Sola Gratia! The English translation of this Latin phrase is “grace alone.” It means that all of salvation is by God’s grace alone. In other words, every aspect of salvation is because of the kindness, generosity, benevolence, mercy, favor and love of God. In no way whatsoever is salvation because of anything we do. It’s all a gracious gift of God.
The idea that we are saved by grace alone through faith
alone in Christ alone for God’s glory alone stands in complete contradistinction to
the Catholic teaching of salvation.
Catholic doctrine basically asserts that salvation is a reliance on
Christ’s righteousness, but that we are not finally made acceptable to God and
saved until we take the righteousness of God and convert it into a daily and
experiential righteousness. In other
words, we are saved by Christ and the accomplishment of our works.
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.
We are saved by grace.
Now the whole process and package of salvation has many aspects and
“parts” to it. Each of these, according
to Scripture is also by the grace of God.
I. FAITH
Faith or belief in Christ as the Savior is more than just a
mental belief of some facts. It is a
reliance upon Christ to do for you what you cannot do. Let me say something that may shock you:
there is no inherent power in faith.
Faith is merely a receiving of what Christ has done for you. Again, it is a reliance upon Him. You may lean up against a building to hold
you up and rely upon its immovability to keep you aright. But the power is not in your leaning upon
the building; the power is in the reliability of the building.
When we believe in
Christ, we are trusting in Christ. And
some of us may be tempted to think, “Oh, but that faith…that trusting was
something that I did. It was ME
trusting.” And that is true. But you need to see how faith is described
in Scripture and who is given credit as to the source of faith.
Acts 18:27 And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed.
2 Peter 1:1-2 Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
These Scripture and others teach us that our reliance upon Christ is also by the
grace of God. He grants us faith. It is not inherent in us. It is a gift. So even our reliance upon Christ, our belief in Him as Savior is
by grace. Without God’s grace and
kindness towards us and the granting of belief we would never be saved. Sola Gratia!
II. JUSTIFICATIONJustification is the act of God declaring us righteous even though we are sinners. I’ve shared with you before that the Bible says that we are justified by faith alone in Christ alone. When we place faith in Christ a great transfer takes place. My sin is credited (or imputed) to the account of Christ so that He was treated as a sinner and transgressor of God’s Law—even though He was not a sinner. At the same time, when we place faith in Christ another great transfer takes place. Christ’s righteousness is credited (or imputed) to my account so that I can be treated as a perfectly righteous person—even though I am a sinner. Christ suffered for my sin; I am pardoned and declared righteous—by faith.
Knowing that faith is a gift of God and that we are
justified by faith alone in Christ alone, it would make sense to say then that
justification is by the grace of God.
Indeed Scripture says this.
Romans 3:23-24 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Our being declared righteous is by God’s
grace, not by our works of the Law. We
failed at keeping the Law. Christ
succeeded. He is our
justification. It’s by grace we are
saved. Sola Gratia!
III. PEACE WITH GOD
When Christ was born
the angels announced “Peace on earth" yet there appears to be a whole lot of fighting going on in this
planet. So where is the peace? As one songwriter penned, “Did the angels
waste their words?” The rhetorical
question is answered with a resounding, “No!”
The angels, of course, did not waste their words. The peace they proclaimed was the peace that
would exist between God and sinners.
God’s wrath abides on
those who sin. We are haters of God
prior to salvation. If you don’t
believe me, just look at how good we kept God’s commands. We didn’t.
We rebelled against His authority and demonstrated the spiritual war
that exists between God and mankind.
There is no peace. There is a
detest for our Creator and consequently His just wrath is upon us if something
isn’t done about it. But we can’t
going to do anything about it. So God
acts. He sent Christ to make peace
between sinners and the Creator.
How is it that God can
have peace with us when we are sinners?
The grace of justification! God
declares us righteous by the faith that He gives us. Now instead of looking at us as one who should be punished
eternally, God declares us forgiven, righteous, holy and blameless in
Christ. If this is how God now sees us,
then the “war” has been ended. Peace is
made. What did you and I do to deserve
this? Nothing! What did we do to make God act this way
towards us? Nothing! Why moved God to do this for us? Pure grace.
Sola Gratia!
Romans 5:1-2 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
IV. ETERNAL LIFE
Those who sin are
damned before God and deserve eternal death in the lake of fire. Only those who are perfectly righteous are
worthy of eternal life with God. Again,
we are in a bad position unless the grace, kindness and mercy of God comes to
us. Having just looked at a few of the saving
gifts and gracious acts of God, we can see how it is that we can be granted
eternal life.
If only those that are
righteous are worthy of eternal life, then how do we become righteous? Through good works? Through self-effort? No.
Through the righteousness of Christ.
How do we that? By the grace of
justification…which comes by the grace of faith. So we see that eternal life is also by the grace of God. Sola Gratia!
Romans 5:21 so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
V. ELECTION
Election is the
doctrine that says that God chooses who to save. You are chosen by God to salvation. I admit that at first glance this is hard to understand and it
can sure make God look like a meanie.
In fact it is one of the most hated doctrines in Scripture. I once despised this teaching; hated
it! But the problem of man’s sin must
first be addressed in order to appreciate and affirm this Biblical doctrine.
Scripture tells us
that man is so caught up in sin that he is actually dead in sin and is
incapable of understanding spiritual truth.
If man is spiritually dead in sin and cannot understand spiritual truth,
then at what point does he bring himself to spiritual life so that he can
spiritually believe in Christ and be saved?
He can’t. There is no point at
which he does this. Left to himself,
man will never come to God—indeed, he cannot.
It’s a matter of ability—he is radically unable to do what God requires
of him. If man is to be saved, then God
must decide to come and save man. That
is what we mean of election. And the Bible tells us that election took place
before the earth was made so that we would be compelled to say that salvation
is by God’s grace alone. He chose you
before you could do anything that might make you erroneously believe that you
are worthy of His choosing.
When you understand
that we all deserve the wrath of God…and that none of us deserve to be saved
and shown God’s goodness…and that we’ll never call out to God to save us on our
own…then it becomes apparent that God must come to us. It’s like the dead man that had drowned and
has been at the bottom of the ocean for several hours. What is he going to do to be rescued? There’s nothing he can do. He’s dead.
He needs a resurrection. So it
is with us. We are dead and cannot call
to God for help in this dead state; we never will. So God must come to us and resurrect us so that we can
believe. This is partially what we mean
when we say that God chooses to save us.
He sovereignly decides who He will give life to so that they can receive
faith and be justified and thus be saved.
He elects them to salvation.
Some will ask: "why
does God do this for some and not others?
How unfair!" To that I say, “Why
does God do this for anybody when He is not obligated to? He doesn’t have to! It’s pure grace that He does this for
anyone. Soli Gratia!
Romans 11:5-6 So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. 6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.
We have to take this
doctrine and say, “Why me, God? I did
nothing to deserve this great salvation.
Why me?” And the answer from
Scripture takes us away from trying to find reason in ourselves to be saved by
God…and it directs us to God’s grace.
VI. RIGHTEOUS BEHAVIOR
Prior to salvation our attempts at righteous deeds were
seen by God as nothing but filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).
This is what Scripture says. And
that term “filthy rags” is a reference to menstrual cloths. This is the way our good deeds are seen by
God before salvation. Any attempt at
being good is soiled by the fact that it is not done for God’s glory. Good deeds may be done for one’s own glory,
or for money, or for promotion, or even to spite someone. But they are not done to show the greatness
of God. And if they are not done in
faith, then they are of sin. So man’s
best attempt to do good is still sin.
That is, until we are converted and saved by grace.
The Apostle Paul explains to the Corinthian church that his
own good deeds and love for them did not arise from the wisdom and counsel of
this world, but from God’s grace.
2 Corinthians 1:12 For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.
Elsewhere in Scripture
we are told that we were created for good works and that these good works have
been prepared beforehand by God (Ephesians 2:10). So
even our righteous and holy behavior is attributed to the grace of God even though we are doing good deeds. Without His enabling grace, we would do
things only for our glory and thus would be sin. Holy behavior arises from the fact that we are saved by grace and
that this salvation comes packages with holy living. Sola Gratia!
VII. THE INCARNATION
Christmas is always a
wonderful time of the year because we
are reminded afresh of “our dear Savior’s birth.” Without the Son of God taking on flesh, we would have no real
sacrifice for our sins. The early
church fought against a heresy known as Docetism. These false believers tried to say that Christ did not actually
take on flesh, but only appeared to do so.
He was, to them, like a hologram—only appearing to be real flesh and
blood. If that were the case, then His
blood was not shed for us and His body not broken. If this were the case, then we would have no hope of salvation or
a resurrection because Christ actually did nothing for us.
The fact that Christ
was born like us is part of saving grace.
God clothed in skin is remarkable to ponder. 2 Corinthians makes reference to the fact that Christ left His
heavenly home and riches and became poor so that we could become spiritually
rich. This is indeed a reference to His
lowly birth.
2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.
Next time you reflect
on Christ’s birth, remember that this is part of the grace we need to be
saved. Sola Gratia!
VIII. PREDESTINATION
Right up there with
election is another doctrine that many despise. This word “predestination” has been the subject of much
controversy and feuding. In simplest of
terms, it means that God predetermined our destination. He determined ahead of time to save us and
to bring that salvation to completion when Christ comes again. He determined ahead of time to take us from
point A to point B—and He mapped out the way to get there and that plan cannot
and will not fail.
When you think about
the attributes of God, it has to be this way.
Here’s why. God’s wisdom, His
decrees, His decisions and His determinations
are not made in time. They are
eternal—meaning that they’ve always existed in His mind, in His eternal wisdom and therefore they will stand forever. Being that they are eternal, they are also unalterable—they cannot change since God does not change.
Election (point A) is part of God’s eternal wisdom and so is our final
victory when Christ comes again (point B).
It’s all part of His eternal predetermined plan. This doesn’t mean that we are fatalists or
robots of any sort and that nothing we do matters. Scripture never speaks like this. Rather, it just points us to the fact that our salvation is
secure because God has determined to start and finalize it. He who began a good work (point A) will be
faithful to complete it (point B). He
is the Author and Finisher of our faith.
Ephesians 1:5-6 In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.
Next time you take
your children on a fun vacation I’m sure that you will map-out and predetermine
your destination and stops along the way.
Your children will be grateful that they safely arrived at the
destination you determined for them.
You will not look at them as robots with no will. And neither will they look at you some
control freak. Rather they should
praise you for the wonderful thing you have accomplished for them. So it is with God’s predestining of us to a
complete salvation. It is so that we’ll
praise His grace. Sola Gratia!
IX. REDEMPTION AND FORGIVENESS
Do you remember the
last time you saw some aluminum cans redeemed?
You had them captive in your syrupy clutches. Then a man with an apron came out and paid you some money to
release those cans and hand them over to him.
His paying of money to you was the redemption value of those cans,
bottles or whatever.
So Christ has redeemed
us. A price needed to be paid so
that we could be released from curse of the law (Galatians 3:13). That price was the very
life of Christ. He paid the ransom, the
redemption cost to secure us. That is
by His grace, not our doing. Sola
Gratia!
Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
Forgiveness is also
part of the salvation package and that, too, is attributed to His grace. We owe a debt to God and it must be
paid. That debt has been wiped away or
forgiven. We been released from the
penalty that our sin deserves. That
penalty was paid when Christ was beaten and then crucified on the cross. He bore my sin. He bore my penalty. He
bore my wrath. And I am now
forgiven. I did nothing to earn it,
merit it or deserve it. Sola Gratia!
X. THE CRUCIFIXION
Christ was our
substitute on the cross. He died for what we did. He did this voluntarily at
the will and request of the Father. He
tasted death for His chosen people and this is by the grace of God. It’s not like we asked Him to do this for us
because we wouldn't have done so. In man’s
natural state he does not seek the mercy and forgiveness of God—man is too
proud. Rather, he attempts to please God
and bribe God with his own good deeds and self-righteousness. So God planned it in eternity past—it has
always been His plan. It has always been
His plan to be gracious to us despite of our wretchedness. Sola Gratia!
Hebrews 2:9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
XI. GLORIFICATION
This is the final stage,
if you will, of our salvation. When
Christ comes to get His elect, the church, His chosen ones, He has promised
that at that moment we will become like Him for we will see Him as He is. The perfect Son of God will clothe us with
glory. We will be transformed to look
like the perfect incarnate Son of God.
We will be restored to the perfect image of God…that image that was wrecked
when Adam sinned in the garden and disobeyed God. That is the whole point of God’s creating mankind. “Let us make man in our image.” Sin ruined it. God determined that mankind will reflect His image and
glory. So His salvation plan ultimately
leads us right back to what God intended in the pre-fall state.
Christ achieves this for us because we cannot.
When Christ comes
again, our bodies will be changed into bodies that aren’t able to decay. Our wills will be changed as well because we
will never sin again. Faith will become
sight—everything we’ve been waiting, hoping and trusting will happen will be
finally tangible! This is our eternal hope. God gave this hope to us. That makes it grace. Sola Gratia!
2 Thessalonians 2:16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word.
I think I understand a
little better (and I hope you do too) what the Apostle John means in John 1:16.
John 1:16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
God has taken one act
of grace and stacked another on top of it, then another, then another, then
another, then another…so that we’ve received “grace upon grace.” In light of this, I don’t know how we cannot
love our God more and more. I don’t
know how we can see our salvation as a small thing. It’s just not possible unless we are indifferent to the Word of
God—and that speaks of a real spiritual problem. Those that slumber in the church and have no vibrancy in their
worship have failed to comprehend in larger measure the grace of God. So my prayer for all us is the prayer of
Peter in his second letter.
2 Peter 1:2 May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Sola Gratia!
