A. Zane Hodges decided to challenge the position that you are not truly saved unless your life reveals a discernible change for the better after your profession of faith in Christ as Savior and that change inevitably continues through life.
B. John MacArthur reacted to Hodges' challenge by taking umbrage and, in turn, wrote a brief commentary on the Gospel of Matthew and called it "The Gospel According To Jesus".
C. The difference between the two is that Hodges claims that a person is "saved" at the point when he/she believes in "Jesus as Savior", and MacArthur claims that a person is not "saved" unless he/she not only "believes" in Jesus as Savior, but also "commits" to being subject to Jesus as Lord over his/her life.
1. Hodges claimed that MacArthur was undercutting "Grace" by "front loading the Gospel" with truth that, properly, belongs to "Sanctification Truths" and wrote two books called "TheGospelUnderSiege" and "GraceInEclipse" and charged MacArthur with ignoring a biblical category of "believer" known as "a carnal Christian".
2. MacArthur doubled down and totally rejected the "carnal Christian" category as biblically legitimate.
D. So both ended up declaring the other a "proponent of a different Gospel" in line with Paul's castigation of the false teachers who invaded the churches of Galatia with their "performance demanding" way of salvation. Thus, they both, basically, consigned the other to Eternal Death as false teachers.
II. Where I Am In Respect To This Issue.
A. I have no interest in building "straw men" in order to tear down a theological position.
B. Neither do I have any interest in "being instructed by zealous proponents of a limited theological argument": soap boxes are for zealots and zeal often blinds men to the weaknesses of their own arguments and to the strengths of their opponents' arguments.
C. From where I sit, the very names of the two "positions" indicate entrenched "beliefs" that belie certain biblical facts.
1. The "Free Grace" movement is a "Duh" name since there is no such thing as Unfree Grace.
2. And, by the same token, "Lordship Salvation" is likewise a "Duh" name since there is no such thing as Salvation by Any Lord except Jesus.
3. Those associated with LordshipSalvation call the position of those involved in Free Grace "easy believe-ism", and those associated with Free Grace call the position of those involved in LordshipSalvation, "Modern Day Galatianism" (or something like that).
4. I guess, to keep the terms straight, the LordshipSalvation position should be called "difficult believe-ism".
5. At the heart of this debate is this issue of "easy/hard believism".
III. For those who wish to understand The Gospel of the Grace of God, there is only one solution: let the text of the Bible speak for itself.
A. So, my approach to this issue is to point out what the various texts of the Bible say with a healthy respect for the reality of entrenched bias and human depravity as it shows up in "arguments between zealots".
B. Thus, To Begin...
1. The Biblical Parameters.
A. We must view what the Bible says about "Grace" (both "sovereign" and "free").
B. 2 Timothy 2:19 introduces a biblical fact about the level of confusion that may well rule the day if this fact is not understood.
C. According to Paul, in his letter to Titus, there is a definitive declaration regarding what the impact of "Grace" is. "11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus; 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds".
D. According to Jude 1:4, the alternative to "Grace" teaching is to twist it beyond its boundaries. "4 For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ."
E. And, according to Paul in Galatians 2:4, there was the opposite alternative: "4 But [it was] because of the false brethren who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage."
