Matthew 16:27 “For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.”
In the book of Revelation when our Lord Jesus spoke to each of the seven churches in Asia, He opened each of His addresses to those churches with the following statement, “I know your works” (Revelation 2 & 3). Jesus still says those exact same words to every church on the earth today, and He also says those same words to each individual believer on the earth today. So why does the Lord Jesus emphasize to the church that He knows our works? He does that because He wants us to realize that it is our works that will be judged by Him on that day. In the passage of scripture quoted above our Lord plainly tells us that He will reward each one of us according to the works that we have done. And so we see that every saint will stand before the Lord Jesus on that day to give an account to Him for their time on the earth. The works that will be judged by Him will be all works which we have done from the time we are born-again until the time that we leave our earthly tents to be with the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:9-10 “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. (10) For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
As believers we will be judged by our Lord Jesus on that day; for all that we have done in the body, both good and bad. Most Christians think that only their good works will be judged on that day. But as revealed in the passage of scripture quoted above, the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul tells us plainly that every work we have done will be judged, both good and bad. When the scripture teaches us that all of our works will be judged on that day, both good and bad, it is referring to every thought, every word spoken and every deed done. And so it is extremely important for us to realise that everything will be judged, and that nothing will be overlooked, for heaven’s records are absolute and cover every thought, every word spoken and every deed done during our time here on earth.
Romans 2:14-16 “for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, (15) who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them (16) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.”
In the passage of scripture quoted above the Holy Spirit reveals to us through the apostle Paul that the secrets of men’s hearts will be judged on that day. The secrets of our hearts refer to those thoughts and motivations that we assumed no one knew about. Nevertheless all have all been recorded in heaven and we will have to give an account for each one. And so those thoughts that were pleasing to God will be praised by Him on that day, while those thoughts that were not pleasing to Him will be a cause for us to be ashamed before Him on that day.
Michael E.B. Maher
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