Lordship Salvation

Hi guys, I recently stumbled across a term that disturbingly describes
a prevalent thought concerning The Gospel and Salvation. The term is
“Lordship Salvation”.

At a glance it appears to be the old ‘Calvinistic / Armenian’ debate
called by another name but it appears that some proponents of both
camps (C & A) subscribe to a “Lordship Salvation” theology.

In a nutshell, here are the two views:

A) Faith = Justification + Works (The Gospel)
B) Faith + Works = Justification (Lordship Salvation view)

The easy mistake to make in (A), is to place an over emphasis on
‘Works’ above Justification, which automatically moves your view to
(B).

The Solution to complacency and passivity is not to point to the lack
of good works (in A) as a means to motivate, but rather to point out
and emphasize the value of Faith - (the Whole Truth of the amazing
Gospel). A Revelation of the True Gospel cannot help but bare Fruit.


The Following are some excerpts from an article by Tim Keller on the
Biblical Gospel:
(http://www.redeemer2.com/themovement/issues/2004/june/postmoderncity_1_p1.html)

"The gospel is not just a way to be saved from the penalty of sin, but
is the fundamental dynamic for living the whole Christian
life--individually and corporately, privately and publicly. In other
words, the gospel is not just for non-Christians, but also for
Christians. This means the gospel is not just the A-B-C's but the A to
Z of the Christian life. It is not accurate to think 'the gospel' is
what saves non-Christians, and then, what matures Christians is trying
hard to live according to Biblical principles. It is more accurate to
say that we are saved by believing the gospel, and then we are
transformed in every part of our mind, heart, and life by believing
the gospel more and more deeply as our life goes on.”

THE GOSPEL VS. RELIGION
The gospel is "I am accepted through Christ, therefore I obey" while
every other religion operates on the principle of "I obey, therefore I
am accepted." Martin Luther's fundamental insight was that this latter
principle, the principle of 'religion' is the deep default mode of the
human heart. The heart continues to work in that way even after
conversion to Christ. Though we recognize and embrace the principle of
the gospel, our hearts will always be trying to return to the mode of
self-salvation, which leads to spiritual deadness, pride and strife
and ministry ineffectiveness.
In other words, on one level, we believe the gospel but on another
level we don't believe.

So why do we over-work in ministry and burn out? Yes, we are not
practicing the Sabbath principle, but the deeper cause is unbelief in
the gospel! Why are we so devastated by criticism? The person whose
self-worth is mainly in his or her ministry performance will be
devastated by criticism of the ministry record because that record is
our very self and identity. The fundamental problem is unbelief in the
gospel.

At the root, then, of all Christian failures to live right--i.e. not
give their money generously, not tell the truth, not care for the
poor, not handle worry and anxiety--is the sin under all sins, the sin
of unbelief, of not rejoicing deeply in God's grace in Christ, not
living out of our new identity in Christ. This means that every week
in a different way the minister must apply the gospel of salvation by
grace through faith through Christ's work. Thus every week the
non-Christians get exposed to the gospel.
Underneath our behavioral sins lies a fundamental refusal to rest in
Christ's salvation and the drive instead to find our own.

Here is an excerpt from Martin Luther Treatise Concerning Good Works (1520):
All those who do not in all their works or sufferings, life and death,
trust in God's favor, grace and good-will, but rather seek His favor
in other things or in themselves, do not keep the [First] Commandment,
and practice real idolatry, even if they were to do the works of all
the other Commandments, and in addition had all the prayers, fasting,
obedience, patience, chastity, and innocence of all the saints
combined.
If we doubt or do not believe that God is gracious and pleased with
us, or if we presumptuously expect to please Him through our works,
then all [our compliance with the law] is pure deception, outwardly
honoring God, but inwardly setting up self as a false savior. Note for
yourself, then, how far apart these two are: keeping the First
Commandment with outward works only, and keeping it with inward
[justifying faith]. For this last makes true, living children of God,
the other only makes worse idolatry and the most mischievous
hypocrites on earth...
Comment: Luther says that if we obey God's law without a belief that
we are already accepted and loved in Christ, then in all our
'doing-good', we are really looking to something more than Jesus as
the real source of our meaning, and happiness. We are trusting in our
being a good parent, or being a good spouse, or our moral uprightness,
or our spiritual performance, or our service to other people as our
real "Saviors". If we aren't sure God already loves us in Christ, we
will be looking to something else as our foundational significance and
worth. This is why Luther says that we are committing idolatry
(breaking the First commandment) if we don't thoroughly trust in
Christ for our acceptability, even if we are otherwise totally moral
and obedient to God.

Religion is 'outside in': "if I work hard according to Biblical
principles, then God will accept/bless me". The gospel is 'inside
out': "because God has accepted/blessed me, I work hard to live
according to Biblical principles". Religion (explicitly in other
faiths and implicitly in legalistic Christianity) makes
moral/religious observance a means of salvation. Even people who
believe in the Christian God can functionally 'base their
justification on their sanctification' (Lovelace).

THE TWO "THIEVES" OF THE GOSPEL.
Tertullian said, "Just as Christ was crucified between two thieves, so
this doctrine of justification is ever crucified between two opposite
errors." Tertullian meant that there were two basic false ways of
thinking, each of which "steals" the power and the distinctiveness of
the gospel from us by pulling us "off the gospel line" (Gal. 2:14) to
one side or the other. These two errors are very powerful, because
they represent the natural tendency of the human heart and mind. These
"thieves" can be called moralism on the one hand, and or relativism on
the other hand.

The main problem, then, in the Christian life is that we have not
thought out the deep implications of the gospel, we have not "used"
the gospel in and on all parts of our life. Richard Lovelace says that
most people's problems are just a failure to be oriented to the
gospel--a failure to grasp and believe it through and through. Luther
says, "The truth of the Gospel is the principle article of all
Christian doctrine ...Most necessary is it that we know this article
well, teach it to others, and beat it into their heads continually."
(on Gal.2:14f).

The gospel produces a unique blend of humility and boldness/joy in the
convert. If you preach just a demanding God, the listener will have
"low self-esteem"; if you preach just an all-loving God, the listener
will have higher self-esteem. But the gospel produces something beyond
both of those. The gospel says: I am so lost Jesus had to die to save
me. But I am so loved that Jesus was glad to die to save me. That
changes the very basis of my identity--it transforms me from the root.

So we see that we must move away from the typical 'conservative
evangelical' preaching which basically says: "Irreligion and
immorality is bad; moral living is very good; Christianity is best."
Of course it is better to not rob and kill, whether you are a
Christian or not! But gospel preaching is careful to show the 'dark
side' of morality, so that non-Christians (who see the dangers of
religiosity and self-righteousness) will realize the gospel is
something else, and so that Christians will not be trapped in the
lifelessness of moral self-effort.”


God Blessed You!!