BY GRACE ALONE (PART 36)
What a man needs is God’s love, and this love sends out God’s grace to save all His people. Salvation is not by a man expressing his love for God through works, but God expressing His love for His chosen ones through grace! Grace makes a man alive. Grace does what no work of man’s ever could do, and this is exactly how it is all summed up in the Scriptures “by grace ye are saved”. MAN IS DEAD – GRACE MAKES HIM ALIVE – BY GRACE YE ARE SAVED. The statement ‘by grace are ye saved’ proves conclusively that nothing else is required. How is a man saved? BY GRACE. Anything else? NO. Any works? NO, “not works”. By anything I can do? NO, “not of yourselves”. The Scriptures exclusively and always refer to the grace of God in the salvation of His people. God’s people are saved through “…the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:7); there is no work of man’s that can be included in any of this as that which salvation is conditioned on, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that NOT of YOURSELVES: it is the gift of God: NOT of WORKS lest any MAN should boast” (Eph. 2:8,9 cf. Gal. 6:14,15); Salvation is given by the gift of grace, and believed in by the gift of faith. A saved man is solely God’s “…workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained…” (Eph. 2:10). A man is saved by grace, and he believes by grace. Salvation is not by man, but all of God. “…God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:14-16). “By grace are ye saved…not of works”, means by grace are ye saved WITHOUT works, which is exactly what the Word of God says: “Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness WITHOUT works” (Rom. 4:6); Being saved without works is being saved before any works, instead of any works. “…that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth;)” (Rom. 9:11); “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified” (Gal. 2:16); “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Tim. 1:9); “NOT BY WORKS of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us…” (Titus 3:5). “By grace are ye saved…not of yourselves”, means by grace are you saved not by anything which proceeds from you. A man is saved only by that which proceeds from God. God makes His people accepted by grace; God qualifies His people, makes them suited to salvation, by grace alone, and by nothing which finds its origin in man, for as man is dead in sins, so too, is everything he is and everything he does. A man dead in sins can only produce dead works—works that are NOT pleasing to God (see Heb. 11:6). GRACE IS GOD SAVING HIS PEOPLE BECAUSE HE…NOT BECAUSE THEY…
Salvation must either be by grace or works, for it can never be by grace and works. Saving grace has nothing in the world to do with a man’s works: any effort on his part to attain or maintain the state of salvation. Grace is of the Spirit, works are of the flesh (see Jn. 3:6). Grace saves by the Righteousness of Christ, not the filthy rags that are a man’s righteousnesses in which only the unregenerated trust. Grace is given because works can do nothing except further condemn a man. There is nothing worse than a man expecting to be saved by that which is abomination to God. God saves by actually, miraculously, making His chosen people alive, and not by giving them an opportunity to do something which will merit them salvation. Salvation is given by God, not drawn by man. Salvation itself is not deserved by any man, for salvation is only by that which is utterly undeserved. Salvation is a gift from God, it does not come by a work of man’s. No work of man’s precedes salvation. Grace is not given so that a man may then perform a work, for grace is given to save, not empower. How can a decision be made by man for God, when prior to a man’s salvation he is dead in sins and at enmity against God. A MAN IS EITHER DEAD IN SINS, OR HE IS MADE ALIVE BY GRACE. IF HE IS DEAD IN SINS THERE IS NOTHING HE CAN DO, IF HE IS MADE ALIVE BY GRACE THERE IS NOTHING HE NEEDS TO DO IN ORDER TO BE SAVED. THERE IS NO INTERMEDIARY STATE THAT MAN CAN EVER FIND HIMSELF IN. He is at any given moment either saved or lost, made alive or dead in sins. There is no third state. If a man is saved he believes the Gospel of grace alone, if he is lost he will not believe God’s Gospel, but only in gospels which condition salvation in some way and to some degree on a man’s works.
If a man has been made alive, it is obvious that God has chosen him, and done this work of grace in his life to save him. If a man is dead in sins there is nothing he can do which can then make him alive. Man needs to be spiritually reborn, spiritually born again. Without this work of God, no one shall see the Kingdom of God. Without grace a man is not saved. Without the work of God a man will forever remain dead in his sins vainly striving for Heaven by what he does. A man who believes himself to be saved by grace and works, will always be looking to himself and what he does for assurance. The faith with which those who believe works must be performed to either get saved or stay saved, is the faith of the flesh and in the flesh. The faith which God gives His people, is given by grace, and is irreversibly and irremovably locked in to the only true God, and the only way He saves: by grace alone. That which is given by God leads a man to praise and worship God for His saving grace. That which is of the flesh thinks of the flesh and what it ‘must’ do to get or remain ‘saved’. Salvation is not about God giving everyone an opportunity to get saved, for the spanner/wrench in the works of such carnal thinking is the fact that there are millions who have never and will never even hear the Gospel of salvation by grace. This is not a show of unfairness on God’s part, but simply reveals the fact that a man dead in sins is a man who exists under a prevailing curse. There is nothing unfair that can happen to a man who is dead in sins. Even hearing the Gospel of salvation by grace alone is a privilege, not a right. It is the exception, rather than the rule. Man’s situation is one where he has sinned against Almighty God, thereby, he is under a curse: dead in sins and eternally separated from God and from any way of knowing, let alone of getting back to, the only true God. “…how shall they believe in Him of Whom they have not heard?...” (Rom. 10:14). Man is without hope. Salvation is all about God choosing a people to whom He would be gracious and merciful. Salvation is the most incredible thing, for it is God choosing, according to His will, to save by grace some who have sinned so greatly against Him as to warrant only death no matter what they do to ‘make up’ for their sin. Salvation is the manifestation of the grace, mercy and love of God for all His chosen ones. A man is saved according to God’s will, according to God’s love, according to God’s purpose and according to God’s grace and mercy. No work of man’s could ever possibly fit in with or in between anything that God has done to save him. When grace has had its way a man is saved. The works that follow have all been ordained by God for the saved man to walk in. These works are merely the produce of grace. They do not conspire to get a man saved, nor to maintain his salvation, but show that he has been saved by grace alone.
Grace is not necessary, it cannot be legitimately included in a man’s beliefs if he is not a believer in the fact that man is dead in his sins and can do nothing to come to God, seek God or even want God. The insidious deception of Satan, and what lies at the core of every human being by nature, is the lie that grace empowers you to do what needs to be done to achieve a salvific end, rather than grace alone saving you. The works doctrine actually aggrandizes man, in that it teaches a man is saved by what he does, not what is done to him and for him. Works reverses Ephesians 2:8,9, and completely destroys the very principle of grace. The principle of works teaches: ‘By works are ye saved through personal inherent faith; it is of yourselves and not the gift of God, it is of works, not grace, so that man can boast’. Do not be fooled!! “…if it be of works, then is it no more grace…” (Rom. 11:6). Anyone who even thinks they are saved by grace and works is a dead-in-sins fool! If works are included grace is excluded. If you are going to appeal to grace then you must turn way from your works (see Phil. 3:7-9). If you are truly saved by grace you HAVE turned from all your works. Make no mistake about it, saved by grace through works is just as evil as the more overt, saved by works. Grace alone, alone gives all glory for salvation to God. If a man has swallowed the lie that mankind is not dead in sins—embraced and promoted by religion even to this day—then he cannot include grace as God knows it in his beliefs. You are not believing in the grace of God, you do not have the true God of grace, if you believe that an act of man must precede salvation. Grace does not make the possibility of salvation conditional on what a man does. Grace makes salvation happen. Grace is salvation’s Commander, and grace is always according to the will and purpose of God. The will of God awaits no mere man’s will before He saves, or so that He can save, for God does whatsoever He pleases. You also cannot be believing in grace if you have been taught and believe that a man remains saved by an act, or acts, of his own, for Scripture says that a saved man is kept by the power of God through the gift of faith unto salvation (see 1 Pet. 1:3-5). They are not kept by the power of God through their work of faith, but by His gift of faith. “…by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:8). A Christian is saved by the grace of God and his salvation is kept, or maintained by the grace of God; saved by grace and given the faith to believe the doctrines of the Gospel of the grace of God. “There’s not a single molecule of my being that is not corrupted by sin. Before His grace apprehended me, I was dead in my sins: I had eyes that could not see, ears that could not hear, and a heart that could not understand. Since I have been redeemed I must still say with the prophet Isaiah that even my ‘righteousnesses are as filthy rags’ (Isa. 64:6) next to God’s Holiness.” Every true believer echoes Paul’s words from his Letter to the Philippians, wanting to “…be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the Righteousness which is of God by faith” (Phil. 3:9). If it is not through our own righteousness, then it is not through any faith of our own. Salvation is by grace through the gift of faith in the Righteousness of Christ, not in any righteousness of our own. If you trust in anything you have done for your salvation, then you do not have the gift of faith.
Righteousness through your personal obedience WILL NOT save you. Saving Righteousness does not come by a man’s obedience to God’s law, but only by the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. God loves His people unconditionally, THAT is GRACE! Grace is not based on man, not on your works, but solely on God from Whom it comes. There is no condition you must meet before God can save you, because there is no condition which any man can meet by his will or his works. No matter what anyone does, “…all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23 cf. Rom. 6:23). No man is saved by his doing anything whilst dead in trespasses and sins. No man is justified by his personal obedience, for the saved man is “…justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24 cf. Acts 15:11). The only way a man can truly love the only God is if God loved the man first. GRACE IS THE CONDITION ALL GOD’S PEOPLE ARE SAVED BY. Grace itself has no conditions, for grace is undeserved. “BY GRACE ARE YE SAVED”! God did not begin to love His chosen after they had done something, for God’s unconditional love is eternal. God loves because of His will and purpose, not a man’s will or works. God loves His people, and blesses His people with all spiritual blessings. This is seen in His predestinating them “…unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, TO THE PRAISE OF THE GLORY OF HIS GRACE, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:5,6), And God has made His people accepted exclusively by grace. Grace is what makes a man accepted before God, not works. A man is saved by grace through faith. The grace is from God and the faith which believes Him is not of ourselves, it is a gift. Salvation cannot do without the grace of God, but it can do without the works of a man, for a man is saved only by grace not works. “…if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law” (Gal. 3:21). This strongly implies that THERE IS NO LAW A MAN CAN OBEY THAT CAN GIVE HIM LIFE! Man’s dilemma does not merely consist of his sinful state and imperfect obedience, but is compounded by the fact THERE IS NOTHING HE CAN OBEY THAT WILL GIVE HIM LIFE!! That which a man must obey DOES NOT EVEN EXIST!! Even if he could obey, there is nothing for man to obey! There is nothing that can give man life, but grace. There is no law given which can give life, and so, Righteousness IS NOT BY THE LAW! Not by anything you do, should do, must do, have done, will do or can do. There is no law that can be obeyed that will produce life. Saving Righteousness does not come by a man’s obedience to any law, but exclusively by grace through faith in the obedience of Jesus Christ (see Rom. 5:19). Salvation is not by obedience to the law, but by the grace of God. SALVATION MUST BE WITHOUT WORKS IN ORDER TO BE BY GRACE. Salvation cannot be conditioned on your obedience if it is based on Christ’s obedience. Salvation cannot be conditioned on your righteousness if there is no law given that can give life. God’s people are saved by a GIFT, in fact many GIFTS: His Love, His Grace, His mercy, His faith, His Son, His Righteousness. God saves His elect by His grace, through the gift of faith not works. Salvation is not God expressing His appreciation and acknowledgement of a man’s efforts at pleasing Him and earning his way to Heaven. Salvation is God expressing, revealing His mercy, goodness and kindness toward those He has elected by grace to be saved by grace. To be saved, to believe in God as He is presented in His only Gospel, is to look to Him and what He has done, which is to simultaneously look away from yourself and anything you have done.
The key principle which releases the Truth of God is GRACE. GRACE IS THE KEY! Salvation is by grace, and the Gospel is the Gospel of the grace of God in the salvation of His people. The Gospel is the Good News, the Message which teaches salvation by grace alone. The bad news is works do not save. The Good News is GOD SAVES BY GRACE! GOD DOING IS THE KEY! God graces His people with salvation. Grace is about what God has done to save His people from their sins, and how He saves His people from their sins. Grace is God doing, salvation is what God has done and all of this is testified to by the Spirit of Truth in God's Gospel of Truth. GRACE IS GOD IN ACTION NOT GOD AND MAN IN TANDEM. Grace includes nothing within it, nor is it accompanied by anything, done by man. In fact, that the grace of God is necessary at all in the salvation of a man is irrefutable evidence that man can do nothing to come to the True God, and that salvation is only, AND HAD TO BE all by, and conditioned on, what God alone does by grace. "...if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace..." (Rom. 11:6). If salvation is undeserved, and the means to it is undeserved, then, pray tell, what could ever be done to deserve it! If you believe in works then you cannot at this time believe in grace. If you believe in grace you do not and never will again believe in works. Believing in grace is a denial of works, and a belief in works is a denial of grace. Belief in one is a complete repudiation of any legitimate belief in the other. Salvation is by grace, therefore, it cannot be by works. If salvation is by works then it cannot be by grace. Nor can salvation be by that which is deserved and simultaneously by that which is undeserved (see Rom. 11:6 cf. Rom. 4:4,5,14; Gal. 2:21; Gal. 5:4). No man attracts the grace of God to him, for grace only has eyes for God. No man can draw God to him, for then salvation would not be by grace, but by a work of man's. God gives grace, it is not worked for by man. You cannot do anything to attain that which is undeserved, it can only be given according to Another’s will and choice. Man by nature is in a state of eternal spiritual insolvency. He is unable to pay the price for his sin and sinfulness. He cannot pay his debt and is utterly without hope. If man must do something first, before God can come to him, then salvation would be something which is initiated, made possible, and at least partly reliant upon, and only achievable by, a man's cooperation. If this were so, salvation would not be an unmerited favor, or gift, from God, but a wage earned by man. The Scripture does not say ‘the wages of obedience is eternal life’, but “…the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 6:23). When Grace is truly taught according to the Word of God, what man does or what a man must do, simply does not, and will not, fit with any of the doctrines of the Gospel of the grace of God. Grace is not something which gives man a slight nudge of encouragement to believe, but the grace of God is that which makes him believe. MAN IS NOT SAVED BY HIS WILL, BUT BY GRACE, GOD'S WILL. God does not gently nudge us awake HE MAKES US ALIVE! God's chosen are not awoken from sleep, but are made alive from death.
It is an indefatigable and inarguable fact that Holy Scripture clearly teaches that grace opposes works and vice-versa (see Rom. 4 & 11 etc.). You cannot have grace and works, for grace is the very antithesis of works, and the whole notion of works is diametrically opposed to God’s plan of salvation by grace alone, therefore, works can never be included in a salvation which is exclusively by God’s free favor. If something can only be given it can never be deserved. If something is free it can never be earned. You cannot put a price on that which is free of any charge. You can never obtain that which can never be bought. There is no place for works in a Gospel of grace. No work of man’s can do what only the grace of God does. The ministry which the apostle Paul received from the Lord Jesus Christ was to “…testify the Gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). The Gospel of God is not a gospel of works, but of the grace of God. In this next verse we see Paul describing the Gospel of God as the Gospel of the grace of Christ, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel” (Gal. 1:6). Notice that Paul distinguishes Christ’s Gospel from all other gospels, by referring to it alone as the Gospel of grace. This clearly reveals all other gospels as not being gospels of the grace of Christ. As grace is so often contrasted with works throughout the Word of God, the only Biblical conclusion is that all false gospels base salvation on works. This also shows how Christ’s Gospel is the only Gospel which exclusively and uniquely bases all of salvation upon His grace, and not on the works of His chosen at all. There is no way to deny grace except by acknowledging works as a basis for salvation.
Salvation by grace does not require the works of men, for “…by grace ye are saved” (Eph. 2:5). If grace did require a man’s works in order to save him from his sins, then what would it be that grace cannot do unaided? God is the Saviour, grace is the means. Grace is the cause of salvation, so when one attempts to add a work of one’s own to grace one no longer has grace, and one can no longer appeal to grace. If you pay for something it is no longer free, and you cannot simply take that which must be paid for. Works neutralize grace, and grace negates any need for works. Grace and works impede one another. Believing in salvation by grace alone is a renunciation of every gospel which teaches salvation by works, or by grace and works. Believing in salvation by grace alone is a repudiation of the religions of the world. All man-made and satanically energized religions are part and parcel of the Beast system which propagates the religion of Satan that manifests itself in many guises, but which all have ‘salvation by works because man is not dead in sins’ as their driving principle. Salvation being by grace alone is God’s Testament to the fact that there is no requirement for works in the salvation of a man, for there is simply nothing a man can do. You can work for a wage, but you cannot work for a gift. The salvation which comes only by the grace of the only true God is a gift. The fictional salvation of all imagined gods is a wage earned by deeds done. Those who pray to such ‘gods’ are not saved, “…they pray unto a god that cannot save” (Isa. 45:20). God is the only Saviour, for He is the only one Who saves by grace alone. Grace alone is a Divine statement that no work could ever achieve anything when it comes to being saved or remaining saved. How can there be anything a man can do to get saved or remain saved, when the Word of God declares there is nothing of which a man can boast in his salvation. If there is no boasting, then salvation is all by something done by someone other than man. How can you possibly fit man and anything done by man in the Scriptures that say, “…Salvation is of the Lord” and “…by grace are ye saved…”!! (Jon. 2:9 & Eph. 2:8). How can anyone call themselves Christian and say salvation needs a man’s works, when the Scriptures say “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:8,9). The only way one can resist the obvious is by either not wanting to see it, or by a blindness to it. What is it that salvation allegedly requires from spiritually dead people to do? How can anybody be expected to do anything when they are dead? Being dead in sins and being physically dead both have at least one thing in common: both conditions are completely without any life. Have you ever seen anyone standing next to a physically dead person, and heard them say that as soon as the dead person does something they will help them. Just as insane is the doctrine that says ‘God will save those who make a decision for Him’. God does not help those who help themselves, He saves His chosen who were hopelessly dead in sins. How can a spiritually dead person who is without Christ, without God and without hope in the world possibly be expected to do ANYTHING, let alone choose the only true God Who is the Author and Completer of salvation by grace alone!
To condition salvation on an act, or acts, performed by a spiritually dead man is to believe one can extract blood from stone. It is the height of insanity to expect a lifeless person to do anything. It is quite obvious to this author that it is little wonder the perpetrators of the lie that the exercise of free will must occur before God can save anyone, do not believe in a literal state of spiritual deadness being the natural state every member of the human race is born into. You cannot have free will and believe that man is "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1). Therefore, those who teach such lies as free will before salvation must deny the Biblical reality of spiritual death: the incapability of coming to God by your choice. As the apostle Paul stated, “…if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace…” (Rom. 11:6). If salvation is by grace, then it is not by what you do. Likewise, if salvation is by works, then it is not by what God does. Your choosing and God choosing simply cannot co-exist. “…grace and works are contrary to one another; and so unalienable and unalterable in their natures, that the one cannot pass into the other, or the one be joined with the other, in this or any other part of man's salvation; for what is here said of election, holds true of justification, pardon of sin, and the whole of salvation.” No work of man’s can be joined to the grace of God, for the presence of works would completely do away with all grace, just as a wage earned does away with any speculation that the money received is in any way a gift. The fact that all of the glory for salvation belongs to God proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is no room in God’s salvation plan for anything man must do, even if he could do it. Salvation is not by grace through works, salvation is simply by grace NOT works. Salvation is exclusively by the grace of God through the gift of Faith which comes from God, and so there is no room for man to boast in any free will decision of his own, for God has done it all: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8,9). If faith was of ourselves then we would be saved by grace through works, but as the faith spoken about here is clearly not of ourselves, but is a gift from God, salvation can only be by the gift of grace through the gift of faith. Nothing of ourselves, but everything that is of God. Notice the contrasts, the polar opposites in these two Scriptures concerning God and man. Salvation is by God and not at all by man. Salvation is clearly not by what you do, it is not something you can earn, for it is a gift. God does not use man as an instrument to procure his own salvation, but has made him a mere receptacle, a chosen vessel of mercy (see Rom. 9:23 cf. Acts 9:15). Man is not saved by being rewarded with a gift. A man is not saved by grace through his works—anything done by himself—for this would be a contradiction in terms, but God saves by grace through the gift of Faith which comes from God and is given to man. No man is saved by deserving that which is undeserved.
The gift of faith by grace causes a man to turn 180° away from his own efforts at getting saved, to trusting 100% in what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for him. Man has nothing to boast of in salvation, for it is entirely a free gift given from above. If man has nothing to boast of it is evident that he has done nothing, and can do nothing, in order to get or remain saved. All of salvation is all by grace. Grace is from God, as is salvation and the Faith with which to believe the Gospel of the grace of God. All are gifts, and not the result of a man’s works. If any gospel's teachings leave room for a man to boast in something he has done, whether he attributes it to God's grace or not, it is a false gospel. The Gospel of God gives all the glory for salvation to God, which means He has done everything to save His elect, hence, salvation is totally by grace alone. God does not need your help to save you if you are a chosen vessel of His. Because a man can do nothing salvation can only be by grace alone. All this rubbish about man doing assumes that he can do something, that there is something a man still dead in his sins can do that will please God. This is the crux of the message every false gospel contains. It is so anti-God that it beggars belief that anyone claiming to be a Christian could ever believe such antithetical claptrap particularly in light of such Scriptures as Romans 8:8, “So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God”, and Hebrews 11:6, “…without faith it is impossible to please Him…” What faith do you think the writer to the Hebrews is talking about? The faith God gives to all the elect so that they will all believe that salvation is only of God by grace alone. If you believe wrong doctrine, you believe in a false god that cannot save. To be saved by grace alone is to be made alive by the Holy Spirit of God BECAUSE THE FLESH PROFITETH NOTHING! You cannot gain anything from God by what you do. Therefore, salvation has to be, and assuredly is, by grace alone.
In summary, what Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit of God, is saying in his Letter to the Ephesians is that salvation is all of God, and man plays no part in it. Paul’s words “not of yourselves…not of works…” (Eph. 2:8,9), are all encompassing. They speak concerning anything and everything any man is and can do. Salvation by grace is salvation by nothing which a man has done which is deserving of God’s favour. God is the doer and man is the receiver. THE ONLY WAY SALVATION CAN BE BY GRACE IS IF IT IS NOT BY ANY WORKS AT ALL. Man can only receive what God has done, what God has sent to him, by the gift of Faith which is given to him by God, and is not that faith which is common to all men by nature. “…man cannot even take credit for his own act of faith, but that faith was itself created by God and implanted in His people so that they would believe.” True grace always teaches that man is without hope and without God, in other words, without any desire to be saved God’s Way. True grace always has a man fully reliant upon God for salvation. The faith God gives never causes the person to trust in their works, but only and forever in the grace of God. True grace never inspires any hope, or faith, in any works. True grace from God always and only points to God. Prior to conversion no man has the eyes to see, ears to hear or mind to understand the only true God and His Gospel (see Matt. 13:15; Mk. 4:12; Acts 28:27). No one can be, or is converted whilst in a state of blindness, deafness and the inherently congenital inability to acknowledge the only true God and His Gospel of grace. One must be converted by God in order to see, understand and believe the Gospel of the only true God Who saves by His grace alone. Without the ability to see, hear and understand the Gospel of grace, there is no evidence of salvation by grace having taken place. The essentiality of the grace of God to the salvation of a man teaches that man without God can do absolutely nothing to come to God.
Only by grace is a man made alive unto God, and once made alive, the now saved man sees, understands and believes in the Gospel of the grace of God. Man needs nothing more to make him alive, to save him, than the grace of God. We see then that man’s being saved is an act of God, by grace alone, which requires no assistance or supplementary act of man’s to ensure its effectiveness, perfection or eternality. All is conditioned and dependent on God. To add any work of man’s to the grace of God is the single, clearest rejection of the doctrine of salvation by grace alone. The only controversy which exists concerning the doctrine of salvation by grace alone, resides exclusively in the hearts of the lost to whom the Gospel of God is hid (2 Cor. 4:3,4). If any work of man's was necessary to, or in any way a part of, his salvation then he would have room to boast, but seeing that salvation is by grace through the gift of faith so that no man CAN boast, it is made patently clear that all of salvation is all of, and by, grace alone which is why all the glory for salvation belongs solely to God. The only way there can be no boasting in man, is if all of salvation is by grace alone (see Rom. 3:27; Eph. 2:5-10). The only way salvation cannot be by works at all is if it is by grace alone. Though the Pharisee thanked God that he was not like other men, we have learned that thanking God for what you have done is boasting in one’s own righteousness rather than God’s Righteousness, thereby revealing oneself as a self-exalted unjustified sinner. It is not man and his works which make the difference between saved and lost, but only the Sovereign God and His grace. The Christian boasts only in what God has done, for without God the Christian would not even be a Christian. It is the Lord who makes the Christian to differ from another, not the Christian’s deeds. It is what God has done by grace, not a man by works, that makes the difference between a saved sinner and a lost sinner. Like the Ethiopian who cannot change his skin, or the leopard his spots, no man can do a single thing to change his nature, let alone anything which can contribute to, or promote, his spiritual re-birth. He cannot do a thing to change his current spiritual state. No one can change what they are by what they do. Change can only come by grace. New life can only come by grace. Man cannot even take one step towards the True God without the Lord, for, by nature, man does not even know Him, or seek Him.
The following is a collection of some Scriptures and Scripture references which highlight the fact that God’s people are all saved by grace alone:
1. Eph. 2:8,9 - "For BY GRACE are ye SAVED THROUGH FAITH; and that NOT OF YOURSELVES: it is the GIFT of God: NOT OF WORKS, lest any man should boast."
2. Rom. 4:6,7 - God imputes "Righteousness without works." (see #9, #4, #45, #7, #12, #53).
3. Rom. 10:3 – It is a fatal error for anyone to try and, "Establish their own righteousness."
4. Rom. 5:17 – A Heaven-deserving Righteousness is a "GIFT", not something you earn.
5. Rom. 5:18 - Justification by God is a "FREE GIFT”, not something you work toward.
6. Phil. 3:9 - Paul, as ‘good’ as he was, still would not trust his "own righteousness" to save him.
7. Rom. 3:22 - God's Righteousness is credited to "ALL THEM THAT BELIEVE", not all them that work.
8. Rom. 8:3,4 - The flesh is too "Weak" to save itself. We need a Saviour. We need Christ. (see #86).
9. Rom. 4:3 - Abraham's faith, not works, "Was counted unto him for Righteousness." It is what God gives a man that is counted for Righteousness, not anything which is in the man by nature.
10. Rom. 4:4,5 - Works are "Not reckoned of grace, but of debt." Faith is counted as Righteousness.
11. Gal. 3:10 - To earn Heaven you'd have to "Continueth," perfectly, in the whole law. (see #81, #86).
12. Titus 3:5 - "NOT BY WORKS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Salvation is not by what we have done, but only by what God has done.
13. John 5:24 - In Christ we have "PASSED from death unto life." We don't have to ‘wait’ to find out. We do not have to perform works of obedience to do this. The Saviour has done it all by grace.
14. Rom. 9:31,32 – Israel, "Sought it (Righteousness) not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law." (#33, #54). Paul did not praise God for their salvation, he prayed FOR their salvation.
15. Acts 4:12 - No other name but Jesus Christ of Nazareth (Acts 4:10) can save us — not the name of works, nor our own name. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
16. John 1:12,13 - Only God's power, through His Son, makes us a child of God. We are not born into God's family by "Blood" (heritage, family ‘pedigree’), "Nor of the will of the flesh" (good works), "Nor of the will of man" (minister, or man-made religion), "But of God" (see #12, #53, #21, #17, #22, #46, #15).
17. Isa. 45:21,22 - No one else can save a soul from Hell but God; God says: “…there is no God else beside Me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside Me. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”
18. Acts 13:39 - "And by Him [Christ] all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye COULD NOT BE JUSTIFIED by the law of Moses." (see #33, #54, #53, #5, #42, #64, #82, #87, #80).
19. Rom. 8:7 - We can't follow God's law even if we wanted to. So how can we save ourselves? (see #86, #8).
20. Matthew 7:21-23 - Christ describes a future scene in which those who are trusting in their "Many wonderful works”, will, sadly, be told by Christ: "I never knew you: depart from Me, Ye that work iniquity.” Their good works will not save them. This includes the ‘good work’ of believing, or ‘accepting Christ’. True believers all trust Christ, and His Righteousness ALONE. (see #46, #12).
21. John 10:1 - We must enter through Christ, "THE DOOR", not by "…some other way…" (see #46). All who are saved by grace alone enter through Christ. All who do not believe in grace alone, failingly attempt to enter some other way. Only those who are not saved trust in their works.
22. John 8:24 - A person can work all they want, but it will not save them. Jesus said the bottom line is that, "If ye believe not that I am He [the only true God], ye shall die in your sins." (see #53 and #69).
23. Rom. 4:2 - If Abraham could have saved himself, he'd have something to brag about.(see #25, #1).
24. Acts 10:1-43 - Cornelius' good works would put anyone today to shame, yet he still had to get saved by grace through the gift of faith which trusts solely in Christ as Saviour (see #6, #12, #1, #88).
25. Rom. 3:27,28 – “Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith WITHOUT the deeds of the law” (see #1 and #23).
26. 1 John 5:11-13 - If your salvation depends on a lifetime of good works, then why does the Bible teach that you could "KNOW" for sure, before you die, that you are going to Heaven? (see Jn. 5:24; 1 Jn. 3:14). The answer is because salvation doesn't depend on you, but on Christ, Who ALREADY paid the price for your sins: “And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God” (see #87).
27. Heb. 1:3 - "He had BY HIMSELF purged our sins." He doesn't need help from us! (see #15).
28. Heb. 2:3 - If we have to work at earning it, why does the Bible call it "So great salvation"? Salvation is God’s work, not by the works of His people.
29. Heb. 2:9,10 - Christ is "The CAPTAIN of their salvation."
30. Heb. 2:14-15 - Christ is the one who will "DELIVER" us from death. We cannot deliver ourselves! (see #53).
31. Heb. 2:17 - Christ makes "RECONCILIATION for the sins" of His people. We cannot reconcile ourselves. Works is man’s way, grace is God’s Way. Works always fail. The grace of God can never fail in saving God’s chosen.
32. Heb. 5:9 - Christ is "The AUTHOR of eternal salvation", not us! It's not in our hands. Eternal salvation is beyond any man’s deeds.
33. Gal. 2:16 - "Knowing that a man IS NOT JUSTIFIED BY THE WORKS of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, ...that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and NOT by the WORKS of the law: FOR BY THE WORKS OF THE LAW SHALL NO FLESH BE JUSTIFIED."
34. Heb. 9:28 - "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many." God will not accept good works (see Gen. 4:3-5).
35. Heb. 10:10-12 - Christ's body was offered "Once for all", So stop insulting God with your works in an attempt to get saved or stay saved.
36. Heb. 10:14 - "For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified."
37. Heb. 10:17,18 - "There is no more offering for sin." So stop offering your ‘good works’, which are in reality nothing but dead works.
38. 2 Cor. 1:9,10 - "We should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: Who hath delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in Whom we trust that He will yet deliver us.”
39. 2 Cor. 1:10 - Christ "Delivered us from so great a death." It could not have happened any other way; His chosen people could not deliver themselves.
40. Eph. 1:12,13 - You are saved by grace through faith in Christ “In Whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the Word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation: in Whom also after that ye believed, ye were SEALED with that Holy Spirit of promise.”
41. Jer. 17:5 - "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm."
42. Job 25:4 - "How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?" (For God's answer, see #86, #63, #54, #33, #82, #80, #73, #5 and Isaiah 1:18).
43. Isa. 12:2 - "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation.” Don't trust good works, trust the Saviour.
44. Luke 18:9-14 - Jesus gives a parable teaching that self righteousness WILL NOT save a person.
45. Ezek. 33:12,13 – “…The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression…If he trust to his own righteousness, and commit iniquity, all his righteousnesses shall not be remembered..." (see also Eccl. 7:20).
46. John 14:6 - Jesus said, "I am THE WAY, the Truth, and the Life: no man cometh unto the Father, BUT BY ME." None are saved but by the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
47. 1 Tim. 2:5 – There is ONLY "One Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." The mediator between God and men is NOT a man’s works!
48. Col. 2:14 - Christ took our sin debt, "Nailing it to His cross." It is ALREADY paid for! (see #34-37). No man can make up for his sin, “For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Eccl. 7:20). Even in his supposed good works a man is sinning.
49. John 19:30 - While on the cross, Christ said, "It is finished." It is paid in full. We do not have to work for it. The Work of salvation is done. Those who will be given salvation by grace have already been chosen.
50. Matt. 11:28-30 - Christ gives "REST." “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light” (see also Heb. 4:9,10).