Matthew 16

According to His works

“For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” (v. 27)

We see in this verse, a very important doctrine, that is, the eminent return of Christ. He will be back, folks. We do not know when, but be assured, He will be back to separate the sheep from the goats, and take those who are truly His home with Him for evermore. He will come, as our verse says, “in the glory of His Father” and with the Holy angels, perhaps riding on a cloud, as many say. (compare Isa. 19:1 with Lk. 21:27). No matter the manner of His coming, He will come again to judge the “quick and the dead.” He will judge every man according to his works, but do we think this to mean His works, the Lord’s works, the Perfection of Holiness, or mans works, which amount to nothing at all? There are two views taken here, and frankly we are only being taught the one in the church today.

Let me explain the point made here: all judgment is given unto the Son, because in the eyes of the Father, our sins are gone! God cannot so much as look on sin anyway, so He cannot rightly judge it in the form of the Father; but, in the form of the Son, born of woman (and not of man) He could not only look upon sin, but dwell among it with the sinner! He already knew the remedy for sin, and that was provided in the Son too, but Jesus knows our sin, and sees our faults. Therefore, we will stand before Him who can see what needs to be judged, and discern between the correct motives as well as the action of sin. We hear that the Word of God will judge us as to how we “measure up” but we think that Jesus will judge us only according to actions that result from sin in the final day. I believe that both of these views could be true, as is often the case with scripture. There is almost always a spiritual application as well as a literal when it comes to the teachings of Christ. We will be, first and foremost, judged by His works, His righteousness, and then, perhaps for our works. Our works are nothing though, and His are everything. Our works are all evil, and His all pure and Holy, but He already judged our sin at Calvary! Granted, there are deeds that we do that are not conducive to good Christianity, not at all, but these trespass sins will affect our reward, and not our position in Christ.