Ditching the Checklist - by Mark C Mattes (Paperback)

About the Book

With ample scriptural evidence, Mark Mattes challenges those who seek to supplement faith in Christ alone for salvation to ditch the checklist of good works. Christian security is only to be found in God's promise of salvation, freely given in Jesus Christ. Anxiety, not assurance, is found when we look to the quality of our faith or righteousness for comfort. God's word alone is sufficient to save sinners. Nothing other than Jesus can secure those consciences anxious about God's judgment.

Book Synopsis

Ditching the Checklist was written to help Evangelicals and other Christians who, due to grounding the assurance of their salvation in evidences of their new birth instead of Christ alone, struggle over whether or not they are saved. Evangelical leader J. D. Greear describes anxiety over whether or not one is saved as a major problem among Evangelicals. With ample testimony from Scripture and appealing to the thinking of Luther, this booklet addresses this anxiety head on. Mark Mattes argues that faith alone in Christ, and neither a decision for Christ nor altered manners, is both necessary and sufficient for salvation. Many Evangelicals struggle with the assurance of their salvation precisely because teachers like John MacArthur and John Piper add superfluous things on to Christ like moral improvement or pious feelings to secure sinners of their salvation. This booklet challenges such add-ons. Mattes encourages Evangelicals to place their trust in Christ alone, not themselves, and to help Lutherans understand that their cherished beliefs about salvation are grounded in Scripture. This booklet also shows Evangelicals, and Lutherans, unaware of it, that the Lutheran doctrine of baptismal regeneration as well as infant baptism are not holdovers from Roman Catholicism but are scriptural.

Review Quotes

"During my time as a campus pastor, I encountered countless students overwhelmed by the relentless checklists imposed on them from all sides - professors, coaches, parents, peers, even their churches. I wish I'd had Mark Mattes' gem of a book back then. "Ditching the Checklist" is accessible, insightful, and genuinely helpful. As a parent with a college-aged child, I've already shared this book with her, hoping it will empower her to navigate her own journey with greater clarity and freedom." - Dr. Russell Lackey, Pastor, Lutheran Church of the Master

"How should Lutherans engage evangelicals? Mark Mattes has provided us with a helpful guide. There is no checklist of qualities in our heart that can bring us assurance that we share in the gift of salvation. If anything, a checklist only reinforces the incurvation of our heart under the guise of piety. The gift of Christ in water and the Word does not close the door to Christian living. It opens it. Conversion is not to be single event, to which we go back, examining our decision or experience. Conversion is to be a daily event in which we return to the Christ given to us in baptism. This is a word that evangelicals need to hear from Lutherans!" - Mark A. Seifrid, Professor of Exegetical Theology Emeritus, Concordia Seminary

"In this direct and accessible booklet, Mark Mattes goes for the theological jugular. For generations, American Christianity has unwittingly preached a gospel of self--especially the notion of the free will and its supposed power to bring sinners to salvation. Although dressed in religious garb and speaking fondly of Jesus, this "decision theology" misunderstands faith and its object, Christ, leaving people with nagging doubts. In its place, Mattes offers the gospel truth: sinners have nothing to contribute to salvation, but through Christ, God accomplishes it all, and by the Holy Spirit, God delivers it freely to sinners through sermon and sacrament." - The Rev. Christopher Richmann, Ph.D., Pastor, St. John Lutheran Church (Coryell City)

"Mark Mattes writes with a deep awareness of how life with God often gets reduced to a checklist of things the believer must do. God turns all of this on its head. As Luther reminds us God doesn't want to deal with us in any other way than a promise. The focus is not on our promises to God (broken as they inevitably are) but on God's sure and certain promise to us, a promise that God obligates Himself to keep. With scriptural clarity and pastoral wisdom, Mattes shepherds his readers to look away from the self to Jesus Christ for He alone is the source and end of faith. Where our checklists would enslave, He gives rest and freedom." - John T. Pless, Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry and Missions and Director of Field Education, Concordia Theological Seminary

"The question that hounds many Christians is, 'How do I know I'm saved?' With masterful brevity as well as clear and creative writing, Mark Mattes provides the answer. Our assurance is not our decision or our obedience, but solely and completely in Christ. His life. His work. His death. His resurrection. For anyone harassed by doubts of salvation, this book is a Godsend, a balm to the soul." - Chad Bird, Scholar in Residence, 1517

About the Author

Mark Mattes serves as the Lutheran Bible Institute Chair in Bible and Theology at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa. He has authored several books, including Luther's Theology of Beauty: A Reappraisal (Baker Academic, 2017), The Role of Justification in Contemporary Theology (Eerdmans, 2004), and Law and Gospel in Action: Foundations, Ethics, Church (New Reformation Press, 2019), and edited numerous other books. He serves as an Associate Editor for Lutheran Quarterly and on the Continuation Committee of the International Luther Congress.