John Robbins's Bad Exegesis of Matthew 7:21-23

"He not only directs his discourse to them, to rouse them from the indifference, in which they lie asleep like drunk people, but also warns believers, not to estimate such masks beyond their proper value. In a word, he declares that, so soon as the doctrine of the Gospel shall have begun to bear fruit by obtaining many disciples, there will not only be very many of the common people who falsely and hypocritically submit to it, but even in the rank of pastors there will be the same treachery, so that they will deny by their actions and life what they profess with the mouth. “Whoever then desires to be reckoned among the disciples, must labour to devote himself, sincerely and honestly, to the exercises of a new life."  John Calvin

"Orthodox Protestants have always said that faith must produce good works. Faith, or what passes for faith, or what some people call faith, is dead without works."   Dr. Gordon H. Clark

Since my time is limited I will only make a few brief comments about John Robbins's hermeneutic that reads justification by faith alone into practically every passage of Scripture which emphasizes true conversion and the accompanying fruits of conversion.  Sean Gerety is a good example of someone who cares little about progressive sanctification and the other accompanying fruits which follow after a monergistic regeneration or the effectual call of the God.  In fact, I would argue that Gerety and others at the Trinity Foundation are more concerned with following the teachings of John Robbins than with following the system of logical and propositional truth that is deduced from the Bible.  Dr. Gordon H. Clark did not waver from the system of propositional truth which is summarized by the Westminster Confession of Faith.  Clark denied that saving faith is bare assent to the Gospel:

Protestants usually assert that Romanists make faith and salvation a matter of assent; the most frequent expression is that the Romanists make faith a matter of “bare” assent. It is common to declaim against “mere” intellectual faith. Bare and mere are of course pejorative adjectives, i.e., weasel words. It is unfortunate that many or most Protestant discussions on this subject, either in textbooks or encyclopedias, do not define their terms and explain what is meant. Assent, as has been seen, can be taken in several ways. Orthodox Protestants have always said that faith must produce good works. Faith, or what passes for faith, or what some people call faith, is dead without works. If this is what is meant by speaking of “mere” or “bare” assent, of course it is quite true. But I suspect that this is not what is meant.

Gordon H. Clark. What Is The Christian Life? (Kindle Locations 3042-3049). The Trinity Foundation. Kindle Edition. 

While it is true that the Westminster Confessional Standards are a fallible confession of faith and an extended creed of what Presbyterians believe, it is not true that departing from the confessional standards is optional.  The WCS are a secondary and authoritative summary of what we believe the Bible teaches.  This can be easily demonstrated from the Confession itself.  The first chapter of the Confession makes it clear that the doctrine of Sola Scriptura is the most important doctrine of Presbyterianism and Calvinism.  In section one we are told that the primary reason God gave us the Scriptures is that general or natural revelation is insufficient information for saving faith.  But we are also told that the Scriptures were put into writing for "the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the Church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and of the world . . ."  (Westminster Confession of Faith.  WCF 1:1).  It would be odd that the Westminster divines would put so much emphasis on the "sure establishment and comfort of the Church" if confessional creeds are merely optional resources of the church.  Dr. Clark made it clear that he adhered to the whole scope of Scripture and to the system of propositional truth that is laid out in summary form in the Westminster Standards:

Today many church leaders consider creeds as obstacles to ecumenical union.  It would please such men to hand over the discussions of creedal differences to those impractical fuddy-duddies, the theologians, while they themselves made the important organizational arrangements by which the right people would get the prominent positions.

There are other more humble people who sincerely believe that the adoption of a creed is an act of ecclesiastical presumption.  Therefore several denominations have no creed.  They insist on believing nothing.  There are others who regard creeds, not exactly as presumptions, but as unnecessary.  This would be the attitude of those who, though their zeal is unquestioned, find creeds, and Paul's epistles, intellectually heavy.

. . . The Westminster Confession was never intended to be either an empty form or an obstacle to church union.  With the other Reformed creeds, the Thirty-nine Articles, the Heidelberg Catechism, the Canons of the Synod of Dort, it was a statement of what all the ministers earnestly believed and faithfully preached.  These creeds were bonds of union, not causes of discord.  Discord comes when men of opposing views subscribe to the same verbal formula.  But these creeds were never intended to hide differences behind a veil of meaningless words.  On the contrary, the year before St. Bartholomew's massacre Bishop Jewel of the Anglican church wrote to Peter Martyr on the continent, "As to matters of doctrine we do not differ from you by a nail's breadth."

Dr. Gordon H. Clark.  What Do Presbyterians Believe?  The Westminster Confession Yesterday and Today.  1965.  Second Edition.  (Unicoi:  The Trinity Foundation, 2001).  Pp. 4-5.  

John Robbins's sermon on Matthew 7:21-23 is only half correct.  He correctly assesses that the Pharisees do not have a proper doctrinal understanding of the Bible when they place all the emphasis on outward works of righteousness rather than a genuine understanding of the Gospel of sovereign and free grace.  The Pharisees were outwardly clean but the inside of their souls was dirty just as the outside of the cup was clean and the inside filthy.  Jesus said that the Pharisees were whitewashed sepulchres but inwardly they were filled with the bones of dead men:

Matthew 23:23–31 (NKJV)
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.
24 Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.

26 Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.

28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,
30 and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’

31 “Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.

The problem with Robbins is that his view completely dismisses true piety as a necessary result of saving faith, a true and living faith.  He conflates the papist view with what orthodox Protestants have always taught, namely that a true and lively faith produces good works which can only please God because of the imputed righteousness of the cross.  Dr. Clark makes no such error.  As can be seen below, Robbins thinks the hypocrisy is believing false teaching, not living a life of hypocrisy:

Now, consider the irony of the exegetical situation. Proponents of Lordship Salvation such as Shepherd and MacArthur appeal to this passage in Matthew 7 to support their view that belief alone in the Lord Jesus Christ is not enough for salvation, that we must also practice the Lordship of Christ by faithfully performing works in order to be saved. Yet this passage clearly teaches that some of those who confess Jesus as Lord and perform amazing works will be excluded from the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, one may acknowledge the Lordship of Christ, perform many wonderful works, and still go to Hell. Jesus himself here warns us that many who confess his Lordship and perform many works will go to Hell. Obviously the passage does not mean what the Pope, MacArthur, and Shepherd think it means. It is not a contrast between mere believers (who are lost) and workers (who are saved), for Jesus himself says that the workers are lost.

John Robbins,  "Justification and Judgment,"  Trinity Review, November/December 2001.  P.  4. 

I have not read either edition of John MacArthur's book, The Gospel According to Jesus.  The first edition did have some confusing language about justification by faith alone and that edition was then revised after R. C. Sproul and others critiqued the book.  However, I think it is unjust of Robbins to lump MacArthur with Norman Shepherd and the Federal Vision/New Perspective on Paul crowd.  There are obviously huge differences between what MacArthur teaches and what the Shepherd/Federal Vision proponents teach.


Robbins correctly says that unless a person believes in the justification accomplished by Jesus Christ as the only basis or foundation for right standing in the final judgment that person has no assurance of salvation.  Final justification is not a matter of good works outweighing bad works and then God accepts a person on the basis of their meritorious works which become the deciding factor in their final salvation.  Final justification is and always will be the fact that Jesus lived a perfect life in our place and thus is our substitutionary righteousness in both his active obedience and his passive obedience.  His final sacrifice accomplished the actual justification of every believing and elect sinner.  (Romans 4:1-8; Hebrews 10:12-14).


What Robbins never mentions is that the Bible, the Reformed confessions, and Dr. Gordon H. Clark all say that faith without works is dead.  We do not justify ourselves by good works in order to be saved.  Instead saving faith knows that believers are justified by Christ alone and that said saving faith will produce good works.  Good works apart from faith cannot justify.  But if we are not to examine ourselves to see if we have genuine faith and obedience, why did the apostle Paul say that to partake of the Lord's supper without proper self examination would result in judgment?  (1 Corinthians 11:27-29;  2 Corinthians 13:5).  Worse for Robbins, John Calvin's exposition of Matthew 7:21-23 focuses on hypocrisy and true piety, not the doctrine of justification by faith alone:

Matthew 7:21. Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord. Christ extends his discourse farther: for he speaks not only of false prophets, who rush upon the flock to tear and devour, but of hirelings, who insinuate themselves, under fair appearances, as pastors, though they have no feeling of piety. This doctrine embraces all hypocrites, whatever may be their rank or station, but at present he refers particularly to pretended teachers, who seem to excel others. He not only directs his discourse to them, to rouse them from the indifference, in which they lie asleep like drunk people, but also warns believers, not to estimate such masks beyond their proper value. In a word, he declares that, so soon as the doctrine of the Gospel shall have begun to bear fruit by obtaining many disciples, there will not only be very many of the common people who falsely and hypocritically submit to it, but even in the rank of pastors there will be the same treachery, so that they will deny by their actions and life what they profess with the mouth. “Whoever then desires to be reckoned among the disciples, must labour to devote himself, sincerely and honestly, to the exercises of a new life.

Calvin, John, and William Pringle. Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Vol. 1. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010. Print.

The short of it all is that Robbins is so completely obsessed by his objection to the denial of justification by faith alone that he ignores the system of doctrine laid out in the Bible and summarized by the Reformed confessions.  His exegesis of Scripture is blinded by his objection to works righteousness to the point that he ignores the balanced system of logical  and propositional theology in the Bible.  Robbins never once mentions Matthew chapter 23 and how that relates to the verses he refers to in Matthew 7:21-23.


The Thirty-nine Articles of Religion put the matter succinctly:

XI. Of the Justification of Man.

WE are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by faith, and not for our own works or deservings. Wherefore that we are justified by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort; as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification. 

XII. Of Good Works. 

ALBEIT that good works, which are the fruits of faith and follow after justification, cannot put away our sins and endure the severity of God's judgement, yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith, insomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit. 

XIII. Of Works before Justification. 

WORKS done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ, neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or (as the School authors say) deserve grace of congruity: yea, rather for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin.

And please note that Dr. Gordon H. Clark fully approved of the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion as a Reformed confession of faith.  The term "grace of congruity" refers to the scholastic doctrine that good works make men deserving to receive another grace that makes their good works meritorious in regards to their salvation.  The Thirty-nine Articles, following the  theology of Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, rejects any idea that good works makes anyone deserving to receive grace or meritorious grace which would be congruent with justification whatsoever.  The papists teach justification by faith plus good works because sins committed after baptism must be remitted by doing good works of penance or substituted by appeals to supererogatory works of the papist saints in the treasury in heaven.  In contradistinction, the Bible teaches justification by faith alone apart from good works.  Good works apart from saving faith cannot please God whatsoever.  This in no way denies that good works are a necessary evidence of a true and lively faith, however.


To further nail the point home I can quote from the Heidelberg Catechism to affirm that sanctification is a necessary evidence of a true and lively faith:

THE THIRD PART—OF THANKFULNESS
LORD’S DAY 32 

Question 86

  Since then we are delivered from our misery, merely of grace, through Christ, without any merit of ours, why must we still do good works?

 

  Because Christ, having redeemed and delivered us by his blood, also renews us by his Holy Spirit, after his own image; that so we may testify, by the whole of our conduct, our gratitude to God for his blessings,a and that he may be praised by us;b also, that every one may be assured in himself of his faith,c by the fruits thereof; and that, by our godly conversation others may be gained to Christ.d

Question 87

  Cannot they then be saved, who, continuing in their wicked and ungrateful lives, are not converted to God?

 

  By no means; for the holy scripture declares that no unchaste person, idolater, adulterer, thief, covetous man, drunkard, slanderer, robber, or any such like, shall inherit the kingdom of God.a

Historic Creeds and Confessions. electronic ed. Oak Harbor: Lexham Press, 1997. Print.

I can also cite and quote many places in the Westminster Confessional Standards to show that sanctification is a necessary evidence of saving faith and a true profession of faith.  I hope that this establishes the point that so-called Lordship Salvation has to be defined properly and if it is defined by the Scriptures and the Reformed creeds and confessions it simply means that those who live a life of lawlessness and wickedness have no assurance of salvation even if they have made a profession of faith.  That seems to be John Calvin's exegesis of Matthew 7:21-23.  The chapter on assurance of salvation in the WCF clearly says that false assurance is a danger.  (See WCF 18:1).

WCF 16:2  Of Good Works

2.      These good works, done in obedience to God’s commandments, are the fruits and evidences of a true and lively faith: (James 2:18, 22) and by them believers manifest their thankfulness, (Ps. 116:12–13, 1 Pet. 2:9) strengthen their assurance, (1 John 2:3, 5, 2 Pet. 1:5–10) edify their brethren, (2 Cor. 9:2, Matt. 5:16) adorn the profession of the gospel, (Tit. 2:5, 9–12, 1 Tim. 6:1) stop the mouths of the adversaries, (1 Pet. 2:15) and glorify God, (1 Pet. 2:12, Phil. 1:11, John 15:8) whose workmanship they are, created in Christ Jesus thereunto, (Eph. 2:10) that, having their fruit unto holiness, they may have the end, eternal life. (Rom. 6:22)

The Westminster Confession of Faith. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996. Print.

Does chapter 16 of the WCF teach final justification?  I think not.  Yet the Westminster divines clearly said that justification is evidenced by sanctification unto holiness and good works which in tandem assure believers that they will inherit eternal life.  Robbins, on the contrary, seems to have been promoting the view of Baptists who teach once saved always saved.

[Addendum:  After having listened to John MacArthur's sermons many times on YouTube, I have come to the conclusion that Johnny Mac defines Lordship Salvation as living a progressively sanctified life after an elect person has been regenerated.  MacArthur does not mean that good works in any sense whatsoever justify the Christian on the final day of judgment.  But it follows that many will discover that their faith was a false profession of faith and that they were never converted.  That is different from the Federal Vision doctrine of a final justification by faith and works.  December 25th, 2021.]