Question:
In II Corinthians 5:10, it reads: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."
Then in Hebrews 8:12, it reads: "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."
These two verses are confusing to me. Maybe I am wrong, but I always thought that they were connected to each other in some way. Are our sins completely wiped away or will they be remembered in some way?
Answer:
You are adding more into II Corinthians 5:10 than what it says.
When God forgives men of their sins, their past sins are forgotten. "I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins" (Isaiah 43:25). Thus, when we are judged by the things we have done in this body -- that is, while on earth -- it will be remembered that we repented of our sins and that God forgave us.
"But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live. "Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?" says the Lord GOD, "and not that he should turn from his ways and live?"" (Ezekiel 18:21-23).
But God warns that it goes the other way as well.
"But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin which he has committed, because of them he shall die" (Ezekiel 18:24).
God looks at who we are at the time of our deaths. He looks at all that we have done, both the good and the bad. It isn't a weighing to see if the good outweighs the evil. It is an examination of who we were at the point of death -- a complete and accurate reflection of the kind of person we were in life. Such doesn't require a complete accounting of every single deed we did from birth to death, it just needs a complete accounting of what we were doing with our lives at the end.
