Lordship Salvation suggests that the present-tense articular participle ho pisteuōn in John 3:16 denotes continuous belief. The Focused Free Grace position rejects that idea.
Here is what John MacArthur wrote:
The continuing nature of saving faith is underscored by the use of the present tense of the Greek verb pisteuō (“believe”) throughout the gospel of John. … If believing were a one-time act, the Greek tense in these verses would be aorist (The Gospel According to Jesus, first edition, p. 172).
In his book, Absolutely Free, after giving that quote from MacArthur, Zane Hodges countered as follows:
It is a completely inaccurate concept of the Greek tenses to suggest that the tense itself tells us whether the action is a one-time or a continuing event. One may observe, for example, that in John 6 the author uses several Greek tenses to describe one and the same single event—namely, the coming of our Lord from heaven to earth. Thus we read:
6:33 “He who comes down from heaven” (present tense)
6:38 “For I have come down from heaven” (perfect tense)
6:41 …because He said, “I am the bread which came down from heaven” (aorist tense)
6:42 “…He says, ‘I have come down from heaven’” (perfect tense)
6:50 “This is the bread which comes down from heaven” (present tense)
6:51 “I am the living bread which came down from heaven” (aorist tense)
6:58 “This is the bread which came down from heaven” (aorist tense)
(p. 51).
Hodges added further support for his view:
The use of the present tense does not imply that the action involved cannot stop. On the contrary, the present participle [John 3:16 has a present participle] is used of actions that have stopped! For example:
Matt 2:20 “those who sought [= article + present participle]…are dead”
Mark 5:16 “those who saw it told them how it happened to him who had been demon-possessed” (= article + present participle)
Mark 6:14 “John the Baptist (= article + present participle) is risen from the dead”
John 9:8 “Is not this he who sat and begged?” (= article + two present participles)
Gal 1:23 “He who formerly persecuted us” (= article + present participle)
(p. 52).
There are other problems with the Lordship Salvation argument that saving faith must be continuous faith, besides the fact that Greek grammar does not support the idea that the present tense denotes continuous action. It can. But often, it does not.
Let’s assume that John 3:16 means that whoever continues to believe will not perish but will have everlasting life. When would a person gain everlasting life? Not when he first believed. Not after fifty years of belief. Only if he persevered to the end of his life would he gain everlasting life. That would mean, of course, that there is not a single person on earth today who is born again. No one is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. No one can serve as a pastor or elder because no one has yet been born again and indwelt by the Spirit.
Another problem with the Lordship Salvation view of saving faith is that, in their view, “saving faith” is not simple faith. “Saving faith,” according to Lordship Salvation, involves turning from sins, committing one’s life to Christ, and following Christ. That is what must continue until death. Even if a person believed in Jesus all the way to the grave, Lordship Salvation would say he went to hell upon death if his works showed that he failed to follow Christ as well as he should have. The issue, according to Lordship Salvation, is work, not faith. They call the view that only faith is required “easy believism” and “cheap grace.”
People are born again at a point in time. That point is the very moment that they believe in Jesus for the gift of God, everlasting life (John 4:10-26). Continuous faith is not required to be born again. Faith is required to be born again. “Once saved, always saved” is based on the fact that once a person believes in Christ for everlasting life, he is saved forever. He will never perish, never hunger, never thirst, never be cast out, and will never die. He is secure forever.
Keep grace in focus, and you won’t lose your assurance through being duped by the teaching of Lordship Salvation.
