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A Re-Reformation of the Protestant Church

Posted on Thursday 16 August 2007 by Greg @ 8:32 am
Filed under: Rants

Right now I’m reading a book by Martin Luther (the monk not the king.) This little treatise is called "On Christian Liberty". It’s a devotional meets open letter meets booklet addressed to Pope Leo X that deals with every Christian’s freedom from sin and freedom to serve. At the core of it all is the defining doctrine of the Protestant Reformation: Sola Fide (Latin for "faith alone").
The seminal idea of this revolutionary message is that we cannot be saved by our works, deeds or actions. To walk the pathway of trying to earn our salvation is no pathway at all, but rather, a highway…to hell (At least ACDC had a little of their theology right!)

When you think of the Reformation you probably think of the ideological battle between the Roman Catholic church and those who protested their teachings 500 or so years ago (AKA "the PROTESTants"). But I think the Protestants need a reformation today, or, a "re-reformation" if you will.

Why? Because the leaven of dependence on good deeds, pull-yourself-up-by-your-own-bootstraps, humanistic approaches to salvation have crept into the vast majority of churches in America in one way or another.
Do you find that hard to believe? If so, think of the average "gospel" presentation in the typical church. It probably includes one or more of the following phrases:

"Just say this prayer and you will be saved"…sorry Charlie. But there are going to be a lot of people who end up in the Lake of Fire who said "the sinner’s prayer" but never put their faith alone in Christ alone for the salvation of their souls. You’ll never find one case where Jesus or any of the disciples led anyone through a prayer for salvation. Having said that I don’t believe there is anything wrong with having a new believer articulate their newfound faith in God in the form of a prayer (I do it myself). The problem is when a person thinks that saying the right words will save them. No, only Jesus can save them through faith and faith alone.
"Fully surrender yourself to Jesus and you will be saved"…Nope. Can’t be done. A lost man cannot commit to anything. Why? Because he is spiritually incapable of following through on any commitment. And as soon as you start depending on your own "commitment", "submission" or "surrender" then you are forsaking the gospel of grace. When we ask someone to “surrender all” to follow Jesus we are actually turning our backs on Jesus and insulting his free gift of grace in the same way that we would insult somebody who was taking us out to dinner and we chose to pay the tab instead. Why do you think Paul was so hard on the Galatians? He said that as soon as you start trusting in yourself and your own ability to commit/surrender/submit to God by keeping the law rather than trusting in Christ alone (sola fide) then you are "deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ" (Galatians 1:6.) I am FULLY convinced that if Galatians were re-written by the apostle Paul today he would not be attacking the legalist Judaizers who were trying to force the Galatian believers to keep the law for the salvation of their souls (after all they’re all dead!) I’m convinced this little book of Paul’s would be written to the legalists in the church today, these who are desecrating the grace of Christ by adding a "surrender all" prerequisite to the free gift of eternal life.
"Turn from all your sin and you will be saved" Oops. Those who preach this as a condition of salvation forget one little thing in their "gospel" formula…Jesus. How can we turn from one sin (let alone all our sin) until Jesus is working from the inside out? The Greek word for "repentance" in the New Testament means "a change of mind". When used in the context of salvation it is used to describe a person changing their mind about who Jesus is (Acts 2:38) and what they are trusting in for the salvation of their souls (Acts 3:19 is in the context of Peter emphasizing that salvation was by faith alone in Christ alone three verses earlier.) Did you know that the only book of the Bible written to a totally unsaved audience, the book of John, doesn’t use the word “repent” once in any form? Instead it uses the word “believe” 98 x’s in the verb form alone! Does that mean “repent” or “repentance” is a bad word? NO! NO! NO! Repent is a great word. And repentance is necessary for salvation. But the word repent is interchangeable with faith throughout the New Testament. When you repent (AKA “change your mind”) about what or who you are trusting in, you are believing. And when you believe in Jesus, you are changing your mind about what or who you are trusting in. But to say that repentance is turning from sin and a separate act of faith is implying that the book of John and Jesus himself (and the rest of the apostles by the way) preached an incomplete gospel. That’s a dangerous if not damnable implication.

The last two Mormon missionaries who came to my door reminded me that they “had the same view of salvation as most Protestant churches.” I begged to differ. They said something like, “Oh yeah, you guys believe that to be saved you need to repent from your sins and completely surrender your life to Jesus to be saved and that’s what we believe.”
I guess they were right. Many, if not most, Protestant churches preach a gospel that focuses primarily on what we must do to earn, er, I mean, “receive” the free gift of eternal life. But their “free” gift comes with a price tag. Their view of the gift of eternal life is like opening a present from your parents at Christmas only to have them say “that will be $49.99 please! Pay up!”
A gift that costs anyone but the giver is no gift at all. Any gospel message that demands we “pay up” is not really good news. It’s self-dependent, humanistic, "work your own way to heaven" religion 101. To use a technical theological term, it’s a load of crap.
Can you guess that I have a really big problem with a gospel presentation that a Mormon has no problem with? Why don’t many Mormons (and the last few Jehovah’s Witnesses I witnessed to by the way) have a problem with the works-laden approach to salvation that many Protestant churches preach? Because they know a works centered approach to Jesus when they see one! If Mormons can see this then why can’t we?
What do I believe? I believe that salvation is truly a free gift of God’s grace that we receive through faith alone in Jesus. I believe that once we are saved we don’t “make Jesus Lord” of our lives. He is Lord! As we submit to him we are blessed and conformed to the image of Christ. If we resist we are disciplined until we submit. If we continue to resist then one of two things is true: we were never truly saved or we are in for a divine encounter of the Old Testament kind (Hebrews 10:26-32.) Once we repent (i.e. change our minds and believe in Jesus) he begins a work of sanctification and turning us from our sin that cannot be stopped by us (Philippians 1:6). It may take death to complete the work but it will be completed.
It’s time for a re-reformation of the church. It’s time to preach the gospel of grace for what it is…the gospel (AKA “good news”) of grace (AKA “undeserved, unworked for, unmerited favor and love of God received through faith alone in Christ alone”).Once we embrace this grace Jesus embraces us and he won’t let go until we are fully conformed to his image.

For more on this controversial subject check out my podcast The Good, The Bad and The Ugly or, better yet, read John, Romans and Galatians. Jesus, John and Paul do a much better job than I do at explaining how this free gift of grace is received by sinners like you and me.

The original reformation began when the rogue monk, Martin Luther, nailed the 95 Theses to the Wittenburg Door. Because I’m not a tenth as smart as Mr. Luther, I’m just nailing this one theses to my blog (and hopefully your heart!)

8 Comments for 'A Re-Reformation of the Protestant Church'

On August 16, 2007 @ 9:45 am Jason said:

WOW! I share some of the same thoughts and feelings but have never seen this communicated with such clarity, passion, and fowardness. It’s about time we started calling our brothers and sisters in Christ on the carpet and reminding them what the Gospel is all about. I think Martin Luther, along with Jesus and the Apostles, would be / are upset with the state of the church considering all they did to make clear that salvation is the free gift of God! No strings attached, no works required, no purchase necessary…simply a trust and faith in Jesus Christ as He is the one who did all the work and paid the price, in full. Sola Fide!
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On August 16, 2007 @ 10:29 am Eddie said:

Awesome! That was a great blog! I recently had someone ask me what I thought about "faith without works being dead." I told them I agreed and then told them what Christ said about that work… "It is Finished." If Christ had not died or made the perfect sacrifice, the work would not have been finished and our faith would be in vain or dead. Faith alone cannot save if there is no substance or work to the faith. I can believe wholeheartedly that I will not fail my English final… but if I fail my English final, my faith was in vain. BUT the good news (gospel) is that Christ DID make that payment, the work HAS been done, and our faith is NOT in vain. Faith alone in Christ alone is NOT dead because the work has already been completed! Sola Fide!
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On August 16, 2007 @ 10:55 am Becky said:

Amen!We need to get the real gospel out there! ~Becky~
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On August 17, 2007 @ 3:04 pm Pastor Jason said:

Hey, Your all on the right track (Praise God He’s given you faith for you to be able to write some of the things you write). This idea that the Modern Protestant Evangelical Churches need another reformation is correct, and I find God is gracing people with the faith to make it happen. This is an endeavor that God has begun in America and one the most legalistic minded people will never be able to stop. Decision dependant salvation is as contradicting to the Gospel as the medival Roman Catholic Church if not more. I’m glad to stumble on some of your comments! God’s Grace to you all in Christ! In Christ’s Unspeakable Grace, Pastor Jason
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On August 27, 2007 @ 1:16 pm Pastor Scott said:

Wow! I never picked up on the calvinism from any of the messages or devotions before. Know that there are a lot of Wesleyan supporters of the conferences that are not in agreement with this interpretation of the scriptures. I would agree with the fact that salvation is a free gift of God and that we can not earn or work for our initial salvation, but I’m not sure that this "all faith and no works" is exactly scriptural. I belive James the brother of Jesus clarifies this in his book. James 2:14-26 tells us several importan facts about faith and works that we cannot omit, or tear out of our Bibles and sell this "pie in the sky" doctrine of faith alone! First, faith without works profits no one (v.14) Second, faith without works doesn’t help the needy or poor (v.15-16). What do we tell them? Just have faith and you’ll be ok. I have faith that you’re going to be fine. No faith must be joined with action–works! Thirdly, faith without works is dead! (v.17, 20,) How can you have faith without works? Faith is not passive, it is a word of action. To be true and authentic it must be joined with works. It is not enough to just believe. (v. 19) And lastly, faith is made perfect by works. (v.22) The Bible clearly teaches that there is something more that God wants to do and will do in the life of the believer. He will sanctify holy those who will by faith trust Him enough to obey His commands, and live for Jesus everyday. Jesus prayed for our sanctification. Paul talks about purifying ourselves from everything that contaminates our bodies and spirits and perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. These commands are a little deeper than just faith alone. To perfect holiness, it takes our willingness to practice and work at it, and with the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit, He can through us, accomplish this holy living the Bible talks about. We settle for far less than what He created us for. I would agree that our churches are off track with thinking that the sinners prayer or a one time trip down the aisle and a prayer will get you into heaven, and you can do nothing to lose your salvation. We were born free moral agents. We have a choice to serve God or reject him everyday of our life. He’s not going to automatically complete the his work in us without our willingness and consent. We’re not robots without a choice. It hasn’t been predetermined, either before salvation nor after salvation, that we go to heaven or hell and there’s nothing we can do about it. We have a choice. Paul said, "I die daily". There’s our part and there’s God’s part. He’s done his part and we have all of him. But does He have all of us? We have to give him controll of everything in our lives and that takes a little work. I would say that what the Protestant churches in our day need more than reformation is transformation (Romans 12:1-2). We need to begin to live the life we claim to have–"walk the walk" so to speak. This doesn’t take away anything from the free gift of God’s grace through faith. But we better include in the equation that we are saved to do good works and to live a holy life through the power of the Holy Spirit or we are preaching a half-truth gospel. Hebrews 12:14 says: "Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord."
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On August 27, 2007 @ 9:41 pm Greg said:

Hey Pastor Scott,

Thanks for your post! Don’t get me wrong. I beleive that good works flow out of salvation. Like Ephesians 2:10 says we are his workmanship created to do good works. Once we are saved that salvation should produce good works. If it doesn’t then one or two things is true: either we were never genuinely saved or we are in for a divine encounter from a disappointed Daddy who will not be mocked (Galatians 6:7.) He will discipline his children who are walking in disobedience (Hebrews 12:6) and will conform us to the image of Christ.

I’m convinced that James 2 is referring to the works that proceed out of salvation (i.e. "sanctification"). Why? because in Romans 4 Paul refers back to Genesis 15:6 when Abraham believed God (faith alone) and his faith was counted for righteousness. But James refers to when Abraham was willing to offer his son Isaac on the altar "his faith and his actions were working together and his faith was made complete by what he did." James is referring not to the moment of Abraham’s salvation (Genesis 15:6) but the moment he was williing to offer everything on the altar (sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22). When the angel of the Lord told him to stop he said, "Now I know that you fear me." In other words Abraham’s actions caught up with his faith and his faith was made complete (literally "matured") by what he was willing to do by sacrificing his own son.

Was abraham saved in the 25 years between Genesis 15:6 and Genesis 22? I say yes (and I think you’d say yes too!) His act of sacrifice showed that his faith had fully matured and he was declared righteous, not in a legal foresnic sense of the word but in the practical sense. He was a man of God and declared to be just that by Jesus himself.

The point? We believe in God and "our faith is counted as righteousness" (Genesis 15:6 and Romans 4:1-4) and then we live a life of good deeds and seek to lay it all on the altar like Abraham did (Genesis 22 and James 2:14-26).

Paul is talking about Abraham’s justification by faith alone. James is talking about Abraham’s practical sanctification that was by faith and works.

Either way…what a great discussion! Thanks for taking time to type such a thoughtful response.
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On August 28, 2007 @ 10:31 am Denny said:

Greg: Grace to you. I, too believe in what you have written. My stepfather came over one day and told me about some sin in his life. He told me that he was at the end of his rope–there was no hope for him. I told him that there was hope. It took him over an hour to drive to my house–that is God’s grace by giving him an opportunity to drive that way without getting killed in a car accident. When he arrived at the house, God showed him grace by allowing him to sit on my couch and to tell me what he had done without getting shot down by me or anyone else. Instead, what he saw for the first time in his life was the Lord Jesus Christ and the grace that He has to offer to those who believe (faith alone in Christ alone). I told him about this grace, I told him about this forgiveness, I told him about this life that can only come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Immediately, with tears streaming down his cheeks, my stepfather raised his hands and yelled, I believe! I believe! Greg, I did not lead him in a prayer. I did not tell him that he had to make Jesus Christ Lord of his life. Instead, since January 2007, the Lord Jesus Christ has transformed and continues to reform him to be the Godly man that he is becoming. My stepfather realizes even as a young believer that it was the Lord Jesus Christ that has done the work in him–it was not anything that he could do to offer anything for his salvation. The works now are a result of that very salvation.
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On September 5, 2007 @ 2:14 pm Scott said:

Greg, I don’t think we are far apart and I think we are basically saying the same thing. My concern is for those that would take the faith alone and run with it to the point that they "do nothing" and expect to grow in their relationship with Christ and make it to heaven. I agree with you in the fact that we can do nothing to earn or merit the grace given, by God, through Christ to us for salvation. It’s free. And I agree that works and righteous deeds must follow. I’m convinced that the Bible takes it a bit farther (and I think you would too.) We must grow in grace and come to the place of entire sanctification. That too is by faith and a gift of God, paid for by the blood of Christ on the cross. When we totally consecrate our lives (forsake all for the gospel and his kingdom) and allow him to cleanse our lives of the sinful nature that causes us to continually sin (sanctification) then we can live a victorious life free from willful sin. Hannah Whithall Smith one of the great christian classic writers said: "If God hates sin in the sinner’s life, how much more does He hate sin in the Christian’s life?" Romans 6:1-2 basically Paul says that we (Christians cannot continue to sin. We supposedly died to sin and that lifestyle. We can’t live in it any longer and continue to claim the name of Christ. In other words we have to live like a Christian and that requires work, practice. I say all this because I’m afraid we are trying to judge whether someone has made a sincere commitment at the point of salvation or not. If they fall away we say they didn’t really mean it. Maybe they did, maybe they didn’t. Only God really knows. Maybe no one challenged them to not stop at faith. Maybe no one challenged them to move forward to a higher plane of living after salvation. Maybe no one told them they could live a victorious life over sin and satan. And they just gave up and went back to their old life of sin. I guess I just want teenagers and adults for that matter to not settle for second best with their spiritual lives. I want them to exerience the joy of knowing all is forgiven, cleansed, purified, and set apart for God’s service in their lives. We demand excellence in sports, we demand excellence in school work, band, and other activities in life. And we tell teens to practice everyday. Yet we (the church) don’t ask much of them in their spiritual walk. 2 Corinthians 7:1 "Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God. I am not comfortable with that word "perfecting" personally, because I know my weaknesses and limitations. I’m sure as you know the original language of the writer indicates an understanding of "practicing holiness" rather than a literal perfection in performance without any mistakes. So if we begin to practice living holy lives everyday with the help and power of the Holy Spirit living in us, (not of our own power), then we can be all that He purposed for us to be. I sincerely hope I’m not confusing the point. Psalm 24:3-4 tells us who will go to heaven–those with clean hands and pure hearts. Faith alone in Christ alone followed by holy living–when the holy living ceases, we are in essence saying we don’t have faith or trust in Christ. That is dangerous ground to be on and a dissappointed Daddy will discipline and punish. And don’t limit it to earthly punishment. The Holy God who lives in a Holy Heaven isn’t going to allow a sinful man to enter. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Grace & Peace, Pastor Scott
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A Re-Reformation of the Protestant Church

Posted on Thursday 16 August 2007 by Greg @ 8:32 am
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Posted on Thursday 16 August 2007 by Greg @ 8:32 am
Filed under: Rants