God preserves his people and brings them to glory solely by grace (Acts 20:32; 2 Thes. 2:16).  We can’t even take credit for the good works that we actually do.  If we do good works, it is because God is graciously at work in us to work (1 Cor. 15:10; Eph. 2:10).  The road to heaven is paved with grace, we walk that road by grace, and we “cross over Jordan” by grace.

God’s saving grace is sovereign grace. That means so many things!  It means that election is gracious rather than meritorious (Eph 1:6); election is unconditional because it is all of God’s gracious good pleasure.  Regeneration is gracious: we were dead in sin, but God graciously gave us new life in Christ (Eph. 2:5).  Justification is not by works, but by grace alone (Titus 3:7).  God preserves his people and brings them to glory solely by grace (Acts 20:32; 2 Thes. 2:16).  We can’t even take credit for the good works that we actually do.  If we do good works, it is because God is graciously at work in us to work (1 Cor. 15:10; Eph. 2:10).  The road to heaven is paved with grace, we walk that road by grace, and we “cross over Jordan” by grace.  I appreciate Anthony Hoekema’s comments on this in Saved by Grace:

The saving grace of God in the strict sense of the word is not universal but particular, being bestowed only on God’s elect (those who have been chosen by him in Christ to salvation).  God’s saving grace is therefore efficacious and unlosable.  This does not mean that, left to themselves, believers could not drift away from God, but it does mean that God will not permit his chosen ones to lose their salvation.  The spiritual security of believers, therefore, depends primarily not on their hold of God but on God’s hold of them.

Yes!  In Reformed theology “saved by grace alone” means “not by works at all.”  Salvation is all of the Lord, it is all of grace, and all the glory goes to God!

The above quote is found in Saved by Grace, p. 4.

Rev. Shane Lems is a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and serves as pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Hammond, Wis. This article appeared on his blog and is used with permission.