A frequent refuge for those who attempt to represent God’s grace in Christ as a license to sin is the concept of the carnal Christian. 

Unconditional eternal security preacher Jack Hyles, in his attempt to blatantly defend the alleged possibility of having salvation in Jesus while opposing His Lordship, wrote the following in his article called “Lordship Salvation.”.

(Begin quote) “Lordship salvation makes no provision for the carnal Christian.  None of us takes pleasure in the carnality of a Christian, but the fact remains that there is such a person taught in the Bible.  In I Corinthians 3:1 we have the carnal Christian and the spiritual Christian.  ‘And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as babes in Christ.’  The world is divided between saved and lost.  The saved are divided between carnal and spiritual.  I do not delight that there “(sic)” carnal Christians, but I must accept the fact that they exist.” (End quote)

When it is seen how the Apostles themselves did not make provision for the carnal Christians they spoke to, the very thing which Hyles is arguing against (Lordship salvation) is actually proven to be true.

Note Hyles’ language “Lordship salvation makes no provision for the carnal Christian.”  

Hyles disregards how when the Apostle Paul called the Corinthians carnal, he was not making provision for their carnality.  

1 Corinthians 3:1-3 says: “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat (or, solid food): for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?”

It would not even be improper to say that First Corinthians itself is an epistle dedicated to rescuing the Corinthians of their carnal ways which they had slipped into.  

It is clear in reading 1 Corinthians that the Corinthians considered themselves to be very mature Christians.  That has to be kept in mind in seeking to understand the language which Paul used here.  The Corinthians had genuinely been born-again in Christ.  They had already had much opportunity to mature in Christ, but, (generally speaking as a group) they had rather reverted back to carnality.  

This is unacceptable.  

Paul was also not a hypocrite who rebuked others for being what he was himself.  The people who say that Paul made provision for the carnal Christian actually also typically claim that he was referring to himself in the present when he wrote in Romans 7:14: “For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.”  Those who claim that Paul was referring to himself in the present in Romans 7:14 do not adequately recognize Paul’s purpose in writing this along with the overall point he was making in Romans (we have a recent study on the most common lie related to Romans chapter 7 for more information on this).  

Paul would make it clear throughout the books of Romans and 1 Corinthians (and throughout his epistles overall) that there is no provision involving ultimate salvation for the carnal who walk in sin.

Romans 8:12-14: “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.  For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”

1 Corinthians 11:31-32: “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”

The preachers who defend being carnal as compatible with obtaining ultimate salvation in Christ will even say things like “God chastens His own children when they do wrong.”  They say such things as if doing wrong is proof one is God’s child as long as one suffers some for what they did.  No, living by faith in Christ means being led by His Spirit in doing righteousness.  That is the actual proof one is God’s child.

1 John 2:27-29: “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.  And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.  If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.”

God rather chastens His own children to bring them back into line when they go astray.  If they don’t receive that chastening and get in line, we have already seen that they will yet be condemned with the world.

Hebrews 12:9 also says: “Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?”

In Paul’s next epistle to the Corinthians, he refused to let them off the hook by making provision for carnality among them.

2 Corinthians 12:20-21: “For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults: And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.”

The Corinthians had to get back in line or be damned- since carnal Christians go to hell.

To say that the teaching of Lordship salvation is wrong because it doesn’t make provision for the carnal Christian is like claiming that the teaching that humans need to breathe air to live is wrong because it doesn’t make provision for those who are drowning or otherwise suffocating.  

The Risen Jesus says the following to a certain Christian church in Revelation 3:1-6: “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.  Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.  Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent.  If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.  Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy.  He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

The Apostle Peter also wrote the following to utterly destroy the hopes of the Christians reverting to disobedience and being saved in their carnality- along with the hope of salvation of all those who do not obey Christ’s Gospel as long as they continue in disobedience.

1 Peter 4:17-18: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?  And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”

I think it would also be hard to find many of those easy grace preachers who treat God’s grace in a way that makes provision for salvation in sin that wouldn’t contradict themselves by telling their personal enemies who provoke them, including their enemies who profess faith in Christ, that they are going to hell.  

These mockers are zealous for their own honor while they lightly treat the proper honor of God’s righteous, supreme authority as something which isn’t binding.  These are going to sizzle in blistering heat extraordinarily.

Aaron’s email is: gospeltruth768@yahoo.com

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