For the 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, the three readings are Ezekiel 17:22-24; 2 Corinthians 5:1-17 and Mark 4:26-34. Chosen to preach on is 2 Cor. 5:10, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
It’s too bad that this passage wasn’t for last Sunday which was Trinity Sunday. Why? Because on Trinity Sunday most churches confess the Athanasian Creed which ends with this verse. I once read a church periodical that stated it was wrong for the Athanasian Creed to speak about being judged by works because it contradicted the Christian faith. The pastor who wrote this as well as the editor of the publication was ignorant of the fact that what the Athanasian Creed says is actually a quote from this passage of 2 Cor. 5:10.
Yet how do we understand this passage in light of other verses such as Ephesians 2 which speaks of being saved by grace through faith not by works? How on the one hand can God reveal such a gracious salvation in which works do not count and yet speak of works as the item He is looking for on the great Day of Judgment? The answer is not only the distinctions between Law and Gospel but also the context. First, let’s examine L&G.
The Law is properly preached when the commands of God first demand absolute past, present and future perfection and then reveal that such perfection is impossible for a human being to achieve even with all the help of the Holy Spirit. The Gospel therefore can be defined as fulfilling what we as human beings are unable to do. It is NOT that works are unimportant in God’s eyes. It is just that they make no difference as to whether or not you go to heaven. They are properly understood in taking place after one is fully saved.
The context of 2 Corinthians 5 backs this up. Verse 5 states that it is God Who prepares us; verse 15 reveals He died for all and verse 17 indicates that the believer is a new creation. What does this mean? It means that while good works have no place in our becoming or remaining saved, they are proper responses to the salvation gracious bestowed upon us. In fact, it is impossible to have true faith and not do fruit of the Holy Spirit from God’s point of view. Thus, on Judgment Day, the unbeliever will have no fruit of the Holy Spirit while the believer will have many fruit of the Spirit; most of which he is unware.
Yes, in the body filled with the gift of the Holy Spirit received in our Pentecost baptism, the Christian believers are confident that their sins of commission have been covered by the forgiveness of sin and their sins of omission have been covered by the robe of righteousness of our only Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. It is a message that the entire world needs to hear.
Name:Tom Baker