ANNOUNCER: Some theologians lately have a new idea about Paul’s teaching about grace and other things. What is this about? We will have a discussion about it today on Grace in Focus, and we are glad you are with us. Grace in Focus is the radio broadcast and podcast ministry of the Grace Evangelical Society, located in North Texas. Our website is faithalone.org. We have a free online seminary where you can earn an MDiv degree. Today is the opening day for application and registration for the fall semester. Come take a look, see if you’re interested, we’d love to have you study with us at Grace Evangelical Seminary. Also, the time is drawing near for the deadline of the pre-registration period for our national annual conference. This is our 40th anniversary celebration. We’d love to have you with us, May 18th through the 21st. It is at Camp Copass in Denton, Texas, a beautiful place, and we’ll have lots of great teaching and fellowship. So get the information you need, tell us if your kids are coming for VBS, we’ll get the materials ready for them, and get online, get signed up at faithalone.org. 

Now with today’s question and answer discussion, here’s Bob Wilkin, along with Sam Marr. 

SAM: All right, Bob, we’ve got a question from Daniel. He’s asking about something called the New Perspective on Paul. So let me read a little bit of his email, give us some context, but essentially the question is just going to be what is our defense against that perspective. But so he says, I was able to read part of the commentary of Zane Hodges in the Bible Knowledge Commentary, but at the time was not convinced of the whole issue. And I think this is about the issue there for him is Free Grace theology in general. And then he says he was previously heavily influenced by lordship salvation and Reformed theology, but then he read A Defense of Free Grace Theology by Fred Chay and Tough Questions About Grace by Grant Hawley. So he’s in a limbo, I guess, right now between where he’s come from, but what he’s learning about Free Grace theology. But he said he’s just come across something called the New Perspective on Paul, and this seems to be troubling him too. So he wanted, what’s the Free Grace answer to the New Perspective on Paul? 

BOB: Okay, so first off, we ought to talk about what the New Perspective on Paul is. And this New Perspective started around 1977, which was the year before I entered Dallas Seminary. It wasn’t widely talked about during my seven years at Dallas Seminary between 78 and 85, but a guy named E. P. Sanders wrote a book called Paul and Palestinian Judaism and called this the New Perspective on Paul. And later on, two British scholars, James D. G. Dunn and N.T. Wright have both picked up this same concept. 

But the basic idea is that Lutherans and Calvinists and evangelicals misunderstood Paul, that Paul was not saying that first century Judaism was legalistic and that the Jews of the first century were unregenerate. Instead, they’re saying the concept that Paul was teaching was covenantal nomism, which is kind of odd because covenantal means a covenant or an agreement and nomism means “of the law.” And what Sanders suggested is that the Jews of the first century entered the Christian life by grace through faith, apart from works, and they stayed in it by works. So they retained their salvation, they retained everlasting life by works, and they’re saying Paul never contradicted that.

SAM: Right. I printed out some of the Wikipedia page for the New Perspective on Paul. They have a heading called something like grace and favor. And so I guess one of the big points is they think that grace would be better translated favor because they think Paul did not mean to convey the idea of a gift with nothing expected in return, but that God bestowed his favor on believers, but that favor expects something back in return. So you’re saved by grace through faith, but then God expects you to give back to Him and the implication there is if you don’t then you lose the favor that you’ve been given.

BOB: Right. And all that is correct, except if by “lose the favor you’ve been given,” you mean lose everlasting life. I even agree in my book, The Ten Most Misunderstood Words, I say that the Greek word charis typically translated “grace” has multiple meanings, but the basic meaning that’s most common through the New Testament is “favor.” God’s favor is charis, it’s grace that God’s gifting us of everlasting life doesn’t mean that he has no expectations of us. Yes, he does expect us to live godly lives, but where they go off the reservation is when they say if you don’t, well, then you lose your salvation.

The other problem, they were saying that first century Judaism did not practice works righteousness or works salvation. By their own explanation that you get in by grace through faith apart from works, but you stay in by works, that’s the very definition of works salvation. For example, for a Roman Catholic, you enter by baptism, you know, same thing with Orthodox, you would start with the baptism and that’s true with some Protestants, they believe that you’re regenerated when you’re baptized. And a lot of these people would say you keep it by being faithful. 

So there’s a lot of problems with this, but the main one is that they’re trying to reinterpret verses like Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 4:1-4, Galatians 3:6-14, when Paul is saying justification is by faith alone apart from works, they’re saying initial justification is by grace through faith apart from works, but to keep that justification requires good works.

SAM: Right, and the problem with that is, well, the entire New Testament contradicts it, but, specifically Jesus, when he evangelized people in the Gospel of John, he didn’t say believe in me for initial justification and then his, you know, tiny script or in the fine print, he said and keep doing it and I’ll see you’ll lose it. He said it actually is going to last forever, He said you’ll never perish, you’ll never hunger, you’ll never thirst, and he didn’t add any conditions onto it. 

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SAM: There’s a really funny line in this Wikipedia document, and this is explaining this theology. “Therefore, it is argued that when Paul speaks of how God did humankind a favor,” and that’s to replace grace with the word favor, “God did humankind a favor by sending Jesus, he is saying that God took the initiative, but not implying a lack of human effort in salvation.” So according to this Wikipedia article’s examination of the New Perspective on Paul, salvation does require human involvement. So I haven’t read E. P. Sander’s book, but it seems like at least him or the people that were influenced by him, that’s the conclusion they’ve come to. 

BOB: So many things you’ve read to me and they’re saying have some element of truth. For example, God sent His only Son to die on the cross for our sins is God’s favor. The fact that He gave us the New Testament, and particularly the Gospel of John, is God’s favor. The fact the Holy Spirit is drawing us to Christ is God’s favor. There’s all these things, and how did they say it, that there is some human element to it? 

SAM: “It’s not to imply a lack of human effort in salvation.” 

BOB: Even calling a human effort in salvation, there is some sense in which, for many people, it requires prayer and church attendance and study to find out what the saving message is.

SAM: Right, but it’s open mindedness if you are open to receiving God’s word, to the calling of the Holy Spirit that’s pulling on everybody, then in that sense, yes, to an involvement. And you have to believe in Christ for everlasting life, so that belief or being convinced, yes, that is human involvement, but it’s very dangerous to say, because then you get into, they can take it too far, and you get into like it’s Ephesians 2:8-9, and then they might interpret Ephesians 2:10, for we are His workmanship, then they start to say, okay, that proves you have to do good works or else either you were never really saved, or you lose the salvation he’s given you, so if it’s an ongoing human involvement in salvation, then I think it’s incorrect, and realistically, the salvation part of it is 100% Christ, because He did the work, He gives everlasting life as a free gift, it’s about whether you believe He’s going to do that for you or not. 

BOB: Exactly, what these people are trying to say is, effort is required to keep your salvation, and that’s clearly wrong, once we’re born again, we’re never going to hunger, never going to thirst, never going to die, but there may be effort required for us to find the truth. Remember, Jesus said, strive to enter by the narrow way, and Paul said in Acts 17:27 that people might grope after God and find Him for He’s not far from us. Not everybody grows up in a Christian home, not everybody is evangelized from birth to the time they come to faith. 

SAM: Yeah, even if you grew up in a great Christian household with parents that teach you exactly what the Bible says, you still have to be open to understanding that, but some kids are rebellious, they’ll believe the opposite of whatever their parents tell them until they figure it out for themselves. So, yes, in that sense, there’s always human involvement, there has to be a willingness, you can’t harden your heart, you can’t deny God’s word, or shield yourself from God’s word, you have to be open to it, but the saving part of it is all Him. We couldn’t have saved ourselves no matter how hard we tried, how much time we had, there’s no way you had to do that for us. 

And that’s why the funny line in here to me is, it’s almost an understatement in the English to say, God did humankind a favor, because at least in American English, doing someone a favor is almost a menial thing, it’s kind of taking the trash out or picking somebody up. Yeah, He did us a favor, he did us the biggest favor anybody’s ever done, but that’s why to me, that’s what a gift is, a gift is a much better word. 

BOB: From what you’ve been saying, Sam, in a sense, the New Perspective on Paul is a New Perspective on Jesus, because they’re rejecting what the Gospel of John says. And then they’re rejecting what the apostle Paul says, so they’re rejecting all of it. It’s just kind of sad how scholarship is seeking for lots of ways to come up with new ideas that kind of give them some prominence in the evangelical world, because hey, I’ve come up with this new idea. But if the new idea is contrary to Scripture, it’s what we call a bad idea.

SAM: So hopefully that’s helpful for you, Daniel. The best advice we could give you is to read the Bible for yourself, challenge any commentaries, any preachers, any authors, no matter who they are, what denominations they are, us, anybody else. Challenge what they say with God’s word, because God’s word is not really up for debate. Hopefully that helps you, and hopefully that helps all of us keep grace in focus. 

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On our next episode: what does Paul mean about the power of Christ’s resurrection in Philippians 3? Come back next time we’ll talk about it. In the meantime, let’s keep grace in focus.