You Can't be Saved Unless (The 'gospel' of Lordship Salvation)
The "gospel" of you can't be saved unless:
You quit the nasty nine and the dirty dozen
You sell out for God
You faithfully obey and persevere
You die to self
You commit all to God
You visit orphans and the sick
You sell all that you have and give to the poor
You submit everything to God
Etc...
----------
(The Council at Jerusalem as it considers the issue of Lordship Salvation Acts 15:1-29 / By which it condemns it)
Acts 15:7,8, 10-11
Peter rose up and said to them... "...God... purif[ies] [our] hearts by faith. Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they."
----------
Gal 2:21
I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through *law, then Christ died in vain.
[* Anarthrous construction: meaning no article (most translations provide "the"). Is not specific meaning law of Moses, but concerns the quality or characteristic of law period: rules, such as "you must do this and stop doing that or you can't be saved!.]
Christ sold out for us! Christ committed His all for us!
If any of the above list is necessary for our salvation, then Christ died in vain.
Gal 3:1-2
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by *works of *law, or by the hearing of faith?
[* Anarthrous: denoting characteristic and quality (not identity)]
Salvation coming from being convinced from "the hearing of faith"! (This expresses the passive nature of the act of faith that brings salvation. See last post!) The Spirit is not received by any quality or characteristic of work requirements --rules-- such as the list of things above. (Calvinists, notice the ordu salutis here! The Holy Spirit's regeneration received by the "hearing of faith"!)
John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
Jesus is the Guarantor of eternal life to the mere believer in Him for it. His guarantee is explicit in His promise to the believer. There is no talk of Jesus giving the list of requirements that the Lordship Proponents do! Eternal life is dispensed through "the hearing of faith" in Jesus Christ alone. Faith alone in Christ alone! Is that not the reformation mantra? Yet it no longer describes the Puritanism of Reformed theology today.
"Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life" (John 6:47)
How I wish it would return to this plain and exquisite simplicity!
I recently read a blog from my friend H.K. Flynn, who speaks of a young Romanist who finally comes to the conclusion : "Jesus is not only necessary, He is enough!"
Please read this poignant article (short so don't delay go read it today!) that gives a few paragraphs of a sermon by the beloved H.A. Ironside. Her article inspired me to write this one.
Please click HERE to read H.K.'s wonderful post.
Antonio
You quit the nasty nine and the dirty dozen
You sell out for God
You faithfully obey and persevere
You die to self
You commit all to God
You visit orphans and the sick
You sell all that you have and give to the poor
You submit everything to God
Etc...
----------
(The Council at Jerusalem as it considers the issue of Lordship Salvation Acts 15:1-29 / By which it condemns it)
Acts 15:7,8, 10-11
Peter rose up and said to them... "...God... purif[ies] [our] hearts by faith. Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved in the same manner as they."
----------
Gal 2:21
I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through *law, then Christ died in vain.
[* Anarthrous construction: meaning no article (most translations provide "the"). Is not specific meaning law of Moses, but concerns the quality or characteristic of law period: rules, such as "you must do this and stop doing that or you can't be saved!.]
Christ sold out for us! Christ committed His all for us!
If any of the above list is necessary for our salvation, then Christ died in vain.
Gal 3:1-2
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by *works of *law, or by the hearing of faith?
[* Anarthrous: denoting characteristic and quality (not identity)]
Salvation coming from being convinced from "the hearing of faith"! (This expresses the passive nature of the act of faith that brings salvation. See last post!) The Spirit is not received by any quality or characteristic of work requirements --rules-- such as the list of things above. (Calvinists, notice the ordu salutis here! The Holy Spirit's regeneration received by the "hearing of faith"!)
John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
Jesus is the Guarantor of eternal life to the mere believer in Him for it. His guarantee is explicit in His promise to the believer. There is no talk of Jesus giving the list of requirements that the Lordship Proponents do! Eternal life is dispensed through "the hearing of faith" in Jesus Christ alone. Faith alone in Christ alone! Is that not the reformation mantra? Yet it no longer describes the Puritanism of Reformed theology today.
"Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life" (John 6:47)
How I wish it would return to this plain and exquisite simplicity!
I recently read a blog from my friend H.K. Flynn, who speaks of a young Romanist who finally comes to the conclusion : "Jesus is not only necessary, He is enough!"
Please read this poignant article (short so don't delay go read it today!) that gives a few paragraphs of a sermon by the beloved H.A. Ironside. Her article inspired me to write this one.
Please click HERE to read H.K.'s wonderful post.
Antonio
posted by Antonio at 11:34 AM
19 Comments:
Another excellent post, Antonio.
By the way, I am pretty disappointed by Moo's commentary on James. Unlike you, holds that James 2 speaks of spurious, not genuine faith.
Every Blessing in Christ
Matthew
I agree with Matthew. This is another great post. I appreciate the link too and I'm looking forward to catching up on Hungry/Six.
I pray God's love will fill your heart and your home and may you all have a wonderful Christmas. ;-)
Great Post Antonio!!
Hi Antonio!
HK's post was great. So was yours.
Hey, thanks for the link Antonio. Much appreciated.
God Bless
Good stuff.
What does remove your lampstand mean in Revelations 2:5?
Thanks, Antonio :)
Isn't it cool that there was a leader who was not only blasting theological modernism, but recognized the need to defend the clarity of the simple gospel message??
Praise God!!
(He treated the gospel like it was one of the fundamentals :)
Your post is clear as a bell!
merry, merry christmas!
Guys and gals,
Thank you for your support and reading.
I truly want to start up with James again. It is just alot of work.
Torn ACLU,
The Scriptures I gave came with a running commentary and observation, in which I gave unto them meaning. If you have a well-thought out dispute concerning one of the texts I used, please, articulate it.
Concerning your John 2 question, I still would love to answer it. Please just tell me what you are saying it means and why.
This comments section is for the use and opportunity for you to answer, comment, and object to my post. Please do so. Where did I get it wrong and why?
Thank you for your compliment on my faith post. Are you familiar with Gordon H. Clark and B.B. Warfield's view of faith? They essentially take the view I espoused.
Antonio
We agree that there is no "list of requirements" for one to receive salvation- there is no work that any person can do to earn himself favor in the sight of God, for all of our good deeds will always be tainted by sin; we can never escape the fact that whatever we do falls short of God's glory- For NONE of our actions are truly based upon a love for God with ALL of our heart and ALL of our soul and ALL of our mind- Nothing that we do is free from all sinful selfishness and is motivated wholly by a love for God.
And we also agree that "justification is by faith alone".
But my theology declares that humiliation is the only prerequisite for faith.
For
God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6 NIV)
and the Lord has declared
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:1 NIV)
and
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Luke (18:14b NIV)
And so the truth of Ironside's words that were quoted by your friend H.K. become clear. For Ironside preached:
"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." [Emphasis added]
It is only through humiliation- through forsaking all hope in religions that are not revealed in God's Word, the Bible, and forsaking all hope in our own abilities and clinging to Christ alone in faith, that we are saved.
And subsequent to this, as Ironside declared, "good works and obedience to all that is written in the Word for the guidance of Christians, fall into place." This statement is as certain as the one that comes directly before it.
Antonio, I hope you and your family are having a really lovely Christmas. I certainly am.
God Bless
Matthew
Here is my thought on the subject. It is a quote that I read in a book called The Chase by Jerry Bridges.
It is a quote from the seventeenth century by Walter Marshall.
"What a strange kind of salvation do they desire who care not for holiness.... They would be saved by Christ and yet be out of Christ in a fleshly state.... They would have their sins forgiven, not that they may walk with God in love, in time to come, but that they may practice their emnity against Him without any fear of punishment."
If one does not humble oneself and bow to Him as Lord on this side of eternity, then he will on the other side.
Philippians 2:10&11
Where is Antonio?
Ajlin,
First, if you are a follower of John MacArthur and Lordship Salvation (as I have supposed from your posts here and on Semper Reformanda) then humbleness is not only the pre-requisite to faith, but the list I gave is the pre-requisite to heaven.
Yes, it takes an amount of humbleness to consider one's works worthless and to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for eternal life.
You write:
----------
And subsequent to this, as Ironside declared, "good works and obedience to all that is written in the Word for the guidance of Christians, fall into place." This statement is as certain as the one that comes directly before it.
----------
Good works should come, and are expected to come, but do not necessarily come. Their sense and significance certainly do fall into place once one has the correct mindset of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
Yet Ajlin, your post is merely lip service. For if someone did not meet your standard of fruit inspection you would not hesitate to consider such a one reprobate.
Antonio
Reformed
You write:
----------
What a strange kind of salvation do they desire who care not for holiness.... They would be saved by Christ and yet be out of Christ in a fleshly state.... They would have their sins forgiven, not that they may walk with God in love, in time to come, but that they may practice their emnity against Him without any fear of punishment."
----------
This tripe betrays a deep mischaraterization and misunderstanding of Free Grace theology. There is much to fear for the born-again Christian living in blatant sin. But not hell. Heaven is a FREE GIFT. Do you and your people understand that?
A free gift?
Absolutely Free?
Is that a concept that you are familiar with? If grace could not be abused, it wouldn't be grace.
And yet you and every Lordship Salvationist sins every day, abusing God's grace. But since you do not commit the nasty nine or the dirty dozen, you consider such evidences (and necessary requirements) of salvation.
God don't grade on the curve.
Please.
Before you go spouting off your supposed arguments against my position, it may be well to actually understand my position first.
Antonio
Bhedr writes:
----------
If one does not humble oneself and bow to Him as Lord on this side of eternity, then he will on the other side.
----------
Each time you sin, you stop bowing to God and bend te knee to self.
Matthew,
My back has been out and I have been out of it.
I haven't spent any time on the computer the last few days.
Any good New Year's resolutions?
I have plenty.
Antonio
I wasn't spouting.
Antonio,
It is my hope that you will learn to get past the use of intellectual syllogisis. This was my problem as well. I didn't realize that it was a form of self justification. Anytime we seek to justify ourselves and say that Scripture is wrong we call God a liar. It is also true that we are sinners and if we don't admit it we are a liar but there exists a fulcrum on this sesaw that I hope you will one day admit to and see that we also make God a liar by saying we can't repent or submit to Him as Lord when He himself calls us to do this. I do not make this call. He does.
Remember the scribe that sought to justify himself when asking Jesus, "And who is my neighbor."
Anyway, I am just a messenger. No one will be able to hide behind anyone else when standing before God. I understand that I will never be perfect, but I also know that it is wrong for me to argue or twist what Scripture says on this in light of my intellect. I speak to your conscience alone by the infallible Words of God. Either you believe them or you don't.
Love you brother.
"He that says I know him, and keeps not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby we know that we are in him." 1 John 2:4&5.
Your argument is with John who wrote by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Not me or your own sin.
Post a Comment
<< Home