StudyGrowKnow

Two Roads Every Christian Faces

July 14, 2026 at 1:02 PM Leave a comment

If I were to ask people what I meant by “free grace,” I’d probably get any number of different responses, depending on their view of it. The same applies to the concept of “Lordship salvation.” It is amazing to me how involved and in-depth the discussion can become. By the way, there are, to be sure, extremes on both sides, but for this article, I’m essentially referring to the mainstream thought of both, not the extremes. Moreover, I’m simply introducing the subject and not deeply addressing it in this article. Readers will see that each view represents a fork in the road for every believer.

As I look back over the years since becoming a Christian, I have seen my own change occur with respect to my biblical understanding of Free Grace. At one time, I was a fairly firm believer in Lordship Salvation. Wayne Grudem, John MacArthur and many other biblical luminaries espouse this particular view. Their position stands essentially opposed to the beliefs of those within the Free Grace crowd and they’ve have written numerous books explaining the reasons for their disagreement with it. Those within Free Grace movement have written their own books with many countering the claims of those within the Lordship salvation camp.

What I’d like to do is take the time to briefly explain both sides. Let’s start with a definition of Lordship Salvation.

The doctrine of lordship salvation teaches that submitting to Christ as Lord goes hand-in-hand with trusting in Christ as Savior. Lordship salvation is the opposite of what is sometimes called easy-believism or the teaching that salvation comes through an acknowledgement of a certain set of facts. [1]

Notice how Lordship Salvation connects salvation to submitting to Jesus as Lord (following conversion). In essence, for those within the Lordship Salvation camp, the two go hand in hand. You cannot have one without the other and if a person does not exercise submission to Jesus in all things following salvation, then their salvation is called into question. In that sense then, someone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ cannot truly be saved unless and until they repent from their sin and fully embrace Jesus’ authority over the remainder of their life.

For those who ascribe to Lordship Salvation, they believe that true salvation received means that evidence of being saved will occur and become noticeably prominent in a person’s life from the outside. A person who claims to be following the Lord will back up that claim with decisive evidence of a new life within that can be seen and understood.

Here is a definition of Free Grace.

The basic teaching of Free Grace Theology is that responding to the “call to believe” in Jesus Christ through faith alone is all that is necessary to receive eternal life. This basic, simple belief brings assurance of “entering” the kingdom of God. Then, if a person further responds to the “call to follow” Jesus, he becomes a disciple and undergoes sanctification. The follower of Christ has the opportunity to “inherit” the kingdom of God, which includes receiving particular rewards based on works accomplished for God on earth. [2]

Within the Free Grace camp, salvation is received by faith alone, in Christ alone. While Lordship Salvation people would argue that is true under their banner as well, in reality their understanding of salvation appears to be tied into what happens after a person is allegedly saved. Is there evidence of their conversion in the outworking of their salvation? Is it noticeable? If not, then quite possibly, they were not truly saved. As far as Free Grace is concerned, no repentance or turning from sin is necessary to receive salvation.

Free Grace grew out of a desire to speak to the growing phenomenon of Lordship Salvation and was originally systematized by Lewis Sperry Chafer, Zane Hodges and others. One of the charges against Free Grace is that it is said to be akin to “easy believism” requiring nothing else except mental assent.

Regarding Free Grace, the charge of pushing antinomianism (“against or opposed to the law”), is heralded. Antinomianism is also akin to the pejorative “easy believism,” with the charge that those who believe in Free Grace end up teaching that there are no moral laws that the believer must observe. This is factually untrue. Free Grace proponents believe that the believer is freed from the dictates of the Law for salvation. However, observing God’s moral laws after receiving salvation is essential for each and every believer and is made possible only by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. Failure here does not, however, result in loss of salvation or even the charge that the person was never truly saved.

In a nutshell, Free Grace folks believe that all a person needs to do is literally and actually believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved (Acts 16:31). Paul made this abundantly clear in his writings as well.

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” ‭‭(Romans‬ ‭10:9‬ ‭NIV)

Between the Acts and the Romans passages above, it seems clear enough that salvation is received through the avenue of faith; believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and His atoning work on our behalf. This is also what provides our assurance of salvation once we believe on/in Him.

In the exchange with the thief on the cross, we see evidence of simple belief in who Jesus was and what He could accomplish.

Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”
And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:42-43 NKJV)

In this exchange, Jesus promises the thief that – due solely to the thief’s faith in who Jesus was/is – he would be with Jesus in paradise that very day after dying on his own cross next to Jesus. What was paradise? It was the part of Sheol that housed those after death who would eventually go to be with the Lord for all eternity, known also as Abraham’s Bosom (Luke 16:19-31).

You’ll recall this is where Lazarus went after his death. The rich man, who knew Lazarus during life, did not go to Abraham’s Bosom side of Sheol, but to the place where the unsaved dead went, while awaiting judgment at the coming Great White Throne (Revelation 20:11-15).

Ephesians 2:8-10 also brings the truth about believing on the Lord Jesus to the fore with clarity.

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Interestingly enough, both the Lordship Salvation and Free Grace groups use the above verse to prove their own point. Of course, they differ in their understanding of what the first part of the verse actually means. When it says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God…” we need to ask what the “gift” mentioned actually is in the context and what the word “that” is referring back to here? Is it referring to salvation or our faith? The only way this can be truly and definitively known is by going back to the original Greek. Is Paul saying that God gave us the gift of faith or is he saying God gave us the gift of salvation based on our faith? It’s an important question.

Some say that faith is the gift in view, but this is grammatically impossible in the Greek, since faith is feminine and the pronoun that is neuter. Greek pronouns have to agree with their antecedents in number and gender. The neuter demonstrative pronoun, touto, this, is commonly used to refer to abstract concepts (like by-grace-through-faith salvation) that are not expressed by a noun in the context. [3]

So often while those within the Reformed soteriological of Lordship Salvation camp believe Paul is saying that our faith itself is a gift of God allowing us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, Free Grace proponents believe that Paul is referring specifically to our salvation itself as the gift in the passage, which comes solely from God, by His grace, to us. We receive salvation via faith, which is our decision to accept God’s Word as true.

Free Grace people also believe that it is their view which provides the needed assurance of salvation. We believe in Jesus and because of that belief, we are granted salvation along with being declared “righteous” by God, whether we feel we are righteous or not. We have assurance that we are saved. I dealt with doubting assurance of my faith for several years after receiving salvation and that is often the norm for many people.

Within the Lordship camp, assurance of faith is solely dependent upon how we (or others), view our lives and the progress we think we might be making in our growth and commitment to Christ. The problem here though is that this puts our eyes directly onto SELF when we should be focusing solely on Jesus. He brought salvation to us. He did all the hard work. We simply choose to believe Him or not.

This, in my opinion, is a sometimes not so subtle tell that our focus is all wrong and this is another difference between Free Grace and Lordship Salvation folks. The former understands in a growing measure that our assurance stems solely from what Jesus has done for us. In the latter, assurance often comes from continually looking at our thoughts, words and actions to see if we are on target and whether there has been growth. For this reason, Paul said he doesn’t judge himself (1 Corinthians 4:3). The truth is that we really cannot judge ourselves accurately because our hearts are deceitful, even after we are saved. Our self-assessment is not good enough to accurately decide our own spiritual worth or even faithfulness to God.

Certainly the thief on the cross may not have felt he was righteous at all even though we now know from Scripture that this is how God labels us following our faith in Jesus. However, I’m certain he felt such a great weight lifting from his mind because of Jesus’ promise to him. This is often repeated throughout the Gospels when people meet and receive Jesus.

We become Christians when we hear the Gospel message (the preaching of the Word), and when we make a choice to believe it. When we believe it, we are evidencing a confidence in God’s Word. This is exactly what occurred in Noah’s life or Abraham’s or any other person who came to God in faith. When these men heard God’s Word, they chose to believe it. When they deliberately believed God’s Word, they were declared righteous by God Himself and were granted salvation. It is that simple.

Some argue that we are able to be saved because God grants us something called “prevenient grace.” This is the belief that God grants us the ability to believe Him prior to our coming to Him for salvation and without this prevenient grace, no one could be saved at all. The truth of the matter for me, is that all people have the ability to believe what they read or hear from any source. Those who come to God in faith believing that He exists and has made salvation available to us do so because of their decision to believe Him. This is exactly what the thief on the cross experienced, while his counterpart a few feet away did not. It was solely a difference in belief regarding Jesus.

In another example – the rich young ruler of Matthew 19:16–22, Mark 10:17–22, and Luke 18:18–23 – Jesus also speaks truth to that young man. What is interesting is that the man did not respond to Jesus in faith believing. Instead, he walked away full of sorrow. Some may argue that this is proof that receiving salvation requires a type of “work” or full repentance or turning away from something. While at first glance it may appear the rich young ruler was required to do something (a work), the actual issue is what the man believed. Had his beliefs aligned with Jesus’ words, the young man would have had no problem doing what Jesus said he must do, because it would have stemmed from a new belief regarding the Law. Instead, the young man did not want to part with all of the riches he possessed, ultimately clinging to them (and the Law), and rejecting Jesus.

In both above cases though, belief (or unbelief) played a major part in the outcome. It always starts with our mindset; what we are willing to believe about Jesus.

In summary, I believe that only the Free Grace position unites with what the Bible actually teaches about believing on Jesus and being saved. Are Christians supposed to live lives that bring glory to God? Absolutely! The crux of the issue is the motivation for doing so. Too often, our motivation is from the perspective of fear – fear of loss, fear of chastisement, fear of God’s anger, etc., which often comes from a Lordship Salvation viewpoint. I believe the more we focus on the actual simplicity of the Gospel, the greater our understanding will be of just what God has saved us from with a growing appreciation for how much He truly loves us. The more we become aware of this, the more willing we are to live a life that pleases Him as a natural outflow of our new insight. We stop judging ourselves or others from the outside. We don’t judge by looks. We do not judge by other peoples’ motivation (that we cannot see).

A believer can appear to be living a life that does many things correctly, but we have no idea what they are experiencing within or their motivating factor. Do they do things out of a grateful heart, one that overflows with love and grace to others because of a growing awareness of God’s tremendous grace and love to us? Or, do they do what they do out of a sense of fear or because they feel they “have to” even though they don’t feel like it at all? Do you do what you do because you love God due to His great mercy extended to us through God the Son’s death and resurrection or do you live under a cloud of fear of failing, so you’d better do it right? The latter is not grace. It is fear of condemnation, yet Romans 8 speaks to this very clearly.

In Luke 7:36-50, we read of Jesus at a Pharisee’s home. While there, a woman of ill repute came in and began crying and then washing Jesus’ feet with oil mixed with her own tears from crying. She then wiped His feet with her hair and could not stop kissing His feet. The pharisee was incensed and judgmental though he said nothing aloud. Jesus saw his heart and spoke a brief parable, which clarified for the pharisee that because of her faith, her sins were forgiven! She received salvation because she had chosen to believe who Jesus was/is and her faith in Him was rewarded with salvation.

That woman, whose heart was so heavy, melted before Jesus and she became utterly changed. Did she become perfect after that? No, but her motivation for living life had changed. She wanted others to know what Jesus did for her. She began to see others in a way that she had quite possibly never seen. She began to love people as people and extend grace to them. She loved God. This new motivation that compelled her to a new life, not because she felt she had to change, but because her newfound love and freedom brought about that change. Huge difference.

The more we understand God’s limitless grace to those who believe, the more we will come to see the true reality of Jesus’ love and grace. We will also grow in our understanding of just how sinful and undeserving we are, yet how merciful, full of grace and loving God is toward us! We do not deserve it, yet there it is!

 

[1] https://www.gotquestions.org/lordship-salvation.html

[2] https://www.gotquestions.org/free-grace.html

[3] Free Grace Theology: Five Ways It Magnifies the Gospel, p 57

Entry filed under: christianity, eternity, Religious - Christian - Prophecy, salvation, sanctification.