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Grace is absolutely free! No, REALLY!

By Jeremy Myers
37 Comments

Grace is absolutely free! No, REALLY!

free graceOne way that some people limit grace is when they try to differentiate between โ€œcheap graceโ€ and โ€œcostly grace,โ€ or start trying to limit the application of Godโ€™s grace by using theological terms like โ€œprevenient graceโ€ or โ€œefficacious grace.โ€

The truth is that grace ceases to be grace whenever we seek to modify or limit its application, extent, or effectiveness. You cannot cheapen grace; but you can misunderstand it.

Similarly, grace is always costly to the one who extends it, but absolutely free to the one who receives it. There is no other kind of grace.

If one must ask for it, work to deserve it, obey to keep it, or live in a way that proves they are worthy of it, then it is not grace. Grace is extended freely to all, with no strings attached before, during, or after the reception of grace.

Since we can do nothing to earn grace, we can do nothing to lose it.

Grace, when it is truly given, expects nothing in return and demands nothing by way of thanks.

Below, as only he can say such thigns, are some quotes from Robert Farrar Caponโ€™s excellent book about grace, The Mystery of Christ โ€ฆ & Why We Donโ€™t Get It. (If you haven’t read this book, you need to.)

โ€ฆ the mysterious, reconciling grace that was revealed in Jesus is not something that got its act in gear for the first time in Jesus; rather, it is a feature of the very constitution of the universeโ€”a feature that was there all along, for everybody and everything.

[Our] promises to God … are not capable of getting us either accepted by God or damned by God. Acceptance, according to the Gospel, is a free gift bestowed on a world full of four flushers. And itโ€™s given to them despite their four flushing, right in the midst of their four flushing. It is not a reward for hotshot behavior in the promise-keeping department. And damnation is not a punishment for breaking promises to Godโ€”or even for breaking the commandments of God himself; itโ€™s a consequence of stupidly throwing away the free gift of acceptance.

Godโ€™s love and forgiveness toward us knows no bounds. He loves us completely, infinitely, and without restriction. It is extravagant, outrageous grace which shocks all sense of propriety. God is shameless in His love for us, so that even when we say and do things that would chase off any human being, God sticks with us and by us.

grace

As soon as we seek to limit Godโ€™s grace or restrict to a holy few, we have stopped believing in grace, and have plunged headlong into the hell of religion. Grace is free! Absolutely free.

Grace has no limits, borders, restrictions, or conditions. Grace is freely given and freely received, and as such, can never be rescinded or revoked.

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, gospel, grace, Theology of Salvation

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I hope I get saved in this post (and you get saved too)

By Jeremy Myers
3 Comments

I hope I get saved in this post (and you get saved too)

saved me

When I was a pastor, Dr. Earl Radmacher once came and spoke in my church. I introduced him as the author of numerous Christian books, the editor of the best-selling NKJV Nelson Study Bible, and the president emeritus of Western Seminary. At that time, one of his most recent books had been Salvation, which is part of the Chuck Swindoll Leadership library, and is a book I highly recommend.

After this introduction he got up to teach and began with a word of prayer. He said this:

Father, I thank you for bringing me to speak to these men and women today, and I pray that as I speak to them, many of them would be saved this hour, and I pray also, that you would save me this hour as well. Amen.

I knew this was coming because this is something Dr. Radmacher often did when he spoke in churches, but it was still enjoyable to glance around at the people in the church and watch them open their eyes and blink in confusion at each other. You could almost hear their thoughts: โ€œDid I just hear what I thought I heard? Did this author, preacher, seminary president, and Bible scholar just ask to get saved? Did our pastor invite one of those unsaved liberal Bible scholars weโ€™ve heard rumors about into our pulpit today?โ€

Dr. Radmacher went on to explain that his prayer was not only genuinely spoken, but was also an opening illustration for what he wanted to teach.

He truly did want to get saved that hour as he spokeโ€”saved from preaching or teaching anything that might be in error. He also wanted his hearers to get savedโ€”saved from believing some wrong things about the word โ€œsalvation.โ€

He went on to show what the words โ€œsaveโ€ and โ€œsalvationโ€ mean in Scripture, and how many tricky and confusing passages can be immediately cleared up simply by recognizing that when the text talks about โ€œbeing savedโ€ it is not talking about gaining eternal life or going to heaven when you die, but has some sort of other deliverance in view.

We looked at this idea yesterday, and I have one more post about it tomorrow, but having read this post today, can you say that this post saved you from believing something wrong about the word saved?

As for myself, I hope I was saved in this post from including any typos… There always seems to be one or two in every one of my posts… ๐Ÿ™

God is Uncategorized Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, eternal life, gospel, salvation, saved, Theology of Salvation

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It’s possible to believe in Jesus but not be saved…

By Jeremy Myers
14 Comments

It’s possible to believe in Jesus but not be saved…

Like the word โ€œgospel,โ€ the word โ€œsalvationโ€ means much more and much less than usually assumed.

Just like the word โ€œgospel,โ€ the way the word “salvation” is often used today is very different from the way the word is used in Scripture.

salvation and saved

When people talk about โ€œsalvationโ€ today or โ€œbeing saved,โ€ what they most often have in mind is the idea of receiving the forgiveness of sins so we can escape hell and go to heaven when we die.

But in biblical usage, the noun โ€œsalvationโ€ (Gk., sลteria) and the verb โ€œsaveโ€ (Gk., sลzล) very rarely have anything to do with receiving eternal life or going to heaven when we die. Instead, the words are most often used in connection with some sort of temporal or physical deliverance. We can be saved from enemies, saved from sickness, saved from drowning, saved from suffering, or even saved from a premature physical death. While โ€œsalvationโ€ is sometimes used in connection with sin, this is only because sin often has devastating physical and temporal consequences in our life. To be saved from sin means to be delivered from the destruction and damage of sin in our lives.

One resource that shows this quite clearly is Vineโ€™s Complete Expository Dictionary. Under the entry for โ€œSave, Saving,โ€ the dictionary includes the following options:

(a)ย ย ย  Of material and temporal deliverance from danger, suffering, etc., e.g., Matt 8:25; Mark 13:20; Luke 23:35; John 12:27; 1 Tim 2:15; 2 Tim 4:18; Jude 5; from sickness, Matt 9:22; so Mark 5:34; Luke 8:48; Jas 5:15

(b)ย ย  Of the spiritual and eternal salvation granted immediately by God to those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, e.g., Acts 2:47, 16:31; Rom 8:24; Eph 2:5, 8; 1 Tim 2:4; 2 Tim 1:9; Titus 3:5; of human agency in this, Rom 11:4; 1 Cor 7:16; 9:22

(c)ย ย ย  Of the present experiences of Godโ€™s power to deliver from the bondage of sin, e.g., Matt 1:21; Rom 5:10; 1 Cor 15:2; Heb 7:25; Jas 1:21; 1 Pet 3:21; of human agency in this, 1 Tim 4:16

(d)ย ย  Of the future deliverance of believers at the second coming of Christ for his saints, being deliverance from the wrath of God to be executed upon the ungodly at the close of this age and from eternal doom, e.g., Rom 5:9

(e)ย ย ย  Of the deliverance of the nation of Israel at the second advent of Christ, e.g., Rom 11:26

(f)ย ย ย  Inclusively for all the blessings bestowed by God on men in Christ, e.g., Luke 19:10; John 10:9; 1 Cor 10:33; 1 Tim 1:15

(g)ย ย ย  Of those who endure to the end of the time of the Great Tribulation, Matt 10:22; Mark 13:13

(h)ย ย  Of the individual believer, who, though losing reward at the judgment seat of Christ hereafter, will not lose his salvation, 1 Cor 3:15; 5:5

(i)ย ย ย ย  Of the deliverance of the nations at the Millennium, Rev 21:24

Though I would not state this list of various definitions quite this same way, and would put many of the references from definition (b) into other categories, it nevertheless shows that the words โ€œsaveโ€ and โ€œsalvationโ€ in the Bible have a wide variety of meanings.

save a lifeTo help the reader of Scripture know what sort of โ€œsalvationโ€ is in view when they are studying it, I recommend that whenever you comes across the words โ€œsaveโ€ or โ€œsalvationโ€ in Scripture, you stop, replace it mentally with the word โ€œdeliverโ€ or โ€œdeliveranceโ€ and then ask yourself, โ€œDeliverance from what?โ€ย If you look in the surrounding context, you will quickly discover that the deliverance in view has nothing to do with gaining eternal life or going to heaven when you die.

Doing this will drastically help your understanding of numerous difficult passages in the Bible that many have thought of as referring to receiving eternal life, but refer instead to some sort of temporal deliverance.

It is possible, as the title of this post says, to believe in Jesus for eternal life (and of course, receive eternal life as a result), but still not be “saved” from many of the temporal and physical consequences of sin, or from sickness, or from enemies, or from many of the other negative things that can happen in life.

Have you ever heard this taught before? Has it helped your understanding of some of the tough texts in the Bible?

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: believe, Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, eternal life, faith, gospel, salvation, save, Theology of Salvation

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It’s impossible to believe the entire gospel

By Jeremy Myers
16 Comments

It’s impossible to believe the entire gospel

what is the gospel

I began these three posts on the gospel by saying that โ€œYou don’t have to believe the entire gospel to receive eternal life.โ€

Hopefully after reading the previous two posts (Gospel 1 and Gospel 2), you can see why my statement is true.

If the gospel is Jesus Christ and all truth is related to Him, then it is impossible to believe the entire gospel. The most we can do is believe certain truths of the gospel. When we say we โ€œbelieve the gospelโ€ or โ€œbelieve in Jesusโ€ this is a shorthand way of saying that we believe certain truths of the gospel. Since each person is at a different place in their theological development and their walk with God, it is likely that each person believes a different set of gospel truths.

In fact, it is quite likely that there are billions of people on earth today who believe certain truths of the gospel, and yet have not received eternal life.

Why not?

Because they havenโ€™t yet believed the part of the gospel which pertains to eternal life, namely, that eternal life is given to those who believe in Jesus for it (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47).

One gospel truth is that we are sinners. And most people believe this truth. But nowhere does Scripture say that believing we are sinners results in receiving eternal life.

So also with the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Countless millions of people believe that about 2000 years ago, there was a man named Jesus who lived in Israel, preached sermons, performed miracles, was crucified on a cross, was buried, and rose again three days later from the dead. But โ€” are you ready for this? โ€” although these truths are extremely central to the gospel, nowhere does Scripture say that those who believe these things have received eternal life.

believe in Jesus

Many of those who believe these wonderful truths about the gospel, have not yet believed in Jesus for eternal life, but are instead, believing in themselves, their good works, their โ€œbeing a good personโ€, their religious activity in a particular church, or a whole variety of others human ideas about how to receive eternal life.

It is one of the greatest tragedies of church history that millions of people can believe hundreds and maybe even thousands of gospel truths, but not believe the one truth which is found at the very heart of the gospel, which is that God gives eternal life to anybody and everybody who simply and only believes in Jesus Christ for it.

Though one does not need to believe the entire gospel to receive eternal life (and nobody can believe all of it anyway), one of the central truths at the heart of the gospel which must be believed is the truth about Godโ€™s absolutely free offer of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

Eternal life is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

The Gospel According to ScriptureWant to learn more about the gospel? Take my new course, "The Gospel According to Scripture."

The entire course is free for those who join my online Discipleship group here on RedeemingGod.com. I can't wait to see you inside the course!

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: belief, Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, eternal life, faith, gospel, Theology of Salvation

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Jesus is the Gospel; Calvinism is not

By Jeremy Myers
50 Comments

Jesus is the Gospel; Calvinism is not

In a previous post I wrote about the popular misunderstanding of the word “gospel,” that it refers only to receiving eternal life and going to heaven when you die.I then argued that the gospel isย everythingย related to Jesus Christ.

Based on this understanding of the word โ€œgospelโ€ it is not wrong to say that the biblical gospel is Jesus Christ, including everything about Him and related to Him.

The gospel is centered on Jesus Christ, and everything that emanates from Jesus is โ€œgospel truth.โ€ And what is it that emanates from Jesus Christ? Everything! From the creation of the universe to the future of the universe, all is dependent upon Jesus Christ. The truths about reconciliation, redemption, and resurrection all require Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the Gospel

Without Jesus, there is no such thing as forgiveness, grace, mercy, hope, or healing.

Why did God create mankind? Because of Jesus.

Why did God, out of all the people of the world, choose Abram and the nation that would come from Him? Because of Jesus.

Why was God patient with the Israelites in the wilderness? Because of Jesus.

Why did God raise up Judges, Priests, Kings, and Prophets? Because of Jesus.

Moving into the New Testament, why did God send the Spirit to birth the church at Pentecost? Because of Jesus.

Why did God send the church out into the world to proclaim a message of Godโ€™s love? Because of Jesus.

Why is God going to restore the world and remake heaven and earth so that we can dwell with Him for all eternity? Because of Jesus!

Itโ€™s all because of Jesus. Jesus is the gospel and the gospel is Jesus.ย 

Calvinism is not the Gospel; Jesus is!

This is why, in my opinion, it is the height of idolatry to say, as some Calvinists do, that โ€œCalvinism is the gospel, and the gospel is Calvinism.โ€ (see Custance, 302; Engelsma, 18; Spurgeon, 129).

I love C.H. Spurgeon, but he was wrong about Calvinism…

Spurgeon Calvinism Gospel

I deny Calvinism but I uphold the gospel because Calvinism is not the gospel.

That honor belongs to Jesus Christ alone. Even if Calvinism were true, the most that could be said of it is that Calvinism is one small aspect of the gospel. But to equate Calvinism with the entirety of gospel is to replace the infinite glory of Jesus Christ with a small, manmade system of theology. Such an idea is completely contrary to the Reformation principles of Solus Christus and Soli Deo Gloria.

But here is the point: If the gospel is Jesus Christ and all the truth that emanates from Him, then this means that it is completely impossible for any finite human being to ever believe the gospel. Why? Because just as Jesus and the truth about Him is infinite, so also, the gospel is infinite. It is impossible to ever believe everything there is to know about Jesus, who He is, and what He has done.

Yet if the biblical gospel is infinite then it would be impossible to ever โ€œpreach the gospelโ€ (Luke 4:18; Acts 16:10; Rom 1:15; etc.) or โ€œbelieve in the gospelโ€ (Mark 1:15). However, Jesus and the apostles seem to have done so quite well.

Nevertheless, when these various gospel-preaching events are compared, one discovers that there is no set list of ten gospel truths, or four laws, or six principles that are always presented in every situation. Sometimes the one proclaiming the gospel talks about sin; sometimes not. Sometimes they talk about the Kingdom of God; sometimes not; Sometimes they talk about grace, mercy, forgiveness, and reconciliation; sometimes not. Sometimes they talk about the death and resurrection of Jesus; sometimes not. Sometimes they talk about the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus; sometimes not.

How to Share the Gospel

The point is that all of these truths which get shared at one time or another in the New Testament as part of the โ€œgospelโ€ are simply examples of some of the truth that emanates from the person and work of Jesus Christ, who IS the gospel.

When a person is presenting โ€œthe gospelโ€ they obviously cannot share everything, and so they do their best (along with the help of the Holy Spirit) to pick and choose which truths of the gospel should be shared in that particular context to those particular people.

Just as the same person in a different context would share different gospel truths, so also would a different person in that same context. This is one of the beautiful things of the gospel. Because there is so much truth to the gospel, there is no such thing as one set of truths that must always be shared. Since different people are in different places with their walk with God, and each of us have different personalities and different levels of knowledge, God allows each of us to share whatever we know with the people in front of us in whatever way we think best.

Thatโ€™s liberating, isnโ€™t it?

There are no four laws, five points, or six steps to the gospel. There is only Jesus.

If we simply share Jesus with people, we are sharing the gospel, whether it is by word or action, in a few seconds or over the course of many years, or to a large crowd or to only one person.

The goal of sharing the gospel, of course, is to draw a person closer to Jesus, whether they are already a โ€œChristianโ€ or not, for Christians need to hear gospel truths just as much as so-called โ€œnon-Christians.โ€

We will conclude with one final post on the gospel tomorrow, but until then, what do you think of this idea that Jesus is the Gospel? What do you think of the claim by some Calvinists that Calvinism is the gospel?

God is z Bible & Theology Topics: Books by Jeremy Myers, Calvinism, gospel, Spurgeon, Theology of Salvation

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