Recently a footnote in a book I was reading pointed me to an article with a puzzling title: “God Does Not Justify Sinners by Grace Alone through Faith Alone in Christ Alone to Make Salvation Easy for Us.” The article was published on August 31, 2010 at the gospel coalition website. The author is Thabiti Anyabwile.
He starts out by indicating the position he rejects: “We sometimes seem to be saying to sinners, ‘You see, God has made it easy for you. Just believe.’ Or, “It’s not what you do. Christ has done it for you. Just repent and accept Christ.”
He indicates that there are three ways in which salvation is not easy.
First, the purchase of our salvation was not easy. “Christ purchased our salvation with His own blood.” Amen.
Second, salvation “is not easily obtained.” Really? Instead of speaking of believing in Jesus, Anyabwile says, “There is taking up the cross and dying with Christ…It is costly to follow Jesus.” Odd that he is discussing justification by faith alone and yet in the section of his article dealing with obtaining justification before God, he talks about works.
Third, salvation “is not easily maintained.” Maintained? This is a Calvinist website. I thought Calvinists believed in eternal security. Yet Anyabwile says, “Only those who overcome, who persevere in faith until the end, will receive the Reward [of salvation]…This is not achieved while rolling over again and again on our beds, while drinking in the poisons of sinful entertainments, or giving ourselves to unrighteousness…Persevering to the end is not easy.”
He ends the article saying, “Press on toward the high calling; discipline your body; persevere until the end; run to win the crown. You won’t lose in Christ, even if it is not easy.”
I’m scratching my head right now, literally and figuratively. That sounds like what a Roman Catholic would say. Or Church of Christ. Or Eastern Orthodox.
Arminians often say things like that. But now Calvinists do too.
Dr. Ryrie used to suggest that it is not so easy to believe that a Man who lived and died 2,000 years ago has the ability to give everlasting life to all who simply believe in Him. He pointed out that most do not believe that. How can that be easy believism if very few people even in Christianity believe that?
So is it easy to believe in Jesus for everlasting life? I suppose it depends on how you were raised. But if it is hard, it is not hard because we must persevere in good works. It is not hard because we must work hard to obtain it and to maintain it. It would only be hard because so few people actually believe it is true.
Anyabwile was being too polite when he said that some seem to say: “You see, God has made it easy for you. Just believe.” That is what we say. We also say, “It’s not what you do. Christ has done it for you.” Of course, we do not say, “‘Just repent and accept Christ.’” We say, “Just believe in Jesus for everlasting life.”
While what he wrote is sad, it is also highly motivating. As I read that I saw afresh why our witness is so important. We are like salmon swimming against the rush of water. It is hard to buck the current.
Obtaining everlasting life may be hard or easy. But the only way to obtain is to believe in Jesus Christ for it. That may be hard for you to believe. But that is all that is needed to obtain everlasting life.
Maintaining everlasting life is not simply easy. It is a done deal. Once you believed in Jesus for everlasting life, you became eternally secure. You cannot do anything to maintain it. God guarantees that all who believe in Jesus have everlasting life and will never perish.
What is sometimes hard is proclaiming the free gift of everlasting life to a world that only wants everlasting life on its own terms. But some do get it. We do lead some to faith in Christ. And there is so much joy for them and for us when they get it.
Thank you, Lord.
Brady Pollitt
Very very well said!!! Love how you “NAILED it on the HEAD” by pointing out that MOST want eternal life on “their TERMS”, not on Jesus terms.
George Castillo
I guess some folks are just afraid someone might get into heaven who doesn’t deserve it.
Brady Mayo
None of us deserve Heaven and none of us can do anything to deserve it. But how tempting it is to think we can.
Ken Tamashiro
MOST want Eternal Life on “their TERMS”, not on Jesus’ terms…
May I throw a different spin on the subject here,… I think many of the unsaved people are yearning for Divine acceptance by God, but have a bad picture of Christ making Salvation and Discipleship as a requirement for Eternal Life as spoken by many Evangelists around the world.
What many unsaved people want is the Free Gift of Eternal Life without all the hassles that many Christians Churches demand. Just the Free Gift (Thank You very much!) is all they want. And if they heard that Jesus the God/Man/Savior wanted that for them, there would be many that will come to Christ. The Woman at the Well understood the terms clearly, and did not hesitate to tell everyone in town also and said could he be the Christ? And many Believed themselves.
So yes people want in on their own terms without any hassels, (Just Believe),… just show me the way!!!!
Ken Tamashiro
Jesus in his illustration gave this insight, that God wants to bring in as many people as he can into Heaven,… Matt 22:8 Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ 10 So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.
In this story Jesus gave, was about the Jewish people whom God wanted to bring in by Belief in Christ, but many Jews rejected Jesus as the Savior, and their doom was set. ….
Matt 22:11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. 12 So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. 13 Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and[a] cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
George Castillo
Question to Ken’s last paragraph: How did the guest without having properly dressed himself get into the banquet hall? You seem to identify him with the unbelievers who had refused the invitation to attend. Would seem more consistent with the parable to identify him with the believers who accepted the FREE offer to attend. Yet he failed to prepare himself for the biggest day of his life and missed out on all of which he could have been apart of. No need to see hell here. Rather he experiences great regret at having not prepared to meet the Lord. Those who have a problem identifying the “speechless” guy as a believer in the kingdom do so because they reject the idea that believers will never face judgment before God for their sins but can suffer loss of honor, commendation, and rewards at the BEMA. Theology aside the parable clearly presents the man in verse 11 as one who accepted the free invitation. He was demonstratively not one of those who at the first part of the parable rejected the unconditional offer.
Ken Tamashiro
Hello George Castillo,
May I humbly disagree with your assessment of the text.
George’s Comment: Question to Ken’s last paragraph: How did the guest without having properly dressed himself get into the banquet hall?
Ken’s reply: Did Jesus say that the Believer was not properly dressed?
George’s Comment: You seem to identify him with the unbelievers who had refused the invitation to attend.
Ken’s reply: What you say is correct George the person who was not properly dressed was an unbeliever.
Georges Comment: Would seem more consistent with the parable to identify him with the believers who accepted the FREE offer to attend.
Ken’s Reply: Jesus in this parable did not speak of the Free Gift of Eternal Life but only tried to point out what would happen to an unbelieving Jew. This parable He gave only shows the contrast of both Jews.
George’s Comment: Yet he failed to prepare himself for the biggest day of his life and missed out on all of which he could have been a part of. No need to see hell here.
Ken’s reply: George you are guilty of reading into the text whats not clearly stated there, could this be a mistake on your part? Jesus is speaking about the unbeliever here.
George’s Comment: Rather he experiences great regret at having not prepared to meet the Lord.
Ken’s reply: Jesus is not talking about a Believing Jew but is talking about an unbelieving Jew.
Georges Comment: Those who have a problem identifying the “speechless” guy as a believer in the kingdom do so because they reject the idea that believers will never face judgment before God for their sins but can suffer loss of honor, commendation, and rewards at the BEMA.
Ken’s reply: Jesus is not talking about a Believing Jew and never mention the Bema Seat. Only the Apostle Paul clearly speaks about the Judgement Seat of Christ, but not in this context with Mathew.
Georges Comment: Theology aside the parable clearly presents the man in verse 11 as one who accepted the free invitation.
Ken’s reply: It seems like you like to read into this Parable as if it has to do with the Judgement Seat of Christ, but the text does not support that view because it’s contrasting those who Believed in Jesus.
Georges Comment: He was demonstratively not one of those who at the first part of the parable rejected the unconditional
offer.
Ken’s reply: Please refer to any Commentary regarding this passage, I think you will be surprised that it is not talking about the Judgement Seat of Christ. But only those Jews who did not believe. In (Verse 14) Jesus concludes his Parable in a simple to understand language,… “For many are called, but few are chosen.”
George Castillo
Your point about reading the Bema into the passage has some merit, though one could argue I am not interpreting the parable with it but rather attempting to correlate the parable with later texts that speak of the Bema. This is no more than commentators (like Blomberg for example) do who correlate the Great White Throne with the “outer darkness” aspect of the parable. Without trying to respond to every issue you raised, I would just underscore what I see as your biggest misunderstanding of the parable. I find it very difficult to link the improperly dressed WEDDING GUEST who has actually accepted the FREE INVITATION with those who rejected it and were destroyed. Nothing in the parable suggests that he shouldn’t be in attendance. Whatever the consequences are in verse 13 they were not administered because the individual had not been invited, nor because he didn’t accept the invitation and show up! The King had him removed from the festivities of the wedding feast because he was not properly dressed (explicitly stated twice in vv. 11-12). Note verse 12 tells us the King himself spoke this to the guest. The issue here is not that the guest was not welcomed into the event to which he had been invited, but that he came unprepared to honor the King and His bride. Even today an unprepared guest might be escorted from a wedding reception should his presence be dishonoring. And there is no reason to assume the consequences detailed in verse 13 are hell/eternal judgment. After all in the cultural setting of the parable the actions of the King seem quite realistic. The servants (like modern bouncers) rather gruffly removed the dishonoring guest and excluded him from the joyous event. As for the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” there is no reason to associate this with anything other than great sorrow and regret at having failed to take seriously the magnitude of the King’s grace and the responsibility to have adequately prepared for the day of His glory. Speaking from my own experience I can say that I have often experienced great sorrow and regret for failures as a believer. Why should I imagine that when I stand before my Lord one day my regret should be any less real then? As for the “many are called, but few chosen,” it should be noted that “called” means no more than “invited” as in the earlier verses of the parable. Jesus is simply making the point that not all who are invited will be honored guests, that is, special ones. Some because they refused the invitation; and some because they accepted it but did not prepare for the event. There is no need to freight these terms with the theological baggage many of the commentaries you mention so often do.
Ken Tamashiro
Hello George,
I’m thinking maybe you don’t understand the seriousness of Outer Darkness with Weeping and Gnashing of teeth as described as a temporary Judgement for a Believer as promoted within Free Grace. Basically, if I’m understanding this correctly a Believer goes from the Bema Seat that did not qualify goes straight into Temporal Judgement where he will stay for the duration of possibly the Millennium, then later released to be with everyone in Heaven.
Now George, if we passed from Judgement into Life, why would Jesus our Savior place a believer in some form of Judgement if he did not measure up to some unknown level of failure of his Christian Life?
Why not preach the Gospel of double Jeopardy so that a person can wonder is this the Christ of the Bible?
No my friend, this doctrine will not stand the scrutiny from the Book of Romans. This Doctrine will fail in 2 areas,..Justification by Faith Alone and Sanctification of the Believer (his position and process within Christ) with the help of the Holy Spirit.
The Outer Darkness and Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth will always be for the Unbelieving Jew in this context and never the Sanctified Saint.
Ken Tamashiro
I should correct myself here, about the duration of punishment for a Millenium. I thought I read this somewhere, and maybe it could be the outer fringe of people who believed that, not Free Grace, my error my apologies. …. But that being said why would God not let the Believer participate in the Wedding Feast for all to enjoy. I think Jesus would have no problem inviting all to participate. Especially after the Judgement Seat of Christ with some having minimal rewards. The only ones that are Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth are the Unbelieving Jews who rejected Him as the Messiah, They will not be the participants of the Wedding Feast because they will be in Hell for their unbelief. When Jesus said many are called, is relating to the Jews in general, but few are chosen, relates to the ones who Believed.
George Castillo
Good Morning, Ken. I wasn’t planning to continue this discussion, but since I awoke early (4:00 AM) I thought I would respond a bit. Thank you for your attempt to clarify your position and share what you no doubt feel is correct from your theological position. I will try to briefly share a few observations in response to your reply(s). 1) I do take seriously the warning of the “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” But I believe the warning is to those who believe in Christ. The Lord’s parables are sometimes in part a response to His Jewish detractors, but we shouldn’t forget that He is teaching the disciples in preparation for their disciple-making ministry after His ascension (Mt 28:19-20). So it follows that Matthew’s recording/teaching of this particular parable in his gospel is directed at us, not unbelievers. Matthew is a discipleship manual for believers. 2) There is no reason to assume the phrase is anything more than a stern warning about potential sorrow and regret. It is a serious though common exegetical error to assume every warning in the NT is a reference to hell. If I warn my disobedient grandson, “Michael, I am going to skin you alive,” I am quite confident he will take me seriously but without fear of actually being skinned with a knife! 3) The darkness (lit. “the darkness outside”) is within the parable a clear reference to exclusion of the joy within the banquet hall. There is no reason to assume it is a reference to hell. 4) I agree with you that believers will never face judgment with respect to their eternal destiny. That issue, as you point out from Romans, has already been dealt with in our justification by faith in Christ. I would also point out John 5:24. However, this truth does not mean believers (thus servants) will not give an account of their lives to the Lord. 4) You seem to think that the Bema judgment results in some believers being excluded from the Kingdom. While there are some who teach this I do not accept that view for a number of reasons I will not discuss here. But clearly the Bema passages and this parable suggest a loss of SOMETHING for unfaithfulness. (Though I hasten to point out that our Lord is gracious and merciful. And the primary purpose at the Bema is to bring honor and recognition to Him. Christ will be honored as those who have served Him are honored.) 5) Implicitly at least you raise the issue of how an “improperly dressed” believer could suffer loss and regret while still being a resident in the Kingdom. (However, I believe it is a mistake to equate the wedding banquet of the parable with the Kingdom.) I recall this illustration. A man foolishly refuses to spend his money on homeowner’s insurance. One night his house catches fire. Fortunately all of his family escape the fire unharmed. He is eternally thankful for that! Yet he “weeps and gnashes his teeth” over the loss because of his foolishness. We should not try to make the parable “walk on all fours” with respect to the particulars about the future Kingdom. 6) I greatly appreciate the ministry of GES. I would strongly encourage you to carefully read and study the books available on their website. Not because the authors are always correct on everything (as they themselves would agree). But because the writers consistently give priority to exegesis over systematic theology. Of course, we all carry in our head a “theological system,” but we should always seek the Spirit’s help to avoid giving it priority when we interpret the Word. Shalom.
Curtis Smale
Yeah, being “bound hand and foot” really sounds like Heaven. Yes, that was sarcasm. Graceinsightandart.wordpress.com
Grahame Smith
Simply put (if thats possible when it comes to the atonement of Christ), we dont get to see the fine detail of what Christ achieved on the cross for all of humanity. Broadly we do, that is He broke the power of sin, hell and death on the cross and rose from the grave so we could spend eternity with Him. More than sufficient in all things when it comes to us having a relationship with Him. A free gift to us through Grace. He did it all! ….Not about us at all, …..all about what Jesus achieved because He loved us all. So God the Holy Spirit convicts people of their need to believe He is the Son of God and to accept the free Gift of Eternal life and forgiveness of sin through the Cross. To say its conditional with a uncertain result is creating fear and confusion. I have spent decades helping people through this deception. Reformed theology (Calvinism) is behind much of this confusion. Love, Grace, Mercy, Freedom and Forgiveness comes from the Cross. Not uncertainty.
Ken Tamashiro
May I share an interesting question here,… why would God throw out a person who Believed in Jesus into Outer Darkness? It makes no sense to me,… If God is for us who can be against us, says the Apostle Paul, reassuring us that we are in Christ. So would Christ violate his promise of Eternal Life, so he can throw a Believer into Outer Darkness? It violates the Good Sheperds view of Christ. Jesus always showed a contrast between the Unbelieving Jew and the Messianic Jew, with the Messianic Jew being a profitable servant, even when his return of profit to his Master maybe small in size.
Ken Tamashiro
Hello George Castillo,
I find this interesting that Paul never uses the phrase,.. Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth and Outer Darkness, in regards to the Doctrine of the Bema Seat. He clearly articulated what will happen to the Saved person in regards to Christ Judging and giving Rewards to that individual. So to me, it does not make any sense that a person will be Weeping and Gnashing his Teeth, and when it comes to Christ saying the words just mentioned, He is referring those Unbeliving Jews who are not going to be present at the Banquet Hall. The person who was not dressed properly is an illustration of an Unbelieving Jew who stands out in the crowd of Messianic Jews. So it would make sense that the King spotted him and asked why are you not dressed properly because the illustration was to point out who the unbeliever was. Afterwards the King had him bound and had him placed in Outer Darkness where there will be Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth. Now why would Christ do that to a believer is beyond my imagination. I’m sorry the perspective you are holding does not fit the context of what Jesus is speaking about.
Ken Tamashiro
Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth further explained in Lukes Gospel.
In this Illustration, Jesus makes his point about why it is important that someone Believes in Christ for Eternal Life.
There will be many Jews who have not believed but have heard of Jesus.
Many Jews will be surprised when the Master of the House says,… Away from me, I do not know you and thrust out of the Kingdom.
So Jesus uses the illustration about entrance is through the Narrow Way in his beginning statement, makes sense about Believing in Him for Eternal Life.
Luke 13:22-30 The Narrow Way
22 And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and journeying toward Jerusalem. 23 Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?”
And He said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ 26 then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ 27 But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ 28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. 29 They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. 30 And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.”