Bema-Judgement Seat of Christ (Part 10)

For complete information on Bema, please visit the original source:
The Doctrine of Rewards: The Judgment Seat (Bema) of Christ | Bible.org

Continuing on......
(1) Unconfessed sin relates to fellowship in this life, not one’s relationship or standing with God. Unconfessed sin stands as a barrier to fellowship with the Lord and His control over one’s life. As Amos 3:3 says, “can two walk together unless they are agreed?” Obviously the answer is no. Confession means we agree with God concerning our sin and want to get back under God’s control. “Daily forgiveness of those who are within the family of God is distinguished from judicial and positional forgiveness which was applied forensically to all of a person’s sins the moment he believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.”8 We need to distinguish between fellowship forgiveness and legal or forensic forgiveness that justifies us and gives us a standing before God through Christ.

Key Scriptures: Heb. 12:5f and 1 Cor. 11:28-32. These passages:

• Explain the nature of God’s judgment of believers in this life. It is discipline designed to train and bring believers back to a walk with God.
• They teach us the basic cause of discipline is failure to examine and confess known sins because that hinders our fellowship with God.
• “Condemned along with the world” in 1 Corinthians 11:32 most likely refers to the judgment of Rom. 1:24f, moral degeneration and the gradual breakdown in the moral fibre of men when they turn away from God. The same thing happens in the life of believers, but God brings discipline to stop the process
• (2) God does not judge us for our sin in the sense of making us pay the penalty for that sin.

Scripture teaches that Christ’s death was all-sufficient, completely satisfying God’s wrath toward sin in the believer. The question of sin in regard to God’s justice has been forever satisfied in the mind of God by the all-sufficient sacrifice of His Son. The penalty for the believer’s sins has been fully paid for by Christ, the believer’s substitute. The Christian has been in court, condemned, sentenced, and executed in his substitute, Jesus Christ. God cannot exact payment for sins twice since payment has been fully and forever paid. The believer is seen by the Father as clothed in the righteousness of Christ. God can, therefore, find no cause for accusing the Christian judicially any more than He can find cause for accusing Jesus Christ. Therefore, at the judgment seat of Christ forensic punishment will not be meted out for the believer’s sin.

Rather, God disciplines us as a father disciplines his sons to bring us back into a fellowship that we might be conformed to His Son. It is a family matter......stay tuned. More to come on 6/30.

Chuckle of the day:

Thanks once again for stopping by! God be with you and may he bless you beyond measure!