Pundits across the political spectrum have lately taken to referencing Jesus’ words in the Judgment of the Sheep and Goats found in Matthew 25:31-46. Their constructions range from “Jesus is telling us to care for people through government social programs,” to “Jesus is telling Christians their salvation depends on caring for the Jews,” to “Jesus is telling Christians to care only for other Christians in church.” Political and theological biases enter into these conclusions. Naturally, these conflicting interpretations are causing confusion. The befuddlement seems to arise from the commentators not understanding who the sheep, the goats, and the people in need (“the least of these my brothers”) are in these verses. What I’d like to do is to clarify this muddle by showing who’s who in Matthew 25:31-46.

Part of the Olivet Discourse

Matthew 25:31-46 is one of the cautionary illustrations Jesus uses in the Olivet Discourse, which begins in Matthew 24. In Matthew 24:3, Jesus starts answering the questions His disciples asked Him in verse 2. Those questions are: “when will these things [the destruction of the buildings of the Temple complex] be? What is the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age?”

The best way for me to expound Matthew 25:31-46 would be to explain its entire context—all of Matthew 24 and 25. That would require writing a lengthy commentary on those two chapters. Maybe, Lord willing, someday I’ll do that. But, right now, I want you to understand the context of the Judgment of the Sheep and Goats by quickly referring to Matthew 24:36-51.

Introduction to the Motifs

Jesus then cautions us, “Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes” (Matthew 24:42). Watch is another motif. For the very reason that we don’t know when the Lord will return, He tells us to watch. The question I want you to keep in mind is, “Watch what?” Jesus hasn’t directly told us what to watch, but He is going to imply the answer several times right through to the end of Matthew 25.

The Separation of the Faithful and the Evil Servants

Jesus then tells us of “the faithful and wise servant” whom the lord finds giving his household “food in due season” (Matthew 24:25). He contrasts this servant with the evil servant who says, “‘My lord is delaying his coming,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants, and eat and drink with the drunkards” (Matthew 24:48-49). A delayed coming is another motif. People caught at the return either behaving or not behaving as they should is another motif. We see here that the separation between people at the end occurs along the lines of how they have behaved. Does this imply a works salvation? We’ll see. Does it give us a hint as to what “watch” means? Yes. It’s found in the difference between the faithful and the evil servants. The faithful servants, no matter how long the lord delayed, were doing what they were supposed to be doing.

Perseverance in well-doing is what Jesus means by watching. It’s like a mother leaving her children alone in a room for a while. Before leaving, she turns to the children and says, “Watch yourselves. Make sure that when I come back, I catch you being good, even if I’m gone for a long time.”

The takeaway lesson is that behavior shows the difference in people, especially over a long period of time.

The Parable of the Ten Virgins

Continue reading now into Matthew 25. In the Parable of the Ten Virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), we again see the motifs. The virgins don’t know the time of the return, the bridegroom delays, and there is a separation between the virgins. But what about watching and behavior?

At the end of the parable, Jesus says of the foolish virgins, “Afterward the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Most certainly I tell you, I don’t know you.’” He then tells us, “Watch therefore, for you don’t know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming” (Matthew 25:11-13). All of the virgins went out to meet the bridegroom, and all of them slept. If, as so many believe, watching is being alert for Jesus’ return, why didn’t the bridegroom reject, or at least chasten, the wise virgins who slept? The bridegroom rejected half of the virgins because he didn’t know them. Why didn’t he know them? That half—the foolish virgins—didn’t have oil. Oil is the biblical symbol for the Holy Spirit. In this parable, watching is taking oil for their lamps.

I believe Jesus intended this parable to correct the misunderstanding we may have gotten from what He said about the servants in Matthew 24. Their behavior didn’t determine their fate. Their behavior showed who they were.

All ten of the virgins outwardly seemed to be the same in every way. The foolish virgins took their lamps, which I believe to be their profession of faith. But their lamps—their professions of faith in words and works (see Matthew 5:16)—were empty. They waited for the bridegroom as much as the wise virgins. Only when the bridegroom returned did it become obvious that the foolish virgins had no oil. They represent faithless, graceless, unconverted, counterfeit Christians whom Christ will reject.

The lesson here is that, while behavior can sometimes expose the difference between people, the real distinguishing factor is whether or not they are converted, spirit-filled believers.

Scary? It can be, but it need not be. If you are in any doubt of your salvation, I highly recommend that you read the following articles:

The Parable of the Talents

This is another sorting of servants. A lord gives each of his three servants a different quantity of talents (a weight, probably of silver) according to their ability or power (dunamis) to do something with the talents. To one, he gives five, to another two, and to another one. In Matthew 25:14, Jesus identifies these talents as the lord’s goods. The lord will expect a return on this investment.

A mistake some commentators make is to say that the talents represent abilities, in the way that we use the word “talent” today. But that can’t be. Each of the servants has his own natural abilities, and they are to use their abilities to increase the talents. The talents, then, are opportunities.

“Now after a long time the lord of those servants came, and reconciled accounts with them” (Matthew 25:19). Just as the bridegroom delayed in the previous parable, the lord in this parable comes only after a long time. But when he does finally come, he checks the account books.

Two of the servants increased the talents entrusted to them, and the lord sets them over many things, many responsibilities. The third servant has hidden his talent in the ground instead of increasing it. Why did he do this? He may not have had the abilities of the other servants, but he did have some or his lord wouldn’t have given him a talent or opportunity.

The reason that third servant didn’t do anything with the talent was because he was fearful: “I was afraid” (Matthew 25:25). Why was he afraid? He didn’t know his lord: “”He also who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you that you are a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter’” (Matthew 25:24).

This wicked and slothful servant represents professing Christians who don’t know and trust Jesus. You can’t trust someone you are afraid of. Their fear drives these spiritually empty “Christians” to miss the opportunities God gives them to show His love and care for others. When the Lord returns, He will take away the opportunities they had. It will be too late to change: “Throw out the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 25:30).

The motifs are in this parable, with the exception that watching isn’t specifically mentioned. The servants didn’t know when their lord would return. He delayed. When he returned, he separated them. Two of the servants behaved well, and one behaved badly.

The lesson in this parable is that works can expose who is who, but who is who is really determined by whether they are really converted and trusting in Jesus Christ.

The Sheep and Goats

Matthew 25:31-42 is what this article is really about, so let’s look at it carefully, a little at a time. Jesus is speaking:

But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.

Matthew 25:31

The Son of Man is, of course, Jesus. In this judgment, the motifs of not knowing the time of the return, delay, and watching no longer apply. This illustration begins when the Son of Man has already come. But we will still see separation and differences in behavior.

Who Are the Nations?

Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

Matthew 25:32

Some people teach that Jesus is saying that He will judge each nation, taken as a whole, as either being a sheep or a goat. I disagree. Jesus does not mean that He is going to say, “America, you go to my right as a sheep, and Iran, you go to my left as a goat.” This would make no sense. It would be tragic if you or I were condemned because we lived in a largely unrighteous nation. God judges everyone as an individual.

The word “nations” is translated from the Greek word ethnē, the plural of ethnos. Ethnos means a tribe, a nation, a company of people, or a multitude. The Jews often used the term to mean all non-Jews. But here, Jesus means the plurality of all groups of people, the entire human race. Jesus doesn’t mean that the people will be sorted by their nations. He means that everyone will be there. He’s going to separate all of the people into two groups—the sheep and the goats.

How Does the King Know Who Are the Sheep?

He will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will tell those on his right hand, “Come, blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;…

Matthew 25:33-34

The King is the Son of Man on His throne. He will bless the people on His right hand and they will inherit the Kingdom. At this point, the natural question would be, Why? But the better question is, How does Jesus know?

“…for I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.”

Matthew 25:35-36

As we’ve seen, “nations” refers to all individuals. “You” in these verses is the subset of all individuals who have done good works to help the hungry, the thirsty, the foreigners, etc. This subset of people are the sheep. And, just as good fruits identify a good tree, these good works identify the sheep. But I must emphasize, just as the fruits are not what make a tree good, the works are not what make these people sheep. Sheep are sheep and goats are goats. They don’t switch places based on what they do.

Who Are the Least of These My Brothers?

Then the righteous will answer him, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you; or thirsty, and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger, and take you in; or naked, and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?”

Matthew 25:37-39

These are natural questions. These people didn’t recall seeing the King in these predicaments.

The King will answer them, “Most certainly I tell you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

Matthew 25:40

By caring for people in need, they were caring for King Jesus. What causes confusion among commentators is why Jesus calls these unfortunate people “the least of these my brothers.”

Who, then, are “the least of these my brothers”? Jesus plainly answered that question back in Matthew 12:50: “For whoever does the will of my Father who is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.”

The Christian on the political right feels triumphant in that answer and says that we are, therefore, only to care for other Christians, such as the members of our church, and not the general populace. Jesus, they say, is only speaking of the church taking care of its own people. According to this interpretation, this passage should not be used to teach that Christians should be involved in taking care of non-Christians, and the government should certainly not be involved. This is purely church business. But that interpretation contradicts some of Jesus’ fundamental teachings.

The Sun and the Rain

Jesus said, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them” (Luke 6:32). In Matthew 5:43-48, Jesus teaches us to love even our enemies who hate and persecute us, that we “may be children of [our] Father who is in heaven.” Our love should be as all-inclusive as the sun that rises on the evil and the good, and the rain that falls on the just and the unjust (Matthew 5:45).

Jesus Christ teaches that we are not only to love those who love us (which would include our brothers and sisters in Christ), but we are to love our neighbors, and we are to love our enemies. Even if they curse, hate, mistreat, and persecute us; we are to love, bless, do good to, and pray for them. We are to do this, not to cause ourselves to be our heavenly Father’s children, but as the natural outworking of the fact that we are His children.

As many who have discussed these verses have pointed out, we are all made in God’s image, and we have a responsibility to respect that image and have compassion on people. Contrary to warped people who teach that empathy is a flaw, we read of many times in the Bible when Jesus had compassion on the poor multitudes, on the hungry, and on the sick. We are to follow His example. But there’s more.

We Are to Glorify Our Father

In Matthew 5:13-16, Jesus says that we are the salt and light of the world. “Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Consider which of these two things will cause people to glorify our Father in heaven. Does it glorify God if we support the government to send armed, masked agents into a city to grab people off the streets, out of their cars, out of their work places, and even out of their homes and then either deport them or send them to detention (i.e. concentration) camps? Or does it glorify God when we express our approval for government programs that help to feed the poor?

We face many issues today. How we handle them can make the difference between whether people see us as the salt and light of the world and glorify our Father in heaven or whether our words and actions offend them away from Jesus Christ.

The Least of These My Brothers Don’t Wear Halos

Yes, “the least of these my brothers” refers to the elect whom the Father has given to His Son (John 17:6; Ephesians 1:4-5). Some may not yet have come to repentance and faith. We can’t know who they are. We, who don’t know who is elect, dare not try to make that distinction. We are to be like the sun and the rain, which the Father gives to the just and the unjust. We care for “the least of these my brothers” by caring for all. And by doing that, we become an example of the Father’s love to them all.

Who Are the Goats?

Then he will say also to those on the left hand, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you didn’t give me food to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and you didn’t take me in; naked, and you didn’t clothe me; sick, and in prison, and you didn’t visit me.” Then they will also answer, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and didn’t help you?” Then he will answer them, saying, “Most certainly I tell you, inasmuch as you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me.” These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.

Matthew 25:41-46

Good works don’t save us. But saved people are to walk by the Spirit, and “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23).

The goats are people who see others in need and don’t help them. Thus, they are not helping Jesus Christ. There are people today who identify themselves as Christians who not only don’t help people in need, they actively work against those who want to help people. Thus, not energized by the Holy Spirit and seduced by the spirit of antichrist, they work against Christ.

The Lesson for Us

The Holy Spirit motivates people to want to help people in need. He does not lead people to want to cut off food and financial assistance to the poor and hungry. Christians living by the Holy Spirit do not cheer when agents recklessly apprehend people labeled “illegal aliens” (being undocumented is merely a misdemeanor), incarcerate or deport them without due process, separate families, generally terrorize the population, and kill those who are trying to protect people from the mayhem. Those in whom the Spirit of Christ dwells don’t give thumbs up to pictures of people in boats being blown to bits. They don’t support the sadistic annihilation of an entire ethnic group. When the majority of the citizens want a national health care system, those in whom the love of God abides don’t work against it.

Unless they repent, people working against the Spirit of Christ are the cursed who will be thrown into “the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels.” Unfortunately, it seems that a large segment of American Christianity is in that danger.

Print-friendly PDF Version

Copyright © 2026 Peter Ditzel Permissions Statement.

Subscribe to our newsletter

The post The Sheep and Goats: Who’s Who in Matthew 25:31-46? appeared first on Word of His Grace.

In 1976, Francis A. Schaeffer, often considered one of the foundation stones of American Evangelical Christianity, produced both a book and, with his son Frank, a film series named How Should We Then Then Live? I will explain below why I believe How Should We Then Then Live? and others of Schaeffer’s works (such as A Christian Manifesto and Whatever Happened to the Human Race?) were seminal in forming the thought that now dominates Christianity in America and elsewhere. It is also the root from which MAGA Republicanism and present US Government policy has sprung. But the MAGA-generated conditions we are now experiencing in the United States are among the very outcomes Schaeffer was seeking to prevent. The seeds he sowed grew into the monster he feared. In this article, I want to explain why Schaeffer’s efforts were doomed from the outset to not produce what he desired, and I want to answer his question, not from his premises, but according to the Bible: How should we then live?

Francis Schaeffer’s How Should We Then Live?

There is far too much in Francis Schaeffer’s biblically informed philosophy to even outline here. What I want to bring out is that he saw the culture of his day as increasingly humanist with no place for God. He blamed this on the influence of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and Darwinism. Schaeffer saw the world as becoming more and more secularized, and some Christians were following suit. Liberal Theology was embarrassed by the supernatural, “but still tried to hold on to the historic Jesus by winnowing out of the New Testament all the supernatural elements” (How Should We Then Live?, 175). Beginning in the nineteenth century, the situation worsened as the world increasingly accepted irrationality. A Neo-Orthodox Theology developed that didn’t believe the Bible gave truth that could be stated in propositions. What was important was religious experience absent of reason. This led to moral relativism and the abandonment of absolute values.

Other Christians had fallen into fundamentalist isolationism, refusing to confront the world in any way. This is what Schaeffer tried to change. He encouraged Christians to engage with the world, a trend that came to characterize Evangelicals, as opposed to Fundamentalists who held onto separation from the world. But it’s important to note that Schaeffer stressed that Christians should be engaging the world in love.

Because everyone carried the image of God, Schaeffer stressed treating all people with dignity whatever their race, nationality, economic condition, or whether they are saved or unsaved. Taking his cue from Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, Schaeffer believed that gifts, knowledge, and faith took a secondary position to love. Even truth if it was loveless was nothing.

You might wonder why I’m presenting this man’s teaching as a problem. It’s because Francis Schaeffer was a mixed bag. Yes, he pointed out many legitimate evils, and he emphasized that Christians should call them out but while also interacting with everyone in respect and love. Unfortunately, he went beyond that and called for Christians to enter politics to save the civilization of this world, something Jesus Christ never called for. Further, he fell for the commonly accepted “barbarians at the gates” notion that the threats to Western Civilization and to Christianity are the same, and that those threats comprise secular humanism, evolutionary science, Communism, Marxism, and such other bugaboos. Ultimately, because of this, Francis Schaffer was wrong.

The real threat has always been the kind of false Christianity that masquerades as conservative and biblical. This false Christianity is difficult to detect just as well-made counterfeit dollar bills are. A dollar bill printed on tissue paper or with red ink would be easy to discern and avoid. But a fake dollar bill reproduced so carefully that it would take a magnifying lens to see that some of the crosshatching in George Washington’s portrait is imperfect would be much more difficult to discern and avoid.

A Clear Division We Should Not Obscure

When there is a clear dichotomy between a world that is either secular or following one of the non-Christian religions, people just beginning to be interested in Christ can see the teachings of Christ standing in sharp contrast. They can focus on Christianity as the antithesis of the world. But when a segment of the world claims to be Christian and gives lip service to the authority of the Bible—going to church, giving praise, citing Scripture (albeit wrongly)—while teaching moralism, isolationism, xenophobia, discrimination, racism, war, the love of money, ridiculing the sick and the needy and the homeless and the elderly as freeloaders, and the necessity to control the governments of this world—all in the name of Christ—then those “little ones” coming to Christ are turned aside in revulsion and confusion. The teachings of these false Christians, these antichrists, obfuscate the teachings of Jesus Christ and “offend” (skandalizō—“trip up”) those who might otherwise come to Him (see Luke 17:1-2).

When Jesus told His disciples to go into the world with the Gospel, He never told them to engage with the issues of the world and enter politics and government (see, for example, Matthew 28:18-20 and Mark 16:15). Doing so is the surest way to create counterfeit Christianity. You can find no place in history when biblical Christianity tried to engage with the world through using worldly means such as politics that true Christianity remained intact. The Constantinian Shift that led to the Roman Catholic Church and its heretical sway over governments is a classic example. But it happened in Calvin’s Geneva, in Luther’s Germany, in the Commonwealth of England, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and in many other places and times. And it began again to happen when Francis Schaeffer (and several others) encouraged Christians to engage with the world on the world’s terms and in the world’s politics and government.

That falling away from the faith grew until we find ourselves where we are now. The American Evangelical church as a whole is fully apostate and is in the process of grabbing worldly authority. The Trump Administration is the tail that the Heritage Foundation is wagging in line with its Project 2025 agenda to control all centers of power in this country. And where did Project 2025 get that idea? It comes from what is called the Seven Mountains Mandate, which is a mixture of Dominionism and Schaeffer’s agenda. Francis Schaeffer was not a Dominionist, but he certainly called for Christians to take control of these seven spheres of society: religion, family, government, education, entertainment, media, and business. This is precisely what Christian Nationalist MAGA Republicanism is quickly and forcefully trying to accomplish.

Has this resulted in the restoration of truth, the furtherance of the Gospel, peace, happiness, or prosperity? Not at all. It has led to pandemonium, a very appropriate word that comes from John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” where he uses it to refer to the capital in the middle of hell from which Satan and his demons rule.

Why Did Schaeffer’s Plans Go Wrong?

First, nothing in the Bible demands or even permits Christians to take control of the centers of this world’s power or even to become involved in government and politics. When Jesus announced the building of His ekklēsia (His assembly called out of the world), He did not connect it to any state, whether Israel, Rome, or any other. He connected the ekklēsia to the heavenly kingdom, the kingdom of God; only born again Christians can see and enter the kingdom of God (John 3:3, 5). It has nothing to do with worldly power. Those who try to say that the separation of church and state merely comes from a letter by Thomas Jefferson aren’t tracing the idea back far enough. The separation goes back to Jesus.

But there’s something even more immediate to what we’re discussing here. Nothing can guarantee that the people who take these spheres of influence will be true Christians. In fact, everything is against it since true Christians should know not to do such a thing. True Christians know that their kingdom—Christ’s kingdom—is not of this world. Therefore, the “Christians” taking control teach counterfeit Christianity, a false Christ, and the doctrines of antichrist. The government they establish is the government of antichrist. By placing a cultural mandate upon Christians to save Christianized society—Christendom—Francis Schaeffer made a terrible mistake.

According to the Bible: How Should We Then Live?

Francis Schaeffer likely had good intentions, and this article is a far from complete evaluation of his teachings. But he did allow himself to muddy the distinction between the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God. The two must not be conflated. The mandate Christ gave us does not include taking worldly power. We are to bring to the world the Good News of salvation and the resurrection to eternal life for all who believe on Jesus Christ.

Our interaction with the world is to be through that message of God’s love and through our lived example of love to each other, our neighbors, and even our enemies.

Jesus and His Apostles Taught that Love Trumps All

When a lawyer asked Jesus which is the greatest commandment,

Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:37-40

Why did Jesus say that the second command was like the first? Yes, they both involve love. But, don’t we show love to God in very different ways from how we show love to people? No.

Jesus taught in a parable found in Matthew 25:31-46 that when we do loving things to others, such as helping them when they are in need, we are doing it to Him: “The King will answer them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me’” (Matthew 25:40).

So, when people—regardless of whether they are Christians or not—want to use the government as a tool for distributing their tax money to give assistance to the poor, feed malnourished children, pay for the healthcare of sick people, send aid to the starving in other countries, and guarantee the financial security of the disabled and elderly, should Christians oppose them? Is that what Jesus Christ would want? No. Yet, the deformed monstrosity of Christianity that we see in MAGA wants to do exactly that.

Jesus ends that parable by saying of those who don’t do those loving things, “Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Most certainly I tell you, inasmuch as you didn’t do it to one of the least of these, you didn’t do it to me.’ These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life” (Matthew 25:45-46).

No matter how difficult conditions may now get in our world, we must, even more now than ever, be the light of the world and the salt of the earth. We must speak the Gospel and we must live a life of sacrificial love. Yes, we must separate from the prevalent MAGA Christianity and call it out for the false, antichristian message that it presents. But we are not called to become involved in its politics. Our message is a pure one, and we must not allow it to become sullied.

One last word from Francis Schaeffer. Although he was thinking of an authoritarian humanist, communist, atheistic state—and he never envisaged a “Christian” authoritarian state—what he says here is prescient and can certainly be applied today:

I wonder if Christians of the future will be thankful that in our day we spoke out and acted against the abuses in the areas of race and the noncompassionate use of wealth, yet simultaneously and equally balanced this in speaking out and acting also against the special sickness and threat of our age—the rise of authoritarian government? That is, will we resist authoritarian government in all its forms regardless of the label it carries and regardless of its origin? The danger in regard to the rise of authoritarian government is that Christians will be still as long as their own religious activities, evangelism, and life-styles are not disturbed.

Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?, 256

Let’s not fall into that trap.

Print-friendly PDF Version

Copyright © 2025 Peter Ditzel Permissions Statement.

Subscribe to our newsletter

The post According to the Bible: How Should We Then Live? appeared first on Word of His Grace.

After eating the Passover and establishing the Lord’s Supper with His disciples, Jesus gave them some intense instruction. One of the things He said, knowing that He would soon be arrested and crucified, was, “I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world comes, and he has nothing in me” (John 14:30). I specifically want to address, “the prince of the world…has nothing in me.” What did Jesus mean, and what effect should this understanding have on you and your assurance as a Christian?

The Prince of the World

In John 16:11, Jesus again refers to the prince of the world: “the prince of this world has been judged.” Earlier, Jesus had said, “Now is the judgment of this world. Now the prince of this world will be cast out” (John 12:31). Revelation 12:9 states: “The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.” In deceiving the world, the devil became its prince. So, when Jesus was talking about the prince of the world who had nothing in Him, He was speaking of Satan the devil.

Ephesians 2:1-2 tells us, “You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience.”

From these Scriptures, we can see that Satan, the devil, is the prince of this world, deceives the world, and actually works in the people of the world—the children of disobedience. For the point I want to make, we should know something else about Satan.

The Accuser and the Adversary

The word devil means “accuser,” and Satan means “adversary.” So, in Scriptures such as Revelation 12:9 (quoted above), the Bible is identifying the dragon and serpent as the accuser and the adversary who deceives the whole world. Revelation 12:10 confirms this: “I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, ‘Now is come the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ; for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night’” (Revelation 12:10).

From this we learn that the accuser is continually accusing us before God. But this should not give us cause for concern as, “They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death” (Revelation 12:11). Satan accuses us, but he’s wasting his time. Why?

The Prince of the World Has Nothing in Jesus

What did Jesus mean when He said that the prince of the world has nothing in Him? We’ve learned that Satan is an adversary, much like a prosecutor bringing accusations against us. How does he do this? The same way prosecutors bring a case against someone in court. He uses the law. The Bible tells us, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law” (1 Corinthians 15:56). Satan tries to accuse us of sin by using the law.

When Jesus stopped and converted Paul on the road to Damascus, He told Paul He was going to send him to the Gentiles “to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (see Acts 26:16-18). We know that Paul did this by preaching the Gospel message that God would forgive the sins of all who would trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior.

Putting these Scriptures together, we see that, by trusting in Jesus as our Savior, we turn from the power of Satan. The power of Satan is the law by which he can accuse people of sin. But we who trust in Jesus as our Savior have overcome Satan because of the blood of the Lamb.

The prince of the world had nothing in Jesus—that is, nothing with which he could accuse Him—because Jesus was sinless.

We Are in Christ

When Jesus died on the Cross, He died sinless but bearing our sins (Hebrews 4:14; 1 Peter 2:24). When He died and rose again, we died and rose with Him to newness of life (Romans 6:1-7). That is, His death and resurrection to new life were imputed to us.

Romans 6:11 says, “Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” When we died, we died to sin, and we are now alive to God. Paul adds, “in Christ Jesus our Lord.” What does he mean by that? In 2 Corinthians 5:17, we read, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.”

Speaking of Christ’s Body, Ephesians 5:30 plainly states “we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones.” In 1 Corinthians 12:27, Paul writes, “Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.”

Putting these things together, we died and rose again with Christ to newness of life, and being in Christ and members of His body, we are dead to sin and alive to God, and we are a new creation. Keep in mind that the prince of the world had nothing in Christ with which to charge Him with sin. He “knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

The Prince of the World Has Nothing in Us

Do you think it is possible that, after Jesus Christ bore our sins on the Cross and fully paid the penalty for them, and we died with Him, and we rose with Him, and we have a new life, and we are dead to sin, and we are a new creation, and we are now in Christ and members of His body, that we can possibly sin so that the prince of the world can have something in us with which to charge us?

Were it possible for a believer in Christ to actually have sin, it would be contrary to Christ bearing and paying for our sins, contrary to our dying and rising with Him to new life, contrary to our being dead to sin, and contrary to our being a new creation. It is simply not possible for a member of Christ’s body, someone who is in Christ, to sin because that would mean Christ has something in Him that the prince of the world could charge with sin.

Just as Jesus Christ can have nothing in Him that the prince of the world can bring the charge of sin against, so you also can have nothing in you that the prince of the world can bring the charge of sin against. As a believer in Jesus Christ, you cannot ever be guilty of sin, not even for a moment. Jesus Christ has once and for all time taken care of your sin.

If you do something you feel bad about, you may believe that you must confess it as sin and repent of that sin. This is the way many of us have been conditioned to think. But it is wrong. It is similar to the Catholic Church’s mass, in which they believe the priest sacrifices Christ over and over again. Jesus Christ has once for all paid for all of our sins. Now that we are in Christ and under the New Covenant,

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.

Romans 8:1-2

But Don’t We Have to Fight Sin and Not Let It Reign in Our Bodies?

Many people misunderstand Scriptures such as Romans 6:12-13: “Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. Neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.” Does this mean, after all, that if we don’t continually struggle against sin, it will reign over us, and the prince of the world will be able to accuse us? Absolutely not.

Look at the very next verse: “For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14). So, when Paul says, as he has in the earlier verses of Romans 6, that believers have died so that they are no longer under the law and therefore free from sin, he expects his readers to worry that, without the law, sin will get the best of them. And so, he presents an assignment that he anticipates they will turn to the law in order to solve.

When we understand that the apostle is anticipating our worries, we can see that these verses perfectly fit together. In verse 12, Paul says, “don’t let sin reign…that you should obey it.” And, in verse 14, he explains, “sin will not have dominion…. For you are not under law, but under grace.” In verses 12-13, he’s giving them the assignment they expect and for which they would turn to the law, and in verse 14 he tells them that it’s already solved—already taken care of—because they’re not under the law, but under grace.

But what about Romans 6:15? “What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be!” Again, Paul is not contradicting what he just said in verse 14. He is merely anticipating the next argument of someone who doesn’t yet understand what he’s teaching. That person would ask, Wouldn’t being free from the law lead to sin? Paul then answers the question.

Don’t you know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered. Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.

Romans 6:16-18

You can either be under the law and, therefore, servants of sin leading to death, or you can be servants of righteousness. But don’t worry, it’s already taken care of. Because you are believers, you are no longer servants of sin. You have been freed from sin, and you are now servants of righteousness. In short, going back to verse 15, being not under the law doesn’t lead to sin. Instead, being under grace makes us servants of righteousness.

Just as we were bondservants of sin and couldn’t help but sin, now we are bondservants of righteousness and can’t help being righteous. Our freedom from sin is a present reality: “But now, being made free from sin, and having become servants of God, you have your fruit of sanctification, and the result of eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:22-23).

Stand Firm!

Satan the devil may want you to think that he can accuse you. He may throw his fiery darts at you. But you are in Christ and fully protected. “The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower” (Psalms 18:2). As God protected David from his enemies, even more so does He protect us in Christ. Just as the prince of the world had nothing in Jesus, he has nothing in us.

“Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1). No more need you doubt your salvation because of something you’ve done. James says to “resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7b). How do you resist? By remember that you have trusted in Christ for your salvation. You stand firmly and confidently in Him. Satan has nothing in you. No more should you feel that you must confess your sins before God will forgive you as if you’re performing some Romish ritual. Of course, you’ll want to determine to do better, to be more loving, next time. But be assured, the devil’s accusations can never reach you because you stand already completely forgiven and sinless in Christ. The prince of the world may come, but you can rejoice in full assurance that he has nothing in you.

Print-friendly PDF Version

Copyright © 2025 Peter Ditzel Permissions Statement.

Subscribe to our newsletter

The post “The Prince of the World…Has Nothing in Me” appeared first on Word of His Grace.

One of the strawmen Lordship Salvationists set up is their saying that their critics refuse to accept Jesus as Lord. While there may be some extremist outliers, that accusation is largely specious. Almost all people who profess belief in Jesus as Savior also understand that He is Lord. To reject Jesus as Lord is to reject a large part of New Testament Scripture, which refers to Jesus as Lord over one-hundred times. What we critics of Lordship Salvation object to is something entirely different.

Of Course Jesus Is Lord!

What critics of Lordship Salvation reject is having to make a Christ-dishonoring, extra-biblical covenant, a promise, a pledge, a transaction of obedient works to Jesus as Lord in exchange for forgiveness and eternal life. This transaction of salvation for obedience, a form of works salvation, is clearly taught in these quotes:

You need to look back to the covenant of your salvation. Do you remember that when you were saved it wasn’t just a one-sided thing?…

In other words, there was a promise on God’s part to forgive you…. There was a promise on the sinner’s part as well, a promise of obedience…. I confess You as my Lord and my Master. That was there, too. That was in that…that transaction of saving faith…. The question is, whether or not you are still obedient.

I don’t think people who come to Christ fully understand the implications of their confession…. But nonetheless there was a covenant at salvation in which you committed yourself to follow Jesus Christ….

So it is an essential component in salvation that there be obedience…. at that time you made a commitment and a pledge to obey the Lord…. So obedience is an important essential in salvation.

John MacArthur, “Fundamental Christian Attitudes: Self-Discipline, Part 1”

It’s essential, then, as believers, to remember that we made a covenant of obedience when we confessed Jesus as Lord…. That pledge was inherent in salvation. God, at the time you came to Him for salvation, promised you forgiveness and eternal life and all the grace necessary to fulfill His will and the Holy Spirit, and you pledged obedience.

John MacArthur, “Fundamental Christian Attitudes: Self-Discipline, Part 2”

Lord Identifies Jesus

Most times in the New Testament, people call Jesus “Lord” simply as a polite form of address, similar to “sir.” Other times, however, particularly when a point is being made about Jesus’ identity, Jesus is called “Lord” to express His deity. Jesus and the apostles were familiar with and used the Septuagint Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (often referred to as the LXX). The LXX translated the Old Testament Hebrew name for God, variously expressed as YHVH or Yahweh or Jehovah, into the Greek word kurios. Kurios is the Greek word for “Lord.” We should also know that “Jesus” means Savior, and “Christ” (Christos in Greek) means Messiah.

Christos means “anointed.” It was used as the Greek translation in the LXX for the Hebrew word Mâshîyach (Messiah in English), which also means “anointed.” Mâshîyach was used to refer to things and people that were anointed with oil to consecrate them. But it was used in a specific sense to refer to the prophesied king, who was to be a descendent of David through the line of Solomon. He was to deliver the Jews from all nations and establish a Messianic kingdom.

So, when the New Testament makes a point of saying, for example, the “Lord Jesus Christ,” it likely has the intention of identifying Him as “YHVH Savior Messiah.”

This was an especially important truth to emphasize to the Jews. They were often willing to accept that Jesus was “a teacher come from God” (John 3:2) and a prophet (e.g. Matthew 21:11, 46). But they balked at accepting Him as the Messiah, the Savior, and YHVH God.

Look at what Peter says to the Jews in his Pentecost message: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). Peter specifically drives home to his Jewish audience, who would clearly have understood the meaning of those names, the point that the man whom they (the family of Israel) crucified was—according to the Holy-Spirit-inspired Peter—”both Lord [YHVH] and Christ [Messiah], this Jesus [Savior]….”

Now notice what Paul says in a part of Romans he specifically intended for the Jewish believers living in Rome. After telling them of his desire that Israel be saved, he explains that Israel’s problem was that Israel would not submit to the righteousness of God (Romans 10:3). He then plainly states: “For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:4). Remember that when he said “Christ” to the Jews, they would understand this as meaning “Messiah.”

Skipping to where Paul quotes Deuteronomy 30:12-14, we read,

But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart;” that is, the word of faith, which we preach: that if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Romans 10:8-9

This is not, as Lordship Salvationists would have us think, creating some sort of ritual in which we must say “Jesus is Lord” and make a promise to obey Him in order to be saved. Why, then, does Paul say this?

As I’ve pointed out in other articles, there were Jews who claimed to believe but continued to teach the need to be circumcised and keep the law. So, Paul is here emphasizing that, to be saved, the Jews had to get over clinging to the law and simply pinning Jesus onto that as some extra insurance. They needed to accept that the Messiah had come in Jesus and had fulfilled the law and established righteousness through belief alone. They should be willing even to openly confess that Jesus, the Savior, is YHVH God (Lord). This would almost certainly mean estrangement from their families and synagogues, so Paul knew that surface-deep Judaizers wouldn’t do this. Further, he expressly told them to deeply believe (“believe in your heart”) that God raised Jesus from the dead.

The Resurrection Proved Jesus’ Identity

Why did Paul also underscore the Resurrection? Because the Resurrection proved that all of the claims about Jesus were true. The Resurrection proved Jesus to be the Messiah, the Resurrection proved Him to be the Savior, the Resurrection proved Him to be God. These were all major hurdles for the Jews, but if they really believed the truth of Jesus’ Resurrection from the dead, they were admitting that the claims about Him were true. And that included the claim that Jesus fulfilled the law and established righteousness through belief.

The Resurrection also proved that this claim Jesus made to Martha about Himself was true:

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies. Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

John 11:25-26

Notice Martha’s response:

She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, he who comes into the world.”

John 11:27

“[T]he Christ, God’s Son, he who comes into the world” all mean that she believed that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecies and, therefore, the Savior who gives eternal life to those who believe on Him (e.g. John 4:14, 42).

Believing in Jesus as Lord Is Biblical; Promising the Lord Your Obedience Is Not

Righteousness through belief means belief alone with no need for puny promises of works of obedience from flawed humans. Of course Jesus is Lord! And, He is Savior and Messiah and God. And, all of this is proved by the fact that He was crucified, died, and was buried, and on the third day he rose again. As Christians, we believe these core truths.

All of these truths are important. The one truth that Jesus is Lord does not take preeminence. But there is a truth that I might call the nucleus: Jesus is our Savior. Jesus’ being the Savior implies all the rest. Who else could be the Savior of the world but the Lord (YHVH) and Christ (Messiah)?

Jesus freely gives the gift of eternal life to all who believe on Him as Savior. He entirely paid for the gift on the Cross. Dare we libel Him by trying to pay for the gift in a transaction of promising to obey Him as Lord? Can the free gift of God be so bought? Never!

Print-friendly PDF Version

Copyright © 2025 Peter Ditzel Permissions Statement.

Subscribe to our newsletter

The post Lordship Salvation’s Charge That Others Reject Jesus as Lord appeared first on Word of His Grace.

The advocates of Lordship Salvation frequently denigrate what they call easy-believism. What they charge as being easy-believism covers an array of teachings. Some of these are legitimate targets for criticism, although I would not use the term easy-believism to describe them. What I particularly want to show you, however, is that some preachers use Lordship Salvation’s charge of easy-believism to vilify even what is in reality the true Gospel.

God’s Gift of Faith Makes the Gospel Easy to Believe

John MacArthur frequently maligns easy believism, as he does here:

And those who would offer us an easy believism, a cheap grace do us no favor at all, they delude us. It is difficult to come to God on God’s terms. First of all, it is difficult because you must recognize your own total inability. And that means the death of pride, and that’s difficult because we are constantly told that we’re the most important thing to ourselves.

“Empty Words”

Certainly, it is difficult for the carnally minded to recognize their total inability. In fact, it is their total inability that makes it humanly impossible. But MacArthur seems to have forgotten the work of the Holy Spirit who regenerates us and inwardly calls us. In fact, his statement, “It is difficult to come to God on God’s terms,” is virtually an admission of his lapse. It is more than difficult to come to God on God’s terms; it is impossible. That’s why we must be born again, so that we can receive, through God’s gift of belief, Jesus’ atonement on our behalf.

If We Are Elect, Coming to God Is Easy

Because God has done it all for His elect, if we are elect, coming to God is easy. Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). When God inwardly calls the elect and they then hear the Gospel, they can’t resist believing. It happens to them. You can’t get any easier than that.

Yes, adjusting our lives to a new worldview after coming to salvation may present difficulties to one degree or another depending upon the person. But that is not the same thing as having difficulty believing and being saved. Because we are passive in them, believing and being saved cannot be difficult for us.

God’s Calling Makes for Easy-Believing

An elect person may hear the Gospel before God calls him or her. That person will not believe the Gospel until God’s calling. The Bible gives us a great example of this in the life of Saul, who became the apostle Paul. It doesn’t show us any great struggle (Acts 9:1-18). At first, Saul simply did not believe the Gospel and worked against it. But when Jesus called Him on the road to Damascus, He obviously worked the miracles of repentance/belief and salvation within Saul. When Saul then went to Ananias, the scales fell off his eyes and he was baptized. No struggle. And, for most people, it’s not even so dramatic.

Those who speak of the great struggle they had with coming to faith and salvation are not speaking of faith and salvation as presented in God’s Word. Maybe they’re really recounting a world-view and life adjustment period that followed the faith and salvation they easily received. Or, they may be describing a contrived, carnal “faith” and a flesh-based feeling of being saved. Maybe they were misled by a corrupt gospel that caused them to look to themselves for evidences of salvation. But the true Gospel tells us to look away from ourselves and believe on Jesus Christ as our Savior. When we do that, we will be saved.

Perhaps Lordship Salvationists would like to charge Jesus with teaching easy-believism for saying, “Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24). Jesus doesn’t say, “Has eternal life only if he has difficulty believing,” or, “Might possibly have eternal life if he proves it,” or, “Maybe will pass out of death into life as long as there’s genuine repentance of sin followed by an obedient life of works of repentance.” Jesus speaks of eternal life as the present reality of people who simply believe.

Lordship Salvation Makes a False Equivalence Between the Truth and Various Heresies

Lordship Salvation confuses many by presenting itself as the answer to emotional altar calls, the anxious seat, Finneyism, the use of music to bring about “decisions,” and other diverse heretical practices and beliefs. It then lumps these heresies together with the biblical truth that God gives His people salvation as a free, non-transactional gift through faith alone. Lordship Salvation then calls all of these assorted doctrines “easy-believism” and “cheap grace.” (See, for example, John MacArthur, “The Nature of Saving Faith”)

Notice also this quote:

Listen to today’s typical gospel presentation. You will hear sinners entreated with such phrases as “accept Jesus Christ as personal Savior”; “ask Jesus into your heart”; “invite Christ into your life”; or “make a decision for Christ.” … Contemporary Christians have been conditioned to believe that because they recited a prayer, signed on a dotted line, walked an aisle, or had some other experience, they are saved and should never question their salvation.

“Abandoning Christ’s Gospel – The Master’s University”

The wrong beliefs that Lordship Salvation sets itself against certainly have their problems, but being contrary to Lordship Salvation isn’t one of them. Many of these unscriptural practices obscure and confuse the Gospel with high-pressured tactics from fiery preachers, appeals to guilt from weepy evangelists (I can even think of a Lordship Salvationist who fits that description), music-inspired ecstasy, crowd psychology, and free-willism. But Lordship Salvation is also guilty of obscuring and confusing God’s straightforward command to believe. It tacks onto faith alone a camouflage of repentance from sins and pledges of obedience to Jesus as Lord.

The antidote to such false evangelism is to present listeners with sound, unadulterated biblical exposition explaining who Jesus Christ is and the complete salvation He freely gives to all who believe on Him. The Holy Spirit will then cause the elect to believe.

Apeithōn as Disobey?

John MacArthur’s antidote to both false evangelism and true evangelism—which he calls easy-believism—is to call people to obey. He supports this in the following quote with three Bible verses:

To preach the gospel is more than merely sharing one’s faith and offering an invitation; it is to call sinners to obey God, “to bring about the obedience of faith . . . for His name’s sake” ( Romans 1:5 ). To be saved is to “obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” ( 2 Thessalonians 1:8 ), a point emphasized by Christ’s [sic] exhortation in John 3:36 : “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

“Blog Post – Obedience and Responsibility”

Are any of these verses speaking of MacArthur’s idea of obeying Jesus as Lord? Let’s look at the Bible. In Romans 1:1-3, Paul tells of his calling as an apostle of the Good News, which was promised through the Old Testament prophets concerning God’s Son, who was of the lineage of David. Then, in Romans 1:4-5, he continues this thought by showing that the prophesied Son of God of the lineage of David was proved, by His resurrection from the dead, to be the Son of God with power. Further, this Son of God was Jesus Christ our Lord. It was this Jesus Christ through whom Paul (“we”) received grace and his apostleship. That apostleship—its purpose—was for obedience of faith among the nations for Jesus’ name’s sake. I’ll quote it:

who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we received grace and apostleship, for obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name’s sake;

Romans 1:4-5

What did Paul, as an apostle, do among the nations? He preached the Gospel. The Gospel is a command to believe (Mark 1:15; 1 John 3:23). Thus, faith is in and of itself an act of obedience. As the Expositor’s Greek Testament on verse 5 explains, “obedience of faith” is “the obedience which consists in faith.” The obedience in Romans 1:5 is simply believing the Gospel. No other kind of obedience is suggested.

With this information in mind, it’s easy to see that Paul in 2 Thessalonians 1:8, is again speaking of believing the Gospel when he talks about God “giving vengeance to those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus.” The word “obey” is from hupakouō, “to hearken to.”

John the Baptist says, “One who believes in the Son has eternal life, but one who disobeys the Son won’t see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36). Are Lordship Salvationists right by saying that this means that there is no eternal life without works of obedience? There’s something about the word here translated as “disobeys” that we need to know.

In the last verse MacArthur cites, John 3:36 says that the one who believes—yes, merely believes!—has eternal life (present tense). This alone runs counter to Lordship Salvation. But what does John the Baptist mean when He says, “disobeys the Son”? We should know that “disobeys” in this verse is from a Greek word, apeithōn, that has no good English equivalent. In English, the best we can say is that it means, “refusing to be persuaded.” But it can also be used to refer to the results of not being persuaded.

What does apeithōn mean in this verse? John 3:36 makes no sense unless we see the verse as creating an inverse relationship between believing and apeithōn. To believe is to not apeithōn. To apeithōn is to not believe. Apeithōn in this verse, then, is best understood as refusing to believe. Thus, John 3:36 should be understood as, “One who believes in the Son has eternal life, but one refusing to believe the Son won’t see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36).

So we see that the three verses John MacArthur cites as evidence actually have nothing to do with his asserted need for an obedience defined as repenting of sins and promising obedience to Jesus as Lord. Simply by believing on Jesus as our Savior, we are obeying the command to believe the Gospel. And, because it is God’s gift to us, that believing is easy.

God Purposely Makes Believing Easy by Giving It to Us

The Holy Spirit leads believers to walk in love, and that is an obedience. But the Gospel never makes obedience a requirement for salvation, and that is the crucial difference between Lordship Salvation and salvation by faith alone. Our salvation does not rest upon our obedience. Our salvation rests entirely upon the completed work of Jesus Christ, and, by faith alone, we receive what Jesus has already accomplished for us.

The Gospel is good news because it says that God is freely giving salvation to all who will believe on His Son as their Savior. And that believing is easy because God gives us that belief. Any “gospel” that makes our salvation dependent upon our promise of obedience, and that if we have been disobedient, we must question our salvation, is not good news at all. It is bad news.

Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:28-30 (emphasis mine)

Print-friendly PDF Version

Copyright © 2025 Peter Ditzel Permissions Statement.

Subscribe to our newsletter

The post Lordship Salvation’s Charge of Easy-Believism appeared first on Word of His Grace.

For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax-collectors and the harlots believed him. And having seen, you did not repent afterwards to believe him.
Matthew 21:32

And Paul said, John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe into the One coming after him, that is, into the Christ, Jesus.
Acts 19:4

The Bible doesn’t teach repentance from sin, but repentance from unbelief to belief in Jesus Christ.

Photo by Maria Tyutina. Overlay of Scriptures added.

Lordship Salvation theology teaches that the Gospel message’s call to repent is a command to repent of sin. Advocates of this view hold that God will not save a person unless that person repents of his or her sins. They also label as easy-believism any teaching against this idea. Even Bible teachers who would not think of themselves as Lordship Salvationists believe that we must repent of our sins to be saved. But does the Bible agree with this view? Or, is Lordship Salvation’s repentance from sin an extra-biblical myth?

Is Lordship Salvation’s Repentance from Sin Biblical?

The most prominent Lordship Salvation teacher, John MacArthur, asserts,

Scripture teaches that the gospel calls sinners to faith joined in oneness with repentance (Acts 2:38; 17:30; 20:21; 2 Peter 3:9). Repentance is a turning from sin (Acts 3:19; Luke 24:47) that consists not of a human work but of a divinely bestowed grace (Acts 11:18; 2 Timothy 2:25). It is a change of heart, but genuine repentance will effect a change of behavior as well (Luke 3:8; Acts 26:18-20). In contrast, easy-believism teaches that repentance is simply a synonym for faith and that no turning from sin is required for salvation.

“An Introduction to Lordship Salvation”

Not one of the Scriptures MacArthur cites teaches that repentance is a turning from sin. In fact, the Gospel call to repentance is never associated with turning from sin, and it is never stated as “repent of your sins” or “repent from your sins” or anything similar. Look up the Scriptures MacArthur references, and you’ll see what I mean.

Acts 2:38

For example, Acts 2:38 does not say to turn from your sin and be baptized. That would be an impossible-to-maintain human work that is contrary to Jesus’ atonement (see below). Acts 2:37-39 says the people were “cut” (katanussō—“thoroughly pricked” or “stabbed”) “to the heart.” This change of heart indicated they were elect, regenerated people. They asked Peter what to do, and Peter answered with a command, an exhortation, and a statement. Their ability to obey the command to turn (repent) had been granted by God (Acts 11:18).

What did they turn from, and what did they turn to? Look at verse 36: “Let all the house of Israel therefore know certainly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). They turned from their animosity toward and unbelief in Jesus to belief that God had made Jesus (meaning “Savior”) both Lord (kurios—the Greek word that the Greek Septuagint Bible of the time used to translate the Hebrew YHVH or Yahweh in the Old Testament) and Christ (meaning “Messiah”). They repented from wanting Jesus’ death to accepting Him as Yahweh God, Messiah, and their Savior. This was not their repenting of their sins. It was their turning from unbelief to belief.

Acts 3:19

Acts 3:19 says, “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out.” Notice the most prominent points of the context.

Peter and John had told a lame man, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” (Acts 3:1-6). The lame man not only got up and walked, but he leaped and praised God. The people came around in amazement, and Peter used the opportunity to speak to them (Acts 3″7-11).

Peter then tells them that, in performing the miracle, God

had glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up, and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, to which we are witnesses.

Acts 3:13-15

Next, Peter explains that, “By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong,” and he tells them that he sees that they did it in ignorance but it fulfilled what was prophesied about the suffering of the Messiah (Acts 3:16-18).

Now, I’ll use the very literal Apostolic Bible Polyglot to show what Peter calls them to do:

Repent then [metanoēsate oun—”change your mind therefore”] and turn [kai epistrepsate—”turn about”], for the wiping away [passive voice] of your sins! so that times of respite should come from the presence of the Lord.

Acts 3:19

“Change your minds therefore” about what? Peter had just told them that they had “denied the Holy and Righteous One.” This is what they were to repent of. They were to repent of their unbelief in Jesus and turn so that, as expressed with the passive voice Peter uses, God would wipe away their sins. This is not about repenting of sin. It is about God’s changing their minds and wiping away their sins.

Luke 24:47

Depending on the text used, Luke 24:47 says either “that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name” or “that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name.” Either way, Jesus is not saying “repentance of sin” or “repentance from sin.” He is not talking about repenting of sin but about announcing to all the world beginning at Jerusalem God’s gift of turning from unbelief to belief in His Son and receiving God’s forgiveness. This is evidenced from what we have just seen above explaining what Peter, in fact, did preach beginning in Jerusalem.

Acts 26:18

Acts 26:18 is part of Jesus’ instructions sending Paul to the Gentiles “that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins.” Again, it is not about their work of repenting of sin but about God’s turning them from darkness (Satan) to light (God) to receive His remission of sins. You can see that all of these passages speak of repentance that results in forgiveness or the remission of sins. This is nothing like repentance being a turning from sin.

Repentance from Sin Contradicts Jesus’ Atonement

If repentance is our turning from our sins, we are active, and we get rid of our sins ourselves. Or, maybe this repentance from sin is a synergistic arrangement whereby Jesus takes away our past sins, but we promise to not sin again (this, by the way, is classic Armstrongism¹). But in the repentance that we see in the New Testament, we repent by God’s changing our minds to believe in Jesus as our Savior, and then we passively receive the forgiveness He purchased for us on the Cross.

If we must repent of our sins, what was the purpose of Jesus’ dying for our sins? If we must repent of our sins before God will accept us, then all or part of His acceptance of us is based on our repenting of our sins instead of His accepting us entirely because of Jesus’ atonement. Why does Paul totally disconnect the forgiveness of sin and the accounting of righteousness from works?

But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works, “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin.

Romans 4:5-8

The myth that the Gospel calls sinners to repent of their sins is a direct attack on Jesus’ atoning death on the Cross. But the truth is that the Gospel calls sinners to repent of their unbelief by changing their minds from unbelief to belief in Jesus Christ as their Savior. Of course, this is really the result of God sovereignly changing their minds to come to Jesus (John 6:65). This completely agrees with Jesus’ atoning death on the Cross. The faith resulting from that change of mind is the God-given evidence that He has accepted Jesus’ atonement on our behalf. We then receive through that faith in Jesus the salvation God gives us by grace (see Ephesians 2:8-9). No human work of repenting of our sins is involved or needed. Jesus has taken care of our sins for us.

Repentance from Sin Is Turning to the Law

John teaches us, “Everyone who sins also commits lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). Since sin is lawlessness, what, then, would repenting of sin be? Would it be trusting in Jesus? No, repenting of sin would be keeping the law! But keeping the law is not turning to Jesus Christ as Savior.

John continues: “You know that he was revealed to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Whoever remains in him doesn’t sin. Whoever sins hasn’t seen him, neither knows him” (1 John 3:5-6). Why don’t those who remain in Jesus sin? Is it because they perfectly obey? No. It’s because those in Jesus are not under the law, but they are under grace (see Romans 6:14). Why is it that those who sin haven’t seen and known Jesus? Because sin identifies them as still being under the law and not under grace.

Paul agrees: “For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be!” (Romans 6:14-15). So many people misunderstand Paul to say that we need to be all the more careful to keep the law. He is saying nothing of the kind. Paul is saying that, because we are not under the law but under grace, we will not sin because sin has no dominion over us. Read further. Romans 6:18 says, “Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness” (Romans 6:18). Paul isn’t saying that we made ourselves free from sin and became bondservants of righteousness by keeping the law. Paul is saying we are entirely passive in these things. Without any work on our part whatsoever, Jesus made us free from sin. He made us bondservants of righteousness.

Repentance from Sin Is a Heresy

Lordship Salvation’s repentance from sin stands as a biblical heresy that is contrary to the grace of the Gospel.

What, then, is repentance? One of the verses cited above gives us a very clear idea. Jesus called Paul to go to the Gentiles “to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:18). Repentance is God’s turning us from darkness to light. It is God’s turning us from the power of Satan to God.

What is the power of Satan? Satan is the accuser of the brethren (Revelation 12:10). And, how does he attempt to accuse the brethren? Of course, he attempts to accuse them of sin. By what power? “[T]he power of sin is the law” (1 Corinthians 15:56b). Repentance from sin is turning to the law, but true, biblical repentance includes turning away from trusting the law to trusting Jesus Christ: “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57). When God has turned us, then, as we saw above, “sin will not have dominion over [us]. For [we] are not under law, but under grace” (see Romans 6:14).

The Gospel’s call to repentance is the call to turn from trusting in anything else to trusting in Jesus Christ alone. When God grants us repentance, we turn to fully trust in Jesus Christ, and we turn from trusting in such things as attempts at law-keeping, our works, ourselves, our religious institution, our religious leaders, our diligent church attendance, our wealth, our political beliefs, our political leaders, our supposed spirituality, and so forth. Notice that Acts 11:18 calls the repentance God granted to the Gentiles, not repentance from sin, but “repentance to life!” Biblical repentance is not repentance from sin, which is the same as turning to law-keeping.

True Repentance Is Not Lordship Salvation’s Repentance

English Bibles translate “repentance” from the Greek word metanoia. It means, “a change of mind.” Biblical repentance associated with salvation is not repentance from sin. Repentance is God’s miraculously changing our mind from trusting in anything other than Jesus Christ to belief in Jesus Christ alone as Savior. It is the result of the Father’s drawing us to Jesus (John 6:44). You can see that since God changes our minds in repentance to believe; it is really God’s opening our minds to have faith. We can think of repentance and faith as flip sides of the same coin.

Lordship Salvation teachers say that “easy-believism” leads to false conversions. Certainly, we will always have some people who falsely profess belief. But Lordship Salvation’s repenting of sins and promising to obey the Lord are inherently false declarations, since 1) they are impossible to successfully accomplish as long as we’re in the flesh, and, 2) they contradict the Scripture-based Gospel.

The messages of “you must repent of your sins” and “you must promise to obey the Lord,” being calls to human works, are far more likely to result in false conversions. These are the messages that cause people to want to go up to the front and get saved week after week because they know they’re not living up to their promises. For many people, these calls are a form of spiritual abuse, leading to frustration, discouragement, and depression.

Whether they are doing it consciously and intentionally or not, many churches keep their attendees anxious over their salvation, afraid that they haven’t sufficiently repented of their sins, fearful that they aren’t showing obedience by tithing and giving more. But when you know the truth, you know you can freely walk away from that psychological stronghold.

Don’t be taken in by a religious system that depends on works. Are we to depend upon repenting of sin, confessions of sin, promises of obedience, and other signs that supposedly show the fruit of obedience the way those who work magic use incantations and omens? These things are not biblical, are not Christian, and are contrary to the Gospel that teaches us to trust entirely in Jesus Christ for our salvation.

You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

John 8:32

1. “Now Christ’s death purges sin only up to the time we accept it…. It is only sins that are past. Consequently, we must put sin out of our lives…. if we confess and turn away from them, [God will] forgive us our sins” (Herbert W. Armstrong, “Challenged“) ︎

Print-friendly PDF Version

Copyright © 2024 Peter Ditzel Permissions Statement.

Subscribe to our newsletter

The post Lordship Salvation’s Repentance from Sin appeared first on Word of His Grace.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

But what is the will of the Father?

Image by Chil Vera from Pixabay

Lordship Salvation and Matthew 7:21-23 have become closely associated. This is so much the case that the Lordship Salvation interpretation of this passage is merely repeated in other churches and has become the common, standard understanding. As a result, many Christians find these words of Jesus scary because they cause them to doubt whether they are worthy to enter the kingdom of heaven. For this reason, I want us to examine these words of Jesus to see what He is really saying.

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will tell me in that day, “Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?” Then I will tell them, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.”

Matthew 7:21-23

“…he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven”

Lordship Salvation advocate John MacArthur explains Matthew 7:21-23 in a way that stands the passage on its head. Yet, this is the interpretation that has practically become canon in Evangelical Christianity.

John MacArthur addresses the above verses in his sermon, “Empty Words.” In case anyone thinks that I just like to find fault with John MacArthur, I’ll point out that I agree with him in the first part of this sermon. He shows that Jesus’ purpose in the Sermon on the Mount is to teach that humans cannot on their own attain to true righteousness. That is absolutely correct. After that, unfortunately, MacArthur falls into errors covered in other parts of this Lordship Salvation series. Then he discusses Matthew 7:21-23.

MacArthur says that what Jesus is criticizing here is the self-deception of a “mere verbal profession.” Notice what he says here:

Verse 21, “Not everyone that saith.” Verse 22, “Many will say to me.” Now, these are the people who make the verbal profession; they say they’re Christians. Now listen, then in verses 21 to 23 you have the people who say and don’t do….

Please look back at the verses in question. Yes, “saying” is involved. Interestingly, what they say is “Lord, Lord.” But, contrary to what MacArthur asserts, the problem is not that these people are saying and NOT doing. The problem is clearly that they are saying AND DOING and trying to base their relationship to Christ upon their “many mighty works.”

Jesus doesn’t say, “Depart from me, you who say and don’t do.” Jesus rejects those who are doing. These people call Jesus “Lord, Lord” and point to their works—their prophesying, their casting out demons, and their mighty works. They point to their works as evidence of their right to enter into the kingdom of heaven. To these people who are relying on their works, Jesus says, “’I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.”

Our Works Are Not Evidence of Our Salvation

Why does Jesus say they work iniquity? Are the works, in themselves, iniquitous? No. It is because they are trying to use their works as evidence of their salvation. Do these people sound familiar to you?

Naturally, MacArthur totally ignores all of this and insists on his unfounded notion that Jesus rejects these people because they say and don’t do.

A point I want to drive home in this series is that our works are not the evidence or proof of our salvation. We are not to look to our works for assurance of our salvation.

Hebrews 11:1 Tells Us What the Evidence Is

So many people read Hebrews 11:1 and think “that’s nice,” and they entirely miss the point of what it’s saying: “Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

Do you hope for salvation? Your faith in Jesus as your Savior is your assurance (hupostasis—“underpinning”) that you are saved. You can’t see your salvation, but your faith is your proof or evidence or conviction (elegchos) that you are saved.

What Doing the Will of the Father Really Is

An example of the contorted theology that results from Lordship Salvation is found in a blog on The Master’s University website. After quoting Matthew 7:21-23, the blogger writes,

Clearly no past experience — not even prophesying, casting out demons, or doing signs and wonders — can be viewed as evidence of salvation apart from a life of obedience.

Our Lord was not speaking about an isolated group of fringe followers. There will be “many” on that day who will stand before Him, stunned to learn they are not included in the kingdom. I fear that multitudes who now fill church pews in the mainstream of the evangelical movement will be among those turned away because they did not do the will of the Father.

“Abandoning Christ’s Gospel”

The writer is implying that the will of the Father is a life of obedience. So, let’s look again at Matthew 7:21 and find out what doing “the will of my Father who is in heaven” really is.

Does Jesus say that the Father’s will is repenting of our sins, or promising to obey Him as Lord, performing works of obedience, or struggling to find and get in through the narrow gate and difficult road? (All these are claims of Lordship Salvation that I document in this series.) Not at all. Jesus plainly answers the question of what the will of the Father is in John 6:40: “This is the will of the one who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son, and believes in him, should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40). The will of the Father is that everyone who believes in Jesus will have eternal life. The will of the Father has nothing to do with our works!

But, some will say, if that’s the answer, it leaves nothing for us to do. After all, Jesus did say, “he who does the will of my Father….” What did Jesus mean by “does”?

Look at Matthew 7:21 and John 6:40 together. Doing the will of the Father—the one who sent Jesus—is merely receiving the gift of eternal life by grace through faith.

The Two Houses

Look also at the context that follows. In Matthew 7:24-27, Jesus tells us about the two houses—one built on the sand and one built on the rock. What was the difference between the two houses? Was the difference in how much work the builders put into making the houses? No. The difference was in what the houses were set upon. The house built on the sand fell during the floods and winds. But the house founded on the rock stood through the winds and floods. That house pictures someone trusting in Jesus Christ—the Rock—as his or her Savior alone.

If you want to be in the company of those who use their works as evidence of their salvation and whom Jesus rejects as workers of iniquity, then you just go right ahead and follow these Lordship Salvation teachers. But I pray that you are of those who are not looking to your works but are trusting in Jesus Christ alone for your salvation and looking to your faith in Him alone as the evidence of your salvation.

Print-friendly PDF Version

Copyright © 2024 Peter Ditzel Permissions Statement.

Subscribe to our newsletter

The post Lordship Salvation and Matthew 7:21-23 appeared first on Word of His Grace.

Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified.
Romans 8:30

Hubble Captures Infant Stars Transforming a Nebula — ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Tan (Chalmers University & University of Virginia), R. Fedriani

The Bible teaches that, from start to finish, God accomplishes our entire salvation. Theologians call this monergism, and Scripture clearly supports it. On the other hand, Lordship Salvation is a works salvation. More exactly, it is what theologians call synergism—”working together.” By teaching that saving faith must be accompanied by repentance from sin, a promise of obedience to Jesus Christ as Lord, and that without the fruit of obedience there has been no salvation, Lordship Salvation implies that salvation results from the cooperation between God’s work and man’s work. I don’t know of any teacher of Lordship Salvation who admits this, but I’m going to provide the evidence.

Lordship Salvation Is a Works Salvation

To be fair, most Lordship Salvation teachers say that salvation is entirely God’s work. John MacArthur, for example, states, “Scripture teaches that salvation is all God’s work. Those who believe are saved utterly apart from any effort on their own (Titus 3:5). Even faith is a gift of God, not a work of man (Ephesians 2:1-5, 8).” But such statements contradict Lordship Salvation’s tenets as found elsewhere.

MacArthur rightly says that faith is a gift of God and is not a work of man. But, as I will show throughout this Lordship Salvation series of articles, MacArthur also stresses repentance from sin, a promise of obedience to Jesus as Lord, and works of obedience as evidences of salvation. The Bible teaches that faith is God’s gift, and it teaches that repentance (which is really just the change of mind from unbelief to faith) is God’s gift, but it does not teach that repentance of or from sin is God’s gift. Repentance of sin is a human work. The Bible never says that promising obedience to Jesus as Lord is a gift. It is a human work. Having to produce obedience as evidence of salvation is also certainly a human work, even if it is assisted by God.

Lordship Salvation Demands Vigor

For those who are still not convinced, I present this quote from a John MacArthur sermon called “The Only Road to Heaven”:

Becoming a Christian is not easy, it’s hard. Another way to say all that is that the kingdom opens up to those who seek with all their hearts. You’re not going to sleep your way into the kingdom. The kingdom requires earnest endeavor, untiring energy, utmost exertion, because Satan is mighty and has a vast array of helpers, because he has many false prophets and deceivers all over the world, because he actually receives support from the fifth column established in every man’s heart – the love of sin. To let go of the love of sin, to desire to be forgiven of sin, delivered from sin, to let go of pride and self-will demands a vigor, an eagerness, a willingness to conquer, take possession of the kingdom with all its blessings of salvation. This is not for weaklings. This is not for waverers. This is not for compromisers.

If we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone as our completely efficient Savior (as the old hymn says, “Jesus paid it all”), then it is impossible for becoming a Christian to be hard. How can it possibly be hard if everything is done for us? The Bible flatly states, “the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23b). Yes, our salvation was very hard for Jesus, but He did it all for us, and gives it to us when we believe that.

Notice in MacArthur’s quote above that he says, “The kingdom requires earnest endeavor, untiring energy, utmost exertion….” Those three things are attached to work. Plainly, John MacArthur is saying that if we are to attain to the kingdom of God, we must work. Further, he says, “To let go of the love of sin, to desire to be forgiven of sin, delivered from sin… demands a vigor, an eagerness, a willingness to conquer, take possession of the kingdom with all its blessings of salvation.” Based upon this, John MacArthur apparently believes that to desire to be forgiven of sin and to be delivered from sin demands what he then lists, which are expressions associated with human work.

No Salvation If No Work Means Works Salvation

The defenders of Lordship Salvation claim that they aren’t teaching that works are required for salvation. But they then turn around and say that not having works means there was no salvation. By doing this, they are, in fact, teaching works salvation. And works salvation is arch heresy. It is at best, beginning in the Spirit but trying to be perfected in the flesh (Galatians 3:3). But, John MacArthur even teaches a covenant and pledge of obedience and transaction of saving faith made at the time of profession (see “Lordship Salvation’s Promise of Obedience”). This means he’s even beginning in the flesh. Works—whether before, at the time of, or after a profession of faith— used as evidence of salvation is works-based salvation, biblical heresy, and apostasy from the faith.

Zealous for Good Works

Does this mean that Christians must avoid good works? Of course not. Paul explains,

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works.

Titus 2:11-14

Why do we deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, live soberly, and so forth? Because the grace of God instructs us. The grace of God is His free gift of salvation to those who trust in His Son as their Savior. How does that instruct us? Because that gift is based upon Jesus Christ giving Himself for us and redeeming us from all iniquity, so that, looking for the return of Jesus Christ, we are zealous for good works.

Lordship Salvation’s problem arises with its insistence on works of obedience. It teaches that obedience—as shown in such works as repentance from sin, a promise of obedience to Jesus Christ as Lord, earnest endeavor, untiring energy, and utmost exertion—is “an essential component in salvation…. an important essential in salvation” (“Fundamental Christian Attitudes: Self-Discipline, Part 1”). According to this works-based system, without the fruit of obedience there has been no salvation. In this way, salvation is not a gracious gift that incites us to rejoice and motivates us to do good, but a grueling life of exertions and the fear that we may not be doing enough. For example, are you continually confessing your sins? Are you sure that you confessed enough of them? John MacArthur says, “Continual confession of sin is the mark of a Christian” (John MacArthur, “The Certainty of Sin, Part 3”).

It’s Like a Happy Marriage

It’s like the difference between two marriages. In one, the wife must live a life of exertion obeying her husband because he demands her works of obedience to prove their marriage. She must live in fear as in a master-servant relationship. In the other marriage, the husband and wife love each other, they extend grace to each other, and each responds in love with good works as they desire. There is no compulsion, they aren’t judging each other, they aren’t demanding. Their works don’t prove their marriage. There is a marriage even without the works. Their works are the natural outcome of their grace and love toward each other (see Ephesians 5:22-33). As John wrote, “We love him, because he first loved us.” Christ doesn’t want anxious slaves but a confident wife who trusts Him.

So, remember brethren, your Savior has freed you from having to do works for your salvation. Not your works of compulsory obedience, but the fact that you trust in Jesus’ work of love for you on the Cross proves your salvation. Jesus Christ has liberated you from having to fear that your works don’t measure up. Now that you are free from that bondage, you are at liberty to serve in love how, when, and as you choose, with no compulsion, judging, or fear. “For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another” (Galatians 5:13).

And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.

Romans 11:6

Print-friendly PDF Version

Copyright © 2024 Peter Ditzel Permissions Statement.

Subscribe to our newsletter

The post Lordship Salvation’s Works Salvation appeared first on Word of His Grace.

Free from the law—oh, happy condition!
Jesus hath bled, and there is remission;
Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall,
Christ hath redeemed us once for all.

Yes, the old hymn is true. Jesus has freed us from the law! But don’t we still have to use the law to guide our Christian walk?

Words from verse 1 of “Free from the law—oh, happy condition” by Philip Bliss. Photo by Julia Kuzenkov

In Part 1, we saw how the world came under the law and that the Bible many times says that believing Christians are now free from the law. Now, let’s look at an allegory Paul gives us showing who is in bondage to the law and who is free. We’ll also see that trying to keep the law works wrath.

You Are Free from the Law, as Seen in an Allegory

Writing to the Galatians, who desired to be under the law, Paul made an allegory of the story of Abraham, Sara and Isaac, and Hagar and Ishmael,

These things contain an allegory, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to the Jerusalem that exists now, for she is in bondage with her children.

Galatians 4:24-25

In his allegory, Paul is saying that Hagar, who was a handmaid (paidiskē—a female slave) stands for the Jerusalem of his time. As Hagar was in bondage with her naturally born child, Isaac, so Jerusalem was in bondage with its children, the Jews, the natural descendants of Abraham.

We believers, on the other hand, are the children of the free woman, Sara, and are the miraculous children of the promise God gave to Abraham. We correspond to the heavenly Jerusalem: “But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the mother of us all” (Galatians 4:26). We are free.

Then, quoting from Genesis 21:10, and intending God’s order to Abraham to now find application to the Galatians and for all believers, Paul writes, “However what does the Scripture say? ‘Throw out the handmaid and her son, for the son of the handmaid will not inherit with the son of the free woman’” (Galatians 4:30).

I think it might be hard for us today to grasp the gravity of that instruction. Think about it. The handmaid and her son represent Jerusalem and the Jews. Don’t look to them for any sort of instruction. Throw them out, figuratively. They will not inherit with the son of the free woman. They will not inherit with us who are the children of faith, trusting in Jesus Christ alone as our Savior. Yes, some of us are believing Jews. But none of us are under the law. We are free. “So then, brothers, we are not children of a handmaid, but of the free woman” (Galatians 4:31).

We must “stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free,” “walk by the Spirit ,” and remember that “if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law (Galatians 5:1, 16, 18).

Modern Judaizers Would Rob Us of Our Freedom from the Law

We must not listen to the modern Judaizers who would turn us back to the law. Both the Westminster Confession of Faith and the 1689 London Baptist Confession claim to acknowledge that believers are not under the law, but then assert that believers are to follow the law “as a rule of life, informing them of the will of God and their duty, it directs and binds them to walk accordingly” (The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, chapter 19, para. 6). So, we’re supposed to believe people who say that we’re not under the law but then turn around and tell us that the law is our rule of life and our duty that binds us? Are these people theologians or hucksters?

Don’t be fooled by confessions and people who say that using the law as they prescribe doesn’t take us from being under grace and put us under the law. The law being our duty is absolutely being under the law. Being bound to walk in the law is the very definition of being under the law. Stay away from wolves in sheep’s clothing. “Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision” (Philippians 3:2), “and be found in him, not having a righteousness of [your] own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Philippians 3:9).

The above verse tells us that we are not to be found having the righteousness that comes from the law but the righteousness that is through faith in Christ, which is from God by faith. Many other Scriptures agree. So, if we are trusting in Jesus Christ, we are counted as righteous.

Therefore, when 1 Timothy 1:9-10 says “…that law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave-traders, for liars, for perjurers, and for any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine,” we should understand without any doubt that the law is not made for us! In fact, these confessions, theologians, pastors, and authors—”desiring to be teachers of the law, though they understand neither what they say, nor about what they strongly affirm” (1 Timothy 1:7)—are trying to apply the law to us unlawfully (1 Timothy 1:8).

The Law Works Wrath

I cannot emphasize enough the seriousness of believers allowing themselves to be turned back to the law. The law doesn’t work righteousness, help us maintain righteousness in our walk, or act as an aid in our sanctification.

I want to dwell on sanctification for a minute. It has become the standard among many Covenant Theology churches to teach that the law aids in our sanctification. The idea is that by keeping the law in sight and consciously trying to keep it, we grow in sanctification. Scripture clearly teaches otherwise:

I just want to learn this from you. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh?

Galatians 3:2-3

From beginning to completion, the law plays no part either in our justification or in our sanctification. How, then, are we sanctified? “…by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10), and, “Therefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people through his own blood, suffered outside of the gate” (Hebrews 13:12). Jesus Christ, not the law or our efforts to keep it, sanctified us once for all by His sacrifice.

The law does not restrain evil. Paul explains:

For the promise to Abraham and to his seed that he should be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect. For the law works wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.

Romans 4:13-15

Because we will inevitably disobey it, the law works wrath. That’s why the law is a curse. Thank God that, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’” (Galatians 3:13).

Don’t Make Israel’s Mistake

Writing of physical Israel, Paul explains, “For being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, they didn’t subject themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the fulfillment of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Romans 10:3-4). But if you don’t believe, for you, the law is not fulfilled. Although Jesus fulfilled or ended the law, the Jews who don’t believe keep themselves under the law precisely because they don’t believe. “But to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart” (2 Corinthians 3:15).

Anyone can fall under the curse of keeping him- or herself under the law. Faithless Gentiles hold themselves to the law of their consciences and don’t believe. Anyone unable to trust in Jesus alone who fulfilled and ended the law for those who believe is doomed to stay under whatever law they put over themselves, and they remain under condemnation unless they turn in faith to Jesus Christ alone. “But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (2 Corinthians 3:16).

Remember, “whatever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23b). So, when even professing Christians don’t fully trust in Jesus, take their eyes off of Him alone, and turn to the law as their rule of life and to feel secure in their Christian walk, they come back under the veil. Or, to use another picture, they begin to spiritually sink (as typified by Peter’s walking on the water and then sinking when he took his eyes off of Christ—Matthew 14:28-31). As Paul told the Galatians, “You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace” (Galatians 5:4).

“I’m Not Using the Law to be Justified”

But, you say, I’m not trying to be justified by the law. Oh? Then what are you using the law for? The word “justified” is dikaioō. It means “be righteous.” If you are not using the law as a guide or rule for being righteous, then what are you using it for? Don’t fool yourself! If you are using the law, you have set your mind on the flesh instead of the Spirit. Ponder these Spirit-inspired words of Paul:

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. For what the law couldn’t do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be. Those who are in the flesh can’t please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if it is so that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man doesn’t have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Romans 8:1-11

When we turn to the law, we are walking according to the flesh. Only by walking according to the Spirit can we walk uncondemned by the law.

“Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you…” (Ephesians 5:2)

Can we then run riot? No! Why? Because that is living in an unloving way that hurts others and dishonors God: “Love doesn’t harm a neighbor. Love therefore is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:10). Walking according to the Spirit is also walking according to love: “For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Galatians 5:13-14). And, John wrote, “This is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, even as he commanded” (1 John 3:23).

Read what Paul says: “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). What did he say? Did he say, “Walk by the law, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh?” No! He said that when we walk by the Spirit, we won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. The implication is that walking by the law won’t prevent us from fulfilling the lust of the flesh. Notice the verses that follow, how Paul plainly shows us that being led by the Spirit is incompatible to being under the law:

For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Galatians 5:17-18

Rejoice in Your Freedom!

The law is not for Christians. Oh, yes, God accepts us only by a life of complete obedience to the law. But that life isn’t ours; it is Jesus Christ’s. God accepts us because Jesus Christ perfectly obeyed the law for us. Only the God-man, Jesus Christ, could keep the law. Jesus rescued us from the mess we’d gotten into in the Garden by keeping the law for us and then fulfilling it, putting us under the grace of the New Covenant. When we try to keep the law for our sanctification or standard of morality or rule of life or duty or for whatever reason, we are trying to do for ourselves what God has already done for us. We are turning back to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and rejecting the work Jesus Christ accomplished. The law can serve no other purpose than to define good and evil, and to condemn its inevitable violation. It brought about Adam and Eve’s deaths and the deaths of all people since. All we need to do is believe on Jesus and love others.

Print-friendly PDF Version

Copyright © 2024 Peter Ditzel Permissions Statement.

Subscribe to our newsletter

The post Are You Free from the Law? Part 2 appeared first on Word of His Grace.

Peter Ditzel

24/10/31

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I want to have a word with all of you wherever you live. This regards the U.S. Presidential Election that will be held on November 5. The events surrounding the election and its aftermath may have negative effects both within the United States and also around the world. I’m not speaking with certain knowledge; I’m just concerned because of the possibility.

As you may know, I don’t vote because I believe that Christian believers are God’s ambassadors to the Earth and not citizens of any nation of this world (2 Corinthians 5:20). Our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20).

Another reason I don’t vote is because voting for people, especially those running for higher offices, is always merely choosing between evils. Politicians who attain to the highest offices get there by being the most dishonest, amoral, and ruthless scoundrels. The democratic process is an example of Darwinian survival of the fittest. Presidents and prime ministers are the apex predators of a cruel political food chain. And yet, they are only the puppets of billionaires and corporate giants who give the electorate a Punch and Judy show to distract them from seeing the disparity of wealth and power in their country and keep them disunited.

I have two big reasons for writing. First, I want to remind you that Christian Nationalism is a heresy. Christians should have nothing to do with it. The “Christianity” brandished by the Republican Party is not the Christianity of Jesus Christ. Jesus did not teach His followers to be belligerent, hateful toward others, racist, foulmouthed, thinking of themselves first, mean, violent, warlike, hot-tempered, sexually immoral, idolatrously revering politicians, idolatrously elevating their nation, or stirring up strife. But these things and more are the continual effluence of the Republican Party. Donald Trump, JD Vance, and their gang of sycophants—many of whom profess Christianity, some from pulpits—actively work to divide the American people by telling them that immigrants, Latinos, Muslims, blacks, or any non-white community are the cause of America’s economic and other woes. Most recently, Donald Trump has called these people “the scum” and “the enemy within.” Ominously, he also labels anyone outside his MAGA group as the “enemy.” This is a tactic of both fascism and religious cultism.

These accusations distract the general population from realizing that the richest ten percent of the country is working the system to extract more and more wealth from the lower ninety percent. And by keeping the people divided, they prevent them from taking united action.

As I’ve said in previous articles, the Republican Party, by promoting heretical doctrine as Christianity, has opened itself up to condemnation as a heresy. The behaviors that I listed above that are opposites to the way of Christ show that it is a way of antichrist. You may also want to read, “Jesus’ Warnings in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, part 4.”

From my personal experience of having been a member of a cult, I can tell you that the Republican Party has become a religious cult. Notice these ten characteristics of a cult, which are typical of what you will find in many other such lists. I find that they all apply to the Republican Party:

1. Absolute authoritarianism without accountability
   
2. Zero tolerance for criticism or questions
   
3. Lack of meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget
   
4. Unreasonable fears about the outside world that often involve evil conspiracies and persecutions
   
5. A belief that former followers are always wrong for leaving and there is never a legitimate reason for anyone else to leave
   
6. Abuse of members
   
7. Records, books, articles, or programs documenting the abuses of the leader or group
   
8. Followers feeling they are never able to be “good enough”
   
9. A belief that the leader is right at all times
   
10. A belief that the leader is the exclusive means of knowing “truth” or giving validation

Source: “What Is a Cult? 10 Warning Signs”

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). Are these the fruit you see in evidence at these political rallies and conventions?

When those who bear the label of Christian link themselves to such a political party and support its candidates, they turn little ones away from Jesus, and they bring upon themselves a terrible weight of guilt (Matthew 18:6).

I’m not at all absolving the Democratic Party. It, too, is a den of thieves and scoundrels. Thirty-four nations plus several international organizations and hundreds of non-profits, labor unions, political parties and other organizations have termed Israel’s assault on Gaza a genocide. Yet, Kamala Harris has indicated that she would continue the Biden’s administration’s policy of providing the weapons for Israel’s assault on its neighbors. (Donald Trump has also said that he would continue to support Israel with U.S. weapons.) This program makes the U.S. complicit in this wicked crime. I am unable to see how Christians could ever vote for Harris as a “lesser evil.”

My second concern is that, if God so wills it, we may very well be heading into a time of civil violence and the possible establishment of a police state with political tyranny in this country. I think this may also result in increased conflict around the world as the U.S. pursues with renewed vigor its policy of America first. By putting U.S. economic and strategic interests above people’s lives, more people may die in conflicts and poverty. And by the U.S. ignoring the advice of climate science, we may see irreversible climate damage due to selfish ambition which will result in climate disasters and famine.

I certainly hope that all of this will blow over with no problems. But, I did want to write this to you, my brothers and sisters, just in case. Whatever happens, please remember who you are and who you represent. Trust in our God and Savior, walk in the Spirit, and behave in love.

I would like you to pray, as I will be praying, that whatever the outcome of the election, God grants peace to His people, this country, and the entire world. Whoever becomes the President of the United States, Jesus Christ “is the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 6:15b).

Be free from the love of money, content with such things as you have, for he has said, “I will in no way leave you, neither will I in any way forsake you.” So that with good courage we say, “The Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?”

Hebrews 13:5-6

Grace and peace to all of you,

Peter Ditzel

Copyright © 2024 Peter Ditzel Permissions Statement.

Subscribe to our newsletter

The post A Pre-Election Word to Subscribers appeared first on Word of His Grace.