Not By Faith Alone: Is Ken Wilson's Gospel What the Bible Teaches?

Amazingly, some people who identify as Free Grace in their theology are now actually teaching the Roman Catholic dogma that faith plus works is a saving message![1] Take, for example, one Oxford scholar named Dr. Ken Wilson. Dr. Wilson identifies as a Free Grace theologian, yet he promotes the idea that a person can saved (justified) by faith plus works! Notice what he says:

“Evangelicals want to oust some Christians as ‘true Christians’ because they add works for final salvation. Romans Catholics, Calvinists, Arminians and other Protestants all add works. Catholics require the ticket of good works at the beginning or during the ride. [...] Catholics overtly require works for justification (faith + works → justification).”[2] 

“That is the problem with ‘faith alone in Christ alone’ as a requirement for justification. I believe ‘faith alone in Christ alone’ to be a true statement. But it does not mean that any addition of works nullifies a person's faith in Jesus Christ as God and Savior from sin for justification.”[3] 

“Someone could believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and simultaneously think justification also requires chewing holy bubblegum five minutes every day. That person would be wrong, but would still be justified....”[4] 

“The early church (wrongly) considered water baptism to be essential for salvation. Baptism is a work. According to Wilkin’s heresy, none of these early Christians [?] could be saved ["by believing that faith and works are necessary to escape eternal condemnation"] because they added the work of baptism to faith in Christ.”[5] 

In other words, Wilson is saying that faith plus works is a saving message! Wilson is promoting the Roman Catholic dogma of baptismal regeneration. But what does the Bible say? The apostle Paul says, “For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Cor. 1:17, ESV).

To be clear, Wilson says that he believes in justification by faith alone, yet in his view a “faith + works” gospel is still a saving message. But in light of the apostle Paul’s warning in Galatians 1:6-9 against “any other gospel” (other than the gospel of the grace of God), Wilson’s legitimizing of a faith plus works gospel is extremely troubling. As the apostle Paul says, “there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ” (Gal. 1:7, ESV). Commenting on Galatians 1:6-9, the words of Dr. Scofield are appropriate when he says: “The test of the Gospel is grace. If the message excludes grace, or mingles law [works] with grace as the means either of justification or sanctification (Gal. 2.21; 3.1-3), or denies the fact or guilt of sin which alone gives grace its occasion and opportunity, it is ‘another’ gospel, and the preacher of it is under the anathema of God (vs. 8, 9).”[6] 

Let's examine this teaching of a “faith + works” gospel in more detail because this seems to be the crux of Wilson's argument. Wilson says in his book that it is “misrepresentation” to label “faith in Christ plus works as ‘works salvation’....It is faith (plus works) salvation.”[7] But this is merely equivocation. Any work or works added to salvation by grace nullifies grace! (See Romans 11:6; Gal. 2:21.) Wilson follows up by saying, “Scripture states that faith alone saves and works are not required (Rom. 4:1-8, Eph. 2:8). It does not say faith in Jesus Christ plus erroneously adding works cannot save (justify).”[8] It doesn’t? Actually it does! See Romans 3:24, “Being justified freely by His grace”; Romans 3:28, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law”; Romans 4:4-5, “To him that does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness”; “Titus 3:5, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.” I also find it telling that although Wilson cited Ephesians 2:8, he omitted Ephesians 2:9, “Not of works, lest any man should boast.” One way to tell if someone’s theology doesn’t line up with the Bible is if they conveniently omit the Bible verses that highlight their error. Ken Wilson points this out in regards to Bob Wilkin, saying: “Wilkin cites John 3:16 without adding 3:17 ‘that the world through him might be saved.’ This smacks of highly selective eisegesis.”[9] Quite true, but ironically the same point can be made in regards to Ken Wilson and Ephesians 2:8-9! Wilson cites Ephesians 2:8 without adding 2:9, “Not of works, lest any man should boast.” This also smacks of highly selective eisegesis! Wilkin omitted John 3:17; Wilson omits Ephesians 2:9. The fact that Wilson omits Ephesians 2:9 is significant since it’s a key verse highlighting Wilson’s false teaching on the gospel. William MacDonald explains further in his Believer’s Bible Commentary. Commenting on Ephesians 2:9, MacDonald writes the following: “It is not of works, that is, it is not something a person can earn through supposedly meritorious deeds. [...] People are not saved by works. And they are not saved by faith plus works. They are saved through faith alone. The minute you add works of any kind or in any amount as a means of gaining eternal life, salvation is no longer by grace (Rom. 11:6). One reason that works are positively excluded is to prevent human boasting. If anyone could be saved by his works, then he would have reason to boast before God. This is impossible (Rom. 3:27).”[10] 

Wilson goes on to summarize by saying, “Faith alone still saves, regardless of additions.”[11] But Wilson doesn’t seem to understand that it’s not “faith alone” if you add anything to it! (See Gal. 1:6-9, 2:21.) Wilson is saying that a person can be saved (justified) by faith plus works. How is that not heresy? Indeed, the New Testament Greek scholar Kenneth S. Wuest (whom Wilson quotes approvingly in his book) affirms, “and thus in the providence of God, the Church has the letter to the Galatians, and has found it a tower of strength and a bulwark against the heresy which teaches that salvation is appropriated by faith plus works.”[12] 

The Bible makes it abundantly clear that salvation (justification) is by faith alone in Christ alone, not by faith plus works! "Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3:24, KJV).

References:

[1] Kenneth Wilson, Heresy of the Grace Evangelical Society (Regula Fidei Press, 2021), pp. 10-11, 52, 133-134, 202-203, 205. Ken Wilson is a professor of Systematic Theology and Church History at Grace School of Theology in The Woodlands, Texas. Note: I agree with the main point of Wilson’s book, but he goes too far when he concludes that a person can become a Christian without faith alone in Christ alone. Wilson argues that Roman Catholics preach a saving message even though “Catholics overtly require works for justification (faith + works → justification).” (Wilson, Heresy, p. 133.)

[2] Ibid., p. 133.

[3] Ibid., p. 134.

[4] Ibid., p. 203.

[5] Ibid, p. 203.

[6] C. I. Scofield, The Scofield Reference Bible (New York: Oxford University Press, 1917), p. 1241. Note 1 on Galatians 1:6.

[7] Kenneth Wilson, Heresy, p. 202, ellipsis added.

[8] Ibid., p. 202.

[9] Ibid., p. 106.

[10] William MacDonald, Believer’s Bible Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1995), p. 1918, emphasis his.

[11] Kenneth Wilson, Heresy, p. 205.

[12] Kenneth S. Wuest, Galatians in the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1944), p. 131.