WHAT JUDGMENT DAY SAYS ABOUT OUR GOOD WORKS
Prayer: Lord Jesus, when You come in Your glory, You will speak about what we have done. So today we pray about the things that are Your will for us to do. Help us not to trust in salvation in our good works but only in Your perfect obedience and righteousness. Help us do the things You want us to do even for the least and littlest of these Your brethren, since these works of love are important to You, and because You purify our works by Your blood. Amen.
Sermon Text, Matthew 25:31-46 (v. 31-32). “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.”
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us completely by the truth. Your Word is truth. By Your Word of truth, give us confidence for the last Day. Amen!
Fellow redeemed in Christ, who will come to judge the living and dead: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
What Jesus says on Judgment Day is a surprise. We might be surprised that Jesus speaks about our good works here. We’ve always been taught that eternal life is not determined by our good works.
This is how the Athanasian Creed might confuse us. In it we confess: “They that have done good will enter into life everlasting; and they that have done evil into everlasting fire.” This doesn’t sound like what we are taught: that you can’t be saved by good works. But the creed just reflects Jesus’ words in Matthew 25. The fact is, Judgment Day does say something about our good works:
- It says that our good works are not part of our salvation.
First look at what they say whom Jesus calls the “curséd” ones: “Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?” If Jesus was ever in need, they are sure they must have helped Him. These are the people we meet in life who think that they’ll go to heaven because they are good people.
You or I know we won’t go to heaven due to our goodness, yet we still can be guilty of looking down on others. It’s our nature to be self-righteous. We think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think. You present the world an idealized picture of yourself. You hide your faults but highlight your accomplishments. Then you believe this fiction you present to the world.
So what do the words of these people on Judgment Day say about them? That they depend on their good works. They ignore what they had failed to do. Jesus’ words show that they chose not to help some people. These words warn us of a dangerous attitude: that you get selective in your good works, you pay back a loved one for their insensitivity to your needs, or refuse to forgive because you’re still hurt or angry, or you won’t help someone who happens to be “difficult” or is unappreciative. Then the good work for that person goes undone. We make excuses and act as if we’ve done all we could.
So look at these people who are kept out of heaven; they are God’s warning to you. They think so much of themselves and are so satisfied with how they live – isn’t that a danger for us? – that they don’t see an urgent need to repent. Don’t let that be said of you! They don’t come before God with sorrow of heart, in dread and terror of judgment and everlasting death. They choose to only see the good they did and ignore or excuse their sins. Often what we do is to avoid facing our own sins and focus on how bad others are.
As a consequence, they don’t see Jesus clearly. They don’t see a big need for a Savior. It’s easy to see Him not as Savior but as Approver – approving of you for your own sake. This is asking to be judged based on your deeds.
Jesus accommodates them. He says: “Depart from Me, you curséd, into the everlasting fire.”This shows that for those who don’t repent, all good works are thrown out before the judgment seat of Christ. Their works only condemn them. Anything good you do doesn’t even exist God’s sight, if it doesn’t proceed from faith or love for God. Without faith it’s impossible to please God, it says in Hebrews 11; all that’s there is sin. So apart from faith, even in the good works all God sees is how imperfect they are.
We also see in what “the righteous” say that our good works aren’t part of our salvation: “Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?” This is the right faith. They keep saying, “When did we?”
They don’t see their good works; all they can see is their sins. They don’t want to be judged by what they did. Their only plea is “that Thy blood was shed for me.” God answers this prayer. Such faith, after all, comes from Him, through His Word. He judges them innocent for Jesus’ sake, “justifies” them by grace. He judges you innocent for Jesus’ sake. What He says to them on Judgment Day is what He’ll say to you. He says it to you ahead of time in the forgiveness of sins that’s spoken to you. In fact, in your own despairing thoughts, in your guilty conscience feeling blame and judgment, when you repent you too are saying, “When did I?” He says to you: “Come, you blesséd of My Father. My Father sees no sin in you for My sake. Come be with Me. Let Me lift you onto My shoulders, My little lamb.”
It’s not that the people who go to heaven did no good works. They do many. But they learn not to rely on them, so that it’s like they don’t even see them, they “do not let their left hand know what [their] right hand is doing,” as Jesus instructed in the Sermon on the Mount. God sees it, and as Jesus says, “your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly” (Mt 6:3-4).
He does see how imperfect your works are. But guess what? By faith in Jesus, God removes and forgives every bit of sinfulness in your good works, for Jesus’ sake. By faith it’s impossible for you not to please God. Isn’t that wonderful? All God sees in you is not how imperfect your works are, but how perfect they are, how perfect and holy you are for Jesus’ sake, by faith in Him. His blood purifies your works so that only good remains.
This leads to the next thing Judgment Day says about our good works, besides the fact that they don’t earn salvation:
- It says our good works do not disappear entirely; they are not lost or forgotten, but they follow us into eternal life and are part of our glory.
Revelation 14:13 says that “the dead who die in the Lord” are “blessed” and “rest from their labors,” and then it says: “and their works do follow them.”
We see this in Jesus’ attention to the little details of what people did or didn’t do for others in their lives. Why mention these things that are so easily forgotten, make no headlines, and are thrown out when it comes to salvation? Jesus is saying they aren’t absolutely thrown out, lost or forgotten. The Bible says the good works that flow from faith and are directed to your neighbor are those “which God prepared beforehand for us to walk in them” (Eph 2:10).
These works are important to God. So important that Jesus names them, openly, in front of all, on Judgment Day. So Judgment Day is saying that these actions are important. What you do is important.
But notice, they aren’t big things: to end world hunger, remove poverty, bring about world peace, end crime, or find a cure for cancer. They’re little things: just to visit the sick and the imprisoned, to feed the hungry – even “the least” and littlest in your home – to buy clothes even just for your family. The vocations in the home are important. What we do every day matters to God. It is not just accomplishing your list of tasks; you’re serving God Himself.
God knows very well that you get tired in the performance of these things. You get impatient. You get bored doing things for the same people all the time, doing the same routines. You get discouraged by others’ ungratefulness or not noticing the sacrifices you make. You want to do greater things. You want to make it into the headlines, the spotlight, that the world pays attention to. You struggle with your sinful flesh that wants to be lazy, to compare your place in life with others’, and to be served instead of doing all the serving. This can lead to those same “sins of omission,” failing or refusing to do the little acts of love, and excusing it by saying you’re tired or unappreciated.
So Jesus says, “When you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you were doing it to Me.” He says the littlest good work is glorious, because of Him. He purifies what you do. He takes away all the sinfulness of it, any impatience, discouragement, coveting, or self-serving attitudes. When He takes away all your sin, what remains is the good that’s left in what you did. It will never vanish into nothingness or be forgotten. He remembers, names it.
Your true acts of love, proceeding from faith, done out of love for Christ and purified by Him, do follow you in eternal life to where Jesus is. Your attention to true beauty, your unselfish love, your cheerful acts of giving even when you can’t be repaid, your delighting in God’s gifts, your self-denial and sacrifices made for the good of others and in the name of Christ, your coming to church and praying for others beside yourself, all the fussing over your children, staying up and watching over them when they were sick or had a nightmare or were out late, being a loyal friend even when that friend disappoints you, paying attention to or hanging with the kid at school who’s alone or rejected by others, caring for a dying loved one in his/her last days, listening at length to someone’s problems when you’d rather be somewhere else, doing dishes when you’re dead tired, it all follows you into eternal life.
These works will not have earned salvation for you, they are thrown out of the question of how you’re saved, but they are not thrown out totally. Your works do follow you and are your adornment.
This life of love grows and does not fade or end. There isn’t a break between this life and the one in heaven. Eternal life is a continuation of this service to God in our life with other people. When a Christian dies it is God saying that the time of serving Him here on earth is done, the time to serve Him in heaven is beginning. In heaven this life of service continues, but you won’t be saddled with sin so it will no longer weary you or be a struggle, it will be only pure joy and delight. Amen!