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HOUSMAIL
HM054
25 March 2000 SAVED BY
GRACE – JUDGED BY WORKS “And I saw a great
white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the
heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead,
small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another
book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of
those things which were written in the books, ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man ACCORDING
TO THEIR WORKS. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This
is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life
was cast into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20:11-15) The
Apostle Peter left us with a challenge to be ZEALOUS to be found
without spot or blemish. (2 Peter 3:14) A careful reading of Peter’s epistle will reveal that he was
encouraging us to MAKE EVERY EFFORT to ensure that we possess faith,
virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly
affection, and love! He says that we MUST have these things, in order to be
effective and fruitful, in our knowledge of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. And
he then says that if we do lack these things, the cause of this terrible
blindness, is failure to remember that we have been cleansed from our sins!. (2 Peter 1:5-8) There
is no escaping the conclusion that Peter is talking about WORKS! In the same context
Peter said that the Apostle Paul also agreed with this emphasis on WORKS! But Peter did
concede that there are some things in Paul’s writings about this subject,
that are “hard to understand”. (2 Peter 3:16). Peter adds a strong warning about that! We must not allow
ourselves to be carried away by the ignorance and instability of those
“lawless men” who twist the hard things written by Paul, “to their own
destruction”. (2 Peter 3:17) Of
course, Peter is talking about the apparent conflict between Paul’s teaching
about “salvation by grace”, and “salvation by faith”, and the other things
Paul wrote which do emphasise the place of “works”. It is important to keep this in balance. The
same Paul who wrote – “By GRACE you have been saved through FAITH;
and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God.” (Ephesians 2:8) Also wrote: “For he will render to every man according to
his WORKS: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honour
and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are factious
and do not obey the truth, but obey wickedness, there will be wrath and fury.
There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil,
the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honour and peace for everyone
who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For God shows no
partiality.” (Romans 2:6-11) In
another place Paul said that if repentance is genuine, then it will change
the WORKS
that we do. (Acts 26:20) The
Apostle James also wrote about this when he said that Faith is DEAD (i.e. not
faith at all) if it does not reveal itself in accompanying WORKS. (James 2:14-26) The
words of Jesus also make it clear that on the Day of Judgment, it is the
record of our WORKS which will reveal whether or not we are "sheep"
or "goats". (Matthew 25:31-46) Saved by grace ..... judged by WORKS! (John 5:29; Romans 2:6-11; 2 Corinthians 5:10) Of
course, that does not mean that we MERIT our place in eternity on
account of our works, but it certainly does mean that if we do not obey the
commandments of Jesus, then we reveal that we neither love Him, nor possess
"saving faith". (John 14:15,23-24) It
is perhaps too fine a point to debate about whether or not those things are,
in some way, "conditions" of salvation! But, regardless of what we
conclude about that, they are certainly amongst the Biblical tests that we
must use for ourselves, to consider whether we are truly in the FAITH! (1 Corinthians 11:28; 2 Corinthians 13:5; 1 John 2:3-6) There
are some who consistently take refuge behind “grace” in order to evade the
uncomfortable and challenging test laid down by all three Apostles --- Peter,
and Paul, and James. However, what we really need to be doing, is to
frequently ask ourselves a serious question. When we do examine ourselves honestly ..... do we pass the test? If
we do not, then we are in desperate need of the GRACE that will train us
until we do! (Titus 2:11-14) Allon |