# Okay. What is grace? We are saved by it?



## PuritanCovenanter (Feb 19, 2011)

R. Martin Snyder
We are saved by it. What is it?

Unmerited Favor? I think. Therefore, I am. LOL 
I do not think it is separated from it. Grace alone by faith alone. I adhere to that. How can you do that? By grace? What is grace? We have defined faith over and over. Okay. You have faith... But do you have the grace that precedes? A dead man can not respond. 

Come on. Let us define grace. I do not believe the modern guys have done it. It is what we are saved by. We are saved by grace through faith. Come on. Faith is something more and this makes by faith a problem in my understanding. 

BTW, I have always believed this in sight of monergistic and synergistic understanding.


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## Notthemama1984 (Feb 19, 2011)

I view grace as God accomplishing in me that which I did not earn and am incapable of doing on my own.


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## toddpedlar (Feb 20, 2011)

I'm not sure I understand the confusion. 

Grace is not a substance. It isn't something we "have", as in your question "do you have the grace that precedes?" In your question, what you're really asking is "are you regenerate"? That regeneration itself is not grace, but is present in you because of God's grace shone upon you. To be saved by grace is to be saved on account of nothing in you, to be saved because of God's good favor in which He regards you. To be saved by grace refers not to grace as some active agent, or some magic fluid - it's not an entity. I think frankly that "unmerited favor" is a very, very good summary of what grace is and cannot for the life of me understand why any would object to that phrase.

When you say "saved by faith" is a problem, I also am not quite sure what the issue is. That phrase is used to emphasize the fact that our salvation is not granted on account of our goodness, our obedience, our anything. Faith that saves is a faith that is well characterized as deep-seated, whole-hearted trust in the righteousness of another, of Christ, and a clinging for all our hope to Him for redemption. This faith produces works of obedience, indeed, and of charity, and of kindness - but the faith that saves is NOT any of those things. Faith is an instrument, and the arising of faith in an individual requires the breakdown and regeneration of the heart by God's gracious act. God looks in favor upon an individual, that is, He looks upon that individual graciously - with grace - and regenerates the heart through the Holy Spirit; and that heart responds in faith. This grace and faith are inseparable.... one is saved by grace (because of God's gracious favor) through faith (as the instrument by which the sinner places his life in Christ's hands). 

I'm missing something re: the "problem".


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## TeachingTulip (Feb 20, 2011)

PuritanCovenanter said:


> R. Martin Snyder
> We are saved by it. What is it?
> 
> Unmerited Favor? I think. Therefore, I am. LOL
> ...


 

*"(God) Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,"  II Timothy 1:9 *

This verse helps me understand God's grace to be equivalent to, and nothing less than, Unconditional Election . . . and an element of the Covenant of Redemption.

Faith is the _evidence of grace_ provided for the elect.


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## SolaScriptura (Feb 20, 2011)

Randy, I don't understand your post. Please restate.


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## InSlaveryToChrist (Feb 20, 2011)

PuritanCovenanter said:


> R. Martin Snyder
> We are saved by it. What is it?
> 
> Unmerited Favor? I think. Therefore, I am. LOL
> ...


 
The "grace" in Ephesians 2:8-9 clearly refers either to Christ, His righteousness, or His Atonement. That's why we can say we are saved BY grace. "Through faith" means simply "by means of." There is nothing saving in faith itself, but rather by/through the empty instrument of faith we can obtain, or "have access to" the "grace" in Ephesians 2:8-9 and Romans 5:2, "wherein we stand." Obviously we cannot define grace in the same way in all places. It's the same with the word "world," its meaning varies according to the context.


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