The Nature of God’s Gifts

What merit, then, do we have before grace which could make it possible for us to receive grace, when nothing but grace produces good merits in us? When God crowns our merits, it is his own gifts that he crowns. For, just as in the beginning we obtained the mercy of faith, not because we were faithful but that we might become so, in like manner God will crown us at the end with eternal life. Consequently, eternal life itself, which will certainly be possessed at the end without end, is in a sense awarded to antecedent merits, yet, because the same merits for which it is awarded are not effected by us through our sufficiency, but are effected to us by grace, even this very grace is so called for no other reason than that it is given freely.

–Augustine, Letter 194.5

Translation: Every good thing we have or will receive is from God.