What we believe about the gospel is important. Actually, important is an understatement. The gospel is the very core of the Christian faith. What we believe about the gospel is one of the single defining realities of Christianity. In fact, what we believe about the gospel makes the difference between heaven or hell.
This feature episode is an in-depth look at six different views of the gospel, focusing especially on each view's concepts of justification and sanctification.
For more theological content, visit theologicaltouchpoints.com.
To learn more about Sword & Trumpet Ministries, visit the Sword & Trumpet Website.
Find us on Facebook.
Contact us at podcast@theologicaltouchpoints.com.
Thanks for listening!
What we believe about the gospel is important. Actually, important is an understatement. The gospel is the very core of the Christian faith. What we believe about the gospel is one of the single defining realities of Christianity. In fact, what we believe about the gospel makes the difference between heaven or hell.
This feature episode is an in-depth look at six different views of the gospel, focusing especially on each view's concepts of justification and sanctification.
For more theological content, visit theologicaltouchpoints.com.
To learn more about Sword & Trumpet Ministries, visit the Sword & Trumpet Website.
Find us on Facebook.
Contact us at podcast@theologicaltouchpoints.com.
Thanks for listening!
Welcome to the Theological Touchpoints podcast. I'm Julian. The focus for this episode is touchpoints at the intersection of biblical theology and everyday life. What is the gospel? A quick Google search brings hundreds of answers to that simple but central question. The word gospel means good news. But good news about what? What sort of news and why do we need good news?
Speaker 1:Christians understand that when we speak of the gospel, we're speaking of the good news that we can be saved through Christ, and that includes ideas such as sin and righteousness, law and grace, regeneration, justification, sanctification and glorification. The gospel is the story, told in the pages of scripture, of all that God has done to save sinners. What we believe about the gospel is important. Actually, important is an understatement. The gospel is at the very core of the Christian faith. What we believe about the gospel is one of the single defining realities of Christianity. In fact, what we believe about the gospel makes the difference of heaven or hell. Yes, our doctrine really does matter that much. What we profess about the truths of the gospel, which we will consider more here in a moment, determines our eternal destiny. If that seems extreme to you, consider the words of the Apostle Paul in Galatians 1. If anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. Paul here curses those who distort the gospel, who turn the gospel into something other than what God has revealed through the apostolic writings, that is, through scripture. What we believe about the gospel is essential to Christianity, is essential to our salvation. Now, i certainly believe that God is gracious to his own. He doesn't require us to recite perfect dogma before we can experience the blessings of salvation. As we discussed in the last podcast, god loves to save sinners. It is his desire, not his duty, but his pleasure to save sinners, and so I don't want to give the impression that we need to have a perfectly constructed, systematic theology before we can be confident of our own salvation.
Speaker 1:I do, however, want to be clear that true Christianity includes truth claims. Rejecting these is the same as rejecting God himself. Let me expand that a bit. We believe that the gospel is revealed to us in and through scripture. That is that which God desires us to know about. The gospel is made available to us in his holy word. That written revelation is remarkably specific. God intends us not just to have a general idea of what the gospel might be. He intends we be intimately familiar with the gospel. The themes of the gospel, the truths of the gospel are clearly set forth in scripture. God expects us to know the truth of the gospel. He's provided us the truth of the gospel in scripture. If we are surrendered Christians, surrendered to God, we will submit ourselves to that revelation, that revelation.
Speaker 1:Scripture sets forth clear truth claims, claims which must be believed in order to be saved. And so Christians, for two millennia have held that there are certain truths that, if rejected, place a person outside of the Christian faith. And this includes things such as the divine origin of scripture, the inspiration of scripture, the deity in the humanity of Christ, the virgin birth, the effectual atonement and victorious resurrection of Christ, the reality of heaven and hell, and so forth. These claims made in scripture must be received, first and foremost because they are those things God has been pleased to reveal in scripture. That is, god has declared these things to be true. To deny them, to deny scripture, is to call God a liar. That clearly cannot coexist with true faith, and so rejecting the truths of Christianity, the truths of the gospel, is one and the same as rejecting God himself. So what we believe about the gospel is important. What we believe about the gospel is central to what Christianity is. That which is abundantly clear in scripture must be believed in order for a person to truly be a Christian. Again, rejecting these truths is a rejection of God.
Speaker 1:So we come back then to the original question What is the gospel? What does the Bible teach about the gospel? That question, what is the gospel is answered a variety of ways, and in this podcast I intend to look at six different views of the gospel, and thus the title The Six Gospels. The six views I will present don't represent all the various views out there, but I think most views will find themselves under one of these headings Most of the ideas that circulate among Christians, both Orthodox Christians or, we could say, evangelical Christians, to draw that a little tighter within an abaptist, but then, in a broader sense, just Christianity in the Western culture. Hopefully, we'll be able to touch on a lot of those ideas in this podcast.
Speaker 1:Now, if you noticed the length of the podcast before you started it, you'll note that this is a longer podcast And there's a lot here I want to cover together with you hopefully good, hopefully helpful stirring up your mind and thinking about the gospel and different ideas about the gospel people have. I contemplated splitting this up into several shorter episodes, but I think the content belongs together And, if you'll bear with me, i think you'll benefit from that as well. Along the way, hopefully find things that are encouraging, helpful for you, clarifying for you depending on who you are listening to, this it may be a little irritating for you, maybe convicting for you as we think about the gospel together, but we're aiming for clarity, biblical clarity in this discussion, and then we want to move forward with that in mind. So we have six views of the gospel that I want to look at. These are universalism what I've called salvation by sincerity, moralism, permissivism, synergism and, lastly, the biblical gospel. So, universalism, salvation by sincerity. Secondly, moralism. Third, permissivism, synergism. And sixth, the biblical gospel.
Speaker 1:And I want to take each of these in order, and what we're going to do here is I'll give you just a quick introduction to each of these terms as I'm using them, and then we're going to walk through different central truths of the gospel and look at what these different views have done with them And so, answering the question who is saved? What determines whether or not somebody is saved? What do these views do with the law? What do they do with sin and sin nature? What do they do with faith? What is faith according to these views? And then, looking probably most toward the end, at justification and sanctification and how these different views would look at or define these components of the gospel. Justification, sanctification, biblical terms used in Scripture, in the English a good translation of the original Greek, there is a closer connection between them than the original then is communicated in the English. But justification, sanctification are words we need to be using because they are words in Scripture and they are central to what the gospel is. So again, these six views universalism, salvation by sincerity, moralism, permissivism, synergism and finally the biblical gospel. And I'm not by presenting these different views, i'm not saying that all six of these are legitimate biblical views. In fact I would say only the last one, which I've called the biblical gospel, for lack of a better term. The last view, i would say, is the only one of these six that is actually consistent with Scripture, what Scripture teaches of the gospel. But the others are common ideas of how people are saved or of what salvation looks like, different approaches to that that I've kind of grouped together under these headings. So just looking at each of these very quickly, kind of a summary form, and then, as I said, we'll kind of come back through them as we look at these other doctrines And so we'll cycle through these multiple times as we go through the podcast.
Speaker 1:First, universalism, and this is just quite simply that all are saved. This takes various forms, from extreme, on one hand, saying you know what is judgment, having having no part in its framework for eternal judgment, even as a concept. And well, of course, everybody's saved, because God wouldn't send anyone to hell, god wouldn't save his creatures. You have it from that side all the way to maybe as close as it gets to evangelicalism in somebody like Rob Bell who would believe that we're saved through Christ, but he would say the merits of Christ are, or the work of Christ is, sufficient to save all mankind And we believe it is And he would say alongside that that God will never turn away or repent and sinner And would say that eventually those in hell will repent And when they do, god will restore them to himself. It's another form of universalism, but universalism is as I'm using it, at least any of you that says in the end everyone will be saved. God is God of love, god is God of grace And he wouldn't judge his creatures that way, he wouldn't condemn his creatures, he wouldn't punish his creatures that way. And so this is a belief that everyone is saved. And what is the gospel? The gospel is the reality that all people are saved, according to universalism.
Speaker 1:Secondly, what I'm calling salvation by sincerity for lack of a better term And this is just the idea that all that God expects of us is just try your best and that's good enough. You know, bringing the idea of follow your heart, do what you feel you're supposed to do, be sincere, try your hardest and God's going to honor that. But it removes the requirements that are set up in Scripture that we must believe in order to be saved. Specifically, believe in Christ. Christ is the way, and unless we believe in him, we cannot come to the Father. No one comes to the Father except through Christ. But we're going to interact with these more critically as we go forward. Right now I'm just trying to introduce you to the ideas. So salvation by sincerity would basically be if you're sincere, if you're doing the best, you know how to do, and that's all God expects of you.
Speaker 1:Third, moralism This is salvation by keeping a certain standard keeping either God's law, taking the Old Testament law and trying to keep that, or, more often, adapting or reducing the Old Testament law or the New Testament. In modern times it shows up more often as picking and choosing certain commands of Scripture, trying to keep those and then believing that by keeping that standard we have done what God expects us to do. Usually it's a reduction of the biblical requirement, biblical expectation, or sometimes it's tradition, and we think of the Jews with all of their traditions that they had brought alongside the law that they made essential to salvation. So moralism is salvation by keeping a certain standard, believing that there's a certain code of conduct that, if kept, will guarantee salvation.
Speaker 1:Fourth permissivism This would be the idea that if you've done the right thing, you've prayed the prayer, you've walked the aisle, you've been baptized, you've joined the church or some thing that's expected of you to do at one point, and it's a once and done kind of thing then you can live however you want. This would be represented in kind of the nominal evangelicalism where you pray a prayer, you walk the aisle, you get saved and then you go on with your life. You just add Jesus to everything else you're doing, and so there's a permissiveness toward sin. There's no change of life, it's just there's this thing you have to do, you know check the box, sign your name and then move on with your life. But now you're saved. So permissivism and then fifth, synergism. This would be salvation by joint effort with God, cooperating with God. So we do our part, god does His part. Sometimes illustrated as a boat with two oars, where there's faith on one side and works on the other side, and you got to have both of them going together to get to where you need to go. It's a good illustration. It's just not biblical. But this idea of salvation is us doing our part and then God does His part and coming together to work salvation for us as individual.
Speaker 1:Closely connected to this is what I have termed salvation by discipleship, and in using that I got some feedback from several listeners or those who read that in an article that I used that phrase in, concerned about my use of the phrase And what I mean by that. Salvation by discipleship, and absolutely I believe discipleship is essential to what it means to be a Christian. If you're not a disciple of Christ, you're not a Christian. But what sometimes happens is, rather than salvation being based upon what Christ has done and resulting in discipleship. Where synergism turns this around is when you ask the question why am I saved? And you answer that, well, i'm a disciple, you know, i'm faithful, i'm being obedient, i'm doing what Christ asked me to do. That's what I have in mind when I say salvation by discipleship. And the problem with that is it's about what I am doing for Christ as His disciple And why am I saved? Because I am a good disciple, and that's not what the gospel is.
Speaker 1:The gospel is finding salvation in Christ, putting our faith in Him and what He has done for us, not in what we are doing for Him. So synergism kind of overlaps what Christ does for us. So there's grace. Grace is essential because we will fail and so forth. But it brings alongside that our own works, our own behavior, our own action as a part of salvation. And, whereas I would distinguish that and would say those works and discipleship, everything we do flows out of salvation but never flows into it. So our works, our behavior, our lives are a result. We live lives of worship as a result of who we are, as a result of the work God has done in us. We are changed, we are a new creation and so forth. Everything else results from that Synergism and what I've called salvation by discipleship says if you are a disciple then you will be saved. And again, i would take issue with that because that's faith in self alongside faith in Christ, and the person who has faith in self and Christ has yet to come to full surrender and full faith in Christ.
Speaker 1:The final view and what I'm calling the biblical gospel this is my understanding of what the Bible teaches about the gospel, and that is we are saved by grace, through faith, and that comes straight out of Ephesians, chapter two by grace you've been saved through faith. That, not of yourselves, is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. But anticipating both the issue in permissivism, which says you're saved by grace through faith, now go live however you want, but also the concern of the synergist who is trying to bring in works as being a part of the gospel, i would say we're saved by grace, through faith. So the basis of our salvation is faith. It's not works, in contrast with the synergist, but we are saved unto works, in contrast with the one who's permissive and thinks it's fine to go, sin and live however you want or to be unconcerned about sin after coming to the gospel, because after all, i'm justified, it doesn't matter, right? No, salvation is justification, but it includes the outworking of that, and if there's no outworking it reveals there's no life inside. We'll talk about that more later. So we're saved by grace through faith unto works.
Speaker 1:Works are the results of the reality that God has worked within us in a changed nature, and that progression is very much laid out in Ephesians, chapter two, by Grace, who has been saved through faith, and I quoted a bit of that earlier. And then it ends your His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that you should walk in them. So the work God is doing in us, this workmanship being spoken of here, is the redemption, salvation, justification, but it's also the good works we do, as the gospel's worked out in our lives. And so the biblical gospel, as I gave a definition earlier, everything God does to make sinners righteous. And this is another way of saying what I've heard said, and I've heard it used correctly, and I've also used it heard by those who have hold more of a synergistic view of salvation, but this phrase I am saved, i am being saved and I will be saved.
Speaker 1:And that's a way of expressing the three truths of justification, sanctification and glorification. Justification is righteousness accounted to us where declared righteous is Christ's righteousness given to us, put upon us, and that's what happens when we put our faith in Christ. We are justified, we are declared righteous, and at that point begins this work of sanctification, where the righteousness is applied to us, in who we are, we begin to change what we love, changes what we hate, changes what we do with our time, what we do with our money, what we do with our minds, how we worship God, and all of that changing, developing as we grow spiritually. So we are saved, we're justified, we are being saved, we're being sanctified, we will be saved, looking forward to glorification and the completion of that. Where our bodies are renewed, where the battle of sin ceases, we are fully sanctified in that sense. Where we are made righteous and the battle of sin is over and the ability for sin is taken away, where we only do what God desires, we only do what is right, that the future glorification. But all of that I would see summarized in this phrase everything God does to make sinners righteous. We who are sinners and deserve judgment are called righteous are made righteous and in the future God will complete that in glorification righteousness completed. So those six views of the gospel and then, as I said, we're going to look at a number of different doctrines and see how these different views of the gospel answer the questions that we're looking at here.
Speaker 1:So first question who is saved? We touched on this a little bit. But who is saved? Universalism says all are saved, everybody's going to be saved in the end because God loves everybody. So everybody's going to be saved. Obviously there's more there than that. I think most of you listening to this probably all of you listening to this understand the error in that. We're not going to spend a lot of time on that one. But universalism everybody's saved.
Speaker 1:Secondly, salvation by sincerity. Who is saved? those who are sincere, those who are doing their best, who make the right choices and try hard to be who God wants them to be, those are the ones who are saved. Moralism answers this question by saying those who keep the standard are saved, whether it's God's standard or a man-made standard, they would say the ones who keep the standard, those are the ones who are saved. A focus on human effort, human ability, permissivism, would say those who walked the aisle or prayed the prayer or checked the box on the card and signed their name, those are the ones who are saved. But there's no examination of life afterward And Scripture is continually giving us these tests of true faith that have to do with how people live. Permissivism just ignores that and says well, the ones who are saved are the ones who did the thing that needs to be done, whether that's praying the prayer or walking the aisle or whatever, and ignore the other tests of faith that Scripture gives, that we can tell whether or not God is working in somebody, because their life is going to be changing if God's at work.
Speaker 1:Fifth synergism would say those who cooperate with God are the ones who are saved, who make a move toward God or respond to God's grace when it's extended to them, but very much focus on me doing my part, god doing his part. We come together and we can do this salvation thing in the combination of my goodness and Christ's goodness. Though it may not be said that way, that's how it works out practically. So synergism is a close neighbor to moralism. It's also close neighbor to the biblical gospel, but there are some key differences, some key issues here.
Speaker 1:So, as contrasted with moralism, which basically says keep the standard in order to be saved, synergism would allow, would acknowledge our need for grace. So moralism basically says there's a standard, you keep it and you're good, you don't need grace. Synergism would say there's a standard, you can't keep it, do the best you can. Grace makes up the difference. So, as distinguished from moralism, there is an acknowledgement for grace, there is an acknowledgement of our need for grace. As, distinguished from the biblical gospel, there's still a focus on man's effort alongside God's. It's not a whole dependence upon grace, as the Bible calls us to, that we depend entirely on what Christ has done for us and put no confidence in the flesh, no confidence in our works.
Speaker 1:So who is saved? The biblical gospel, what Scripture teaches those who believe in Christ are saved. Whoever calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. True faith is revealed. True faith can be tested by evidences. There's a change of affection, change of life, conforming to Christ.
Speaker 1:And so, along the lines of the permissivism view, which really emphasizes justification, that if we believe then we are declared righteous and then we're good to go. Biblically, justification is very much that way. We put our faith in Christ and its Christ-righteousness applied to us. That saves us. But justification never comes by itself. We're going to get into that later as well and talk about that in a little more detail.
Speaker 1:But just to keep in mind here as we're thinking about this together, justification is very much a part of the biblical gospel. It's not what we do alongside what Christ does. It's not us giving it a best shot, and grace makes up the difference. It's entirely what's offered us in and through Christ because of what He has done for us. He lived a righteous life in our place. He died a sinner's death in our place And if we believe in Him we are declared righteous in and through the work of Christ. We are counted righteous, to use the language of Romans 4. But true faith shows up in our lives, and so true faith can be tested by evidences, seeing whether or not God's at work in somebody's life.
Speaker 1:So secondly, we want to look at how do these different views of the gospel look at? law or a divine standard? universalism Again, no requirement. There's the concept that God might have a standard that He expects His people to live up to. It's just not a part of this approach. Salvation according to sincerity, the second view we're looking at. I would say that in this understanding of the gospel, there's no law and no standard. Here either, there's no bar that needs to be met. You just try your best And if you try really hard, god will bless you.
Speaker 1:Moralism makes the law the basis of salvation. So it does acknowledge the law, though it is typically reduced or reformed to make attainable, or corrupted entirely, or maybe entirely man-made. But there is some sort of standard, some sort of law, and it's thought that that law can be kept and that's the basis of salvation. Permissivism, looking at the law, says Christ kept the law for us, so the law is irrelevant. So permissivism would believe in the law, would accept the law, the law being God's expectations for His people. And we can think about that primarily as represented in the Ten Commandments and the moral law of the Old Testament, the Old Covenant.
Speaker 1:The fifth view synergism. What do they do with the law? They would say, yes, there is a standard. But I would say synergism often doesn't understand the law very well. It's thought we can keep the law sufficiently to be saved. Or there's a bringing down of God's standard to make it attainable or at least to downplay our own inadequacy, our own inability to make room for us as a part of the gospel, as a part of salvation and our cooperation in that. The biblical gospel says absolutely.
Speaker 1:The law is taught in Scripture. It's a part of the gospel, but the standard of the law is unattainable. The law is there, the law is good, but the law condemns the sinner. And the problem there is not the law. The law is good, the law reveals God's righteousness And multiple times in Romans, as the Apostles talking about the law, he says the law is good, the law is righteous, the law is just. The law is not the problem. The problem is when the law comes, the sinner's sin is revealed. A sinner cannot keep the law, and so the law functions for the sinner, only to condemn. So there is a standard God expects of us, and that's a bit what we're looking at here. What does God expect of us?
Speaker 1:And some of the first views universalism, sincerity, even moralism and permissivism all downplay the law. Immoralism, as I said, often not understood. The biblical gospel has a high regard for the law, says God has high expectations for his people, for his creation, but then sinners trying to keep that law fail and will always fail, and so the law, though, good, functions to condemn the sinner and actually at times increases the sin where our sin nature takes opportunity. Sin seven takes opportunity through the law to produce more sin. So the biblical gospel would say, yes, the law is a part of the gospel. God has expectations for his creation, for his creatures. God has a standard and we can't keep it and that's a problem. That's the problem that is met then in the gospel, in the good news of the gospel, that Christ kept the law for us, and that's righteousness, the keeping of the law. Christ kept the law for us and if we put our faith in him, we are united with him. We are in Christ and therefore righteous, as Christ himself is righteous. Got a number more to look at here.
Speaker 1:The next question is man sinful by nature? What's the extent of sin and man's sin nature? Universalism again says no, sin is not a problem. Sincerity would say we are neutral. We can sometimes do good, sometimes we sin. Man has a good heart, you have a good heart. Sometimes he sins, but he has a good heart and as long as we do what God asks us to do, then we're okay and would say we can. We can do what God wants us to do on our own. Moralism would say also man, by nature is neutral. He can do good, he also does evil. It's up to him to make the right choices, to either do what is good or to make the wrong choices and sin and suffer the consequences. So man is born neutral and, given the right training and the right circumstances, he can be who God wants him to be, on his own. So that's the view of moralism, that man's nature is, he's neutral. He can do good, also evil.
Speaker 1:Fourth view of the gospel that we're talking about together permissivism. How do they answer this question Is man sinful by nature? They would say yes, man is sinful by nature. We are sinners and would see that playing out before. But then, even after, what they would say is justification and declared righteous, sin is allowed to reign, even after a profession of faith, which we would say from a biblical, or I would say from a biblical perspective if you're living in sin, all you're doing is advertising your sinfulness, you're advertising the fact that you're not saved. Justification has not happened if there's no change of life, no matter what you say and no matter what you did. But permissivism would say yes, man is sinful by nature but does nothing to try to deal with that experientially, to deal with it forensically in justification, but not experientially in sanctification.
Speaker 1:Perm would say man is neutral by nature or perhaps bent towards sin, man being described as sick but not enslaved to it. And so man can do some good in the gospel, in salvation, and he's not enslaved to his sin. He probably does more sin than good, but can in and of himself, maybe assisted by the grace of God, but not entirely dependent on the grace of God, can work his way out of sin and can do what is right. The biblical language for our sin nature, the Bible, talks about us as being slaves of sin, as being dead the Greek word necrosse dead in trespasses and sins, being blind of mind, not knowing what we need to know, being blind of heart, not desiring what we need to desire. And so the biblical gospel says, yes, man is sinful by nature, hopelessly so, apart from the grace of God. He will never recover from this And this view is sometimes caricatured as being Calvinistic.
Speaker 1:It is not a Calvinistic understanding. Arminians, up until recently, have held that held a view similar to what's sometimes called total depravity or total inability, that man, left to himself, can do nothing but sin. And it takes God's grace to turn that around. And I'll quote to you from the 1963 which demonstrates this. The 1963 Mennonite Confession of Faith, which is used in a wide number of churches and denominations, says this of man's sin nature A fallen creature, man is self-centered, self-willed, rebellious toward God, unwilling to yield to Christ and note this unable to break with sin and under divine judgment. Very clear statement of what we would call depravity. Man left to himself will only sin. And so there's an extra layer here where synergism would say we are people who sin, sometimes doing good, sometimes sin or maybe bent toward sin, not enslaved to sin.
Speaker 1:The biblical gospel, the biblical view is we sin because we are sinners. Our nature and our desires are corrupted, therefore our actions are corrupted. Synergism and the other softer views would say well, yes, sometimes we do what is sinful. Well, that doesn't necessarily mean we are sinful. I'm a good person who does bad things. That's not what scripture says, that we died in Adam and as such we are slaves to sin and cannot break with sin until God, in his grace, gives us the ability to overcome sin.
Speaker 1:Another question is regeneration necessary? Regeneration is just a long word for the new birth being born again, john 3,. We think of. Man needs to be born again in order to see the kingdom of God. Is regeneration necessary? Or another way of asking this question is there something about us that needs to change as a part of salvation, in order for us to be saved or for us to experience blessings of the gospel, or as a result of the gospel working Again? universalism would say no, there's no problem here. This is closely connected to the previous question. So is man sinful by nature? Well, if he's not, then there's no need for a nature change. If man is sinful by nature, then he needs a nature change in order to be who God wants him to be. Is regeneration necessary? Universalism, gospel of salvation by sincerity and moralism and permissivism would all say no. Synergism would say yes, we are bent towards sin, and the biblical gospel would say yes, absolutely, we are slaves to sin and we need that slavery to be broken. What happens in our spiritual deadness being changed to life as we are made alive with Christ, to use the language of scripture?
Speaker 1:Another issue for us to think about is we think about these different ideas of what the gospel is and what they do with these key questions, these key issues of Christian faith. This question what is the locus of faith? or what is the focus, the center of faith? What is faith about and what is faith in specifically for salvation? When we think of our confidence, for why an individual thinks he may be saved, what is he looking at? What is he putting his confidence in Universalism? faith is in a benevolent God who would never judge sinners, or maybe in self I'm a good person, i don't need, i don't deserve judgment And by sincerity, the locus of faith is self. I am trying my hardest. Therefore, i deserve salvation. I deserve good things from God because I'm doing the best I can. I'm trying my hardest. Moralism also is focused on self. I am keeping God standard. I am doing what God wants me to do.
Speaker 1:Permissivism would focus on an event, a particular profession of faith, the time I prayed, the time I walked the aisle, like we've been talking about the thing that I did that secured salvation for myself. And then I move on and I live life for myself. Synergism has faith focused on both Christ and self. Salvation is in Christ, but it also looks at personal performance. Perhaps compared to those around him, you know, i'm doing a little better. I'm making better choices I did more with what God gave me and looks at those things that are human, that are fleshly, that are carnal, and puts confidence in those things alongside Christ. So the locus of faith is Christ and self. But biblically, the locus of faith is Christ alone. Those who are saved are those who put no confidence in the flesh, no confidence in self. It's a full surrender to Christ. So Christ alone, nothing beside him, nothing added to him. Christ alone, his work on our behalf, his effectual atoning, substitutionary death and his victorious resurrection. His life lived righteously for us, Obviously an example to us, but living for us, keeping the law on our behalf. We are made righteous in him and in him alone. So there's a total surrender to Christ. It's the end of self, full confidence in Christ.
Speaker 1:Now looking at a bit more depth at a few of these other concepts, specifically justification and sanctification And this is really where the rubber starts to hit the road in those views of the gospel that are closer to us as Anabaptists. We're going to look at justification and sanctification and how these different views look at these aspects of the gospel. Justification we've talked about this already, but just to review justification is the declaration of righteousness being clothed in Christ's righteousness, being accounted righteous based on what Christ has done for us. Sanctification is the working out of that. In the day to day, in our lives, where we are being made righteous, we are putting off the old man, putting on the new man Who we are is changing our nature, our habits, our thoughts, our priorities, all of this changing in and through the work of God in us. And so sanctification.
Speaker 1:But first we want to look at justification. So this is the declaration of righteousness, described as, again, something accounted to us. We are declared righteous. It is distinct from who we are. It is something that is applied to our account on the basis of what Christ has done and not on the basis of what we have done. So what are these different views of the gospel, the six gospels we're dealing with? what do they do with this concept of justification?
Speaker 1:In universalism and salvation by sincerity, there's no need for justification. There's no need to be declared righteous because, as we looked at earlier, there's no law And because there's no expectation, there's no need to meet that expectation in what would be called righteousness, moralism would say no, justification is not necessary for salvation because we can be good enough ourselves. So it's righteousness by human merit, not imputed, not accounted, not imputed righteousness, not a righteousness accounted to us based on what Christ has done. Permissivism would say yes, absolutely. Justification is a part of the gospel. In fact, permissivism puts all of the weight of the gospel on this one concept. This is central to the concept of the gospel that is held in permissivism.
Speaker 1:And again we think of kind of the nominal evangelicalism. Sometimes the Protestants get lumped in with this and I would say mainline Protestantism. That's true. When you get into more conservative and more biblically minded Protestants it's less true. They tend to have a better understanding of the gospel as being justification but more than just a declaration of righteousness. It's the working out of that in the day to day. And so there's a lot of good material on sanctification alongside justification.
Speaker 1:But it is true that mainline Protestantism and mainline evangelicalism would see justification as all that's going on in salvation. It's this declaration of righteousness. We are declared righteous. It's a forensic righteousness applied to us And therefore we're free to live. However, we want All the work's been done, what's left for me to do, and so I'm going to go live my life for me, in contrast to that, biblically, it's what's left for me to do. Christ has done it all. I'm going to go live my life for him. That's the Christian's response. That's the born again person's response to that. The carnival response to that is oh great, i get to go sin. But the Christian response, the response of true faith, is Christ has done all. Therefore, everything I have needs to be given to him in worship. My entire life is lived for him now, because every good thing I enjoy I enjoy because of what Christ has done for me.
Speaker 1:So the permissive view of the gospel misunderstands justification and thinks that justification comes by itself. But justification never comes alone. If we are justified, we are born again. There's a change of nature. We're filled with the Spirit God's at work in us. We are bought by God. We are not our own, we belong to him. We are adopted into his family.
Speaker 1:A Christian, as I said, belongs to God, and one of the Corinthian epistles, the Apostle Paul, lays that out. Regarding sexual immorality, he says you are not your own, you are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body. Your body no longer belongs to you. Permissivism says we're justified, now go do whatever you want. But a full orb understanding of the gospel says no, you're justified.
Speaker 1:But justification doesn't come by itself. There's all this work God is doing to save us that comes along with it that if the rest of that's not happening, it's evidence that God is not at work here. God is not at work in this person's life If they're continuing in blatant sin, unconcerned about righteousness, unconcerned about pleasing God. Now we understand the ongoing struggle with sin. Nobody's going to be perfect on this side of eternity. But that's distinct. The struggle with sin is distinct from the wholesale abandonment to it while at the same time thinking somebody is saved. This is an old issue. It is rightly connected back to Luther. You can find in the writings of Meno-Symons. He writes against the Lutherans and their debauchery in this way where they profess salvation. Luther himself probably opened the door to it and did have some issues, but he was not guilty of the excesses of some of those who took his focus on justification and took it to an extreme and used it to excuse their sin.
Speaker 1:Moving to the fifth view of salvation, the fifth view of the Gospel, synergism How does the synergistic view of the Gospel look at this issue of justification? And in the synergistic view, justification and sanctification are synthesized, they are melted together, they are brought together and are seen as one thing rather than two. There's no forensic righteousness, no righteousness accounted to us, as Romans speaks of, or as Hebrew says. We are saved through Christ once for all, sacrifice where He atoned for all of our sins. Synergism conflates justification and sanctification, teaching that justification is received by obedience, not that justification is accounted to those who simply believe. So where synergism begins to get this mixed up is where it makes our behavior, our works, the foundation of justification or the reason why we're justified, whereas Biblically, the works always flow out of justification. The fact that God has saved us then motivates us to live a life that pleases God.
Speaker 1:But synergism melts these two concepts together, justification and sanctification, and essentially says if you are being sanctified, then you will be justified, rather than saying you have been justified, therefore be sanctified. So the Biblical Gospel says we are clothed in Christ's righteousness. When we are justified, we are declared righteous. This took our sin. We receive His righteousness.
Speaker 1:A second Corinthians speaks of this. He became sin. Who knew no sin, that we would become the righteousness of God in Him. This means we are perfect before God When we believe. We are perfect before God with all of our sins, past, present and future put under the blood of Christ. This gift is given to all who simply believe. The condition for salvation is 1, throughout Scripture, believe. Whoever calls in the name of the Lord will be saved. No conditions, no rituals, no works added. Those who believe are justified. All of Romans 4 is given to this truth. The Apostle Paul says salvation is given to those who believe, those who have faith. Back in chapter 1, he says the just will live by faith.
Speaker 1:In chapter 4, the Apostle Paul looks at three different things and demonstrates that none of them are to be considered a part of saving faith. And so, first he says do we need to do good works? Are works a part of salvation? Are they a prerequisite for salvation? Are they a part of faith? And he answers that with a no. Secondly, do we need to be a Jew or do we need to be circumcised? Do we need to perform a ceremony to show our faith before we can be saved? And he answers that with a no. And then, third, he says do we need to keep the law or do we need to have the law before we can be saved? And he answers that with a no. He says nothing. We do, not even God's Old Testament covenant symbol contributes to salvation. It didn't contribute to Abraham's salvation. He was saved far before he was circumcised. And so we too are saved when we believe the sign of that baptism and a life if we want to expand that and a life lived in worship of God.
Speaker 1:All of that flows out of this reality of justification. We are accounted righteous by faith in Christ, entirely based on what he has done for us. So justification we've already kind of bridged into sanctification. But we're going to move into that in more detail now And taking this in the same order. We've been taking it. So universalism and salvation by sincerity and moralism. But where is sanctification for them? This point, you're pretty much off their radar because they were all the way back at salvation, saying everybody's saved, doesn't matter who you are, doesn't matter what you've done, doesn't matter what you believe, you're going to be saved. And so the idea of living a life a certain way not really on their radar.
Speaker 1:Permissivism says sanctification is unnecessary. We've been justified And it's a very flat view of the gospel, deflated of all biblical substance. And I want to say again it's not wrong that justification is accounted to us. If we believe that's forensic righteousness. It's accounted to us, it's put on our account And according to God's record we are righteous, we are sinless. But it's wrong to isolate just that aspect of the gospel and ignore the rest of, again, everything God's doing to make sinners righteous and declaring them and making them and in the future perfecting that and glorification the am saved and being saved and will be saved. So it's wrong to merely isolate justification and ignore everything else the Bible's telling us about salvation and about the gospel Synergism. As before.
Speaker 1:Sanctification and justification are conflated rather than justification producing sanctification. As the Bible teaches, justification is placed alongside sanctification And that means that our faithfulness to Christ becomes the basis of our salvation, or at least a component of our salvation. Whether or not I'm faithful to Christ, whether or not I'm being sanctified, determines whether or not I'm being saved. So if I'm moving toward Christ, then I'm more saved. If I move away from Christ, then I'm less saved.
Speaker 1:The synergistic view of the gospel does not accept justification as a forensic righteousness, as an applied righteousness, rather sees it as being worked out in the day to day. So it's not a justification, is not a part of the language, but justification, that is, that the act of being righteous before God is something that is appropriated as I work out my salvation in the day to day, rather than being a once for all thing. That is applied to my account when I put my faith in Christ. As is taught in Romans and Galatians and other places in the New Testament Without justification there's no basis for relationship with God. And that's where this gets frustrating, because we're trying to be sanctified, we're trying to be holy, while missing the foundation, missing the first step of the gospel, where we are reconciled to God, we are made righteous, there's restored relationship, restored life.
Speaker 1:It's that reality that allows us to, as is spoken of first John, when we sin and we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and the principle that when we sin, we should go to God for cleansing and not run away from him. The reason we can go to God is because we know he will still accept us on the basis of what Christ has done, even though we have failed. But when you make justification the result of sanctification or the product, there's no room for grace, there's no room for restoration. When we fail, when I take a step away from Christ now, my whole salvation is in jeopardy. The basis of my salvation is in jeopardy And I'm not led to Christ to be healed. Rather, i want to walk away from Christ because I feel I've compromised my salvation by failing to be faithful today And so conflating, merging, melting justification and sanctification together.
Speaker 1:It's a very practical truth. What do we do when we sin? What do we do when we fail? What do we do when we're discouraged? What do we do when life's difficult? What is the basis for our relationship with God? Do I think about how I feel today? Do I think about how good I've been today? Or do I think about Christ and what he's done for me and the fact that, because he died for me and died for my sins and paid for those sins, now there's an open door into the presence of God and I can go to God in full confidence that he will receive me on the base of what Christ has done?
Speaker 1:So the biblical gospel distinguishes sanctification from justification. Again, sanctification is that process of growth. It does not separate it from justification. That's where permissivism goes wrong. They separate justification from sanctification and say justification can exist without sanctification. Biblical gospel says sanctification is a part of the gospel and flows out of God's work in redeeming sinners is a part of God's work in redeeming sinners, but is careful. The biblical gospel is careful to distinguish justification, which is what's appropriated to us on the base of what Christ has done, distinguishing that from sanctification, which is righteousness lived out in the day to day. But they're never separated distinguished but not separated. And so what that means is if you were justified, you are being sanctified. Sanctification is not an optional addendum to the gospel. So if you're not being sanctified, that means you haven't been justified.
Speaker 1:Sanctification is certainly essential to the gospel, but justification never comes alone. The Bible consistently connects true salvation, that is, justification, with faithful living. How do you know? someone has been justified? They live differently, their fruits reveal their nature, and so if somebody's been justified, there's a change of life, change of behavior. It's going to work its way out.
Speaker 1:But the Bible, as distinct from the synergistic view, is careful to show that our fruit, that is our works. What we think, what we will, what we do, our fruit is never the basis of our salvation. All the good we do is a response to God's grace. So, to think about this differently, all the good in the gospel flows from God to us. Synergism says it's a cooperation of myself and God. The biblical gospel is all the good that we experience as a response to God's grace. All the good in the gospel flows from God to us, and Jesus teaches this potently in John 15, where he speaks of himself as the vine and his followers as the branches And all the life. In this illustration in Christ's teaching of his relationship to his disciples, all the life flows from the vine to the branches. The branches have no life but that which they draw from the vine, and that's why he exhorts them to abide in him and he says without me you can do nothing.
Speaker 1:Synergism sees salvation as bi-directional, where we do our part and God does his. That's not the gospel. The Bible teaches. Whether in salvation, all the life flows from God to us, we draw our life from him, we bring nothing to the table but our rotting corpse and our filthy rags. All the good in the gospel is wrought by God himself. This is why I believe the synergistic view is such an offense to the gospel.
Speaker 1:This view makes room for us in this process of salvation. We want a part in the process. We want credit for making better choices, for being better people than those who aren't saved, for being aloof from the corruption of the rest of the world. Our sinful desire is to be a part of the story, and this causes us to credit ourselves where no credit is due. Biblically, the gospel is what God does to save us. It's not about our efforts, it's about God. So we have in Ephesians 2 that God made us alive, and also in 1 Corinthians 1 that grace is given to us by Christ. Grace is not something we earn. Grace is given, and as we rest wholly on God's grace for justification, so too we rest on Him for sanctification. He who began the work continues it, and He will confirm it to the end. So we don't save ourselves, we come to God to be saved. Where the synergistic view breaks down is it makes us and our works and our efforts a part of salvation. But salvation, beginning to end, is what God is doing to save. God in His grace saves us. God in His grace justifies and sanctifies poor sinners.
Speaker 1:I'm aware that most of you who listen to this podcast are anabaptists And I don't want you to miss the fact that some of these faulty views of the Gospel are right at home among us. You may think immediately of the moralistic view of the Gospel. This says our salvation depends on how well we keep God's standards. Those under this view stagger under the weight of a law too great for them to keep, or sometimes God's standard gets reduced to a neat package of half a dozen externals that make us look holy while entirely missing the sinner's heart. This view is devoid of the doctrine of justification, rejecting the righteousness that has offered us at no cost if we put our faith in Christ.
Speaker 1:Moralistic view, focused on us and what we're doing for Christ. The counterpart to this is the permissive view, which reclaims the truth of justification while simultaneously jettisoning God's righteous standard, revolting against moralism but leaving self in the center Rather than salvation coming by self-flagellation. Salvation is merely forensic. It's something that exists outside of us but has no effect on us, a declared righteousness that's detached from the rest of our lives. So in the permissive view, self is liberated to indulge its desires. But it's interesting to me that the moralist and the rebellious are in many aspects the same. Both live by their own rules, focused on self and not focused on God. On the moralistic stream, you have externals, but it's by human effort. Even on the permissive extreme, you have self-indulgence and sin, living according to the flesh, thinking everything's okay because they've been justified. Reacting to the debauchery of the permissive gospel, the moralist tends to lock down even harder on the externals while still missing the heart, Their issues in both of these views, the permissive view and the moralistic view.
Speaker 1:Both of them are corrupt views of the gospel, maybe having one piece of biblical truth, but missing the cohesive gospel as communicated in Scripture. To draw the circle a little tighter, sometimes we are susceptible to the version of the gospel that says we need only try our hardest and that's good enough. The salvation by sincerity view. And certainly God wants us to be diligent in our pursuit of Him. But sincerity is not the condition Scripture gives for salvation. No, sincerity is not the ticket to heaven. Many sincere people are doing the best, they know how, but they are sincerely wrong And it doesn't matter how sincere you are if you're going the wrong direction.
Speaker 1:Where I think this shows up is in those who subtly disregard biblical truth. Not that they out and out reject it, but they think they can overlook Scripture, brush off its truth claims and yet be confident they are true Christians. In short, they neglect the gospel, thinking that their sincerity will make up for their ignorance. Well intentioned maybe, but with no fruit. I'm certainly not disparaging simple faith. There are those who struggle to understand Scripture and we do serve a complex God, those who struggle to understand Scripture who nonetheless have a true and sincere love for God That is certainly honored by God. But there are those who trust their sincerity while ignoring what God is trying to tell them in Scripture. We dare not disregard God's revelation yet comfort ourselves by thinking we are sincere and that's enough. But I want to draw the circle tighter still.
Speaker 1:I think the view of the gospel that is most present in Anabaptist communities is not the biblical gospel, though we might think it such and we certainly wish it so. But I believe the view that is most present in our circles is the synergistic gospel. Whether or not we profess it, many of our people go through their days seeing all their own strengths and none of their flaws, and they might think things like I came to Christ, i made the right choices, i keep his commands, i'm living as an exile, separate from the world, i'm making the sacrifices. We puff ourselves up on the lunacy that we, the faithful, are doing our part to save ourselves. And sure, we need grace, but we see grace as that which overcomes the margin, makes up the deficit. After all, our goodness is cashed in. So, in this view, grace is essential, sure, but grace is not everything. And that's the mark of a synergistic gospel, one that comes to Christ and receives grace from him while simultaneously applauding self for its good choices.
Speaker 1:This is a mixture, a false concoction of faith and works. It is not Christ, only Christ. Our community continually calls us to turn away from self and turn to Christ alone. So our obedience does not save us, our heritage does not save us. Our piety does not save us. Our non-resistance does not save us. Our theology does not save us. Our community does not save us. Our appearance does not save us. Our humanitarian aid does not save us. Christ saves us. We cannot cling to Him, for our hands are full of our own stuff. Christ is only honored as he deserves to be if we, in humble faith, release our posturing, our pride, our self-made religion, and cling to Him alone. Thus, those of the synergistic gospel, so taken with their own contributions, have yet to experience the fullness of the gospel. This trust in self, this cooperation with God, is not God's gospel. We find our life not in ourselves, but in Christ, and in Christ alone. So again, i believe the synergistic gospel is not just an alternative gospel. I believe it is another gospel than that which Scripture teaches.
Speaker 1:Now it is right to emphasize the fact that the gospel is something that needs to be lived out. The gospel is something that should infiltrate all of our lives. He who made us alive, god who made us alive, also raised us up with Christ and calls us to seek those things which are above. Or, as Romans 6 says, we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin but alive to God. Or again, as Ephesians 2 says, we have been created in Christ Jesus for good works. So do we work Absolutely, but we do so to reciprocate the love we have already experienced in Christ, not to earn, secure or maintain that love.
Speaker 1:We are saved by grace, through faith, not of our own works, but of God's grace. Salvation is His gift given to all who believe That salvation includes justification. We are declared righteous, cleared in God's holy courtroom. That salvation also includes sanctification God's work to make us match that which He has already declared us to be. As opposed to the permissive gospel, the Bible teaches that our behavior must match our profession, but, as opposed to the synergistic gospel, the Bible refuses to allow us any part in saving ourselves Through and through.
Speaker 1:Salvation is God's work. We take no credit. We seek no glory for ourselves, but direct all praise to God. What, then, is the gospel? It is everything God does to save sinners. He justified us, he made us alive with Christ. He gave us grace. He is sanctifying us. Desperate sinners come to God and desperate sinners are made righteous by God through Christ. Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Theological Touchpoints Podcast. This podcast is a production of Sword and Trumpet Ministries. For more information, visit wwwswordandtrumpetorg or theologicaltouchpointscom. If you have thoughts or questions, you can contact us at podcastattheologicaltouchpointscom. Now may the God of Peace himself sanctify you completely and may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.