It is certainly wise to be suspicious of oft-repeated “Christian” doctrinal statements that utilize phrases that can’t be found anywhere in the Bible. Since the Bible consists of thousands of doctrinal phrases within its 783,000 words, it is certainly reasonable to think that all biblical doctrine could be expressed using actual phrases that are found somewhere within the Bible.
Take, for example, a common phrase that is used by Christians to inform unbelievers what they must do to be saved: “Accept Jesus as your personal Savior.” That’s a phrase that can’t be found anywhere in the Bible. Nor can anything that resembles it be found in the Bible. So why is it used by Christians? Moreover, the New Testament is chock full of phrases that tell us what sinners need to do to be saved. Here’s one from the lips of Paul: “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). Is there something wrong with that? Does it need improved? (Did Paul write in Ephesians 2:8: “For by grace you have been saved through accepting”?)
Another doctrinal declaration we often hear is that we are “saved by grace alone.” You can search the Bible from cover to cover, and you will never find a single instance of that phrase. In fact, you will never once find the word “grace” followed by the word “alone.” Yet that phrase is a mantra of Calvinists as well as the majority of Evangelicals. The biblical truth, however, is that grace, by itself, will never save anyone, because Scripture says we are saved “by grace through faith” (Eph. 2:8). For anyone to be saved requires, not just grace, but both grace and faith. Which is why the Bible never says that we are saved by grace alone.
Obviously, the source of saving grace is God. We have no part in extending saving grace to ourselves.
Just as obvious is the fact that people have something to do with the “faith” component of salvation. Unless you are a Calvinist, you believe the hundreds of Bible passages that indicate that “believing” is something that free moral agents are responsible to do in response to God. God, through His Holy Spirit, certainly convicts and draws unbelievers. But it is biblically undeniable that those sinners, under the convicting and drawing influence of the Holy Spirit, play a part in their repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, the salvation that God graciously offers becomes effectual for those who believe. Again, we are saved “by grace through faith.” Salvation does not occur without both.
Paul (certainly an expert on New Testament theology) wrote concerning God’s saving grace: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men” (Titus 2:11). God’s grace has brought salvation to everyone. Therefore, if salvation was by grace alone, everyone would be saved, because God’s grace has brought it to everyone. But not everyone is saved. That means there must be another component to salvation. And, as I have already pointed out, that second component is faith. Let’s read the entire passage from which I just quoted a portion:
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds (Titus 2:11-14).
So, the grace of God that has appeared does at least two things. It (1) “brings salvation to all” and (2), it instructs all to repent and obey Jesus (which, of course, is the essence of believing in Him). Undeniably, the grace that God extends to all is not a license to sin, but rather is an offer of forgiveness that hinges on repentance. It is a gracious and temporary call to repentance and obedience.
All of that again clearly proves that grace, by itself, doesn’t save anyone. It also proves that faith is expressed by obedience. It is so simple that only a theologian could miss it.
Calvinists, unlike the majority of Evangelicals who parrot the claim that we are “saved by grace alone,” actually really mean it when they say it, because they believe that saving faith is sovereignly granted by God to those few whom He has allegedly predestined to be saved. In Calvinist theology, there is no human component in salvation (even though reason, observation, and thousands of scriptures contradict that premise).
“But,” Calvinists claim, “if salvation requires any human effort, it cannot be ‘by grace’!”
That, of course, is also a faulty premise, as is proven by millions of human and divine examples of conditional grace. Jesus, for example, warned that God will not forgive our sins unless we forgive others. No one would argue that God’s forgiveness is not an expression of His grace. Yet His grace to us hinges on our grace to others. So, God can, and does, extend conditional grace.
Please, let’s stop saying what contradicts the New Testament. When we tell people that we are saved “by grace alone,” we contradict the Bible and mislead them spiritually. Rather, let’s tell them what the Bible actually says, that we are saved “by grace through faith.” And then, it sure wouldn’t hurt to tell them Scripture also teaches that we are “not saved by faith alone,” because faith without works is dead, useless, and cannot save anyone (see Jas 2:14-26).
