In my studies this week we have been considering the future. There are several passages which tell us that believers will be judged. For example, 2 Corinthians 5:9-10:
So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due to him for the things done in the body, whether good or bad.
What does this judgment involve? Firstly, a couple of things it’s not. It is not salvation by works; a believer’s eternal destiny is not at stake here. It is not Christ weighing up the good and bad and determining whether we go to heaven or hell. This judgment does not involve the punishment of a believer’s sin. There is no condemnation for those in Christ; he has already paid for our sin on the cross.
However, the Bible does seem to suggest that there are degrees of eternal reward. A greater reward in eternity will be graciously given to those who have, in this life, served the Lord wholeheartedly, lived to please God not men, and lived always conscious of people’s eternal destiny.
This should radically shape our lives. Rather than store up treasure in this life, we live for a higher purpose. We live now to affect the eternity of others, knowing that our reward is eternal.
In parable of the talents (Matthew 25), one of the two rewards given by the master is increased joy. We labour now, for eternity, knowing that this will lead to increased joy. In this we follow our Saviour, “who for the joy set before him endured the cross.”