If the Bondage of the Will does in fact set out what the pioneer Reformers believed about the Gospel, then we have to conclude that modern Protestantism has tragically sold its birthright since the day of Luther. We must never think that we are Reformed in the historical sense if we have slipped to the point of teaching in essence the same Gospel as Rome does. At that point we would no longer be protesting at all. In writer after writer and speaker after speaker we hear that Arminians are inconsistent but are still brothers. We hear that we are to be gracious and dialogue with them in an effort to convince them. What we must understand, however, is that if they truly hold to the Arminian system and we truly hold to the historical Protestant position, then we cannot call them Christian brothers. That sounds so strange in the modern day, but it is still at least logically correct. Let us look at it from this view. The historical Protestant (Reformers) view says that salvation is wholly of God and wholly of grace. A person is dead in sin and cannot come to God apart from God’s grace in making that person alive and giving that person the gift of faith. The Roman Catholic view, apart from some of the sacramental issues, is that a person has the ability to make a step toward God and cooperate with grace. That is also the Arminian view.
Can we see that both of these views cannot be the same view of Scripture? Romans 4:16 sets out why salvation is by faith: “For this reason it is by faith, in order that it may be in accordance with grace, so that the promise will be guaranteed to all the descendants, not only to those who are of the Law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.” It is by faith in order that it will be in accordance with grace. Justification is not by faith alone in order that it may be easier for people to be saved so that they don’t have to keep a law of some sort. It is by faith alone in order that it may be by grace alone and it is by grace alone so that salvation will be completely by Christ and that is to the glory of God alone. If we make faith out to be a human work that is not completely and utterly of grace, but instead depends on the human choice and will, then we have a Gospel that is not wholly of Christ and wholly of grace. It is, therefore, a huge difference. It is the difference between Roman Catholicism and the pioneer Reformers. It is the difference between true Arminianism and the Gospel.
Let us go back and try to clarify a few things. Is this saying that all people who call themselves Arminians are truly unconverted? No, I am not saying that. I am simply saying that the system of Arminianism does not teach the Gospel and is opposed to it. It is only when the systems are set out for what they truly teach can one deal with individuals. I am sure there are those that go under the banner of Arminian that are converted. I am also sure that there are those that are under the banner of Reformed that are not. It is not the creed that one holds since people on different sides of an aisle can call the same thing something different. It is the true belief of the heart. A hyper-Calvinist thinks of a Calvinist as an Arminian while an Arminian might think of a Calvinist as a hyper-Calvinist.
The doctrine of justification by faith alone was important to the Reformers because it safeguarded the principle of sovereign grace. We must look at that principle and know that it is taught without fail in Ephesians 2:1-10. In order for the grace of God in salvation to be truly grace, it cannot have anything in man that makes man worthy of it or it is not grace. God must save according to His character and not anything man works up in himself or it is not a grace that is truly grace. While the differences appear small in the eyes of modern niceness, they are not small in the light of the glory of God. The two systems are not even close and one is not the Gospel.
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