Dr. Peter Leithart on judgment according to works, in contrast to the portrayals of his teaching by Dr. Clark and Mr. Mattes

The Gospel and Judgment

Does judgment according to works contradict the gospel? Does it reintroduce law back in the covenant of grace at the last minute? Is judgment according to works God’s final “Gotcha”?

Not at all. Judgment according to works is part of the gospel. Paul hopes for the day when “according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus” (Rom 2:16), a judgment that will “render to every man according to his deeds” (Rom 2:6, quoting Psalm 62:12). This is good news because Jesus, in contrast to all human authorities, will “judge the world in righteousness” (Acts 17:31).

Not at all, again. . . .

Judgment according to our deeds does not reintroduce law, because the promise that God will produce good deeds in us is a central promise of the gospel. This is the new covenant, that Yahweh will “put My laws into their minds, and I will write them upon their hearts” (Hebrews 8:10, quoting Jeremiah 31). The Spirit is given so that we are able to walk in the statues and commandments of God (Ezekiel 36:27), so that the “righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who walk according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh” (Rom 8:4).

The gospel is about the forgiveness of sins. The gospel announces that we stand before God in Christ the Righteous One. Of course, all our works are tainted by our prior sins, our continuing sins, the remnants of the flesh in us. Of course, our works are acceptable only in Christ. But the reality is that our works are acceptable and we really do good works because God is at work in us to do His will. The good news is also that Christ the Righteous one will by the power of the Spirit, renew us in righteousness. The good news is about a law written with the Spirit on the tablets of human hearts not on stone. It’s about God giving us hearts that are not stone but flesh.

This has a couple of important implications. It means that our works are just as much a matter of grace-through-faith as our right standing with God. God has promised that He will produce fruit in us by His Spirit. We trust Him for that, ask Him to do it more and more, trust in Him as we receive the various gifts He gives us to enable us to produce this fruit – baptism, the table, the word, fellowship, the guidance of elders, in short, the church. As Luther said, Jesus says to morally ill sinners: You are well. Believing this declaration of the Good Physician, we rely on Him to make us well, taking the medicine He prescribes.

It means that a judgment that is not according to works is in tension with the gospel. This is subtle, but consider: God promises to produce good fruit in His people by His Spirit. He gave His Son on the cross, raised Him from the dead, poured out the Spirit on us, for precisely that reason. He says He’s going to do it.

Suppose we get to the final judgment, and we haven’t produced the fruit of good works by reliance on the Spirit. Suppose we get to the final judgment, and God finds that the Spirit has not caused the people of God to walk in the ways of His commandments and statues after all. Suppose we get to the final judgment and God discovers, to His surprise, that this gospel promise has not been fulfilled.

Will God say, “Well, that didn’t quite work. You really didn’t produce any good fruit. Turns out the flesh beat out the Spirit after all. Not what I expected. Guess I’ll let you in, but only because of Jesus’ obedience, not your own.”

It’s a caricature, of course. Nobody teaches this. But it’s a caricature with a point.

Under those circumstances, has God made good on his promise? Under those circumstance, has God kept the promise He made in the gospel that His Spirit will make us walk in His ways? If no one can stand in the judgment when his Spirit-induced works are judged, has the gospel promise failed?

Of course, no need to worry. God’s promises are Yes and Amen in Jesus. He’s kept them all, and He’s going to keep this one too. And when He comes to the end of it all, He will delight in His works, the Triune works which wholly envelop our works.

2 thoughts on “Dr. Peter Leithart on judgment according to works, in contrast to the portrayals of his teaching by Dr. Clark and Mr. Mattes

  1. Pingback: More On Judgment, etc. « Reformed Musings

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