Friday, November 4, 2011

Lordship Salvation

My friend's elder frowned at him, because he said salvation is by grace alone. His elder believed that one should also accept Christ as Lord. Probably he is a proponent of Lordship Salvation.

Lordship Salvation is a reaction to those who believed that they are saved because they "accept Christ into their heart" on a certain day. They believed that when people become Christians, their lives must changed. They added sanctification to justification.

Salvation is always by grace. We cannot add anything to it. We understand the problem faced by the church filled with worldly Christians. But we cannot combat error with another error. We cannot fight Antinomianism with Legalism.

We can show people the way of salvation by grace. But we cannot declare them saved just because they "accept Christ into their heart" and assure them that they are going to heaven. Assurance comes from the Holy Spirit. We cannot do His job. If there is anyone who claimed to be a Christian and behaved as worldling, we can only ask him to examine himself to see if he is in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). The Holy Spirit will convict a true Christian in due time.

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