“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it” Matthew 7:13-14
There is a Christianity abroad, supposedly evangelical and fundamental, dedicated to making itself easy enough and popular enough for even half-hearted and jaded modern church-goers. True to its mission, it has developed a whole series of teachings which are consistent only in their common effect of smoothing off the rough edges and right angles of genuine Christianity. These new doctrines are very popular and widely accepted. Why shouldn’t they be? They cater to the natural aversion of men to self-denial and especially to the modern worship of pleasure. Only these deep-rooted tendencies can explain the delusion that such Christianity is authentic. Yeshua himself warned against it by telling us that genuine Christianity would be difficult and unpopular, “small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life and only a few find it” Matthew. 7:14. Whereas its counterfeit would be easy, popular and damning, “wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it” Matthew 7:13. Is your Christianity authentic? Or, is it easy, popular and damning?
Suspicious Inconsistency
One of the suspicious qualities of today’s “Easy Christianity” is its inconsistency. For instance, “Easy Christianity” teaches that staying saved is all up to God. Christians will be saved irrespective of how they live. That’s what “Easy Christianity” means by “Eternal Security.” When it comes to the truth of getting saved, that’s another story. According to “Easy Christianity”, getting saved is all up to us. That is where we must make our decision for Yeshua. It’s all up to our free will. Quite obviously, this approach to salvation is hopelessly inconsistent except at one point. It is consistent in that it makes Christianity easy. People want a salvation they can get easily and keep even more easily. “Easy Christianity” accommodates them by illogically teaching “Eternal Security” and “Salvation by Decision.”
Have you ever wondered why, if people can decide by their own free wills to get saved, they can’t decide by their own free wills not to stay saved? If their free will can get them in, why can’t it get them out? The Bible truth is that “Easy Christianity” is wrong about both getting saved and
staying saved, since both are all up to God and His sovereign grace, though both involve the intense activity of our hearts, minds and wills. The Lord Yeshua struck this balance on the matter of getting saved. “All that the Father gives me shall come to me; and the one who comes to me I will certainly not cast out” John 6:37. The balance is perfect. The Word of God carries this balance into the matter of staying saved when Paul says, “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure” Philippians 2:12,13. We must work, but it is because God works in us the will and the work!
This balance is critical for avoiding an “Easy Christianity” while maintaining an authentic Christianity.
Cast Your Ballot!
“God has voted for you, satan has voted against you. You must cast the deciding ballot. By teaching this, many Evangelicals encourage people to believe that “getting saved” is simply a matter of making their decision for Yeshua by their own free wills. Such teaching is imbalanced and harmful! What is wrong about teaching that “getting saved” is up to our free will? It is wrong because it encourages proud self-sufficiency in the sinner. Everything is made to depend on a person’s crucial decision for Yeshua, made by their unassisted free will. How flattering and inflating to one’s opinion of themselves.
This is precisely the opposite of the attitudes required in response to the gospel! The Bible’s evaluation of the sinner is not so flattering! Yeshua asserted, “No one can come to me, unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). Paul tells the Ephesians that before sovereign grace they “were dead in their trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Dead men do not decide for Yeshua! Such Biblical teaching is important, because there is hope in Yeshua only for those who find no hope in themselves. It is in error because it lowers the demands of the gospel and obscures the difficulty of true conversion. It encourages men to think that it is something they are able to do. Biblical faith and repentance are lowered to a decision for Yeshua because the demands of faith and repentance are more than free will can meet. The truth is that only God by mighty grace can enable men to believe and repent (Acts 5:31; 2 Timothy 2:25).
Do not be deceived by a decision for Yeshua that falls short of the faith and repentance bestowed by the free grace of God!
Easy Believism
“Easy-believism” is one of “Easy Christianity’s” popular teachings. Like other false teachings “Easy-believism” is a perversion of truth. The Bible teaches, as Martin Luther and the Reformation proclaimed, that we are made right with God by faith in Yeshua alone. We grant that salvation is by faith alone. The question is easy-faith or biblical faith!
Biblical faith demands and produces costly and radical changes in one’s life. Its essence is supreme commitment to Yeshua. “Anyone who loves his father or mother more that me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” Matthew 10:37-38. Its Siamese twin is repentance. “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance… The ax is already at the root of the trees and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire” Matthew 3:8,10. Its distinctive mark is that it produces good works. “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead” James 2:26. “For in Yeshua neither circumcision, nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” Galatians 5:6.
If you’ve been told that you can have Yeshua as Savior without having Him as Lord; if you’ve been told that salvation is as easy as ABC; if you were assured that a momentary decision would save your soul, you’ve been taught “Easy-believism”. If you think that such believing will save you, you are deceived!
Free From the Law
This phrase from a popular gospel song epitomizes another teaching of “Easy Christianity.” The song has been caricatured as follows: “Free from the Law! O happy condition! Sin all I want and still be forgiven.” Sadly, being free from the law means exactly this in “Easy Christianity.”
Aren’t Christians free from the law? Of course! They are free from the judicial and ceremonial law given to Israel. They are free from the moral law as the way to merit salvation. Scripture says, “you are not under law, but under grace” Romans 6:14. However, Christians are under the moral law as revealed in the Ten Commandments as a rule of life. In other words, they keep the law as the authoritative instructions of their Savior for living. The New Testament demands such law-keeping! “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing. Keeping God’s commands is what counts” 1 Corinthians 7:19. “Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law” Romans 3:31. “So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good” Romans 7:12.
“Easy Christianity” offers freedom from the law, but such freedom is slavery to sin! The genuine Christian says, “I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts” Psalm 119:45.
Eternal Security
Modern “Easy Christianity”, dedicated to effortless and carefree religion, has invented the doctrine of eternal security or “once saved-always saved.” With such insurance, one who has boarded the “train bound for glory,” may relax and go to sleep. Having made his deposit in the bank of salvation, he may spend the rest of his money as he likes. This is false doctrine! The Word of God nowhere teaches that once a man is born again he may give free rein to the lusts of the flesh and be as worldly as he pleases, yet still be sure of getting to heaven. Rather, it teaches, “If you live according to the flesh, you will die” (Romans 8:13). “If anyone does not remain in me,” Yeshua said, “He is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned” (John 15:6). The Apostle Peter remarks, “It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn their backs…of them the proverbs are true `A dog returns to its vomit,’ and, `A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud'” (2 Peter 2:22-23).
Is there no assurance for the Christian that he will make it to glory? Of course there is! It is found in the Reformation doctrine of the “Perseverance of the Saints.” Scripture teaches that all those who are once saved persevere in holiness and are finally saved. This is great comfort for the true Christian, but none to the one who wants carefree Christianity. If your hope is in a decision or experience from the past, but not followed to the present by a new life, your soul is not safe! Do not let such false assurance destroy you!