By Jack Weaver

Below is a distressing note from a young man who is tragically unsure of his salvation. I am terribly distressed when I read his words and thoughts. We need to pray for him and many like him who have been confused by false teachers like Francis Chan, John MacArthur, John Piper, Paul Washer and others.

We witness many visitors to our web site who have been victims of the teaching of Lordship “salvation.” We see many who have finally and joyously understood the real meaning of God’s Free Grace and have trusted, not their behavior, not their works — but Jesus Christ alone as their eternal Savior.

Because of the nature and content of his letter, I will assign to him an assumed name of “Joseph.” I will also highlight in bold parts of his email, some areas of his concern and our possible discussion. I pray some of our readers will offer Joseph scriptural answers to his concerns.

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Hello. I have seen your website a couple of times. I usually end up on your site when looking up stuff about Francis Chan.

I really don’t know how to start this email, so I’ll just dive right in I guess. I need help. I need prayer.

For years now, ever since I started college, more so in my second year of college, I have continually and constantly had nagging doubts about my salvation. I still to this day continue to have these doubts.

I will confess something to you first, however. Also since I started college, I have had a continual worry about evangelism. The thing is, I am uncomfortable talking with strangers, and as a result, have had trouble evangelizing them, almost not doing so at all. I have told my friends the gospel, but not usually right away. I am a person who struggles a lot with fear as well.

I know the gospel message of grace. I have told it to people, to myself, and I have been comforted by the grace of Jesus Christ toward me as a sinner. But always, without fail, my assurance goes away. I become increasingly more aware of my sin, which is good of course, but I then question my salvation.

The Bible teaches that good works follow those who believe. I look at my life, and have trouble seeing them. If I do see them, I question my motives. I’m a mess, in short. I am tired of not having any peace. I am tired of clamming up like a turtle because of my fear of judgment.

I know I have so many sins to deal with in my life. There are things i know I am not even aware of. You seem to be a person that loves the gospel of grace. Is there any words you can offer me for help?

I want to trust in Jesus Christ, and I do, but sometimes, I get scared that because I don’t do certain things, like evangelize often, I am not really saved.

I am in seminary now, and the problem is getting worse. Please help. I hope this all makes sense.

“Joseph”

Joseph, we do understand your consternation and pray we can help you see God’s absolute assurance in Jesus Christ through His Word.

I will take a few of your concerns and address them:

• You have been taught falsely that good works will follow those who believe. NOT TRUE, the Bible says believers SHOULD (not must) walk in good works (Ephesians 2:10) Nowhere in God’s Word does He say that a lack of good works condemns a person. Yes, believers SHOULD (not must) do good works but, by His Grace, we have that choice.
• Be warned that some churches and seminaries teach that one must “Repent of or turn from sin”to be saved and/or stay saved. Read the Statement of Faith of your seminary. Such a statement is false doctrine. See this article:
  

  False Repentance, Perseverance and Lordship “salvation”

• Very important. Your assurance does not depend upon your behavior or feelings — but solely upon God’s Word.
  “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God [Jesus]; that ye may KNOW that ye have eternal life, …“  1 John 5:13 Believing that Jesus’ death and resurrection to pay your sin debt (which is death) is sufficient personally for you. Your belief/trust in Jesus is your guarantee of salvation. Jesus says to you: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.“ John 6:47 plus hundreds more similar verses.
• Discard Francis Chan. His false teaching is misleading you and thousands of others. Use the search bar on this web site (upper right column) for “Francis Chan” and additionally read Bruce’s accurate articles about Chan’s apostasy here:
  

  Francis Chan – Failure to Help the Poor Could Send You to Hell

  Francis Chan’s Speech to 5000+ Christian Youths, Questions Their Faith

• If your seminary training has not by now shown you how to have absolute assurance from scripture, you should seriously consider a change of seminaries. And one of the best is a good, solid Bible College Dayspring Bible College and Seminary in Illinois.
• Go to Gospel Campaign’s web site, read and download the Gospel Booklet. It is very simple and clear.
• Joseph if you indeed “know the Gospel of Grace” I question whether you actually sincerely believe it. See also our page: Eternal Life For You – Guaranteed!!
• Don’t worry about evangelizing anyone until you are absolutely sure of your own salvation. I can imagine it would be difficult trying to explain salvation assurance in Jesus Christ when you do not have it yourself. But when you do understand and have that assurance then, by all means, enthusiastically share that freeing Good News with others. That Truth shall make you (and them) FREE!! “And ye shall know the TRUTH, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:32

Joseph, I am confident others will offer suggestions and encouragement to you from God’s Word. These are only a few thoughts but you must realize your assurance cannot rest in your behavior or works but only in Jesus Christ. He is necessary, He is enough and in Him alone is True Salvation.

Please join us in this discussion.

By our friend John

You might be a Lordship Salvationist — IF…

1.      You think that loving Jesus is the same thing as believing in Jesus. .. .

2.      You believe any of the five points of Calvinism. 

3.      You believe that there are marks of true believers. 

4.      You think that an inventory of personal holiness is a litmus test for a believer. 

5.      Your favorite authors are John MacArthur, Paul Washer, Francis Chan or John Piper

6.      You believe that repenting of or turning from sin is an essential component of being or staying saved. 

7.      You believe that good works are an automatic result of salvation. 

8.      You believe behavioral changes (the “I used to’s…”) are appropriate content for a conversion testimony. 

9.      You think that people who have a pattern of  “big sins” must be unbelievers.

10.     You give Lordship “Salvation” (LS) teachers a pass, rather than marking and avoiding them. 

11.     You think you must desire a relationship with Christ in order to be saved. 

12.     You think that a believer must feel more sensitivity to sin in his life, or he was never really saved.

13.     You think that a believer cannot fail to distinguish himself from the lost world. 

14.     You admire the exposition of LS teachers – except for the false gospel part. 

15.     You believe ”faith” and ”faithfulness” are the same things. 

16.     You are comfortable with non-biblical gospel substitutes. 

17.     Your favorite bumper stickers are  ”Surrender All or Not at All” and  ”Heaven: Don’t Miss it for the World“.

18.     You believe the ”straight and narrow” refers to your behavior. 

19.     You believe that assurance of salvation is based on your own faithfulness. 

20.     You think Spurgeon did not teach Lordship salvation.

21.     You think there is a difference between “head faith” and ”heart faith”  – and only heart faith counts.

Heaven is a FREE Gift, by God’s Grace << Click

Source: “The Gift Nobody Wants,” True Disciple 2008, by Paul Washer, Preached at Grace Community Church, San Antonio, TX, December 4, 2008. Available for download at SermonAudio.com, Online Sermons: http://www.sermonaudio.com/gcc

The following are some quotations from Paul Washer’s sermon listed above, along with a few associated comments. At the end of this post is an excerpt from Dr. Charlie Bing’s Doctoral Dissertation on Lordship Salvation. That section deals with the true biblical meaning of the term “repentance.”

Paul Washer Quotations:

In a not-so-veiled mocking caricature of the common invitation for people to trust in Christ alone by grace through faith for salvation (Ephesians 2:8-9;), Washer says the following (pp. 1-2):

“‘Who would like to repeat this prayer after me? Oh, I see that hand. Come forward.’ We see none of that [in Scripture]. But the message of our Lord we see, ‘Repent and believe.’ . . . It is only until we come into this modern time that we hear nothing of repentance and faith unless it is redefined in the context of receiving Jesus which means pray this prayer and ask him into your heart and if you have done that sincerely you can stand on the fact that you have been born again. Now that is serious, folks. This is serious.”

Comment: In actuality, the biblical gospel of grace never says to simply say or recite a formulaic prayer or to “come forward” to be saved. It says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

Washer continues: “The reason there were just as many people and still are just as many people going out of the church as coming into the church is because the gospel that we are preaching is not the gospel. It is a truncated version of the gospel and the invitation we give cannot even be found in the New Testament. Now does anyone have a problem with that? The reason why they are leaving, well, they went out from us because they were not of us. They were not truly converted.”

Comment: This is the standard “out” for Lordship Salvation teaching. If anyone, true believer or not, ceases attending church, becomes lukewarm, or seems to have strayed from the faith, the standard LS response is to simply write them off as, “never having been genuinely saved to begin with.”

Paul Washer discusses (p. 4) Mark 1:15:
“‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’ Now both of these commands are in the present tense imperative and I believe there is an issue here. I believe that there is something going on that will cure the malady that is so frequent today in America. It is almost as if Christ is saying, ‘The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Now spend the rest of your life repenting and believing.’”

Response: In reference to Mark 1:15 above, as well as John 3:16, the present tense usage in no way mandates that pisteuo must be interpreted as continuous ongoing belief (the default position of Lordship Faith teaching). Quoting Bible scholar, Fred Chay, PhD, “Continual belief is no more in mind in John 3:16 than continual baptizing [also present tense usage "the baptizing one" meaning that John's baptizing would have to continue while he was imprisoned and even after his death!] is in view in Mark 6:14. With this in mind, it becomes clear that it is dangerous indeed to assume that the normative use of the word pisteuo is always continuous action, especially in the light of the fact that it cannot even be assumed that the present tense in general assumes continuous aspect” (Chay and Correia, “The Faith that Saves,” Grace Line, Inc., 2008, pp. 48-52—available from Free Grace Alliance) http://www.freegracealliance.com/ .

Washer continues, as he describes a man who claims to have trusted in Christ alone as his Savior some ten years earlier:

“They don’t realize that the evidence, the raw bone biblical evidence that there was one time in your life that you repented unto salvation is that you continue repenting until today and growing in repentance. They do not realize that if at one time in your life you believed unto salvation, the evidence of that will be you continue believing unto salvation and growing in faith.”

Comment: the standard Lordship Faith tactic or approach is to place the onus of salvation back onto the person; the individual must continue repenting and believing in order to validate or to prove his true belief; he can never rest in the finished work of Christ on the cross on his behalf. Mr. Washer, your approach decimates assurance of salvation! (we are kept by the grace and power of God—John 10:27-30).

Paul Washer Quotation (p. 5): “A person who can show no mark of the sanctifying work of God in their life has no assurance that they have been justified. Now that is biblical teaching.”

Comment: Again, assurance of salvation is placed, not upon the finished work of Christ on the cross of Calvary (see Corinthians 15:1-8), but back upon the individual to prove or maintain his or her salvation—a standard teaching of Lordship Salvation and a real assurance killer!

Washer Quotation (p. 20): “People ask me, ‘Is there free will?’ I say, ‘Let’s not even answer that question. Let’s just go a little bit farther.’ The question is not: Is there free will? The question is: Is there good will? You are free to will, but will only [act] according to your nature and your nature is evil, so what you are going to do is evil unless God comes in and gives you a new heart, unless God regenerates you.”

Comment: Standard Calvinist unbiblical plan of salvation, that is, God must regenerate the sinner prior to his coming to faith. This false teaching flies in the face of the multitude of calls to salvation in the Bible (to be received—through free will—by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone), e.g., John 3:16, Acts 16:31; 19:4, John 11:26 (calls to believe in Christ for salvation are throughout the Gospel of John), 1 John 5:13.

Washer’s example of a child: Washer uses the example of a young child regarding the plan of salvation [no name or gender will be given] (pp.24-25). The child was concerned with life and death; “I don’t want to die,” they said. He assured the youngster that, although death is always a possibility for everyone, that they were young and healthy and although no one knows the future, we trust in God. But the child pleaded, “I want God.” Washer asked, “You do?” “Yes, I want God,” the child replied. Washer said, “Well, you have heard the gospel . . . You know that you are to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.”
The child responded, “Oh, . . ., I believe. I believe in Jesus.” Washer pondered what to say next: “Now, what do I do with them? Do I sit there and go, ‘[name withheld], you don’t believe. You just don’t believe. You are not fully understanding what is going on here’? But do I say, ‘Oh, [name withheld], you believe and you are saved. Let’s go tell [name withheld]‘? That is what most people would do. But, you see, a discerning heart would recognize after talking to the [child]. [They] were not weeping over sin. [They] were not weeping over an offense against God. [They] were weeping over self-preservation. [They] didn’t want to die. And so what did I do? I said, ‘[name withheld],’ I redirected [them]. I said, ‘[name withheld], I want you to know something. If you truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who can take away your sins, any [one] who truly believes and trusts in him, recognizes the depth, something in the depth of [their] sin, turns from it and believes in Jesus is saved. And if you are doing that, if you are really doing that, that has really happened to you, you are saved. But now let me tell you something. The evidence of your salvation is going to be God beginning to work in your life, directing you towards Scripture, pointing out sin in your life, making you contrite and things such as that over disobedience to your parents. And [certain people] are just going to watch you, [name withheld]. And [they] are going to use the Scripture and just help you as you go through these next months and years to discern whether you have truly come to know him.”

Response: read the story of the Philippian jailer in Acts 16. There was a violent earthquake. The prison doors had broken open. He was distraught that the prisoners might have fled and he feared for his life. Verses 30-33 tell of the man’s miraculous conversion, along with his family: “And brought them [Paul and Silas] out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.”

Observation: notice that when the jailer and his family trusted in Christ alone for salvation, Paul and Silas accepted them IMMEDIATELY as brothers and sisters in Christ and then baptized them as an outward symbol of the new inward reality. Paul and Silas did not say that they were going to watch the jailer and his family to make sure that they were truly saved.

Repentance and Salvation

The following is a brief excerpt from Dr. Charlie Bing’s Doctoral Dissertation on Lordship Salvation. This review section deals with the topics, “Repentance and Salvation.” In it, Dr. Bing highlights some of the errors of the Lordship Salvation position on repentance. Below is the excerpt and the associated link to read the chapter in its entirety:

http://www.gracelife.org/resources/dissertation.asp?id=chp6

Repentance and Salvation

The controversy over repentance concerns the scope of its meaning in soteriological contexts. The Lordship Salvation position takes repentance to mean a turning from sin and sins which is necessary for salvation.
By association with metamelomai and epistrepho it is argued that the word metanoeo denotes both regret for sins and turning from sins. The study concluded that this argument is not supported from biblical usage. Furthermore, “repent” is not an accurate translation of metanoeo, which has the basic meaning “change the mind.”
Key Bible passages considered did not substantiate the Lordship understanding of repentance. An evaluation of the passages that concern the offer of salvation by John the Baptist (Matt 3:2, 11; Mark 1:4/Luke 3:3; Acts 13:24), Jesus Christ (Matt 4:17/Mark 1:15; Matt 11:20-21/Luke 10:13; Matt 9:13/Mark 2:17/Luke 5:32; Matt 12:41/Luke 11:32; Luke 13:3, 5; Luke 15; 16:30; 24:47), and the Apostles (Acts 2:38; 3:19; 8:22; 14:15 [with 1 Thess 1:9]; 17:30; 20:21) showed that metanoeo should be taken in its basic sense of “change the mind.” In these passages, that about which the mind changed was not always sin or sins, but could also be God or one’s opinion about Jesus Christ. Turning from sins is more accurately a result of repentance in some of the passages and should not be confused with repentance itself.
When sins are closely associated with repentance in Bible passages (2 Cor 12:21; Heb 6:1; Rev 2; 3; 9:20-21; 16:9), it is usually Christians who are in view, not unbelievers. Turning from specific sins is not required of the unbeliever in order to secure salvation. The exception of the unbelievers in Revelation 9:20-21 and 16:9 is not an offer of salvation.
Passages used by Lordship proponents to define repentance in terms of its fruits or works (Matt 3:8/Luke 3:8; Acts 26:20) did not support that understanding. It was argued that though there is a logical relationship between repentance and its fruits, the term repentance itself does not require resultant works for its meaning.

If 1 Samuel 28:19 is the only text in the Bible to show that King Saul was a saved, regenerate man, I first note that Saul did not take any comfort in that message from Samuel.  The rest of that scene makes very clear, how very frightened Saul was: he “fell at once full length on the ground, filled with fear” and no strength in him, not even wanting to eat.  This is a far cry from the scene where the thief on the cross was told that he would soon (that day) be with Jesus in paradise. Saul’s behavior is also nothing like David’s declaration in 2 Samuel 12, a peaceful assurance that “I shall go to him,” where his deceased infant son was.  Samson, another suicide case mentioned, met his death very differently from Saul: calling upon the Lord in that moment.  Samson knew he was going to die very shortly, and though his circumstances were quite different at that point, he did not cower in fear in light of his present physical pain and suffering and his certain physical doom, his impending death.  Job too showed that same understanding of death as a place of rest and peace.

The “answer” to Saul’s fearful reaction: that Saul was just upset and troubled by his circumstances, that he was reacting (as any ordinary person would) who wants to win the battle and continue his rule.  Also, that people in the OT didn’t have the same understanding about the afterlife as in the NT (citing the above example of the thief on the cross, while ignoring the OT examples given), and that the thief on the cross didn’t have anything in this life to lose (such as Saul who still had rule over a kingdom).

Really?  Saul’s behavior in that scene shows what had already been demonstrated previously in his life: his desperate attempt to cling to this life and to cling to the throne, even though he knew, as he had acknowledged to David when David spared his life, that David was to have the kingship.  At the point of death, no one who has a right relationship to the Lord is going to act all scared and panicked about the announcement of his death merely because he wants to win the battle, continue his rule and keep his earthly possessions.

The best explanation of Samuel’s message, that “tomorrow you and your sons will be with me” is to recognize that the word used there is Sheol:  it does not refer to paradise, or Abraham’s Bosom, or even to hell (the place of the damned), but to the intermediate place of the dead, a place that has two compartments. Thus, saying that Saul and his sons would be where Samuel was, is not a case for salvation, but to the fact that they would be in that temporary holding place before the resurrection, a holding place that we know has two compartments within it.

Going beyond the incident in 1 Samuel 28, though, the abundance of other scriptural evidence portrays Saul as an unsaved man with sins that are categorically different from the fleshly sins that the great OT saints, such as David and Moses, fell into at times in their lives.  Saul directly disobeyed a direct order from God, to slay the Amelekites, and even presumed to offer the sacrifices himself.  Saul persecuted David (the type of Christ), failing to recognize the Davidic covenant promises; he also slew God’s priests (not a light thing to dismiss).  Then he swore an oath of safety to a medium, the very thing not allowed in the word of God, which plainly says to not allow a medium/sorceress to live; and he sought guidance from that medium.

What came about next in the discussion:  that person’s concept of “Free Grace” salvation, apparently of the extreme Zane Hodges variety, that no matter what kind of life a person may lead he or she is still a regenerate, saved individual.  The above analysis was wrong, they said, because that is just focused on the idea of keeping a list of merits and demerits, a type of laundry list, and by that type of legalistic reasoning no one could be saved.  And after all, Moses and David fell into great sin.  So the “Free Grace” reasoning concluded no difference at all between the lives of Moses, David, and King Saul.

But pointing out the many scriptures regarding King Saul is not building a laundry-list or “merits and demerits” type case of “how many sins” any given person committed. Rather, it is a look at the overall character of that individual. Was that person’s life characterized by certain types of sin, or were those sins the momentary lapses of a life that had an overall tenor of godliness? It can also be related to 1 John, what John describes about those who are saved, that they do not continue sinning, that their life is not characterized by sin.  The real issue, behind the discussion of King Saul’s eternal fate, is what God’s word itself says: that people are known by their fruits, and that believers do produce fruit.

Yes, Moses had momentary lapses, as did David in his sin with Bathsheba; they were weaknesses of the flesh, expressed in emotions such as impatience and physical lust. Those sins did not characterize the lives of those men, but were the exception rather than the rule. King Saul’s sins, beginning with the reasons the kingdom was taken away from him, were especially theological in nature, as noted above.

I close with excerpts from S. Lewis Johnson’s message concerning Saul and the 1 Samuel 28 passage, from his “Lessons from the Life of David” series.

 (reading the text) And Saul answered, “I am deeply distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God has departed from me and does not answer me anymore, neither by prophets nor by dreams.”  He doesn’t say by priests because, after all, he’s the one that slew the High Priest, so he seems to want to avoid that.  “Therefore I have called you that you may reveal to me what I should do.”

Isn’t that interesting?  We won’t go directly to the Lord God, who has spoken.  But we’ll go to a witch.  And we’ll go to the witch with the idea that we can put over to people that we are really interested in knowing what God is going to do.  So Saul’s distress is the distress of disobedience.  It’s not that he has a poor self-esteem.  It’s simply he’s disobedient.  And because he’s disobedient, that’s what happens when individuals are disobedient to the word of God.  He’s already been given his answer, over and over.  He wants to know his fate, but he wants to know it without repentance.  If only the dead Samuel would favor the one God has frowned upon.  Can you imagine that?  God has spoken and said, the kingdom has been torn from you, Saul.  You’ve lost your kingdom.  So Saul will say, I think that I would like to talk to Samuel in order that he may do me some favor, delivering me from the judgment of God, when God has already spoken that this is what’s going to happen.  Amazing, amazing, truly amazing.

. . .

Divine mercy is free.  But it’s righteous in its flow.  The notion that God must help everyone in trouble is not scientific and is wrong.  Because there are individuals who do not seek the will of God and therefore, when they seek out of disobedience and clinging to their sin, God just as in the case of Saul, is silent.  It’s too late.  Too late often individuals appeal to the Lord God.  In the case of Saul, it was too late.  He had, it seemed, clearly by his actions, brought on the judgment of divine retribution.  And that is ultimately what comes to him.  Those who have the opportunity, hearing the gospel message, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” as the jailer did, and do not respond and persist down through the years in not responding, the time may come when, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, may be written over their lives.

Recently we chronicled (see the link below) how Francis Chan continues to use the standard Lordship Faith promotional tactics of guilt, doubt and fear [fear of damnation] as primary motivational tools when addressing large Christian audiences. This seems to be an ongoing theme of his sermons/speeches since he introduced the concept of condemnation of “the lukewarm,” which appeared in a 2008 sermon entitled, “Lukewarm and Loving It,” as well as in his best-selling 2008 book, “Crazy Love.” In March of this year, continuing with the same theme, Chan gave a speech in which he declared that failure to help the poor could cause you to wind up in hell. In this speech (below), Francis Chan’s pronouncement links him with the social welfare “gospels” of popular authors David Platt and Richard Stearns. SEE:

http://www.expreacherman.com/2012/03/27/francis-chans-latest-pronouncement-failure-to-help-the-poor-could-send-you-to-hell/

Just this past week, Francis Chan utilized a similar motivational approach as the keynote speaker at the CHIC 2012 Christian Youth Conference in Knoxville, TN. As typical of other Lordship Faith teachers, Chan challenged his Christian audience to look at themselves introspectively to see if they were really saved, based upon their behavior, attitudes and lifestyle. This speech was similar to one given by John Piper to another large gathering of Christian young people (see: http://www.expreacherman.com/2012/01/13/john-piper-speaks-to-42000-youth-redefining-the-plan-of-salvation/).

At this current event, Chan spoke to over 5000 Christian students in a large arena in Tennessee [see information source below]. Preaching from John 21 about Jesus’ verbal exchange with Peter, Chan invited the audience to reexamine the sincerity of their faith in Christ. He inquired of the audience, what would be their reply if Jesus asked them, “Do you love me?” He followed that question with, “Is it obvious on your Facebook that you love God or is it obvious that you love yourself?”

Writer, Stan Friedman, finished his article with the following observations about Chan’s speech:
“In an extended illustration that enthralled the audience, Chan drank from two different beverages—lemonade and Starbuck’s Frappuccino. Much to the disgust of the gathering, he alternated between the two. Christians too often do the same [he said], switching between holy and sinful behavior. Finally, he poured the coffee into the lemonade to show what happens when sin is allowed to rule part of a person’s life—it makes the rest distasteful. Chan told the worshipers that hiding the truth about sin with which they are struggling and trying to look as if they have their lives together would have eternal consequences. ‘What’s going to happen at the end because you just keep the facade going?’ he asked. ‘So then, you go to hell and you say to yourself, ‘Oh, but that’s okay because everyone up on earth thinks I’m in heaven. I fooled them.’ That’s your goal?’ Chan ended by asking the students to pray quietly and be open to God so that they might listen and confess. And be restored.”

Post Source: “CHIC Students Challenged to Answer Christ’s Question,” article written by Stan Friedman, Knoxville, TN; article accessed from http://www.covchurch.org/news/2012/07/18

For updates on Francis Chan 2013, see:

http://expreacherman.com/2013/01/05/lordship-salvation-authorsspeakers-francis-chan-and-david-platt-team-up-to-create-the-multiply-discipleship-movement/

Recently I engaged in a comment debate over the nature and reality of repentance. This debate was nothing new to me having researched and written many articles which you can view here, here, and here, on the subject. This doctrine has cost me many friends and opportunities, however, like Jesus on His way to Jerusalem to endure the cross (Luke 9:51), in spite of the hardships and loss, I have set my face like a stone determined to do the will of God, which is to teach His word the way He has written it. And because what I do is what God has called me to do, I will not be put to shame (Isaiah 50:7).

It really hurts me when I hear what man has done to twist and make the Scriptures unclear. Like the Pharisees in Jesus’ day, false teachers (hypocrites), shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For they neither enter in, nor allow those who would enter to go in (Matthew 23:14). Today this constantly goes on and people are constantly being fed “doctrine of demons” that promise to lead to heaven but only lead those who follow it to hell. Lord help us maintain sound teaching, help us to never be entangled by false doctrine. Guard our minds and by your Spirit make our paths straight. Amen…

One of the ways God does this is by the teaching of His word. Truth is not subjective or based on somebody’s feelings or opinions. Truth is objective, free of any bias or prejudice caused by personal feelings. In my walk with Christ I have struggled with being objective when it comes to rebuking fellow brothers or sisters in Christ. Sometimes I inject my feelings or desires into conversations instead of just looking at the truth. Well, today and in the following articles we are going to do just that. We are going to rid ourselves of feelings and biases and focus squarely on the truth.

Before we can closely look at the doctrine of repentance we must first take a look at the state of man. For until we do this, one cannot even begin to understand what it means to truly repent from sin and turn to God. As you should already know man in his natural state is completely dead in sin. Meaning he is unable to love the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength, and love his neighbor as himself. In other words he enslaved to his sin and incapable of saving himself. The Scriptures confirm this truth, you can reference Romans 3:10-18; Psalm 14:1-3; Ephesians 2:1-3; Genesis 6:5; 1 Kings 8:46.

Since this is the state of man God must unconditionally elect some for salvation. Man cannot come to God in and of himself and indeed will not come. If man was left up to his own desire he would undoubtedly run to hell or the lake of fire. God thus elects some to salvation granting them repentance (Acts 11:18; 2 Timothy 2:25) and faith in Christ Jesus for salvation by grace (Ephesians 2:5-9) from the penalty and mar of sin.

Now this brings up a good question. If Man is totally dead in sin and unable to appease the wrath of a Holy God, and if that same Holy God elects some to salvation, then how does He do it? One word: Regeneration!

God washes, cleanses, and renews those whom He saves by His Spirit (Titus 3:4-5). Jesus calls it the new birth in John 3:3 saying that, “unless one is born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” In Ezekiel 36 God actually tells us how he washes and cleans those He saves:

“I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.” Ezekiel 36:25-27

Now I truly believe that when God washes something he does so to the utmost. He does not half clean us or leave us as slaves to our sin. Quite the contrary, God washes us and cleanses us from all sin. God is so good at what he does, Paul said this:

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

A person is washed in such a manner that his old ways, beliefs, value systems, moral standards, and view of Christ is radically and miraculously changed and gone. Yes sin and evil are still present (of the flesh Romans 7:14) but the believer now sees it in a new perspective. Like Paul, in the earlier verses of 2 Corinthians 5, we no longer regard Christ according to the flesh, so new creations in Christ no longer regard anything according to the flesh.

This point is very important, and one non-Lordship salvation people fail to address. Sin no longer enslaves the believer (Romans 6:16-18) and those who confess Jesus as LORD do so willingly submitting themselves to Christ’ rule and authority.

So when God tells a person to repent having regenerated His heart that person is able to turn from and forsake all idols (sin) and believe the gospel. This is the truth!

 God has always called men to repentance:

“For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn (repent), and live.” Ezekiel 18:32

Repentance and faith in Christ has always been the orthodox teaching of Christianity. Unfortunately false teachers who are not saved and who love their sin are teaching that a man doesn’t need to repent of sin to be saved. That they can live any way they want even becoming a full blown atheist, and yet still be saved. That is a dangerous heresy and in the next couple of articles I will explain and also give some biblical examples of repentance. We will, “destroy every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ….” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

True believers know their God, hate their sin, and glorify their Savior….

Detractors of decision theology consider it a misleading and dangerous teaching because it gives man too much control over his salvation. Some see decisional regeneration (salvation depends on making a decision) akin to baptismal regeneration (salvation depends on being baptized) and other works-based systems. If salvation is by grace, then it is an internal work of the Holy Spirit, occurring at the time of His choosing. Decisional regeneration, on the other hand, posits that the moment of salvation occurs when someone makes a choice to “accept Christ.” This, say opponents, is tantamount to salvation by works, because exercising the will is a human work and therefore cannot be part of salvation.

Some are opposed to decision theology because it risks associating a spiritual event with a physical action. Telling someone to “make a decision for Christ” and to “express” that decision outwardly fosters the notion that salvation is synonymous with walking an aisle or reciting a prayer instead of being the work of the Holy Spirit (John 3:8). This false association, in turn, can lead to false conversions, because someone who walks an aisle after a sermon may think he is saved (on the basis of an emotional experience), when there has been no work of God in his heart. Also, the detractors of decision theology are quick to point out that nowhere in the Bible are “decisions for Christ” mentioned, nor is anyone commanded to “accept Christ” or to “ask Him into your heart.”

Further, Scripture says that man in his natural state is incapable of choosing Christ. He is “dead” in sin (Ephesians 2:1), he cannot please God (Romans 8:8), and he is utterly helpless to come to God on his own (John 6:44-45). There is “no one who seeks God” (Romans 3:11); an unsaved person is unable to “accept the things that come from the Spirit of God” (1 Corinthians 2:14). This being the case, asking a non-Christian to make a decision for Christ is like asking a corpse to dance. Divine intervention is necessary.

Central to the debate over decision theology is the debate over monergism vs. synergism.  Is salvation God’s work or man’s—or both? Monergism, closely allied with Calvinism and its tenet of irresistible grace, teaches that God is solely responsible for all aspects of our salvation. God sovereignly saves without any cooperation from us whatsoever, even giving us the faith to believe (Ephesians 2:8-9). Synergism teaches that we cooperate in our salvation to some degree. Decisional regeneration can be seen as synergistic in that we must decide to accept Christ—a very limited cooperation, but cooperation nonetheless.

The Bible is clear that salvation is totally the work of God. We can do nothing to secure salvation for ourselves (Romans 3:20). The Lord chooses us (John 15:16), draws us to Himself (John 6:44), gives us life (John 14:6), and preserves us (John 10:28). The new birth is not the result “of human decision” (John 1:13). Just as the Lord brought life to the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37), Jesus “gives life to whom he is pleased to give it” (John 5:21). At the same time, the Bible commands everyone to repent (Acts 3:19, 17:30) and to believe in Christ (Acts 16:31). While the words “make a decision for Christ” are not used in Scripture, the fact that we are commanded to repent seems to imply an exercise of the will.

How is one saved? By grace through faith—and even faith is a gift created through the hearing of God’s Word (Romans 10:17). Salvation does not come by walking an aisle or raising a hand. Saying a prayer does not save anyone. Reading and agreeing with the salvation posts by Baptist Voice Ministries cannot save. Salvation is making a new spiritual creation, something only the Holy Spirit can accomplish.

Does this mean that it is wrong for an evangelist to hold an ”alter call” after his message? Not at all. However, we must be careful never to attribute our spiritual peace with God to a physical act of our own. Coming to the front of a church is not the same thing as coming to Christ. Also, we should remember that simply “making a decision” of some kind is not what saves us; it is the all-powerful, sovereign work of God in Christ that saves. Rather than calling on people to “invite Jesus to come in,” it would perhaps be better to urge them to repent of their sin and cast themselves on the mercy of God in Christ.

However, depending on the person and his circumstances, spiritual growth sometimes occurs quickly, and other times it takes a long time for changes to become evident, and even then the changes may not be evident to everyone. The Bible clearly teaches that salvation is by faith alone, apart from works (John 3:16;Ephesians 2:8-9). The Bible also declares that a life changes after salvation (Ephesians 2:10). So it is a difficult balance to make. We do know, however, that we are not to judge another as to the state of his/her eternal soul (Matthew 7:1). Only God knows who are His sheep and He will mature each of us according to His perfect time table.

So, is Lordship Salvation biblical? Again, it cannot be denied that faith in Christ produces a change (2 Corinthians 5:17). A person who has been delivered from sin by faith in Christ should not desire to remain in a life of sin (Romans 6:2). At the same time, submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ is an issue of spiritual growth, not salvation. The Christian life is a process of submitting to God in increasing measure (2 Peter 1:5-8). A person does not have to submit to God in every area of his or her life in order to be saved. A person simply has to recognize that he or she is a sinner, in need of Jesus Christ for salvation, and place trust in Him (John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8-9). Jesus is Lord (Philippians 2:10). Christians absolutely should submit to Him (James 4:7). A changed life and submission to Christ’s lordship are the result of salvation, not a requirement for salvation.

This is for Howard a person who told me that the bible never tells anyone to repent of their sins. Enjoy!

Several things come to mind when reading your brief statement dated 12-29-99 which you titled GOD ALONE KNOWS WHO ARE SAVED NOT ANYONE ELSE.

The title is not necessarily a true statement. The thief on the cross was saved and is in Heaven. Judas Iscariot was not saved therefore is not in Heaven. The Apostle Paul was saved and is in Heaven. There are probably many more Scriptural examples on both sides that could be mentioned but some how I do not think this is what the issue is because of the context of your statement.

I imagine you are referring to the current controversy going on in many e-group discussions concerning judgments of saved and lost. In that frame of thought I will only mention one text, “Beware of false prophets……. ye shall KNOW THEM by their fruits…” (emphasis mine) Matt 7:15-16 KJV. This is a command of Christ. My question is, how can we KNOW who a false prophet is unless we make a judgment? Are false prophets saved or lost? Was Christ trying to confuse us or is modern mainstream evangelicalism doing that? Do false prophets preach a false gospel of sinking sand like Matt 7:24-27 refers to? What about the same chapter where it says “Not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of Heaven” (v-21). What are today’s false prophets saying? Probably what the false prophet said in verse 22: “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works?” WORKS, WORKS, and more WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is the sinking sand. That is the wide gate that leads to destruction (v-13). That is the main fruit of the false prophet. That is what the vast majority of religion is preaching. That is what we hold to naturally by birth – SELF RIGHTEOUSNESS!!!!!!!!!!

Most so called “Christians” believe in a form of works righteousness and that is why we can NOT take for granted all who say Lord, Lord are saved. The command is to beware. What is in the heart (mind) comes out by way of the mouth. False professors will reveal the object of their faith by what constantly is flowing out their mouth – WORKS, WORKS, and more WORKS.

There are many false christs being preached today which are not the true Christ of the Scriptures. People have formed an idol of their imaginations and pray to a god that cannot save. Their god is sort of like themselves but maybe just a wee bit weaker.

You seemed to have a negative comment to intellectual assent? I hope you are not going down the road of “faith is believing in something we do not understand”, or “we believe with our heart and not our heads”.

Recently I received an article from a “Reformed” man that said (and I am paraphrasing, it is real close) – “A person can be saved while holding to the belief that he is saved by his works”. This is what I am commanded to beware of. Their mouths must be stopped!

We have explicit teachings in the scripture of what the gospel IS and what the gospel is NOT. This is one way that I know of that we can use as a basis to determine who we stick our hand out and call them brother. To promote a false prophet in their false gospel is not love, but rather, hate. Let us also warn those who would condition salvation on the work of KNOWING certain things, even if those things are true. This is very subtle. We are given an understanding to know God (1 John 5:20). All the conditions in salvation were already met in the Person of Christ. Thank God salvation by grace is conditioned on Christ alone. This indeed is good news.

Dear Friends,

A couple of days ago I received the following email from Matthew, who gave me permission to post it here. It is self explanatory. Even though we thankfully receive many encouraging comments and hundreds of daily visits we occasionally receive one that is especially notable such as this one from our new visitor, Matthew.

I would just like to share with you all how helpful your site has been to me. I was saved years ago at age 14 and have certainly had my ups and downs in my walk but all in all I have been doing ok.

However, recently doubts have beset me about my conversion. Namely involving repentance.

I, like you, have always held to the change of mind view of repentance. That is, repentance is changing ones mind about Jesus, Who He is, what He did for us, and trusting Him alone for salvation. However recently I have been swarmed with repentance involving a deliberate turn from sin.

For example, I have a Holman Christian Standard Study Bible at home. One that has commentary on most all of the verses of the various books. It’s commentary on Mark Chapter 1 Verse 4 reads that repentance means to change one’s mind and involves a deliberate turn from sin. Imagine my distress!

What exactly is a deliberate turn from sin? For how long? Is a lifetime of winning battles against my sin nature now required? If I sin/fall into sinful habits was I never saved to begin with? All these questions!!

Then I found your site. The Good Lord sent it to me just at my time of need just like He promised.

I was encouraged in that I was not alone in these concerns. There were others like me. Through reading the various posts and comments, I have realized I worried for nothing. My salvation was secure all along. Just a SIMPLE belief/trust in Jesus and what He did for me.

Nothing I do good or bad will change my eternal destiny. Now don’t get me wrong I don’t think I can just live without any boundaries but I need not live in constant fear that if I do sin or ever fall into willful disobedience it means I haven’t deliberately turned from sin and wasn’t ever saved.

It really is just that simple and uncomplicated to go to Heaven. Thank you again for your site. It is a blessing. May God Bless you! Matthew

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I explained to Matthew that the Holman Christian Standard Study Bible has a false definition of repentance. This is not surprising since the publication was originally a product of the Southern Baptist Convention. Obviously Matthew had already come to the conclusion that the Holman Study Bible’s interpretation of “repent” is false.

We can be thankful that the Lord Jesus paid for all our sins on the cross of Calvary and rose bodily from the grave.. and Jesus is now our personal Advocate before God the Father:

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate [intercessor] with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: 1 John 2:1

We are indeed eternally secure in Jesus Christ. Thanks Matthew for your encouraging note. –  Jack

Salvation IS God’s GIFT << Click

By our friend John.

I want to believe in Jesus, but…

The evangelist said you have to say a prayer asking for salvation. I saw that on a couple of websites too. I don’t know why God would go to all of the trouble to do everything necessary for my salvation and then make me ask for it. But, I’ll pray the prayer to help insure my salvation — just in case.

I should feel worse about my sins. In the Bible study that I attend on Tuesdays, we are using a study guide which says that confession of sins is a requirement for salvation. I can’t find that anywhere in the Bible. Why would God need to be softened up by my remorse to be willing to save me? But, a great “Prince of Preachers,” who is favorably referenced by lots of Free Grace ministries, said that no one comes to God with a hard heart. So, I will cry and confess my sins to help insure my salvation – just in case.

My pastor says believing in Jesus isn’t enough – that even the demons believe there is one God and they tremble. My pastor says I have to repent of my sins to be saved. The Bible doesn’t say that anywhere, but if I don’t do it, maybe the deal will be off. I will resolve to give up my sins to secure my salvation – just in case.

My denomination says that faith is an active verb. That a person needs to follow Jesus to go to Heaven. They say that believing with your head is not enough. You have to believe with your heart. I’m not sure what that means, but I read a tract that said you could miss Heaven by a foot-and-a-half. I don’t want to do that. I will resolve to follow Christ to help my salvation — just in case.

My church says that faith in Christ plus a public confession of Christ are required for salvation. Public confession seems like a work. It seems like if I have to make a public confession of Christ in order to be saved, that my confession would be that I don’t believe in Christ alone. But my Elder explained that public confession was a “spirit work” and not a “work of the law.” So, maybe God won’t know the difference. Besides, why wouldn’t I want to confess Christ before men?   I’d better do it to make my salvation secure –  just in case.

What about baptism? My father always said it was required to be saved. The Bible says we are saved by Grace, through faith. But, my father was a devout Christian up until the day he died. I know he wouldn’t have steered me wrong. Plus, you’re supposed to get baptized anyway. I’ll do it to let God know I’m serious — just in case.

Some people become Christians and fall away later. How do I know I won’t be like the second soil in the parable? I mean my behavior should change if I am saved, right? All of the testimonials I hear at church are about how the people’s lives changed as a result of their salvation.  I will wait and see if it takes root and my life changes dramatically – just in case.

But, what if I fall into serious, habitual sin? Won’t that mean I was never saved in the first place? I’d better guard against that or my salvation may be in jeopardy — just in case.

I heard a sermon today about a rich young ruler.  The preacher said he didn’t go to Heaven because he was selfish.  Am I selfish? Jesus said it was easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into Heaven. I know He also said that with God, all things are possible.  But, maybe I should give away more of my money — just in case.

I read a bestselling Christian book about how to take your “spiritual pulse.”  It gives a bunch of test questions to see whether or not you are a believer.  The Bible says that I can be assured of my salvation the moment I believe.  But, one of the leading Grace expositors says the truth lies somewhere in between, that an inventory of righteousness should be part of an ongoing inspection process.  I did OK on it yesterday, but today I’m not so sure.  I’d better take it again tomorrow — just in case. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And John concludes with:

I actually experienced and believed certain of the false teachings depicted above.  Some of the others were not part of my direct experience.  In either case, I was lost until a couple of years ago when I finally understood and believed that salvation was a free gift, available by Grace through faith in Christ alone. – John.

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Thanks John… for that chilling account of the Lordship “salvation” and “works” teachings of “religions” today. We are thrilled you finally understood and believed the Truth of the Gospel of the Grace of Jesus Christ.

Understand SALVATION by Grace alone through Faith alone in Christ alone. << Click

I have come to the conclusion that the word “repent” is almost always completely misunderstood.  The definition of this word has been so blurred (if not completely butchered) by the legalistic, screamin’ style preaching of the past that the meaning has been lost.  I will endeavor to carefully explain what the word means. The CARM online dictionary defines it this way:

Repent = To repent means to turn, to have a change of mind. 

and the Westminster Theological dictionary has this to say:

The linguistic roots point to the theological meaning of “a change of mind”.

Folks, when Christ (or even a modern preacher) tells people to repent, he is telling them to change their mind.  To recognize what sin really and truly is (that being wicked and self-centered rebellion against their creator who is patiently allowing them time to recognize the severity of their actions).  True repentance is always followed by a change in actions, because what we do is dictated by what we want and what we believe.  If one truly recognizes the depravity of a certain sin, they will always strive to avoid it once they have come to that recognition.  They may fall from time to time, but that sin will not be in the pattern of their life because it isn’t in the pattern of their beliefs and desires.  Repentance isn’t “turning from bad deeds to start doing good deeds”.  It really isn’t.  Find a dictionary and see for yourself.  Repentance is an awakening, a change of mind, not the performance of deeds.  The charge of works-righteousness is ridiculous against those preaching repentance, because repentance is simply adopting God’s opinion of sin.

Our Lord instructed us as to the content of the message we are to proclaim.  See for yourself:

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.  And he said, “Yes, it was written long ago that the Messiah would suffer and die and rise from the dead on the third day.  It was also written that this message would be proclaimed in the authority of his name to all the nations, beginning in Jerusalem: ‘There is forgiveness of sins for all who repent.’  You are witnesses of all these things.

Luke 24:45-48 (NLT)

Instead of blasting every preacher who dares use this word with the serious and weighty charge of heresy, maybe we should all take a moment to reflect on what the word “repent” actually means.  And then maybe we should examine the sin in our own lives and practice a little repentance right then and there.  So I guess in reality, this little blog post isn’t only about repentance, but it is also a call to repentance!  I am asking you to change your mind, to repent of your false definition and see the word “repent” in its true light. Ironic, eh?

Luke 19:

8But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

9Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”

Even … lost Christians

…“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Contrary to the modern, watered-down false gospel propagated through evangelicalism today, God does not leave those He saves still enslaved in their sins. No, He sets them free, not only redeeming them and justifying them, but He changes them and molds them unto the likeness of Jesus Christ. Some may progress more slowly than others, but progress they will, for God does not fail to sanctify those He justifies. Why is this so? Because God saves us for His name sake, for His glory alone, and He will by no means fail to bring Himself glory through the salvation, sanctification, and glorification of His Elect.

Please take a listen and ask yourself, “am I a bastard child who loves the world and the things of the world, who lives in and loves a lifestyle of sin, who takes pleasure in unrighteousness, who is left alone to continue as I always have, still dead in my sins; or, am I a legitimate child of the Living God, who is purifying himself, whose mind is being renewed day by day, who is becoming holy as God is holy, who is surrendering increasingly to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and who is bearing fruit in keeping with repentance, all by the grace of God alone for His glory alone?”

If you are not sure how to answer that question, you must examine yourself whether you truly be in the faith. I encourage you to begin reading the book of 1st John.

Following the additional resources below, you will find the 10-minute video excerpt referenced in this post. You can listen to The Christian’s Assurance of Salvation in full at SermonAudio.

For Further Consideration

Biblical Assurance of Salvation

Jesus Bought You to Set You Free

Heart Inventory – do you serve god or God?

Who Am I According to God? Who Are You?

The Authority of the Gospel

God’s Goodness = Man’s Worst Problem

What Is Wrong with NON-Lordship Salvation? Part 5 – Sanctification

In his book, Essential Truths of Christian Faith, RC Sproul argues that believers grow in faith by keeping God’s law.

“We are justified by faith alone apart from works.  However, all believers grow in faith by keeping God’s holy commands – not to gain God’s favor, but out of loving gratitude for the grace already bestowed on them through the work of Christ.” – pg. 254

In the very same book, he argues that some people are saved but do not know they are saved, because they have not assured themselves of their election by ridding themselves of sins that trouble their conscience.

“There are people who are saved but do not know they are saved.  These people are actually in a state of grace but are uncertain of it.  Perhaps they are wrestling with sin in their lives and doubt their own salvation because of a troubled conscience.   In this group are those who have not yet made certain that they are among the elect.” – pg. 201

He then follows up this ditty of a zinger by writing:

“The easiest way to have a false assurance of salvation is to have a false doctrine of salvation.” – pg. 202

How is it possible to have a false assurance of salvation by having a false doctrine of salvation, if at the same time it is also true that someone can be saved and not know it?  In such a case, both false and true knowledge are irrelevant.   False knowledge would not change the fact that a person might be still be saved but not know it.  After all, if knowledge doesn’t matter in regards to salvation (you can be justified by faith but not know it), then knowledge of bad doctrine does not matter, for you can still be saved but not know it.

Sproul’s assertions logically lead one to the idea that a person can know all the wrong stuff about God and yet still be saved but not know he is saved because the person knows all the wrong stuff about God.    Of course, I have no doubt that Sproul would deny a Hindu the credit of being named a brother in Christ just because he knows all the wrong stuff about God, but Sproul’s refusal would be logically inconsistent with his argument.   Truth in fact, Sproul’s assertions are absurd.  They are built upon the idea that faith is not only intellectual assent, but rather also a deliberate change in a person’s moral behavior.

“Though our good works add no merit to our faith before God, and though the sole condition of our justification is our faith in Christ, if good works do not follow from our profession of faith, it is a clear indication that we do not possess justifying faith. True justification always results in sanctification. This does not mean justification depends or rests on sanctification.   Justification depends on true faith, which in turn will inevitably lead to works of obedience.” – pg. 191

If it is true that faith inevitably leads to works of obedience, then it does not logically follow that justification by faith does not depend or rest on sanctification (Sproul defines sanctification as getting better about obeying more).   Sproul’s argument leads to a justification that does not actually justify!   When Sproul says justified by faith alone, I think he suspects the justification may not be real until a change in the person’s moral behavior (this is how he defines faith) proves that Christ’s righteousness was really imputed.    What this means is that Sproul defines faith as sanctification.  You get better and better about it, in other words, by doing moral works that prove you have been imputed with the righteousness, and the more moral works you do, the more certain you become that you have been justified.   How else, after all, could he argue that some people are saved but do not know they are saved, because they have either not assured themselves of their election by ridding themselves of sins that trouble their conscience, or they have false doctrine?

The Scriptures teach that God is righteous to declare His people just based upon what Christ accomplished for His people at the cross (Rom 1:16-17, Rom 3:22-26).  And what He accomplished was this: He propitiated God’s wrath for the sins of His people (1 John 2:2, Hebrews 10:1-10); He redeemed His people from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for them (Gal 3:13, Hebrews 9:15); and He reconciled His people to God by making peace with God by His blood (Col 1:20).

When God charges Christ’s death to a person, it is an accomplished righteousness that He charges!  It is a death that actually propitiated!  A death that actually redeemed!  A death that actually reconciled!  It is not a death that partially propitiated and partially redeemed and now waits to be finished by my works in order to prove God wasn’t lying when He declared me just.

R C Sproul argues that works will improve his belief in what he doesn’t know so that he can eventually come to discover what it is that he doesn’t know but might already believe.   Does anyone think this makes sense?

‘For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God’ Ephesians 2:8.

If this is all new to you I pray that you will search the scriptures to see whether what I say is really so.

Why??

Now the driving force behind such a series is two-fold. Firstly its to give God the praise that he is ultimately due, and  secondly  its a reaction to the man-centered theology that has been prevailing amongst Evangelical  Christianity ever since the first century. What I mean by ‘man-centred theology‘  is  that men have put themselves at the centre of  the universe, and boldly proclaim that salvation is something based on the will of man. In modern times it sounds something like this  ‘Just pray this prayer or tick this box’ but the basic essence of error has been the same through the ages. The doctrines of grace completely shatter this erroneous view of salvation by placing God where he has always been, at the beginning  and end of salvation, ‘looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith’ Hebrews 12:2. It is my hope that this series will bless and edify all those who read.

Two Truths

Now before anybody gets confused I would like to state that I’m not a hyper-calvinist (One who overemphasize the sovereignty of God, and downplays man’s responsibility) but  rather I’m a  christian who believes the truths of the bible, by God’s grace.  Let me give you the first truth, which is that  anybody may partake in salvation, no matter who you are, where your from, or what you’ve done. The offer of God’s grace is available for all -

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink (John 7:37), Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:25), For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). -

Aren’t these all wonderful verses which bring  joy to the sinner. It has been said that the ‘whoever’ and ‘all’ mentioned here are better than finding your name in the bible. Somebody could easily have the same name as you, but the ‘whoever’ and ‘all’ are all-encompassing. The bible also teaches that God is one who draws sinners to himself.

No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him(John 6:44), You did not choose me, but I chose you( John 15:16)  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:12).

These two truths don’t contradict each other, they are both taught in scripture. You can easily tell the same story from different vantage points, and we are looking from the vantage point of the great author himself….God.

Points of Warning

Before we go any further I must state that these doctrines are for life. They are not for fighting about, nor puffing up but rather ‘they are to live by, they are survive with’ John Piper. They help the evangelist who isn’t seeing much fruit, or the family who is bereaving the loss of a child. Too many times have I come across people who have learnt about the doctrines of grace (Myself Included) and what is the result….pride.  John Newton wrote ‘They who avow the doctrines distinguished by the name of Calvinism, ought, if consistent with their own principles, to be the most gentle and forbearing of all men, in meekness instructing them that oppose’. We should be humble if we’ve come to realise these things for as it is written ‘What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it? 1 Corinthians 4:7.

It is my hope that after this series you will recognise what God almighty has done for sinners who have come to know him. The next post will deal with the state of man before God saves him, so Grace and peace to you until then.

Grace robbers are everywhere today!  Their faces can be seen on “Christian” television; their voices bellow from the pulpits of large churches across the land; their best-selling books are widely featured in Christian bookstores.  It seems that at every turn there surfaces another voice in the Christian world who would steal the joy and assurance away from any believer who will listen to such voices and follow their unbiblical teachings.  True Hope in Christ Jesus and in his wonderful free gift of salvation through faith alone are replaced by doubt.  Doubt increases; it shifts one’s focus from trusting in Christ and his finished work on the cross alone to a fixation on oneself—What have I done for God lately?  Am I really doing enough?  This increasing introspection quickly begins to destroy confidence in Christ Jesus alone and assurance of one’s salvation.  Decimation of assurance morphs into fear and anxiety.  Fear of what?  Fear of not being sin-free enough to please God; fear of not reading the Bible enough; fear of not attending church often enough; fear of not witnessing enough; fear of not doing enough to help the poor; fear of not being “on fire” for Christ; fear of not being good enough to please God.  Fear leads to dread, often the dread of possibly heading for hell one day.  Grace-robbing preachers fuel this dread through their incessant unbiblical judgmental rants.  Dread destroys any semblance of joy remaining in the Christian’s life.  And what is the final result?  A miserable, defeated, guilt-ridden believer.  Yes, a believer to be sure:  one who has placed her complete faith in Christ Jesus alone for salvation—by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, Ephesians 2:8-9.  But one who has allowed the joy-sucking assurance-thieving grace robbers to steal away the Grace, Hope, Joy, Assurance, Confidence and Guilt-Free existence that God would have for the true believer in Christ to experience every day.

Let’s make every effort to speak out against unbiblical grace-robbing teaching in the body of Christ.  And let us live and encourage other believers to live Guilt-Free lives of Confident Assurance through faith in Christ alone and through his wonderful gospel of 1 Corinthians 15:1-8 (the death, burial and resurrection of Christ).

“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Ephesians 5:1-2

In today’s world there is so much hubris along with man worship. Everybody wants to be like the person who is the best at what they do. For example when I was in college I pursued a degree in classical trombone musical performance. I wanted to one day travel the world playing my trombone while getting paid for it. So what did I do? I patterned myself after the best trombone player in the world, Joe Alessi. I mimicked what he did from his warm up routine in the morning, even going as far as to place the trombone on my mouth the exact way that he did.

I wanted to be great like him, so I figured in order to do that; I should become an exact duplicate of him. Little did I know then that there was a separation between me and him, as a matter of fact it was pretty evident then but in my fallen state and focused mindset, which was bent on playing trombone, I completely missed it. The difference? One word; talent. Now don’t get me wrong I was an accomplished trombone player in my own right, garnering consideration as a possible back up trombonist for the San Antonio Symphony if they needed one, I was by no means a novice.

But God in His mercy bought me out of a life of sin and selfish ambition, and called me to a life of faith in Christ. Complete with His righteousness and Spirit empowered obedience to His Word! What a wonderful God He is. Truly worthy to be praised!

Now I’ve said all that to make this point. When I was of the world I followed the pattern in the world. When I was a classical trombonist I followed the best classical trombonist out there. But when God saved me and delivered me from sin and absorbed the wrath of God that was stored up for me, I became a slave of righteousness and an imitator of Christ.

In the epistle of Ephesians chapters one, two, and three the Apostle Paul gives us sound doctrine and understanding of just what God has done for us through the death of His Son Jesus Christ on the cross.

God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing (Ephesians 1:3), chosen us before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless (Ephesians 1:4), adopted us as sons through Christ Jesus (Ephesians 1:5), redeemed us through His blood and forgiven us of our sins (Ephesians 1:7), sealed us with His Spirit (Ephesians 1:14), made us alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:5), saved us by His grace (Ephesians 2:8), created us in Christ Jesus for good works (Ephesians 2:10), brought us near to Christ by His blood (Ephesians 2:13), given us access to the Father (Ephesians 2:18), made us saints and members of the household of God (Ephesians 2:19), unveiled the mystery of Christ (Ephesians 3:4), made us partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel (Ephesians 3:6), given us boldness and confidence through our faith in Him, and filled us with the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19)!

Starting in chapter 4 of Ephesians Paul having taught us orthodoxy, now begins to teach us orthopraxy. Practicle living for true Christians who have been given so much from God.

Paul tell us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called (Ephesians 4:1), bear with one another in love (Ephesians 4:2), maintain unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:3), no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14), speak the truth in love and grow in every way into Him who is the head, Christ (Ephesians 4:15), no longer walk as the gentiles do (Ephesians 4:17), put off the old self (Ephesians 4:22), be renewed in the spirit of our minds (Ephesians 4:23), put on the new self (Ephesians 4:24), speak the truth with our neighbors (Ephesians 4:25), do not let the sun go down on your anger  (Ephesians 4:26), let no corrupt talk come out of your mouths (Ephesians 4:29), do not grieve the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:30), let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with malice (Ephesians 4:31), and be kind to one another, tender, and forgiving (Ephesians 4:32).

Then the Apostle Paul tells the Ephesian church, “therefore be imitators of God.” Because of everything God has done for you and because God has forgiven you imitate Him. Do what He does, walk in the way He walked (1 John 2:3-6), and walk in love.

Romans 5:5, reminds us that the love of God has been poured out into our hearts! Yes the actual agape love that God loves with is now available to us, His adopted sons and daughters in Christ Jesus. What is this love?

“By this we know love, that He laid down His life for the brothers.” 1 John 3:16

Christ died, not for everybody in the word, but for the brothers; died for those who would believe. He died for His Church. Christ died and actual death for sin, not a general death predicated on man’s response to it. So as Christ as done this for those who believe, so we should also die for those who believe. We show this death in our love and service of others in Christ Jesus.

I’ll leave you with this:

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:7-8

Faith, says Hebrews 11, “is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen . . . by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible”.  

In other words, Godly assurance and conviction are not the subjects of empirical evidence.  They are not derived from sense experience.  They are not borne by feel of the wind on the skin, by the sight of trees, or by the methodical study of animal cells and stars.   Rather, Godly assurance and conviction are borne by the word of God.  The truth about trees, about the wind, about animal cells and stars are derived exclusively from the word of God.  Faith is the conviction, the assurance that this knowledge derived from the word of God is true. (John 3:32-33)

Knowledge is not faith.   Faith is not knowledge.  Faith requires knowledge, for one cannot believe what one does not know, but faith is not knowledge.  A person can know, and yet not believe.  But a person cannot believe, and yet not know.

What Is Faith?

Assent.  Look the word up in any standard desktop dictionary.  Guys like J. I. Packer think the word assent means to know.  Such people desperately need someone to give them a dictionary.

The word assent means “to agree with”.  It does not mean, nor is it in any way associated with the idea of climbing a proverbial ladder of knowledge up toward God.   Climbing concerns the word ascent.  Different spelling, different word.  Ass-ent means to agree with.  Asc-end means to climb.  A king can asc-end to a throne.   A king can also ass-ent to his laws. 

To agree with.  That is the meaning of the word assent.   To assent to God’s revelation of righteousness.  That is the Biblical definition of gospel faith.

Romans 1:16  “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘the righteous shall live by faith’.”

“Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony:  if I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?” – John 3:11-12

Christ separated the two ideas of faith and knowledge in John 3:11-12.  I have told you earthly things, He said, and you do not believe . . .  That is, you have knowledge of earthly things, for I have just told them to you, but you do not believe.

Faith and knowledge.  Two different words that are closely associated, but do not mean the same thing.  Faith is not knowledge.  Faith requires knowledge, for one cannot believe what one does not know, but faith is not knowledge.  A person can know, and yet not believe.  Judas was one such example of someone who knew, but did not believe.  He had heard all that Christ had said about Himself, but he did not agree with God that these things are true about Christ.  He had knowledge, but not faith.

This assurance and conviction that Hebrews 11 talks about is not something people arrive at on their own (John 3:11-12).  Quite the contrary, for Hebrews 12:2 states that Jesus is the “author and finisher of our faith.”  That is, He does not finish what I start.  Rather, He is the originator, the progenitor, the genesis of the assurance, as well as the finisher of it too.

And yet it is also true that I do the trusting.  He does the assuring, and I do the agreeing.  God speaks His word, He authors my will and desire to trust Him, and I take His word to be true.

John 20:30-31  “Now Jesus did many other things in he presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”  

Romans 10:17 “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  

How does God author my desire?  I mean, though it is true that God is sovereign, yet it is also true that I choose, so how does God author my faith?

1 Corinthians 2:10-13, “these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit.  For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.  For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him?  So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have the received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.  And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.” 

John 3:3, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Keeping in mind passages like Romans 8:10 “the Spirit is life because of righteousness”, I answer the question with the truth of God’s word.  God gifts His Spirit to those He justifies.  And upon justifying His elect, and upon gifting them with His Spirit, God by His Spirit changes their nature so that they will to do the will of God.  They want to obey by believing Him, in other words.   God opens the eyes of their heart (mind) to understand the gospel He has revealed to them by the preaching of His word.  And having perceived the revelation of His righteousness, and now finding themselves wanting to obey God, His justified, born again people agree with Him that His revelation is true.

So then, let’s put all this together.  What is faith?  Faith is a first cause of the Spirit’s activity in the mind of His justified elect resulting in intellectual assent to the righteousness of God which He revealed in the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom His testimony (the Bible) is entirely concerned.

To put it more simply, faith is knowingly agreeing with God that the knowledge which God has revealed to me about His righteousness is true.  It is impossible to agree with the knowledge of God’s righteousness without being justified and born again.

How Much Belief Is Enough?

2 Thessalonians 1:3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you is increasing.

Colossians 1:5-6  Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel, which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it bearing fruit and growing – as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

Ephesians 3:14-19  For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith – that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may filled with all the fullness of God

There is a big difference between growing in faith, and growing into faith.  Some people are confused about this.  They think there can be no growth of knowledge once faith is present.  Certainly nobody grows into faith in God’s righteousness.  The blind do not happen themselves into sight.  The deaf do not grow into hearing.  But those who do see and hear do see and hear more than they saw and heard the day before.

In the light of this then, a question looms large on the horizon.   If faith requires knowledge of God’s righteousness – and it most certainly does – then how can one’s faith grow without their knowledge of God’s righteousness growing too?   The answer is, it can’t.  As a believer’s knowledge of God’s righteousness grows, so grows his faith.

How is such a thing possible though?  Does this mean the believer didn’t really believe to begin with?  Not at all.

1 John 5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.  

What are the “these things” of which John speaks?   Perhaps better to the point is to ask ourselves what are not some of “these things” of which John speaks?

Nowhere in 1 John do we find any mention of the state of the non-elect after Christ returns.  Nowhere do we find any instructions concerning meat sacrificed to idols, or the keeping of certain days as holy.  Nowhere do we find instructions concerning baptism and communion, or the role or non role that a believer should pay to human government.

More importantly, nowhere in John’s first epistle do we find an exhaustive list of fully systematized propositional statements concerning Christ’s atoning sacrifice.  Nowhere do we such a list concerning His incarnation, His deity, His death, His resurrection, His ascension, His sovereignty, His righteousness, the nature of imputation, the depravity of fallen man, justification, new birth, and so on and so forth.

Certainly we find some propositional statements concerning these things, but nowhere do we find an exhaustive, all comprehensive, fully systematized list.

And yet I am asked, why then do I not speak of Arminians as brothers?  The answer is really rather simple.  Because Arminians reject and distort most of the propositions of which John does write.  They twist “God is love”, for example, into “God loves everyone without distinction.”   They reject the fact that Cain was of the evil one by God’s sovereign choice.  They assert instead that Cain made himself of the evil one by failing to offer an adequate sacrifice.

True biblical faith in the gospel will not find itself rejecting the propositions revealed in John’s first epistle.   This does not mean that a person must have knowledge of John’s epistle in order to believe the gospel, for the propositions of which John speaks are reiterated plenty of times elsewhere in Scripture.  Romans 10 tells us that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.  It does not say faith comes by hearing 1 John.  This is not to say that 1 John is not part of God’s word, for it most certainly is, but it is not the entirety of God’s word.

However, though 1 John is not the entirety of the word of God, it yet remains a fact that John stated very clearly in his first epistle that we can know we have eternal life by the fact that we understand and agree with the things he spoke of in his first epistle.  Of his epistle, there appears nowhere in it a fully systematized list of exhaustive gospel propositions.

True biblical faith in the gospel will not find itself rejecting the propositions revealed in John’s first epistle, but true biblical faith does not have to be an assent to a fully systematized and exhaustive list of propositional statements in order to be biblical faith.  The seeing and hearing, while not rejecting what they saw and heard yesterday, do indeed see and hear more than they saw and heard the day before.  They will see and hear more tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, and so on until the day they die.

Grow in does not mean grow into.  Like the words assent and ascent, they are two different thoughts that mean two different things.   Do not confuse them.  And do not confuse faith and knowledge.

Growing In Grace

Putting all these things together, what do they mean?  They mean this:

Faith is a first cause of the Spirit’s activity in the mind of His justified elect resulting in intellectual assent to the righteousness of God which He revealed in the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom His testimony (the Bible) is entirely concerned.  Having been justified and born again, and now agreeing with God that the revelation of His righteousness is true, the believer grows in the knowledge and understanding of God’s grace that is expressed in the revelation of His righteousness.  The believer does this with the Spirit’s working of power through the word of God in the believer’s mind.  The believer studies his Bible, hears the gospel being preached, reads what older believers have learned from studying their Bibles and hearing the gospel being preached, and methodically, systematically works out in his mind the gift of salvation God has granted him.   In other words, he grows in faith and knowledge of God’s grace.

2 Thessalonians 1:3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you is increasing.