The Judgment Seat of Christ by Adrian Rogers

II Corinthians 5:8 “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord”—when I die, I’m absent from my body; my spirit just moves out.

And, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Jesus Christ told a dying thief, “[This day] shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43) And then, Paul says

“Wherefore we labour”—now, Paul said, “You want to know what drives me, what motivates me, what turns me on, what causes me to be a soul winner, what causes me to be a prayer warrior, what causes me to give sacrificially, what causes me to be a missionary, what causes me to be a preacher?”

“Wherefore we labour”—“Here’s the reason we labor,” he says—“that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him”—this literally means “acceptable to Him,” “approved of Him.”

Do you want to be approved of the Lord? Then, he goes on to say in verse 10 (and here’s the key verse). I want you to look at. I want you put a star by it. I want you to memorize it—“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ”—look at that word all.

Does that include you? Just nod your head. It does—“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ”—every one of us—“we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one”—underscore “that every one”—“that every one may receive the things done in [the] body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:8–10)

Now, this verse teaches that one of these days, every man, woman, boy, and girl in this building who is a Christian, who is a child of God, is going to come to what the Bible calls the “Judgment Seat of Christ.”

Adrian Rogers, “Taking Inventory,” in Adrian Rogers Sermon Archive (Signal Hill, CA: Rogers Family Trust, 2017), 2 Co 5:8–10.