It is true also that we shall receive the bad we have practiced in our body while upon the earth. Galatians 6:8 warns that if we sow to our flesh we will of the flesh reap corruption. Imputed (ascribed) righteousness does not prevent our reaping corruption. If the righteousness assigned to us when we accepted Christ prevented our reaping the reward of bad behavior, Paul would not have spoken as he did to the churches in Galatia.

If we have practiced hate and lust in this life, then, at the Judgment Seat of Christ, where what we have done is revealed, we will reap the counterparts of hate and lust. If we have practiced selfishness we will reap selfishness. If we have practiced drunkenness we will receive the fruits of drunkenness. The Scriptures teach this clearly. We ignore the Kingdom law of cause and effect at our peril!

How do we reap hate, lust, selfishness, and drunkenness? We reap our behavior by the condition in which we find ourselves in the day of resurrection. Those who have chosen to indulge their bad personality shall be objects of contempt in the Day of the Lord. Those who live righteously and turn many others to righteousness shall shine as the stars.

And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. (Daniel 12:2,3)

Our rewards for righteous behavior are not given to us when we die but in the day of resurrection. The spirit realm to which we go when we die is an area of waiting. But even there we shall not be able to hide what we are. Think of the story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:22,23).

Every human being will be raised from the dead and stand before Christ on the earth. At this time he will receive the reward for his conduct in this life. His judgment and the consequences he reaps will be open for all to see.

The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here. (Matthew 12:41)

Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. (I Corinthians 4:5)

Where do grace and mercy enter? Grace and mercy enter today. Today the grace of God will forgive us and empower us to repent. Grace will change us into a new creature. Then we shall reap the reward of the new creature.

But it is not possible that we can practice wickedness during our Christian life and then, on the basis of grace, receive the reward of righteousness. We shall reap what we are sowing today. After we have reaped what we have sown, God may, in His compassion, find a place for us in His Kingdom. Christ alone will determine the fate of each person.

To be continued.