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God judges all people by their deeds and justifies some by grace.
Listen to Graham Maxwell, a well-known preacher, as he explains, from the letter to the Galatians, his view of the Atonement and of Justification.
This article begins by showing that God will judge all people by their ‘deeds’. This message is clear from the entire Bible. Some believe that Paul taught something different but this article shows that he had the same message.
Given that God judges all people by their ‘deeds’, this article first explains why Paul also said that nobody will be justified by “the works of the law” (e.g., Gal 2:16). To do that, this article explains “the works of the Law” are very different from the ‘deeds’ by which God judges people:
In the early decades of the Church, some Jewish Christians claimed that, to be saved, Gentile Christians must be circumcised and observe the law of Moses (cf. Acts 15:5). It was to oppose this view that Paul wrote that “man is not justified by the works of the Law” (Gal 2:16). “The works of the law,” therefore, refer to the external ceremonies and rituals of the Law of Moses by which the Jews attempted to justify themselves before God.
This article shows that Christians are not subject to the law of Moses. The “deeds” by which God judges people can be either good or bad deeds (e.g., Rom 2:6-8). For that reason, these ‘deeds’ are not the same as the requirements of the Law of Moses and, therefore, different from “the works of the law.” This article argues that these ‘deeds’ are judged against God’s eternal moral principles.
To say that people are judged by their deeds does not contradict the statement that nobody is “justified” by the “works of the law” because these two statements assume two very different laws or norms for human behavior.
The third main section of this article addresses the question, if people are judged by their deeds, why did Paul also say that God justifies people “by grace … through faith” (e.g., Eph 2:8)?
It argues that God judges us by our ‘deeds’ but those ‘deeds’ do not ‘justify’ us because we are all sinners. God judges all people by their deeds but then justifies only some “as a gift by His grace” (Rom 3:24, 9). In other words, people are judged by their deeds but saved by grace:
The fourth main section of this article asks, if people are judged by their deeds but saved by grace, why did Paul also write that people are saved “through faith” (Eph 2:8; Rom 5:1). Why is faith also required?
This article argues that faith is not something that God judges. Faith is simply the believer’s response to the realization that God is merciful and kind, not wishing that anyone should die. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16). If He loved us so much that He was willing to sacrifice His Son, we can trust Him for our salvation. ‘Faith’, therefore, should rather be translated as “trust.”
There is another possible explanation for the role of faith. This article shows, since human beings are unable to live sinless lives, that God does not judge people by their actual ‘deeds’ but by the ‘deeds’ they would like to do. In other words, God judges the inner being, which is the same as saying that He judges the person’s faith.
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This principle is well established in the Scriptures. For example:
The Old Testament and Jesus consistently taught that people will be judged by their deeds. For example, Jesus said:
“The hour comes when all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, And shall come forth;
– they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and
– they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28-19).
“Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned” (Matt 12:36-17).
“The Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works” (Matt 16:27).
As another example, in Christ’s parable of the separation of the sheep and the goats as an analogy of the final judgment, He said:
“I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me” (Matt 25:31-)
In the Revelation of Jesus Christ, He said:
“I will give unto every one of you according to your works” (Rev 2:23).
Later, John “saw the dead, small and great, stand before God… they were judged every man according to their works“ (Rev 20:12-13).
Many think that Paul taught that people will “reap corruption” or “eternal life” (Gal 6:8) irrespective of what kind of people they are and what they do. It may, therefore, be a surprise to some that Paul also taught that we will all be judged by our deeds:
“We will all stand before the judgment seat of God” (Rom 14:10).
“God … will render to each person according to his deeds:
– to those who by perseverance in doing good … eternal life;
but
– to those who … obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation” (Rom 2:6-8; cf. 2:9-13).
“If you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Rom 8:13).
“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” (2 Cor 5:10).
“Those who practice such things (“the deeds of the flesh”) will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal 5:19, 21; cf. Rom 2:13; 14:10; Gal 6:7-8; 11:15; 2 Tim 4:14).
See Smashing Idols for some more examples.
Paul said that nobody will be “justified by the works of the Law” (Gal 2:16; cf. Rom 3:20). Why, then, did he also say that God will judge us by our deeds and that “the doers of the Law will be justified” (Rom 2:13)?
To answer this question, we understand both what is meant by “deeds” and by “the works of the Law.”
In the early decades of the Church, there was a controversy in the church over whether Gentile Christians must observe the law of Moses (cf. Acts 15:5). To argue why they must, certain Jewish Christians told Gentile Christians:
“Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1).
It was to oppose this claim that Paul wrote:
“Man is not justified by the works of the Law” (Gal 2:16).
The “Law” in this phrase, therefore, refers to the Law of Moses.
This article sometimes refers to these Jewish Christians as “Jews” because what they did was to continue the Jewish thinking in the church.
The primary issue in this controversy was circumcision (Acts 15:1; Gal 5:2-3; 6:12-15). However, once the Gentiles are circumcised, all the other requirements of the Law of Moses must naturally follow, for these Gentiles would have become members of Judaism through circumcision. The purpose of these Jewish Christians, therefore, was to ensure that Gentile Christians comply with the entire Law of Moses.
Circumcision is not intrinsically a moral deed; it is a legal requirement. For this reason, and because Paul said that nobody will be justified by these “works,” “the works of the law” do not refer to moral deeds but specifically to the external ceremonies and rituals of the Law of Moses by which the Jews attempted to justify themselves before God.
As can be seen in the quote above, these Christian Jews used the Law both as the norm for human behavior and as the means of salvation. Consequently, in their view, grace is not required; you earn salvation through the ceremonies and rituals.
Our purpose is to understand why God judges people by their “deeds” if nobody will be justified by “the works of the Law.” Above we explained what “the works of the Law” are. The purpose of this current section is to explain what these “deeds” are:
Paul uses the word “law” often in his writings but with different meanings. For example:
The first five books of the Bible; the books of Moses, as in the phrase “the Law and the Prophets” (e.g. Rom 3:21),
“The book of the law” (Gal 3:10), meaning the book which Moses wrote up and put beside the ark, or
The Ten Commandments specifically (e.g. Rom 13:10).
The Acts 15 Church Council decided that Gentile Christians do not have to observe the Law of Moses. God gave the Law to Israel to serve as their guardian, but only “until the seed would come” (Gal 3:19). Paul, therefore, proclaimed the “freedom” (Gal 5:1, 13) and “liberty which we have in Christ Jesus” (Gal 2:4) from the Law of Moses.
Paul referred to “the Law of Christ” (e.g. Gal 6:2). In another place, Paul wrote that he, himself, is:
“Not … under the Law … though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ” (1 Cor 9:20-21).
This statement refers to three ‘laws’:
Both the Law of Christ and the Law of Moses are God’s laws, but they are two distinct ‘laws’ and we are subject only to the “Law of Christ.” It would be wrong to strive to comply with the Law of Moses, except to the extent to which Christ incorporated the principles of that law into His teachings.
Christ gave this law through His own teachings. For example, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus discussed some of the Ten Commandments and some other Old Testament laws, but then gave His own version of those laws, starting with the words, “But I say to you” (e.g., Matt 5:44). This is, in other words, how Jesus formulated His law.
Jesus enacted “the Law of Christ” when He said:
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations … teaching them to observe all that I commanded you” (Matt 28:19-20).
This ‘law’ was passed on by the apostles. For example:
The “commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus” (1 Thess 4:2).
The ‘law’, as explained by Christ, refers to God’s eternal moral principles. See the article Law of Christ for further discussion.
The “deeds” by which God judges people can be either good or bad deeds. For example:
“God … will render to each person according to his deeds:
– to those who by perseverance in doing good … eternal life;
but
– to those who … obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation” (Rom 2:6-8).
For that reason, these ‘deeds’ are not the same as the requirements of the Law of Moses and, therefore, different from “the works of the law.” Rather, they refer to the standards for moral behavior. Consequently, the ‘law’ to which Paul referred in his statement, “the doers of the Law will be justified” is “the Law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). It is against this “Law” that our “deeds” are judged:
Those that sin will die, for “the wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23).
But those that “are putting to death the deeds of the body, … will live” (Rom 8:13). (See Eternal Life and Death.)
There is another reason why these two systems are different, namely:
In the Jewish “works of the law” system, grace is not required; you earn salvation and save yourself through the external rituals and ceremonies (works) of the Law of Moses.
In contrast, as explained below, in the Christian system, deeds can never justify a person, God judges people by their deeds but saves them by grace.
To say that people are judged by their deeds does not contradict the statement that nobody is “justified” by the “works of the law” because these two statements assume:
In this section, the question is, if people are judged by their deeds, why did Paul also say that God justifies people “by grace … through faith” (Eph 2:8; cf. Gal 2:16, 20; 3:2, 5-9, 11, 14, 22, 24, 27; 5:5)?
People are unable to comply with God’s eternal moral principles as reflected in the Law of Christ:
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23; cf. Rom 3:9).
“The Scripture has shut up everyone under sin” (Gal 3:22).
So, no person deserves eternal life. When we read that all will be judged on the basis of their “deeds,” that does not mean that people earn redemption through their deeds. Nobody will be saved (justified = put right with God) strictly on the basis of good deeds. If we were to be judged only by our deeds, we are all doomed.
Rather, those people who are elected by God on the basis of their deeds are “justified as a gift by His grace” (Rom 3:24, 9). In other words, people are judged by their deeds but saved by grace:
This means that God’s judgment is subject to His grace, which is His merciful kindness:
Eternal life is “the free gift of God … in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23).
“By grace you have been saved” (Eph 2:5).
If people are judged by their deeds but saved by grace, why did Paul also write that people are saved “by grace … through faith” (Eph 2:8; Rom 5:1). Why is faith also required? This may be understood in one of two ways:
1. Faith is not something that God will judge. Faith is simply the believer’s response to the realization that God loves us and judges in mercy.
OR
2. Faith determines our desire to do God’s will and God does not judge us by the deeds we literally do but by the deeds that we want to do. So, to say that God judges our deeds is to say that God judges our faith.
Both these answers seem right. So, below I provide arguments for both:
It sometimes seems as if Paul is saying that God will evaluate our faith to determine whether we will be saved. For example:
“A man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law” (Rom 3:28).
“Gentiles … attained righteousness … by faith; but Israel … pursue it … by works” (Rom 9:30-32).
However, it is proposed in this section that faith is not something that you must do. It is not another requirement for justification. You will be judged by your deeds; not on the basis of your faith.
If that is true, what is faith?
As stated, in Jewish thinking, you don’t need God because you earn salvation through your “works.” In contrast, for Paul, since man is saved by grace, salvation is always subject to God’s judgment.
But we also know that God is merciful and kind, not wishing that anyone should die. We know that He will only do what is best for every one of His creatures:
“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16).
Since we know that God loves us (e.g., 1 John 4:8), and since we know that we cannot do anything for our own salvation, we can and must trust God for our salvation. That is the meaning of “faith.” It is our response of trust in God and our reliance on His mercy.
This means that grace and faith cannot be separated. Grace is what God gives. Faith is not a requirement for God’s grace; it is our response to God’s grace:
“It is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace” (Rom 4:16)
To have “faith”, therefore, does not simply mean to believe that God exists. “The demons also believe, and shudder” (James 2:19). The Greek word can also be translated as “trust,” and that is perhaps a more appropriate translation than “faith.”
In this alternative answer to the question of what ‘faith’ is, God evaluates or judges our faith but, for the following reasons, faith is the same as or the driver of ‘deeds’:
God does not judge us by the evil we DO but by the good that we WANT to do.
In Romans 7, Paul describes himself as someone who wants to do what is right and good but he actually does the opposite; he does what he hates (Rom 7:14-15, 18-20, 21-23). In this, Paul represents all Christians.
But, despite his evil deeds, Paul had the assurance of salvation (Rom 7:24-25). That means that Paul was not judged by the evil “deeds” that he actually does but by the good “deeds” that he would like to do.
This applies to all Christians: Since we are unable to meet God’s standards, if He judged us only by our evil external deeds, we would all have been doomed. But God judges us by grace. For that reason, He judges us by the good ‘deeds’ we want do to. God will save the people who want to comply with His law, even though they most often fail. Such people are regarded as “doers of the law” (Rom 2:13).
We can then argue that both the things we ‘want’ to do and ‘faith’ reflect the inner being of the person and, therefore, are either the same thing or ‘faith’ determines what we ‘want’ to do. In that case, if God judges the one, He also judges the other.
Listen to Graham Maxwell, a well-known preacher, as he explains, from the letter to the Galatians, his view of the Atonement and of Justification.