at
though the believer in Christ must undergo the physical suffering of
death like other men, yet death has become to him so altogether
without terror and curse, that it has been for him deprived of real
existence and power. The apostle in Rom. viii. gives the full
explanation: "_the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit
is life because of righteousness_."

Well, now let us apply this to the case before us. Let us take the
same solution, and see whether it will not suffice. The Christian
shall, like other men, undergo the judgment after death; thus one set
of Scripture declarations shall be fulfilled. But to the believer, who
has died in the Lord, what is the judgment? He stands before the
judgment-seat perfect in the righteousness of Him to whom he is
united, and from whom death has not separated him. His sentence of
acquittal has been long ago pronounced; he cometh not into judgment,
so that it should have any substantial effect in changing or
determining his condition. The resurrection is for him not a
resurrection of judgment, not one in which the judgment is the leading
feature and characteristic, but it is only and purely a resurrection
of, and unto life: one in which life is the leading feature and idea.

Thus for the blessed dead, the judgment has no dark side: "there is no
condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." But though it has no
dark side, it has a bright one. Never for a moment do the Christian
Scriptures lose sight of the Christian reward. Those who die in the
Lord, like the rest of men, shall be laid open before the tribunal of
Christ. Their sins have been purged away in His atoning blood; they
have been washed and justified and sanctified in the name of Jesus and
by the spirit of their God.

But to what end? for what purpose? Was it merely that they might be
saved? No indeed, but that God might be glorified in them by the
fruits of their faith and love.

And these fruits shall then be made known. The Father who saw them in
secret shall then reward them openly. The acts done and the sacrifices
made for the name of Christ shall then meet with glorious retribution;
yea, even to the least and most insignificant of them,--even according
to our Lord's own words,--to the cup of cold water given to one of His
little ones.

It is much the fashion, I know, in our days, to put aside and to
depreciate this doctrine of the Christian reward. It looks to some
people like a sort of reliance