{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-1918","native_reference":{"book_number":540,"chapter_from":5,"chapter_to":5,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":10,"verse_to":10},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Ambrosiaster</b>: If we are going to receive what we have done in the body, it is clear that we shall not be judged without a body, good or bad. Paul does not say \"in the flesh,\" because the deeds of the flesh always deserve punishment, but \"in the body,\" because sometimes the body acts spiritually and sometimes it acts carnally.<br/><i>— COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES</i></p><p><b>Augustine of Hippo</b>: Christ judges all things because when he is with God he is above all.<br/><i>— ON TRUE RELIGION 58</i></p><p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: Those who drag in a doctrine of moral indifference do violence to some few passages of Scripture, thinking that they support their own love of pleasure; in particular, the passage \"Sin shall have no authority over you; for you are not subject to sin but to grace.\" But there are other such passages, which there is no good reason to record for these purposes, as I am not equipping a pirate ship! Let me quickly cut through their attempt. The admirable apostle in person will refute their charge in the words with which he continues the previous quotation: \"Well then! Shall we sin because we are no longer under law but under grace? God forbid!\" With these inspired prophetic words, at a single stroke he undoes the sophistical skill at the service of pleasure. So they have not understood, it seems, that \"we must all appear before Christ's tribunal, where each must receive what is due to him for his physical conduct, good or bad,\" that is, where a person may receive recompense for what he has done by means of his body. So then, \"if any man be in Christ he is a new creation,\" no longer inclined to sin; \"old things are passed away,\" we have washed off the old life; \"behold new things have happened,\" there is chastity instead of fornication, continence instead of incontinence; righteousness instead of unrighteousness.<br/><i>— The Stromata Book 3</i></p><p><b>Cyprian</b>: That Jesus Christ shall come as a Judge. ...Likewise according to John: \"The Father judgeth nothing, but hath given all judgment to the Son, that all may honour the Son as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father who hath sent Him.\" So too in the second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: \"We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may bear the things proper to his body, according to those things which he hath done, whether they be good or evil.\"<br/><i>— Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews</i></p><p><b>Cyprian</b>: That nothing that is done is hidden from God. ...Also in the Apocalypse: \"And all the churches shall know that I am the searcher of the reins and heart; and I will give to every one of you according to his works.\" Also in the eighteenth Psalm: \"Who understands his faults? Cleanse Thou me from my secret sins, O Lord.\" Also in the second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians: \"We must all be manifested before the tribunal of Christ, that every one may bear again the things which belong to his own body, according to what he hath done, whether good or evil.\"<br/><i>— Treatise XII Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews</i></p><p><b>Cyril of Alexandria</b>: From this we learn that the soul was not punished for sins committed before it acquired a body. In fact, the soul did not exist before the body.<br/><i>— LETTER 81.4</i></p><p><b>Desert Fathers</b>: A brother asked Ammon, 'Speak a word to me.' He said to him, 'Go and meditate like the criminals in prison. They keep asking, where is the judge, when will he come? and because they are waiting for him they dread their punishment. The monk should always be waiting for his trial, chiding his soul, saying: \"Alas, how shall I stand before the judgement seat of Christ? How shall I give an account of my actions?\" If you always meditate like this, you will be saved.'<br/><i>— The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks</i></p><p><b>Fulgentius of Ruspe</b>: Human beings … because they have been made rational will render an account to God for themselves and for all the things which they have received for use in this present life and, according to the nature of their works, will receive either punishment or glory. \"For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or bad.\" … Therefore, eternal life will be given in the future only to the one to whom forgiveness of sins has been given in this world. Only he will receive forgiveness of sins here who renounces his sins and hastens to the highest and true God with true conversion of heart. For that [judgment] will not be a time of forgiveness but of retribution. There mercy will not justify the sinner, but justice will distinguish the just and the sinner.<br/><i>— ON THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS 2.6.1</i></p><p><b>John Chrysostom</b>: Seeing then he has persuaded them by many good things, henceforth he alarms them also by those of gloomier aspect. For our interest consists both in the attainment of the good things and the avoidance of the evil things, in other words, hell and the kingdom. But since this, the avoiding of punishment, is the more forcible motive; for where penalty reaches only to the not receiving good things, the most will bear this contentedly; but if it also extend to the suffering of evil, do so no longer: (for they ought, indeed, to consider the former intolerable, but from the weakness and grovelling nature of the many, the latter appears to them more hard to bear:) since then (I say) the giving of the good things doth not so arouse the general hearer as the threat of the punishments, he is obliged to conclude with this, saying, \"For we must all be made manifest before the judgment-seat.\" Then having alarmed and shaken the hearer by the mention of that judgment-seat, he hath not even here set down the woful without the good things, but hath mingled something of pleasure, saying, \"That each one may receive the things done in the body,\" as many as \"he hath done, whether\" it be \"good or bad.\" By saying these words, he both reviveth those who have done virtuously and are persecuted with those hopes, and maketh those who have fallen back more earnest by that fear. And he thus confirmed his words touching the resurrection of the body. 'For surely,' sayeth he, 'that which hath ministered to the one and to the other shall not stand excluded from the recompenses: but along with the soul shall in the one case be punished, in the other crowned.' But some of the heretics say, that it is another body that is raised. How so? tell me. Did one sin, and is another punished? Did one do virtuously, and is another crowned? And what will ye answer to Paul, saying, \"We would not be unclothed, but clothed upon?\" And how is that which is mortal \"swallowed up of life?\" For he said not, that the mortal or corruptible body should be swallowed up of the incorruptible body; but that corruption [should be swallowed up] \"of life.\" For then this happeneth when the same body is raised; but if, giving up that body, He should prepare another, no longer is corruption swallowed up but continueth dominant. Therefore this is not so; but \"this corruptible,\" that is to say the body, \"must put on incorruption.\" For the body is in a middle state, being at present in this and hereafter to be in that; and for this reason in this first, because it is impossible for the incorruption to be dissolved. \"For neither doth corruption inherit incorruption,\" saith he, (for, how is it [then] incorruption?) but on the contrary, \"corruption is swallowed up of life:\" for this indeed survives the other, but not the other this. For as wax is melted by fire but itself doth not melt the fire: so also doth corruption melt and vanish away under incorruption, but is never able itself to get the better of incorruption.<br/><i>— Homily 10 on 2 Corinthians</i></p><p><b>Origen of Alexandria</b>: Why do we ourselves not believe that we all will stand \"before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may obtain the things proper to the body according to what he has done, whether good or evil\"? If we would believe these things entirely, there would be applied to us what was written, \"Redemption of a man's soul is his wealth.\" But how can we either know or believe or understand these things when we indeed do not come together to hear them? For who of you, when the Scriptures are read, really pays attention? God through the prophet threatens indeed in great anger, \"I will send famine upon the earth; not a famine of bread or the thirst of water but a famine of hearing the word of God.\" But now God has not sent \"a famine\" upon his church nor \"a thirst to hear the word of God.\" For we have \"living bread which came down from heaven.\" We have \"living water springing up into eternal life.\" Why in this time of fruitfulness do we destroy ourselves by famine and thirst? It is the mark of a lazy and lingering soul to suffer want in all this abundance.<br/><i>— HOMILIES ON Leviticus 9.5</i></p><p><b>Polycarp of Smyrna</b>: And let the presbyters be compassionate and merciful to all, bringing back those that wander, visiting all the sick, and not neglecting the widow, the orphan, or the poor, but always \"providing for that which is becoming in the sight of God and man;\" abstaining from all wrath, respect of persons, and unjust judgment; keeping far off from all covetousness, not quickly crediting [an evil report] against any one, not severe in judgment, as knowing that we are all under a debt of sin. If then we entreat the Lord to forgive us, we ought also ourselves to forgive; for we are before the eyes of our Lord and God, and \"we must all appear at the judgment-seat of Christ, and must every one give an account of himself.\" Let us then serve Him in fear, and with all reverence, even as He Himself has commanded us, and as the apostles who preached the Gospel unto us, and the prophets who proclaimed beforehand the coming of the Lord [have alike taught us]. Let us be zealous in the pursuit of that which is good, keeping ourselves from causes of offence, from false brethren, and from those who in hypocrisy bear the name of the Lord, and draw away vain men into error.<br/><i>— Epistle to the Philippians 6</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: These evidences, then, of a stricter discipline existing among us, are an additional proof of truth, from which no man can safely turn aside, who bears in mind that future judgment, when \"we must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, to render an account of our faith itself before all things.<br/><i>— The Prescription Against Heretics</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: In this view it is that he informs us how \"we must all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according as he hath done either good or bad.\" Since, however, there is then to be a retribution according to men's merits, how will any be able to reckon with God? But by mentioning both the judgment-seat and the distinction between works good and bad, he sets before us a Judge who is to award both sentences, and has thereby affirmed that all will have to be present at the tribunal in their bodies.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Since, however, there is then to be a retribution according to men's merits, how will any be able to reckon with God? But by mentioning both the judgment-seat and the distinction between works good and bad, he sets before us a Judge who is to award both sentences, and has thereby affirmed that all will have to be present at the tribunal in their bodies.<br/><i>— Against Marcion Book V</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: \"That every one,\" as he goes on to say, \"may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.\" Now I ask, how do you read this passage? Do you take it to be confusedly constructed, with a transposition of ideas? Is the question about what things will have to be received by the body, or the things which have been already done in the body? Well, if the things which are to be borne by the body are meant, then undoubtedly a resurrection of the body is implied; and if the things which have been already done in the body are referred to, (the same conclusion follows): for of course the retribution will have to be paid by the body, since it was by the body that the actions were performed.<br/><i>— On the Resurrection of the Flesh</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: Still, although liberated from their offices, they will be yet preserved for judgment, \"that every one may receive the things done in his body.\" For the judgment-seat of God requires that man be kept entire.<br/><i>— On the Resurrection of the Flesh</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"72df75d6709359877b6dda8ce822f41b88f533940f7a463c5a20bb422d6216b4","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":1918,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"30fd3e330872b22638c8a07eda922601e43e19e43bf097e1c6cccfea5a43364b","translator":null,"work":null}