I appreciate the catholic approach that Bates brought to his work Beyond the Salvation Wars. Some critiques of his work have been largely knee-jerk reactions. But in reality, we should do our best to consider what the Bible says about salvation and how we might talk with other communions.

Augustine writes, “grace … is not paid out as earned but given gratis; that is why it is called grace” (On the Trinity, IV.1). While this definition may seem familiar, scholars today have challenged this understanding. Recently, John Barclay has clarified the semantic range of the word grace in the New Testament, showing that it can both signify a gift to the unworthy and an expectation that the recipient will transform their life (Paul and the Gift). Nothing here should surprise us since God gives grace not merely to save someone as a mental exercise but to transform every sphere of life.

However, some recent attempts to speak about grace, faith, and salvation have shifted the conversation even further. Matthew Bates, for example, speaks of faith as allegiance. In his view, our faith-allegiance is not part of the Gospel but a response to it. In other words, our allegiance to Christ saves us.

Yet in Bates’s summary of salvation, he does not mention the word grace (Beyond the Salvation Wars, 258–60). Understandably, he may want to avoid this term because of its charged meaning in both Protestant and Roman Catholic traditions. But the effect is to make Christ’s Kingship the Gospel itself, while our faith or allegiance to Christ becomes a response to this good news. Where then does grace fit into this scheme? Perhaps Bates would say grace operates throughout the whole process. But at least in his summary, he does not integrate grace into his structure of salvation.

By contrast, Augustine, for all his diversity of thought, places grace before faith and as the reason we believe in Christ (On the Trinity, IV.1). Augustine explains that unless we know that Christ died for us (Rom 5:8), we will not have the courage (or humility) to reach out for his hand savingly. In other words, apart from the grace of the Incarnation that shows us God’s love for us, we would never believe.

This understanding of grace matches Augustine’s mature writing on Predestination and Perseverance, as well as similar writings by Fulgentius and the Scythian monks on grace.

As I have written elsewhere as a summary of Augustine and Fulgentius:

“Predestination is when God wills to show his free mercy upon sinners before the world’s foundation.

Grace is predestination applied when grace awakens our hearts to believe in Jesus.

Perseverance is the form of grace that means God brings our faith to the finish line.

Grace actualizes predestination in time by granting faith, and perseverance is the form of grace that allows this faith to reach its intended end. Both are gifts of God, as Augustine states.

Predestination ensures that the priority of God’s love comes first—we love him because he loved us; perseverance ensures that the gift of faith leads to good works. Both are necessary because “without holiness no one will see the Lord” (Heb 12:14).

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