Calvinism and the Dictionary

Calvinism and the Dictionary

This chapter serves the same purpose for the rest of the chapters in this book. There are certain key words, terms, and ideas which are frequently repeated in the main biblical texts used to defend and teach Calvinism. And while I could repeat over and over ad nauseam the same explanations for the same words and ideas every time they come up in a text, I fear, along with John Calvin, that this would lead to great annoyance and boredom on the part of the reader. So this chapter seeks to rectify that problem by briefly surveying some of the key words, terms, and ideas that will be referenced frequently in this volume, and explain them from a biblical and theological perspective.

Do not be tempted to skip over this chapter. Believe it or not, most of the debate surrounding Calvinism centers on the definition of words. In fact, you could almost read this chapter and skip the rest of the book! It is sometimes said that the first and most important step to argumentation is the proper definition of terms. This is true of the debate over Calvinism as well. Once you grasp the ideas and the proper definition of words as put forth in this chapter, you will have nearly all the tools necessary to properly understand any biblical passage that is usually put forward in defense of Calvinism. You will not need my help in understanding these passages out of Scripture, but will be equipped to understand them on your own.

Note that as I want to make this volume as accessible as possible to people of all education levels, I will spend as little time as possible referring to the Greek and Hebrew languages in the discussion below. But do not think that this is because I failed to consult the Greek and Hebrew. I did. Extensively. There are numerous hours of detailed research and word study investigation behind each one of the sections below. I do not say this to boast, but only because I know that there will be some Calvinistic critics of my definitions below who will say that I am wrong because I didn’t consult the Greek and Hebrew. They are free to disagree with my definitions if they want, but not on the basis of my failure to consult the original languages. So with that in mind, let us define our terms.

Faith

With love, we go through our days talking about how we love football, love pizza, love our cars, and love our spouse, and then we read in Scripture about how we are to love God and love one another, and although we know there is a difference between the various forms of love, we don’t really think about it too much or understand the ways that biblical “love” might be different than our modern use of the word.

It is similar with “faith” and “believe.” Often, when people use these words today, it means little more than “hope.” Though someone might say they believe the Bears will win the Super Bowl this year, they know, as does everyone else, that their faith is little more than hope. You even sometimes hear people say “I believe I will win the lottery!” In this case, the word “believe” does not even rise to the level of hope, but is nothing more than wishful thinking.

Sometimes when “faith” is used today, it means “trust.” Banks talk about the “full faith and credit” of the United States Government in insuring our deposits, meaning that we trust that if the bank loses our money, the government will give it to us. Or as another example, you may have heard the story about a man who crossed Niagara Falls while pushing a wheelbarrow, and then asked the watching crowd if they believed he could do this same feat with a person in the wheelbarrow. They all enthusiastically shouted “Yes!” but when he asked for volunteers, nobody came forward. This illustration is sometimes used to suggest that faith without follow-through is not really faith; but what it really proves is that there is a difference between faith and trust.

In light of this, people get confused—and rightfully so—when they read about faith and belief in the Bible. They are not sure whether they should understand faith to be more like hope, wishful thinking, trust, or maybe something else. A lot of the confusion arises from something Plato taught more than 2000 years ago. N. T. Wright summarizes it well:

Plato declared that belief was a kind of second-rate knowing, more or less halfway between knowing and not knowing, so that the objects of belief possessed a kind of intermediate ontology, halfway between existence and nonexistence. This way of thinking has colored popular usage, so that when we say, “I believe it’s raining,” we are cushioning ourselves against the possibility that we might be wrong, whereas when we say, “I know it’s raining,” we are open to straightforward contradiction. But this usage has slid, over the last centuries, to the point where, with a kind of implicit positivism, we use know and knowledge for things we think we can in some sense prove, and believe and its cognates for things that we perceive as degenerating into more private opinion without much purchase on the wider world.⁰

Even if Plato was right (and I don’t think he was), this common usage of belief today is not the way it was used in Scripture or in the writings of early Christians. In Scripture, belief is another way of speaking about knowledge. If you know something, you believe it. When it comes to the biblical definition of faith, it is probably best to think about faith (and the verb “believe”) as a confidence, persuasion, or conviction that something is true. While it need not rise to the level of certainty—for we have all know that beliefs can change when we are presented with new evidence—faith is being fully persuaded by the evidence we now have.

This does not mean that faith is certainty. Lots of people think that to believe something, they have to be absolutely certain about it, which is nearly impossible. In his book, The Benefit of the Doubt, Gregory Boyd does an admirable job disproving the “certainty-model” of faith.⁰ However, by using his analogy of a “house-of-cards” certainty-model of faith, Boyd ends up throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Boyd writes that every time stopped believing something he had been taught as a youth, or changed a belief, he felt like his entire belief structure collapsed like a house of cards, and he had to painstakingly rebuild it from the ground up.

While Boyd is absolutely correct that faith is related to imagination,⁰ I would suggest that rather than thinking about faith as a house of cards, a better analogy for faith would be an Excel spreadsheet. Each belief resides in its own cell, and nearly all the cells are interconnected by functions. Therefore, when one cell changes, it causes a cascading, rippling effect throughout the rest of the spreadsheet. This is not something to be feared, but something to be embraced and enjoyed, for which each change comes a spreadsheet that is more accurate than it was before. Thankfully, God does not require a spreadsheet of beliefs which is without error. To the contrary, He desires a spreadsheet of beliefs that is constantly shifting and changing as we bring our life and thoughts into conformity with Jesus Christ and the revelation of Scripture.

Furthermore, each cell adjustment opens up new vistas of investigation, so that even beliefs which had not seen change for decades might need to be reconsidered in light of new evidence. In this way, while we can have reasonable conviction or confidence about the accuracy of any single cell (or belief), we nevertheless know that the content of that cell might be based upon conditional beliefs or cells, about which we are less confident. To put it another way, the complete confidence of one belief can be based upon less confident beliefs.

For example, when it comes to believing in a person, such as Jesus Christ, there enters into belief a bit of uncertainty. We have all had the experience of believing something to be true, or believing that someone will come through for us, only to discover later that our beliefs were totally and completely unfounded. This experience causes us to never fully be confident in anyone or anything. That is, we are often unable to say that we are 100% sure of anything. I think this is partly because of the dynamics of relationships and because of living in a fallen world where so many variables swirl around every event and every fact.

To put “faith in Jesus” in spreadsheet terminology, I am completely confident that those who believe in Jesus receive eternal life. I am confident in this truth because Jesus clearly says this over and over again in the Gospel of John (cf. John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47). However, if I am honest with myself, this belief is based on several beliefs about which I am less confident. For example, this belief is based on my belief that the authors of the Bible accurately recorded what Jesus said, that those who transcribed and passed down the Bible have accurately passed down to us what was written, and that I have accurately understood what is written. Furthermore, my confidence is based on what I believe the Bible says about the existence of God, the origin and consequences of sin, the importance and necessity of eternal life, the deity, humanity, and sinlessness of Jesus, and a whole host of other beliefs. Some of these beliefs I am less confident about than others. Nevertheless, if all these things are as I believe them to be, then I am fully convinced and persuaded that Jesus gives eternal life to those who believe in Him for it.

This brings us to another issue about faith. When it comes to believing in Jesus, it may be best to place less emphasis on the belief itself, and more emphasis on Jesus. While it is true that we can never fully be certain of our belief in a truth or person, the more we learn about Jesus, the more certain we become that He is worthy of our belief. The more we believe in Him, the more we discover that our faith in Him is well founded. Faith, then, depends less on the amount of faith we have, or the certainty of our faith, and more on the object of faith, namely, Jesus. Faith is not about pulling ourselves up by our mental bootstraps or mustering up our faith until it achieves certainty in all areas, but simply about knowing that Jesus can be trusted and He is reliable and faithful to make good on what He promises. This is partly why Jesus talks about “faith like a mustard seed” (Matt 17:20; Luke 17:6). The amount of faith is not what matters. Even the tiniest little bit will do. What matters is the object of faith.

Nevertheless, we must be careful in talking about the “amount of faith” for faith really doesn’t come in “amounts.” Though lots of people like to talk about “degrees of faith” this is not a proper way of thinking about biblical faith. Faith is more like a light switch than a dimmer switch. Just as a light is either on or off, so also, you either believe something or you don’t. If you are not sure whether or not you believe something, then you don’t believe it. If you are partially convinced, but not yet fully convinced, then you do not believe. Though Scripture does talk about “little faith” and “great faith” (Matt 8:10, 26), this is not a reference to the degree of faith someone has, but to the difficulty of the truth believed. Some things are easier to believe than others, and so when someone does not even believe the simple and obvious things, they have little faith, whereas, when someone believes things that are difficult to believe, they have great faith.⁰ Great faith believes the hard to believe truths of the Bible. Great faith has nothing to do with the size of your faith. Rather, it's about the difficult truths you do believe.

What all of this means is that we cannot exactly “choose” to believe something. Belief, or faith, is not a decision we make. It is something that happens to us when presented with convincing and persuasive evidence. Sometimes we might not be able to believe something until we see it with our own eyes. Other times, we might come to faith through reason, logic, and the weight of argumentation. Occasionally, we even come to believe something despite our desire not to believe it. For example, if a father was told that his son was a mass-murderer, the father might not want to believe it, and would not believe it. But if the father sat through the trial of his son, and saw the weight of the evidence, and maybe even heard the confession of his son to his crimes, the father would be forced to believe what he did not want to believe. The father did not choose to believe, but was persuaded or convinced by the evidence presented, and came to believe something he did not wish to be true.

In many of his letters to various people, C. S. Lewis wrote about how he came to faith. He was persuaded against his will about the existence of God and the truth of Christianity. Later in life, as people faced similar experiences of faith in their own life, Lewis wrote to them with counsel that just as they cannot fight faith, so also, they cannot force it. Faith happens to us as we the light of God shines in our life. This does not mean we have no responsibility in faith, but that we must respond positively to the revelation God has given to us so that we can receive more revelation from Him. Here are a few examples of what Lewis wrote to various people:

If you think [Christianity] is false you needn’t bother about all the things in it that seem terrible. If you decide it is true, you needn’t worry about not having faith, for apparently you have.⁰

If you don’t think [Christianity] is true why do you want to believe it? If you do think it is true, then you believe it already.⁰

No one can make himself believe anything and the effort does harm. Nor make himself feel anything, and that effort also does harm. What is under our own control is action and intellectual inquiry. Stick to that.⁰

C. S. Lewis is right. We cannot force ourselves to believe something, but at the same time, nor can we fight it. Faith happens to us when we are persuaded by the evidence presented. Of course, faith is not always the result of evidence and logic, but can also come through experience and emotions. While facts, logic, and reason can lead to faith, so also can experience, relationships, and revelation. Even hope and trust, which are not themselves faith, can be transformed into faith. Faith itself can lead to faith, for once we believe some things about God, it becomes easier to believe other things. Divine revelation itself can lead us to believe things about God, ourselves, and eternity which we may not have believed otherwise (Rom 10:17).

This leads to the truth that faith is not a work. If we do not choose to believe something, then it cannot be said in that faith is meritorious. That is, faith does not contribute in any way to our goodness before God. Calvinists often argue that if man “contributes” faith to the process of salvation, then man has done a good work to earn that salvation, which therefore makes salvation not a gracious gift of God but a transaction between God and man. But if faith is not something we choose, but is rather something that happens to us when we are persuaded or convinced that something is true, then we cannot say in any way that faith is a work. Besides, Paul pretty clearly contrasts faith and works in Romans 4:5.

Yet despite the fact that faith is not something we choose but is that which happens to us based on the evidence presented, we must not go to the other extreme and say that faith is a gift. Faith is not a gift. Though there is a spiritual gift of faith (1 Cor 12:9), this is not to be confused with the faith that leads to eternal life (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47, etc.). Though some claim that the “gift” which Paul refers to in Ephesians 2:8-9 is faith, the Greek word “that” (“that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God) is neuter and the Greek word for “faith” is feminine, which means the gift of God is not faith, but rather the entire “salvation package” which originated with God (i.e., “by grace you have been saved”).⁰

What then is biblical faith (or belief)? In the end, we can do no better at defining faith than does the author of Hebrews. He writes: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb 11:1). To expand on this a bit, we could say that faith substantiates, or sees as reality, that which we previously only hoped to be true; it is the evidence, conviction, or confidence in things we cannot see. Certainly, some things we believe in can been seen, but the great faith described in the rest of Hebrews 11 is the faith that is confident in God’s promises based on what is known about God’s character and God’s Word. Faith is the confidence or conviction that something is true based on the evidence presented.⁰ Faith is seeing what is true based on what we know to be true.

Gospel

Do such statements shock you? They should—especially if you hold to one of the traditional (yet not so biblical) definitions for the words “gospel” and “saved.” When most people today hear the sentence “You must believe the gospel to be saved” what actually goes through their mind is this: “Here are the things you must believe in order to go to heaven when you die” (And of course, everyone has a different idea about what we must believe). So people are often shocked to learn that the biblical word “gospel” (Gk., euangelion) means way more than what a person need to believe to receive eternal life. Similarly, the biblical word for “salvation” (Gk., sōteria) has very little to do with going to heaven when you die. To see what each word means, we will look at the word “gospel” in this section, and “salvation” in the next.

The word “gospel” means “good news.” And although it almost universally today refers to good news about forgiveness of sin and the offer of eternal life through Jesus Christ, the word itself carries no such connotations. In ancient and biblical times, the word is often used regarding things like children who recovered from sickness, a battle which was won, or a successful trading voyage.⁰ Just as the words “good news” can refer to almost any sort of happy event or positive outcome today, so also, the phrase could refer to almost anything good in biblical times as well.

In the New Testament itself, though, the phrase has a more focused meaning. Though it can sometimes refer simply to an encouraging message (1 Thess 3:6), and Jesus often used the term to describe the coming of the Kingdom of God (cf. Matt 4:23; 9:35), Paul is the one who used the word in his writings, and he uses the word most often in reference to describe the complete chain of events regarding what God has done for sinful humanity through Jesus Christ to provide eternal life for them. And when I write “the complete chain of events” I mean the complete chain, beginning with God eternal love for humanity, including the creation of mankind and their subsequent fall, and going through God’s calling of Israel, His work through them during their checkered history, the birth, life, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, and looking forward to the return of Jesus and the new heavens, the new earth, and our eternal existence with God. The biblical “gospel” includes all of this. Every bit.

While the term gospel is a non-technical term for any good news, the NT usage seems to define it as good news for everybody, whether Jew or Gentile, believer or unbeliever, regarding the benefits and blessings which come to us from the person and work of Jesus Christ. It includes everything from “the eschatological expectation, the proclamation of the [kingdom of God] ... the introduction of the Gentiles into salvation history, [and] the rejection of the ordinary religion of cult and Law.” This gospel contains everything related to the person and work of Jesus Christ, including all of the events leading up to His birth, and all the ramifications from Christ’s life, death, and resurrection for unbelievers and believers.⁰

Based on this understanding of the word “gospel” it is not wrong to say that the biblical gospel is Jesus Christ, including everything about Him and related to Him. The gospel is centered on Jesus Christ, and everything that emanates from Jesus is “gospel truth.” And what is it that emanates from Jesus Christ? Everything! From the creation of the universe to the future of the universe, all is dependent upon Jesus Christ. The truths about reconciliation, redemption, and resurrection all require Jesus Christ. Without Jesus, there is no such thing as forgiveness, grace, mercy, hope, or healing. Why did God create mankind? Because of Jesus. Why did God, out of all the people of the world, choose Abram and the nation that would come from Him? Because of Jesus. Why was God patient with the Israelites in the wilderness? Because of Jesus. Why did God raise up Judges, Priests, Kings, and Prophets? Because of Jesus. Moving into the New Testament, why did God send the Spirit to birth the church at Pentecost? Because of Jesus. Why did God send the church out into the world to proclaim a message of God’s love? Because of Jesus. Why is God going to restore the world and remake heaven and earth so that we can dwell with Him for all eternity? Because of Jesus! It’s all because of Jesus. Jesus is the gospel and the gospel is Jesus. There are no four laws, five points, or six steps to the gospel. There is only Jesus.

This is why, in my opinion, it is the height of idolatry to say, as some Calvinists do, that “Calvinism is the gospel, and the gospel is Calvinism.”⁰ No, it isn’t. That honor belongs to Jesus Christ alone. Even if Calvinism were true, the most that could be said of it is that Calvinism is one small aspect of the gospel. But to equate Calvinism with the entirety of gospel is to replace the infinite glory of Jesus Christ with a small, manmade system of theology. Such an idea is completely contrary to the Reformation principles of Solus Christus and Soli Deo Gloria.

But here is the point: If the gospel is Jesus Christ and all the truth that emanates from Him, then this means that it is completely impossible for any finite human being to ever believe the gospel. Why? Because just as Jesus and the truth about Him is infinite, so also, the gospel is infinite. It is impossible to ever believe everything there is to know about Jesus, who He is, and what He has done.

Yet if the biblical gospel is infinite then it would be impossible to ever “preach the gospel” (Luke 4:18; Acts 16:10; Rom 1:15; etc.) or “believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). However, Jesus and the apostles seem to have done so quite well. Nevertheless, when these various gospel-preaching events are compared, one discovers that there is no set list of ten gospel truths, or four laws, or six principles that are always presented in every situation. Sometimes the one proclaiming the gospel talks about sin; sometimes not. Sometimes they talk about the Kingdom of God; sometimes not; Sometimes they talk about grace, mercy, forgiveness, and reconciliation; sometimes not. Sometimes they talk about the death and resurrection of Jesus; sometimes not. Sometimes they talk about the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus; sometimes not.

What is the point? The point is that all of these truths which get shared at one time or another in the New Testament as part of the “gospel” are simply examples of some of the truth that emanates from the person and work of Jesus Christ, who IS the gospel. When a person is presenting “the gospel” they obviously cannot share everything, and so they do their best (along with the help of the Holy Spirit) to pick and choose which truths of the gospel should be shared in that particular context to those particular people. Just as the same person in a different context would share different gospel truths, so also would a different person in that same context. This is one of the beautiful things of the gospel. Because there is so much truth to the gospel, there is no such thing as one set of truths that must always be shared. Since different people are in different places with their walk with God, and each of us have different personalities and different levels of knowledge, God allows each of us to share whatever we know with the people in front of us in whatever way we think best. That’s liberating, isn’t it? If we simply share Jesus with people, we are sharing the gospel, whether it is by word or action, in a few seconds or over the course of many years, or to a large crowd or to only one person. The goal of sharing the gospel, of course, is to draw a person closer to Jesus, whether they are already a “Christian” or not, for Christians need to hear gospel truths just as much as so-called “non-Christians.”

Hopefully now you can understand my provocative statement at the beginning of this section. I stated that “You don't have to believe the entire gospel to receive eternal life.” If the gospel is Jesus Christ and all truth is related to Him, then it is impossible to believe the entire gospel. The most we can do is believe certain truths of the gospel. When we say we “believe the gospel” or “believe in Jesus” this is a shorthand way of saying that we believe certain truths of the gospel. Since each person is at a different place in their theological development and their walk with God, it is likely that each person believes a different set of gospel truths.

In fact, it is quite likely that there are billions of people on earth today who believe certain truths of the gospel, and yet have not received eternal life. Why not? Because they haven’t yet believed the part of the gospel which pertains to eternal life, namely, that eternal life is given to those who believe in Jesus for it (John 3:16; 5:24; 6:47). One gospel truth is that we are sinners. And most people believe this truth. But nowhere does Scripture say that believing we are sinners results in receiving eternal life. So also with the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Countless millions of people believe that about 2000 years ago, there was a man named Jesus who lived in Israel, preached sermons, performed miracles, was crucified on a cross, was buried, and rose again three days later from the dead. But—are you ready for this?—although these truths are extremely central to the gospel, nowhere does Scripture say that those who believe these things have received eternal life. Many of those who believe these wonderful truths about the gospel, have not yet believed in Jesus for eternal life, but are instead, believing in themselves, their good works, their “being a good person”, their religious activity in a particular church, or a whole variety of others human ideas about how to receive eternal life.

It is one of the greatest tragedies of church history that millions of people can believe hundreds and maybe even thousands of gospel truths, but not believe the one truth which is found at the very heart of the gospel, which is that God gives eternal life to anybody and everybody who simply and only believes in Jesus Christ for it. Though one does not need to believe the entire gospel to receive eternal life (and nobody can believe all of it anyway), one of the central truths at the heart of the gospel which must be believed is the truth about God’s absolutely free offer of eternal life through Jesus Christ. Eternal life is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.

Salvation

This is true because, just like the word “gospel,” the way the word is often used today is very different from the way the word is used in Scripture. When people talk about “salvation” today or “being saved,” what they most often have in mind is the idea of receiving the forgiveness of sins so we can escape hell and go to heaven when we die. But in biblical usage, the noun “salvation” (Gk., sōteria) and the verb “save” (Gk., sōzō) very rarely have anything to do with receiving eternal life or going to heaven when we die. Instead, the words are most often used in connection with some sort of temporal or physical deliverance. We can be saved from enemies, saved from sickness, saved from drowning, saved from suffering, or even saved from a premature physical death. While “salvation” is sometimes used in connection with sin, this is only because sin often has devastating physical and temporal consequences in our life. To be saved from sin means to be delivered from the destruction and damage of sin in our lives.

One resource that shows this quite clearly is Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary. Under the entry for “Save, Saving,” the dictionary includes the following options:

1. 
   Of material and temporal deliverance from danger, suffering, etc., e.g., Matt 8:25; Mark 13:20; Luke 23:35; John 12:27; 1 Tim 2:15; 2 Tim 4:18; Jude 5; from sickness, Matt 9:22; so Mark 5:34; Luke 8:48; Jas 5:15
   
2. 
   Of the spiritual and eternal salvation granted immediately by God to those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, e.g., Acts 2:47, 16:31; Rom 8:24; Eph 2:5, 8; 1 Tim 2:4; 2 Tim 1:9; Titus 3:5; of human agency in this, Rom 11:4; 1 Cor 7:16; 9:22
   
3. 
   Of the present experiences of God’s power to deliver from the bondage of sin, e.g., Matt 1:21; Rom 5:10; 1 Cor 15:2; Heb 7:25; Jas 1:21; 1 Pet 3:21; of human agency in this, 1 Tim 4:16
   
4. 
   Of the future deliverance of believers at the second coming of Christ for his saints, being deliverance from the wrath of God to be executed upon the ungodly at the close of this age and from eternal doom, e.g., Rom 5:9
   
5. 
   Of the deliverance of the nation of Israel at the second advent of Christ, e.g., Rom 11:26
   
6. 
   Inclusively for all the blessings bestowed by God on men in Christ, e.g., Luke 19:10; John 10:9; 1 Cor 10:33; 1 Tim 1:15
   
7. 
   Of those who endure to the end of the time of the Great Tribulation, Matt 10:22; Mark 13:13
   
8. 
   Of the individual believer, who, though losing reward at the judgment seat of Christ hereafter, will not lose his salvation, 1 Cor 3:15; 5:5
   
9. 
   Of the deliverance of the nations at the Millennium, Rev 21:24⁰
   

To help the reader of Scripture know what sort of “salvation” is in view when they are studying it, I recommend that whenever you comes across the words “save” or “salvation” in Scripture, you stop, replace it mentally with the word “deliver” or “deliverance” and then ask yourself, “Deliverance from what?” If you look in the surrounding context, you will quickly discover that the deliverance in view has nothing to do with gaining eternal life or going to heaven when you die.

When I was a pastor, Dr. Earl Radmacher once came and spoke in my church. I introduced him as the author of numerous Christian books, the editor of the best-selling NKJV Nelson Study Bible, and the president emeritus of Western Seminary. At that time, one of his most recent books had been Salvation, which is part of the Chuck Swindoll Leadership library, and is a book I highly recommend. After this introduction he got up to teach and began with a word of prayer. He said this:

Father, I thank you for bringing me to speak to these men and women today, and I pray that as I speak to them, many of them would be saved this hour, and I pray also, that you would save me this hour as well. Amen.

I knew this was coming because this is something Dr. Radmacher often did when he spoke in churches, but it was still enjoyable to glance around at the people in the church and watch them open their eyes and blink in confusion at each other. You could almost hear their thoughts: “Did I just hear what I thought I heard? Did this author, preacher, seminary president, and Bible scholar just ask to get saved? Did our pastor invite one of those unsaved liberal Bible scholars we’ve heard rumors about into our pulpit today?”

Dr. Radmacher went on to explain that his prayer was not only genuinely spoken, but was also an opening illustration for what he wanted to teach. He truly did want to get saved that hour as he spoke—saved from preaching or teaching anything that might be in error. He also wanted his hearers to get saved—saved from believing some wrong things about the word “salvation.” He went on to show what the words “save” and “salvation” mean in Scripture, and how many tricky and confusing passages can be immediately cleared up simply by recognizing that when the text talks about “being saved” it is not talking about gaining eternal life or going to heaven when you die.

If there is one word which causes the most confusion in Christianity today about the nature and conditions of our eternal life, it is this word “saved.” Take for example, the debate that rages over the phrase “Once Saved, Always Saved.” When some people talk about “Once Saved, Always Saved” they have some verses which seem to indicate “salvation” lasts forever, but those who are opposed to eternal security point out numerous verses which say that “salvation” depends on continued obedience, faithfulness, and good works. The debate is easily solved, however, when we realize that almost none of those verses which talk about “salvation” are actually talking about eternal life. We can hold to eternal security while still affirming that most verses that talk about "salvation" affirm a conditional deliverance from some sort of temporal and physical calamity.

Then there is the whole debate which rages over the statement in James 2 that faith alone does not save. What a confusing text! But it is not nearly as confusing once we realize that to be “saved” in James 2 has nothing whatsoever to do with gaining eternal life and going to heaven when we die.

And we must not forget the statement by Paul in 1 Timothy 2:15 that women will be saved through childbearing. Due to a misunderstanding of the word “saved” this verse has been tragically used by some misogynistic authoritarian male religious leaders to require women to remain barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, because otherwise, they cannot be “saved.”

As we study Calvinism, we will see that a large number of the texts used to defend Calvinism depend on a faulty understanding of the word “saved.” Due to the fact that it is understood to be referring to eternal life and going to heaven when we die, numerous texts are misinterpreted and misapplied so that what should be understood as a passage that encourages and instructs us on how to live our lives so that we can experience God’s life now becomes a passage on how to live our lives so that we can prove that we will have eternal life in the future. We will see this as we go through the various texts.

What then is the definition of “save” or “salvation”? It means “deliverance.” Most of the time, this deliverance has nothing to do with gaining eternal life or going to heaven when we die, but instead, refers to some sort of temporal deliverance from calamity. This deliverance might be physical, psychological, emotional, relational, spiritual, or financial. There are, of course, eternal consequences which we can be delivered from as well, such as a loss of reward at the judgment seat of Christ, but we will reserve this discussion for later in this chapter when we talk about rewards.

For now, let us move on to defining a word that is closely related to salvation (as defined above), namely, forgiveness.

Forgiveness

When seeking to understand the biblical definition of forgiveness, it must first be understood that there are three Greek words for forgiveness.

The first type of forgiveness is charizomai. This is the kind of forgivenss we often think of as “God’s unconditional forgiveness.” This makes sense, because it is based on the word charis, which means “grace.” As such, we could understand this type of forgiveness as the act of being gracious. It refers to the removal of guilt, but not necessarily the removal of consequences. Charizomai is God’s free pardon (cf. Luke 7:42-43; 2 Cor 2:7, 10; 12:13; Col 2:13; 3:13), and is offered freely, to all, with absolutely no conditions. This kind of forgiveness is a free gift of God to every single person on earth, emanating purely from God’s love and grace. Due to this sort of forgiveness, you have been forgiven of every sin, no matter what. You are forgiven whether you ask for it or not, whether you accept it or not, and whether you know it or not.

The second kind of forgiveness is aphēsis. It is best to think of aphēsis as release. The verb form means to let go or remit. It is used of the release of captives and slaves, of the cancellation of debt, or even of divorce (LXX: Isa 61:1; Jer 34:8-17; Ezek 46:17; Matt 6:12; Matt 13:36). Unlike charizomai forgiveness, aphēsis forgiveness is usually not without condition. This second sort of forgiveness is usually conditioned upon confession and repentance. In other words, there is no aphēsis forgiveness unless there is confession and repentance first (cf. Luke 1:77; 3:3; 4:18; 24:47; Eph 1:7; Heb 9:22; 10:18). This makes sense when we understand that sin enslaves us and puts us in bondage. If we do not repent of our sin, that is, if we do not turn away from it and turn back toward God, how can we gain freedom, liberty, or release from it? We cannot.

Note that even if we do not gain aphēsis,we still have charizomai from God. He freely forgives us out of His grace, and calls us to repent so that we might also gain aphēsis. If we do not, He still loves as forgives us (charizomai), but we will continue to experience bondage and enslavement to sin.

Finally, there is the third kind of forgiveness, which comes from the Greek word apoluō. Apoluō is based on the Greek word luō, which means “I loose.” So this sort of forgiveness is to be loosed, or set free. This word is nearly indistinguishable from aphēsis, and may be nearly synonymous. There may be some small shades of differences, but nothing worth noting here.

So how does all this help us understand the biblical concept of forgiveness?

First of all, we need to understand that we are forgiven, freely, by God’s grace, of all our sins, no matter what. God has graciously forgiven us (charizomai) of all our sins—past, present, and future—whether we confess and repent of these sins or not. All people have this gracious forgiveness (charizomai) from God, whether they are a Christian or not. As far as God is concerned, your guilt has been removed from you. Your sin is no longer an issue with God.

However, we all still struggle with the consequences of sin in our lives and in our relationships. The biblical answer to this problem is to first of all recognize that we have the gracious and loving forgiveness of God, but then to admit to God that we have actually messed up our lives by failing to live according to His instructions, and then seeking to take steps and make changes which allow us to live according to God’s will. The biblical words for what I have just described are confession (admit, agree) and repent (turn from sin and turn toward obedience). When we do this, we receive release (aphēsis) from the captivating power of sin in our lives.

When understood this way, we see that aphēsis forgiveness (and apoluō) has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not a person goes to heaven when they die. Aphēsis forgiveness is about whether or not we live in bondage and enslavement to sin here and now in this life. This sort of forgiveness is not about whether or not God “forgives” us. He does and He has! No, seeking to gain release (aphesis) from our sins through confession and repentance is about whether or not we gain freedom from the destructive power of sin in our lives which seeks to wreak havoc in our lives, our health, our marriages, our family, our finances, our jobs, and pretty much everything else.

God does not want us to live our lives surrounded by destruction, addiction, and enslavement, and so He encourages us to confess and repent from the sins He has already forgiven us for, and in so doing, gain release, freedom, and liberty from the damaging consequences of sin. This is why, by the way, forgiving others is so important. In Matthew 6:14-15, Jesus is talking about aphēsis forgiveness. When we forgive others in this way, it is just as much for us as it is for them, because harboring a spirit and attitude of unforgiveness is emotionally and spiritually damaging. This is how God “releases” us when we “release” others. When we release or forgive others, we ourselves are released from the destructive and damaging consequences of unforgiveness.

So when we read the Bible and encounter the words “forgive” or “forgiveness,” how should we understand these words? One thing to do would be to get an interlinear Bible so that you can see when the text is talking about aphēsis forgiveness and when it has charizomai in view. But if you don’t have an interlinear Bible, you can simply look in the context of the verse which talks about forgiveness, and if there are conditions involved to receive this forgiveness (such as repenting, confessing, or forgiving others), you can be almost certain that the forgiveness in question is aphēsis. If, however, the forgiveness is being offered freely by God to all without condition, then you can be confident that the forgiveness in question is charizomai.

Faith alone in Jesus Christ grants us eternal life. But all Christians still struggle with sin. Many still sin just as much as they did before they were Christians. Though they have believed in Jesus for eternal life, there is still a pattern of sin in their lives from which they just cannot break free. As a result of this ongoing power of sin in their lives, some of them begin to wonder if they are truly Christians. Sadly, many books, pastors, and Christian leaders only reinforce this idea. They teach that if you have patterns of habitual sin in your life, you have good reason to question whether or not you actually have eternal life.

But instead of this damaging line of thought, it is much better to realize that the way to gain release from the power of sin in our lives is not by wondering whether or not God has truly forgiven us and accepted us into His family (He has!), but by accepting by faith that God loves us completely, and wants us to break free from sin even more than we do. This process of release (aphēsis forgiveness) begins by agreeing with Him that we have sinned (confession), and then making the changes necessary in our lives (repentance) to get back onto the path of righteousness. With this in mind, it would be wise to turn next to defining the term “repentance.”

Repentance

What the Bible says about repentance is quite controversial. In some circles, repentance is a necessary first step to conversion, usually preceding faith. Those who hold this view often say things like “Repent and believe.” The idea, of course, is that in order to receive eternal life, people must first repent of their sin, and then secondly, believe in Jesus. Passages such as Mark 1:15 where John the Baptist calls on people to “repent and believe the gospel” seem to support such a view.

However, since turning from sin as a precondition for faith is a form of good works, many Christians are uncomfortable with defining repentance this way, and so think of it instead as a synonym for faith. They note that the Greek word for repentance (metanoia) literally means “to change the mind” and so those who hold this view argue that repentance is simply the process of changing the mind about the source of one’s eternal life. While previously we might have thought that we could gain or earn eternal life through our own merit and good works, once we recognize that we are sinners in need of God’s grace, we change our mind about how to receive eternal life (that is, we repent), and believe in Jesus for eternal life instead. In this way, repentance and faith are two sides of the same coin.

I am convinced that both views are partially right and partially wrong. While it is true that repentance literally means “to change the mind,” the term is almost always used in reference to sin and so it is accurate to think about repentance as a turning away from sin and back toward God. When we repent, we change our mind about our behavior, and in so doing, actually change our behavior as well. Yet despite the fact that repentance refers to a turning from sin and turning toward obedience, this does not in any way mean that repentance helps us earn or merit eternal life. Eternal life is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. Turning from sin is not required.

It is probably best to think of repentance as an aspect of discipleship. Both believers and unbelievers can understand God’s instructions in Scripture, see the devastating consequences of sin in their own lives, and as a result, repent of their sin and seek to follow God instead. If unbelievers do this, such repentance may help bring them to the place where they believe in Jesus for eternal life, but if this happens, such repentance does not in any way contribute to their eternal life. Of course, once a person believes in Jesus for eternal life, they can still (and should) repent of sin that they commit so that their lives can be transformed more and more into the image and likeness of Jesus Christ.

So what is repentance? It is a turning from sin and returning to the life God wants for us. This turning from sin does not help us earn or keep eternal life, but does help us follow Jesus on the path of discipleship. Repentance helps us gain freedom from the damaging and addicting power of sin in our lives. Remembering this will help clarify the scores of passages in the New Testament which talk about repentance. These passages are not calling people to make changes to their behavior so that they can receive eternal life. No, passages on repentance are calling all people to change their lives so that they can avoid the negative and physical consequences of sin and live the life of joy and freedom that God wants.

Repentance is vitally important for living life with God and with each other the way life was meant to be lived, but repentance is not one of the conditions for receiving eternal life from God. Thankfully, eternal life is a free gift of God to anyone and everyone who believes in Jesus for it. But what is “eternal life”? Let us look at this term next.

Eternal Life

The definition of eternal life is simple: Eternal life is life that never ends and cannot be lost. Eternal life is life without end. There is probably not much dispute over this, and so you may be wondering why this term was included in a list of controversial word definitions. The reason is not because of the term “eternal life” itself, but because of all the other terms in Scripture that are often (and wrongfully) equated with eternal life.

One of the reasons people get so confused about the conditions for receiving eternal life is that they equate terms and ideas in the Bible with eternal life which do not refer to eternal life. Ever since the Black Plague swept through Europe, Western Christianity has had an unhealthy preoccupation with what happens to people after they die, and as a result, has often read the Bible through life-after-death colored glasses so that everything seems to be teaching about what happens to people after they die.

The truth is that there is relatively little in the Bible about what happens to people after they die, and most of the terms and ideas in Scripture which we think teach about heaven or the afterlife are actually teaching about how to live our lives here and now on earth.

Numerous problems arise in the thinking of many Christians from the mistaken belief that the Bible has numerous synonyms for eternal life. It doesn’t. Most often, when the authors of Scripture want to write about eternal life, they use the words “eternal life” (or “everlasting life” in some translations). However, there are numerous other terms and phrases in the Bible that modern readers often confuse with “eternal life,” and as a result, end up with confused theology as well. Below is a brief description of five of these terms with an explanation of what these terms actually mean.

Saved and salvation. We have already discussed this word above, but the misuse of this word as a synonym for eternal life is so prevalent, I thought it would be wise to mention it here again. When the Bible uses the words “save” or “salvation,” it is almost never talking about eternal life, but is instead referring to some sort of temporal or physical deliverance from sickness, death, enemies, or other calamity. Sin has disastrous consequences in our life, and when Scripture talks about being saved from sin, it is not referring to deliverance from hell and going to heaven when we die, but about being delivered from the damaging effects of sin in our lives here and now.

Kingdom of Heaven and Kingdom of God. Many Christians believe that these terms refer to “heaven” itself, and more specifically, when Scripture talks of entering or inheriting the Kingdom, that this refers to going to heaven when we die. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God are two terms which refer to the rule and reign of God. God does reign, of course, in heaven, but God also seeks to rule and reign in our lives, and on this earth. This rule and reign of God is accomplished in various ways, but primarily as people start living according to the principles of God’s guidelines for how life is to be lived. This begins in our own life, and moves outward from there. As such, entering and inheriting the Kingdom of Heaven is not about receiving eternal life or going to heaven when we die, but is concerned with how we live our lives right now on this earth as citizens of God’s Kingdom.

Inheritance and inheriting. The Bible often talks about the Christian inheritance or what we can inherit as followers of Jesus. As this inheritance is almost always associated with obedience or a life of faithful living, people who think that our inheritance is the same thing as eternal life from God will get very confused about how to receive eternal life. But once we realize that our inheritance is something above and beyond the reception of eternal life, most of these passages become quite clear. Eternal life is a free gift of God to all who simply and only believe in Jesus for it. When we believe, we are adopted into God’s family and become His children. But God’s inheritance of honor, privilege, and recognition at the Judgment Seat of Christ is reserved for those children who live as Jesus lived and follow God’s will and ways for our lives. Just as rebellious and unfaithful children are sometimes written out of their parent’s inheritance in this world, so also, while God will never abandon or forsake His children, we can lose some of our inheritance if we fail to follow Him.

Reward. The concept of rewards is almost identical to that of inheritance. Most people do not realize it, but the biblical teaching on rewards is one of the most prevalent teachings in the New Testament. The concept is everywhere. And much like inheritance, the biblical teaching on rewards often includes calls for faithfulness, obedience, self-sacrifice, and loving service. So if people think that when the Bible talks about reward, it is actually referring to eternal life, it is no wonder that people get confused about how to receive the free gift of eternal life. But again, just as with inheritance, as soon as we realize that there is a difference between a gift and a reward, all of those confusing texts make much more sense.

Again, this way of reading Scripture is simply common sense. Nobody ever receives rewards for their birthday or for Christmas; we receive gifts. On the other hand, if you heroically rescue your neighbor from a fire, or perform excellently at work above and beyond what was expected, you do not receive a gift for your actions, but a reward. It is similar when it comes to Scripture and how God deals with us. Eternal life is a free gift of God’s grace. It is given simply because God loves us. Reward, on the other hand, is an added bonus or additional incentive God offers as a way to encourage faithful living and self-sacrificial love for others. Keeping this in mind helps clarify scores of New Testament passages.

Justification-Sanctification-Glorification. Obviously, this is not one word, but three. I have included them here, however, because I sometimes find that people get these three words confused with each other, and—more importantly for our study—sometimes confuse one (or all) of these words with the free gift of eternal life. Let’s take them one at a time, beginning with justification.

While it may be true that justification and eternal life are very closely related, they are nevertheless distinct in biblical theology. To be justified is to be “righteousified.” That is, justification is to be declared or considered righteous by God. It is not the same thing as being “made righteous.” It may be best to think of justification as being “in right standing” with God whereas eternal life is the actual reception of God’s life in us. The two are closely related and occur simultaneously when we believe in Jesus, but are still distinct. The critical point to remember is that neither the reception of eternal life, nor the declaration of righteousness actually makes one righteous in all their thoughts, actions, and behaviors. If it did, we would never sin again. But we do sin.

It is because of this ongoing sin that we need sanctification. This is the life-long process of being sanctified, that is, of becoming more holy. Sanctification occurs as we follow Jesus in discipleship and learn to love others like Jesus through the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Sanctification often leads to the temporal experience of eternal life, but is not eternal life itself. Through sanctification we begin to understand what it means to live under the rule and reign of God, and we begin to see other people as God sees them, and ourselves as well. Based on this brief description, you may realize that sanctification is vitally important for the Christian life. Indeed, it is probably not an overstatement to say that the vast majority of the New Testament is concerned with Christian sanctification.

Glorification then, is the future event when we finally gain our perfect, glorified bodies. It is with these redeemed and sinless bodies that we will live forever with God and will serve Him and one another for all eternity. Though it is an oversimplification, we could say that if justification is deliverance from the penalty of sin, and sanctification is the deliverance from the power of sin, then glorification is the deliverance from the presence of sin.

So justification, sanctification, and glorification are not themselves eternal life, but maybe it would be safe to say that they are aspects of eternal life. Justification is when we receive eternal life; sanctification is when we learn to live within eternal life; and glorification is when we fully experience eternal life.

Hopefully, the brief discussion above about some of the words that get confused with eternal life will help bring greater clarification to your mind about what eternal life is and is not. Most importantly, I hope this clarification will allow you to grasp the central idea of this book, that eternal life is not gained by anything we can do, but is an absolutely free gift of God’s grace. It is with the word “grace” we close out this chapter.

Grace

The bottom line to every key word above is grace. Grace is the key to everything. And I am not referring to the week-kneed, limp, powerless, feeble grace that you find in most Christian theology today, but the shocking, outrageous, scandalous, indiscriminate, senseless, irrational, unfair, irreligious, ridiculous, absurd, offensive, infinite grace which Jesus exhibited during His life. The only people who really object to this kind of grace are the religious people who think that their behavior merits them some sort of special privilege or position with God and are offended that the so-called “sinners” are put on equal footing with them before God. But that is exactly what God’s grace does. By grace, God loves all, forgives all, and accepts all, with no conditions, no strings attached, no fine print, no qualifications, no limits, and no ongoing requirements. The grace of God is so outlandish and foreign to every human way of thinking and living, I believe that it is absolutely impossible for any human being to place too much emphasis on grace.

But what is grace? Grace is often defined as God’s unmerited favor, or, in everyday terminology, God giving us something good that we do not deserve. Grace is different from mercy, which could be defined as God not giving us something bad that we do deserve.

I do not think that there is too much disagreement in many Christian circles on the definition of grace, and so I do not want to spend too much time trying to defend a specific definition of grace. What we do see, however, is that certain groups try to limit, restrict, or modify grace so that it is not as shocking or scandalous as it first appears.

One way that many use to limit the extent and effectiveness of grace is to connect it with the crucifixion of Jesus. It is not uncommon to hear sermons or read books where it is claimed that it is only because Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world that God can now show grace toward people. If Jesus had not died, we are told, then God could not have extended His grace toward sinners.

But once again, such an idea strips grace of all its meaning and power. Grace, by definition, is unmerited. There is nothing that can be done (or not done) to earn or merit or deserve grace. If God could not extend grace unless someone died (whether it was us or Jesus), then God’s grace is not grace at all, but is a transaction. The extension of God’s grace toward humanity was not preconditioned upon the death of Jesus on the cross. Grace does not demand payment in any way, shape, or form. Grace is not the act of God paying the debt of sin by sacrificing His own Son on the cross as our substitute. Grace has always been extended by God simply on the basis of His love. Grace would still be extended even if Jesus never died on the cross. The death of Jesus on the cross was because of God’s grace; not the grounds for it.

It is this fundamental flaw in modern theology’s understanding of grace that has caused so much trouble in many other areas of theology as well. But once we see that God gives grace for no other reason than because God is gracious, it is only then that we begin to understand the true nature of grace. So don’t limit God’s grace by thinking that God could only extend it by sacrificing Jesus to pay the debt of our sin. That’s not grace.

Another way that people limit grace is when some authors and teachers try to differentiate between “cheap grace” and “costly grace,” or start trying to limit the application of God’s grace by using theological terms like “prevenient grace” or “efficacious grace.”

The truth is that grace ceases to be grace whenever we seek to modify or limit its application, extent, or effectiveness. You cannot cheapen grace; but you can misunderstand it. Similarly, grace is always costly to the one who extends it, but absolutely free to the one who receives it. There is no other kind of grace. If one must ask for it, work to deserve it, obey to keep it, or live in a way that proves they are worthy of it, then it is not grace. Grace is extended freely to all, with no strings attached before, during, or after the reception of grace. Since we can do nothing to earn grace, we can do nothing to lose it. Grace, when it is truly given, expects nothing in return and demands nothing by way of thanks.

Below, as only he can say such thigns, are some quotes from Robert Farrar Capon’s excellent book about grace, The Mystery of Christ … & Why We Don’t Get It.

… the mysterious, reconciling grace that was revealed in Jesus is not something that got its act in gear for the first time in Jesus; rather, it is a feature of the very constitution of the universe—a feature that was there all along, for everybody and everything.⁰

[Our] promises to God ... are not capable of getting us either accepted by God or damned by God. Acceptance, according to the Gospel, is a free gift bestowed on a world full of four flushers. And it’s given to them despite their four flushing, right in the midst of their four flushing. It is not a reward for hotshot behavior in the promise-keeping department. And damnation is not a punishment for breaking promises to God—or even for breaking the commandments of God himself; it’s a consequence of stupidly throwing away the free gift of acceptance.⁰

God’s love and forgiveness toward us knows no bounds. He loves us completely, infinitely, and without restriction. It is extravagant, outrageous grace which shocks all sense of propriety. God is shameless in His love for us, so that even when we say and do things that would chase off any human being, God sticks with us and by us. As soon as we seek to limit God’s grace or restrict to a holy few, we have stopped believing in grace, and have plunged headlong into the hell of religion. Grace is free! Absolutely free. It has no limits, borders, restrictions, or conditions. It is freely given and freely received, and as such, can never be rescinded or revoked.

I can hear the objection already: But if grace is how I have been describing it above, won’t people take advantage of this kind of grace? The answer to that is “Of course they will!” But grace that comes with restrictions to avoid being abused is no longer grace.

Inevitably, whenever I speak or write about grace this way, someone objects that I am contradicting Paul who said in Romans 6:1 that we should not continue in sin so that grace may abound. Whenever someone asks this question, I am always pleased, because it shows that they are finally beginning to understand grace. In Romans 4–5, Paul has been writing about the radical, scandalous, outrageous grace that I have been presenting here as well. Note that Romans 6:1 is an objection to Paul’s teaching about grace. It is only because of what Paul has written that someone raises the objection that if what Paul is saying is true, why can’t people sin all they want? Paul goes on to explain why people should not, but he never says they cannot. And nowhere does Paul say that if people continue to live in sin, they will come to the end of God’s grace, or will prove that they were never truly justified in the first place. No, Paul argues that if a person truly understands the love and grace of God, and what God has done for them in Jesus Christ, this knowledge will lead them to live free from sin, not to live in sin even more.

This is why I like to say that Romans 6:1 is actually the litmus test for anybody’s teaching on grace. If someone is teaching about the grace of God, and after they are done, nobody raises the objection that is raised in Romans 6:1, then the teaching on grace was not truly teaching grace. A biblical explanation of grace will always lead people who have been paying attention to say, “But wait! If what you are saying is true, then why can’t I just go out and sin all I want?” If you are teaching or writing about grace and you get this question, rejoice, for you have helped someone see the shocking, scandalous, and outrageous nature of God’s grace.

Conclusion

There are numerous other words that could have been looked at as well. Words like fruit, dead, justification, sanctification, predestination, election, chosen, and numerous others, but these words are not quite as frequent as the words discussed above, and so these other words will be looked at briefly as they come up in the discussion of various biblical passages in the chapters that follow.

The bottom line to remember is that rallying cry of the Reformation was right on target: Eternal life is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone, according to Scripture alone, and for the glory of God alone. As long as we resolutely hold to these central convictions, we will see that any passage which seems to make our eternal life based on our own good works or personal merit will always mean something else, and the clues to what this “something else” might be are always found in the context of that particular passage. This is what we will see time and time again as we look at the words Calvinists use to define their theology, and compare these words with what Scripture says.



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