The "Danger" of the Gospel of Grace

by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

There is a sense in which the doctrine of "justification by faith

ONLY" is a very dangerous doctrine; dangerous, I mean, in the

sense that it can be misunderstood. It exposes a man to this

particular charge: People listening to it may say, "Ah, there is

a man who does not encourage us to live a good life, he seems to

say that there is no value in our works, he says that 'all our

righteousness are as filthy rags.' Therefore what he is saying

is that it does not matter what you do, sin as much as you

like." ... There is thus clearly a sense in which the message

of "justification by faith only" can be dangerous, and likewise

it is with the message that salvation is entirely of grace.

. . . I say therefore that if our preaching does not expose us to that

charge and to that misunderstanding, it is because we are not

really preaching the gospel.

Nobody has ever brought this charge against the Church of Rome,

but it was brought frequently against Martin Luther; indeed that was

precisely what the Church of Rome said about the preaching of

Martin Luther. They said, "This man who was a priest has changed

the doctrine in order to justify his own marriage and his own lust",

. . . and so on. "This man", they said, "is an antinomian; and that is

heresy."

That is the very charge they brought against him. It was also

brought against George Whitefield two hundred years ago. It is

the charge that formal dead Christianity -- if there is such a

thing -- has always brought against this startling, staggering

message, that God "justifies the ungodly", and that we are

saved, not by anything we do, but in spite of it, entirely and

only by the grace of God through our Lord and Saviour Jesus

Christ.

That is my comment; and it is a very important comment for

preachers. I would say to all preachers: If your preaching of

salvation has not been misunderstood in that way, then you had

better examine your sermons again, and you had better make sure

that you really are preaching the salvation that is offered in

the New Testament to the ungodly, to the sinner, to those who

are dead in trespasses and sins, to those who are enemies of

God.

There is this kind of dangerous element about the true

presentation of the doctrine of salvation.



[D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, "Romans, An Exposition of Chapter 6,

The New Man," (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1973), pp. 9-10. Quoted

by Steve Brown, "When Being Good Isn't Good Enough," (Nashville:

Thomas Nelson, 1990), pp. 102-103.]



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