Grace / Faith in Jesus
Why Salvation Is a Gift
Ephesians starts with what God did for people who couldn't save themselves. That explains both how we belong to Him and how we can begin to grow.
A lot of us know how earning something works. You do the job, and you get paid. You meet the requirements, and you qualify. You keep your end of the agreement, and somebody else keeps theirs.
Then we hear that God saves us by grace, and we try to fit it into that arrangement. What do I have to do first? How much is enough? What's the minimum I have to get right before He accepts me?
Those questions make sense if salvation is something we're being asked to earn. But Paul explains it as something God gives to people who couldn't produce it for themselves.
God made us alive
In Ephesians 2, Paul describes people who were dead in their sins. They were caught up in desires and ways of living that were doing them harm. Paul includes himself and his fellow believers in that description. This was their situation too.
Then God acted. Paul says God is rich in mercy and loves us with a great love. Even when we were dead in our sins, He made us alive with Christ.
Right in the middle of saying it, Paul interrupts himself: "by grace you have been saved!" It breaks the grammar of his sentence the way "Wow!" would break an English one. And he puts it in a tense that means it happened and it stays that way. By grace you stand saved.
The people in this passage didn't work their way out of death and then ask God to approve their progress. God made them alive. He raised them with Christ and seated them with Him. Paul made up words to say it, sticking "co-" on the front: co-made alive, co-raised, co-seated. God hitched their lives to Christ's. ()
That's a lot more than a chance to try again. God has done something for us that changes where we stand with Him. We belong to Christ, and we share in what He's accomplished.
You receive what God gives
Paul puts it plainly: we're saved by grace through faith. This is God's gift. It doesn't come from our works, so nobody gets to boast about earning it. ()
Grace tells us about God's goodness toward us. Faith tells us how we receive what He's offering. We believe in Jesus and trust Him to save us.
You don't have to turn believing into another achievement or become so good at faith that God finally owes you something. You're believing that Jesus is God's Son, who died for your sins and rose again. You're taking God at His word about the life He gives through Him.
That answers the question about the minimum you have to get right. If you had to get your theology of salvation exactly right before God would save you, then having the right theology would give you something to boast about, and Paul says nobody gets to boast. We aren't saved even by being correct about how we're saved.
That's why your past doesn't put you beyond His reach. God offered salvation to sinners. He knew who needed it. You can come with things to repent of, harm to repair, and habits you need help changing. You need a Savior for a reason.
And if you've spent your life being religious, you receive the same gift. You don't have to defend every choice you've made or prove that you were better than somebody else. The person with an ugly past and the person who's proud of his record both need God's grace. It doesn't matter if your daddy was the mayor or the town drunk. Where I come from, he could have been both.
Paul knew about having a religious record to be proud of. In Philippians 3, he lists his ancestry, his training, and his zeal. He'd had the standing other people wanted. But knowing Jesus was worth so much more that Paul was glad to give up his claim to all of it. He wanted to be found in Christ with the righteousness God gives through faith. He'd found something better than the things that used to make him feel important. ()
God has a life in mind for you
Paul doesn't stop after saying salvation is a gift. His next sentence says we're God's craftsmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand for us to do. ()
People argue about words like "prepared beforehand." What it means is that God loved you enough to plan for you. It's like coming home to visit after you've moved out, and your mom says, "I knew you were coming, so I cooked your favorite meal." He knew you were coming, and He got the best ready for you.
The order matters. God makes us alive, and then we have a life to live. He's got good things for the people He saves to do.
That changes why you obey. You learn to love people because God loves you. You tell the truth because you don't have to keep pretending you're better than you are. When you blow it, you ask for help, admit you were wrong, and get up and try again.
And the good you do can be ordinary. Somebody needs a little patience. Somebody could use a ride. There may be a person you've treated badly who needs to hear an honest apology. Being God's craftsmanship means your ordinary life can be useful to Him.
And you get help from other people, too. You're part of God's family. Everybody in it got there by grace. We have good reason to be patient with each other while we're learning.
Growing without trying to earn your place
Grace lets us be honest about what still needs to change in us and still believe God wants us.
Working hard at learning to live well, taking your failures seriously, caring whether your actions help or hurt somebody: all of that fits a life God has given you.
What you don't have to do is make every day a fresh attempt to persuade Him to accept you. Paul says God showed His great love by making us alive with Christ when we were dead in our sins. His kindness came before our improvement.
That's where the confidence to grow comes from. You have a place with God through Jesus. Ask your Father for help, and get on with the good things He's given you to do.
— tobe