The only true hope for unity among the Church is unity around the Gospel, never at the expense of truth. The Gospel will remain the same and always has been; a savior that died in our place and acts as our substitute for the judgement of our sins. Jesus lived a perfect life that only He was capable of yet took all of the punishment we deserved and accepted this punishment for every sin ever committed or will be committed by all of mankind. Therefore, we can achieve salvation through Jesus Christ alone, not by our own merits. Despite the long-standing agreements on all of these statements, the false gospels of legalism and antinomianism are prevalent in churches today. These are equal but opposite to each other, with the true gospel almost directly in the middle. When we call for unity of churches, it can only be around the true Gospel with legalism and antinomianism fiercely rejected.
What is Legalism?
The secular definition of legalism is “excessive adherence to law or formula.” The theological definition of legalism is “the conviction that law-keeping is the ground of our acceptance with God.” God used the law given to Israel to show that it is not possible for man to perfectly adhere to God’s laws; a Messiah is necessary because we can never live up to the perfection required by God to be deemed righteous. Only through faith in Christ can we be justified as righteous; any conditions or rules added to the formula would leave us as unrighteous before God because we could never fulfill any obligations by our own merit that would be worth anything to God. No matter how hard we worked to fulfill the law, we would fall far short and be rendered as guilty before God as those who did not try at all. Relying on our own merit cheapens the sacrifice Jesus made for all of us; claiming it was somehow not enough and that God requires more from us (Romans 11:6).
What is Antinomianism?
Antinomianism literally means “against the law” and is defined as “the belief that there are no moral laws God expects Christians to obey.” The teaching of antinomianism basically amounts to the statement that since I have faith in Jesus I can live however I want. Th issue with this doctrine is if we have true faith in Jesus Christ, we would strive to live in obedience and continually grow closer to Him. We live in obedience because are are saved, not in order to be saved. When we put our faith in Jesus, we are repentant and die to our sin (Romans 6:1-2, 11, 15). We no longer live for ourselves and our own desires; we are living for Christ whom we have put our faith in.
What is the Gospel to Unite Around?
The Gospel is the good news that a savior has lived a perfect life yet sacrificed Himself and taken on the punishment we deserve for the forgiveness of our sins and for our salvation. This salvation is comprised of three stages: justification, sanctification, and glorification. Justification is an act of God’s free grace whereby He pronounces a sinner to be righteous because of that sinner’s faith in Christ (Romans 10:9). Sanctification is the process by which Christians are set apart from the rest of the world and become more Christ-like (2 Peter 3:18). Glorification is God’s final removal from sin that makes us one in Christ that we may be resurrected into eternal life in glory before God (Colossians 3:4). We are justified the moment we accept Jesus Christ as our savior and put our faith in Him, we are continually being sanctified as we grow closer to Him and grow in holiness through the work of the Holy Spirit, and we will one day be glorified as we are raised to eternal life.
Legalism is the addition of anything to justification. We cannot add anything of our own merit to justification because only through Christ as our substitute can the righteousness required by God be imputed to us. Antinomianism is the deletion of sanctification. It is impossible to have true faith and not have sanctification; justification and sanctification are inseparable yet distinct. The Gospel is exactly in the middle of these two; our works are not saving us yet they are the fruit borne from faith. We can confidently say that we are saved by faith alone and not by own merit and works (Ephesians 2:8-9) and yet this faith without works is dead (James 2:17-18). As Christians we must strive to have a fruitful faith, not in an effort to be saved, but out of obedience to the one who has saved us. The only unity that can exist must be around these truths of the Gospel.
Unity at the Cross 