A Rebuke To Forgiveness-Only Salvation

A COMMON BELIEF TODAY: I am “saved” and unchanged.

- Matthew 7:15-20; Matthew 7:24-27; Luke 13:6-9; John 15:8.

- This passage makes us uncomfortable. It sounds harsh and unrealistic. We will delve into how we are to understand it as we move forward.

- A good place to start is a major reason why this passage sounds so off to us. That reason is that in big parts of the American church we have defined Christianity as an empty belief that usually leaves your life unchanged.

- That prevalent belief is the big reason why this passage sounds foreign to us. This passage is straightforward in stating that someone claiming to follow Christ should live a transformed, fruitful life.

- We have, instead, frequently put forward the idea that you can be saved and unchanged. What’s that look like? Someone comes forward at the end of a service and says they want to get saved. The preacher leads them in the Lord’s Prayer. Three weeks later they’re baptized. After that, they are moderately faithful in church attendance for a while but eventually quit going. They are not doing anything with regard to trying to become more like Jesus. They only pray when an emergency happens. And yet (and this is key) if you ask them if they’re a Christian, they will emphatically say, “Yes.” And they genuinely believe that.

- It must be acknowledged that for all the good that evangelical churches have within them, this is a major blind spot. Lots of (to pick on my own denomination) Baptists preach this approach to salvation, which is absolutely not Biblical.

- It’s a huge problem. It is one of the reasons why we have so many people in America claiming to be Christians while behaving in ways that are decidedly non-Christian. This is sullying the name of Christ in our culture.

- A further problem is that these people are extremely difficult to reach with the true gospel. Why? Because they already think they are spiritually safe. The way the preacher of their youth explained things to them leads them to feel that they’ve done all that is necessary. They are in good shape. Of course, they’re not. The empty belief they have that has left their life completely unchanged in Christlikeness is unequivocal evidence that they are not saved.

- Some of you are listening to this and thinking, “That’s a bridge too far. Sure, this passage kind of sounds like that, but you can’t base everything on one passage.”

- If the rest of the New Testament preached that empty belief and this was the only passage that pointed in this direction, we would need to do some figuring on why it was so different from the rest. But it’s not.

- I want to dig deep into this passage and the specific things it has to say on this subject as we go through this sermon but as we get started I want to just take a moment to show that this isn’t the only passage preaching this.

a. Matthew 7:15-20 - good fruit from good trees, bad fruit from bad trees.

b. Matthew 7:24-27 - the difference in the two houses is not belief but obedience to the teaching of Christ.

c. Luke 13:6-9 - Jesus comes to look for fruit.

d. John 15:8 - fruit is evidence of genuine faith.

A GOOD STARTING POINT: We are both “dearly loved” and “holy.”

- Ephesians 5:1, 3.

- Matthew 23:4.

- This whole issue is one where it’s easy to fall off on one side or the other of the issue.

- The one side of the issue is just what we’ve been talking about: empty belief. We claim belief but our life remains unchanged.

- The other side of the issue is what we might call a heavy legalism. What’s that look like? It’s that we have to obey God in everything or He won’t love us. Most churches like this have an extensive list of rules that you need to follow. If you don’t measure up to them, you’re a failure and God might just reject you. I’m reminded of Jesus’ comment toward the Pharisees that they “tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders" (Matthew 23:4). This destroys joy and love.

- The first three verses of our passage give us a couple phrases that help us to stay balanced on this.

- First, in v. 1 we are told that we are “dearly loved children.”

- What a lovely phrase. It drips with love and affection.

- We aren’t just loved - we are dearly loved.

- We aren’t disposable employees - we are children.

- This gives us the confidence and assurance that we are solidly connected to God. We are not going to be abandoned or thrown away.