Grace Alone---Salvation as a Gift of God: What the Reformers Taughts...and Why It Still Matters

Carl R. Trueman

Apr 2017 · Sold by Zondervan Academic

About this ebook

Grace is the heart of the Christian gospel. It's a doctrine that touches the very depths of human existence and makes Christianity such an essential alternative to the dissolution and nihilism of modern culture. Grace Alone guides you into a better doctrinal understanding of the issue and gives you a more glorious vision of an active and saving God.

The language of grace fills the Bible so much that to say "grace alone" may not evoke much reflection. Unlike "faith alone," there's no theological controversy among expressions of Christianity. Reviving one of the five great declarations of the Reformation (and one of the more overlooked)—sola Gratia—professor and church historian Carl Trueman:

• Provides a thorough definition of grace as it's found in the Bible and an overview of biblical references to, and teaching on, grace.
• Tracks the doctrine of grace as it's been articulated throughout church history, with discussions of Augustine, Pelagius, Thomas Aquinas, and ending with the Reformation and theologies of Luther and Calvin.
• Looks at the relationship between the means of grace and the modern church, defining the practical implications of the Reformation's understanding of grace.

Explanations throughout on the relationship of grace to sin, salvation and glorification, God's sovereignty, the sacraments, and the controversies regarding freewill and predestination. Grace Alone is a beautiful and much-needed revival of this foundational doctrine and the assurance of salvation.

—THE FIVE SOLAS—

Historians and theologians have long recognized that at the heart of the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation were five declarations, often referred to as the "solas." These five statements summarize much of what the Reformation was about, and they distinguish Protestantism from other expressions of the Christian faith: that they place ultimate and final authority in the Scriptures, acknowledge the work of Christ alone as sufficient for redemption, recognize that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, and seek to do all things for God’s glory.

The Five Solas Series is more than a simple rehashing of these statements, but instead expounds upon the biblical reasoning behind them, leading to a more profound theological vision of our lives and callings as Christians and churches.

About the author

Carl Trueman is professor of historical theology and church history at Westminster Theological Seminary. He is the author of numerous books, including The Creedal imperative: Histories and Fallacies; Goods Rush in Where Monkeys Fear to Tread; Republocat: Confessions of a Liberal Conservative; Reformation Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow; John Owen: Reformed, Catholic, Renaissance Man, Minority Report;and The Wages of Spin. Trueman is also a contributor to Reformation21 where he writes from a Reformed vantage point.

Matthew Barrett is associate professor of Christian theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, the executive editor of Credo Magazine, and director of The Center for Classical Theology. He is the author of Simply Trinity; None Greater; Canon, Covenant and Christology; and God's Word Alone. He is currently writing a systematic theology.