Remove grace, and you have nothing whereby to be saved. Remove free will and you have nothing that could be saved.
Interpretation
Grace and free will are essential for salvation; without them, there is nothing to save or be saved by.
This quote by Anselm of Canterbury emphasizes the fundamental role of grace and free will in the process of salvation. It suggests that grace is a divine gift necessary for salvation, while free will is the human capacity to choose faith and repentance. Without grace, there are no grounds for salvation, and without free will, there is no opportunity for personal choice in accepting that salvation.
In practice
During a discussion on the importance of personal choice in faith, you can use this quote to illustrate the concept of salvation.
A Prayer of Anselm My God, I pray that I may so know you and love you that I may rejoice in you. And if I may not do so fully in this life let me go steadily on to the day when I come to that fullness . . . Let me receive That which you promised through your truth, that my joy may be full.
For I do not seek to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand. For I believe this: unless I believe, I will not understand.
Spare me through your mercy, do not punish me through your justice.
I believe in order that I may understand.
A single Mass offered for oneself during life may be worth more than a thousand celebrated for the same intention after death.
I have written the little work that follows . . . in the role of one who strives to raise his mind to the contemplation of God and one who seeks to understand what he believes.
Whether we like it or not, the one justification for the existence of all religions is death, they need death as much as we need bread to eat.
Against the suffering which may come upon one from human relationships the readiest safeguard is voluntary isolation, keeping oneself aloof from other people. The happiness which can be achieved along this path is, as we see, the happiness of quietness. Against the dreaded external world one can only defend oneself by some kind of turning away from it, if one intends to solve the task by oneself.
That's all that counts. People being sorry. Makes you feel better; gives you a sense of dignity, and that's all that's important; a sense of dignity. And it doesn't matter if you don't care or not, either. You got to have a sense of dignity, even if you don't care, 'cause, if you don't have that, civilization's doomed.
There is an ever-widening gap between what science allows and what we should actually do. There are many doors science can open that should be kept closed, on prudential or ethical grounds.
Itβs not so much that nothing means anything but more that it keeps meaning nothing. thereβs no release, just gurus and self- appointed gods and hucksters. the more people say, the less there is to say. even the best books are dry sawdust.
It is easy enough to praise men for the courage of their convictions. I wish I could teach the sad young of this mealy generation the courage of their confusions.
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