How do you make sense of the many passages which tell us we will be judged by our works, in the light of the teaching about justification by faith?

Here are a few:

Matthew 25:31-46 People are judged by how they treated Christ’s
brothers and sisters

Revelation 20:11-15
All people are judged by what they have done

2 Corinthians 5:10 We must appear before the judgment seat of Christ
to receive what is due us for the things done in the body.

These are only 3 of many, many passages.

What are we to do with them? Some people think the verses about
justification by faith nullify these verses. If so, how?

In a discussion on the Yahoo theology list, of which I am a co-moderator, some people have been rather tough on a bloke who is trying to see a way of making sense of both sets of passages, which does not simply ignore the passages about judgment according to works.

I think a lot of evangelicals have not developed a thelogy which makes sense of both.

Hi Andrew
I’m not satisfied that the judgment in 1 Cor 3 and in Rev 20 are 2 different ones.
How may we know they are different?Where does Rev 20 indicate that the judgment of all people, small and great, is of all except believers?  [Not very keen on David Cloud as a source, either!]

Good question David.

Andrew that’s an interesting view, have I understood correctly that you are saying that salvation and judgement are two different things, sort of a two step process?  First step is belief, so believers are saved by the blood of Christ and then the believers are judged in step two according to their works?

Probably I should check scripture but isn’t there the idea in scripture (Romans?) that there is a judgement of works which because we are in Christ we will survive due to Christ’s righteousness being imputed to us. If so the judgment of works still happens, it’s just that it is not our works that save us but Christ’s works that do.

Does John 6:29 help at all? It’s very possible I’m quoting it out of context, but it did jump into my mind when reading this thread.

“Jesus answered them,"This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Will this “work”, perhaps, form the basis for judgement of both believers and non-believers?

Don’t know if this helps.....

Hi Andrew
My pastor, Rodney Macready is not a Dispensationalist. [Otherwise we would not have called him!]

But I will ask him.

Do you know Rodney?

Hi Andrew
I thought this was an interesting discussion point. I’m not saying I don’t have ideas of my own.

I think one of the best treatments is in Caneday and Schreiner’s The Race Set Before Us

On a slightly different track, in reformed theology we understand that in addition to being the means of driving us to Christ (Gal 3:23f), the Law provides us with the a model of obedience for a life of gratitude that the man and women in Christ lives. In the Heidelberg Catechism, the Law is placed in the 3rd part (1st part Man’s misery, 2nd part man’s salvation, 3rd part man’s gratitude). Therefore the Law remains important for the life of the believer.

Of course the good works that we might do are by virtue of our union with Christ. However Luther helpfully and truly points out that even the works that we do, being in Christ, are still tainted with sin (lest we get uppity). Thus theses 5&6;of the Heidelberg Disputation:

6. The works of God (we speak of those which he does through man) are thus not merits, as though they were sinless.

7. The works of the righteous would be mortal sins if they would not be feared as mortal sins by the righteous themselves out of pious fear of God.

I studied Luther’s 28 Heidelberg disputation theses one year during study leave and found them a great blessing.

You can find his theses here. He also offered proofs for each one which by hunting around you can find as well.

Hi David and all,

I too think this is a good discussion point, and something I sometimes struggle with.  I don’t think that dividing the judgements into two separate judgements does justice to Matthew chapter 25, where the Lord says, those who “gave me something to eat...something to drink, invited me in, clothed me ... etc” will take the inheritance of the kingdom, and those who “gave me nothing to eat...etc” will go “into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels”.  It certainly sounds, on the surface at least, like a judgement of salvation and damnation, and by works. 

The only time I can recall it being preached upon, the preacher chose to use the passage to impress upon us the fact that one day there is going to be a judgement, and that the real believers will go to heaven, and those who are not, to hell.  I’m certain that verses 35-40 and 42-45 were ignored, because I was pretty shocked that the reading wasn’t expounded at all (in the way Bible passages usually were in our church), but I was quite young at the time and a bit nervous to talk about it with the preacher, who has a senior position in our denomination.  I think I’m still a bit nervous to talk about it, for fear of the sort of treatment you say the bloke on the Yahoo group got, but I can identify strongly with needing to make sense of both sets of passages.

There are other passages too, for example, Matthew 7:21 “not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven”.

Having sat under a lot of “only believe” type of preaching recently, which gave little or no place for the need for repentance, my feeling at the moment is that the two sets of passages can be reconciled if the idea of believing/faith means more than mental assent to a set of propositions.  But it’s late and I’ve had a long day, so I think I’ll stop for now before I put my foot in it.

Caroline

Sorry David, I really don’t see why it is necessary to find conflict or precedence between faith and works. Perhaps they are in balance, perhaps they are the same in God’s perception. When Quantum Mechanics is studied along side scripture, then we may find an answer if it exists.

Caneday and Schreiner argue convincingly that the reward is salvation. They argue that there is no other prize than the prize of life forever with Christ.

They also argue that this is given by grace and that the Father energises those who belong to him to persevere and claim the prize.

Where does the bible talk about some people’s reward in heaven being bigger than some others?

David,

You might find a Briefing article by Matt Olliffe, which was also published on this website, a worthwhile read. It deals with justification by faith and judgment according to works.

http://your.sydneyanglicans.net/indepth/articles/what_will_happen_on_judgement_day/

cheers
Angels

Hi Angela
I had that article in the back of my mind, but you dug it out! Thanks

Hi Andrew. What do you think of the article that Angela posted a link to?

There was also a good one on this rewards topic in The Briefing, issue 297. Written by Tim Thorburn, AFES Perth staffworker, the article comes maybe halfway between the point of view that the reward is salvation and the view that there are various rewards for faithful service.

Thorburn uses the Australian Cricket team winning the 2003 World Cup as an illustration of how to view the bible’s teaching of rewards, and how not to. He points out that the Aussie team received 2 million dollars for their prize, but that the real prize was winning.

He rightly argues that the rewards in the age to come are not like the money, but like the joy of winning.

He suggests that the reward for winning people for Christ is the people themselves as our brothers and sisters in Christ sharing God’s kingdom with us forever.

I think you would find the article interesting. If you pm me with your email address, I am permitted to send it to you down the curly cord.

My tentative answer on 1 Corinthians 3, Andrew. The reward is that the gold, silver and precious stones you built onto the foundation of Christ have lasted and have survived the testing fire. So the reward in this passage is praise from God and that your work has endured.

The wood, hay and stubble are things that are shoddy, and do not last. The loss is that you see that your work was ultimately worthless and has not endured.

I found David Garland’s Baker Exegetical Commentary helpful in thinking through this.

Thanks for pushing me to think this through.