Sola Gratia

Introduction

The Protestant Reformation of the 16th century changed Christianity forever. Roused to action by the
corruption and abuses they saw in the Roman Catholic church of the time, visionary pastors and leaders
like Martin Luther and John Calvin spearheaded a movement that transformed Christianity and
eventually led to the emergence of the Protestant denominations that exist today.

The Reformers were guided by the conviction that the church of their day had drifted away from the
essential, original teachings of Christianity, especially in regard to what it was teaching about salvation—
how people can be forgiven of sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and receive eternal
life with God. The Reformation sought to re-orient Christianity on the original message of Jesus and the
early church.

What is Sola Gratia

Sola gratia is one of the five "solas" of the Protestant Reformation. The others are:

1. Sola scriptura: Scripture alone; God gave us His Word through Scripture, not papal authority or
sacred tradition
2. Sola fide: Faith alone; salvation is by grace, through faith, not our works (Ephesians 2:8-9)
3. Sola Christus: Christ alone; Jesus is the only way to salvation (John 14:6)
4. Sola Deo Gloria: glory of God alone; everything we do should be for God's glory (Colossians
3:17)

These were foundational beliefs during the development of the Protestant Reformation, and continue to
be vital today.

Sola gratia is a Latin phrase that means "grace alone." Sola gratia means that salvation from sin and
death is provided by God's unmerited favor alone, and we can do nothing to earn it. The concept is
expressed in Ephesians 2:8-9 which reads, "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."

Why did the Reformers come Up with the Slogan Sola Gratia

The Roman Catholic Church was teaching that you were saved by grace but also needed works such as
the taking of the Eucharist to be saved. Where does the line of difference between Rome and the
Reformation lie? It lies in a single word—sola (“alone”). The Reformers maintained that the sinner is
saved by the grace of God, His unmerited favor, alone. This doctrine means that nothing the sinner does
commends him to the grace of God, and that the sinner does not cooperate with God in order to merit
his salvation. Salvation, from beginning to end, is the sovereign gift of God to the unworthy and
undeserving. As Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians, who were inclined to boasting: “Who sees
anything different in you? What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do
you boast as if you did not receive it?” (1 Cor. 4:7). No one can ever stand before God and say, “Look at
me and at what I have done!” God is no one’s debtor, not least in matters of salvation (Rom. 11:35).
Why is Sola Gratia Important

Why is it essential to believe and teach that salvation is provided by grace alone? First, Scripture is clear
that no person seeks God of his or her own initiative: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one
understands; no one seeks for God" (Romans 3:10-11). Instead, God must reach out to sinful humanity
(Romans 3:23). Christ died for us while we were still ungodly (Romans 5:8). Further, Jesus came to seek
and save the lost (Luke 19:10). He actively pursues sinners, calling us to faith in His name.

When a person does accept Christ by grace through faith, Jesus is the One who gives eternal life (John
3:16) and makes us a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Once we have become a believer in Christ,
God's Spirit provides the power to live for Him and keeps us in the love of God (Roman 8:37-39).
Ultimately, Christ also gives us assurance of eternal life (1 John 5:13).

Biblical Basis for Sola Gratia

One passage of Scripture in which the doctrine of salvation by grace alone shines brightly is Ephesians
2:1–10. Paul wrote to the Ephesians after having ministered among them for some three years (Acts
20:31). It is clear from the Acts of the Apostles that Paul had deeply devoted himself to preaching and
teaching the Word of God to them (19:8–10; 20:20–21).

The letter to the Ephesians gives us a glimpse into the feast of teaching that Paul had set before that
church. In the first chapter, Paul takes us into the “heavenly places” (1:3). He shows us the plan of the
Father to save sinners by the work of His Son, a work that is applied and guaranteed by the Spirit. This
plan is a lavish plan— the Father has “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing” (v. 3). Above all,
Paul stresses how this plan of redemption redounds to the praise of the glorious grace of God (vv. 6, 12,
14).

After pausing to thank God and to intercede for the Ephesians, Paul applies the heavenly realities of 1:3–
14 to our individual Christian lives in 2:1–10. He twice stresses the fact that it is “by grace you have been
saved” (2:5, 8). How is the grace of God evident in salvation? We see God’s grace on display, Paul says,
when God makes the dead alive in Christ. To appreciate fully the grace of God, let us consider from
Ephesians 2:1–10 what it means to be “dead” and what it means to be “alive.”

Who are the “dead”? They include the Ephesians. (“You were dead in … trespasses and sins,” v. 1.) They
include Paul and his fellow Jews. (“We all once lived in the passions of our flesh,” v. 3.) In fact, they
include every man, woman, and child in Adam. (“[We] were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of
mankind,” v. 3.) The “dead” include folks like you and I.

What does it mean to be “dead”? Paul points to three things in this passage. First, it means to be under
condemnation. Before Christ, we were “dead in the trespasses and sins in which [we] once walked.”
Death, God told Adam in Genesis 2, is the penalty for sin. When we violate the law of God, we stand
guilty before this holy God, accountable to His justice. Second, to be dead means we were under the
yoke. We served three masters—the world (“following the course of this world,” 2:2), the flesh (“we all
once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,” 2:3), and the
Devil (“following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of
disobedience,” 2:2) . Third, to be dead means we were under wrath. We “were by nature children of
wrath, like the rest of mankind” (2:3). We were justly subject to the holy displeasure of God for our sin.
We were this way “by nature”— in other words, we were born into this condition.
Many do not accept this teaching. Outside the church, many assume that people are basically good.
They tend to believe, at least implicitly, that if we give people the right education, examples, or laws,
then they will follow the right path. Just laws, noble examples, and proper education are invaluable, but
they are powerless to change a heart committed to its rebellion against God. Inside the church, many
have said and still say that people are sick, even desperately sick. These sick people, however, are still
said to have the wherewithal to respond to and cooperate with the grace of God. But Paul does not say
we are sick. He says that apart from Christ, we are dead. Spiritually speaking, we are corpses in the
ground without Jesus. We can no more draw near to God than a corpse can summon the strength to get
out of its grave. That is how bad off we are outside of Christ.

Thankfully, Paul does not stop there. Beginning in verse 4, Paul turns from us to God, from the evil we
have done to the good that God is doing in Christ. He highlights three things about the grace of God in
the rest of this passage:

First, he points us to God’s work in verses 5–6: “God made us alive together with Christ— by grace you
have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus.” God raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand (1:18–20), and He has done
something incredible to us in our union with Christ. God, Paul says, has made the dead alive. That is
what evokes Paul’s exclamation, “By grace you have been saved” (2:5).

Second, Paul points us to God’s motive. Why did God make the dead alive? It was not because of our
works, Paul says in verse 9, neither the works that we did before we became Christians nor the works
we have done after we became Christians. Otherwise, we might have cause to “boast” (v. 9). Instead,
Paul says, God made us alive because of His “mercy,” His “great love with which he loved us” (v. 4). Paul
goes out of his way to impress upon us that God’s own love and mercy are the font of our salvation.

Third, Paul points us to God’s purpose. For what purpose did God make the dead alive? It was, Paul says
in verse 7, that we might put on display, both now and in eternity, the “immeasurable riches of his grace
in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” How do we do that? We do it by displaying in our lives the master
workmanship of our Maker and Redeemer— we were “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (v. 10).

We are saved, then, sola gratia—by the grace of God alone. Far from leading us to embrace lives of
license and moral recklessness, the grace of God in the gospel leads us to pursue lives of consecration
and holiness. Why is this so? The great hymnwriter Isaac Watts captured Paul’s point well when he
wrote in his hymn “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross”: “Were the whole realm of nature mine, that
were a present far too small, love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.” Think about
that the next time you sing of the grace of God.

Salvation is by God's grace alone because He is the One who created us, provided a way of salvation for
us, seeks us, gives us faith, changes us when we do believe in Him, empowers us to live for Him, keeps
us in His love, and will take us to be with Him for eternity. At no point do our good works provide
salvation. This is why sola gratia was not only an important belief during the Protestant Reformation, but
remains essential to Christian faith and living today.