Answers for a Friend – Kingdom Points
March 30, 2003
Dear Friends,
The next to last question in this series is “Is the salvation for eternal life based on God’s judgement of good versus sin you have done?”
Many people have the conception in their minds that the Judgment Seat is going to have some sort of mystical scale that weighs our good deeds versus our sins. If we have done enough good deeds to overcome our sins, we can tip the scales in our favor. This unfortunate thinking comes from a salvation by works model and is very legalistic thinking. As we explained last week, it is our faith which saves us. Yet, we cannot discounts the works altogether. Deeds do factor into our Judgment, but not in the way we may think that they do. The Bible states this clearly. “And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, ACCORDING TO THEIR DEEDS.” (Rev. 20:12 NASB) Jesus speaking in Matthew 25 ties a person’s actions to their reward or condemnation at Judgment. Somehow, we have to balance the concepts to see how they come together.
The Bible says “to one who knows the right things to do, and does not do it, to him it is sin.” (James 4:17 NASB). This is pretty scary stuff. What it means is that not only are we sinning when we do bad things, we are sinning when we fail to do good things. Some refer to these sins as sins of commission (things we do) and sins of omission (things we should have done but did not do). I would submit that purely on the basis of sins of omission, none of us would survive the balance scenario of Judgment. We are all blessed immensely that it is on the basis of faith and grace that we are saved and not on the basis of merit.
So how do works fit into the picture? Our actions should flow from our faith. They are cause and effect. We should not create our own scale in our head to count our “points” toward salvation. We should not do good deeds to earn “Kingdom points.” The Pharisees did good works, but they did them with the wrong attitude to the extent that Jesus attacked their “good” works as just for show. The best motivation for our good deeds other than faith are love for God, Christ and our fellowman as well as thankfulness for what God and Christ have done for us. Actions based upon faith, love and thankfulness rather than fear, guilt or earning “Kingdom points” are what pleases God.
Paul in his letter to the brethren at Ephesus puts the matter into proper perspective. “…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.” Yet, he does not end there, as many people do when reading this passage. Paul goes on by saying “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus FOR GOOD WORKS, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Eph. 4:8-10 NASB) It is by grace that faith that saves us. Our actions are a litmus test of what we believe. If we are not “doers of the word”, it is because our faith is weak or nonexistent. Read Hebrews 11 – “the faith chapter” – and notice all of the action words. These people believed and then acted. This is the model for the faithful.
“Is the salvation for eternal life based on God’s judgement of good versus sin you have done?” No. The basis for Judgment is did you have the faith of Abraham – a faith which compels you to acts of faith and hinders you from living a life of sin. If we think we are faithful people, but are not doing the works of God, we are fooling ourselves.
Have a great week!
