There will be no watching of a video of our lives in heaven, going over it with a fine-toothed comb. We are already pleasing to God!

12 Apply your heart to instruction [study, study, study the Bible] and your ears to words of knowledge [make application of the Bible using the Bible].

Romans 14:10 is usually paired with 2 Corinthians 5:10, which says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” It sounds an awful lot like we will watch a replay of our lives. Not so! The judgment here has to do with Lordship here in this life. Verse 11 of Romans 14 says, It is written, ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.'” (Isaiah 45:23). Paul uses this same verse in Philippians 2:9-11, but adds a couple of references to Jesus,

⁹ Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
    and gave him the name that is above every name,
¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
¹¹ and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Paul emphasizes that it is our allegiance to Jesus Christ about which this passage is referring. In fact, it is in Jesus that this verse is fulfilled, and it brings glory to the Father.

Verse 12 says, “So then, each of us will give an account of our selves to God” concerning Jesus’ Lordship in our lives while on earth. I believe that there will be a time when we all stand before the great throne, God the Father in the center and Jesus at His right hand, and each of our names will be called. When my name is called, I will step out and Jesus will receive me as His own while God gets all the glory (He’s smiling, too). I’ll get the team t-shirt (a white robe) and give high-five’s for an extended period as all the saints that have gone before me wait for me to slap their hands. Actually, I’m sure that the entire ceremony will be so glorious and awesome that I can’t even imagine! But, it is exactly that, a ceremony. We have already passed from death to life (John 5:24) and are clothed in the righteousness of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21, Isaiah 61:10). We will have received our immortal bodies and will have passed from flesh to spirit–NO SIN NATURE! (1 Corinthians 15:42-49), “And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man [Adam], so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man [Jesus].”

Paul summed it up for us in the next few verses of 1 Corinthians 15,

⁵¹ Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— ⁵² in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ⁵³ For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. ⁵⁴ When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

To summarize, the verse is not talking about a detailed account of our lives that we review in heaven, but our daily decision to “bow the knee.” It’s our allegiance to Christ that makes us stand confidently before His throne not only in the future, but right now! Hebrews 4:16 and Ephesians 3:12 tell us so.

Abba, may we all bow our knees and our wills to You every day. “Not my will, but Thy will be done.” Those are Jesus’ words; may they be mine, as well. Amen.