(By Rich Gregory)

How were the heart’s of the early believers so enflamed by the gospel? What was it that so consumed them that they were willing to spurn fame, fortune and family?

We have already been forced to realize the fact that within modern Christianity there exists a deficiency of commitment to Christ and His work. It is acknowledgeable that the reason for Paul’s statements of such deep commitment in the epistles was necessary in order to inspire his readers to the same commitment. However, the fact remains that far fewer people claimed to be believers in those initial years than do today, and somehow at the same time, they did, in spite of their small number, commit extraordinary acts that are due in large part to the work of the Holy Spirit using their sheer devotion.

Simply put, the primary factor which caused those early Christians to sell out everything for Christ was the fresh memory of what He had done for them. Their memory of that awesome day had not been allowed to scab over. Rather, a life-changing scar ran deeply through their minds with the memory of the day that Christ had died. Their worldview was crimson, and their purpose in life was fastened to the wood of the cross of Christ. They felt what it was to die with him, and to be daily resurrected with him in the newness of life (Rom. 6:4-5). They understood the imperative call for the cross to be central within their lives.  

They were chained to its memory because having been there, the simultaneous horror and wonder of those moments were seared into their minds. Their encounter with the cross had changed them dramatically. They didn’t have the luxury, like the modern Christian, of reading or hearing the story of the crucifixion and walking away. No, the sight of cross (which was common in their day) would have brought the sights, smells, and feelings of that jaw dropping day flooding back to their senses. They could not escape the power of the cross in their life!

This is why in Gal. 6:14, Paul is able to say, “But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world!” Peter as well, could not help but remind himself of this reality when he states, speaking of himself in 1 Pet. 2:24, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.” They’d been there. They’d seen it happen. We do not have the luxury of those early believers. That does not however, mean that the image of the cross cannot be driven with force into the center of our hearts, or that it cannot be burned into our minds.

When our hearts throb with our own self-absorption, of course we are unable to be passionately committed to the person of Christ. It is essential that the cross and our memory of its power daily act as lance that pierces our hearts, allowing the self-centeredness of our sin to be drained. Only then can the cross change us and allow godliness and passion for Christ to grow within our hearts. Just like those early believers, once we have experienced it’s ongoing power in our own lives, we will never be able to forget it!

The gospel is the power of God unto salvation not only for the Jew and the Gentile, but also for the daily life of the believer. We are saved, yet our power and dedication comes not through our own strength, but rather through the strength of Christ’s atoning work on our behalf. Only as the image of His death and resurrection is held constantly before our eyes will we be motivated to forfeit all and charge after Him with a reckless faith.

From the moment of salvation the burning power of the cross is smoldering within our hearts. It is imperative that we allow it to be fanned into full flame by continually reminding ourselves of the gospel, and preaching it to our own hearts. On a daily basis, we must remind ourselves that we were sinners, look to the life of Christ, and knowing that He died for us, follow His example and die to ourselves.

It might seem basic, but that is because it is basic. It is most certainly however, what is necessary in order to walk with Him. 

The gospel is able to envelop and invigorate the flagging Christian, no matter how mature or immature. As believers, we must allow it to do so first within our own hearts by constantly reminding ourselves of Christ’s work on our behalf. It is then imperative that we do so for others by forcing them, through the power of Christ’s work visible within our own lives, to see the work of the cross. It is our duty and utter joy, because of what He’s done for us, to love Him and follow Him and to be so committed to Him that we leave the world around us with no choice but to accept or reject Him because they are unable to miss the stamp of the cross emblazoned upon us.

* Rich serves at Grace Church as a ministerial resident. He also works in the admissions department of The Master’s Seminary.

Although there are many people in the modern age who are committed to going to church, very few of them are as committed to sacrificing everything for Jesus Christ. Shocking though this may sound, it is true that while many churches within modern evangelicalism are typically full, their impact upon the world around them is minimal. The modern church has excelled at filling its pews with bodies, but to a large degree has failed at producing warriors fit to do battle for the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Many churches today are filled with “pew potatoes” who come on Sunday morning, soak up the message, but become overweight spiritually by failing to exercise their faith. Successful Christian living, and truly successful Christian churches are not measured through the size of their worship center, or the number of bodies gathered on a Sunday morning. Rather, a successful church is to be judged through the spiritual health of the members that constitute a “church.”

When reading through the book of Acts, it is nearly impossible to miss the initial numeric explosion of the church.  What was it that allowed the gospel to be unleashed upon that society with such power and force? The answer is simple, and is revealed in the opening chapters of the book. The were focused upon the sacrifice that Christ had made for them, and they weren’t afraid to spread that message to all that were around them. 

The culmination of Peter’s great sermon on the day of Pentecost that sparked the detonation is recorded in Acts 2:36, “Let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.” The tension that must have been in the air can be sensed in the text. He forced them to come to grips with the fact that they had crucified the very Son of God! Peter did not know how the crowd would respond. When confronted with those words would the people become penitent revivalists, or would they be transformed into a surging mob? Peter not only knew the truth, but he went further and confronted his world with the words of truth and life regardless of the personal cost of what such an action might mean. The point is not the results of what happened that day, but rather the Peter’s willingness to the proclamation of truth.

Peter, and thousands like him in the early church, did not allow their faith to be active solely at a worship service. They lived their faith, and they were willing to sacrifice everything on behalf of the idea and the resulting reality of the gospel that was at work within their lives. As Christ had commanded them in Luke 14:28, many of them had counted the cost and found that all other things were worthless when compared to the “surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:8). 

Because of that fact, many of the early believers were focused upon the gospel and sacrificed everything for its advancement.  They saw the value of knowing Christ, and were willing to give up everything else in its place. Worldly wealth, wisdom, and worries were counted as rubbish, if only the name of Christ could be made known and glorified. Those early believers made a mark upon their world that history can never forget or erase. They were not just committed to a church; they were committed, sold out, and on fire for the name of the One who had redeemed them through an incomparable sacrifice upon a rough wooden cross!

Where is that same commitment within the church of modern America? It may be seen in individual lives, but on a large scale, people come, the church grows, and an addition is added to the building while the all-consuming passion for the gospel lies largely in dormant silence. The church is consumed with seeking programs, donors, and philanthropic projects, while lost people stream around Christianity on their way to an eternity apart from God. God has graciously placed every believer into his or her world where he or she alone is able to have a unique ability to witness to those who are lost and dying around them.

It is an incumbent responsibility upon Christians of our day to not only strive after this goal within their own lives, but also to be actively cultivating this mindset within their local flock. Pastors and laymen alike must be challenged to awaken from their spiritual lethargy, and to become fully committed to their commission and reason for existence. Every believer ought to be viewing himself as a minister of the gospel. It is not just the pastor’s job to be an ambassador for the faith, but rather it is the job of every person who claims the name of Christ to live heart, soul, and mind in passionate pursuit of becoming a premier ambassador for Christ, actively begging men to be reconciled to God (2 Cor. 5:20). 

The pursuit is too crucial, the outcome too critical, to simply allow ourselves the luxury of a Sunday Christianity. It is imperative that we as Christian leaders challenge ourselves and those within our pews to rise up and exercise their faith in a dynamic way by allowing the power of the gospel to flow forth from their lives and impact the world in which God has placed. 

But how is this done? We will consider the answer to that question tomorrow.

(By John MacArthur)

Did Jesus really claim to be God incarnate in human flesh? Or, as skeptics argue, did His followers later invent those claims and attribute them to Him? Thankfully, the biblical account of His life and ministry leaves no doubt about who Jesus declared Himself to be.

Jesus frequently spoke of His unique, otherworldly origin, of having preexisted in heaven before coming into this world. To the hostile Jews He declared, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world” (John 8:23). “What then,” He asked, “if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before?” (John 6:62). In His high-priestly prayer Jesus spoke of the glory which He had with the Father before the world existed (John 17:5). In John 16:28 He told His disciples, “I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again and going to the Father.” Thus, John described Jesus in the prologue of his gospel with these words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).

Amazingly, Jesus assumed the prerogatives of deity. He claimed to have control over the eternal destinies of people (John 8:24; cf. Luke 12:8–9; John 5:22, 27–29), to have authority over the divinely-ordained institution of the Sabbath (Matt. 12:8; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:5), to have the power to answer prayer (John 14:13–14; cf. Acts 7:59; 9:10–17), and to have the right to receive worship and faith due to God alone (Matt. 21:16; John 14:1; cf. John 5:23). He also assumed the ability to forgive sins (Mark 2:5–11)—something which, as His shocked opponents correctly understood, only God can do (v. 7).

Jesus also called God’s angels (Gen. 28:12; Luke 12:8–9; 15:10; John 1:51) His angels (Matt. 13:41; 24:30–31); God’s elect (Luke 18:7; Rom. 8:33) His elect (Matt. 24:30–31); and God’s kingdom (Matt. 12:28; 19:24; 21:31; Mark 1:15; Luke 4:43; John 3:3) His kingdom (Matt. 13:41; 16:28; cf. Luke 1:33; 2 Tim. 4:1).

When a Samaritan woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us” (John 4:25) Jesus replied, “I who speak to you am He” (v. 26). In His high-priestly prayer to the Father, He referred to Himself as “Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3); “Christ” is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word translated “Messiah.” When asked at His trial by the high priest, “Are You the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One?” (Mark 14:61) Jesus replied simply, “I am” (v. 62). He also accepted, without correction or amendment, the testimonies of Peter (Matt. 16:16–17), Martha (John 11:27), and others (e.g., Matt. 9:27; 20:30–31) that He was the Messiah. He was the One of whom Isaiah prophesied, “His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6).

The Lord’s favorite description of Himself was “Son of Man” (cf. Matt. 8:20; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:22; John 9:35–37, etc.). Although that title seems to stress His humanity, it also speaks of His deity. Jesus’ use of the term derives from Daniel 7:13–14, where the Son of Man is on equal terms with God the Father, the Ancient of Days.

The Jews viewed themselves collectively as sons of God. Jesus, however, claimed to be God’s Son in a unique sense. “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father,” Jesus affirmed, “and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him” (Matt. 11:27). In John 5:25–26 He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself.” After receiving word that Lazarus was ill Jesus said to the disciples, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it” (John 11:4). When asked at His trial, “Are You the Son of God, then?” Jesus replied, “Yes, I am” (Luke 22:70; cf. Mark 14:61–62). Instead of rejecting the title, the Lord embraced it without apology or embarrassment (Matt. 4:3, 6; 8:29; Mark 3:11–12; Luke 4:41; John 1:49–50; 11:27).

The hostile authorities clearly understood that Jesus’ use of the title Son of God was a claim to deity. Otherwise, they would not have accused Him of blasphemy (cf. John 10:46). In fact, it was Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God that led the Jews to demand His death: “The Jews answered [Pilate], ‘We have a law, and by that law He ought to die because He made Himself out to be the Son of God’” (John 19:7). And in John 5:18 — “The Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.” Even while He was on the cross, some mocked Him, sneering, “He trusts in God; let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him; for He said, ‘I am the Son of God’” (Matt. 27:43).

Jesus further outraged the unbelieving Jews by taking for Himself the covenant name of God, “I am” (Yahweh). That name was so sacred to the Jews that they refused to even pronounce it, lest they take it vain (cf. Exod. 20:7). In John 8:24 Jesus warned that those who refuse to believe He is Yahweh will perish eternally: “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.” (The word “He” is not in the original Greek.) Later in that chapter “Jesus said to [His hearers], ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am’” (v. 58). Unlike many modern deniers of His deity, the Jews knew exactly what He was claiming, as their subsequent attempt to stone Him for blasphemy makes clear (v. 59). In John 13:19 Jesus told His disciples that when what He predicted came to pass, they would believe that He is Yahweh. Even His enemies, coming to arrest Him in Gethsemane, were overwhelmed by His divine power and fell to the ground when Jesus said “I am” (John 18:5–8).

All of the above lines of evidence converge on one inescapable point: Jesus Christ claimed absolute equality with God. Thus He could say, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30); “He who sees Me sees the One who sent Me” (John 12:45); and “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (14:9–10). And thus we can conclude that “in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9), and we can worship Him accordingly as “our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:13).

* Today’s article was adapted from John’s commentary on the Gospel of John 1-11 (Moody, 2006).

(by John MacArthur)

The following is excerpted from the new material in John’s revised edition of The Gospel According to Jesus (Zondervan, 2008).

Understood correctly, the gospel is an invitation to slavery. When we call people to faith in Christ, we need to stress that fact in the same way Jesus did. On the one hand, the gospel is a proclamation of freedom to sin’s captives and liberty to people who are broken by the bondage of sin’s power over them. On the other hand, it is a summons to a whole different kind of slavery: “Having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness” (Romans 6:18). As the apostle Peter wrote, “Act as free men, and do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bondslaves of God” (1 Peter 2:16).

Both sides of the equation are vital. There is a glorious freedom in being the slaves of Christ, because “if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36). On the other hand, being a true follower of Christ means the end of human autonomy. And that is as it should be, because self-determination turns out to be nothing more than an illusion anyway. The only kind of liberty it offers is “free[dom] in regard to righteousness” (Romans 6:20)—and that is the very essence of bondage to sin. Its inevitable end is death and destruction. If we want true liberty from sin and all its fruits, it’s not autonomy that we need, but a different kind of bondage: complete surrender to the lordship of Christ.

In other words, everyone serves some master. No one is truly independent and self-governing. We are all enslaved in one way or the other. In the words of the apostle Paul:

Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. (Romans 6:16-21)

No message can rightly be called the gospel if it glosses over or denies those truths. The gospel according to Jesus calls sinners to give up their independence, deny themselves, submit to an alien will, and abandon all rights in order to be owned by and controlled by the Lord. By confessing Jesus as Lord (Kurios), we automatically confess that we are His slaves (douloi).

What does this mean in practical terms? To borrow the words of  Edwin Yamauchi,

It means that we have been captured, beaten, and enslaved. We discover, however, that our captor is a Despot of love and mercy. Neither is there anything slavish or servile about our slavehood, for we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but the spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15). Nor has our reduction to slavery been a debasement or an abasement.  . . . We have been elevated to serve in a heavenly court and have been invested with a higher nature.

. . . [It also] reminds us of our ransom from another master at an incredible price. It was not with the fabulous sums of all the royal estates we were bought, nor was it for handsome features or some prized skill we were purchased. But rather unlovely, without any merit, rebellious at heart, we were redeemed with the precious blood of the Master Himself.

Having thus been bought by Christ we are entirely His.

There’s no other possible way to view it.

The Shepherds’ Conference began with as much enthusiasm and energy as it ended. The music of Friday night’s session was glorious. There were many in the audience, I’m sure, who wished the conference didn’t have to end.

John MacArthur’s message focused on the slave/Master relationship between the believer and Christ. It was a powerful and fitting end to a wonderful conference. It also corresponds to new material in the upcoming anniversary edition of The Gospel According to Jesus.

Due to some complications here, we were unable to liveblog this final session. However, we will be posting excerpts of that material on Pulpit in the upcoming weeks.

For a great liveblogged summary of Friday night’s session, click here. Or for a transcript of a similar message John preached earlier this year, click here.

Remember that photos from the conference can be viewed here. And the MP3 downloads will be available soon. We will surely be posting more about the conference in upcoming days.

Today’s post is continued from yesterday’s discussion on “Free Grace” Theology and its interpretation of Matthew 7:21-23.

A Misguided Hermeneutical Approach

The second problem is that the FG view apparently sees John 6:40 as the interpretative key which unlocks the hidden meaning of Matthew 7:21. There is nothing in the immediate context which leads the interpreter to understand “the will of the Father” as faith in Christ, and only when this meaning is imported from John 6:40 does this interpretation emerge. But where does that leave the original hearers’ of the Sermon on the Mount? Without a copy of the Gospel of John in their hip pockets, they would be left completely in the dark, with the true meaning of Matthew 7:21 hidden from their eyes.

On top of that, even if the original hearers had possessed the Gospel of John, what would compel them to look to John 6:40 to discover the meaning of Matthew 7:21? FG teachers confidently state that the meaning of “the will of the Father” in Matthew 7:21 can be found in John 6:40, but how do they know that? The whole approach seems to betray a desire to preserve FG theology. Unfortunately, it does so at the expense of the clear meaning of Matthew 7:21-23.

A Complete Misunderstanding of John 6:40

Thirdly, the FG explanation completely misinterprets John 6:40. In other words, this interpretation not only ignores key details in the immediate context of passage under consideration, but it also uses John 6:40 to import into Matthew 7:21-23 meaning which is not even found in John 6:40! Put simply, the will of the Father in John 6:40 is not God’s will for mankind, but rather God’s will for His Son Jesus.

Consider the verse in its context. In John 6:38-40, Jesus says:

(38) For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. (39) This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. (40) For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.

Verse 38 is simple enough: Jesus says He has come to do with the will of the Father. He follows this up in verse 39 by explaining what this will is: that He (that is Jesus) would lose none of those whom the Father has given to Him, but rather that He would raise up all of these believers on the last day. In verse 40, Jesus elaborates further on what He has said in verse 39 (indicated by the explanatory gar [“for”] at the beginning of v. 40) by again explaining the will of the Father for Jesus. The will of the Father, He says, is that all believers will have eternal life (the emphasis being not on the present possession of eternal life but on the future culmination of it). And who is going to make sure they have eternal life? Who is going to accomplish the Father’s will and guarantee this eternal life by raising believers up on the last day? Jesus! As He says at the end of verse 40: “I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” Jesus will indeed accomplish the will of Him who sent Him, and therein is the hope of the believer.

To summarize, the will of the Father in John 6:38-40 is not that people would believe—it is that those who do believe would have eternal life and that Jesus would guarantee this by raising them up on the last day. None whom the Father has given to the Son shall perish, because Jesus shall do the will of the Father. Therefore, to use John 6:40 to interpret Matthew 7:21 may seem to get FG off the hook, but it amounts to a careless handling of the Word of God. If FG teachers are determined to relieve the tension that exists between Matthew 7:21-23 and their theology, they will need to seek some other way to do it. My vote is that they jettison their theological system altogether.

Matt is the Senior Pastor of Community Bible Church in Vista, California.

In case you haven’t heard of it, “Free Grace” is the name given to a theological system founded by Zane Hodges and currently promoted by Bob Wilkin and The Grace Evangelical Society. According to “Free-Grace” theology (hereafter FG), genuine conversion does not necessarily result in a spiritually transformed life. In other words, FG advocates affirm that an individual can believe in Christ and yet show forth absolutely no fruit whatsoever in terms of obedience to God or love for Christ. Put another way, they believe in a regeneration which may or may not result in progressive sanctification. Most times, they say, it does not.

FG teachers would go so far as to say that if an individual were to believe in Christ for a brief moment—even as brief as 10 seconds—and then recant of that belief and live out the rest of his life as a Christ-rejecting atheist who never obeys God, that individual is a true child of God and will some day be in heaven. In other words, rather than recognizing that such an individual did not truly believe in Christ to begin with (1 John 2:19), Free-Gracers would affirm that person’s faith and conversion as genuine, for regeneration is no guarantee that one will persevere in the faith.

Among the many passages of Scripture which contradict FG on this point is Matthew 7:21-23. In this passage, Jesus says: 

(21) “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. (22) Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ (23) And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’”

The obvious problem that this presents for the FG position is Jesus’ assertion that only those who “do the will of my Father” will enter the kingdom. This runs contrary to the FG gospel which says that most of those who end up in heaven will not have lived a life of obedience to God during their lives on earth.

One of the primary ways that FG teachers try to solve this dilemma is by using John 6:40 to interpret “the will of My Father” in Matthew 7:21 (e.g., see Joseph Dillow, The Reign of the Servant Kings, 199; Bob Wilkin, Confident in Christ, 216). According to this approach, doing the will of the Father in John 6:40 (and therefore in Matthew 7:21) refers to believing in Christ. Therefore, Matthew 7:21 simply says that only those who do the Father’s will (which is to believe in Christ) will enter the kingdom of heaven. And with that, the tension between Matthew 7:21-23 and FG theology suddenly vanishes. Or does it?

To get right to the point, I believe that this approach to Matthew 7:21-23 suffers from at least three significant difficulties: (1) a neglect of the original context; (2) a misguided hermeneutical approach; and (3) a complete misunderstanding of John 6:40. (Today we will consider the first of these three. We will look at the other two in tomorrow’s post.)

A Neglect of the Original Context

The first problem is that this explanation of Matthew 7:21-23 ignores key details in the text itself. The most obvious one is the clear contrast that Jesus establishes between those “who [do] the will of the Father” in verse 21 and those “who practice lawlessness” in verse 23 (both present participles in the Greek). Those who do the will of the Father (i.e., live lives of obedience) will enter the kingdom (v. 21), but those who practice lawlessness (i.e., live lives of disobedience) will not enter the kingdom (v. 23). “Doing the will of the Father” most naturally refers to obeying God, and the way it is set in contrast to living a life of disobedience only confirms this interpretation.

In addition, there is an irony in Jesus’ description in which those who call Jesus “Lord” do not obey Him as Lord. In other words, they profess to be followers of Christ who live in submission to God’s authority, and yet they do not live in obedience to the will of the Father. Their lives of disobedience betray the hypocrisy of their confession. As it is often said, they profess, but they do not possess.

FG theologians respond to this interpretation with two objections. First, they insist that it amounts to a person trusting in his own obedience as the basis for his salvation. In response to this objection, Jesus is not saying that obedience to the Father is the basis of the believer’s salvation, but rather the inevitable result of it. Only those who obey the will of the Father will enter the kingdom because everyone who truly believes in Christ will demonstrate their faith in the way that they live. Genuine conversion will not fail to result in works of obedience.

This truth is taught throughout the New Testament, but one example will suffice. 1 John 2:3 says: “And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.” We don’t come to know Christ by obeying His commandments—rather, the evidence that we have already come to know Christ (through faith) is that we obey His commandments. In this way, obedience to God is not a prerequisite for conversion—it is an inevitable result of conversion. FG people seem to have a difficult time understanding the difference between the two (and therefore often reject the latter because they mistake it for the former).

The second objection involves the passage itself. FG teachers point out that the very individuals who are rejected by Christ in verse 23 are described in verse 22 as those who trust in their obedience as the basis for their salvation. (Verse 22: “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’”) Therefore, the objection goes, whatever Jesus means by “the will of the Father” in verse 21, it couldn’t refer to a life of obedience to God.

In response to this objection, the works that Jesus describes in Matthew 7:22 are not acts of obedience to the will of the Father. Nowhere does God command the common man to prophesy, cast out demons, and perform miracles. The individuals rejected by Christ claimed to be engaged in these activities in the name of Jesus—and they may have been—and yet, at the same time, they had not lived lives of obedience to the Father. In fact, just the opposite—they had lived lives of lawlessness. In contrast, only those who do the will of the Father will enter the kingdom.

(To Be Concluded Tomorrow)

In light of yesterday’s discussion, it is perhaps helpful to cite an extended quote from Zane Hodges (one of the leading opponents to the lordship position). Yesterday’s article originally came from a longer journal article by John MacArthur in response to the Free Grace theology of those like Hodges. We are posting this as an example of what John’s article was safeguarding against.

The quote itself comes from a message that Zane Hodges delivered at the Church of the Open Door, pastored by G. Michael Cocoris. The series of tapes is entitled, “Great Themes in the Book of Hebrews.” The online source for this quote, along with several other similar quotes, comes from here (HT: Jonathan Moorhead).

[Beginning of Quote -- by Zane Hodges]

I have a friend, and more than a friend, a man who labored wvith me side by side in the ministry of God’s Word in the little group that has become __________ Bible chapel and this friend has fallen away from the Christian faith. He graduated from Bob Jones University and from Dallas Theological Seminary. And about the time when he and his wife left Dallas his wife contracted a very serious illness which over the years got progressively worse until she was reduced to being a complete invalid, and after the death of his wife I visited my friend (who now lives in the Midwest and who teaches Ancient History in a secular university).

And as we sat in the living room together, face to face, he told me very frankly but graciously that he no longer claimed to be a Christian at all, that he no longer believed the things that he once preached and taught, and the situation was even worse than he described because I heard through others that in the classroom on the university campus he often mocked and ridiculed the Christian faith. As I sat in that living room I was very painfully aware that it was impossible for me to talk that man into changing his mind. It was impossible for me to talk him back to the conviction he had once held. It was impossible for me to renew him to repentance. You want to find someone harder to deal with than an unsaved person? Find a person like that….

Oh how disgraceful for a man to have known the truth and proclaimed the truth and then to deny the truth! He has put the Son of God to an open shame! Well you say, “I guess he’s headed for hell, right? I guess he’s headed for eternal damnation. He’s renounced his Christian faith.” Wait a minute. I didn’t say that, and neither does the writer of Hebrews. Let me remind you that Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. He that cometh to Me shall never hunger and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.” And He also said, “He that cometh to Me I shall in no wise cast out.”… God’s will is that He lose no one (John 6:37-40). He has never lost anyone and He never will! And I grieve because my friend and brother has lost his faith but Christ has not lost him. He has lost his faith but Christ has not lost him! Do you believe in the grace of God?

[End of Quote -- Emphasis added]

That is an astounding conclusion, especially in light of the New Testament’s emphasis on the perseverance of true faith and the dangers of apostasy. Nonetheless, it is statements like this that characterize the “Free Grace” (non-lordship) position, and help underscore the need for a biblical response.

1 John 2:18-19: “Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for it they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us.”

All true believers will be saved to the uttermost. Christ’s High Priestly ministry guarantees it. They have been justified, they are being sanctified, and they will be glorified. Not one of them will miss out on any stage of the process, though in this life they all find themselves at different points along the way. The truth has been known historically as the perseverance of the saints.

Perseverance means that “those who have true faith can lose that faith neither totally nor finally” (Anthony A. Hoekema, Saved by Grace, 234). It echoes God’s promise through Jeremiah: “I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will pity the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me” (32:40, emphasis added).

The Westminster Confession of Faith has defined perseverance as follows:

They whom God hath accepted in His Beloved, effectually called and sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace; but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved (chap. 17, sec. 1).

This definition does not deny the possibility of miserable failings in one’s Christian experience, because the Confession also said,

Nevertheless [believers] may, through the temptations of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of the means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins; and for a time continue therein; whereby they incur God’s displeasure, and grieve his Holy Spirit: come to be deprived of some measure of their graces and comforts; have their hearts hardened, and their consciences wounded; hurt and scandalize others, and bring temporal judgments upon themselves (sec. 3).

Sin is a reality in the believer’s experience, so it is clear that insistence on the salvific necessity of a working faith does not include the idea of perfectionism. Scripture is filled with warnings to people in the church lest they should fall away (cf. Heb 6:4–8; 1 Tim 1:18–19; 2 Tim 2:16–19). But those warning passages do not negate the many promises that believers will persevere:

Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life (John 4:14).

I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall not hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst (John 6:35).

You are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall also confirm you in the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (1 Cor 1:7–9).

May the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely: and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass (1 Thess 5:23–24).

They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, in order that it might be shown that they all are not of us (1 John 2:19).

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen (Jude 24–25, KJV, emphasis added in all citations).

Horne observed,

It is noteworthy that when Jude exhorts us to keep ourselves in the love of God (v. 21) he concludes with a doxology for Him who is able to keep us from falling and who will present us without blemish before the presence of His glory (v. 24). The warning passages are means which God uses in our life to accomplish His purpose in grace. (Charles Horne, Salvation, 95)

And, it could be added, the warning passages like Jude 21 reveal that the writers of Scripture were very keen to alert those whose hope of salvation might be grounded in a spurious faith. Obviously the apostolic authors were not laboring under the illusion that every person in the churches to whom they were writing was genuinely converted.

Note: A few weeks ago, John MacArthur preached a powerful message on what it means to be a slave of Christ. The transcript of the message is available to read at Bible Bulletin Board. For those who may not have time to read the whole thing, we’ve included a short excerpt below.

* * * * * 

Kurios and doulos are the two sides of the relationship [between a master and a slave in Roman times]. A slave is someone whose life belongs totally to someone else, absolute ownership, absolute control, absolute subjection, absolute obedience, absolute loyalty, absolute dependence. Slavery then was a social relationship between two persons where one had nothing, willed nothing and received nothing but what the master authorized, desired and provided.

Now if [we] don’t grasp that idea of slavery . . . [then] it’s hard for us to really understand the essence of what it is to be a Christian. You are a slave of Jesus Christ. You are owned. You have been purchased by His blood, Acts 20. You have been bought, not with silver and gold, but with, what?, 1 Peter 1:18 and 19, the precious blood of Jesus Christ. You have been purchased, Revelation 5:9. You have no independent rights. Slaves had no rights. Slaves owned nothing. They could not own their own property. In the eyes of the law they were not citizens, they could hold no public office. They were completely under the discretion and the provision and the protection and the care and the abuse (in an earthly sense) of their owner.

. . . The Spirit of God took the slave metaphor because it was the best metaphor to describe our personal relationship to Christ. He bought us, He owns us. We are devoted to Him and to Him alone. To be obedient to Him at all times, we have no will but His will. He is our Lord, we confess Him as Lord. That’s exactly what He demanded. You remember the words of Luke 9:23? We’ve repeated them so many times. “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself.” That’s slave talk. That’s slave talk.  “Take up his cross and follow Me.” It’s the end of you, the end of your life. You’re finished, it’s over, you’re done. You are now the slave of Jesus Christ. And it’s not burdensome. Jesus said, “Take My yoke because My yoke is easy and My burden is light and you’ll find rest.”

A slave could have some status, but the status the slave had was related to who his master was. That’s why it was an honor to be part of Caesar’s household even though you were a slave. You were a slave at the highest level. And we have no honor for ourselves other than that honor that comes to us because of who our master is, right? And that’s why the apostles could say, “I’m a slave of God, I’m a slave of Jesus Christ.” That’s where the honor came from. 

And I submit to Him for all my needs, I’m dependent on Him as my protector and my provider and I submit to all His discipline of my failures and my disobedience that He might conform me more to His will. And I submit to Him someday for that reward which He determines is suitable to give to me when I come before Him and hear, “Well done, good and faithful slave.” Let Him give me what He will.

And by the way, you’re going to be a slave to someone. Being a slave to Jesus Christ is beyond any kind of slavery that anybody ever knew because this master, listen to this one, makes us sons and gives us all the rights of His own sons. He adopts us into His family, calls us joint-heirs with Christ, takes us to heaven where we rule and reign from His own throne and pours out all the lavish riches in His possession forever and ever and ever for our own unmitigated joy and His own glory. Who wouldn’t want to be a slave under that master?  What a joy to be a slave of Jesus Christ.