What does it mean that salvation is by grace through faith?

The concluding verses of the section (8-10) show that salvation is entirely by grace on God's part, pure favor at a time when we deserved wrath and judgment. "Through faith" is the means by which we receive such grace, faith being not in itself a thing of merit, but that which rightly recognizes all merit in the Lord Jesus Christ, having confidence simply in Himself. "And that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." Even faith to believe is seen as God's gift for in our natural state faith was far from us. God alone has worked marvelously in changing matters, giving us faith and salvation by grace, and indeed every spiritual blessing.

Verse 9 firmly guards against the human natural thought to add works to grace and faith: "not of works, lest anyone should boast." All occasion for people's self exaltation is utterly taken away. We are reduced to our true place and God is exalted. Believers are seen to be "His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus" (v.10). Precious work of new creation, by power infinitely higher than all human work! Let us delight to think of what it means to be the subjects of God's miraculous work. Yet His work in us is "for good works" (v.10), for good works are the proper result after God's work has brought salvation. Yet God has before prepared even these good works for us to walk in. Therefore, if we believers do good works, we have nothing to boast of, nor do we have any excuse for not doing them.

The contemplation of it leads the Apostle to again emphasize the fact that our salvation is all of grace. He had stated this previously, in verse 5, in a parenthetical way. In verse 8 he enlarges upon this important fact, and adds that it is also through faith. The grace is God's: the faith is ours. Yet even our faith is not of ourselves. Faith is not a natural product of the human heart. The weeds that grow by nature in the heart of man are detailed for us in Romans 3:9-19. Faith is no weed at all, but rather a choice flower which once planted by the heavenly Father can never be rooted up. It is the gift of God.

Now this necessarily excludes works; that is, works done in order to obtain life and blessing. The only works of which we were capable were those detailed in verses 2 and 3, and in those works we were spiritually dead. God Himself is the Worker and we are His workmanship; a very different thing. Further, the work necessary was nothing short of creation. How obvious then that human works must be excluded.

Verse 8. "For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of of God." Having thus opened on the soul of the believer a vista into an eternity of blessedness, the Apostle now recalls us to a fresh consideration of the means by which alone our wished-for inheritance must be attained. Accordingly we have in the present verse an amplified repetition of the doctrine stated parenthetically at the close of verse 5. Grace and salvation stand to one another in the relation of cause and effect. Grace saves. But if so, it may still be asked, in what manner does it save? Does it work in us some interior subjective change, by virtue of which we are afterwards considered acceptable on our own account, or is its blessed result arrived at in some other way? In the solution, or rather the complication, of this question, both the subtlety of Satan, and the perverseness of the human understanding, have been exercised from the time when the doctrine was first announced. And yet nothing can possibly be more simple and precise than the reply which is here furnished by the Holy Ghost. It is "through faith."*Now the nature of faith is, that it seeks for, and finds, an object of trust external to itself. It can have no existence but as the reflection of that which has called it into action. If, therefore, God be the Object of faith, it is because He has revealed Himself. In default of this, there might indeed be a longing of the soul after something, the need of which it might more or less deeply understand — a feeling after God — as it is elsewhere expressed. But there could be no true faith, because, until an intelligible revelation has been made, there is no light by which the Object of faith can be discerned, nor any way by which it may be reached. If, then, grace saves through faith, it is manifest that its immediately exciting cause must be the testimony which makes known this saving grace. In other words, it is by a believing reception of the word of truth, the Gospel of our salvation, that the Christian knows the grace of God in truth (Col. 1:6).

I maintain, therefore, that the salvation spoken of in Ephesians is already complete for him that believes; so absolute indeed, that none can add anything to it, because it would be adding something to Christ, and to what Christ has done. And this may not be, cannot be, seeing that it is all the free, unmerited, unmingled mercy of God. And this is the great thing for the soul. Am I able, without question of what I am, or what I hope to be, or what I ought to do for God, to trust Him now? Can I rest all that I have been and am upon Christ, without any promises or pledges of mine — without any hope or thought of what I may do, because God might take me away in a moment? Can I rest entirely and implicitly in Him? Think of the case of the dying thief, which is a living and notable testimony of salvation by grace throughout all ages. Others may have a work to do afterwards; but there we have one who was an object of grace in the last hours of his life. And there is no other way. Had he lived for a thousand years afterwards, he would not have been a whit more secure by grace than he was then. It is of great moment to bring our souls to the touchstone from time to time — whether we are resting solely upon the grace of God toward us, not upon what people call grace in us, i.e., our faithfulness toward Him. For this is a common notion of grace. They mean a great change that has taken place in the heart in respect of God. This, however, is not what God calls grace, but what He has given gratuitously in the work that Christ has done for sin. "By grace are ye saved through faith." The Spirit shuts out all thought of man's contributing the faith or taking any credit because coming to Christ; for He says immediately after, "And that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." This probably refers, not only to the salvation, but to the faith; it was all the gift of God, and not man's production: "Not of works, lest any man should boast." On the contrary, instead of being a question of our works, we are God's handiwork, the new creation for His own praise. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them." There you have a most plain proof that there could be no carelessness as to the walk of the believer; but the same verse cuts off all thought that man's doing can be the ground or means of salvation.

Ephesians 2:8,9 is to be fully and without question recognized as absolute truth. The grace of God in Christ Jesus, grace shown in the willing sacrifice of the Son of Man at Calvary, is the one and only principle by which God saves men from the guilt of their sins, Human works have no place whatever in this marvelous transaction. Man does not and cannot deserve in the least the blessing of his soul's salvation. Therefore he has nothing whatever to boast of. On God's part, grace saves him. On his part, only faith apprehends this, faith that bows to God and takes Him at His Word. Lest anyone should think highly of himself for having faith, it is added, "and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God." Faith itself is God's gift: it is not a matter of merit on man's part. God's grace both saves and preserves every believer. This is consistent with God's election, of which we have spoken. We are chosen in Christ by God's own pure grace. Nothing is ever to dim the luster of this great fact in the eyes and heart of the child of God.

(5) The Epistle makes it abundantly plain that the reception of the gospel is by FAITH, and by nothing else. The law cannot bring about this blessing. Nor can any works of man earn it. It comes by God’s grace, its source; by our Lord Jesus Christ as its Mediator on the ground of His redemptive work performed to God’s satisfaction at the cross. It comes as the declaration of God’s righteousness, “that He might be just, and the Justifier of Him, which believes in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). Faith and faith alone links the believer to the Lord Jesus, with all the blessings—forgiveness of sins, salvation, justification, eternal life—consequent on so believing. It is a glorious gospel, and worthy of God. To Him be all the praise, world without end.

I say, this is a fine example of grace, and is important, because we are told in the New Testament that we are saved by grace: "By grace are ye saved, through faith;" but perhaps few things are so little understood as grace. It is said by some that grace means that God will do His part, if we will do ours; but this entirely destroys the thought of grace. Others say, that it means unmerited love; but it means more than this, for it brings favour and blessing to those who only deserve punishment and destruction; it brings eternal life and glory to such as have merited eternal death and banishment; and flows freely to us through the smitten Son of God, who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. It is the death of Christ, then, that is here typified by the smitten rock. There the stripes that we deserved were laid upon Him, and thence the water of life flows freely. "From all His wounds new blessings flow, A sea of joy without a shore."

Salvation is the fruit of a totally different principle. "By grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). He who knows the plague of his own heart will be grateful for such a statement as this. Such a principle as grace gives hope for the most unworthy; indeed it opens the door for us all. But grace must have a foundation of righteousness on which to work; else the grace of God would be mere trifling with sins which is impossible. The majesty of the divine throne must be upheld at whatever cost; the holiness of the divine nature must be met in all its claims and dues. Here the cross of Christ comes in, which is at once the full answer to all the divine requirements and the very expression of all the grace of the heart of God towards erring man.

I was very much struck lately with a passage in the eleventh of Romans: "Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more of grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace: otherwise work is no more work" (Rom. 11:5-6). How then am I saved? By pure sovereign grace. So wrote the apostle Paul to the Ephesians: "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). It is the blessed, precious, sovereign grace that has come to all of us in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. What we need, as sinners, is salvation. That salvation the grace of God has brought to us. If grace then has brought salvation, what have I now to do? I have to avail myself of that which God brings to me in the Person, and through the work, of the Lord Jesus Christ, — in plain language, I have to accept, by faith, the eternal salvation which grace brings to me.

In Old Testament times God had given His law. However, this only made it evident that man is entirely unable to meet any of His requirements. Now, in the dispensation of grace, God no longer acts on the basis of law. He no longer says: ‘Do this and you shall live’. It is God who opens His heart in order to bless us. This is seen in Ephesians 1, where Paul uses two expressions that touch our hearts. He speaks about the riches of God’s grace, which is connected to our salvation, and the glory of His grace, which is connected to our heavenly blessings, such as adoption and being children of God (Eph. 1:6–7). Grace never sets up fences or conditions. Grace will only be received by faith. It is the God of grace who acts graciously towards us — we who did not deserve His wonderful blessings. The hand that receives God’s blessing from our side is faith.