Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ and may our Lord and Savior sanctify you in the truth, for His word is truth. Amen

Third Sunday after Pentecost (2009)

We Must All Appear at God’s Judgment Seat Rev. Toby Byrd

2 Cor. 5:1-17 (ESV)

For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. [2] For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, [3] if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. [4] For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened--not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. [5] He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

[6] So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, [7] for we walk by faith, not by sight. [8] Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. [9] So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. [10] For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

[11] Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. [12] We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. [13] For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. [14] For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; [15] and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

[16] From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. [17] Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

St. Paul was an unwavering Christian apologist, defending the faith from all who would corrupt it through false teaching. Thus, with his ministry challenged by some in the church at Corinth, St. Paul gives a stirring defense of that ministry, a defense that not only describes his situation, but one that reminds every Christian just who we are and what we are destined for. For a day will come when, “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil (v. 10).

Sadly, far too many people fail to take seriously these warning words by St. Paul. Far too many simply see their death as their final accomplishment. For them, death is the end, there is no more. Consequently they live their lives grabbing all they can in this life. Some labor their entire lives seeking wealth, fame and fortune while others are satisfied with seeking the simpler pleasures of life. However, in both cases, whether living high-on-the-hog or in the hollow, the one thing they do not seek is an eternal home. They deny life beyond the one they’re living. They do not believe in God and therefore they do not believe in an immortal soul or the joy that God has promised in His heavenly home. For them, home is where their stomach is and they have no other home to which to go. If they should die in such a state, there is no rescue from the horrible fate that awaits them. Fortunately though, not all live this way.

Some give tacit lip service to God’s existence; admitting they have some type of belief in God while paying little attention to His Word and seldom, if ever, do they worship Him. They are much like the first group, seeking either wealth or the simpler things in life in place of salvation. For them, God is this unknowing spiritual being whose existence is a mystery until something goes wrong. When tragedy or pain comes their way, they are the first to blame God for what’s happened. Sadly for them, the real tragedy is that God has called them to faith many times, but they had ears which would not hear and hearts that would not believe, thus they rejected every call. The foundation of their spiritual home is their un-commitment; a foundation built on very shaky ground.

Then there are Christians, you and I. Much like the other two groups we too seek wealth or the simpler things in life, but the difference is, and this is a big difference, everything we do is done with our hearts and souls focused on the Lord. We have been given the gift to realize that our life in this world is a temporary passage to the life God has planned for us: a life in heaven with Him. Although we experience the same tragedies and pitfalls as do the world, we do not despair. The disabilities of aging, disease, or accident, the loss of loved ones, home or finances, do not take on the same magnitude for us as they do for unbelievers. As believers we are blessed with faith to know these transitory things have won nothing. Martin Luther reminded us of this truth when he wrote, “The Kingdom ours remaineth” (A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, v. 4). As Christians we hold dear the words of St. Paul in the Epistle Reading for today, “For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (v. 1).

St. Paul knew much about tents since he once made his living making tents. Therefore, he likens our life to a tent. Tents are made to be temporary dwellings, and such is our life, however, we don’t despair at this revelation. On the contrary, we know that when our life on this earth is over we will shed our temporary habitat and take on that which God has prepared for us, a permanent habitat that will never spoil or decay. Therefore, as Christian believers, we have faith in God’s promise that our home is where He dwells; in heaven.

However, even with these strong words of encouragement it is not uncommon, because of our sinfulness, to feel anxiety, even fear, at our impending passage from this life to the next. We love our lives and we’re not anxious to leave this earth and our loved ones. However, we all know that a day will come when that’s exactly what we’ll do. What then will we look forward to?

In today’s Epistle Reading, St. Paul gives the Corinthian Christians, and us, not only much to think about but also soothing words of comfort regarding our impending deaths. To get a better understanding of the essence of St. Paul’s words in today’s Epistle we must backup a little in that same letter to the fourth chapter. There, St. Paul writes, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:16-18 (ESV)). Thus, as we contemplate today’s text let us remember that we do indeed live by faith. We do not live by looking to things that are seen but to the eternal things which are not seen. We live for the glories that have been promised us by God. We see our future through the eyes of faith. This is what separates believers from non-believers.

Faith; that marvelous gift from God that allows believers to rely on God’s mercy and love given us through the atoning sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. All we are and all we will ever be in the eyes of God are accomplished through His Son. The truth of this statement was visually brought to light for me this past weekend.

Sunday, Susie and I attended divine worship at another Grace Lutheran Church; Grace of Albuquerque, New Mexico. On the back wall of their chancel is a beautiful work of art. It is a wood sculpture of the ascended Christ. Jesus is rising into heaven and behind Him is the eye of God, His Father. Moreover, God’s eye is surrounded by fire, depicting the Holy Spirit. The symbolism is obvious, God only sees His children, you and I, through the lens of His Son, Jesus Christ. Thus, we who have been baptized have put on Christ; we are encased in His righteousness and thus visible to God. However, without Christ we are hidden from God’s grace and left unprotected from the whims of Satan.

Yet, as St. Paul reminds us, whether we are a none-believer or one whom God has given the gift of faith, a day will come when the tent we live in will be taken down and replaced by a permanent structure. For you and I who believe that Jesus is our Savior, that permanent structure will be heaven. However, for those who are without Jesus, that permanent structure will be hell!

God has created hell to be a place of horror for all unbelievers. It is a permanent habitat of agony, a place where the inhabitants long for death, yet death never comes. However, fortunately, for us, St. Paul is speaking to believers and thus he refers to a permanent structure which God has created for all believers; heaven, a home of joy and ecstasy, where the thought of death is never entertained because there is only life in heaven.

When our earthly bodies, like a tent, are taken down in death, God gives us a divine, heavenly garment to wear; one that is permanent and never wears out. Robed in this divine, heavenly garment, sorrows ceases to exist. Once in heaven, our Lord promises us that, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4 ESV). Such a permanent, glorious, infinitely blessed existence is beyond our ability to truly comprehend, however this is the promise of the Gospel; this is the promise of God.

However, it matters not what state we find ourselves in, at home or away from home, our every waking desire is to please the Lord. St. Paul wrote, “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him” (v. 9). This is the great fact that St. Paul always keeps in mind. We are always to remind ourselves that we are standing before the whole world of angels and men so that all may see who and what we are and what we are doing.

A day will come when we will have to face the final judgment of Christ seated on His judgment seat. Thus, all of us will face Him and all that we have done will be made public so that nothing is hid. In this life, when one is brought into court they usually try to hide their guilt as much as possible within the confines of the trial. Moreover, as we all know, justice in this world is supposed to be blind, but often justice is corrupted. However, our judgment on the Last Day will be an all-perfect judgment before the omniscient and all-righteous divine Jesus.

Standing before our Lord, our lives will be an open book for all to see, all that we have done, whether good or bad, will be disclosed. Because of this, Holy Scripture regularly states we will be judged on our works. However, this is not works-righteousness. We are not to take from this that this plural use of the word works refer to isolated works, one here and one there. Rather all that we have done will constitute our total life in God’s sight. Once more, we see God looking at us through the lens of His Son, only this time while His Son is sitting on His final judgment seat. Here, we face what we really did. Thus, the reality of our works will be one of two things: a life that is summarized by good in God’s sight or one that is bad, good for nothing. One is the fruit of a life of faith that is marked and beautified by trust in Jesus; a life lived in contrition and repentance, and thus reveals to all eyes it was our Lord that produced this goodness. The other is the product of a condition where trust in Jesus was absent and reveals an unbeliever who saw no need for contrition and repentance and thus reveals a life where goodness is absent. Thus, it is faith or its absence on which the verdict is based, both determined by the indisputable public evidence of works.

Here, at the final judgment seat, all the saving power of faith in Christ will appear, as will all the damning power of a refusal to trust in Christ. There will be no lawyers pleading before the judge, nor any out-of-court settlements. There will be no balance struck for the believer between the sins committed or the good works done while in the body. Instead, because of a believers trust in Jesus all sin will be wiped out by the blood of Jesus; all sin removed as far as the east is from the west, cast into a bottomless sea, blotted out, never to be found again. Moreover, all the imperfections of our good works will be removed forever. There will be no inquisition into a believer’s sins. Rather, only the blood and righteousness of Christ will be found in their place.

However, for the unbeliever everything, even what the world calls good, will be marked by unbelief and insult to Christ; thus nothing will be counted as good and they shall be relegated to a an eternal life of unspeakable suffering.

St. Paul places this truth before the eyes of the Corinthians and before our eyes, to awaken us to the reality of the Last Day. Through this appeal, he reminds us that we should live our lives ever trying to please the Lord; remembering that God, in His infinite wisdom, sent His Son Jesus to earth to be the Great Reconciler between God and man. Our Lord’s death on the cross became the balancing weight on God’s scales of justice, because, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21 ESV). Offsetting mans sins, God, through the lens of His Son, no longer sees the sinfulness of those who believe in His Son, Jesus Christ; instead He sees only the righteousness of His Son, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (Romans 3:21-25 ESV).

When we begin to think of how tenuous life is, we can take great comfort in St. Paul’s words of encouragement and in knowing that his life was so much more precarious than ours. At every turn, St. Paul’s life was in real jeopardy of being forfeited. Many were out to kill him and in the end, they did. But St. Paul never feared or lacked the courage to continue the struggle. Thus, he comforts our distress and fears by reminding us that while we live in this body (he calls it a tent) groaning as we do from the burdens, cares and woes of the world, we do not lose faith or courage. He says, “So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him” (vv. 6-9) and pleasing our Lord is our first goal in life: It emanates from the gift of Christian courage that is given us through the sanctifying power of the Holy Spirit.

Therefore, whether we are called to God’s Kingdom of Glory before Jesus’ return on the Last Day or we are taken up on the Last Day, it matters not. What matters is that we are in our permanent home, the place where God dwells; we are with the Lord in His heavenly home for eternity. Of this certainty we are guaranteed, St. Paul makes this very clear, “He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee” (v. 5). Amen.

May the Peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.