The following "Question" was asked by a member of the congregation at Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, and "Answered" by their pastor, John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from the tape, GC 1301-R, titled "Bible Questions and Answers Part 20." A copy of the tape can be obtained by writing, Word of Grace, P.O. Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412 or by dialing toll free 1-800-55-GRACE. ©1982. All Rights Reserved.
Question
I have a friend and they just got a new interim pastor at the church that
he is at. And he says he preaches a hard line message, many things that needed
to be heard in this day of lack of commitment and playing church; however, he
preaches strongly that Christ must be Lord, Master in order to be Savior. And I
know where he’s coming from, and I just wanted you to comment on that.
Answer
Yes, there is a reigning debate going on now; some of you are aware of it. I mean, it’s really come to the point where there is a line being drawn in the middle of Christianity right now over whether or not Jesus has to be acknowledged as Lord in order for a person to be saved. There are some people who teach that you just have to acknowledge Jesus as Savior; you don’t have to make any commitment to that. In other words, if you believe Jesus died on the cross and rose again, you just have to believe that and you’re saved. You do not have to confess your sin; you do not have to repent of your sin. You do not have to confess the Lordship of Christ; you do not have to submit to that. All you have to do is believe.
Now, historically this has been known as cheap grace or easy
believism, but that’s the critic’s term for it. The term used by the people
who advocate that is pure grace; they call it pure grace. And it comes in all
kinds of packages, but basically they’re saying grace is so much grace that if
you put anything into salvation at all, you have fouled up grace. So if you say
a person must confess Christ as Lord or a person must believe, must affirm his
sin and repent and turn from his sin, and acquiesce in submission to Christ’s
control of his life, you are now adding works and muddling grace.
On the other side, we say this: the Bible very clearly says that there must be
repentance; the Bible very clearly says that you must confess with your mouth
what? Jesus as Lord. Well, they say that the “Lord” there has nothing to do with
sovereignty; it has only to do with deity. So they try to prove that all that
means is that you have to acknowledge that He is God; it doesn’t mean you have
to submit to His sovereignty. The problem with that is that is not what the term
means. And that could be shown again and again and again.
You might be interested to know, too, that I think in the New Testament, there
are 300, it sticks in my mind, 300 and some odd times, Jesus is referred to as
Lord; eight times He is referred to as Savior. And whenever He is referred to as
Lord and Savior, it’s always Lord first and Savior after. You can’t redefine
Christ under those terms. But basically that doctrine comes because people have
identified grace as a kind of super grace. And they say that if you add
repentance or confession, in fact, in the back of the Ryrie Study Bible it says
“False Theories Added to the Doctrine of Salvation: repentance, confession and
the Lordship of Christ.” Ryrie says that because he feels if you have those
things, you’ve added works to grace. Now, my answer to that is: not at all; it
is just that true grace, saving grace, produces repentance, confession, and
an acknowledgement of the Lordship of Christ. And you don’t give anything
away; you certainly aren’t adding a work, so I do believe that the Bible is
relatively clear without going into a lot of detail, that Jesus Christ is Lord,
That is the confession of the church. That has always been the confession of the
church.
And you see what they then say is, "OK, these people who believe, just believe
in Jesus, believe He lived, rose, died on the cross and rose, but they don’t
want to follow Him, they don’t have to be obedient; they don’t have to confess
their sin; they just believe that." How are they different than the devils in
James? How are they different? I mean if everybody in the world that just
believes that, is saved, then it isn’t a few who are finding their way in,
because there’s a mass of people in Christianity who give mental assent to that.
So what they say then is that you have one class of Christians, and another
class of Christians. And that first class will be in the kingdom, but not
inherit anything. The first class are known as believers; the second ones are
disciples. And they call a disciple a second-level Christian, when you get to
that second level. They do, in the book of Hebrews, you know where is says,
“Enter into rest”? That’s a second level Christian. They say I John is not
contrasting an unbeliever with a believer, it’s contrasting a first level
Christian with a second level Christian. So they’ve got a whole system that they
work that I think is just confusing. And have you heard the term “carnal
Christian”? OK, that’s their term for the first level. “Spiritual Christian” is
their term for the second level. If you’ve ever seen the little bird book that
comes out of campus crusade, they identify those three circles. The first one
has self on the throne; the second one still has self on the throne, but Christ
in the life; the third one has Christ on the throne. The second one is the
carnal Christian; Christ is in your life, but He’s not Lord. So that’s a
comfortable category called the carnal Christian; and these people are saved.
They’re going to go to heaven, they just don’t have any evidence, they don’t
have any fruit, they don’t have any anything. I reviewed a book that was written
on that subject, and I said the whole book was basically taken out of the white
spaces in the New Testament, between the words, because I don’t see that as
being taught in the Scripture.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's Questions and
Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 119
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
Our websites: www.biblebb.com and www.gospelgems.com
Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986