A friend of GES recently related what she had been taught before she came to understand Free Grace theology. She grew up under Lordship Salvation teaching, and one argument she heard against Free Grace was that we want Jesus as our “buddy.” Lordship Salvation, on the other hand, wants Jesus as “Lord.”
At the time, she found this convincing. After all, Jesus is Lord. He is King, Master, and Sovereign. If one side wants Jesus as Lord while the other side supposedly wants Him as a buddy, the choice seems obvious.
This caricature gets repeated constantly. Free Grace Christians are accused of being antinomian—against the law. We supposedly believe that Christians can live any way they want and that it doesn’t matter. We want Jesus only as our Savior and are not interested in paying any price to walk in His footsteps. We supposedly want Him to make us feel good but don’t want a Lord who demands obedience.
None of this is true. I would encourage anyone who has heard and believed this about FG teachers to check out the GES website and our content. You will find hundreds of articles, blogs, journals, books, and videos talking about the importance of godly living.
I also want to respond to these claims in this blog.
First, at the heart of this issue is the assurance of salvation.
Free Grace argues that when we are eternally secure, we are actually free to walk with Jesus without fear. Under Lordship Salvation, obedience becomes tied to the question, “Am I really saved?”
If my perseverance, obedience, or fruit is evidence that I truly possess eternal life, then every serious failure can become spiritually destabilizing. The believer can end up constantly looking at his own life for evidence that he belongs to Christ.
Alternatively, Free Grace teaches that I know I have eternal life because Jesus promised it to the one who believes in Him. Because that question is settled, I am free to focus on something else: “How can I walk with my Savior today?’ Dare I say it? I can walk with Him as my Lord!
We don’t obey because we are terrified of our sovereign Lord, who is so beyond our understanding. We obey because we know that we are His. Think about a child who is constantly wondering whether his father will disown him. Even obedience can become anxiety-ridden. He may obey because he is terrified of losing his place in the family.
Now consider a child who knows, “That’s my father. I belong to him. Nothing I do is going to make me stop being his son.”
That child can listen to his father, imitate him, accept correction, confess when he does wrong, and grow—not because he is trying to earn his place in the family, but because he already knows where he belongs.
Second, Jesus Himself called His disciples His friends.
In John 15:15, Jesus said, “No longer do I call you servants…but I have called you friends.” Calling Jesus our Friend isn’t some modern Free Grace invention designed to turn the Lord of glory into a divine buddy who gives us warm and fuzzy feelings. Jesus Himself used the language of friendship.
And He didn’t stop being Lord when He called His disciples friends. We don’t have to choose one Biblical description of Christ at the expense of another. Eternal life is received by believing in Jesus for that gift. It is not earned by surrender, commitment, perseverance, or obedience. It is not gained by making Him Lord of our lives. But once we have received that gift, the Christian life matters enormously. We can grow in our intimacy with Him and become friends.
The buddy accusation misses something beautiful about the Christian life. The Lord of glory doesn’t merely save us and demand our obedience from a distance. He invites us to walk with Him and be His partner. He calls us to abide with Him.
When we do that, we are not only His children, but He also calls us His friends.
Finally, the reverse of this claim is arguably the case for Lordship Salvationists. They only see the Lord as a sovereign tyrant, and they never come to know the Lord as their Friend and Partner. Lordship Salvation keeps its followers in a state of constant fear and doubt about their salvation. To soothe their fear, they might fall into a pit of pride, convincing themselves that they are holier than others. Such deception convinces them that they have made this fearful tyrant their Lord.
Lordship proponents say FG people only want a gracious buddy. But the accusation can be turned on its head. No Lordship believer can honestly sing the lines of the hymn:
What a friend we have in Jesus,
all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry
everything to God in prayer!
And what an extraordinary Friend He is—not because He is less than Lord, but because the Lord Himself has chosen to call us His friends. We can call Him our Friend because we know we belong to Him.
