Chapter 12
Let Faith be Faith
Over the course of the last several chapters, we have examined the Reformation teaching of Sola Scriptura (Scripture alone), Solo Christo (Christ alone) , and Sola gratia (Grace alone). We have seen that Scripture alone is our only source of truth (Sola Scriptura); that God alone is sovereign over all the affairs of men; that man is completely incapable of living a life of obedience that is pleasing to God--only through the perfect obedience of Christ alone are we declared righteous in God’s sight (Solo Christo); and that grace alone is the sole ground of our salvation (Sola Gratia). Throughout our study of these first three Solas, we have been consistently pointed to the fifth and final Sola: Soli Deo Gloria (To God alone be the glory). Man cannot take credit for the establishment of truth, for God’s Word alone is pure and true; man cannot congratulate himself for ordering his affairs, for it is the Lord who directs his steps; man cannot praise himself for his justification, because he is declared righteous only through Christ; and man cannot glorify himself for his salvation, for it was God who elected him to receive mercy from before the foundation of the world.
However, we have yet to examine the fourth of these Five Fingerprints of the Reformation. This doctrine may well be the most thoroughly misunderstood and misrepresented of them all; It is Sola fide (faith alone). The Reformers were uncompromising on their position that salvation was by means of “Faith alone,” apart from any additions, because they did not want the biblical concept of saving faith to be adulterated by the Roman state church’s redefinition of faith. Rome insisted then--and still does today--that faith means more than a simple belief in the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. She defined faith as a believing commitment to obedience. Dr. James Buchanan, in his incomparable work on the doctrine of justification, accurately summarized the Roman position this way: “Faith justifies, not by uniting the sinner to Christ, and making him a partaker of Christ’s righteousness,--but by ‘working’ in him, and ‘sanctifying’ him,--by being, in its own essential nature as one of the ‘fruits of the Spirit,’ and by producing, in its actual operation as a vital principle which ‘worketh by love,’ a real inherent righteousness which is, on its own account, acceptable to God, and which constitutes the immediate ground of his acceptance;--in short, by making him righteous, subjectively, so that thereby, and on that account, he may be reputed righteous, and obtain at once the pardon of sin, and a title to eternal life.”1 The Roman church has always taught that the believer is not declared legally righteous because of the righteousness of Christ, but rather is made righteous by the infusion of grace which works within the believer to transform him, over time, into a godly person. Note Mr. Buchanan’s use of the word subjectively: Roman doctrine insists that the believer becomes righteous within himself, rather than being declared righteous objectively, outside of himself, legally credited with the righteousness of Christ in the mind of God. By what can only be called a satanic subterfuge, the Roman state church introduced works into the free grace message by redefining faith as a faith that “does something,” a faith that works in the believer to produce righteousness. This teaching stands in sharp contrast to a biblical faith that simply believes that when Christ said, “It is finished,”2He meant what He said!
Martin Luther said this during a sermon on Mark 16:14-20:
See to it that you do not add any comment to these words and that you do not try to make them better than Christ has made them. Our learned men and schools for higher learning also wanted to improve on them. They have said that one must understand them like this: “He that believeth” (understand: “and does good works”) “shall be saved.” Who has commanded them to make this addition? Do you suppose the Holy Spirit is so stupid that He could not have added these words? So they have completely obscured, nay, they have perverted, this noble passage with this addition. See to it, therefore, that you allow no one to make an addition for you, but that you stay with the words just as they read and that you understand them in this way: “He that believeth shall be saved” without his merit or any work.3
On another occasion, Luther wrote, “This article,--namely, that faith alone, without works, justifies us before God,--can never be overthrown, for... Christ alone, the Son of God, died for our sins; but if He alone takes away our sins, then men, with all their works, are to be excluded from all concurrence in procuring the pardon of sin and justification. Nor can I embrace Christ otherwise than by faith alone; He cannot be apprehended by works.”4 Martin Luther and the other Reformers were emphatic: We are saved by the objective legal declaration of the imputed righteousness of Christ that is made in the mind of God. That righteousness is apprehended by means of faith, and by faith alone. As Luther said, man cannot concur, or contribute, toward obtaining the pardon, because, as we have seen, “We are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.”5 This sharp, clear line of demarcation was, by far, the clearest--and the most hotly debated--distinction between the Reformers and the Roman church.
Saving Faith and Lordship Salvation
The controversy over the definition of saving faith has not only divided Protestants and Catholics, but it has also created a sharp controversy within the Protestant church, as well. Protestants have segregated themselves into two distinct camps. One faction preaches a brand of faith that is often called Lordship Salvation; the other segment is referred to as the Free Grace group. The nature of this often heated debate does not focus on the object of the believer’s faith, but rather on the meaning of saving faith.
The Free Grace position, with regard to the meaning of saving faith, is the one which is true to the Scriptures, and it was this definition of saving faith that was proclaimed throughout the Reformation. As John’s great gospel neared its conclusion, the apostle wrote, “These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”6 The word in the original Greek texts from which we translate the English word believe is pistuo (“pist yew oh”). The verb pistuo appears 248 times in the Greek New Testament, and its literal meaning is “understanding with assent.” Pistuo means to believe, to trust, or to be convinced of something. No legitimate Greek scholar can dispute this fact. Gordon Clark observed that the Holy Spirit inspired the New Testament authors to use language that was common to the day. Pistuo was a word employed in everyday communication by pagans and Christians alike.7 A man in the street might say, “I believe the report that Caesar is the emperor of Rome,” in the very same sense that the Scriptures say that God’s elect “believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.”8 Both speakers intended exactly the same meaning: they understood what they had read or heard, and they assented to its truthfulness. The important thing to remember is that the word pistuodid not take on some additional meaning when it was used in the Scriptures. The meaning of the Greek remains unchanged from everyday use: understanding with assent. And it is for this meaning the Free Grace movement strives to make clear to believers and unbelievers alike.
The Answers are Found in the Greek Texts
The distortion of the meaning of saving faith which continues to plague the Protestant church comes from a misinterpretation of the original Greek texts. We have seen the use of the Greek verb pistuo in the New Testament; a word with exactly the same root as the noun pistis (“piss tiss”). Pistis appears 244 times in the Greek New Testament, and is almost always translated by our English word faith. Pistis is used, for example in Ephesians 2:8, which reads, “For by grace you have been saved through faith [pistis]...” It is unfortunate that Bible translators have almost universally chosen to translate pistis as faith, because the literal translation should be belief, just as pisteuo is translated believe. The meaning of the verb and the noun are identical: they mean belief, i.e., understanding with assent, confidence in the truth of a proposition, a conviction of the truth of what has been read or heard.9 To say, “I believe that the sun will rise in the east every morning,” or “I have faith that the sun will rise in the east every morning” means exactly the same thing. I am convinced of the truth of this proposition that the sun will rise in the east.
Unfortunately, because of the difference in the English translations of pisteuo and pistis, many theologians who have not taken the effort to thoroughly investigate the meaning of the original texts have come to believe that in order to receive the gift of salvation, one must go beyond belief to “something more.” They insist that faith is something more than “mere” understanding with assent. These teachers will semantically smuggle terms like “obedience,” “surrender,” “commitment,” and all manner of moral guarantees into this yawning, indefinite, subjective chasm of “something more.”
One such addition to pisteuo is often taught in Protestant churches that would describe themselves as “conservative,” or seeking to conform to the original doctrines of Scripture: the idea that a third element--trust--must be added to “understanding with assent” in order to comprise true saving faith. Gordon Clark demystified this theory succinctly:
The crux of the difficulty with the popular analysis of faith into notitia (understanding), assensus (assent), and fiducia (trust), is that fiducia comes from the same root as fides (faith). The Latin fide is not a good synonym for the Greek pistuo. Hence this popular analysis reduces to the obviously absurd definition that faith consists of understanding, assent, and faith. Something better than this tautology must be found.10
A tautology is a redundancy, the unnecessary repetition or duplication of a word or an idea. Dr. Clark was demonstrating that many theologians claim that faith consists of understanding, assent, and faith, and that saying “faith is faith” was no definition at all! So the word fiducia, or trust, adds nothing to the definition of faith. In other words, to understand and assent to the truthfulness of the gospel message is to believe it. It is superfluous to claim that one must trust in that message also. To believe in a proposition is to trust it!
Pitho (“pie thoe”) is a third Greek word which conveys the notion of faith or trust, and it appears 55 times in the Greek New Testament. Pitho is a verb which means to persuade, trust, convince or be convinced, to depend upon, to believe, to be certain or sure. Again, you see precisely the same meaning expressed as in pistuo and pistis. I must note that, while the inspired authors of the New Testament used the word pistis four times more often than pitho, there are those who claim that the concept of obedience is found in pitho, which, they conclude, means that saving faith must include an element that is over and above understanding and assent: obedience.
It is true that there are seven times in the King James version of the New Testament when pitho is translated as obey.11 However, pitho is never used in relationship to salvation when it is translated as obey. Salvation is not the issue in any of these seven verses. For example, in Acts 5:36, we read, “For some time ago Theudas rose up, claiming to be somebody. A number of men, about four hundred, joined him. He was slain, and all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing.” Clearly, this verse has nothing to do with obeying unto eternal life, and Acts 5:37 uses pitho in the same sense. Romans 2:8 speaks of those who “obey unrighteousness.” The NIV translates pitho in this verse as follow, meaning that those discussed here are living a lifestyle of unrighteousness. Again, salvation from eternal damnation is not the topic of discussion. You can check the remaining four verses for yourself, and you will see that obey is never used in the sense that obedience will lead to eternal life.
Moreover, to substantiate the biblical Free Grace definition of saving faith, I have discovered 150 verses which state that the one and only condition for salvation is understanding with assent. There is no other requirement for salvation. These 150 verses provide overwhelming evidence that commitment, obedience, moral guarantees, sacramental rites of the church, or any other action that man might wish to invent, do not play any role in our salvation from eternal damnation. Here is the list. If you have any lingering doubt in your mind about the true nature of saving faith, take the time to carefully read through these verses, until you are thoroughly convinced that salvation can come only through an understanding of, and assent to, the truth of the Person and work of Jesus Christ.
“What Must I Do to be Saved?” God’s Eternal Answer
Luke John Acts Romans 1 Corinthians
7:48-50 1:7, 12 3:16 1:16-17 1:21
8:12 2:23 4:4, 32 3:22, 25-28, 30
18:42 3:15, 16, 18, 36 8:12, 37 4:3, 5, 9, 11, 13, 16, 23-24
4:39, 41-42 9:42 5:1-2
5:24, 45-47 10:43, 45 9:30, 32-33
6:29, 35, 40, 47 11:17, 21 10:4, 6, 8-10
7:38-39 13:12, 39 11:20, 30-32
8:24, 29-30 14:1, 23, 27 15:13
9:35-38 15:7, 9
10:24-26 16:31
11:15, 25-26, 41-42 17:4-5, 11-12
12:36, 46 18:8, 27
13:19 19:4
14:1-6 20:21
17:20-21 21:25
19:35 26:18
20:29, 31
2 Corinthians Galatians Ephesians Philippians
4:4 2:16, 20 1:13, 19 1:29
3:2, 5-9, 11, 14, 22, 24, 26 2:8 3:9
5:5 3:17
1 Thessalonians 2 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 2 Timothy Hebrews James
1:7 1:10 1:16 1:12 4:2-3 2:23
2:10 2:12-13 3:16 3:15 6:12
4:14 3:2 4:3, 10 10:39
11:6-7, 31
1 Peter John Jude
1:5, 9, 21 5:1, 5, 10, 13 v.5
2:6-7
Saving Faith Defined
After surveying the Greek words that the biblical writers used for faith, and all the supporting passages, we conclude that true saving faith consists of understanding and assenting (agreeing) to one or more propositions concerning the Person and work of Jesus Christ, i.e., that God the Son became the God-man in the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ; Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for all the sins--past, present, and future--of those who will trust in His finished work on the cross. Those who hear this message, who understand it, and agree that it is true (pistuo) will receive eternal life.12 The gospel is that simple--and that powerful!
It is also important to note that assent or agreement to the truth of the gospel message is a vital ingredient of saving faith. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day understood all too well what Jesus was saying. In many cases, these religious leaders had a better grasp of the import of Jesus’ words than did His own disciples! But unlike the disciples, who sat at Jesus’ feet and said, “Lord, teach us to pray,”13 the Pharisees rejected the truth of His message. They turned away from Him in anger and plotted His death. Therefore, understanding the gospel message is not enough--one must agree to the truth of it as well.
Stay True to the Testimony!
Dear Reader, are you convinced? You should be! God’s Word leaves no room for argument about what one must do to be saved: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and His atoning work on the cross. To semantically smuggle obedience into the definition of saving faith is linguistic subterfuge. Clearly obedience, or the willingness to obey, is not part of the linguistic currency of biblical faith. Everything I am contending for in this book rests on the veracity of verbal inspiration. If God’s Word has eternal meaning and eternal consequences, then we must slavishly devote ourselves to getting straight the univocal meaning of God’s Word. The purity of the gospel depends upon the purity of every word that is used to proclaim that gospel. We must never be accused of semantically smuggling false theological meanings into the purity of God’s holy Word. If a false meaning is ascribed to any single word in the proclamation of the gospel, then that gospel bears the damnable appellation of “another gospel.”
This is a good place to conduct a succinct comparison of what saving faith really is... and what it isn’t. The twenty points given on the following pages clearly delineate the differences between the belief that is described by the original Greek, and the Romanist teaching that pervades far too much of modern theological teaching today.
Saving Faith Is Not:
Saving Faith Is:
1. A commitment to obedience. It doesn’t do anything!
1. Belief, i.e., understanding with assent (Romans 4:5-6). Faith trusts in the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ.
2. Continuous belief.
2. A one-time act. It is a non-repetitious, once-for-all act of faith (John 6:47).
3. The root of all virtue. There is no merit or virtue in faith. Faith is not a quality of the soul which saves a person. (See J. Gresham Machen, What is Faith [Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdamans Publishing Co., 1925, 1979], p. 174.
3. A non-meritorious instrument that receives eternal salvation. It is the quality, efficacy, and trustworthiness of the object that saves (Titus 3:5); The quality of Christ’s obedience saves us (Romans 5:9), not the quality of our belief.
4. What saves us. We are not saved because of faith.
4. The instrument that appropriates salvation. We are saved by grace, by means of faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).
5. Man’s contribution to his salvation. Faith contributes nothing to this so-great salvation.
5. A sovereign gift from God (Philippians 1:29; Ephesians 2:8-9: 2 Peter 1:1 [NIV]). Faith receives. It is passive. (John 1:12).
6. Something that can be lost.
6. A Gift from God that is irrevocable and eternal. (Romans 11:29). Faith unites us to a salvation that can’t be lost (Hebrews 7:25; 2 Timothy 1:12).
7. The beginning of salvation.
7. It is a completed action. Faith does not begin the process of salvation, it instantaneously unites us to an eternal salvation, ordained before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4; Romans 5:1).
8. A substitute for righteousness. God does not accept the believer’s faith in the place of perfect righteousness. (See John Murray’s commentary, The Epistle To The Romans (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1959, 1965), p. 358-359.)
8. An instrument which connects us to the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ. It is a faith-righteousness. (Philippians 3:9.)
9. Separated from doctrinal truth. It is not self-hypnosis.
9. Belief in the propositions of the Bible. It trusts the truth of Scripture regarding the Person and work of Christ (Romans 4:21; Romans 10:17; 1 Thessalonians 2:13).
10. It is not “faith in faith”. It does not trust in the quality of our faith, the degree of our faith, the faithfulness of our faith, etc. Faith that examines itself is unbelief.
10. Defined by its object. It is faith in the Person and work of Christ (John 5:45-47; 2 Corinthians 11:4; Galatians 1:6-9; Hebrews 9:26).
11. A supplement to salvation. It does not complete, enhance, or supplement the worth of salvation.
11. The act of trusting in and receiving an eternally great salvation, a salvation that defies additions, cooperation, or augmentation (Hebrews 2:3, 9:26).
12. The act of making something true.
12. The act of believing what is eternally true (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
13. An active participant in the process of salvation. Faith and grace do not work together equally to bring about salvation.
13. A passive recipient that receives all that grace offers. It is the instrument that appropriates the sovereign salvation of God (Ephesians 2:8-9).
14. What God foresaw in you, in order to elect you (Romans 3:10-11, 8:7).
14. A gift that God sovereignly bestowed on you. It is one of the benefits of Christ’s atonement (Philippians 1:29; Ephesians 2:8-9; 2 Peter 1:1 [NIV]).
15. Faithfulness. It is not a life of faithful obedience. (See the intermittent unbelief and faithlessness of Abraham in Genesis 12:13; 16:2; 17:18; 20:2.)
15. A one-time act of understanding with assent. Genesis 15:6 asserts that Abraham believed God, and that one act of faith is the means whereby God declared him to be legally righteous.
16. Belief in your heart, in contrast with belief in your head. There are those who teach that faith is not a bare intellectual assent. They assert that there must be a deeper, subjective, emotional response to the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Mere understanding and assent to the propositional truth of Scripture, they say, is not enough.
16. An activity of the mind, intellectually understanding and assenting to one or more of the biblical propositions concerning the Person and work of Christ. The word heart is used 160 times in the New Testament. The Greek word is kardia, which literally means “mind” or “intellect.” True, saving faith is not simply a subjective, emotional experience (Acts 8:36-37; 20:21). I believe with my mind, and my mind is my “heart,” my kardia.
17. Belief in a person, without believing the propositions about that person. This is commonly expressed as “Give us Christ, not creed.” Proponents of this view maintain that propositional truth is cold, sterile, and impersonal, in contrast to the vital, living Christ. They say that there must be an “encounter” with Christ, a “personal relationship” with Jesus in order to be saved.
17. Belief in the truthfulness of the propositions concerning the Person and work of Christ. When you believe the propositions about Christ, you are believing in Christ (John 5:44-47). Gordon Clark wrote, “A person can be identified only by a set of propositions.” (Faith and Saving Faith, p.50.)
18. Just understanding the claims of Christ. The Christ-hating Jews understood the claims of Christ quite well, and they wanted to stone Him!
18. “The act of assenting to something understood. But understanding alone is not belief in what is understood.” (Gordon Clark, Faith and Saving Faith, p. 51.) See John 11:27; Acts 8:36-37; John 5:18; 10:33.
19. Atonement. Faith does not possess the nature of an atonement. There is no suffering in the nature of faith. God is not propitiated by the act of saving faith.
19. Belief in the atonement of Christ alone as the ground of God accepting the sinner. (See Romans 5:9.) Faith is not a cause for God’s acceptance of us. It beholds the suffering of Christ that propitiates God.
20. The basis or the origin of our salvation.
20. The means by which we appropriate salvation (Romans 5:1). The basis of our salvation is the blood of Christ (Romans 5:9). The origin of our salvation is the grace of God (Titus 3:7).
These comparisons clearly reveal that saving faith is not a commitment to obedience. Saving faith doesn’t do anything! It simply believes... it does not commit to good works. In the most systematic presentation of the gospel in Scripture, Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome, “Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works.”14 Clearly, these verses teach that God imputes the righteousness of Christ to us on the basis of His grace, which we receive by means of faith. There is no deed we can perform, no promise that we can offer, that could “earn” our eternal salvation. Paul asked, rhetorically: “Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”15
Belief Is All About “Looking”
“Looking” is analogous to belief. In looking there is no promise of future obedience, no offer of total surrender and no idea of a commitment to the Lordship of Christ. Hence, the liberating concept in biblical belief is found in the idea that we are called upon to look away from ourselves. We turn away from our righteousness, which is but filthy rags, and look to Christ’s righteousness alone as the ground of our salvation. It is that pure, simple, trusting look of faith to Christ alone that saves. It is really that simple! Biblical faith is so simple, so unencumbered, so uncomplicated--it is the unbelief of man that complicates the simplicity of saving faith. It is the insistence of sinful man that he must in some way contribute to the act of salvation-- that he shall be like God in the ability to convey eternal life--that redefines saving faith into something that is no longer biblical.
Saving faith is like a telescope that Jesus provides His elect which allows them to look--not at the telescope, nor at themselves--at the historical fact of His death, burial, and resurrection alone. The telescope does not have a dual focus. We don’t look at the Person and work of Jesus Christ and, at the same time, focus on our future obedience. We must not direct one lens of the telescope of faith to look at the historical “Done” of the past, and a second lens to look at some vague, experiential “Do” of the future. The only worthy object of our attention is Jesus Christ alone, not ourselves. Peter calls our faith precious16 because faith looks at a precious object. The moment the eye of saving faith looks to the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation, ignoring any and all contributions that sinful man might seek to add to the equation, in that instant, the looking one has passed from death unto life.17 Let us re-read Romans 4:5. “But to him does not work [makes commitments, promises, pledges, or moral guarantees] but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly [as such, i.e.,in their sinful condition], his faith is accounted for righteousness. The Holy Spirit is using the Law of Contradiction to graciously tell us what belief is by telling us what it is not. Belief excludes all works of human merit. Therefore, assurance, certainty, and security are found exclusively in the object of my faith, and not in the quality of my faith, the sincerity of my faith, or the “faithfulness” of my faith. Faith contributes nothing to one’s salvation, but receives everything. Faith freely receives what grace freely offers. In other words, faith simply rests in what has been done by Another.
The focus of faith is the propositional truth that the Holy Scriptures reveal in regard to the Person and work of Jesus Christ. Where is the propositional truth in our obedience, surrender, submission, and commitments? It is a wicked, unbiblical focus to cause the ungodly to look at themselves to determine if they “have what it takes” to become a Christian. The message of the gospel is that only Jesus Christ has what it takes to instantaneously, eternally, and freely save the wickedest sinner without any prior commitments, promises, pledges, or moral guarantees given by that sinner as a condition for salvation. The one and only means required to appropriate this so-great salvation is faith--belief--alone.
The Error of Lordship Salvation
Those who espouse the theory of Lordship Salvation, however, seek to add an additional meaning to belief by defining saving faith as something more than “understanding with assent.” They assert that one is saved by making a commitment to a life of submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Does this sound familiar? It should! This teaching is disturbingly similar to the historical teaching of the Roman state church, i.e., that saving faith is a believing commitment to obedience. Lordship Salvation proponents assert that a simple trust in Jesus Christ as one’s Savior is not enough. They maintain that the essence of saving faith requires something deeper than the mere singular act of belief in the Person and work of Jesus Christ in order to secure one’s salvation; one must receive Christ as “Lord and Master”18 of one’s life. By infusing obedience into the meaning of saving faith, the advocates of Lordship salvation have unwittingly aligned themselves with the Roman state church and her anti-Christian doctrine of faith. Rome hates the Protestant doctrine of faith alone in Christ alone, because that free-grace message is the death blow to Rome’s sacramental system of salvation.
“Easy Believism” and “Cheap Grace”
To define faith as works, as Rome and the Lordship Salvation advocates do, is a contradiction in terms and is theologically dishonest and massively deceptive. However, these advocates of Lordship salvation remain undaunted by the overwhelming scriptural evidence against their position, and insist that understanding with volitional assent falls short of volitional commitment, and thus falls short of saving faith. They often haughtily dismiss the Reformation teaching that salvation comes through a simple trust that Christ’s death atoned for all the believer’s sins as “easy believism.” They thoughtlessly pin the pejorative phrase “cheap grace” on the great doctrine of Sola fide. The listener may only conclude from such negative terminology that the Lordship camp proposes the opposite of these concepts, which would mean that we must define true, saving faith as “hard believism” and “costly” grace!
As unwitting as the use of these slurs may be, I believe that the terms “hard-believism” and “costly grace” conspicuously earn the designation of anti-intellectual oxymorons -- self-contradictory terms. Think back to the gospels and the epistles of the New Testament. Did the biblical writers ever attempt to make it “hard” or “difficult” for their readers to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Instead, didn’t the biblical writers labor hard to make it abundantly clear that salvation comes solely through faith in the doing and dying of Christ alone? When the Philippian jailer fell trembling before Paul and Silas, and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” their reply was: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”19 Paul and Silas enumerated on no conditions, gave no addendums, made no demands for a commitment to any action, preached no sermons on “count the cost,” nor anything else of the kind! A simple, direct question was asked: What must I do to receive the gift of eternal life? The answer was just as simple, and equally direct: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that the apostle Paul wrote the book of Romans, which contains the most detailed systematic explanation of the doctrine of salvation of all the books of Scripture! If God has placed requirements on salvation other than “Believe,” would Paul not have known about them, and said so?
What about the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself? Did He insist that His followers must “Count the cost” before they trusted in Him for eternal life? Did He say, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will make you work even harder”? Did He say, “Come to me, but only if you are willing to carry a heavy load of responsibility”? No, Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”20 Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”21 What were the conditions for “hard” believism and “costly” grace that Jesus placed on this woman? All she had to do to receive the living water was ask, i.e., believe!
He never makes it “hard” for anyone to become a Christian! The Holy Spirit sovereignly and irresistibly draws God’s elect to the cross, and points them to the “hard work” that was accomplished there for them by the Lord Jesus Christ alone. There is never any discussion of what the unbeliever must do, other than to receive by faith all that has been done by Christ! By definition, saving faith is what it is--saving faith--because it unites the ungodly to the only object of faith that saves: the Person and work of Christ alone.
The non-meritorious metaphors that the Holy Spirit uses in connection with eternal life, such as “drinking,” “looking,” and “tasting,”22 make it abundantly clear that the means by which a sinner appropriates this great salvation is totally passive in nature, and not an active, “hard-believing” commitment to obedience. As you survey these wonderful metaphors, just think how ridiculous it would sound if we were to add the adjective “hard” to each of these words. Hard drinking, hard looking, and hard tasting all have a discordant sound that is completely incompatible with the natural meaning of these words. Drinking, looking, and tasting are all words found in the glossary of grace. They are words which speak of passive reception. The biblical writers speak of the freeness of grace; there are no references to the “cost” of grace with reference to the unbeliever. “Count the cost,” when directed to the unbeliever, is a phrase which originated with men, not in Scripture. By contrast, the language of grace that is found in the Bible communicates lovingly, convincingly, and eloquently to the recipients of the gospel message that everything has been done for them, and they are now invited to freely partake of the heavenly banquet of everlasting grace. The invitation was issued freely, without cause in them, and the banquet is served without cost to them.23 The New American Standard Bible translates Revelation 21:6 and 22:17 in this way: “And He said to me, ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost’ ... And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.” Contrary to the clear teaching of Scripture, which states that salvation is without cost to the ungodly--it is absolutely free, with no strings attached--the teachers of Lordship salvation proclaim that salvation will “cost” the ungodly sinner his entire life, a payment which is characterized by a continuous submission to the Lordship of Christ.
Now we must examine the term “cheap grace.” In what sense do the Lordship Salvation adherents mean that grace is cheap? If we are to infer that they mean grace is cheap to the recipient because the person did not “do something,” such as surrender the control of one’s life, commit to faithful obedience, or persevere in a lifestyle of godly living and good works in order to receive God’s grace, then these apostles of adherence have just destroyed the meaning of grace. The precise meaning of grace is that it is undeserved favor which is offered to ungodly people who have no ability to do anything to merit God’s salvation. A message that calls the unsaved to obey any Christian command provides incriminating evidence that the speaker suffers from an abysmal ignorance of the biblical meaning of the finished work of Christ. Paul unequivocally states, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.”24 How could any clear thinking person derive the concept of “cheap grace” from this passage? Grace has been described by the acronym “God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense.” Grace was certainly not “cheap” for Christ; it cost Him everything He had to bring us His grace! The Father emptied heaven of its greatest treasure to bring His glorious grace to the elect. Our salvation cost nothing less than“the precious blood of Christ”;25 how dare anyone insinuate that grace comes “cheap”?!
“Don’t Just Believe; Do Something!”
The Lordship philosophy causes the unsaved individual to ask, “I certainly don’t want to ‘cheapen’ God’s grace, so what must I do to be saved?” Unlike Paul and Silas, the Lordship devotee is delighted to provide a detailed dissertation. (Evidently poor Paul just hadn’t figured out what the true Gospel message really was!) He proceeds to “front-load” the gospel, as Dr. Joseph Dillow describes it,26 with all sorts of human requirements, such as: Make Christ the Lord of your life; Promise you will obey Him for the rest of your life; Count the cost for what it takes to be a Christian; Stop sinning and make sure you have what it takes to hold out, etc., etc. At that glorious moment of helping the unsaved to freely receive the eternal benefits of the work of Christ, benefits that Scripture says can be obtained by faith alone, without cost to them and without cause in them, the Lordship teacher directs the seeker’s attention away from the complete sufficiency of Christ and instead focuses his mind on the sinners ability to “do something” to manipulate the grace of God! To do this is to do nothing less than to rewrite the teaching of the New Testament.
There is absolutely no deed for the unsaved person to perform that can become the legal, righteous ground on which God would accept them. The legal ground on which God accepts every sinner as righteous in His sight is the doing and dying of Christ ALONE. Look again at the writings of Paul: “At this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.”27 If there is something that damned, vile, depraved sinners--men and women who are hostile to God, must do in order to propitiate God and earn their salvation as the teaching of Lordship salvation asserts, then salvation is no longer of grace, and the Scriptures can no longer be trusted. It is that simple. Lordship salvation injects human merit into the free grace gospel message, which unmistakably identifies this Lordship message as a damnable gospel. Paul’s contempt for this kind of heretical teaching was scalding: “But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”28 Even the mere suggestion of adding man’s efforts to the all sufficient, eternal wrath-removing cross/work of Christ is the most horrendous blasphemy. The perfect adherence to the Law that God demands from mankind has been provided in the only way it possibly can: through the glorious obedience of the one and only Savior.
Tragically, in most evangelical circles today, saving faith is no longer defined as a simple looking away from what a sinner can do to merit eternal life and a looking toward what Christ hasdone through His finished work as the sole ground of a sinner’s acceptance before God. Many modern evangelicals have turned from the historical, biblical, free grace definition of saving faith and has redefined it as a believing commitment to obedience. This new, man-made definition reintroduces human merit into the free grace gospel message, and thereby defines this “new”gospel as a different gospel, which, according to the apostle Paul, has the anathema of God on it.29
The Convolution of the Bible’s Message
Why do these mixed messages exist within the Protestant church? There are some fine, godly men, who revere biblical truth and truly seek to uphold the doctrines of historical, biblical Christianity, who suddenly veer into a different gospel when they are discussing the nature of saving faith. How is it that men who can usually be counted on for clear teaching suddenly become so cloudy when it comes to faith? It is my belief that they have confused and comingled two different sets of commands to two different groups of people.
God’s Word does not proclaim one message to the entire world. Indeed, we have seen that the Bible message is foolishness to unbelievers. A man who is unaided by the Holy Spirit finds the things of God incomprehnsible.30 Therefore, the message to the unbeliever is kept short and simple. John wrote:“And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ.”31 Paul and Silas gave God’s command to the unbelieving Philippian jailer, who had just come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, with equal brevity:“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.”32
As we saw in the last chapter, even this simple command is impossible for the unsaved man to obey, unless he is one of God’s elect children. No one can come to Christ unless he is drawn by the Spirit of God.33 Therefore, God commands the unbeliever to do one thing and one thing only: believe. Again, I remind you of the 150 verses in the New Testament where this is the sole command that is given for salvation.
Just as John was directed by the Spirit to write in such a way that unbelievers might hear the message of eternal life through faith in Christ,34 many of the other New Testament writers were inspired to encourage and instruct those who had already accepted the gospel message and received the free gift of eternal life. Time and again, we see that Paul, Peter, and James addressed their letters to “the elect,” “the saints,” “the church,” “the brethren in Christ,” etc. These letters were written to Christian believers, and the message to these men and women, who had been given the Holy Spirit to enable them to understand God’s Word and walk in His ways, is quite different than the one that is intended for the lost. Jesus also gave His disciples [believers] detailed instructions for living the Christian life. The Christian believer is given any number of commands: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works... take up [your] cross... keep the commandments... count the cost... present your bodies [as] a living sacrifice... walk worthy of the calling... walk in the Spirit... [be] zealous for good works... be holy in all your conduct...”,35 and a great many more.
Remember again what we have learned about the state of man. It is impossible for him to keep the commands of God! His mind is hostile to God; he is incapable of understanding God’s Word or God’s ways. These commands to walk worthy can only be given to Christian believers, because only the man or woman who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit has thesupernatural power to obey them! So we see that the Scriptures really give two sets of commands: the first, to the unsaved is to believe; the second, to the one who has believed and received the gift of the Holy Spirit, to walk worthy of the calling. Dear Reader, please note this vitally important distinction: Those who are commanded to do something more than “believe,”who are directed to show forth good works in the name of the Lord, HAVE ALREADY RECEIVED ETERNAL LIFE! We know this because the letters which contain these commands assert that they already are “saints... brethren,” etc. These commands are not a precondition for salvation!
I like to think that men and women stand on one of two sides of the cross of Christ. One side is reserved for the lost, those who have not believed the gospel message. They are given the one command: believe. Jesus Christ said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved.”36 At the moment the Holy Spirit enables the unbeliever to assent to the truth of that message, he walks through the entryway that is Jesus Christ, and enters into the family of God. He crosses over the threshold, passes from death unto life,37 and moves to the other side of the cross: the believer’s side. At that moment, at the instant of belief, he can claim God’s many promises that are directed to the believer, the most important one (from the new believer’s standpoint) being that he has been given the irrevocable gift of imputed righteousness. He has been adopted as a son, an heir, a member of the family of God. He is given the gift of the Holy Spirit, which will enable him to understand God’s Word and to live the Christian life. But living that Christian life is not a condition for receiving eternal salvation; rather, it is the result.
We must never co-mingle the object of faith with the outcomes of faith. The exclusive object of saving faith is the Person and work of Christ alone, not our bloodless, imperfect, sinful obedience. Obedience is the outcome of our faith, but it is bloodless, because there is no merit in our obedience--we sacrificed nothing to acquire the gift of faith, and therefore it earns us nothing; our obedience is imperfect because there is no one good, except God; and it is sinful because we are trusting in self to propitiate God, rather than in Christ! There is no propitiation in our remorse, our repentance, or our renewal. A perfect, holy God demands perfect justice as a propitiation for sin, and that justice could only be fulfilled through the substitutionary work of Christ on the cross--or through the eternal death of all humanity. The sinner’s promised future obedience and submission is not part of the gospel message of salvation. If that were true, then our obedience would, of necessity, become an object of our faith! We would be trusting in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ... plus our obedience!
It is my strong assertion that irreparable harm has been caused by ministers and Bible teachers who misdirect a sinner’s focus away from Christ alone for salvation to a faith in his own unregenerate mind’s ability to submit to a spiritual reality he knows absolutely nothing about. The issues of sanctification are never to be introduced as part of the salvation message. The unregenerate mind knows nothing about sanctification, i.e., the Christian’s obedience to all the commands of Christ in the Scripture. The ungodly elect are given light by the Holy Spirit concerning one message, and that one message is the gospel alone.38 The Holy Spirit does not give the unsaved commands that are reserved exclusively for Christians. Therefore, the evangelist who insists that the ungodly must obey the supernatural request to fully submit to the Lordship of Christ in order to be saved is asking the unregenerate to fulfill a command that is the greatest challenge for even the most mature believer in Christ to obey!
Once the newly saved individual has believed the gospel message, has walked through the door of salvation that is Jesus Christ, and crossed over to the regenerate (born again) side of the cross, he is immediately adopted into the family of God, he is given the Holy Spirit, and now he is introduced to the process of sanctification. Now he is directed to live a life worthy of the calling.
The chart below will help to clarify this crucial distinction between the commands that are given to those who are standing on the unbelieving side of the cross, and those who have entered through the door that is Jesus Christ, and are now members of the family of believers.
The Two Sides of the Cross
“I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved.”
The Non-Christian Side of the Cross
“Done”
(Prior to salvation)
The Christian Side of the Cross
“Do”
(Post-salvation)
1. One command given to the lost (1 John 3:23).
1. Many commands given to the adopted children of the household of faith (1 John 5:3).
2. One gift received by faith alone (Romans 6:23).
2. Many rewards can be earned through obedience (Matthew 6:19-20; 1 Corinthians 3:8, 11-15; Colossians 2:18; Hebrews 11:26; 2 John 8; Revelation 3:11, 22:12).
3. Salvation is immediate and unconditional; it is not earned either by attitude or action. Salvation is received by grace through faith, plus nothing (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9).
3. Sanctification is progressive and conditional, and the believer’s obedience earns rewards. Sanctification is accomplished by grace through faith, plus obedience (Titus 2:11-14; 1 Peter 1:10-11).
4. Saving faith receives His imputed righteousness, i.e., justification (Romans 5:1). Saving faith brings the unbeliever through the door, and establishes him as a righteous member of God’s household.
4. Sanctifying faith brings about sanctification (James 2:22). As a member of God’s family, the believer is now commanded to do good works, because, with the issue of his eternal salvation now irrevocably settled, he is to be conformed to the likeness of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18; Galatians 3:2-3).
5. The focus of faith is on His obedience and death, that we may have eternal life (Romans 5:19).
5. The focus is on my obedience unto a fruitful life (Titus 3:14; James 1:21; Deuteronomy 8:1).
6. God alone sees the sinner’s saving faith (1 Samuel 16:7; Romans 4:1-5).
6. Man sees the believer’s good works (Matthew 5:14-16).
7. The unbeliever is called to a one-time act of faith (Acts 16:31).
7. The believer is called to a life of faithfulness (1 Corinthians 4:2; 2 Timothy 2; Revelation 2:10).
8. The Spirit regenerates the unbeliever to new life in Christ (John 6:63).
8. The Spirit, through God’s Word, sanctifies the believer. The Spirit enables the believer (by grace, through faith) to carry out the supernatural commands of Christ (John 17:17; 2 Corinthians 3:4-6, 18; Galatians 3:2-3; Titus 2:11).
This “split message” is fully supported by both Scripture and logic. Recall that God’s greatest goal is to glorify Himself. When dealing with the unbeliever, God receives the greatest glory by taking a blind, depraved wretch, who is completely incapable of turning to God, and opening that sinner’s eyes to the truth. The impossible is accomplished: one who cannot seek God turns to Him, and God is glorified. On the other side of the cross, God is best glorified in the life of the believer when that man or woman attempts to do something that is equally impossible: keeping the commands of God. This is accomplished only through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit,39 and God receives all the glory.
You could say that the unbeliever stands on the “Done” side of the cross. Jesus cries out to him, “It is finished! It is paid! Your sin debt is paid!” There is nothing the unbeliever must do --or can do--to receive salvation except believe. When the unbeliever responds to the irresistible call of the Spirit, he joins the family of God, and moves over to the “Do” side of the cross. Jesus tells him, “Now that you are a member of My family, give glory to Me by denying yourself, and take up your cross and follow me.”40
If the unbeliever is called upon only to believe before he enters into the family of God, then what incentive is there to live the Christian life after salvation? Why not just accept the free gift of eternal life, and then go on about a life of sin? One answer is that the sanctifying Spirit of God, in cooperation with the living and active Word, changes the desires of the members of God’s family. Galatians 5:17 describes the internal conflict that takes place in the life of the believer: “The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” The indwelling of the Holy Spirit does not guarantee perfect obedience; however, He is the supernatural agent which makes a changed life possible. In conjunction with the ministry of the Spirit, God disciplines His adopted children in order to produce the peaceable fruit of righteousness.41 Our heavenly Father also uses the body of Christ to produce godliness in us.42 Believers will still wrestle with sin, and in some cases lose the struggle,43 but they have been given several powerful allies in their ongoing battle against the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Another reason for the child of God to walk worthy of the calling is that the Lord has offered rewards to His faithful and obedient children. When Jesus told His disciples to “Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,”44 He was clearly referring to the eternal rewards (Paul referred to the prize45) that God promises to those who are obedient. The injunctions that God gives to the members of His family all have rewards attached to them. God is not a stern taskmaster who orders compliance; He generously gives rewards, which are incentives for the family of God. Jesus told the parable of the master’s words to his industrious servants: “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.”46 If you review the verses that are given in #2 of the chart explaining The Two Sides of the Cross, you will clearly see that God offers rewards to those faithful servants who obey His commands to live a fruitful life. However, there are no such incentives offered to the unbeliever, because he is given no such commands! The one command given to the unbeliever has no reward attached; they must only believe in order to receive the free gift of eternal life.
In contrast to this, 1 Corinthians 3:11-14 and Romans 14:12 proclaim that each believer will stand before Christ and give an accounting for their individual actions as adopted children of the family of God. Jesus said, “I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.”47 Paul exhorted Christian believers to “Run [the race] in such a way as to get the prize.”48 These are exhortations to believers to run the race diligently, and to live in a manner that gives glory to God, in order to receive their rewards.
Paul wrote to Titus, “Let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful.”49 In other words, after we have obeyed the first and greatest commandment, which is to love God, then we should love people,50 and meet their needs, so that God’s love will be made manifest to men, and He will be glorified! If we live in this way, we can be confident that we will receive the promised eternal rewards. In other words, we have been given the gift of faith, a faith that receives eternal life. We have been given the gift of the Spirit, which enables us to live in a manner pleasing to God. Jesus told His disciples, “If you love Me, keep My commandments. I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever--the Spirit of truth... I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”51 We believers, unlike unbelievers, have been fully equipped to live the Christian life: “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness.”52 Now we are charged to make use of the gifts we have received. Jesus admonished believers not to bury their talents, not to hide their godly light under a basket, but to shine forth and exhibit His excellencies, so that He will be glorified. In return, the fruitful believer will receive a reward. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that God is “a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” That chapter of Scripture is often referred to as the “Hall of Fame of Faith.” It describes the lives and deaths of some who diligently sought God, and were rewarded for their actions.
A Message Directed to the Wrong Side of the Cross
The advocates of Lordship salvation have comingled the several directives that belong to the process of sanctification with the one command that leads to the moment of eternal salvation. In other words, Lordship salvation transports the biblical directives that were intended for those who stand on the believer’s side of the cross, and adds them to the command that should be delivered to the non-Christian side of the cross. Lost souls are subjected to a dizzying array of stipulations which, absent the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit, they are completely incapable of understanding, much less obeying!
Anyone who truly understands the doctrine of man understands that it is impossible to take the requirements that are placed on the members of the household of faith and give them to those who haven’t yet been adopted! The lost person hasn’t come through the door, and joined the family. He hasn’t even been born yet! He is spiritually dead, he is sightless, and his heart is hostile to the things of God. And yet there are those who take the things that belong to family members and insist that a non-family member must abide by that which he can’t even see or understand!
Tragically, this teaching has caused profound confusion within the body of Christ, to the point where many believers harbor doubts about their eternal security. Consider this question: in that first moment of belief, when I trust Jesus Christ as my Savior, can I tell another person with absolute certainty that my eternal destiny is assured--in spite of the fact that I have yet to attempt a single good work? The answer, if I have been taught the biblical definition of saving faith, is emphatically and gloriously YES! In the first moment of trusting in the Person and work of Jesus Christ, I can confidently echo the apostle Paul: “I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”53 Paul also affirmed our eternal security this way: “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.”54
The Saving Faith of the Thief on the Cross
I firmly believe that God foreordained that two thieves would be crucified next to Jesus in order to provide us the most cogent visual aid possible that man is saved by belief--an understanding with assent to the Person and work of Jesus Christ--alone!
Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.”
But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”55
What was Jesus’ first word to the thief who believed? Assuredly! Jesus did not say, “First, you’ve got to get you down off the cross and do something.” There was absolutely nothing the thief could do! He could not possibly make a commitment to a life of good works--his life was at an end. He never confessed his sins, he was not baptized, nor did he participate in any of the sacraments of the church. He made no promises or pledges, he made no moral guarantees; He simply said to the Savior, “Remember me.” Yet Jesus replied “Assuredly.”
The thief was saved by faith in Christ alone, not by his “faithfulness” to Christ!56 I believe he had been in Jerusalem, plying his trade, perhaps picking the pockets of those who had gathered there for the Passover, and he heard people talking about the Christ. Perhaps he heard a man gratefully exult, “I once was blind, but He healed me.” Perhaps the Holy Spirit used something like this to bring the thief to conviction. As he hung on the cross, he called Jesus “Lord.” He called Jesus Christ “God”! This could only have been revealed to him by the Spirit.57 “Remember me, God,” he cried in his agony and despair. And Jesus looked at him and answered, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” Hallelujah! Saving faith takes the elect, purchased one completely out of himself and directs his attention solely to the glorious Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, all who look to Jesus will be saved for eternity, and they are saved at that moment.58
The very last words that appear in the Gospel of Matthew are Jesus’ instructions to His disciples: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.”59A disciple is, literally, a “learner of Christ,” and the Lord was telling His handpicked disciples to go, preach the gospel of salvation by faith alone to all the nations, and then to teach the new disciples to observe all His commandments. One cannot possibly be a “learner of Christ” until one has trusted in Christ as his Savior, and been indwelt by the Holy Spirit, who enables the new believer to understand all the things of Christ!
I could not agree more wholeheartedly that all Christian believers must “Count the cost ... Let your light so shine before men ... Take up [your] cross ... Keep the commandments,” and all the other commands of Scripture. We are to carry the cross of discipleship, if we wish to live fruitful lives and earn rewards in heaven. But these commands are given to Christian believers, men and women who have already received the free gift of eternal salvation. It cannot be repeated too often that God’s commands are impossible to keep in their entirety, because even the believer’s behavior is marred by sin! No man or woman alive can measure up to God’s sinless standard of perfection. It is important to remember that God recognizes that the ability to walk worthy of the calling we have received is just as much a matter of faith as is salvation. One thing that the believer and unbeliever have very much in common: Any action we undertake that will bring us closer to God is only accomplished by grace, through faith in Him.60 Our good works are only accomplished by the working of the Spirit of God, just as salvation is.
Many of the Lordship salvation devotees will often point to Romans 1:5, in which Paul wrote that “We have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith.” This verse, they insist, along with Romans 16:26, which uses the same phrase (“obedience to the faith”), and 2 Thessalonians 1:8 (“taking vengeance ... on those who do not obey the gospel”), provides proof that belief alone is not enough to receive salvation; there must be obedience in addition to faith. Once again, the Lordship teachers are convoluting the commands that are directed to the two sides of the cross. To the unbeliever, obedience to the gospel is faith in the gospel! There is only the one command given to the man standing on the non-Christian side of the cross: Believe. Paul is not saying that “Saving faith equals obedience”; He is saying that saving faith equals obedience to that first command that is given to the unbeliever--to believe! My rejoinder to the Lordship proponents is: Let’s reserve the Do commands for those who stand on the believing side of the cross; and teach unbelievers, who stand at the threshold of the door that leads to eternal salvation, to lift their eyes to the cross, and understand and assent to what has already been Done!
Here is another chart, which will clarify the differences between the historical, biblical Free Grace definition of saving faith, and the increasingly prevalent man-made “doctrine” of Lordship salvation.
Lordship Salvation vs. Free Grace Salvation:
A Contrast Between the Gospel of Christ and “Another Gospel”
Lordship Salvation: A two-party prom- ise (a conditional covenant between God and man). No propositional truth. No assurance of salvation. Subjective.
Free Grace salvation: A one-party promise (an unconditional covenant among the three members of the Holy Trinity and God’s elect). Based on objective truth. Complete assurance of salvation. Objective.
1. My promises. A two-party promise.
1. His promise, a one-party promise (Galatians 3:18). His perfect peace offer- ing. (Colossians 1:20.)
2. My pledge.
2. His propitiation.
3. My commitment.
3. His crucifixion.
4. My imperfect obedience.
4. His perfect obedience unto death.
5. My submission.
5. His substitution.
6. My exercise of surrender.
6. His expiation of sin.
7. My renovation and renewal.
7. His resurrection.
8. My moral guarantees.
8. His matchless grace.
9. My internal transformation.
9. His external triumph.
10. A gospel of a changed life.
10. The gospel of the historical death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
11. My doing.
11. His dying.
12. I must make Him Lord of my life.
12. He IS Lord!
13. There is a dual focus of my faith: externally on Christ, and internally on myself. I trust in synergism.
13. There is a single focus of my faith: outside of me, on the Person and work of Jesus Christ. I trust in monergism.
14. My work.
14. His finished work.
15. I turned from my sins.
15. He died for my sins.
16. I base my salvation on what I feel; I trust in my experiences.
16. I base my salvation on what is written. My faith is non-experiential.
The Distorted Fruit of “Another Gospel”
There is such massive confusion that plagues the body of Christ! Paul asked the believers at Colosse to pray that he would present the gospel message clearly.61 He desired their prayers for clarity, for a clear gospel message. That message has been severely clouded and distorted today. I have personally witnessed so-called “evangelists” giving a presentation of what they consider to be the gospel of Jesus Christ, and at the conclusion ask what a salesperson would call a “closing” question: “Can you think of anything that would keep you from trusting in Christ tonight?”
The unbeliever has listened respectfully to the gospel presentation, and answers “No, I can’t.”
Hallelujah! The angels in heaven lean forward, anticipating great rejoicing! But then the unscriptural evangelist calls off the party! “I can think of several things,” he cautions. “If you are going to receive the ‘free’ gift of eternal life, you must make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life.”
The unbeliever recoils slightly in his chair. “What do you mean by that?”
“It means that you have to submit to the Lordship of Christ in every aspect of your life,” the evangelist answers firmly. “For example, I see you have beer in your refrigerator. You’ve smoked several cigarettes while I’ve been here, and you use a lot of profanity. You must turn away from all the sin in your life, and live as Christ did. You must read your Bible every day, pray regularly, attend church on Sunday, and tell others about your faith. If you aren’t willing to commit to a life of obedience, you cannot be a Christian.”
The disappointed listener honestly admits, “I guess I can’t be a Christian, because I can’t do these things.” And he is absolutely right! The unbeliever has no ability to do these things! He becomes discouraged and ignores the prompting of the Holy Spirit in his heart because the evangelist has dragged all the commands from the “Do” side of the cross and introduced them to an unbeliever who stands on the “Done” side!
This distorted presentation of the gospel takes the unbeliever’s focus away from the obedience of Christ unto death, and introduces a dual focus of faith right from the outset. It teaches Christians to believe and doubt the security of their salvation, a state of uncertainty which James describes as double-mindedness.62 The sole focus of our faith should be on Christ alone, but how can I be truly assured of my salvation if I believe that I must monitor my level of commitment and obedience to the commands of Scripture? Where does the Bible explain how much obedience and faithfulness is sufficient to achieve eternal life? How can I know with any certainty that I have been saved from eternal damnation?! When someone adds pledges, promises, commitments, and discipleship to faith, they have destroyed the free-grace offer of biblical salvation. They have added an unscriptural condition to faith that reduces Christianity to a self-righteous religion and inevitably robs every believer of their assurance. Adherents to this false gospel become inordinately introspective, examining their own behavior to see if it measures up to some arbitrary standard of obedience that is never fully explained.
We make the gospel clear by keeping the message of sanctification separate from the message of salvation. Never forget this: Your sanctification has nothing to do with the ground of your justification!63 The whole gospel message was gloriously proclaimed by Jesus Christ at the moment of his death: “It is finished!” However, Lordship salvation comes along and admonishes, “Hold on! Not so fast! It’s almost ‘finished,’ but first there are a few provisos that must be addressed.” Lordship salvation muddies the very gospel that Paul prayed so earnestly would be made clear! The lost one confesses, in all honesty (and unconscious confirmation of Romans 8:7): “I can’t live this life of obedience you’re telling me about. I am incapable of obeying the law of God!” The Lordship teacher ignores the teaching of Scripture, and replies impatiently, “Never mind that! Just do it anyway.”
Lordship adherents have actually said to me, “Jack, you’re telling me to teach this message of simple faith: ‘Believe in Jesus and you will be saved.’ Then I see these people a year later, and they’re still drinking and smoking, and living a worldly life. That’s why I tell them to make Christ the Lord of their lives, so they’ll get to work on cleaning up.” I couldn’t disapprove more strongly of such a manipulative approach to evangelism! First and foremost, it is not faithful to the truth of Scripture. Second, anyone who tries to “front load” the gospel with behavioral conditions, as Joseph Dillow describes it, is trying to play Holy Spirit in the lives of unbelievers. Scripture says that “It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”64 God’s Spirit works in the heart of the new convert and causes him to want to change his behavior! It isn’t up to me to urge the unbeliever to do that which he is incapable of doing without the help of the Holy Spirit.65 It is not my place to muddy the gospel message with my own teaching about a life of good works.
We read in the book of Acts about the convicting work of the Holy Spirit: “Many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all.”66 Notice that these were men and women who had already believed. These Ephesian Christians had been saved for two years67 before they finally committed to a life of obedience! They gave these things up because the Spirit was working in them, and they were working through the process of sanctification. Yet Scripture affirms that they were believers. Their belief was the causeof their change in behavior; they did not forswear their magic arts in order to become believers, as this passage so clearly explains.
Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”68 There is freedom in the free-grace message of the gospel of Christ. There can be no godliness in the presence of doubt and fear. Assurance is the first rung on the ladder of godliness, the first step in our growth in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. But all the great verses which speak of the believers confidence, such as 1 John 5:13, are ripped right out of the gospel by the teaching of Lordship salvation, which directs the believer to examine the quality of his life, rather than the quality of the cross. We become preoccupied with self, rather than being preoccupied with the Savior. There is no security, no freedom, no joy... only introspection and uncertainty.
Dear Reader, I hope you will rejoice in the freedom and the security of knowing that God has chosen you, and called you,and given you the gift of belief (faith), which is understanding and assent to the truthfulness of the biblical propositions concerning the Person and work of Jesus Christ. That faith appropriates a salvation that is eternally secure, “an inheritance [a legacy] that can never perish, spoil or fade--kept in heaven for you.”69 No amount of good works can earn that inheritance... and no sin can take it away,70 because it is all part of God’s gracious plan of salvation, a plan which He perfected before the creation of the world.
However, before we conclude our study of the priceless legacy that God has bequeathed to us, there is a particular book of the Bible which the proponents of Lordship salvation will demand that you explain when you begin to proclaim the true, biblical, free grace gospel message. That book is the Epistle of James. Let us examine the writings of James to learn the biblical interpretation of that oft-quoted verse: “Faith without works is dead.”
1 James Buchanan, The Doctrine of Justification, (1867; reprint, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1977), p. 133.
3 Ewald M. Plass, comp., What Luther Says, A Practical In-Home Anthology for the Active Christian, (St. Louis, MO:comp., Concordia Publishing House, 1959), p. 491.
4 Quoted in Buchanan, p. 129.
7 Gordon H. Clark, Faith and Saving Faith (Unicoi, TN: The Trinity Foundation, 1983), p. 95-96.
9 Gordon Clark wrote, “It is clear that the Greek verb pisteuo is properly translated believe; and it would have been much better if the noun pistis had been translated belief.” Faith and Saving Faith, p. 98.
10 Clark, Faith and Saving Faith, p. 52.
11 These are: Acts 5:36, 5:37; Romans 2:8; Galatians 3:1, 5:7; Hebrews 13:17; James 3:3.
18
Dr. Charles Ryrie explained the proper, biblical emphasis of accepting Jesus Christ as Lord with reference to salvation: “But, someone may ask, doesn’t Lord mean Master, and doesn’t receiving Jesus as Lord mean as Master of one’s life? To be sure, Lord does mean Master, but in the New Testament it also means God (Acts 3:22), owner (Luke 19:33), sir (John 4:11), man-made idols (1 Cor 8:5), and even one’s husband (1 Peter 3:6). When it is used in relation to Jesus in the New Testament, it can have an ordinary meaning of a title of respect (as in John 4), but it must also have had some unusual connotation which caused some to question its validity. And such a meaning could only be God.” (Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Balancing the Christian Life [Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1969], p. 173.) When we confess that “Jesus Christ is Lord,” we are proclaiming that He is God.
22 John 4:14; John 3:14-15; Hebrews 6:4.
23 We learned this when we saw the use of the Greek word dorean in Romans 3:24.
26 Joseph C. Dillow, The Reign Of The Servant Kings, (Hayesville, NC, Schoettle Publising Co., 1992), p. 10.
34 John 20:31; 1 John 5:13.
35 Matthew 5:16, 16:24, 19:17; Luke 14:28; Romans 12:1; Ephesians 4:1; Galatians 5:25; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 1:15.
39 Paul wrote, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”(Philippians 4:13). Conversely, without the Spirit of Christ to equip us, it is impossible to do anything good, for man is evil by nature, even after salvation! (See Romans 7:14-21.)
42 1 Corinthians 5:1-5; Galatians 6:1-2; Ephesians 4:11-16; James 5:19-20.
43
The following verses demonstrate the God’s saints are, as my teacher Bob Williams has said, “real sinners who commit real sins”: Genesis 9:21; 12:13; 18:15; 26:7; 27:19; 38:26; Exodus 2:12; 32:1-6; Joshua 9:14-15; Judges 8:27; 16:19-20; 1 Samuel 19:9; 22:17-18; 29:16; 31:4; 2 Samuel 12:9; 1 Kings 11:1-13; 2 Chronicles 25:2; Romans 7:19; 1 Corinthians 5:5; 8:11; 11:29-32; 1 Timothy 1:20; James 5:20; 2 Peter 2:7-8; 1 John 1:8; 5:16; Revelation 2:14-16.
45 1 Corinthians 9:24-25; Philippians 3:14.
56 Gordon Clark pointed out that “Faithfulness takes a long time; faith does not.” Gordon H. Clark, Colossians (Unicoi, TN: The Trinity Foundation, 1979), p. 19.
60 See Proverbs 3:5-6, Philippians 2:13; 4:13.
63 Abraham Kuyper adds to this truth by stating that “So long as we ourselves have not yet entered the New Jerusalem, our comfort should never be founded upon our sanctification, but exclusively upon our justification.” (The Work of the Holy Spirit, p. 368.)
67 Acts 19:10 reports that Paul’s ministry continued for two years.
70 You might want to review Romans 4:7-8; 8:1, 38-39.
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