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Podcast
Two Different Views On Salvation
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Hi, I'm Dave DeWitt, and I want to talk about two very different views of salvation being
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taught today. Within the Bible-believing community today, there are two different views about
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salvation. Number one is the New Calvinism position. Salvation is ongoing, developing,
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and inseparably connected to obedience. You're justified by faith alone, but you cannot go
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to heaven by faith alone. So salvation is sanctification. The other view is the free
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grace position, which says salvation is crossing a line from being lost to being saved. You
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can only go to heaven by faith alone. Salvation is followed by sanctification. My thesis is
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I'll be establishing the free grace position as being the most consistent with the Bible.
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I shall deal with it in three areas, justification, holiness, and repentance. First, a general
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comment on the New Calvinists. New Calvinism is a movement, not an organization. The most
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prominent New Calvinist organization is called the Gospel Coalition. New Calvinism is not
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my label. It's the identification generally given to the Calvinists of both the covenant
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and dispensational camps that hold the position as defined above. I shall here confine my views
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to the soteriology of John Piper and John MacArthur, the two most influential men at
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the center of this movement. My criticism in this podcast is only about their views on salvation.
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I do not in any way intend to demean their character or their teaching on other subjects.
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Number one, we need to talk about justification. John Piper on justification, quote,
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right with God by faith alone is not attaining heaven by faith alone. There are other conditions
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for attaining heaven. And then on September 25, 2017, Piper wrote an article,
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does God really save us by faith alone? Here's his quote, in final salvation,
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at the last judgment, faith is confirmed by the sanctification fruit it has borne.
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And we're saved through that fruit and that faith. These works of faith and this obedience
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of faith, these fruits of the spirit that come by faith are necessary for our final salvation.
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No holiness, no heaven. So we should not speak of getting to heaven by faith alone
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in the same way that we're justified by faith alone. Here's John MacArthur on justification,
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quote, real salvation is not mere justification. It cannot be isolated from regeneration,
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sanctification, and ultimately glorification. It's a process as much as it is an event,
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a process through which we are being conformed to the image of his son.
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Close quote. In his study Bible, MacArthur comments on a phrase in Hebrews 12, one,
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let us lay aside every weight and sin, which so easily encumbers us. And MacArthur writes,
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quote, the references to those Hebrews who had made a profession of Christ, but had not gone
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all the way to full faith. They had not yet begun the race, which starts with salvation.
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Close quote. That was the new Calvinism position, now the free grace position.
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Notice both Piper and MacArthur invent new terms for salvation, final salvation or real salvation,
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which only comes about by full faith. They believe justification to declare right,
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which indeed comes by faith alone, won't get you to heaven. They claim final real salvation
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is a process of obedience, of yielding to his lordship. MacArthur says full faith comes only
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as we lay aside every weight and sin, which so easily ensnares us. Or as Piper put it,
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no holiness, no heaven. Sean Lazar in a 2017 blog gave this excellent illustration of new Calvinism.
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This is quoting Lazar. Piper is saying, becoming a member of the gym is absolutely free.
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But if you're really a member, you'll necessarily pay $50 a month. And if you aren't paying $50 a
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month, then you aren't really a member. But don't misunderstand me. The gym is free. It doesn't cost
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anything to join. So how will you be paying? Visa or MasterCard? According to Piper's gospel,
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you got to pay to join the free gym. By contrast, and still using the gym analogy, the free grace
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position is simple. Becoming a member of the gym is absolutely free, period. Save your money to help
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your neighbor. Piper's final salvation, which is the same as MacArthur's real salvation, is nowhere
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to be found in the Bible. They had to invent these terms to accommodate their new Calvinism.
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In the Bible, there's just salvation, and it's obtained by grace, through faith. The Bible gives
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no other condition for attaining heaven. In 1 Corinthians 3, we're told about that no man can
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lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Then we hear of a man whose
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works are burned up in judgment, and yet we're told, if any man's work is burned up, he suffers loss, but
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he himself will be saved. It would seem that his salvation is based on his foundation in Christ,
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which includes no good works. From the Reformation through the Great Awakening, missionary
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organizations, campus groups, and big-meeting evangelists like Billy Graham, the message is that
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a sinner can come to God just as I am without one plea, but that the blood has been shed for me.
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Salvation is not a process through which we begin conforming to the image of his Son. Of course, God
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conformed believers to the image of his Son, but that's not how we attain salvation. Works of faith,
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obedience of faith, yielding to his Lordship, the pursuit of holiness, or a decision to forsake all
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unrighteousness, will not save anybody. Here's what saves. Ephesians 2.8, for by grace you've
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been saved through faith. Romans 3.22, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus
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for those who believe. 4.5, to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the
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ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness. And in John 1.12, as many as received him,
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to them he gave the right to be of children of God, to those who believe in his name.
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John 3.16, whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 5.24, he who hears
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my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. 6.29, Jesus answered and said to them,
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this is the work of God that you believe in him who he has sent.
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Romans 3.28, for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law.
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Romans 5.9, much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from
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the wrath of God through him. 6.23, the wages of sin is death with the gift of God's eternal life
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in Christ Jesus our Lord. New Calvinism salvation parallels Roman Catholic salvation.
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Tim Shaughnessy and Tim Kaufner wrote this, quote, in every generation there will arise men from
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within the church who stumble into the Roman Catholic view of justification and having
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stumbled then attempt to import that Roman Catholic air into the church of God so that
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the children of God might stumble with them. John Piper is just the latest in a long line of such men
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and he'll not be the last. Well, we've been thinking about the subject of justification.
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Now I'd like to move to our last subject of holiness.
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Here's John Piper on killing sin, quote, essential to the Christian life and necessary for final
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salvation is the killing of sin for a suit of holiness. John MacArthur clarifies true faith
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is manifest only in obedience through the free grace position. Final salvation is the killing of
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sin. Really? I thought that's what Jesus did on the cross. Understand, New Calvinism limits the
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sufficiency of Christ's death on the cross. The killing of sin which leads to salvation is
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accomplished by Christ on the cross, not by our wholehearted devotion. We have to do something to
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attain mortification of sin, sanctification, and holiness. Then the death of Jesus on the cross
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is insufficient to pay for our sin. In that case, it's not true that he who made him who knew no sin
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became sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him,
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2 Corinthians 5.21.
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Well, we've been thinking about the subject of justification and holiness.
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Now I'd like to move to the subject of repentance.
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Here's what John MacArthur says about repentance. The idea that genuine repentance could result in
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anything but a changed life is completely foreign to scripture. This is a quote from MacArthur.
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What does the Bible teach about the relationship between salvation and repentance? First, it teaches
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that repentance is essential to salvation. One cannot only believe unless he repents. One cannot
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truly repent unless he believes. It's not faith plus repentance that saves, but rather a repentant
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faith. Now the free grace position. One wonders what possible difference there could be between
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faith plus repentance and a repentant faith. Both seem to be a faith that includes repentance.
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MacArthur says the idea that genuine repentance could result in anything but a change of life
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is completely foreign to scripture. Well, the Corinthians were dividing up the church into
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groups following different leaders, allowing adultery to go unchecked, letting people get
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drunk at the Lord's Supper. But before Paul reprimanded them for all that, he called them
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those who've been sanctified in Christ Jesus saints by calling with all who in every place
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call in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ their Lord and ours. It sounds like they were saved
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as all other believers without much of that change of life MacArthur's talking about.
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Again, we see these men added qualifying words to the biblical concepts. Whereas the Bible has
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salvation, repentance, and faith, Piper has final salvation. MacArthur has real salvation
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through full faith and now genuine repentance. But MacArthur never deals with the New Testament
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concept of repentance. The New Testament word translated repentance is metanoio or metanoia.
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The meaning of the word is simple, clear, and obvious. It means to change your mind
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or to change your understanding. Meta change in the sense of a metamorphosis of a butterfly.
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Now that was the Greek word for mind or understanding. Now here's what's crucial
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to understand about repentance. It means to turn around in your understanding of something.
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It's not merely a casual change of thinking. It means to leave one way of thinking and turn to
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another way. It's a mental about faith. It means I'm here, so I'm no longer there. I came here
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from there. This has been a main cause of Christian persecution all through the centuries.
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Faith in Jesus Christ cannot just be added to whatever else you believe. You can't just add
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Jesus to your other gods. Christianity is not a change of mind away from idolatry, pantheism,
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atheism, or whatever you believed or didn't believe. To receive Jesus Christ, your personal
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Savior, is to turn from darkness to light, from dominion of Satan to God. That's metanoio.
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But not so with the English word repentance. The Oxford American Dictionary defines the word
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repentance to express sincere regret or remorse about one's wrongdoing or sin. That's not metanoia.
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MacArthur admits the word means to have another mind, but then he ignores that completely and
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goes back to using the English regret or remorse definition of repentance, calling it
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hatred and of penance for sin. Actually, Greek has a word for regret or remorse,
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which is a sense of hatred and of remorse for sin. It's the word metamelemi. It means to free
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regret as a result of something one has done. An example is Matthew 27, 3, when Judas, who had
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betrayed him, saw that he had been condemned, he felt remorse. This is the word King James
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translates as repentance, metamelemi, and returned the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and
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the elders. We must now notice the obvious. The biblical metanoia, which is unfortunately almost
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always translated with some form of repentance, does not mean anything close to the English
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definition of repentance. When Peter reported to the elders about the conversion of Cornelius and
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his friends in Caesarea, they said, Acts 11, 18, well, then God has granted to the Gentiles also
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the repentance, metanoia, that leads to life. There's no regret or remorse in this repentance.
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Actually, the report about Cornelius before his repentance that leads to life stated he was a
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devout man and one who feared God and with all his household and gave many alms to the Jewish people
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and prayed to God continually. There's simply no mention at all of any regret remorse for wrongdoing
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in his metanoia repentance. But didn't Paul talk about feelings of regret and remorse?
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Yes, he did. It's connected to things like being filled with the Holy Spirit, examining yourself,
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not grieving the Holy Spirit, confessing your sins.
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But it's not embodied in or tied to the word metanoia, which only means a change of mind.
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Ryrie gives an excellent perspective. Is repentance a condition for receiving eternal life?
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Yes, if his repentance is changing one's mind about Jesus Christ. No, if it means being
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sorry for your sin or even to resolve to turn from sin, those things will not save.
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People are often sorry and resolved to turn from their sin,
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for example, in things like Alcoholics Anonymous and drug rehab groups, but it doesn't get anybody
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saved. Nobody can be saved by remorse, regret, resolve to change from sin.
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Coming to faith is changing your mind. When I make an initial decision to believe something
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that I did not believe before, that necessarily involves a change of mind. That change of mind
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is exactly how Paul called people believing in Jesus Christ and that he talked to in every
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synagogue, home, marketplace, or prison cell he was in. For example, when unbelieving Jews
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came to him in Rome, Acts 28, 23, 24, he was explaining to them by solidly testifying about
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the kingdom of God and trying to persuade them concerning Jesus from both the law of Moses and
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from the prophets from morning until evening. So some were being persuaded by the things spoken,
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others would not believe. Notice that Paul's message was not one of regret, remorse over sin,
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resolved to turn from sin to make Christ Lord or any other works. His appeal was for a mental
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change about Jesus, fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah.
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Although the Gospel of John repeatedly talks about eternal salvation, it never once mentions
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the word metanoia, repentance. Neither does it mention remorse or regret or making Christ Lord
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or resolved to turn from sin or any other works as a requirement for salvation.
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Well, thanks for listening. If you're interested in my longer
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paper on the subject, it's available on our website relationalconcepts.org.
