Author: Steve Amato
Description: The Dangers of Free Grace Antinomianism
Keywords: bible study,Free grace, lordship salvation, licentious,gospel,faith

# Free Grace Antinomianism

### "Free Grace" vs "Lordship Salvation"

"Free Grace" is the idea that once saved, a person can fall away either with respect to their behavior, or even with respect to their belief, and such would not affect their "saved" condition. Once saved, always saved, regardless of your beliefs and behavior afterwards.

"Lordship Salvation" means that once saved, Christ becomes Lord to that person and causes him to persevere in his faith to the end. Holiness and faithfulness will be the general lifestyle of the believer, although temporary sins will come into the Christian's life. This is the idea behind the perseverance of the Saints. Once saved, always saved, but also once saved, it is inevitable that such a person will persevere until the end.

"Lordship Salvation" must not be confused with Legalistic-Arminianism in which a person must maintain a certain level of performance in order to maintain his salvation status.

What's wrong with Free Grace Antinomianism?

The reasoning behind "free grace" is that since justification (the forgiveness of sins) is not dependent upon our performance but rather accepted freely by faith, that once one accepts it by faith, his destiny is then sealed, having had his sins forgiven. Such a person rely's on God's "graciousness", which is His attitude of freely giving to the undeserving, being essential to the message of the gospel. However "Free Grace Theology" goes beyond this by misrepresenting the quality of faith that saves and by misrepresenting the inevitable effects that being born of God has on a person's behavior. The dangers of Free Grace Theology are as follows:

1. A defective gospel is offered by misrepresenting the quality of faith that saves

> Free Grace Theology tends to preach a faith which is not of salvific value. It preaches a faith which is simply a mental assent or agreement with ideas rather than a deeply rooted conviction as the quality of faith acceptable to God for salvation. It is a faith which is not necessarily application oriented. One simply "prays to receive Jesus" and is reckoned saved without regard to whether the person understands the implications and regardless of whether there ends up being any correlation between the person's supposed faith and their behavior. The gospel may be falsely presented and falsely received.

2. Licentious Christians are deceived into believing they are saved

> The Bible teaches that there is an inevitable correlation between a person's behavior and their salvation status. We see this for example in 1John 3:6-10 "No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother." Notice in verse 7 John makes reference to not letting anyone lead you astray on this point. The Free Grace Theologians are such "anyones" who are leading people astray on this point. Paul says the same in 1Cor 6:9,10 "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." Christians are being deceived on this point by Free Grace Theology.

3. It not only deceives licentious Christians into believing they are saved, but by accomodating the licentious it leads to the promotion of licentiousness in the Christian community.

> When faced with a Christian who was overtly sexually immoral in their community, the Corinthians were proud of their toleration. But Paul rebukes them saying, "Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?" 1Cor 5:6 And "you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among you." 1Cor 5:11-13

Message to the Antinomianists:

Preach the gospel the way the Bible does. And if you life a lifestyle of sin, then, like Paul says:

> "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you-- unless, of course, you fail the test?" 2Corinthians 13:5

See also Free Grace vs The Bible

The Berean Christian Bible Study Resources