What is grace?

"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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." Ephesians 2:8-10, ESV

These three verses, for me, are three of the most important verses in the Bible, no matter what the translation. These are the verses where Paul talks about God's grace and His salvation to an otherwise unworthy and useless people (as he normally does, even in his other letters to the churches). Such is its importance of these verses that they are part of the basic doctrines of Christian belief. Every Christian is expected to understand these verses as they pertain to the salvation of the believers.

I am, however, saddened that these three verses are also three of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted verses. Most often than not, people will take it for granted. Some people would think that you still need works in order to get saved. This thinking arose because of another verse, James 2:17, ESV "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." There seem to be a contradiction in these verses. Paul tells us that we are saved BY GRACE through FAITH and NOT BY WORKS so that no one may boast. But James tells us that FAITH WITHOUT WORKS is dead. These verses seem to be in a clash with each other, hence many are led astray.

But are they really clashing with each other? Allow me to enlighten you with what Paul and James meant. Paul was talking about the works that we do in order to gain salvation. Paul went on to say that there is no way we could be saved by our own efforts and that it is only by grace. James, on the other hand, was talking about works as a completion of faith. He meant to tell us that works are a manifestation of being a Christian. No contradiction is present in these two passages. In fact, they were talking about the same faith. Paul talked about how we are saved, and James talked about what to do as a manifestation of our faith.


A commentary from the Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible has a better explanation.

In this latter part of the chapter, the apostle shows the error of those who rested in a bare profession of the Christian faith, as if that would save them, while the temper of their minds and the tenour of their lives were altogether disagreeable to that holy religion which they professed. To let them see, therefore, what a wretched foundation they built their hopes upon, it is here proved at large that a man is justified, not by faith only, but by works. Now,

I. Upon this arises a very great question, namely, how to reconcile Paul and James. Paul, in his epistles to the Romans and Galatians, seems to assert the directly contrary thing to what James here lays down, saying if often, and with a great deal of emphasis, that we are justified by faith only and not by the works of the law. Amicae scripturarum lites, utinam et nostrae - There is a very happy agreement between one part of scripture and another, notwithstanding seeming differences: it were well if the differences among Christians were as easily reconciled. “Nothing,” says Mr. Baxter, “but men's misunderstanding the plain drift and sense of Paul's epistles, could make so many take it for a matter of great difficulty to reconcile Paul and James.” A general view of those things which are insisted on by the Antinomians may be seen in Mr. Baxter's Paraphrase: and many ways might be mentioned which have been invented among learned men to make the apostles agree; but it may be sufficient only to observe these few things following: - 

1. When Paul says that a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law (Rom. 3:28), he plainly speaks of another sort of work than James does, but not of another sort of faith. Paul speaks of works wrought in obedience to the law of Moses, and before men's embracing the faith of the gospel; and he had to deal with those who valued themselves so highly upon those works that they rejected the gospel (as Rom. 10, at the beginning most expressly declares); but James speaks of works done in obedience to the gospel, and as the proper and necessary effects and fruits of sound believing in Christ Jesus. Both are concerned to magnify the faith of the gospel, as that which alone could save us and justify us; but Paul magnifies it by showing the insufficiency of any works of the law before faith, or in opposition to the doctrine of justification by Jesus Christ; James magnifies the same faith, by showing what are the genuine and necessary products and operations of it.

2. Paul not only speaks of different works from those insisted on by James, but he speaks of a quite different use that was made of good works from what is here urged and intended. Paul had to do with those who depended on the merit of their works in the sight of God, and thus he might well make them of no manner of account. James had to do with those who cried up faith, but would not allow works to be used even as evidence; they depended upon a bare profession, as sufficient to justify them; and with these he might well urge the necessity and vast importance of good works. As we must not break one table of the law, by dashing it against the other, so neither must we break in pieces the law and the gospel, by making them clash with one another: those who cry up the gospel so as to set aside the law, and those who cry up the law so as to set aside the gospel, are both in the wrong; for we must take our work before us; there must be both faith in Jesus Christ and good works the fruit of faith.

3. The justification of which Paul speaks is different from that spoken of by James; the one speaks of our persons being justified before God, the other speaks of our faith being justified before men: “Show me thy faith by thy works,” says James, “let thy faith be justified in the eyes of those that behold thee by thy works;” but Paul speaks of justification in the sight of God, who justifies those only that believe in Jesus, and purely on account of the redemption that is in him. Thus we see that our persons are justified before God by faith, but our faith is justified before men by works. This is so plainly the scope and design of the apostle James that he is but confirming what Paul, in other places, says of his faith, that it is a laborious faith, and a faith working by love, Gal. 5:6; 1Th. 1:3; Tit. 3:8; and many other places.

4. Paul may be understood as speaking of that justification which is inchoate, James of that which is complete; it is by faith only that we are put into a justified state, but then good works come in for the completing of our justification at the last great day; then, Come you children of my Father - for I was hungry, and you gave me meat, etc. (Henry)

Someone told me that in order to understand this verse, we need to understand what grace really is. Now ponder for a moment. What is grace? We can always refer to the dictionary to aid us in our discussion. According to the Webster's New World Dictionary, grace in Theology is defined as "the unmerited love and favor of God toward mankind". God's grace is fulfilled through Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith. Through the death of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection three days later, the sins of those who believe in Him are washed away. That is God's grace. God's grace is so amazing that we cannot even ponder the magnitude of His love in that "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8) His grace is so amazing that He saved us by Himself from His wrath. "Since, therefore, we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God." Romans 5:9, ESV. There was nothing inherently good in us that we deserved such a thing. In fact, through the sin of Adam, we were cut off in fellowship with God. Our relationship with Him simply stopped. We became God's enemies. We are in a state of total depravity. Nothing we do, even those we perceive to be "good things" is good in the sight of God. This is the reason why we need God's grace. He loved us and chose to save us through the death and resurrection of Jesus, thus justifying us from the punishment of sin.

Have you imagined how hard it is to be hanged on a cross? Have you imagined how hard it is to be rejected by your very own father? Jesus went through all that. He suffered embarrassment by being hanged on the cross, though He was blameless. What's more important, however, are the sins that He carried on that cross that God cannot even look at Jesus. Jesus paid the price of our sins. Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice for us.

And what are we doing? We are living each day of our lives as if it was nothing. We are calling ourselves Christians, singing songs supposedly in worshiping Jesus, we chant "Jesus!" repeatedly during Christian concerts and praise and worship times, and we proclaim to be Christians and showing it by wearing t-shirts that make a "statement" or showing up in Christian gatherings. But then when the real situation comes for us to be the salt and light of this dark world, where are we? Nowhere to be found. Brothers and sisters, it is much more than that. Salvation is never free. For us it is free, but we should remember that someone else paid a LARGE price to give us this freedom that we so often belittle and take for granted - that is, Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross. If Jesus died on the cross just for us to do things our own way, then what He did was all in vain.

We are called, as real believers, to carry that cross and follow Jesus. We were not called just to accept Him and return to our old ways. We are called to turn our life around, to change the old self, and to follow Jesus - that is, no turning back to the sinful nature. Whoever said being a Christian is easy? It is never easy. We are still struggling with sin, yes. We still struggle because we are not yet in a glorified state. One thing is sure, however. We are never called to be believers while maintaining our sinful nature at the same time. That is the problem with most of us. We think that if we pray to receive Jesus, He will come in to our lives and stay forever. We think like this:  "once saved, always saved." While it is true that once we are saved, then we are always saved, we still have to wonder if we are really saved in the first place. My friends, it is not the praying and accepting Him that saves us. It was never our doing that we are saved; it is the GRACE of God that saves us.

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see. My chains are gone, I've been set free. My God, my Savior has ransomed me; and like a flood, His mercy reigns. Unending love. Amazing grace.

God's love is so amazing, let us not devalue it, let us not change its meaning and significance. Let us constantly be reminded of it. Amazing grace.




Sources:
Guralnik, David B., & Neufeldt, Victoria. 1991. Webster's New World Dictionary: Deluxe Color Edition. 3rd College ed. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Henry, Matthew. Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (Complete), James 2:14-26.
http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/matthew-henry-complete/james/2.html?p=5. Accessed July 27, 2011.