The doctrine of ‘Salvation by grace alone’ has long been held as a liberating doctrine. Yet it is rejected by both Christians and non-Christians because it is not the kind of ‘liberation’ many desire.
The alternative to ‘Salvation by grace’ is ‘salvation by merit’, which claims a person must pay off their Sin through good deeds and religious practices. This is attractive because it means we can put God in our debt. If I go to church every Sunday, and help my elderly neighbour with their garden, then surely God now ‘owes’ me entry into heaven, and favourable answers to prayer. This doctrine also puts manageable limits around what I have to do for God.
Yet if salvation is by grace – i.e. a free gift – then I now owe God. If Jesus’ death on the cross has truly paid for my sin, then there is nothing he cannot ask of me! There is no person God cannot demand I forgive, no percentage of my money God cannot demand I donate, no amount of time God cannot demand I spend helping the less fortunate. In fact there is no aspect of my life he cannot make grand and intimate demands of. Why? Because I now owe HIM an infinite debt; not to earn my way into heaven, but as a response to the gift of salvation. If you do not understand this little fact, then you do not yet understand the gospel.
Yet this position forgets 2 very important points. Firstly, we cannot actually pay the debt of Sin through good deeds or religious practices. The debt for rebelling against one whom we are infinitely obliged to obey (i.e. our creator) is an infinite debt. Jesus’ death has attained for us a present we are simply incapable of paying for ourselves. And secondly, a God who is loving enough to pay an infinite debt for us (i.e. the full wrath of God) will never ask anything in return that is not expressly for our good. So praise God for the immensely liberating doctrine of ‘Salvation by race’.
