Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Monday, December 22, 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."

Every believer who reads the full Bible knows that there are three aspects of salvation: Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification. Justified in that God has called us to Himself, and by His grace forgave us our sins and made us His children. Though we were wretched sinners, God the Son paid our penalty on the Cross, and, as we will see, reconciling us to God the Father. And to make sure we are sure of this, He sent God the Holy Spirit within us to give us this uncanny assurance that absolutely no one can take away. "For by grace are you saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship…" (Ephesians 2:8-10a)

Sanctification in that, while we are learning how to use our new nature, we stumble and get up constantly in this life as we mature into the saints that will be fit for the Kingdom He has prepared for us, as we have seen in verse 5, that "He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee." And, from Philippians 1:6: "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."

And then, we also have "Glorification". This is our future, but it is written in the past tense, because, of course, God is outside of time, and knows all things: "For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified." (Romans 8:29-30)

And we see here how there will be a time of reward for believers, at the "bema" seat. In Roman times, the Olympic judge would sit at the "bema" seat and those who ran the race would receive their awards. Some make the mistake of thinking that this is referring to the final judgment of Revelation 20, and lump everyone in it. But that is referring to the "second death", which has nothing to do with this.

What we have here is the completion, the glorification, where the eyes of the Lord will remove all of our wasted efforts and we will be left with the pure, golden works of God, as He completes His masterpiece, His workmanship: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10)

All the dross on the "New Creation" will be burned away, and all that is left is the work built on the foundation of Christ: "For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire." (1 Corinthians 3:11-15)

Sounds frightening, but if one is built on the true foundation, they will stand, for it is the foundation that God looks at, and that is "not of ourselves, it is the gift of God", as we read in Ephesians 2. The rest is reward by our trust and obedience in our Savior, walking in the Spirit. And all will enter pure and in the image of Christ, glorified, like His glorious body.

Those who do not build on that foundation, well… yikes! But those who trust Jesus:

"But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself." (Philippians 3:20-21)

Something to think about during this so-called "Season of Giving". Jesus offers the best gift of all! If you hear the Spirit's call, and fall upon His mercy, you will land on that Foundation, the greatest gift of all!

Those who stand before Him without the Foundation during the second judgment, well, there will be nothing left of them when they are scrutinized by the Almighty God. Something to think about.

Today if you hear His voice, harden not your heart.

Memory Helps:

"For WE, must A-LL ap PEAR, Be FO-RE the JUDG, ment SE-AT of CHRI,-IST,
so THAT, each ONE may re CEIVE, what IS due for
WHAT he has DONE in the BO, DY,
(WHE-eth, er GO-od or E, VIL.")

I put this to the first verse of "What Child is This". Try singing it to that tune, emphasizing the capitalized words along with the melody.

I have the last line in parentheses because I repeat the last line of the tune to that line. So you would use the same melody for "what he has done in the bo, dy" and "whe-eth er go-od or e, vil."

A technique I use a lot.

Next, I will just write out the first letters of each word and try to sing the melody with them alone. After a lot of practice I will pretty much have the verse down.

Like this: fwmaabt jsoC, steomr widf whhditb, wgoe.

Now I use "DaiSy" Duck for my "memory character" for verses 10 "D=1, S=0", vowels fillers, and put her serenading us between the two Corinthian pillars with her large 5-fingered hands splayed wide open so we notice. Behind her is a huge bema, or judgment seat to link the verse to the numbers 2 Corinthians 5:10.