The Spirit, Ethics, and Eternal Life: Paul’s Vision for the Christian Life in Galatians. By Jarvis J. Williams. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2023. 240 pp. Paper, $32.00.

Williams, Associate Professor of New Testament at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, holds to a strong form of Lordship Salvation. As I will show, this book is filled with that teaching. However, the book has many excellent insights provided one understands inheriting the kingdom as ruling in it and not simply getting into it.

Williams defines faith as being both persuaded and obedient: “Paul’s gospel must be both cognitively affirmed and experientially obeyed” (p. 189). “An affirmation of facts in the gospel without the presence of a daily walk of faithful living in step with the Spirit in obedience to the gospel proves one does not have the Spirit and therefore lacks faith and participation in God’s vertical, horizontal, and cosmic saving action in Christ” (p. 189).

Williams often refers to the three-fold guarantees of salvation: our vertical relationship with God is begun, our horizontal relationships with others will be loving if the vertical relationship perseveres, and the entire world is being and will be transformed.

Williams, presumably a Calvinist, suggests that perseverance is required in order to gain eschatological salvation: “A faithful walk of obedience in the power of the Spirit is both the necessary proof [italics his] that Jews and Gentiles have already begun to participate now [italics added] in this present evil age in God’s saving action in Christ [italics added] and what God requires [italics added] for those who receive the gift of the Holy Spirit before…[they] would inherit the kingdom of God [italics added]” (p. 195). In this book, Williams indicates that inheriting the kingdom is getting into it, rather than a reward that only some believers will receive (e.g., pp. 167-71, 217). He says that believers

…can, must and will [italics his] walk in step with the Spirit and not conduct themselves in accordance with the flesh…However, they will not participate in the future inheritance of the kingdom of God [italics added]…which is one aspect of life in Christ, if they choose to walk in the flesh now instead of walking in step with the Spirit” (Gal 2:16–5:21) [italics added] (pp. 170-71).

When he says that believers will walk in step with the Spirit, the reader initially gets the impression that he is affirming that all believers persevere. He is not, because he goes on to say that believers may choose to walk in the flesh and may fail to participate in Christ’s future kingdom; this is a denial that all believers persevere.

Throughout the book, he speaks of the already, not yet idea. This idea was first popularized in terms of the coming kingdom. The kingdom is said to be here already but, at the same time, not to be here. Williams applies that to everlasting life. A believer already has everlasting life, but he does not yet have it; one’s eternal destiny depends on his continued choice to walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh.

Williams lists ten things believers must do or not do if they are to gain eschatological salvation. He says that they must: “stand firm,” “walk in the Spirit,” “not devour one another, be arrogant toward one another, or irritate one another,” “not practice vices contrary to the Spirit,” “humbly and wisely restore with compassion the brothers or sisters who fall into transgression,” “share all good things with those who teach them the word,” “not mock God,” “sow in the Spirit,” “not grow weary,” and “daily conduct themselves by the standard of new creation” (p. 190). That list is an assurance killer. If one is not already certain of his eternal destiny simply by faith in Christ for everlasting life, he can never become sure through self-examination.

I like the way Williams speaks of “God’s invasive disruption of the present evil age” (p. 113) and His “disruptive and apocalyptic invasion of the cosmos” (p. 127). While he is wrong in suggesting that we must participate in that invasion in order to win eschatological salvation, he is right in stating that God has invaded this world, and that believers who walk in the Spirit are part of that invasion.

Toward the end of the book, Williams discusses his view of race (pp. 202-204). He suggests that we are all one race, the human race. He says that skin color has nothing to do with ethnicity. “God created humans in his image, but then humans arbitrarily created the social fiction of racial groups within the one human race and forced (and continue to force) humans into a specific artificial racial box because of this social construct” (p. 204). “Ethnicity has nothing to do with race or skin color” (p. 204).

I recommend this book to those who are well-grounded in the faith and who wish to read a scholarly defense of Lordship Salvation from the book of Galatians. I would not recommend this book for new or poorly taught believers since it would almost certainly be very confusing to them.

Robert N. Wilkin
Associate Editor
Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society