New Calvinists: Unregenerate and Singing Joyfully About It
“But our ongoing Potter’s House studies in the book of Romans reveals something else even more incredulous: the song is a self-described depiction, according to the apostle Paul, of the unregenerate response to the law.”
One of the more popular songs in our New Calvinist nation is “More Like Falling in Love” by antinomian heartthrob Jason Gray. Like all anti-law proponents of our day, he has been allowed to own the dialogue which usually results in winning the argument. In his own bio about the song, he states the following:
Is it weird to anyone else that we’ve made salvation a matter of who has the best information?
Notice how Gray trades the word “truth” for “information.” Switch the words in his sentence, reread, and he is exposed for the wretch that he is. When heretics are allowed to own the dialogue, they can write their own metaphysics. Here are the lyrics to the song:
“More Like Falling In Love”
Give me rules
I will break them
Show me lines
I will cross them
I need more than
A truth to believe
I need a truth that lives
Moves and breathes
To sweep me off my feet, it’s gotta be
More like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now
It’s like I’m falling, oh
It’s like I’m falling in love
Give me words
I’ll misuse them
Obligations
I’ll misplace them
‘Cause all religion
Ever made of me
Was just a sinner
With a stone tied to my feet
It never set me free, it’s gotta be
More like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now
It’s like I’m falling, oh
It’s like I’m falling in
Love, love, love
Deeper and deeper, it was
Love that made me a believer
In more than a name
A faith, a creed
Falling in love with Jesus brought
The change in me
More like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now
It’s like I’m falling, oh
It’s like I’m falling
More like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance
Caught up, called out
Come take a look at me now
It’s like I’m falling, oh
It’s like I’m falling in love
It’s like I’m falling
(Falling in love)
It’s like I’m falling
Much could be contested here once you get past the initial shock of the song’s brazen anti-truth stance, especially the idea that love-feelings verify authentic truth. But our ongoing Potter’s House studies in the book of Romans reveals something else even more incredulous: the song is a self-described depiction, according to the apostle Paul, of the unregenerate response to the law. In the song, Gray posits the idea that the law merely provokes sin. For the lost person that’s true:
Romans 4:15 – For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
Romans 7:7 – What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. 9 I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. 10 The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. 11 For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. 12 So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
13 Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
Notice Paul is speaking in the past tense. Before he was saved, the sin that he was enslaved to utilized the law to provoke sinful reactions. And like Jason Gray states in his song,
Give me rules
I will break them
Show me lines
I will cross them….
Give me words
I’ll misuse them [right, like switching “truth” with “information”]
Obligations
I’ll misplace them
Throughout Romans, Paul describes this state as being “under the law” as opposed to being “under grace”:
Romans 6:14 – For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
You are either “under law” or “under grace.” When you are under law, sin has “dominion over you,” κυριευω (kyrieuo) has both the idea of lordship and control. Paul further explains in Romans 8:7-9:
7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.
Again, exactly as Gray proudly boasts:
Give me rules
I will break them
Show me lines
I will cross them….
Give me words
I’ll misuse them
Obligations
I’ll misplace them
However, when one is “under grace,” their minds are enslaved to the law:
Romans 7:25 – Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
The word for “serve” is “δουλευω (douleuo), a verb form of doulos which is a bond slave. Hence, as believers, our minds are enslaved to the law though we don’t keep it perfectly. Nevertheless, the law is now inclined to incite us to obedience rather than disobedience. Paul states it this way in Romans 8:3-4:
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.
Furthermore, when we don’t seek to love God by learning and doing, we become ignorant in regard to the law and the likes of Jason Gray can propagate this New Calvinist antinomianism unfettered. And again, the dialogue is not challenged as well. Paul stated,
Romans 6:17 – But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
But Jason Gray states:
More like falling in love
Than something to believe in
More like losing my heart
Than giving my allegiance
“Allegiance”? Paul called it a commitment to a “standard of teaching.” We are now slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification (ROM 6:18-19).
That’s New Calvinism: singing praises to Jesus as they draw nearer and nearer to a day of reckoning where they will give an account for their false gospel.
paul
Paul's Passing Thoughts 
Reblogged this on Clearcreek Chapel Watch.
LikeLike
This is not how I take the meaning of this song to be at all. How I understand the song is Jason Grey is saying that in our own strength and by merely following religion and the law we will fail every time. But with a real relationship with Jesus doing right is not so much a burden or something that we have to do but something that we want to do out of love for God. Just like in a marriage we do things for our spouse because we love them not because we are commanded too. One of the main reasons the law (truth) was given to us was so that we would see that we can not keep them (we break them) apart from God and the work of salvation and regeneration.
LikeLike
Joshua,
We can’t keep the law apart from salvation in sanctification? Are you saying that initial salvation makes obedience possible? Or are you saying that salvation needs to be perpetual in sanctification. Your statement makes no distinction. Is salvation a onetime act for each individual, or is it perpetual?
LikeLike
I think the point you are asking me to clarify is besides the point I am trying to make but I’ll answer anyway.
Salvation is a onetime act. Once we are saved the Holy Spirit is continually sanctifying and regenerating. It is this process of God changing us that makes us able to joyfully obey Him. Of course that doesn’t mean it will always be easy to obey, which is why Paul says that we need to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. He is not actually talking about we need to work to keep our salvation.
LikeLike
Joshua,
I am not fooled by your deceptive doublespeak and a careful observation of the song’s lyrics speaks for itself. New Calvinism is a return to authentic Reformed doctrine based on Eastern mysticism and resulting in antinomianism. Obedience is not anything we do, it is an “experience.” WE do not change. Christ’s obedience is imputed to our sanctification. The apostles warn throughout the New Testament that this fusion of justification and sanctification is a false gospel that imperils the soul.
LikeLike
Paul, I’m not nor do I believe in Calvanism new or old. What I get out of this song is that a simple head knowledge of the truth and religion like the Pharisees does not save a person. It’s a true relationship with God through salvation that changes us and makes us able to live in obedience. My point in commenting was not to debate this theology, just to point out that while Jason Gray may be a New Calvanist that message if being presented in this song is hidden and is not one that most people would get from the song.
LikeLike
Joshua,
Is this because the Pharisees were “legalists”?
LikeLike
Yes, in the Pharisees were legalists, they added to the law extra requirements. I’m not sure how your question relates to what I’m saying.
LikeLike
Also all the Pharisees were so focused on keeping the letter of the law and looking for a literal king to come that they completely missed the fact that their King and Savior was right before their eyes. They were relying on their works and heritage to save them not on faith in God.
LikeLike
Joshua,
The word of God NEVER states that the Pharisees were “legalists.” The Bible specifically calls then antinomian (“anomia” on the inside and outside). They were lawless on the inside and outside making “the word of God VOID.” You are clueless, and I am stopping the conversation here because it not my calling to educate you. You believe Piper et al, go bother them, my focus is people who really want to know the truth.
LikeLike
….see my above comment in regard to the absurd notion that the Pharisees sought to keep every letter of the law.
LikeLike
Paul, I am seeking and always have sought the truth and I have never even listened to Piper. I certainly am clueless to what you are saying. I have never heard this word anomia…is it greek? I don’t expect you to educate me, but could you provide me with some resources (articles ect) that summarizes what you believe?
LikeLike
Joshua,
Your last sentence is exactly the kind of manipulative communication that is in vogue in our antinomian church culture and also very annoying. There are well over 1000 articles on this blog stating what I believe and a key word search engine as well. I even wrote a commentary on Romans available through the TANC PUB link in the widget. Your air of self-importance is staggering–why would I care if you agree with me or not?
LikeLike
A person can follow the law like the Pharisees but if they do it as a works by which to be saved and do not have a heart that is reverent and desiring to worship God it is lawlessness – anomia (I just looked it up and realized where you are coming from now). My understanding is that legalism a form of antinomian.
LikeLike
Joshua,
Sigh. NO person ever tries to obey the law or the word of God “TO THE LETTER” for salvation. NOT REALITY. They always dumb it down with tradition to replace an enslavement to righteousness that is not judged by the law for justification in sanctification. Your comment, “A person can follow the law like the Pharisees but if they do it as a works by which to be saved and do not have a heart that is reverent and desiring to worship God it is lawlessness – anomia (I just looked it up and realized where you are coming from now). My understanding is that legalism a form of antinomian” is the run-of-mill motif posited in our day by AC that instills fear and introspection in regard to an honest endeavor to obey truth in sanctification in order to please God in our post salvation sonship and completely separate from justification. Your aforementioned statement is not the metaphysical reality. It contributes to the false motif that a Christian can honestly endeavor to obey the law in sanctification to please God and be partaking in works righteousness unwittingly. THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE because their justifcation is completely seperate from their sanctification. We are not under the law, but enslaved to righteousness. Before salvation, we were enslaved to sin and under the law. Now, we are enslaved to it, but not under it. There—that’s my position, now can I move on, or do you need pictures?
LikeLike
To be honest all the articles is overwhelming to me and hard to tell what exactly you believe. I tried to look for any articles or sections on your sight that summarizes your beliefs but did not find any (maybe I’m just not lookng in the right place). I do not trying to annoy you and am sorry that I have some off as self-important.
LikeLike
I honestly don’t even know if I agree with your doctrinal beliefs or not and that is all I’m trying to ascertain (which by the way was not the original reason for me commenting on this post). Once I determine what exactly you believe then I will look at it in light of the Scripture and if I disagree I will not bother you anymore. If I agree then I would be happy to reference your articles more.
LikeLike