St. Augustine and Grace Through the Centuries

Grace is the central theme of the Christian faith, powerfully proclaimed through the lives and teachings of Augustine, Calvin, Ryle and Spurgeon, each emphasizing God’s unearned, transformative love in Christ. Across time, these theologians affirmed that grace is not a supplement to human effort but the initiating, sustaining and redeeming work of God that rescues, renews and assures believers.

Grace is not a passing breeze in the Christian story; it’s the prevailing wind. From the early church to the Reformation to the Baptist and Anglican preachers of the 19th century, the message has remained the same: God’s grace meets sinners and sufferers in their need and does for them what they cannot do for themselves. Four voices across time – Augustine, Calvin, Ryle and Spurgeon – echo this same truth with clarity and power.

On Aug. 28, we celebrate the feast day of St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the most foundational voices in the Christian tradition. His theology of grace – biblically anchored, pastorally warm and philosophically rigorous – has shaped the church’s witness for over 1,500 years. This month, let’s examine more about his life and teaching, concluding with a brief look at the other three figures who also illuminated and clarified the life-giving message of grace.

Augustine: Grace and the Great Exchange

A bishop in North Africa in the fourth and fifth centuries, Augustine (A.D. 354-430) was a theologian whose work profoundly shaped Western Christianity. His early life was marked by spiritual searching before a dramatic conversion to Christianity. His Confessions give voice to the struggle of a restless soul met by God’s relentless grace; The City of God, exploring topics such as sin, grace, the Trinity and the church, offers a sweeping vision of redemptive history shaped by divine mercy.

Augustine’s vision of grace as divine rescue – centered on the Great Exchange in Christ – offers a vivid portrait of salvation as unearned, powerful and humbling. He saw sin not merely as bad behavior but as bondage. Human beings, in their fallen condition (what he called “original sin”), cannot even will the good without the prior movement of grace. Through his reflections on the incarnation and the futility of the law without grace, Augustine laid the foundation for the church’s understanding of God’s initiative and mercy.

Augustine’s theology centers on one breathtaking truth: the Great Exchange. That is, Christ has taken our sin and given us righteousness in return. He writes in The City of God: “For as by the sin of one man we have fallen into a misery so deplorable, so by the righteousness of one Man, who also is God, shall we come to a blessedness inconceivably exalted.”

Grace, for Augustine, is not just a kind sentiment. It is power. Divine initiative. God acting when we cannot. It is rescue, not assistance. It is not a supplement to our efforts; it is the very foundation of salvation.

The anonymous late first- or early second-century Epistle to Diognetus, a text Augustine likely knew, captures this mystery with vivid wonder:

In whom was it possible for us, the lawless and ungodly, to be justified, except in the Son of God alone? O sweet exchange, O the incomprehensible work of God, O the unexpected blessings, that the sinfulness of many should be hidden in one righteous person, while the righteousness of one should justify many sinners!

This is the logic of the cross. Grace is not earned, summoned or managed. It is given.

Augustine elaborates on this by contrasting the law and grace in his work On the Grace of Christ:

The law and grace are so different that the law is not only useless but actually an obstacle in many ways unless grace assists. The function of the law is to make people guilty of transgression and force them to take refuge in grace in order to be liberated and helped to overcome evil desires. It commands more than liberates; it diagnoses illness but does not cure. Indeed, far from healing the infirmity, the law actually makes it worse in order to move a person to seek the medicine of grace more anxiously and insistently, because “the letter kills but the spirit gives life” [2 Cor. 3:6].

The law diagnoses but cannot heal. Grace, then, is the medicine that God freely gives to the spiritually sick. It is not just pardon; it is transformation, delivered through the Spirit who gives life.

Augustine’s theology is not philosophical speculation and is never detached – it is anchored in Christ and suffused with awe. In one of his most famous meditations, he reflects on the humility of God in the incarnation:

Man’s maker was made man, that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast; that the Bread might hunger, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired on its journey; that the Truth might be accused of false witness, the Teacher be beaten with whips, the Foundation be suspended on wood; that Strength might grow weak; that the Healer might be wounded; that Life might die.

This is not only grace. It is astonishing grace.

Augustine reminds us that grace is not a theory. It is personal. It is a person. Jesus Christ – God in the flesh – full of grace and truth, descending to rescue sinners and raise them to share in his life, in whom our sin is swallowed up and in whom our future is secured. Grace, for Augustine, is the divine initiative of love in Christ, reconciling and renewing.

Other historical figures also shaped our ideas of grace. Let’s take a brief look at each one.

Calvin: Grace That Unites Us to Christ

A 16th-century pastor and theologian, John Calvin (1509-1564) carried forward Augustine’s insights into the 16th century with biblical precision and pastoral clarity. He saw grace not as a thing, not a substance or force, but a person: Jesus Christ. Calvin’s theology centered on union with Christ; salvation and all its blessings are not a series of disconnected blessings but the result of being united to Christ. Justification, adoption, sanctification and glorification are gifts from God because we are “in Christ.” Grace, in Calvin’s view, isn’t a drop from heaven – it’s the fountain of God’s love, flowing through the pierced hands of the Savior.

In The Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin writes that all benefits of salvation are “to be found in Christ alone,” and that believers “possess [Christ] by faith, and in possessing him have all his riches.” Grace, then, is not something God doles out in portions, and it is his giving of himself.

Calvin emphasized the tender heart of the Father. In contrast to the caricature of a cold and distant deity, Calvin describes God’s grace as “fatherly liberality,” portraying the Father as one who joyfully receives our imperfect obedience. He writes: “Sons who are more generously and candidly treated by their fathers do not hesitate to offer them incomplete and half-done and even defective works, trusting that their obedience and readiness of mind will be accepted.”

God is not a fault-finding taskmaster. He is a gracious Father who accepts his children through Christ, delighting in their efforts and empowering them by the Spirit to walk in newness of life.

Ryle: Grace That Is Clear and Courageous

A 19th-century English bishop, J.C. Ryle (1816-1900) preached grace with pastoral directness and gospel simplicity. He warned against self-righteousness on one hand, spiritual laziness on the other. Like Augustine and Calvin before him, Ryle was deeply aware of the human tendency to either boast in self-righteousness or collapse into despair, and he pointed people instead to the sufficiency of Christ.

In Ryle’s theology, grace is both comforting and courageous. It confronts our pride but lifts our heads. It does not merely forgive – it transforms. “It is grace, not learning, that makes great saints,” he wrote, emphasizing the priority of God’s work over our credentials. He made it clear that God does not save people because of their strength, pedigree or promise. He saves by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

One of Ryle’s most striking insights comes from his reflection on Jesus’ gentle welcome to doubting disciples. After the Resurrection, Jesus greets His followers not with rebuke, but with peace: “Peace be with you” (John 20:21b). Ryle wrote, “Not a word of reproof … All is forgiven and forgotten. The very first word is ‘Peace.’”

This is not a cheap grace. It is costly grace – bought by the wounds of Christ and offered to the undeserving. Grace doesn’t shame the fearful. It speaks peace to failures. And that grace produces holiness, not passivity. As Ryle put it, “Tell me not of your justification unless you have also some marks of sanctification.”

Grace liberates from sin’s penalty and breaks sin’s power. Its fruit is not spiritual laziness but godly living, rooted in assurance and gratitude.

Spurgeon: Grace That Is Abundant and Free

A 19th-century London preacher known as the “Prince of Preachers,” Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) announced grace with poetic fire and doctrinal depth. For Spurgeon, grace was both the beginning and the end of the Christian life: “It is not your hold on Christ that saves you – it is Christ. It is not your joy in Christ that saves you – it is Christ.” He saw grace as the unchanging heartbeat of God’s love for undeserving people.

He often illustrated grace with vivid imagery. He once preached: “The bridge of grace will bear your weight. Thousands of big sinners have gone across that bridge … never a stone has sprung in that mighty bridge … It will bear me over as it has for them.”

This was not rhetorical flourish. It was a robust theology of assurance. For Spurgeon, grace wasn’t fragile, conditional or theoretical. It was the strong and reliable bridge built by God. He said, “It is not the strength of your faith that saves you, but the strength of Him upon whom you rely.”

Grace rests on Christ’s finished work. In a world enamored with merit and performance, Spurgeon reminds us: “There is no such thing as a deserved mercy.”

Grace Is Not a Footnote

Grace, then, is not a theological footnote. It is the heartbeat and headline of the Christian faith – across every century, culture and language. Augustine shows us its divine initiative. Calvin points us to union with Christ. Ryle calls us to grace-driven holiness. Spurgeon invites us to rest in its abundance.

These four men didn’t invent grace. They received it. They rejoiced in it. They bore witness to it. And they passed it on. In a world weary of striving and shame, grace still astonishes. It still saves. It still transforms. And it still flows – through the centuries.

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