What relationship do a Christians' good works have with their final judgement? Are they merely evidences of justification, or do they in any way contribute to justification? Surprisingly, Calvin regards good works as "inferior causes" of salvation:
Moreover, when Scripture intimates that the good works of believers are causes why the Lord does them good, we must still understand the meaning so as to hold unshaken what has previously been said—viz. that the efficient cause of our salvation is placed in the love of God the Father; the material cause in the obedience of the Son; the instrumental cause in the illumination of the Spirit, that is, in faith; and the final cause in the praise of the divine goodness. In this, however, there is nothing to prevent the Lord from embracing works as inferior causes. But how so? In this way: Those whom in mercy he has destined for the inheritance of eternal life, he, in his ordinary administration, introduces to the possession of it by means of good works. What precedes in the order of administration is called the cause of what follows. For this reason, he sometimes makes eternal life a consequent of works; not because it is to be ascribed to them, but because those whom he has elected he justifies, that he may at length glorify (Rom. 8:30); he makes the prior grace to be a kind of cause, because it is a kind of step to that which follows. But whenever the true cause is to be assigned, he enjoins us not to take refuge in works, but to keep our thoughts entirely fixed on the mercy of God...
– John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion III.xiv.21.
Notice that Calvin commits a logical fallacy here. He indicates that temporal succession implies a causal relation. This is what is known as the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. Just because good works always precede eternal life, it doesn't mean they cause it – rather, both the good works and the eternal life come from the same source: union with Christ.
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