COMMON ASSAULTS ON THE GOSPEL (Part 3)
“BELIEVE PLUS MAKE CHRIST LORD” Pt. 1
Similar assaults would also include "faith plus
commitment" and "faith plus surrender to God."
The late H. A. Ironside tells the story of a lady missionary who, over a period of time, led a little Irish boy to the Savior.
Brought up a Romanist, he thought
and spoke of penance and confessional, of sacraments and church, yet never
wholly leaving out Christ Jesus and His atoning work.
One morning when the lady called again upon him, she
found his face aglow with a new-found joy.
Inquiring the reason, he replied with assurance born of faith in the
revealed Word of God, "I always knew that Jesus was necessary, but I never
knew till yesterday that He was enough!"
It was a blessed discovery, and I
would that every reader of these pages had made it. Mark it well; Jesus is enough!
"He, of God, is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification
and redemption." "Ye are
complete in Him." "God hath
made us accepted in the beloved."
These are only a few of the precious declarations of Scripture, which
show clearly that Jesus is indeed not only necessary, but enough.
You see, it is not Christ and good
works, nor Christ and the church that save.
It is not through Christ and baptism, or Christ and the confessional,
that we may obtain the forgiveness of our sins. It is not Christ and doing our best, or Christ and the Lord's
Supper, that will give us new life. It is Christ alone.
Christ and… is a perverted
gospel which is not the Gospel. Christ
without the "and" is the sinner's hope and the saint's confidence.
Trusting Him, eternal life and forgiveness are yours. Then, and not till then, good works and obedience to all that is
written in the Word for the guidance of Christians, fall into place. The saved soul is exhorted to maintain good
works, and thus to manifest his love for Christ. But for salvation itself,
Jesus is not only necessary, but He is enough.
("The Grace Evangelical Society News," Vol. 4, No.10,
Oct. 1989, p. 4, Taken from The Sword of the Lord, Feb. 3,1989).
The Apostle Paul told Titus, "And let our people
also learn to engage in good deeds to meet pressing needs, that they may not be
unfruitful" (Tit. 3:14). Peter
likewise challenged his readers to produce good works (cf. 2 Pet. 1:8-11). So it is entirely possible, indeed, if
Christians do not diligently draw on
their resources in the Lord, that they will become unfruitful. Furthermore, the
fact that the exhortation of Romans 12:1 occurs in the twelfth chapter and not
in the third chapter of Romans clearly shows that one can be a believer and
still fail to be committed to the lordship of Christ. It also shows that commitment to the lordship of Christ is not a
part of what is needed to be saved. If
it is, then it seems the Apostle had a lapse of memory and left it out. The facts are, however, no one is ever
totally committed to the lordship of Christ.
There is always room for improvement.
But some say that in order to be saved, I must not only
believe; I must also surrender to Christ's lordship or I cannot be saved or I
haven't had a real work of grace in my life.
Advocates of the lordship salvation position believe that a person must
surrender every area of his or her life to Christ's absolute control in order
to be saved. It is believed that one cannot receive Christ as Savior from sin
without also receiving Him as Lord of one's entire life. Why is this view promoted? Very often, it is promoted because of
concern over so many people who claim to be Christians, but give very little
evidence through a changed life. I
share their concern, as should every Christian, but the solution is not adding
to the Gospel message as an incentive to Christ-like living, but the communication
of other Christian truth like the sanctification truths and the consequences of
sin in the believer's life.
Concerning the belief that we should add surrender to the
Gospel message, we need to ask an important question. Since no one is ever 100% committed, how much commitment or
surrender is enough to be saved? Is it
5%, 10%, 20%? Is it okay to be a little
bit committed, but not a lot? Is that
the idea? Doesn't all sin fall short of
the glory of God? Isn't that why Christ had to die for our sins in the first
place?
Some proponents of the lordship position will answer,
"you must be willing to submit even though no one is ever totally
committed." Again we need to ask,
"how willing?" Do you see
what we get into when we think like this?
The Scripture just does not teach such an idea! Yes, it calls upon the child of God to
commit his or her life to Christ as Lord, but not as a means of receiving
eternal life. The Bible teaches that
salvation comes by faith alone through Christ alone. Of this subtle tendency, Chafer/Walvoord write:
In presenting the Gospel it is a
subtle temptation to urge people not only to believe but also to surrender to
God because, of course, this is the ultimate objective of their salvation. However, in explaining the terms of
salvation this brings in a confusing human work as essential to salvation which
the Bible does not confirm (Lewis Sperry Chafer Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, Abridged
Edition, John F. Walvoord, Editor, Donald K. Campbell, Roy B. Zuck, Consulting
Editors, p. 195).
While there are
variations within the lordship camp, all the lordship salvation proponents seem
to believe in three things:
(1) The condition of eternal life is more than trusting in Christ.
One or more of
the following are also conditions of eternal life: turning from sins, being
willing to turn from sins, total surrender or committing one's life to Christ,
obedience, and persevering in the faith. Some include baptism in their list of
conditions.
(2) The condition of perseverance
Another idea that is promoted is if you do not persevere,
then either you were not really saved, or your faith was only intellectual, or
you lost your salvation.
Undoubtedly because of the strong emphasis in Scripture on
faith or believing in Christ for salvation (about 150 passages in all),
proponents of the lordship persuasion find themselves in a quandary. They will often redefine saving faith as
consisting of several aspects which include some form of works as evidence of real
faith. This forces them into a very contradictory position. Note the contradictory elements in the
Doctrinal Statement of a church that teaches lordship salvation. The statement about faith is prefaced with
the following:
"Although there are several aspects that saving faith involves, the Scriptures clearly teach that it is not a work, but is itself solidly based on God's grace."
But then faith is defined in such a way that it includes
works. According to the Doctrinal Statement saving faith includes:
·
Knowledge
of the Facts – Faith
must be based on the content of the Word of God.
·
Assent
to this Knowledge – A person must agree that the facts of Scripture are true.
·
Repentance
– There must be a
turning from sin and turning towards God.
·
Submission
to Christ – There
must be a subjection to the person and will of Christ with a desire and
willingness to obey.
While new life should result in change or good works,
works in the Christian life (like turning from sin) are a product of fellowship
with the Savior or the Spirit-filled, Word-filled life. They are the result of abiding in the
Vine. Initial faith joins a person into
the Vine, but it is abiding that produces the fruit (John 15:1-7). This is why Jesus challenged His disciples
to abide. Without it, we become
unfruitful.
(3) The promises of the Word are not sufficient
for assurance.
For assurance of salvation, one holding to this position
must also look to his works. They say
believers cannot have 100% assurance of salvation merely by looking to the
promises of the Word. In fact, many if
not most in this doctrinal camp say that 100% assurance is impossible since no
one' s works are perfect and no one knows if he will persevere.
Mike Cocoris, a former Dallas Seminary classmate of mine,
writes of a conversation he had with a lordship proponent:
Recently a Lordship Salvationist and I engaged in a lengthy discussion concerning the question, "What must I do to be saved?" At one point I asked him, "If I led someone to Christ tonight, could that person go home, lay his head down on his pillow, and know for sure that he was going to heaven?" The man with whom I was talking replied emphatically, "No!" ("Grace Evangelical News," June-July, 88, p. 1).
But this is contrary to the clear statement of 1 John
5:11-13.
And this is the testimony: God has
given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has
life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these
things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know
that you have eternal life.
Care is taken to give lesser weight to John's gospel than
to Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and the New Testament epistles in formulating the
Gospel or the doctrine of salvation.
This is very strange since the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and
Luke, deal primarily with discipleship, and since John specifically tells us
the purpose of his gospel is that people may believe in Jesus Christ that they
may have eternal life (John 20:31).
The sole condition for eternal life is personal faith in
Jesus Christ alone as one's Savior.
Christ is enough! This means
faith in the person and finished work of Christ as the God-man who died for our
sins is the sole basis of one's salvation.
None of the faith plus someone's add-ons are conditions for
eternal life. It is nonsense to speak
of a free gift which costs us something or gives us something to do to get
salvation (Rom. 4:1-6; 11:6).
The promises of the Word of God, based on the finished
work of Christ, are sufficient for assurance of salvation (cf. John
6:37-40). While one's works can have
confirmatory value and demonstrate the condition of our walk with the Lord,
they are not essential for assurance.
Any believer can have 100% certainty of his salvation if he will look to
the promises of the Word like 1 John 5:11-13.
The Gospel of John is given a great deal of weight in
formulating one's view of the gospel and how one is saved. Why is this? Three major reasons: (a) Because of John's explicit statement
about the purpose of his gospel (20:31), (b) because of his repeated use of
"believe" (found some 98 times), and (c) because of the absence of
any other condition. Not all of the uses
of “believe” in John have reference to believing unto eternal life, but a large
number do.
Finally, because salvation is by grace alone through the
finished work of Christ (Rom. 4:1-5; 5:19; 11:6), free grace salvationists
believe salvation or eternal life can never be lost (Rom. 8:32-39; John
6:37-40; 10:28-29). ˘
J.
Hampton Keathley III, Th.M. is a 1966 graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary
and a former pastor of 28 years. Hampton currently writes for the Biblical
Studies Foundation.
Copyright ©1997, 1998, 1999 Biblical Studies Press. This material is provided for personal study or for use in preparation of sermons, Sunday school classes, or other oral communication. This material may be quoted in written form but give credit where credit is due (author’s name and web site address: www.bible.org). It may not be reprinted for commercial publication. It may be copied or reprinted for distribution as long as it is given away and no charge is made for copies, shipping or handling.