Mottos are helpful. They allow us to succinctly state ideas. But we can fall in love with the motto and forget what it means. 

The Lutheran Church teaches justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and this is revealed to us in Scripture alone. But what does that mean? Has it become an empty, misunderstood phrase?

Let us unpack the phrase, “by grace alone.” May God help us. 

Grace is God’s undeserved favor toward sinners. Grace is not something in man, but something in God that moves Him to forgive the sinner. He loves the unloveable. He saves His enemy. He forgives the sinner. Grace is the work of God. 

But God cannot simply pardon sin because He wants to. He cannot sweep it under the rug or turn a blind eye. He is Just and He is Holy and cannot go back on His Word, “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4). Sin must be removed. 

So He sent His Beloved Son. Grace is made concrete in Christ. He took the place of man under the Law, bore the weight of sin, endured the curse, and suffered the death we deserved. No sin was forgotten. No man was excluded. Nothing more needs to be done. “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2). You are part of the world, so Jesus died for you also. This is the grace of God manifest: He won forgiveness for all on the cross. 

But He doesn’t give forgiveness at His cross. That event occurred two thousand years ago. He is no longer there. It is finished. Today He freely gives it in the Word and the Sacraments. We call them, the Means of Grace. Apart from them, man cannot know of God’s underserved favor toward him. In the Word God preaches the forgiveness of sins, in Holy Baptism God washes the sinner clean from every sin (Titus 3:5-7), and in the Holy Communion He gives His Body and Blood for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:26-28). God brings Calvary to man in these Means of Grace. When we receive them in faith, we are receiving the forgiveness won by Christ’s death. This too is the grace of God manifest: He continues to give forgiveness in the Word and Sacraments. 

As Christ died for all, so God preaches His forgiveness to all and by it extends grace to all. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20). He desires that all believe and are saved.

Our works before and after conversion do not assist God’s grace. Yes, we strive to improve in godly living. Scripture even calls these abilities, “gifts of grace” (1 Peter 4:10-11), but Scripture nowhere says that this earns God’s forgiveness, secures a place in heaven, or makes us holy before Him. In fact, it says the opposite. “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace” (Romans 11:6). Grace and works are mutually exclusive. “Grace alone” confesses that God alone won forgiveness on the cross and God alone gives it in the Word and Sacraments. Salvation begins, continues, and ends in the heart of God alone. All of man’s good works, decisions, and feelings are excluded. 

This grace of God in Christ remains our confidence when we abound in godliness and when we don’t, when we feel like a Christian and when we don’t. His work is objectively rooted in history and freely given to us regularly at specific times and places. Grace not abstract, but concrete in Christ. God desires our salvation, He worked our salvation, and He gives us salvation. So we know for certain what God thinks of us. We are His forgiven children by grace and by grace alone.