The Lordship Salvation preacher may condition the Eternal Salvation of his audience on whether they love Christ so much that it makes their love of their family look like hate. To give their claim authority they may quote Mat 10:37-39 and Lk 14:26.
This is Bad Kool-Aid because Christ was not conditioning a person's Eternal Salvation on them loving Him above all things, or hating anyone or anything else. He was explaining the cost of discipleship. He had many disciples, not all of which were saved. Most famously we have Judas Iscariot who was a disciple of Christ but not saved, but there were others such as those noted in Jn 6.
In John 21:15-19 we find the much beloved recounting of the restoration of Peter, after he had denied Christ three times. In English the Lord asks three times if Peter loves Him, and three times Peter responds that the Lord knows that he loves Him.
In the Greek it is a very different story.
The first two times the Lord asks Peter if He "agape" Him, or loves Him unconditionally, ultimately with a love of self-sacrifice. The kind of love that God has for people.
Peter answers saying that the Lord knows Peter "phileo" Him or loves Him like a friend.
The third time the Lord asks Peter if he loves Him like a friend, and Peter answers that the Lord knows all things and knows that he loves Him like a friend.
Each time the Lord gives Peter the mission to serve the Church. Peter is restored and given a position in Church history that dwarfs all but Jesus Christ Himself, and perhaps Paul.
The Lord Jesus Christ does not require you to love Him more than everything else, or to hate anyone, or to love Him so much that your love for other things looks like hate in order for you to be saved. It does however take this to be a fully successful disciple. We read that Peter would eventually get to that point at the end of his restoration. The Lord tells Peter that he will one day be a faithful as he desires to be, and used to boast that he would be. This faithfulness, this love, this self-sacrifice was not a requirement for Peter's Eternal Salvation, it was to be the result of a life-time of Discipleship.
Link To This Answer!
If you encounter someone spreading Bad Kool-Aid by claiming one must love Christ so much that it is like you hate everything else in order to be Eternally Saved, or to prove that you are Saved, then call foul! Tell them that they're spreading Bad Kool-Aid, then link them and their audience to this post. You can use this TinyURL: http://tinyurl.com/2uwl9sn
9 comments:
The Lord Jesus Christ does not require you to love Him more than everything else, or to hate anyone, or to love Him so much that your love for other things looks like hate in order for you to be saved.
Kev-
Here is an example of the bad kool-aide from the 2007 Resolved conference. This is from notes taken by Tim Challies of one of Steve Lawson's talks. "This other king" is Jesus. Note the last two sentences in particular:
This other king is none other than the one who is telling the parable for at the end of this age He will come bolting out of heaven. He is coming to conquer and to damn. You need to make terms of peace with this king or you will be subjected in damnation forever. Christ has made terms of peace and you need to settle out-of-court with him. You do not want to go into that final day of conflict with Christ, for He will be ruthless in the execution of justice. He offers mercy today. He will agree to terms of peace and surrender, but they are His terms of peace, not ours. His terms are this: you must love Him more than anything. If you cannot do this, you will meet Him in the final judgement [sic] and glorify God in your destruction.
Frankly, I find nothing in this that would make me want to love Jesus. And it doesn't much sound like He loves me either. It doesn't much sound like Jesus has agape love for us. There doesn't seem to be a mediator here. In fact, there is nothing of the gospel here at all. I wonder where His cross went? The terms of peace with Him are His love for me shown by His shed blood and death. My Bible tells me that we love because He first loved us. Not that we love or else. "Love Me or I'll damn you to hell" sounds like the opposite of we love because He first loved us.
Bad kool aide and very grievous to the spirit.
JanH
Jan,
Those are chilling words. You are right. There is nothing of the Saviour in them. There is nothing of the Gospel in them. There is nothing of love in them. There is nothing of grace in them. "Terms of peace and surrender?" Is this the Good News of Jesus Christ?
The religious drink in man made doctrine like wine and become drunk on it. I have no doubt at all that these words were met with thunderous applause from the dull and deceived crowd.
My heart breaks that men and women hold Bibles in their hands and cannot tell that a man is blaspheming Christ who died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.
What would such a man say to see the Lord standing before him, as a Lamb freshly slain. The man wants only to show Christ as a wrathful Overlord... not as the One who died for us to pay the full price so He could justly invite us in to Him.
My heart breaks and my mind burns with anger.
Kev
Wow, Jan & Kev, great points. The older i get in the Lord, the more I see how truly amazing His grace is to me. But it is His grace that makes me love Him more & more, though my love is so imperfect down here. Thanks for this series, bro. Kev. It is a blessing to me, as are you.
Kev-
Challies said the room was "shocked." I don't know what they thought or if there was thunderous applause or if people were troubled by it. Challies gave it high approval.
The problem is there is some truth in it. Yes, when Jesus returns to earth it will be in judgment as the conquering King. But the gospel is a message of grace. Lawson preached Christ as King. He did not preach Him as Savior. I don't know if Lawson is a Covenantal Dominionist or not, but we do not have a kingdom gospel to preach today, therefore we do not preach Christ as coming King as the gospel. We preach Christ crucified, our Passover sacrificed for us. We must eat His flesh and drink His blood- appropriate His sacrifice for us. These are the terms of peace with God- His Son our Sacrifice.
It is grievous and it makes me mad too that they do this. It is just so frustrating.
JanH
Hi Jan,
LIke all teachers of error they win their audience by including a lot of truth. It's a great defence mechanism, and it works. Most people they preach to are not equipped to sift their arguments.
I wonder if the room was "shocked" like those who listened to Paul Washer's "most shocking sermon" that is much beloved by his followers.
If I could do anything for Christians it would be to get them to read their Bibles for themselves. That was the purpose of my heart for Fail-Safe I hope that the Lord will give me opportunity to do so much more.
Kev
Kev:
Good article and great new look for your blog.
In my book I included an excerpt from Lawson's sermon as reported by Challies. Here it is.
One of the most extreme examples of conditioning salvation on a commitment to do the works of a disciple comes from Pastor Steve Lawson.
"If you want to receive this gift it will cost you the total commitment of all that you are to the Lord Jesus Christ. There are many here who think they are saved, but are not; they have never really done business with God…. I want to single you out in the midst of this crowd. Have you taken up a cross in order to follow after Christ? Have you recognized your own sinfulness, acknowledged that God’s judgment is true, have you acknowledged Christ’s right to rule your life? Have you submitted to the Lordship of Christ? Have you really come to the end of self? Because Jesus does not begin until you end."
Tim Challies confirmed that Lawson’s sermon on “true discipleship” from Luke 14:24-33 was an evangelistic appeal meant for the lost. Lawson conditions the reception of “this gift” (the gift of eternal life) on an upfront “total commitment” from a lost man. In the latter portion of the excerpt Lawson is saying that a relation with “Jesus does not begin” until the lost man has come to the end of himself. If in Lawson’s message he spoke of following Christ, self denial and cross bearing in the context of a born again believer needing to make those commitments to his Lord and Savior he (Lawson) would be on biblical ground. Lawson, however, took those commands meant for the believer and instead presents them as evangelistic conditions that must be agreed to in exchange for salvation.
Thanks Lou, I intend on having your book inform some of the Bad Kool-Aid posts to come.
It's hard to keep them short, but I hope to maintain very short posts that simply answer the question at hand.
I like the new look too! :) Nice and fresh, but I expect to want another change in a couple of years.
Kev
Lawson, however, took those commands [following Christ, self denial, and cross bearing] meant for the believer and instead presents them as evangelistic conditions that must be agreed to in exchange for salvation.
This is because earlier in the sermon he said that
"Jesus longs for and died for disciples. Not one drop of blood was shed beyond the disciples."
Therefore unless you are willing to become a disciple in order to get saved there is no reason to believe that Jesus died for you.
Hence we have Lawson skipping over the cross, that is Christ's cross, here:
Have you taken up a cross in order to follow after Christ? Have you recognized your own sinfulness, acknowledged that God’s judgment is true, have you acknowledged Christ’s right to rule your life? Have you submitted to the Lordship of Christ?
In between "have you... acknowledged God's judgment is true" and "have you acknowledged Christ's right to rule your life" should be something like, "have you placed your faith and trust in Christ's death on the cross as the propitiation for your sins?"
But limited atonement precludes this and introduces the need for other requirements.
JanH
I'm sorry, this makes me angry. I have sat under teaching such as this for years & it certainly confuses. Thank you bro. Kev for helping clarify that Jesus died for sinners, not good people. Otherwise, I'd have had absolutely zero hope of being saved. As the words of William R. Newell said in my favorite hymn, "Oh the mighty gulf that God did span at Calvary!!"
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