Saved by grace through faith.  Isn’t that the gospel? One of the most well-known verses of the New Testament is: “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” Need we say more? Well, yes, because the statement taken by itself may or may not be the gospel. How so?

 
Let’s begin with the beginning – grace. Grace is the source of our salvation. Grace means God takes the initiative in salvation. The first move is always his. We did not plan our salvation. God did. He gave his Son, sending him into the world to accomplish our salvation. Moreover, grace means that God not only takes the initiative for us, but also in us. This is sometimes called “prevenient grace. And just about every church that has any claim to be Christian teaches that God’s grace comes before any response on our part.
 
Theologian Thomas Oden defines prevenient grace as "…the grace that begins to enable one to choose further to cooperate with saving grace. By offering the will the restored capacity to respond to grace, the person then may freely and increasingly become an active, willing participant in receiving the conditions for justification.” Roman Catholics, Methodists, Baptists all believe in prevenient grace.
 
The question is, “What does prevenient grace do?” Does it so enlighten and move us as to result invariably in our salvation? Or, does it so enlighten and enable us as to make our salvation possible? That is, if we are saved by grace through faith, does grace invariably produce the faith or does it make the faith possible? Only Calvinists believe that saving grace is irresistible. Others believe that grace puts a sinner in the position to respond if he wants to. But that grace can be resisted. Whether grace leads to salvation depends on whether we choose to cooperate. Grace makes the choice possible.
The point is that to say we are “saved by grace” may mean that God works in sinners in such a way as to draw them so that they come to Christ. Or, it may mean that God draws us to Christ in the sense of giving us a tug toward Christ, but, having been tugged, we will have to decide to keep going or to turn around and go back.
 
A second issue with grace has to do with how it is received. This has become an issue for Reformed people because what is called “The Federal Vision” arose within a Reformed context. The view of the Federal Vision is that grace is always bestowed by the sacrament of baptism. All the graces of salvation – regeneration, faith, justification, every grace needed for salvation – come to sinners through baptism. However, while these graces are invariably received in baptism, we must persevere in them for they can be lost. We move into a state of grace by baptism, but we can move out of a state of grace by unfaithfulness. To say “saved by grace” can mean saved by the grace that is always bestowed in baptism.
 
So, here is how it plays out. Baptists and Methodists agree that grace only makes our response possible. Both deny that baptism always bestows the grace. Methodists, who practice infant baptism, believe that baptism is a picture of prevenient grace – if God did not make the first move, we would never move at all. Baptists, who practice “professors (those who make a profession of faith) baptism” believe that baptism is a public declaration of identifying with Christ in his death and resurrection through faith. They also part company on this: Methodists believe when sinners cooperate with grace so as to believe in Christ unto salvation, this salvation can later be lost. Baptists generally believe that when we choose to cooperate with grace and believe unto salvation, this salvation then cannot be lost (“once saved always saved”).
 
We move on to “saved by faith.” Every church that has any claim to be called Christian believes we are saved by faith. (I am assuming here that, since all Christians believe that Christ is the object of faith, we are not talking about general faith, or faith as a feeling of dependence or of hopefulness, or faith any other than Christ. ) Here the question is whether salvation is by faith alone or faith plus.
 
On this issue the Roman Catholics and Federal Visionists are in more or less the same camp. To put it simply: Roman Catholics believe that we are saved by faith in Christ plus our good works, by Christ’s merits and our merits. Added together they result in salvation. On the other hand Federal Visionists believe that we are saved by faith and faithfulness. This means that we must persevere in all the graces that come from God, including the good works. 
 
On the other hand, Baptists, Methodists, and Reformed agree that we are saved by faith alone, by faith plus nothing. At this point they often part company. The Reformed believe that we are saved by faith alone, but that true faith will produce good works. In this way good works are a sign of the existence of saving faith. The saved will do good works but they are not in any sense at all saved by good works. Methodists do not add works to faith, but they do add perseverance to faith in the sense that a person who has been truly saved can lose that salvation. Most Baptists tend to identify a profession of faith with true faith. Practically this means if a person responds (for instance, walking to the front at the time of the invitation) that person has faith (unless he is consciously lying), and, since he has faith, he is saved, and, if once he is saved, he is saved forever.
Now then what is the salvation that is by grace through faith? Here is a place we can all agree: Salvation is from sin unto all blessedness. Any church that has a claim to be Christian believes that eventually we will be delivered from all sin and all its consequences and that we will then possess all blessedness, including our becoming righteous in the sense of actually being righteous. However, there are differences about what it means for sinners to be accepted by God unto salvation. 
 
Roman Catholics believe we are accepted by God by being baptized, believing in Christ, doing good works, and dying in a state of grace. Federal Visionists believe we will be accepted by God on the Day of Judgment if we have persevered in (or returned to the exercise of) all the graces we received at baptism.
 
All evangelicals, including Baptists, Methodists, and Reformed believe that acceptance with God has to do with justification – not regeneration, not sanctification, not perseverance, not good works – but being forgiven our sins and accepted by God as righteous, both on the basis of Christ’s work for us. Justification is received by faith alone. (There are differences about this faith: Baptists will say that a profession of faith is faith, results in justification, and cannot be lost. Methodists will say that justification is by faith, but that the saved can lose their faith, hence fall from grace and lose their justification. Reformed believe that justification is by faith alone, but that not all faith is saving faith.) However, all those who come to true faith by the working of the grace of God, will by God’s grace never lose their justification/salvation because they will never cease resting on Christ alone for their salvation.
 
So, what do you mean when you say you’re saved by grace through faith? If you believe the gospel proclaimed by Paul, Luther, Calvin, and the authors of the Westminster Confession you mean this: You are saved, that is justified, that is forgiven of your sins and counted righteous in God’s sight, by grace that not only provided salvation in Christ, but which irresistibly draws you freely to come Christ. Salvation is received by faith that is a receiving and resting on Christ alone for salvation. The issue ultimately is whether salvation is all of God. If it is all of God, then it does not depend on you at all. God provides Christ, God’s grace produces faith, faith leads to irrevocable justification. All those for whom God does these things will one day be raised with Christ to sinless and immortal life! That’s the gospel truth!
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William H. Smith is pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Miss.