Will God Judge Us According to Our Works? | Theocast Clips

The Fallacy of Earning Eternal Life

For those who seek eternal life and good, God will reward them. This is what people say. So is that true of you or not? Are you seeking God? Are you seeking eternal life? Are you seeking glory and honor and immortality?

Well, here's the thing. Look at Romans 3, 10 and 11. As it is written, this is Paul, the conclusion of his argument. None is righteous. No, not one. No one understands. No one seeks.

For God.

So is Paul saying that men by seeking for God somehow are going to earn eternal life? He's no, because just a few verses later, he's going to say, here's the problem.

Guys.

No one seeks God. No one seeks immortality. That's the issue.

All right.

The Law’s Use in Romans 2 and Romans 3

Continue on Romans 2, 9. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.

All right.

So here we go. True statement. There'll be glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good. Romans 3, 12, same, same section, same part of his argument. Paul goes on to say, all have turned aside together.

They have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. So it is true. Glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good to the Jew and also to the Greek. Here's the problem though, guys, says Paul, no one does good, not even one person.

That's right.

So it's true. God's a righteous judge. He'll reward those who do good, but nobody does good. He'll punish those who do evil. He will reward those who seek eternal life. Here's the problem though. Nobody seeks for it, right?

So it's an indictment of the entire human race.

That's right.

That's what he's accomplishing. In the context, you've got to see it that way. And you've got to read Romans 2 in its entirety, but Romans 2, 6 to 13 in its context, don't isolate it. Don't read into it.

Take Paul at his word and see what he's doing. And he's setting us up for what, John? Romans 3, 21. He crushes us all with the law. By the law, the works of the law, no one will ever be justified. The law only shuts our mouths.

But then he says, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The scriptures testify about it. Well, what righteousness is that?

It's the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.

We're misusing a tool of Paul. Paul's using a hammer to smash us down, to destroy us so we can give us the life of bread of the gospel. And we're taking the hammer going, no, we can build up righteousness.

It's like, no, no, no, no, no. The hammer is designed to destroy, not build it. And I would say, Justin, a lot of times the reason why people go to these, because it has this language of good works. And I know a lot of preachers are concerned about good works in the church.

So are we, and good works matter. They're paramount. They're so important. They're important for the work of the kingdom. But good works are never used to build righteousness for one's standing in the kingdom.

That's granted.

That's always granted.

Justin Perdue. Standing, status, justification, works have nothing to do with it.

That's right. Because sometimes what people are going to hear us say is like, you guys, you guys are going to be careful, you're antinomians, you're going to tell people they don't have to do good works.

That's the exact opposite. Let's just make sure we go to the right place where good works are necessary as it relates to the work of the kingdom, sharing the gospel and loving one another. But it's never in relationship to our standing before God.

That hammer in Paul's hand is coming at your head to crush you and say, don't try and do this in your own power.

The law is not a pillow. It's a sledgehammer. When it comes to justification, when it comes to justification, there is one use of the law.

That's right.

It's to crush us, to show us the depth of our corruption and to drive us to Christ.