Salvation By Grace Alone and The Judgement Of Our Lives According To Our Works
Page 4 ⇦ Previous | Next ⇨ Page 6
Judgement According to Our Works
The other pole, that Paul, the champion of salvation by grace and of justification by faith addresses in the text that we read at the beginning in 2 Corinthians 5 is the one of Judgment according to our Works. Here he speaks, not about our standing on the judgement day because of Christ's righteousness imputed to us through faith alone; instead, he speaks about the judgement of our lives according to what we have done. He makes it quite explicit when he calls it "the judgement of our lives according to what we have done while in the body whether good or bad. The good things will be considered, and the bad things will be considered, and we will receive what is due us.
Had you been standing above the shoulder of the Apostle Paul after reading Romans and learning of God's grace from the great Apostle, wouldn't you have tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Paul, are you sure you wanna say that? Are sure you wanna put it that way?"
Let me put this very plainly to you: Paul considered with a seriousness that I think very few Christians do typically: the fact that his life and his service and his obedience as a Christian was one day going to be brought into account. He was one day going to have to answer for the way he served the Lord; for the commandments he kept and the commandments he failed to keep.
"As we rejoice in the ruins of our righteousness", one puritan put it, "We are also now duty-bound, and for our own sake in the prospect of the judgement day, to practice righteousness, as Paul says here, "in the fear of the Lord". That prospect motivated Paul in his service in the gospel ministry. He says, "Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men". It compelled him onward in the faithful discharge of his service which we know from the New Testament was often very difficult, very dangerous and very frustrating. He made it his goal to please the Lord, devote himself for the gospel's advance: at least for one reason (there are others that Paul gives us) -- but one of the reasons was that he knew that the day was coming sooner than anyone thinks when he was going to have to give an account of his life and to give an account of his Christian service before an all-knowing judge. He was to give an account in regard to every part of his life, day and night, thoughts, words and deeds. He knew that a record was being kept: a record that would someday be open and according to which, he would be judged.
At times when he was tempted to do something else than his duty, Paul had the same experience as the Church father, Jerome, who said, "Whether I eat or drink, or whatever I do; I think I hear the sound of these words in my ear, 'Arise you dead and come to judgement'".
This passage in 2 Corinthians is not by any means the only one in which Paul speaks of himself as living under the shadow of divine judgement. "Woe is me!", he says, "If I preach not the Gospel" --- that is in 1 Corinthians 9; and at the end of that chapter is the text we read in our previous message in which Paul was saying, "I do not run like a man running aimlessly, I do not fight like a man beating the air. I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." This is a remarkable thing for the Apostle Paul to say!
Now, this is a part of the Bible's teaching that isn't nearly so much considered, at least in the American church. I can't say what is true in the Ugandan church but, I can tell you for a fact that there are a great many Christians who are sitting on the pews on Sunday morning of a Presbyterian church in America congregations (the denomination in which I serve), who have never once in all their lives, had a sermon in 2 Corinthians 5:10.
We are less enthusiastic about that idea. We through our arms gladly around one pole: Salvation by grace or by the mercy and gift of God as we should; but this other pole on the side is less welcome, less easy for us to face.
If the truth be told, we sometimes whish Paul had never said what he said in 2 Corinthians 5. Or what he said in Romans 14:12 that "Each of us must give an account of himself to God." We wish we didn't have to read as we do in Revelation 14:13 that "our deeds will follow us to heaven". Or in Revelation 20:12 where it is written that "The dead will be judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books".
The ministers and elders shudder to a special degree to hear that they are men who have to give an account of their stewardship and of the exercise of their responsibility in the church. And we are taken aback when the Lord Jesus tells us in Matthews 12 saying, "I tell you that men will have to give an account on the day of judgement for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquited, and by your words, you will be condemned."
By the way, a careless word or an idle word, doesn't mean a joke. It doesn't mean a comment about the weather. In the Bible, careless words, Idol words, are the promises we made to God that we didn't keep. They are the commitments that we didn't follow through on.
Everything we say to God, in the Lords day worship and then dies in the days that follow; It doesn't produce obedience of love and reverence in our lives. Much as we might not have thought having learnt that our guilt was struck away by the mighty work of God and that we have been made perfectly righteous by the imputation of the righteousness of the Son of God; it is our doctrine because it is the doctrine of the word of God that only the obedient will stand on the day of judgement and that there will be different measures of reward dispensed to the saints just as there will be different measures of judgement dispensed to the wicked. And that doctrine is based on the Bible's own plain-speaking: "some will rule 10 cities and some will rule 5".
Paul certainly thought that the prospect of appearing before Christ to give an account of his life, to have his life examined and measured, was a force in his daily living. He knew that a judgement that considered the faithfulness of the Christian life did not in any way contradict the gospel of free grace and justification by faith alone, however it may produce a certain tension with it. And he knew that God being infinitely holy, would take seriously the lives His children lived; and being infinitely just, He would make appropriate distinctions between them.
Paul knew this and it galvanised him to action. It set him to work. It made him the most careful steward of his days and nights; a faithfull work in the kingdom of God; an evangelist at all costs, bringing the gospel to the lost. It made him patient in baring his afflictions and his sufferings and the difficulties of his life. It made him faithful. It made him quick to repent of his sins. And if we are wise, the same expectation of our coming appearance before the Lord Jesus, the judge of all the earth on the great day, will have the same holy effect, getting us up and working for the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour just as it did to the Apostle of the Gentiles.
A little while ago, I read an article in he Learned Journal, that argued that all of these statements, some of which I have quoted to you in this message, from the various places in the New Testament about the judgement of our lives according to what we have done, all those statements had to be read differently, had to be interpreted differently because the writer was sure that if we took that seriously, that on the great day, the books are going to be opened and we are going to be judged according to what we have done whether good or bad and receive in turn what is due us, as Paul had said her -- he was sure that if we took those statements seriously, we couldn't any longer believe that salvation was by grace alone. But that now somehow, we had brought back into the equation our own works, our own merits, our own righteousness.
But do you see how typical that error is? He is embracing one pole and he is ignoring the other. One teaching is preferred but the other is liked much less. And in this case, it is almost always the salvation by grace pole that is preferred; and the judgment according to our works pole that is ignored!
Page 4 ⇦ Previous | Next ⇨ Page 6
Judgement According to Our Works
The other pole, that Paul, the champion of salvation by grace and of justification by faith addresses in the text that we read at the beginning in 2 Corinthians 5 is the one of Judgment according to our Works. Here he speaks, not about our standing on the judgement day because of Christ's righteousness imputed to us through faith alone; instead, he speaks about the judgement of our lives according to what we have done. He makes it quite explicit when he calls it "the judgement of our lives according to what we have done while in the body whether good or bad. The good things will be considered, and the bad things will be considered, and we will receive what is due us.
Had you been standing above the shoulder of the Apostle Paul after reading Romans and learning of God's grace from the great Apostle, wouldn't you have tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Paul, are you sure you wanna say that? Are sure you wanna put it that way?"
Let me put this very plainly to you: Paul considered with a seriousness that I think very few Christians do typically: the fact that his life and his service and his obedience as a Christian was one day going to be brought into account. He was one day going to have to answer for the way he served the Lord; for the commandments he kept and the commandments he failed to keep.
"As we rejoice in the ruins of our righteousness", one puritan put it, "We are also now duty-bound, and for our own sake in the prospect of the judgement day, to practice righteousness, as Paul says here, "in the fear of the Lord". That prospect motivated Paul in his service in the gospel ministry. He says, "Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men". It compelled him onward in the faithful discharge of his service which we know from the New Testament was often very difficult, very dangerous and very frustrating. He made it his goal to please the Lord, devote himself for the gospel's advance: at least for one reason (there are others that Paul gives us) -- but one of the reasons was that he knew that the day was coming sooner than anyone thinks when he was going to have to give an account of his life and to give an account of his Christian service before an all-knowing judge. He was to give an account in regard to every part of his life, day and night, thoughts, words and deeds. He knew that a record was being kept: a record that would someday be open and according to which, he would be judged.
At times when he was tempted to do something else than his duty, Paul had the same experience as the Church father, Jerome, who said, "Whether I eat or drink, or whatever I do; I think I hear the sound of these words in my ear, 'Arise you dead and come to judgement'".
This passage in 2 Corinthians is not by any means the only one in which Paul speaks of himself as living under the shadow of divine judgement. "Woe is me!", he says, "If I preach not the Gospel" --- that is in 1 Corinthians 9; and at the end of that chapter is the text we read in our previous message in which Paul was saying, "I do not run like a man running aimlessly, I do not fight like a man beating the air. I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." This is a remarkable thing for the Apostle Paul to say!
Now, this is a part of the Bible's teaching that isn't nearly so much considered, at least in the American church. I can't say what is true in the Ugandan church but, I can tell you for a fact that there are a great many Christians who are sitting on the pews on Sunday morning of a Presbyterian church in America congregations (the denomination in which I serve), who have never once in all their lives, had a sermon in 2 Corinthians 5:10.
We are less enthusiastic about that idea. We through our arms gladly around one pole: Salvation by grace or by the mercy and gift of God as we should; but this other pole on the side is less welcome, less easy for us to face.
If the truth be told, we sometimes whish Paul had never said what he said in 2 Corinthians 5. Or what he said in Romans 14:12 that "Each of us must give an account of himself to God." We wish we didn't have to read as we do in Revelation 14:13 that "our deeds will follow us to heaven". Or in Revelation 20:12 where it is written that "The dead will be judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books".
The ministers and elders shudder to a special degree to hear that they are men who have to give an account of their stewardship and of the exercise of their responsibility in the church. And we are taken aback when the Lord Jesus tells us in Matthews 12 saying, "I tell you that men will have to give an account on the day of judgement for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquited, and by your words, you will be condemned."
By the way, a careless word or an idle word, doesn't mean a joke. It doesn't mean a comment about the weather. In the Bible, careless words, Idol words, are the promises we made to God that we didn't keep. They are the commitments that we didn't follow through on.
Everything we say to God, in the Lords day worship and then dies in the days that follow; It doesn't produce obedience of love and reverence in our lives. Much as we might not have thought having learnt that our guilt was struck away by the mighty work of God and that we have been made perfectly righteous by the imputation of the righteousness of the Son of God; it is our doctrine because it is the doctrine of the word of God that only the obedient will stand on the day of judgement and that there will be different measures of reward dispensed to the saints just as there will be different measures of judgement dispensed to the wicked. And that doctrine is based on the Bible's own plain-speaking: "some will rule 10 cities and some will rule 5".
Paul certainly thought that the prospect of appearing before Christ to give an account of his life, to have his life examined and measured, was a force in his daily living. He knew that a judgement that considered the faithfulness of the Christian life did not in any way contradict the gospel of free grace and justification by faith alone, however it may produce a certain tension with it. And he knew that God being infinitely holy, would take seriously the lives His children lived; and being infinitely just, He would make appropriate distinctions between them.
Paul knew this and it galvanised him to action. It set him to work. It made him the most careful steward of his days and nights; a faithfull work in the kingdom of God; an evangelist at all costs, bringing the gospel to the lost. It made him patient in baring his afflictions and his sufferings and the difficulties of his life. It made him faithful. It made him quick to repent of his sins. And if we are wise, the same expectation of our coming appearance before the Lord Jesus, the judge of all the earth on the great day, will have the same holy effect, getting us up and working for the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour just as it did to the Apostle of the Gentiles.
A little while ago, I read an article in he Learned Journal, that argued that all of these statements, some of which I have quoted to you in this message, from the various places in the New Testament about the judgement of our lives according to what we have done, all those statements had to be read differently, had to be interpreted differently because the writer was sure that if we took that seriously, that on the great day, the books are going to be opened and we are going to be judged according to what we have done whether good or bad and receive in turn what is due us, as Paul had said her -- he was sure that if we took those statements seriously, we couldn't any longer believe that salvation was by grace alone. But that now somehow, we had brought back into the equation our own works, our own merits, our own righteousness.
But do you see how typical that error is? He is embracing one pole and he is ignoring the other. One teaching is preferred but the other is liked much less. And in this case, it is almost always the salvation by grace pole that is preferred; and the judgment according to our works pole that is ignored!
Page 4 ⇦ Previous | Next ⇨ Page 6
