Critical Response to The Traditionalist Statement: Part 5 (Article 4)

By Mark W. Christy, PhD

This article is the fifth in a series designed to carefully consider the theological position against Calvinism taken by those who have signed what is called A Statement of the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God’s Plan of Salvation (released in 2012). In short form, this document is commonly known as the Traditionalist Statement (TS) among Southern Baptists. Presently, comments will be made in response to Article 4 of the TS:

Article Four: The Grace of God

We affirm that grace is God’s generous decision to provide salvation for any person by taking all of the initiative in providing atonement, in freely offering the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit, and in uniting the believer to Christ through the Holy Spirit by faith.

We deny that grace negates the necessity of a free response of faith or that it cannot be resisted. We deny that the response of faith is in any way a meritorious work that earns salvation.

Ezra 9:8; Proverbs 3:34; Zechariah 12:10; Matthew 19:16-30, 23:37; Luke 10:1-12; Acts 15:11; 20:24; Romans 3:24, 27-28; 5:6, 8, 15-21; Galatians 1:6; 2:21; 5; Ephesians 2:8-10; Philippians 3:2-9; Colossians 2:13-17; Hebrews 4:16; 9:28; 1 John 4:19

From the start, the drafters of this article place constraints on their interpretation of grace, or it at least appears this way. They limit grace in regard to God’s decisive role in salvation. For many Calvinists, the affirmation covering God’s grace would be readily accepted (though appeals for increased clarity may arise) were it not for the phrase, “for any person”.[i] The inclusion of this phrase fits well within the theology outlined so far in TS (and discussed in the previous articles in this series) which essentially upholds an effectual and universal atonement where the efficacy is somehow limited by human response.

In the denial posted within Article 4 of TS, the framers are right to acknowledge that saving faith is not meritorious work whereby one can earn salvation in whole or in part. That being said, their theology disconnects the freewill of humanity from God’s sovereign elective choice in regard to one’s salvation. To put this another way, one’s freewill operates in a sphere that is beyond God’s control. With this in mind, one wonders how a person could make an unmerited decision of faith when the merit from that decision has nowhere to go except to the one who made the decision. Certainly, God could not accept this merit as He would have no decisive role in the faith response according to those espousing TS theology.

[i]Among other potential contentions, some may argue that God offers His gospel indirectly, in a way, through the proclamation ministry of His saints.