The Ends of the Paths

Paul has taught the Romans that the deeds a person does will determine his or her degree of reward or punishment in the afterlife. Now he elaborates on specific “treasures” of divine wrath or favor that await the redeemed and the damned.

The redeemed are those whose lives are marked by “patient continuance in doing good.” Paul says they seek “glory” (perhaps the final transformation into the image of God’s Son), “honor” (divine approval), and “immortality” (life with God beyond the grave), all great components of the Christian hope. At the end of their quest, God will give them “eternal life” (salvation), “glory” and “honor” (the rewards they seek), and “peace” (probably meaning the peace of paradise, since the term seems to parallel “immortality”). By contrast, the damned are “self-seeking” (they strive to exalt themselves and satisfy their sinful appetites), “do not obey the truth” (the revelation of God in creation, as discussed in Romans 1), and “obey unrighteousness” (the downward path of evil that inevitably follows rejection of the truth of God). For their evil ways, they will receive “indignation and wrath” (God’s reaction against evil), as well as “tribulation and anguish” (trouble and distress as a result of judgment). These punishments will be given by God to “every soul … who does evil.”

One of the troubling aspects of this passage is that it seems to say salvation by works is possible. For instance, verses 6 and 7 say, “[God] will render … eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality.” However, we know from elsewhere in Scripture that salvation is only by faith in Christ. Why, then, does Paul use such language? “Salvation is achieved by Christ for all who are to be saved, and it becomes theirs by simple faith in Him and His work,” Dr. James M. Boice writes. “But we must not … think that one can be saved by faith and continue down the same path he or she has been treading, doing no good works at all. A person doing that is not saved, regardless of his or her profession.” In other words, good works are such an inevitable outworking of grace that it is possible to say that those who do good works are truly saved. Where grace goes, good works inevitably will follow. But where grace goes not, good works never shall appear.