ABSTRACT
It is difficult in philosophy of religion to give a perspicuous representation of the mode of application which religious concepts have. It is difficult to recognise the place of mystery in religious belief. The help which is said to come from God's grace is no help at all. It threatens our understanding of moral endeavour with magical promises of divine deliverance. In face of objections such as these, our task is to pay attention to concept-formation in religious belief, in this case, the conceptual relations between grace and works. In elucidating the development of belief in God's grace in Luther, Whittaker reminds us that Luther had been taught that God's grace was freely available, but only to those who were properly repentant. The emphasis on grace as God's free gift is meant to take us away from a self-calculating religion of desert.
