There is a belief, known as Pelagianism, that has lingered in the church for over 1600 years, which does not accept that the sinful condition of humankind was inherited from Adam and Eve in the Fall (Genesis 3). It is the belief that motivated the ministry of Charles Finney, who is known as the father of large alter call (aka: "the anxious bench") style evangelism.
Pelagianism is named after Pelagius, a 5th-century British monk who was condemned by three church councils in the 5th and 6th centuries for his heretical teachings. Pelagianism emphasizes the essential goodness of human nature and the freedom of the human will and holds that sin is a voluntary act against God's law, and human beings are free to choose between good and evil. It argues that the sin of Adam and Eve was their own, which means people aren’t accountable for a sin they did not commit.
Therefore, because human beings are not sinners by nature, they can choose to make more good choices than evil ones to redeem themselves by being a good person, which is why there is no need for faith or a savior. Primarily, it is believed that good works and keeping either the internal law of conscience or the old Mosaic Law will suffice when they ultimately stand before God.
As a result, it is believed that human beings can seek God apart from any movement of the Holy Spirit, which will lead to salvation and the sustaining of it by one’s efforts. At first glance, this appears as a fair and reasonable argument that people are born innocent into a corrupt environment that makes them corrupt, so they only become sinful after they have sinned.
The teachings of Pelagianism are contrary to sound biblical theology and historical church doctrine because they actually support the idea that it does not matter whether God exists or not because only the good a person does for others by being philanthropic and moral is what matters the most, rather than through grace alone, by faith alone, in Jesus Christ as God, the Son, alone, which is the great distinction between Christianity compared to other religions of the world.
The Bible says that "Only in Him (Jesus) is found salvation; for of all the names in the world given to men, this is the only one by which we can be saved" (Acts 4:12 NKJV). Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." (John 14:6 NKJV).
Abiding by the Law
There are many within Christianity who, perhaps unintentionally through misunderstanding, deny God’s free and eternal gift of salvation by requiring a well-meaning, but misdirected emphasis on adhering to the Ten Commandments, as well as the other 603 moral and legal codes (365 thou shalt not’s and 248 thou shalt’s) in the Old Testament.
The Mosaic moral, ceremonial (including all sacrifices and feasts), and civil Laws served as a guide to holiness and as a teacher for the preservation of Israel (Colossians 2:16; Ephesians 2:15; Galatians 4:9, 20). The Law is a dim “shadow of things to come” in the future but the reality is the body of Christ, which is the real substance and antitype of all the Old Testament shadows that have been completed or accomplished in Jesus (John 1:17, 19:30; Romans 10:4; 2 Corinthians 1:20; Gal 4:10-12; Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 8:5, 10:1). Many scholars believe that the Feast of Trumpets and Day of Atonement point to the second coming of Jesus (Leviticus 23:24,27). The Feast of Tabernacles will continue to be observed in the Millennial reign of Jesus by the “nations,” those who have yet to receive salvation, until it comes to an abrupt end on the eighth day of the feast (Leviticus 23:34; Micah 4:1-7; Zechariah 14:16-19; 2 Thessalonians 1:1-10; see also 2 Corinthians 5:1).
The Born-Again Christian is no longer bound to observe them, but they should not criticize anyone who chooses not to observe them (Colossians 2:16-17; Romans 14:5). It is “through the Law comes knowledge of sin” which is why it was necessary to display humanity’s guilt and unrighteousness because of their sinfulness and ultimately point them to the need for God and His merciful grace found through Jesus Christ alone (Hebrews 8:5, 10:1; also Romans 1, 2, 3:20). What every Born-Again Christian should celebrate is Jesus Christ who is at the center of the celebration as the One who came to fulfill the prophetic significance of each of them.
The Law was destined to be retired once the plan of God was fully revealed in the life of Christ (Hebrews 8:6; Galatians 3). There are not two plans of God, one of grace and one of works, but two phases of the same plan of redemption: preparation and fulfillment. The unity of the Law and the work of Christ fulfilled the Law in its entirety. Either Jesus fulfilled the Law, or He did not. God’s love is unconditional which means that good works or religious piety have no effect on it.
The Born-Again Christian did not begin with the Holy Spirit indwelling them at the moment of their salvation only to be perfected by “the flesh” in the works of the Law (Galatians 3:3). The Bible repeatedly identifies legalism as a work of the flesh or sinful human nature and worldliness. The Bible also speaks of “the elemental principles of the world,” which are the imposed restrictions of legalistic religiosity on the Born-Again Christian and not any “worldly” practice or behavior (Galatians 4:3; Colossians 2:8, 20; also Philippians 3:1-9).
A person either keeps the whole Law or does not (Galatians 3:10; James 2:10; Matthew 5:19; Deuteronomy 27: 1; 28: 1; 30:8). If they return to the Law and accept just one part of it, they are “under obligation to keep the whole Law” (Galatians 5:3 NKJV). If a person continues to “go on sinning willfully after” they “receive the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment”... “Anyone who set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace?” (Hebrews 10:26-29 NKJV).
The Reason for the Law
The Law was given to maintain Israel as a separate people through whom God would send the Messiah to reach the whole world. “When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law” (Galatians 4:4 NKJV).
The Law was temporary and conditional to prepare Israel for, and reveal God’s plan of, universal redemption through the promised Messiah. When Jesus came to earth, the Law achieved its purpose and was “fulfilled” in Christ (Hebrews 8:13).
The Law is holy, but it never had the power to save. It was used to condemn and identify, as well as demonstrate the human inadequacy to not sin. It was to make people ready for salvation, but it was incomplete and is now obsolete (Romans 7; Galatians 3). It was never abolished or changed in any way in the new age of Grace.
Jesus said that He did not come to destroy (Gk: katalyo) or subvert the Law, but to fulfill (Gk: pleroo) it (Matthew 5:17). To ‘fulfill’ means to complete, to finish, accomplish or expire. Jesus met all of its requirements and standards as well as all future punishments for falling short. The Bible declares that “Christ is the end (Gk: telos) of the law,” which means that Jesus is the termination or conclusion of it (Romans 10:4 NKJV). He did not change the Law nor add to it (Matthew 5:17-19).
Jesus fulfilled and satisfied the Law, and all its demands, as He lived by it for the sake of humanity, keeping it perfectly as the representative of all people before God, and died for them, meeting its required punishment for sin. When Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished” (Gk: ‘teleo’), He was proclaiming the fulfillment of the Law, and all of its requirements, obligations, or demands for all humanity was complete (John 19:30). A person rejects the finished work of Jesus when they make any attempt to go back and seek to be justified be under the Law and “have fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4 NKJV).
The Law, in its entirety, still serves only an important role in giving advice and instruction in righteousness, and offers examples of virtue and models of holiness (1 Corinthians 10:6; 1 Timothy 3:16). The Law is incapable of producing salvation. Only Jesus can save and transform a person from the inside out (Romans 7:7-13, 8:30).
The Bible says, “whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction” (Romans 15:4 NKJV). The Law must be used as examples of righteousness but not as a binding system of works (Romans 13:8-10; James 2:8-11; 1 Timothy 1:8). If, as some believe, the Church is still obligated to live under the Mosaic Law, then it must also be rigorously enforced to the letter. The penalty for most transgressions against the Law was death by stoning and was administrated by a civil and religious authority (Deuteronomy 17).
The Law ceased to be a legalistic code and “ministry of death” that had to be enforced to the letter when Jesus transformed it into the “ministry of the Spirit…and life” when He died upon the Cross and became the propitiation for all sin and broke the sting of death (2 Corinthians 3; 1 John 2:2). Although Jesus fulfilled and completed the Law, that does not mean the Born-Again Christian can now live anyway and do anything they want without any moral standards.
The New Commandment of Love
The Old Law distinguished Israel as a holy people from the rest of the pagan nations (Deuteronomy 28:1-2). However, it was “weak … through the flesh” (Romans 8:3). Jesus gave the Church a new commandment of love that fulfills the old Law (Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:29-31; also Romans 13:8-10; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8). It is the new Great Commandant of love that distinguishes the Church from the world “A new commandant I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35 NKJV).
The Born-Again Christian received all of the Holy Spirit at the moment of Salvation and instantly became a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). The Holy Spirit was given the responsibility to guide and direct them to accomplish the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:36); “the law of the Spirit” (Romans 8:2), “the law of faith” (Romans 3:27), “the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2) and “the royal law” (James 2:8) so that they would naturally reflect the image of God in Christ. Unlike Moses, Jesus did not leave a legal code to regulate every aspect of life and instead, gave the Church an orientation of love and freedom.
The Law compels obedience through fear of punishment and dominates a person’s will so that their choices are not freely their own. Grace is not an excuse or a license for sin. It is the love of God, through His super-abounding grace, that inspires obedience through the revelation of His love, and compels them to walk in the Spirit and live out the sufficiency of Christ because “the goodness of God leads to repentance” (Romans 2:4 NKJV). As a result of the Cross, “sin shall not be master” over the Born-Again Christian because they “are not under law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14 NKJV).
Abiding in the law of Love by God’s grace is for every Born-Again Christian so that they learn to live by the Holy Spirit at a higher standard of personal accountability to God rather than according to the letter of the Law (Matthew 19). The Law is for the lawless and not the righteous (1 Timothy 5:5-10).
The Law of the Spirit
Living by the Law of the Spirit is what fulfills the Old Testament promise that the Law would be written on the hearts of God’s people in a new covenant after He fills them with the Holy Spirit and forgives all their sin (Jeremiah 31: 31-34; Ezekiel 36: 24-27; Romans 8:2; Hebrews 8: 7-13; 12: 24).
The Born-Again Christian can approach God at any time through Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest and Mediator between God and humanity (1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 4:14; 7:18-19). It is His Grace that supplies them with greater righteousness and accessibility directly to Him because it fulfills all the requirements of the Law and provides both personal transformation and purity of heart through faith.
The Bible says, “the just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17 NKJV). The Born-Again Christian is justified by grace through faith. The new Law of Love is different from the old because it can only be accepted by faith, which is a committed trust in the unseen Word of God as a gift of God’s grace that makes the old Law a law of works, not a law of faith (2 Corinthians 4:16–5:7; Hebrews 11:1-12: 3; Romans 3:27). When a person makes an attempt to work their way back to God based on keeping the Law, it disqualifies them because it nullifies the grace of God and declares that Jesus died needlessly (Galatians 2:21; also Romans 3-5).
The sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit within the Born-Again Christian is by faith alone and not works. No amount of good deeds, even if they were perfect, could erase the curse of sin inherited from the First Adam (Romans 5:12–21). The Holy Spirit is given to those who obey God. He is not given to those who pretend to obey God, but to those who naturally obey (Acts 5:32). The Bible makes it clear how to tell who is a Born-Again child of God and who is not. The person who says, "I know him," but does not practice righteousness or loves “his bother,” as Jesus commanded, is “a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4, 3:10 NKJV). Anyone, no matter how many good deeds they do, if they are not Born-Again, they do “not have the Spirit of Christ” and “do not belong to him” (Romans 8:9 NKJV).
The Holy Spirit was given “as a guarantee” (2 Corinthians 5:5 NJKJ). It is His sole responsibility to sustain and keep the Born-Again Christian as guiltless, and restrain them from stumbling and ultimately present them into the presence of God’s glory with great joy (1 Corinthians 1:8). God will never let them die, be thirsty again, leave, forsake, cast out, or drive them away, nor can anything snatch them away or separate them from His love, because He gave them the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of salvation (John 4:14, 6:37, 8:12, 10:27-29, 11:25-26; Romans 8:38-39; 1 John 2:1).
The Born-Again Christian is now predestined, called, chosen, and sealed for the day of redemption as a child of God and an heir with Christ for glorification in heaven (Ephesians 1:11-13, 4:30; Romans 8:28-31; 1 Corinthians 1:8; 2 Corinthians 1:22, 5:5; Jude 1:24-25; John 6:37, 8:12; Hebrews 13:5).
The Born-Again Christian is a “good tree” that naturally and habitually abides in Jesus and does the things that accompany salvation. Those that do not, are bad trees, to whom Jesus will declare; 'I never knew you; depart from me, you who practice lawlessness” (Matthew 7:23 NKJV).
There is a change in a person's being and not merely a change in their doing when they are Born-Again because of their spiritual condition, and not just in their morals or behavior. Salvation focuses on either God or man. Either God saves humanity by grace or humanity contributes through good works for its forgiveness and restoration.
Human nature is focused on it's trying to earn the grace of God by living a moral life, which is what the Bible calls “works.” Law-keeping, patriotism, voting, political activism, attending church, giving to the poor and needy are not a replacement for, or a test of, saving faith in Jesus Christ.
Morality
Saving faith in God changes the condition of the human heart from within and a person’s relationship with Him, through the Holy Spirit, because salvation is a free gift which must be accepted through faith alone in Jesus Christ. Moral behavior follows saving faith as a natural byproduct (Ephesians 2: 8–10). Morality must never be the measure of faith (Romans 14; 1 Corinthians 8,10:12-33).
It is true that human beings are responsible for their actions and must make amends for their misdeeds with good deeds. However, learning from mistakes made does not change a person’s spiritual condition. That is done only by God’s grace through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. The grace of God radically opposes humanistic moralism. No moral or legal remedy will change the sinful nature of the human heart that is at its core deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 19:9).
Salvation by Grace through Faith
The Bible reveals that salvation is a matter of divine intervention in the human condition that can be received only by faith and not by any work because it cannot change in any way the state of the human heart and the condemnation of the sin nature. Good works (moral transformation) naturally follow saving faith but do not bring salvation that God gives by grace, which He will not revoke (Romans 8:26-39; 11: 29).
A person doesn’t become Born-Again by merely raising their hand during an emotional altar call and repeating a ‘sinners prayer’ or having someone pray over them to receive salvation. Belief cannot be willed. A person cannot self-help their way to God either. If they could, then there would be no need for God. Jesus said, "You must be born again" (John 3:3 NKJV). Faith is something done for fallen humanity rather than by them. It is a gift, not a choice.
"By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God." (Ephesians 2:8 NKJV)
There is a fatal understanding of faith running rampant in the modern church that has resulted in the belief that Christians can build a bigger building, and raise more money by attracting more people. Faith is not a tool or power to move an obstacle or even God’s hand. Faith is a gift from God to help people learn to choose to entrust all things in their life to Him.
It is “God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13 NKJV). He is the one who enables the Born-Again Christian to work out learning how to trust Him. It has to be all God alone when it comes to faith. Human Beings are called; God is the caller. The Born-Again Christian is the saved; God is the Savior. They are faithful; God is the giver of faith.
Jesus said, "No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me" (John 6:44 NKJV). A person does not come to Christ; they are drawn to Him. Everyone on the planet is drawn to Jesus. The initiative is God’s, not theirs. They do not give their life to Christ; He gives His life to them. They do not make a decision for Christ; He makes a decision for them. A person has the free will to either accept or reject Jesus.
Falling in Love
Throughout life, people make choices. But faith is one choice they do not make. "You did not choose me," Jesus says to the disciples, "but I chose you" (John 15:16 NKJV). "The Lord has chosen you" (Deuteronomy 14:2 NKJV ). God promised, "A new heart I will give you" (Ezekiel 36:26 NKJV).
Having faith is like falling in love. Events add up and bring two people together at a particular place and time. They have no control over what is happening to them. It is merely that the way they have lived out their life has brought the two of them together. That is why it is called "falling" in love. There isn’t an ounce of will in it. Love, like faith, is beyond one’s control
A person does not choose to fall in love. They find themselves in love, just as they find themselves in faith. Love is beyond choice, like faith. It is beyond decision. A person cannot make a decision to fall in love any more than they can make a decision for Christ. A person does not "accept" another person’s love to be ‘in’ love; they are! They fall in love, and they fall in faith.
The Bible repeatedly says the Born-Again Christian is "in Christ," which is a way of describing faith (Romans 8:1; 2 Corinthians 5:17, 12:2). They are in Christ the same way people are in love. Their faith happens just as their love happens when events have brought them to their loved one, Jesus. Faith is a gift just as a loved one is a gift. There is nothing a person needs to do to get faith other than living out their life.
A Born-Again Christian ‘received’ Jesus and did not merely ‘accept’ Him because both positive and negative events in their life had brought the two of them together to a turning point where the person finds themselves desiring to know Jesus and to love Him, which will lead them to be ‘in’ love with Him because of who He is, and not just what He has done for them! They didn’t have to do anything to Him because it was God who first loved them and drew them to Jesus, who said: "No one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father" (John 6:65 NKJV). "No one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:3). Jesus made them His own, and not the other way around (Philippians 3:12-13).
The Bible says five times that Jesus is God’s "free gift" (Romans 5:15-19). A person is free to reject that free gift just as they are free to reject the offer of friendship and love from another. That is their choice, just as it is their choice to commit sin because they are free to do so. However, they are not free not to sin because they are a ‘sinner’ by nature. It is God alone who deserves all acclaim for them, not sinning. All glory has to be God’s for faith because otherwise, it is not faith; it is the success of works and not grace.
No one can work their way to God or keep their salvation by doing good works (James 2:26). Continuous good works that result from genuine conversion proves that the Holy Spirit lives within them, and their faith is indeed alive and not dead (James 2:26; 2 Corinthians 1:22, 5;5). Those who are Born-Again naturally stay (abide) in Jesus because they are a Good Tree that naturally, and automatically, produce good fruit that accompanies salvation (Luke 8:15; Romans 6:22; 1 John 2:29, 3:9, 5:18).
The Born-Again Christian “is justified by faith”, which Jesus provided them, and not made void by it (Romans 3:27-31). No person could ever be justified by deeds of law or by conformity with the moral or ceremonial law (Romans 3:20-21). The just/righteous demands of the “law” are to be “fully satisfied” in the Born-Again Christian by God’s grace and not by works, which is why Jesus said “I came not to destroy (the law or the prophets), but to fulfill” (Romans 8:4; Matthew 5:17 NKJV).
No one “born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God" (1 John 3:9 NKJV, also 5:4-5; Revelation 3:5). The “Law was given through Moses,” but “grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17 NKJV). The following verse sums up the whole doctrine of God’s super-abounding grace.
"What have you that you did not receive?" (1 Corinthians 4:7 NKJV)
