Why obedience isn't just for legalists.
| posted 11/29/2006
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Evangelical commentators from Ron Sider to George Barna have bemoaned the apparent disconnect between Christian beliefs and practice. Robert Jeffress, minister at First Baptist Church of Wichita Falls, Texas, looks at the problem from a pastoral perspective in Grace Gone Wild: Getting a Grip on God's Amazing Gift (WaterBrook, 2005). Stan Guthrie, a CT senior associate editor, sat down with him.
Why did you write the book?
There is little to no discernable lifestyle difference between Christians and non-Christians. I believe we're using grace as a cover, as a license for sin.
How does this work out?
There's great confusion on the relationship between grace and works. In the 1990s, Chuck Swindoll and Philip Yancey and others wrote some wonderful books on grace—The Grace Awakening, What's So Amazing About Grace?—and they did a valuable service rescuing the doctrine of grace from the legalists who say that we must earn our salvation. But the pendulum has gone in the other direction, and we've unwittingly taken grace out of the hands of the legalists and delivered it into the hands of the libertarians.
Have you seen this issue at work in your church?
Absolutely. There are probably more unsaved people in my pews than I want to acknowledge. And as a Southern Baptist, as an evangelical, as a Dallas Theological Seminary graduate, certainly I have preached all of my life the eternal security of the believer or, as Baptists have popularized it, Once saved, always saved. But of course, the key part in that phrase is once saved.
In the past, I've made the mistake as a pastor of trying to assure people of their salvation when they never possessed it to begin with. Here are people who profess to be Christians, but they have no interest in God's Word, they never pray, they don't want to be in church, there is absolutely no fruit in their life. Why should we give false security to people like that? The Bible certainly gives no assurance of salvation for such people.
What do you say to someone who fears you are just trying to reinstitute legalism?
It comes down to the question, What place does obedience have in the life of a Christian? What does grace say is my responsibility in marriage, in friendships, in the church? I don't believe that obedience earns God's salvation of our souls. But it certainly earns God's favor in our lives.
But many Christians who are faithful, who try to obey God, and who try to be true Christian disciples don't experience God's favor. The Christians in Sudan are an obvious example.
I believe there is a payoff for obeying God. I think the mistake is determining when that payoff is going to come.
How does church discipline fit?
Jesus told a parable about a man who was ambushed and beaten and left for dead. Only one person stopped to render aid. The most loving thing we can do when we see a fellow Christian who's being mugged and left for dead by sin is to stop and render aid. That requires a judgment, but it also requires a restoration procedure.
