THE GRACE PRINCIPLE
GRACE! It is a word we are so familiar with. Religious people the world over claim that they are saved by grace and proclaim an undying love for the God of all grace, etc. But the disturbing thing is that many who claim to believe in salvation by grace still insist that they must do something to either assist in their getting saved or in their remaining saved. They fail to understand the true meaning of grace and have obviously been taught amiss as to just exactly what grace is and what it is to be saved by grace. Much can be said on this vital issue, but in this short article I would like to highlight the very essence, the core meaning, of the grace of God and what it means to be saved by grace. It has been eloquently and succinctly put that grace is unmerited favor. Grace is the favor of God upon a totally undeserving person. No one can merit grace, for if they could it would no longer be grace but a reward (see Rom. 11:6). So in order to receive grace, one must have performed a work. Even a cursory reading of the New Testament Letters will reveal that grace and works nullify each other. If one can get by works, grace is not required and if the only way one can get is by grace, then no amount of works can ever get what only grace can provide. Grace is most definitely not a reward from God for anything we are, have done, or will do. Grace is given DESPITE WHAT WE ARE, HAVE DONE, OR WILL DO!! You see, grace is something that God does, something that God bestows upon a person out of His free will, out of His abundant mercy, and the purpose of it is to save that person from what they do deserve – HELL. Grace does not need any assistance from us to fulfil its purpose. Grace is totally in contrast with, and diametrically opposed to, any work of ours. Grace is a work of God not a work of man’s. No work of man’s can add anything to grace. No work of man is necessary in the salvation of man. The best work a saved person has ever done does not contribute one iota to their getting saved or remaining saved. Man is saved by grace through faith and these both are gifts from God. No effort from us can get us saved or is necessary in maintaining our salvation. God’s grace does it all from A to Z. Grace is GOD DOING. If anyone believes they are bound to keep a certain law to get saved or must maintain a certain level of obedience in order to ‘remain saved’ ,they are, far from being believer’s in grace, as lost as lost can be for they are reliant on man’s doing to secure a saved state, an acceptable state before God. They are fleshly creatures not trusting solely―and therefore not at all—upon the grace of God. So, should anyone come to you and claim to be saved by grace and yet says that through their obedience they are maintaining their ‘saved’ state, you may feel confident in telling them that they have been fed a false gospel and not the only Gospel by which God saves, the Gospel of grace. Likewise, any who claim to have been saved whilst believing such a gospel are not saved, for they have placed their trust in another gospel, a gospel which does not attribute ALL of salvation to the work of God. God’s Gospel never once talks about what man must do to get saved or stay saved. It does not talk about man’s works, but purely and simply highlights the work of God (grace) in the salvation of His people and places everything God needed to do to save His people from their sins under the simple heading – GRACE! The Gospel is about that grace. It is filled with what the Bible calls the doctrines of grace, in other words, the teachings of what God has done to save His people from their sins. God gets His people saved by what He has done and He keeps them saved by what He has done. Salvation is not by a work of man’s, but only by the work of God and that work is all based on the grace principle. To God be the glory for great things HE has done.