What Grace Does

One of the biggest distinctives about Christianity from other religions is this whole "saved by faith" thing. All other religions are on a "saved by works" plan. Christianity alone claims "saved by faith apart from works". This, of course, causes no end of problems. James assures us that faith without works is dead faith, not saving faith. So genuine, biblical, saving faith produces works, but is not conditioned on works. In the Reformation, the reformers held to "sola fide", saved by faith alone. The Roman Catholic Church protested. "That would mean that it doesn't matter what you do!" The reformers answered, "We're saved by faith alone, but not by faith that is alone." And today the problem continues. Many have confused the social gospel with the real Gospel. The "good news" is that we can be nice to people. In fact, the social gospel is a product of genuine faith, not an aim.

I was thinking about all this because I ran across this passage in Titus and found it interesting as it relates to the topic:

¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, ¹² training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, ¹³ waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works (Titus 2:11-14).

The topic here is "the grace of God" (one of the five "solas"). Like faith, we think of grace as something given, not something that actually does something. Look, however, at what Paul has the grace of God doing.

The grace of God has brought salvation. Yeah, that's the kind of thing that we would imagine grace doing. But there's more. There is another function of grace listed here: "Training us". That's right, the grace of God trains us. What does it train us to do? Well, it's a list of things ... a list of works. It is God's grace that teaches us to renounce godliness and worldly passions, to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives, to wait for our blessed hope. Isn't that interesting? God's grace trains us to be what God wants us to be.

I maintain that the Bible teaches that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone. Works are not a factor. On the other hand, faith without works is not genuine, saving faith, and the grace of God teaches us to be godly. So, while works are not a part of our salvation, neither can they be ignored. Without the natural by-product of works, there is reason to question whether you have either grace or faith. We are saved apart from works, but works are a part of grace and faith.