Charles Ryrie on Repentance and Faith, Pt. 2

Dr. Charles Ryrie

In this article I’d like to examine several key Bible verses pertaining to spiritual fruit in the Christian life and give my understanding of these verses from a Free Grace perspective. A Bible verse pertaining to this topic that people often misunderstand is Matthew 3:10. This is where John the Baptist says, “any tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Well, what does that mean? How are we to interpret it? For example, do all Christians bear good fruit in their life? Do all Christians have good works? If so, how many? So I’m going to talk about that and provide some Free Grace answers from the Bible. I’m also going to take a look at Luke chapter 15, where Jesus says that “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who need no repentance” (Lk. 15:7). I’m also going to discuss Romans 5:1, “having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.” And 1 Corinthians 3:15, “being saved yet so as through fire.” So these are some of the Scriptures that I’ll look at in this article.

I want to start out by referencing an article by Sam Storms titled, “Will Some Christians Smell Like Smoke on Judgment Day?”[1] Maybe some readers have never heard of Sam Storms. Who is Sam Storms? Wikipedia says, “Sam Storms is an American Calvinist Charismatic and amillennial theologian, teacher, and author. He is currently pastor emeritus of Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City and past-president of the Evangelical Theological Society.” So he’s the author of this article apparently. And this may surprise some people, but I thought it was a pretty good article; I wasn’t expecting it to be. You know, being on The Gospel Coalition website. They tend to be more Reformed & Calvinistic, from what I’ve seen. So I was surprised at what Sam said, in terms of his position on answering this question. I was expecting him to say, “Well, no. How is that possible?” So I don’t think Sam Storms answers the question quite the same as John Piper would, for example. Piper seems to believe that every Christian is going to have this, you know, enduring and ongoing practical sanctification in order to attain the “reward” of heaven (as Piper calls heaven a “reward”). But Sam Storms seems to have a little different view of it, and for the most part I agree with his article actually. I wasn’t expecting to, but it’s pretty good. And I’m not going to read it all, but I wanted to read this passage in 1 Corinthians and then just share what Sam said about it, in particular about rewards: in answering this question about “Will Some Christians Smell Like Smoke on Judgment Day?” Sam says, “Our primary concern here is with Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15”.[2] I agree. Then quoting the apostle Paul, he writes:

“According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.”[3] 

That’s the apostle Paul from 1 Corinthians 3:10-15. And then I like what Sam says, he sort of sums it up well, and I’m just going to quote his statement. And the caption on the left (in his article) is really good too. It says, “Note well that it is not the individual who is consumed by fire, but the work that he or she has produced in ministry to the body of Christ.”[4] I agree with that. And I talk about that in my article titled “Every Christian’s Final Destiny”, which is an article I wrote in response to the Grace Evangelical Society, Bob Wilkin, and Joseph Dillow in particular, and his book Final Destiny, where he says that only faithful, enduring Christians will be granted the reward of the Millennial reign, that is, reigning with Christ in the Millennial kingdom. So I wrote a response titled “Every Christian’s Final Destiny”, because I believe that every Christian is going to rule and reign with Christ in the Millennial kingdom: because we overcome through our faith in Christ (see 1 John 5:4-5). But getting back to Sam’s article, he says: 

“Those whose work survives the test of fire ‘will receive a reward’ (v. 14); those whose work is burned up ‘will suffer loss’ (v. 15). This is apparently not the loss of salvation (since the next line says that ‘he himself will be saved’), but of the reward that he or she would have received had they obeyed or ministered more faithfully. Paul’s words in verse 15 may well be an allusion to Amos 4:11 and Zechariah 3:2. His point is that the person who persists in building badly will be saved, but like one plucked from a fire in the nick of time, perhaps with the smell of smoke still lingering!”[5] 

I agree. I’m pleasantly surprised to see Sam Storms saying this, because it’s basically a Free Grace view: that a person could be saved with no rewards. Which, you know, I’m always scratching my head and wondering, “Is it really going to happen that some Christians are going to be like this? Or is Paul just speaking hypothetically?” But it seems like it is at least possible. If we’re honest with the text, I think we’d have to say that. I’m not saying you have to come to that conclusion, but my view is that to honestly interact with this text, that’s what it’s saying. And not everybody sees it that way. For example, when I was a student at Moody Bible Institute, I remember I was discussing something about this with another student, a fellow classmate, and I said to the person something to the effect that “I believe that some Christians will be saved by the skin of their teeth”, I think is the way that I worded it; and I was thinking of this verse (1 Cor. 3:15). I can’t remember if I actually quoted the verse or referenced it at the time. But the student responded by saying, “Well, I don’t think anyone’s going to be saved by the skin of their teeth.” I didn’t go on to talk about it further with the student; but that view seems to be more of a Calvinistic view. Whereas I believe that it is entirely possible for people to be saved “by the skin of their teeth”! The Bible says in 1 Peter that some people will be “barely saved” (1 Pet. 4:18, NLT). The King James Version says, “if the righteous scarcely be saved” (1 Pet. 4:18, KJV). Daniel Wallace’s NET Bible says “barely saved” (1 Pet. 4:18, NET Bible). So this is entirely possible! I think of Lot in the Old Testament, that he didn’t want to leave Sodom; an angel practically had to drag him out because “he hesitated” (see Genesis 19:16). And the angel took him by the arm and led him out by the hand, and he was “barely saved”! And he was righteous; Peter calls him “righteous” (see 2 Pet. 2:7). So he was a righteous man, a saved man: but “barely saved”. You could say that he came out of Sodom smelling like smoke! So this is a Free Grace view, and it’s what the Bible teaches. 

Related to this, I’d like to just mention J. Vernon McGee’s comment on 1 Corinthians 3:15, from his Thru The Bible commentary series. He says that some Christians will get to heaven smelling like smoke! McGee is commenting on 1 Corinthians 3:15, the same verse that Sam Storms was commenting on as well. But this is J. Vernon McGee, and we’ll see that he basically takes the same position. McGee says, “Friend, what are you building today? What kind of material are you using? If you are building with gold, it may not be very impressive now. If you are building an old haystack, it will really stand out on the horizon, but it will go up in smoke.”[6] That’s a great illustration too, you know, because a lot of people have these works that look great, but God is the ultimate Judge; we don’t know. We don’t want to judge anyone’s motives, but just because something looks good doesn’t necessarily mean it is. The Bible says, “man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7). Anything built with wood is going to get burned up in smoke on Judgment Day. That’s the idea. McGee goes on and says, “I like to put it like this: there are going to be some people in heaven who will be there because their foundation is Christ but who will smell as if they had been bought at a fire sale! Everything they ever did will have gone up in smoke. They will not receive a reward for their works.”[7] So that’s the quote by McGee that I think is interesting, and I agree with it. But notice he says, “They will not receive a reward for their works.” That’s key. I mean, in terms of a Free Grace position – especially as I’m trying to elucidate it, trying to explain it. So that’s a Free Grace view: that it’s entirely possible for a Christian to get to heaven with no rewards. McGee says in no uncertain terms: “They will not receive a reward for their works.” 

So then the question is, how do we explain these passages that seem to require works as inevitable after salvation? So I’m going to just give my Free Grace interpretation, I’m not saying it’s the best interpretation. I’m not saying I have it all figured out, but I’m just going to hopefully share a few things that some people maybe don’t know or haven’t thought about. The Bible says, “iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another” (Prov. 27:17, NIV). I’m not claiming to have all the answers, but hopefully I can get some people thinking. And that’s the main thing I want to do, is just share the Free Grace position, and get people thinking about it. And I’m going to reference an article that I wrote several years ago titled “Charles Ryrie on Repentance and Faith”. In that article I shared a little bit of my background growing up in a Free Grace church, and I pointed out that Wayne Grudem has made some claims that I take issue with; I think he misrepresents Free Grace theology, because Free Grace theology is much larger than the Grace Evangelical Society. A lot of people don’t seem to realize that. The Grace Evangelical Society, Bob Wilkin – that’s non-traditional Free Grace. And it’s pretty new on the horizon in the whole scheme of things, in terms of Free Grace theology. By way of contrast, Charles Ryrie is an advocate of traditional Free Grace theology. But traditional Free Grace goes back even before Charles Ryrie, at least to Lewis Sperry Chafer. There were a lot of people around his time that I would argue were Free Grace, and even before that. I would argue that D. L. Moody was Free Grace; Scofield was Free Grace. Not on every point; not on every issue. But I would say that generally they were in the Free Grace camp. And so, getting back to Grudem, I wrote the article because I wanted to point out that what Grudem is saying might be true if you’re just looking at non-traditional Free Grace and the Grace Evangelical Society, – but if you want to characterize “Free Grace” in general (as Grudem does), then no, you have to at least take into account Charles Ryrie.[10] I mean, come on! I’m surprised that Grudem doesn’t understand that, or maybe he thought he explained it. But quite honestly, I think he misrepresented Free Grace theology. And I brought that out in a few particulars in the article. 

But I want to get to Ryrie and what he says about fruit, because I think it’s really good, and I’ve always gone back to his statement since I came across it years ago. Because I think it’s really quite good; I think what he says goes a long way towards explaining this whole issue. There’s still some questions, I think, that remain. But I think what he says goes a long way towards answering a lot of those questions, if not all of the questions. I’m going to delve into it here a little bit, and kind of flesh it out hopefully a little more: at least give my view on it. But Ryrie says in his book So Great Salvation, “Every Christian will bear spiritual fruit. Somewhere, sometime, somehow. Otherwise that person is not a believer. Every born-again individual will be fruitful. Not to be fruitful is to be faithless, without faith, and therefore without salvation.”[8] That’s from Ryrie’s book So Great Salvation, page 45. And then on pages 132-134, he also talks more about fruit and faith, or at least faith. And he calls it “unproductive faith”. Ryrie says, “Unproductive faith is a spurious faith; therefore, what we are in Christ will be seen in what we are before men.”[9] 

Alright, so let’s just get into this. I mean, the first statement is the one that I think, to me, is the most helpful, and goes the farthest to answer a lot of questions about this whole issue of good works in the Christian life. And that’s when he says, “Every Christian will bear spiritual fruit. Somewhere, sometime, somehow.” To me, that statement is the most helpful. One of the reasons I think it’s helpful is because he (and this is just my commentary on Ryrie; I’m not saying that he makes the distinction that I’m going to make here), but to me it’s helpful because, for me it makes a distinction between fruit and works, fruit and works. Ryrie makes a point to specifically call it “spiritual fruit”, he says: “Every Christian will bear spiritual fruit.” He doesn’t say, “Every Christian will have good works.” So I really like how he calls it “spiritual fruit”. Why? Well, because he’s not saying that a Christian will necessarily have good works. And to me that’s helpful because of what we just read in 1 Corinthians 3:15: some Christians (hypothetically at least) are going to get to heaven without any good works! I mean, I don’t know how else you understand 1 Corinthians 3:15. Even Sam Storms is saying some Christians are going to get to heaven smelling like smoke! You know, McGee even says, “They will not receive a reward for their works.” That’s why I like what Ryrie says, is because he’s not calling it “works”; he’s calling it “spiritual fruit.” So I think there’s a difference. And I’ll try to explain the difference here in this article, viz. I believe that every Christian will have “spiritual fruit”, but not every Christian will have good works. So, what do I mean by that? Well, let’s look at 1 Corinthians 3:10-15. Because what language does the apostle Paul use? Does he say that some Christians are going to have no fruit? Or does he say “work”? What does he say? “Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw – each one’s....” what? Does he say fruit? No, he says “work”. So I think this is a good distinction, a helpful distinction. At least for me it’s a helpful distinction: that it is the “work” that is going to be judged. These are outward works that people have done, not merely fruit in their life. What do I mean by fruit? Let’s back up. What do I mean by fruit? Well, after you get saved, or when you get saved, you get the Holy Spirit, and then “the fruit of the Spirit is....” what? What is "the fruit of the Spirit"? Paul says that it’s “love, joy, peace...” (Gal. 5:22), let’s see what Paul says in verse 22: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” So these are the “fruit of the Spirit”; that’s what Ryrie is talking about when he says, “Every Christian will bear spiritual fruit.” Right? So every Christian has the Spirit and will bear (I would say) at least one of these: “love, joy, peace,” etc. But, it might not rise to the level of an outward good work in their life. It might not produce a good work in their life. For example, if someone has “peace”. That’s not an outward work; that’s an inner fruit, right? So I believe there’s a difference. I believe there’s a distinction, and in 1 Corinthians 3, Paul specifically says it’s the “work” that is going to be judged, right? That is, a work for which one might expect to receive a reward. I would take this to mean outward works, deeds, good deeds. Things that are actually done, like helping your neighbor; not just having the inner fruit of love, but actually acting on it to where it becomes a good “work”, an outward manifestation of the inner reality. So that’s what is going to be judged at the Judgment Seat of Christ: the outward works, the good works. Paul says, “each one’s [what?] work will be become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. But if anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:13-15, ESV). So what is being judged? Paul says, “…work each one has done” (1 Cor. 3:13b, ESV). Right? So this is more than fruit. This is more than spiritual fruit in your life. This is more than just an inner fruit of love, or joy, or peace. This goes beyond that to an outworking of that: a good deed that is actually “done”, right? That’s what Paul says is going to be judged, right? So the point here being that (I believe) every Christian will have “spiritual fruit” in their life, that’s what Ryrie believes, right? But it won’t necessarily rise, or work itself out to a good deed in every believer’s life. So that’s a helpful distinction that I make. I’m not saying Ryrie makes that distinction, but I’m just elaborating on his statement. 

Ryrie also says: “Unproductive faith is a spurious faith; therefore what we are in Christ will be seen in what we are before men.” So he’s not saying that men will necessarily see it, but it will be seen. Someone might ask: “Well, how? Isn’t that an outward good work?” I don’t believe so; not necessarily. Why do I say that? Because if you read on in his book, what Ryrie talks about is, sometimes the “spiritual fruit” may be that there’s joy in the presence of the angels in heaven. And I’m not making this up. If you look in Luke chapter 15, Jesus talks about it actually twice: in verse 7, Luke 15:7, and in Luke 15:10. Jesus says in verse 7, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” Right? So there’s going to be joy when someone gets saved: when they place their faith in Christ. One of the spiritual fruits is “joy” (see Gal. 5:22). Not necessarily in the person’s life even! Right? I mean, there is joy where? In the person’s life? Well, that’s not what Jesus says. He says, “in heaven”! There’s joy “in heaven” (Lk. 15:7). Alright, so this is one of the examples that Ryrie gives in his book So Great Salvation, if you read it. I talk about this in my blog post “Charles Ryrie on Repentance and Faith” (in the comments section). And then in verse 10, Jesus says a similar thing: “In the same way I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents” (Lk. 15:10). So again, joy, in the presence of – where? In the person? Not necessarily. But “in the presence of the angels of God” in heaven! Right? Okay, so this is not necessarily a good work in the Christian’s life. But it is “spiritual fruit”! And it is seen by Christ! Remember the Bible says that “man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart.” And again, this joy might not even be in the person’s heart, but it is a “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22) that results from the person’s faith. So my point is that this fruit will be seen but it’s not necessarily in the person, it’s “in the presence of the angels of God” in heaven. So that’s one example that I think is really helpful. Ryrie gives that example, and I’ve always gone back to that because I think it goes a long way to answering this whole issue. 

Another example that Ryrie gives along the same lines is from Romans chapter 5 and verse 1. It says, “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s Romans 5:1. So according to his verse, every believer has “peace with God” (Rom. 5:1). You might say, “Well, that’s an objective thing between us and God.” Yes, I believe that is – but it’s also a fruit. And why do I say that? Well, that’s one of the specific fruits listed in Galatians 5:22, right after “joy”: “love, joy, peace”. (Remember we just looked at joy in Luke 15.) Well, “peace” is mentioned here by Paul as a “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22). And that’s what we just read in Romans 5:1, that every believer that’s justified has “peace” as a result of that. So is it the objective “peace with God”? Well, yes. Is that all it is? Well, in Galatians 5:22 it’s also a fruit. But my point is: okay, let’s say it’s only an objective peace with God. Well, then it’s not in the Christian, is it? But it’s still a result of their faith. And it’s still seen by God. So again, it’s not a good work is my point. It’s a “spiritual fruit”. It’s not a good work. What is going to be judged at the Judgment Seat, according to 1 Corinthians 3:13? It’s “what kind of work each has done” (1 Cor. 3:13, NET Bible) as a Christian, right? So again, the Christian might have “spiritual fruit” even if it’s only “peace with God” (Rom. 5:1) in the objective sense; or even if it’s only angels having “joy in heaven” (Lk. 15:7, 10) as a result of someone trusting Christ. That’s still “spiritual fruit” that’s from this person’s faith, right? Even if they did no good work at all, and all their works are bad and they’re all burned up, and the person is “saved yet so as through fire” (1 Cor. 3:15): their faith is still productive! Their faith still produced “joy” and “peace”, at the very least. Right? Even if it wasn’t in the person’s life. You know, even if it was just the objective “peace with God” (Rom. 5:1) and “joy in the presence of the angels” (Lk. 15:10), right? Those are still listed by the apostle Paul as “fruit of the Spirit” (Gal. 5:22). It is “fruit” as the result of the person’s faith. So it’s a productive faith! Right? That’s how I understand what Ryrie’s saying. And for me, that solves it. That answers the questions for me. Before I move on let me just give Calvin’s commentary, because somebody’s probably thinking, “Where are you getting this from? Nobody agrees with you.” You know, I’ve heard that before. Well, John Calvin agrees! He agrees with Ryrie’s view on this (and I agree with Ryrie). And what does Calvin say? Let’s take a look at Calvin’s commentary on Romans chapter 5, and verse 1: “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Commenting on this verse, John Calvin says: “We have peace with God and this is the peculiar fruit of the righteousness of faith.” Okay, right there Calvin is agreeing that this “peace” from Romans 5:1 is a “fruit” of faith! It’s a fruit of faith: “peace with God”. And that’s what Ryrie is saying in his book So Great Salvation, or at least how I understand what he’s saying. So to me, that solves it. That answers the question. 

And let me get into a specific here, because you know somebody’s going to ask: “What about Matthew 3 and the axe that’s laid at the root of the trees?” I’ll just read it; it’s Matthew 3:10. This is John the Baptist preaching; he’s speaking to the Pharisees. And he says, well let me just back up and read a few verses to give it more context, because I want to bring in at least from verse 8. John the Baptist says to the Pharisees: “Therefore, bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance.” So in context he calls it “fruit”, but the way I understand it is that he’s clearly talking about good works. In Luke’s account he’s actually telling the people what good works they should do (see Lk. 3:8-14). In Luke 3:8 he says to them: “Therefore produce fruits that are consistent with repentance”. So what’s he talking about? Like I said, I believe he’s talking about good works when he says “fruit”, in other words: fruit rising to the level of good works. And we see that as we read on in the context, so I’ll just continue reading: “Therefore produce fruits that are consistent with repentance, and do not start saying to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children for Abraham. But indeed the axe is already being laid at the root of the trees, so every tree that does not bear good fruit…” (Lk. 3:8-9a). And let me just make a comment here. Notice he says, “every tree that does not bear good fruit” (Lk. 3:9b). So he’s talking about outward good fruit: fruit that rises to the level of an outward good work; fruit that becomes manifested in outward good work. Not simply having an inner peace, which is fine and good, but how does it work out? John the Baptist is saying that it needs to work out and be manifested. And he says, “every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. And the crowds were questioning him, saying, ‘What then should we do?’ ... The tax collectors came and said, ‘What should we do?’ And he said, ‘Collect no more than what you have been ordered to’” (Lk. 3:9b-13). So he’s giving specific good works to do, right? So again, this is a tricky passage, admittedly, but the way I would understand it is that some people may have only fruit in terms of joy in the presence of the angels in heaven. What is the outward good work that’s a result of that? Well, what does it say in Luke? It says there’s “rejoicing”, right? It says, “there is more rejoicing” (Lk. 15:7). So that would be the good work, and in this case it’s not even in the life of the believer! But the tree does “bear good fruit” (Matt. 3:10). How? Well, the angels “rejoice”, that’s an outward good work right? Let me go back to Luke 15. Jesus says in verse 7, “And I tell you in the same way that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous persons who have no need of repentance.” And verse 10, Jesus says, “In the same way I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” So that’s rejoicing! I would call that a “good work”. And it’s a result of this person’s faith. You say, “But it’s only joy.” It is joy, but I would say joy in the sense of rejoicing. Or do you think that all the angels are just silently saying nothing? I’m sure they’re all raising a “glory hallelujah”, right? That’s the idea. And it’s because of this one person that gets saved! And I think that’s the idea if you read it in context. Because what does Jesus say? This is from the parable of the lost sheep. Jesus is talking about finding the lost sheep, and He says that when the man who lost his one sheep finds it, “he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing” (Lk. 15:5, KJV). So that’s the idea. It’s not just a silent joy, but it’s “rejoicing”! And it says when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost” (Lk. 15:6). And then that’s when Jesus says, “I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance” (Lk. 15:7). So, clearly Jesus is saying they’re going to be rejoicing. They’re going to be calling their friends and their neighbors and saying to them, “Rejoice”! So these are clearly outward good works that are going on in heaven in the presence of God, with the angels rejoicing. It’s not just an inner joy, but it’s leading to an outward good work. Not necessarily in the believer’s life even, but the faith is producing – what does it say in Luke 3:9? It is “producing good fruit”! There are good works that are being done as a result of this person’s faith. So it’s not an unproductive faith, is my point. The good works that it produces are being seen, even if it’s in heaven. Right? It’s in the presence of God; that’s where it’s being seen. So it is being seen: not only by God, but also by angels. And that’s important. Don’t downplay that. The angels view this. They’re spectators of us, of mankind. Remember, the apostle Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1:10-12 that the angels desire to “look into” (v. 12, NIV) and “understand” (v. 12, GNT) more about our salvation. And so that’s important to consider, especially in light of what Jesus says in Luke 15:7 and Luke 15:10.

So anyway, that is my Free Grace understanding of spiritual fruit, productive fruit; and I see a distinction between spiritual fruit and outward good works. The latter, of course, being the outward good works about which the apostle Paul says that Christians “should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). So I hope this goes at least a little way towards explaining these issues and helping some people. For me, I know that I’ve sort of wondered about it, in terms of how do we understand these Bible verses? But again, what Ryrie says really helped me the most, I would say. And for those who may want more information, I would check out my article titled “Charles Ryrie on Repentance and Faith”. The article has some helpful comments where I sort of got into a little bit of a question and answer and explained more about my understanding of different things, but in particular on fruit, on faith, and on repentance. So I hope this is helpful to people, please let me know in the comments if you’d like.  

 

References:

[1] Sam Storms, “Will Some Christians Smell Like Smoke on Judgment Day?” (August 29, 2020), The Gospel Coalition website, https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/will-some-christians-smell-like-smoke-on-the-day-of-judgment (accessed June 24, 2023). 

[2] Ibid. 

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] J. Vernon McGee, 1 Corinthians (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1996), p. 46.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Charles Ryrie, So Great Salvation (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1989), p. 45.

[9] Ibid., p. 132.

[10] Interestingly, if you look in the General Index of Grudem’s book “Free Grace” Theology: 5 Ways It Diminishes the Gospel (pp. 152-156), Charles Ryrie’s name isn’t even listed. The truth is, Grudem never mentions Ryrie anywhere in the book – not even once! The same can be said in regards to Lewis Sperry Chafer. Grudem never once mentions him anywhere in the book, not even in a footnote! How can anyone honestly write a book about “Free Grace” theology and never once mention two of its most well-known proponents? If the “shoe were on the other foot”, this would be like writing a book about Calvinism and never once mentioning John Calvin or Theodore Beza! Or it would be like writing a book purporting to critique “Calvinism” but only discussing the off-shoot view of Amyraldism. There are actually more references to Zane Hodges in the General Index of Grudem’s book than there are references to Jesus Christ and John MacArthur combined! Grudem strangely has a myopic fixation on Zane Hodges, to the exclusion of other (more prominent) Free Grace voices. And worse, Grudem seems bent on giving the (false) impression that the views of Zane Hodges characterize the Free Grace movement. That is to say, his book appears to be built on the premise that the views of Zane Hodges are representative of Free Grace theology in general. But this is hardly the case, as even a novice would know from reading just one Wikipedia article on the subject! Thus, Grudem’s entire book is built on a completely false premise and is a misrepresentation of Free Grace theology.