Today I received an irenic email from someone, we will call him Frank, who agrees that everlasting life is absolutely free. However, he also thinks that in order to get that free gift you must deny yourself. Here is what Frank wrote:
I’d like to offer my opinion on the subject. I believe there is a logical fallacy in your argument.
Salvation is a free gift from God indeed. It cannot be earned. However, the qualification to receive the free gift is self-denial. One has to deny oneself (high cost) to receive the free gift of God.
Therefore, both are true: Salvation is free (or paid for by Christ), but in order to qualify for it, one has to pay the high cost of self-denial.
Example: If you’re willing to give up your job, then I’ll pay for a life-long vacation. If you accept the gift of vacation, you’re not paying for it even though you had to give up your job.
I’ve heard this argument before, but the illustration is new to me. I think Frank has done a good job of illustrating how something can be free, yet still cost something small.
Let me begin with the argument.
Saving the Soul
I do not know what passages he had in mind to suggest that self-denial is a condition for having everlasting life. Maybe Frank is thinking of a passage like Matt 16:24-28 which links self-denial with “saving one’s psyche.” Many understand psyche to mean eternal soul there. Thus they think that in order to get into heaven one must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Christ.
For the record, there are many problems with this understanding of Matt 16:24-28. I’ll mention but five.
First, those verses are in response to and directed to Peter, clearly, a born-again person as his great confession of Christ and Jesus’ response earlier in the chapter clearly shows (Matt 16:13-19).
Second, the issue is “if anyone wishes to come after Me…” Coming after Jesus is a discipleship concept. Coming to Jesus is a regeneration concept (e.g., John 6:35).
Third, there are over 100 verses in the New Testament which say that whoever believes in Jesus has everlasting life. The issue is believing, not following, not serving, not self-denial.
Fourth, everlasting life cannot be both free and costly. If it is costly, then it is not free. See John 6:28-29 and Rom 4:4-5. While we might think we are helping God out by getting the costly part in there, we are not. Sanctification is built on a correct belief in justification. If we have a confused view of justification, we become legalistic and legalism does not produce true righteousness (see Romans 7; Galatians 5).
Fifth, the issue in Matt 16:24-28 is not getting into Christ’s kingdom, but ruling with Christ in it. Notice that the Lord specifically speaks of everlasting rewards in Matt 16:27.
Now, what about that illustration?
A Free Vacation
The clever thing about it is that Frank has asked people to give up something which most people would be happy to give up. Give up working 50 or 60 hours a week and I’ll give you an ongoing paid vacation for the rest of your life. Even people who have saved up enough to retire can’t vacation 52 weeks a year. So this is an amazing offer.
But the truth is, that is not what the Lord was talking about in verses like Matt 16:24-28. He was talking about being ready to die for Jesus. Peter and the other disciples all were martyred for Jesus, except for John who appears to have avoided it though we cannot be sure. Taking up one’s cross is certainly taking up the path of suffering on which Jesus was bound. Remember, it was when Jesus said He was going to Jerusalem to “suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised on the third day” (Matt 16:21) that Peter said, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!” (Matt 16:22). Peter needed an attitude adjustment. As Dr. Walvoord says in his commentary on Matthew, the Lord was teaching the disciples that suffering precedes glory. It did for the Lord Jesus. And it would for His disciples too.
The illustration of giving up one’s job to get a lifetime paid vacation does not contain suffering in self-denial. (Of course, I like my job and I don’t want a lifetime paid vacation. So for me, it would be suffering. But for most people, that is not an illustration of self-denial.)
I appreciate the illustration, but it may be more appropriate for discipleship, and how giving up earthly goods will mean gaining eternal goods in the kingdom. Maybe say, “If you give up buying a bigger and nice house; drive old cars instead of new ones; give your money generously to the Lord’s work instead of your own comfort, then the Lord Jesus will grant you the wonderful privilege or ruling with Him in the life to come.” Yes, self-denial is a key discipleship concept. But you cannot buy everlasting life, even with self-denial. As you say, Jesus already bought it for us at Calvary. Thus there is nothing left for us to pay. All we need to do is believe in Him to have the life He so freely gives.
Yehoshua
I love Jack Kelly’s answer to the same question (albeit put a bit differently) :
Question:
From an answer that you gave to the question titled Preconditions For Salvation, you mentioned John 3:16; 6:28, 29, 40; to prove that salvation is by faith alone. Don’t you think that you are adding the word alone to the word of our Lord? Where do we find the word alone in those verses? Yes, we are saved by faith, but does God’s Word tell us that we are saved by “faith alone”? If it says so, please tell me where without adding the word alone to the verses you quote to me.
Answer to the question:
In the Greek language the words faith and belief are essentially the same, both coming from the same root word. The absence of anything other than belief (faith) in verses describing the requirements for our salvation implies that we’re saved by faith alone.
For example, in both John 3:16 and John 3:36 Jesus said that everyone who believes in the Son will have eternal life.
In John 5:24 he said, “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.”
In John 6:28-29 Jesus was asked what work God requires of us. He said, “The work of God is this, to believe in the one He has sent.” This was a very specific question and He gave a very specific answer.
in John 6:40 he said, “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”
In all these opportunities to do so, the Lord didn’t add anything to belief as a requirement for salvation.
It was the same with Paul. In Ephesians 1:13-14 he said our salvation is guaranteed when we believe. Since at the moment of belief we had done nothing else it means our salvation is guaranteed based solely on our belief.
In Ephesians 2:8-9 he made it even clearer. He said we’re saved by grace through faith, and not by works. Grace is an unmerited favor that comes through faith and nothing else.
In Romans 3:21-22 he said we have a righteousness from God that comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, and in Romans 4:5 he said, “To the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked his faith is credited as righteousness.” Our righteousness is from God and comes through faith in Jesus Christ and nothing else.
And in Titus 3:4-5 he wrote, “But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done but because of His mercy.”
These verses provide conclusive evidence that our salvation is based only on what we believe. In other words we’re saved by faith alone.
Ken Tamashiro
Good one Bob!!!
One of the tricks of the Enemy is to make the Free Gift costly and difficult, for future consumers of Eternal Life, as well as for those are saved already.
I feel very strongly about this: That understanding the context and circumstances and distinctions of Gospels can be the Rudder that guides us into understanding the Free Gift of Eternal Life.
Thanks Again, Ken