I can think of few phrases in modern Christian speech that have been more abused through misuse and overuse than “we are saved by grace.” As a young Protestant, this was explained to me thus: “We are saved by God’s unmerited favor.” This has the unfortunate implication that, whatever salvation may be, it’s something that’s happening in the mind of God – His unmerited favor. It strikes me as somewhat empty.

Its emptiness belongs to that nefarious doctrine (as I would describe it) of the Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA), in which God’s justice demands our condemnation, while God’s mercy demands the blood of Jesus. All of which, it would seem, leaves us as bystanders in a cosmic court where the eternal disposition of our wretched souls is worked out.

In Orthodox understanding (which is the understanding of the early Church), grace is ever so much more. Indeed, grace is the Divine Energies, the very life of God. I have given this article the title, “Saved by the Stuff of Grace,” to draw attention to the ontological character of grace. Grace is not an aspect of a Divine psychology. Grace is the very life of God. We are saved by becoming partakers in the life of God: He becomes what we are that we might become what He is – i.e., that we might dwell in Him and He in us.

I want to look at two very important aspects of the “stuff of grace” in our lives, things that, again, we easily mistake for matters of psychology or moral performance. The first is love, and the second is humility.

I begin with a quote from the contemporary saint, Gabriel Urgebadze (+1995):

In the end times, a man will be saved by love, humility, and kindness. Kindness will open the gates of heaven; humility will lead him into heaven; a man whose heart is filled with love will see God.

We read these words and think we know what they mean. We hear that right behavior (love, humility, kindness) will be rewarded. Our hearing is attuned to the language of merit, of reward and punishment. What is instead taking place is an invitation into the very life of God, Who Himself is love, humility, and kindness, the “stuff” of grace.

Consider this wonderful excerpt from a talk by St. Sophrony of Athos/Essex:

…through small deeds we set out upon the path of love for Christ. And the love of Christ – of which St. Silouan did not dare to sing, as being above every mind and every word – of this love of Christ we say that it proceeds from God Who is humble. Speaking in the language of Holy Scripture, we may say that “God is humility” (cf. 1 Jn 4:8). And to the humble God belongs humble love, not a love from on high.

And when we speak of such humility, we are speaking also of self-emptying. The humble love of God – because He is humble – makes love kenotic. God, Who by His Word, created all that is, became incarnate and lived, humbling Himself unto limits beyond our reach. This is the mark of the love of God: it is self-emptying, kenotic. Thus the Lord, that His word might be received, before His crucifixion on Golgotha washed the feet of His disciples and said: “I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” (John 13:15)

In human love there is one love which, more than all other human expressions, draws near to this kenotic, Divine love – and this is the love of a mother: she endures all things from her little child; she is ready for every form of service to her infant, however humiliating. This is the kenotic love of a mother. And so the Lord humbles Himself before us as a mother before her child. If He had appeared to us in His might, we would have been afraid to approach Him, afraid even to look upon Him. But so as not to terrify man, He took upon Himself our bodily being, our existence – in other words, our “being”… And behold, when for the love of Christ we are suddenly filled with the vision of the majesty of Divine humility, then the seal of God is set upon us, and our life may become holy and full of majesty, despite all its servile forms in which this kenosis – this self-emptying – is expressed …

“God is humility,” St. Sophrony says, in the same manner that we can say, “God is love.” When we see Christ on the Cross, we see the very love of God, the utter humility of God, in its revelation to us. Our own actions of humility (self-emptying) and love are not merely moral – they are a participation and communion in the life of God.

And this is equally an expression of being “saved by grace.” Our actions of self-emptying and love are synergistically the actions of the grace of God. St. Paul succinctly says, “Christ within you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27) Christ-within-you is not a moral principle, nor does it mean “trying to act like Christ.” It is a description of walking/acting in union with Christ.

By grace, through grace, in grace, God self-empties Himself in me that I might empty myself in Him. By grace, through grace, in grace, God loves in me that I might love in Him.

St. Sophrony cites the profound example of the self-emptying love of mother and infant. It is a recognition not only of the mother’s actions, but of the grace of God that indwells her and is present with her in those actions. We may rightly say that “motherhood is holy.” We can also extend this observation towards other examples of self-emptying.

St. John says in his wonderfully simple language: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:7–8)

In his gentle way, St. Sophrony says: “…through small deeds we set out upon the path of love for Christ.” Indeed.