Ephesians 2:8-10

Salvation Is By Grace Alone

God gives us what we cannot attain on our own. We cannot earn our salvation. There is no amount of good deeds that can help us make up for our sins. God demonstrates His love by giving us His Grace.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us

grace n. — goodwill freely disseminated (by God); especially to the benefit of the recipient regardless of the benefit accrued to the disseminator.

God’s grace is a gift. It is not based on what we do. God does not give grace to people based on how good they are. Since we cannot be saved by our good works, this means that we cannot be lost by our bad works. God gives grace for Jesus sake. Grace is not a reward, but a gift.

The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians The Work and the Works of Grace (Ephesians 2:4–10 Contd)

(1) Paul insists that it is by grace that we are saved. We have not earned salvation, nor could we have earned it. It is the gift of God, and our part is simply to accept it. Paul’s point of view is undeniably true—and for two reasons.

(a) God is perfection; and, therefore, only perfection is good enough for him. Human beings by their very nature cannot bring perfection to God; and so, if we are ever to win our way to God, it must always be God who gives and we take from him.

(b) God is love; sin is therefore a crime, not against law, but against love. Now, it is possible to make atonement for a broken law, but it is impossible to make atonement for a broken heart; and sin is not so much breaking God’s law as it is breaking God’s heart. Let us take a crude and imperfect analogy. Suppose a motorist by careless driving kills a child. The driver is arrested, tried, found guilty and sentenced to a term of imprisonment and/or to a fine. After the fine has been paid and/or the term of imprisonment served, as far as the law is concerned, the whole matter is over. But it is very different in relation to the mother whose child was killed. The driver can never put things right with her by serving a term of imprisonment and paying a fine. The only thing which can restore that relationship with her is an act of free forgiveness on her part. That is the way we are to God. It is not against God’s laws that we have sinned, it is against his heart. And therefore only an act of free forgiveness of the grace of God can put us back into the right relationship with him.

(2) That is to say that actions have nothing to do with earning salvation. It is neither right nor possible to leave the teaching of Paul here—and yet that is where it is so often left. Paul goes on to say that we are re-created by God for good actions. Here is the Pauline paradox. All the good works in the world cannot put us right with God; but there is something radically wrong with the Christianity that does not result in good deeds.

There is nothing mysterious about this. It is simply an inevitable law of love. If some fine person loves us, we know that we do not and cannot deserve that love. At the same time, we know with utter conviction that we must spend our lives trying to be worthy of it.

That is our relationship to God. Good works can never earn salvation; but there is something radically wrong if salvation does not produce good actions. It is not that our good deeds put God in our debt; rather that God’s love lays on us the obligation to try throughout our lives to be worthy of it.

We know what God wants us to do; God has prepared long beforehand the kind of life he wants us to live, and has told us about it in his book and through his Son. We cannot earn God’s love; but we can and must show how grateful we are for it, by seeking with our whole hearts to live the kind of life that will bring joy to God’s heart.

We Receive God’s Grace By Faith

MacArthur Study Bible NASB Commentary

2:8 faith; and that not of yourselves. “That” refers to the entire previous statement of salvation, not only the grace but the faith. Although men are required to believe for salvation, even that faith is part of the gift of God which saves and cannot be exercised by one’s own power. God’s grace is preeminent in every aspect of salvation (cf. Ro 3:20; Gal 2:16).

16 nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.

Even the the faith to believe is given to us by God for salvation. Paul says that our faith is not our own.

2 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

When a person truly experiences Christ, they cannot refuse to believe. When Paul experienced Jesus He believed. Though we may not experience Christ the way Paul did, it is substantial enough to cause one to believe. When a person has an emotional experience they will not have saving faith.

God Gives Us Grace and Faith So We Will Walk In His Good Works

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update Chapter 2

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

God has an eternal purpose for all of our lives. He wants us to walk in the good works that HE has prepared for us to walk in.

13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

When we engage in the good works that He has prepared for us, He receives glory!

16 Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.