Principles of God’s Judgment: Deeds (Part 2)

Romans 2:6-10

⁶ who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: ⁷ eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; ⁸ but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, ⁹ tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; ¹⁰ but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Judgment by deeds, or works, is clearly taught in the Old Testament. The Lord instructed Isaiah to declare, “Say to the righteous that it will go well with them, for they will eat the fruit of their actions. Woe to the wicked! It will go badly with him, for what he deserves will be done to him” (Isa. 3:10-11). Through Jeremiah, God proclaimed even more specifically, “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds” (Jer. 17:10).

Jesus reiterated that principle of judgment, teaching that “the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and will then recompense every man according to his deeds” (Matt. 16:27). On another occasion He said, “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment” (John 5:28-29).

Paul, the great apostle of salvation by grace alone through faith alone, consistently taught that God’s judgment of believers as well as unbelievers will be based on works. “He who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor” (1 Cor. 3:8). He goes on to explain,

No man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire. (1 Cor. 3:11-15)

Again speaking to believers Paul writes, “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10). Even in that wondrous epistle of grace Paul declares, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary” (Gal. 6:7-9).

God does not judge on the basis of religious profession, religious relationships, or religious heritage. But among other standards, He judges on the basis of the products of a person’s life. An issue on the day of judgment will not be whether a person is a Jew or Gentile, whether he is a heathen or orthodox, whether he is religious or irreligious, or whether he attends church or does not. An issue will be whether or not his life has manifested obedience to God. On that day “each one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Rom. 14:12).

The subjective criterion for salvation is faith alone, with nothing added. But the objective reality of that salvation is manifested in the subsequent godly works that the Holy Spirit leads and empowers believers to perform. For that reason, good deeds are a perfectly valid basis for God’s judgment.

A person’s actions form an infallible index to his character. “You will know them by their fruits,” Jesus twice declared in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 7:16, 20). The works of a person’s life are one of the unchanging bases upon which God will judge men. Every man will one day face the divine Judge, who has a comprehensive record of that man’s deeds, and by that record, the man’s eternal destiny will be determined.

It must be made clear, of course, that although Scripture, both Old and New Testaments, teaches that judgment is by works, it nowhere teaches that salvation is by works. “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Thy name give glory because of Thy lovingkindness, because of Thy truth” (Ps. 115:1). Whatever good a person has or does comes by God’s gracious provision, and only He should be given credit and praise for those things. “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act,” the Lord declared through Isaiah. “For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another” (Isa. 48:11). God will save whom He will save, and His sovereign grace completely excludes works righteousness.

Speaking of the New Covenant in His Son, Jesus Christ, God promised ancient Israel:

Behold, days are coming … when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them.… But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,… I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (Jer. 31:31-33)

The essence of the New Covenant is God’s extension of mercy and grace to unworthy people. The work of salvation is entirely by God’s sovereign and gracious will and power. “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance,” Paul said, “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. And yet for this reason I found mercy, in order that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience” (1 Tim. 1:15-16). To all believers the apostle says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast” (Eph. 2:8-9).

But if salvation is wholly by faith, then how do works enter the picture? Paul continues his great statement in Ephesians 2 by saying, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (v. 10). The same apostle admonished the Philippian believers to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12). In other words, the life that is saved by faith is to give evidence of that salvation by doing God’s work. Outward godly works are the evidence of inner faith.

Salvation is not “by” works, but it will assuredly produce works. The presence of genuinely good deeds in a person’s life reveals that he has truly been saved, and in God’s infallible eyes those deeds are a perfectly reliable indicator of saving faith. In the same way, the absence of genuinely good deeds reveals the absence of salvation. In both cases, deeds become a trustworthy basis for God’s judgment. When God sees works that manifest righteousness, He knows if they have come from a regenerated heart. And when He sees works that manifest unrighteousness, He knows if they come from an unregenerate heart.

In Romans 2:1-16 Paul is not talking about the basis for salvation but the basis for judgment. He does not begin discussing salvation as such until chapter three. In the present passage he is talking about deeds as one of the elements, or principles, God employs in judgment. He is discussing the evidences of salvation, not the means or basis of it. This is very important to understand if we are to understand this chapter.  He is saying that if a person is truly saved, there will be outward evidence of it in his life. If he is not saved, there will be no such evidence. Every believer falls short of God’s perfect righteousness and sometimes will fall into disobedience. But a life that is completely barren of righteous deeds can make no claim to being redeemed.

In Romans 2:7-10 Paul draws a clear line between two classes of people, the only two classes that exist: the saved and the unsaved. He focuses first on the determinative deeds of the redeemed (v. 7), next on the determinative deeds of the unredeemed (vv. 8-9), and then again on the deeds of the redeemed (v. 10).

The need for the emphasis of the accountability of man cannot be emphasized strongly enough.  Nor can the difference between the basis of salvation – the righteous works of Christ, and the measure of the presence of salvation – the righteous fruits of the redeemed!