The Spurgeon Blog

The issue of sola gratia is an enormous one. We have looked at God’s motives in grace and we have seen that God must be moved by Himself or grace is no longer grace. As we have noted before in the past few months, Luther wrote his masterpiece on The Bondage of the Will in order to defend the teaching of Scripture on grace alone. Today we have people who adhere to a creed of grace alone and yet throw the teaching of Luther on the will under the bus for their own purposes. As we have noted in previous posts, though perhaps not so clearly, one cannot have Christ alone for salvation without grace alone for salvation. One can preach Christ alone in some way, and yet without the teaching of grace alone there is no Christ alone in truth. One can preach Christ alone as a creed and yet not be saved by grace alone in truth. A stated belief in a doctrine is not the same thing as the reality in the heart.

At some point the recognition of what grace alone really means must come crashing into the reality of people today. It is not just a matter of whether a person says s/he believes that salvation is by Christ alone, nor is it a matter of whether a person says that s/he believes in grace alone. What matters is if the person has grace and Christ in the heart. We can fight over the issues of free-will and so on if we wish, but that can be nothing but intellectual subterfuge and an attempt to hide our own hearts from God. The doctrine of grace alone is unassailable and when anyone attacks it in name or in reality, that person is in eternal peril. A person who claims to be Reformed can have an intellectual belief in a creed and yet deny grace alone by what s/he states about grace. We are not dealing with tinker toys here; we are dealing with the glory of God in the salvation of eternal souls. It is to be unfaithful to God to simply state that if a person has a stated belief in Christ alone or in grace alone that the person is then a brother or sister in Christ. The person must truly disbelieve in self and believe in Christ to truly be a brother or sister.

One of the things stated in the modern day during discussions about Arminianism and Calvinism is that Arminians profess to believe in salvation by grace alone and by Christ alone. That may be true, but do they mean the same thing as God does in Scripture and according to His character when He says salvation is by grace apart from works (grace alone)? When Reformed people stand up and defend Arminians as a whole or in a particular denomination rather than particular Arminians, the best we can say is that it is very naïve of them. We could also say that we have to wonder what the Reformed person believes about Christ and grace alone when s/he is so willing to receive as brothers and sisters so many who just give lip service to a teaching. In a recent discussion with two Mormon “elders” they professed to believe in salvation by Christ alone. Roman Catholics profess salvation by Christ and grace too. In other words, there are so many people out there who profess Christ and grace by word that the terms are virtually meaningless without some pointed and specific discussion. Going under a theological title has never been enough to guarantee that a person believes in justification by grace alone and it is especially not today.

In the political realm the positions of major parties are not all that clear. A person can be more in line with the platform of the Democratic Party and still be a Republican. The same is true in the reverse. If a person wants to vote according to truth and conscience rather than just according to party lines, a person must look at the individual and look past the rhetoric and try to discern what the person really stands for. The same is true in theology. We must begin to look past the theological party that a person belongs to and begin to get at what they really stand for theologically. If a person does not truly stand for grace alone in terms of what it really is and not just in words, that person is not an orthodox person. What our churches and what our nation desperately need are men and women who are willing to be called names in order to stand for the truth of the living God. It is far easier to give in and call anyone a believer who mouths the words than it is to stand for grace alone. But if we are the children of God, then we are called to love God more than the whole world.

The doctrine of grace alone as it fits with soli deo gloria and solo christo is that important. It is not enough to be a good moral person and it is not enough to adhere to an external creed that is orthodox. There is no other real Gospel but that of a real Christ who really and only saves by Christ alone. There is no other real Gospel of Christ alone but the real Christ who really and only saves by grace alone. We can say words that do not express the real convictions of our souls and we can express the convictions of our souls by orthodox words that are not in accordance with the one and true Gospel. The issue of grace alone is worth splitting churches and denominations over. If a church is not one that truly holds to grace alone, it is not a true church because one must have the true Gospel to be a church. If a denomination is one that does not stand for grace alone but simply wants to get along for the sake of the denomination, it is no longer a Christian denomination. Grace alone is that important.

Last time we looked at the motives of God in saving sinners, which is at the heart of real and biblical grace and thus sola gratia. While it may be popular to look at grace from a man-centered perspective, the heart of man as fallen will never arrive at a true view of grace. As long as theologians look at theology from a man-centered view of God’s perspective, they will never see the real beauty of grace. Even more, as long as theologians, Bible teachers, and pastors think they are God-centered because they speak much of God but really as it has to do with man first, the professing Church will not repent of its self-centeredness and see the glory of God in Christ. We must return to think, love and serve the God who is centered upon Himself first of all and calls and commands all men to share in His God-centeredness.

In the past few posts I have taken pains in an effort to show that true grace is always God-centered in the sense that it is God’s love for Himself that moves Him to show grace. If there is any motive in God that is from something that man is or has done, then God has a motive that is not from Himself and God makes grace to be no longer grace. If man trusts in his own worth or as having done works that he thinks will motivate God to save him or to receive something from God, then man has made grace out to be something other than grace. But it is also true that if God has a motive in Himself that is not love for Himself then God makes grace to be something other than grace. This is an absurdity as God is perfectly holy and is perfect in His love for Himself (how He is love in perfection and holiness) and can never be motivated by anything greater than love for Himself. The teaching of grace as God-centered is simply glorious as it shows the true beauty of God in His determination and decree to do all to His own glory in all things. Grace must always be to the glory of God or it is not true and pure grace.

In order for biblical theology to protect the teaching of God and of grace, it must teach a grace that flows from the one and true God that loves Himself as triune and can only share that love from a motive that is out of His love for Himself. The God-centeredness of God is not just an optional teaching; it is a necessary teaching in order for biblical teaching to be pure in its theory and in its practical application. In one sense, there can be no teaching of grace apart from a God-centered God and yet there can be no truly God-centered God apart from a God that operates and saves on the basis of grace alone. I will give five verses below that weigh mightily on this thought.

Isaiah 42:8 - “I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, nor My praise to graven images.”

Isaiah 48:11 - “For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; for how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another.”

These two verses show the biblical God who will not give His glory to another. God acts for His own sake and will not let His name be profaned. Over and over in Scripture we see that God does all for His own glory, for His name’s sake, and for His own sake. If God did something for another that was not for His name’s sake that would be giving His glory to another. God operates according to His name’s sake and so grace must always be motivated by God’s doing all for His own glory.

Acts 12:23 - “And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died.”

Revelation 16:9 - “Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory.”

These two verses show us the severity of God when men do not give Him the glory and also what true repentance is. If a person has an outward repentance from external sin and is now given over to good works, that does not mean that they have repented in truth so as to give glory to God. True repentance is when a person turns from seeking his or her own glory to living to the glory of God, which is God in the human soul working His own glory in and through that person. True grace, therefore, will never work in a person a motivation or desire to do anything apart from true repentance and doing all to the glory of God. The grace that works repentance will always turn the soul to love the glory of God and do all by that grace to the glory of God.

Ephesians 1:6 - “to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”

When we see this verse tied in with God doing all for His name’s sake and not giving His glory to another, we can see that grace will not share the glory, praise, and honor for salvation with any human being. Salvation is always by grace alone because it is always to the glory of God alone. He will not give His glory to another. We see that repentance is to turn to give Him glory. Repentance is by grace and so grace always shines the love of God for Himself. It is grace alone because God always loves Himself as His true motive and so always does all to manifest His glory.

We started looking at Sola Gratia (grace alone) last time. Today the subject matter will be on the motive or motivations of God in showing grace or perhaps the cause of grace. Abraham Booth’s (died in 1806) wonderful book, The Reign of Grace, points out an essential part of grace. He went to the first cause of grace from God’s perspective rather than man. He demonstrated from Romans 3:24 (being justified as a gift by His grace) that the Bible teaches that there is no cause within man for grace. The text says that sinners are “justified as a gift by His grace” and other translations use the word “freely” rather than gift. The real idea is seen in John 15:25 (”THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE”) which translates the same Greek word as “without cause.” The Jews hated Jesus freely or without cause. They hated Jesus, but the cause was not found in Jesus but in their own hearts. A literal translation of Romans 3:24 with an explanatory word added would read like this: “Being justified without cause within themselves by His grace.” This text points to an essential truth about grace in that without it, grace is no longer grace. That truth is that for God to save by grace He can find no cause within man to save man. Sola gratia teaches us that all the causes for salvation are found in God and that man is saved for no cause or reason found in him. When people are trusting in their own works or worth they are trying to provide God with a cause to save them and are not looking to grace alone. Grace cannot have a cause within a human being or it is no longer grace. God’s only cause in His grace is Himself or grace alone is simply an empty term without any real meaning.

This is a truth that should be driven home in each heart because it is necessary to see the beauty and freeness of grace. This truth should deliver souls from the notion that they can contribute anything at all to salvation. This should show us the brokenness of heart and the brokenness from pride and self-love that is needed. When the Bible speaks of a salvation that is by grace alone through faith alone, it is speaking of a salvation that comes to sinners apart from any worth or merit on their own. Yet unbelief is a state of unbelief in Christ from the depths of the soul and therefore a belief and trust in self and pride. A soul must be broken from its pride and trust in self in order to be saved from sin by Christ who does it by grace alone. A soul must be broken from any idea of merit in self or by self in order to truly trust in grace alone. To the sinner that the Spirit has enlightened to see how utterly vile and helpless s/he is, this is music to the spiritual ear. God saves sinners because of Himself (grace) alone.

The older orthodox teaching was that sinners had to be broken from all trust in self and pride before they would or could trust in Christ alone for grace alone to save. This showed the sinner that s/he must trust in grace alone or not trust in grace at all. It demonstrated to the sinner that the whole soul must be broken from trust in self in order to truly rest in grace alone which is the only way to trust in Christ at all. What we must get at is the connection of the motives of God in saving sinners with the sinner’s motives. God’s motive in saving sinners by grace alone is to shine forth the glory of His grace. There is not one place in Scripture that tells us that God’s motives are to make the sinner feel good about himself or that He needs just a little of the work of man to save man. The soul of man must in some way be broken from any hope in himself in order to trust in what God is really doing. If God saves sinners to the glory of His grace, then if a man trusts in himself as giving God a motive (whether man realizes that or not) that man is at odds with the whole purpose of God in salvation. Man must trust in God to save him in the way that God is really saving. That way is grace alone. Man must trust in grace alone to be saved. If man tries to do or be something before God in order to be saved, he is trying to give God a motive other than Himself to save a sinner. It is an effort to get God to love a sinner more than Himself and is opposite of how God really saves. God’s only motive is His own glory and for Him to obtain that glory He changes the heart of man so that man desires to be saved by grace alone as God views and shows it rather than any other motive at all. It is by God’s grace alone.

The Gospel of grace alone demands that the Gospel of Jesus Christ be motivated by God’s love for His own glory or it is not by grace alone. The Gospel that is meant to display the glory of God’s grace in His love for Himself cannot have any rivals in terms of the cause of salvation. The Gospel of Jesus Christ rings with the beauty and glory of grace because it rings with the beauty and glory of God in His love for Himself. The very beauty of God as love is His love for Himself. The delectability of God to the human soul is that God is so glorious in His love for Himself that He manifests His glory in saving souls totally out of His love for Himself. God’s love for Himself is manifested in Christ and then in all those that Christ lives in. God’s love for Himself is so great that the only cause that He needs to save sinners is His love for Himself. His love for Himself given to sinners who then repent of their self-love and then have His love in them is the very heart of grace. God’s motive to save sinners is His love for Himself and His determination to display His glory in Christ. That is why sinners are only saved by grace alone.

We have been looking at Solo Christo (Christ alone) in the last few posts and in this one we will turn to consider Sola Gratia (grace alone). What is vital to understand about grace alone is really the same issue with Christ alone. The core teaching, motives, and real issues have to do with the relations of God within the Trinity rather than human beings in and of themselves. If grace is a power or something that God does that is not moved from within the Trinity, then we have an insurmountable problem within the Godhead. That leaves us with a god that loves human beings more than Himself which would not be consistent with the Greatest Commandment nor with the way God has revealed Himself in Scripture. Grace alone is founded within the biblical God who loves Himself and will do nothing that is not moved by love for Himself as triune. Without this teaching of God whose very holiness consists in His love for Himself within the Trinity, we are left without a real teaching on grace alone.

The order of the five sola’s (as presented here in this series) is then seen as logically consistent but more importantly as consistent with God Himself as triune. We started with Soli Deo Gloria and saw that God is moved to do all that He does from within Himself and in order to manifest His own glory. This can surely be seen as linked with the teachings of grace when Ephesians 1:6 teaches us that God saves to the praise of the glory of His grace. God does all that He does to the praise of the glory of His grace and so we see that for God Himself there is meaning in grace alone. When we teach that the Gospel is grace alone we are teaching what is consistent with God’s desire to manifest the glory of His name. We are teaching a Gospel that is consistent with God Himself and of the eternal fact that all He does is to manifest His own glory in Christ.

We then moved to Solo Christo by which we saw that God glorifies Himself in and through Christ because Christ is the very outshining (radiance = shining out) of His glory (Hebrews 1:3). It is not that God shines something else in Christ, but that Christ Himself is the outshining of the glory of God. The very nature of the second Person of the Trinity is to be the image of God, which is to be the perfect reflection of God. In a spiritual being this is for the Father to shine out of Himself and for that shining to be Christ. We saw that this is utterly vital in terms of what it means for God to do all things in and through Christ alone. The Gospel is Christ alone because that is how God saves. It is God saving sinners by and for Himself. It is easy to see that the Father shines out His glory in Christ and so loves the Son as the image and reflection of His own perfect glory. It is then easy to see why the Father only works and loves in Christ. Therefore, we have Christ alone. Christ alone teaches us that salvation is by God’s love for Himself alone or that it is the love of God for His own glory as it shines out in Christ.

As we move to consider grace alone, we can see how beautiful grace really is. Grace is not just something that God does, it is something that God is in Christ. When God gives grace to sinners, it is actually God giving Himself because there is no grace apart from God and God only gives grace in Christ. We saw that God saves to the praise of the glory of His grace. We know also that God never does anything but what glorifies His name in Christ. What we must see is that grace is the shining forth of God in giving Himself to human beings in Christ. The Gospel is by grace alone because God does nothing but through Christ alone. The Gospel is by grace alone because in doing all through Christ alone God is doing all to His glory alone.

The study of grace when looked at in this light is really a study of the glory of God in Jesus Christ. Many in the modern day want to look at grace in terms of human beings as the focus of grace. In some way they set out human beings as the focus of grace and as the standard of grace. When that is done, it destroys any true idea of grace. True grace is nothing else but the love of God for Himself being His own motivation in saving those who are at enmity with Him and doing that to manifest His love for His Son which is His own glory. What an impoverished idea of grace we have in our day and that includes many in the Reformed camp. Grace is more than a proposition encased in a tomb of theological accuracy; it is Christ Himself at work in human souls with the motive of changing those souls to make them instruments and partakers of the divine glory. Grace is not just an abstract noun or thought; it is Christ Himself being given to sinners because of the love of God for God. Christ Himself is the shining out of the glory of God’s grace. No sinner will have any more of the love and grace of God than that sinner has of Christ. This is a grace that must be applied by a Divine Being because no finite sinner can apply God to his or her own soul. No sinner can reach inside God and make Him shine Himself out in Christ and apply that glory by the Holy Spirit to him or herself. All that God does for sinners in salvation is by grace because all He does is for His own glory as it shines out in love for Himself in Christ. No one can deserve that as this is grace Himself.