Salvation: Mechanical or Relational? Free Early Christian Course

Did the early Christians believe we are saved by faith alone? Does obedience play a role in salvation? What the early Christians believed about salvation, works, and free will may surprise you.

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Course Content

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Assurance of Salvation (New)

Eternal Security

Atonement Part 1: What Early Christians Believed

Atonement Part 2: Imputed Righteousness

Atonement Part 3: Common Questions

Predestination and Free Will

Grace: The Most Misunderstood Word in the Bible

Harmonizing Paul and James – Part 1

Harmonizing Paul and James – Part 2

Survey: Salvation: Mechanical or Relational?

Additional Readings: Salvation: Mechanical or Relational?

Free Course Guide

What This Free Course Covers

In Salvation: Mechanical or Relational?, David Bercot examines salvation through the lens of Scripture and the writings of Christians before Nicaea. The course repeatedly asks whether salvation should be understood as a mechanical transaction or as an obedient love-faith relationship with Christ. Lessons address faith, repentance, baptism, assurance, eternal security, righteous works, grace, predestination, free will, and the relationship between Paul and James.

A major section of the course also compares later satisfaction or penal models of the atonement with the way Bercot says early Christians spoke about forgiveness, ransom, victory over Satan, cleansing from sin, the second Adam, and Christ’s teaching. The lessons fit together by first defining salvation, then testing common doctrines and proof texts, and finally returning to Jesus’ language of abiding in the vine, bearing fruit, and continuing faithfully to the end.

Early Christian salvation Faith and obedience Assurance and perseverance Eternal security Atonement Imputed righteousness Grace Free will Paul and James Abiding in Christ

What You Will Study

Why Bercot looks to pre-Nicene Christian writers when studying salvation
The difference between a mechanical view of salvation and an obedient love-faith relationship with Christ
How assurance of salvation is discussed in relation to past salvation and future inheritance
Biblical warnings and early Christian teaching related to eternal security and apostasy
How Isaiah 64:6 and the phrase “filthy rags” are used in debates about righteous works
An overview of early Christian themes in the atonement, including forgiveness, ransom, victory, cleansing, and the second Adam
How grace is defined as God’s favor rather than as a blank check for disobedience
How Bercot seeks to harmonize Paul and James on faith, works, justification, and Abraham

Questions This Course Helps Answer

Did the early Christians teach salvation by faith alone in the later Protestant sense?
What role do repentance, conversion, and baptism play in entering a saved state?
Can a Christian have assurance that he or she has been saved?
Is there a guarantee that every believer will continue faithfully to the end?
How did early Christians understand warnings about falling away or being cut off?
Does Isaiah 64:6 mean that God views every righteous act as filthy rags?
What did early Christians emphasize when speaking about the atonement?
How does the early Christian view of Christ’s blood differ from a purely legal payment model?
What is imputed righteousness, and why does Bercot connect it to the satisfaction model of the atonement?
How can God’s foreknowledge be discussed without denying human free will?
What does the course mean by grace as God’s favor or goodwill?
How can Paul’s words in Romans and James’s words about works be read together?

Lesson-by-Lesson Guide

Salvation

This opening lesson explains why Bercot studies the Christians who lived before Nicaea, especially those close to the apostolic period. It frames salvation as more than a mechanical transaction and introduces the course’s emphasis on an obedient love relationship with Christ.

Why should students care what early Christians believed about salvation?
How does Bercot distinguish a mechanical view of salvation from a relational one?
What place do faith, obedience, and love have in his explanation of salvation?

Assurance of Salvation (New)

This lesson argues that “assurance of salvation” is not a biblical or early Christian phrase, while still asking what Scripture and early Christian teaching imply about confidence before God. Bercot distinguishes a past entrance into salvation from the future inheritance of eternal life.

Can a believer be confident that he or she has entered a saved state?
How does Bercot describe past and future stages of salvation?
Why does he connect assurance with abiding in Christ rather than presumption?
What role do repentance and baptism have in his discussion of assurance?

Eternal Security

Bercot discusses eternal security by comparing early Christian writers with many biblical warnings about endurance, denial, apostasy, and overcoming. He argues that the early writings help readers return to the plain force of Scripture rather than explain away difficult passages.

Did early Christians teach unconditional eternal security?
What biblical warnings does Bercot connect to the possibility of falling away?
How does he respond to proof-texting on this topic?
Why does he say early Christian writings bring readers back to Scripture?

Filthy Rags

This lesson examines whether Isaiah 64:6 teaches that God views all human righteous acts as filthy rags. Bercot contrasts that reading with many biblical passages that call people righteous, upright, or blameless, and he connects righteous deeds with abiding in Christ.

What is the context of Isaiah 64:6?
Does Scripture ever describe people as righteous or blameless?
How does Bercot distinguish imperfect righteousness from God’s absolute righteousness?
Why does he connect righteous acts with Matthew 25 and judgment?

Atonement Part 1: What Early Christians Believed

This lesson introduces Bercot’s contrast between the later satisfaction or penal model of the atonement and themes he says are found in early Christian writers. He summarizes early Christian emphases such as forgiveness, ransom from Satan, victory over the devil, cleansing from sin, the second Adam, and Christ revealing the Father’s ways.

What is the satisfaction or penal model of the atonement?
How does Bercot summarize the early Christian view of the atonement?
What does he mean by Christ’s victory over Satan?
Does Christ’s blood merely pay a penalty, or does it cleanse from sin?

Atonement Part 2: Imputed Righteousness

Bercot treats imputed righteousness as a doctrine tied to the satisfaction model of the atonement. He discusses the imputation of Adam’s guilt, the imputation of human sin to Christ, and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to believers, then compares those ideas with Scripture and early Christian teaching.

What does the doctrine of imputation mean?
How is imputed righteousness connected to the satisfaction model of the atonement?
How does Bercot use Old Testament examples of righteous people in this discussion?
Why does he return to Jesus’ teaching about abiding in the vine?

Atonement Part 3: Common Questions

This follow-up lesson answers questions raised by the earlier atonement messages. Bercot stresses the difference between a legal or penal framework and a relational framework in which Christ’s blood cleanses and sanctifies those who abide in Him.

What questions arise when moving from one atonement model to another?
How does Bercot explain Christ’s blood as cleansing rather than appeasing an angry Father?
How does John 15 shape his view of the atonement?
Why does he discuss the manner of Christ’s death in relation to ransom and Satan?

Predestination and Free Will

This lesson presents Bercot’s summary of early Christian teaching on free will, foreknowledge, and predestination. He argues that human beings retain the ability to choose obedience or disobedience, while God still plays the greater role in salvation.

Did early Christians believe human beings retained free will after the fall?
How can God have foreknowledge without arbitrarily predestining every choice?
What biblical calls to choose and obey does Bercot emphasize?
How does the vine-and-branches image shape his view of human cooperation with God?

Grace: The Most Misunderstood Word in the Bible

Bercot focuses on the meaning of grace, arguing that it should be understood as God’s favor or goodwill rather than as an unconditional legal guarantee. He connects grace with repentance, conversion, continued obedience, and God’s generous reward of eternal life.

What does Bercot say grace means?
How is grace different from a “get out of jail free” idea?
What is the “grace of repentance” in this lesson?
How does grace relate to producing fruit and remaining on the vine?

Harmonizing Paul and James – Part 1

This lesson begins a two-part discussion of Paul and James by setting Romans 4 beside James 2. Bercot argues that the passages must be harmonized without canceling James, and he returns to Jesus’ image of the vine as a model for salvation.

Why do Romans 4 and James 2 seem to conflict at first glance?
How does Bercot warn against explaining away James?
What does Jesus’ vine-and-branches teaching contribute to the discussion?
How are past, present, and future aspects of salvation described?

Harmonizing Paul and James – Part 2

The supplied transcript sample for this lesson repeats the Part 1 material, so the distinct content of Part 2 cannot be verified from the sample. Based on the title and available text, it continues the course’s effort to read Paul, James, and Jesus together on faith, works, and salvation.

How can Paul and James be read together without dismissing either writer?
What does Abraham’s example contribute to the discussion of faith and works?
How does Bercot connect Jesus’ teaching to Paul and James?
What model of salvation best fits the passages discussed?

Survey: Salvation: Mechanical or Relational?

No transcript is supplied for this item. From the title, it appears to be a course survey connected to Salvation: Mechanical or Relational?.

How can students respond to or reflect on the course?
What feedback can be offered about this course?

Additional Readings: Salvation: Mechanical or Relational?

No transcript is supplied for this item. From the title, it appears to provide additional readings connected to the course topic.

What additional readings are connected with this course?
Where can students continue studying the course themes?

What students are saying

5.00 out of 5 — 19 reviews

Verified Student Sep 2, 2025

★★★★★

This course was clear and insightful. I especially appreciated the discussions on the atonement. They cleared up a lot of confusion for me. Thank you.

Verified Student Aug 22, 2025

★★★★★

Grace is counter to the Mosaic Law clears up the argument.

Verified Student Apr 4, 2023

★★★★★

Fair honest and easy to understand, back by scripture upon scripture, thank you thank you thank you

Verified Student Nov 1, 2022

★★★★★

I love the simplicity of Truth! I recently Acquired a common English Bible Version- it was like reading the Bible for the first time! David also does well in teaching in simple plain truth,. I was truly blessed! -Phillip Bauman

Verified Student Aug 28, 2022

★★★★★

I took this course as an Anabaptist from an Anabaptist family. However, I never was given the thorough set of instructions provided by this course. I now feel more grounded in my faith and better able to explain my faith to others.

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Salvation: Mechanical or Relational?

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Course Includes

13 Lessons
10 Quizzes
Course Certificate