But what is this about being judged by our deeds? Christ's blood covers our sin; Christ's righteousness stands for us. We are saved most certainly by grace. But at the same time our works and our deeds, done by the power of God and in the name of Christ, done by his strength and his inspiration, will be seen also. We will be rewarded with eternal life accordingly. Christ buys it for us, Christ deals with the debt of sin, and yet our works will be seen. When that day comes, there will be evidence that God has worked in the hearts of the saved, and it is that evidence for which we will be rewarded. Now it is an extraordinary thing – what have I done? Well, I have repented of my sin. I believed in Christ and trusted in him. But really, I did not do that. What happened was the Spirit worked within me, humbled me to the dust, brought me to see my predicament and my condemnation from God, brought me to long for pardon and salvation, and I pleaded for forgiveness and repented of my sin. He really did that. But I will be rewarded as though I did it. It is his work and I receive the reward. While salvation is by grace, there must be works, works of repentance, works of belief and trust, works of commitment and dedication, works of responding to conscience, works of witnessing and helping others, works of righteousness. Oh, Christ imputes his righteousness to us most certainly; he takes away the burden and the debt of sin. Our works never save the soul, but they must be seen as evidence of our salvation in the Day of Judgment. Where does that leave us if there are no works?
The hymn writer was quite right: ‘When the full light of heavenly day reveals my sins in dread array, say, “Thou hast washed them all away”; dear Saviour, plead for me.’ That is the reality. What will happen in the Day of Judgment (if you are saved and if you know him) is that you will stand and you will see your sin, but immediately it will be taken away from you. Will you be terrified? Will it be an ugly moment? After Christ comes or if I die first, when I receive a resurrection body and go and stand with him in judgment, will I be terrified, horrified, deeply ashamed? No! I will not be in the Day of Judgment, if I trust in Christ. I shall see my sin just as the unsaved will see their sin, but in my case and in your case, if we are saved, the sight of that sin will only cause us to well up and to overflow with the realisation of our debt of gratitude. We will see those things not in shame, but in astonishment and amazement as we grasp more fully than ever before what we owe to Christ, and what he has paid for, and what he has done. We will see even our wretched, ugly, foul, sinful past with greater understanding, and with gladness, relief, and gratitude. That will stamp on our souls a depth of gratitude that we will never lose throughout all eternity. So yes, we will see our sin.