Gospel Guidebook: Getting and Keeping It Right 
한국어 日本語
Dire State of Reformed and Free Grace Theology
by Robert P. TerryPublished May 8, 2025
Nearly every denomination of Christianity, including Reformed and Free Grace, teaches that faith is an appropriating instrument that receives or applies the merits of Christ to the believer so that he can be justified. The problem with this is that it leaves justification unaccomplished until the appropriating act is performed, thereby moving the focus from what Christ did for sinners to what the sinner does to be justified. In this scheme, Christ never actually accomplishes justification for His people, but simply prepares the groundwork for them to be justified if they perform their appropriating act correctly. This means that it is impossible for them to believe in Christ for justification, for they don't believe that He accomplished justification. Rather, they believe on Him to qualify them to perform their appropriating act whereby they may be justified. Simply put, for them an unapplied Christ is no Christ at all.
The result of this that many Christians live with a sense of uneasiness, wondering if they performed their appropriating act correctly and sufficiently. This is really a sure sign that they are indeed practicing a form of works salvation masquerading under the name of faith. It is quite common for them to ask "How much faith is enough?", to which their pastor or priest will try to assure them that any amount of faith, even if it is as small as a mustard seed, is sufficient for them. However, this answer is incorrect. If faith is an appropriating act, then it engrafts the appropriator into the work of justification, being a strictly necessary element of justification. No faith means no justification. However, if faith is an element of justification, then it must be performed perfectly. Anything less than perfect faith would be unacceptable and an abomination to God (see Deuteronomy 17:1). This is the dire state of Christianity.
In contrast, if faith is a benefit of a justification fully accomplished by Christ, and merely takes the form of a persuasion of the mind that what it hears is true, then it makes no difference if we see as if through a glass dimly or in the full splendor of an unveiled face, for in either case, we are perceiving what God has accomplished apart from any act of ours and we are thereby changed from glory to glory as we reflect the righteousness of God upon which we gaze.