No Judgment for the Christian

Romans 14.

Our Tuesday night small group is finishing up our study of Romans, so I thought I would post some of the points we discussed on this blog.

We talked about how our freedom in Christ to eat and drink all things or the freedom to operate in the Spirit as the Lord directs should not be flaunted in front of a weaker believer who does not have the same revelation of such freedoms. A weaker believer would be someone who is under some self-imposed law and does not have full revelation of the entire freedom he or she has a member of the body of Christ. In cases where we know our freedom to partake or engage might cause that weaker brother or sister to stumble, doubt, or be tempted to act against their convictions, then we should abstain or refrain, as the case may be. Everything that we do should be done to the glory of God to build others up and edify them in the Lord.

We all concluded that it is difficult to make hard and fast rules in this area, but that it is best to hear from the Lord and be led by the Holy Spirit. Jesus only said and did what He heard the Father say and saw the Father do. And we should do likewise.

Also, in combination with 2 Corinthians 5: 10, Paul tells us not to judge or criticise fellow believers, because all of us will appear before the judgement seat of Christ (Greek work there is bema, or step/place where the foot rests) to receive rewards and payment for what we have done in the body. Immediately, some of the ladies in the group had a look of fear cover over them, thinking the judgment seat of Christ is a bad place where Jesus will judge us for all the things we've done wrong. But that is not the case. The bema seat of judgment is a place where rewards are given by Jesus to His bride, the church, whereas the Great White Throne judgment seat in Revelation 20 is a place where unbelievers will be judged and condemned for the sin of not accepting Jesus. They are two very different judgment seats. It is important to understand that believers will NEVER be judged for their sin or wrongdoings, because ALL of their sins, past, present, and future, were judged in the body of Jesus 2000 years ago on the cross. God no longer remembers our sins-they have been washed away forever by the precious blood of His son.

After a lengthy discussion on this topic, I saw the fear disappear from the ladies eyes and a look of excitement come over them--Jesus, their bridegroom, their Lord and Savior, is going to give them rewards for what was done here on earth. What an exciting thing to look forward to!!