“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)
We’re digging into the impossibly simple and gigantic idea of grace this week. Specifically, we’re going to listen to Paul tell us about God’s saving grace in his own life, but we’re starting with today’s famous passage to put a handle on the concept.
Boiled down, grace is “unearned good.” In the case of our relationship with God through faith in Christ, that good thing is the most impossibly fantastic thing ever in the universe – eternal life in heaven, finally living as we were meant to with God and with meaning and without any death or mourning or crying or pain.
Today’s verses tell us three key things about that grace:
1) It’s how we are saved.
2) It is a gift from God.
3) It is not worked for or earned by us in any way. At all. Period.
Think: Do you believe in God’s grace in your head? Do you believe in your heart that he saved you for free and not as a result of anything you have done or ever will do? Why would someone have trouble believing in God’s grace to sinners?
Pray: Thank God for the gift of his saving grace because you could never have saved yourself.
Do: Read Ephesians 2:1-10 to see how these verses fit into Paul’s longer thought.