How Exactly Are We Saved by Grace through Faith?
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Some Scriptures are repeated often enough to become almost cliché. Most Westerners know John 3:16, one of the most popular. “For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever would believe in him would never perish but have everlasting life.” While we should return to such truths, the problem with repetition leads to vanity or mindlessness, not connecting again and anew with these eternal truths.
But Scriptures like John 3:16 are so famous because we could meditate upon them the rest of our lives and find new aspects and deeper truths from that one sentence.
“Saved by grace through faith” is another famous biblical phrase, flirting with cliché. And yet each time we explore what the Spirit is trying to say to us through these words, our spiritual roots grow deeper, and we strengthen our foundation in Christ’s truth.
Where Does the Bible Say We Are “Saved by Grace through Faith”?
The apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
Paul writes this letter to the church in Ephesus while he’s under house arrest in Rome. Ephesians chapter 2 begins with reminding the disciples there of their spiritual condition before Christ saved them. They were once dead in sins, following the ways of the world under the devil’s influence. As all humans do before Jesus, the people lived in disobedience, satisfying their fleshly natures, and were therefore children of wrath (Ephesians 2:2-3).
Fortunately, God didn’t leave humanity there. Paul next declares how God intervenes. Being rich in mercy and great in love, God made the Ephesian believers alive together with Christ. The new life from the dead happens not based on anything they could have done but only due to God’s grace.
However, God does save with a purpose. Paul continues to explain that God delivers people by grace for good works he has planned for them (Ephesians 2:10). Paul describes the gospel here, how salvation is entirely a work of God’s grace, from conversion to living a new life. The process moves to a goal — becoming God’s new creation, empowered by him to do the works he had in mind even before salvation.
It's all a work of grace. Christians can claim no part in their own salvation or the works they do. God’s grace calls, saves, and transforms people to live a life reflecting God’s power and love.
What Is the Biblical Meaning of Grace?
Grace is God’s unmerited favor, his kindness and power given to those who don’t deserve it. The Greek word for grace, charis, means favor, goodwill, or a gift freely given. While most people define grace as a gift without expectation of payment, the New Testament also expresses grace as God’s power working in and through Christians. Charis, grace, is both the undeserved gift of salvation and divine strength to live the divine life. Regarding saving grace as a gift, Paul shows this clearly in Romans 11:6: “If by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace.” To Paul, grace can only be grace if it acts separate from human ability, from God’s generosity alone. Grace and human effort can’t mix. Grace is entirely God’s doing.
Yet grace doesn’t stop with conversion, saving from hell. Grace includes forgiveness, but Scripture also shows how grace includes God’s continued power working within us. Paul reveals this through bearing witness how Jesus told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Paul had been praying about a struggle, and Christ communicated how God’s power – His grace – is revealed in full through human weakness, an empowerment people couldn’t otherwise have. Such power through weakness gives God glory, for it could only have come from him.
Paul bears witness to God’s grace as favor and power for divine work in 1 Corinthians 15:10. “By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” Here toward the close of his letter, Paul refers to his spiritual role as apostle. Grace, in context, worked in and through him to preach the gospel, plant churches, and minister to the Gentiles. He takes no personal credit for his ministry.
John reinforces the difference between human effort in the Mosaic Law and Jesus. “From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth through Jesus Christ” (John 1:16-17). Through Christ, God made his grace and truth available to all who would believe. This grace “reigns through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 5:20-21). Again, God’s power to live right, resisting sin, comes through the person of Christ.
Paul’s letter to Titus also connects grace to power. “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age” (Titus 2:11-12). The same grace which brings salvation teaches and shows us how to deny our personal lusts and then to live a sober and godly life. Through the transformation of grace, Christians become “heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:7).
What Is the Biblical Meaning of Faith?
Grace doesn’t work alone. From Ephesians 2, Paul says grace partners with faith. So what is faith?
My mentor used the phrase, “Faith is the perception and the pursuit of the heavenly, unseen realm.” Faith trusts God and his promises. It comes by revelation, also a gift. Faith doesn’t only believe in God’s existence but willingly, intentionally relies upon him for life and obedience. Hebrews gives a definition of faith as “the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). With such assurance, people gain conviction, which here doesn’t mean conviction of sin but unwavering perseverance in God’s revealed truth. Faith is belief in action, responding to God’s truth leading to obedience.
Many people use the term faith as what they believe, almost purely intellectual or with the heart, to a set of doctrines. While it includes that, looking at the biblical words and contexts for faith, we find it’s much bigger.
The Old Testament word for faith is the Hebrew emunah, which means firmness and faithfulness. Emunah is a steady, consistent trust resulting in faithfulness to God. “The just shall live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4). Faith is a way of life. In the New Testament, the Greek word for faith is pistis, which is a trust or confidence in something or someone. Pistis always means faith in God, in the Bible, relying upon his character, promises, and power.
Also important to remember: faith isn’t blind. Faith responds to God’s revelation. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). Faith begins when God speaks, directly or through people or the Bible.
God’s revelation, to be complete, leads to obedience. Just as it’s not grace with human effort mixed in, it’s not faith without active obedience. James 2:17 declares, “Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” The father of our faith, Abraham, set the standard for how this works. “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Abraham heard God call him, and he responded, even to the sacrifice of Isaac.
Hebrews 11, known as the “Hall of Faith,” goes through main Old Testament figures and their faith. Each of them heard from God and obeyed, whether it was to free the Israelites from slavery or Abel offering the right sacrifice. The specific call and action was different, but the source was the same — the voice of God for their time and situation. Within that chapter, the author gives a summary of the same idea. “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” Believing in God’s existence alone isn’t faith. Faith must result in actively seeking the person of God.
How Do Grace and Faith Work Together for Salvation?
Now we can put these together. So far we’ve participated in the problem with academic teaching. We pick things apart to understand the different aspects better, but too often we don’t realize how they work together in the whole. Faith and grace can’t be separated, any more than any element or person of God can exist apart from the others.
Prepositions matter. The phrase says, “by grace through faith.” To go back to English class, the word “by” points to the cause. Grace is the cause of salvation, his power, free gift, and ability to transform. “Through” is the means of receiving the cause.
Grace and faith don’t compete. Faith is responding to God’s revealed truth; grace enables us to respond appropriately.
Here’s the process. God reveals truth, correcting us. Since God is Creator, and we the created, the distance between his ways and thinking and ours is impossible for us to cross (Isaiah 55:8-9). He alone can initiate revealing truth about himself, faith. Upon receiving the revelation, we repent (another gift in the process, Acts 11:18), changing our mind and heart to submit to, follow, and worship God alone. Yet we can’t do this in our own strength, and that’s when God gives his grace. Upon our choice to respond in faith, obedience, and trust, God gives us his ability to obey.
What Can We Learn from the Verse “Saved by Grace through Faith”?
Our salvation is entirely God’s work. He alone initiates, sustains, empowers, and completes the whole process of salvation. He opens our eyes to faith, grants us grace, and strengthens us to live a transformed life. Left alone, we would remain blind and rebellious. But God, in his love and mercy, calls us to himself and works within us, softening hearts, to believe and trust him.
Since this is true in us, it remains true for anyone we might pray for. We should pray for others, for their salvation, for the very reason God alone can do the work. We can and should preach the Gospel in word and deed, yet every believer must trust God to do the work in others, too. As the Alpha and Omega (Revelation 22:13), he who began the work will be faithful to complete it (Philippians 1:6). He does all of this out of his love.
Since salvation is completely God’s work, he alone deserves the glory. We can’t take credit for our faith, our obedience, or our growth and maturity. Instead, we worship him in all we do, living lives that reflect his grace and love. Every time we obey, every time we understand a little more truth, every blessing we bestow upon others, all our victory over sin should point to God. We are saved by grace through faith, and we also live by grace through faith until the end, bearing witness to his magnificent name.
Peace.
Photo credit: ©Getty Images/francescoch
