What Happens to the Careless Christian in the Day of Christ?

The Gospel accounts contain several warnings to the careless Christian, explaining to him what he can expect when Christ returns. The fearful fates of the five foolish virgins and the servant who wasted his Lord's talents give us some idea of the severity of the judgment facing the believer in Christ who neglects his salvation.

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. (Matthew 25:10)

"The door was shut!"

The door was shut against whom? Against the unbelievers?

The door was shut against "virgins," each of whom possessed the "lamp" of the Word of God. The five foolish virgins were they who had gone "to meet the bridegroom." This hardly is a picture of the unsaved.

Multitudes of believers in Christ will be denied entrance to the Kingdom when the Lord returns. They will be denied entrance because they have not maintained the Life of Jesus in themselves. They have been too busy in the world. They have neglected their salvation and will not escape the inevitable penalty.

As for the Christian who wasted his Lord's money:

And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 25:30)

Notice, in the above two incidents, the virgins and the unprofitable servant, that judgment is not executed on the careless believer when he dies but when the Lord returns.

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)

Salvation has to do with what happens to us in the Day of Christ, not with what takes place at the time of our physical death.

To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. (I Corinthians 5:5)

"That the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."

Not when the incestuous believer dies but in the day of the Lord Jesus.

The reason we are emphasizing this is that the current doctrine suggests the purpose of receiving Jesus is to shun Hell and to make Heaven our home. The concept is held that if we do not go to Hell when we die we can rest in the assurance we shall lead a blissful life forever in our mansion in Heaven.

Such is not the teaching of the New Testament. The teaching of the New Testament is that when the Lord Jesus Christ returns He will reward each of us according to his works. It is our belief that if the believers understood they were going to be rewarded in the Day of Christ according to their conduct, their deeds, they would behave in a different manner.

The Lord Jesus did not come to save men from Hell but from their sins. Whoever sins always will abide in Hell. Whoever serves the Lord in righteousness will abide in eternal life. Grace does not change these immutable facts. The Lord Jesus did not come to change the fact that sinners always are in Hell. Rather, He came to deliver us from our sins so we can behave righteously and enter life.

To be continued.