2 Corinthians 5:18
2 Corinthians 5:1818All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
Witnesses affirm that Christians are reconciled to God through Christ's ransom sacrifice — but on their system, the reconciliation is preliminary, not complete. Final standing depends on continued obedience to Jehovah's organisation, field service, meeting attendance, and enduring faithfully through Armageddon. ("all things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ") describes the initial reconciliation offered on the basis of the ransom; full reconciliation awaits after the millennium.
Read verses 18-19 as one unit. Paul says God "reconciled us to himself through Christ... not counting their trespasses against them." That second clause — not counting their trespasses — is the decisive grammatical fact. The reconciliation Paul describes already includes the non-reckoning of sin. If God still counted trespasses against believers at the final judgment, the reconciliation of verse 18 would be a half-measure — a down payment that could be revoked.
This settles the question raises about the judgment seat. The "receiving what is due for what he has done" in verse 10 cannot be a re-reckoning of sins, because verses 18-19 say God has stopped reckoning sins. What is evaluated at the judgment seat is the believer's fruit — rewarded or burned up () — not the verdict on salvation itself, which has already been settled. Verse 21 completes the picture: Christ became sin for us so that "in him we might become the righteousness of God." Righteousness located in Christ, permanently and objectively — not a renewable organisational status.