Romans 2:6
Romans 2:66God “will repay each one according to his deeds.”
is one of the Watchtower's strongest works-salvation proof-texts. Read in isolation, "he will pay back to each one according to his works" appears to anchor a strict remuneration principle: God repays based on what each person has done. The Watchtower system treats this as the basis of final judgment — works are constitutive, not merely evidential.
The verse is real Pauline doctrine — God really does repay according to deeds. The question is whether deeds are the BASIS of justification or the EVIDENCE of a person already justified by Christ's righteousness. Paul's own answer comes five chapters later: "a person is justified by faith apart from works of the law" (). The Greek chōris ("apart from") cannot be flexed to mean "in cooperation with." So sets the law's standard; records the verdict (no one meets it); reveals the rescue (Christ's righteousness credited by faith). Final-judgment-by-deeds is the public evidence of who has been justified by Christ — not a second, parallel basis of salvation.