The honest Bible reader will inevitably come across what seems to be a glaring contradiction in the Bible of how a person is saved.
Romans 4:5 To the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness
Ephesians 2:8-9 For 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
And:
2 Corinthians 5:10 For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of the Messiah, so that each of us may receive what he deserves for what he has done in his body, whether good or worthless.
Revelation 22:12 Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done
Revelation 20:12-13 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.
Herein lies the contradiction. If one is judged “according to what they have done” then how can they also be judged by faith and grace so that no one can boast? Unfortunately the answer does not readily present itself to us and a google search will reveal dozens of theories on how to reconcile these two passages.
The thing worth noting is that this final judgement is not merely describing how well off Christians will be in heaven but whether Christians will get to heaven at all based on works.
Revelation 20:15 Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.
The final judgement deals with salvation itself not merely getting a bigger house or more gold or something we could think of.
But the Bible says we are saved by grace and fundamental truth should never contradict itself. How are these passages mirror opposites of each other and yet they are both true? Is the Bible in fact our reliable source of truth?
Through a process of elimination we will figure which interpretation holds the most logically consistent answer to reconcile these seemingly opposing passages.
1. Are there degrees of rewards?
Are there degrees of punishments for those in hell and degrees of rewards for those in heaven based on works? This is the first theory that naturally comes to mind. However, the general impression I get reading the word is that all believers receive the same reward: eternal life. For instance, we have the parable of the workers in the field where regardless of how much each worker worked they received the same reward (Matthew 20:1-16). This seems to be a parable describing that no matter how much work you’ve done or at what point in your life you were saved, whether on your death-bed or as a child, you receive the same reward. Also I’m not sure how one person having say a bigger house or more gold in heaven does anyone any good. Would that encourage shame? Jealousy? In heaven we all will have everything we want, so what would it mean at all to have a bigger house? Material rewards seem almost irrelevant in a dimension where we have everything.
However, I could see a case being made for praise and appreciation from God for our good works and everybody.
1 Corinthians 4:5 So don’t make judgments about anyone ahead of time—before the Lord returns. For he will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due.
Though this answer may address how a Christian could have a greater reward in heaven based on their works, it doesn’t answer the problem of how a Christian could have their salvation judged by works or how a Christian can be forgiven of something they will later be judged by.
Is salvation first by grace and then followed by works?
Are we saved from our past sins first by grace but then judged by our performance following? Let’s imagine this is the case. If so, does this mean your evil deeds performed before you were saved won’t be judged but your works following will? If that’s the case it’s better to not be saved until you’re almost dead. Plus the Bible does not distinguish when it begins judging your works. It says, “according to what they have done,” making no distinction of what part of your life this evaluation starts. Second, why would it make sense that we can only be forgiven of sins before we were saved? If God was capable of forgiving those, wouldn’t he also be capable of forgiving following sins? Now you may say, if we have the spirit we don’t sin anymore. But that is foolish, everyone sins, even after receiving the Holy Spirit. True, we do become better people but have you ever met a Christian who never sinned after they became a Christian? Neither have I. We all need grace at every stage of our lives.
What if there’s no grace, just the power of the Spirit to make us better people
Some people say that when you receive the Holy Spirit he has the power to change your heart from the inside out so you become a better person meaning that in the final judgement you are guaranteed to pass. That means the final judgement is by works but that shouldn’t worry us because the Holy Spirit in us helps us to pass.
However this interpretation undermines the power of the Holy Spirit to change us. The Holy Spirit changes us through a revelation of God’s grace and love for us. But what does grace matter if it doesn’t actually save you from anything? That is, what is the point of saying you are completely forgiven if you will still be judged based on what you have done. Imagine you were caught shoplifting and the manager said, “Don’t worry I forgive you, so now live a good life after I take you to jail.” Is such forgiveness genuine? What does it matter if the manager personally forgives you if you still must go to jail and pay back your dues. Such a grace is simply deceptive and has no power.
Luke 7:47 Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven–as her great love has shown. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little.”
The logic follows: if there is no genuine forgiveness how could we learn how to love? How can the Holy Spirit teach us what love looks like if he/she is unable to show us love? For that matter why did Jesus have to die if it meant nothing?
What if Paul is crazy?
It does seem that we get the idea of being saved purely by grace through faith through Paul. But sometimes he seems to be at disagreement with the other apostles and even himself. Is Paul off the band-wagon? Is he inventing his own theory of being saved by grace? Should we trust him at all? However Paul tells us his message was in alignment with the other disciples:
Galatians 2:6 And the leaders of the church had nothing to add to what I was preaching. (By the way, their reputation as great leaders made no difference to me, for God has no favorites.)
He even rebukes Peter in Galatians for following the law to exlude gentiles. But the message of grace is not merely Paul’s invention, God himself describes the message of grace:
Hebrews 8:7-12 “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 9 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. 10 This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
So then we seem to have God’s own word against himself. How can God on the one hand say he will never remember our sins but then later judge us based by our sins?
Revelation 22:12 Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done
So then this isn’t a Paul vs the other apostles kind of deal. We are dealing with God’s own word against God’s own word.
Will Christians even face the final judgement?
Will Christians not be judged in the final judgement? Is the final judgement only for unbelievers? We may see some evidence for this:
John 5:24 Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.
However, we all understand the word judged can mean the process of being evaluated with a potential good or bad result or it can simply mean being punished for wrongdoing. The latter seems to be the only way of reconciling it with the words of Paul who says we must all face the final judgement and he lists this as a reason to continue trying to please the Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:7-10 For we live by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, then, and would prefer to be away from this body and to live with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away from home, our goal is to be pleasing to him. 10 For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of the Messiah, so that each of us may receive what he deserves for what he has done in his body, whether good or worthless
Who must face the final judgement, “we all.” Perhaps Jesus simply meant, no one who believes in him will receive a negative sentence.
So what’s left?
We’ve eliminated almost every theory on how we can reconcile salvation by faith and salvation by works. But there’s one left that we haven’t discussed:
Drum roll please…
Christians sins are disregarded in the final judgement.
Though the passages concerning the final judgement by works don’t specifically specify this, it must be implied that a Christian’s bad works or sins will not be brought up or at least won’t be used against us in the final judgement. This is the only way to reconcile being saved by grace while still receiving a reward based on works. It is also the only way God can fulfill his promise to “remember their sins no more” while still judging each person “according to what they have done.”
As one translation puts it:
Revelation 14:13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this down: Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them!”
Perhaps we don’t receive special rewards in heaven according to what we’ve done, because we all will have everything we could want in heaven. But perhaps we have a sense of accomplishment in the good we brought to the world and how we’ve pleased the Lord. Our good works are remembered to be appreciated by God and everyone else. This would give Paul motivation to try to please the Lord while still assuring him he was saved by grace. His good works would matter because they would be remembered but he wouldn’t have to fear judgement for his bad works and so could be in awe of God’s grace.
This seems to be the only way to understand these contradictory passages. We should then understand whenever the Bible speaks about the final judgement, it’s only of Christian’s good works not their sins. With this being our understanding, we can still be appreciative of Jesus’s death for us while still having a sense of reward for our good deeds.
Romans 4:8 Blessed is the one whose sin the Lord will never count against them.
Note: So I’m a preterist which means I believe the final judgement has already passed, so what relevance does this have to us today? Well first of all when Paul was writing it was still future to him, so to show the consistency in the Bible we must look from his perspective. Secondly, I believe each believer personally receives their own praise when they die based on their good deeds. Since we will each be evaluated it’s important to know that your sins will not be evaluated.