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Faith Alone, New Birth Always

Keeping Justification Pure and Regeneration Real

There is a debate that keeps cropping up because both sides are guarding something worth guarding: the "Free Grace" camp defends free gift of grace and the "Lordship Salvation" camp defends the reality of new birth. I'm not offering a clever compromise. I'm arguing for clean biblical categories so we stop smuggling sanctification into justification—or evacuating regeneration from salvation.

Free-grace advocates are right to fear a "gospel" that quietly becomes Christ + your reform. Lordship advocates are right to fear a "faith" that is mere mental agreement while someone remains settled in self-rule.

Both fears are legitimate.
Both extremes are not.

Are we debating how a sinner is justified—or what the justified life looks like?
Most heat comes from confusing those two things.

So here are the categories, kept distinct:

Keep the gospel clean: justification is God's verdict, received by faith alone

The gospel is not "clean up and commit."
The gospel is: "Come to Christ and be saved."

"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved."
—Acts 16:31

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God…"
—Romans 5:1

"For by grace are ye saved through faith… not of works."
—Ephesians 2:8–9

"Whosoever believeth in him…"
—John 3:16

So let me say it plainly:

If that's what you heard, we're talking past each other—because that's not what I'm saying.

Keep salvation real: the grace that justifies also gives new birth

Scripture does not treat salvation as a verdict that leaves the person unchanged.

"Except a man be born again…"
—John 3:3

"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature…"
—2 Corinthians 5:17

"I will give you a new heart… and cause you to walk in my statutes."
—Ezekiel 36:26–27

So yes: grace through faith justifies.
And yes: the grace that justifies also gives new life.

That's the center rail.

Keep repentance biblical: a real turning, not a vow of future performance

Repentance is the word everyone tries to weaponize.

Here's what I mean, and what I don't:

"Repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."
—Acts 20:21

This line guards both sides:

We are not saved by the depth of our repentance.
We are saved by the object of our faith: Christ.

And here's the clarifier that stops the straw men:

This turning is not a vow of future performance; it is the abandonment of self-justification and self-rule as a saving posture, and the receiving of Christ Himself—not merely agreeing with facts about Him.

Not "promise you'll behave."
Not "mere mental agreement."
Receive Christ.

Keep works in their lane: fruit is evidence, not the basis of the verdict

Paul and James are answering different questions.

And this matters:

James uses "justify" here in a demonstrative sense (shown/proven righteous),
while Paul uses it in a declarative sense (declared righteous).

"Not of works…"
—Ephesians 2:8–9

"Created in Christ Jesus unto good works…"
—Ephesians 2:10

"Faith without works is dead."
—James 2:17

"I will shew thee my faith by my works."
—James 2:18

So the line is:

Works are not the root of salvation. Works are fruit of salvation.
Fruit is not the basis of God's verdict; fruit is the consequence of God's work.

And for tender consciences: fruit is sometimes slow to appear and uneven in shape—but it is real in the long run.

Keep assurance pastoral: comfort the weak, confront the hardened

Two pastoral moves, same gospel:

  1. For the trembling soul: look outward to Christ's promise and finished work.
  2. For the complacent professor: look honestly at what your life is defending and practicing.

Assurance rests first on Christ.
Fruit ordinarily confirms it—without becoming a scoreboard that torments the weak or excuses the hard.

Keep the warning honest: "no fight forever" is not a neutral category

While fruit varies in clarity and timing, a settled, lifelong pattern of unrepentant sin with no evident discipline over time, no fight, and no trajectory toward Christ is not what Scripture calls new life.

That is not me pretending I can infallibly read hearts.
That is me refusing to call death "life" because someone once said a sentence.

Keep "carnal Christian" in context: diagnosis, not identity—and Scripture draws lines

Yes, Corinthians were real. But notice what Paul does with that category:

And Paul also draws boundary lines about patterns:

"Now the works of the flesh… they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
—Galatians 5:19–21

"And such were some of you: but ye are washed… sanctified… justified…"
—1 Corinthians 6:9–11

Scripture distinguishes between stumbling and settled practice, between struggle and identity, between a fall and a way of life.

And it adds weight here: God disciplines His children, and the Spirit presses, convicts, and corrects—so "no fight forever" is not a neutral category.

Sanctification can be slow. It can be messy.
But it cannot be mythical.

Keep the center rail: faith alone saves—and living faith does not stay alone

We are justified by faith alone because of Christ alone.
Conversion is repentance and faith—two sides of the same turning—where repentance is not a pledge of future performance but the abandonment of self-justification and the receiving of Christ Himself.
The grace that justifies also regenerates, and therefore it ordinarily produces a new direction and a real war with sin.
Assurance rests first on Christ's promise; fruit ordinarily confirms it—without becoming a co-savior or a tormenting scorecard.

Faith alone saves—and living faith does not stay alone.

One sentence I'm happy to say to an unbeliever

Come to Christ and be saved; and the Christ you come to does not leave you unchanged.