Judged by my True Character
Submitted by theshovel
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PDF versionFor we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 2 Corinthians 5:10
Five years ago I discovered a translation of the New Testament that was put out in 1923 by Edgar J Goodspeed: An American Translation. When I read 2 Corinthians (especially chapter 5) I was impacted by its simplicity. Before I touch on the above verse I thought it would be worthwhile to read a version that might make you do a couple of double-takes and see it in context. So, here is 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:21, an American Translation
So I never lose heart. Though my outer nature is wasting away, my inner is being renewed every day. For this slight, momentary trouble is piling up for me an eternal blessedness beyond all comparison, because I keep my eyes not on what is seen but what is unseen. For what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal. For I know that if this earthly tent that I live in is taken down, God will provide me a building in heaven to live in, not built by human hands but eternal. This makes me sigh with longing to put on my heavenly dwelling, for if I do, I shall never find myself disembodied. For I who am still in my tent sigh with anxiety, because I do not want to be stripped of it, but to put on the other over it, so that what is only mortal may be absorbed in life. It is God himself who has prepared me for this change, and he has given me the Spirit as his guarantee. So I am confident. I know well that as long as I am at home in the body I am away from the Lord (for I have to guide my steps by faith, not by what is seen) - yet I am confident, and I prefer to leave my home in the body and make my home with the Lord. So whether I am at home or away from it, it is my ambition to please him. For we must all appear in our true characters before the tribunal of the Christ, each to be repaid with good or evil for the life he has lived in the body. It is with this knowledge of what the fear of the Lord means that I appeal to men. My true character is perfectly plain to God, and I hope to your consciences too. I am not trying to recommend myself to you again. I am giving you cause to be proud of me, to use in answering men who pride themselves on external advantages and not on sincerity of heart. For if I was out of my senses, as they say, it was between God and me; and if I am in my right mind, it is for your good. It is Christ's love that controls me, for I have become convinced that as one has died for all, all have died, and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. So from that time on, I have estimated nobody at what he seemed to be outwardly; even though I once estimated Christ in that way, I no longer do so. So if anyone if in union with Christ, he is a new being; the old state of things has passed away; there is a new state of things. All the this comes from God, who through Christ has reconciled me to himself, and has commissioned me to proclaim this reconciliation - how God through Christ reconciled the world to himself, refusing to count men's offenses against them, and intrusted me with the messaged of reconciliation. It is for Christ, therefore, that I am an envoy, seeing that God makes his appeal through me. One Christ's behalf I beg you to be reconciled to God. He made him who knew nothing of sin to be sin, for our sake, so that through union with him with might become God's uprightness.
My TRUE CHARACTER is perfectly plain to God, and I hope to your consciences too.
(Realize that this is a valid translation and not a paraphrase.) What do you suppose would be meant by our "true character"? Who are you ... really? God knows, do you? How do you estimate yourself? How do you estimate me? Is it the same way that God has estimated us by our true characters?
Comments
Who are we?
Who we really are is Christ.
I see so many looking at who they are through there natural eyes.
Not knowing that they have died and the new life they live is Christ and they have been given the mind of Christ.
Paul said i dont jugdge myself that is because he knew that his life was hid with God in Christ. Christ is everthing all that He is is all that we are. As we walk by faith we know that in the sight of God we are one with Him in Christ His victory is our victory. These things are all by faith. God has judged Christ not guilty in Him i am not guilty all he is is all i am. Are salavation never starts with us it starts and ends in Christ He is everthing. I hear so many taliking about dieing to self there they go taliking about them selves the bible says reckon your self dead to sin or your seperation from God and alive to Him through Christ Jesus.
Again this takes you and i out of the equation and all is put on us believing what God has done in Christ Jesus. The one thing i do know and i am not trying to blow your horn Jim is that i have been looking on your site is that you truly do know who you are in Christ your heart betrays you for it is the heart of His son.
Your thoughts always seem to be on what our Father has done in His son Christ Jesus and not on a bunch of other things that may or may not be true.
Christ is all that is true and all that He is all that we are by faith in Him.
What a "character"!
My TRUE CHARACTER is perfectly plain to God, and I hope to your consciences too.-Bible
Yes this TRUE character is not something seen according to the flesh now is it? What a joy filled verse.
Amen and amen.
Adam
Re: Judged by my True Character
Posted: May 6, 2000 by Bruce
Our TRUE CHARACTER is CHRIST in us. It is HIS SON in us. It is the part of our being that he looks at and says..."This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased..." When we believe the WORD that He speaks over us ...that we are holy and blameless in His sight...that we are perfect...then that part of our being...the Life of Christ in us...begins to grow...and become more and more of a reality to us. Not that His LIFE wasn't always there...but we just never adknowledged it. The more we acknowledge it...the greater of a reality it becomes to us...but He never changes...we do...our perception does. Our perception becomes His perception. By doing this we are "receiving Him"....and as many as "receive Him" to them He gives the power to become the sons of God...because they are not believing in their own name or nature any longer...but have believed in HIS name or nature...and by doing so put on the NEW nature...the incorruptible nature of Christ.
When a person does this he has an identity change. He no longer identifies with who he was...but with Him who IS. He is no longer a temporal earthly sinful man...but an eternal, heavenly, righteous, son of God...changed by the Spirit of God.
CHRIST is his righteousness. CHRIST is his peace. CHRIST is his life. CHRIST is all in all to him.
And from this point on...he see's himself in this LIGHT...and others in this LIGHT. All men are equal. The only difference being those who have come to this understanding of who their Life is truly is...who have been "awakened"...and those who are dead to Christ...asleep...walking in the dust of the earth. Our purpose then is to help others come to this change in their understanding...to come to believe that their "true character and nature" is also Christ. We don't do this by magnifying their sins, faults and failures...but by revealing who they are in Christ...and who Christ is in them.
That's my 2 cents worth...
Posted: May 6, 2000 by Jack
Hey Jim,
I wanted to ask if your other parts to the judgement seat of Christ were available. If they are on your site let me know and I will go and find them, if not, would you please forward them to me. I appreciate them, this last one really shed a light on somethings. My goodness, how we have seen some of these things so differently than they are stated.
Your Brother
Posted: May 6, 2000 by Richard & Margo B
Dear Jim,
Hi from Canada!
We've been receiving your Shoveletter for a couple of weeks dealing with the Judgment Seat of Christ. Absolutely love it - refreshing, illuminating and much appreciated.
Not sure how we discovered your website - maybe through Chapel 42. It really doesn't matter, but we're glad we found it. I downloaded all the Shoveletters you had. There's such a shortage of subject matter that ministers life to you and I found each of your newsletters to do just that. I love the insights the Lord has permitted you to see and to share.
I was the assistant pastor of two churches before the Lord started to show me the difference between "churchianity" and what it means to be "in Him". He chose to do this by grinding my wife and I to powder emotionally, financially and spiritually. We endured 5 or 6 years of misery before He was able to disentangle us from the matrix of religion of what we used to think Christianity was all about (guess I was a tough case!). Prior to coming to know the Lord in the Seventies as a Jesus Freak I had dabbled a bit in drugs but was never addicted; however, I cannot say the same for my involvement in religion. Those 6 years were like a detox programme for me because I can say with confidence that I certainly had become addicted to religion - the perks, the position, the pride, the programme. (Just noticed - those are a lot of "P" words!!! Essentially they might as well all stand for "putrifying" because now that I see that what I was engaged in before really coming to see this revelation of the Lord as my life, I was dying a slow death spiritually. ) This is not to say that I was not born-again and on my way to heaven. I was. I had just lost my way big time and it seems to me now that that is what Satan has in mind for most of Christianity - if he can't keep you from being saved, he'll so mess you up with religion that you never come to know the simplicity, freedom and wonder of why Jesus died for you in the first place. This revelation, however, has not come without cost, as none of our former friends or acquaintances understands this transition in our lives and pretty well avoid us, no doubt thinking we're in some kind of cult. This is why it is so invigorating to read your newsletters and the messages contained in other sites on the web. At this point, they are all like lifelines to us.
Feel free to email us if you have any comments or questions. We would both be interested in learning more of how you came to see this revelation of "Christ in you the hope of glory" also.
In Him,
Richard and Margo B
Ontario, Canada
Re: Judged by my True Character
Re: Judged by my True Character
Hello David! It's good to hear from you. :)
Jim
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