The word grace in the Bible means “unmerited divine assistance given to human beings for their regeneration or sanctification.” It is “God’s benevolence to the undeserving.” Biblically, “saving grace” is the grace of God that saves a person. Thus, Saving Grace is the free and unmerited gift of God to the persons underserving it and that initiates the spiritual life of God’s people. God’s saving grace is the unmerited favour of God that reconciles sinners to the Father through His son Jesus Christ. This is not the same as mercy; grace is God’s goodness toward sinners, while mercy is God’s goodness toward sufferers. This grace is sovereign; God gives new spiritual life to whomever he will. This grace is unconditional and cannot be earned.
But before we examine the meaning of this expression of God’s grace, we must determine what is meant by the word “saving” or the grace of “salvation.” We often speak of being “saved” from perilous earthly circumstances, oppression, tyranny, famine, plague, or for that matter death. But the focus of Scripture is on our deliverance from everlasting death and from the well-warranted judgment of God. The greatest threat to the human soul is not an economic, social, or political disaster but rather the lake of fire. The Scriptures consistently speak of our desperate plight apart from Christ. Because of our sins, we are alienated from God and subject to his righteous wrath. We have become hostile to him and are his enemies and under the curse imposed by divine law.
Herman Bavinck defined the saving grace of God as “his voluntary, unrestrained, unmerited favour toward guilty sinners, granting them justification and life instead of the penalty of death, which they deserved” ( Bavinck, The Doctrine of God, 208). Thus, when we speak of the operation of God’s grace to save, we have in mind what Paul referred to in Ephesians 2:8–9 “ For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Grace always presupposes sin and guilt.
Grace has meaning only when men are seen as fallen, unworthy of salvation, and liable to eternal wrath. Paul aptly declares in Ephesians 2:1-3 “ And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”
Saving grace results in our sanctification, the process by which God conforms us to the image of Christ. At the moment of salvation, by grace through faith, God makes us new creatures. II Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Salvation is God’s work. He gives the grace we need. Our “saving grace” is Christ Himself. His work on the cross is what saves us, not our own merit.
Dr Ashwin Drummond
Laddertoheaven.co.in