Grace is getting the double scoop of ice cream even though you have no money in your pocket.
Once, while trying to help my two-year-old get dressed, she stubbornly resisted. She refused any assistance from me. Instead, she grabbed the clothes out of my hand and huffed, “Do it self!”
I laugh at the memory. But then I think, “How many times have I done the same thing with God?” After all, I rarely want to admit my need for help. I want to prove my ability to do things on my own.
You, too? Our human nature likes to check off boxes on our spiritual to-do lists and prove self-sufficiency rather than look like spiritual wimps.
But the “do-it-self” life is exhausting. That’s why we need the freedom of living by grace alone.
Grace Alone was a major tenet of the Reformation in the year 1517. Yet we need this concept every day of our lives in the twenty-first century.
Medieval Thought and the Reformation
In 1517, when Martin Luther hung his 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, the church still operated under the medieval belief that people needed to cooperate with God for their salvation. The church taught that a person needed to become holy in this life through good works to get to heaven. The church did admit that even pious people couldn’t do these works on their own. They needed a boost of grace in order to accomplish what was necessary. Grace was seen as a sort of spiritual vitamin pill that gave people the ability to do good deeds.
In other words, a ticket to heaven meant grace plus good works.
Not grace alone.
Martin Luther struggled with this teaching of the church. His love for God drove him to try everything the church required: confession, penance, and prayer vigils. But he still felt his acts were insufficient. Had he confessed all of his sins? Had he done enough penance? Had he spent enough time in prayer?
Because of his doubts, Luther became a monk. He felt that if he devoted his life to God, his works would sufficiently please God. But even then, Luther sometimes fasted for days, spent sleepless nights in prayer, and beat himself to fight temptation. He thought he needed to “do it self” to merit salvation.
Finally, while studying the book of Romans, Luther read, “The righteous will live by faith” (Romans 1:17), and a light went on in his soul. He realized true righteousness came through faith in Christ’s sacrifice—not through anything he did. He now saw salvation as a gift of grace through faith in Jesus. And that’s what led to the pounding of the 95 Theses onto the church door in Wittenberg. That’s why Luther spent the rest of his life teaching the truth of grace alone.
Grace Alone
Ephesians 2:8-9 perfectly sums up the idea of grace alone: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
But what exactly is grace?
Our English word grace in Ephesians 2 is translated from the Greek word chairs, which means “the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues.” In other words, grace is God’s undeserved kindness toward us. Grace means that we can’t earn salvation. We can’t make God notice us by working harder or doing more. He offers salvation as a gift because Jesus paid the price through His life of perfect obedience, agonizing death, and victorious resurrection.
Grace is getting the double scoop of ice cream even though you have no money in your pocket. Grace is pardon from prison though you committed the crime. Grace is trying to climb a mountain but falling again and again and then having a kind stranger pay for your ride to the top in a cable car.
Why Grace Alone?
We’ve already seen the danger the church got into when it taught that grace alone was insufficient. It admitted grace was necessary—but only as the means for us to do the good works that would earn eternal life.
Even though we live in the twenty-first century instead of the sixteenth, modern culture has similar ideas. We laud the self-made man. We aim for self-sufficiency. We buy self-help books in our quest to improve ourselves. We strive harder and work longer. The try-hard life exhausts us, and yet we can’t give it up because we can’t quite believe that grace alone is enough.
I, for one, lived like this for a long time. Although I grew up in a church that preached grace alone, I still felt the need to prove myself. In the back of my mind, I thought I needed to show God that He didn’t make a mistake when He extended me grace. So I volunteered at church. I led Bible studies. I wrote Christian books. All in an effort to do “something big” for God. All to “do it self.”
Slowly, the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to see that all my frantic attempts to demonstrate my worth were part of human nature’s refusal to believe in grace alone. I began to rest in God’s sufficiency.
How Grace Alone Frees Us
I admit, at times, I still try to “do it self.” I find myself striving and straining. But now I’m quicker to remember the truth of grace alone. I don’t need to prove myself to God—He loves me as I am. I don’t need to strive for perfection—because God already sees me as pure in Christ. I don’t need to do “something big" for God—because He has done something big for me in paying the price of my salvation.
May we all live in the freedom of these truths. We don’t need to earn good behavior points. We don’t need to climb the fictional ladder of good works. We don’t have to “do it self.”
Instead, we can find fulfillment in God’s gift of grace and serve Him out of gratitude. We can joyfully share the news that we don’t have to be self-sufficient. Christ is enough. We don’t need self-reliance. Jesus invites us to rely on Him. We can now live in the beautiful place of Grace Alone.
Photo Credit: ©kellysikkema
Sharla Fritz is a Christian author and speaker who weaves honest and humorous stories into life-changing Bible study. Author of the new book Measured by Grace: How God Defines Success, Sharla writes about God’s transforming grace and unfailing love. Sharla lives in the Chicago suburbs with her amusing pastor husband. Get her FREE ebook 21 Five-Minute Soul-Rest Practices or connect with Sharla at www.sharlafritz.com and Facebook.
