http://www.EternalSecurityProved.com
4
Chapters from:
Eternal Security Proved! Salvation not Probation
Copyright © 2008 by Phillip M. Evans
All rights reserved. No part of
this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form or by any means
whether photocopy, electronic, mechanical, audio recording, or any other -
except for brief quotations under the fair use doctrine contained in
Published by Lulu.com
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New King James Version® Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken
from the New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by
the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)
Other Bible versions used are the American Standard Version, Young’s Literal Translation, and King James Version, all of which are in the public domain.
ISBN: 978-1-4357-1615-5
Faith and Works
The Letter of James in the Bible is used by many enemies of the Gospel as the primary proof-text to show that receiving the free gift of eternal life is not by faith apart from works, but by faith plus works. This doctrine of faith plus works in order to gain entrance to Heaven is a fundamental doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church. In fact, its Council of Trent in the 16th century produced a document that pronounces “anathema“ or a curse on anyone who says that receiving eternal salvation is by grace through faith in Christ apart from works. To this day, the Roman Catholic Church upholds and affirms this same curse on all those such as myself who teach that our works have no part in becoming eternally saved. However, many Protestant and some non-denominational churches also teach a works salvation as well. Even the major world religions that don't claim Christ as Savior have their own works-based systems that mankind is to adhere to in order to make it to Heaven, Nirvana, Paradise, cessation of reincarnation, or some other goal that they teach.
While on the surface the idea of requiring works in addition to faith may sound noble, in essence it disqualifies faith. Here's why: We receive eternal salvation by placing our faith (our trust, our confidence) in Christ Jesus. To say that we must add works is to say that Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection is insufficient to secure our salvation, and what we really mean then, is that we lack the confidence that He alone can eternally save us. This lack of confidence in Christ is the opposite of placing faith in Him.
Either He paid the full price for our sins on the cross or He didn't. To say that we must add works in order to be redeemed, is to say that He didn't pay the full price. And to say this, is to deny His saving power and remain lost.
Man-made “Christian” religions that glorify man instead of God all without exception twist the Letter of James to prove they are teaching truth, when in fact their doctrine is a lie and a counterfeit gospel which cannot secure eternal salvation for anyone. For a person to have always trusted in a counterfeit gospel, regardless of what church they may be a member of, means they have never relied solely on Christ for the forgiveness of sins and the free gift of eternal life. In other words, they have never experienced being born of the Spirit of God, and if they die in this condition they will spend eternity lost without hope.
This is why it is important for those of us who know and believe the truth to contend for and defend the Gospel, for what is at stake is the eternal destiny of precious human beings that God loved enough to send His one unique Son to die on the cross for. Am I saying that all Roman Catholics are hell-bound? Certainly not, for there are some who have in spite of their church’s doctrine trusted solely in Christ alone for salvation.
Counterfeit gospels give those that are lost the false hope they can do some sort of works, rites, or rituals that will make them stand cleared of their sins righteous and justified before Holy God. This is intoxicating doctrine for a lost person's sin nature. How much it thrills sinful human pride to think that an infinitely holy and righteous God will accept them on the basis of some works or rituals they've done on their own behalf, and how sadly wrong they are.
Jesus gave the following warning:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he
who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me
in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons
in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to
them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who
practice lawlessness!’” (Matthew 7:21-23)
No doubt
many will try and make the case they deserve to enter the
What is the will of the Father they should have done?
“Then they said to Him, 'What shall we
do, that we may work the works of God?' Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This
is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He
sent.’” (John 6:28,29)
To truly obey God, it must be done from the heart, as this is where genuine obedience originates from. A real transformation must take place within you. It isn’t the turning over of a new leaf, nor is it the giving of another college try at trying to be good.
You must be born again (born from above), which birth is the work of the Holy Spirit that He performs in you when you realize you can do nothing at all to redeem yourself or make yourself clean, and you simply place your trust in Christ Jesus alone for eternal salvation, believing that He is the Son of God (of the very nature of God) who died in your place on the cross and took your sins upon Himself, and that He rose from the dead just as He said He would.
“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Most
assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the
The new
birth is neither water baptism, nor is it accomplished through the act of water
baptism. It is a spiritual rebirth from above, without which no one will enter
the
Dear reader, if you have not been born again, it is your highest priority to make sure that you are! There is coming a time when it will be too late.
Only those whom Christ knows as His own can access the power of God to do true works of righteousness, for only they have the Holy Spirit within them. Therefore, those in Matthew 7:21-23 that were never known by Jesus as His own could not show that their deeds were true works of righteousness, for they had never become a child of God via the new birth.
This is where most people are at in this world. Most find it difficult to reach the point where they are able to admit they can do nothing to save themselves and only look to the cross of Christ and ask God for mercy. Such is the place of humility where one needs to be in order to express childlike faith. Jesus said:
“Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does
not receive the
How Much Work is Enough?
If you must perform works to become or remain eternally saved, how would you know that you had truly been saved or are doing enough works now to remain saved? This goes right to the heart of eternal security. If works are required you could never have full assurance of your salvation. Without assurance there is always some degree of fear. In those times that you were reasonably sure you were doing well enough, you’d still have one eye looking over your shoulder to see if the “lose your salvation” monster was creeping up on you.
The man-made religions of this world make no bones about it. Their clergy are appalled if a born-again saint attests to the fact that he or she is eternally saved. The audacity to know that one is a child of God!
While the fear of hell can be an excellent motivating factor in one who is lost in order to encourage their seeking of eternal salvation, once it is obtained, to then continue having this fear is not conducive to loving and trusting the One who graciously saved you from it.
If I’ve escaped from a burning house safe and sound, is it healthy for me to continue to fear the flames that are devouring it? This fear is an enemy of spiritual growth and maturity for a child of God, for it ensures that the object of your faith will be your self-efforts to keep yourself saved from hell, rather than Christ, who not only eternally secures you, but gives you the power to live the Christian life. In essence, your self-focus will short-circuit the very power it takes to live a life pleasing to God. It is the opposite of living by faith, and without faith, it is impossible to please God.
Those opposed to the doctrine of eternal security would twist my burning house analogy and say, “Yes, you are safe for now, but you could wind up in another burning house.” By doing so, they mock the power of the Lord to save:
“Behold, the LORD's
hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy,
that it cannot hear:” (Isaiah 59:1)
I would tell them that all my sins were judged on the cross, not just some of them, so there are no other burning houses for me. Christ died once for all, and His perfect sacrifice is what takes away all our sins:
“For such a High Priest was fitting
for us, who is holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, and has become higher than the heavens; who
does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for
His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself. For the law appoints as
high priests men who have weakness, but the word of the oath, which came after
the law, appoints the Son who has been
perfected forever.” (Heb. 7:26-28, emphasis mine)
“Not with the blood of goats and
calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” (Heb. 9:12,
emphasis mine)
“then He
said, 'Behold, I have come to do Your
will, O God.' He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By
that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of
Jesus Christ once for all.” (Heb. 10:9-11, emphasis mine)
Noah’s
Should God’s Children Have Assurance?
If I were to tell a member of the Roman Catholic clergy that I know (and I do know) that I'm going to Heaven, I would be told that I was committing the sin of presumption, or at least he’d be thinking it if he didn't tell me. A Protestant opponent of eternal security may word it differently but basically say the same thing.
Is it an odd thing for our loving Heavenly Father to desire His children to have the full confidence they are eternally saved and will never perish in hell? If He gave us His Son while we were enemies, is it too great a thing for Him to give us the witness of His Spirit within us that we will never perish, now that we are reconciled to Him by Christ and are not merely non-enemies now, but also His beloved children? Let me tell you, I assuredly want my son Joshua to know that he is always my son and I am always his daddy. How much more then does God love His own children?
“But God demonstrates His own love
toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been
justified by His blood, we shall
be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled
to God through the death of His Son,
much more, having been reconciled, we shall
be saved by His life.” (Romans 5:8-10, emphasis mine)
Do you see the clear proof of the truth of eternal security in the verses above? If we have been justified by the blood of Christ (not His blood mixed with our works), then we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Those that would deny eternal security to us who are justified in this manner change the word “shall” to “maybe will”.
Children of God by Adoption
“But when the fullness of the time had
come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem
those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And
because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, crying out, 'Abba, Father!'” (Galatians 4:4-6)
Those that believe that a child of God can lose their salvation also believe that a child of God can be un-adopted out of God's family. However, the concept of un-adoption is nowhere to be found in Scripture. Note the Aramaic word “abba”. This means “daddy”. For God to desire this type of intimacy with us must be a clue that our adoption of us by Him is permanent, for it is motivated by His love for us.
For the sake of argument, I'll assume that my natural son is adopted. As much as I love him and always will, I would never nullify my adoption of him. Can we expect anything less from our Heavenly Father? Does He love us any less? Look at Romans 5:8-10 again for the answer to this and tell me if you see the word “less” in those verses.
Someone might then make the challenge, “Your son could nullify his adoption and have himself legally severed from you.” This is true, but to do this he would have to go to the court system, an authority higher than I. Guess what? There is no greater authority than God. It is impossible for a child of God to “un-adopt” himself out of God’s family.
Those who oppose the truth of eternal security for born-again children of God have a pitiful view of God’s love for them and the Father/Child relationship He has with them. This relationship is not only secured by divine adoption but by spiritual birth as well whereby one is sealed with the Holy Spirit.
You can believe that God's adoption of us is secure, for it is neither obtained nor kept by our works or behavior, but only by God's grace.
Double-Minded Believers
It’s strange that many opponents of eternal security are within the evangelical community, a community that stands for the doctrine of saved by grace through faith and not by works. These particular opponents will sometimes vehemently stress that we are indeed saved by grace through faith apart from works, but they insist you must keep on believing, keep avoiding sin, and keep doing good works, or else you will lose your eternal salvation and become lost again.
In their eyes, God gives you the free gift of eternal life, but takes it back if you don’t keep on doing the things that guarantee you the right to keep it. In other words, you lose this free gift because you fail to keep it earned. You see the contradiction here I’m sure. If you have to earn it in order to either get it or keep it, then it’s not free! I’ll say it again; a free gift can only be received, not worked for. If it's worked for, then it isn’t by grace.
“For what does the Scripture say? 'Abraham believed God,
and it was accounted to him for righteousness.' Now to him who works, the
wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly,
his faith is accounted for righteousness,”
(Romans 4:3-5, emphasis mine)
It must be quite a confusing see-saw experience for someone to try and hold in their mind on one hand that eternal life is a free gift, and on the other to feel that they have to be constantly working for it.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, there is a solution that will end this double-mindedness and the anxiety that it brings you. Who is more true and faithful than God? If He tells you it's a free gift, then believe Him! Once we do, we can get on with the business of serving Him out of a heart of love and trust like we should, and not out of the groundless fear of becoming lost again.
Justification by Grace through Faith
“just as
David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes
righteousness apart from works:” (Romans 4:6)
The Apostle Paul emphasized the justification whereby God imputes, that is, sets to our account, His righteousness. This is a legal declaration by God whereby He declares and then views us as righteous in His sight. Since this justification is by grace, it therefore cannot be by works of righteousness that we have done. Grace cannot be morphed into works, nor works into grace regardless of any word games that false teachers play.
“And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise
grace is no longer grace. But if it is
of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.” (Romans
11:6)
Those that teach that we must perform works to keep ourselves eternally saved try to justify themselves by saying we are not kept by “works of the law”, but by “works of grace”. In other words, according to them, we keep our eternal salvation by doing good works with God's power. This begs the question, for works done through God's power are the true fulfillment of the law of God. Paul never said that the law was evil. He stated that the law is holy, just, and good. See Romans 7:12.
“Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have
believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ,
and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be
justified.” (Galatians 2:16)
Now is Paul meaning in Gal. 2:16 that no one will be justified by false works of the law or true works of the law? It's obvious; an unsaved person cannot be justified by true works of the law, for which of us has ever truly kept God's law? We are all guilty of breaking it. The only way to begin to truly keep God's law is to first become born again, for while we are lost we don't the power to keep it. Before becoming saved, we are sinners and law-breakers by our very nature.
The only way we can get the power to do true works of righteousness is by placing faith in Jesus Christ, which makes us no longer lost. This is the type of justification which is by grace through faith, and not by works. This is the only way that one can be transformed from the condition of lost to that of eternally saved.
“But when the kindness and the love of God our
Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become
heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:4-7, emphasis mine)
If you compare this passage to Romans 5:9 you’ll see that this is the same justification that the blood of Christ effects for us. This is something that occurs in a moment of time. Notice that the phrase “He saved us” is in the past-tense. It is a completed event which remains eternally in effect for those that have been justified by Christ's blood.
Think about it. The infinite saving value of the blood of Christ can only be applied to us by God’s mercy and grace. There is no other way. Can you imagine trying to offer God anything at all, whether a commitment to surrender your life, promises to obey, or acts of obedience, as an exchange or any portion of payment? First of all, by definition you can’t earn grace or mercy. Second, how arrogant it would be for someone to believe they could earn or trade anything for even one drop of Christ’s precious blood!
If it is
God's grace that transforms us from lost to saved, it is also by His grace that
we are kept eternally saved. If our eternal salvation is secured by our works,
then how can it be said to be by God's grace? To offer anything to God in
return for obtaining or keeping the free gift of eternal life would be to
change the nature of it from being a gift, to being a bartered or purchased
product. We don't even offer our faith
to God as a trade. Our faith is merely the humble reception of God's free gift
of eternal life by our believing the Gospel message; that message being that
Christ who is God in the flesh (John 1:1;14) died for our sins, was buried, and
rose from the dead on the third day (I Cor. 15:3,4).
It is simply childlike faith or trust in Him (John
Some
picture the receiving of eternal life as us reaching up to God to take His
hand. In reality, it is God reaching down to us and asking us to let Him take
our hand. Faith in Him is simply letting Him take our hand. God entreats the
lost to be saved. He desires people to come to Him (Matthew
So you can see that we offer nothing to God in trade for His free gift of eternal life. To attempt to do so would be to mock His gracious offer. Eternal salvation is costly, for it cost Christ His suffering and death - but for us it is the free gift of God. There is nothing we could add in addition to the full and high cost God has already paid for us.
A Sure Hope
Don’t allow the word “hope” in Titus 3:7 to trouble you. Advocates of “lose your salvation” doctrine twist this and other passages of Scripture that clearly teach eternal security, by re-defining “hope” as to mean “I hope so, but it may not be so”, in the way we English speakers often use the word. Not so in the original language of Greek that the New Testament was written in. The Greek word that “hope” is translated from is “elpis”. Its meaning is a sure expectation or confidence that something will occur. Our eternal salvation is a true and secure hope for it has behind it the power of the Word of God.
“And not only so, but ourselves also,
who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For in
hope were we saved: but hope that is seen is not hope: for who hopeth for that which he seeth?
But if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for
it.” (Romans 8:23-25, American Standard Version)
The reason the word “hope” is used, is because it’s referring to something we don’t yet see; it isn't the idea of something that may or may not occur. What would be the point of waiting patiently or persistently for something we can't look forward to with complete confidence?
One may ask then, if we have been saved, what are we looking forward to as our “hope” (expectation)? According to Romans 8:23, we are waiting for the redemption of our body.
Aspects of Salvation
The redemption of our body is the fruition of our eternal salvation when we will put on our glorified resurrected bodies that will be like Christ's resurrected body. While this aspect of eternal salvation is future tense for us, the essence of our eternal salvation which God will assuredly bring to fruition is something that is the present possession of all those who are born of the Spirit of God. Jesus said:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who
believes in Me has
everlasting life.” (John 6:47, emphasis mine)
So you can see here there are two tenses to our eternal salvation:
1. Present tense is to possess right now our eternal
salvation, which means that we have been forever saved from the penalty of our
sins via justification by God's grace. We have had placed to our account His
righteousness. And we have also been sanctified by Him, in other words set
apart as belonging to God and partakers of His holiness. (See I Corinthians 1:2;
Let no one
reading this be deceived; no one will enter the
While
working on this chapter I read the story that comedian and actor W.C. Fields,
an agnostic, was thumbing through the Bible one day while on his death bed. A
friend asked him what he was doing. He replied, “Looking for a loophole.” I
believe that Fields knew he did not possess the righteousness of God, and knew
that he couldn't obtain it with his own power. Which of us can? I hope he
finally did understand and believe the Gospel before he died.
2. Future tense is to one day obtain possession of our glorified immortal bodies of flesh and bone, just as Jesus bodily rose from the dead and his physical body was glorified never to die again. This aspect of our salvation also includes being rewarded according to our service to God.
There is
yet another aspect to salvation, but it is temporal and not eternal, for it is
that which deals with us living out our Christian lives while we reside in
these mortal bodies. While we are justified and sanctified at the moment of our
faith in Christ, there is also an aspect of sanctification that is progressive,
in which day by day we live our lives with the goal of becoming more like Him.
(See I Thes 4:3;
Both Paul and James wrote Scripture that encourages our progressive sanctification, with Paul writing the greater portion of it. For a child of God, doing good works is an integral part of this sanctification, as is forsaking sin. Our degree of faithfulness in working out this aspect of salvation will have an impact on our future tense salvation (eternal reward).
James Agrees with Paul
Does James agree with Paul that there exists a type of justification that is by grace apart from works?
“Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the
Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His
own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.” (James 1:16-18)
We, the saved, have been brought forth to salvation by God’s own will, by the “word of truth”, the Gospel. Do you see anything in these three verses about works? We do see the word “gift” in there twice. James agrees with Paul that eternal life is the free gift of God! He agrees with Paul that there exists a justification that is by faith apart from works. You’ll see more about James' affirmation of this type of justification later in this chapter.
Salvation from Hell in the
Letter of James?
A careless reading of the Letter of James can make him look like an opponent of Paul, for James asks concerning one who has faith but no deeds. “Can faith save him?” with James' implied answer being no. And he's right. How then can both Paul and James be correct?
First of all, keep in mind that both the Letter of James and the Apostle Paul's writings are Holy Scripture. Since God does not contradict Himself, we must then conclude there is a solution to what may appear to be a stunning contradiction between them. The solution is to understand the context when the terms “saved” or “salvation” are used in order to determine what they are in reference to, whether trials, chastisement, physical death, living victorious over sin, obtaining a better resurrection (reward), or eternal salvation.
Many evangelical Christians that support the doctrine of eternal security unfortunately agree with the opponents of eternal security that James uses “save” in the sense of to save from hell. However, salvation from hell is not at all the thing that James is concerned with for his readers. Please bear with me as I want to emphasize this crucial point:
When James speaks of one without works and says “Can faith save him?” (James 2:14) he does not have in view that hell is the thing this person should be saved from, nor do any other references in the Letter of James concerning the salvation of his readers have as their meaning to save them from hell. What he has in view of saving them from are the consequences of sin in this life that can lead to an early death. Since Christians have been saved from eternal death or separation from God, the only death that can harm them is the premature physical death (and the things that lead up to it) that sin could bring on them. This truth I write to you in Christ, and God knows I am neither lying nor taking His Word out of context.
“Then, when desire has conceived, it
gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” (James
1:15)
“Brethren, if anyone among you wanders
from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a
sinner from the error of his way will save
a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” (James 5:19-20, emphasis
mine)
The Letter of James was written to born-again believers in Christ as I’ll discuss shortly. They were already in present possession of eternal salvation. Therefore, escaping eternal damnation is not in view in the above verses, especially in light of the fact that “save a soul” is simply James’ way to say “save a life”, as I will prove later in this chapter under the heading “Save Your Souls”.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the eternally saved (“brethren”) and warned them of this very thing also:
“Therefore, brethren, we are
debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live
according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the
deeds of the body, you will live.” (Romans. 8:12-13)
Paul here is not merely talking about the end result (physical death) of sin in a believer’s life, but also about their day to day experience in this life as well. If a believer lives according to the flesh, it will be an experience of death right now – loss of fellowship with Christ, loss of joy, loss of victory, loss of testimony, loss even of assurance of salvation, since faith is the substance of our assurance (being confident that God’s promise of eternal life is true), and those who are living according to the flesh are not living by faith.
Conversely, one who lives according to the Spirit of God and puts to death the deeds of the body (the sinful works and pursuits of the flesh) will experience true joy and the love of Christ, daily victory over sin, with the end result being a much richer enjoyment of eternal life, since faithfulness will be rewarded with ruling and reigning with Christ (II Timothy 2:12).
Compare Romans 8:12-13 with Romans 6:2 where Paul wrote, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”
For one who possesses eternal salvation, living in sin is not an experience of life, but one of death. For a lost person, to live in sin is their pleasure; that is how they feel alive. For one who possesses eternal salvation, to live according to the Spirit is the experience of true life.
False teachers twist these passages in Romans to support good works and avoiding sin as the means of obtaining or keeping eternal salvation. They do the same with what the Apostle John wrote:
“If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which
does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who
commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All
unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.” (I John 5:16-17)
John here makes it very clear. Any sin at all is unrighteousness. A lost person is separated from God no matter how big or small their sins may be. Therefore, for the lost, there is no sin that could be said to not have a part in their eternal separation from God, so John cannot be speaking of this type of death, for he says that not all sin leads to it. It must be concluded then that he is referring to premature physical death for Christians if they commit serious enough sin for it to occur. In fact, it is to believers and not the lost that John is addressing. The phrase “his brother” certainly is not referring to one who is lost. Everyone is my neighbor, but only those who know Christ as Savior are my spiritual brothers and sisters.
Getting back to the Letter of James - Its entire context is proof that the word “save” in Scripture is not always a reference to saving from hell.
Right from the very start, James 1:1-4 shows that the letter is written to born-again believers (“beloved brethren”) whose real faith is either presently or shortly will be placed under trial and testing for the purpose of refining it (you can only refine something that’s genuine), in order to produce in them patience and spiritual maturity. Just a few verses later look at what James tells these very same Christians who have trusted Christ as Savior:
“wherefore having put aside all filthiness and superabundance of evil, in meekness be receiving the engrafted word, that is able to save your souls; But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” (James 1:21-22, Young’s Literal Translation, emphasis mine)
How could James’ phrase “save your souls” be a reference to salvation in the sense of saving them from hell, especially in light of the fact that these were already born-again believers? Those that believe it refers to saving from hell must then conclude that in order to become or remain eternally saved placing faith in Christ is not enough, or being justified by His blood is not enough, otherwise why would James encourage them to be doing something additional to save themselves? Therefore, he must have something else in mind other than saving them from eternal damnation.
Save Your Souls
What trips up a lot of Christians, and what false teachers take advantage of is the loaded imagery in the phrase “save your souls”. When many see the word “soul” anywhere in Scripture, they automatically assume it to mean the invisible essence of a person which leaves the body upon death, and in some cases it does mean this. Naturally then, they will understand “save your souls” as a reference to eternal salvation.
What may come as a surprise to them, is that much of the time the word “soul” in Scripture merely refers to one’s life, and by extension simply the person themselves. This is how “soul” is used in the vast majority of cases in the Old Testament. The Old Testament Scriptures would have been the only Scriptures available to James' readers other than the letter he wrote them, for most Bible scholars agree that the Letter of James was the first New Testament Scripture to be written. Since his readers were Jewish believers in Christ, their understanding of his usage of the word “soul” would have been right in line with its Hebrew usage in the Old Testament.
Peter also used “soul” simply to refer to one's life:
“...in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a
few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.” (I Peter 3:20b)
Peter is simply saying that eight lives were saved through the flood because they were in the ark, not that they had received eternal salvation through this experience. We know that Noah had eternal salvation many years before the flood occurred.
Speaking of the ark; this physical salvation of the eight lives through the flood is a picture of our eternal salvation and the nature of its security. Once those eight souls walked into the ark, who shut the door? God did! Once they were in, did they need to do anything to keep the ark safe or on course such as hoisting any sails, manning the rudder, or bailing water? At not a single point during the flood were any of them in the slightest danger. They were all brought completely to safety. Not one of them perished, and God promised them there would never be another world-wide flood.
Likewise, God shuts us up secured against His wrath when we trust Christ as Savior. He does this by sealing us with His Holy Spirit Who is the guarantee that we are now His own, in whose ownership of us we have our safety assured.
James'
“save your souls” in
Even in modern times we use the word “soul” in this way. You know that S.O.S. stands for “save our souls”. When someone sends out a Morse Code S.O.S. no one would assume they are asking for eternal salvation.
Justification by Works
Compare James 1:21 with 2:14 , and you'll see that James is encouraging these born-again believers to keep on receiving God’s Word in such a way that it produces godly works (them doing the Word) in their lives. Doing so would preserve their lives from the consequences of sin, which include sickness and an early death, and even worse, loss of eternal reward in Heaven.
James does
have in view in
James' justification by works is different in nature from the justification by grace through faith taught by the Apostle Paul. When one understands that Paul and James are speaking of two different justifications, the apparent contradiction between them is immediately resolved. Had Martin Luther, the leader of the reformation, understood this, he wouldn't have struggled over whether the Letter of James was canonical or not.
Likewise, had I been taught early on the truth of two distinct justifications, I wouldn't have spent so many years confused about the Letter of James myself. I was taught the “professing faith” error. The whole time I accepted this error as truth, it still always seemed somehow strained and artificial to me, and not once did I ever sense the Holy Spirit's confirmation of this doctrine.
Incorrectly Harmonizing James and Paul
When supporters of the doctrine of eternal security erroneously believe that James is using the word “save” in the sense of to save from hell, try to make harmony between him and Paul, they see the corner they've painted themselves into. In an attempt to get out of it they make a second error by concluding that James is making the point that genuine faith (as opposed to a mere “professing faith”) will most assuredly produce good works. And that while these works themselves don't save from hell, they are the proof that genuine faith exists in the one who dutifully performs them.
They conversely conclude that if works do not show one's faith, it means “saving faith” never existed in that person. Now of course, there are many people who claim to have faith in Christ, who do not. These are hypocrites and impostors. However, James chapter 2 is not addressing this issue as I will not only prove below, but will also point out that to take this view for this passage is to detract from James' actual message.
Those who hold to the “professing faith” view for James chapter two point to the phrase “if someone says he has faith” in verse 14, and then to make their case that genuine faith is guaranteed to result in good works, they conclude that here is an example of someone merely making the claim to have faith, without really having it. It’s typically called a “professing faith”, which is actually no faith at all. Sometimes it’s called “head knowledge”; in other words, the person believes certain facts about Christ, but has never placed their trust in Him as their Savior. This would also be non-existent faith, for the Biblical meaning of the word “faith” is to place trust in.
In answer, even those who have genuine faith make the claim to have faith. Making a claim to have something doesn’t mean you don’t have it. The correct understanding of the aforementioned phrase in James 2:14 is that a believer who lacks godly works to show external evidence of his or her faith, has only their mouth to lay claim to it. That’s all they can do, unless of course they start doing godly works to visibly demonstrate their faith to others. The proof this is the correct understanding is just two verses later where James says, “and one of you”.
Who are the “one of you”? Does James mean “one of you lost people”? The lost never had faith in Christ, so how could they show their faith by their works? Is James in these verses calling on the lost to be eternally saved from hell? Is he here pleading with the lost to place their trust in Christ? No. James in this passage is not addressing the lost at all. The only other ones he could be addressing then are those who are already in possession of eternal salvation.
“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does
not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and
destitute of daily food, and one of you
says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them
the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith
by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:14-17, emphasis
mine)
A second argument used to support the reasoning that James 2:14 is referring to someone with “professing faith” (non-existent faith), is the phrase “Can that faith save him?”, in which some English translations of the Bible add the little word “that” in front of faith in this one place in the chapter, as if to imply this is a different kind of faith than the faith which eternally saves one from hell. If you believe this argument then you must conclude that when James said “one of you”, he then meant “one of you lost people”, and as I have already shown, that would be nonsense.
There is nothing about Koine Greek that linguistically requires the word “that” to be placed in front of “faith” when translated to English. It is true that the Greek definite article does appear before the word “faith” in this case, but you need to know that in ancient Greek the definite article is often used with abstract nouns.
In James chapter 2, there are five other places (verses 17, 18, 20, 22, 26) where the word “faith” has the definite article in front of it, yet these are simply translated “faith”. The fact that in this one place “faith” has the word “that” placed in front of it in some translations looks suspiciously like doctrinal bias is trying to make the text say what it does not say.
To be consistent, put the word “that” in front of faith in all of these places in James chapter 2, for they all have the Greek definite article, and then read the passage again.
James is
not contrasting faith with non-existent faith, but rather faith that is active
through works with faith that is not active through works. The very proof this
statement is true is right there in
The Interlocutor
Finally, supporters of the “professing faith” point of view for James 2:14 point to the following passage to support their argument that true faith will always produce good works:
“Yea, a man may say, ‘Thou hast faith, and I have
works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I
will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the
devils also believe, and tremble.’ But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith
without works is dead?” (James 2:18-20, KJV)
Notice that I’ve added quote marks to the KJV to indicate that the “someone” actually says everything between his introduction by James and James’ rebuke starting with “But do you want to know, O foolish man”.
Lest you think I’m tampering with Scripture, you need to know that quote mark locations are not indicated by the Greek text. Quotes can be placed anywhere so long as there is a justification for doing so. Is there in this case?
The device James employed here by the introduction of another speaker who is his opponent is called an interlocutor. Paul does the same thing twice. See First Corinthians 5:35,36 and Romans 9:19,20. These are two other examples of the Biblical construction of an interlocutor device. First comes the intro, then the interlocutor speaks, then he is rebuked with the rebuke beginning with a direct addressing such as “foolish one”, “O man”, or “O foolish man”. So you can see I have solid Biblical support for placing the quote marks where I have.
James used an interlocutor in order to refute his imaginary opponent’s argument lest anyone come on the scene that might sway the brethren away from the truth with spurious arguments. In fact, there may have already been some in the Church starting to do this.
The passage as it stands is still not quite right, though.
The phrase “Show me your faith without your works” is actually “Show me your faith by your works” in the majority of Greek manuscripts.
“But say may some one, Thou hast
faith, and I have works, shew me thy faith out of thy
works, and I will shew thee out of my works my
faith:” (Young's Literal Translation)
Now it is starting to make sense! You see, James’ argument is that believers who have already received the free gift of eternal salvation by faith apart from works, do have an obligation to demonstrate their faith through their works. Doing so would be valuable to their needy brothers and sisters in Christ, and would also be valuable in preserving themselves from the power of sin and its effects in their mortal lives.
For them to claim that the mere verbal expression of their faith has such value is nonsense. James is not at all arguing against the Apostle Paul's clear teaching that we are saved by grace through faith. Just as he is in agreement with Paul on this, Paul is also in agreement with James that the saved should live godly lives.
The interlocutor is not arguing in support of James, he is arguing against him! Otherwise, why would James rebuke him and then provide the examples of Abraham and Rahab that prove the interlocutor wrong?
The interlocutor, in a feeble attempt to oppose James, tries to show that it’s impossible for one to show a vital connection between faith and works in the life of a believer, so he makes the challenge that if James can do the impossible and hold up his faith and point to the works that show it, then he will also do the impossible and hold up his works and point to the faith they came from.
The interlocutor is rather puffed up because there is a grain of truth in what he says, but it’s a non sequitur. He’s carrying it too far in an attempt to crush James’ argument that for a believer faith without works is dead.
The grain of truth the interlocutor has is this: If I help the poor, is someone by observing my actions able to tell whether I have the faith of a born-again Christian, Catholic, Muslim, or Mormon? No. There have been people with these faiths and others who have given to the poor.
The interlocutor now smug in his argument proceeds to set up a straw man. This straw man is in the form of a rebuttal as if James is speaking that rebuttal back to him. The interlocutor then ceases to speak without addressing the statement he puts into James’ mouth, for the interlocutor's position is that this weak argument falls on its own. Of course it falls on its own; it’s a straw man! The statement is: “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!” (James 2:19)
This verse is grabbed with both hands by those who say, “See, here’s proof that James is talking about 'professing faith' or 'head knowledge' as opposed to real or saving faith!”
Let’s look at the facts: First of all, as I have proved earlier, these are not the words of James, but of his opponent who is about to get soundly rebuked. It should be considered an understatement to say that it would not be wise to build a doctrine concerning eternal salvation on the words of someone that James called “foolish man”.
The interlocutor (foolish man) has intentionally placed a weak argument in James’ mouth in order to strengthen his own position. James could very well have easily said to the foolish man, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!”, if this would have been an effective argument in rebuking the interlocutor. However, James does not use this argument. He instead uses a real argument against the interlocutor, the examples of Abraham and Rahab, and not one of a straw man as the interlocutor attempted to have James do.
The reason 2:19 could not be an effective argument in countering the interlocutor, is because all of James’ readers already believed more than the Jewish Shema “God is One” (see Deut. 6:4). They also believed in Christ as their Savior!
Nowhere in
his letter does James plead with his readers to believe something more than the
Shema, nor does he plead with them to add works to
their Shema belief. Even if he had pleaded with them
to add works to their belief that “God is One”, it
still wouldn't have been a recipe for eternal salvation. This is further proof
that
The proof
that
What the interlocutor is trying to do is to preserve some value for the concept of faith apart from works that goes beyond securing our eternal salvation. It is ironic that the greatest thing we could ever possess in the present tense, eternal life, is by faith apart from works, whereas everything else which has less value than this requires work.
There is an earthly parallel to this concept. Physically speaking, what is the greatest thing we could ever possess? Our mortal lives of course! How did we obtain them, by our parents conceiving us, or by their conception of us plus our works? The answer is so obvious as to leave it unwritten. Now that we do exist, in order to grow physically and mentally, get an education, and make a living, what is required? Work!
So it is in the Christian life. We are born into God's family by His work alone - the power of the cross of Christ and His resurrection. But we grow spiritually by our works in cooperation with our faith. Paul and James are both in agreement with this.
False Judgment
It must be a hard pill to swallow for someone who believes the “professing faith” argument, to see someone get saved and faithfully serve God in word and deed for five, ten, or twenty years, and then to see them fall away from Christian service. Can they say with all confidence that this person was never truly saved? That all they ever had was “professing faith” and not actual faith? This warped theology apparently makes it easy to see inside a person's heart like God does and determine that someone was never really saved. Such self-righteous arrogance!
My brothers and sisters in Christ, I would encourage you not to be guilty of presuming that certain Christians have never been saved because the quantity or quality of their works does not measure up to what you think it takes to show enough evidence that they have been saved, else you set yourselves up to be judges of the heart.
While Scripture teaches us to judge righteous judgment, Jesus in Matthew 7:1 warned us not to judge hypocritically. We can make correct judgments about what we can clearly see, and we are to do so, but only God sees the heart.
Perseverance of the Saints
One of the false doctrines of Calvinism is called “Perseverance of the Saints”. In other words, those that are truly saved have eternal security because their preservation by God is evidenced by the fact they will not fail to persevere in faithful service by doing good works throughout their lives, for this is the guaranteed outcome of those who are the elect.
Who are the elect? Contrary to Calvinism, it is all those whom God foreknew would trust in Him for eternal salvation, and not that God handpicked some to be saved and others to be lost without regard to their free moral agency and without making it possible for everyone to believe.
I agree with Calvinism that God is sovereign. I will also confess to not being able to completely reconcile in my finite human brain the two truths of God's sovereignty and mankind's responsibility. Yet, I can still believe these truths, and be comforted that God knows how they are reconciled.
The Gospel offers salvation to “whosoever believes”, as attested to by Jesus:
For God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whoever
believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (John 3:16,
emphasis mine)
The Scriptures also teach that Christ is the Savior of everyone, meaning that He died for everyone's sins and not just the elect as Calvinism teaches. Only those who believe, however, have it appropriated to them.
“For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the
living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of
those who believe.” (I Timothy 4:10, emphasis mine)
Jesus' sacrifice is the propitiation (appeasement or satisfaction) for the sins of the entire world, not just for the elect:
“And He Himself is the propitiation
for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” (I John 2:2)
Calvinists
argue that if the verse above literally meant everyone in the world, that no
one would die lost, that all would be saved. This is simply not true. Christ's
sacrifice, though the propitiation of all of humanity's sins, does not
automatically grant everyone a pardon. A pardon must be personally received in
order for an individual to benefit from it. That is clear from the phrase
“especially of those who believe” in I Timothy
Calvinists will argue that Christ must have died only for the elect (doctrine of “limited atonement”), for if He had died for everyone it would mean that He tried to do something that He was not able to do, namely, save everyone. They would have a point if the free moral agency of the human race had no part at all in the salvation equation.
In fact, Calvinism's view of God's sovereignty completely negates mankind's free will. Their doctrine of “irresistible grace” is proof of this. According to this doctrine, the elect will be saved without regard for their free will, for God specifically chose to save them. Others that were not chosen are not elect and cannot be saved.
The proof that Calvinism is wrong on both “limited atonement” and “irresistible grace” is the fact that Christ's death for everyone upholds the truths of both God's sovereignty and mankind's free will. Keep in mind that God in His sovereignty created us with the ability to make moral choices. You cannot have one truth to the exclusion of the other. Jesus said the following to unbelievers:
“Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of know-ledge. You did not
enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.” (Luke 11:52)
Does Jesus' words support Calvinism's doctrine of “irresistible grace”? Jesus was acknowledging that they were choosing to not accept the truth. They were resisting God's grace! Jesus' words uphold the truth of the free moral agency of mankind.
Apparently, Calvinists don't understand the concept of the kinsman redeemer. Christ, being a son of Adam according to the flesh in addition to being fully God, was by His death on the cross the propitiation for the entire human race, for all of mankind is a descendant of Adam. To say that Christ's death was only for the elect is to deny this truth.
Calvinists will point to John 10:11 where Jesus says He gives His life for His sheep, and later in verse 26 tells the unbelieving Jews they are not of His sheep, as evidence that He died only for the elect, and not the entire world.
Jesus was
not making an affirmation that He is giving His life only for the elect.
Rather, He is pointing out that His sheep are the motivation for giving His life,
for He knew He would have a harvest of saved souls to enjoy for eternity. In
John
The perverse Calvinist doctrine that Christ died only for the elect would make witnessing with any honesty impossible. We don’t know who will or won’t believe and be saved. We’re just called to preach the Gospel. When I tell someone that Christ paid their sin debt on the cross, and that they can believe and be saved, I have the full confidence in God that what I’m speaking is the truth, even if Calvinism would make a liar out of me.
Regardless of what your view is concerning the Bible’s teaching on predestination, if you are not sure where you’re going when you die, is there anything right now preventing you from accepting the free gift of eternal life by placing your trust in the living Christ as the One who by His shed blood and death on the cross paid your sin debt and rose from the dead?
I agree with Calvinists that the elect will never perish, for obviously one who has been born again is a member of the elect and therefore has eternal security. However, it does not follow as Calvinism teaches, that those who are eternally saved will live faithful Christian lives, or “endure to the end”. The Scriptures are full of warnings and exhortations to the eternally saved to do good works, the Letter of James included, so it must be then that there is the possibility for genuine Christians to not live faithfully for God.
First
Corinthians
According to Calvinism one can have eternal security, but cannot have absolute personal assurance of salvation. The reason Calvinism denies personal assurance is because it teaches that the only way one can be assured they are one of the elect is to endure or persevere to the end of their lives in faithfulness to God. According to this doctrine one who has not persevered to the end was never truly saved.
However, at any time one may fall into sinful living. We are after all, human. How does Calvinism address this? Simply by saying that a member of the elect can fall into sin at various times in their life, but will assuredly recover themselves before they die, for this is the hallmark of being elect.
My brothers and sisters in Christ, do you realize just how dangerous this Calvinist doctrine “Perseverance of the Saints” can be? Let me explain.
For example, a person hears the Gospel and believes it and is born again. It is reasonable isn't it, to understand that a person ought to know whether they have believed something, am I right? Therefore, this born-again Christian knows in their heart that they must be one of the elect, for they know they have believed the Gospel.
If this person then embraces Calvinism's “Perseverance of the Saints” doctrine and carries it to its conclusion, they would naturally believe then, that even if they fall into the most grievous of sins, they will be recovered at some point before they die. If this is true then it would mean that as long as they are living in sin they are impervious to dying! This is one reason why this doctrine is dangerous.
Another reason is that it is the stepping stone to the assault on the nature of faith, and leads to the perverse doctrine known as “Lordship Salvation”, one of whose famous teachers is John F. MacArthur, Jr., a Calvinist. Rev. Lou Martuneac soundly refutes this doctrine in his book “In Defense of the Gospel”.
Faith Redefined & Discipleship
If “saving faith” automatically guarantees that one will persevere in doing good works, then why was a great deal of Scripture addressed to those who have faith, to be careful to maintain good works? You'd think this would be a waste of good ink and parchment if perseverance in good works was the “sine qua non” or very essence of “saving faith” as false teachers such as MacArthur proclaim. Their redefinition of faith is a natural outcome of Calvinism's “Perseverance of the Saints” false doctrine.
False teachers corrupt the simple meaning of faith by artificially injecting into it concepts such as commitment, submission, surrender, promise to obey, denying oneself, taking up one's cross, enduring to the end, etc... Listen, these concepts belong to the category of discipleship.
MacArthur wrote:
The call to
To MacArthur, a lost person
must accept “all of our Lord's difficult demands”, or their faith is
meaningless, in other words it isn't true faith. This is clearly then a
works-based gospel, and is in opposition to being saved by grace through faith.
How sad that his church is called
Although he claims to teach salvation by grace through faith, what he has done is to redefine faith in such a way as to mutate the saving message from that of grace to that of works. Scripture does not permit such mishandling of the Gospel.
In my quote of him, he reveals his motive for doing this. He feels that truly free grace would have no impact as far as restraining sin in a believer’s life. Nothing could be farther from the truth:
“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.” (Titus 2:11-14, emphasis mine)
God's grace does teach us (the saved) that we should live godly lives of forsaking sin and doing good works. However, the force of its impact varies according to the degree that we cooperate with it. In other words, according to our degree of obedience. Our obedience is not automatic, therefore it is not an assured outcome of faith.
If obedience was the assured outcome of our faith, it would also mean that our love is as well. For shouldn’t love be our motive for serving Christ? What value would our love be to God if it was automatic? If it was, He may as well have created us with skins made from metal, so that we could also look like the robots that we’d be.
In no way does the Koine Greek meaning of the words “pistis” (faith) or “pisteuo” (believe) contain the concepts of discipleship listed earlier. They are simple words meaning to place trust in, to rely on, to have confidence in, to believe. God's Word does not permit us to redefine faith! False teachers that tamper with the Word of God will reap what they are due.
When Jesus presented the demands and requirements that discipleship to Him involve, He often spoke to mixed crowds of believers and unbelievers. At least at one time many who followed Him walked away because they found it hard to understand the things He taught. Yet, Jesus told them “there are some of you who do not believe”. Apparently, not all who walked away were unbelievers! See John 6:60-66. And not all who continued to follow Him from place to place as disciples (students) were believers.
Obviously, the ones who needed the message of discipleship the most were believers, for these are the only ones that have the God-given capability to be disciples indeed. Jesus would not have withheld this teaching just because there were often unbelievers in the crowd.
Don't let anyone misunderstand that just because Jesus taught things concerning discipleship to mixed crowds, that this means He was presenting discipleship as the means to be born again! Jesus did not pick and choose who would be in the crowds He taught.
But to even the unbelievers the message of discipleship had a valuable purpose. The only way a person who was both sane and righteous could demand such supreme loyalty to Himself would be that He had the God-given authority to do so. As Jesus said, “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.” (John 8:23)
Jesus was pointing to His heavenly authority every single time He preached the requirements of discipleship. Every time an unbeliever heard Jesus' words on this subject would have been an opportunity for them to accept His authority to speak them. For only One who truly had such authority had the power to save them!
To truly accept His message of discipleship would mean that His listeners would first have to accept Him for who He claimed to be. This would be the same as them believing in Him! In other words, they would first be born again!
Just as in this mortal life physical birth occurs first and then training and growth, so it is in the spiritual life. You are first born again from above and then you grow spiritually as disciples or learners and followers of Christ.
Both Calvinist lordship salvationists and Arminians confuse discipleship with the new birth. To intermingle these is to confuse grace with works. The mental gymnastics of those who deny this fact is obvious when they protest that the issue comes down to meritorious versus non-meritorious works.
Clearly, they admit therefore that they are changing grace into works. The Apostle Paul however, never made such a distinction in the discussion about works. Read Romans chapters 3 and 4, Ephesian 2, and Titus 3, and you will see how he goes to great lengths to show that we are justified before God by grace apart from works, period.
To believe in (trust in) Him is to be saved, to be born again. Only those who are born again can truly be disciples of Christ. Judas Iscariot was an external disciple (student) of Christ, but he had never placed his faith in Him as his Savior, so in that regard he was not a disciple in the sense that the word later came to mean, for in the Book of Acts “disciple” is a synonym for one who is a Christian.
In a sense, all Christians are disciples, just as all sitting in a classroom before their teacher are students. But just as some in the classroom have abandoned their studies and are getting failing grades, some Christians have also done the same.
To say that one must agree to all of Christ’s demands of discipleship in order to be born again is to put the cart before the horse. This is sometimes called “frontloading the Gospel”. This is an attempt to make sure that the only Christians are strong Christians. This is done by changing the terms of the Gospel from the free gift that Scripture teaches, to a legalistic system in which one must doubt whether they were ever really saved if their commitment and behavior don’t measure up.
In this system a certain amount of failure is acceptable, but too much failure means you actually may be lost. No “Lordship Salvation” teacher has ever defined where the line is. This is a good thing from their point of view, for they want you to always have some doubt about your salvation so that you will keep making the effort to “persevere” and so show at the end of your life that wow, you really were saved after all.
Their system actually has the opposite of its intended effect. While the motivation of lordship teachers is admirable – namely, dealing with the problem of carnal Christians and how to lessen its occurrence, their medicine is a poison that contributes to the disease rather than treats it.
Permeating the entire New Testament is the theme that because we are saved we should live righteously before God. This can only make sense, for it is only the saved that has the power to live the Christian life. A legalistic system that by design and content causes one to doubt they are saved also causes one to doubt whether they have the power to live a life pleasing to God.
If anything, this will produce more carnal Christians. For how are the saints going to appropriate the power to live godly lives while they doubt they have this power available to them! To state otherwise is to state that doubt is a healthy thing for faith.
Some well meaning evangelical pastors skirt precariously close to the lordship salvation view by implying that since Jesus saved us from our sins, that therefore we will necessarily live their lives in constant diligence against sin. These pastors should be careful to make a very important distinction to their congregations concerning how one is saved from their sins, for it is in different ways that both a lost person and a child of God is saved from their sins.
A lost person is saved from the eternal penalty of their sins which is by grace through faith in Christ, apart from works. This is a single point-in-time event. The lost person is then no longer lost, but is an eternally saved child of God. This is completely the work of God through the power of the cross of Christ and His resurrection. Therefore, there is nothing we can do that can undo this work. Christ died for us once for all. If He paid the full price for our sins, then how can we undo this salvation by sinning?
A child of
God is progressively saved in their mortal life from the power of sin. Even a
child of God still has the “body of death” (Rom.
“Therefore do not let sin reign in
your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.” (Romans 6:12)
This
command is not to the lost, but to the saved. If Christians are warned
concerning this, then there must be the possibility that we can let sin reign
over our mortal bodies. Since the body is dead because of sin (Rom.
But unlike
the salvation of a lost person who is eternally saved from the penalty of
theirs sins apart from works, for a Christian to walk the path of progressive
sanctification and be saved daily from the temporal power of sin does require
works. The reason I used the word “temporal” is because a child of God has this
body of death temporarily, for we are looking for mortality to be swallowed up
by immortality (I Cor.
For a child of God to fail to appropriate the life of Christ in fighting a victorious battle over sin does not make them lost again, but it does open them to having their faith shipwrecked and them being disqualified for further service. Without being recovered, this will have the consequence of the loss of eternal reward.
False teachers often levy the charge of “easy believism” or “cheap grace” against those who hold the traditional evangelical view of faith as I do that placing confidence in Christ as one's Savior, believing Him to be God in the flesh who died on the cross for our sins and rose from the dead, is the essence of saving faith. To the false teachers, this is just too simple. But the fact is, the true Gospel message is beautiful in its simplicity, even to the point that a little child can understand and believe it. False teachers corrupt the simplicity of the Gospel, and by doing so they are preaching a false gospel that cannot save.
“For I am jealous
for you with godly jealousy. For
I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the
serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the
simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes preaches another Jesus
whom we have not preached, or if you
receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel
which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it.” (II Cor. 11:2-4, emphasis mine)
Often, the enemies of the Gospel will misconstrue the teaching of grace that is truly free, by characterizing it as merely believing certain facts about Christ, that is, it is only “head knowledge”. This is a red herring and they know it, and their dishonesty is rather transparent.
To believe in Christ, is not merely to have the “head knowledge” that He is the Savior; it is my trust in Him as my Savior. In other words, I rely on nothing or no one else (myself included), as having the power to eternally save me – but on Christ Jesus alone as the crucified and risen One who paid the full price for me. For me, He is all sufficient! What else could I dare add?
False teachers mock those who pray a simple prayer asking Christ to save them and believing that He will. In answer to their mockery I give three examples here, with the first two being from the Bible.
Like the thief on the cross who said,
“Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom” and the publican who in
Luke
Let no one misunderstand me. The act of saying a prayer is not what saves. Praying is merely a vehicle (and a good one) for expressing childlike faith in Christ. However, it is possible to believe the Gospel message and place your confidence in Christ and be saved without saying a prayer. In the Book of Acts, Philip does not lead the Ethiopian man in a prayer to receive Christ. He may have prayed a quick silent prayer, but it is not mentioned in the account whether he did or not.
The reason that truly free grace is offensive to heretics is because they want eternal salvation to cost us something. They want to be able to claim they were able to earn it. They want nothing to stand in the way of their prideful boasting in themselves. And they want to boast that they've won you over to their false gospel.
Let me tell you, Christ alone is the One who paid our full ransom! There is nothing lacking in His payment for our sins on the cross that we need to make up for. How dare anyone teach otherwise and trample on the blood of Christ!
To be a
truly dedicated disciple of Christ - this is what costs us. It costs us our
whole-hearted devotion, our life-long service to God in living by faith, doing
good works, and forsaking sin. It costs us by suffering for Christ. But this
should be viewed as a privilege, for it will gain for us a far greater weight
of reward in eternity (II Cor.
Heretics foolishly confuse the demands of discipleship with how one becomes and remains an eternally saved child of God, which is by God's grace and power alone. Not all babes in Christ grow up to be fully mature saints and dedicated disciples, but they are still saints nonetheless – and still eternally saved, even though their carnal lifestyles show they are stubbornly persisting in their spiritual immaturity.
Evidence of Faith
I'm not saying that one who has had faith in Christ would never have a shred of evidence that he or she was truly born again, but I do believe that this evidence will not always exhibit itself in a clear visible fashion such that anyone with any degree of spiritual discernment can look at it and say with confidence, “Ah, that person has truly been saved.”
What should a pastor do who has a person new in town come to his church and express a desire to become a member? Should he ask for references or run a background check for good deeds that proves this person has faith in Christ? No; you accept this person as a full member of your church based on their profession of faith and give the benefit of the doubt that they are saved.
If they've never been baptized to publicly identify with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, then you baptize them.
Did Philip in the Book of Acts demand that the Ethiopian show external evidence of faith before baptizing him? He merely asked him, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.”
Someone might point out John the Baptist's demand of the crowd that came to be baptized by him. He told them to bear fruits worthy of repentance. This is something all believers should do. However, the account does not indicate a withholding of baptism until they had provided external proof of their repentance (a changing of their minds in turning to the truth).
Sometimes, the only evidence a carnal Christian may exhibit is that they can articulate a correct understanding of the Gospel and offer a candid admittance that they are not living as they should. But sadly, even this may be too generous concerning some worldly Christians.
Becoming born again will definitely change you, for you will become a new creature in Christ. But it's sad how quickly many of these new creatures will hide the true identity of who they are by falling back into living like those who are lost!
To view God's grace as the culprit for this and to then set about injecting the concept of works into grace is nothing short of blindness and foolishness. Blindness because Scripture is crystal clear on the nature of God's grace, and foolishness because the supposed cure offered by the doctrine of “Lordship Salvation” in reality makes the problem worse.
If someone claims to be a believer, but their words and deeds have never shown it, and they show evidence they don't understand the Gospel message, I'd be 99.9% sure they were lost. I'd be wrong only because they were excelling in hiding their true identity as born-again believers.
Even though spiritually mature Christians can sometimes be mistaken concerning whether a professing Christian is truly born again or lost, outward signs often manifest the correct answer for those with spiritual discernment, but are not a perfect indicator. One must keep in mind that ultimately, only God can see the heart, and He of course can see whether a person has placed faith in Christ or not.
Some Christians are often too quick to come to the conclusion that someone claiming to be a Christian is lost due to their lifestyle. These judgmental believers have the faulty reasoning that a person's behavior either defines one’s identity as saved or lost, or is always an accurate reflection of one’s identity.
If this reasoning is true, then by definition king David was lost when he was committing the sins of adultery and murder. One may point out that he was eventually recovered, but a person observing at that time would not have known this would occur. If some of these same judgmental Christians could travel back in time and not know how the story ends, they would rather quickly conclude that Kind David had never been born again. Or if they were an Arminian, would conclude that he had lost his salvation and was hell bound and must get saved again.
However, if the doctrine of eternal security is true (and it is), then King David never lost his eternal salvation even while he was committing those grievous sins, which masked his identity as a saint. Behavior and identity do not always perfectly correlate.
Some Christians misuse the following verse as justification for the way they knee-jerk someone into the category of lost:
Therefore by their fruits you will
know them. (Matthew 7:20)
Back up to
verse 15 and you'll see that this is in reference to false teachers. You'll
know who false teachers are by their teachings (See Matt
The “fruits” in Matthew 7:20 certainly are not referring to visible good deeds such as giving to the poor. Don't many false teachers perform deeds that appear to be outwardly righteous? They certainly do righteous deeds from a human perspective. No one would state that giving to the poor is an unrighteous deed! However, it is totally unrighteous for one doing such deeds to affirm that those deeds negate the penalty of their sins and make them righteous in God's sight.
Wolves in “sheep's clothing” (see vs. 15 again) will appear to be outwardly righteous; therefore “fruits” cannot be referring to external good deeds or lack of visible sin. Aren't the cults proud of the fact that many of their members don't smoke, drink, dance, or go to movies, etc...? Appearances are not all that they may seem to be.
Our deeds
are never the currency that can pay for our sins. It would be like trying to
buy a new car with empty acorn shells. No matter how many you brought to the
dealership you'd be turned away. What is the currency for our sins? It is
written in Scripture that without the shedding of blood there is no remission
of sin (Hebrews
Some of
you reading this may indeed believe that your good works balance out your sins,
and that this is how you will enter the
For when Gentiles who do not have the
Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a
law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their
hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately
accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel,
God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus. (Romans 2:14-16, NASB,
emphasis mine)
My brothers and sisters in Christ, if a non-teacher of doctrine is claiming to be a Christian but not living like one, don't get bent out of shape, for there will always be counterfeit Christians until the end of this age (remember the parable of the wheat and tares?), and even among genuine Christians there will always be those that are not living godly lives.
Treat the lost as you would any of the lost, regardless of whether they claim to be a Christian or not. Give them the Gospel speaking the truth in love peradventure they may be saved.
If there are thousands of counterfeit Christians sitting in pews every Sunday it certainly isn't because of the truth of God's free and unchanging grace. Most likely it's probably because the Gospel isn't preached in those churches often enough and with crystal clarity. If you’re in a Bible believing church, and feel that your pastor isn’t giving a clear presentation of the Gospel often enough, then in the spirit of gentleness give him encouragement to do so, and let him know that you are praying for him.
For lost people who are willfully rejecting the Gospel, clear presentations of it are offensive to them. How could most of them sit in service after service in a Gospel preaching church without doing one of two things - either leaving that church, or finally softening their hearts and believing the saving message? I said most, but not all, for there will always be false brethren coming into the local churches for the purpose of luring the saints away into false doctrine and sinful living:
“For I know this,
that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not
sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will
rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after
themselves. Therefore watch, and
remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day
with tears.” (Acts 20:29-31)
For Christians who are not living godly lives, exhort and encourage them in love peradventure they may be recovered to fellowship with and service to Christ. Perhaps it may be helpful to try a little patience with them seeing the Lord has been mighty patient with us. Lacking this patience might be a sign of one’s own carnality!
To dismiss carnal Christians out of hand as being lost is not an act of love toward your brothers and sisters in Christ. Some of you pastors out there should take that last statement to heart. All believers in your flock are under your spiritual care and guidance, and you will be held accountable for your treatment of them.
It will sometimes take keen spiritual sensitivity and discernment to know the difference between false brethren and carnal Christians, unless the imposter is active in trying to lead others astray with false doctrine. Then you can be fairly sure, for most false teachers are lost.
The Real Message of James
James' point does not at all concern the issue of “professing faith” vs. “genuine faith”, and to read this into his message is to detract from his actual two-edged point. His point is for us to know that the real faith of real Christians unaccompanied by godly works is dead or worthless to their brothers and sisters in Christ as concerning providing physical care to the poor such as food and clothing, and that this real faith, if unaccompanied by works, is also dead or worthless to the saving of the soul of the one who possesses it. And as I have proved earlier, this saving of the soul in the Letter of James does not refer to salvation from hell.