This note contends that telescoping all final judgment of both believers and non-believers alike before one final apocalyptic tribunal at the end of the age following Christ’s return has yielded a number of unfortunate consequences, which include: (1) creating an unnecessary tension between the doctrines of judgment according to works and salvation by faith; (2) scripturally fabricating the need for some form of a completely unnecessary Intermediate State following one’s physical death; (3) minimizing and distorting Christ’s role in the earthly purification and sanctification of his followers prior to death; and (4) diluting the ultimate Good News of scripture that all those who at any point in their lives trust in Christ will be saved.
For ease of presentation in this brief essay, I use as a convenient eschatological point of reference the late Dr. Anthony A. Hoekema’s excellent book, The Bible and the Future, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Kindle Edition (1994), though other books could have served this purpose as well, including Coulson, John R., The Righteous Judgment of God: Aspects of Judgment in Paul’s Letters, Wipf and Stock (December 22, 2016); Helm, Paul, The Last Things, Banner of Truth; First Edition (January 1, 1989); and Williamson, Paul R., Death and the Afterlife, IVP Academic (March 6, 2018). Reference is also made to Pastor Dane Ortlund’s insightful essay: Ortlund, Dane C., Justified by Faith, Judged According to Works, Another Lok at a Pauline Paradox, Jets 52/2 (June 2009) 323–39.
Here are some quotes from Dr. Hoekema’s book to get us started on the same page:
“New Testament eschatology, therefore, looks back to the coming of Christ which had been predicted by the Old Testament prophets, and affirms: we are in the last days now. But New Testament eschatology also looks forward to a final consummation yet to come, and hence it also says: the last day is still coming; the final age has not yet arrived.” Hoekema, Anthony A., The Bible and the Future (page 37, page references are to the Kindle Edition). “What is unique about New Testament eschatology, therefore, is that it expects a future consummation of God’s purposes based on Christ’s victory in the past.” Hoekema, page 39. “[T]he kingdom of God includes both a positive and a negative aspect. It means redemption for those who accept it and enter into it by faith, but judgment for those who reject it.” Hoekema, page 74. What is more, “We are in the kingdom, and yet we look forward to its full manifestation; we share its blessings and yet await its total victory; we thank God for having brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, and yet we continue to pray, ‘Thy kingdom come’.” Hoekema, page 84.
Those statements are all true, and yet the insistence by scholars on a final judgment of all people, believers and non-believers alike, at the end of the age has led to unnecessary confusion, along with the dilution of the overwhelmingly positive Christian message of salvation for all based on faith. Let me explain. Dr. Hoekema notes (page 383) that “[t]he Scriptures … teach that all human beings who ever lived will have to appear before this final judgment seat;” that (pages 383-384) the subject of this judgment is “[a]ll things that have been done during this present life” and that “[e]verything a person has done is an expression of the basic direction of his heart, and thus will be taken into account on the Day of Judgment. This includes a person’s deeds, words, and thoughts.” Dr. Hoekema goes on to stress that simply because their sins are forgiven, believers are not spared from this comprehensive works judgment (page 385):
“It is sometimes said that the sins of believers, which God has pardoned, blotted out, and cast into the sea of forgetfulness, will not be mentioned on the Day of Judgment. If it be true, however, that there is nothing hidden which will not then be revealed, and that the judgment will concern itself with all our deeds, words, and thoughts, surely the sins of believers will also be revealed on that day. In fact, if it is true that even the best works of believers are polluted with sin (see Isa. 64:6; Rom. 3:23; James 3:2), how can any deeds of believers be brought into the open without some recognition of sin and imperfection?”
That all sounds consistent with the notion, perhaps best expressed by Peter, an apostle who knew all too well about the need for the forgiveness of sin, that God’s judgment is impartial; in other words, God plays no favorites. 1 Peter 1:17: “And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time here as ‘temporary residents’.” (Emphasis added.) Compare “God ‘will repay each person according to what they have done’,” Romans 2:6 (NIV); and “Surely you repay all people according to what they have done.” Psalm 62:12 (NLT).
So far, so good, at least with respect to the impartiality of works judgment. But then what do we read on page 385 of Dr. Hoekema’s book (by the way, all of this is more or less an accurate reflection of currently accepted Christian doctrine?):
“The failures and shortcomings of such believers, therefore, will enter into the picture on the Day of Judgment. But—and this is the important point—the sins and shortcomings of believers will be revealed in the judgment as forgiven sins, whose guilt has been totally covered by the blood Jesus Christ. Therefore, as was said, believers have nothing to fear from the judgment—though the realization that they will have to give an account of everything they have done, said, and thought should be for them a constant incentive to diligent fighting against sin, conscientious Christian service, and consecrated living.”
The author goes on to correctly observe (page 387) that the “all-important factor for determining man’s eternal destiny is his relationship to Jesus Christ,” but that (page 388) the “reason why the Bible teaches that the final judgment will be according to works, even though salvation comes through faith in Christ and is never earned by works, is the intimate connection between faith and works. Faith must reveal itself in works, and works, in turn, are the evidence of true faith.” Finally, the author notes that (page 395) “[A]ll who are in Christ will enjoy everlasting blessedness on the new earth, whereas all who are not in Christ will be consigned to everlasting punishment in hell.”
With all due respect to Dr. Hoekema and other scholars who advance this general view, that hardly sounds like equal and impartial treatment to me. Believers will undergo some temporary embarrassment, a public shaming of sorts, and perhaps the loss of some heavenly “rewards” (page 378-379) for their bad earthly conduct, that is, their sins, for we are all sinners; while non-believers will be tossed into the Lake of Fire with the devil and his angels for in many cases much the same conduct. Rev. 20:15. Indeed, the judgment venue itself seems hardly to resemble an evaluative tribunal as we might understand it, at least according to the author, (page 393):
“In commenting on the nature of the final judgment, E. A. Litton [Introduction to Dogmatic Theology (London, 1960), as quoted in Leon Morris, The Biblical Doctrine of Judgment (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1960), p. 54 n. 3] reminds us that we must not apply the analogy of human tribunals too literally: ‘A human trial … is strictly a process of investigation.… In the last judgment, however, the Judge is omniscient, and has no need of evidence to convince him; he presides with a perfect knowledge of the character and history of everyone who stands before him … the great day will be one rather of publication and execution than of judgment strictly so called’.”
This uneasy juxtaposition of faith and works is not the only troublesome inconsistency we find when we force all final judgment into one apocalyptic tribunal. We also encounter this pesky problem of what happens to Christ-followers during the period between their death and their ultimate bodily resurrection just prior to this final judgment at the end of the age, which could be a long time in coming. As Dr. Hoekema explains (page 144), this requires the imposition on believers of an “Intermediate State”:
“But death brings about a temporary separation between body and soul. Since the New Testament does occasionally speak of the ‘souls’ or the ‘spirits’ of men as still existing during the time between death and resurrection, we may also do so, as long as we remember that this state of existence is provisional, temporary, and incomplete. Because man is not totally man apart from the body, the central eschatological hope of the Scriptures with regard to man is not the mere continued existence of the ‘soul’ (as in Greek thought) but the resurrection of the body.”
The author quickly concedes, however, that there is little in the way of scriptural support for such a “temporary” separation of body and soul, page 142:
“In reply to these objections it must be admitted that the Bible says very little about the intermediate state and that what it does say about it is incidental to its main eschatological message about the future of man, which concerns the resurrection of the body. We must agree … that what the New Testament tells us about the intermediate state is nothing more than a whisper. We must also agree that the New Testament nowhere provides us with an anthropological description or theoretical exposition of the intermediate state. The fact remains, however, that there is enough biblical evidence to enable us to maintain that at death man is not annihilated and the believer is not separated from Christ.”
Moreover, this temporary resting place for those who have presumably already been saved for all eternity apparently has its drawbacks (page 160), drawbacks that do not at all seem consistent with the joy and peace that must necessarily come from being with Christ:
“Paul does not tell us exactly how we shall experience this closeness with Christ after death. We have no description of the nature of this fellowship; we can form no image of it. Since we shall be no longer in the body, we shall be delivered from the sufferings, imperfections, and sins which haunt this present life. But our glorification will not be complete until the resurrection of the body will have taken place. Therefore the condition of believers during the intermediate state, as Calvin taught, is a condition of incompleteness, of anticipation, of provisional blessedness.”
How are we to resolve these apparent contradictions and tensions? The solution is not so much a question of deep theology, but rather one of proper and logical procedure regarding the timing and venue of judgment, essentially what the translators of the King James Bible correctly described, 2 Cor. 11:3, as “the simplicity that is in Christ,” which in Greek reads τῆς ἁπλότητος τῆς εἰς τὸν Χριστόν. A correct understanding of 2 Cor. 5:10 (the Judgment Seat of Christ) places the final judgment venue of believers in this life, not in the next. To probe into this question more deeply, see my exegetical article that can be found at the following link: Full Exegetical Article. For the less ambitious reader, you can find a summary here: Quick Summary of Exegetical Argument.
The result of a correct reading of 2 Cor. 5:10 is that both believers and non-believers face the identical bodily consequence for their sins; that is, the death of their bodies. This makes perfect sense since all have sinned, believers and non-believers alike, and sin resides in the flesh; Romans 7:18 (ESV): “For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” Thus, the body bears the brunt of one’s sins, whether one believes in Christ or not. Indeed, Dr. Hoekema observes the following about the consequence of sin, page 126: “Your physical body is dead, Paul is saying—that is, it has the seeds of death in it, and is bound to die eventually. And then he adds significantly, ‘because of sin.’ Again we see that according to Scripture the death of the body is a result of sin.”
Yet Dr. Hoekema adds a small qualification, page 128: “Death is for us who are in Christ not a satisfaction for sin. It was for Christ, but it is not for us. Since Christ was our Mediator, our second Adam, he had to undergo death as a part of the penalty for sin which we deserved, but for us death is no longer a punishment for sin. For Christ death was part of the curse; for us death is a source of blessing,” and that is because, page 129: “[w]e shall enter into the full riches of eternal life only after we have passed through the portal of death.”
While it is true that death leads to eternal life for the believer, this does not alter the fact that the “wages of sin” (Romans 6:23) for both believer and non-believer is the death of the body. Thus, in this earthly judgment venue, there is no partiality. Each person, believer and non-believer alike, experiences the just result for their sinful conduct without favoritism. But what else happens? For one thing, we can do away with the need for any shadowy Intermediate State. The judgment of the believer is complete upon his or her death, and thus there is no further impediment to a full bodily resurrection. “[W]hat is central in biblical eschatology is the doctrine of the resurrection of the body,” (page 139). Again, as Dr. Hoekema correctly notes (page 139): “The central message of Scripture about the future of man is that of the resurrection of the body.”
What does Dr. Hoekema say about how this bodily resurrection takes place? On page 103, he points to the Holy Spirit as the connecting link:
“[T]he Holy Spirit is not only active in bringing about the resurrection of the body, but also will continue to sustain and direct the resurrection body after the resurrection has occurred… One more point remains to be made. If it be true, as Paul tells us in II Corinthians 3:18, that the Spirit is already at work in us now, transforming us into the image of Christ, it follows that this progressive renewal is a kind of anticipation of the resurrection of the body. The Holy Spirit is thus the connecting link between the present body and the resurrection body.”
And why is this so? On page 365, the author tells us that the resurrection of Christ-followers hinges on, and follows the pattern of, Christ’s resurrection:
“[W]e find that what stands at the very center of that teaching is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Scriptures make it abundantly clear that the resurrection of Christ is the pledge and guarantee of the future resurrection of believers. All previous resurrections mentioned in the Bible were again followed by death; only the resurrection of Christ is never to be followed by death—and it is this type of resurrection to which believers look forward. Because Christ arose, believers too shall arise.”
With the final judgment as contemplated in 2 Cor. 5:10 already behind the believer, there is nothing in the way of the Holy Spirit completing the task of bodily resurrecting the believer according to the pattern established by Christ, that is, resurrection upon one’s death. Christ did not pass into some vague Intermediate State following his crucifixion, and neither will all those who trust in him. This is admittedly at odds with conventional thinking as described by Dr. Hoekema, page 364: “The clear teaching of the Bible is that at the time of Christ’s return there will be a general resurrection of both believers and unbelievers. After this general resurrection the judgment will follow.” This is true for non-believers, but not for believers since at their death they will have passed through the portal of the final judgment before Christ under a proper reading of 2 Cor. 5:10.
But what of good works, one might ask. How are they taken into account, if at all, in this rather cumbersome eschatological system that Dr. Hoekema and many other scholars have proposed over the years[TP1] ? Here, Dr. Hoekema is quite explicit, and also quite wrong (page 388): “The reason why the Bible teaches that the final judgment will be according to works, even though salvation comes through faith in Christ and is never earned by works, is the intimate connection between faith and works. Faith must reveal itself in works, and works, in turn, are the evidence of true faith.”
Thus, here we have the ultimate outcome of the improper postponing of the final judgment of believers into some vague apocalyptic, post-death future along with non-believers; that is, the dilution of the bedrock Christian doctrine that anyone and everyone who puts their faith in Christ will be saved through the gracious gift of Christ’s redeeming work on their behalf. Compare Eph. 2:8-9 (NIV): “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” As another scholar wrongly notes, Ortlund, page 338: “To exclude moral performance from the ground of justification is not to render such obedience soteriologically irrelevant. Distinction between faith and works must be maintained without sliding into separation.” As with Hockema, Dr. Ortlund tells us that even though believers will face apocalyptic judgment of their earthly behavior, they have nothing to fear regarding their eternal salvation, page 337:
“Paul taught a real judgment that applies to believers and unbelievers alike and is according to, not on the basis of, obedience. Believers will also experience various degrees of reward based on their respective lives of Spirit-ignited, faith-propelled obedience borne out of union with Christ. … [M]oreover, Paul refers to a judgment of that which has been ‘hidden (tav krupta;). Judgment, then, appears to be largely the revealing in the next life of what has been hidden in this one. Ultimately, however, believers have nothing to fear on Judgment Day—every shortcoming is covered by Christ’s sacrifice (Rom 8:31–34; cf. Jas 2:13).”
That might be easy enough to say in theory, but if works are in some form or fashion a necessary “proof” of the genuineness of one’s faith, how can the believer have any real assurance of salvation, knowing that all our works in this life, even the best of them, are nothing more than “filthy rags?” Compare Isaiah 64:6 (NIV), “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away;” Romans 3:10 (NLT), “As the Scriptures say, ‘No one is righteous— not even one,’ John 1:8 (NIV); “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us;” and Psalm 14:1 (NIV), “There is no one who does good.”
This uneasy relationship between works and faith in the salvation calculus of the final judgment inevitably results from improperly telescoping all such judgment of both believers and non-believers into one post-death, apocalyptic event. This is because at that judgment venue, what is ultimately adjudicated is one’s eternal destiny, which is eternal life for believers and eternal punishment for non-believers, despite their earthly works in both cases being not only inadequate to save them but also downright sinful.
How then should works be considered in the context of a believer’s life, if at all? One could argue that if one is saved by faith alone; and no matter how badly one sins or does not sin, one dies anyway, who cares if one performs good deeds or not? That rather cynical view is clearly not based on scripture. Compare 1 John 2:6 (NIV), “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did;” John 13:15 (NIV), “I have set you an example so that you should do as I have done for you;” and Colossians 1:10 (ESV), “So as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”
The answer to this apparent dilemma is rather straightforward. It all has to do with sanctification, not salvation. “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Eph. 2:10. In other words, all the life experiences of believers, all the various circumstances and situations they face, all their works both good and bad, are laid bare before the Judgment Seat of Christ, a judgment that is administered on a minute-by-minute basis (that is, continuously) by Christ as they go about their lives, not for the purpose of determining their eternal destiny, but rather to prepare them for that eternal destiny, an eternity with Christ.
Do we trust that Christ knows what he is doing? Apparently not, since we seem to have the need always to inject good works as some component of our eternal salvation, perhaps to remind us to behave ourselves and otherwise to keep us in line. What we fail to see is that once we believe in Christ as our savior, even for a moment, we place ourselves in his care and stewardship, and yes before his Judgment Seat. From then on, he will guide us and, when necessary, admonish us so as to enrich our lives in the present and prepare us for eternity. He will not let us go, even through all the ups and downs of life, and no matter how hard we might try to push him away. We are his and he will not give us up. “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.” John 10:27-28. This is true whether that process of sanctification lasts for only a few moments, as with the repentant thief on the cross (Luke 23: 39-43), or over a lifetime. Each case is different as each believer is different, and Jesus handles them all through his gracious one-on-one interaction with each of them.
This is the Judgment Seat of Christ as set forth in 2 Cor. 5:10, properly understood. Christ will communicate and interact with us in the most personal and intimate way possible, that is, through our bodies. When we attempt to pigeonhole works into the salvation calculus, that is, into the determination of our eternal destiny, we are not only misreading scripture, but also showing our lack of faith in Christ’s guiding influence in this life. See Ortlund, page 339, where the author outlines in general terms this process of sanctification:
“Union with Christ inaugurates not merely external reformation but internal transformation. For one who has been justified, due not only to the justification but also to its necessary concomitants such as regeneration (with attendant new desires) and the presence of the Spirit, an awareness of divine assessment of obedience on the final day [here, the final day is not some apocalyptic judgment as Ortlund suggests, but is encapsulated within the believer’s everyday life] can be appropriately motivating without becoming either morally paralyzing (in ethical failure) or legalistically self-absorbing (in ethical success). By virtue of the ‘not yet,’ one will never in this life experience infallible perfection; yet by virtue of the ‘already,’ there has been ignited, even now in this diseased world, an inevitable new direction (2 Cor 5:17).”
Let us trust in Christ that he will complete this task of sanctification, unique to each one of us, to his satisfaction in this life, for it is what Jesus thinks about this process that counts, not what we think or what we consider to be “spiritually” important.That is what the Judgment Seat of Christ is really all about. One unknown preacher recognized this in what is now considered the earliest recorded Christian sermon outside of the New Testament, Holmes, The Apostolic Fathers, Greek Texts and English Translations, edited and translated by Holmes, Michael W., Baker Academic (3rd ed) 2007, 2 Clement 9, 148,150 (translated by the author):
“And let none of you say that this flesh is not judged and does not rise again. Think about this: In what state were you saved? In what state did you recover your sight, if it was not while you were in the flesh? We must, therefore, guard the flesh as a temple of God. For just as you were called in the flesh, so you will come in the flesh. If Christ, the Lord who saved us, became flesh (even though he was originally spirit) and in that state called us, so also we will receive our reward in this flesh.”
One more note, this time with respect to the judgment of non-believers. Hockema observes (page 378): “By the time of the final judgment the final destiny of all who have lived or are still living on the earth will already have been determined. God does not need to conduct an examination of people’s lives to determine who will be saved and who will not.” But if that is true, how then do we explain this passage in Jesus’s own words, Matt. 10:42 (NIV)? “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” There is no indication in the text that the persons providing the cup of cold water are themselves believers, and what is their reward for this small act of charity to a Christ-follower, a reward that Christ tells us they cannot lose? Could it be salvation?
Here is a call for humility. We do not know what precisely will take place before the Great White Throne (Rev. 20:11-14) when “the books” are opened. We do not know whose names will be or will not be written in the “Book of Life.” We do not know whether some non-believers standing before the throne might be saved during the process of judgment itself by a last-minute confession of Christ’s Lordship. These are matters that are hidden from us, and thus it would be best not to reach any hard and fast conclusions, including such notions as universalism (all are eventually saved) and annihilationism (none are saved, and are likewise denied eternal punishment as well by being annihilated out of existence), both of which Hoekema discusses, for those who are interested, on pages 395-496 of his book.
It seems to me, however, that once we properly understand judgment as contemplated in 2 Cor. 5:10, our focus will be less on what will happen way out there in the future, but instead will be directed at what is going on in our lives right now, and the messages Christ is communicating to us through our bodies. Just this morning, for instance, right before I sat down at the computer, just as I was contemplating some silly notion about the future, I accidentally bumped into a bottle of shampoo, which I never do, that landed on my foot, leaving a tiny bruise that stung for a while but caused no real damage. What was Christ trying to tell me by this small incident? Maybe it was: quit thinking about foolish things, Thomas, and focus on me instead. Just a thought!
There you have it. Believers undergo their final judgment in this life, non-believers in the next. Both are treated equally with respect to their earthly behavior in that both die as the result of their sin. What is more, both groups effectively choose their final judgment venue, believers by putting their faith in Christ, and non-believers by rejecting Christ and any need for a savior and choosing instead to be judged on their own merits. Even here, God in his mercy provides these non-believers with a fair forum to make their case, with all the evidence on the table (the “books” will be opened), including no doubt whether any of them ever performed an act of charity for a Christ-follower.
Finally, believers need not wait until the end of the age to receive their new, heavenly bodies, but are resurrected immediately upon death. There is no need to spend any time in some hazy Intermediate State. Thus, for believers, Christ’s Judgment Seat is principally about their sanctification and purification in a process by which Christ interacts and communicates with them through the most private and personal means available, that is, through their bodies. That in a nutshell, unlike the worries that would necessarily pop up in one’s mind regarding whether one’s earthly conduct offers sufficient “evidence” of the genuineness of one’s faith, and the provisional and rather unsatisfying nature of one’s relationship to Christ in some spiritual, disembodied netherworld known as the Intermediate State, is the Good News of the Gospel message.
For those who are now thinking of various Biblical passages that might on the surface seem to contradict some of the views expressed in this note, I would direct you to a series of short articles posted on this blog that arguably address at least some of those concerns. You can find these articles at the following links:
Introduction to Exegetical Article
Postscript to Exegetical Article
The Possibility of a Divinely Embedded Riddle in 2 Cor. 5:10
Near-Death-Experiences and the Final Judgment
Paradise and the Final Judgment
Reflections on Judgment Through the Prism of the Transfiguration
Readers are encouraged to leave a reply on this blog if they have any thoughts on these issues, and I will respond, Lord Willing, as quickly as I can.
Photo credits: “Scales of Justice Brisbane Supreme Court=” by Sheba_Also 48,000 photos incl private is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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