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. 

Though we see in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 that Paul called the Corinthian Christians carnal, this was said as a rebuke which was intended to destroy their improper high regard for their own spirituality.  

The epistle of 1 Corinthians’ goal is rescuing the Corinthians of their carnal ways which they had slipped into after they had been born-again in Christ.  

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 the security of carnal Christians will 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 they suffer some for the wrong that they did.  No, living by faith in Christ means being led by His Spirit in doing righteousness in God’s eyes.  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.”

Hebrews 12:9 also says (in the context of receiving correction from chastening): “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?”

God rather chastens His own children to bring them back into line with Him when they go astray from Him (that is, astray from subjection to His authority).  If they don’t get in line by receiving the correction which that chastening is intended to produce, they will yet be condemned with the world.  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 saying the teaching that humans need to breathe air to live is wrong because it doesn’t make provision for those who are suffocating. 

Aaron’s email is: [email protected]

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