The Heavenly Courtroom

“For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.”  I Timothy 2:5

I have watched probably hundreds of courtroom dramas on television over a span of fifty years, and while these are dramas for the entertainment of folks, I think I have learned a few things from watching them.  I know what Miranda rights are, and I also know that there must be evidence against the accused to prove his or her guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.  Sometimes witnesses are called, but hearsay is not real evidence.  I have actually served on jury duty several times and was selected as a juror in two cases, one involving an automobile accident and the other was a simple battery charge against an employer who broke up a fight between two female employees.  Of course, these cases were not as dramatic or high profile like those we see on television, whether real or not, but it was still interesting and a learning experience regarding our justice system.

From scripture we learn that there are basically three “heavenly courtrooms” wherein all people will find themselves in one or the other during this lifetime or in the afterlife.  The one to be most feared is what is known as the Great White Throne Judgment.  It is reserved for those who have died without surrendering their lives to Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for their sins.  They chose to reject His sacrificial offer of forgiveness, instead thinking they either could get by on their own recognizance, or they knew they were sinners, but they didn’t want to give up their sin, or they didn’t believe that they would ever be held to account.  Revelation 20:11-15 gives a vivid description of this courtroom scene as the accused stand before the Judge of all the earth, and the Book of Life is opened so that their names could be searched in the book.  However, “whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.”  Why would anyone want to take a chance with his or her eternity when this courtroom could be avoided?

There is another courtroom in which Jesus will preside over all of those folks who did surrender their lives to Him.  This one is called the Judgment Seat of Christ, or the BEMA seat, from the Greek word for “platform”.  This is the courtroom where all believers will appear before Jesus Christ that “every one may receive the things done in his body, according that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (II Corinthians 5:10).  When a person is born again, he or she has the Spirit of Christ living within his or her soul.  This is a tremendous responsibility because believers are Christ’s representatives on earth.  We are to be His witnesses to the world and are to live to honor and obey Him.  This is how we will be judged.  This judgment is not about salvation because all those who repented and placed their faith in Christ had their sins forgiven at the cross of Calvary when Jesus paid the penalty for our sin.  For a believer to be punished for sins which were judged at the cross would be to violate the law of double jeopardy.  This judgment is an accounting of how each believer lived out his or her life in light of being a servant of Jesus Christ.  It will be here where the rewards will be given out or withheld, depending on how the believer honored his or her commitment to Christ.  The closing statement that the believer would desire to hear in this courtroom is, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

The third courtroom is not really a courtroom, but I suppose one could say that it is more like the Judge’s chambers.  Many cases on television and in real life never reach the courtroom, but instead are settled in another area by what we call a mediator.  The above mentioned verse tells us that there is “one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus”.  While the other two courtrooms described above take place after death, this Mediator does His work while we are yet alive on this earth.  Of course, this Mediator is Jesus Christ who represents us before His Father, the Judge.  We stand condemned and are guilty as charged of sin against our Creator, but Jesus, in His love and mercy, took our sentence of death upon Himself, suffering in agony so that we could go free and not have to endure God’s wrath which will be displayed against all those who reject His Son, the only means of redemption and salvation.  God sees sinners as an estranged and prodigal son or daughter separated from Him by their sin, but when He looks at us through the blood of His Son, He only see us as those who have been cleansed and are wearing the robe of righteousness placed on us by Christ and welcomes us back as faithful children.  This area wherein the guilty sinner turns from sin and places his or her faith in Christ doesn’t have to be a church altar.  It can be anywhere the Holy Spirit convicts and draws the person into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

I am certainly not the smartest person in the world, far from it, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that trusting the Mediator while one still has breath and then being in the presence of Christ at the BEMA seat is far preferable to having to appear at the Great White Throne Judgment.