The version of this paper was presented at a Clergy Meeting of the Anglican Diocese in Singapore in 2014. I would like to thank Bishop Rennis Poniah for inviting me to speak on this topic.
The same material was also presented at a Conference organised by the Chinese Annual Conference of the Methodist Church of Singapore in 2016, at the invitation of Bishop Chong Chin Chung.
In his book Pure Grace published in 2012, Clark Whitten the pastor of Grace Church in Longwood, Florida, writes that a ‘New Grace Reformation’ is underway. According to Whitten, this new movement will not only correct the mistakes that we have learned from the Reformers. It will also revolutionise our understanding of what it means to be a Christian. Whitten argues that while the sixteenth century Reformers got the doctrine of justification by grace through faith right, ‘they missed it on sanctification, or how one is perfected into the likeness of Christ.’1 He asserts that while Luther and Calvin emphasise that salvation is by grace through faith, they seem to teach that sanctification could only be achieved by works.
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Dr Roland Chia is Chew Hock Hin Professor at Trinity Theological College (Singapore) and Theological and Research Advisor of the Ethos Institute for Public Christianity.