For ye are saved by grace, through faith; and this not of yourselves; it is God's gift
One short line names the source of salvation, the means of receiving it, and the One who supplies both. It has raised two questions ever since: is salvation finished or still in progress, and does the faith itself come from God?
A Salvation Already Complete
The verb is not "you are being saved." Commentators point to the tense: the work is done, and it stays done.
"By grace you have been saved." By this he means that we have been saved and are saved. We enjoy now what is already past and complete before God. It is a finished fact, because it is in Christ, and everything here is in Christ… The Saviour is seated on high, and salvation is so fully in Him that we are not in the process of being saved. We are saved, and we need nothing more on this point.
Other letters speak of salvation as something still ahead. One writer marks the difference:
Salvation is looked on in Ephesians as an accomplished and present thing. In Philippians 2:12-13 and Romans 8:22-25 the believer is a traveller here below, as in 1 Peter too. He is surrounded by difficulties and dangers. He looks ahead to salvation at the coming of the Lord Jesus. But that would not suit Ephesians, where we are viewed as blessed in the heavenly places. We have been and are saved.
Grace That Rests on the Cross
Grace opens the door to people with no claim at all. But it does not brush sin aside. God's throne had to be satisfied first.
Anyone who knows how sick his own heart is will be glad to hear this. A principle like grace gives hope to the most unworthy. It opens the door for all of us. But grace must have righteousness as its foundation. Otherwise God's grace would be treating sin as a light thing, and that is impossible. God's throne must keep its majesty, whatever the cost… Here the cross of Christ comes in, which is both the full answer to everything God requires and the full expression of the grace in God's heart toward people who have gone wrong.
Faith as the Channel, Not the Payment
Faith is the way grace reaches us. It earns nothing. Its whole value lies in what it looks at.
"Through faith" is the way we receive such grace. Faith is not a thing of merit in itself. It recognises that all the merit is in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it puts its confidence in Him alone.
What "This" Points To
Writers have long argued over the words "this is not your own doing." Some say "this" covers salvation as a whole. Others say it points to the faith. One writer works through the wording itself:
Those who oppose this truth say that "this" cannot go with "faith," because in Greek the word faith is feminine. But by that rule it cannot go with "grace" either, because grace is feminine too. Then they say it goes with the whole thing, salvation. That makes no sense. Read it that way: "By grace you have been saved through faith, and this (this salvation) is not your own doing; it is the gift of God." Of course salvation by grace is not our own doing. If it were, it would not be grace. Nobody imagines that grace comes from himself, so on that reading "and this" says nothing. But people do imagine that faith comes from themselves. So after saying it is by faith, he adds, "and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God."
A second writer puts the same point in a picture.
The grace is God's: the faith is ours. Yet even our faith is not of ourselves. Faith is not something the human heart grows on its own… Faith is no weed. It is a rare flower. Once the heavenly Father plants it, nothing can pull it up. It is the gift of God.
The End of Boasting
If everything is given, there is nothing left to take credit for — and that changes what a Christian becomes.
It is clear that boasting is excluded where salvation is of grace. Believers are not boasters but worshippers. With a wise and understanding heart they adore the God they have learned to know and love, because He has shown His own rich grace in Jesus.
Summary
- Grace — the cause. Salvation starts in God's unearned favour. That favour rests on righteousness, won at the cross — sin was not brushed aside.
- Faith — the channel. Faith carries no merit of its own. It rests the whole weight on Christ and owns that all the merit is His.
- Gift — even the faith. Writers differ on whether "this" points to faith or to the whole of salvation. They agree on one thing: God gives the believing heart; we do not produce it.
- Finished — not in progress. This letter states salvation as done. We have been saved and are saved, complete in Christ, who is already seated on high.
- Worship — the result. Where nothing is earned, boasting dies. The saved person speaks as a worshipper, not a boaster.