Romans 11:6

‘But if it is by grace, it is no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace.'

Paul then relates this back to his previous arguments in Romans 3:24; Romans 3:27; Romans 4:2; Romans 4:16; Romans 5:15; Romans 6:15; Romans 8:31. They have been chosen in accordance with the unmerited, active favour of God, without any deserving of their own. For if they had deserved it in any way through their ‘works' of any kind, grace would cease to be grace, it would no longer be unmerited favour. The whole point of grace is that it is free and unmerited. It thus excludes any effort being made to be worthy of it. Thus when Israel were delivered from Egypt it was by the grace of God. They had done nothing to deserve it. That was the basis of the covenant (Exodus 20:2). And this had continued throughout their history. Every prophet who was sent to them was raised up by the grace of God. It was all due to God electing to save some of them in order to carry forward His purposes into the future. And as we have seen in chapter 9 that election was completely determined by the will of God. It was totally as a result of His goodwill and favour, freely given without cost to us (compare Isaiah 55:1). This incidentally is Paul's definition of grace. God's favour revealed freely through His activity on our behalf and without cost to us. Thus whenever we see the word elsewhere we must always interpret it in the light of this verse.