At first glance, this week’s lesson may seem like heavy theology. Why? Because for centuries "grace" and "faith" have been fogged over by theological debate, often with deadly results. How come these two words even today cause either boredom or arguments?

Because both grace and faith have been woefully misunderstood for two thousand years. Grace is a powerful New Testament word; it describes whatever God has done, is doing, and will do to help conform men and women "to the image of His Son" (Rom. 8:29). Perhaps the one English word that best translates Χαρις would be generosity. Grace is whatever men and women need in order to be entrusted with eternal life, straight from our Infinitely Generous God.

In God’s plan, grace cannot by itself save men and women. Paul has given us the classic formula of salvation: "For by grace you have been saved through faith" (Eph. 2:8).

In the God-man relationship, Paul is saying, grace comes with two outstretched hands: grace that forgives (Rom. 3:24; 5:15) and grace that empowers (2 Cor. 12:9; Heb. 4:16).

One of the indications of a limited gospel is to separate these two hands. An over-emphasis on the hand of grace, for example, mutes the empowerment of grace. A limited understanding of grace leads to a false gospel.

God will do all that an infinitely gracious and patient Lover can do to woo his bride, hoping one day to get her to the altar (Rev. 19:7–9). But even God cannot force his "bride" to love him back. Love cannot be forced.

New Testament faith is God’s bride saying Yes to his wooing. To make this response of Yes possible, faith also is a "gift of God." How we use this gift is up to us. New Testament faith is the human response to grace. New Testament faith is that appreciation, appropriation, and acceptance of grace that opens the door for grace to continue to work in the life of the sinner. In short, faith wisely used, permits grace to do its work. Here is another example of the ellipse of salvation—grace and faith are the two foci in making salvation happen.

Faith is the condition that makes salvation possible. Although faith does not possess merit in itself, the absence of faith frustrates grace. Though grace is the source of salvation, we have no salvation without faith—even as we have no salvation without grace.

Paul’s classic definition of the anatomy of salvation should have served as a barrier against two monstrous perversions that have divided Christian churches for centuries. On one hand, we have a large body of Christians who believe that grace covers men and women of faith in such a way that they are no longer "under the law" (Rom. 6:15). On the other hand, we have Christians who believe worthy acts (so-called "acts of faith") in some way earn and/or satisfy God’s love, and thus in some way secure their salvation.

Members of the first group are loosely called "antinomians," that is, they believe that grace "stands instead of the law." The second are often labeled as "legalists," those in bondage to "righteousness by works."

One of the major factors that helps us to understand Paul’s focus on grace and faith is to remember the kind of humans God created in the Garden of Eden. God gave Adam and Eve freedom to choose their future. They were responsible for their choices; they were not predestined to sin. God risked the future of this planet on the knife-edge of human freedom.

Faith is the New Testament word that describes a responsible person’s free response to God’s free grace. But the word faith generally depends on the kind of person (or "god") in whom we choose to have confidence. After all, people can have faith in Hitler, or their surgeon, or their grandmother.

I heartily endorse Dietrich Bonhoeffer, that heroic German pastor who showed all Christians how they should have responded to Nazi terror. He spoke out clearly against these two perennial theological errors that misunderstand grace and faith:

The truth is that so long as we hold both sides of the proposition together they contain nothing inconsistent with right belief, but as soon as one is divorced from the other, it is bound to prove a stumbling-block. "Only those who believe [have faith] obey" … and "only those who obey believe [have faith]."…If the first half of the proposition stands alone, the believer is exposed to the danger of cheap grace, which is another word for damnation. If the second half stands alone, the believer is exposed to the danger of salvation through works, which is also another word for damnation.

Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our Church. We are fighting today for costly grace.…In such a Church, the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin.…Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner.…Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.…It is a fatal misunderstanding of Luther’s action to suppose his rediscovery of the gospel of pure grace offered a general dispensation from obedience to the command of Jesus, or that it was the great discovery of the Reformation that God’s forgiving grace automatically conferred upon the world both righteousness and holiness.…The word of cheap grace has been the ruin of more Christians than any commandment of works. (The Cost of Discipleship [New York: Macmillan, 1959], 58.)

Bonhoeffer’s statement is similar to one by Ellen White as she commented on those who

expect to be saved by Christ’s death, while they refuse to live His self-sacrificing life. They extol the riches of free grace, and attempt to cover themselves with an appearance of righteousness, hoping to screen their defects of character; but their efforts will be of no avail in the day of God. (Christ’s Object Lessons, 316)

Modern confusion can be quickly removed when we calmly look at Paul’s anatomy of salvation in Ephesians 2:8–10. Grace, every person has been given; New Testament faith responds to grace with two empty hands, pleading for his pardon and for his power. Ellen White said it clearly: "Freely will He pardon all who come to Him for forgiveness and restoration" (Desire of Ages, 568).

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