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.
When remaining in awareness itself, every thought movement, no matter what kind, is like a drawing in air.
Then I reflect that all things happen, happen to one, precisely now. Century follows century, and things happen only in the present. There are countless men in the air, on land and at sea, and all that really happens happens to me.
The goal of a life free of dysphoria is a snare and a delusion. A better goal is of good commerce with the world. Authentic happiness, astonishingly, can occur even in the presence of authentic sadness.
We really suffer from a hot-take disease, wanting to be the first one who has the hottest take.
Normal consciousness is a state of stupor, in which the sensibility to the wholly real and responsiveness to the stimuli of the spirit are reduced. The mystics, knowing that man is involved in a hidden history of the cosmos, endeavor to awake from the drowsiness and apathy and to regain the state of wakefulness for their enchanted souls.
God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.
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