Real Spirituality

You have been saved by doctrine, not by grace, so that you may boast in what you know.

That quotation is not a quotation at all. It’s a twisting of Paul’s words in Ephesians 2:8-9. But it describes what many in the Christian world seems to think.

It seems that some Christian leaders are so concerned with the teaching of right doctrine that doctrine has become a measure of salvation. The word heresy may be used to describe those who disagree. But heresy is a big word with a rich history of abuse by Christian leaders.

In a brief interview with John Piper, he explains why so many Calvinists are eager to convert people to Calvinism. They may seem harsh, Piper says because of a (sinful) argumentative spirit. They also may seem harsh, Piper also says, because they are right and everyone who is not Calvinist “misses” the “doctrine of grace” in the Bible. He is talking about converting other believers in Christ to Calvinism. This is more than persuasion of correctness or a calling out of flagrant sin. This is conversion to a doctrine.

Right doctrine, no matter how right, does not save. Let me explain what I mean.

When the church was born in Acts 2, the people who heard the apostles preach had very little of what we might call doctrine. They might have heard Jesus preach at some point, but the text does not say that. At face value, all the people know is what they see and hear in Acts 2 based upon their Jewish heritage:

• God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and David. And he is alive in his people Israel.
• Israel is waiting for the coming Messiah.
• Jesus was the Messiah, but they missed him.
• God is bigger than their missing him, so he raised Jesus and exalted him.
• What can they do to be saved? Repent and be baptized into the name of the Messiah they rejected (acknowledging him as the One).

Noticeably absent from this are

• Doctrine of Incarnation as we understand it
• Doctrine of the Trinity as we understand it
• A developed doctrine of the cross
• TULIPs
• Romans 8
• Knowledge of Luther, Calvin, Wesley, or the Campbells

The point is not that knowledge of doctrinal issues is irrelevant. Doctrine is helpful, valuable and important. Doctrine helps us understand, teach, rebuke and be rebuked. But doctrine does not save.

Here’s a “test” to see if you are prone to believe in salvation-through-doctrine. Ask yourself this question:

Can someone be wrong and still be saved?

For the purpose of this “test” ask yourself how comfortable you are with the notion that someone can be wrong about very important issues of doctrine, but still be saved. The less comfortable you are with that, the more likely you are in danger of believing in salvation by doctrine.

I’m not calling for a believe anything faith. Clearly someone cannot be totally wrong about Jesus and still be saved. That was the point of Peter’s sermon in Acts 2−the folks had missed Jesus and needed to be saved from their ignorance and sinful rejection of the Messiah. This was the one thing that did need correcting to be saved…that they had missed Jesus. They were not saved until they repented of missing him and chose instead to see him as messiah and be baptized as a result.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. —Ephesians 2:8-9

Knowledge of good doctrine can be made into a work just as easily as anything else. And it is just as dangerous.

[This post is first of three posts about salvation by things other than grace. Find the others here and here.]