Truth 2: Sola Gratia – Grace Alone

Introduction:

Oct. 31 is Reformation Day, the day we remember that start of the Reformation. As part of the Reformed (Presbyterian) tradition within Christianity this is part of our heritage as Presbyterians. This then is a good time of year to remind ourselves of the great truths that we have inherited, which still shape us today.  

Truth 2: Sola Gratia – Grace Alone – Ephesians 2:4-10

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ[a]—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. 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 the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

How are we saved? What is it that rescues us from the power of sin and death and hell?

Some would suggest that it is our hard work. That if we live good lives, if we do good things, God will look at us and say, “They deserve to be in heaven.” Christians proclaim a very different view of the state of human beings. Human beings are unable to save themselves, unable to get out of the mess we are in by our own strength. We know that feeling. The good we know we should do – we don’t do it. We just are not that good, not that nice, not that good living. And the wrong we know we should not do, well, we do those wrong things. Humanity is a mess. We are a mess.

“But God” (vs. 4) – God acts in grace and love to bring salvation to human beings. The grace is gift, pure and simple a gift. Unearned, undeserved, it is a gift. This gift is offered to all regardless of the lives they have lived, regardless of what they have done, regardless of who they are. No boasting that we somehow deserved the gift, somehow earned it. It is all grace, all gift.

That raises the question, how do we say thank you for the grace, the gift, given? The answer is we do good works following God. Not as a way of earning God’s favour, but as our way of saying thank you. Our following God is our thanks for the grace offered to us in Jesus Christ.

Thanks be to God for the grace offered to us in Jesus Christ, the gift of grace that alone saves us.

PRAYER:     

O Lord, we thank you for your grace poured into our lives out of your great generosity and love. We didn’t earn it, we don’t deserve, but in love you have saved us because you love us. And we say thank you for your love shown to us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.