Answering to God For Our Actions

[Live4Jesus]

I have seen this a lot lately - about how we are going to answer to God for our actions.

You're born again. After you are saved, you sin. You realize what you have done. You repent (you still feel really guilty about what you did though). You know that you are forgiven because scripture says we are forgiven when we repent.

My question is, will we have to answer for those sins even if we have repented of them?

I've heard people say we will have to give an account for the sins we have committed after we were saved and that will determine our rewards. Basically we will get punished for sinning in that instead of having a mansion, we will have an outhouse.

But I've heard others say that once you are forgiven, your sins are also forgotten. And that's that.

I am really concerned because I have committed some very serious sins since I've been saved - so serious that I haven't told a soul what I have done. I have repented and I know that God has forgiven me, but am I going to be punished?

My heart truly grieves over the thought of it. I feel very guilty for what I've done. I just want peace about this.

[roadrunner570]

Hey sister Missy :hug

Here is one passage that might give you some comfort:

2Co 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

Now keep in mind, Paul is talking to other believers here, not any non-believers. The judgement seat of Christ is where we go to as Paul says, "receive our due". Now, often people take that to mean rewards, which I'm sure is true. Problem is, this is kind of left ambiguous, so it often gets speculated to death. Thats wehre people say we'll have to answer for our sins or get rewards. We also have this passage:

2Ti 4:8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Here Paul talks about getting rewarded a crown for longing for Christ's appearing.

I hope some of this helps. As far as I can tell, there isn't any solid biblical evidence that a believer will have to answer for sins we've repented of.

On thing I do think, and this is pure speculation on my part, I feel we probably, not any longer being in these sinful, fleshly bodies...will get to see our lives again, but this time, through Christ's eyes. We will see what good impact the little things we did in life had, and we'll see how some things we made such a big deal about maybe weren't that important...who we helped, who we hurt..etc. But I don't think as a punishment or to "answer" for them...but to look and see what opportunities we had or didn't have and see our lives the way Christ sees us. thats my opinion.

One book I strongly recommend, its called "The Bema". Its fiction, but its a lovely book of a man standing before Christ and seeing his life as Christ saw it. Very thought provoking and eye-opening book.

[Jesus is coming]

Isaiah 43:25 (Amplified Bible)
25I, even I, am He Who blots out and cancels your transgressions, for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

I dont know if this will help or not

[Jesus is coming]

I found some more verse for you I hope they help this are NIV
Isaiah 43:25
"I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.

Jeremiah 31:34
No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest," declares the LORD. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

Hebrews 8:12
For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

Hebrews 10:17
Then he adds: "Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more."

[HiLaReE320]

The way I think about sinning after becoming a Christian and rewards and all that is simple. Yes, we will be rewarded for our good works, but I don't believe we will be punished for our bad ones. All of a person's good works will contribute to rewards (like the mansion you talked about), but I dont think a person's sins will take away from already gained rewards. I just think that a moment sinning is a moment that could have been spent glorifying God, so that doesn't necessarily take away from your current rewards, its just a missed opportunity to gain new ones.

Does this make sense??

[Live4Jesus]

Thanks for the info!

[Werner]

We often speak of having to be accountable for our actions before Christ at the Bema Seat. As mentioned in the other posts the Bema Seat is about our reward and not about salvation. Being accountable is not about our sins either in this regard. All that we do will bring Glory to God. Either to our joy or to our shame. If we fail miserably, God is glorified in His Grace, Love, and Mercy to us, and in that in Christ we are forgiven. If we do as the Spirit leads us to, we have no shame, and God is glorified.

All our tears will be wiped away, praise God! So it's not that making the wrong choices in life or failing to act as appropriately as we should in every situation is putting our salvation in jeopardy. It's that we will have to look into the eyes of our Lord and Savior, and we will know where we failed and where we made improper choices, and we will be around our brothers and sisters whom we may have treated badly...

None of us want to be ashamed in that day for how we acted and treated our own heavenly family. :cry

:hug

[Live4Jesus]

We often speak of having to be accountable for our actions before Christ at the Bema Seat. As mentioned in the other posts the Bema Seat is about our reward and not about salvation. Being accountable is not about our sins either in this regard. All that we do will bring Glory to God. Either to our joy or to our shame. If we fail miserably, God is glorified in His Grace, Love, and Mercy to us, and in that in Christ we are forgiven. If we do as the Spirit leads us to, we have no shame, and God is glorified.

All our tears will be wiped away, praise God! So it's not that making the wrong choices in life or failing to act as appropriately as we should in every situation is putting our salvation in jeopardy. It's that we will have to look into the eyes of our Lord and Savior, and we will know where we failed and where we made improper choices, and we will be around our brothers and sisters whom we may have treated badly...

None of us want to be ashamed in that day for how we acted and treated our own heavenly family. :cry
:hug

So if my sins are forgotten then why would God bring it up so that we feel shame?

So you're saying that say a husband cheats on a wife. He repents. Is forgiven and the sin is forgotten (according to the scriptures that the other posters said). When he stands before the Lord, he will know what he did wrong, and feel shame for it as he looks at the Lord and his wife. Then what happens? Does he live in shame for the rest of eternity? Does he have a hard time looking at his wife? Or does that shame go away and that's when the sin is forgotten?

Does God make you remember every sin you committed since you've been saved, or do you remember on your own?

How is this that your sins are forgotten? I thought that there was no sorrow in heaven? How can we see all the sins we committed and not feel sorrow?

[Werner]

So if my sins are forgotten then why would God bring it up so that we feel shame?
I'm not sure that is the proper way to look at it. We will know the reality of what we did and why, and the natural reaction is to feel shame for what we did wrong when we knew what the right thing to do was. Not everything we did wrong will necessarily bring shame. It's more about us seeing the real "us" without self-deception than God trying to throw anything in our face.


So you're saying that say a husband cheats on a wife. He repents. Is forgiven and the sin is forgotten (according to the scriptures that the other posters said). When he stands before the Lord, he will know what he did wrong, and feel shame for it as he looks at the Lord and his wife. Then what happens? Does he live in shame for the rest of eternity? Does he have a hard time looking at his wife? Or does that shame go away and that's when the sin is forgotten?
God forgives and forgets. Do we forget? Not instantly in this life, and perhaps not instantly when we are at the Bema Seat, but as all things will be in their true and proper perspective and context, we will not be overburdened by what we may have done wrong, because it will be seen in it's true light, as part of the struggle between our two natures. We are not going to beat ourselves up over it, and no one else is going to confront us and demand some justification or response, we are all going to be going through this.

We will see everything in it's proper context, and accept it. When I say it's to our shame the things we did wrong that we knew were wrong, well, those things can not be to our praise! They aren't neutral. God has forgiven and forgotten, but part of our seeing "clearly" is knowing the reality of our life, the good, the bad, and the ugly. IMHO.


Does God make you remember every sin you committed since you've been saved, or do you remember on your own?
Again, I'm not sure God is making us dwell on anything. We will know the truth of what we did and why at different parts of our life. But it will be in the context of the struggle between our two natures (flesh and spirit). It's not really about measuring how good or bad you were. We will just know the truth about the struggle and where/when we walked in the Spirit vs. the Flesh.


How is this that your sins are forgotten? I thought that there was no sorrow in heaven? How can we see all the sins we committed and not feel sorrow?
Why are we comforted? Why the tears wiped away?

I don't think we will be dwelling on past mistakes we made. We will just know the truth of them. At the moment things become clear to us it may be hard to swallow, and we may weep (all of which occurs at the Bema IMHO) but after that we will move onward and forward, and not dwell on the old struggles, because it is forever behind us. We will no longer sin or even be tempted to sin, the struggle between our two natures will be ended forever at the Rapture (or death).

Think of it more like a war with many battles and not like a pass or fail exam.

We will see clearly where we were victorious (walking in the Spirit) and where we were defeated (walking in the Flesh) but the victory was/is assured in Christ and we are certainly and forever overcomers and victorious in Christ! We won't be happy for ourselves where we walked in the flesh and were defeated, but we will be joyous about the times we walked in the Spirit and were victorious. The victory in this war though is assured! And the glory (for each and every battle in this war) will go to Christ!

Does that help :noidea

[Live4Jesus]

So is it like this then?
We see our sin - what our fleshly nature did, feel shame, Jesus wipes our tears away and says in a nut shell, "forgiven and forgotten." Then we see those things that were of God and Jesus says, "well done." Then we get our rewards.

[Werner]

So is it like this then?
We see our sin - what our fleshly nature did, feel shame, Jesus wipes our tears away and says in a nut shell, "forgiven and forgotten." Then we see those things that were of God and Jesus says, "well done." Then we get our rewards.
Exactly :nod

[ZeroHour]

Isaiah 43:25 (Amplified Bible)
25I, even I, am He Who blots out and cancels your transgressions, for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

I dont know if this will help or not


Isn't that THE most beautiful statement in the world!

"I WILL NOT REMEMBER YOUR SINS" Wow and WOW! :nod

[Jesus is coming]

Isn't that THE most beautiful statement in the world!

"I WILL NOT REMEMBER YOUR SINS" Wow and WOW! :nod

:nod :nod :nod

[Patience4Him]

I love this topic and its interests me because..
1. I hope its personal between the Lord and I , as Ive said in other posts.
2. I dont really think that it will matter at that point. We will be with God Himself so there will be no worries, comparisons, jealousies(sp?), etc.

[Live4Jesus]

Exactly :nod

:yay I finally got it!! :):

[RobinB]

One book I strongly recommend, its called "The Bema". Its fiction, but its a lovely book of a man standing before Christ and seeing his life as Christ saw it. Very thought provoking and eye-opening book.


Do you mean the novel of that name by Tim Stevenson? That's an excellent read--the author's main character goes through the Rapture and ultimately to the Bema. :thumb

[OwnedByJesus]

So is it like this then?
We see our sin - what our fleshly nature did, feel shame, Jesus wipes our tears away and says in a nut shell, "forgiven and forgotten." Then we see those things that were of God and Jesus says, "well done." Then we get our rewards.

So simple and that is what is so hard to grasp @ times. This is what is so amazing about our loving God; that He loved us while we were still sinners and paid such an enormous price for us. Praise Him!

How amazing is our God, what other god can do such as He? (Happy Cry here)

:clap

As He covered the shame of Adam and Eve by the cost of blood; so He covered ours and clothed us in righteousness by the shedding of His blood.
So it is not our shame nor sin that is seen, but the righteousness that He has covered us in. :thumb

Amazing grace, unfailing love.
My God, my savior.

Forever will I praise Him!
:clap

[ed braski]

I have seen this a lot lately - about how we are going to answer to God for our actions.

You're born again. After you are saved, you sin. You realize what you have done. You repent (you still feel really guilty about what you did though). You know that you are forgiven because scripture says we are forgiven when we repent.

My question is, will we have to answer for those sins even if we have repented of them?

I've heard people say we will have to give an account for the sins we have committed after we were saved and that will determine our rewards. Basically we will get punished for sinning in that instead of having a mansion, we will have an outhouse.

But I've heard others say that once you are forgiven, your sins are also forgotten. And that's that.

I am really concerned because I have committed some very serious sins since I've been saved - so serious that I haven't told a soul what I have done. I have repented and I know that God has forgiven me, but am I going to be punished?

My heart truly grieves over the thought of it. I feel very guilty for what I've done. I just want peace about this.

I always look at it like a bank account. Although all born-again will receive a crown not all will have the same status in heaven. Mansions will be different as a reward for service to Christ.

How much money will you make for your own personal bank account depends on the service to Christ. Some will have more, and we will receive a reward for the things done in your body for service to Christ. SIns will not be remembered for that is Gods justice is satisfies in Jesus and the reason Christ died on the cross. To justify sinners.

Sinning after being savrd will not add to the amount on the postive side for you. Its like gaps for you. Rewards can add up to much as long as we are in the body. Some much, some little. But the bottom line is SAVED as to saved by fire. Just barely making it for some.

[Funmudder]

Even an outhouse in heaven is far more desirable than a mansion in hell ;):