We are “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). The grace of God is His undeserved favor bestowed on those He has called to salvation through His love (Ephesians 2:4–5). We need something more powerful, and this is where grace comes in. No matter how well-intentioned or “good” we may be, the fact is that we simply do not have the power or the goodness to overcome the sin nature we have inherited from Adam. We may fill our lives with good works, but even one sin makes us a sinner in practice, and we are already sinners by nature. The road to hell, as the saying goes, is paved with good intentions. We may repent of our sins, also valuable and necessary, and determine to never sin again, but salvation is not the result of good intentions. Sorrow over sin is certainly valuable and necessary, but that alone will not save us from sin. Others teach that acts of contrition (saying we are sorry) along with living a moral life is the way to atone for our sin. How are we saved from sin? Most religions throughout history have taught that salvation is achieved by good works. In other words, we need salvation from sin and its penalty. What each of us needs is to be delivered from that fate. Sin separates us from God, and sin destines each person to eternal separation from Him in hell. The word salvation is defined as “the act of being delivered, redeemed, or rescued.” The Bible tells us that, since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, each person is born in sin inherited from Adam: “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). The three together constitute a basic tenet of Christianity. The statement has three parts- salvation, grace, and faith-and they are equally important. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9). Salvation by grace through faith is at the heart of the Christian religion.
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