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by Dr. Hank Lindstrom
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THE INCOMPATIBILITY OF THE
LORDSHIP GOSPEL WITH THE GOSPEL OF GRACE
"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto
you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As
we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel
unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed."
Galatians 1:8,9
The importance of this question can't be overestimated in relation to
both salvation and sanctification. The message of faith only and the
message of commitment of life can't both be the gospel; therefore, one
of them is a false gospel and come under the curse of perverting the
gospel or preaching another gospel.
"It is an inexcusable error to confront sinners with problems that
concern the Christian life and call upon them to make promises regarding
them. An unsaved person is never called upon to surrender himself to
God. The saving act is in no instance represented as our 'giving
ourselves to God'; it is, on the contrary, taking His Son as our
Savior." Ryrie, Charles. Balancing the Christian Life. Moody Press,
Inc., 1969 (p. 170).
"The second approach finds faith in the gospel alone an 'easy Believism'
and seeks to add something to faith in order to accomplish salvation. To
repent is to 'change one's mind,' and to believe is to remove one's
trust from that in which it has rested and place it in Christ." Howard,
William. "Is Faith Enough to Save?" Bibliotheca Sacra. January-March,
1942 (p.99).
"This kind of faith is not 'easy believism'. It is not easy to say, 'I
can't save myself, I must recognize that there is something wrong with
me, and I must seek help from someone else.'" Hook, H. Phillip. "A
Biblical Definition of Saving Faith." Bibliotheca Sacra. April-June,
1964 (p. 133, 138).
"Eternal life is free. Discipleship is immeasurably hard. The former is
attained by faith alone, the latter by a faith that works... the former
brings with it the righteousness of God so that a man is 'justified
freely by his grace' (Romans 3:24). The latter develops a personal
righteousness, based on good deeds, so that a man was also 'justified by
works' (James 2:24). The former constituted the believer God's
workmanship, the latter fulfilled the wonderful purpose for which he had
been created. The former cost man nothing, the latter could cost him
everything, including life itself." Hodges, Zane C. The Hungry Inherit.
Moody Press, Inc., 1972 (p. 114, 115).
"There is a vast difference between coming to Jesus for salvation and
coming after Jesus for service. Coming to Christ makes one a believer,
while coming after Christ makes one a disciple. All believers are not
disciples. To become a believer one accepts the invitation of the
Gospel, to be a disciple one obeys the challenge to a life of dedicated
service and separation. Salvation comes through the sacrifice of Christ;
discipleship comes only by sacrifice of self and surrender to His call
for devoted service. Salvation is free, but discipleship involves paying
the price of a separated walk. Salvation can't be lost because it
depends upon God's faithfulness, but discipleship can be lost because it
depends upon our faithfulness." DeHaan, M. R. Hebrews. Zondervan
Publishing House, 1959 (p. 117).
"For the unregenerate man, repentance is the change of mind whereby he
turns from unbelief to faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ."
Post, Roger. "The Meanings of the Words Translated 'Repent' and
'Repentance' in the New Testament." Master's Thesis, Wheaton College,
June 1972 (p. 80).
"There are those who, in their zeal to get people to turn from their
sinful ways and receive the Lord, almost put repentance on a par with
believing... Repentance, as it relates to Christ, means to change our
minds about Him, who He is and what He's done to provide forgiveness and
deliverance from our sins. When we place faith in Jesus as having taken
our place personally on the cross and borne the penalty due our sins,
then we're automatically repenting, because we couldn't accept Him in
this way without having had to change our minds in some way concerning
Him." Lindsey, Hal. The Liberation of Planet Earth. Zondervan Publishing
House, 1974 (p. 136, 137).
"Discipleship is frequently equated with salvation and often erroneously
made a condition for becoming a Christian". Pentecost, J. Dwight.
Design
for Discipleship. Zondervan Publishing House, 1971 (p. 11).
"Certainly discipleship is a most important aspect of our relation to
Christ, but it belongs to the sphere of Christian life rather than
entrance upon that life... One does not become a disciple in order to
become a Christian, but because he has become a Christian by faith in
the Savior, it is fitting that he embark upon a life of discipleship".
Harrison, Everett F. "Must Christ be Lord to Be Savior?-No." Eternity,
September 1959 (p. 14).
"There is no more piously subtle abrogation of the Gospel than to tell a
Sinner that he must not only believe in the Savior, but dedicate himself
to do God's will, crown the Savior Lord of his life, etc., etc.
Obviously, dedication and service are highly desirable, but they are the
privilege and the duty of the saved, never a condition of salvation for
the unsaved (cf. Romans 12:1, 2)." Unger, Merrill F. God is
Waiting to Meet You. Moody Press, 1975 (p. 117, 118).
"People are sometimes led to believe that there is saving value in some
public confession of Christ, or profession of a decision. "With the
heart man believeth unto righteousness." This is salvation. "With the
mouth confession is made unto salvation." This is the voice of the
newborn child speaking to and of its father. The only condition on which
one may be saved is to believe." Chafer, Lewis Sperry. Salvation. Dunham
Publishing Company, 1917 (p. 46).
SUMMARY
Lordship salvation is where someone teaches that there must be a
commitment to Christ as Lord of one's life in order to be saved.
Recently there has been a modification of this position to say that
willingness to be controlled by the Lord at the time of salvation is all
that is required in addition to faith in order to be saved. The message
of faith only and the message of faith plus commitment of life can't
both be the gospel; therefore, one of them is a FALSE GOSPEL and comes
under the curse of perverting the gospel or preaching another gospel.
Galatians 1:8, 9 says, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach
any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you,
let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, if any man
preach any other gospel unto you than that you have received, let him be
accursed." If only committed people are saved people, then where is
there room for carnal Christians? What kind of dedication must be
preached to people, if in order to be saved, they have already dedicated
their lives to the Lord? Where do you stop if you start adding something
else to this which is the gospel revealed in the Bible? Look at what God
says about adding to the revelation of Jesus Christ (gospel), "For I
testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this
book (Revelation 22:18)." The Bible plainly declares that we are saved
by faith, and not by works. Where does it say this? Ephesians 2:8, 9
"For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it
is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast." What are
you trusting in to get you to heaven?
* Written by Dr. Hank Lindstrom
The
moment you put your trust in Jesus Christ, God who can read your mind
knows, saves YOU and gives you the Gift of God, eternal Life.
You do not need anyone to pray over you, or pray for you, because this
is between you and God in heaven. Because of your new trust in the shed
blood of Jesus Christ you are now a child of God. Before you trusted in
Jesus, God was your creator but now and forevermore he will be your
father.
You are saved in a moment of time, because you are trusting in the true
Savior now, not working your way to heaven day by day which is not even
possible.
Once saved you can never be lost, for any reason. This is because you
were born spiritually the moment you put your trust in Him. Just like
your physical birth which brought you into this human world, your
spiritual birth gave you a new spiritual life that is permanent. You
were born-again, made righteous and holy in Gods eyes. In fact you have
the righteousness of God himself, your are sinless and perfect in God's
eyes now and that's why you can enter into a perfect heaven.
My favorite saying is:
God will not save anyone who is trying to be saved, He will
only save those who are trusting to be saved.
You MUST put ALL your trust in Jesus to be saved, trust in the blood
that He shed on the cross, trust that He is God in the flesh, trust that
He made the complete payment for your sins, not just part; He paid for
ALL of your sins (past, present, and future)! Trust that He rose again
from the dead after 3 days and 3 nights, and in return for this trust,
He gives YOU Eternal Life. All false Christians put part of their trust
in Jesus and part of their trust the Church and part of their trust in
themselves. If you put 99.99% trust in Jesus and 00.01% in something
else, you will go to hell. It must be 100% trust in Jesus and what He
did and 0% in you or your church!
This information in critical...
(grace always cancels works!) You are going to hell if it's by your
works or you are going to heaven by Gods grace. It's as simple as that.
So I guess the question comes down to who are you trusting. Are you
trusting yourself to get to heaven by being a good person and giving
lots of money to your church or are you trusting Jesus, the lamb of God,
that was slain for the sins of the world to get you to heaven? You
receive the Gift of God (Eternal Life) as soon as you stop trusting in
yourself, your church, your synagogue, your mosque, your money, or any
other works and put your trust in Him and Him ALONE, Jesus Christ,
Yeshua, The King of Kings, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace,
the Alpha and Omega, the Mighty God.
False religions are everywhere and they will find you, the
one true God and His plan of salvation must be found.
If all this makes sense to you and you would like to trust
Jesus as your personal Savior right now then tell the Mighty
God in Heaven of your decision to trust Jesus Christ as your only hope
of heaven. Tell Him that you are no longer putting your trust in your
actions, or your church, or your church membership, or in your money, or
in your Rabbi, or in your synagogue or your Mosque but that you are
putting all of your trust in Him and the shed blood of the cross to pay
your sin debt. Thank Him for doing it for you! Thank Him for giving you
the Gift of Eternal Life that He paid for with His life. There is no
greater deed than that of laying down your life for another.
Will you trust Jesus as your
Savior right now, the one who shed His precious blood on the cross of
Calvary to pay for all your sins?
Sinners Prayer
Lord, I admit that I'm a sinner & I don't understand a whole
lot about the bible, but I do believe that Jesus Christ died & paid
for my sins in full, by His death & shed blood on the cross. I trust
right now the He died for me, was buried & rose again from the dead
and will live forever more. I trust Jesus Christ right now to save me,
to be my savior, to forgive my sins & to give me the GIFT OF GOD
Eternal Life. Amen
By reading this sinners prayer aloud, you are putting your trust in
God and His plan of salvation. You are not saved by saying this prayer,
you are saved the moment your mind made the switch from trusting in
yourself to putting your COMPLETE TRUST IN JESUS CHRIST. That moment may
have been five paragraphs up on this page or that moment may have been
on another one of our pages. You will not feel any different, but you
will be changed and changed for the better forever. Once you have
trusted Jesus as your savior and received his gift of eternal life, this
gift can NEVER be lost. You can NEVER go to hell for ANY reason. Your
past, present and future sins were paid in full the moment you put your
trust in Him. You are blameless and Holy in God's eyes now and FOREVER.
If you have eternal life today what kind of life will you have in five
years? ETERNAL! What kind of life will you have in ten years? ETERNAL!!
What kind of life will you have in 50 years? ETERNAL!!! God does not
give probationary life or temporary life, His gift is ETERNAL LIFE!
Thanks be to GOD!
Why be good, now that I am assured of going to heaven? Because God's law
of sowing and reaping still applies to you and me. You will reap what
you sow. You will reap more than you sow and you will reap later than
you sow. If you drink alcohol like a fish, you will reap a diseased
liver. If you smoke like a chimney everyday, you will reap lung cancer.
If you rob, murder, and steal you will reap a life in prison. You will
reap what you sow. I guarantee it! Now that you are saved, when you do
good things you WILL be rewarded here on earth and in Heaven. And when
you do bad things you WILL lose rewards that God had planned on giving
you here on earth and in Heaven. But you will NEVER
lose your guarantee of going to heaven. That can never be lost for any
reason!! You have God's word that your salvation can never be lost for
any reason. You did not earn salvation and you do not work to keep
salvation! Eternal Life, salvation, being born again, becoming a child
of God, was, is, and always will be the GIFT OF GOD.
Remember: If your not saved forever... you are not saved!
Why is this true you might ask? Because if a person is not sure that
they are saved TODAY / RIGHT NOW it means that they are still trying to
be the savior! They can't be sure they are going to heaven because they
don't know what sin's they may commit next week, next month or next
year. We who have trusted in Jesus alone, can have comfort knowing that
all our sins have been paid in full on the Cross of Calvary (past,
present, and future sins). Jesus has already died for my sins so I don't
need to pay for any sin I have or will commit in the future because
Jesus already paid the price in full with His blood. So called
Christians who say that you can lose your salvation because of suicide
or murder or falling away from the church don't have a clue what the
Bible says and clearly have not trusted Jesus ALONE!
Biblical Salvation is forsaking any other means of
salvation but Christ and casting ourselves fully upon Him for eternal
life.
The Gift of God, Eternal Life can never be lost once possessed for any
reason. John 6:39 " And this is the Father's will which hath sent Me,
that of all which He hath given Me I should LOSE NOTHING, but should
raise it up again at the last day." You have God's promise that once you
put your trust in Jesus you can never be lost for ANY reason whatsoever.
"For the gifts and calling of God are without
repentance” Romans 11:29 Again, God is telling you that this Gift of God
that you have just received is without repentance. He can never take His
gift back for any reason, no matter how bad you get, or how bad your
sins are it is not possible. God would have to cease to exist for that
to happen because He cannot lie.
SOURCE:
Lordship Salvation » How to get into Heaven
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