Does Colossians 3.25 imply that my sin will be raised and reviewed at the Judgment Seat of Christ?
Colossians 3.25 says, "But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons". This is a solemn word and doubtless anticipates the Judgment Seat of Christ. The context has to do with servants or slaves. Receiving for the wrong done can only mean suffering loss at the Judgment Seat of Christ. There is no idea here of punishment for sin committed. It is not a question of salvation or having a place in heaven. These are secured through the grace of God based upon the death of Christ. Wrongdoing is in regard to the commandments of the Lord in vv.22 & 23 for the obedience of servants. It certainly does not mean that sin will be charged to the believer at the Bema or that we will have to answer for our sins then. Nowhere is this taught in Scripture. Thank God, Romans 8.1 is very clear that there is now no judgment for the believer.
It is important to see from Scripture that the matter of sin has been dealt with at Calvary, and that what will come up at the Bema will be our service for the Lord down here. In the New Testament we have three specific references to the Judgment Seat. In Romans 14.10 it is brought in as a check against our attitude to other believers. In 1 Corinthians 3 it is seen in connection with our association with the assembly and what is built into it by way of teaching. In 2 Corinthians 5.10 it is mentioned by Paul to show that our activity in the body for the Lord will be reviewed. In none of these chapters is there a hint of sin being judged. In the third passage above, the words "whether it be good or bad" have misled some to think that "bad" means sin, but in the context the word does not mean moral or ethical evil. Rather it is better to understand it as meaning "good for nothing" or "paltry". It has the idea of "worthless" or "of no account" (see Robertson’s New Testament Word Pictures). How solemn to think that much professed service for the Lord will be found to have no spiritual gain from it.
John J Stubbs
In Genesis 12.17 we read of God’s judgment of Pharaoh. Was this because of his adultery with Sarai or was it to prevent it?
It would be helpful to trace the steps leading to the incident referred to in the question, viz. that of the Lord plaguing Pharaoh and his house with great plagues.
"And there was a famine in the land (of Canaan)" (Gen 12.10); the famine was sent as a trial to Abram’s faith. However, on this occasion there was, on his part, no seeking counsel of the Lord; we simply read, "Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there" (12.10). What a fateful decline! The descent into Egypt was not simply topological, it was spiritual: "Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help" (Is 31.1)! N.B. Egypt is a picture of this world which is dependent upon its own resources and in which men live as if God did not exist.
On approaching Egypt, Abram again became a prey to earlier fears. He resorted to a subterfuge which, as he later confessed to Abimelech (Gen 20.13), he had suggested to Sarai before they left Ur of the Chaldees, namely that she should show him kindness by saying in every place to which they came that he was her brother; here, it is, "Say…thou art my sister" (Gen 12.13). Sarai was a beautiful woman. At this time she would have been about 65 years of age which, seen in relation to her life span of 127 years (Gen 23.1), would be the equivalent of about 35 today. In utter selfishness Abram sought his own safety at the expense of jeopardising his wife’s purity.
Abram was evidently brought into contact with "the princes…of Pharaoh", and it was they who commended Sarai before Pharaoh; the outcome was that she "was taken into Pharaoh’s house" (12.15), i.e. she was added to his harem. However, the Lord would not allow His purposes in relation to Abram and Sarai to be frustrated. Sarah was to be an ancestress of the Messiah according to the flesh and the Lord saw to it that no evil befell her by providentially intervening: "the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram’s wife" (12.17). Pharaoh was not permitted to touch her.
It should be noted that when a similar episode took place in Gerar, God again graciously intervened and came to Abimelech, king of Gerar in a dream and said, "I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her" (Gen 20.6).
David E West
