day no. 17,092: works don't work, but grace goes hard

“The secret of the gospel is that grace works better than works do.” — Douglas Wilson, Keep Your Kids

When it comes to salvation, works don't work, but grace goes hard. Grace saves what works cannot.

Ephesians 2:8-10

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Works accompany grace by faith in believing, but they cannot replace grace or faith by doing.

Grace does what grit cannot do, but does not do it without gutting it out.

Matthew 19:6

Therefore they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Faith and works are friends. There is no tension between them. They love and like each other.