The error that has destroyed the churches of Christ is that God no longer judges our behavior. While such a perversion of truth can be gleaned from the reaction of the Protestant Reformers against religious works, coupled with a few passages of Scripture, the bulk of the exhortations of Scripture, Old Testament and New, inform us that neither God nor His Christ have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness—Christian or otherwise.

No individual pleases God except the one who fears God and walks in righteousness.

But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. (Acts 10:35)

God gives us His righteousness when we confess Jesus and believe in His resurrection. But such confession and belief must be coupled with the most sincere repentance and followed with a life of sanctification and service.

If the confession of Jesus and belief in His resurrection are not coupled with repentance and followed with holiness and service, no salvation has taken place.

To be saved is to be delivered from Satan, our enemy. The person who does not pursue holiness and service is not being saved from Satan. He is not pleasing God. He is calling Jesus, Lord but not doing what Jesus commands. He is building his house on the sand. He shall fall in the day of judgment.

To maintain that Divine grace is no more than an eternal amnesty for immoral, rebellious people, that faith is mental assent to theological facts, that to be saved is merely to go to Paradise when we die, that the behavior of Christians is not judged, that once an individual has confessed the lordship of Jesus and has recognized that God indeed has raised Jesus from the dead God will reward him with Paradise regardless of his behavior, is to be in line with current doctrine.

It is also to misunderstand the doctrine of the Apostle Paul. It is to miss entirely the purpose of the new covenant, which is to produce righteous, God-fearing people.

Let us look once again at II Corinthians 5:10 and see if the Scriptures state that all believers will receive the full inheritance at the Judgment Seat of Christ:

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Is it clear that the above verse is stating that every Christian will receive the crown of glory? Is this how it appears to you?

"We all" includes each of us. The term "appear" does not mean stand. It is not that we all stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ. Rather it is that we all must be made manifest in the sight of God and Christ as to our thoughts, words, and deeds.

Keep in mind that the Greek term (beema), "translated judgment seat," is used in the New Testament for an elevated throne where those accused of crimes are brought for judgment. Pilate sat upon a beema (judgment seat) when Jesus was brought before him for judgment. The outcome of that beema was crucifixion, not a laurel wreath.

To be continued.