I recently picked up John MacArthur’s book, “The Gospel According to Jesus.”  I find it adequately articulates the Lordship debate.  It also highlights the false gospel which I was pleased to find John MacArthur denounce.

I have a hard time calling it a debate and am really sad that our brothers and sisters in Christ are denying the Lordship of Jesus Christ.  I find that their arguments are based on pragmatism and logic as opposed to the truth of scripture.  What disturbs me most is that this comes from men, women and denominations who pride themselves in their study and teaching of scripture.

The no-lordship stance declares that a man must accept Jesus as their savior but that his lordship comes later or is entirely optional and unnecessary for salvation.  Discipleship is the “next step”.  This view is held to on account that salvation is by grace, not of works lest anyone should boast.  In an attempt to put the horse in its rightful position (before the cart) when preaching the gospel they completely ignore the cart and pretend it doesn’t exist.  The result: the gospel is no longer a gospel of reconciling men to God as Lord and the object of our worship.  The gospel merely becomes a means to get a free ticket out of hell and into heaven and perhaps a goody bag of things to use for self-pleasure while still on earth; an item that any demon or unrepentant human would still desire apart from the working of the Holy Spirit.

Those who deny the Lordship of Christ take verses such as Acts 2:21 “And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” and Romans 10:13 “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” and John 3:16 “whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  But do those verses REALLY say that Jesus can be Savior and not Lord?  Do the scriptures really encourage us to call upon Jesus as “Lord” with our lips without his Lordship being the condition of our hearts?  If our brothers and sisters would go about ignoring the rest of the bible they would do great benefit to at least finish reading the chapter or book!

Advocates of the Lordship doctrine such as Jesus, Paul, Peter, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and James do not deny that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone.  But they do emphasize that true saving faith gives birth to works including, “to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:27)  If faith does not give birth to works it is not true saving faith; because the very biblical definition of “faith” and “to believe” denotes more than just intellect or emotion.  James calls the man who would argue with this fact a fool (James 2:20).

The Lordship stance does not state the pre-requisite for salvation is to get ones life in order before being saved.  But the pre-requisite is recognizing our sinful rebellion against God and repenting (turning).

Now if your understanding of repentance is wrong you WILL immediately stand up and say, “BUT THAT’S SALVATION BY WORKS!”  No, it’s not.  In fact it was part of the gospel presentation in scripture.  “Now they heard this and they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ and Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.’ And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them saying, ‘Save yourselves from this crooked generation.’” (Acts 2:37-40) see also: Acts 26:19-20; Acts 20:21; Acts 3:19

The difference between the apostles view of salvation and the view of salvation held to by the no-lordship camp is that the apostles recognized that for someone to genuinely exercise faith in Jesus the Holy Spirit needed to be at work in the person’s heart, drawing the person to Christ to be reconciled to God.  Faith is a gift from God (Romans 12:3).  Not only is the atoning work of Christ a gift of grace but so is my ability to repent/believe (John 6:65; 2 Chronicles 30:11-12; Phil 1:29, 2 Tim 2:25, Acts 13:48, Rom 9:15-18; John 1:13; 1 John 5:1).  One can only refute these verses through human logic.  Yes it is a requirement and command that man turn (repent/believe) however his turning, from God’s perspective and ultimately the true perspective, is granted through the grace of God via the working of the Holy Spirit.  I have no need to argue this stance.  Let the scriptures speak for themselves.

We should therefore approach evangelism with this perspective.  God is working and sovereign.  All I must do is proclaim the truth!  I don’t need to butter it up, I don’t need to hide certain “hard” truths about Lordship.  I don’t need to close the deal with a “decision” and popishly declare men saved.  I proclaim the full-counsel of God and trust God to do the rest.  I explain who God is and what he created us for, I explain rebellion and sin, I explain the results of rebellion and sin (separation and wrath), I explain what Jesus did to reconcile and save us.  The call is for all men everywhere to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus… and if that’s your desire my friend here is how to do it and here is what it looks like!

If you plan on sharing your faith with friends, family, co-workers, strangers or from the pulpit it would be helpful to understand the gospel from a biblical perspective.  All too often we share our faith from an experiential point of view.  This is fine so long as we put our experiences in subjection to scriptural truth as opposed to our flawed perceptions of “what we think happened that day.”

These are must listen to messages on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

continue reading » »

I am convicted by this charge to Godly Disputation by John Newton (file attached).  I suggest all read it!

A Guide to Godly Disputation by John Newton

“First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and to the Gentiles also, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds.” Acts 26:20

“I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.” Acts 20:21

Proponents of anti-lordship salvation claim that repentance is unnecessary for salvation, they deny that Jesus is Lord and offer Him as Savior apart from Lord.   This stance stems from a misunderstanding of repentance and failure to see its relation to belief and regeneration.

By claiming repentance as a condition for salvation does not mean to say you are saved by works. Repentance is an active opposition and hatred for sin, a condition of the heart brought about by true regeneration.  It’s a stance of agreement and belief in God, a direction that someone faces.  To repent of your sin does not mean you are sinless nor does it mean you have done any acts of righteousness.

A person is presented with a sin or the life of sin, rebellion itself, and they either justify it in their heart/make excuses why it is ok; or they agree with God and repent (turn to God) and seek the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to overcome it.  To be repentant doesn’t mean that you never sin or struggle with sin. It means that you are in agreement with God that it is wrong and are actively battling it as many times as you fall into it.  It results in war between flesh and spirit and is the mind of every Christian (Romans 7:18-25).

Granted there are sins we don’t even know about!  But to be of a repentant heart means that we are in agreement with God about our sinful rebellion and have turned, actively facing the opposite direction: pursuing and seeking to please God (Eph 4:17-24; 5:10-11).  When we discover sin in our lives we are sorrowful and turn!

This is why repentance is necessary for salvation.  Not for attaining righteousness.  It coincides with believing and agreeing with God (John 3:36).

There is a difference between the repentant person who struggles with a sin and a person who excuses and refuses to repent from it or do anything about it.  This is where church discipline is used to correct the unrepentant… (1 Cor 5) and is for the benefit of the person and congregation (2 Cor 6:8-13).  It is an opportunity to save those who may perhaps have a false assurance of their salvation.  Also see the words of Jesus: Matthew 18:15-18.

{The casualness of our message to merely “accept Jesus” without helping people to understand our wretched condition, allows many to remain stubbornly unyielding in their pride and sin.  This large-scale “user-friendly” message in today’s evangelical churches have given rise to a Christianity that gives hollow worship to Christ but creates a heart that remains unrenewed and still delights in sin.   Many are unwilling to give the Lord their allegiance because they have not been born again. They are told, however, that because they “accepted Jesus into their heart” at some moment in the past that it doesn’t matter that they now live in rebellion against God. The continuing spirit of defiant, willful rebellion to Christ’s authority as an unbroken pattern of our churches are a direct result of a lack of understanding among church leaders of the doctrine of regeneration.}   (John Hendryx, http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/onsite/repentance.html)

Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance! (Matt 3:8; Mark 6:12)

This is a cool verse.  I just noticed it today:

John 3:36 (ESV) Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

John 3:36 (NASB) He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.

John 3:36 (KJV) He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

In the KJV the second clause of this verse translates, “that believeth not” where as ESV and NASB translates “does not obey”.  But if you check out this verse in the greek the two mentions of “believe” are different Greek words.  The second is actually translated “disobedience” and “obey not” in other areas of scripture.  This English phrase “believeth not” is actually a greek word that coincides with obedience.

The verse is best translated (ESV/NASB) “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.  For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:17-21

Apparently he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

It’s amazing how subtle the false gospel is.  I have prepared two gospel’s below.  Gospel A and Gospel B.  See if you can discern which gospel is the false gospel and which is the true.

The verdict:

Both Gospel A and Gospel B are 100% TRUE.  But Gospel A is only part of the truth.  In fact it is a partial truth which makes it a lie and false gospel!

Concerning Gospel A: There is not a single person on this earth who would not like a free ticket out of hell and into heaven.  But of these people there are very few who would like to see God rule (Lord) over their life.  Gospel A offers a free ticket out of Hell and into Heaven based on a mere intellectual acknowledgment and decision for “Jesus”.   The good news of Gospel A is merely a free ticket out of Hell…  Jesus is Savior but not Lord.   Often proponents of Gospel A add in additional humanistic motivations such as emotional pain relief, a quenching for out of control materialistic desires (void filler) and many other motivations of the man centered gospel.

In Gospel B: The central focus is restoring the man to God aka reconciliation (2 Cor 5).  God created us to worship and glorify Him through the pursuit of God (John 17:3).   The good news of Gospel B restores man to God so that he can now live for God.   Gospel B is the good news that repentance and lordship is available despite your sin which renders you separate from God and deserving of wrath.  This is the true gospel.  I can now begin to live for, know and worship God from now on throughout eternity.  This is a gospel nobody in their depravity wants!  It takes an effectual calling to bring someone into acceptance of this Gospel.(John 6:44; John 6:56; Acts 16:14; Acts 13:48; Matt 16:17; Matt 11:27; Acts 2:39; Romans 9:10-24; Romans 12:3; Phil 1:29; Eph 1:4; John 10:26; John 1:13; Psalm 65:4; James 1:18; John 17:9) Because salvation is a complete work and miracle of God it frees me to preach the true gospel without having to worry about men being offended by it.

Arguments used to support the false gospel:

• I got saved through Gospel A.  Actually no… You got saved in spite of the partial Gospel.  God’s Holy Spirit was already doing a work in your heart and you responded when you heard it.  I don’t deny that Gospel A reaps a legitimate harvest.  My problem with it is that it also confuses true Christians and lies to unbelievers. It tells those who are headed for destruction and judgment that there is safety ahead (Ezekiel 33:7-9).  Perhaps this is why Paul said, “I am innocent the blood of all men because I have not shunned to declare to you the full counsel of God.” (Acts 20:26-27) And perhaps indicates a stricter judgment for the teachers and preachers of God’s word.
• Gospel A works.  It gets more people. Since when was results the litmus test for validity?  Again it only seems to get more people because you are inviting anyone and everyone who still desires to live in rebellion against God to accept a free ticket out of hell.  Who wouldn’t want that?  Does not Jesus say, “not everyone who says to me Lord Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the ones who do the will of my father in heaven” (Matt 7:21)  see also: (1 John 2:4; 2 Peter 2:13ff; James 2:14; Heb 6:6; Titus 1:16; Eph 2:10; 2 Cor 13:5,1 Cor 6:9; John 8:31; Matt 7:21; Jude 1:4).