Judged by my True Character
For 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?
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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.
Dave.L
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
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