Introduction
What is Free Grace Theology?
The free grace theology believers are just people who believe what the Bible says about salvation and its simplicity.
According to the home page of Free Grace Evangelical Society, free grace’s position on salvation is very clear.
Free Grace theology is the view that:
– everlasting life is a free gift that cannot be lost, received by faith alone in Christ alone, apart from works of any kind;
– assurance of our eternal destiny is based solely on believing Jesus’ promise to the believer, and not on looking to our works, experiences, or behavior;
– believers are accountable for our actions before God, and will be judged at the Bema to determine our eternal rewards, but not our eternal destinies.
Many people have accused free grace of not preaching works, yes we are not preaching works as means of justification before God, but every free gracer believes that we should do good works after salvation, but not a requirement for salvation.
I believe that the free grace message was what Christ preached to the people and not just some works that will never save anyone from the condemnation of Hell.
If you want to be saved, the only way in which you can be saved is through faith alone in Christ alone. And don’t confuse how free grace believers defined “faith alone” with how Calvinists and lordship salvation worshippers defined “faith alone”.
And another reason for the article is to show defense for free grace theology, and how it magnified the Gospel of Christ.
Someone published a book around 2016, and also a review of that book on the Gospel Coalition Website on how free grace theology diminishes the Gospel.
The Gospel Coalition website is Calvinistic in its teaching, and you need to be careful of that website.
Therefore, I will stand in defense of the gospel of grace which is free according to the Bible.
| Phil 1:17 | But the other of love, knowing that I am set for the defence of the gospel. |
A Defense of Free Grace Theology
1. Free Grace Rejects Calvinism and Its Teaching
This is probably why many Calvinists are attacking the free grace theological position. Many Calvinists have the wrong understanding of sin, the nature of salvation, and many things. I am not saying that there are no good people among them.
Almost all of them reject Charismatism and Prosperity Gospel which I also hate; nevertheless, teaching the TULIP is a deal-breaker, and anyone who believes in TULIP is not saved.
2. Free Grace gives a proper definition of Repentance and how it relates to Salvation.
Many people subscribe to the idea that you have to repent of your sins before you can be saved, they have misunderstood repentance.
Repentance is such an important doctrine, but we must give a proper definition of repentance so that we will not confuse the people out there.
When people defined repentance, they made it all about sins. And you will always hear this phrase, “repent of your sins”, as if the only people repented of is sin.
Is repentance necessary for salvation? Of course, because repentance is a change of mind, but when people want to define it, they always make repentance about sin.
You can repent of something other than sin.
Judas Repented of keeping the money and he returned the money, just because you repentance of behavior does not mean that you are saved.
And also in the Bible, God repents, and that does not mean he repents of sin but changes his mind about what he thought to do to the people.
I have repented many things about many things that do not mean that I get saved each time I repented.
Therefore, free grace theology’s position on repentance is changing your mind about what cannot be saved you, and changing your mind toward what can be saved you.
Repentance and Salvation
| Act 3:19 | Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; |
Peter is preaching here. He tells the people to repent and be converted in the context of his preaching, he was preaching predominately to Jewish audiences who had rejected Christ as their Messiah.
So these people had to repent from not believing and believing in order that they might be converted. They had to change directions and change their minds.
I believe that this writer explained and clarified the misunderstanding surrounding repentance and how it relates to salvation
Ironside explained repentance this way:
Repentance is simply a man’s recognition of his own true condition before God. No man would desire to come to the Saviour unless he realized his need of a Saviour. The realization of this need and the acknowledgment of it is, in the truest sense, the work of repentance. Thus men repent and through believing the Gospel are eternally saved. We who are saved, however, have done more repenting since we were converted than we did before.
Free Grace believes that Faith Alone is what is Required for Salvation
Every free grace believer makes his position clear on salvation without any works attached to it. And works are not evidence of salvation, but believers are saved unto good works.
There are people who got saved but do not produce good works immediately, and we can’t write them off as unsaved, but they should be encouraged to do good works because they are saved.
Ephesians 2:10, “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works”
People that followed, faith without works in the book of James, do not understand the interpretation of that verse in context.
Who does your faith profit if not with good works? God. It profits God that you have faith, but it profits men when you have works to show forth.
Therefore, the book of James chapter speaks of your faith profiting men when you give them those things that are needed for the body.
Someone explained this further, “A dead tree that does not bear fruit exists”.
The requirement for eternal life is faith, and that is all you need to stand before the holy God blameless, and faultless, your works are never going to fly with God, and if you are going to be judged based on your works, then you are going to Hell.
Free Grace Rejects Lordship Salvation
What do we mean by Lordship salvation?
Lordship salvation is a false doctrine that many Calvinists teach, and they believe that in order for a person to be saved, he must make Jesus the Lord of his life.
If this doctrine is true, then no man can be saved, because as long as we are in this flesh, we will continue to struggle each day to make Christ the Lord of our lives.
1 John 3:2, “Beloved, now are the sons of God, and doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when h shall appear, we shall be like him: for we shall see him as he is.”
I believe that every believer should desire to make him the Lord of his life, but this is step by step as we walk with God, but not the condition to be saved.
Therefore free grace rejects Lordship’s salvation and magnifies the gospel of Grace which is only through Christ alone by faith alone.
Conclusion
I believe that the free grace position is a Biblical position because it puts man in his proper position while God takes all the glory.
Other position puts men in charge of salvation while God is sidetracked.
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