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The Daily Word of Righteousness
The Judgment Seat of Christ Is in Session, #6
And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. (Malachi 3:3)
The Prophets teach us clearly that when Christ comes He will purify us by fire so we will walk in de facto righteousness (actual righteousness of behavior). De jure (legal; imputed) righteousness is not at issue here.
Christ has come and has begun to purify His Church by fire.
Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. (Matthew 3:12)
Christ baptizes us with the Holy Spirit, and then with the fire of disciplining judgment. This is what Peter is describing.
Christ performs all the judging of people. The term beema, translated judgment seat, is used consistently in the New Testament to mean a raised throne where those accused of crimes are brought for judgment. Each human being is accused of sin, having been born of Adam and possessing a desperately wicked, profoundly deceitful personality.
Each of us was born dead in sin. We were doomed to hear only "Guilty!" at the Judgment Seat of Christ. But Christ has come from God to save us from our sins.
Christ saves us from our sins by washing us in His holy blood so we can be received of God. Then Christ, the Judge of Heaven, begins the work of separating us from our sins. He reveals our sins to us and then gives us the opportunity to confess them, repent of them, and overcome them through Divinely imparted grace.
The Judge is our Savior and our Savior is also our Judge. If we will allow the Judge to do so He will save us from the sins of which He accuses us. The Judge becomes our Savior.
If we refuse to allow the Savior to save us from our sins, our loving, tender, merciful Savior becomes the Judge who decides whether or not we are worthy of eternal life.
The Lord Jesus is as severe a Judge as He is a loving Savior. Today the believers do not understand the severity of the Lord, because of the errors in Christian doctrine.
The Father, God, judges no one (John 5:22). The disciplining fire that comes on the saints proceeds from the white throne of Christ as He works to save us from our sins. We are not speaking of the guilt of our sin, for that was forgiven on the cross of Calvary. The problem now is the presence of sin; not the guilt, but the presence of the sin in us—the sin that dwells in us, as Paul says.
All disciplining of the Christian is performed according to the judgment of Christ. Christ judges that we need to be rebuked and chastened. When there is no more sin or rebellion in us, the chastening ceases (Revelation 3:19; I Peter 5:10).
The concept of Christ judging both the living and the dead raises another issue. There is a continuity between the physical realm and the spirit realm. The Lord does not regard our physical death as being spiritually significant. It appears that our disciplining and instruction take place whether we are physically alive or dead.
To be continued.