Baptist Theology and Distinctive Doctrines — Unit 7: Salvation I: Grace, Faith, Repentance and the Free Offer of the Gospel

Key Verse

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Define grace, faith and repentance as Baptists teach them from Scripture.

2. Name the main parts of salvation: regeneration, justification, sanctification and glorification, with adoption.

3. Explain why Baptists teach that salvation is by grace through faith and not by works or ordinances.

4. Explain the free offer of the gospel and the controversy among Baptists that Andrew Fuller helped settle.

5. State three objections to the Baptist teaching on salvation and give the Baptist answer to each.

The Voice of This Unit

This unit is written from inside the Baptist tradition, for Baptist students. It is conservative and evangelical. Here we state what nearly all Baptists teach in common about how a sinner is saved. The next two units deal with questions on which Baptists have disagreed with one another, namely election, the extent of the atonement and the security of the believer. Those disagreements are real, but they take place inside a large agreement, and this unit describes that agreement.

When we meet objections, we state them fairly and then answer from Scripture. Scripture says, "Test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21).

The Need: Sin and Its Judgment

The gospel begins with bad news. Paul writes, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). The Bible teaches that sin is not only wrong deeds. It is a condition we inherit, and it affects the whole person: mind, will and heart (Romans 5:12; Ephesians 2:1-3). Its wages are death (Romans 6:23). Because we are guilty and cannot make ourselves clean, we cannot save ourselves by good works, religious rites or family background.

Baptists teach that each person stands before God as a responsible individual. This is the starting point for everything in this unit. God does not save a family, a village or a nation as a group. He calls each person to repentance and faith.

Grace

Grace means God's undeserved favor toward sinners. It is not payment for anything we have done. Paul says that we are justified "freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24). The ground of our salvation is Christ's work: His sinless life, His death on the cross in the place of sinners, and His bodily resurrection (Romans 4:25; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4). We are saved by what Christ did, not by what we do.

This is why Ephesians 2:8-9 says that salvation is "the gift of God." A gift cannot be earned. If we add our works as part of the price, the gift is no longer a gift (Romans 11:6). Baptists have held this firmly, and we have often paid a price for it. In the 1600s many of our fathers refused to believe that any church rite or any ruler's command could save a soul.

Faith

Faith is the means by which a sinner receives the gift. It is not a work that earns the gift. Paul says that to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, faith is credited for righteousness (Romans 4:4-5). Teachers have long described faith as having three parts.

Knowledge. The sinner knows the gospel facts: who Christ is and what He has done (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

Agreement. The sinner accepts that these facts are true and that they apply to him.

Trust. The sinner puts his whole weight on Christ alone. This is the heart of faith. It is like a man who does not merely believe a bridge is strong but walks across it.

Faith is more than knowing about Jesus. James says even the demons believe, and tremble (James 2:19). Saving faith is trust in a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul and Silas told the jailer at Philippi, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household" (Acts 16:31). The promise is for the household, but each person must believe for himself, and the account says that the jailer and all his household believed and were baptized.

Repentance

Repentance is the other side of the same turning. Jesus began His ministry with the words, "Repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1:15). Paul described his own preaching as "repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 20:21).

The Greek word for repentance means a change of mind. In the Bible it includes a change of mind about sin, about God and about Christ, and it leads to a change of direction. The Thessalonians "turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God" (1 Thessalonians 1:9). It includes sorrow for sin that is according to God's will (2 Corinthians 7:10), but sorrow alone is not repentance. Judas was sorry, but he did not turn to Christ.

Repentance is not penance. In the Roman Catholic system, penance is an act, such as prayers or good works, given by a priest to make up for sin. Baptists teach that Christ has fully paid for sin, and the sinner's turning does not pay anything. It is simply the way in which the sinner leaves his own road and comes to Christ. Repentance and faith cannot be separated. A man cannot turn to Christ without turning from his sin, and he cannot turn from sin in a saving way without trusting Christ.

The Parts of Salvation

Scripture uses many words for what God does for a believer. The Baptist Faith and Message (2000), Article IV, speaks of salvation as the redemption of the whole person, offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and it names four parts. We add adoption, since it is an important biblical word.

Regeneration is the new birth. Jesus said, "You must be born again" (John 3:7). It is the work of the Holy Spirit by which God gives new spiritual life (Titus 3:5; 1 Peter 1:23). Baptists agree that it is a work of God and not of man.

Justification is God's act of declaring the believing sinner righteous. Christ's righteousness is counted as ours, and our sin was counted to Him (2 Corinthians 5:21; Romans 5:1). It is a legal verdict that happens once, and it does not change as our feelings change.

Adoption is God's act of receiving the believer into His family as a son or daughter, with the Spirit who cries "Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:4-7).

Sanctification is the growth in holiness that follows. It begins at conversion, since believers are set apart for God, and it continues through life as the Spirit works in us (1 Thessalonians 5:23; Philippians 2:12-13).

Glorification is the completion of salvation when Christ returns and we receive resurrection bodies, free from sin forever (Romans 8:30; 1 John 3:2).

Baptists do not all agree on the exact order in which these happen, especially whether regeneration comes before faith or at the same moment. We deal with that in Unit 8. All agree that the whole of salvation is God's work, received by faith.

Salvation Is Not by Works or Ordinances

Baptists teach that baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordinances given by Christ. We obey them, but they do not save. This was the subject of Units 3 and 4. A person is saved before he is baptized, and baptism is the public sign of the faith he already has. The thief on the cross was promised paradise without baptism or a church (Luke 23:43).

Good works are not the root of salvation, but they are the fruit. Ephesians 2:10 follows the key verse: we are "created in Christ Jesus for good works." Salvation is by grace, but it does not leave a person unchanged.

The Free Offer of the Gospel

Baptists hold that the gospel is to be offered sincerely to every person, and that every hearer is commanded to repent and believe. Jesus said, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). Paul says that God "commands all men everywhere to repent" (Acts 17:30). Paul called himself an ambassador for Christ, pleading with people to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:20). The Baptist Faith and Message states the same, and the Particular Baptists of 1689 also affirmed it in their own way.

The controversy that tested the offer

Course 1 tells the history. Here is what a pastor needs to know. In the 1700s some English Particular Baptists, in their zeal to defend God's sovereignty in salvation, came to believe that the unconverted had no duty to believe the gospel. Their reasoning was that if faith is a gift of God given only to the elect, then it is wrong to command everyone to believe, and wrong to urge sinners to come to Christ. This position is often called hyper-Calvinism. Its defenders were sincere and wished to honor God's grace. Historians disagree on how many Baptists held it. They also disagree about whether the great London pastor John Gill belongs in this group, and some defend him from the charge.

Andrew Fuller (1754-1815), a pastor at Kettering, answered this teaching in The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation (1785). He argued from Scripture that the gospel is worthy of all acceptance, and that every sinner who hears it is bound to believe it. If a sinner does not believe, the fault is his own unwillingness, and not the lack of a decree. Fuller also held that Christ's death is sufficient for all and secures the salvation of those who believe. His teaching helped prepare the way for the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792 and for William Carey's mission to India. A church that does not believe in the free offer of the gospel will not send missionaries.

The Baptist conclusion

All of today's major Baptist groups, whether they are Free Will, Traditional Southern Baptist or Reformed Baptist, say that the gospel is to be preached to everyone, that every person is commanded to repent, and that those who come to Christ will find that He does not turn them away (John 6:37). Whatever a Baptist believes about election, he keeps the invitation open.

Objections and Baptist Answers

Objection 1: Faith is not enough. A person also needs the sacraments and good works to be saved.

Roman Catholic and some other teaching holds that grace is given through the sacraments, beginning with infant baptism, and that justification is helped by love and works. Those who hold this point to James 2:24: "You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only."

Our answer. James and Paul do not contradict each other. Paul speaks of how a sinner is declared righteous before God, by faith apart from works (Romans 3:28). James speaks of the kind of faith that is genuine, which shows itself in works before people. Abraham was justified by faith (Romans 4:1-5), and James uses the same Abraham to show that a faith with no works is dead. The root is faith and the fruit is works. Ordinances and works are commanded and are good, but they do not pay for our salvation.

Objection 2: Teaching "faith alone" makes people careless. They say a prayer, then live as they please.

Some pastors have seen people who raised a hand at an invitation but whose lives never changed. Some Christians therefore teach that a person must also promise to make Jesus Lord of every part of life before he can be saved. Baptists today debate this point, sometimes called the "lordship" question. Some say that "easy believism" is a danger. Others say that adding conditions to faith turns grace into law.

Our answer. We should avoid both errors. Salvation is received by faith alone, and a person need not be perfect to come. But the Bible describes saving faith as a living faith that always produces fruit, at least in time. Jesus calls sinners to follow Him (Luke 9:23). A pastor should therefore preach the whole gospel, grace and repentance together, and should not count an uncertain "decision" as proof of the new birth. He should watch for fruit, and gently warn anyone whose life shows none. First John was written so that believers may know that they have eternal life (1 John 5:13).

Objection 3: If God chooses who will be saved, there is no point in urging everyone to repent.

This is the reasoning of hyper-Calvinism, and a stricter version sometimes appears in debates today.

Our answer. The Bible keeps both truths together without making one cancel the other. Jesus said that all whom the Father gives Him will come to Him, and also invited all who labor and are heavy laden to come (John 6:37; Matthew 11:28). The apostles preached to crowds while believing that God opens hearts, as He did for Lydia (Acts 16:14). It is not our task to find out who the elect are. It is our task to preach to every creature. The sinner's duty to believe does not depend on knowing God's secret purpose (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Pastoral Application

A man from a Roman Catholic background in a small town comes to the pastor after attending a Baptist service. He says: "I have been baptized as a baby, I confess my sins to the priest, and I give to the church. What more must I do to be saved?" He is sincere and worried.

First, the pastor does not mock the man's past or his family's faith. He thanks him for his seriousness about God.

Second, he opens the Bible with him: Romans 3:23-24, Ephesians 2:8-9, John 3:16 and Acts 16:31. He explains in plain words that Christ has done what is needed, and that the man is asked to turn from trusting his own efforts and to trust Christ alone.

Third, he explains repentance and faith as one turning, and does not hurry the man into a prayer he does not understand.

Fourth, he offers to meet again, to answer questions, and to pray with him. He does not make the man's baptism or church membership a condition for hearing the gospel. He teaches baptism and church membership later, as the obedience of a believer.

Summary

Baptists teach that all are sinners under God's judgment and cannot save themselves. Salvation is by grace, God's undeserved favor, and it rests on the death and resurrection of Christ. Faith is the empty hand that receives the gift, and repentance is the turning from sin that goes with it. Scripture describes salvation in several parts: regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification and glorification. Ordinances and works do not save, but good works follow as fruit. Baptists hold that the gospel is to be offered freely to all. In the 1700s some Particular Baptists denied that the unconverted have a duty to believe, and Andrew Fuller answered them in 1785. Today Baptists of every kind preach the gospel to everyone. Objections from sacramental teaching, from fear of careless professions, and from fear that election makes preaching pointless are answered from Scripture.

Further Reading

• The Baptist Faith and Message (2000), Article IV.

• The Second London Confession (1689) and the New Hampshire Confession (1833), on salvation.

• Andrew Fuller, The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation (1785), a primary source.

• William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians (1792), a primary source.

• John L. Dagg, Manual of Theology (1857).

• Garrett, Baptist Theology (2009).

• Hobbs, The Baptist Faith and Message (1971).

Submit Exam & Check Pass Reset