But if by grace, no longer of works since [otherwise] grace is no more grace.
Paul has just pointed to a small group in Israel who still believed. God kept them by His own choice, not by anything they had earned. Verse 6 gives the rule behind that: add works to grace, and grace stops being grace.
The Remnant: Grace, Not Record
The verse is not a stray saying. It explains why God saved any Israelite at all when the nation as a whole had rejected Christ. One writer sets the two grounds side by side, reaching back to the days of the prophet Elijah:
It is now as it was in the days of Elijah. The nation as a whole is scattered because it rejected Christ. Even so, God still has "a remnant, chosen by grace." And if it is by grace, then it is "no longer on the basis of works." On the ground of works they had failed completely, and God had rejected them. On the ground of grace God had reserved a remnant in whom the nation will be restored.
The same writer's point about God's side is pressed further elsewhere: the preserved remnant is God's own doing, and therefore safe.
If there is a remnant preserved among them at all, it is an election of grace, and therefore independent of works, as the apostle says here — of works of any kind. Grace, he adds, becomes grace no longer if works are mingled with it.
Wages or Gift — Never Both
The logic of the verse is the logic of ordinary life. Earned pay and a free present work in opposite ways.
The two cannot be mixed. If I work for wages it is no grace on the part of my employer to pay me my wages. And if someone freely offers me a gift, and I insist on working to earn it, it stops being a gift. I insult it. I turn it into a wage. I show no appreciation of grace.
No Mixture, However Small
The question is not how much work is added, but whether any is added at all. One image makes the amount irrelevant:
Let one drop of the poison of man's works fall into a vessel full of God's grace, and grace loses its character. God will not allow man to spoil His gracious act of forgiveness by any mixture of works.
Why We Resist It
The principle is plain, so why do people push back? One writer points to what each side does with the credit:
The human heart rebels against the principle of grace. "To the one who does not work" jars on many ears. "Without money and without price" sounds unpleasant to the self-righteous and proud… The principle of works gives man the glory; the principle of grace gives God the glory. Grace must win the day. All the glory must go to God, now and forever.
What Happens When Grace Is Diluted
This is not a small matter of wording. One writer describes what he saw it cost ordinary Christian teaching:
Many people deny just as strongly that a believer can be sure of salvation. Many others cut salvation down to a forgiveness that depends on conditions. For a soul who sees its real state, that puts peace with God out of reach. Wherever this happens, grace is still unknown. And wherever grace is unknown, some system of works — that is, of law — always comes with it.
Hold It, Don't Fear It
Some believers hesitate at the word "election," yet the verse is written to steady them, not to unsettle them. One writer addresses the hesitation directly:
Dear young believer, you will be strongly tempted to reject this overflowing, electing, free favour of God. Today few believe it with their whole heart. We want you to take hold of it with your whole soul. Look at the facts. Both Israel and we Gentiles are so bad, and we reject God's grace so completely, that if it had not been for His election — His free favour, His grace — no one at all would have been saved… Note this: these scriptures show that God is not unwilling. It is man who will not have the grace of God.
A Note on the Longer Reading
Older English Bibles carry a second half to the verse — "but if it be of works, then it is no more grace" — which most newer Bibles leave out. Commentators differ on whether it belongs, and one weighs it without alarm:
This gives Paul the chance to state that grace shuts works out. The Holy Spirit never lets such a chance slip. If we accept the older reading, each one shuts the other out. But I do not see that the bracketed clause adds to the precision of the truth.
Summary
- Grace alone. Israel's remnant survived on grace, because on the ground of works the nation had completely broken down.
- Grace unmixed. A single drop of human works poisons the whole vessel; God will not let any mixture spoil His forgiveness.
- Grace unearned. Wages and gifts are different transactions; working to merit a gift turns it into a wage and insults the giver.
- Grace resisted. The heart rebels because works glorify man while grace glorifies God — and God must have the glory.
- Grace or law. Where grace is unknown, assurance dies and a system of works always moves in to replace it.