To Encourage You

2 Corinthians 5:10 “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.”

As I was thinking about the state of our world at this moment, the verse above suddenly popped into my head.  Don’t you wonder how things might be different if these words from Almighty God would be first and foremost in people’s minds.  Do you think President Putin might think and act differently if he knew he had this appointment waiting for him? And it will be soon. He’s 73 years old. How might Kim Jong-Un change his ways if he saw this meeting on his horizon? What about President Trump?  And what about you and me? We are all going to stand before the judgment seat of Christ someday soon. Are we getting ourselves ready for this coming and very certain appointment?  Does this thought ever enter our mind as we do whatever we do each day and as we say whatever we say? Are we aware of the fact that we’ll have to give an account for it all? Have you considered what you’ll say when the One Who can see right through us asks us to give an answer why?  Well, if not, you’d better soon think about it, for it’s coming very soon for each and every one of us.  And do we have a defense?  Will we have anyone who can come alongside us at that time?  Will we have anyone to argue our case?

Well, the Bible gives us an answer to this. In John 14:26 Jesus talked about someone called “the Parakletos.” It’s a Greek word that has been translated various ways depending on the Bible translation you consult; e.g., the Comforter, the Helper, the Advocate, and the Counselor. These are all ways of expressing what is actually a legal term which means, “one who pleads another’s cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defense, legal assistant; an advocate.”  It’s one of the terms Jesus gives for the Holy Spirit.  He knows that each and every one of us, when we stand before the Judge of heaven and earth, will need such help in the end.  Jesus knows we are all sinners. He knows that none of us are good. He knows that in and of ourselves we will have no defense, and we will need someone to plead our case.  And there is only One Who can possibly do this; the Parakletos. It is only those who have been born of the Spirit that will have this great Defender.  Yet, He’s there for the asking if we will but ask.  But there is a condition. We can’t expect this Counselor to defend us if we’ve spurned the one way of forgiveness for our sin that God has provided.  It is only those Who have turned from their sin in repentance and to God in faith that Jesus grants the gift of the Holy Spirit and the eternal life He gives.  It is only because Jesus has died as the substitute for our sin that makes this wonderful gift possible. It is on this basis and this basis only that any of us will be able to exult in God’s provision that “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (Isaiah 1:18).

So, are you prepared for the judgment seat of Christ? Do you have the Paraclete of God living within you right now?  It’s all summarized for us in the wonderful eighth chapter of Romans. May we all listen and heed this awesome truth of God, for it’s the only way to be prepared for the soon-coming appointment each one of us has at the judgment seat of Christ:

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set youfree in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesusfrom the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

Praise the Lord!