The Calvary Road Leading To Confusion

by Chad VanRens from Old Truth ( http://www.oldtruth.com ). Chad is a long-time guest contributor & commenter here on Old Truth, and is active in street evangelism and the study of systematic theology.

If your pastor ever holds up a book from the pulpit (other than the bible) and says "If you want to know what our church is all about, read this book", it probably ought to be setting off red flags for you. What's even worse is when that book contains subtle errors that are capable of leading an entire congregation into wrong thinking about the work of Christ and false notions of revivalism. Here's the testimony of how that very thing happened at one conservative church. It underscores how easily error can slip into a church, and how needed discernment is today.

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Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you , and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.

No doubt you will recognize the verse from Jude's epistle exhorting his readers to contend earnestly for the faith. As Christians we have a divinely ordained duty to contend for the very nature of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to guard it with all jealousy. Paul anathematized those in the Galatian Church who tried to make circumcision a requirement for salvation and rebuked the rest of the believers as foolish people who had been bewitched. In Revelation 2 the church in Pergamos was counted faithful but Christ had somewhat against them because they had tolerated those that held the doctrine of Balaam and in Thyatira the church had suffered the woman Jezebel. In both cases Christ said he would come against those that held the false doctrine and fight against them. But to them that overcame Christ would bring blessing.

So clearly doctrinal purity is just as important as moral purity and the scriptures warn those who hold false doctrines to repent. Even an otherwise faithful church can fall into false teaching and be lead astray. This is what I experienced at a church I used to be a member of. It was an Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Church and one Sunday evening at the end of the service the Senior Pastor held a book up and from the pulpit and made the following statement:

"If you want to know what our church is all about,
read this book."

The book is titled "The Calvary Road" by Roy Hession. The purpose of the announcement came prior to our annual revival meeting and the pastors had asked that everyone read the book as a congregation so that when the revival speaker came we might see God move. They even offered to give anyone who promised to read the book a copy at no charge.

Well I already had a copy of the book but I hadn't read it yet. The music pastor had bought a copy for me when I first began attending that church and said that it was one of his favorite books. I had only been saved about a year at that time and it was another year before the proclamation came from the pulpit so I decided to read the book. I was rather shocked to discover that the book taught that a Christian's standing before God was based entirely on his behavior. It seemed to be teaching a strange mix of works righteousness, perfectionism and on-again off-again salvation.

The illustrations the book used were perversions of biblical imagery designed to give believers assurance and twisted to put believers into bondage and fear of loss of salvation. In chapter 5 the Holy Spirit is referred to as "she" and a timid little dove who was too afraid rest on Christ lest he be meek. Imputed righteousness and the merit of Christ's finished work being the Christian's assurance and acceptance before God are totally absent. Biblical exhortations to pursue holiness of life and sanctification are no where to be found.

I have since left that church and am now part of a Reformed Baptist Church. The purpose of this post is not to call out my old church. It is to examine the teachings of this book and to illustrate how careful we must be to guard our doctrine and contend for the faith once delivered to the saints. I will provide an excerpt from one chapter and deal with it in some detail. The entire book can be read online at the following link; Calvary Road Table of Contents.

There is a very reckless use of scriptural imagery in every chapter of "The Calvary Road". Roy Hession often takes a scriptural image with a well understood meaning and twists it to his own end. Here we shall see how Hession has made reference to something he calls "the Water of Life" (capitalization his). Now, the only scriptural association that one can make when seeing the words Water of Life could be that Hession is referencing "fountains of living water", a metaphor for eternal life (John 4:10-11, 7:38, Rev. 7:17).
Here is the excerpt from Chapter 2 "Cups Running Over":

The picture that has made things simple and clear to so many of us is that of the human heart as a cup, which we hold out to Jesus, longing that He might fill it with the Water of Life. Jesus is pictured as bearing the golden water pot with the Water of Life. As He passes by, He looks into our cup and if it is clean, He fills to overflowing with the Water of Life. And as Jesus is always passing by, the cup can be always running over. That is something of what David meant, when he said, "My cup runneth over." This is Revival - you and I full to overflowing with blessing ourselves and to others - with a constant peace in our hearts. People imagine that dying to self makes one miserable. But it just the opposite. It is the refusal to die to self that makes one miserable. The more we know of death with Him, the more we shall know of His life in us, and so the more of real peace and joy. His life, too, will overflow through us to lost souls in a real concern for their salvation, and to our fellow Christians in a deep desire for their blessing.

Under the Blood.

Only one thing prevents Jesus filling our cups as He passes by, and that is sin in one of its thousand forms. The Lord Jesus does not fill dirty cups. Anything that springs from self, however small it may be, is sin. Self-energy or self-complacency in service is sin. Self-pity in trials or difficulties, self-seeking in business or Christian work, self-indulgence in one's spare time, sensitiveness, touchiness, resentment and self-defense when we are hurt or injured by others, self-consciousness, reserve, worry, fear, all spring from self and all are sin and make our cups unclean.* But all of them were put into that other cup, which the Lord Jesus shrank from momentarily in Gethsemane, but which He drank to the dregs at Calvary - the cup of our sin. And if we will allow Him to show us what is in our cups and then give it to Him, He will cleanse them in the precious Blood that still flows for sin. That does not mean mere cleansing from the guilt of sin, nor even from the stain of sin - though thank God both of these are true - but from the sin itself, whatever it may be. And as He cleanses our cups, so He fills them to overflowing with His Holy Spirit.

Notice that Hession says that if our cup is clean then Christ will fill it with the Water of Life. Since Christ does not fill dirty cups he won't fill our cups if they are stained with sin. Now let us consider that Hebrews 10:14 says "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified." The bible tells us that our sin has been separated from us as far as the east is from the west. Now I am not denying that Christians must confess their sins for the scriptures command us to do so. The problem here is that Hession is confusing justification and sanctification. He is threatening the withholding of the Water of Life at the first instance of anything sinful in the Christian's life.

Christ has forever removed our sin and God no longer deals with us as sinners but as sinless in Christ because of the imputation of Christ's righteousness. This "Water of Life" is the free gift of God given to us on the merit of Christ's perfect obedience on our behalf. We cannot merit it even by our confession.

Notice also that Hession states that Christ drank the cup of our sin, but then turns and says that our sins are not actually cleansed from the guilt, stain of sin or the sin itself until we allow Christ to show us what's in our cup and then give it to him. If we are not cleansed from the guilt or stain of sin by Christ's finished work then we are not cleansed at all. Christ's work perfectly cleanses all who believe in him. They can never be defiled in the sense that Hession is suggesting.

Consider again the following scriptures. Romans 6:9-11 "Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

In Romans 6 we are exhorted to consider what is true of Christ is also true of us, permanently. We are dead to sin, verse 2. It cannot condemn us. That is the Christian's great assurance. What Hession is suggesting is impossible. It's biblically unsound, and irresponsible to make the claim that he is making. Guard your doctrine carefully dear ones and hold fast to the truth. If sanctification is what you desire, and all Christian's must (Heb12:13), then seek it scripturally. Martyn Lloyd Jones' sermon's on Romans 6 are a great resource and J.C. Ryle has an excellent tract titled "Sanctification".