Section 7 of our Articles of Faith begins with the following sentence, “We believe that salvation is wholly of grace, but conditional solely on repentance to God and acceptance of Christ by faith.” A proper understanding of this statement requires that we define our terms carefully, and one term that may easily be misunderstood is “conditional.” By this we mean that no one is saved in isolation but only when certain conditions are met.
Salvation is “wholly of grace,” which means that no one can receive salvation on his own apart from the gracious work and provision of God. This is just what Paul teaches in Ephesians 2:8-9 when he says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” If we were able to do good works which merit eternal life, we would have reason to boast in ourselves, our moral goodness, or our religious achievement.
Paul teaches this also in Romans 3, beginning in 24, when he says we are “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith.” God declares us righteous freely, apart from any personal merit of ours but rather by his grace, and that grace was given through the redeeming death of Jesus.
This was done, Paul says, in order to justify God. But why does God need to be vindicated? What has he done that could be called into question? Paul says that “in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed.” When he forgave OT saints for their sins, even though Christ’s blood had not yet been shed, he was putting his own reputation for righteousness at risk. But now that Christ has died and paid the penalty for their sins, God is “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.” He can righteously save you from your sins, if you trust in Christ to be your Savior.
“Where is boasting then?” Paul asks, then answers, “It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.” Salvation, as it is taught in Scripture, excludes any possibility of boasting by the one who is saved. We must not think that our own works have earned us eternal life. This is essential and foundational to our understanding of what it means to be saved: we are saved by grace alone.
The only merit involved in our salvation is the worthiness of Jesus.
Another passage that clearly teaches salvation by grace is Titus 3:1-7. Paul begins by describing what he and all Christians were like before being saved: “foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.” In short, our condition was hopeless. But in the face of such desperation, God moved to bring us salvation according to his love and not our works. Notice the progression here from v.4-7:
- God’s kindness and love toward man appeared
- God saved us according to his mercy
- God poured out his Spirit abundantly on us to cleanse us
- God justified us by his grace, giving us the hope of eternal life
Whatever else we might say about our salvation, we must maintain that it is wholly of grace and not in any way earned by our own efforts. So when we say that it is conditional on our repentance to God and acceptance of Christ by faith, we are not implying that repentance or faith are means by which we merit salvation. The only merit involved in our salvation is the worthiness of Jesus.
Returning to Ephesians 2:8-9 we note that we are saved by God’s grace, that is, his unmerited favor, but this grace is received by faith. Faith is the means or the condition by which grace is bestowed. And while Paul says in Romans 3:24-26 that God is the One who justifies sinners freely by his grace, it is also true that he does not justify all sinners, but only those who have faith in Jesus. So these same passages which strongly emphasize that salvation is wholly of grace also teach that faith is a necessary condition for receiving this grace.
What about Titus 3? Does this also teach faith as a condition for salvation? I believe it does. After describing the appearing God’s great love and our salvation apart from works, Paul says in v.8 that “those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works” which are “good and profitable to men.” In other words, salvation, which is wholly a gift of God’s grace, is the possession only of those who exercise faith in God.
It cannot be otherwise. No one can be saved without turning to and trusting in Jesus Christ. This is exactly what Peter means in Acts 4:12, when, standing before the Jewish council he declares, “Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” This salvation which the apostles preached is a gift of God through his Son, Jesus; it cannot be obtained through any other source.
Peter is referring to the message that he preached to the crowds in the temple on the previous day. He told them that God fulfilled the OT prophecies about Messiah’s suffering when they “denied the Holy One and the Just” and “killed the Prince of Life whom God raised from the dead” (3:14-15). In response, Peter tells them to “Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.” And that is precisely what they did: “many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand” (4:4).
So when Peter says that salvation comes only through the name or authority of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, he means that we must repent and believe in order to receive the forgiveness of our sins. The consistency of the biblical writers on this point is important. There is only one way by which a sinner may be converted, justified, and granted the hope of eternal life: we must turn away from our sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This is why we maintain that salvation is conditional upon our repentance and faith.
Some questions remain, especially as it concerns the order of salvation which is taught in Scripture. How does the Bible describe what takes place when a person believes? Is there a distinguishable sequence of events or does it all happen at once? Lord willing, we will begin to address these next.