By johninnc
Romans 1:16: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
“If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a merry Christmas” was an aphorism often attributed to the late Don Meredith, who was a collegiate and NFL quarterback and, later, an announcer on Monday Night Football. The meaning of this phrase is that the presence of conditions (ifs and buts) so completely changes the nature of something as to make it something else entirely.
The gospel of Christ is the message of how Jesus provided completely for the salvation of man, such that anyone who receives through faith what He has done has eternal life that can never be lost or forfeited.
1 Corinthians 15:3-4: For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
The gospel means good news. There are many people within the world of professing Christendom, however, who have a corrupted view of the gospel of Christ in which they have either implicitly or explicitly added man’s work to the finished work of Christ in order to have eternal life. One of the most pernicious of these corruptions is the false gospel of Lordship “salvation” (LS).
LS is the unsupportable and unbiblical belief that the PERFORMANCE of good works, the PROMISE of good works, or the EVIDENCE of good works MUST accompany faith in Christ in order to establish, or provide evidence, that such faith has resulted in eternal life.
LS usually manifests itself in statements that superficially affirm the gospel, but then corrupt it through unbiblical caveats that include the words if and but. Following are some real-world examples gleaned from the archives of the expreacherman site:
The Ifs
If a person is a true Christian they will want to follow Jesus and obey Him…
If the man does not live differently from what he did before, both at home and abroad, his repentance needs to be repented of, and his conversion is a fiction. (Quote from 19th century Calvinist and LS preacher Charles Spurgeon)
Do you believe ONCE SAVED – ALWAYS SAVED?
What if…
In other words, if a man is not continuing in repentance and conformity to Christ, then that man has never been saved…
The Buts
My understanding is that works are not required for salvation, but…
I think we all agree that our fruit doesn’t save us, but…
Not that works are needed to obtain salvation, but…
I’m a firm believer in presenting salvation as faith in Christ (NO works), but…
The Ifs and Buts
I’m not a Lordship salvationist at all but I’ve been of the mindset that if a person is a real Christian…
If a person supposedly is born again, but the family sees no change, friends see no change, coworkers see no change, and even his or her own self sees absolutely no change …
Therefore, if a man is saved, he will pursue God all the days of his life, not because he has to, but…
Each of the above statements corrupts the gospel message by adding an unbiblical caveat. Since the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation for everyone that believes, it is of the utmost importance that we proclaim the gospel without any such add-ons, and defend it against such.
The Bible is explicitly clear that anyone who has believed in Jesus as Savior has eternal life that can never be lost or forfeited – no, ifs, ands, or buts about it.
John 5:24: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
If you would like more information about the gospel of Christ click here: THE GOSPEL
Notes From A Retired Preacher 