Lordship salvation
Historic orthodoxy
The teaching that the faith which saves receives Jesus as both Savior and Lord, and necessarily brings repentance and a changed life.
What it means
"Lordship salvation" is a twentieth-century name, used mostly in debate with free grace theology, for what the Reformation churches had always taught. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, and nothing we do contributes to it. But the faith that saves is a real trust in the whole Christ, who is offered in the gospel as Prophet, Priest, and King.
Such faith is never alone. It comes with repentance, a turning from sin to God, and it bears fruit in obedience. These fruits are not the ground of salvation but its evidence. A person may stumble badly and still be a true believer, but a person who never turns from sin and has no love for Christ has reason to doubt that they have believed at all.
The Westminster and 1689 confessions teach this, describing saving faith as accepting, receiving, and resting on Christ alone, and insisting that faith is no dead faith but works by love.
In Scripture
Confessing Jesus as Lord and believing God raised him from the dead brings salvation.
Not everyone who calls Jesus Lord will enter the kingdom, but the one who does the Father's will.
Salvation is by grace through faith, not works, yet we are created in Christ for good works.
What counts in Christ is faith working through love.
Anyone in Christ is a new creation.
Where it comes up
Confessions: WCF 11.2; WCF 14.2; LBCF 1689 11.2; LBCF 1689 14.2
Related terms
Free grace theologySerious error
The teaching that saving faith is simply believing Jesus' promise of eternal life, without any necessary turning from sin or submission to him as Lord.
Justification by faith aloneHistoric orthodoxy
God declares sinners righteous in His sight not because of anything they do, but only because of Christ's righteousness, received through faith alone.
RegenerationHistoric orthodoxy
The work of the Holy Spirit by which a person dead in sin is made spiritually alive, given a new heart that turns to God in faith and repentance.
Perseverance of the saintsHistoric orthodoxy
The teaching that all whom God has truly saved will be kept by his power and will continue in faith and holiness to the end.
The gospelHistoric orthodoxy
The good news that God saves sinners through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and freely forgives and accepts all who turn from sin and trust in Him.