Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition

272 / CORNERSTONE CURRICULUM STUDENT WORKBOOK

If anyone says that the grace of God can be conferred as a result of human prayer, but that it is not grace itself which makes us pray to God, he contradicts the prophet Isaiah, or the Apostle John who says the same thing, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me” . . . The sin of the first man has so impaired and weakened free will that no one thereafter can either love God as he ought or believe in God or do good for God’s sake, unless the grace of divine mercy has preceded him.

~ The Council of Orange (529 A.D.)

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2. Secondly, we mean that because salvation comes only through faith it cannot ever be earned by anyone. Salvation can only be received as a free gift, not deserved through acts of goodness. Salvation is completely a gift of God’s grace.

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C hr i s t i an M i n i s t ry

a. Eph. 2.8-9

b. Acts 20.24

c. Gal. 2.21

d. Any good work or righteous act we do is a result of God’s grace working in us. Good works are the result of salvation not the cause of it. No good work gains us any extra favor with God. No one can be good enough to earn a relationship with God or eternal life with him in his Kingdom. We have his grace poured out on us because of Christ and what his work has done for us. Our good works are a response to the grace that God has given. Again, as the Apostle John says, “we love him because he first loved us,” 1 John 4.19.