Saving and Justifying Grace

III-5 Saving and Justifying Grace

III-5-1 Saving Grace

Saving grace is an act of God, a manifestation of His goodness and generosity, which forgives, raises up, and restores the sinner. It is a free gift from God offered to humanity. It goes beyond simple forgiveness, since it is the very foundation of salvation.

Salvation:

In theology, salvation is defined as “Deliverance and Liberation.”

In Christianity, salvation:

– is liberation from sin, death, and eternal condemnation, made possible by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
– is associated with Christ, considered the redeemer of humanity.

salvation is obtained only through the grace of God in Christ, which is not only necessary, but constitutes the sole effective cause of salvation.

Thus, soteriology, the doctrine of salvation, is linked to Christology.
Salvation allows believers to enter heaven and establish an eternal relationship with God.

Although salvation has a common divine meaning and is obtained through divine grace, the means of attaining it vary according to denomination:

– For Catholicism, it is offered through grace, the sacraments, and good works.

– Whereas Protestantism emphasizes it primarily through faith and grace alone. Even within Protestantism, there are nuances in the path to salvation, depending on whether one is Lutheran, Calvinist, Arminian, or another denomination.

III-5-2 Justifyin Grace

Justifying grace is an expression of love, a free and unmerited gift from God, and the source of reconciliation with God without any need to pay or earn salvation. It enables justification, which is God’s legal judgment, an act by which the believing sinner is declared righteous and forgiven through Jesus Christ. In short, this grace is the source, and justification is its effect.

Justification:

According to the doctrine of imputation, the expression “made righteous” in this context refers to the great truth of justification. Justification is not about a change of character or the infusion of something inherent into us. Rather, it involves a change in our standing before God. In justification, God declares us righteous because He imputes the righteousness of Christ to us, not because He makes us righteous internally (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21 ). So when Paul says “made righteous” here, he means “imputed with righteousness,” not “imbued with righteousness.”

The perfect obedience and righteousness of Jesus Christ—His sinless life and perfect fulfillment of God’s law—are “imputed”—that is, transferred and credited—to believers. This means that, before God, believers are declared righteous not on the basis of their own merits or intrinsic holiness, but on the basis of Christ’s perfect righteousness imputed to them by faith. This is a legal status of righteousness before God.

Believers are declared righteous at the moment of salvation. Justification is the legal status of these saved people; in other words, God declares them righteous because the righteousness of Christ has been applied to their faith. This is not a transformation of their person, but a change in legal status: God declares them righteous because of the work of Jesus.

Justification occurs through faith alone, not through the works of the law. It is faith that activates this legal status, and this status of justification is immediate.

Justification brings about the forgiveness of sins, peace with God, adoption as a child of God, and the reception of the Holy Spirit. The saved and justified person can then be transformed inwardly over time, during the process of sanctification.

III-5-3 The Path to Salvation and Justifications According to the Denominations

Once again, I wish to clarify that the following presentation is intended only to provide a neutral general overview of the path in question according to the vision of each of the denominations without entering into their theological debates. Each denomination carries a particular vision of salvation, to which the path it promotes is harmoniously aligned. The perspectives of the four main denominations will be presented in the following sections.