Romans 11:6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.
2 Timothy 1:9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity,
Eph 1:5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
The Gospel of grace alone has been under attack at all times in the history of the Church. It may shine brightly for a moment, but even while the fire is being lit there is an assault launched in some way. For some the works of man are boldly taught as a way of salvation, but for others the way of works is hidden under the language of grace. The concept of grace is attacked and so many trust in the word grace or a concept of grace that is simply not biblical. It is true that the Gospel of grace alone is not friends at all with the libertines or those who think that grace alone enables them or frees them to sin, but again that is not true grace.
One of the problems with men understanding grace and then bowing to grace is that of the proud and wicked heart of man that is filled with self. In order for men to be converted they must die to self in order that they trust in grace alone, but self is full of pride and pride blinds men to spiritual truth and self and pride always have justifications for self ready to give. Self will not die without a hard fight. One basic principle to keep in mind is that self cannot and will not cast out self, so it must be grace that does the work. As long as men are under the control of self and pride, they will fight grace and hate grace because grace is always the enemy of self and pride.
The fallen heart of man is a perpetual factory of idols and that does not stop when man becomes religious, but instead it just continues on and in many ways it becomes worse. Religion enables the heart of man to be a great idol factory as well. In fact, the great idol of man is self. It is the self that man will do all of his religious acts for. It is for self that man will pray. It is for self that man will seek God, which clearly means that self is trying to use God to do what self cannot do. The great pride of man will always want something to do in order to maintain some element of control in his own salvation, though indeed that control is a figment of his imagination and is itself an idol. True grace which is always sovereign is hated by man who wants to rule over self and be his own sovereign.
It is utterly vital to understand that grace is always opposed to works for salvation in any form and in any way. True grace will work in the soul and the truly converted soul will be one that turns from sin during the life, but at the point of justification it simply must be insisted on that no work at all can stand with this free and sovereign grace. The soul that is saved by grace apart from works is saved by grace alone and without one work. Oh how the moralist hates this and how the proud heart hates that as well, but there is no work and no action regardless of how much sacrifice and how religious it is that can help grace to justify a human soul.
As Romans 11:6 shows us with great clarity, if it is of grace it is not of works. We can go on and say with great joy that if it is of grace apart from works then it is grace apart from one work at all because a pure and undiluted grace cannot have one work or that would mean that it is no longer pure and undiluted. One work would dilute grace (theoretically speaking) to where it was no longer grace alone.
Yet regardless of the power of the Scriptures in setting out grace apart from works, all through history men have tried to bring in a work or works in disguise and in doing so they are teaching a different gospel and that within the realm of orthodoxy. Instead of hating pure grace, the soul should love the glory of God that shines through the Gospel of grace alone. God alone is self-sufficient and the Gospel of grace alone really means that the Gospel is about how God saves sinners through Christ by Himself without the help of man at all. The Gospel of grace alone teaches us that the way people use justification by faith alone is a way of introducing a work and works to the Gospel. As said before, using the terms of orthodoxy people have brought heresy into the Church. The Reformers would not recognize much of what goes under the Gospel of today.
God Loves... Himself 
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