This life is our one opportunity. We don’t get to do it again here. I remember as a Pastor burying a member who thought God would heal him because he had something for him to do. The problem was that he had felt this all his life and he never got on with it and did something for God, for others and for himself. He sadly had wasted so much of his life. In contrast recently I was looking at a CV of a friend and I realised that they have such a zest for life that it literally was a celebration of life so far and there was more to come!
“Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” (Hebrews 9 v 27-28)
God has ordained that we die. The sting of death is removed for those who are followers of Christ but death is still there. We don’t get another chance. It is death and then judgment. That’s something not to fear because for those who die in Christ their judgment has already happened at the cross. Humanity either faces the judgment at the cross or the judgment at the Throne (Revelation 20).
We will face Judgment and Christ will be our judge as His followers. At the judgment seat of Christ everything in our life that was not of Him or for Him meaning not just our deeds but the motives that may have made the deeds look good, will be burned up. We will go through the purifying fire and everything that was not of Him will be finally burned up.
This is so wonderful! For no follower of Christ no matter what is said at their funeral stands before Christ perfect. We all die sinners. We die with addictions, with debts, with things done for the world to see and things that only He has seen. Praise the Lord that we will not be judged for those things for if we were we would never make it. But because we have been to the cross and the judgment for our sin has been laid on Him then when we stand before Him He will burn up everything that has attached to our life that was not of Him. And then we will be rewarded for the things that remain, the things that were definitely of Him. (2 Corinthians 5:10)
So we come back to this life. We must make sure that we are living our lives in such a way that when we are at the judgment seat of Christ that our motives and actions in this life are not burned up but are rewarded. How we treat others and even the motives for doing so becomes important. In this life you may get to the top of your career but at the expense of who? How many have you trod on? Recently I heard of a minister who sadly fell away and their family are ruined as this man walks away from everything they have stood for. Yes they will be judged but so will the person who in the previous chapter of their life judged them heavily and rejected them in such a way that they became easy pickings for the enemy. In contrast think of the many acts of love that you hear are done in secret but rewarded later. Kindness is all around us because the followers of Christ are making sure their CV’s contain acts of righteousness, helping others, walking in humility, with grace, giving to God and to others, laying their life down, carrying burdens, mercy missions either to their neighbour or to another people group thousands of miles away. They realise this is their moment, their chance to live for a cause, to build a CV that glorifies God, to be the hands, feet, voice of Jesus in places of despair. To see transformation. They know … this is not a dress rehearsal.
Missions Paul 