Grace and Universal Salvation

The meaning of "grace" is a very crucial and indispensable teaching to Christians, and especially to mystics. "Grace" is, in essence, the teaching that nothing that we do can result in our "salvation." (For "salvation," some traditions use "enlightenment" or "liberation.")

But if salvation is not due to anything that we do, from where does it arise? Salvation comes from only God's Love, and from no other source. We are not saved because we are more "righteous" than others, because we are better, because we know or understand more than they. Only one factor is relevant to salvation. We are saved only because God wills it, in Love.

The opposite to the teaching of beloved grace is the "doctrine of works." This teaches that we are saved by what we do, often by what we choose to believe. This means that human beings save themselves. They are saved, not because of what God does, but because of what they do. These people are teaching an antibiblical, antimystical view.

If we are saved only because of God's Love-- and we are-- then, what if God's Love is great enough to forgive every sin ever committed? It is. And what if God loves all equally? He does. So, what, exactly, is the logical result of grace? It is this spectacular truth: Grace leads to the final "someday" sallvation of every creature and being who has ever lived!

This is called "universal salvation," and Christians do not like it, for it takes away their sense of specialness or superiority. But grace, combined with the illimitable and infinite Love of God, clearly implies this. Even Christians who believe in grace usually reject universal salvation; but to do so, they have to put limitations upon God. And whenever a person says, "God cannot..." unless she is discussing evil, she is already on the wrong track. For God is omnipotent; and even though Christians do not like the idea of universal salvation, if God has determined that this will be the fair and just outcome of the cosmos, in the end, their ideas seem feeble when compared with immeasurable and endless Love.