Sola Gratia

by Chris Cobb

You have won a free gift!

"Yeah, right," I thought to myself as I continued to read the letter. My cynical skepticism was justified when I discovered that in order to enjoy my free gift, I would have to pay inflated shipping and handling fees. No thanks. Free means free - otherwise it is not free at all.

Whether or not we have to attach a "shipping and handling" payment to the free gift of salvation through the work of Christ has been a point of contention in the church since at least the fifth century, when a fellow named Pelagius was teaching that man has the ability to keep God's Law if he so desires. According to Pelagius, God's grace was not actually necessary if one wanted to go to heaven; man was capable of being sufficiently moral to enter God's holy presence on his own merits. Pelagius denied that the guilt of Adam's sin and its ensuing moral corruption was imputed to all mankind. Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, decisively refuted Pelagius and his teachings at the Synod of Carthage (418). Augustine made the biblical point that mankind was incapable of rising out of sin, that the death of Christ was necessary to vanquish sin, and that God's grace alone is the beginning, middle, and end of salvation. Grace alone - Sola gratia - was required if man was to be saved.

Within a hundred years, the corruption of grace had returned to the church in a form known as "Semi-Pelagianism." According to this teaching, God's free grace is absolutely required for salvation. But so are man's own efforts. God's grace does the heavy lifting through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ (the free gift). But I must cooperate with what God is doing (shipping and handling charges) in attaining salvation by responding by my own free will to the gospel, and by doing good works to complete my salvation. Semi-Pelagianism was condemned in the Council of Orange in 529. But it eventually returned to trouble the church again.

One of the main points of contention in the Protestant Reformation had to do with whether or not we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, or whether we must add something to the work of Christ. The Roman Catholic church had been teaching (and still does) that the works done after initial justification by cooperating with God's grace actually merit final justification. This is seen especially in the sacrament of penance, which involves in some degree a satisfaction and atonement for sins committed after being initially justified. This is salvation with an asterisk, or a footnote, or fine-print. This is a "free gift" that comes with shipping and handling charges.

Sola gratia is the biblical doctrine that teaches that we are saved by God's grace alone, apart from any effort, any initiation, or any congruous work of our own. The scriptural support for the argument is actually quite simple. The Bible teaches that unredeemed man is dead in trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1), we are "children of wrath" (Eph 2:3), we do not understand or seek God (Ro 3:10), we do not do good (Ro 3:11), even our righteous deeds are filthy in God's sight (Is 64:6), we are hostile against God and unable to subject ourselves to the law of God (Ro 8:7), and that we cannot please God (Ro 8:8). Now that's a pretty comprehensive list, and is actually just a tiny portion of the overwhelming Biblical data regarding man's inability to come to God. Jesus plainly declares that no one can come to Him for salvation apart from the Father drawing him (Jn 6:44). The bottom line of this is that while man is truly responsible for obeying God, he is completely and totally unable to do so because of his sinful nature. Condemnation is assured and cannot be avoided. Being by nature hostile against God and dead in trespasses and sins, man can not even cooperate in saving himself. He is at war with God; the last thing he wants to do is draw near to an infinitely holy and righteous God.

Into this tragic impossibility, God comes, bringing salvation (Matt 19:26). Paul puts it this way in Ephesians 2:4-7 (NASB):

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (emphasis added)

It is made clear in Romans 8:29-30 that God sovereignly causes salvation by His foreknowledge. God's foreknowledge is not the same as human foreknowledge. If I talk about my own foreknowledge of something, it is nothing more than "prior awareness". God's foreknowledge is different. It is actually the driving force that causes the object of His foreknowledge to be actualized in reality. This can be seen by simply examining Matt 7:23. That text is not saying God had no knowledge of those condemned; it is saying that He never foreknew them in the sense of electing them to salvation. In 1 Peter 1:3, Peter tells us that God, by His mercy begot us, or caused us to be born again. It was an act of God, not of man. The same truth appears in Jn 1:13.

To summarize then, Sola gratia is the biblical teaching that we are saved on the basis of God's grace alone. At every step of the way salvation is of the Lord (Jonah 2:9). Not only did we need God to favor us by providing an atoning sacrifice, we needed God to favor us by bringing to life our spiritually dead hearts, opening our spiritually blind eyes, and causing us to trust in His dear Son.

We are saved by grace alone!
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Chris Cobb is the Senior Pastor of Bible Fellowship Church. He not only faithfully shepherds his flock, but he's been a source of Biblical counsel and warm friendship for me.