Justified by Works

 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” - Matthew 12:33-37

The latter half of the passage is especially interesting, in that it ties justification, works, and the final judgment together. The word for “justification” here is the same as in Romans as well as James. The Dispensational teaching of there being two (or more) final judgments, one for all people and one just for the Church according to works, is contradicted by this passage. That good and evil works are in view is clear, as is the fact that there are only two groups to consider, those with an inherent righteousness and those without. There is no third, “Carnal Christian” class to take into account. This judgment according to works is also not one that merely involves those who are saved. Some of the people here will be declared righteous, and some will be condemned, those who are evil.

As echoed in James, the internal state of the person as well as their works are taken into account in God’s judgment of them. But, in conjunction with Paul in Romans (Rom. 2:5-16), the declaration to the righteous here is the final declaration of justification, the end result of God’s original declaration of justification in time to the individual by grace through that person’s faith (Romans 4). God begins by regenerating the man dead in sin and gifting him with faith. And in response to that faith, God declares the man just, based on the righteousness of Christ alone. In so doing, God declares His own promise and intention to make that man into what he is not - a truly righteous man, filling the role of ruling the world which God originally intended for Adam (Romans 4:13-25, 8:18-25). It is the man justified by faith in his life who will be justified at the judgment at the end of this world.