Saved by Grace, but Judged by the Law? (Part 1)

Two central themes throughout the bible are salvation and judgment. Some mistakenly assume that salvation is being saved from judgment, but the scriptures say otherwise. On one hand, the writings of the New Testament make it very clear that salvation is a gift:           

Ephesians 2:8-9

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.

On the other hand, the bible says consistently from cover-to-cover that we will be judged by our works:

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

Again, at the end of the New Testament:

Revelation 20:11-13

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it… And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened… The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books… each person was judged according to what he had done.

How is it that we are simultaneously saved by grace, but also judged by the law? (You may want to read Do You Need the Law? as a preface). Let’s examine exactly what it means to be “saved by grace through faith.” First of all, it is clear that grace is something that is imparted from God, and He will not give it to us unless we have faith in Him. But what is God’s grace, and from what are we saved? The latter question is more apparent than the former: we are saved from death.

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We all deserve death because we have all sinned. Through baptism, we share in the death of Christ, and our sins are forgiven so that God keeps no record of them, as though they never occurred. Sin is defined as the transgression of God’s law (1 John 3:4), and we must be perfectly righteous in order to enter God’s Kingdom. God’s grace is that He will make us righteous:

Galatians 2:21

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!

Christ was righteous. He died in order to make us righteous. That’s what grace is: God making us righteous. What made Christ righteous in the first place? It was the fact that he never broke the law. The law defines and distinguishes between righteous behavior and sinful behavior. The point that Paul is making here is that you can only be righteous according to the law if you have never broken the law; but, since we have all sinned already, we are ineligible to enter God’s Kingdom on our own merit by adhering to the law. Keeping the law can’t erase our record of wrongdoing, but God’s law requires that we have a spotless record. The grace of God is that He forgets our sins when we repent and accept the sacrifice of Christ.

Is that the end of the story though? You can’t make yourself righteous by keeping the law, but, once you are made righteous by God’s grace, you are obligated to do your best to maintain righteousness:

Romans 6:1-2

Shall we go on sinning that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live any longer in it?

This implies a continual process of repentance leading to salvation throughout one’s life, and this process is referenced throughout the entire gospel, since Paul even says in Philippians 3:12, “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect.” But how can we be assured of our salvation then, since we admittedly fall short, even by our best efforts?

Philippians 1:6

He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

God knows that our best efforts aren’t good enough. He knows that even though He puts His Spirit in us, which enables us to keep His law, that we will at times walk according to the flesh rather than the Spirit, contrary to our goal of serving God, because we are weak. If we truly follow God and diligently seek Him, then He will complete the work that He has started in us by removing the weakness of our flesh, making us fully spiritual beings (1 Corinthians 15:44). The hope that we have in the resurrection is not that we will merely have eternal life, but that we will be free from the weakness of the flesh so that we can serve God eternally without fail.

Finally, what does it mean that we will be “judged by our works”? You can probably figure out from what I've said so far that it has to do with the effort that we put forth after we have received the Holy Spirit. The phrase "spiritual growth" is sufficient for right now - you'll have to wait for part 2 for a thorough discussion!