Sola Gratia
The 3rd Sola!
Sola Gratia - Grace Alone
This is how we’re saved. Period. What Sola Gratia teaches is that we’re saved by Grace and by Grace alone. In many ways that’s like saying we’re saved by God and God alone. What is grace? Grace is a gift. Something undeserved. Something unmerited. Something not of ourselves. Something not based on what we have done, what we will do or who we are. Something not of ourselves.
What does that mean? We. Don’t. Save. Ourselves. God saves us.
Our salvation is not based upon our works, or our merits. It is not conditional upon anything except our faith, and this faith is itself an unconditional gift of grace. If we can let’s try and step back and marvel at the whole masterpiece for a second. Grace. Is. Big. Nothing I have done or ever will do or could ever do and nothing about me and nothing I think or feel or act and no sin that I commit is enough to separate me from the love of God. (Romans 8:38-39) You know what else it means? Nothing I have done or ever will do or could ever do and nothing about me and nothing I think or feel or act and no righteous act that I commit is enough to restore me and regenerate me and renew me and give me new birth and bring back in union with God.
Only the blood of Christ that covers me is enough for this. That grants eternal life. And this does not cover because I am a good man. Quite the opposite. This does not cover me because of something I did. It doesn’t cover me because I turned to Christ for mercy.
I WAS DEAD. I couldn’t have called out. I couldn’t have turned. I was turned. I called after I had been turned. I was regenerated by the Spirit, not by my works. I was granted life not by what I did by by what he did.
Grace speaks over my life, and this is what it speaks: “NOT YOU.” It wasn’t me who saved me, as if I could. I know I’m repeating myself, but this is integral, this is everything that there can ever be. Christ saved me. He ran into the building and dragged me out from under my burning table. He’s my saviour. That’s what it means. He saves. That’s his name. Yeshua. “Yahweh saves.”
This is so important because it turns man-centred religiosity into God-centred worship. It turns self-exalting pride into Christ-exalting exultation. It turns despair into joy. Death into dancing.
I laid out a lot of the theology behind this in the Sola Fide post, and the rest will come with Solus Christus and Soli Deo Gloria I’m sure. This is all I have to say: Grace points away from the self towards the saviour. Grace points towards the transcendant and resplendant majesty of Christ. Grace is ‘not me.’ Grace before time predestined me to salvation for the glory of God alone, not because of me. Unconditional. Unending. Unfailing. Unlimited. Unmerited. NOT. OF. ME.
Grace! I cannot express the joy that such doctrine is and must be. Grace cannot be lost because it is not of you. Grace cannot be marred because it is not of you. Grace cannot be cheapened because it is not of you. Grace cannot be weakened because it is not of you. Grace is sufficient because it is not of you. Hallelujah!
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
- Ephesians 2:8-10
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
- 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
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