CHAPTER 2
LECTURE 3
By grace you are saved, through faith!
This [was] not out of your own doing—it is a gift of God—not [as a reward] for works lest anyone boast about himself. For
God himself has made us what we are.
In the Messiah Jesus we are created
for those good works which God has provided
as our way of life.
[Read Marcus Barth, “The Judaizers’ works of the law” (p. 244), “Indestructible good works” (p. 248).]
8 For by grace you are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God.
9 Not of works, that no man may glory.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God has prepared that we should walk in them.
When the Apostle was recounting above the blessing of God by which we have been freed from sin, he inserted [the thought] that we had been saved by Christ’s grace (2:5). Now he intends to prove that; he makes two points concerning it:
First, he sets down his intention.
Secondly, he clarifies the point in question (2:8b).
I rightly declared, he says of the first, by whose grace you were saved; and indeed, I still confidently say For , in place of “because,” by grace you are saved . “By the grace of God, I am what I am” (1 Cor 15: 10), “being justified freely by his grace” (Rom 3:24). For to be saved is the same as to be justified. Salvation implies a freedom from dangers; hence, man’s perfect salvation will be in eternal life when he will be immune from all dangers, as a ship is said to be safe when it has arrived at port. “You shall call your walls ‘salvation’ and your gates ‘praise’” (Is 60: 18).
Men receive the hope of this salvation when they are justified from sin in the present, and are thus referred to as saved according to the expression of Romans 8 (24): “For we are saved by hope.” But this salvation of grace is by faith in Christ. In the justification of an adult who has sinned, the movement of faith towards God coincides with the infusion of grace. “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace” (Lk 8:48). “Being justified, therefore, by faith, we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:1).
When he next says and that not of yourselves , he clarifies what he had spoken of:
First, regarding faith, which is the foundation of the whole spiritual edifice.
Secondly, regarding grace (2: 10).
He eliminates two errors concerning the first point. The first of these is that, since he had said we are saved by faith, any one can hold the opinion that faith itself originates within ourselves and that to believe is determined by our own wishes. Therefore to abolish this he states and that not of yourselves . Free will is inadequate for the act of faith since the contents of faith are above human reason. “Matters too great for human understanding have been shown to you” (Sir 3:25). “No one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God” (1 Cor 2:11). That a man should believe, therefore, cannot occur from himself unless God gives it, according to that text of Wisdom 9 (17): “Who could ever have known your will, had you not given Wisdom and sent your Holy Spirit from above.” * For this reason he adds for it is the gift of God, namely, faith itself. “For you have been granted, for the sake of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him” (Phil 1:29). “To another, faith is given in the same Spirit” (1 Cor 12:9).
The second error he rejects is that anyone can believe that faith is given by God to us on the merit of our preceding actions. To exclude this he adds Not of preceding works that we merited at one time to be saved; for this is the grace, as was mentioned above, and according to Romans 11 (6): “If by grace, it is not now by works; otherwise grace is no more grace.” He follows with the reason why God saves man by faith without any preceding merits, that no man may glory in himself but refer all the glory to God. “Not for our sake, Yahweh, not for our sake, but for the sake of your name display your glory, because of your kindness, because of your faithfulness” (Ps 115:1-2). “That no flesh should glory in his sight. It is due to him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, justice, sanctification and redemption” (1 Cor 1:29-30).
Next (2: 10), he clarifies what he had said regarding grace. Concerning this he does two things:
First, he clarifies the infusion of grace.
Secondly, he declares the predestination of grace (2: l0b).
There are two essential characteristics of grace, they have already been spoken of. The first of these is that what exists through grace is not present in man through himself or by himself, but from the gift of God. In reference to this he states For we are his workmanship , whatever good we possess is not from ourselves but from the action of God. “Know that Yahweh is God: he made us, the Almighty” (Ps 99:3). “Is he not your Father, who created you, made you and fashioned you?” (Deut. 32:6). This is immediately linked with what went before: that no man may glory for we are his workmanship . Or, it can be joined with what was said above: For by grace you are saved .
The second essential characteristic of grace is that it is not from previous works; this is expressed when he adds created . To create anything is to produce it from nothing; hence, when anyone is justified without preceding merits, he can be said to have been created as though made from nothing. This creative action of justification occurs through the power of Christ communicating the Holy Spirit. On this account he adds in Christ Jesus , that is, through Christ Jesus. “For [in Christ Jesus] neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but a new creation” (Gal. 6:15). “Send forth your Spirit, they are created anew” (Ps 104:30). Moreover, not only are the habits of virtue * and grace given to us, but we are inwardly renewed through the Spirit in order to act uprightly. Whence he goes on in good works since the good works themselves are [made possible] to us by God. “For you have accomplished all we have done” (Is 26:12).
Since “those he predestined he also called” through grace, as Romans 8 (30) expresses it, therefore he adds something concerning predestination, saying, which good works God has prepared . For predestination is nothing else than the pre-arrangement of God’s blessings, among which blessings our good works themselves are numbered. God is said to prepare something for us insofar as be disposes himself to give it to us. “Provide the land with grain, for you prepared it for this” (Ps 64:10).
Lest anyone imagine that good works are prepared for us by God in such a way that we do not cooperate in their realization through our free will, he annexes that we should walk in them . As though he said: Thus has he prepared them for us, that we might perform them for ourselves through our free will. “For we are God’s co-workers” (1 Cor 3:9). For this reason the Apostle said of himself: “By the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace in me has not been in vain; rather I have worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that is with me” (1 Cor 15:10). He expressly said we should walk to designate a progress in good works, in line with that saying: “Walk while you have the light, so that darkness may not overtake you” (Jn 12:35); “Walk then as children of the light” (Eph 5:8).