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Saving Faith…

October 8, 2026 at 5:29 PM Leave a comment

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The more I study and learn about Classical Grace vs Lordship Salvation, the more willing I am to completely jettison Lordship Salvation as not being biblical. Before I go any further, I will plainly state that there are many, many people who hold to a Lordship Salvation view and believe it to be thoroughly biblical. Maybe you’re one?

Over the past number of years, I’ve had one foot solidly in the Lordship Salvation camp, while doing my best to process everything that leaders within LS tell us should be part of our ongoing sanctification process once salvation is received. The problem for me has always been wondering how I’m actually doing. Without fail, it seems the only way to determine my progress in sanctification is by continually looking at myself and comparing what I see today with what I was previously. But how accurate is that? I often felt like I simply was not measuring up at all. It was so frustrating because we are supposed to walk worthy of Christ, aren’t we? We are supposed to live in a way that brings Him glory, correct? Yet, so much of what I was doing seemed to be from self effort, not empowerment from the Spirit. However, as I find myself embracing Classical Grace tenets, I am clearly becoming more adept at understanding my actual position in Christ as I stand before Him. It all goes back to my salvation.

I’m currently involved in pursuing my Master of Divinity from an online seminary that emphasizes grace. What I’m learning is remarkable and I wonder how I did not know much or any of this before. The class I’m taking is Soteriology, which is the study of our salvation. We are constantly dissecting and comparing different views, one from the LS camp versus one from the grace camp. We also dissect views of those within only the grace camp. I just finished a short paper comparing Joseph Dillow’s (Final Destiny) view against Zane Hodges’ view, specifically with respect to the concept of repentance.

In short, Dillow, while supporting Classical Grace, believes that repentance is more than simply a change of mind and that it includes a desire to turn away from sin and to include the feeling or sense of guilt before God along with a desire for moral change. Hodges believes repentance is at its root, simply a change of mind, leading to intellectual or mental assent. This definition is what tends to drive LS people crazy. They do not generally believe that intellectual assent is an actual change agent and true repentance (sorrow for sin and a readiness to change). This is where the charge of “easy-believism” comes into play for those within the LS camp. I get it and though I used to agree (at least somewhat) with that interpretation, I no longer do.

In reality, if we look to Scripture, there are many examples of people coming to God (in the Old Testament) or Jesus (in the New), without the tremendous burden that LS folks say is needed for an actual change to be effective in the life of the believer who comes to faith in Jesus. Without a deep sense of near self-loathing for sins committed and a full desire to turn from them and live the opposite way, we are told there really cannot be authentic salvation. But is this what Scripture tells us? I see how they arrive to their conclusions, but I believe the picture is completely different from what many within evangelicalism tell us.

Let’s look at a picture of salvation (a type) from the Old Testament to gain understanding. In Numbers 21, God was angry at the Israelites because they’d just come from a huge victory against the Canaanites, but quickly started complaining because they had to go all the way around the land of Edom. They were discouraged, frustrated and probably tired, thirsty and hungry. So, they complained like children.

God became angry at them as they complained to Moses and sent fiery serpents to the Israelites. These serpents bit many of the children of Israel causing their deaths. The people (likely elders or representatives of the entire nation), then came back to Moses and admitted their sin, realizing that it was because of their sin something bad was happening. They asked Moses to pray for them and he did. God responded by telling Moses to create a bronze snake and attach it to a tall pole. Anyone who looked at the bronze snake would not die, if bitten by a fiery serpent. Jesus, by the way, later refers to this incident while speaking with Nicodemus (John 3:14-15), which is just before the verse everyone knows and can repeat, John 3:16.

Jesus was saying that the Son of Man would also be lifted up and anyone who looked to Him in belief would not perish but have everlasting life. How did the Israelites receive “salvation” from the snake bites? By simply looking up and at the bronze snake high up on a stick. Notice they did not have to grovel or beg for forgiveness. They didn’t even have to say anything. They simply needed to look at the bronze snake.

Jesus is telling us that people who come to Him in faith believing will receive eternal life that can never fade, perish or be removed. The illustration in Numbers 21 points ultimately ahead to Jesus and His death (and resurrection later). This really is a beautiful picture of yes, how easy it is to receive salvation. God purposefully did not make it difficult because He wants as many as possible to come to Him in faith for the free gift of eternal life. Once a person has it, it can never fade, spoil or perish. They have it forever and yes, they can choose to live their lives following receipt of salvation any way they choose to do so.

Of course, God wants us to live worthy of our calling, doesn’t He? He wants us to be like the one leper who came back to Jesus to offer thanks.

“And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned with a loud voice glorifying God, and fell down on his face at His feet, giving Him thanks. And he was a Samaritan.” (Luke 17:14-16)

What about the other nine lepers, did they lose their healing because they chose not to return to thank Jesus? No, their healing took. Of course, being physically healed is not the same as receiving salvation, which is spiritually eternal, but the principle applies. Some people receive salvation and continue living their lives as though they were not saved. If they are not careful, God may choose to send temporal judgment their way in an attempt to move them in the proper direction. That temporal judgment may include their early death. It’s up to God because ownership of their life has changed from the old man/Self (guided by Satan), to now having eternal life with God as their Master.

The situation with Israel in Numbers 21 presents a beautiful picture of how easy it is to receive salvation. “What a wonderful and simple visualization of saving faith! As Moses had lifted up the bronze serpent in the desert, so God’s Son would be lifted up on the cross of Calvary. Therefore, as God’s appointed Savior for sin-stricken humanity, anyone could look to Him in faith and, like the Israelites of old, find life instantaneously.” [1]

The living water scenario is similar, yet the LS folks get it completely wrong, with John MacArthur being chief among them. In John 4, Jesus talks with a woman at the well, who happened to be a Samaritan woman (like the one leper who returned was a Samaritan man). We are all familiar with the dialogue between Jesus and the woman. Essentially, He tells her that she’ll need to continue to return to the physical earthly well for more water because her thirst will return. Then He tells her that anyone who drinks the water that HE gives will never thirst again! Wow, how about that? No wonder she got excited and wanted to know more.

It is clear from the passage that Jesus did not tell the woman she would have to drink, drink, and drink again from the living water that He would provide. She needed only to drink from it once and that would be enough.

Enter LS folks who have decided that the Greek for “saving faith” literally means that this is an ongoing situation, that believers must continue drinking. This is due, they say, to the fact that the Greek verb used for saving faith is in the present tense. Hodges clears that up quickly by noting that in other parts of God’s Word, the Greek used for saving faith or believe is sometimes in the present and sometimes in the perfect and still sometimes in the aorist tense. What clarifies things for us is the actual context in determining what is actually being stated.

It seems clear that in the situation, Jesus was telling the woman to drink once, not continually having to go back and drink and then drink more. This makes perfect sense when we realize that Jesus is contrasting the water in the physical well that needs to be imbibed over and over again with the living water He would give that needed only to be drunk once. This really cannot be stressed enough and it is also equally clear that the Samaritan woman completely understood what Jesus meant, which is why she wanted that particular living water He spoke of.

What I’m learning is that when we begin to see the truth and reality of how easy God has made receiving salvation, it starts to prompt us to become evangelists so that others will be impacted with the reality of this same salvation. If a person wants to come to God sorrowful, acknowledging their sinful state and asking God to share this living water with them, that’s up to them. Is it needed?

I think the parable of the Prodigal Son expresses the truth I’ve just written about better than anything. In Luke 15:11-32, the story is told of two sons, a younger and an older. They both “worked” for their father, but the younger one got sick of it and wanted to have some fun in life. He demanded his inheritance and took off for parts unknown where he lived carnally and squandered all the money he had received from his father.

Finally, after coming to his senses, he made a vow that he would go back to his father in contriteness of heart and promise to do exactly what his father wanted if only his father would allow him to return not as his son, but simply as a servant. So he likely practiced and perfected the speech he was going to say to his father upon his return.

When his father saw his son coming toward him, the father’s love for his son was so great that he picked up the hem of his robe, ran to his son and wrapped the son in his arms. I’m sure this was rather unexpected of the son. Why? Because he had completely misunderstood his father painting him in his mind as something the father was not.

The son began to speechify and the father cut him off, demanding that the fattened calf be killed and a celebratory meal cooked. The son was given a new robe and a ring. The son could not even get the entire speech out of his mouth that he wanted to say to his father as a way of showing remorse and apologizing for his behavior. The father would have none of it.

What does that tell us about God (represented by the father in the parable)? Clearly, God’s love for us is over the top. It is unconditional. He loves us and we cannot fully appreciate that love, so we think we need to squirm under His gaze, beat ourselves up, feel emotional pain over our sins. The very fact that the son “came to his senses” means he had a complete change of mind/heart. His thinking toward his father had seriously changed. He now saw his father much closer to just how loving the father was toward his sons.

This is God. He holds out His hands waiting for people of this world to stop with their wrong ideas of who He is and to come to Him asking for the salvation (living water), He has made possible. To believe that God is who He is and has done what the Bible tells us He has done is the essence of saving faith. It is a one-time change of mind that brings us into relationship with God.

From that point, are we supposed to live lives that bring Him glory? Yes, but since He is the Author and Finisher of our faith as we travel this life, it is largely up to Him to bring the needed changes about in us. Our job is to cooperate, by trusting Him to accomplish what He said He will accomplish and will not be completed until we actually leave this life for the next.

These truths should be extremely exciting to you and me. It should promote within us a desire to introduce these same truths to other people.

 

[1] Zane Hodges, Absolutely Free, pg 55

 

Entry filed under: christianity, Religious - Christian - Prophecy, Religious - Christian - Theology, salvation, sanctification. Tags: classical grace, free grace, lordship salvation.