If eternal life is received through faith alone, what significance do obedience, growth, and perseverance have? A conversation about free grace requires clear concepts—and the courage to take even the strongest objections seriously.
The central distinction
Sanctification is God’s will for his children. It is not the purchase price of their sonship. The Free Grace perspective connects the reliability of salvation’s promise with the believer’s real responsibility. Precisely because Christ has accepted us, our life before him matters.
1. What does Free Grace actually claim?
The starting point is Jesus’ promises: whoever believes him has eternal life (John 5:24; 6:47). Paul distinguishes salvation by grace through faith from works as its basis and immediately goes on to speak of the good works for which God created us (Ephesians 2:8–10). The gift and its goal belong together without the goal becoming a retrospective condition of entry.
Free Grace therefore means neither that sin is harmless nor that a Christian need not obey Christ. The position presented here is this: assurance of eternal life rests on Christ and his promise. It is not made dependent on someone later attaining a particular degree of obedience or displaying a recognizable record of success to the end of life.
This must also be distinguished from a mere religious act. Raising a hand, repeating a prayer, or belonging to a church does not as such save. What matters is faith in Jesus Christ. Because we cannot know hearts infallibly, a church must not turn a ritual into an infallible certificate of new birth.
2. The strongest objection: does new life not really change us?
The objection deserves fair presentation: if God creates new life, gives his Spirit, and renews the heart, should this change not also bear fruit? Texts such as Ezekiel 36:26–27 and Philippians 1:6 are therefore understood as promises of renewal brought about by God and ultimately persevering. Those arguing this way do not normally claim that Christians immediately become sinless.
The Free Grace response should therefore not refute a demand for absolute sinlessness that the other person has not made. It begins with another question: Does the gift of life guarantee a particular, recognizable degree of lasting fruit that is to serve as a test of salvation? Or does God open and ground a new life whose practical development can nevertheless be impaired by resistance, sluggishness, and serious wrong turns?
Ezekiel’s promise stands in the context of God’s renewal and gathering of Israel. Its connection with the new covenant is theologically important. Yet by itself it supplies no scale by which we could reliably identify individuals’ new birth. Philippians 1:6 occurs in a personal passage of thanksgiving and prayer for the church and its partnership in the gospel. Paul’s confidence must not be turned without further justification into a general diagnostic formula for every life story.
Our conviction is: God truly works. Therefore growth is possible and commanded. Yet the concrete exhortations to believers show that we must not simply equate their conduct with the ideal of their new identity.
3. What 2 Peter 1 says about spiritual stagnation
Peter begins with God’s gift: his divine power has provided what is needed for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3–4). This is followed by the call diligently to develop virtue, knowledge, self-control, endurance, godliness, and love (1:5–7). God’s provision and human responsibility are directly connected.
Verse 9 is particularly illuminating: whoever lacks these qualities is shortsighted and has forgotten cleansing from former sins. Peter does not simply say, ‘This person was never cleansed.’ The recollection of cleansing received becomes the very starting point of the exhortation. Spiritual unfruitfulness contradicts what God has done.
Verse 10 calls for making calling and election firm; verse 11 describes a richly provided entrance into the eternal kingdom. In our interpretation, this concerns confirming and developing the calling in lived life and the related proving of faithfulness. Other interpretations see here more strongly the confirmation of genuine new birth. The disputed point must therefore be worked through in the text: how do the cleansing already mentioned, present failure, and future hope relate?
Keep an argument clear
The fact that Christians are exhorted to grow does not alone imply that God never guarantees their growth. A command can also be a means through which God achieves his goal. For the Free Grace position, therefore, the described possibilities of failure and the concrete consequences are decisive—not the mere existence of an imperative.
4. ‘Jesus is Lord’—confession and conduct
Christ’s lordship does not depend on whether we recognize it adequately. He possesses authority. If we disobey him, he does not thereby become less Lord; rather, our conduct contradicts his lordship. This explains why Jesus can ask people why they call him ‘Lord’ while not doing what he says (Luke 6:46).
The following image of housebuilding (6:47–49) makes the difference between hearing and doing visible. Whoever hears and follows Jesus’ words builds on a sound foundation. Whoever merely hears is defenseless against the shaking. The text urges practical obedience. It should neither be weakened into insignificant life advice nor turned without justification into a detailed formula about loss of new birth.
Colossians 3 argues similarly: because believers have been raised with Christ and their life is secure with him, they are to put to death what is earthly (3:1–5). Their new identity grounds the exhortation. Paul does not say: wait to see whether your performance proves you belong to Christ at all. He calls them to live in keeping with their belonging.
5. Can Christians sin very seriously?
The Corinthian letters answer this question with distressing clarity. Paul must rebuke a church for strife, self-exaltation, and grave sexual sin. In 1 Corinthians 5:1–5, he connects strict church discipline with the goal that the person’s spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. He does not minimize the conduct, yet does not treat the case merely as proof that the person could never have been a Christian.
First Corinthians 11:27–32 is also important. Paul speaks of serious consequences of unworthy conduct at the meal, including sickness and death. At the same time, he distinguishes God’s discipline from condemnation with the world. This is no grace without consequences. It is the painful reality of fatherly correction.
First Corinthians 3:11–15 further distinguishes the enduring or burning of the work from the salvation of the person. The immediate context concerns building up the church. We should therefore not read every imaginable life story out of this image. Nevertheless, the distinction expressed in the text between salvation and loss remains.
If I am saved anyway—why not sin?
Because sin contradicts God, hurts people, destroys fellowship, and damages our own lives. Anyone who considers love reasonable only under threat of eternal damnation underestimates love’s significance. God’s acceptance is a reason for gratitude and repentance, not an invitation to abuse his trust.
6. Why the minutes argument is insufficient
Sometimes the argument runs: a Christian can be disobedient for a minute; then also for an hour, a month, and finally a whole life. As a logical proof, this escalation is too quick. The possibility of a brief condition does not automatically imply its unlimited duration. Someone can hold their breath for a few minutes; it does not follow that they can do so indefinitely.
Whether a believer can remain hardened for a long time or even publicly turn away from faith must therefore be established from Scripture and its warnings. Second Timothy 2:11–13 connects serious words about denial with God’s continuing faithfulness; how these statements belong together requires careful interpretation. A rhetorical move from ‘briefly’ to ‘forever’ cannot replace that work.
In any case, our assurance does not rest on our ability to judge every conceivable borderline life story conclusively. It rests on Christ’s promise. We can and must judge visibly destructive conduct; a person’s whole heart remains known to God.
7. Distinguish salvation and discipleship without separating them
In Luke 14:25–33, Jesus speaks of the costs of discipleship. Following him can challenge relationships, possessions, and personal security. The gift of eternal life and these costs are not identical: a gift is received; discipleship is lived. Yet this must not create two moral classes, one called to love while the other is explicitly permitted to forgo it.
Every Christian is called to discipleship. Moreover, the word ‘disciple’ is used differently in the New Testament according to context: for followers, learners, and also Christians generally. It is therefore not sound method to assign every occurrence automatically to a rigid two-class chart.
Assurance of salvation may lift up a distressed person: Christ is sufficient. The same grace can awaken an indifferent person: your life belongs to a good Lord and carries weight. Both are necessary. A doctrine of grace does not grow stronger by minimizing warnings; it grows stronger by taking them seriously in their place.
The question of sanctification is not: How do I make myself God’s child? It is: How do I live as his child in the power and responsibility he has given me?
For personal study
John 5:24; 6:47; Ephesians 2:8–10; Ezekiel 36:22–28; Philippians 1:3–11; 2 Peter 1:3–11; Luke 6:46–49; 14:25–33; Colossians 3:1–17; 1 Corinthians 3:5–15; 5:1–5; 11:27–32; 2 Timothy 2:11–13. Other Christian traditions assess the Free Grace interpretation presented here differently at several points; the shared test remains each text’s context.