Last week I responded to a popular Facebook post titled, “Does the Thief on the Cross Fit into Your Theology?” That post, in part, seems to promote a form of unconditional, lawless grace. That makes it just another twist on the false-grace gospel that essentially amounts to a license to sin. The true gospel is a temporary offer to (1) believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, (2) turn from sin, (3) be graciously forgiven, (4) be indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit, and then (5) have the opportunity to follow the narrow path that leads to life that Jesus outlined in His Sermon on the Mount and all the apostles reiterated in their letters.
In this teaching, I thought it might be good to consider a few of Jesus’ encounters with other people who, just like the thief on the cross, wanted to enter Paradise. Each encounter clearly reveals Jesus’ conditional grace in salvation.It is good, of course, to make sure the actual story of the thief on the cross fits into our theology. But should the thief on the cross, an impaled, dying man, with a few hours left to live, serve as the sole example of how God’s grace works in salvation? Certainly not.
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The rich young ruler knelt before Jesus and sincerely asked him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17, emphasis added). Jesus told him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. [Sounds as if we all might need some grace to be saved.] You know the commandments, ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother’” (Mark 10:18-19).
The rich young ruler replied, “Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up,” and the Bible says that “Jesus felt a love for him.” Then Jesus said, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Mark 10:20-21.)
That rich young ruler came seeking eternal life, and Jesus told him to keep six of the Ten Commandments plus care for the poor. Does that fit into your theology?
Some will say, “No it does not, because I am under the new covenant through which we are saved by grace, and that man was under the old covenant through which people were saved by works.”
Then why do we find passages in the New Testament letters that harmonize perfectly with what Jesus said to the rich young ruler, passages that plainly warn that murderers, adulterers, thieves, the covetous, and liars will not inherit God’s kingdom? (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Rev. 21:8).
So, does the rich young ruler fit into your theology?
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The Luke 10 lawyer asked Jesus, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Luke 10:25, emphasis added). Jesus replied, “What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?” The lawyer answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself” (Luke 10:26-27). Jesus then said, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.” Then Jesus told him a story about a good Samaritan to help him understand how God defines the word “neighbor.”
Does what Jesus said to that lawyer fit into your theology?
I would venture to guess that many Evangelical pastors would tell anyone who answered just as the Luke 10 lawyer did that they had answered incorrectly. Could such pastors who directly contradict Jesus possibly be missing something regarding their understanding of God’s grace?
Others would claim that God revealed to Paul that Jesus’ resurrection began a new dispensation of grace, in which there is no standard of holiness required for salvation.
So, is that why Paul wrote so clearly in his letter to the Romans, after Jesus’ resurrection: “God…will render to each person according to his deeds: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom. 2:5-10)?
And could that be why, throughout his entire ministry, Paul always proclaimed that everyone “should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance” (Acts 26:20)?
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To His Sermon on the Mount audience, Jesus told them that “the merciful will receive mercy” (Matt. 5:7), the “pure in heart” would “see God” (Matt. 5:8), and the kingdom of heaven belonged to those “who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness” (Matt. 5:10). Sounds as if Jesus believed there was a standard of mercy, heart purity, and persecution that were all related to receiving mercy, seeing God, and inheriting the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus also told His audience to tear out their right eye if it caused them to sin, because “it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell” (Matt. 5:29, emphasis added). Another standard related to salvation.
He also told them to cut off their right hand if it caused them to stumble into sin, because “it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matt. 5:30, emphasis added). Yet another standard related to salvation.
“But the Sermon on the Mount doesn’t apply to us, because Jesus preached it under the old covenant, and we are under the new covenant!” some claim. Are you sure about that? Are you willing to risk your salvation and the salvation of those whom you influence on that theory? Especially in light of the fact that Jesus told His eleven apostles—after He was resurrected—to make disciples by teaching them to obey everything He commanded them? By the way, His apostles were all present at His Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus also told His Sermon on the Mount audience that “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20).
“Yes, but our righteousness does exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, because we have the imputed righteousness of Christ, regardless of how we live our lives” some claim. So, is that what Jesus meant in His sermon, a sermon that from beginning to end was all about practical righteousness, and that contained not a hint of anything resembling the idea of “imputed righteousness”? And is that how Jesus’ apostles and those present at His sermon interpreted His words? Are you sure you are correct? Are you willing to risk your salvation, and the salvation of those whom you influence, on an interpretation that has no scriptural support whatsoever?
Jesus also told His Sermon on the Mount audience that His Father would not forgive their sins unless they forgave others (Matt. 6:14). Who can argue that forgiveness is not an act of grace? Yet who can argue, in light of Jesus’ warning, that God’s forgiving grace is not conditional? Our being forgiven hinges on our forgiving. So God’s forgiving grace is not unconditional, but conditional.
Jesus wound down his sermon that was all about holiness by telling His audience, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter” (Matt. 7:21). How much plainer could it be? Only those who obey God will enter heaven according to Jesus.
Jesus also warned them that those who didn’t do what He said are like a foolish man who builds his house on the sand (Matt. 7:26).
Does Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount audience, which included all of His apostles, and who all heard Him hinge salvation on obedience, fit into your theology?
Concerning Jesus’ words to the rich young ruler, the Luke 10 lawyer, and His Sermon on the Mount audience, some “false-grace” teachers claim—incredibly—that Jesus was only trying to help all those people realize that they couldn’t do what He was requiring of them, so that they would then realize that they needed “grace” (which to false-grace teachers means “grace that is a license to sin”). So, Jesus allegedly deceived sincere seekers about the way of salvation. That is not only heretical, but blasphemous.
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Jesus also warned His apostles that if they didn’t care for the “least of these,” they would be cast into the “eternal fire” (Matt. 25:31-46), and if they hated others and became drunkards, they would suffer the same fate (see Matt. 24:45-50).
So, are we really to think that everything Jesus said to the rich young ruler, the Luke 10 lawyer, and His Sermon on the Mount audience was nullified at His resurrection and the inauguration of the new covenant? That God had a certain standard of obedience for salvation before Jesus’ resurrection, and no standard afterwards? That people who died one day before Jesus’ resurrection and were cast into hell could have made it to heaven had they only lived one or two days longer, because then they would have lived to the time when God’s holiness requirements for salvation ended?
Finally, please explain why Jesus Himself said to a church in Asia decades after His resurrection, “He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels” (Rev. 3:5). That indicates that there was still a standard of holiness for salvation sixty years after Jesus’ resurrection. If we don’t “overcome,” we will not be clothed in white garments, Jesus will erase our name from the book of life, and He will not confess our name before His Father and the angels. How much clearer could it be? (And it might be a good idea to be sure of what it means to “overcome” by looking at every instance in the book of Revelation where that word is used.)
So, again, it is good to ask if the thief on the cross fits into our theology, because it is in the Bible. But it is ever better to ask if the entire Bible fits into our theology. Cherry-pickers tend to pick only those cherries that look good to them. And, over the decades, it has been my observation that many professing Christians, including pastors, are Bible cherry-pickers.
“But all of this sounds like ‘salvation by works’” some will say.
No, salvation is by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8), which plainly reveals that God’s gracious salvation, purchased by Jesus’ sacrifice, is conditioned upon our faith. That couldn’t be clearer. And the New Testament repeatedly teaches that faith obeys. Twice in the book of Romans, Paul mentions “the obedience of faith” (Rom. 1:5, 16:26). James wrote that faith without works cannot save (Jas. 2:14-26).
“But you are saying that there is a standard of obedience for salvation, and so what you are saying is that salvation is by works!”
Indeed, I am saying that there is a standard of obedience for salvation, because that is what Jesus, Paul, Peter, James, John and Jude all declared. If you don’t believe what they all believed, you will believe it someday, guaranteed. But that is not “salvation by works.” It is salvation by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ—who died for our sins, and who did not die so we could continue sinning.
God’s grace is not unconditional. It is not a license to sin. Rather, as I said at the beginning of this teaching, it is an opportunity to repent, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, be forgiven, be indwelled and empowered by God’s Holy Spirit to live righteously, and to persevere in genuine and devoted faith in the Lord Jesus Christ until we stand before God to give an account of what we’ve done with the “talents” He has entrusted to us. That is Gospel 101. That is what the New Testament teaches.
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You may need to re-read all that I’ve written above a few times to ponder it deeply if you have been brain-dirtied by false-grace teaching. It is so tragic that a significant portion of Evangelicals (those who believe in the necessity of being born again) have concocted a way to imagine that they have accepted Jesus when they have actually rejected Him. If we accept Jesus as Savior but reject Him as Lord, we are actually rejecting Him, because He is Lord!
