Today is Part 4 of our SOLAS series, WHAT IS SOLA GRATIA?

Sola Gratia, Grace Alone, was a key issue of the Reformation, and is a distinguishing characteristic separating the true gospel from the false.

Our salvation is all of grace, a gift from God in every sense, from start to finish. We are absolutely and completely saved by grace and grace alone. We contribute nothing to our salvation but the sin which makes it necessary. Even our faith is a gracious gift from God. He has dealt each one a measure of faith, according to Rom12:3. As Paul says in 1Cor13:2, “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?” Everything we have is a gift from God. 

Left to our own devices, no one seeks after God (Rom3:10-11). There is but one seeker, God. In fact, Jesus came to seek and to save the lost (Lk19:10). He is the author and perfecter of our faith (Heb12:2).

Salvation isn’t a result of our own desires or a decision we’ve made or a prayer we’ve prayed or the works we’ve done.

God saves us because of His mercy and goodness, not because of our awesomeness. It isn’t that we are irresistible, or special, or that He couldn’t bear eternity without us, not because we are worthy or because He saw something in us worth saving, but because of who He is. He is a Savior. 

Without Sola Gratia, we are standing on shaky ground. How could we ever be confident that we have done enough or gotten it right or that we’ve had enough faith for salvation? Sola Gratia puts our focus on Christ and the grace that we have been given freely because of His perfect life and sacrificial death on behalf of believers. That is what we trust in and where our salvation safely lies. 

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”‭‭ Eph2:8-9‬ ‭