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What Is Free Grace Theology?

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What Is Free Grace Theology? IN GRACEwww.faithalone.org FOCUSSEPTEMBER & OCTOBER 2014 WHAT IS FREE GRACE THEOLOGY? Election for Baptists Why Election Is to Service and Privilege, Not to Eternal Life Proclaiming the Gospel Is There Room for Diversity? Shall We Pray? 1 Timothy 2:1-4 2 SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2014 CONTENTS 3 Letter from the Editor 17 Jesus’ Servants Are Believers 4 Election for Baptists by Bill Fiess by Shawn Lazar WHAT IS 19 Shall We Pray? 10 Proclaiming the Gospel 1 Timothy 2:1-4 by Phil Congdon FREE GRACE by Zane Hodges 12 Remembering Dale THEOLOGY? 21 Adventures in Zambia Boring by Jerry and Beth Pattillo by Bob Wilkin 31 Q&A 12 Grace on the Go by Staff 26 What Is Free Grace Theology? by Bob Wilkin GRACE IN FOCUS Volume 29, Number 5 GRACE IN FOCUS is a free, bimonthly magazine about the © 2014, by Grace Evangelical Society gospel, assurance, and related issues. For your free U.S. EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Robert N. Wilkin, Ph.D. subscription sign up on our website or send your name and EDITOR AND DESIGN Shawn Lazar address to 4851 S I-35 E, Ste. 203, Corinth, TX 76210. If you ASSOCIATE EDITOR Kyle Kaumeyer would like to make a donation to offset the costs of printing PROOFING Bethany Taylor and postage, it would be greatly appreciated. CIRCULATION Mark “Gone Fishing” Gray Address changes? Questions? Comments? Prayer requests? Tes- timonies? Send them all to [email protected]. Or write to Grace in Focus, 4851 S I-35 E, Suite 203, Corinth, TX 76210. 2 SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2014 SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2014 LETTER FROM THE EDITOR he Free Grace message is one that impacts every area of life and every minute of every day we live. Far from inspiring sinfulness, the grace of TGod inspires holiness. Those truths are evident in this issue. There are two wonderful articles in this issue which we first published over twenty years ago, by Zane Hodges (on prayer) and by Phil Congdon (on diversity and the gospel). If you read them before, you will surely delight as I did to read them again. If you’ve not read them, you are in for a real treat. Shawn’s article “Election for Baptists” isn’t about President Jimmy Carter, a Southern Baptist elected to the White House. But it is about being chosen to perform a task, whether President, doctor (chosen for medical school), lawyer (law school), pilot, Navy Seal, Pastor, etc. Shawn clears up much confusion about the Biblical teaching on election. It is common today for Pastors and theologians to speak of true and false believers and true and false servants of God. Bill Fiess bucks that trend. He makes Making an a strong case that every use of the words servant(s) or fellow servant(s) in Matthew’s Gospel refers to born- again people if servants of Christ are in view. Jerry and Beth Pattillo give moving reports of their Impact short-term missions trips to Zambia. They have each been able to evangelize a small group of orphans one- Bob Wilkin, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF on-one and have seen nearly all in their groups come to faith in Christ for everlasting life. A subject dear to my heart is the Free Grace message. But what is the heart of that message? Can you concisely explain what that message is? I believe I’ve uncovered three essential elements of Free Grace Theology. The Q & A section is becoming a reader favorite. What does it mean to love God with your mind? Did the Lord Jesus actually command Christians to pursue eternal rewards? If you wish others to receive our free magazine, simply provide us with their mailing address ([email protected]). SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2014 3 for Baptists Why Biblical election is to service and privilege, Electionnot to eternal life. by Shawn Lazar 4 SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2014 “There isn’t a single verse in the Bible that says God elects individuals for eternal life or for eternal death.” ew debates among Baptists are stone at a hair’s breadth and not miss” (Jgs 20:16, empha- livelier than the ones over divine sis added; cf. Exod 14:7; 1 Sam 24:3; 2 Chron 13:3). election. Interestingly, despite their other disagreements, The Individual/Corporate Pattern Calvinistic Baptists and Armin- There are numerous OT examples of God choos- ian Baptists both assume that ing individuals to serve Him, elections that were often Biblical election is about God implicitly corporate. choosing individuals for eternal For example, God chose Abraham. His election was life or death. But is that assump- vocational because he was chosen to be the father of a tion Biblical? Free Grace Baptists people, the Jews (Gen 12:1-3). Through Abraham, the increasingly deny it. To “elect” something, simply Jews were elect (Deut 7:6; Ps 33:12, etc.). Their election means to “choose” it, and there isn’t a single verse in the was also vocational because they were meant to be “a Bible that says God elects individuals for eternal life or kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exod 19:6) and for eternal death. When you look up the passages deal- F the progenitors of the Messiah. But individual Jews were ing with God’s elections or choices, you find they are to not elect in and of themselves. Instead, they were elect service and privilege, not to eternal life. In sum, Biblical because they belonged to Israel. election is vocational: God chooses people, places, and We find the same pattern in the case of Aaron. God things to serve Him in a task or mission. chose Aaron as an individual. His election was voca- tional because he was chosen to be a High Priest (Num The Old Testament Evidence 17:5). Aaron’s individual election was also implicitly There are dozens of examples of election in the OT. corporate because God chose his descendants to serve as All of them involve down-to-earth choices, not eternal a line of priests after him and chose Aaron’s tribe (Levi) destiny. For example, wives are said to be chosen by their to be helpers to the priests (Num 18:2-4). But individual husbands (Gen 6:2). Pieces of land and city plots are membership in the priesthood was conditional. Disobe- chosen to live in (Gen 13:11; Deut 23:16). And bulls are dient priests like Nadab and Abihu could be cut off from carefully chosen to be sacrificed (1 Kgs 18:23). There are their vocation via death (Lev 10:1-3). also numerous examples of God choosing places to serve Lastly, consider king David. God chose David. His Him, such as Jerusalem (1 Kgs 8:44) and the Temple election was vocational because he was chosen to be (2 Chron 7:16). Clearly, none of those elections were to king (2 Sam 6:21; 1 Kgs 8:16). David’s election was also eternal life. People, places, and things are chosen because implicitly corporate. God chose his house (Judah) to be they are best suited for the task at hand. the royal line (2 Sam 7:12-16; 1 Chron 28:4). But whether Being “elect” or “chosen” can also have a qualitative or not any particular descendant became and remained meaning in the OT. In English, we speak about “choice” king was entirely conditional. Of all of David’s sons, seats at a concert, or “select” cuts of meat. In the same only Solomon was chosen to be king over the individual way, the OT often describes certain soldiers as being nation. And when he disobeyed God by being unfaith- “select men” who are ideally suited for a mission. For ful in his vocation, God tore away most of the kingdom example: “Among all these people were seven hundred from his son Rehoboam (1 Kgs 11:9-13). select men who were left-handed; every one could sling a SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2014 5 Abraham, Aaron, and David were a remnant in Israel (Isa 49:6), to And what were we chosen in all elected by God, but not to eter- be a light to the Gentiles (Isa 49:6), Christ to do? Paul told the Ephesians nal life. They were chosen to serve. and to suffer for man’s salvation that we were “created in Christ Jesus Whether or not they were regenerate (Isa 52:13–53:12). The Messiah was for good works” (Eph 2:10). Our elec- was a separate issue. chosen for a mission. tion is vocational. We are called to The NT reveals that Jesus is the love our neighbors and do good to The Apostles Were Messiah, the Chosen One. He was them. Chosen to Serve not chosen to receive eternal salva- tion, but to give it to others. Even “Appointed” to Eternal The worldview of the Apostles was Jesus’ enemies knew the Messiah shaped by the OT. Their thought Life? (Acts 13:48) was chosen to save others (Luke about election is no exception. In Acts 13:48, we read: “Now 23:35). In sum, He was chosen to be Throughout the NT, we find that when the Gentiles heard this, a Servant (Matt 12:18). election is vocational. People are they were glad and glorified the When God elected Jesus, He had chosen for service and privilege, not word of the Lord. And as many as a corporate people in mind. Just as for eternal life. had been appointed to eternal life God chose the Jews in Abraham, the For example, Jesus chose twelve believed.” The word often trans- men to be His Apostles (Luke 6:13).
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