Grace or Works

Romans 11:6 (ESV) ⁶  But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

Have you had anyone say to you; “When I die I’ll get into heaven because I am basically a good person and God will weigh the good against the bad and I’ll get in.”  The whole premise of their argument is that it has a very human view of sin with some sins that are REALLY bad and others that are “not so bad.”

I had a pastor friend of mine, who years ago relate another story that makes the same point.  My pastor friend was swimming every morning to get himself in shape.  While he was there at the pool, he noticed an older man helping out a swimming instructor teach some disable children how to swim. One day he engaged the older man in discussion and asked him why he had volunteered.  He said, “It’s rewarding to help out and besides, I  think God will be pleased and it should help me get into heaven.”  The pastor’s response I think was insightful; “Just how many will you have to help learn to swim before God will let you into heaven?”

This kind of thinking, that somehow my good works will get me into heaven is the default position of most of humanity, religious or not. In fact, it is the default position of all religion except Biblical Christianity. But is it the view that the Scriptures take?

Let me give you some reasons why salvation in Christ is by grace alone.

Grace brings glory to God

When we say that we will get to heaven by our own good works we take the credit and God does not receive the glory. If we say that it’s a combination of our righteous works and God’s grace, we are now sharing the glory with God. But when we testify that we are heaven bound solely because of God’s sovereign grace and mercy, God gets ALL the glory.

In Ephesians chapter one we have laid out before us His work in salvation for God’s glory:

• vs.5 “according to His purpose and will…
• vs. 6 “to the praise of His glorious grace…”
• vs.7  “In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins”
• vv.7-8 According to His riches in grace which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight.
• vs.9 “making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ.
• vs.11  In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

In this passage in Ephesians, there is nothing recorded about any good or righteous works we have done to earn salvation.  This is all about what has done in salvation. This passage gives all the glory, all the work, all the purposes in salvation to Christ alone through grace alone.

For us to think that we could add anything to what God has done through Jesus Christ in salvation is to rob Him of the glory that is due Him.

Romans 4:2 (NKJV) ²  For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.

Psalm 29:2 (NKJV) ²  Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name; Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

Grace by definition negates our works.

Romans 11:6 (ESV) ⁶  But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace.

Grace has been defined as God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. It is the unmerited, unearned favor of God.  You don’t earn it. You don’t cooperate with it in good works. Grace is simply God acting in and of His own will for His own purposes on your behalf. Grace is by definition a sovereign act of God upon an undeserving people.

Paul makes this clear in the verse quoted above. If it is grace it is no longer works, otherwise, grace would no longer be grace, it is UNMERITED favor!

Righteousness before God is apart from works.

Romans 4:5-6 (NKJV) ⁵  But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness, ⁶  just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works:

Ephesians 2:8-10 (KJV) ⁸  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: ⁹  Not of works, lest any man should boast. ¹⁰  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Titus 3:5 (KJV) 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;

Abraham was not justified by the works of the law.

Romans 4:1-3 (NKJV) ¹  What then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? ²  For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. ³  For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

We are justified by Faith

The word justified means that we have a right standing before God.  This standing throughout the Scriptures is seen as based on faith.  Abraham, the father of faith, was justified by His faith, as noted above (Romans 4:1-3).

The scriptures are clear that we are not justified by the works of the Law but by faith

Galatians 2:16 (NKJV) ¹⁶  knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

Romans 1:17 (NKJV) ¹⁷  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

Romans 3:27-28 (ESV) ²⁷  Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. ²⁸  For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law.

Romans 4:13 (NKJV) ¹³  For the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.

Romans 4:16 (KJV) ¹⁶  Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

Galatians 3:2 (KJV) ²  This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?

Galatians 3:7-12 (NKJV) ⁷  Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. ⁸  And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” ⁹  So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. ¹⁰  For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” ¹¹  But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.” ¹²  Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”

More to come on this subject in Tuesday’s post.

-Michael Holtzinger

Some great resources:

Transforming Grace: Living Confidently in God’s Unfailing Love  By Jerry Bridges

Faith Alone—The Doctrine of Justification: What the Reformers Taught…and Why It Still Matters (The Five Solas Series)  By:  Thomas R. Schreiner

Justification by Faith (John MacArthur’s Bible studies)