Many Christians have been debating for decades the very heart of the gospel. All true Christians believe that salvation is by Grace alone through faith alone apart from works (Eph.2:8). Salvation is a gift from God provided to us by the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross and the resurrection. The disagreement comes in as to the question of do Christians need to repent and follow Jesus to be saved? If the answer to the question is yes, then is that a Christian working for salvation? The two belief systems are usually labeled as “free grace” and “Lordship Salvation.” The free grace group believe that only belief in Jesus death and resurrection is enough to be saved. They believe repentance is essentially changing your mind from formally hating God to now Loving Him. They claim a changed life is not necessary and if one wants to grow in their faith and follow the commandments laid out in the New Testament than that’s basically becoming a disciple of Jesus, sort of a higher level of being a Christian. The Lordship Salvation group believes repentance is necessary for salvation and one must submit to Jesus as Lord of your life and follow him although not perfectly to be a true Christian. Repentance in this group is not only changing your mind from hating or indifference about God to loving God but you must repent of your sins and your sinful lifestyle and know that its wrong and commit to following Jesus.
Of coarse repentance is necessary for salvation as Jesus said in Luke 13
“No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”- Luke 13:3
So repentance as you see is a must for salvation. Not just changing your mind about God but also repenting of your sins and sinful lifestyle and wanting to turn from it. Repentance is not a work. All true believers will have works that follow their salvation demonstrating their repentance was real. As Paul says in Acts:
“Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.”- Acts 26:19-20
As you can see repentance is of course a change of mind about God but also a change of mind about sin. True repentance will lead to deeds and a lifestyle that God calls us to. We are saved from the wrath of God but also saved from our sins ( Matt:1:21). Before salvation the sinner enjoys walking in darkness and does not want to come to the light as Jesus says in John chapter 3, but when we believe the gospel God changes our hearts and we now have a hatred of sin and no longer want to live that way.
As for what a disciple is, it is simply someone who is a follower. A follower or a student of Christ is a disciple of Jesus. There is no “higher level” of a Christian or “1st and 2nd tier” Christians, the bible never states that. The Bible actually says all the believers were first called disciples before they were called Christians in Antioch.
“and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a great many people. And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.”- Acts:11:26
As you can see the words Christian and disciple refer to the same thing. Christians was the name given to everyone who were already called disciples. Jesus even says in Luke 14 that before you become a disciple and follower of his to “count the cost” meaning its not just about belief in who Jesus says He is, but believing and following Jesus is about a change from walking in darkness to walking in the light.
“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. “For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?- Luke 14:27-28
The “free grace” theology just states belief in Jesus is enough for salvation regardless if you “count the cost’ of repenting of your sinful lifestyle. Of coarse salvation is a free gift from God so the “free grace” camp uses that name because it sounds good but they are misleading people. The term “easy believism” or “cheap grace” as Dietrich Bonhoeffer called it is a more appropriate name. Many places in the New Testament it is stated that a true believer will bear fruit and show repentance by the deeds that follow.
“So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “So then, you will know them by their fruits.- Matthew 7:17
“By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.” 1 John 2:3-6
In the parable of the rich young ruler when the you ruler comes to Jesus asking what he must do to gain eternal life, Jesus began to test him because he knew his heart and he knew he was in love with money, that was his idol. So when Jesus told him to sell his possessions and give to the poor the young man went away sorrowful and did not want to part with his many possessions. He already had belief than why did Jesus find it necessary to expose the idolatry in his heart. If “easy believism is correct then he would already be on his way to heaven as he had belief. We know that true repentance calls us to turn from idolatry and having things we love more than God, so Jesus exposed his heart as not a true believer who would enter the kingdom of God.
So, is Lordship Salvation biblical? Yes, it is, if you define it as needing to commit to follow Jesus as Lord of your life. Lordship salvation is not a works-based theology as some like to frame it as but simply states the correct biblical view that James says in his book that all true believers will have works that follow salvation that shows their belief is real and shows their faith is real. Their deeds show their repentance is genuine. Of course, that does not mean that true followers of Jesus will be perfect. Every Christian will
continue to sin and often true believers will sin in big ways and will struggle with sin. The truth is the pattern of their life is to follow God and they will strive to follow Him and be faithful and feel sorrow over sin. Jesus plucked us out of the darkness and calls us to walk in the “newness of life” and that is a true believers desire. Jesus even equates believing with obeying in one of the most well know chapters in all the bible in John Chapter 3
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”-John 3:36
-Ryan Kaplysh
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Romans 6:1-11 (YLT) 1 What, then, shall we say? shall we continue in the sin that the grace may abound? 2 let it not be! we who died to the sin — how shall we still live in it? 3 are ye ignorant that we, as many as were baptized to Christ Jesus, to his death were baptized? 4 we were buried together, then, with him through the baptism to the death, that even as Christ was raised up out of the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we in newness of life might walk. 5 For, if we have become planted together to the likeness of his death, so also we shall be of the rising again; 6 this knowing, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of the sin may be made useless, for our no longer serving the sin; 7 for he who hath died hath been set free from the sin. 8 And if we died with Christ, we believe that we also shall live with him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised up out of the dead, doth no more die, death over him hath no more lordship; 10 for in that he died, to the sin he died once, and in that he liveth, he liveth to God; 11 so also ye, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to the sin, and living to God in Jesus Christ our Lord.