Q: Do you believe in free grace as opposed to lordship salvation?
Asked by: Mike
A: Well Mike, as you know, you’ve raised a question that has been controversial in the evangelical world. And for those who are listening I have to explain.
Free grace emphasizes the fact that salvation is a completely free gift, and because it’s free we don’t have to make Christ the Lord of our lives, we simply come as beggars to receive a free gift. And then, having received it God begins to work in our life and begins to teach us what His lordship really means.
Lordship salvation means that you can’t be saved unless you come making Christ Lord of everything, asking Him to be sovereign over your whole life.
Well, Mike, this might not be very helpful to you, but I’m somewhere in the middle. I’ve always said that when you come to Jesus Christ to receive the free gift obviously you are turning away from your sin. In that sense, you are recognizing Christ as Lord, you are recognizing the fact that He is the Savior, you’re turning from yourself and from your sin to Christ.
But, having said that, I do believe that lordship is something that we learn the rest of our lives. We’re constantly discovering areas over which Jesus Christ might not be Lord, and even after we make Him Lord, then, of course, we still recognize that sometimes the territory is reconquered by ourselves or Satan. So, that’s a lifelong process.
If we emphasize lordship salvation too much, there are many people who are going to say, who then can be saved? This is demanding more than I can possibly give. And so what we need to do, the bottom line, is to stress salvation as a free gift—you come as you are—but, of course, you do come. And in the process, yes, you’re admitting your sinfulness, your helplessness, in order to receive the free gift.
Free grace emphasizes the fact that salvation is a completely free gift, and because it’s free we don’t have to make Christ the Lord of our lives, we simply come as beggars to receive a free gift. And then, having received it God begins to work in our life and begins to teach us what His lordship really means.
SOURCE: Pastor Erwin Lutzer, Moody Media, Question #70
Lordship salvation means that you can’t be saved unless you come making Christ Lord of everything, asking Him to be sovereign over your whole life.
Well, Mike, this might not be very helpful to you, but I’m somewhere in the middle. I’ve always said that when you come to Jesus Christ to receive the free gift obviously you are turning away from your sin. In that sense, you are recognizing Christ as Lord, you are recognizing the fact that He is the Savior, you’re turning from yourself and from your sin to Christ.
Erwin Lutzer is NOT a born-again believer!!! How can he be when he is not completely resting in the finished work of Christ? Lutzer plainly incriminates himself as an infidel, by saying that he believes coming to Christ requires turning from yourself, turning away from your sins and following Christ as one's Lord. None of that is part of the Gospel. Let's read our text passage again from 1st Corinthians 15:1-6...
1st Corinthians 15:1-6, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.”
There is nothing mentioned in Paul's Gospel (which he received directly from Jesus according to Galatians 1:12), about turning away from your sinful ways, nor about turning away from yourself, nor anything about recognizing Christ as “Lord” to follow Him obediently. What Pastor Lutzer is doing is wicked and wrong! Pilgrim's Progress author, John Bunyan, said it best I think...
“If you do not put a difference between justification wrought by the man Christ without and sanctification wrought by the Spirit of Christ within, you are not able to divide the Word aright; but contrariwise, you corrupt the Word of God, and cast stumbling blocks before the people.” —John Bunyan (1628-1688)
Pastor Lutzer irresponsibly fails to put a difference between justification without and sanctification within. Instead, Mr. Lutzer obscures and blurs the lines between salvation and service, between sonship and discipleship. The following helpful words were written by Pastor Hank Lindstrom (1940-2008). Dr. Lindstrom actually taught Bible at Moody Bible Institute in the old days for about 15 years. Moody was okay long ago, but they got sucked into the Neo-evangelical cult of John MacArthur.
The following is all excellent truth by Dr. Lindstrom...
"It is an inexcusable error to confront sinners with problems that concern the Christian life and call upon them to make promises regarding them. An unsaved person is never called upon to surrender himself to God. The saving act is in no instance represented as our 'giving ourselves to God'; it is, on the contrary, taking His Son as our Savior." —Charles Ryrie, Balancing the Christian Life; Moody Press, Inc., 1969 (p. 170)
"The second approach finds faith in the gospel alone an 'easy Believism' and seeks to add something to faith in order to accomplish salvation. To repent is to 'change one's mind,' and to believe is to remove one's trust from that in which it has rested and place it in Christ." —William Howard, Is Faith Enough to Save?, Bibliotheca Sacra; January-March, 1942 (p. 99)
"This kind of faith is not 'easy believism'. It is not easy to say, 'I can't save myself, I must recognize that there is something wrong with me, and I must seek help from someone else.'" —Phillip H. Hook, A Biblical Definition of Saving Faith; Bibliotheca Sacra, April-June, 1964 (pp. 133, 138)
"Eternal life is free. Discipleship is immeasurably hard. The former is attained by faith alone, the latter by a faith that works... the former brings with it the righteousness of God so that a man is 'justified freely by his grace' (Romans 3:24). The latter develops a personal righteousness, based on good deeds, so that a man was also 'justified by works' (James 2:24). The former constituted the believer God's workmanship, the latter fulfilled the wonderful purpose for which he had been created. The former cost man nothing, the latter could cost him everything, including life itself." —Zane C. Hodges, The Hungry Inherit; Moody Press, Inc., 1972 (pp 114, 115)
"There is a vast difference between coming to Jesus for salvation and coming after Jesus for service. Coming to Christ makes one a believer, while coming after Christ makes one a disciple. All believers are not disciples. To become a believer one accepts the invitation of the Gospel, to be a disciple one obeys the challenge to a life of dedicated service and separation. Salvation comes through the sacrifice of Christ; discipleship comes only by sacrifice of self and surrender to His call for devoted service. Salvation is free, but discipleship involves paying the price of a separated walk. Salvation can't be lost because it depends upon God's faithfulness, but discipleship can be lost because it depends upon our faithfulness." —M. R. DeHaan, Hebrews; Zondervan Publishing House; 1959 (p. 117)
"For the unregenerate man, repentance is the change of mind whereby he turns from unbelief to faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ." —Roger Post, "The Meanings of the Words Translated 'Repent' and 'Repentance' in the New Testament." —Master's Thesis, Wheaton College, June 1972 (p. 80)
"There are those who, in their zeal to get people to turn from their sinful ways and receive the Lord, almost put repentance on a par with believing... Repentance, as it relates to Christ, means to change our minds about Him, who He is and what He's done to provide forgiveness and deliverance from our sins. When we place faith in Jesus as having taken our place personally on the cross and borne the penalty due our sins, then we're automatically repenting, because we couldn't accept Him in this way without having had to change our minds in some way concerning Him." —Hal Lindsey, The Liberation of Planet Earth, Zondervan Publishing House, 1974 (pp. 136, 137)
"Discipleship is frequently equated with salvation and often erroneously made a condition for becoming a Christian." —Pentecost, J. Dwight, Design for Discipleship; Zondervan Publishing House, 1971 (p. 11)
"Certainly discipleship is a most important aspect of our relation to Christ, but it belongs to the sphere of Christian life rather than entrance upon that life... One does not become a disciple in order to become a Christian, but because he has become a Christian by faith in the Savior, it is fitting that he embark upon a life of discipleship". —Everett Harrison, Must Christ be Lord to Be Savior? No!; Eternity, September 1959 (p. 14)
"There is no more piously subtle abrogation of the Gospel than to tell a Sinner that he must not only believe in the Savior, but dedicate himself to do God's will, crown the Savior Lord of his life, etc., etc. Obviously, dedication and service are highly desirable, but they are the privilege and the duty of the saved, never a condition of salvation for the unsaved (cf. Romans 12:1, 2)." —Merrill F. Unger, God is Waiting to Meet You; Moody Press, 1975 (pp. 117, 118)
"People are sometimes led to believe that there is saving value in some public confession of Christ, or profession of a decision. "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." This is salvation. "With the mouth confession is made unto salvation." This is the voice of the newborn child speaking to and of its father. The only condition on which one may be saved is to believe." —Lewis Sperry Chafer; Salvation; Dunham Publishing Company, 1917 (p. 46)
SUMMARY
Lordship salvation is where someone teaches that there must be a commitment to Christ as Lord of one's life in order to be saved. Recently there has been a modification of this position to say that willingness to be controlled by the Lord at the time of salvation is all that is required in addition to faith in order to be saved. The message of faith only and the message of faith plus commitment of life can't both be the gospel; therefore, one of them is a FALSE GOSPEL and comes under the curse of perverting the gospel or preaching another gospel.
Galatians 1:8, 9 says, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be accursed." If only committed people are saved people, then where is there room for carnal Christians? What kind of dedication must be preached to people, if in order to be saved, they have already dedicated their lives to the Lord? Where do you stop if you start adding something else to this which is the gospel revealed in the Bible?
Look at what God says about adding to the revelation of Jesus Christ (gospel), "For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book (Revelation 22:18)." The Bible plainly declares that we are saved by faith, and not by works. Where does it say this? Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast." What are you trusting in to get you to heaven?
SOURCE: The preceding was written by Dr. Hank Lindstrom (1940-2008)
I say kindly that Pastor Lutzer is an unsaved infidel, a deadly wolf in sheep's clothing. Anybody who contaminates, embellishes or confuses the Gospel is the enemy of the cause of Jesus Christ!!! God knows that I don't like stepping on toes or offending people; but my loyalty is to God and truth, and not to man and institutions. Pastor Erwin Lutzer indicts himself with his own theologically corrupt words...
I do believe that lordship is something that we learn the rest of our lives. We’re constantly discovering areas over which Jesus Christ might not be Lord, and even after we make Him Lord, then, of course, we still recognize that sometimes the territory is reconquered by ourselves or Satan. So, that’s a lifelong process.
If we emphasize lordship salvation too much, there are many people who are going to say, who then can be saved? This is demanding more than I can possibly give. And so what we need to do, the bottom line, is to stress salvation as a free gift—you come as you are—but, of course, you do come. And in the process, yes, you’re admitting your sinfulness, your helplessness, in order to receive the free gift. [emphasis added]
SOURCE: Pastor Erwin Lutzer, Moody Media, Question #70
What confusion! Kindly said, even at age 83, Lutzer is woefully ignorant of the inspired Word of God. According to what we just read by Erwin Lutzer, we should find a happy medium to pressure people to surrender to Jesus as their Lord. He says that you don't want to emphasize Lordship Salvation too much, because lost people won't feel like they can meet the challenge. So Lutzer foolishly says to just emphasize that eternal life is a free gift, while at the same time keeping some pressure on them to turn away from sin, turn away from yourself and follow Jesus obediently as your Lord. That is total Satanic compromise!
Dear reader, the poisonous heresy of Lordship Salvation is not something that we learn for the rest of our lives as Lutzer errantly preaches, because it is damnable heresy. Pastor Lutzer implies that some human effort is required to be saved, as if getting to Heaven were a process, which it is not. Growing in grace (sanctification) is a lifelong process, but this has absolutely nothing to do with the one time new birth (justification). Pastor Lutzer makes the horrible mistake of mixing law and grace!!!
“If you do not put a difference between justification wrought by the man Christ without and sanctification wrought by the Spirit of Christ within, you are not able to divide the Word aright; but contrariwise, you corrupt the Word of God, and cast stumbling blocks before the people.” —John Bunyan (1628-1688)
Pastor Lutzer cannot rightly divide the inspired Word of God, because he does not put a difference between sonship and discipleship. Here is another helpful quote, which I quoted to you earlier by Pastor M.R. DeHaan (1891-1965)...
"There is a vast difference between coming to Jesus for salvation and coming after Jesus for service. Coming to Christ makes one a believer, while coming after Christ makes one a disciple. All believers are not disciples. To become a believer one accepts the invitation of the Gospel, to be a disciple one obeys the challenge to a life of dedicated service and separation. Salvation comes through the sacrifice of Christ; discipleship comes only by sacrifice of self and surrender to His call for devoted service. Salvation is free, but discipleship involves paying the price of a separated walk. Salvation can't be lost because it depends upon God's faithfulness, but discipleship can be lost because it depends upon our faithfulness." —M. R. DeHaan, Hebrews; Zondervan Publishing House; 1959 (p. 117)
(Two Basic Concepts, by Pastor Yankee Arnold)
It is unfortunate that the thousands of members of Moody Church are caught somewhere between works and grace because of Pastor Lutzer's corrupt wishy-washy theology. I thank God that I am 100% free grace Gospel. I had godly teachers. Over 95% of clergy and laymen in today's churches and Bible colleges are caught between grace and works, unsaved.
Here is one of my favorite sermons, preaching the truth of a free grace Gospel...
(Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold)
Dear friend, until you get out of the way, by exiting the salvation equation, and just totally REST in the finished redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ, you cannot be saved.
When the Philippian jailer in Rome asked Paul and Silas how to be saved, their simple but profound answer was to: 'BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST' (Acts 16:30-31). Paul and Silas didn't tell the jailer to turn away from his sins. They didn't tell him to repent. They didn't tell him to recognize Jesus as their Lord. They didn't tell him to turn away from himself. They just told him to BELIEVE ON JESUS!!! So many of today's churches and pastors are as corrupt as can be, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men instead of the inspired Word of God (Mark 7:7-9).
I warn you, it is not a trifle matter with God to add to His words (Proverbs 30:5-6). It is in man's sinful carnal nature to pervert the truth of the Gospel. The carnal mind has a diabolical tendency to add human reformation to God's simple plan of salvation.
We see this sinful tendency in the first man, Adam, who sewed together some fig leaves in a lame attempt to atone for his own sins, and that of his fallen wife Eve.
We also see this sinful tendency in their oldest son, Cain, who sinfully tried to please God by offering the best grain his own labors could produce. But Abel offered up a blood sacrifice, which demonstrated his faith in the coming Lamb of God (John 1:29).
We again see this sinful tendency in the rich young ruler in Matthew chapter 19 and Luke 18, who boasted to Jesus that he had kept all of the Ten Commandments from his youth up. But Jesus showed him that he in fact had failed to perfectly keep the law, because he was covetous. Jesus used the Old Testament law as God intended for it to be used, as a measuring stick to show men their sinnership (Romans 3:19-23). Jesus needed to bring that young man to the place in his self-righteous mind, where he saw himself as a guilty needy sinner, so that God could save Him by trusting in the dear blessed Savior.
“More people will die and burn in Hell because they're trusting too much!” —Pastor Jack Hyles, a precious quote from the MP3 sermon, “Yea, Yea, And Nay, Nay!”
“Everything that's hard and complicated about salvation is God's side of it!” —Pastor Jack Hyles, “Yea, Yea, And Nay, Nay!”
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