What Does It Mean to Be Saved by Grace?

By Lauren Rose Correa, July 10, 2025

What does it mean to be saved by grace? My husband and I have recently been discussing the balance of grace and works when it comes to our salvation. We have been to lots of different churches who have different views on how we receive salvation and the role that grace plays. We feel that we have experienced two extremes when it comes to how people understand the concept of grace.

What Does It Mean to Be Saved by Grace? Radical Grace

There’s a camp that believes in radical grace. They believe that we are saved by grace and that everything we do is covered by grace. We don’t need to worry about ridding ourselves of sin or doing good works because grace covers it all.

What Does It Mean to Be Saved by Grace? Salvation Through Works

There’s another camp at the opposite side of the spectrum. They believe that we are saved by the good works we do. These folks think that our goodness is judged by works, and we need to do good things to be worthy of being saved. This is legalism.

Salvation by Grace, Through Faith

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” – Ephesians 2:8-10 NIV

I think this passage is a great picture of what grace and works really are supposed to look like. Our salvation is achieved by grace alone – we do not deserve it. No amount of good works could earn it. Nobody can brag about their salvation because no one has done anything good enough to achieve it. We are saved by grace through our belief that Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again, conquering death.

But right after stating that our salvation is not achieved by works, the passage says that we are created in Christ Jesus to do good works. If we are not saved by our works, what does this mean? It means that after we are saved by grace, good works are a result, or fruit, of our salvation. Grace saves us and impacts us. It impacts our hearts and stirs a change in us that compels us to do good works in thanksgiving to Jesus for what he has done for us.

Grace is Not an Excuse to Sin

We are saved only by grace, but good works are evidence of salvation. We ought not continue to willfully sin and talk about grace as though it allows us to do so. Are we going to stop sinning before Jesus returns? No! But we are constantly allowing God to work in us and surrendering our sins to him.

Grace covers the sins we commit while we are still imperfect. But it is not a license to intentionally sin. We need to be letting the Holy Spirit purify us and bring us closer and closer to holiness. When we intentionally sin and think that grace is enough to cover this, we grieve the Holy Spirit and we hurt our testimony before others.

What Does It Mean to Be Saved by Grace: How About You?

Do you feel like you tend to use grace as an excuse to sin, or do you struggle to let go of the idea that you need to be good to be worthy of a relationship with God? Meditate on this passage and ask God to give you the correct view of his salvation.