Jesus Our Surety, and the Threatenings of God's Justice

There are terrible warnings in Scripture: "I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done" (Revelation 20:12). Some cults like to refer to such verses to support their belief in salvation based, even if just partly, on works. That is, they take such warnings to mean, as the Muslims believe, that each person's works in his life are read out, and if they fail to meet some threshold, then that person goes to Hell. Yet they can never tell us what that threshold is. 

There is a serious problem with such an assertion: "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). And even more disturbing: "We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment" (Isaiah 64:6). So, if all men are sinners, and our best works are no better than filthy rags, how can any man be saved? And, indeed, if we stopped here, and all men were condemned to Hell, then God would be perfectly just. 

However, for the true believer, there is a solution: "O LORD, You will ordain peace for us, for You have indeed done for us all our works" (Isaiah 26:12). The works that God requires from us He has imputed to us. "Imputed" means that something we have not done is credited to us as if we had done it. Imputed from where? From the perfect works of Jesus: "Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen" (Hebrews 13:20-21). Jehovah, the preincarnate Jesus told us what would happen, and the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us the same thing that had happened. Jesus lived perfectly, God and man in one Person, so that His perfection could be imputed to every Christian by means of faith alone.