Q: In Matthew 12:37, Jesus says, For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. But in other passages, justification is the result of faith, and individuals are said to enter the church (and thus, be justified, i.e., have ones debt with God taken care of) by other means. Exactly how are people judged by God? Does a person simply have to sincerely believe in Jesus for ten seconds at some point in his life? What are the Biblical requirements to be saved?
A: All of these are fair questions. Here I will give a fairly short answer, which I hope to expand upon in other replies at passages about conversion.
Each individual is pronounced saved or damned according to whether or not he has been spiritually regenerated, which is accomplished when the individual does the following:
(a) he repents, meaning that he knows that he has displeased God by doing wrong and does not want to do wrong any more. He wants to shape up.
(b) believing that God has made forgiveness available to him, he calls on God for forgiveness as a free gift. (This is where false religions tend to get it wrong: good deeds are thought of as some sort of couter-balance to bad deeds. But in Christianity, good works are an expression of salvation, not a means of salvation.)
(c) he confesses Christ as His Savior, believing that Jesus death on the cross paid for his sins. (This is contingent on the individuals ability to do so. Without knowledge of the name of Jesus, his level of responsibility is proportionately lower.)
(d) he is immersed (i.e., baptized), formally surrendering to God and sincerely desiring to serve Christ as the Lord of his life. (Again, this is contingent on the individuals ability and opportunity to do so.)
This does not mean that theres no hope for people who, through no fault of their own, never named the name of Jesus Christ as Lord, or were never immersed. But if a person wants to be able to honestly say that he has done what the Bible says to do to become a member of the body of Christ (and, if youre not on board, then youre overboard), he must do what I just described.
(There are some important qualifications to consider. For instance, to be saved, one must first be lost. To repent, one must first have the mental acuity required to commit sins to repent of. Infants and others without a developed sense of morality never get this far, and are saved from the stomp of sin by not being spiritually impressed by it in the first place (even though they are subject to some non-spiritual effects of sin for which they are not responsible, including death). But like I said, Im giving a short answer here; a more detailed response would take us pretty far from Matthew 12:37.)
As those steps are taken by individual, God is at work, and He promises that the Holy Spirit will dwell within those who sincerely take these steps. Spirit-led people will, as they persevere in the faith, tend to bear fruit in their character and they will tend to perform good works such as the ones recommended in the teachings of Christ and His early followers.
So, as far as Matthew 12:37 is concerned -- we really ought to be gluing 12:36 to the discussion, btw -- each individual will have to give an account of his words on Judgment Day. If he has not called on God for forgiveness, then his works -- including his speech -- will testify against him as evidence of his unregenerate nature. Thus, by your words you will be condemned. On the other hand, if he /has/ called on God for forgiveness and confessed Jesus as Lord, then his words will serve as evidence that he has done what God told him (in the Bible) to do to receive Gods grace, and thus by his words he will be justified. Ultimately the source of justification is God, of course, not the words themselves, but the step of confession is required. (Similarly, when a water-skier is being pulled by a motorboat, its the boats motor, not the handle in the skiers hands or the rope attached to the handle, that is propelling him, and without that motor he wont go anywhere, but in order to ski he needs to hold the rope-handle.)
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
A: All of these are fair questions. Here I will give a fairly short answer, which I hope to expand upon in other replies at passages about conversion.
Each individual is pronounced saved or damned according to whether or not he has been spiritually regenerated, which is accomplished when the individual does the following:
(a) he repents, meaning that he knows that he has displeased God by doing wrong and does not want to do wrong any more. He wants to shape up.
(b) believing that God has made forgiveness available to him, he calls on God for forgiveness as a free gift. (This is where false religions tend to get it wrong: good deeds are thought of as some sort of couter-balance to bad deeds. But in Christianity, good works are an expression of salvation, not a means of salvation.)
(c) he confesses Christ as His Savior, believing that Jesus death on the cross paid for his sins. (This is contingent on the individuals ability to do so. Without knowledge of the name of Jesus, his level of responsibility is proportionately lower.)
(d) he is immersed (i.e., baptized), formally surrendering to God and sincerely desiring to serve Christ as the Lord of his life. (Again, this is contingent on the individuals ability and opportunity to do so.)
This does not mean that theres no hope for people who, through no fault of their own, never named the name of Jesus Christ as Lord, or were never immersed. But if a person wants to be able to honestly say that he has done what the Bible says to do to become a member of the body of Christ (and, if youre not on board, then youre overboard), he must do what I just described.
(There are some important qualifications to consider. For instance, to be saved, one must first be lost. To repent, one must first have the mental acuity required to commit sins to repent of. Infants and others without a developed sense of morality never get this far, and are saved from the stomp of sin by not being spiritually impressed by it in the first place (even though they are subject to some non-spiritual effects of sin for which they are not responsible, including death). But like I said, Im giving a short answer here; a more detailed response would take us pretty far from Matthew 12:37.)
As those steps are taken by individual, God is at work, and He promises that the Holy Spirit will dwell within those who sincerely take these steps. Spirit-led people will, as they persevere in the faith, tend to bear fruit in their character and they will tend to perform good works such as the ones recommended in the teachings of Christ and His early followers.
So, as far as Matthew 12:37 is concerned -- we really ought to be gluing 12:36 to the discussion, btw -- each individual will have to give an account of his words on Judgment Day. If he has not called on God for forgiveness, then his works -- including his speech -- will testify against him as evidence of his unregenerate nature. Thus, by your words you will be condemned. On the other hand, if he /has/ called on God for forgiveness and confessed Jesus as Lord, then his words will serve as evidence that he has done what God told him (in the Bible) to do to receive Gods grace, and thus by his words he will be justified. Ultimately the source of justification is God, of course, not the words themselves, but the step of confession is required. (Similarly, when a water-skier is being pulled by a motorboat, its the boats motor, not the handle in the skiers hands or the rope attached to the handle, that is propelling him, and without that motor he wont go anywhere, but in order to ski he needs to hold the rope-handle.)
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
