"Holiness, we all agree, is so imperative that without it no one shall see the Lord; and the professing Christian who does not pursue it only deceives himself. It is false and misleading to let people fancy that they may be real saints, yet unholy. ‘Every one’ that has the grace-given hope resting on Him purifies himself as He is pure; others that have not are self-deceived. Because of iniquities the wrath of God cometh upon the sons of disobedience; but believers are essentially sons of obedience, and His love rests on them. If one sin, it is a grievous inconsistency. But grace does not fail to awaken self-judgment through our blessed Advocate with the Father, and restoration ensures. Those who do the wicked works of the flesh, and abide impenitent and indifferent have no part or lot with Christ, shall not inherit the kingdom of God, and in no way share the portion of the saints in light."  (William Kelly, The Prize of our High Calling)

“And allow me to say that it is a very solemn thing indeed to claim the privileges of grace for that which is contrary to the nature of God. I am not speaking now of the lost one found by grace, to whom God gives a new life fresh from Himself. But the effect of a soul's receiving life in the person of Christ is that there are produced feelings, thoughts, judgments and ways acceptable to God and akin to His nature. If a person is a child of God, he is like his Father; he has a nature suitable to God, a life that dislikes sin and is surely pained by what is iniquitous in others, but more particularly in himself. Many bad men are strong against evil in others; they are weak where it might touch themselves. But a Christian always begins with self-judgment....Repentance is the soul's moral judgment of itself under the eye of God; the soul's acceptance of His judgment of its state before Him, and bowing to it.”—William Kelly (Lectures on the Gospel of Matthew, remarks under Matthew chapter 3)

"‘Will a believer be saved, no matter into what course of sin he may fall, and die in?’ A true believer will, infallibly, be saved; but we consider that salvation includes, not only full deliverance from the future consequences of sin, but from the present power and practice thereof. And, hence, if we find a person living in sin, and yet talking about his assurance of salvation, we look upon him as an antinomian, and not a saved person at all….The believer may fall, but he will be lifted up; he may be overtaken, but he will be restored; he may wander, but he will be brought back, because Christ is able to save to the uttermost, and not one of His little ones shall perish….To talk of having the Spirit and yet ‘indulge’ in evil and unholy thoughts is, in our judgment, the ancient Nicolaitanism (Rev. 2:6,15), or modern antinomianism….we believe that the man who draws a plea from the freedom, sovereignty, and eternal stability of the grace of God to continue in sin, knows nothing of Christianity at all, has neither part nor lot in the matter, but is in a truly awful and dangerous condition….The Christian has to struggle with sin; but struggling with it and wallowing in it are two totally different ideas….We must have life before we can do anything; and we get life, not by ‘saying’ we have faith, but by really having it; and when we have it, we shall manifest the precious fruits thereof, to the glory of God." —C.H.Mackintosh, The Mackintosh Treasury, "Final Perseverance—What Is It?" (page 644 and following in the one volume edition).

"While we are justified in the sight of God by faith alone, a real faith must be evidenced by works…. There must be LIFE-WORKS, or else there is no life….When people are saved, ought they not to live as such? Ought not the new life to come out in fruits? It must come out if it be in; and if it does not come out, it is not there….It is very interesting and instructive to compare the teaching of Paul and James—two divinely inspired apostles—on the subject of ‘works.’ Paul utterly repudiates law-works. James jealously insists upon life-works. If this fact be seized, all difficulty vanishes; and the divine harmony is clearly seen." —C.H.Mackintosh, The Mackintosh Treasury, "Life-Works" (pp. 660-662 in the one volume edition).

"Empty profession is of no profit. He who speaks of faith in Christ is responsible to manifest it by his renewed life. In James 2 we are taught that we are justified before men by works, works that are the fruit of a living faith, which is manifest to all….If we believe God we will yield obedience to His Word, and so our faith will be manifested." —H.A.IRONSIDE, The Continual Burnt Offering, see under December 7.

"Shallow preaching that does not grapple with the terrible fact of man’s sinfulness and guilt, calling on ‘all men everywhere to repent,’ results in shallow conversions; and so we have myriads of glib-tongued professors today who give no evidence of regeneration whatever. Prating of salvation by grace, they manifest no grace in their lives. Loudly declaring they are justified by faith alone, they fail to remember that ‘faith without works is dead’; and that justification by works before men is not to be ignored as though it were in contradiction to justification by faith before God."  —H.A.IRONSIDE, Except Ye Repent, p. 11.

"Perhaps someone may ask, 'But does it make no difference to God what I am myself?  May I live on in my sins and still be saved?' No, assuredly not!  But this brings in another line of truth.  The moment one believes the gospel, he is born again and receives a new life and nature--a nature that hates sin and loves holiness.  If you have come to Jesus and trusted Him, do you not realize the truth of this?  Do you not now hate and detest the wicked things that once gave you a certain degree of delight?  Do you not find within yourself a new craving for goodness, a longing after holiness, and a thirst for righteousness?  All this is the evidence of a new nature. And as you walk with God you will find that daily the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit will give you practical deliverance from the dominion of sin."   —H.A.IRONSIDE, Full Assurance, p. 32.

"When you are born again, you love to follow Jesus, and if you do not, you are not a Christian. Take that home. Examine your own foundations a bit....It makes a tremendous difference what you do. If you do not behave yourself, it shows that you are not a real Christian. I know that a real Christian may fail, but the difference can be seen in Peter and Judas. Peter failed, and failed terribly, but he was genuine, and one look from Jesus sent him out weeping bitterly; his heart was broken to think that he had so dishonored his Lord. But Judas companied with the Lord almost three-and-a-half years, and was a devil all the time; he was a thief, and was seeking his own interest. He was even made the treasurer of the company, and he held the beg, but we read, "He bare away what was put therein" (John 12:6), as this has been literally translated. At last remorse overtook him, not genuine repentance, and what was the result? He went and hanged himself. He was never a child of God. There is a great difference, you see, between a Christian and a false professor." -H. A. IRONSIDE, The Eternal Security of the Believer, p. 18.

"God does not want any true believer to lack assurance of eternal safety.  Christ said:  'I give my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish.'  But let us insist on that other mark of Christ's sheep:  'They follow me.'  If we are going on in our own way, then what right have we to assurance?  Remember the 'seal' of the 'foundation of God,' in 2 Timothy 2:19:  'The Lord knoweth them that are his: and, Let everyone that nameth the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness.' "  (WILLIAM NEWELL, Revelation, p. 332)

"Salvation and a holy walk are inseparably connected… Where there is true salvation and eternal life, it is proved by a godly walk…But he [the apostle Paul] knew, as every Christian should know, that the grace which had saved him, which taught him to live soberly, righteously and godly, would also keep him and enable him to persevere through all hindrances." —ARNO C. GAEBELEIN, Gaebelein’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible, p. 938.

"‘Doeth’ in 1 John 2:29 and 3:7 should be ‘practiceth.’ The trend of the life is in view. The new man, God’s seed, cannot sin. Therefore, although we still ‘have…sin’ (1:8), the life should be righteousness. If it is not, we must not expect others to believe our profession. This is James’s point of view. Neither should we believe the profession of one whose habitual life is unrighteous" —C.I. SCOFIELD in his Correspondence Course (comments under 1 John), p. 928.   "[James] insists that only by a godly life can true faith be manifested [emphasis his]…He [James] tests profession by practice." —C.I. SCOFIELD in his Correspondence Course (comments under James), p. 896.

Note: The teaching of C.I.Scofield is in sharp contrast to the teaching of Hodges/Dillow. This is seen by his chapter on "Believers and Professors" in his booklet Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth. Scofield gives many examples of those who are mere professors but not true possessors, that is, those who claim to be saved but who are not truly saved. Most of the examples given by Scofield of mere professors are claimed to be true Christians by Hodges/Dillow. For example: Scofield says Simon was a professor (pretender); Hodges and Dillow teach that he was saved. Scofield says that 1 John 2:19 ("they went out from us") describes pretenders; Hodges says these people were saved. Scofield says the other virgins in Matthew 25:11-12 were pretenders; Hodges and Dillow teach that they were saved. Scofield says the man not having a wedding garment in Matthew 22:11-13 was a pretender (unsaved); Hodges and Dillow teach that he was saved. Scofield says that the man described in James 2:14 (the man claiming to have faith but having no works) was a pretender; Hodges and Dillow say that he was saved. Scofield says that the apostate described in Hebrews 10:38 was a mere professor; Hodges and Dillow teach that he was saved.

"Several of these Scriptures [Scriptures which seem to indicate that a person can lose his salvation] bear on the important fact that Christian profession is justified by its fruits. Salvation which is of God will, under normal conditions, proves itself to be such by its own fruits (1 John 3:10; John 8:31; 15:6; 2 Pet. 1:10; James 2:14-26; 1 Cor. 15:1-2; Heb. 3:6,14)." —LEWIS SPERRY CHAFER, Major Bible Themes, p.188 (his chapter on "Security").

"Unbelievers are warned that they will not have part in that kingdom (1 Cor. 6:9-10; Gal. 5:21; Eph. 5:5)" —J. DWIGHT PENTECOST (Things To Come, p. 471).   Note:  Hodges and Dillow insist that these three passages are not referring to unbelievers (as Pentecost claims), but rather to wicked believers who will lose their inheritance in the millennial kingdom and will not reign with Christ, but who will still be saved.

"‘To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.’ The promise here mentioned for overcomers is not a message to a special group of Christians distinguished by their spirituality and power in contrast to genuine Christians who lack these qualities; it is rather a general description of that which is normal, to be expected among those who are true followers of the Lord. The Apostle John in his first epistle asks, ‘Who is he that overcometh the world?’ (1 John 5:5). He answers the question, ‘He that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God’" —JOHN F. WALVOORD (Revelation, p. 59 under his discussion of Rev. 2:7). In contrast to this statement is the teaching of Hodges/Dillow who say that the overcomers are a special group of believers.

"James teaches that ‘Faith alone saves, but the faith that saves is not alone’; it is always attended by good works….A man may hear the truth and even say that he believes, but unless the fruits of living faith are evident in his life, he is not saved at all….Now if I say I have faith, but my life does not correspond to that which I profess, can the faith that I say I have save me? The answer is an emphatic ‘No.’ For a faith that produces no works cannot save anyone. There is no profit in a man claiming to possess something which he actually does not have….True faith necessarily results in fruit after its kind….The work of faith in a true believer will be indicated and proved by good works" —LEHMAN STRAUSS (Dispensational Conference Speaker), James, Your Brother—Studies in the Epistle of James, pages 103,104,105,110.

"James insists that a living faith will authenticate itself in the production of works. There is no antagonism between faith and works. They are not two totally distinct concepts, but rather two inseparable elements in salvation….James demands that the man who already claims to stand in right relationship with God through faith must by a life of good works demonstrate that he has become a new creature in Christ….In this passage [James 2] James insists that a genuine faith must prove itself by its production of works….A saving faith manifests itself in the production of works….Christian faith must manifest its existence in active obedience to God’s Word"—D. EDMOND HIEBERT [noted dispensational commentator], The Epistle of James—Tests of a Living Faith, see Chapter 5.

Hodges and Dillow maintain that faith and works are totally distinct and separable and that a man of true faith may be devoid of good works.

 Next Page