"And if you call on him as Father who judges ..."1 Peter 1:17
Do you you live as if God will one day be your judge who may or may not condemn you and perhaps bring you to a second-class heaven? God cannot condemn the Christian. He will not slam the gavel of wrath and peer down from the Judgment Seat with angry eyes. The gavel of full wrath was slammed squarely upon Christ. Yes, we will be judged but ONLY by a loving Father and friend. God cannot judge sin twice.
In 1 Peter 1:17 the word “judges” in the Greek means “to find out what is good.” God will bring to account all that was done good in His name and for His glory and weigh it in divine scales. The scales will never tip in favor of Hell, condemnation, and wrath. Our works will go through a furnance, a sifter, a grader, or a refining moment to determine what is for reward. The pure works of faith will be honored/crowned, and given to us as true works of righteousness. This, in some way, this pure and pristine crown, is a gift to give back to Christ as a memorial of His work in us.
When I was a little kid, my parents would give me money to buy them gifts at Wilson Elementary Christmas bizarre. I would spend hours seeking the best candy cane deer with bobble eyes or the Santa Claus made of pipe cleaners and a cotton beard. I was so excited for them to open each gift since I had spent many serious hours scouring the best at the bizarre for the parents I loved. Likewise, God has given us spiritual abilities to invest in the kingdom. In the end, we will take what our Father has given us and present it back to His Son as a glorious memorial present of praise and honor, joy and celebration. Christian judgment will be an event to extract and burn up all the “humanness” from our works to there most godly essence, as a distilled crown/s. Then, back to God it goes as a most celebrated gift.
We will present our pipe cleaners and our candycane reindeer back to God, who gave us the ability to work it. It will be a great event to watch our God & all of heaven rejoice at the gift returned!
