Hebrews 6 & 10 – The Impossibility of Salvation – Part 12
God does not count any of man’s good works to be true good.
Isaiah 64:6 … all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; …
Psalms 14:3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Psalms 53:3 Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Romans 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Psalms 14:1 … they are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
At salvation, there has to be a BINARY change in man’s ability. Off to On. Blackness to Light. Evil to Good.
God has never counted man’s fleshly good works as true good. He never has before, and He doesn’t now either.
The truth isn’t, “good works in the flesh were never counted as good BEFORE Jesus came… but NOW those same good works, that were never counted as true good works BEFORE Jesus died and rose again, NOW God does count them as true good works… as long as you’re a Christian.”
That isn’t being “created… unto good works”. There is no change in man’s capability in that!
Rather, that would be saying that GOD CHANGED His mind and decided to start accepting the same old fleshly good works of mankind, which He beforetimes rejected.
Can you imagine God saying, “Well, man’s good works were never, really, truly good to me, just a bunch of unclean, filthy rags. So I always rejected them. But NOW, when the people that believe in my Son do those SAME works, NOW I accept those same filthy rags and I call them good and clean.”
That isn’t people being CREATED UNTO good works! Those are the same OLD works.
2 Corinthians 6:17-18 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
A person has to be separated from the uncleanness and not ever touch it again. That is what a born-again Christian is: separated from uncleanness. He is not IN the flesh. So he CANNOT DO those same old fleshly good works; he cannot touch those filthy rags.
But God cannot change His mind to accept the unclean thing.
See, God’s works are perfect. That is the standard of a true good work: a perfect work that lasts for ever.
Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: …
Ecclesiastes 3:14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: …
Thus, to accept man’s fleshly good works as true good works, would make God an abomination.
Isaiah 41:24 Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.
If God lowers His standard to accept man’s filthy works, then God is an abomination.
The result of salvation is not God’s mind changing to accept, and even “help” you do what He previously rejected.
The result of salvation is man’s ABILITY changing completely.
What he was incapable of before (good works), he is capable of now.
What he was capable of before (evil works), he is incapable of now.
When a person “gives his life to Christ” and starts going to church, and trying to do good works instead of evil works, his ability doesn’t change. Does it? He could sin before, and he can sin now. He can give and love now, but he could also give and love before.
His ability didn’t change. The CREATURE that he is, didn’t change. He is the same creature/being that he was before.
So if he couldn’t do good before (in the eyes of God), and if his flesh hasn’t changed, then how can he “do good” now!?
Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
If your flesh hasn’t changed, and you have no ABILITY to change your flesh, then how can you possibly think that you have the ability to do good now?
Can you, with taking thought, change your skin color? Can you make yourself taller? Can you change your eye color? Your hair color? Can you give yourself a leopard print skin, and then take it away, just by thinking? Can you give yourself wrinkles and then give yourself baby-smooth skin, just by thinking it?
Do you have ANY of those new abilities after believing in Jesus?
If you could do those things, in the flesh, then God says He would be willing to admit that you CAN do good works, in the flesh. But if you can’t even change the skin of your OLD creature… then how can you claim to be a completely “new creature”? How can you claim to be “created in Christ Jesus unto good works”?
Matthew 5:36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
Luke 12:25-26 And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? 26 If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?
If you are not ABLE to physically change your flesh just by taking thought, then how can you say that the flesh of a Christian is now a new creature, capable of good works?
Why does Jesus ask whether we can do these impossible things, and then call those things the “least”?
We believe that before the fall, Adam could do these things. Man was made to be able to do these things, just by thinking. In fact, he could do MUCH more! These things were the LEAST of the original abilities of mankind!
Can you do these things? Can every Christian do them? Can ANY Christian do them?
Well then how can Christians do good in the flesh?
If we aren’t even changed back into the original state of the OLD creature… how can we think that we do the works that the NEW creature does?
If we can’t even do what Adam (the first man) did, how can we think we can do what Christ (the second man) does?
If you can’t even do what the old creature of Adam could do, how can you think that you have been changed into, or are “being transformed” into, a Christ-like creature?
How can you think that you can do TRUE righteousness, TRUE good works, like Christ can do???
You are an OLD creature. You are less than the “least”, of the old creature. So you certainly are not a NEW creature, in this life, in this world.
Dear False Brethren, when you repented of your sins, and you gave your life to Christ, and you started living a good Christian life for God… all you did, was you took (the shell of, the fallen state of) the OLD creature and tried to repurpose him.
You took your OLD creature and started to do MORE of the best works that you were already ABLE to do.
But you didn’t change your old creature into a new creature. You didn’t take away his ability to sin. And you didn’t give him a new ability to do good.
You weren’t “created” as a “new creature”. Neither were you “created in Christ Jesus unto good works”.
Your flesh didn’t even change back to the original state of the OLD creature, like Adam. Much less did it become a new creature, like Christ.
John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: …
So again, if your fleshly abilities haven’t changed since you “became a Christian”, then how can you think that Christians are ABLE to do good works in the flesh now, when they never were able to before?
Salvation is not a man repurposing his old creature (his fleshly life) from serving self to serving God.
Salvation is a man being born as “a new creature”, in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
The new creature does completely NEW things.
There’s nothing NEW about fleshly good works. Those are the OLD things.
Men have been doing fleshly good works, and have been capable of doing them, ever since they got “the knowledge of good and evil”.
The flesh is the OLD creature. The flesh of a believer is not made a new creature.
Even when you “give your life to Christ”, and wake up the next day with a new sense of life and love and joy… even when you get baptized in earthly water, and you come up out of the water feeling so much excitement and joy… that is still just the OLD creature, living in the same OLD world, capable of the same OLD things.
Some people teach that salvation changes your life so much that its “like being born again”; its “like getting a new life”.
Romans 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
If a man on death row, is suddenly released, with all charges dropped… that man would probably use the exact same wording. “Its like being born again. Its like having a whole new life!”
But that man didn’t truly get born again, as a newborn baby. He didn’t get a different life, or a different body, or different parents. He got his old life back again. He got his same OLD fleshly life back again.
But he didn’t DIE, and get buried, and then get raised up with a new body, capable of new things.
So where is the true “newness of life”? Where is the new creature?
Salvation is not a new lease on your earthly life. It’s not more power to live your earthly life better.
Salvation is a literal death, burial, and resurrection as a completely NEW creature, with a completely NEW life, with completely NEW capabilities!
It may FEEL exhilarating at first, when you become a Christian. But there is nothing truly NEW in your flesh. A Christian’s life in this world is NOT a true NEW thing.
Your good works in this world, are the OLD things that come out of the OLD man.
Colossians 3:9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
A Christian hasn’t put off his evil deeds, and focused himself on the good deeds.
A Christian has put off the entire old creature, with ALL of its deeds, along with it.
Your fleshly deeds in this world, are the OLD things. They’re not the things that come out of the new man. They are not the things that come forth out of Christ.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
A thing that is “created” was not existing before.
A “new creature” is a creature that did not exist before.
It is not a thing repurposed, or reprogrammed, or refocused, or reinvigorated.
It is a NEW thing!
Taming a wild horse does not mean that you CREATED a horse. You didn’t create a new creature. You just repurposed an already existing creature.
You can’t do TRUE good works by repurposing the OLD creature. You have to be “created” as a “new creature”.
My flesh is not a new creature, so my flesh cannot do true good works. Neither can yours. And if you want proof of that, just try to do the very LEAST thing that men’s flesh SHOULD be able to do:
Luke 12:25 … with taking thought … add to [your] stature one cubit…
Matthew 5:36 … make one hair white or black.
Jeremiah 13:23 Can [you] change [your] skin…? [if so…] … then may ye also do good…
But if you can’t even do that… then don’t try to tell me that you do good works. I don’t believe you.
Don’t tell me that good works are the PROOF of salvation. They aren’t!
Salvation is not people getting better at the same OLD things.
Salvation is people receiving the ABILITY to do NEW things… to do TRUE good works. Things which men’s flesh CANNOT DO, and COULD NEVER DO. Not even ADAM could do them!
Salvation is people being created unto TRUE good works!
Ephesians 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
The holiness and righteousness of mankind, as seen in mankind’s good works, is not TRUE holiness and righteousness to God. That is why Christians had to be CREATED unto TRUE holiness and righteousness.
Because mankind is not capable of doing true righteousness. Neither are Christians capable of TRUE righteousness in the flesh. But only in the Spirit.
To God, our flesh is INCAPABLE of doing true good things.
It is mankind that thinks he is able to do good works in the flesh.
It is lost mankind that thinks that God is in us doing our good works in this world.
It is lost mankind that thinks good works in this world are a result of salvation.
But that is not how God judges it. God judges in BINARY.
Spiritually, you can do good or you can do evil. Not both.
John 5:29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
It doesn’t say “have done good mostly”, or “consistently”, or “habitually”.
It says “have done good” and “have done evil”.
If mankind is capable of both good and evil, then all men have, at one point or another, done good and done evil.
If fleshly good works are true good works, then God would be unrighteous to throw anyone in the Lake of Fire. So then, how can God judge the world as He says He will in John 5:29???
This is exactly the statement that Paul makes, and then the question that Paul asks in Romans.
Romans 3:5-6 But if our unrighteousness [our fleshly good works] commend [1 – gives/entrusts or 2 – recommends/praises/testifies of; 1 doesn’t really fit, but 2 does…] the righteousness of God [kind of like “good works are proof of salvation”], what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) 6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
If our fleshly good works (our filthy rags – our unrighteousness) are commendation (evidence) of God’s righteousness in us, then God is unrighteous to judge lost people.
God would be unrighteous to accept the good works of some people as commendation/evidence/proof of salvation, but to reject the good works of others.
A lost sinner can rightly claim, “that’s not fair… I did some of those same good works! Why doesn’t that commend me as saved too?”
How could we answer that? And how could God defend His judgment? He couldn’t!
God is going to “judge the world in righteousness”.
He is going to divide those that ONLY do righteousness, from those that ONLY do UNrighteousness.
So if fleshly good works are TRUE righteousness, then what is the response to the unbelievers who on judgment day will doubtless claim that they did the same good works that the righteous did? There is none!
Thus, the truth is that NO fleshly good works are true righteousness, but ALL our fleshly good works are UNrighteousness. (more proof to come on that)
John 5:29 … they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
John 5:29 must be understood spiritually, and it must be understood in BINARY!
If you have EVER lied, even once, then you have only ever done evil works, and you have NEVER, EVER done a good work.
But if you have ever done a true good work, even just once, then you have NEVER, EVER done an evil work.
If you “have done good”, even once, then you have no need for Christ to create you unto good works, because you are already capable of them.
If fleshly good works are true good works, then everyone on Earth has “done good” and “done evil”.
How then can God judge the world, as He promised He would?
He would inevitably let someone who “has done evil” into New Jerusalem, and He would inevitable send someone who “has done good” into the Lake of Fire.
See, if you allow that our fleshly good works are TRUE good works, then God is not only an unjust judge, but God is a liar. Because God said He would cast every person who has sinned in the Lake of Fire for ever, and that He will live with every person who has done good in New Jerusalem for ever.
So how can He deal justly, with someone who has done BOTH?
John 5:29 … they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
“It doesn’t make any sense!” There is an impossibility in our assumptions!
The impossibility is the assumption that men are capable of doing good works.
If you believe that fleshly good works are TRUE good works, if you refuse to reject the good works of this world as FAKE and FRAUDULENT, and EVIL, then you really won’t understand the Scripture.
I think this understanding is very helpful, and likely even CRITICAL, to really understanding the things in Hebrews. You’ve got to understand the difference between good things on Earth, and good things in Heaven. You need to understand the difference between good works on the Earth, which all men’s flesh can do, and TRUE good things IN CHRIST, which only a Christian’s spirit can do.
Feb 24 2025
Hebrews 6 & 10 – The Impossibility of Salvation – Part 12
Hebrews 6 & 10 – The Impossibility of Salvation – Part 12
God does not count any of man’s good works to be true good.
Isaiah 64:6 … all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; …
Psalms 14:3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Psalms 53:3 Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Romans 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Psalms 14:1 … they are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
At salvation, there has to be a BINARY change in man’s ability. Off to On. Blackness to Light. Evil to Good.
God has never counted man’s fleshly good works as true good. He never has before, and He doesn’t now either.
The truth isn’t, “good works in the flesh were never counted as good BEFORE Jesus came… but NOW those same good works, that were never counted as true good works BEFORE Jesus died and rose again, NOW God does count them as true good works… as long as you’re a Christian.”
That isn’t being “created… unto good works”. There is no change in man’s capability in that!
Rather, that would be saying that GOD CHANGED His mind and decided to start accepting the same old fleshly good works of mankind, which He beforetimes rejected.
Can you imagine God saying, “Well, man’s good works were never, really, truly good to me, just a bunch of unclean, filthy rags. So I always rejected them. But NOW, when the people that believe in my Son do those SAME works, NOW I accept those same filthy rags and I call them good and clean.”
That isn’t people being CREATED UNTO good works! Those are the same OLD works.
2 Corinthians 6:17-18 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
A person has to be separated from the uncleanness and not ever touch it again. That is what a born-again Christian is: separated from uncleanness. He is not IN the flesh. So he CANNOT DO those same old fleshly good works; he cannot touch those filthy rags.
But God cannot change His mind to accept the unclean thing.
See, God’s works are perfect. That is the standard of a true good work: a perfect work that lasts for ever.
Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: …
Ecclesiastes 3:14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: …
Thus, to accept man’s fleshly good works as true good works, would make God an abomination.
Isaiah 41:24 Behold, ye are of nothing, and your work of nought: an abomination is he that chooseth you.
If God lowers His standard to accept man’s filthy works, then God is an abomination.
The result of salvation is not God’s mind changing to accept, and even “help” you do what He previously rejected.
The result of salvation is man’s ABILITY changing completely.
What he was incapable of before (good works), he is capable of now.
What he was capable of before (evil works), he is incapable of now.
When a person “gives his life to Christ” and starts going to church, and trying to do good works instead of evil works, his ability doesn’t change. Does it? He could sin before, and he can sin now. He can give and love now, but he could also give and love before.
His ability didn’t change. The CREATURE that he is, didn’t change. He is the same creature/being that he was before.
So if he couldn’t do good before (in the eyes of God), and if his flesh hasn’t changed, then how can he “do good” now!?
Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
If your flesh hasn’t changed, and you have no ABILITY to change your flesh, then how can you possibly think that you have the ability to do good now?
Can you, with taking thought, change your skin color? Can you make yourself taller? Can you change your eye color? Your hair color? Can you give yourself a leopard print skin, and then take it away, just by thinking? Can you give yourself wrinkles and then give yourself baby-smooth skin, just by thinking it?
Do you have ANY of those new abilities after believing in Jesus?
If you could do those things, in the flesh, then God says He would be willing to admit that you CAN do good works, in the flesh. But if you can’t even change the skin of your OLD creature… then how can you claim to be a completely “new creature”? How can you claim to be “created in Christ Jesus unto good works”?
Matthew 5:36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.
Luke 12:25-26 And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? 26 If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest?
If you are not ABLE to physically change your flesh just by taking thought, then how can you say that the flesh of a Christian is now a new creature, capable of good works?
Why does Jesus ask whether we can do these impossible things, and then call those things the “least”?
We believe that before the fall, Adam could do these things. Man was made to be able to do these things, just by thinking. In fact, he could do MUCH more! These things were the LEAST of the original abilities of mankind!
Can you do these things? Can every Christian do them? Can ANY Christian do them?
Well then how can Christians do good in the flesh?
If we aren’t even changed back into the original state of the OLD creature… how can we think that we do the works that the NEW creature does?
If we can’t even do what Adam (the first man) did, how can we think we can do what Christ (the second man) does?
If you can’t even do what the old creature of Adam could do, how can you think that you have been changed into, or are “being transformed” into, a Christ-like creature?
How can you think that you can do TRUE righteousness, TRUE good works, like Christ can do???
You are an OLD creature. You are less than the “least”, of the old creature. So you certainly are not a NEW creature, in this life, in this world.
Dear False Brethren, when you repented of your sins, and you gave your life to Christ, and you started living a good Christian life for God… all you did, was you took (the shell of, the fallen state of) the OLD creature and tried to repurpose him.
You took your OLD creature and started to do MORE of the best works that you were already ABLE to do.
But you didn’t change your old creature into a new creature. You didn’t take away his ability to sin. And you didn’t give him a new ability to do good.
You weren’t “created” as a “new creature”. Neither were you “created in Christ Jesus unto good works”.
Your flesh didn’t even change back to the original state of the OLD creature, like Adam. Much less did it become a new creature, like Christ.
John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: …
So again, if your fleshly abilities haven’t changed since you “became a Christian”, then how can you think that Christians are ABLE to do good works in the flesh now, when they never were able to before?
Salvation is not a man repurposing his old creature (his fleshly life) from serving self to serving God.
Salvation is a man being born as “a new creature”, in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
The new creature does completely NEW things.
There’s nothing NEW about fleshly good works. Those are the OLD things.
Men have been doing fleshly good works, and have been capable of doing them, ever since they got “the knowledge of good and evil”.
The flesh is the OLD creature. The flesh of a believer is not made a new creature.
Even when you “give your life to Christ”, and wake up the next day with a new sense of life and love and joy… even when you get baptized in earthly water, and you come up out of the water feeling so much excitement and joy… that is still just the OLD creature, living in the same OLD world, capable of the same OLD things.
Some people teach that salvation changes your life so much that its “like being born again”; its “like getting a new life”.
Romans 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
If a man on death row, is suddenly released, with all charges dropped… that man would probably use the exact same wording. “Its like being born again. Its like having a whole new life!”
But that man didn’t truly get born again, as a newborn baby. He didn’t get a different life, or a different body, or different parents. He got his old life back again. He got his same OLD fleshly life back again.
But he didn’t DIE, and get buried, and then get raised up with a new body, capable of new things.
So where is the true “newness of life”? Where is the new creature?
Salvation is not a new lease on your earthly life. It’s not more power to live your earthly life better.
Salvation is a literal death, burial, and resurrection as a completely NEW creature, with a completely NEW life, with completely NEW capabilities!
It may FEEL exhilarating at first, when you become a Christian. But there is nothing truly NEW in your flesh. A Christian’s life in this world is NOT a true NEW thing.
Your good works in this world, are the OLD things that come out of the OLD man.
Colossians 3:9 Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
A Christian hasn’t put off his evil deeds, and focused himself on the good deeds.
A Christian has put off the entire old creature, with ALL of its deeds, along with it.
Your fleshly deeds in this world, are the OLD things. They’re not the things that come out of the new man. They are not the things that come forth out of Christ.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
A thing that is “created” was not existing before.
A “new creature” is a creature that did not exist before.
It is not a thing repurposed, or reprogrammed, or refocused, or reinvigorated.
It is a NEW thing!
Taming a wild horse does not mean that you CREATED a horse. You didn’t create a new creature. You just repurposed an already existing creature.
You can’t do TRUE good works by repurposing the OLD creature. You have to be “created” as a “new creature”.
My flesh is not a new creature, so my flesh cannot do true good works. Neither can yours. And if you want proof of that, just try to do the very LEAST thing that men’s flesh SHOULD be able to do:
Luke 12:25 … with taking thought … add to [your] stature one cubit…
Matthew 5:36 … make one hair white or black.
Jeremiah 13:23 Can [you] change [your] skin…? [if so…] … then may ye also do good…
But if you can’t even do that… then don’t try to tell me that you do good works. I don’t believe you.
Don’t tell me that good works are the PROOF of salvation. They aren’t!
Salvation is not people getting better at the same OLD things.
Salvation is people receiving the ABILITY to do NEW things… to do TRUE good works. Things which men’s flesh CANNOT DO, and COULD NEVER DO. Not even ADAM could do them!
Salvation is people being created unto TRUE good works!
Ephesians 4:24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
The holiness and righteousness of mankind, as seen in mankind’s good works, is not TRUE holiness and righteousness to God. That is why Christians had to be CREATED unto TRUE holiness and righteousness.
Because mankind is not capable of doing true righteousness. Neither are Christians capable of TRUE righteousness in the flesh. But only in the Spirit.
To God, our flesh is INCAPABLE of doing true good things.
It is mankind that thinks he is able to do good works in the flesh.
It is lost mankind that thinks that God is in us doing our good works in this world.
It is lost mankind that thinks good works in this world are a result of salvation.
But that is not how God judges it. God judges in BINARY.
Spiritually, you can do good or you can do evil. Not both.
John 5:29 And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
It doesn’t say “have done good mostly”, or “consistently”, or “habitually”.
It says “have done good” and “have done evil”.
If mankind is capable of both good and evil, then all men have, at one point or another, done good and done evil.
If fleshly good works are true good works, then God would be unrighteous to throw anyone in the Lake of Fire. So then, how can God judge the world as He says He will in John 5:29???
This is exactly the statement that Paul makes, and then the question that Paul asks in Romans.
Romans 3:5-6 But if our unrighteousness [our fleshly good works] commend [1 – gives/entrusts or 2 – recommends/praises/testifies of; 1 doesn’t really fit, but 2 does…] the righteousness of God [kind of like “good works are proof of salvation”], what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? (I speak as a man) 6 God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
If our fleshly good works (our filthy rags – our unrighteousness) are commendation (evidence) of God’s righteousness in us, then God is unrighteous to judge lost people.
God would be unrighteous to accept the good works of some people as commendation/evidence/proof of salvation, but to reject the good works of others.
A lost sinner can rightly claim, “that’s not fair… I did some of those same good works! Why doesn’t that commend me as saved too?”
How could we answer that? And how could God defend His judgment? He couldn’t!
God is going to “judge the world in righteousness”.
He is going to divide those that ONLY do righteousness, from those that ONLY do UNrighteousness.
So if fleshly good works are TRUE righteousness, then what is the response to the unbelievers who on judgment day will doubtless claim that they did the same good works that the righteous did? There is none!
Thus, the truth is that NO fleshly good works are true righteousness, but ALL our fleshly good works are UNrighteousness. (more proof to come on that)
John 5:29 … they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
John 5:29 must be understood spiritually, and it must be understood in BINARY!
If you have EVER lied, even once, then you have only ever done evil works, and you have NEVER, EVER done a good work.
But if you have ever done a true good work, even just once, then you have NEVER, EVER done an evil work.
If you “have done good”, even once, then you have no need for Christ to create you unto good works, because you are already capable of them.
If fleshly good works are true good works, then everyone on Earth has “done good” and “done evil”.
How then can God judge the world, as He promised He would?
He would inevitably let someone who “has done evil” into New Jerusalem, and He would inevitable send someone who “has done good” into the Lake of Fire.
See, if you allow that our fleshly good works are TRUE good works, then God is not only an unjust judge, but God is a liar. Because God said He would cast every person who has sinned in the Lake of Fire for ever, and that He will live with every person who has done good in New Jerusalem for ever.
So how can He deal justly, with someone who has done BOTH?
John 5:29 … they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.
“It doesn’t make any sense!” There is an impossibility in our assumptions!
The impossibility is the assumption that men are capable of doing good works.
If you believe that fleshly good works are TRUE good works, if you refuse to reject the good works of this world as FAKE and FRAUDULENT, and EVIL, then you really won’t understand the Scripture.
I think this understanding is very helpful, and likely even CRITICAL, to really understanding the things in Hebrews. You’ve got to understand the difference between good things on Earth, and good things in Heaven. You need to understand the difference between good works on the Earth, which all men’s flesh can do, and TRUE good things IN CHRIST, which only a Christian’s spirit can do.
By Pastor • Christian Doctrine, Creation, Good Works, LHBC Core Beliefs • 0