What is Free-Grace.org?
Free-Grace.org is a web ministry devoted to expository teaching from Scripture. Many blogs and sites exist which address some controversy, or exhaustively advance a particular tenent of the faith, or provide devotional musings. All of these are legitimate and important causes, beneficial to Christians and the Kingdom. But it is also important for us to keep up the basic work of expounding the Word of God for the people of God, and that is what we intend to do here.
What are the beliefs of Free-Grace.org?
We are evangelical Protestants – we believe in the Five Solas.
Solus Christus: Christ alone.
Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and man.Sola scriptura: Scripture alone.
God’s written word is the only and final authority for doctrine and practice.Sola fide: Faith alone.
Faith alone is the instrument of justification, as we by faith receive the righteousness of Christ imputed, so that we are declared guiltless before the throne of God.Sola gratia: Grace alone.
Salvation is the gift of God, not on the basis of any work or merit of man, but solely of God’s free grace.Soli Deo gloria: Glory to God alone
All glory is to God alone, since salvation is accomplished solely by his will, purpose, and power.
We are baptistic.
Unfortunately when people hear the word “baptist” today, it carries with it a great deal of cultural baggage. The word has been damaged by those who use it as a denominational badge, rendering it in much the same category as words like church, Christian, evangelical, fundamentalist, and catholic.
When we say we are “baptistic”, we mean, simply, that we believe in baptism, or immersion, upon credible confession of faith, as a sign of our being buried with Christ by faith, and raised together with Him. This is sometimes erroneously called “believer’s baptism”, but would be more accurately described as “confessor’s baptism”. We do not believe in baptism as a sacrament, as part of justification, or regeneration, or as an admitting ordinance for church membership.
What about “free grace” theology?
A theological movement emerged in the 1980′s that appropriated the “free grace” label as its own. This movement was also known as “easy-believism” by its detractors, in contrast to the “Lordship salvation” view. The primary combatants in the argument came from dispensationalist backgrounds, and tended to frame their beliefs in terminology that sometimes contradicted the historic Christian faith as represented in the creeds and confessions of the Reformation. That said, the “Lordship salvation” view was closer to the truth, and we certainly do not represent or endorse the “free grace” movement. Rather, we are using the term in its older, historic meaning – as synonymous with the “doctrines of grace”.