The answer to that question is, "Yes, John 3:16 is insufficient according to the tenets of Lordship salvation." How so? To answer that question, let's define Lordship Salvation.
Lrodship Salvation is a false gospel and would therefore stand under the stong language of Galatians 1:8-9: "But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, even now I say again: if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!."
Lordship salvation presents a false gospel because it delivers a heavy addition of works to grace which therefore nullifies the grace of faith alone in Christ alone as the one and ony condition of salvation. When a person introduces just one single work as a requirement for salvation, that destroys the gospel; Lordship Salvation stuffs a truck load of works into grace.
We'll start unloading the truck with the heavy box labeled "commitment." "COMMENTMENT" means that a person must yield his life to Christ as the Lord of his life. This means everyday, every month, and every year without fail. According to Lordship Salvation, a person can believe in Jesus for everlasting life and the forgiveness of sin and not be saved because that faith must be joined by a commitment to serve Him his entire life. That first load is a heavy one. But the truck is not empty.
There's another huge box in the truck and this too requires for heavy lifting. It's a box that bears the label, "OBEDIENCE." The requirement is that lifelong obediece must follow commitment. There's no salvation apart from obedience according to Lordship Salvation, because obedience proves that a person is truly saved. Often Lordship Salvation say it this way, “We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.” That statement is illogical because the last half contradicts the first half. Yet that contradiction is passed over without thought by many even those who say they would disagree with Lordship Salvation.
There's no rest for the weary; there's another weighty box in the truck. It's the one labeled, "PERSEVERANCE." Commitment must result in obedience and that commitment must result in obedience and those must, absolutely must, persevere from day one until the end of life. A person who commits his life to Christ, and obeys Him for decades, yet he stops serving and obeying Him at the end of life and dies as an immoral person or an alcoholic or a drug addict or any other type of sinner will not enter the gates of pearl. According to Lordship Salvation, no matter how long a person has been committed and has obeyed Christ, he can never assume he's saved, That's the way Lordship Salvation works.
The signing on to receive these weighty boxes comes with serious psychological difficulties: how do I know if I'm commited enough? How do I know if I'm obedient enough? How do I know I'll be faithful to the finish? Those questions are beyond answers in this life. And if a person is serious, those questions put him into a torture chamber for the rest of his life.
So, now we come to the question in the title of this essay. According to Lordship Salvation, the most beloved verse in the Bible, is John 3:16, insufficient to bring eternal life and the forgiveness of sin? Yes, that's the logical conclusion the Lordship salvationist must come to because there's no mention in that verse of commitment, obedience, and perseverance.
Isn't it strange that John left those three things out? Could it be because commitment, obedience, and perseverance are a false gospel?
Yes.
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