Galatians 2:20-21 Proves That Lordship Salvation Is Wrong

Galatians 2:20-21, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”

As we just read, the inspired King James Bible teaches that Christ lives in the believer. That is, every believer has God's gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Romans 8:9, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” The Bible is very plain—if you do not have God's Holy Spirit living inside, you are not saved. 1st John 3:24, “And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.” This is the test of the Epistle of 1st John to determine if you are saved (1st John 5:13)—do you have the Holy Spirit living inside you?

Now, we just read that it is Jesus (in the form of the Holy Spirit) who lives in us. No saint of God can live the Christian life in our own strength; but rather, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” I hope you understand that dear reader. You cannot live the Christian life on your own. We can only live the Christian life by yielding to the leading and conviction of God's Holy Spirit, who lives inside our spirit, soul and body.

Having said that as introduction, I could show you umpteen quotes from the Jehovah's Witnesses, Roman Catholics, Mormons, Seventh-Day Adventists and other pseudo-Christian cults today, who teach that salvation is a free gift without works, but then they hypocritically say you must forsake your sinful ways to be saved.

Here is one example from the Mormons...

"To repent we need to recognize and feel sorry for what we’ve done wrong, do whatever is possible to repair the damage it may have caused, and to leave our sinful behavior behind. Repentance can be difficult and requires a lot of honesty, but the joy and freedom we feel when we turn away from our sins are well worth the effort. Because Christ suffered for our sins, we can be forgiven when we repent. That’s why the Atonement is so important to all of us."

SOURCE: Jesus Christ | Mormon.org

Now here is Pastor John MacArthur, practically saying the same garbage verbatim:

“Don’t believe anyone who says it’s easy to become a Christian. Salvation for sinners cost God His own Son; it cost God’s Son His life, and it’ll cost you the same thing. Salvation isn’t gained by reciting mere words. Saving faith transforms the heart, and that in turn transforms behavior. Faith’s fruit is seen in actions, not intentions. There’s no room for passive spectators: words without actions are empty and futile.” [emphasis added]

SOURCE: Dr. John MacArthur, 'Grace To You,' an updated quote from his ungodly book 'Hard To Believe,' page 93

Do you see what they have wickedly done? Instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to turn us from sin as we yield to Him as a born-again child of God, Mormons and John MacArthur have made repentance from your sins as the mechanism by which you must be willing to change your behavior to be saved. Please don't miss that! Dear friend, you cannot turn from your sins!!! I said you CANNOT turn away from your sinning! That is the whole reason why Jesus died on a cross to pay for your sins and mine. That is why the inspired Holy Bible warns in Galatians 2:21, “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” You cannot turn from your sinful bad habits to be saved, which is why Christ came into the world to pay for your sins on the cross with His blood.

As we read in Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Turning from your sins is self-reformation!!! Nowhere in the inspired King James Bible are we taught that to be saved we must repent “of your sins” or “turn from your sins” to get to Heaven. The Bible simply says to BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST (Acts 16:30-31). The only requirement to BELIEVE ON JESUS is to admit that you are a guilty sinner in God's sight (Romans 3:19-20). That's it!

Jesus died on a cross to pay for your sins. He was buried. Three days later Jesus resurrected from the dead. These three things comprise “THE GOSPEL” (i.e., the “GOOD NEWS”), by which all who BELIEVE IT are saved. Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” We are saved by BELIEVING THE GOSPEL!!! We are not saved by turning away from our sins, nor by being willing to give up our sinful bad habits, which would be works instead of grace.

As you can see, John MacArthur is in league with the Devil, the Mormon cult! The devil is in the details. If you want further evidence to verify what I am showing you, please listen to John MacArthur himself, who says that the Mormons agree with his perverse Lordship Salvation gospel so much, that MacArthur's books are required reading at Brigham Young University in Utah. Oh my! Dear reader, please RUN away from John MacArthur and the Mormons!!!

Here is another example of how professed Christians today are being deceived by the Devil...

Shame On WTYG Radio For Preaching Lordship Salvation

Kindly, these people are perverting the Gospel. Here is their suggested prayer to be saved:

Lord, I know that I am a sinner. If I died today, I would not go to heaven. Forgive my sin, come into my life and be my Savior. Help me live for you from this day forward. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. The Bible says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13 —WTYG Christian Radio

Asking Jesus to "come into my life" is not a part of God's simple plan of salvation. Nor is it part of the Gospel that you "Help me live for you from this day forward." It is Lordship Salvation!!!
Furthermore, not one word is mentioned about Jesus' death on the cross to pay for our sins, His burial or bodily resurrection three days later. I mean, that is "the gospel" after all according to 1st Corinthians 15:1-4. I have come to realize that the primary purpose of my Facebook page is to help teach professed Christians what is wrong with their distorted views of the Gospel. To that I say, Praise the Lord! Somebody needs to do it, so I gladly volunteer!

This is the consequential result of fools like Pastor Jeff Redlin, who just sent a perverted plan of salvation to tens of thousands of Florida residents. Pastor Redlin and his clown associates (like Tim Zacharias), and complicit PCC leaders as well, have MUCH blood on their hands!!! No one can be saved by turning from their sinful bad habits!!! That is works, not grace.
The truth is that nobody can turn from their sins, which is the whole reason why Jesus had to die on a cross to pay for our sins. God pity today's messed up Baptist churches. The very ones who should be telling lost sinners how to be saved are damning their souls to an eternity burning in the fires of Hell.

Turning from your sins is self-reformation, not Bible repentance. Judas turned from his sins in Matthew 27:3. The word "repented" (Greek: metamellomai, which means, "to regret") here is a different word, than "repent" (Greek: metanoia, which means, "a change of mind") that is always used in regards to salvation. Judas was sorry. He even returned the 30 pieces of silver (the going price for a slave) to the wicked Pharisees. He was a changed man. Judas turned from his sins, so he thought, but still died in His sins and went to Hell forever without Christ. You don't turn from your sins and partially trust Christ to get saved, you wholly trust in Christ who paid for your sins with His precious blood through Calvary's cross.

As we have learned in this blog, Galatians 2:20 teaches that Jesus lives the Christian life through each saint, IF we will choose to walk in the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-25), by yielding to the Holy Spirit's leading to obey God's written Word (2nd Corinthians 10:5-6). This is something entirely different, than YOU turning away from your own sins as a prerequisite to saving faith (which is a counterfeit plan of works-based-slavation). Self-reformation (nor a desire to self reform) is required or permitted in God's simple plan of salvation. You must wholly put your trust in Jesus Christ alone, because of what He has already DONE through Calvary's cross to pay your debt of sin.

SIMPLY BELIEVE THAT JESUS DID IT ALL FOR YOU! That is how you get to Heaven, and not by repenting to turn from your sinning. Jonah 3:10, “And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” Works never saved anybody (Romans 3:19-20).

Also, nobody repented more in the Bible than God. Exodus 32:14, “And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.” Did God turn from His sins? Did God turn from His sinful way? No, God simply changed His mind, which is what repentance means in the Bible. If you would like to learn in depth about repentance, here are two helpful MP3 audio sermons by one of my favorite preachers, Pastor Ralph Yankee Arnold:

• Repentance In The New Testament | Video
• Repentance In The Old Testament | Video

The Devil is behind today's corrupt Bible revisions, which have blatantly changed and perverted the Words of the Living God. Jeremiah 23:36, “And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for every man's word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God.” It is no light thing to tamper with God's Word. It is no trifle matter to change the Bible's meaning of “repent” from simply “a change of mind,” to instead mean “turn from your sin.” Clearly, these two definitions are world's apart. When Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, he tried to turn from his sin by sewing together some fig leaves to cover his nakedness, and that of his wife Eve. But God rejected Adam's fig leaf religion, and instead killed an innocent animal (which pictured the sinless slain innocent Lamb of God for our sins), to provide clothing for Adam and Eve.

Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, tried to turn from his sin by offering God the best crops that his field's harvest could produce. But the Lord rejected Cain's offering, because it was rooted in his own self-righteousness instead of faith in the coming Messiah. The truth is that we are saved by faith alone in Jesus Christ; and then once saved Jesus lives through us, as we walk by faith, which is exactly what Galatians 2:20 teaches:

Galatians 2:20-21, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.”

So, in fact, you DON'T have to “turn from your sins” or “be willing to forsake your sinful bad habits” to receive God's free gift of eternal life, because to turn from your sin would be works. The new birth is not a reward for the righteous, it is a gift for the guilty! The Bible says that Jesus lives in us when we get saved, as the blessed indwelling Holy Spirit. Romans 8:9 calls the Holy Spirit that “Spirit of Christ.” John 14:23, “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” This Scripture teaches that God the Father and God the Son come to live inside every saint, in the form of God the Holy Spirit.

The lost neo-evangelical crowd at Bob Jones University and Pensacola Christian College today, place the burden of dealing with sin upon the lost sinner's shoulders.

I was shocked on page 60, when I read Pensacola Christian College's counterfeit plan of salvation, in a booklet that their Campus Church mailed to my house (and thousands of other residents of Pensacola). I just received the booklet in my mailbox on November 1, 2023. What I am about to show you is straight from Satan dear reader:

“REPENTANCE — Now is the time to turn from your sin and embrace God. The act of turning away from sin is called 'repentance.' This word implies an inward decision to follow and obey God's will instead of your self-serving sins. It means changing your mind about sin and seeing it as something that grieves God. The Bible says that God patiently waits for all people to make this decision.”

SOURCE: “John & Romans,” Campus Church at Pensacola Christian College, p. 60

Do you still think I bumped my head? I've been exposing the cult at Bob Jones University (BJU) since 2014, and now I have been exposing the cult at Pensacola Christian College (PCC) since 2021. By God's grace, I will continue to expose these wicked organizations.

To make matters even worse, on page 62 of the “John & Romans” booklet, Campus Church tells the reader that to be saved, you must make a mental check requiring the reader to agree to:

“I repent of my sins. I realize that sin is something that God hates and I no longer want to hold onto sinful bad habits in my life.”

SOURCE: “John & Romans,” Campus Church at Pensacola Christian College, p. 62

Oh my God! Folks, this is NOT part of the Gospel which the Apostle Paul preached in 1st Corinthians 15:1-4...

1st Corinthians15:1-4, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve: After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.”

There you have it! The “Gospel” is the “GOOD NEWS” that Jesus Christ DIED on a cross for our sins, He was BURIED and after three days He physically RESURRECTED from the dead. In Paul's Gospel (which Paul said he received directly from Jesus in Galatians 1:12), did you see anything that reads: “follow and obey God's will instead of your self-serving sins”? No, that is not what Paul taught. So why is PCC and their Campus Church promoting this filth? PCC and Campus Church are pulling on the same rope as the Devil.

You don't turn from your sins as qualification to trust Christ to be saved; but rather, God saves you when, by faith, you receive Christ's sacrifice on the cross as payment for your sins, believing that He was buried and then raised up from the dead three days later for your justification. Acts 3:26, “Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” Carefully notice that Jesus does the turning, NOT YOU, from your sins. I wrote a whole blog on this one Bible verse from Acts 3:26. Thank you for reading my blog. To God be ALL the credit, praise and glory (John 15:5). Jesus is precious!!!