“We must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ.” This includes saints as well as sinners. Not that all will stand before the Lord together, nor with the same issues. Those who believe in Jesus are at peace with God through His work, are in the possession of eternal life in His Son, and are thus beyond judgment. Christ cannot judge His own handiwork. But all must be told out, that we may know the real truth as to His grace and as to ourselves, and that any rewards that are due for faithful service may be given out by the Lord. But how solemn it will be for some to stand before Christ! What confusion of face — what eternal ruin! In all the nakedness of nature, without a rag in which to appear, without a single plea — only to be righteously expelled from Him into eternal woe!
The thought of it quickened the apostle, and became a second motive for service and ministry. “Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we persuade men.” Does it act thus with us, beloved brethren? Satan seems determined in our day to remove this motive for service altogether. Never have the terrors of the judgment been so softened, not to say openly denied. But this is to act falsely with men, and to become tools of the enemy. Paul had the future, with its tremendous and appalling issues fully before his eyes, and it had the effect of making him even more zealous in his labor for Christ among men.
W. W. Fereday, adapted