Lutheran 104: Sola Gratia

Last month we introduced the first of four “solas” that beat at the heart of our faith tradition: we teach what we teach, preach what we preach, trust what we trust – because we find it assured in the Word of God. We stand upon \”sola Scriptura.\”

“The Word of God shall establish articles of faith and no one else,” assert our Confessions, “not even an angel” (SA II, ii, 15). It is a good thing, too. The articles of our faith, from a human point of view, are pretty preposterous. You could never invent things like these – unless you heard them from the mouth of God (cf. SA III, viii, 3).

Take grace, for example. We are saved only, only by grace: sola gratia (AC IV).

“Grace” is an interesting word, often misunderstood. We tend to think of it as a quality of character or action – as in, “He speaks with grace,” or “She carries herself with grace.” Sometimes we think of it as a simple, short prayer – as in, “Please say grace before eating.” This is not the kind of grace we are talking about.

The grace that leads to salvation refers explicitly to the favor of God effected and made accessible in the life and work of Jesus Christ. “In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them,” explains St. Paul (2 Corinthians 5:19). “Grace… came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).

This is not grace that finds something “gracious” within us – as if God found something “favorable” to favor. This is grace that springs entirely from God’s own heart, from his own nature and will. It is the way the Creator looks at his creation – as a Father looks at his children, with favor, from a fatherly heart of love. Lutherans confess that God “acts out of his pure, fatherly and divine goodness and mercy without any merit or worthiness on [our] part” (SC, 1st Art). “Grace signifies that favor with which God receives us, forgiving our sins and justifying us freely through Christ,” explains Martin Luther (WLS, 1837).

We say “only by grace:” “only” is an interesting word, too. It means no admixtures. It means simple, unalloyed, standing alone, complete and sufficient, all of itself. “Justification is strictly a gift of God” (Ap IV,362). Taken together these words mean that we are eternally forgiven by the simple favor of God in Jesus Christ. Now we may stand in grace (Romans 5:2). We may live under grace (6:14). “[God] has enriched [our] whole lives” because of “the gift of his grace in Christ Jesus” (1 Corinthians 1:4, Phillips). Sola gratia! We are made who we are, made children of God, redeemed entirely – only by grace!

Maybe you are a consistently decent fellow: your decency won’t make you a child of God. Maybe you pray many times a day: your prayers won’t get you to heaven, either. Maybe you aren’t a thief, or a murderer, cheat, adulterer, liar, or bully. Congratulations. Your wonderfulness is not yet wonderful enough. Christians are made Christian – only by grace.

Who could invent something like this?

The opposite of grace is not doubt (or clumsiness!) but something the Confessions call “works.” “Works” is the fundamental human addiction. Its whirring motor is acceptance through personal achievement – and once we have come to taste it, we must have it again and again. We are forever plotting our next “fix.” We may work our “religion” in this way. We may manipulate one another for some kick of acceptance or praise. We may come to think that God himself will value us because we are busy, or accept us at last because we “work.” We can never get enough of these things. We always crave for more.

“For the more those who try to justify themselves by works labor and sweat to remove sin,” Luther explains, “the worse their burden of sin becomes. For only grace can remove sin, and there simply is no other way to remove it” (WLS, 1850, italics added).

The distinction is utterly vital. While in the obsessive wheel of works, “Christian ministry” becomes an utter oxymoron. We are simply too frantic to serve anyone or anything but ourselves. Works-fueled ministry will use and ruin others, make “objects” of supposed beneficiaries, minimize its own weaknesses and maximize its acclaim. It will pretend heroic autonomy. It will divide and marginalize. Works-fueled ministries serve, in the end, only themselves.

Only grace can lead others to Jesus.

Grace-based ministries, on the other hand, have nothing to defend, no turf to maintain, no personal advantage to calculate or preserve. They don’t “need” their beneficiaries, in a weirdly co-dependent sort of way. They don’t “need” the people they serve in order to feel valued themselves. They can release them to the gracious care of Jesus – as they are themselves redeemed only by grace.

Yes, indeed – who could invent something like this?

The Lord God Almighty: that’s who. He is reconciling the world to himself, by the wonderful grace of Jesus. He has sown that grace into our hearts – and sent us into the world to share it. Only, only by grace!

Next month: “Sola fide.”

Other posts in this Lutheran series:
Lutheran 101: The First Thing to Say… • Lutheran 102: Becoming Confessional • Lutheran 103: Sola Scriptura • Lutheran 104: Sola Gratia • Lutheran 105: Sola Fide • Lutheran 106: A Faith That Is Never Alone • Lutheran 107: Solus Christus!