Definition
Saving grace is the free and unmerited operation of God’s person and presence that initiates the spiritual life of God’s people.Summary
God’s saving grace is the unmerited favor of God that reconciles sinners through Jesus Christ. This is not the same as mercy; grace is God’s goodness toward sinners, while mercy is God’s goodness toward sufferers. This grace is sovereign; God gives new spiritual life to whomever he will. This grace is unconditional; God’s saving grace cannot be earned. God’s saving grace is the foundation for God’s gracious gifts and empowerment of the Christian life, nourishing and sustaining us. Finally, this grace is fundamentally the presence of God in covenant with his people.
That God is great almost goes without saying. We see this in
his attributes of eternality, omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence,
immutability, and aseity. But to say that God is great is not
enough. Millard Erickson reminds us that a great God “might conceivably
be an immoral or amoral being, exercising his power and knowledge in a
capricious or even cruel fashion” The God of Scripture is consistently portrayed as not only great but also good. And when God’s goodness “is shown to those who only deserve evil,” it “bears the name grace”
But before we examine the meaning of this expression of God’s grace, we must determine what is meant by the word “saving” or the grace of “salvation.”
The term “salvation” is not here used with reference to
self-realization or the experience of being delivered from low
self-esteem. We often speak of being “saved” from perilous
circumstances, political oppression and tyranny, famine, plague, or the
many and varied threats posed by natural catastrophes. But the focus of
Scripture is on our deliverance or salvation from the well-warranted
judgment of an infinitely holy and righteous God. The greatest threat to
the human soul is not economic collapse or militant fundamentalism or
psychological anomie. The Scriptures consistently speak of our desperate
plight apart from Christ. We are alienated from God (2 Cor. 5:18–21), subject to his righteous wrath (John 3:36; Eph. 2:1–3), and hostile to him (Rom. 3:9–18). We are, in fact, his enemies (Rom. 5:10), and under the curse imposed by divine law (Gal. 3:13–14).
Thus, when we speak of the operation of God’s grace to save, we have in mind what Paul referred to in Ephesians 2:8–9, where he spoke of our having been saved “by grace … through faith” in Jesus Christ. We turn now to the “grace” that “saves.”
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Although they are similar and undeniably related,
But before we examine the meaning of this expression of God’s grace, we must determine what is meant by the word “saving” or the grace of “salvation.”
Thus, when we speak of the operation of God’s grace to save, we have in mind what Paul referred to in Ephesians 2:8–9, where he spoke of our having been saved “by grace … through faith” in Jesus Christ. We turn now to the “grace” that “saves.”
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Defining Grace
Dutch Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck defined the saving grace of God as “his voluntary, unrestrained, unmerited favor toward guilty sinners, granting them justification and life instead of the penalty of death, which they deserved” (see Bavinck, The Doctrine of God, 208). Louis Berkhof defined it as “the free bestowal of kindness on one who has no claim to it” (Berkhof, Systematic Theology, 71). J.I. Packer put it this way: “The grace of God is love freely shown towards guilty sinners, contrary to their merit and indeed in defiance of their demerit. It is God showing goodness to persons who deserve only severity and who had no reason to expect anything but severity”Although they are similar and undeniably related,
