Daniel in London asks, in Hebrews 8.12 it says God will remember our sins no more, however,

in Matthew 12.36 it says we will have to give an account for every careless word spoken.

If God remembers our sins no more, why do we have to give an account?

Pastor John, how do we reconcile these seemingly contradictory verses?

That's a good question.

And let's start with the fact that there will be a judgment of believers.

Let's be careful though, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ,

Jesus, Romans 8.1, and that now is very precious, right? There is now no condemnation, which means

as Jesus says, you will not come into judgment, that is, you will not have to be condemned ever.

Your sentence is over, not guilty, righteous before the living God, and the reason, of course,

is because we have been united to Christ, his punishment became our punishment, and his

resurrection became our resurrection. We're already sitting at the right hand of God, and we have

passed from death to life, and therefore in that sense we don't come into judgment, there's no

condemnation. Nevertheless, clearly we're going to come into a judgment according to our

works. Revelation 2012 says there are books being written, and there's a book. The book of life

is the book in which if your name exists, you have life forevermore, and the books are where

your works are written, and those books, I believe, will reveal the evidence that your name does

belong in the book of life. But the book of life is the book of the life that was slain before

the foundation of the world, and therefore the ground for being in the book of life is not

that you've earned it, or that your works merit it, but that the one who was slain is your

savior. So what then is this judgment according to works? And Paul describes it in 1 Corinthians 3,

he says, if the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.

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