Let me encourage you to discover a book that will be of immense help to you and your study, and understanding of God’s Word. It is Grace, Salvation & Discipleship: How to Understand Some Difficult Biblical Passages by Charlie Bing. Here is the introduction that will introduce you to the design of the book.

INTRODUCTION

I may seem obsessed or arrogant, but I just can’t get over the fact that most people don’t seem to agree on the gospel and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. We might expect that of those who are not Christians, but many Christians don’t agree with one another or hold differing views about these subjects. Many other Christians don’t see any issues or don’t care. To them I might appear both obsessed and arrogant. I guess I see the gospel and discipleship as two important things a person should understand clearly. Craig’s email typifies the confusion many people encounter in trying to understand the gospel:

Hey Dr. Bing, I love reading your articles/notes and I even purchased/ read your book Simply by Grace…. However, I am still very concerned with some passages in the Bible that seem contrary to the freeness of God’s salvation and grace by faith ALONE. This troubles me so much that I have absolutely no assurance of my salvation nor do I even know how to get salvation if I were to discover I didn’t have it. There are so many different versions of “how to get saved” out there that it leaves people confused like myself. Anyways, the problems I have with this free grace theology lie within the teaching and parables of Jesus found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. (John’s whole book basically supports the free grace position of salvation by grace through faith alone without any attachments.) However, in the 3 synoptic gospels . . . we see something totally different. We see Jesus telling people how hard it is to get saved, enter the kingdom, and remain in the kingdom, etc. We see parables such as the 10 virgins where if we don’t have lanterns lit, we are out of luck in entering the banquet feast. Many parables Jesus spoke about referred to being obedient and doing good deeds in order to “get into the kingdom.” Of course, this “getting into the kingdom/heaven” was mostly portrayed as being invited and entering a feast, wedding festival, etc…. It seems that there are SEVERAL ways that achieving salvation is presented in the New Testament. The synoptic gospels portray Jesus’ parables and teachings concerning obtaining salvation as experiencing and making lifestyle changes, good deeds, and obedience to His Lordship. John’s gospel focuses on Jesus’ deity and the idea that to be saved one must believe Jesus is God, etc. And then we have Paul who is different than both of them with this idea that to be saved you must believe in a resurrected Christ, and that belief alone (without any works) is what saves you due to God’s grace. I am very very confused. On top of that, we have passages in 1 John that seem to show that if we sin then we are not saved, or if we hate our brother, we aren’t saved…. Can you please help me? Craig

Grace, Salvation & Discipleship is available in Amazon.

This book is an attempt to help Craig and others like him understand the Scriptures, the gospel, and discipleship. But in doing so, I hope to make a genuine contribution to something dear to all Christians and others who want to understand the Bible. It seems the main source of confusion about salvation and the gospel is the misinterpretation of New Testament passages that either speak about salvation or seem to speak about salvation. Too often a singular approach is used that lumps Bible passages indiscriminately together to produce a muddling jumble of sometimes contradicting conditions for how to be saved. I believe the Bible teaches clearly that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. The tragedy of misinterpreting many Bible passages is that the gospel of grace is perverted while enriching truths about the Christian life in such passages are neglected. Let God speak in veiled form about the end times, but let Him be clear about our salvation!

I want to demonstrate a consistent approach to the Scriptures that equips people to discern the meaning of a passage for themselves. I don’t want to call it a method. For lack of the perfect word, I call it an approach. But there are no secret formulas in this approach. I’m just advocating good principles of Bible study to yield the best interpretation. Neither are my interpretations unique. You will find others who have taught or written about them. What I hope to show is a consistent approach that you can use to see (or test) these interpretations.

My purpose is not to exhaust the exegesis or explanation of the selected Bible passages, but to show enough evidence to convince readers that there is another interpretive option than the one many assume. (I have more detailed explanations for many of these passages elsewhere.2) I am hoping to show a key but neglected distinction in the interpretations of what we might call difficult or “problem passages” about salvation and the Christian life. Also, I want to show the process used to get the most accurate interpretation. I purposely do not distract you with footnotes citing other commentators because I want you to see how the Bible interprets itself when context is emphasized.

Even some who are closest to me theologically will not agree with me on every interpretation. That’s fine and expected—as long as they see the main distinction I am trying to make. If their interpretation helps keep the gospel of grace free and clear, then I applaud them. The interpretations I offer represent my convictions so far, and some are held more firmly than others, but I am always open to making them more consistent with the witness of Scripture. I’m sure good Bible students everywhere will be happy to suggest improvements that will make these interpretations better!

The reader should know that I am using the term discipleship to refer to issues of the Christian life. From the word that means to become a learner (mathēteuō)3, a disciple is someone who is saved and in a learning or growing posture in relationship to Jesus Christ. There is a range of degrees of commitment covered by the biblical use of the term, from those who simply followed Jesus in the crowd to those who lived daily with Him, such as the Twelve. I am using the term to describe the Christian’s life and responsibilities after salvation, that is, truth written to or for Christians.

I realize there are some who think that disciple is just a synonym for Christian. If you read through this book, you will see why I disagree. A Christian is someone who believes in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who died for sins, rose again, and guarantees eternal salvation. (Sometimes I use shortcuts in my language to describe salvation or Christians such as “those who believe in Christ,” but now you know what I mean). A disciple is someone committed to following Jesus Christ and learning from Him. Every Christian should be a committed and growing disciple, but not all are. The distinction is important, because when missed, it creates confusion about the gospel, loss of assurance, and crippling of both evangelistic and church ministries. Here is a simple comparison that shows the distinction I am making between a Christian and a disciple.

Understanding this distinction is crucial to understanding the Bible. Now here’s what you need to know as you read this book: I refer to the left column as A Truth and the right column as B Truth. It’s a simple way of making a very important distinction. I first heard this distinction expressed in a similar way by my friend, Dr. David Anderson, and have since used it in teaching around the world. Just as it made an impression on me, I invariably get an enthusiastic response from my audiences. So, I thank Dave for planting the seed.

I cannot discuss every word, phrase, and passage that touches on the distinction between salvation and discipleship, nor can I exhaust the exegesis of every passage I cover. My goal is to deal with the word or passage to the extent that we can clearly distinguish whether it is used in the context of salvation or discipleship, that is, whether it is A Truth or B Truth.

There’s one more thing to note before we go on. Based on my understanding of the gospel and its essential tenet of salvation by grace alone through faith alone, I believe that those who have believed in Christ are eternally secure. It’s as simple as this: If there is nothing one can do to earn salvation, then there is nothing one can do to lose salvation. That is what grace is all about. It is never earned or deserved, and it makes no conditions on its promise of eternal life to all who believe in Christ. Of course, I could also make a lengthy biblical argument as I have done elsewhere.4 So this book will assume a position that salvation is secure. But I hope this does not discourage those who do not agree with me from reading this book. In fact, the A Truth B Truth approach will many times deal directly with passages that seem to say salvation can be lost. And if you think that eternal security encourages believers to sin, then you definitely need to read some of the interpretations in this book. Many of the passages I deal with involve the serious consequences for believers in disobedience.

2 Bing, Charles C., “Does First John Tell Us How to Know We Are Saved?” in 21 Tough Questions about Grace (Allen, TX: Bold Grace Ministries, 2015), pp. 203-213; Lordship Salvation: A Biblical Evaluation and Response, 2nd GraceLife Edition (Burleson, TX: Xulon Press, 2014); and the articles and GraceNotes at gracelife.org.

3 Throughout the book, the primary source for definitions of Greek words is Arndt, W.; Danker, F. W.; and Bauer, W. A., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christians Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000).

Serving Him with you until He comes for us,
Fred Chay, PhD
Managing Editor, Grace Theology Press