I never totally understood “saved by grace” theology mainly because I wasn’t brought up in a protestant family. However, thanks to the internet and context of people’s posts, I have a better grasp of the concept and it also raises some questions.
From what I can tell being saved by grace should be a humbling experience to the person being saved. It’s saying that despite the person’s flaws and sins in the eyes of God, they are still forgiven and allowed a place in heaven. It appears that it should have the effect of the person saying, “Even though I’m a sinner and unworthy, God has accepted me.” I would think that someone who is truly faithful would see it as an opportunity to say, “If God can accept me despite my shortcomings, surely I can accept others despite theirs.” It seems like an opportunity to take a look at oneself and reflect on their flaws. There are far too many though that seem to think that being saved also makes them God.
I have run across many TwiX Tracts that will post demeaning and hateful things about non-believers and other religions, including other Christians, and turn around and post about how they’ve been saved by grace. Are they sure about that? They don’t seem to be too humble. They seem prideful and arrogant, as if they think their perception of being saved gives them the authority of God. That doesn’t seem right. They stand in judgment of those around them, telling others what they see as wrong while not seeing themselves doing something that is far worse. Being saved doesn’t make someone the judge, I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be a gift that should make them put their own world into perspective and reflect on their own flaws. And I kind of hope it can be taken away.
Most people who are saved likely came to it through their own personal revelation and not through internet memes with provably wrong assertions. So why do so many of these people think it will work for others? My guess is bragging rights. They say that they’re saved with righteous indignation rather than quiet humility. Why, if you are saved, would you even say that you are? Any mention of it would be anything but humble. The Christians that I know walk the walk, quietly and admirably, without judgment.
We’re all walking alone, together. Everyone is walking through this world on their own path. My path is different than anyone else’s. Will I come to the end of it without having been saved by grace? Not even I know the answer…and that’s fine. I’ve always enjoyed the journey. I can’t speak for anyone else, but the constant threats of hell and the browbeating tend to annoy me, but they also inspire me to write things like this and to look inward at my own flaws.
AlienCG's Bible Study 
You NAILED IT! This is exactly the theological disconnect between the faith of the founders of Christianity and the perversion thereof that abuses that concept, reading Paul via the lens of fundamentalism. Fundamentalism in any religion always is built on xenophobia and a grab for power. It has lingered in Christianity really with any destructive effect only for the last 150 years or so. It is a little younger movement among Zionists and among Islam. The reality is that any form of fundamentalism is never based on the word of the tradition or scriptures they hold sacred. It is always based on present sense of threats, high anxiety from then, and the thirst for supremacy. The earliest Christiabs, as I read them, would largely express their faith in the same sense of unknowing humility in which you express your self-named atheism. They—and the great Catholic leaders (and even in early Protestantism) expressed a profound sense of “if.” If I am so gifted with salvation from anything, I owe that same graciousness to those who walk their path through life. I think you’re onto something theologically and philosophically quite profound. Thanks for sharing it with us. DC
Rev. David Chafin North Eaton Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) 440-748-2230
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