A Look at Lordship Salvation (V)

Contrary to Lordship claims, a repentant faith, and not a radical submission, is the condition for salvation (Acts 16:31; 20:21). While that doesn't minimize obedience, it does maximize the faith-alone principle. When Lordship men say saving faith is never alone, they are saying "real" faith includes something more than simple trust in Christ; it also includes a solemn commitment to follow Him. To falter here is to become a false professor. However, if Scripture says we are saved by faith alone (Ro. 3:28; Eph. 2:8), then it's alone. Works aren't involved (Titus 3:5). Nevertheless, Lordship men say salvation and service are so related that works are an integral part of saving faith. In other words, they are part of the very fabric of faith. Genuine faith, they claim, always produces good works. Always. Moreover, those good works are ever increasing and expanding. Always. Why? Because works are of the very nature of faith, just as heat is of the very nature of fire, and wet is of the very nature of water. Nevertheless, Scripturally speaking, faith is simply trust in Jesus. It's not a commitment to discipleship, but a confidence in Christ to save (2 Tim. 1:12). To abandon this is to abandon the sole condition upon which God receives men (Ro. 4:1-5,16).

But getting back to works. If good works (as reflective of obedience, commitment, submission, consecration, mastery, devotion etc.) are necessary for salvation, then what kind and how many are necessary? Does anyone know? If good works are the primary indicator of salvation, then how long may a believer remain "uncommitted" before he must consider himself lost? Moreover, what test or mechanism may he employ to determine if he's fully sold-out to Christ? These are important questions because Lordship teaching affects not only the terms of salvation but the very nature of assurance. Not surprisingly, Lordship teachers aren't very clear in their answers. Mainly they say that true believers will perform such consistent and sacrificial good works that the genuineness of their conversion won't be in doubt. (Obviously, they must live in a different world than I do.) The truth is the very standards they employ to determine the presence or absence of salvation remain murky at best.

Even though serious questions remain concerning Lordship teaching, that hasn't kept many from embracing it. In fact, the Lordship interpretation of the gospel continues to grow among God's people. Not surprisingly, closely connected with the Lordship gospel is the doctrine of perseverance. It's here that Calvinist and Arminian Lordship teachers part company. While both confess perseverance, they view it very differently. Arminians, for instance, persevere to keep saved. Calvinists, on the other hand, persevere to prove they're saved. Thus, while both hold perseverance, they hold it for very different reasons. Neither position, however, produces a healthy assurance in believers. Both traffic in the threat of damnation for an uneven Christian walk. Both view doubt as healthy, perhaps even as a badge of spirituality. But Scripture doesn't support them here because it routinely states that we can know if we're saved (Jo. 3:16; Ro. 8:38,39; 2 Tim. 1:12; 1 Jo. 5:9-13).

One reason Lordship keeps believers doubting and fearful is that it never defines what perseverance looks like or what qualifies as consistent (or authentic) perseverance. To make things worse, it can't tell believers how many lapses they may suffer (or for how long) before they must conclude themselves lost and false professors. The Lordship gospel is so full of uncertainties that one wonders how it survives. The truth is the Lordship perseverance is fatal spiritually because, again, there is no way for believers to measure objectively the quality, intensity, and consistency of their commitment. What may seem like total commitment may in reality be something far less. In fact, one man's submission may be another man's laziness. In short, there is no way for anyone to know for sure if he's entirely sold out to Christ. And, according to them, if you're not sold out, you're not saved.

If simple trust in Christ is not enough to save and to give an adequate knowledge and assurance of salvation, then the believer must look elsewhere, which is exactly what Lordship teaching directs him to do. It directs him to look away from Christ and to himself and his walk. A very dangerous counsel indeed. It takes away from Christ's Calvary and focuses attention on the believer's consecration. At heart, however, the gospel is not a call to radical submission but to a repentant faith. It's a call to trust Christ for salvation and to express that trust in radical submission. But the latter is impossible apart from the former; and the former must logically precede the latter. If it doesn't, then we end up asking a lost man to do what only a saved man can, that is, to present himself as a living sacrifice to Christ.