Simply By Grace Podcast

In this episode, Charlie walks through a very controversial passage, James 2:14-26. It's controversial because it's often misunderstood and consequently misapplied. James says some strange things that seem to contradict Paul like "Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." But it can be confusing if you don't understand the context and the distinction between discipleship and salvation. 

Most people understand this passage as a call to look at your works to prove you're saved. If you don't have works, it proves you're not a Christian. The problem with this is that it takes the focus off of Christ, who did all the saving, and creates an inward focus by the individual to determine if the works they are doing will be sufficient.

Those same people will also argue that you have to have "biblical faith" or the "right kind of faith" and they pull from James saying "Even the demons believe..." So if you had that right kind of faith then, you're saved. The argument goes like this: "A person who says that he believes in Jesus Christ as Savior, but does not do good works is not really saved. He is like the demons who believe in God but are not saved because they have not submitted to God or obeyed Him." This is at best a careless misuse of the verse. 

Many pastors and theologians explain James this way saying "we are saved by faith alone but the faith that saves is never alone." Sounds like a good example of an oxymoron.

But could James be talking about justification by works before men?  Could he be talking about encouraging Christian growth? The answer is yes, so be sure to listen and find out how to break down this passage and make proper sense of it, and how it can be applied in your walk today.

For further reading checkout Gracenotes #47 Demon Faith and the Misuse of James 2:19. 

In this special podcast, Charlie expounds upon his latest Gracenotes #91 which is a second part in his Gracenotes Common Objections to Free Grace. While certainly not an exhaustive list Charlie explains some of the more common ones, many of which are either strawman arguments or other logical fallacies. Part 2 objections include the following:

• Objection #7: Free Grace theology cheapens grace by not requiring commitment and good works.
• Objection #8: Free Grace teaches that faith is merely mental assent.
• Objection #9: Free Grace is antinomian.
• Objection #10: Free Grace believes a person can apostatize (fall away from the Christian faith) and still be saved.
• Objection # 11: Free Grace is a recent historical and theological aberration.
• Objection #12: The Free Grace Movement is an irrelevant minority movement

Charlie hopes this will help encourage you in your faith and growth in your Christian walk.

So what objections have you run into and how have you answered them?

For further study and objections 1 through 6, see Gracenotes 90 Part 1.

Charlie spoke abroad and addressed a topic related to assurance. Can a person be 99% sure of their salvation and grow in grace? 

Assurance is a bedrock of our spiritual growth and maturity. Charlie spoke on the problem of assurance deficit disorder plaguing churches today in another podcast, but how does this lack of assurance affect the believer?  What are the real world impacts to the believer in lacking assurance.

Keep in mind, assurance is our understanding of our security in Christ. Can a person be 99% sure? Charlie argues that 99% sure is no assurance at all. Being 99% sure begs the question, do we look to ourselves for salvation or do we rest in the power and promises of God?

GraceLife's slogan is "sharing the gospel of grace with the unsaved, and the grace of the gospel with the saved."  So, in this podcast Charlie emphasizes the last half, helping to ground Christians in the "grip of grace" and moving from doubt to discipleship. A key component to this is assurance.

1 John 5:13 - These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

For further reading checkout GraceNotes #6 Questions of Assurance From Romans 8

C.S. Lewis said that "To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you."

What did he mean by this exactly? Why is forgiveness so important? Why is it necessary to do?  

In this podcast, Charlie teaches us how to become a person of grace through forgiveness. The focus of this podcast is the grace to forgive with a focus on Matthew chapter 18. 

One of the key elements in becoming a person of grace is understanding and practicing the importance of forgiveness. Forgiveness is undoubtedly one of the hardest things that God asks us to do. It has been called an unnatural act because seeking revenge and retaliation is much easier than allowing forgiveness to take root. Our natural bent is to seek revenge and it's also what the world teaches. However, revenge or retaliation in any form, never resolves the issue.  

The Bible however, teaches the opposite. To become a person of Grace you must understand and practice forgiveness.

For a related reading, checkout Gracenote #33 The Extent of God's Forgiveness

Charlie spoke at the 2020 FGA conference about six selected common objections to Free Grace. The six objections include:

1) Free Grace is Easy Believism (aka Decisionism) - it may be simple to believe, but it's not easy. Why would God make salvation difficult?

2) Free Grace Rejects Jesus as Lord and still be saved - we don't teach this as part of salvation but we certainly teach it regarding discipleship. 

3) Free grace does not teach that a sinner must turn from sins (aka Repent from sin). - If Repentance is defined as turning from sin, then yes, we don't teach that. But if repentance is defined as a change of mind, then yes, many do teach that. Repentance isn't defined by outward actions.

4) Free grace believes a saved person does not have to show evidence of good works (James 2:14 - faith without works is dead) - Well who says that? Which works and how often, and how do you define good works? Which ones are legitimate? Good works can be evidence, but not proof. 

5) Free Grace leads to false assurance of salvation - John MacArthur publicly admitted he's 99% sure he's saved. Those who object as he does, cannot say they are 100% sure because they are basing it off of subjective assurance, not objective assurance. Our assurance is based on the power and promises of God, not based on works before nor works after salvation. 

6) Free Grace leads to license (aka antinomianism) - Antinomian means against the law. We are not against the law, but the law doesn't govern. Paul addresses license in Romans 6.

For more detailed information, checkout Charlie's GraceNotes - Answering Common Objections to Free Grace which deals with this very specific topic!  

In this podcast Charlie answers the question, "What about repentance?"  What does repentance mean?  You might be surprised!

One of the reasons for this discussion is that repentance, and its role in salvation, tends to be a controversial subject. Should we preach it more or less? What should we say when presenting the gospel. Do we understand what we're saying and can we explain each word?

You've probably heard from many preachers and evangelists their invitations where they say that in order to be saved you must "turn from your sins, from your self efforts and receive Christ alone as savior and Lord."  Others say that you must "repent of your sins and ask forgiveness in order to be saved." Still others note that "you must turn from every sin before receiving Christ" (In other words clean yourself up before you come to the cross). Another says that, "if you don't give up your sin after you repent that your repentance must have not been real." and "Thus the call resounds, is there genuine faith?" (In other words, clean yourself up after you come to the cross to prove you were saved).

As believers we've heard this language all our lives but it raises some questions. If we are required to repent of our sins, which sins must I repent from in order to be saved? How many must I repent from? What about the ones I can't think of right now, or can't recall? How do I know when enough is enough and where is that line drawn? Must I also change my conduct?  How sorry must I be?

So we'll take a look at the word repentance in this podcast and also relate it to faith and grace. We'll look at the confusion and take a look at the details. Warning: theology discussion ahead.

Charlie spoke at an FGA conference about seeing the distinctions between salvation and discipleship. This was taken from his book Grace, Salvation, and Discipleship where he breaks it down into A-Truth B-Truth...salvation truth (justification) and discipleship truth (sanctification).

Distinctions make a big difference in the Bible, even down to the letter or word and if you're not careful you can end up down a theological path that leads to poor application. So seeing distinctions in scripture is critical. 

One of the potential dangers is that the Gospel becomes corrupted. Lordship Salvation for example, says that a person must surrender and show obedience in order to be saved. They have taken discipleship truth and ported it into salvation truth. They go so far as to say every true Christian is a disciple, they have to be, otherwise they aren't saved. Reformed Calvinism and the idea of perserverance of the saints says that unless you continue to work and die in the faith, you were never saved to begin with. Arminianism does this as well, if you unbelieve or severely sin you can lose your salvation. Likewise, legalism is simply the idea that you have to do something in order to please God. 

Needless to say this confuses people and ends up making them questions their salvation. A person cannot have assurance of salvation if it's based one's performance. "Performance based salvation" includes everything from commitments made, obedience, one's surrender, or anything that has to do with one's attempt to please God. This is a challenge to anyone who says you can have assurance and holds to performance based views.  The lie of the devil is do good and God will love you. But the fact of the matter is, you can't do good, yet God already loves you; so much so that he sent his son to die in your place and satisfy the payment for sin.

So let's keep the gospel clear so that we can preach it to the world freely and make that critical distinction between salvation and discipleship. "Only when we clearly understand what God says can we effectively share a clear gospel, be assured of our salvation, and grow in our relationship with Him."- Norman L. Geisler, Ph.D.

Almost 2000 years ago, a very frightened man asked "what must I do to be saved?" The apostle Paul gave a very simple answer...yet theologians have been arguing about it for centuries. It takes a theologian to do that right?  But what does it mean to be saved?  The issue involves the gospel itself. What is the condition for eternal salvation?

Paul said "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved."

Compare that to an answer from a modern day preacher where after his message, one of his listeners came up to him and the preacher asked him, "is there any reason you should not become a Christian tonight?"  The man responded "No".  The preacher's response was "well, let me give you a few."  So for the next few minutes the preacher began to explain that there was a cost to become a Christian and that he needed to surrender his whole life, his future, his ambitions, his relationships, his possessions, and everything he was to God. Only if he was prepared to do this could Christ then begin to give him eternal life.

The preacher leaned in and asked "so, can you still think of a reason not to become a Christian tonight?" The man responded "well, now I can think of some."  The preacher said, "Well, don't become a Christian until you're ready to surrender to Jesus Christ and you've dealt with every one of those reasons."

So what is the Biblical truth?  

In this weeks' podcast Charlie deals directly with this question.

Does a lost sinner have to hate his family to get saved? Does a lost sinner have to give up everything to the poor, deny self, take up a cross to follow Jesus just to be saved? Does a sinner have to abide in Jesus in order to get saved or stay saved? Is following Jesus the same as coming unto Jesus? According to lordship salvation, a sinner must commit, obey, and promise to do good works in order to be saved. Is this what the Bible teaches about receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and the free grace that He offers? This confuses justification with sanctification and front loads the gospel with good works in order to be saved. There are many differences between salvation and discipleship:

• Salvation is a one time event
• Discipleship is a life long process
• Salvation happens when one believes and receives the gift of everlasting life
• Discipleship happens when a saved person obeys Jesus on a daily basis
  
  
• Salvation is belief in Jesus
• Discipleship is something that you do
• Salvation results in eternal life
• Discipleship results in eternal rewards
• Salvation cannot be earned, returned, or lost
• Discipleship is either rejected, neglected, or maintained

In this podcast we discuss the clear differences between salvation and discipleship.