I sort of see what you're saying, but it feels quite confusing and a little tangled in my head. Explain a little more, please?
Well, tht is partly because very few "churches" even teach this any more.
2 Peter 3:15And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you;
16As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things;
in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. 17Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.
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I used the example of running a race, which Paul also used, but lets see if I can clean this up a bit.
Ok.
"everyone shall be judged by the words of their mouth."
Absolutely true.
However, as I said, the "Just shall live by his faith."
When the Judgment comes, it is an "if/then/else" sort of event.
If the person has faith in Jesus Christ and what he did at the cross.
Then, he is "Justified by faith". and is therefore judged only according to his faith. He is rewarded only according to his good works, because his evil works are not remembered. For the "Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the Law of sin and death."
Else if the person has faith in anything other than Jesus Christ and what he did at the Cross
Then that person is judged according to the "Law of sin and death," and of course, the "Law of Sin and Death" says "Thou Shalt not" and if you break that commandment, then "Thou shalt surely die" and "thine eye shall not pity him..." So if the person told even one lie, because they are self righteous, they are guilty of death and will die. If they blasphemed even one time, because they are not justified, they will die.
That is a very direct, and hopefully understandable breakdown of the judgement of both the truly righteous (by faith) and the wicked(self righteous.)
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Now I guess this is a bit more elaboration on related topic, which goes hand in hand with "justification by faith", and that is "sanctification by faith".
This is a lot to read, so you may need to take a break. LoL.
You see, God does not judge us by weighing our "evil works" against our "good works" and whichever is bigger wins. Not at all, for if anything, that is in fact the lie that the devil tells the self righteous.
"I'm not a murderer. I pay tithe. I go to church. I read the Bible. I pray. I got baptized. I'm a "good" person. I do charity work and social work. Raised my kids well. Never cheated on the wife/husband, etc. I'm a "good" <insert favorite denomination or non-denomination>."
But none of those things can save anyone.
Under the law, God's standard of righteousness:
if we tell even one "little white lie", we are guilty of death.
if a guy so much as looks at a supermodel and lusts, or a woman so much as looks at brad pitt and lusts, then they broke the tenth commandment. "Thou shalt not covet". If we break even one commandment, we are guilty of death, and no amount of keeping other commandments can redeem. Even the sacrifical system under the Old Covenant could not redeem,
"for it was not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could remove sins."
Salvation, justification, sanctification, etc, never came by keeping commandments, nor did it ever come by killing an animal and burning it. It came by placing faith in what that symbolic sacrifice represented, which was "Jesus Christ and what he did at the Cross".
No matter how much we have kept the other commandments, we are still guilty of the one we break, at least if we are under the law.
Paul said if you break one commandment you break them all.
This is why works, even "good works" cannot redeem, cannot justify, cannot sanctify, yet it is so very deceptive, especially for Christians.
but "no flesh shall glory in his presence."
We read our Bibles because the Lord says, "Study to show yourself approved," and yet, reading the Bible does not redeem, justify, or sanctify.
If we have faith in "reading the Bible", then we have faith in works, which is typified by cain's vegetables, which God will not honor.
Reading the Bible is a "good" work, in fact, one of the best. Yet...
"Search the scriptures, for in them you THINK you have eternal life, and they are that which testifies of Me."
The Scribes and pharisees "knew" the Old Covenant, and yet they didn't understand a thing about it, didn't know God, didn't know him when he was standing right in front of them. In really they didn't know the scriptures half as well as they thought they did, and this in spite of their much study.
We pray because the Lord tells us to, because it is the "right" thing to do, because we have relationship with God. Yet, prayer cannot redeem, justify, or sanctify.
If we have "faith in prayers", then we are self righteous.
"Be not as the hypocrites are...using vain repetitions...for they think they will be heard for their much speaking."
They pray and pray and pray, and because prayer is a "good" work, they deceive themselves, believing that "the more I pray, the more godly I must be..." or something like that, which is usually very subtle and they may not even fully realize they are doing it.
Nadab and Abihuh died before the Lord for using "strange fire", which typifies anything, however good and noble it may be in and of itself, anything at all that is not "Jesus Christ and him Crucified".
Now believers, they weren't doing anything paganistic or occultic. They died because they failed to use fire from the properly sanctified vessels, and instead, got fire from somewhere in the camp. Fire represents various things in scripture, most notably judgement, but also sanctification. We cannot be sanctified by "strange fire", but rather only by the fire of the "Holy Spirit" (John said that Jesus would baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit), which again comes only through "Jesus Christ and what he did at the Cross". God cannot honor "strange fire".
The Gospel is so simple a child can understand.
It's only difficulty comes becomes of the flesh, because we are so used to the world's way of thinking and patting ourselves on the back.
