Only those who have been justified-believers-will be present. This is a judgment of the believer’s works. Once we have been placed in Christ, we are expected to do good works as the result of our union with Christ (Ephesians 2:10). These good works flow from His Spirit within us; they are the ministries we perform by cooperating with the Spirit’s work through us. These works flow from our spiritual union with. Christ as naturally as fruit grows from the vine (John 15:1-6).  

We will be judged as to how we invested our natural, physical resources in the service of God. To whom did we yield our members? (Romans 6:11-23). Did we use our bodies and minds to please ourselves, or did we give them in cooperation with the Holy Spirit in the service of God? We will also be required to give account of our stewardship regarding the deposit of God’s Spirit He placed within us. Did we bury our gifts or did we seek to excel in their development for the edification of the church? We will receive the payoff of our investments, whether good or “worthless” at the Judgment Seat of Christ. We will reap according to what we sowed (Galatians 6:7-9).  

 Only works done since being placed in Christ will be judged. What we did before we were redeemed was judged in the person of Christ, our substitute, at the Judgment of the Cross.  

 The only works tried are those “built upon the foundation” of Christ.

… But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble …. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward (1 Corinthians 3:10-12, 14).  

 The New Covenant guarantees that God will never call to remembrance the things we did before being placed in Christ (Psalm 103:10-12; Isa. 38:17; 44:22; Micah 7:19).

 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more (Hebrews 8:12).  

We become different people by coming to Christ -new creatures-and God regards us as such, never linking us with the persons we used to be.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Corinthians 5:17).