2 Corinthians 5:10 Commentary and Bible Study

One of the most asked questions to pastors is: ‘Must we all go through the judgement and be exposed? Will believers be there? Will their sins also be out in the open?’ This is a very significant question. Well, there is no doubt that all will appear at the last judgement, and we could turn to other passages also to prove this (Hebrews 4:13). We must all, as some translations put it, be made manifest. All pretence, any outward sham will disappear, and our real character and our innermost motives will be stripped bare, even secret sins and hypocrisies. It will be true for all, saved and unsaved alike. There is no question about that.Now, some preachers and teachers recoil from this. And there is a point of view which says, ‘No, what the apostle Paul is referring to here is just a judgement of believers only, not the great final judgement. The object is not to decide righteousness or sinfulness and there can be no condemnation because the believer’s sins are all done away with on Calvary’s cross. The object of this special appearing is so that believers can be rewarded according to their good works.’ In heaven, it is imagined, there are differentials in rewards, and there are some super-saints, but others of us have a lower place. But there is no sign of that here. According to this verse there are going to be punishments as well as rewards. This cannot possibly a special tribunal for the rewarding of believers. So no, we are left with what we might consider to be a problem: that all believers will also appear there, and that alarms us, terrifies us. Are we going to a place of terror, when we thought that through the redeeming love of Christ we were going to only happiness and bliss? Must we go through this terrifying doorway, even if we believe we shall be forgiven, for our sins to be exposed and seen? The answer is yes, but we need to explain it because it is not exactly as we may imagine.The first thing we have to remember is that no one, not even believers, can be received into glory on account of their personal good works. Our very best righteousness is still as filthy rags in God’s sight. Everything must be earned and deserved by Christ on our behalf. So then what are these good works? And the answer is – they are not good works for which we can take credit; they are the works of God within us, what he has accomplished in us. When you first came to Christ, the Holy Spirit worked in your heart in such a way that you came under conviction of sin, and you knew shame and horror at what you had done, and felt your need of God’s forgiveness. That was a motion of the Spirit, as the old divines used to call it. It was a good work but not yours; it was the Spirit of God. You were not capable of self-humbling and real shame for sin until God worked in you. Then you began to strive for holiness, and the very striving itself was the produced in you by the Spirit of God. And then, wonder of wonders, you have love for Christ. There are now moments of sacrifice for him when you lay down your life and your energies for him. These are the things that God sees and God rewards. But they are not your works. They are the motions of the Spirit working in you which are so commendable to God. So the verse is not a verse about salvation by works or special merit for Christians who do good things after conversion. It is the works of God in our lives.