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What Are Some Free Grace Distinctives?

What Are Some Free Grace Distinctives?

June 24, 2019 by Shawn Lazar in Blog

Someone on Facebook asked what were some Free Grace distinctives. Here are ten things that I think make Free Grace distinct from other traditions. There are different schools of thought within the Free Grace movement. These ten things reflect our corner of the movement:

1) Saving faith is persuasion that the saving message is true, and this totally excludes works from the definition of faith itself. First you understand the saving message; then you believe it. There are not different kinds of faith (all faith is persuasion), but there are different objects of faith.

2) God promises eternal salvation, meaning eternal security is the saving message, not something in addition to it.

3) Assurance is the essence of saving faith because assurance is simply being persuaded that the saving message is true “for me,” and that Jesus is “my” Savior.

4) People are born able to believe—total depravity does not include total inability.

5) Growth in the Christian life is expected but not guaranteed. Born again people can remain carnal and even depart from the faith and still be eternally saved. But all believers are expected to grow in experiential holiness.

6) There is a strong emphasis on rewards, such as ruling with Christ, in the Millennial Kingdom and beyond in the eternal state.

7) There is an emphasis on understanding the Christian life in terms of “fellowship with God” and “abiding in Christ.”

8) There is an emphasis on God’s judgment and wrath in this life, up to, and including, the physical death of the believer as a result of divine discipline.

9) There is an emphasis on being a Biblicist—that the Bible is our highest and final authority. Traditional Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant creeds are rarely cited as authoritative.

10) We tend to be part of the believer’s church tradition—practicing believer’s baptism and emphasizing a regenerate church membership. That is, we do not practice infant baptism or infant church membership. Only believers are part of the Body of Christ. This stems from our emphasis on salvation by “faith alone.”

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Shawn_L

by Shawn Lazar

Shawn Lazar (BTh, McGill; MA, VU Amsterdam) was the Editor of Grace in Focus magazine and Director of Publications for Grace Evangelical Society from May 2012 through June 2022. He and his wife Abby have three children. He has written several books including: Beyond Doubt: How to Be Sure of Your Salvation and Chosen to Serve: Why Divine Election Is to Service, Not to Eternal Life.

If you wish to ask a question about a given blog, email us your question at ges@faithalone.org.

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4851 S I-35E Suite 203, Corinth, TX 76210
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