Why I Am No Longer an Evangelical (Part 5b)

Free Grace Theology: Justification and Salvation

In order to navigate and overcome this central conundrum, exposed most clearly through Free Grace Theology, there are number of noetic prerequisites. First and foremost, it involves understanding the definitional nature and psychological/volitional dynamics of faith exposited later in this series.

As intimated in the prior section, another necessary understanding involves distinguishing between Justification and Salvation and the respective terms of each. Another plank involves overthrowing current understandings, prevalent within Christendom, concerning the telos of ethics.

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It’s interesting that you [speaking to Trevin Wax] shift from justification to salvation there because, though those aren’t the same thing…we have to train ourselves to use words accurately . . . The word “salvation” and the word “justification” are not interchangeable.¹

While I am disinclined to cite N.T. Wright, there is no denying that Wright’s assertion here is essentially correct. Scriptures rarely, if ever, engages in semantic tautologies. Moreover, Scriptures incontrovertibly, if implicitly, distinguishes between justification and salvation. 

Much more then, being now (nyn) justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.²

There is no mistaking the semantic distinction in this verse. Justification is expressed in the past or present tense, while salvation is in the future tense. Therefore, those two terms cannot logically refer to the same thing.

There is another exegetical argument, one requiring pedantic scrupulosity and going to the Greek Text. Justification (and other terms associated with it) is overwhelmingly prefaced with the preposition “by,” more literally, “from out of” (ek, ex). Occasionally, it is prefaced with “through” (dia).

But salvation (and other terms associated with it) is always expressed in terms of the preposition “through.” This distinction is subtle yet has substantive semantic repercussions. Faith, (in the pre-existing amnesty scheme, established by the Atonement), is the direct instrumental means, but not the basis, of Justification. But faith acts as a conduit, an indirect instrumental means, for salvation. I am directly saved from drowning by latching onto a lifebuoy, but I am indirectly saved through actuated faith that latching onto that lifebuoy will save me.

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Justification provides the formal juridical basis for salvation in a God who intends “to establish and sustain [his kingdom] with justice and righteousness”³; in other words, to govern by moral authority (Latin, auctoritas), buttressed with hierarchical/legal authority (exousian) and power (dunamis). Salvation, however, is an ontological, existential, and experiential reality.

I am deploying a Latin term (auctoritas), its semantic equivalent not found in Greek Scriptures, to convey a meaning which was alien to ancient Greek culture and its lexicon. The (Republican) Romans, like the Hebrews, subscribed to the intrinsic merit of the laws and mores, whereas the 1,500 city states of the Greeks, which never shared an authoritative and common ethic, did not. The validity of any given law for the Greeks was premised solely upon the legal authority and power of the lawgiver of that jurisdiction. The notion of intrinsic merit to law serves as the inchoate foundations of natural law theory, whereas the Greeks subscribed to the positivist basis of law, which became latter known in Christian circles as Divine Command Ethics.

Nevertheless, even in the Greek New Testament, one can glean a similar meaning as auctoritas. For it is a moral and juridical worthiness that is praised in the Lamb.

“Worthy (Axion) is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!”⁴

With regard to Justification, the exoneration of moral and juridical criminals (a.k.a. sinners) poses another ethical and juridical conundrum for God, as Governor of the cosmos and Divine Judge, a conundrum which He Himself expressed.

“Acquitting the guilty and condemning the righteous—both are detestable to the LORD.”⁵

The Sovereign of the cosmos cannot overlook a single violation against law and justice without ultimately undermining justice and his moral right and authority to govern the cosmos, especially since He declared that He would do no such thing and condemns humanity for doing that very thing. To exonerate moral and juridical criminals without scrupulously satisfying the objective, scrutable, precise, and exacting justice of God and all its attributes and principles, would make that Sovereign, not only unjust, but unfaithful to His own published Word and His Being.

However, Salvation Is Not Justification

However, Salvation is not the same as Justification. The terms of salvation are not the same as that of justification. Moreover, the scope of faith in Christ Jesus, which is required in order to be saved, is far broader than just the talisman of His lifeblood at the Cross necessary for Justification.

Warnings abound throughout Scriptures, including from Christ Himself, of the possibility of “falling away,” of losing that which one appeared to have once had.

Some fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun rose, the seedlings were scorched, and they withered because they had no root . . . The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he remains for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.⁶

Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings . . . The seed sown among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.⁷

As in the Parable of the Sower, some persons are like soil which accepts the seed (Word), which thereupon germinates and shows some growth in them. But then that plant withers and dies under tribulation or is choked off from a bevy of other concerns. Therein is an apparent falling away and defection from the faith.

The reality of apostasy (a.k.a. falling away, defection from the faith), whether through flat unbelief, heresy, or a myriad of other means, inundates the Scriptures. 

They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”⁸

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age— and then have fallen away—to be restored to repentance, because they themselves are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to open shame.For land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is tended receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless, and its curse is imminent. In the end it will be burned.⁹

If I tell the righteous man that he will surely live, but he then trusts in his righteousness and commits iniquity, then none of his righteous works will be remembered; he will die because of the iniquity he has committed.¹⁰

holding on to faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and thereby shipwrecked their faith. Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme.¹¹

With regard to the Parable of the Sower, it is not a question of being seeded with bad seed like that in the Parable of the Tares.¹² It is the same seed that is received by some and produces a crop. An interesting distinction within this latter group is that they are as “one who hears the word and understands it” (akouōn kai synieis).¹³

Therefore, while the promise of entering His rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be deemed to have fallen short of it. For we also received the good news just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, since they did not share the faith of those who comprehended it.¹⁴

Those, currently appearing to have faith, but who will prove to not be the case, will not persevere to the end and produce fruit. Will these who, receive the message but later defect, be merely consigned to a lesser place in the slums of heaven, as posited by Free Grace Theology? Or shall they never enter His rest,¹⁵ because they did not hold firmly to the end the assurance that they first had.¹⁶

The Terms of Salvation: Persevering to the End

But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved.¹⁷

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but to all who crave His appearing.¹⁸

It is indisputable that Apostle Paul taught the preservation of the saints (a.k.a. “once saved, always saved”). Rational logic confirms this teaching. For if one is born of God, can one be unborn of God, without doing violence to language and meaning?

Saying that, if Paul subscribed to this “once saved, always saved” tenet, in the manner that is promoted nowadays, would the statement, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith,” not seem disingenuous? As if there was any doubt?

To the point, however, is not salvation being defined here and elsewhere as having kept faith upon God through Christ through thick and thin without heresy and/or idolatry?

Reconciling All Things

In Justification, a believer is to rest, rely, and depend solely upon the lifeblood of Christ in the Atonement to fulfill all justice on his/her behalf.¹⁹ Herein, it is, in a sense, passive faith.

However, in salvation, a believer is to trust upon the fulness of Christ, His person, assertions and claims, command counsels, promises, and so forth: this, in order to be saved, the criterion being defined as a faith in Christ which perseveres to the end. It is, in turns, passive and active faith. This understanding can be found in the very pivotal Justification passage (Romans 3:21–31).

He did this to demonstrate His [justice] at the present time, so as to be just and to justify the one who has faith in Jesus.²⁰

In this passage, there exists no limit to the scope of faith in Christ which is required in order to be justified. This is in sharp contrast to Chafer’s and the Free Grace theologians’ truncating and limiting the scope of faith to just the talisman of His lifeblood in the Atonement. (This error of understanding is best illustrated through the writings of Chafer.)

This, I believe, resolves the conundrum. The infinite merit of Christ alone suffices to Justify sinners through imputation. But all these other elements of faith prove necessary in order for one’s faith, including faith in the talisman of Christ’s lifeblood in the Atonement, to persevere to the end.

In salvation, this does not require perfect faith. For, as has been established, the criterion for salvation is a faith, properly defined, which perseveres to the end through many dangers, toils, and snares. This faith may be imperfect. This faith may be battered and bruised. But the criterion is that it continues to exist and is discernible to the end.

If a Free Grace “convert” does not endure unto the end with practicable faith intact, it is perhaps because the Gospel that he/she was taught was “a different gospel—which is not even a gospel.”²¹ The scope of faith required to endure to the end involves the whole of Christ, not merely the talisman of His lifeblood at the Atonement.[1]

1. N.T. Wright, “Trevin Wax Interview with N.T. Wright (Full Transcript)”, The Gospel Coalition, November 19, 2007, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/trevin-wax-interview-with-nt-wright-full-transcript.

2. N.T. Wright, “Trevin Wax Interview with N.T. Wright (Full Transcript)”, The Gospel Coalition, November 19, 2007, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/trevin-wax/trevin-wax-interview-with-nt-wright-full-transcript.

3. Isaiah 9:7. Cf. Psalm 97:2, 89:14

4. Revelation 5:12

5. Proverbs 17:15

6. Matthew 13:5–6, 20–21

7. Matthew 13:7, 22

8. 2 Peter 2:19–22 (emphasis added)

9. Hebrews 6:4–8 (emphasis added)

10. Ezekiel 33:13 (emphasis added)

11. 1 Timothy 1:19–20 (emphasis added)

12. Matthew 13:24–30

13. Matthew 13:23 (emphasis added)

14. Hebrews 4:1–2 (emphasis added)

15. Hebrews 3:11

16. Hebrews 3:14

17. Matthew 24:13

18. 2 Timothy 4:6–8

19. Romans 10:4; Matthew 5:17

20. Romans 3:26 (emphasis added)

21. Galatians 1:6b–7a