Beware of Lordship Salvation

Danger
By Dave Breese

One of the animated discussions which is now in the evangelical Christian scene surprisingly concerns the very issue of salvation itself. The question, therefore, of "What must I do to be saved?" is now being answered in a more complicated fashion than simply, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved" (Acts 16:31). Traditional fundamentalists and most Evangelicals have long held to the doctrine of salvation by faith alone. The answer has now become more elaborate than that, as Christians newly discuss whether salvation is by faith alone or by faith plus some other things.

Stated very simply, the view that is now called "Lordship Salvation" (a view rarely defined to the satisfaction of anyone) holds that the offer of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is false, for faith includes good works.

There are a number of deficiencies involved in this view, which should be noted:

1. It improperly understands justification by faith. Justification does not mean to be "made righteous" or to "progressively become righteous." Rather, it means to be "declared righteous."

It is improper to define faith as "commitment," "dedication," "surrender," or any other expression which suggests a kinetic response on the part of the soul.

2. It ignores imputed righteousness. We are not saved by imparted, infused, or earned righteousness. No indeed, we are righteous by imputation.

3. It confuses justification and sanctification. To say that progressive sanctification is an "inevitable result" of salvation is evidence of doctrinal confusion. In each Christian, there may be at times a varying degree of affirmation to the leading of the Lord.

4. It misrepresents salvation itself. Salvation is presented in the Scripture in three tenses or three aspects. When I accept Christ, I have instant and eternal salvation in the sense of deliverance from the penalty of sin. As I live my life in commitment to Christ under the leadership and empowering of the Holy Spirit, I am delivered from the power of sin. Some Christians are insufficiently delivered from the power of sin, even to the extent of sickness (1 Cor 11:30) and physical death (1 Tim 1:20).

In the future, I am promised deliverance from the presence of sin. The Christian’s future in heaven is vouchsafed because of salvation by imputation and positional sanctification. When he believes, he is already seated in the heavenlies with Christ (Eph 2:6), and he is promised that he will never perish (John 10:28).

5. Lordship Salvation diminishes the value of New Testament truth for the Christian. A very high percentage of the epistles of the New Testament are written as instructions to believers. These instructions have produced conviction and commitment in millions of Christians down through the history of the Church. Lordship Salvation cancels the value of these admonitions, in that it declares that if one does not obey these instructions, one is not a Christian. Therefore, the answer to Christian imperfection (obvious in the character of many Christians) is that this person was never saved and needs to be saved. So evaporates the value of all instructions to grow in grace.

6. It holds the impossible doctrine of salvation by perfect commitment. The doctrine that one is saved by submission to the Lordship of Christ, cannot admit to the possibility of imperfect commitment. For, from a logical point of view, imperfect commitment is not, in fact, commitment. In that most honest Christians will admit to imperfect commitment, they are thereby admitting that they are not Christians. The impossibility of "perfect commitment" is a troublesome problem to the Lordshipists. So "Semi-Lordship Salvation" is what this notion is at best. We await word as to what percentage of commitment produces salvation. (Hint–the scriptural answer is zero, for salvation is by "unmerited favor," i.e., the grace of God.)

7. Therefore, Lordship Salvation makes assurance tenuous or impossible. Submission to the Lordship of Christ as the basis of salvation holds open the possibility that at some future date one may be less than perfectly submissive. If one holds to the Lordship Salvation view, one’s basis of assurance of salvation is gone.

8. It diminishes the value of Calvary. In the Lordship view, Christ becomes less the Savior and more the Helper. Under this view, I cannot "cast my helpless soul on Him," but rather I must cooperate with His helpfulness.

9. It equates discipleship and salvation. The advocates of salvation by commitment to Christ uncritically (and with profound lack of discernment) view the many calls of Christ to His own to come and be His disciples as the call to believe the Gospel. Consequently, the expression "Follow me" becomes the way of salvation. Hence, until one becomes a disciple, he is not a Christian. The call to become disciples of the King, extended to Jewish individuals, is very different from the call to believe and therefore be saved by grace and become a member of the Body of Christ.

10. It misunderstands repentance. To translate metanoia as "repentance" has been most unfortunate. "To do penance" is not its meaning. It means "a change of mind." Too often this will be thoughtlessly defined as "a turning about," "sorrow for sin," "being sorry enough to quit," "a complete change of character," or "making restitution"–all such definitions are falsehoods. By these inaccurate definitions, faith in Christ is freighted with burdens impossible to bear. Such defective epistemology has demoralized many a Christian.

11. It disorganizes the Christian mind. Salvation is either by grace or by works. They cannot be mixed (Rom 11:6). Works produce no standing before God or merit for heaven. Mixing grace and works overly strains the Christian mind. With these inchoate ideas (exhumed doubtless from the vicinity of Rome) who can say with assurance "I know whom I have believed" (2 Tim 1:12)? Paul could

Conclusion

These and many other considerations should be kept in mind when one examines the various ways of salvation being offered on the evangelical scene of our time. Much of the confusion of these days would be instantly resolved if we would remember that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. To redefine these words is not permitted, for they have real, changeless, and eternal meaning. Let us then remember: "Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that works not, but believes on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness" (Rom 4:4-5).

We know that we are people of eternal consequence because we were made in the image of God. We were redeemed by the most precious substance in the universe, and that is the blood of Jesus Christ. We were called by the Holy Spirit into a life of great purpose.

Romans 10:1-11 Dealing with salvation, being saved, and confessing with one’s mouth

How many times have you heard a preacher use Romans 10 in a message on how to be saved from hell?  If one truly looks at Romans 10 critically they will find that has nothing to do with salvation from hell.  Only faith alone in Christ alone can save us from the lake of fire.  Read the following and I think you will agree.

It would be difficult to find a concept which is richer and more varied in meaning than the biblical concept of salvation.  The breadth of salvation is so sweeping and its intended aim so magnificent that in many contexts the words used defy precise definition.  Yet these difficulties have not thwarted numerous interpreters from assuming, often without any contextual justification, that the words used invariably mean “deliverance from hell” or “go to heaven when you die.”  It may come as a surprise to many that this usage of “salvation” (Gk. Soteria) would have been the least likely meaning to come to mind of a reader of the Bible in the first century.  Indeed, in 812 usages of the various Hebrew words translated “to save” or “salvation” in the Old Testament, only 58 (7.1%) refer to eternal salvation. 

Unfortunately, the tendency to assume that salvation always refers to final deliverance from hell has led many to interpret certain passages incorrectly.  When James, for example, says, “Can faith alone save a man,” the Experimental Predestinarians understandably are perplexed about the apparent conflict with Paul.  However, if salvation means something other than “go to heaven when you die,” the apparent conflict evaporates.

In order to completely understand the meaning of salvation in various passages we must learn more about the Greek verb sozo (“to save”), and the noun soteria, particularly as they were used in secular Greek and in the Old Testament.  Then we must consider the references of these words in the New Testament (over 150 references).  Much of the time their meanings are other than “final deliverance from hell.”  This is precisely the case in Romans 10. 

In Romans 10:1-14, the usage of the word “salvation” seams to equate it with deliverance from the enemies of the people of God in the present.  Old Testament prophecy has a wonderful richness.  Couched in oriental thought, it is often mystifying to Western man.  We can see that God is fulfilling His promises in many individual historical events which will finally culminate in a complete fulfillment.  There is a long line of fulfillment of many predictions.  Paul refers to the Old Testament doctrine of the salvation of the remnant through many individual historical events in Romans 9 and 10.

Romans 10:1 states, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.”

But what salvation is in view?  To answer that, we must turn to the preceding and following contexts.  In the preceding context we discover that a deliverance from temporal devastation was his meaning.  Quoting Isaiah 1:9, the apostle directs our attention to the Assyrian invasion (ca. 722 b.c.).  Unless the Lord leaves some survivors, the nation will end up being completely destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah (see Romans 9:29).  But a remnant did survive the Assyrian invasion.  And this remnant becomes a fulfillment of the promise that a remnant would one day return to the Lord.  Paul refers to this in Romans 9:27 and 28.  There he quotes Isaiah 10:22-23 and refers to the remnant that will be saved (Romans 9:27).  The salvation in view is not deliverance from hell but the fulfillment of the promise to Israel that she would one day be resorted to Palestine.  Israel once again faces temporal destruction.  The Lord announced it in His predictions of the total devastation of the temple and the people of Israel that occurred in A.D. 70.  Because He knew Jerusalem would become desolate, the Lord wept for their failure.

The fact that Paul quotes Scripture related to Israel’s temporal destruction and the certain knowledge he had of the Lord’s prophecy surely suggests that, when he says he desires Israel’s “salvation,” he refers to the line of cumulative fulfillment of the remnant doctrine.  The terrible devastation that would come upon Israel in A.D. 70 was their judgment for rejecting the free gift of the righteousness of God in Christ, their Messiah (Rom. 10:2-4).

The following context (10:2-8) does not define the salvation of vs. 1 (as Experimental Predestinarians teach) but explains why they cannot experience this salvation in daily life.  It is because they had not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God and therefore woud not receive His free righteousness (10:2).  We conclude then that being “saved” in v. 1 refers to God’s promise of divine aid to His people in time.  It is His provision for victory over their enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Passing over the next few verses for the moment, we come to an unusual confession:

If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved (Rom 10:9 NASB).

This confession is unusual because it is the only place in the New Testament where a condition in addition to faith is added for salvation.  The Gospel of John, which was written expressly for the purpose that we might believe and as a result be saved (Jn. 20:30-31), never mentions confession of Christ as Lord as a condition.  If we must confess Jesus as Lord in order to be saved, then a man would not be saved by reading John’s gospel.

A very simple solution to this difficulty is to return to the definition of salvation in the immediate context.  This salvation is not deliverance from hell but is the same salvation mentioned in vs. 1, divine aid to the believer as he struggles against his temporal enemies.  This was the deliverance Israel failed to enjoy.  Only one thing is necessary, according to the book of Romans, for salvation from hell: belief.  But two things are necessary for us to enjoy the full salvation spoken of in this context which includes God’s blessing, His individual and spiritual salvation in this life: (1) faith in Christ and (2) submission to His Lordship.  Furthermore, it is not inevitable that a man who believes in Christ will also confess Him as Lord.  Paul makes this plain in the next verse: “For with the heart man believes, resulting in the righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation” (Rom. 10:10 NASB).

Salvation in this verse has the same meaning it did in vs. 1 and vs. 9, God’s divine aid to his people in time.  Believing with the heart results in deliverance from hell, but confession of the lordship of Christ is necessary for the kind of salvation mentioned here, salvation form present enemies.  Instead of confession of Jesus as Lord being the inevitable result of salvation as the Experimental Predestinarians teach, Paul, to the contrary, says that salvation is the inevitable result of confessing Jesus as Lord!  But this is not a salvation from hell.  Just as confession of Jesus as Lord results in salvation , so calling upon the name of the Lord has the same effect:  “For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Rom. 10:13 NASB).