jack cottrell on grace - what i have learned in 50 years as a theologian

7/27/2019 Jack Cottrell on GRACE - What I Have Learned in 50 Years as a Theologian

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the Restoration Movement need to take it more seriously. Protestant churches in generalneed to understand it as Luther did, rather than in Zwinglis perverted sense (which is thecommon view).

Sinners are justified by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ (his satisfaction of the

laws requirement for penalty), not by our own personal righteousness or law-keeping.

Every Christian should have assurance of salvation; a right understanding of justification by faith is the key to this assurance.

When Paul says we are not under law but under grace (Romans 6:14), the word law does not refer to any law code (especially the Mosaic law code), but to the law system of salvation. This distinction between law codes and the law system is crucial for a proper understanding of grace.

There are two ways to enter Heaven: through the law system or through the grace

system. The problem is that the former is no longer viable for anyone who has sinned(i.e., everyone, Romans 3:23). This is why anyone who is saved (in Old Testament timesand New Testament times) is not under the law system, but under the grace system(Romans 6:14).

Though we are not under the law system as a way of salvation, we are still under alawcode that we are absolutely obligated to obey. In the New Testament era our law codeis the moral law in general and all new covenant teaching about how to live a righteous,holy life. The faith that justifies is a faith that works, i.e., that makes every attempt toobey these law commands.

Sinners are saved by grace (as the basis), through faith (as the means), in baptism (asthe time), for good works (as the result). See Ephesians 2:8-10; Colossians 2:12.

For its first 1,500 years, the Christian world (including Martin Luther) saw nocontradiction between salvation by grace and salvation in baptism. Huldreich Zwingli, in1523-25, created a whole new view of baptism that separated it from salvation.

Salvation by grace through faith in no way contradicts salvation in baptism.

The argument that baptism is a work and therefore cannot be for salvation is based on afalse definition of works as Paul uses the term. Thus the key to accepting baptism as a

grace event is a correct understanding of works . The key to this understanding is Paulsdistinction between works of law (Romans 3:20, 28; Galatians 2:16) and obedience tothe gospel (Romans 10:16, English Standard Version; 2 Thessalonians 1:8).

Three Serious Errors

I will now briefly explain three serious and interrelated errors aboutsalvation that are typical of Restoration thinking.


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How the sinner becomes saved is different from how the Christian stays saved. Theidea is that we are initially saved by grace, but we are kept saved by our works. This iscalled Galatianism because it was basically the view of the Judaizers, against whom Paulwrote in his letter to the Galatians.

It was taught by Alexander Campbell, who said sinners are justified by faith andChristians by works. In the latter case, nothing else comes in review on the day of judgment (To Paulinus, Letter III, Christian Baptist [IV:10], May 7,1827). Campbellspecifically taught that the terms of admission into the church aredifferent from the terms of admission into Heaven (The Three Kingdoms, Christian

Baptist [VI:11], June 1, 1829).

Though we probably do not realize it, our traditional plan of salvation implies this falsedistinction. We tell sinners that they may become Christians through faith, repentance,confession, and baptism (the first four fingers of the five-finger exercise), which in factare the biblical acts of obedience to the gospel. But when we add the fifth finger of holy

living, this switches gears completely, implying that we stay saved by obeying thecommands of our law code (i.e., by works of law).

When Paul says we are justified by grace through faith apart from works of law (Romans3:24, 28), he means we become justified and stay justified in this way. The latter point isespecially important: as Christians we stay justified (forgiven) as long as we continue totrust in the saving blood of Jesus Christ.

Baptism is for the forgiveness of past sins only. This false idea has been present inChristendom since the second century. It has always been common in the RestorationMovement. The idea is that in baptism all our past sins are washed away, and we thus

enter the saved state. But the next time we sin, we lose our salvation status and are againunder the wrath of God until we do something to become forgiven again. This unhappycycle continues until we die, and we are constantly in fear that we will die when we are inthe unforgiven stage of the cycle.

There is absolutely no biblical teaching that baptism is for the forgiveness of past sinsonly. We are baptized for the forgiveness of sins, period . In baptism we enter into a stateof grace (Romans 5:1, 2), a state of forgiveness, a saving relationship with Jesus thatcontinues as long as our faith in him remains alive. It is not just our sins that are forgiven;WE are forgiven personseven when we sinbecause of our faith in Jesus. One maycease believing and thus lose salvation, but individual sins cannot be equated with suchapostasy.

Forgiveness for post-baptismal sins is possible only by obeying 1 John 1:9. The early belief that baptism is for the forgiveness of past sins only, necessarily led to speculationas to how Christians can receive forgiveness for sins committed after baptism. Thisongoing speculation ultimately led to the formulation of the Catholic sacrament of

penance, which embodied most of the works-salvation views that the Reformationopposed.


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In the Restoration Movement we have developed our own version of penance (a mini- penance!), based on 1 John 1:9. We have erroneously understood John to be teaching thateach individual sin puts us as Christians back into the state of lostness, from which wecan be rescued only by confessing that specific sin and by repentantly praying for itsforgiveness. After committing such a sin, we are lost until we go through this ritual.

This false idea, along with the previous two, has probably done more to obscure grace inthe Restoration Movement than anything else. And I believe it is the result of a wronginterpretation of this text. Verses 8 and 10 show that John is talking not about theconfession of specific sins, but about the (ongoing) confession of the fact that we aresinners, as in the case of the tax collector in Jesus parable (Luke 18:9-14). In this

parable, the Pharisee is the epitome of 1 John 1:8, 10 (I have no sins!), while the taxcollector shows what 1 John 1:9 means (I am a sinner!).

In summary, we stay saved by continuing to trust in Christs atoning work; individualsins do not separate us from the grace of God. Part of this continuing trust is the

continuing confession of our sinfulness and thus our continuing sense of need for grace.

Jack Cottrell has served as professor of theology at Cincinnati (Ohio) Bible Seminary since 1967. He holds a PhD from Princeton (New Jersey) Theological Seminary and has just published his 20th book, Set Free! What the Bible Says About Grace , available fromCollege Press.

jack cottrell on grace - what i have learned in 50 years as a theologian

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