. Paul brings this fact in here because the false apostles that were circulating among the Corinthians were ministering on Jewish lines with a Jewish hope after the old order of things.
Problems have arisen in the Christian testimony because Christians have not understood that they are a new creation in Christ. They have set up church fellowships where their relationships with one another are on the basis of “old things” and natural interests. The result has been the formation of parties and cliques within the Church of God that are purely along the lines of our natural likes and dislikes.
In Ephesians 2, Paul states that we have been “created in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:10). Paul expands on that here saying, “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature [creation],”—everything of the old order has “passed away” and “all things are become new.” This does not mean that when a person is saved he no longer has a fallen sin-nature and the lusts and old habits that go with it. Many new converts have mistakenly thought that this would happen when they got saved, and they have been disillusioned when they find that they still have those sinful desires. But that is not what Paul is describing here. He is speaking of the new position and sphere in which the believer is now in; the believer’s moral state and practice are another thing altogether. The misunderstanding comes from confusing Christian position and Christian practice.
Vss. 18-21—Hence, Paul says, “All things are of God”—that is, all things in the new creation have their origin in God Himself. Believers today are waiting for the fullness of the new creation. Our souls and spirits are in the new creation, but our bodies wait to be brought into it at the coming of the Lord (the Rapture). Paul has spoken of this remarkable change to our bodies earlier in this chapter, and does again in 1 Corinthians 15:51-57 and Philippians 3:20-21.
Christianity is to be made known to all men by the transformed lives of believers (chap. 3:18), and also by the proclamation of the great truths of the gospel (chap. 5:18-21). Hence, in reconciling men to Himself, God has given us “the ministry of reconciliation.” When Christ was here on earth, God worked through Him with a view of “reconciling the world unto Himself” (John 5:17). At that time, He was “not imputing their trespasses [offences]” because Christ had not come to “condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:17). But since Christ has now gone back to heaven, God has committed “the word of reconciliation” to believers. Redeemed persons are the only ones who can properly carry the message of reconciliation to the world because they have personally experienced the grace of God. This privilege has not been committed to the elect angels because they have never known God’s grace in this way. These things were so pressing on Paul that he was urgent in his preaching to others.
As “ambassadors for Christ” God used Paul and those with him to preach the message—“Be reconciled to God.” Verse 20 gives us:
The messengers—“We are ambassadors.”
The means—“God did beseech by us.”
The message—“Be reconciled to God.”
In the KJV, “you” (mentioned twice) and “ye” have been put into the text mistakenly, making it as though Paul was beseeching the Corinthians to be reconciled to God, which is senseless, because they, as believers, were already reconciled to God. The verse should simply read, “God did beseech by us, we entreat for Christ, Be reconciled to God.” Paul and his fellow-workers were but the instruments (channels) that God used in the call of sinners to Himself.
Vs. 21—The Apostle then explains the basis on which God reconciles sinners to Himself; it is a result of His own act accomplished in the death of Christ. God had the Lord Jesus to stand in the believer’s place whereby He was “made sin for us.” He was treated as sin itself under the judgment of God. How this could possibly be defies all logical explanation, and thus is best left as Scripture puts it. What we do know is that on the cross He became the great sin-offering (Isa. 53:10 – “an offering for sin;” Rom. 8:3) that satisfied the claims of divine justice, and thus is the means by which God could come out in blessing toward man. The result is that the believer is “made the righteousness of God in Him.” This verse has a two-fold antithesis: the sinless One being made sin, and unrighteous ones being made righteous in Christ.
Looking back at this third motivating factor in Paul’s life and ministry, we can see that “the love of Christ” had so captured him that it altered the course of his life entirely. It constrained him to live for the cause of Christ—and it can do the same to us. We may not see the evidence of the constraining power of Christ’s love in the lives of all believers, as we do in Paul, but this is not because His love lacks the power to move them; it’s because they don’t live close enough to Him to feel its constraining effect. Like a huge magnet with plenty of drawing power, it will not pick up the smallest iron object if the object is too far away from the magnet. If we walk in nearness to the Lord, we will feel the overwhelming power of His mighty love, and it will constrain us, as it did the Apostle Paul. It will lead us to give up our own ambitions and to take a course of self-denial, which will result in being committed to the cause of Christ in this world.
A Summary of the Three Great Things That Motivated Paul in Service
The certainty of the wonderful condition of glory that is laid up in heaven compelled Paul to serve the Lord in view of those eternal things (chap. 5:1-9).
The reality of the judgment seat of Christ commanded him to use his time wisely in the service of the Lord (chap. 5:10-13).
The power of the love of Christ constrained him to live not unto himself, but unto Him who died for him and rose again, and thus to beseech men to be reconciled to God (chap. 5:14-21).