One Judgment Seat of God and of Christ

I want you to tell me, you heretic, whether the one who, as the apostle tells us, speaks in him in this passage is man or God. If he is a man, how can another person’s body speak in his heart? If he is God, then Christ is not a man but God. For since Christ spoke in the apostle, and only God could speak in him, it was a divine Christ who spoke in him. So you see that there is nothing to be said here; no division or separation can be made between Christ and God, because complete divinity was in Christ, and Christ was completely in God. No dividing or severing of the two can be allowed here. There is only one simple, devout and sound confession to make: to adore, love and worship Christ as God. [a]

But do you want to understand more fully and thoroughly that no separation is to be made between God and Christ, and that we must hold God to be wholly one with Christ? Hear what the apostle says to the Corinthians: “For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what belongs to the body, according to what he has done, whether good or evil.” But in another passage, writing to the Romans, he says: “We shall all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, ‘As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.’” You see, then, that the judgment seat of God is the same as that of Christ. So understand without any doubt that Christ is God; and when you see that the substance of God and of Christ is wholly inseparable, admit too that the person cannot be severed. Unless, of course, because the apostle said in one letter that we would be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ, and in another before that of God, you invent two judgment seats and imagine that some will be judged by Christ and others by God. But that is foolish and wild, madder than the ravings of a madman. So acknowledge the Lord of all, the God of the universe; acknowledge the judgment seat of God in the judgment seat of Christ. Love life, love your salvation, love the one by whom you were created. Fear the one by whom you are to be judged. For whether you like it or not, you must be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ. Then, laying aside your wicked blasphemy and the childish talk of unbelieving words, though you think the judgment seat of God is different from that of Christ, you will come before the judgment seat of Christ, and you will find, by evidence no one can dispute, that the judgment seat of God is indeed the same as that of Christ, and that in Christ the Son of God there is all the glory of God the Son and the power of God the Father.

“For the Father judges no one, but has committed all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father.” For whoever denies the Father denies the Son as well. “Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either; whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.” So you should learn that the glory of the Father and of the Son is inseparable, and their majesty inseparable too, and that the Son cannot be honored without the Father, nor the Father without the Son. But no one can honor God and the Son of God except in Christ, the only Son of God. For it is impossible for anyone to have the Spirit of God, who is to be honored, except in the Spirit of Christ, as the apostle says: “But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him.” And again: “Who will bring any charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who counts them righteous. Who is the one who condemns? It is Christ Jesus who died, yes, rather, who rose again.” So you see now, even against your will, that there is no difference at all between the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ, or between the judgment of God and the judgment of Christ. Choose, then, whichever you like, for one of the two must happen: either acknowledge in faith that Christ is God, or admit, at your condemnation, that God is in Christ.