Sola Gratia
Sola Gratia (Grace Alone)
“The word of grace and forgiveness of sin teaches us that we are justified and saved solely through Christ, without our merit; this is the principal article from which all our doctrine flowed.” (Luther as quoted here.)
Or put another way, we believe
“that poor sinful people are justified before God, that is absolved—pronounced free of all sins and of the judgment of the damnation that they deserved and accepted as children and heirs of eternal life—without the least bit of our own ‘merit or worthiness’ apart from all preceding, present, or subsequent works. We are justified on the basis of sheer grace, because of the sole merit, the entire obedience, and the bitter suffering, death, and the resurrection of our Lord Christ alone, whose obedience is reckoned to us as righteousness” (Formula of Concord SD, III, 9).