Free, Sheer, and Indelible

Revisiting Sola Gratia in 2024

It's not for good deeds,
good tempers nor frames
From grace it proceeds,
and all is the Lamb's
No goodness, no fitness
expects He from us
This I can well witness,
for none could be worse

Free grace has paid for all my sin
Free grace, though it cost so much to Him
Free grace has freed even my will
Free grace to the end sustains me still
- Joseph Hart (chorus by Matthew Smith), “Free Grace”

Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt!
Yonder on Calvary's mount out-poured–
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.

Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God's grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin!
- Julia H. Johnston, “Greater Than All Our Sin”

Though great our sins and sore our woes
His grace much more aboundeth;
His helping love no limit knows,
Our upmost need it soundeth.
Our Shepherd good and true is He,
Who will at last His Israel free

From all their sin and sorrow (All their sin and sorrow)
From all their sin and sorrow (All their sin and sorrow)
- Martin Luther, “Psalm 130 (From the Depths of Woe)

So I’ll stand in faith by grace and grace alone
I will run the race by grace and grace alone
I will slay my sin by grace and grace alone
I will reach the end by grace and grace alone
- The Modern Post, “Grace Alone”

Indulge Me in Your Futile Cooperation

Do you remember group projects from your days in high school and college? Some of you probably groaned at the thought which was triggered in your mind. There are exceptions to these kinds of homework assignments, but we all know what normally happens. Most of the time you have at least one person who slacks off until right before the due date to only provide the bare minimum work while you (and maybe the rest of the group) have to carry the majority of the project. Depending on the assignment, you may have received a passing grade, or, most likely, experienced an academic debacle that you wish to not remember.

If someone asked me what the difference is between Christianity and every other religion, I would normally quip, saying, “Every other religion says, ‘Do,’ while Christianity declares, ‘Done.’” Every other religion typically requires the adherent to do or achieve something to receive salvation or whatever reward, but Christianity asserts that God through Jesus Christ has accomplished the work of salvation for you. However, Roman Catholicism states that salvation is a group project accomplished by both God and man, and the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) holds to this understanding for two reasons. First, although Roman Catholic theology holds to original sin—that through Adam’s sin, all humanity inherited a sinful nature—, Catholics do not believe that sin has totally corrupted or depraved humanity. As their Catechism states:

Although it is proper to each individual, original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam's descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice, but human nature has not been totally corrupted: it is wounded in the natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin - an inclination to evil that is called concupiscence".¹

Gregg Allison comments that “The Catechism explicitly denounces Pelagianism, the view that the sin of Adam in no way affects the human race after him. it also explicitly denies the Reformer's’ doctrine of total depravity, the view ‘that original sin had radically perverted man and destroyed his freedom.’ and their doctrine of total inability, the view that identifies original sin with concupiscence, the tendency to evil that is ‘insurmountable’ (CCC 406).”² In short, although all are sinners before God, original sin only means that man’s original state of grace was removed, not that all of human nature, particularly the human will, is totally corrupted. In essence, original sin is considered a forensic or legal unrighteousness before God, not including a natural sinful disposition.

This leads to the second reason: by baptism, a person has original sin washed away and then can cooperate with God’s grace to maintain righteous standing before God. According to official Catholic doctrine, “Baptism, by imparting the life of Christ's grace, erases original sin and turns a man back towards God, but the consequences for nature, weakened and inclined to evil, persist in man and summon him to spiritual battle.”³ However, although “no one can merit the initial grace of forgiveness and justification, at the beginning of conversion” since “the initiative belongs to God in the order of grace” via baptism, the RCC believes that “Moved by the Holy Spirit and by charity, we can then merit for ourselves and for others the graces needed for our sanctification, for the increase of grace and charity, and for the attainment of eternal life.”⁴ In short, “Justification includes the remission of sins, sanctification, and the renewal of the inner man,” which begins with the sacrament of Baptism but then must be maintained by Catholics through the infusion of merit via the sacraments.⁵

In summary, the RCC affirms that all humanity has inherited a sinful status and is thus condemned by God, but it doesn’t state that one’s entire nature, particularly desires and will, is completely enslaved to sin. Thus after, baptism, a person must maintain their righteous standing before God by infusing more merit/grace into oneself through the sacraments, thus cooperating with God.

Here is an important question: Is salvation accomplished by a group project between the infinitely holy and righteous God and sinful man? For the Reformers, the answer is “No” because they held that the RCC misunderstood the biblical teaching on the sinfulness of sin, the holiness of God, and thus the radically scandalous nature of his grace for our salvation.

How God’s grace relates to our salvation is what the Reformers called Sola Gratia or “Grace Alone.”

Captive to the Slavemaster, Sin.

Before unpacking Sola Gratia, let me first address two key issues concerning the Roman Catholic position on salvation which concerns the nature of sin and the holiness of God. First, the RCC misunderstands the nature of human sinfulness by disregarding sin’s enslavement of the human heart as part of original sin. The keyword for understanding original sin over which Catholics and Protestants disagree is the idea of “concupiscence.” Concupiscence can be defined as “the fallen human tendency or strong desire toward engaging in sin. Concupiscence does not imply that humans will always fall into sin but simply that humans will desire sin even if they choose not to engage in it.”⁶ Simply put, it means that everyone is not only legally guilty before God but also has their entire nature corrupted by sin, especially desires. Whereas, Catholics, as shown earlier, hold that original sin does not include corrupted desires or bent towards sin, Protestants argue that original sin includes not only sin’s guilt but also its pollution of and rule over human nature. This doctrine, which is called total depravity, does not mean that humans are as bad as they can be but that everyone in their being and doing is tainted by sin. This is vital because, as we will see later, the human condition is far worse than the Catholic assessment, and, thus, Its solution of the infusion of merit only further condemns the adherent.

We see the seriousness of sin’s pollution and rule over human nature throughout Scripture. In Genesis 4, God tells the angry Cain (who later murders his brother Abel), “If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it” (Gen. 4:7). Throughout the Old Testament, the children of Israel were described as a “stubborn” and “stiff-necked people” who at times pursued idolatry because they hardened their hearts towards God (See examples in Exod. 33:3, 5; 34:9; Deut 9:6; 31:27; Ps. 81:12, 95:8). The psalmists state that “there is no one who does good”, “they are corrupt, they do abominable deeds” (Ps. 14:1), “they have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt” (Ps. 53:3), and that “there is no fear of God in their eyes” (Ps. 36:1). The prophets emphasized how “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” and how the command center of our being is spiritually sick with sin before the Holy One (Isa. 1:4-6). In the New Testament, Jesus himself states how the human heart is corrupted by sin in that not only does God condemn sinful actions like murder and adultery but also the heart’s desires like hate and lust (Matt. 5:21-22, 27-28). Therefore, Jesus would states that “what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person” (Matt. 15:18-20). The apostles follow Jesus by stating how sinners are “dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Eph. 2:1-3; see also Rom. 1:21, 24; Col. 2:13). So sin has corrupted the human heart (our cognition, affections, and volition) to where “each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death” (Jam. 1:14-15). Even as those who have been born again and declared righteous by God’s grace, God calls Christians to “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.” and “put off the old self with its practices” (Col. 3:5, 9). This is a lot but I want to show that the Roman Catholic understanding of original sin’s effects on human nature is only half of the biblical portrait which shows that the human heart is tainted and ruled by sin and thus captive to sinful desires.

But the second problem with the RCC’s view is that it doesn’t rightly understand the completely sinful human condition before the completely righteous God. Furthermore, when official Catholic doctrine states that original sin is washed away by baptism but then must be maintained via infusing merit through the sacraments, they not only misunderstand the seriousness of sin’s corruption but also cheapen the grace of God. Can God’s grace truly wash away my sin when my justification is based on how I’m doing in my pursuit of holiness? How do I know that I have cooperated enough with God’s grace to merit myself back to perfect righteousness? And maybe the most crucial question: “How can I stand before the infinitely holy God when all of my righteous deeds are like filthy rags to him” (see Isa. 64:6)? If this is who God is, then the Roman Catholic view not only collapses within its system of salvation but also doesn’t see God for who he is.

In short, biblically, you will fail at your salvation if you view it as a group project with you and God as if you can contribute anything to it.

This is why Sola Gratia is of extreme importance.

To Display His Power Through Broken Vessels

Sola Gratia can be defined as follows:

Salvation is solely and wholly accomplished by the grace of God. God’s grace is solely from him and freely given as a gift by him without any obligation to the sinner.

This doctrine runs completely counter to the Roman Catholic understanding of salvation. To understand Sola Gratia, let’s reflect on these three adjectives that describe God’s grace in our salvation: free, sheer, and indelible.

First, God’s grace is free grace in that it is not earned or deserved by us and therefore is a gift given by God. There are no strings attached to God’s work of salvation in our lives because grace by definition is his “unmerited favor.” Paul states “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” (Eph. 2:8-9). In Romans, he states all sinners can be “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:24). Paul later writes that God’s grace is what grants us the gift of righteousness through the giving of his Son, Jesus, “For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19). He states in his letter to Titus that God saved us not according to our works “but according to his own mercy” (Tit. 3:5). Put simply “The righteousness God provides comes as a free gift. It cannot be purchased or earned. In either case it would no longer be a gift.”⁷

Second, God’s grace is sheer grace in that God alone by his grace can accomplish our salvation. Whereas the “freeness” of God’s grace touches on how salvation is received, the “sheerness” of it emphasizes that only God has the power and ability to save sinners. This aspect of Sola Gratia tackles two key issues. First, let’s go back to the reality of original sin including both total depravity and inability to obey God truly. For Martin Luther, Sin’s enslavement of the human heart drove his argument against Erasmus in his work The Bondage of the Will. Luther writes “Erasmus informs us, then, that ‘free-will’ is a power of the human will which can of itself will and not will the word and work of God, by which it is to be led to those things that exceed its grasp and comprehension.”⁸ But such a claim would make the human will able to save itself meaning that “it can will all things when it can will the contents of the word and work of God! What can be anywhere below, above, within or without the word and work of God, except God Himself? But what is here left to grace and the Holy Ghost? This is mainly to ascribe divinity to ‘free-will’!”⁹ But as we covered previously, the Bible clearly attests to sin’s domination and corruption of human nature, and Luther concurs by stating how “Accordingly, in his second book Against Julian (8.23) Agustine calls it a slave will rather than a free will” and accusing Erasmus that he has made the person and work of the Holy Spirit “superfluous and unnecessary.”¹⁰ John Calvin supports writing “For Scripture everywhere proclaims that God finds nothing in man to arouse him to do good to him but that he comes first to man in his free generosity. For what can a dead man do to attain life?”¹¹

Second, if God’s grace is the sheer reason for our salvation, it is then due to God being the perfect God who alone can save us to the uttermost. Think about the reality of being regenerated. Matthew Barrett writes that “being made alive or regenerated is neither an act that is accomplished by man’s works righteousness nor an act conditioned upon man’s willful cooperation. Rather, being made alive is by grace and by grace alone, meaning that it is purely by God’s initiated, prerogative and power that the sinner is resurrected from spiritual death.”¹² This not only applies to regeneration which Titus 3:5-7 shows us when unpacking our salvation:

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. - Titus 3:4-7

Do you see any reference to what we have done for our salvation? Nothing. We see the elements of salvation like the Holy Spirit’s work of regeneration and indwelling, justification, adoption, and future glorification. In Ephesians 1:3-14, we see how God alone saves us through union with Christ by his work of election, adoption, redemption, propitiation, justification, sanctification, etc. All of this is according to not our will but “according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:5-6, emphasis added). God’s grace is sheer grace because God is the almighty sovereign who unites undeserving sinners to Christ.

If this is the case, then we must recognize that God’s sheer grace is what enables Christians to “cooperate” with God in conversion, sanctification, and perseverance. Don’t mistake this for the Catholic view that after baptism washes away original sin we then have to maintain our state of grace. Rather, because of God’s sheer grace applied to us through union with Christ by the power and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Christians are not only forgiven and declared righteous by grace alone but also empowered to live by grace alone. God’s sovereign grace chose us in Christ “before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Eph. 1:4), and thus enables us not only to repent from sin and believe in Jesus but to continue to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12-13). Because we dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus, we battle against sin to not reign in our bodies to obey its passions (Rom. 6:11-12; remember concupiscence), put to death all sinful desires and practices, and replace them with the new self we have been given in Christ (Col. 3:1-16). The power of God’s sheer grace is infinite so that all who are in Christ have been declared righteous and will persevere in their lives of faith to the end. So, although we can be more sanctified than yesterday, we will never be more justified because we live in God’s sheer, infinite grace through union with Jesus Christ.

Third, God’s grace is indelible in that God’s grace in salvation is permanent and thus cannot be changed or removed from the Christian. Let’s go back to union with Christ because here we find one of the greatest arguments for not just Sola Gratia but for the entire Protestant argument. If God the Father has united sinners to his Son according to his definite, eternal plan and sealed them with the Holy Spirit, does God’s grace and favor towards the Christian ever change? For the RCC, the answer is no as one can lose their state of grace due to sin and must regain that status via infusion of Christ’s merit for righteousness.¹³ However, God’s grace is indelible in that it cannot be removed, washed away, or erased because it is God’s grace that saves, seals, and sustains us through union with Christ. Yes, we must live the Christian life like running “with endurance the race that is set before us,” but not by looking to ourselves to merit God’s favor but by “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb 12:1-2). For all who are in Christ, he will never cast out (John 6:37) since there is not only “now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). In fact, Paul continues with this wonderful assurance for those who are in Christ:

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
- Romans 8:31-39

For Christians, God’s grace is an indelible grace because He is immutable. Because God does not change, his sovereign grace in his work of salvation cannot be thwarted because “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Rom 8:28-30).

If His Grace is an Ocean, We’re All Sinking

If I could sum up what is the state of a Christian, I would describe is as an endless and bottomless ocean of the infinite love of God. Imagine being plunged into a sea of divine mercy and grace that you can’t pollute, exhaust, or escape. That is the grace of God for sinners. That is Sola Gratia. That is what the Christian lives in. When the Reformers argued for this aspect of our salvation, they realized like Martin Luther that they couldn’t stand righteous at all before a perfectly holy God and their all works of infusing righteousness were all in vain due to the reality of sin’s deep stain. But God’s free, sheer, and indelible grace is what makes the Gospel of Jesus the good news of true liberation. If God’s grace is an ocean that we swim in by faith in Jesus Christ alone, then as Calvin writes, “Faith in God’s free grace alone gives us peace of conscience and gladness in prayer.”¹⁴ Herman Bavinck writes, “The benefit of justification through faith alone has in it a rich comfort for the Christian. The forgiveness of his sins, the hope for the future, the certainty concerning eternal salvation, do not depend upon the degree of holiness which he has achieved in life, but are firmly rooted in the grace of God and in the redemption which is in Christ Jesus.”¹⁵

To close, here is a song by the band, Ghost Ship, that expresses the wonder of God’s grace in the Christian life.

All of my life I've been searching for something
Endless and out of my reach
I've seen the height and the depth of the splendor
This world can offer to me
All that I find quickly fades in the sight of
Treasure that flows from above
All of the earth is now bending, collapsing
Under the weight of your love

Like a mighty mountain towering above us
Wide as the horizon
Deeper than a canyon
As heavy as the sea

Comparison fails in describing the sweeping
Majesty held in your hands
Limitless, boundless, eternal and massive
Measureless, knowing no end
Infinite love overflowing and rising
Breaks like a wave over me
Nothing compares to this far-reaching vastness
The endless expanse that I see

Like a mighty mountain towering above us
Wide as the horizon
Deeper than a canyon
As heavy as the sea
Like a mighty forest stretching out before us
Higher than the stars reach
Broader than the sky is
The love you've given me

Your love is as heavy as the sea
- Ghost Ship, “Heavy as the Sea”

1. Catechism of The Catholic Church, 405.

2. Gregg R. Allison, Roman Catholic Theology and Practice: An Evangelical Assessment (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 121, n. 22. See also The Council of Trent, session 5, “Decree Concerning Original Sin,” 5.

3. CCC, 405.

4. CCC, 2010.

5. Ibid., 2019

6. Stanley Grenz, David Guretzki, and Cherith Fee Nordling, Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 28.

7. Robert H. Mounce, Romans, vol. 27, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1995), 116.

8. Martin Luther, The Bondage of the Will, trans. J. I. Packer and O. R. Johnston (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012), 140.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid., 141.

11. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion & 2, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, vol. 1, The Library of Christian Classics (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 771.

12. Matthew Barrett, Salvation by Grace: The Case for Effectual Calling and Regeneration (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 2013), 177.

13. Thomas Joseph White, The Light of Christ: An Introduction to Catholicism (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2017), 199.

14. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion & 2, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, vol. 1, The Library of Christian Classics (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 767.

15. Herman Bavinck, The Wonderful Works of God, trans. Henry Zylstra (Westminster Seminary Press, 2019), 447.