Salvation By Grace ALONE

When breaking down the Christian faith, it is easy to see that grace is the basis of our entire belief system. We all know specifically that Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of Christianity and the entire body as a whole is held together at the head, which is Christ Himself. It only takes one look at the cross to realize that the point behind Jesus entire existence on earth was to display God’s grace. Only grace would send a King to be born in a manger, to live the life of a servant, and to die an unbearable death on a cross. Ephesians 2:8 clearly states, “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” This verse is the cornerstone of the concept of “salvation by grace alone”, and in the context of Ephesians and of scripture as a whole, it confirms that Gods grace is the only reason we have the free gift of salvation. Not only is our salvation God’s grace, but the fact that we get to know him and begin an eternal relationship with Him here on earth. Because we are so sinful and blemished, it took Gods absolute grace through the sacrifice of his son to make a way for us to have a relationship. In John 17, we can see Jesus stressing the oneness he desires for us to have in the body and ultimately with Him. As we grow in our salvation daily and spend time in Gods word, we begin to realize that God’s grace is bigger than we could ever comprehend. It is only by this never-ending grace that we, sinners, are saved.

It is a common misconception amongst the world and even among Christians today that grace is only found in the New Testament. They somehow conclude that the God of the Old Testament was one of judgment and harsh punishment. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Although more judgment is seen in the Old Testament, God has always been characterized by grace and patience, and was always patient with the people. We see Gods grace in scripture in Genesis all the way to Revelation. In Genesis in the garden God assured Adam and Eve that they should refrain from eating the fruit from the tree of good and evil or else, He said, “you will surely die.”(Gen 3:3) Despite God’s warning, they disobeyed and ate the forbidden fruit. It was Gods mercy and grace that allowed them to live at all after they partook of the fruit he commanded them not to. Not only did he allow them to live for about 900 years after their disobedience, but Genesis 3:21 says that “The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.” Gods grace can also be seen in allowing mankind to die. Had Adam eaten from the tree of life following his disobedience of God, we wouldve been stuck in these sinful fleshly bodies forever. Out of Love, God banished Adam and Eve from the garden, knowing that in the future His perfect son would atone for their sin and make the way for them to live like he had originally created them in His presence! Like a loving father, caring for his children, God cared for Adam and Eve and for his people all through the Old Testament.

The second way in which we can see God extending his grace to us in scripture begins in the 4 gospels of the New Testament where we find that God himself sent his only Son in the form of a humble servant. From the manger to his death on the cross, we can see Jesus humbly submitting each day to his fathers will as the ultimate example for every believer to live by. There are numerous ways in which the fruits of Jesus life on earth displayed grace towards sinners. For one, Christ came to live amongst us all, which is grace. We are such sinners, it is amazing God would even want to come down and be in our presence. Second of all, Jesus was constantly healing the sick day by day, showing his majesty and confirming his deity as God. The main thing displayed in his proof of inclusion in the Godhead was His grace. Third, and the most important display of grace was, Christ dying on our behalf. He took our place on the cross and took our iniquities from us. God’s wrath was forced on His son so that we might live. There was no more merciful thing than sending Jesus to live humbly on this earth so that we could learn the only way to God.

Lastly, concerning Gods gift of grace to us, we see Gods grace in our salvation, which is the result of his sacrifice. We see a picture of our salvation, in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and through the rest of the entire New Testament. Through the epistles and letters, we get a collection of defenses, boundaries, and definitions of what true salvation should look like. There is a truth that becomes more evident the more we come to know our savior. That truth is the wretchedness of our sin. God detests sin and cannot look upon it. As we grow closer to Him and our will becomes more paralleled with His, we begin to conform to his likeness through His son and we accumulate a greater hate for what He hates. The more we come to terms with this hate, the more we realize nothing but the grace of God could’ve saved us from our fate in hell. Jeremiah Burroughs said, “the smallest sin contains more evil than all the torments of hell, we could not remain unconcerned about mortifying our sins. God gave the law precisely so that the exceeding sinfulness of sin would be evident.”(Burroughs 2,3) We were lost in ourselves and in our transgressions, and by God’s loving grace we have the gift of salvation. A lot of times we as humans tend to downplay our sin and push it off as a mediocre problem. “Sin is the death of the soul. A man dead in trespasses and sins has no desire for spiritual pleasures. When we look upon a corpse, it gives an awful feeling. A never-dying spirit is now fled, and has left nothing but the ruins of a man. But if we viewed things aright, we should be far more affected by the thought of a dead soul, a lost, fallen spirit. A state of sin is a state of conformity to this world.”(Henry 102) This system of thinking that our sin really isn’t that bad is a trap from the enemy, and is to think apart from our Father who desperately loves us. We need to realize that one sin cannot be paid off for an eternity in hell, and utilize this thought to realize how gracious our loving God is who paid for our sin with his son.

The reception of this grace is marked with the humble admission that we without Christ are helpless and doomed to eternity apart from Him. This basic truth is outlined in 1st John and points to the one characteristic that leads us to Christ. That one trait is humility. The humility is obviously driven by the Holy Spirit to let us know in our hearts that we need Christ to be in communion with God. The death of His perfect son cancelled out the written code of decrees against us and gave us a door to life, and only in humility can we admit that we need the Lord. One of the main characteristics that should characterize the mature Christian life is a large amount of humility. The same humility we exhibit in submitting our lives to Christ in the first place, is the humble state of mind that drives us to wake up everyday knowing we need to be on our knees and in the Word to prepare our hearts to serve Him. Philippians 2 is a model of this humility. We are to reflect Christ's example and stray away from seeking equality with God. The mature Christian should be characterized by the traits of our Lord Jesus Christ. To be like Jesus is obviously the ultimate mature state of the believer so the question we must ask is what was Jesus most outstanding trait. When examining his life we can conclude that he was clothed with humility, beginning with the manger and finishing with the cross. We must spend more time with God in His word at a deeper level. We must not only set aside time to read, but to set aside time to meditate and think about Gods truth, and to spend time in prayer talking to the author of that truth. The more we realize how much we need the word on a daily basis, the more we will mature as believers. Mature Christian's everyday lives are characterized by affection for scripture and time with their maker. As we cloth ourselves with humility daily, the desire for all these necessities will grow, and as we crave and take in Gods word, "we will grow in respect to salvation." (1 Peter 2:2)
John Macarthur in His commentary on Ephesians gives a great exposition of verse 2:8 when he states,

“When we accept the finished work of Christ on our behalf,
we act by the faith supplied by God’s grace. That is the
supreme act of human faith, the act of which, though it is ours,
is primarily God’s---His gift to us out of His grace… A person
who is spiritually dead cannot even make a decision of faith
unless God first breathes into him the breath of spiritual life.
Faith is simply breathing the breath that God’s grace supplies.
Yet, the paradox is that we must exercise it and bear the
responsibility if we do not.”(Macarthur 61)

One of the most important aspects concerning Gods grace is that we are totally depraved. This concept of total depravity, included in John Calvin’s 5 points, really gives grace its value. Without God we are lost. It is important to note this negative aspect of grace to aid our understanding of it. Our faithful acceptance of Gods “breath” of grace is even aided by God. His grace is shown is us accepting the grace itself. David Guzik states, “Yet, even our faith is a gift of God. We cannot believe in Jesus unless God does a prior work in us, for we are blinded by our own deadness and by the god of this age.”(Guzik 6) In view of this essential truth, we can be quickly overwhelmed as to the infinity of our Fathers grace. This overwhelming realization of truth when healthily taken turns to thankfulness; which in turn drives our spiritual fruit from the vine.

There is an argument conceived by the Arminian side of theology that states that the word “that” in the construction of Ephesians 2:8 refers to salvation and not faith. The argument states what it does because the Arminians believe that we have free will and that we are positively involved in our salvational decision. Their argument concerns the fact that the structure for the word “that” in the Greek is in neuter form. The word faith is a female construction. A neuter word cannot support that of a female word. They say that “this proves that it is only by salvation that is not of ourselves, but faith is.” Yet there is another argument as said by Vincent Chueng which states, “even if we altogether ignore the Greek and all other parts of scripture, the immediate context of the verse, forbids the idea that man has any positive role in his own salvation.”(Chueng 72) Chueng is right. The idea that we could have any positive role undermines God’s grace as a whole in our salvation. Macarthur states, ““that” refers to the entire previous statement of salvation, not only in the grace but the faith. Although men are required to believe for salvation, even that faith is part of the gift of God which saves and cannot be exercised by one’s own power. God’s grace is preeminent in every aspect of salvation.”(Macarthur 1774) I would even go as far as to say that faith by our own merit is a work in attempt to reach God by human power. True faith is Spirit driven. “That the guilty should stand before God with self-complacency, and refer his salvation in any measure to his own merit, is so abhorrent to all right feeling that Paul assumes it (Rom. 4, 2) as an intuitive truth, that no man can boast before God.”(Hodge 60) It is important to come to terms with the fact that the entire positive side of salvation is consistent with God’s roles in it.

As Christians when we receive God’s grace through humility, we begin to produce the fruit of grace, which is also known as the fruit of the spirit. Ephesians clearly states that salvation is not a work of us but a work of the Spirit. Therefore if it is the grace of God through the Spirit that brings us to knowledge of the truth, then it is the same Spirit that drives us to progress in spiritual purity on a daily basis. It is the fruit of the Spirit that produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. A lot of the Spirits work consists of working through our thankfulness for Gods grace. When we identify with Gods grace on a daily basis by getting in the word and spending time with Him, we not only humble ourselves, but we also remind ourselves of God’s grace. It is this daily commitment that drives a consistency of thankfulness in our hearts. It is this Spirit driven thankfulness that makes producing fruit easy. Focusing on God’s grace in the Old Testament, in Gods grace through Jesus, and in God’s grace that has allowed us to know him all are affective reminders that drive us to produce the Spirits fruit.

One of the biggest things that stand out about the Christian faith is the concept of salvation by grace alone. This concept is the key to Christianity and really portrays its uniqueness. It is important that we examine Christianity up against the common doctrine of other beliefs that portray good works as primary. Eph 2:8 clearly says that our salvation has nothing to do with us. It is the only doctrine in the world that makes since. We all know that people are naturally sinful. All you have to do is look around to see that evil is constantly at hand. It is easy to establish that we are sinful. It is also easy to establish that God is perfect. Look at the world and how everything functions in perfection. There is a perfect order to the earth that you cannot argue against. Therefore with the established fact that God is perfect, and Man is flawed, we know that God cannot accept us as we are. We are inadequate. Grace is the only answer. To think that man is capable of pleasing a perfect God is plain stupidity. We are totally depraved in the sight of a perfect God. We are in need of grace for our salvation.

What is wrong with our perspective???

I sit here in shock. Its 2 o clock in the morning and I can't sleep. I have no desire to sleep and am crushed beyond words. Today a good friend of mine passed away. One month ago I sat at Starbucks with her and talked about God, life, and everything else. I spent 3 months getting to Lauren Williams and was blessed to have her as a friend. It is comforting amongst all of this to be convinced that she is with our Lord. If only our puny minds could wrap themselves around that concept.

Death is one of the hardest things we as humans deal with because we understand the least about it. We understand the eternal concepts and that our faith by Gods election determines our destination. But in all reality we know little about whats on the other side. We know we will be either in the presence of God our outside of it. But the point is this, we know nothing but this earth. We cannot even begin to imagine the implications of heaven or experiencing the fullness of Gods presence.

Remember Ezekiel in the Old Testament trying to describe God in heaven. He does the best this human mind can to try and put what he sees into words and it makes almost no human sense. He cant even describe with human concepts what he sees! It is impossible. Paul likewise in 2 Cor 12 said he could not even speak of the things seen in the "third heaven". See, we as humans have this complex. When we don't fully understand something we have a problem with it. Christianity and faith in Jesus Christ and His Word breaks all the rules that apply to our "complex". Every main truth of scripture ends in a paradox that we will not ultimately understand until we are made perfect. "Now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known."(1 cor 13:12b).

We as believers must come to this balanced understanding of scripture. The understanding that craves the Word because it is essential for our spiritual growth coupled with the truth that we will not know everything and cannot on this earth. From that perspective, the concept continues. We begin to see things differently as we grow in our sanctification. Our lifestyle begins to be transformed to a practice of righteousness and conformity with the will of God. We start to separate from the world in everything from the way we live our lives. This happens because the entire core of the way we thing has been rerouted. We perceive things from a Godly lens. In other words, our perspective has become eternal, rather than confined by our understanding of a 4 Dimensional, temporary world. Our short life on this earth is NOT all there is to living. In the midst of this transformed thought process, we begin to grasp the concept of selflessness. This concept of removing self and replacing it with Christ in our lives drives us to live unselfishly. From here we begin to grasp the deeper truths. Truths such as the joy found in suffering. Although suffering according to the temporary controlled mind is negative, we as new creations understand that suffering drives us closer to our Lord. We begin to love the trials because we are allowed to take up our cross and suffer like Jesus did. We realize that our true joy is found apart from anything derived from selfish motives, and so suffering becomes our joy.

Finally, following the concept of suffering is the concept of death. In a culture that says death is gloomy and negative, we serve a God that says that death is our prize. Our culture has deemed death as something to fear. Why? because we aren't sure of whats on the other side. The concept of true faith has been stripped from this age. Everyone is living for the temporary pleasures of each day. People fall further into the distraction of sin as God gives them over to the lust of their flesh(Rom 1). As their futile minds dig deeper graves, they are blinded to the concept that the death of the flesh we fight against is the best thing. Nothing here satisfies. Nothing but Christ alone can provide us with life on this earth. You know what the main problem is though. People do not know Jesus. If people had a serious and in depth love relationship with Jesus Christ, then death wouldn't be so dark in this world. Yeah, its natural that we all have an innate fear of it because we don't know what its like. But let's correct our perspective and begin to view death as the beginning instead of the end. The death of our flesh equals being in the presence of our precious Jesus in the state of perfection apart from sin and its consequences. I cannot wait to kiss his wounds, to tightly hold my Jesus, and to tell Him how thankful I am for His unending love. To even try to imagine the concept of actually being in the presence of my Savior overwhelms me...

I want to fly,
up into the sky,
turn my back on this old world,
leave it all behind.
this world is not my home,
its got nothing for me,
only leaves me with emptiness,
and tears in my eyes.
-Shawn McDonald


...may this be our perspective...


...and when our perspective becomes eternal, like our Lords, we begin to model Jesus Christ's example...

"And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure."

1 John 3:3