According to the express teaching of Holy Scripture no man after the Fall can be justified and saved by the deeds of the Law, or through good works. Rom. 3, 20: "By the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight." All who endeavor to acquire salvation by the works of the Law shall not be justified, but damned. Gal. 3, 10: "As many as are of the works of the Law are under the curse." The reason for this is that no man after the Fall can fulfil the divine Law or satisfy the claims of divine justice. Rom. 3, 10: "There is none righteous, no, not one"; 3, 23: "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Hence, so far as the divine Law is concerned, all men after the Fall are forever lost and condemned, Matt. 19, 26; Rom. 8, 3. 4.
Yet, as Scripture clearly teaches, it is the gracious will of God that not a single sinner in the world be lost, 2 Pet. 3, 9; 1 Tim. 2, 4. For this reason God has most mercifully provided a way of salvation by which every sinner can be saved, John 3,16; Matt. 18,11, namely, the way of grace, through faith in Christ, without the works of the Law. Rom. 3, 24: “Being justified freely by His grace, δωρεὰν τῇ αὐτοῦ χάριτι through the redemption, διὰ τῆς ἀπολυτρώσεως, the ransom, that is in Christ Jesus”; Eph. 2, 8. 9; “By grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.” This gracious way of salvation is revealed in the Gospel, for which reason this is called “the Gospel of the grace of God,” Acts 20, 24. The doctrine of salvation by grace through faith is both the basic and the distinctive article of Christianity, by which it is distinguished from all man-made religions as the only true and divine religion, Mark 16, 15.16; Acts 4, 12; for whereas all man-made religions teach salvation by works, Christianity proclaims as its central and fundamental message the gracious remission of sin through faith in Christ Jesus, Acts 10, 43; 26, 18.
Since sinful man is saved alone by grace, the Scriptural statements that sinners are saved by the Gospel, Rom. 1,16, or by Baptism, 1 Pet. 3, 21, or by faith, Luke 7, 50, must all be understood in relation to saving grace. In particular, they are descriptive of the means by which saving grace is conferred and appropriated without any merit, or work, on the part of the sinner. To be saved by the Gospel, by Baptism, by faith, etc., means to be saved by grace, without the deeds of the Law, through the divinely appointed means, by which alone the merits of Christ can be received.
From the viewpoint of fallen man we speak of the necessity of divine grace, since without grace it is impossible for the sinner to be saved. However, from the viewpoint of God divine grace must be viewed, not as necessary, but as free, because God was not moved by any necessity inherent in His essence to save guilty mankind, but alone by His mercy and compassion, John 3,16; Luke 1, 78. Deus est causa libera beatitudinis nostrae. The view that the redemption of the world was a necessary unfolding of the divine essence must be rejected as a pantheistic delusion.