“Upon His own merits, Christ has enacted a law—or covenant—of grace, forgiving all sin and freely giving everlasting life to all who will believe and accept it, so that all their sins are continually pardoned by the terms of this covenant.”
The fact of the matter is, that the forgiving of our sins has always been and will continue to be by the grace of God. The New Covenant was ushered in by Christ and we did nothing deserving of it. We always want to take credit for our salvation, but we cannot. The gift of everlasting life is given only by God to the elect, His people. When meditating on this I think of Luke 18, the Pharisee and the tax collector. We try and boast, but what we need to do is beat our chest and say “be merciful to me a sinner.” Our faith is a gift from God, as was the mercy that He showed us. What an encouraging truth. Our salvation is not based on some profession of faith that we made, but on the fact that God granted us belief based on the New Covenant ushered in by the blood of Christ.
Theological Digressions 