Free Grace theology

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Free Grace theology is the controversial view that the Christian concept of eternal salvation is bestowed on anyone who believes in Jesus irrespective of the subsequent behavior of the recipient of eternal salvation.[1] Its historical antecedents are considered[2][3] to be Anne Hutchinson[4], Robert Sandeman [5], John Cotton,[6] John Nelson Darby, and Lewis Sperry Chafer. Both in its historical antecedents and in its contemporary expressions in organizations like the Free Grace Alliance and the Grace Evangelical Society (GES) and in the writings of Charles Ryrie, Zane Hodges, Charlie Bing, Bob Wilkin, J. B. Hixson, and Joseph C. Dillow, Free Grace theology is a critical response to the view of Calvinism's Lordship salvation, Catholicism, and Arminianism that final salvation from the penalty of sin requires not only belief in Jesus Christ, but also a commitment to and perseverance in good works.[7] Free Grace theology was initially found among dispensationalists, but has since found acceptance in other groups as well.

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[edit] Free Grace soteriology

Free Grace Theology is distinguished by its soteriology or doctrine of salvation. Like most Conservative Protestant Christians, its advocates believe that eternal salvation is provided by God as a result of faith instead of righteous living. [8] However since this proposition typically has several modifying details, the advocates of Free Grace Theology distinguish themselves by insisting that faith is being passively persuaded that Jesus is the messiah and that he provides eternal salvation as a free gift to those who believe in him. [9] Free Grace further stresses that a person can be confident that he or she has obtained eternal salvation through the merits of the Gospel promise rather than through assessment of personal works and introspection.[9] Necessary to this view is the understanding that spiritual growth is distinct from the gift of eternal life and the declaration of justification by faith.[9] There is also an emphasis within Free Grace on the judgment seat of Christ, where Christians are rewarded based on good works done in faith.[10] There are some differing views within Free Grace circles regarding the definition of repentance and the impact of not having a clear confidence that one possesses eternal salvation.[11][12][13]

[edit] Opposition

Conservative Protestant Christian theology would typically agree with the Free Grace Alliance statement that faith is the "sole means" for receiving the "free gift of eternal life" or the Christian concept of "eternal salvation". However, the grace movement's definition of faith differs from the view of Reformed scholarship.[14][15] The Reformed tradition has long condemned the view that faith (as the "sole means" for securing eternal salvation) can be defined without requiring the presence of good works.[16] According to the contemporary expression of Reformed soteriology, sometimes called Lordship salvation, "faith" that lacks the required good works is called "head faith" or "mental assent," as opposed to "heart faith," which is said to include good works. For instance in the book The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus, John Cross argues that the faith that results in eternal salvation must "not stop with mental assent". [17] And Kenneth Gentry argues that acknowledging Christ as "the Lord and Master of one’s life" is necessary for eternal salvation to occur. [18] The Free Grace view of faith was historically disparaged as "Sandemanianism", per Robert Sandeman, who in the mid 18th century became known for his view that "bare faith" was adequate for Christian eternal salvation.[19]

[edit] Current issues

Free Grace theology is dispensational in its assumptions regarding the philosophy of history and in terms of its networks and affiliations.[20] There are however significant differences between exegetes who consider the theology of the movement to be in flux and biblical interpretation as ongoing, and dispensational pastors and leaders who hold to the essential Free Grace soteriology but consider the development of doctrinal ideas to be problematic.

[edit] Assurance

One of the distinctives of Free Grace theology is its position on assurance. All Free Grace advocates agree that introspection and works are not requirements for personal assurance of salvation. Dallas Theological Seminary in Article XI of its doctrinal statement sums up the general consensus of Free Grace theology in reference to assurance: [21]

We believe it is the privilege, not only of some, but of all who are born again by the Spirit through faith in Christ as revealed in the Scriptures, to be assured of their salvation from the very day they take Him to be their Savior and that this assurance is not founded upon any fancied discovery of their own worthiness or fitness, but wholly upon the testimony of God in His written Word, exciting within His children filial love, gratitude, and obedience (Luke 10:20; 22:32; 2 Cor. 5:1, 6–8; 2 Tim. 1:12; Heb. 10:22; 1 John 5:13).

Yet within the Free Grace world, there are two views on assurance. The first is the traditional position, that although assurance is the birthright of every born again believer, the newly regenerate individual may or may not immediately enjoy that assurance. The realization of one's possession of eternal life may come at a later time from the study of the objective promises contained in the saving message.

The second view states that assurance is of the essence of saving faith. This means that the moment that one exercises saving faith that he necessarily has certain personal assurance of his salvation. In this view, when one believes the words of Christ, such as those found in John 3:16; 5:24; 6:35-40,47; 11:25-26, he is not only born again, but has absolute assurance of his salvation, because the guarantee of the reception of eternal life is inexorably linked to Christ's gratuitous promise. If one believes Jesus when he says, "Most assuredly I say to you, whoever believes in Me has everlasting life" (Jn 6:47), he knows he has everlasting life for faith is the conviction that something is true.

[edit] Eternal security

The Christian doctrine of eternal security is considereded primary to Free Grace theology, although there is no consensus on its role in the Christian message of eternal salvation.

The more traditional wing of Free Grace theology states that one need not know that he is eternally secure at the moment he is saved. The convert may believe in Jesus, receive eternal life, which is eternally secure, and yet not be certain at that moment that he has eternal life and yet not be certain he is eternally secure. This may take time and study to apprehend.

The second and more recently articulated Freee Grace view emphasizes that the biblical offer of eternal life (sometimes called the "saving message") necessarily includes the information that the believer in Jesus can never perish. Therefore when one believes this message, he necessarily has a certain knowledge that he "can never be lost" or lose the eternal benefits of Christian redemption. In this view, initial certainty can later diminish, but at the moment of saving faith, the convert must understand that he or she is eternally secure or he or she has not believed the saving message.

[edit] Repentance

The traditional position in Free Grace theology believes that repentance is required for salvation, but it defines repentance much differently than other theological systems such as Reformed theology. The traditional view defines repentance as a person changing their mind.[citation needed] In any context within Scripture that is determined to be talking about how to receive the free gift of eternal life, it understands the reference to repentance as a change of mind from unbelief to belief in Christ.[citation needed]

The refined position, on the other hand, holds that repentance is not required for salvation, and it defines repentance as a change of mind concerning sin, whether it is of an unbeliever or a believer, as a step to harmony with God. But repentance itself never saves since salvation is through faith alone. In the case of the unbeliever, repentance may put him in a better place to believe in Jesus for eternal life, and in the case of the believer, it will restore harmony with God that was lost due to sin.

The competing system of Reformed theology, by contrast, has a different definition for repentance and sees a different order of steps in salvation. It defines repentance as "a heartfelt sorrow for sin, a renouncing of it, and a sincere commitment to forsake it and walk in obedience to Christ,"[22] and it sees both repentance and faith (collectively called conversion) as the necessary and natural response to the gospel message for a person whom God has regenerated (freed from bondage to sin and selfishness). Such a conversion necessarily results in justification (being declared right before God) and then sanctification (a progressive, but always imperfect, process of living more and more in accord with God's will). Repentance so defined is a component, not just of conversion, but also of sanctification, and it is a regularly recurring element throughout the Christian's life. However, since only the regenerated can truly exercise repentance, it will not ever be present in a non-Christian, who by definition is not regenerated (unless perhaps God is in the process of converting them). Hence, because repentance is a necessary precursor to justification and a necessary element of sanctification, if a person truly is not repentant, Reformed theology holds that the person has not truly been born again and is thus still enslaved to sin and an enemy of God.

Free Grace theology sees the Reformed view as adding requirements for salvation that make it not entirely gracious from first to last, but the Reformed reject this characterization and see Free Grace as inverting the order of steps in salvation and as making sanctification, which it considers the necessary consequence of justification, optional (a characterization which proponents of Free Grace likewise reject).

[edit] Saving faith

There is an in-house discussion in Free Grace theology concerning what exactly is the content of saving faith.

Traditionally, the content of saving faith in Free Grace theology is "the gospel" as they define it. Saving faith is believing in the substitutionary atonement of Christ and his bodily resurrection from the dead, and then a further step of personal appropriation of Christ's works through trust. This position understands 1 Cor 15:3-8 as the precise content of saving faith. Others in this view include Christ's humanity and deity as required content.

The refined view sees the gospel of John as the only purposefully constructed evangelistic book in the Bible (Jn 20:30-31). This position seeks to present the saving message as Christ did, and thus conditions the reception of eternal life solely on entrusting one's eternal destiny into the hands of Jesus. It does not believe that assent to a creed or doctrinal statement is the content of saving faith, but belief in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as the guarantor of everlasting life to the believer.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Bing, Charles Lordship Salvation, A Biblical Evaluation and Response, Ph.D. Dissertation, Dallas Theological Seminary, 1991
  2. ^ John F. MacArthur, Jr., Faith Works, The Gospel According to the Apostles, Word, 1993]
  3. ^ Michael Horton, Christ the Lord: The Reformation and Lordship Salvation (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1992)
  4. ^ David D. Hall, The Antinomian Controversy 1636-1638 : A Documentary History, 1990]
  5. ^ Robert Sandeman, Encyclopædia Britannica, 2007
  6. ^ R.T. Kendall, Calvin and English Calvinism to 1649 2nd ed., Paternoster Press, UK, 1997
  7. ^ Dean, Abiding in Christ: A Dispensational Theology of the Spiritual Life, CTS Journal, 2006
  8. ^
  9. ^ a b c
  10. ^ Earl Radmacher, "Believers and the Bema" Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society, Spring 1995 -- Volume 8:14
  11. ^ Charlie Bing “Repentance, What’s in a Word?”, GraceLife Newsletter, Grace Life 22
  12. ^ Zane Hodges “Harmony With God”, Chafer Theological Seminary Journal, Vol 8, No. 3, July - September 2002
  13. ^ Bob Wilkin, "Do You Know Our View on Assurance of Salvation?", GES Newsletter, Grace in Focus March-April 2008
  14. ^ M. Charles Bell, Calvin & Scottish Theology, The Handsel Press, Edinburgh, 1985
  15. ^ R. T. Kendall, Calvin and English Calvinism to 1649 2nd ed., Paternoster Press, UK, 1997
  16. ^ Gresham Machen, What is Faith?, 1925
  17. ^ "True biblical belief does not stop with mental assent to the truth. It includes a heart trust, a confidence in the facts expressed by a voluntary act of the will." John Cross, The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus, 3rd Edition, 2003 p. 254
  18. ^ "The Lordship view expressly states the necessity of acknowledging Christ as the Lord and Master of one’s life in the act of receiving Him as Savior. These are not two different, sequential acts (or successive steps), but rather one act of pure trusting faith." Gentry, The Great Option: A Study of the Lordship Controversy, Baptist Reformation Review 5 [Spring 1976]: 52
  19. ^ Sandeman, Letters on Theron and Aspasio, vol. 2 Edinburgh:Sands, Donaldson, Murray, and Conchran, 1759, 329-30
  20. ^ Gerry Breshears, “New Directions in Dispensationalism”, paper presented to the Evangelical Theological Society, November 1991
  21. ^ Dallas Theological Seminary Website
  22. ^ Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, p. 713.

[edit] Free Grace advocacy