I wrote this article in order to share comments that I made in agreement with a YouTube video which points out the false teaching of Lordship Salvation … or as I call it “Lordship Damnation!”  Lordship Salvation is part of the false doctrine of Calvinism that teaches that a Christian who has been “chosen” by God to receive Salvation will “persevere” in doing good works as proof that they are “chosen” by God with Salvation.   Lordship Salvation stresses that a person must constantly do good works and strive to live a perfect life of obedience (or repent constantly because of sin in your life) in order to demonstrate that they are Saved and they haven’t lost their Salvation.

The main danger of Lordship Salvation is not loosing your Salvation because you failed to demonstrate obedient behavior or you didn’t repent enough after believing the gospel but the real danger is the that you may have never been Saved at all because instead of embracing the gospel of Grace and believing that Jesus has forgiven your sin and made you righteous, you are instead in denial of your sin and you are trying to prove you are righteous (like the Pharisees during Jesus’ day).   Those in the Lordship camp are often deceived by their Self Indulgent Nature (SIN) and ashamed to admit they are NOT righteous and they need Jesus to make them righteousness.  So instead of allowing Jesus to be Lord of their life and change them into the person God created them to be they try to “clean up” their life and make themselves into the person they think God wants them to be.    

In essence a Lordship person says “My behavior proves I am righteous before God because I do good works like Jesus Christ” but a Grace person says “I am the righteousness of Christ before God because I believe in Jesus”.  

This is the primary danger of Lordship Salvation – self deception – where you have professed Jesus as Lord but have not “possessed” Him … you must be “born again by the Holy Spirit” (John 3:3).   Jesus wants us to enter His rest by Grace through faith in belief of Him and His righteousness (in order to relieve us of our burden of sin where we try to prove we are righteous) and then we do good works from a position of “resting” or abiding in Him.  Jesus is the source of righteousness and truth.  Jesus is the “supply” of goodness, strength and worth in this world.  Jesus is the well of refreshing purpose, meaning and victory over our sin that never runs dry.  We must draw water from the well of Grace that is found in Jesus.  But those in the Lordship Salvation camp draw water from their own well, thinking they are in a competition among Christians to show their fellow Christians their well of good works.  They are trying to prove their are good so at death they can enter into Christ’s rest … but this is the upside down gospel. 

We do good works prepared by God because we have entered into a position of rest in Jesus (by Grace through faith) … we do not do good works to try and enter into a position of rest with Jesus (this is Legalism).   Grace gives life … the Law brings death.

The secondary danger is that if a person is “born again” … the teaching of Lordship Salvation can confuse and frustrate the believer to think that they must do good works to prove they are Saved or remain Saved.  Even if the person has been born again by Grace through faith in Jesus Christ, the focus on doing works to prove you are saved “castrates” or cuts off the good work God’s Grace through the Holy Spirit that was begun in the believer.  God has promised to complete the good work of Salvation that He begins in the believer who confesses Jesus as Savior … He is able to save from the gutter most to the utter most!  

God is not like man … He is a promise keeper and He knows the amount of work He has promised to do to “complete” the good work He “began” when you were Saved (Phil 1:6).  I find it ironic that Lordship teachers chastise Grace believers, saying Grace believers are ignorant of scripture or weak in their resolve to live out their Salvation when in fact the exact opposite is true.  If you do your research on this issue, you will discover that the believers who are the best at teaching the truth about Grace and exposing the lies about Lordship are those who have “come out” of the Lordship camps!  

It is relying on Christ alone, His Grace alone, His victory on the cross that we can boast in and depend on … nothing in me lies good except that what God grows in me based on my belief in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ!  Jesus is the supply of water for the thirsty soul that refreshes the Spirit of man (John 4:14) so the person is able to “press on” and “hold on” without fear even though the way looks impossible.

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; – Philippians 4:6

Jesus is our “Hope” at the end of our rope but don’t wait until you reach the end of your rope to call on Jesus … He wants us to bring everything to Him in prayer, at all times.  Through Salvation He has promised to give us eternal life and through our prayers He has promised to give us our daily bread in this life.   

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. – Phil 1:6

In essence, Lordship Salvation says that you will prove that Jesus is Lord of your life by the changed behavior of your life.  This sounds logical and Biblical but it puts the cart (works by men) before the horse (faith in Jesus).  Lordship Salvation puts the focus on doing good works in order to prove you are living a life of faith instead of living a life of faith in order to do the good works God has prepared for you (Ephesians 2:8-10).  Grace Salvation and Lordship Salvation seem similar since both produce good works but Lordship Salvation works for the most part produce “self works” that will be burned up like wood, hay and stubble while Grace Salvation works are like gold, silver and precious stone that will be rewarded in Heaven.

The gist of Lordship Salvation is that is puts the focus on me to clean up my sinful life in order to be worthy to enter God’s Kingdom, instead of putting my focus on Jesus and allowing Him to work in my life, to make me into the person He created me to be, resting in His Grace and enjoying Him now, looking forward to His appearing and reigning with Him in God’s Kingdom. 

The Lordship camp claims that the OSAS “Once Saved Always Saved” crowd is deceived by their sin nature (since they are always focused on God’s Grace) and they are lead away from holiness of God by their sin.  And although this is true in some cases, God is not mocked or deceived and He is able to discipline His sheep and bring them home.  In contrast, the Grace camp claims that the WOYS “Work Out Your Salvation” crowd can become self righteous and lose sight of their first love (since they are focusing on themselves) and miss out on the rest and enjoy of Christ.  And although this is true in most cases, God is not mocked or deceived and He can bring a person down off their high horse … like he did with Paul … and bring them home.

The Lordship camp accuses the Grace camp of making biscuits with easy believ-ee flour and no “Lard” (fear of the Lord) and smoothing them in greasy grace gravy. 

 

The Grace camp accuses the Lordship camp of making biscuits out self-righteous rising flour and Bible verses from James 2 and covering them with intellectual snobbery sauce.  

Needless to say, I am in the camp of Grace from the Beginning of my Salvation, to Sanctification of my Salvation, to Glorification of my Salvation … it’s all by the Grace of God that comes because I have believed in Jesus Christ (John 3:16)!

The bottom line is that Lordship Salvation is about obtaining eternal life by Law keeping and Grace Salvation is about rejoicing in the eternal life that is given by God by the confession of belief in Jesus Christ which occurs when a person is “born again”!   

Here’s is David Benjamin’s video “If we say we love God” concerning what it means to love God perfectly:  https://youtu.be/f_DrMbvGlGo

And here is the video by Gregg Jackson in support of David Benjamin concerning those deceived by Lordship Salvation: https://youtu.be/gs8Y8yZ_GHw 

Here are the comments on the video related to my comment … BTW, I’m RogerSings.

Roger Sings
Yes, David has exposed the “Achilles heel” issue concerning the doctrine of Lordship Salvation!

Tandem Bicycle
Roger Sings , what is the doctrine of lordship salvation?

I Drove the Nails
Clarify for me, please Roger, what is that “Achilles heel” issue? I can’t listen to more than two minutes of most of these vids

The Song of Deborah
Bingo! Never truer words were Spoken Roger Sings!

Roger Sings
​@I Drove the Nails and Tandem Bicycles – The debate between the camp of Grace and the camp of Works (Lordship Salvation, Legalism, Calvinism, Armenianism …) will never end until we are in the presence of Jesus. I will try to be brief but this topic has been debated for centuries and I tend to be a bit of a rambling man when it comes to explaining things. I am not a pastor but a Berean of the scripture for the past 27 years. From my observation, many believers start off in the camp of Grace believing in Grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone for their Salvation but later on they get caught up in the camp of Works or Legalism thinking it is their works that “work out” their Salvation and it is their works that actually get them into the Kingdom of God.

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. – Phil 2:12-13

Note, in this proclamation by Paul for people to obey God, he is drawing their attention to the Holy Spirit that is at work in the believer to accomplish the good work that was started in the believer … which he previously stated in Phil 1:6 (one of my favorite passages) For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. The focus of good works is Christ because what we do flows from who we are. If we are in Christ, focusing on Christ, dwelling on Christ, abiding in Christ then we will do good works of Christ but we do not claim that these works are what saves us or prove that we are saved.

A Grace believer does not claim that they are saved because they focus on Jesus or they are saved while they are focusing on Jesus. A Grace believer does not claim that when they focus on driving instead of Jesus that they are in Salvation limbo land and if they honk the horn because they are cut off in traffic they have lost their salvation and go to Salvation hell, so they have to pull over, repent and be saved all over again in order to reclaim their place in the line of Salvation. It is belief in Jesus Christ that saves us, satisfies us and will ultimately redeem us from this honking body!

A believer of the Grace Doctrine or Born Again Grace doctrine (John 3:3) proves they are Saved by confessing that they believe in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (period). A person of the Calvinism or Lordship Salvation doctrine prove they are Saved by their works, some even claim to be perfect in performance before God, claiming that they love God every second of the day with all the heart, mind, soul and strength … never having a thought of selfishness or impatience or lust or covetousness or weariness or guilt or doubt or fear or grumbling. Yet, this is why Jesus died for us and why we need Him … we can’t live a perfect life in these flesh bodies with our SIN (Self Indulgent Nature). We can’t even comprehend the life that God has prepared for us until we believe in Jesus, then we get a taste of His Grace and a glimpse of our wonderful everlasting life in Him.

The “Achilles heel” issue to a Lordship salvation doctrine, is that those who claim to be keeping the Law of the Lord perfectly, loving God with all their heart, soul, strength and mind … with their entire being at all times are lying to themselves and to God. None of the apostles including Paul ever claimed to be perfect in this world. John said “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8).  Only the Pharisees claimed they were perfect and Jesus had only woes to declare to them (read Matthew 23). God is not looking at our works to justify us before Him, He is looking at the works of Jesus and only those who have confessed they are justified by the works of Christ are worthy to enter the Kingdom of God.

Yes, the new Spirit man of Christ that is born in the believer is able to do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Phil 4:13) but the point of this verse is to encourage us to trust in the Christ to overcome the sin within us and the trail before us (the world, the flesh and the devil). It’s not meant to deceive us into thinking that we are always denying self, yielding perfectly to the Holy Spirit and loving God with all our being. This will not happen until we are free from our flesh bodies when we die or when we are Raptured! The best we can hope for in this world is to die to self and live for Christ … I call it a Die2Live life of the born again believer of God’s Grace in Christ Jesus. I told you I had a tendency to ramble.

The bottom line is that Lordship Salvation is about obtaining eternal life by Law keeping and Grace Salvation is about rejoicing in the eternal life that is given by God by the confession of belief in Jesus Christ which occurs when a person is “born again”!

Here’s is David Benjamin’s video “If we say we love God”: https://youtu.be/f_DrMbvGlGo

This article on Lordship Salvation for Dummies helped me understand the issue better: https://faithalone.org/grace-in-focus-articles/lordship-salvation-for-dummies/

I Drove the Nails
@Roger Sings – Roger that was a long time intensive response. Thanks for all that effort. I copied your message to Word because it was so long…2 and a half pages with no spacing (Word did not register your paragraph breaks) where maybe I can break it down and respond part by part or, if Father halts me, not at all.

My conversion began over 47 years ago so I do have a significant backgound seeking truth. My posture has been to ask Father what the truth was and wait for answers. That has worked well for me.

Actually I am caught between the two camps. Chosen for salvation by my Heavenly Father and obedience to HIs will to overcome the inner man’s sin nature and to be a valid servant to meet the needs He has of me. Salvation does not depend on the works but the works depend on the salvation.

What I miss on these OSAS channels is the evidence of true relationships with God. How can we live without that? And I am well acquainted with the agency of the Holy Spirit and I see little to none of Him. I want to share the understandings and life I have gained over the years but all I get is classified.

Roger Sings
@I Drove the Nails – Yes, I appreciate you honesty and I can understand your point that the OSAS doctrine can minimize the aspect of the lifelong relationship that we begin in Christ to make us look at the goal line, our eternal security in Christ and eternal home with Christ. Also sometimes we start defending doctrine and firing off scripture at one another in a way that wounds the new born Christian and makes us look like we are in a Christian food fight in the eyes of the unbeliever. It might help to say OiCAiCsLiCGiCRiC. Once in Christ, Always in Christ so Live in Christ, Grown in Christ and Rest in Christ … yep rambling again.

I think your posture to ask the Father if something is true and wait for the answer is the wisest thing to do. I have studied and prayed and studied and prayed and each study leads me to a new understanding and sometime better understanding. In the end we will each have to give an account to God for our life … I pray to not be deceived and not to have deceived anyone else. Blessings to you.

“But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. – John 16:13 

Here’s a good article on Unsealed web site refuting those who think they can work for their Salvation: “https://www.unsealed.org/2020/01/works-and-fruits-untangling-gospel-from.html“

Dr. Arnold exposes the false teaching of Lordship Salvation:  https://youtu.be/Dpin_ZqIQO0 

Watch Woman 65 exposes Ray Comfort, Paul Washer and John MacAurthur who teach Lordship Salvation:  https://youtu.be/qYoyghs20B0

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