Commenting on Rom 2:6 ("[God] will render to every man according to his deeds"), William G. Most wrote:
How
can that be, when Paul so vehemently insists that justification is gratuitous,
and that we do not earn salvation? If we put that line into its original
context of Psalm 62:12, which is so often translated poorly: "You O Lord,
have mercy, for You will repay each one according to his
works." We must ask: How does mercy relate to repayment for works?
However, the word rendered so often by "mercy" really is our familiar hesed. (Cf. Wm. Most, "A Biblical Theology of
Redemption in a Covenant Framework" in CBQ 29 (1967) pp.1-19.) So the
sense should amount to this: You, O Lord, really observe the covenant, for You
will repay each one according to his works: benefits for obedience, punishment
for violation. Now if we examine the covenant more closely we will see that
there are two answers if we ask: Why does God give us good things? On the most
basic level, it is sheer generosity, unmerited, unmeritable. For no creature
could by its own power establish a claim on God. But on the secondary level,
i.e., given the fact that He has of His own accord entered into a covenant, in
which He has said in effect: "If you do this, I will do that," --
then, even though technically He does not and cannot owe anything to any
creature, yet He does owe it to Himself to do what He has said. If the creature
carries out covenant obedience, God will surely reward him. That reward can be
called sedaqah, for it is a matter of sedaqah for God's Holiness to carry out what He has
pledged. Not to do it would be to violate sedaqah, which He in His Holiness cannot violate.
(William G. Most "Appendix:
Sedaqah in Jewish/Christian Tradition")
