Matthew 16:27 "Rewarded according to works"... WORKS???!!!!

Matthew 16:24-27: Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. (25) For whoever desires to save his life shall lose it, and whoever desires to lose his life for My sake shall find it. (26) For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (27) For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall reward each one according to his works.

Both those who promote the gospel of grace and those who defend the law are guilty of closing their eyes to texts that do not support their point of view.

Those who advocate grace don't have very good explanations for the texts that seem to support the observance of the law. Those of the law try to say that grace is given precisely so that they can obtain the victory over sin and keep the law, thus producing the works necessary to pass the judgment test.

Thus those of us who proclaim the gospel of grace have to take very much into consideration those texts and biblical passages that would seem to teach that in the final analysis, salvation is based on works. We have to pay attention to texts such as the one above, that when the Lord Jesus returns, he will "reward each one according to his works".

Christian traditions have traditionally interpreted this phrase according to their own particular spins, without taking into account the original meaning of all the words in the passage, and their relationship to their context (the texts immediately before and after). In particular, Christianity in one way or another has interpreted this text as meaning the performance of good deeds, as the fruit of faith.

This interpretation has been given as if v. 27 had nothing to do at all with the entire context (the words spoken by Jesus previous to the phrase "reward each one according to his works"). This phrase is interpreted as if Matthew had somehow forgotten to include it and decided to insert it here in v. 27 as an afterthought.

Those who advocate the gospel of grace try to build an entire doctrine of "rewards" on the basis of this text. They teach that these words do not really teach salvation by works, but refer to the reward of the righteous. The righteous will be rewarded according to their works. They believed in Christ through faith for salvation. But after being saved, their works were so wonderful and good, and much better than those of others saved, that upon His coming Jesus would reward them in a special way, "according to their works". Although this doctrine begins with grace, it ends in works, teaching that in the end there will be a special category of saved people, those who had better and bigger works than their brothers and sisters in the faith. This doctrine does nothing but pits fellow believers in competition with each other under their leaders who somehow control the rules of the competition - all with the goal of presenting themselves with their good works before Jesus at His coming, and receiving their just reward.

Another teaching of evangelical Christians is that this text is not talking about the believers' works but the works of Jesus. The believing Christian will receive the reward of the works of Jesus, because they have been covered with the righteousness and the obedience of Christ. Although this doctrine has biblical foundation elsewhere, it is not the primary teaching of Matthew 16:27.

Those who defend the law and the necessity of good works for salvation of course see in this text powerful ammunition against the gospel of grace alone. They declare that in the end, these words of Jesus support the words of James. Show me your faith through your works. Therefore believers must dedicate themselves to the keeping of the law and to the doing of good deeds because without them there will be no reward.

It's amazing that for Christians who in their good deeds are not even to let their left hand know what their right hand is doing (Matthew 6:3), the motivation and interest according to these notions is the reward - and according to their works!

What then does Jesus teach in Matthew 16:27? What was our Lord talking about when He declared that at His coming, He would repay each one according to His works?

The Meaning of "works" in New Testament Greek, and in Matthew 16:27

It is incredible how the translators of the New Testament overlooked the most common meaning of the Greek word that is translated here as "works".

The word "works" in Matthew 16:27 is the Greek word "praxis" (due to its grammatical place in the sentence it is literally "praxin"). The translators consistently and incorrectly translated this word as "works".

However in New Testament Greek and generally in the Greek culture of Jesus' day, the word "praxis" did not principally mean "works".

"Works" is an interpretation of the meaning according to the translators of the word "praxis", but it is not the literal and precise meaning of the word "praxis" as it was commonly used in the Greek world of those days.

The word "praxis" (πραξις) came from the common people. In particular, it was a word that was commonly used in the market place.

This word came from the bartering, from the give and take between seller and buyer. The seller exacting a higher price for his own gain, and the buyer offering a lower price for his advantage. Finally, when buyer and seller had come to an agreement, they had struck a "praxis".

Yes! That is the primary meaning of "praxis", which in Matthew 16:27 is translated as "works".

Surprised? The truth is always surprising.

The Greeks concluded that a favorable deal for the buyer had been a "good or successful praxis". If it had been to the seller's disadvantage he had been involved in a "bad praxis" - a bad deal in our words today. To this entire transaction the more general meaning of "work" was given. A good deal had been a "good work", a bad deal had been a "bad work". In English we would say the transaction "worked out to be a good deal" or it "worked out to be a bad deal".

Surprised again? The truth always surprises.

The word "praxis" then, came from the transaction, the interchange resulting from an agreement between two parties. The result came from a negotiated agreement, a favorable transaction both for the seller and the buyer.

Human behavior was also understood in terms of an exchange of expected results. A person exchanged the results of a good deed for the results of a bad deed. Good behavior exchanged the results of bad behavior in order to receive the results of good behavior.

Praxis: A deal between two parties exchanging goods or services favorable to either seller, buyer, or both. The result was the "work" of a transaction, adjudged good or bad according to each one's perception. The meaning of the "work" referred primarily to the deal, the agreement, the transaction and its results. Such is the meaning of the word "praxis" in the New Testament which in general the translators have rendered simply "works".

Since we are persuaded that the New Testament was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we must also assume that this meaning of "praxis" must fit perfectly with the context or the verses preceding Matthew 16:27.

Let us try and see how this verse fits into the entire passage of Matthew 16:21-17.

The theme of Matthew 16:13-20 is that Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one of God, "the Son of the living God".

Verses 21-23 declare that Jesus the Christ must suffer and die in Jerusalem and rise from the dead at the third day.

The Exchange of Lives: The Theme of Matthew 16:24-26

In these verses Jesus declares that in order to follow Him, and being at peace with God, it is necessary, indeed a must to transact a series of exchanges.

In order to follow Him, it is necessary to deny following one's own life path (v. 24). One has to exchange one's life for a cross and follow His path instead of one's own.

Verse 25 clearly announces the need for another exchange. This exchange seems paradoxical, or contrary to common logic: "If you want to save your life, you will destroy it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find it" (CEV). One has to exchange one own's life, lose it, in order to receive His. According to the Greek text, the phrase "for my sake" does not mean a commitment to a certain cause, but simply the commitment to lose one's life in exchange for His life.

The issue of the exchange of lives is clarified even more in v. 26 when Jesus poses two questions, leaving the answers to His hearers' reflection. "For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" This last question in fact contains the Greek word "antallagma", which is the object that is being traded in an exchange. It referred to the object exchanged in the trading places of the market. Without an "antallagma" the parties could not arrive at a "praxis". Without an object of value in exchange, a transaction could not take place.

The question posed by Jesus presupposes a response to the negative: "No, a human being cannot give anything from himself that can in any way save his life." He cannot do enough, be enough, nor obtain enough of the necessary value to save his own life. He needs an "antallagma" of greater value than his own life. This "antallagma", this object of supreme value is the life of Jesus, which a human being may present in exchange for his own life. Only the perfect, pure, and totally loving life of Jesus is that which he may bring in exchange (antallagma) for his or her own life. All else is insufficient, it lacks sufficient value. Everything else that is not the person of Jesus Christ, devalues the individual for eternal salvation.

With this meaning of the exchange of lives, Christ pronounces His categorical statement in v. 27: "For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He shall reward each one according to his praxis (praxin). In fact "praxis" is here in the singular, not the plural, that is why it is incorrect to translate this word as "works" (in the plural).

What Jesus intended to teach is that when the Son of man comes in the glory of His Father and of His angels, He will pay to each according to the exchange, or the transaction that each person has agreed with God.

If the person asked God to exchange His life for the life of Jesus, such will be repayed with the eternal life of Jesus.

Each one has before him or her this transaction, this exchange, this "praxis" to transact.

Will he waive the right to present his own life, exchanging the life of Jesus for his or her own? In such a case, the same will be awarded the award given to Jesus.

Did he hang on to his own merits, his own obedience, his own good deeds (actions not praxis), or did such a person hold on to the merits and obedience of Jesus in exchange for his own merits and obedience? Such person will be repayed according to his transaction, his exchange, the agreement that he made with himself and with God.

Thus the meaning of Matthew 16:27 is: The only life of eternal value before God is the life of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world. He lays down His life so that all persons may take up His life in exchange for their own. All are responsible for making this transaction with God, presenting the perfect life of Jesus instead of their own. When the Son of Man returns with the glory of the Father and the angels He will reward all according to what they have transacted with God.

Further on, in Matthew 20:27, 28, the Lord repeats the lesson of the exchange of lives, and with greater clarity: "And whoever desires to be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many".

Matthew 16:27 more than any other text that refers to the second coming teaches this marvelous truth: the certainty of the second coming of Jesus cannot be taught apart from the gospel. The preaching of the second coming with its corresponding signs and warnings must be taught together with the gospel of salvation: that the only way a sinner may be ready for the second coming of Jesus Christ is by exchanging one's life for the life of Jesus Christ. The same Savior that died at the cross taking on our sin and death is the one who will come for the second time, in the glory of the Father and the angels, and will give to each one according to what happened on the cross. The only reward to be given is the reward of His life, which is already ours by faith as we believe in Jesus unto salvation.

Praised be the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!




Note: For further study on "praxis" as a Greek noun and its related verb form please see Henry George Lidell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, in the following links: "praxis" (noun): http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0058%3Aentry%3D%2327252; "prasso" (verb) http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3D%2386185.

A basic rule of interpretation is that when a word has more than one possible meaning, the context must determine the meaning of the word in question. In the case of "praxis" here in Matthew 16:27, the context which deals with the exchange "antallagma" of lives, must rule in favor of "transaction" rather than simply "works".