Why I Left Lordship Salvation (PART ONE) | Theocast

One of the questions I get a lot as a Reformed pastor is my thoughts on Lordship Salvation. One question that I always get really is, why did you leave Lordship Salvation or why is it that you don't espouse it or teach it?

Why Lordship Salvation Became a Question for Me

And it's a really controversial conversation. I'm even reluctant in recording this video because I don't want to come across as if I am being derogatory or mean or degrading or putting people down. This isn't really a video about me poking the eyes in people.

It's really about my journey and experience and comparing it to historical theology and the confessions. And so this is, hopefully you find this helpful. This is from my own congregants and anyone else that is on this journey of looking at theological systems and asking yourself, man, this feels off.

It feels like there's something that's, it's mostly right, but then there's a part of it that feels wrong and I don't know what it is. And I remember the first time someone walked up to me and explained it to me.

And that's kind of what I want to do for you is just kind of give you a brief explanation of my journey. And maybe that'll be helpful to you as you're trying to compare theological systems such as Lordship Salvation that came out of a debate, you know, almost 30, 40 years ago and where we're sitting today with confessional reform theology that's been around for over 400 years.

The Problem of Confusing the Gospel and Its Effects

So those of you that may not be aware of the debate, Lordship Salvation really, it's looking at a real problem. There's a real problem within modern Christianity where people are confused on one, what is the gospel?

And two, what does the gospel do to an individual that actually has been transformed by it? So there are men who will look at people's professions of faith and question it. How can you say that you love Jesus and that you follow his teachings and yet deny the very teachings of Jesus in your actions, right?

And that's a fair question. So if someone says, I am a Christian and yet they're not acting like a Christian, then do we take their profession of faith? That's the question. And I can remember, I grew up, just for me, I grew up in a pastor's home.

I was in a Baptist home where we heard fiery preaching, you know, conviction of sin. And I often questioned my own legitimate profession of faith, you know, am I desiring to evangelize enough? Am I desiring to read my Bible enough?

Am I reading my Bible enough? Am I praying enough? Am I resisting temptation enough? There was a lot of self-examination and all of the sermons really kind of geared towards that. And as I began to grow up in my faith and begin to read the Bible more and more, I realized that a lot of what I was being taught wasn't necessarily aligning with scripture.

It was at that moment I decided, okay, I got a Bible degree, but now I think I want to.

Go to seminary.

So I wanted to get an MDiv and went to the master's seminary. And that's where I really became introduced to some parts of Reformed theology and this doctrine called Lordship Salvation. I can remember reading the Gospel According to Jesus for the very first time sitting in my church office and my heart and mind exploded.

And I'd really never thought about the cost of Christianity and the price that had to be paid. And that fascinated me because I was around a lot of people who just didn't seem to be taking their faith very serious.

They were Christian by name, but the movies they watched and the things that they did just kind of felt like Christianity wasn't that important to them and valued for them. And Lordship Salvation seemed to me that it's like, yeah, Jesus needs to be Lord of your life.

If you're not willing to do that, then how can you truly call yourself a Christian? And that resonated with me. I really appreciated the seriousness of faith. So I dove headfirst into it and started to read as much as I could possibly read.

And I started to understand the Bible in that way. So when I read the Bible, I read it as, if you truly want to be a follower of Christ, you have to be willing to take up your cross and sacrifice everything and basically leave the world behind and have this radical life that is fully just dedicated to the things of God.

And reading my Bible, getting up at 5 a .m. in the morning, it's time to be real Christians. And that's how I read the Bible. And it seemed to align with what Jesus was saying. It made sense. And then life didn't go the way I thought it was going to go.

I still had struggles. I still had problems. People I loved that I knew are Christians, they weren't aligning with me. And what really happened is I started to read Reformation theology. And I started to learn about things like summa iustice peccator or saint-sinner reality.

You're both a saint and a sinner at the same time. I can remember reading the confession specifically on sanctification. And this is the 1689, Learn About the Confession, chapter 13 .2. And when I read this, I was like, this makes sense to me because this is my experience.

It says this, this sanctification extends throughout the whole person, though it never completely is completed in this life. Some corruption remains in every part. From this corruption, a continual and irreconcilable war with the desires of the flesh against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, which they're just quoting 1 Thessalonians and Romans 7 where Paul is talking about this battle.

Not only that, the confession goes on in chapter 5 underneath the divine providence where it says that at times believers can find themselves trapped in sin for long periods of time. And when you're not seeing the evidence of their faith, that made sense to me because I had seen this not only in my own life but in the lives of others.

And it says that God in his grace and mercy, he would bring them back through discipline, which we learn this from Hebrews. So I began to see some holes in what I loved, but yet it wasn't matching up.

Assurance Based on Christ’s Work, Not Self-Examination

The other thing I did was I was always questioning other people's salvation based upon their intentions and motivations, and I was questioning mine. And what really shined a light on giving me some clarity and I would say putting the Lordship of Christ in the right place, which I believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and I obey him and I love him and I want him to be Lord.

And it's not that I don't determine if he's Lord. He is. I just need to acknowledge it. But he's Lord not only of what I will do, but he's also Lord on my salvation. You see, if you understand Calvinism and you understand reformed theology, dead people don't make themselves alive.

The King Jesus does that through the power of the Spirit. So if I've been brought to life, it's because of my King and Lord Jesus Christ came and brought me to life. This is Ephesians 2, right? You were dead in your trespasses and said he made you alive.

And then later in that chapter, he says, and he caused you to walk in the good works he had preordained for you. So yeah, Jesus is not only Lord of my life as far as he dictates what and how I will do what I will do, but he's also Lord of my salvation.

And the realities that set in for me is what's called objective realities or outside of me, something that is completely other than myself. So salvation and the assurance that we have in Christ, it is found not in what I have done for Jesus, but what he is doing in me and for me.

Here's a great example of this. I think if we go over and just look at the confessions, again, if you don't know what confessions are, these are statements of belief that are explanations of what the Bible says.

This is on good works. This is point two. It says this. These good works done in obedience to God's commandments are the fruit and the evidence of a true and living faith. The point of it is, is that if you have faith in Christ and you see the regenerative work of spirit in you, good works will come out.

But these works at times are varying. The paragraph goes on to say, through good works, believers express their thankfulness, strengthen their assurance, build up other brothers and sisters, adorn the profession of the gospel, stop the mouths of opponents in the glory of God.

Believers are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works so that they bear fruit leading to holiness and to overcoming eternal life. So I believe in that. I believe that believers with all my heart should pursue obedience and love, and it can increase your insurance, your assurance, not your insurance.

Insurance policy, you have to pay for that. Where the transition happened for me is there are two perspectives. The Reformed perspective, the hermeneutic, the way in which we understand the Christian life, we are always looking to Christ and what Christ has done for us.

That's where we gain our confidence for obedience and our confidence and our relationship.

To God.

A good example of this is Hebrews, right? He says, laying aside the weight and the sin that besets us, looking what? Unto Jesus, the author, the beginner, the one who started our faith, and he says, the completer, the finisher of our faith.

So from beginning to end, Philippians 1, he who began a good work in you will complete.

It.

So it is Christ who does our work in us. This self-examination that lordship breeds where you're always examining yourself, you're always introspective, you're always thinking, have I done enough? Do I really know that Jesus has saved me?

And we're always looking to the actions, either it's either our attentions, our emotions, right, our affections, and it's this direction. It's introspective. It's looking this way. And for those of you that have been under this teaching, I'm sure you have this anxiety about you where you wake up every day going, man, I don't know.

Like, how do I know for sure that I love God enough and I've done enough to be assured? And the answer to that is you'll never do enough because the watermark, the line you must meet is perfection. If you want to know based upon your obedience, based upon your works, it's always perfection.

It's always perfection. But if you want to know based upon the Bible, it's Christ's perfection on your behalf. You see, he paid perfectly for your sin, and he also lived your life for you. So, we look to what Jesus Christ has done for us, and by faith, the evidence of our faith in Jesus, that's what gives us the assurance.

I mean, this is what part of the Five Solas of the Reformation. So, Lafitte A is entirely based upon our hope is in Christ alone, not looking to our works. Now, don't, please don't hear me say that works aren't necessary.

James says it for a reason. But you have to put them in the right order, okay? I am good with God because of what Christ has done for me. And because of that, even in the confession, it says this, out of thankfulness, an expression of thankfulness, we then obey.

We don't look to our obedience as the ground, as the base level. This is why I know I'm saved. It can strengthen us, absolutely. This is told to us by the confessions. 2 Peter 1 .9 talks about this, all the way through chapter 3, 1 through 9, says that we are to add to our faith, godliness, patience, meekness, forbearance, all of these things.

But here's what's interesting. Let's say you're struggling right now, and you're not obeying. You don't feel like you're doing enough good works. You know what Peter says in verse 9 of 2 Peter chapter 1?

He says, if these are not true about you and increasing, you have forgotten that you've been cleansed from your former sins. Where does he point you? He doesn't point you to introspection. He doesn't say, you better really examine your heart.

You better really examine your intentions. You better take a close look at yourself. He says, take a close look at what Jesus did to you, and let that be a reminder that if you're not doing good works, you've lost sight of Jesus.

Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, right? At the end of Colossians, he says, listen, asceticism, hard works, other people's law, all of these things have an appearance of wisdom and godliness, but they're of no value of stopping the flesh.

What does he point you to stop the flesh? Looking unto Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father. That's chapter 4 of Colossians. I'm sorry, chapter 3 verses 1 through 4. You're always pointed to look to Jesus as your motivation for good works.

The Law-Gospel Confusion Behind Lordship Salvation

Unfortunately, the experience that I have had when it comes to lordship, salvation, and the system behind it, it's always pointing to your works, your evaluation of yourself, and not necessarily to Christ.

Not everything that it teaches is wrong. Not everything it teaches is bad. It's not that there's heresy, but it is a category of confusion. Here's the last category of confusion, and we'll talk about this more in our next video, but it's a confusion of the law and the gospel.

We look at the law, and the law says you must do this perfectly to find acceptance before God, and the gospel says Jesus did it perfectly for you, and the good news is it's yours as a gift, and he gives it to you, and your forgiveness because you failed to obey.

All of this is a gift. When you combine those two things, we're going to look at something like the rich young ruler, and that's a great example. Lord, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus says obey the law.

Did he give him gospel? We'll talk about that in our next video. Hopefully, you find this helpful. We'll continue the conversation next week.