Problems with Lordship Salvation

Imagine wanting to share the gospel with someone you know and you come to find out a few things about their life. Let’s say that this guy’s name is Josh. Josh tells you that he could never be a Christian because he drinks all the time, cusses like a sailor, and can’t give up porn. He’s tried to change but he just can’t. He expresses to you that these are the things that are holding him back and he’s just too weak to change. What do you tell him? Most Protestants who have been taught under John MacArthur’s and Ray Comfort’s influence, might say something like this: “Here’s the good news of the gospel. In order to be saved, all you have to do is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and repent, which means to turn from your sins, and then you can have everlasting life.” But do you notice the problem here? Josh has already expressed the impossible situation that he is in to turn from his sin, and now, you’re telling him that in order to be saved, he needs to clean up his life, put down the bottle, stop his addictions, stop cussing and blaspheming God’s name, and then he can be saved. That’s not good news! (that’s not the gospel). He has already tried and failed. How is that message going to offer hope and healing? It’s not. But this is the gospel message of the Lordship salvation camp. This is their particular spiel that they use every time as a one size fits all method. This is the message that I was taught and it was engrained into my head. I came across a similar situation and I really wanted to share the gospel with this guy but I didn’t know what to say because I played it through in my mind and I didn’t see how the message would have been helpful to him. I didn’t see how it would have been “good news.” I experienced a moment of great cognitive dissonance and so I said nothing. A few years later though, I discovered a better way to navigate a conversation like this.

Lordship Salvation became very popular within the Reformed Calvinist tradition after John MacArthur. As a result, these teachings have become commonplace among many Protestant and non-denominational churches both in America and across the world. Ray Comfort is also a popular proponent in spreading this teaching. If you listen to their gospel presentations long enough, you’ll get a feel for what Lordship Salvation is. Many evangelists in our day have adopted their methods and the way the gospel is specifically worded and which conditions are required to be saved. But it is also preached within churches regularly to an audience of believers, often with the intention to convince certain congregants that they aren’t saved because they’re not committed enough to God. Jesus’ messages about discipleship are interpreted as how one enters into salvation. And so, as you can imagine, both the requirement to become saved as well as the condition to be a genuine believer is a very high standard and condition which hinges upon if one has repented enough or is doing enough for God. At least, by the language that is used, that is the implication. Obedience to God is spoken of as one with faith itself rather than being communicated as flowing out of faith.

Lordship teaching emphasizes our willingness to give everything to God in order to be saved like the rich young ruler who failed to be saved because he did not or at least was not willing to give everything up to follow Christ. This passage is apparently viewed as a gospel call to salvation that someone must be willing to obey all the laws of God before coming to faith or must first obey Christ before being saved. Gospel presentations then become very law focused with the intentional or unintentional words or presented thoughts of “do this and you shall live,” “this is what is required to be saved,” and “you have to stop sinning in order to be saved.”

I cannot say that I have accurately represented all of what they believe but I have presented what their message is that is received and perceived to people. The way they see the gospel, the law, a disciple, and how they word things, I find to be very damaging to both the church for healthy spiritual growth and sanity and also to the unsaved world, since faith cannot be most effective when it is at the same time conditioned upon obeying the law as the means to salvation.

Here are the problems of Lordship Salvation teachings

It collapses justification and sanctification in on themselves in a way that confuses the gospel.

How can you come to Jesus for rest if you come to Jesus with works?

In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus said, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

If you have been taught that you must be fully committed to Jesus to be saved (because that’s what a disciple is), then how can you have any assurance of your salvation if your salvation is based upon your level of commitment? How many people can honestly say that they are fully surrendered and fully committed to God in every area of their lives?

Are you only a true believer because you are a disciple and have given up everything to Jesus and all your possessions for the sake of the kingdom of God? What if you haven’t given up everything?

How can salvation be “by grace alone” if you have to contribute your own works through discipleship? Eph 2:8-9.

How is the Reformation doctrine of Sola Fide (as taught by Calvin and the Reformers) upheld with Lordship Salvation?

Some people talk about “the demands of the gospel” and they connect the gospel to “radical discipleship.” But how can grace still be by grace and a gift of God if it “demands” that I work? It’s like saying, “here’s a gift. But… you’re going to have to spend the rest of your life paying it off.” Either it is by grace or it is not, so why all this “demand” language? Why is “demand” within the same sentence as “gospel”?

How is salvation a “gift” if it requires more than receiving?

If the gospel means “good news,” how is it good news that in order to receive it, you have to turn away from every sin? What if you can’t even though you try harder? Are you not saved? That doesn’t sound like good news if it is dependent on your own ability to turn from sin.

How can someone accept God’s forgiveness for them and truly rest and trust in God if that forgiveness is dependent upon if they’re doing enough for God? Won’t that just produce people who pursue perfecting works in the flesh rather than works in the Spirit because they’re trying to prove they are saved or that they are rightfully forgiven and pleasing to God? How is that going to produce healthy Christians?

Not only do we have to repent from unbelief to belief but also repent from dead works to grace and faith (Heb 6:1). But how can someone repent from dead works if they’re told that in order to be saved, they must do dead works? It is not possible to repent of our sins apart from the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we need to be saved and receive the power of the Holy Spirit first to then repent. Faith must come first apart from our own striving or else it is just dead works and salvation will not be attained.

Lordship Salvation makes turning from sin a requirement for God’s forgiveness. It makes “full surrender” a requirement for salvation. So then, turning from sin becomes a prerequisite to the gift of salvation, though it is impossible to do that turning from sin apart from the indwelling presence of the Spirit. In effect, people are told that they must clean up their lives first in order for God to forgive them or else they can’t be saved. But how is that “grace alone”? Do you see the problem? This is double-speak. It is a contradiction. On the one hand, they’re saying that it's by God’s grace alone but on the other hand, they’re saying you must do this, that, and the other, and first turn from all your sins to be saved. So which is it? Do you clean yourself off before you get into the shower? Or do you get into the shower to clean yourself off? Lordship Salvation gospel presentations put the cart before the horse and they put a tremendous emphasis on obedience to God as part of the gospel.

Because of Lordship Salvation’s terrible wording, it produces the effect of either not bringing people to the faith at all or it builds the foundation of their conversion upon dead works rather than repentance from dead works and repentance towards faith in God. The new Christian is set up to fail from the very beginning as their foundation is not rest and trust in God but a large extent of their foundation is striving to be a better person and to prove themselves to be genuinely saved. They will constantly seek God’s approval even though they tell themselves not to and try not to but they don’t know how to get out of that mindset because the Lordship teachings in their head are a virus and they don’t know it.

The Lordship Salvation “prove yourself gospel” prevents people from repenting from dead works to truly serve God in the strength of God’s love, rest, and acceptance. For many of them, as long as that kind of gospel is the foundation of their faith, they will fail to have victory over sin and fail to be fervent for God. Their works for God will come from their own self-effort and striving even though they pray, read their Bibles, and go to church.

Lordship Salvation frontloads all the good works at the very beginning of believing as the call to believe and as the tidings of good news rather than presenting good works as a process of discipleship in sanctification.

Lordship Salvation does not offer hope to those who have already tried changing their lives and have failed, and so it is not good news to them because they can’t change.

But is discipleship really about salvation as some people claim?

How do we reconcile all these things?

What about the thief on the cross? (Lk 23:39-43). He didn’t give anything to God and never had the opportunity to walk the disciple life yet Jesus gave him salvation. Okay, so you might say he was an exception because of extenuating circumstances.

But what about the woman caught in adultery? (Jn 8:1-11). Do you notice the order of how Jesus spoke? He first forgave her and said that He does not condemn her and then after that, He says to go and sin no more. So then, forgiveness if freely given and comes prior to the message to turn from sin. Grace comes first, then transformation, and then turning from sin.

Evidences of salvation must not be confused with conditions for salvation. These are evidences of salvation: Jn 8:30-32; 1 Jn 2:3, 6; Ro 8:14

When Jesus said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (Mt 16:24), He was speaking to His disciples. So, this wasn’t a gospel message here. It was a call to those who already believed in Him to be committed unto the end.

When the gospel invitation is presented, the command is to believe. Read these passages: Acts 16:30-31; Jn 3:16; 5:24; Ro 10:9. And there are many times where belief is commanded in the Bible like this while turning from sin is not commanded as part of the gospel message. If turning from sin were absolutely essential as a marriage partner in the gospel, then we would see that in every instance the gospel invitation is presented but the fact is that it is not. Therefore, Lordship Salvation teachers who claim that any other gospel besides theirs is a false gospel might want to recheck the Word of God which contradicts that claim since the Bible heralds the message of faith in Jesus apart from any mention of turning from sin. Therefore, in effect, their own Bibles in which they read are a false gospel to them because of what they claim.

Faith in Jesus is enough for forgiveness and eternal life. Of course, I am speaking of true faith, not just intellectual assent to information. The mind must receive the truth first, believe it, and then trust in Jesus must come for the forgiveness of sins because of Jesus Christ to reconcile their hearts to the love of the Father. However, in order to help that process, it can be beneficial to let them know what their sins are so they see their need for God and their helpless condition to be saved apart from Jesus. But this is not absolutely necessary for every individual or in every case. They need to achieve faith in the love of the Father through Jesus Christ. An encounter with the brightness of that love from God can be enough to reveal the darkness that is in their own hearts so that they repent through the work of the Holy Spirit upon them. It is faith in the love and goodness of God that transforms hearts, not their turning from sin. Though, their turning from sin is also necessary one way or another at some point (as, if it does not happen, then the life of God is not in them).

“Grace” and the “gift” of salvation are not earned or worked for: Eph 2:8-9; Jn 3:3; 4:10; 5:24. But notice how in Ephesians 2:10 the “works” come after salvation which is part of discipleship, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” The proclamation to believe in the Father through Jesus is sufficient for salvation. First comes the hearing, then the believing, and salvation is achieved.

John 6:27-29 Jesus said, “Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” Therefore, they said to Him, “What shall we do, so 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 has sent.” Believing is to do the work of God. Then the crowd asked for a sign that they could believe Jesus. But instead, Jesus spoke about Himself as the bread that comes down from heaven and that whoever eats and drinks Him will have eternal life. Why does Jesus speak that way? Because eating and drinking are equated with believing. Eating and drinking are all about receiving. It’s not a work but a sort of passive act of taking into oneself the substance though with participation of allowing it to go in. In the same way, believing is receiving Jesus by faith. Through faith, Jesus comes to dwell inside and He is salvation. This is eternal life and it is not attained through works but through faith. Receiving Jesus through faith is sufficient apart from works. How can you work for or work to get what you can only receive?

What about repentance?

The word for repent is metanoeō which literally means “to change one’s mind.” So when Peter declared, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38), he was telling them to change their minds, to change their hearts about Jesus. Because, they had crucified Him in being complicit with the death of this innocent man (v. 23, 36). In effect, they crucified God, which was the pinnacle of all sins. And now, this God, Jesus, rose from the dead, conquering death, and they’re like, “what do we do?!” So Peter tells them to change their hearts and minds about who this Jesus is, to believe that He is Lord, God, the promised Messiah, and is risen indeed. In this context, “repent” doesn’t mean anything more than that. Though, it would certainly logically necessitate a change in behavior because they would have been confessing their sin of treason against God and their attitude would be different now. If one has truly changed their mind and attitude, then they will live differently. But in this particular gospel message, Peter says many things to the effect of, “Be saved from this perverse generation!” Meaning, they need to deliver themselves out of the sins of the world in which they live. So Peter’s message includes repentance towards faith in God, to be baptized by the Spirit baptism of Jesus (Mt 3:11) which will wash away their sins (forgiveness), and that is how they receive the Holy Spirit. Then Peter preaches repentance from sin after that. But notice, it’s after. It was after the Spirit worked contrition in their hearts and it says nothing here about turning from sin as being a condition for the forgiveness of God. But as I said, one who genuinely has faith in God will do what they can to turn from sin. But forgiveness and reconciliation to God come first and out of that, the heart is transformed and then there is turning from sin and this is a process. The order and specified conditions are very important. We must not put the cart before the horse.

When John the Baptist preached a pre-gospel message of repentance, he said “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mt 3:2). Then he baptized the people in water “as they confessed their sins” (v. 6), so the knowledge of sin and changing one’s mind about it is an essential element or result. To “confess” means to be in agreement with God about what He thinks of sin. But this would also imply turning from sin which is further solidified by the judgement of God that John spoke of: “The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (v. 10). “His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (v. 12). Bad fruit would imply those people who don’t turn from their sins. These people are as chaff who will be thoroughly and completely burned up in God’s judgement if they refuse to repent. However, notice what John says. He says, “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance” (v. 8).

John himself did not confuse “repentance” with the “fruit” of repentance. But he distinguished them as separate but linked. The fruit of good works comes flowing out of the change of one’s mind. Therefore, the focus should really be on changing one’s mind and heart, not about convincing people to turn from sin. If their heart changes and they are convinced, then the fruit will naturally follow which will begin by confession and then by turning from sin.

We shouldn’t jump the gun on this one or treat turning from sin as an equal condition as turning towards faith in God. If we put too much emphasis on turning from sin and neglect the faith aspect of having faith in God’s love, goodness, and justice, then we make salvation sound like it’s not a gift of God’s grace but something we have to work for to get once we have successfully turned from our sins and cleaned up our lives. We might turn the grace of God into works.

Whereas, if we put too much emphasis on faith in God’s love, goodness, and justice to the neglect of telling them to turn from sin, it can be okay because it is the Holy Spirit who does the convicting work to change people’s hearts and minds, and the direction of their lives. John’s message was to convince people to change their minds and to agree with God about their sins in light of the fact that God’s judgement was coming. John was a messenger and he informed people of the truth. Then he exhorted them to repent (change their minds). But he didn’t necessarily tell people to turn from their sins. That was implied. Again, what I’m trying to emphasize here is that successfully turning from all of one’s sins is not a condition to receive God’s forgiveness. Forgiveness comes as a result of confession and then the fruit of that is turning from sin.

This is why Paul says in Romans 10:8-10

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

You see, it is faith in God and confession that results in salvation, not the act of turning from sin. That comes as a fruit of this salvation later. This is why salvation is not some far off out of reach thing like far above the heavens or way down below the earth. Salvation is so close and so easy to obtain that all you have to do is truly believe it in your heart and then confess your sins to God since you believe that Jesus is Lord. You don’t have to worry about perfect obedience, complete surrender, and successfully turning from all your sins. Those aren’t conditions for God to forgive you. All you have to do is confess and believe Jesus as both Lord and Savior and you have passed out of death and into life (Jn 5:24). Salvation is so close to everyone, it is already on the tip of their tongue. All they have to do is speak it and let God’s light in through faith.

A fact interesting to note is that in Acts 8, the Ethiopian eunuch was baptized immediately after he believed. The only condition Philip gave him was belief in Jesus. He said that if he believed with all his heart, then he may be baptized. But he didn’t say, “now hold on a minute. You need to prove you’re saved first by doing enough repenting.” Instead, Philip accepted his confession of faith without reservation and baptized him the same day. But I know of a lot of pastors and teachers in our day who would be strongly opposed to such an idea.

I will not speak much more about the word “repentance” here. But it should be briefly mentioned that the majority of Old Testament passages that use it do imply that as a result of repentance, people will turn from their sin. Also, when the early church fathers used the word, it also carried the implication to turn from sin. So, there is not true repentance if one’s life does not begin to look different or if one is living in active rebellion towards God. Rebellion is a state of unrepentance and it is therefore the fruit which reveals that true repentance has not taken place. For those who have been following and believing Jesus for some time, you cannot call Jesus “Lord” of your life and to claim Him as Savior if you are not also obeying His commands (Mt 7:21-27; Lk 6:46-49; James 2:14-26). If one’s repentance does not bear fruit, then it is a worthless and void repentance and that branch will be thrown into the fire to be burned up (Jn 15:6; Mt 13:36-43).

Instead of thinking about salvation in various terms, word concepts, meanings, and order of actions, or as something to obtain as if it is outside ourselves, it may be helpful to instead see salvation as the life of Christ within a person. That’s how the Apostle John saw it and he took that from Jesus’ teachings. Paul also said that to live is Christ and that Christ is our life (Phil 1:21; Gal 2:20; Col 3:4). Salvation is to have the indwelling presence of Christ who gives us spiritual life. In this way, salvation is personal, relational, and transformative. For someone to become “born-again,” is nothing other than the life of Christ dwelling within and living through that person. From this perspective, salvation is about receiving the life of Christ within you through opening your heart to God in faith and letting the light of His love and goodness wash away the darkness. It is God who does the work while you offer your willingness and participation. Salvation is all about receiving the Christ-life. It is not about all the mechanisms of doing. Faith is the door. Love is the power of cleansing. And the repentance of changing one’s mind is the participatory response to keep the door open to allow the transformation to let God’s light in to dispel the darkness.

I do not side with either Lordship Salvation or with Free Grace Theology. But I believe that Christ is both Savior and King for all true believers. Avoiding both extremes, I emphasize devotion to God from the heart which is faith and the natural outflowing of obedience to God. And I emphasize free grace and forgiveness which is not conditioned on performance in order to be reconciled to God. To endure to the end to obtain eternal life, it is necessary to maintain faith in God. But this is by grace because faith is to believe, rest, and trust in God; and this is not a work, for how can someone work if he is resting?

Continue to part 2: What is Discipleship?