Principles of God’s Judgment: Deeds (Part 3)

Romans 2:7

⁷ eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality;

(Verse 7) – To them—Whoever they may be.

Patient continuance—Who by perseverance in well doing, or in a good work. It means that they who so continue, or persevere, in good works as to evince that they are disposed to obey the Law of God. It does not mean those who perform one single act, but those who so live as to show that this is their character to obey God. It is the uniform doctrine of the Bible that none will be saved but those who persevere in a life of holiness, Rev. 2:10; Matt. 10:22; Heb. 10:38-39. No other conduct gives evidence of piety but what continues in the ways of righteousness. Nor has God ever promised eternal life to people unless they so persevere in a life of holiness as to show that this is their character, their settled and firm rule of action. The words well doing here denote such conduct as shall be conformed to the Law of God; not merely external conduct, but that which proceeds from a heart attached to God and his cause.

Seek for—This word properly denotes the act of endeavoring to find any thing that is lost, Matt. 18:12; Luke 2:48-49. But it also denotes the act when one earnestly strives, or desires to obtain anything; when he puts forth his efforts to accomplish it. Thus, Matt. 6:33, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God,” etc. Acts 16:10; 1 Cor. 10:24; Luke 13:24. In this place it denotes an earnest and intense desire to obtain eternal life. It does not mean simply the desire of a sinner to be happy, or the efforts of those who are not willing to forsake their sins and yield to God, out the intense effort of those who are willing to forsake all their crimes, and submit to God and obey his laws.

True salvation is manifested in a believer’s perseverance in doing good, and the highest good he can do is to seek for glory, and honor and immortality. Although those three terms seem to be used here almost as synonyms, they carry distinct meanings. Together they describe a believer’s heavenly perspective and aspirations.

Glory and honor and immortality - The three words used here, denote the happiness of the heavenly world. They vary somewhat in their meaning, and are each descriptive of something in heaven, that renders it an object of intense desire. The expressions are cumulative, or they are designed to express the happiness of heaven in the highest possible degree. The word “glory” denotes properly praise, celebrity, or anything distinguished for beauty, ornament, majesty, splendor, as of the sun, etc.; and then it is used to denote the highest happiness or felicity, as expressing everything that shall be splendid, rich, and grand. It denotes that there will be an absence of every thing mean, grovelling, obscure. First, the highest and most wonderful desire of a believer is glory, above all, God’s glory. A person who does not have such a desire deep within him cannot be a true believer. “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God,” Paul admonishes (1 Cor. 10:31). To live to the glory of God is to manifest the very nature of God as a willing vehicle for His own divine working.

A believer also seeks glory for himself, not in the fleshly, self-seeking way that is common to fallen human nature, but by looking forward to his sharing God’s own glory some day when his salvation is perfected (see Rom. 8:21, 30; 2 Thess. 2:14; cf. Ps. 17:15). We know that any “momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17) and that “when Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then [we] also will be revealed with Him in glory” (Col. 3:4). In seeking this heavenly glory it is really a seeking of Christlikeness. Paul had it in mind when he penned Philippians 3:10-14, 20, 21:

that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

… For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory; by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

This kind of seeking for glory is very difficult for us to understand because we are yet in our flesh and are still plagued by self.  When we think of seeking for glory, we are thinking of seeking credit for ourselves.  But that is not what is meant here.  One of the greatest desires of the redeemed heart and one of the greatest pleasures of the redeemed life is to see the character and person of God exalted and uplift before men.  When we glory, we glory in Him, and not in ourselves.  That may be difficult, but it isn’t impossible!

The word “honor” implies rather the idea of reward, or just retribution - the honor and reward which shall be conferred in heaven on the friends of God. It stands opposed to contempt, poverty, and want among people. Here they are despised by people; there, they shall be honored by God.  Second, a true believer seeks honor, again not the worldly honor that most men long for but the honor that comes from God, the honor of His saying, “Well done, good and faithful slave; you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things, enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:21).

Immortality - That which is not corruptible or subject to decay. It is applied to heaven as a state where there shall be no decay or death, in strong contrast with our present condition, where all things are corruptible, and soon vanish away. These expressions are undoubtedly descriptive of a state of things beyond the grave. They are never applied in the Scriptures to any condition of things on the earth. This consideration proves, therefore, that the expressions in the next verse, indignation, etc. apply to the punishment of the wicked beyond the grave.  So, third, a true believer seeks immortality, the day when his perishable body “must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:53).  The idea is that we seek “the immortal” as opposed to the mortal.  It is not a reference to salvation, but to the idea and hope of heaven and eternal life.

Paul is not discussing how a person comes to salvation or how God produces Christlikeness in him. He is describing what the life of a true believer is like, pointing out that those divinely-bestowed qualities will eventuate in the final glory of the divinely-bestowed eternal life. John beautifully states that basic truth at the end of his first epistle: “We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, in order that we might know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5:20).

Eternal life is not simply a quantity of life, although by definition it lasts through eternity. But even the unsaved will have eternal existence, an existence which will be everlasting death and punishment (2 Thess. 1:9; Rev. 14:9-11). Eternal life, however, is first of all a quality of life, the life of God in the soul of man. Speaking of his own eternal life, Paul said, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me” (Gal. 2:20).

Thought Paul’s point in the present passage is that a person who possesses the life of God will reflect the true character of God, and that it is on the basis of that reflected godly character that he will be judged. It is just as impossible for a person having eternal life to indefinitely fail to reflect something of God’s character as it would be for him to indefinitely hold his breath. Eternal life induces spiritual breathing just as surely as physical life induces bodily breathing. One writer succinctly noted that “works without redemptive aspiration are dead works. Aspiration without good works is presumption.”

Justification by faith alone does not negate works of righteousness in the believer’s life. Scripture makes clear that just as surely as we are saved by our faith we will be judged by our works. When in sovereign grace God receives a sinner at the time of his conversion, He asks nothing but that he believe in Jesus Christ and submit to Him. But from that moment on, the believer enters into a responsibility of obedience, and the mark of his new spiritual life becomes his obedience to God. Faith in Christ does not produce freedom to sin and to do as we please but freedom from sin and a new, God-given desire and capacity to do what pleases Him.

James makes the relationship between faith and works explicitly clear:

What use is it, my brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. But someone may well say, “You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?… For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. (James 2:14-20, 26)

In Romans 2:7 Paul is focusing on the completed, fulfilled eternal life that comes after the final judgment, when the eternal state begins. This completed eternal life will be rendered according to the salvation evidenced by those good deeds a believer has manifested during his life on earth (v. 6).

I need to be preaching and putting forth the clear and abundant connection between the true presence of faith and the evidences of that true faith in my preaching.