“In reality we deny the truth here asserted when we introduce at any point in the whole span and process of salvation a decisive autonomy on the part of man.  If salvation at any point is contingent upon some contribution which man himself makes, then at that point it is of ourselves, and to that extent it is not of grace.  Paul’s definition ‘and that not of yourselves’ is thereby effaced and the true nature of grace is denied.”

John Murray’s article called “The Grace of God” is a wonderful brief summary of how Scripture talks about the sovereign grace of God in salvation (election, the atonement, justification, and sanctification).  Here are a few parts I especially appreciated:

The grace of God comes to its richest expression in redemption and salvation.  How plainly this is set forth in Paul’s well-known word, ‘By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God (Eph. 2:8)!  When he says, ‘and that not of yourselves,’ he is reminding us of the true nature of grace, that its whole urge and explanation reside in God.  It may be easy to give formal assent to this text.  Every evangelical Christian will do so.  But how ready we are to shy away from its implications!  In reality we deny the truth here asserted when we introduce at any point in the whole span and process of salvation a decisive autonomy on the part of man.  If salvation at any point is contingent upon some contribution which man himself makes, then at that point it is of ourselves, and to that extent it is not of grace.  Paul’s definition ‘and that not of yourselves’ is thereby effaced and the true nature of grace is denied.

…If grace is in operation, if it has any place, it must have the whole place, it must be exclusively operative.  If we are justified to any degree by works of law, we are debtors to do the whole law (cf. Gal. 5:3) and justification must be wholly of law.  Here again we have the same principle exemplified and confirmed: grace knows no human contribution.  If of grace, then it is wholly and exclusively of grace.  Since salvation is of grace, it is all of grace.  Human autonomy is excluded at every point as decisively as at the point of justification.

Grace alone means exactly that: salvation is all, only, and exclusively of grace – grace alone!

John Murray, Collected Writings, vol 1, p. 121-122.

Shane Lems is pastor of the United Reformed Church in Sunnyvale, Washington (in the Yakima Valley).  He is a graduate of Westminster Seminary California.  He blogs, along with fellow classmate Andrew Compton, at Reformed Reader where this article first appeared: it is used with permission.