The New Testament says several times that there is a day of accounting coming when all will be judged according to their deeds (Matthew 16:27; Romans 2:6; 2 Corinthians 5:10). In Romans 2 especially, this is an individual accounting: God “will render to every man according to his deeds” (Paul quoting Psalm 62:12).

In the Old Testament, though, this formula is frequently used not of individuals but of nations. God puts on His armor to repay His adversaries all the way to the coastlands “according to their deeds” (Isaiah 59:16-21). He serves out His cup of wrath to judge nations and kings “according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands” (Jeremiah 25:14). He judged Israel in particular by scattering them; this was a judgment “according to their ways and their deeds” (Ezekiel 36:19). The day of the Lord comes on the nations when “as you have done, it will be done to you. Your dealings will return on your own head” (Obadiah 15).

Judgment according to works is a principle of personal eschatology, also a principle of political history.