Lordship Salvation

Faith that works through love

Gal. 5:6  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love

I think it has become very common in evangelical churches in recent years to hear preachers attacking the doctrine of lordship salvation. And that new phrase makes it sound as if the preacher who opposes it opposes some novel theological position. The fact is, however, that what is now being called lordship salvation is simply historic Protestant theology! What is novel is this present-day opposition to that theology and that gospel.

To understand Zane Hodges, the “no-lordship” position’s chief advocate, however, and to understand the great appeal of his theology for many evangelicals, you must understand that his motive in all that he says can appear to be solidly biblical. Indeed, it can appear to be most commendable and vitally important.

To understand Hodges’s theology you must recognize that all that he says is geared to preserving in its purity the gospel of justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Justification is by faith, as Paul explains in the first five chapters of his letter to the Romans. And, as Martin Luther wrote in the margin of his copy of that letter, it is by faith ALONE! Just remember that, Hodges says, and then everything else that the New Testament talks about will fall into place and you will see that none of it has any relationship to the believer’s justification—that is to say, to his or her eternal salvation, the possession of eternal life.

If you understand what Hodges has said there, you already know what he will say about every Christian virtue spoken of in the New Testament. You already know what he is going to say in every chapter on every subject in his books. Repenting of my sin, becoming Christ’s disciple, obeying Christ, manifesting the fruit of the Spirit, doing good works, loving God and my neighbor, even the matter of whether I go on believing in Christ, of continuing in my faith—no matter what good things you might want to say in favor of any of those responses, or even of all of them, none of that can have any bearing whatsoever on whether I have eternal life. To say that it does, Hodges insists, is to fall into the Roman Catholic error, which is the same at root as the Judaizing error that Paul faced—that is, the error of believing that salvation is by works, or perhaps by faith and works.

Hodges speaks of “the idea” that “has gained ground that true saving faith is somehow distinguishable from false kinds of faith, primarily by means of its results or ‘fruits.’ ” But that, Hodges insists, is a totally unbiblical idea. Now, it might surprise the reader greatly, that “by their fruits shall you know them” is a totally unbiblical idea. That a person’s possession of eternal life in Christ is necessarily evidenced by that person’s life of faith, hope, love, joy, peace, kindness, self-control—is thought to be a totally unbiblical idea.

I certainly hope that you would immediately think of many New Testament passages to which you could turn to refute Hodges, passages like:

1 John 2–3 

James 2

Passages that insist that true faith in Christ is a faith that works through love (Gal. 5:6).