Prairie View Christian Church Norway, Iowa Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom www.pvccia.org

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Prairie View Christian ChurchNorway,
IowaPastor-Teacher Bill Wenstromwww.pvccia.org
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Thursday March 18, 2010Romans Romans
1410b-Each And Every Christian Must Present
Himself At Gods Judgment SeatLesson 474
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Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 1410.
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Last evening we began a study Romans 1410, which
contains two rhetorical questions that are an
implicit rebuke of the weak Christian for
condemning the strong for his convictions as well
as an implicit of the strong Christian for
regarding and treating with contempt the weak
believer for his convictions.
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This evening we will complete the verb by noting
the reason why the strong should never despise
the weak and why the weak should never condemn
the strong, namely, both groups will be evaluated
by the Lord Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat
Evaluation of the church, which takes places
immediately after the rapture.
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Romans 1410, But you, why do you judge your
brother? Or you again, why do you regard your
brother with contempt? For we will all stand
before the judgment seat of God.
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For we will all stand before the judgment seat
of God teaches that the weak are wrong for
condemning the strong and the strong Christian
are wrong for regarding and treating with
contempt the weak Christian because both will
have to give an account to the Lord Jesus Christ
at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church.
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We will all stand before is composed of the
nominative masculine plural form of the adjective
pas (p??), all and the first person plural
future middle indicative form of the verb
paristemi (pa??st?µ?) (pah-ree-sta-mee), we will
stand before.
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The verb paristemi means to present himself and
is used in a judicial technical sense of
presenting oneself at the Bema Seat Evaluation of
the church, which will be conducted by the Lord
Jesus Christ immediately after the rapture.
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This is indicated by the noun bema, judgment
seat, which refers to the Bema Seat Evaluation
of the church that will be presided over by the
Lord Jesus Christ.
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The adjective pas refers to each and every
Christian without exception, regardless of their
race, gender or social status.
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The judgment seat of God is compose of the
articular dative neuter singular form of the noun
bema (ß?µa) (vee-mah), the judgment seat and
the articular genitive masculine singular form of
the noun theos (?e??) (thay-oce), of God.
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The NET Bible makes the following comment, The
judgment seat (ß?µa, bema) was a raised platform
mounted by steps and sometimes furnished with a
seat, used by officials in addressing an assembly
or making pronouncements, often on judicial
matters.
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The judgment seat was a familiar item in
Greco-Roman culture, often located in the agora,
the public square or marketplace in the center of
a city.
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The noun appears in Romans 1410 and 2
Corinthians 510 for the judgment seat of Christ,
which will take place immediately after the
rapture of the church as indicated by the fact
that Luke 1412-14 teaches that rewarding a
believer is associated with resurrection and the
rapture is when the church is resurrected.
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Also, Revelation 198 reveals that when the Lord
returns to earth at His Second Advent to bring an
end to Daniels Seventieth Week, the church is
portrayed as already rewarded since she is
described as dressed in fine linen, which refer
to the righteous acts of the saints, a reference
to rewards.
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Furthermore, 2 Timothy 48, 1 Corinthians 45
teach that rewards are associated with that day
and with the Lords coming, which refers to the
event described in 1 Thessalonians 413-17 that
refers to the rapture.
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1 Thessalonians 417, Revelation 42 and 198
make clear that the Bema Seat Evaluation of the
church will take place somewhere either in the
earths atmosphere or the stellar universe.
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Every passage in the Greek New Testament that is
either addressing rewards or the Bema Seat are
addressed to believers or church age believers
specifically (Romans 1410-12 1 Corinthians
311-15 2 Corinthians 59-10 1 John 228 1
Thessalonians 219-20 1 Timothy 618-19 Titus
212-14).
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Old Testament saints are resurrected and rewarded
after the church age believers are resurrected
and rewarded (Revelation 198 Daniel 121-2
Matthew 24).
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The New Testament writers make clear that Jesus
Christ Himself will be the judge of the church
(John 522-29 Philippians 25-11 Revelation
1-2 1 Corinthians 45f 2 Corinthians 510 1
John 228).
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The bema seat of Christ is an evaluation of the
Christians works to determine if they merit
rewards or not.
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Eternal salvation is not the issue at this
judgment since this was determined the moment the
Christian was declared justified through faith
alone in Christ alone.
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At the Bema Seat, the believers sins are never
mentioned whether these sins were confessed by
the believer on earth or were not since these
sins were judged at the cross (1 John 212),
thus, the Bema Seat is not punitive.
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The purpose of the Bema Seat is to evaluate the
quality of every believers work whether it is
good in the sense of acceptable or bad in the
sense of being unacceptable.
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In fact, the Lord Jesus Christ evaluates the
church every day according to Revelation 2-3.
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The Bema Seat Evaluation of the church is a time
when those works that the believer performed in
the energy of the sin nature will be destroyed (1
Corinthians 311-15).
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It is a time when the believer will be rewarded
for his actions that were empowered by the Spirit
and in response to Gods love for him.
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The believer who was properly motivated to serve
Him and the body of Christ out of love and
appreciation for what the Lord did for him will
be rewarded at the Bema Seat.
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Romans 1410, But you, why do you judge your
brother? Or you again, why do you regard your
brother with contempt? For we will all stand
before the judgment seat of God.
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God is the articular genitive masculine
singular form of the noun theos (qeov)
(thay-oce), which refers to Jesus Christ with
emphasis upon His deity as indicated by the fact
that 2 Corinthians 510 teaches that the Bema
Seat Evaluation of the church will be conducted
by the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Furthermore, John 522-29 and Philippians 25-11
make clear that He will be conducting all the
judgments in history, which would include the
Bema Seat.
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To summarize our findings from Romans 1410, we
can have seen that Paul poses two rhetorical
questions.
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The first rhetorical question was addressed to a
hypothetical weak Christian and implicitly
rebuked them for condemning the strong Christian
for his conviction that he does not have to
observe the dietary restrictions and honor the
special days prescribed by God for Israel in the
Law.
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The second rhetorical question was addressed to a
hypothetical strong Christian and implicitly
rebuked them for regarding and treating with
contempt the weak Christian who observes the
dietary restrictions and honor the special days
prescribed by God for Israel in the Law.
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Then, Paul presents another reason why the strong
should never regard and treat the weak with
contempt and why the weak should never condemn
the strong, namely, both groups will be evaluated
by the Lord Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat
Evaluation of the church, which takes places
immediately after the rapture.
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