Quotes About Grace

And when Paul discusses the restoration of the image, it is clear that we should infer from his words that man is made to conform to God, not by an inflowing of substance, but by the grace and power of the Spirit. For he says that by "beholding Christ's glory, we are being transformed into his very image… as through the Spirit of the Lord" [II Cor. 3:18], who surely works in us without rendering us consubstantial with God.

And it was our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the true and only eternal Son of God, who had to be sent and given to mankind by the Father, to restore a world otherwise wasted, destroyed, and desolate.

in Augustine with this expression, - "God crowns not our merits but his own gifts; and the name of reward is given not to what is due to our merits, but to the recompense of grace previously bestowed?

Supposing a man not only deserves nothing good from you, but he has also provoked you with injustices and injuries—even this is not just cause for you to stop embracing him with affection and fulfilling your duties of love to him. He

God has not rendered you due punishment, but bestows upon you unmerited grace. If you wish to be an alien from grace, boast your merits," (in Psa 70) Again, "You are nothing in yourself, sin is yours, merit God's. Punishment is your due; and when the reward shall come, God shall crown his own gifts, not your merits

If you shall be paid what you deserve, you must be punished. What then happens? God has not rendered you the punishment you deserve, but bestows undeserved grace. If you would be estranged from grace, boast of your own merits." Again: "Of yourself you are nothing. Sins are your own, but merits are God's. You deserve punishment, and when the reward comes he will crown his own gifts, not your merits.

Whence follows the plain conclusion, that if all men were elected, no man would perish.

God sometimes bestows his bounty more   profusely, and, at other times, more sparingly, upon his children,   according as he sees it to be most for their good;

So long as we are adopted by God in Christ, we are destined for slaughter. If

Holiness is not a merit by which we can attain communion with God, but a gift of Christ, which enables us to cling to him, and to follow him.

he refers rather to their adoption because God's grace is the more striking when he out of all mankind chooses some few to be his own people.

we must realize that death was not a pleasure or a game for Christ, and that he suffered excruciation to the utmost for our sakes.

By the word letter Paul means preaching which is external and does not reach the heart; by Spirit he means teaching which is alive, which works mightily in the souls of men by the grace of the Spirit. Letter

Accordingly, we shall find   angels and men to be dry, heaven to be empty, the earth to be   unproductive, and, in short, all things to be of no value, if we wish   to be partakers of the gifts of God in any other way than through   Christ.

Therefore, men get nothing from the law but condemnation, for in the law God demands his due, but does not confer the power to pay it properly. The

Because of the great distance between us and his heavenly glory, he himself came down to us through the Word. This

Faith was a gift of God whose main function was to create in man a certain knowledge of God's goodness toward us. The

It is the Spirit of God alone who opens the gate of heaven to the elect. Further

The only reason for security is that our salvation is in God's hand. Our

The fact is that unless we are extricated by the grace of Christ, we remain subject to the violence of a whole mass of innumerable evils.

Faith acquires what the Law requires; nay, the Law requires, in order that faith may acquire what is thus required; nay, more, God demands of us faith itself, and finds not what he thus demands, until by giving he makes it possible to find it.

By these words it is plain he does not make love the cause of forgiveness, but the proof of it.

all those who storm heaven like giants, without Christ's help, are deprived of any right knowledge of God. Anyone

Christ descended to us, to bear us up to the Father, and at the same time to bear us up to himself, inasmuch as he is one with the Father.