Again this will be a continuation or the last post without rehashing it…

I’ll start out looking at a question that Hugh raised on the last post.

Matt. 25:33-40 is about separating sheep from goats, not separating sheep from sheep. Wouldn’t that take it out of the “rewards” category and put it into a discussion about judgment?

This goes to the whole question of the nature of the judgment. There will clearly be a separation of sheep and goats. Then, under some views of rewards, Jesus would have to gather the sheep and line them back up again for the ‘reward judgment.’ Now, that may be how it turns out to be, but that’s not how I see it. There is an important aspect of the judgment to keep in mind that we (as Protestants) sometimes miss…

We will be judged based on our good works.

Now before you go get a stake and fire firewood, hear me out. First, I’d like to properly give credit to this teaching by John Piper for greatly helping me firm up my thinking on this.

We have several clear passages that tells us that we will be judged by our deeds… 2 Corinthians 5:10 says “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” We also have Jesus saying “For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.” in Matthew 16:27 and “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done.” Revelation 22:12.

I can word it no better than Piper does here…

Now the more difficult question: why is it important? Why are the deeds done in the body the evidence in this courtroom? Is the aim of this judgment to declare who is lost and who is saved, according to the works done in the body? Or is the aim of this judgment to declare the measure of your reward in the age to come according to the works done in the body?

I think the answer of the New Testament is both. Our deeds will reveal who enters the age to come, and our deeds will reveal the measure of our reward in the age to come. I will show you in just a moment why I think this, but let me mention the biggest problem for many Christians in saying this. It sounds to many like a contradiction of salvation by grace through faith. Ephesians 2:8 says, “By grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God—not of works lest anyone should boast.” Salvation is not “of works”. That is, works do not earn salvation. Works do not put God in our debt so that he must pay wages. That would contradict grace. “The wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 6:23). Grace gives salvation as a free gift to be received by faith, not earned by works.

How then can I say that the judgment of believers will not only be the public declaration of the measure of our reward in the kingdom of God according to our deeds, but will also be the public declaration of our salvation—our entering the kingdom—according to our deeds?

The answer in a couple sentences is that our deeds will be the public evidence brought forth in Christ’s courtroom to demonstrate that our faith is real. And our deeds will be the public evidence brought forth to demonstrate the varying measures of our obedience of faith (cf. Rom. 12:3; 1Thess. 1:3; 2 Thess. 1:11). In other words, salvation is by faith, and rewards are by faith, but the evidence of invisible faith in the judgment hall of Christ will be a transformed life. Our deeds are not the basis of our salvation, they are the evidence of our salvation. They are not foundation, they are demonstration.

You can see that Piper holds the same view as Grudem on rewards, but what he’s said here applies to the view that I’m developing equally well. I’m skipping a few paragraphs where Dr. Piper makes a case for varying rewards for believers, but then he says this…

That leads us to the second purpose of the judgment. The first, was that the judgment makes a public demonstration of the varying degrees of reward that Christians receive for the exercise of their faith in obedience. The second purpose of the judgment is to declare openly the reality the faith and the salvation of God’s people by the evidence of their deeds. Salvation is owned by faith. Salvation shown by deeds. So when Paul says (in v. 10) we “will be recompensed . . . according to what we have done,” he not only means that our rewards will accord with our deeds, but also our salvation will accord with our deeds.

Why do I think this?

There are numerous texts that point in this direction. One is Paul’s letter to the Romans 2:5-7 where he refers to “The revelation of the righteous judgment of God,” and then says (in v. 6-8), “[God] will render to every man according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality [he will render] eternal life; but to those who . . . do not obey the truth . . . [he will render] wrath and indignation.” In other words, just as our text says, the judgment is “according to what a person has done.” But here the issue is eternal life versus wrath.

Several times Paul listed certain kinds of deeds and said, “those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10). In other words when these deeds are exposed at the judgment as a person’s way of life, they will be the evidence that their faith is dead and they will not be saved. As James said in James 2:26, “Faith without works is dead.” That is what will be shown at the judgment.

Jesus put it like this—and he used exactly the same words for good and evil deeds that we have here in 2 Corinthians 5:10. He said (in John 5:29), “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.” In other words the way one lived will be the evidence whether one passes through judgment to life or whether one experiences judgement as condemnation.

He says even though five verses earlier in John 5:24 he said, “Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes has eternal life.” To hear and to believe is to have eternal life—it is by grace through faith. But when that faith is real—not dead—the life will change and Jesus can say, with no contradiction: the deeds of this life will be the public criteria of judgment in the resurrection. Because our works will are the evidence of the reality of our faith. And it is faith in Christ that saves.

Let me close with an illustration that I think makes clear how deeds will function in the final judgment. Remember the story of how two harlots brought a baby to king Solomon, each claiming that the baby was hers (1 Kings 3:16-27). They asked king Solomon to act as judge between them. He said that a sword should be brought and that the baby should be divided and half given to the one and half to the other. The true mother cried out, “O, my lord, give her the child and by no means kill it.” Solomon said, give this woman the child, for she is its mother.

What was Solomon looking for? He was not looking for a deed that would earn the child. He was looking for a deed that would prove that the child was already possessed by birth. That is the way God looks at our deeds. He is not looking for deeds that purchase our pardon in his judgment hall. He is looking for deeds that prove we are already enjoying our pardon. The purchase of our pardon was the blood of Jesus, sufficient once for all to cover all our sins. And the means by which we own it is faith—and faith alone.

My contention is that the reward is the experience of having our deeds judged by Christ to have been evidence of our faith. Some will experience great joy for they have many deeds that prove their faith, while some of us will have few.

That’s it in a nutshell, but there are a few loose ends yet. One of the biggest is the parable of the talents. That one sounds awfully like the Grudem/Piper view where specific rewards will be handed out as part of the judgment. I’ll try to deal with that one next.