Works seem to be the biggest impediment to our understanding of grace. If we are saved by grace through faith (as Ephesians 2:8 says we are), then what is the purpose, value, and function of works? Some have said that although we cannot be saved by our works, we can be lost by them. In…

Don: It disturbs us that grace is free, because it does not fit our expectation that a cause (in this case, sin) must result in an effect (in this case, punishment). But free grace, and also free will, are at the core of Christian theology, and despite our misgivings it would seem that none of…

Don: The concepts of free will and free grace are deeply linked to the prospect of salvation. The idea that choices matter—that what we do has consequences, for good or bad—is a notion held by all the world’s major religions, but the concept of grace upsets the theological apple cart by suggesting that the law…

Don: Does God need to exercise grace for His own sake? The following passages would suggest so (emphasis added): “I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake,… (Isaiah 43:25) “For the sake of My name I delay My wrath,And for My praise I restrain it for you,In order not…

Don: Does God require signs of our contrition, such as remorse or confession, before He will give us His grace? In 1937, when the Nazi party had reached the peak of its power, the German Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote The Cost of Discipleship, a book which perhaps more than any other work has influenced…

Don: The idea that we are saved by undeserved grace is made easier to accept and act upon when “through faith” is added, as it was in Ephesians 8. The judgment is also about the actuation of grace: This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness…