How are we saved? Evangelical theology has always claimed, “by grace alone, not by works of the law.” The classic, beautiful text says
Ephesians 2:8–10 (ESV) 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
But what does it mean to be saved by grace? What even is grace? After all, Catholics read this text and they agree—but also say that good works are also necessary merit salvation. Cults read this and they agree—but also say that there “levels” of Christianity that differentiate the saints. How is the evangelical Christian to respond?
What matter is what Scripture means when it says we are saved by grace. While the word “grace” or “favor” (Greek: χάρις, charis) can mean the state that leads to spiritual empowerment[1], in Ephesians 2 in particular (and other verses) “grace” means God’s undeserved, unmerited, unworked for favor. The prior usage of χάρις in Ephesians 2:5 makes it clear that this is the grace that comes because of God’s rich mercy and love, even while we were dead in sin. This definition of χάρις grace here is a gift, not a payment.
And yet, we can say more about what this grace is.
As this whole passage [of Ephesians 2] shows, God’s grace…is actually God’s favor granted to those who deserve his wrath (v. 3). It is not just undeserved, as if the people whom God befriends were neutral. It is act of immense favor bestowed on those who lie under God’s just condemnation as transgressors and sinners. Hence, a better quick definition is: “God’s favor despite human demerit.”[2]
Others have defined this χάρις as “God’s unmerited favor toward sinners, the free kindness by which he saves those who have no claim on him and no power to save themselves.”[3] The key component of this definition is that the perfect God gives grace to wrath-deserving sinners![4]
Sola Gratia: Salvation by Grace Alone, As a Gift from God Alone
To put it simply, God saves sinners sola gratia—by grace alone. This salvation is unmerited by us, given freely because of His love, not because of our supposed loveliness.
1 John 4:10 (LSB) In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
We are saved by grace means that we did nothing to earn it or work for it. We did not love God first and cause Him to love us; quite the opposite! We are the problem; God alone is the Savior and provides the solution to our sin problem. You, the sinner, contribute nothing positive for your salvation. As the quip goes, the only thing you contributed to your salvation was the sin that made Christ’s death necessary!
Salvation could not be by our own works, for even our best deeds are offensive to a holy God.
Isaiah 64:6 (ESV) 6 We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
Instead, salvation is wholly a free gift of God, by His grace alone, apart from works of the law, apart from any so called merit derived from the works of sinful men.
Romans 11:6 (ESV) 6 But if [salvation] is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. -
Romans 6:23 (LSB) 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So—contra Catholics and every other religious system—sinners cannot be saved by our own works, but rather by wholly and solely by the grace of God.
Solus Christus: Saved by Christ Alone
Yet, all of that said, I contend that we are saved by works—but not by our works. When God saves, He does not conjure up salvation out of thin air. He cannot and does not absolve sin with the wave of a magic wand. Sin deserves punishment. Psalm 7:11 says “God is a righteous judge, and a God who feels indignation every day.” Abraham asks, “Shall not the judge of the whole earth do what is just?” (Gen 18:25, ESV). As the righteous Judge, God will act justly!
But this presents the problem of forgiveness. How can the Almighty wash away the guilt and shame of our sin? Because the punishment was paid by another. God’s legal grounding for His forgiveness is the work of Jesus Christ. “Salvation is wholly of God by grace on the basis of the redemption of Jesus Christ—the merits both of His life of perfect righteousness and His atoning blood.”[5] The merits that purchase my salvation is the life and death of Jesus Christ.
“The redemption of Jesus Christ” refers to Jesus Christ purchasing us from our slavery to sin unto the Father. The Greek word λυτρόω (lutroō), often translated as “redeem,” means to free by paying a ransom, to liberate from slavery by paying purchase price. In other words, to redeem something demands a payment.
But Scripture uses this metaphor to speak specifically of salvation. Two key instances:
Titus 2:14 (LSB) 14 who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good works.
1 Peter 1:18–19 (LSB) 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold…19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.
With what did God pay our ransom price? With what did He purchase our forgiveness? How did He set us free from our slavery to sin (Romans 6:16)? With what did He exact the justice required? It cannot simply be Christ’s sinlessness or his blamelessness. It is not the innocence of Christ that is imputed to the believer. Titus 2:14 says that Christ gave Himself for us; 1 Peter 1:18 says that believers were redeemed with the blood of the lamb of God. Titus 2:14 refers to the righteous life of Christ as the payment for sinners. And 1 Peter 1 refers to His atoning death.
His atoning blood
On how Christ’s death achieves salvation, Scripture says:
Ephesians 1:7 (ESV) 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
Isaiah 53:5 (ESV) 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
Hebrews 9:22 (ESV) 22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Romans 5:8–9 (ESV) 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
Forgiveness is the remission of a debt. But as the perfectly holy and just God, when God forgives He does not just sweep away the guilt; He executes justice. He punished Christ for the Christian’s sin. When Christ died, He drank the cup of God’s wrath against sin—so that there is no more for me. As the hymn says:
His robes for mine: God’s justice is appeased.
Jesus is crushed, and thus the Father’s pleased.
Christ drank God’s wrath on sin, then cried “’Tis done!”
Sin’s wage is paid; propitiation won.[6]
Christ died for me, and therefore my sins are washed away. But that is not where Christ’s work for our salvation ends.
His life of perfect righteousness
We need more than our debt to God being forgiven. To be saved, Jesus said Matthew 5:20 (ESV) 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
But where can this righteousness come from? Not from ourselves, but from another. Paul writes that this righteousness is imputed to a person the moment he believes.
Romans 10:9-10 (LSB) 9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, leading to righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, leading to salvation.
Paul can’t be talking about growing in practical righteousness here, what we colloquially call godliness or holiness. That kind of growth takes time. In verse 10, there are parallel thoughts, and their meaning informs the other: initial faith leads to immediate righteousness, just as confession leads to immediate salvation. If one argues that here belief leads to a growing righteousness, then he must also admit that here confession leads to a growing salvation. But such a stance cannot stand; verse 9 is pointing to the immediate status of “saved.”
In addition, Paul says something similar in Philippians:
Philippians 3 (CSB) 8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.
Theologians calls this positional righteousness, or legal justification. But, again, where does this righteousness come from? The merits of Christ’s life of perfect righteousness. Christ lived the life I should have lived, in perfect obedience to God. He takes my filthy rags of sin and dies in my place, but He does not leave me naked. No, He gives me His robes of perfect righteousness, to clothe me, so that I can say, according to Scripture, “I have been made the righteousness of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
In English the word “might” communicates doubt or uncertainty, but here “might become” it is a translation of a subjunctive verb, here indicating purpose. A more forceful translation that draws out the intended meaning is: “The one who knew no sin (Christ)—this one, on our behalf, the Father made to be sin, for this purpose: that in Christ we would become the righteousness of God.”[7] This is the crux of the righteous status imputed to every Christian.
Paul summarizes this idea in Romans 5:19 (LSB) “For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were appointed sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be appointed righteous.” The obedience of the One—that is, the one act of Christ’s righteous life and substitutionary death—is the legal grounds of the Christian’s salvation. We cannot be saved without it. Again, the hymn says:
His robes for mine: what cause have I for dread?
God’s daunting Law Christ mastered in my stead.
Faultless I stand with righteous works not mine,
Saved by my Lord’s vicarious death and life.
Or, even better, as Isaiah writes:
Isaiah 61:10 (LSB)
I will rejoice greatly in Yahweh;
My soul will rejoice in my God, For He has clothed me with garments of salvation,
He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom decks himself with a headdress,
And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
To deny this teaching, that it is Christ’s work—both the merits of His perfect life and His substitutionary death—is to attempt to erode the very foundation of salvation.
Conclusion
How is the Christian saved? It is all of God, all a gift of His grace alone—made free for us to receive by faith because Christ purchased it with His perfect, righteous, law-fulfilling life and propitiatory, wrath-quenching, justice-satisfying death. We are saved by works not our own, but by the righteous life and sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.
Resources
· Dr. Michael Riccardi taught a session on the necessity of Christ’s active obedience for our salvation here: https://www.gracechurch.org/sermons/24739
Footnotes
[1] 2 Cor 12:9 My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness; Eph 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift
[2] S. M. Baugh, Ephesians, Evangelical Exegetical Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015), 159–160.
[3] https://theopedia.com/grace
[4] I have elsewhere taught on the entire passage of Ephesians 2:1-10 and will not reiterate it here.
[5] In Reformed theology, the merits of Christ’s life is called his active obedience and the merits of Christ’s death are called his passive obedience. As the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689) says: Those whom God effectually calls, he also freely justifies (Rom 3:24, 8:30), not by infusing righteousness into them, but by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous (Rom 4:5-8, Eph 1:7); not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone (1 Cor 1:30-31, Rom 5:17-19); not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them, as their righteousness; but by imputing Christ’s active obedience unto the whole law, and passive obedience in his death for their whole and sole righteousness by faith (Phil 3:8-9, Eph 2:8-10), which faith they have not of themselves; it is the gift of God (John 1:12, Rom 5:17).
[6] https://churchworksmedia.com/product/his-robes-for-mine-free/
[7] Harris explains, “As a result of God imputing to Christ something that was extrinsic to him, namely sin, believers have something imputed to them that was extrinsic to them, namely righteousness.”878 The parallel in Phil 3:8–9 helps clarify what Paul says here. He exults in “the surpassing value of knowing Christ” and being “found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ — the righteousness from God based on faith.” 878 Harris, Second Epistle, 455. Quoted in David E. Garland, 2 Corinthians, ed. E. Ray Clendenen and Brandon D. Smith, Christian Standard Commentary (Holman Reference, 2021), 340.