Editing Five solae (section)

===''Sola gratia'' ("by grace alone")===
{{Main|Sola gratia}}
''Sola gratia'', or "only [[Grace in Christianity|grace]]", specifically excludes the merit done by a person as part of achieving salvation. ''Sola gratia'' is the teaching that [[Salvation in Christianity|salvation]] comes by [[divine grace]] or "unmerited favor" only, not as something merited by the sinner. A famous verse used to back up this doctrine is:<blockquote>For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9</blockquote>

Protestant [[Arminian]]s, such as [[Methodists]], are synergists but may also claim the doctrine of ''sola gratia'', though they understand it quite differently than [[Lutheranism|Lutherans]] and [[Calvinists]] do.<ref name="Olson2009">{{cite book|last=Olson|first=Roger E.|title=Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities|date=20 September 2009|publisher=InterVarsity Press|language=en|isbn=9780830874439|page=95|quote=Arminians do not think so; they hold a form of evangelical synergism that sees grace as the efficient cause of salvation and calls faith the sole instrumental cause of salvation to the exclusion of human merits.}}</ref> Arminians believe that God saves only by grace and not at all by merit, but man, enabled by what is referred to as "[[prevenient grace]]", is enabled by the Holy Spirit to understand the Gospel and respond in faith. Arminians believe that this is compatible with salvation by grace alone, since all the actual saving is done by grace. Arminians believe that humans are only capable of receiving salvation when first enabled to do so by prevenient grace, which they believe is distributed to everyone. Arminians therefore do not reject the conception of ''sola gratia'' expounded by Lutheran and Reformed theologians, although their interpretation of it is quite different.<ref>See "Myth 7: Arminianism Is Not a Theology of Grace" in Roger E Olsen, Arminian Theology: Myths and Realities, 2006.</ref>

John Owen, in ''A Display of Arminianism'', rejects the implied belief that the understanding of the Reformed theology has any alliance between the two doctrines and Arminianism is but another form of [[pelagianism]], known as [[semipelagianism]].