Eternal Judgment - Part 1 — Anton Bosch

The Foundational Principles of Christian Faith

Hebrews chapter 5, and we'll read again chapter 5, 12, through chapter 6, verse 3. And we're dealing with the first principles, or the foundation, or the milk of the Word. And we've been in this verse for, I've lost track now, six, seven weeks.

So, Hebrews chapter 5, reading from verse 12. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.

For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

And this we will do if God permits. So, in verse 2, we've now come to the last part of verse 2 and the last of the principles, and that is eternal judgment. Now, I'm not sure how far we're going to get tonight.

We're certainly not going to be able to deal with a second judgment. There are two judgments, and I'm hoping to be able to finish the first one this evening, but we'll see how it goes. And so, just to remind you, then just to put these two different ones in position.

The Two Judgments: Believers and the Great White Throne

So, the first judgment is a judgment for believers, which is what we're going to speak about this evening. And then the second judgment is the Great White Throne Judgment. The first one is commonly called the Bema Seat Judgment.

I'll explain that. And the second one is known as the Great White Throne Judgment. And so, the first one happens, I believe, and of course, the Bible doesn't tell us when this one happens. It just tells us it happens.

So, we have to slot it in, and we generally tend to, those of us who hold to a pre-tribulation rapture, slot it in at the time during the tribulation. So, for seven years, there's tribulation. The church has been taken to be with the Lord.

Those who are dead in Christ have been raised, as we saw last week. And then we have the Judgment of Believers and the Marriage Feast of the Lamb. Hopefully, those on this side can pick it up on here.

And then at the end of the seven years, the church comes with Christ. He comes with ten thousands of his saints, and the Battle of Armageddon happens, and we have a thousand years. Remember, this is not to scale.

This is seven years, and that is a thousand years. I better point this side because the camera is on this side. So, that's only seven years, and that's a thousand years. So, at the end of the thousand years, and this one, we know the timing is pretty clear, and that is, at the end of the thousand years, the unbelieving dead are raised, and there is the Great White Throne Judgment for the unbelievers, and they are then cast into the Lake of Fire.

So, these are two separate judgments. They have nothing to do with each other. The one is only for believers, and the other one is only for unbelievers. Now, before we speak about the principles of judgment in general, you'll notice that the principle, if we go back to verse 2, is eternal judgment.

So, why does it say eternal judgment and not just judgment? And you'll see that he connects that to the resurrection of the dead. So, obviously, the dead in Christ are raised, and they are judged. The dead unbelievers are raised, and they are judged.

But why does he call it eternal judgment? Well, because the consequences of the judgment is forever. The judgment itself is limited in time. It happens. Each one, as we'll see, appears before the judgment seat.

How long that process takes, we don't know. It doesn't matter, because we're in the context of eternity. We're no longer in the sense of time. That judgment happens, and then the results of the judgment, that is eternal.

It is irreversible. It never changes. Any teachings that go around, that these judgments change, that you end in one place, and if you've been there for long enough, can get paroled, if you will, and you can move from one to the other, no, the judgment is eternal.

The Certainty and Finality of Judgment

So, in Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 27—so, I want to just lay down some principles of judgment. The first is that it is eternal. The second is that it is sure. It is appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment, after the judgment.

And so, death is sure, except for those who are raptured, obviously, but judgment is just as sure. And you'll notice that he says that we die, and then the judgment. Now, there is a third judgment that is really not a judgment, and that is what the moment we die.

We touched on this last week, I think, and that is that the day we die, to use a worldly term, our fate is sealed. In other words, if you die an unbeliever, you are damned. That's end of the story. If you die a believer, you are saved.

And the believer, of course, goes to be with the Lord, to be absent from the body, to be present with the Lord. And so, there is a separation at that point. So already, at the moment you die, there is a sense that there is a judgment in that believers are taken to be in the presence of the Lord, unbelievers now are in Hades until that final judgment.

So there is that separation judgment that happens, but it's not a formal judgment. It's simply a situation where some are sent one way, others are sent the other way. But after that, judgment has to happen.

And of course, we answered the question, there was this question in question time last week, why do we have to have the judgment, particularly for the unbelievers, which we're not really want to focus on this evening, but why do we have to have this judgment if your fate is already sealed the moment you die?

And the answer is that we need to have, in order for judgment to be seen to be done, in order for God to do things in a proper way, a trial needs to be held. You can't just say, well, you're guilty. And of course, God has the right to say, well, you're guilty and you're forgiven because of the blood of Christ.

He has that right, but he doesn't short-circuit the process. And so he gives each one a fair trial. So the third principle is that the judgment is final. And this really refers to the judgment that happens in a sense, as I said, the informal judgment when we die.

If the clouds are full of rain, Ecclesiastes 11 verse 3, they empty themselves upon the earth. And if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it shall lie. Now, he's simply speaking here about things that are inevitable.

If a tree falls this way, that's the way it lies, obviously, until somebody cuts it up and moves it or moves it somehow. But lies that way. And obviously, this is an illustration or this is an analogy which speaks about death.

And so the way you die, that's the way you lie. How's that for a catchphrase? The day you die, the way you die is the way you lie. So you don't get to change position after you have died. There are really no—there's the saying, there are no unbelievers in hell.

Everybody knows there are no atheists in hell. Everybody in hell will know there is a God and that God is just and will know the gospel and all of those things. But there is no changing after that. And then John chapter 5, verse 22 and 23, the judgment is given to Jesus.

Now, this is a technicality, but I think that there is an important lesson in it. John 5, 22 says, for the Father judges no one. Now, remember that the Father and the Son are one. And what one does, all three do.

So we've got to be careful of separating them to the extent that you end up with three gods. But the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son. And the reason for that is that all should honor the Son, just as they honor the Father.

He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. And so God makes the Son the judge. And we say, well, you know, what's the big deal, you know, whether the Father judges us or the Son judges us?

I think that there is an important lesson in that, in that it is the Savior, the one who offers the way of escape, the one who offers forgiveness, who will then turn into the judge. He is the one who is also our advocate.

Remember, he ever lives to make intercession for us. And yet on that day, and not for us, but for the unbeliever, he ceases to be the Savior. He ceases to be the intercessor, but he becomes the judge.

And that is a fearsome thing, because while God is awesome and God's judgment is righteous and terrible, it's a terrible thing, the Scripture says, to fall into the hands of the living God. The falling into the hands of a scorned Savior must be even worse, because the one who is judging is the one that has been rejected.

The basis, and we'll speak about this next week, the basis on which that judgment happens is partially on the fact that we have rejected the means of salvation. We have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so that's part of the judgment, and he becomes the judge. And of course, verse 23 tells us, so that we may understand that we don't just honor and respect the Father, but that we honor and we respect the Son also.

You see, there's again this disconnect, because in many Christians' minds, there's this idea that God is the one with a big stick, and Jesus is the friendly one, sort of a Mutt Jeff thing—good cop, bad cop.

God is the bad cop, and Jesus is the good cop. No, he has the judgment, and while he is our intercessor and he is our Savior, he will be the judge. And so, in John 5 and verse 30, the judgment is righteous.

This is one of the other principles. I know that one of the things that plagues many Christians, particularly those who have unsaved loved ones, we worry about what will happen to them. But the fact is that God's judgment is righteous.

God is not an earthly judge. I'm horrified more and more these days as I watch the judgment of judges in America and in other parts of the world—how partisan it is, how unrighteous it is, how that sin becomes nothing, how that breaking the law is nothing for one, and yet it's a terrible thing for the next person.

Just depends on who you know and all those kinds of things. The judgment in earthly courts is really, really unrighteous in many, many cases. But God's judgment is 100 righteous. God has no favorites.

God does not give advantage to the rich or to certain ethnicities or to anyone. The Scripture says he is not a respecter of persons. He doesn't care who we are. His judgment is the same. The judgment for the rich and for the poor is the same.

The judgment for the religious and the irreligious is the same. And so, John 5 says, he says, I can of myself do nothing as I hear I judge, and my judgment is righteous—this is Jesus speaking—because I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me.

Jesus says, My judgment is righteous. In Acts 17, verse 30, because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness. He will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained.

This is Jesus, of course. So, God will judge the world by the Son in righteousness. He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead, Paul is speaking. And so, the wonderful thing about God being righteous is that when that judgment happens, we will be like him.

We will know all things, even as we are known, it says, and we will see things 100 percent from God's perspective. We will see things in a righteous way. The problem is that none of us, as much as we like to think that we are neutral, that we are, that we don't have favorites, that we are righteous in our judgments, there is not one of us who is 100 percent righteous in our judgment on any matter.

We are all swayed by all sorts of various factors when we make our decisions and when we make our judgment concerning other people. But God's judgment is righteous. And when we are like him in the sense that we are also righteous, that we think the way he thinks, when God judges, we will agree with him.

There will not be one believer who will be in heaven and say, well, you were unrighteous to send that person to hell. As hard as it may be for us to say, well, you know, those are our loved ones. From this perspective, from an earthly perspective, that's hard to deal with.

But the comfort I have is that once we're in heaven, we will see God's righteousness, and we will know that God is right. God does not do anything that is unrighteous, that is unfair, that is unjust in any way.

And so there is a comfort we can get from understanding that God's judgment is righteous. But at the same time, there is also a certain fear that comes with that, because some people just seem to be very good at manipulating other people and being able to get away with murder, so to speak, because they know how to present themselves, how to make their case, and whatever, whatever.

None of that's going to work when we get to God. It's either right or wrong. That's the end of the story. So on one side, it's comforting. On the other side, it's maybe less comforting. All right, now let's speak about—so this applies to all the judgments, whether it's the judgment for Christians or the judgment for unbelievers, these principles.

So the first one is that they're eternal. The second is that judgment is certain. The third one is judgment is final. The fourth is Jesus is the judge. And then the final one, judgment is righteous. So now I'm going to look at two scriptures, and we're going to come back to these same scriptures again a few times, because I'm just wanting to highlight certain things from these verses to begin with.

So he says then that 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 8, we are confident, yes, well pleased, rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Now the point here is that we, as believers, do not go to the white throne judgment.

We are not judged together with the Lord. The judgment for the Christian is not for salvation. It is for rewards. This is important to remember. If you don't remember anything else I say tonight, remember that the judgment for Christians is for rewards, not for salvation.

So to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Now what is this saying to me? It says that there is no great white throne judgment between death, the death of the believer, and presence in the Lord.

So the believer goes from here to there in an instant, in a moment. There is no great white throne judgment for them. And then John chapter 5 and verse 24, most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life, not will have, but has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.

So there's the promise then that Christians will not come into judgment. They will not be judged. Why are we not judged on the basis, and obviously this is referring to the great white throne judgment, because our sins have been washed away.

They don't exist anymore. And so there is nothing for us to be judged on. All right. Now we've used this word, bema seat, and I'm not exactly comfortable with the word, but it is the term that everybody uses, and so I use it.

The word appears 22 times in the New Testament, but 20 of those times it does not refer to the judgment of Christians. The 20 of the 22 times it refers to a Roman seat of judgment, mainly in the book of Acts.

And so it would be where the local governor or where the Caesar would sit in a seat of judgment, just the same way as our judges sit in the bench, the same idea, the bench seat. And so when the judge sits in the seat, he is in a position of authority.

When he stands up, the court is over. When he's still coming in, the court is not in session. The moment the judge sits down, court is in session. The judge is in his official capacity. He is not speaking to the lawyers in his chambers anymore, where he can give advice and give counsel and what have you.

He is now the judge. And so that's the term that is used 20 times of Roman governors and Roman people in authority, judging Paul primarily. So it is not mainly used in the New Testament for Christians.

It does not have a very positive connotation because the purpose of the Roman authorities judging is invariably either in a civil case or in a criminal case. They never sit in their beamer seat for the purpose of rewards.

It is always for the purpose of punishment, whether it's civil liability or whether it is a criminal case. But twice it is used, the same word is used in the context of the judgment of believers. And we have to look at the way that the word is used, the framework, the context around that word to see and understand how it applies to us.

All right. So it appears twice, once in Corinthians, once in Romans. So 2 Corinthians 5 .10, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, beamer, judgment seat, beamer of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

I'm going to come back to this verse, but how do we know that this applies to Christians? Because he says, we must all appear, not they. If he was referring to the world, he would say they, but he is writing to the church and he's saying, we must all appear, including himself.

And then the other place it appears is Romans 14, verse 10. But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Judgment seat, one word in the Greek, beamer.

And so again, the same thing, we as believers, and notice we shall all, I'll emphasize that in a moment. All right. So there are three main texts in the New Testament that deal with this judgment in some detail.

The great white throne judgment, we only have one text in the book of Revelation. For this one, we have three, and they give us different aspects, a little bit more light in different ways of how this happens.

And the first one is Romans chapter 14, where I've just been. So let's begin then in verse 10. Why do you judge your brother? Why do you show contempt for your brother? In other words, he says, you're not the judge, God's the judge, basically.

For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. So we believers, we shall all, and we'll see the other scriptures emphasize that every single one of us, not one will escape, not one is exempt from that judgment.

Verse 11, for it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then each one of us will give account of himself to God. So again, he's emphasizing each one.

And now he's saying, we will give an account of ourselves. We're not giving account for others. Now, does that mean that nobody gives account for anyone else? Well, actually it does because Paul, I think it's Paul says that we need to respect the elders because they have to give an account for your souls.

So those who are in leadership have an awesome responsibility because God is going to ask those in leadership concerning the souls of those that have been entrusted to them. It's a fearsome responsibility, particularly when you're dealing with people who don't want to do the right thing.

And so that's why he says you need to submit yourself to those who have this responsibility. But at the end of the day, each one will give, and those who are leaders will give account for themselves. While leaders give an account for their role in the spiritual welfare of those that have been entrusted to them, in a sense, parents will give an account for how they raise their kids, husbands for their wives, wives for their husbands.

That does not exempt the individual from giving account for himself. So you don't get to say, well, you know, my parents never told me the gospel. And so, you know, and of course now it's not a good example because we're not talking here about unbelievers.

But, you know, I didn't live the kind of life that God wanted me to live because my wife gave me a hard time, or my pastor didn't do a good job. Unfortunately, that's a defense that people seem to love, because every time, it seems almost every time I have to correct someone, oh, but you do this, and it always comes back on me.

And, you know, you don't get to do that before the throne of God. And if you messed up, you messed up, and you give an account. If he messed up, then he will give an account for that aspect of it. But each one is accountable to himself.

So each one of us will give an account of himself to God. Therefore, verse 13, let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in your brother's way.

So this is just a by the way comment on this judgment, because he's dealing with the issue of criticism amongst believers. The second text is in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. In fact, both the other two texts are in 2 Corinthians and 1.

Personal Accountability Before Christ's Judgment Seat

2 Corinthians 5 verse 9, therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well-pleasing to him. So we want to please the Lord. This is the basis and the bottom line of this whole thing.

Verse 10, for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. We looked at this verse before when we looked at the word judgment seat. That each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

All right, now here it gets complicated. He says that each one may receive the things done in the body. Why does he say what we did in the body? Well, obviously, he is partially saying the things that we did while we were on earth, while we were in our human bodies.

But it's more than that, because the basis of the judgment, while he's going to judge our motives, we'll speak about that. The basis of the judgment is the things that we did and the things that we did not do.

Remember, sins of commission, things that we did that we shouldn't have done, things that we should have done that we don't do, sins of omission. And so it's not based on intentions. You see, here's the problem.

The way we justify ourselves to ourselves and to others is on the basis of intentions. Oh, I hit the guy, but I had every intention of hugging him. It doesn't matter what your intention is. The point is, what did you do?

Oh, I had every intention of witnessing to my neighbors, but I got busy. Well, it doesn't help. It's what you did that is the basis of the judgment. I'm sure there are people who had every intention of being here this evening, but without a good excuse have stayed away.

It doesn't count. You don't get half a point for a good intention and one point for following through. The only thing that matters is what did you do? And what did you physically do? You see, because the problem is Christianity becomes a very cerebral thing.

It becomes all in the mind. As long as I'm feeling the right feelings, and I have the right intentions, and I feel right, then that's fine. No, it's what I do. And as we come to Easter weekend to remember what Jesus did, He didn't just sit up there in heaven or say, well, I'd love to save those people and forgive them and give them another chance.

No, He actually came down to earth and took on a body in order to do the work of atonement, which He did. And so He's asking us to do things, to get our bodies in line, if you will, with our hearts. Because I accept that most of the time our hearts are good, our intentions are good, but we just don't get to doing what we should be doing, or we don't get to not doing what we should not be doing.

But the basis of the judgment is what we have done, whether good or bad. Now, I need to stop here for a moment. We've said that this is judgment for rewards. But why does He say the things that we have done, whether good?

And obviously, if we've done good, we assume there's going to be a reward, and there will be. But what happens if what we've done is bad? Now, remember, there is no hell for the believer. There is no judgment, and there is no purgatory, and there is no outer darkness, which is a form of Protestant purgatory that some Christians teach.

You're either saved or you're not. But yet He's saying that we may receive, obviously, a reward for what we have done—good, so that gets a good reward, bad reward. Now, we say, well, doesn't the blood of Jesus deal with our failure?

And of course, it does. But the problem is, what happens if we are persistently walking in disobedience, willfully sinning, or willfully being disobedient, not doing what we should be doing? And we say, well, I've repented.

It's fine. But in fact, you haven't repented because you keep doing the same stuff. Well, obviously, there are consequences, and I'm not talking about human consequences. There are human consequences to that also.

But there is a reward, a negative reward, for the things that we have done that are—let's just call it that are not under the blood. You understand what I mean by that? That has not been washed under the blood.

Because the problem with habitual sin is that we get to a point where we don't even bother to repent anymore. We don't bother to confess anymore. We just carry on doing whatever we want to do. And we say, well, you know, that's under the—no, it's not under the blood.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us. And so, what is the negative reward? Well, this idea of outer darkness, and, you know, they take it from the parables, and that they'll be beaten with many stripes—that's nonsense.

There is no Scripture for that. When we come to speak about the actual rewards—I'm not sure we'll get there this evening—but when we speak about the actual rewards, one of the main aspects of the reward for good works now is the commendation of the Lord—well-done good and faithful servant.

I don't think we begin to understand how important that is. Those of us who grew up never hearing a good word from our parents, never receiving acceptance, will understand how important it is. My father died, and I never heard the words, well done.

I never heard, I'm proud of you, son—something that affected my whole life. But one day I will stand before Jesus, and I want to hear those words with all my heart, well done, good and faithful servant.

And I can't imagine the pain, never mind the disgrace, of him saying, you slothful servant, I did everything for you, and all you wanted from me was a fire escape from hell. Yeah, you're saved, but I'm not pleased.

I believe that that is what he's talking about here. I don't believe that, because there's no Scripture that speaks about any physical negative reward, but I do believe there will be a rebuke. And I think that sometimes we underestimate the power of such a rebuke.

Sometimes judges in this world will rebuke the accused when he is found guilty. You remember recently in the Jesse Mallette, is that his name, case? The judge rebuked him very seriously. Now, I know people just say, oh, that's nothing.

No, here's a man who is a judge, and I accept that his judgment was righteous in this particular case, and in addition to the sentence, felt the need to make a statement of saying your behavior is terrible.

Now, it's one thing to hear that from an earthly judge. It's another thing to hear that from the Lord Jesus, our Savior. All right, so let's get to verse 11 of 2 Corinthians 5, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord.

Now, I want you to pay attention, because we read these verses in isolation. Let's go back to verse 10. We must all appear before the judgment seat that we may receive the things done, whether good or bad, knowing therefore the terror of the Lord.

Who's he speaking to? Christians, not unbelievers. Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. So, he's not telling us the details, but he's saying to us that if we are disobedient, even though we are saved, we're going to know his terror.

I don't know how that plays out, except in a rebuke. And so, Paul says, I don't want to fall foul of the rebuke of my Savior. And he says, that drives me to preach the gospel. That drives me to preach the gospel.

He says, but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences. And Paul speaks of these two aspects that drive him, and these should be the things that drive us as Christians.

I'll come back to this next week again, because it's an important point. As Christians, we should be, there's a carrot and there's a stick. And Paul speaks much about that. There is the stick of the rebuke of the Lord, that we stand before him and he is disappointed in us.

But there is the carrot of the reward, not just well done, good and faithful servant, but the crown and everything else that goes with that. And so, there are both of these things. Now, remember, we're saying these are fundamentals to the Christian faith.

These are the principles on which we build our lives. These are the, this is the milk of the word. And we said that those principles must pervade, they must be part of all of our life. You can never get away from these things.

You can never get away from the resurrection of the dead. You can never get away from repentance. You can never get away from faith. These things are constantly part of every detail of our Christian faith.

And judgment is part of it. The moment we lose sight of judgment, all restraint goes. I mean, we know what happens if there are no consequences. We see that happening in our city right now. And I'm sorry if this is political, but we know that crime has escalated at a phenomenal rate because there are no consequences for crime.

And if there is no consequence, either good or bad for us as Christians, what kind of life will we live? And this is the problem. Many Christians don't understand this principle of judgment. They don't even know about it, or they don't want to know about it.

But Paul is saying, this is something that's with me all the time. And there's a whole bunch of things that should be with us all the time. The horrible pit from which he brought us, the great salvation that he has brought us into.

But also there should always be in the back of our mind, I'm going to give an account. I can't just live my life and waste my time and waste my salvation and the gifts that God has given to me without not giving an account.

And so Paul says, I understand how awesome God is. And that convinces me, that drives me to persuade men to preach the gospel, in other words. All right, let's get to 1 Corinthians. I'm going to deal with this passage, and then we'll deal with the rest of it next week.

The Judgment Seat and Christian Accountability

But there's quite a few verses here, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 11 through 15. Now, Paul is speaking in the context, just remember the context. Paul is speaking about the fact that there were other apostles who were false apostles who were saying, well, you know, who's Paul?

We're also apostles. And then there was a dispute amongst the Corinthians saying, well, Paul is our apostle. Others were saying, no, Peter is our apostle. Others were saying, Apollos is, and so on. Now he says, there is no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

That's just a fact. The foundation on which we build is the rock, Jesus Christ. Now, if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, and straw, let's just read and then I'll come back.

Each one's work will become clear for the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is. Okay, now let's go back. There's one foundation.

If anyone builds on this foundation, on the one hand, gold, silver, and precious stones, on the other hand, wood, hay, and stubble or wood, hay, and straw. I want you to notice that they are both building on the foundation of Jesus Christ.

They're not building on the foundation of Buddha or of Islam, but they're building on the foundation of Jesus Christ. So they are Christians building on a Christian foundation. But one is building with gold, silver, and precious stones.