In this part it will be shown how the Biblical doctrine of sin and death has been misunderstood and partly obscured by the intrustion into Christian theology of a distortion and misunderstanding of the law which may be called legalism. According to legalism, sin is regarded as primarily a falling short of a standard or the breaking of rules, the transgression of the law. This legalistic view of sin was combined in the theology of Augustine with another view of sin derived from the Greek view of reality. According to this view of reality, sin is intrinsic to human nature. The result of this combination is the doctrine of original sin. This doctrine is a misunderstanding and distortion of the Biblical doctrine of sin and death. It obscures the Biblical doctrine of the need for salvation and leads to a misunderstanding of the Biblical doctrine of salvation through Christ and His death.
In Eph. 2:8-9 Paul contrasts two kinds of salvation: salvation by grace and salvation by works. What is salvation by works? Salvation by works is a salvation that is earned; it is merited. "To the one working the reward is reckoned not according to grace [as a gift] but according to debt [something owed since it was earned]" (Rom. 4:4). The works that are supposed to earn salvation are more than just good works (good deeds or acts); they are meritorious works; they are good deeds that earn salvation. Each good work is regarded as having a certain quantity of merit attached to it; when the good work is done, the merit is placed or reckoned to the account of the person performing the act. Correspondingly, each evil or bad work is regarded as having a certain quantity of demerit or negative merit (penalty) attached to it so that the demerit is reckoned to the account of the person doing the evil work (sin). At the final judgment each person's account is balanced -- the merits and demerits are weighed against each other. If the merit outweighs the demerit, that person is saved -- he has earned eternal life. If the demerit outweighs the merit, that person is condemned -- he is punished eternally for his sins. This merit scheme underlies and is implied by all teaching that salvation is by works.
The Bible very clearly teaches that salvation is not by works (Eph. 2:8-9; Titus 3:5). Salvation is by grace through faith. Man cannot be saved by his good works; he cannot earn salvation by his works. This is the clear and explicit teaching of Scripture. Salvation by grace and salvation by meritorious works are mutually exclusive and opposing ways of salvation. "But if it is by grace, it is no longer by works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace." (Rom. 11:6)
Now if we ask why man cannot be saved by his works, why man cannot earn salvation by his meritorious works, the usual answer given is that man apart from God's grace is not able to do good works by which he can earn salvation. Man, it is usually said, is not only not able to do good works, but he is able only to sin apart from the grace of God. Now, the curious implication of this answer is that if a man were able to do good works -- able not to sin -- then he could earn salvation and be saved by his meritorious works. This implication is made explicit in the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church since the time of Augustine, that by the grace of God, which is infused into a man at his baptism, he is able to do good works by which salvation (eternal life) may be earned. Salvation is ultimately and fundamentally by works even though the grace of God makes possible the meritorious works.
It was this teaching that the Protestant Reformers opposed. They rejected the idea that grace was something infused into man to make it possible for him to earn salvation. Grace, said the Reformers, is God's unmerited favor, and salvation (eternal life) was a gift to be received by faith. But, they said, that salvation was earned by the active obedience of Christ during his life on earth. This "merits of Christ" is imputed to the believer's account when he first believes in Christ. Thus salvation is still ultimately and fundamentally by meritorious works. It is true that they said that it was not by our works and it was a gift received by faith. But salvation was still by works -- not by our works but by the meritorious works of another, Jesus Christ. It was a vicarious salvation by works. So salvation is still ultimately and fundamentally by works even though salvation is through the grace of God and not by our works. This explanation of salvation like the earlier Roman Catholic explanation mixes grace and works, which Paul says cannot be done or grace will no longer be grace (Rom. 11:6). And as a result of this mixture of grace and works in Protestant theology, the strong dynamic Biblical concept of God's grace as God's love in action is reduced to the weak idea of grace as unmerited favor.
Salvation is not by meritorious works, not because man is not able to do them, but because God does not deal with mankind on the basis of the merit scheme. As Jesus made clear in his parable of the householder (Matt. 20:1-16), God does not act toward us on the basis of our merit but on the basis of His generosity. And because God does not treat mankind according to their desserts, but according to His love, He often puts the least deserving before the more deserving. "The last will be first and the first last." (Matt. 20:16; 19:30; Mark 10:31; Luke 13:30) Because God ignores merits in His relationships to man, salvation is not by meritorious works. Salvation has nothing to do with merits.
The whole scheme of merit underlies and is implied by all teaching that salvation is by works. To reject salvation by works without rejecting the whole merit scheme is like treating the symptoms of disease without treating the disease. Salvation by works is a symptom of the disease of legalism. Salvation by works and the merit scheme are only aspects of more comprehensive teachings of legalism.