After having been saved, we can be assured of our eternal security. However, we must be clear concerning the matters of the kingdom. The kingdom to us today is an exercise, and the kingdom to us in the next age is a reward. Although we can be assured of our eternal security, whether we will enjoy a reward or suffer loss in the future remains to be seen.
When the Lord returns, He will set up His judgment seat in the air to judge all the resurrected and raptured believers. This judgment will not decide the saints’ eternal salvation, because their salvation has been settled once for all. This judgment will decide whether or not the believers are qualified to enjoy the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens as a reward. This judgment will also decide whether or not the believers will need some kind of chastening, some kind of punishment, to help them to ripen. Second Corinthians 5:10 and Romans 14:10 are two verses telling us about this judgment seat. This judgment is different from the eternal judgment of God carried out at the great white throne revealed in Revelation 20:11-15. The eternal judgment at the great white throne will be to judge all the unbelievers for eternal punishment in the lake of fire. The judgment seat of Christ, however, is not for salvation or eternal perdition but for reward or punishment.
The five warnings in the book of Hebrews are also related to the matter of the kingdom (2:1-4; 3:7—4:13; 5:11—6:20; 10:19-39; 12:1-29). The rest referred to in chapters 3 and 4 of Hebrews will be the kingdom rest enjoyed by the overcoming believers in the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens. In the Old Testament the children of Israel were saved by the passover and were all delivered from Egypt, but not all of them entered into the land of Canaan, which typifies Christ as our rest (Deut. 12:9; Heb. 4:8). Among those who enjoyed the exodus from Egypt, only Joshua and Caleb entered into the good land and partook of it; all the rest fell in the wilderness (Num. 14:30; 1 Cor. 10:1-11). Two Israelites who had died before the exodus from Egypt also made it into the good land—Jacob and Joseph (Gen. 50:5-6; Josh. 24:32). Caleb and Joshua represent the living saints, and Jacob and Joseph represent the dead saints, who will enjoy Christ as their reward in the kingdom. If we do not understand the kingdom truths, we can never understand the book of Hebrews in a full way.
In each of the seven epistles written to the seven churches in Asia in the book of Revelation there is a call for some overcomers and a reward promised to the overcomers. This reward is also something related to the kingdom (Rev. 2:7, 10-11, 17, 26-29; 3:4-6, 11-13, 20-22).
First Corinthians 10:32 shows us the three classes of people in the New Testament times: (1) the Jews—God’s chosen people; (2) the Greeks—the unbelieving Gentiles; (3) the church—a composition of the believers in Christ.
The church, of course, is composed of the regenerated persons, the true believers, who are separated from the world. In the age of the millennium some of the believers will not be fully transformed, but the overcomers will be fully transformed. They will be ready for the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem is the ultimate composition of all the saved, transformed ones in the New Testament and all the redeemed saints of the Old Testament. The believers who are not transformed in this age will be transformed in the next age. All of these transformed, redeemed ones will be composed together in the age of eternity to be the New Jerusalem.