Why issola gratiaimportant?

Of course it is on the principle of faith, and this excludes all boasting on our part, for faith is merely receiving what God is offering. If a man has been saved from drowning, he does not go about boasting in the fact that he allowed his rescuer to do it by trusting him. He makes his boast in the power and willingness of the one who rescued him, and by so doing confesses that he himself was helpless and lost. So faith means turning away from self-effort and self-righteousness as a means of justification before God to find it in another — even Jesus. And we learn the blessed fact that God is just and the justifier of him that believes in Jesus.

God's grace is the cause of it; the redemption which is in Christ Jesus is the righteous ground upon which He accomplishes it; our faith is simply submission to God's grace. It is what God is and does and says in and through Christ that draws out our faith and love. But all this was God offering to us before we believed it; it was not our faith that turned God towards us, but His grace that turned us towards Him.

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.

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.

Verse 9. That salvation is "not of works," results inevitably from the doctrine already stated. Instead of being won by his own effort, salvation is received by the believer as the end of his faith (1 Peter 1:9). But the reason elsewhere given is here also added it is not of works, "lest any man should boast." God, who is seeking the glory of his Christ, will still all human boasting. He does so now with His elect by the power of His saving grace. He will do so in the coming day of judgment, when the haughtiness of man shall bow before the fearful presence of His holiness. It is evident that boasting is excluded where salvation is of grace. Believers are not boasters but worshippers, adoring with a wise and understanding heart the God whom they have learned to know and love, through His manifestation of His own rich grace in Jesus. The doctrine of this verse, and of the entire passage of which it forms a part, may be easily paralleled by the attentive reader of Scripture; for it is the fundamental doctrine of the Gospel. Happy are they who, in a clear perception of the mystery of saving grace, are kept from glorying in anything but the cross of Him through whose sore travail all this great salvation is their own.

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.

Thus the utter sin of man makes it an absolute necessity that, if he is to be justified at all, he must be justified gratuitously by God's grace. The question of desert or previous fitness is excluded. This suits the grace and majesty of God quite as much as the abject need of man. His grace moreover does no dishonour to His holy and righteous character, but the very reverse; and all through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. What is the ransom He purposed and has found? Christ a propitiatory through faith in His blood whom He set forth for a declaration of His righteousness. For God passed over the sins of believers in Old Testament times, looking forward to Christ's blood to vindicate Him, and forbearing all the while. But now it is not a matter of forbearance. The debt is cancelled, the blood is shed, His righteousness is no longer in prospect, but brought in and manifested, and God is proved to be just in justifying him that believes in Jesus. (Ver. 26.)

How beautifully do verses 24 to 26 come in! at the same time opening up more fully this righteousness of God which is now revealed. All had sinned, and come short of the glory of God, and were unable to save themselves; but now God acts in pure sovereign grace, and justifies freely, as we read in verse 24: "Being justified" (reckoned righteous) "freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." How full every word of this verse is! There is a poor sinner who has come short of the glory of God; he has no righteousness of his own; he has never done any good; his "throat is like an open sepulchre." "The way of peace" he has not known, his "mouth is stopped;" and he has the solemn verdict pronounced upon him, "Guilty before God;" and then the just sentence passed, Death! judgment! hell! Can the sentence be avoided? No; God is holy, and God is just. But, blessed be His name, He has found a way by which He can be just, and yet save the sinner! He can say to such an one, if he believes in Jesus, "You are justified;" that is, cleared from every charge that could be laid against him "freely," for nothing, without money, without works. On what ground then? "By His grace;" that is, undeserved favour and love. How wonderful, that when we deserved nothing but hell, God acts in love towards us! And that is grace. But how can God thus justify a sinner if He is so holy? "Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Ah! that is the secret, "The redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (v. 24): "whom God has set forth to be a propitiation" (or mercy seat is the right word) "through faith in His blood." (v. 25) That wonderful work of Christ on the cross laid the foundation for all this blessing; there all God's righteous claims were fully met and satisfied.

“Saved … not of works”! not on the principle of works. And why? Because if my works could save me, then I might boast indeed. There would be no sin in my pride. I could claim heaven on the ground of my worthiness, and rightly allow in myself for ever any amount of the very thing which, of all others, is detestable to God; that which lies at the root of all sin—pride or self-sufficiency. But this is impossible. I can no more give myself new birth than bring myself into the world. I am indebted to God for the new birth as for the breath of my nostrils. Life, whether natural or divine, is alike the gift of God; only to communicate the latter there is the necessity of something besides the exercise of divine power. In order to give Adam life natural, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, “and man became a living soul;” whilst in order to give life divine there was the necessity for the death of Christ, to be accomplished in God’s due time, both as the propitiation for our sins, and as the corn of wheat which, through death, might bring forth much fruit. Without dying the corn of wheat would have abode alone, and life and pardon there would have been for none. In giving natural life God displayed but an act of power; but to give divine life the question of sin had to be raised, and in the cross was fully settled. The first was only physical, the second was moral and spiritual. And, in this respect, the new creation transcends the old. In the old we witness God’s power and wisdom; but in the new we see His righteousness, truth, love, and grace. The old is subject to vanity; the new is indestructible.

If our works had any part in this creation, there would be the elements of failure in it; and hence it is “not of works.” But the fact that it is only and wholly of grace makes it absolutely certain and stable. The secret of much of the doubting that exists as to salvation, is simply because “works” are introduced more or less as part of the plan.

Notice, it is “not of works” as the principle, but it is “unto good works” as the object. Good works accompany salvation, but they never go before it. Up to that point they are only sinful.