Ephesians 2:8-9 teaches that salvation from the eternal penalty of sin is God's gracious gift, received through faith in Jesus Christ and is not earned by human works. No one can boast in their having been justified in God's sight because it comes entirely from God's grace.
Ephesians 2:8-9 explains that salvation from spiritual death into eternal life is God's gracious gift, received through simple faith in Jesus Christ rather than being something that is earned through human works, so that all glory belongs to God alone.
In Ephesians 2:1-7, Paul wrote his Gospel statement describing the hopelessness we had when we were spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins before God intervened. Paul stated this former reality for believers prior to coming to faith in Christ in Ephesians 2:1-3.
Paul explained that before God made us alive with Christ, we were dead in our trespasses and sins and we lived according to the lusts of our flesh, under the influence of Satan, and were by nature children of wrath.
Paul stated believers' current reality in Christ in Ephesians 2:4-7.
He declared that God, who is rich in mercy and because of His great love for us, made us alive together with Christ, raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace toward believers. Paul reminds believers that God did all these incredible things for us even while we were still dead in our sins.
And tucked in the middle of this amazing declaration of what God has done for us, Paul mentioned an important parenthetical statement: "by grace you have been saved" (Ephesians 2:5b). God's grace is the basis for our salvation from death to eternal life.
The idea that we are saved bygrace is so loaded that Paul, immediately after completing the rest of his thought in Ephesians 2:7, repeats, expands, and explains its fuller meaning.
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast (vv 8-9).
For by grace you have been saved through faith—(v 8a)
and that not of yourselves—(v 8b)
it is the gift of God—(v 8c)
not as a result of works—(v 9a)
so that no one may boast—(v 9b)
FOR BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED THROUGH FAITH… (v 8a)
The expression you have been saved by grace through faith (v 8) means that God's grace is the basis by which our salvation from spiritual death to eternal life is offered and faith is the means through which we receive it.
The first clause For by grace you have been saved through faith (v 8a) is almost a verbatim repetition of Paul's important parenthetical idea from Ephesians 2:5b: "by grace you have been saved."
The two differences between the clause in each verse are that verse 8a begins with the word For and verse 8a ends with the phrase through faith.
The word For primarily connects Ephesians 2:8-9 to Paul's Gospel statement in Ephesians 2:1-7. For shows that what he is about to say in verses 8-9 pertains to what he just said about the Gospel in Ephesians 2:1-7.
Paul uses the word For before he restates the phrase from Ephesians 2:5b, by grace you have been saved, to indicate that he is about to elaborate on what it means to be saved by grace. Paul is about to elaborate on the basis by which Godsaved believers from spiritual death and brought them into spiritual life with Christ.
The basis by which you (the believing readers of Paul's epistle to the Ephesians) have been saved from spiritual death into spiritual life is God's grace.
The Greek word that is translated as grace is χάρις (G5485—pronounced "khar-is" and often spelled "charis"). Charis means "grace," "favor," or "kindness." Grace in this context describes God's favorable kindness toward us. The word "charis" indicates someone is favorable toward someone or something, with context determining who is favorable and for what reason. We can see this in Luke 2:52 where Jesus grew "in favor ['charis'] with God and men."
In Luke 2:52, men look on Jesus with favor, and God did as well. For each, the favor had to do with Jesus's "wisdom and stature." We can also observe in 1 Peter 5:5 that God "gives grace ['charis'] to the humble." This tells us that God favors those who humble themselves before His face.
In each case where God exhibits favor or grace, it is because God chose to do so. God cannot be obligated. If God favors someone for being humble, it is because God chose to favor them; He decided their humility. God cannot be obligated due to a standard of humility outside of God Himself. God is the standard. So, regardless of the circumstance, God's favor or grace is always an act of His mercy.
God delivers us from our broken state of being fallen and separated from Him purely because of His love. His saving grace toward us is freely given. It is not earned. It is not as a result of works (v 9).
The Greek word translated as works is ἔργον (G2041—pronounced: "er-gon"). Ergon means "work," "deed," "action," "task," or "accomplishment." It refers to something that is done, produced, or brought about through effort and activity. The English word "energy" is derived from a related Greek word, ἐνέργεια (energeia), which describes active working or operative power. Thus, an ergon is the result, product, or accomplishment that comes from the exercise of effort, activity, or energy. The point is that our salvation from spiritual death to life is that there is absolutely no connection between anything we do and the saving grace of God.
We are born dead in our trespasses in sins (Ephesians 2:1, 5, Colossians 2:13). It was not that we turned over a new leaf. Jesus died for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). Being saved from the penalty of sin is one hundred percent based on Jesus's finished work on the cross (Hebrews 10:12-14). All the requirements of the law were satisfied by Him on the cross (Colossians 2:14). We can neither add nor detract from Jesus's finished work. We can only receive throughfaith, or refuse to receive throughfaith.
God's grace toward you when you were dead in your transgressions is unearned and freely given (Romans 3:24, 11:6). This application of God's grace or favor toward you is not payment for something you have done. His grace in this application is His favorable kindness freely given according to His own rich mercy and great love for you (Ephesians 2:4). Paul says in Ephesians 2:8c that salvation by grace is the gift of God (v 8).
The grace by which you have been saved from spiritual death to eternal life is primarily twofold:
The expression that is translated you have been saved is a form of the Greek term σῴζω (G4982—pronounced "sō-dzō"). Sōzō means "to save," "to rescue," "to deliver," "preserve from danger," "heal," or "to make whole." "Sozo" refers to something being delivered from something, with context determining what is being delivered from what.
An example is Matthew 9:21, where a sick woman determined that if she touched the hem of Jesus's garment, she would be "sozo"—healed from her sickness. Another example is Matthew 8:25, where Jesus's disciples cried out, "Save us ['sozo'] Lord"—seeking Jesus to deliver them from perishing in the storm.
Every time Bible readers encounter a salvation passage, it is helpful if they consider the four questions of salvation to better understand its meaning. Context answers the four questions and determines the meaning of salvation. Context determines the following about salvation:
The Object of salvation (i.e. what is saved);
The Rescuer (who is doing the saving);
The Purpose of salvation (what something is saved to)
The Escape of salvation (what something is saved from)
The passive voice of the verbal phrase you have been saved explicitly states the object of salvation as you. You are the ones who are saved.
Specifically, you consists of the believers of Ephesus who were Paul’s initial recipients of this letter. More generally speaking, you refers to all of Paul’s Ephesian readers who are believers.
God is our Savior. God is the One who saved us in His rich mercy and His great love for us (Ephesians 2:4a).
The passive voice of the verbal phrase you have been saved implies from the surrounding context that your rescuer and savior is God.
The passive voice of the verbal phrase you have been saved points to an important truth about our salvation from spiritual death to spiritual life.
This truth is that Godsaved us; we do not save ourselves.
You receive salvation. You have been saved. You did not save. God is your acting Savior. You are the recipients of His saving action. He savedyou and made you alive again. You would have remained dead in your transgressions and eternally separated from God if He had not been rich in mercy and graciously intervened on your behalf.
Paul will explicitly reinforce this important truth about our salvation throughout the remaining phrases of Ephesians 2:8-9: and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
It is important to remember that God is the one who saved us by grace and that we do not and indeed could have never saved ourselves.
3. What were we saved to?
The purpose of this salvation is to be reunited with God and Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:5-7).
Godsaved you to be made spiritually alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:5a), to be resurrected with Him (Ephesians 2:6a) and seated with Him in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6b).
4. What were we being saved from?
The escape of this salvation is spiritual death caused by sin, and it is the wrath of God (Ephesians 2:1-3). In the case of being dead in our sins, separation from God is an eternal destiny that is thwarted throughfaith in Jesus.
Godsaved you from being spiritually dead in your sins and transgressions (Ephesians 2:1, 2:5a)
Before continuing, it may be beneficial to further explain the death that you have been saved from and the meaning of Paul's expression: "dead in your trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1—See also Ephesians 2:5a).
From a Biblical perspective, death means separation. It is not simply the end of existence. When someone physically dies, the Bible says that their spirit and soul separate from their body (Ecclesiastes 12:7,James 2:26). Death describes a severance or a cutting off. Death is what happens when something gets pulled apart from what it was made to be joined to.
The death Paul is describing in Ephesians 2:1, 5 that you have been saved from is spiritual death.
Spiritual death is being cut off and severed from connection and/or fellowship with God, one another, and inhabiting His good design for our lives. Accordingly, spiritual life is connection to God, one another, and walking in His design. Jesus defined eternal life as intimately knowing or being connected to God (John 17:3).
God created human beings to live in harmony with Him, one another, and His good creation (Genesis 1:28). He gave Adam one command to obey to keep this harmony—not to eat from the forbidden tree (Genesis 2:16-17); and God told Adam that the day he disobeyed this command would be the day he would die. Adam and his wife disobeyed God, and though they did not drop dead physically, they separated themselves from God and suffered spiritual death.
Paul summed up the sad saga of humanity’s spiritual separation in Romans 5:12 when he wrote: "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned."
This was your situation when you were dead in your trespasses and sins—you were:
Destined for "the second death" (eternal separation) from God in the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:14)
Moreover, you were without hope of altering or improving your state of spiritual death. In the verses that follow this Gospel summary in Ephesians 2:8-10, Paul calls upon his readers to:
"Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ…having no hope and without God in the world." (Ephesians 2:12)
By God's grace, all of this separation, futility, despair, and eternal doom of spiritual death in our sins is what you have been saved from. Being saved from spiritual death to spiritual life is one of the most important blessings of the Gift of Eternal Life.
The term Giftof Eternal Life comes in part from this passage when Paul says that salvation is "the gift of God" (v 8c).
Ephesians 2:1-9 is one of the main extended passages in the Bible that discuss theGiftof Eternal Life. Another is Romans 3-4.
Taken altogether, Ephesians 2:1-9 can be seen as Paul's description of the reality of what it means to be unbeliever who is separated from God and a believer who has been united with God.
Ephesians 2:1-3 is a descriptive commentary of Romans 3:23, depicting the reality of what it means to live in sin, "short of the glory of God."
Ephesians 2:4-9 is a descriptive commentary of Romans 3:24, depicting the reality of what it means to be “justified as a giftofgrace.”
Finally, before we move on to explaining the expression through faith we must point out another major truth about our salvation from spiritual death to spiritual life. It is the truth that our salvation from spiritual death to spiritual life is eternally assured.
This truth is strongly implied in the Greek verbal tense that Paul uses in the phrase you have been saved. The Greek verbal tense used in the word saved is the perfect tense. (The perfect tense was also used for "saved" in Ephesians 2:5).
In Greek, the perfect tense emphasizes the ongoing effects and consequences of an already completed action.
When Paul writes you have been saved, he is declaring that God has already rescued you (Paul’s believing readers) from spiritual death and brought you into spiritual life with Christ. This saving action is already accomplished. It was accomplished when you first believed in Jesus as the Son of God and entrusted yourself to His saving grace (John 1:12, 3:14-16, 5:24).
But at the same time, the perfect tense describes an action that has been completed in the past, it also strongly emphasizes the ongoing effects of that completed action.
In the context of the perfect tense expression: you have been saved, the consequences of this salvation are ongoing. These consequences continue from the moment you were first saved by grace through faith into the present and they extend throughout eternity. This is because our salvation from the penalty of sin is through Christ alone, and Christ is eternal. Therefore, it is eternally assured.
Thus, the prefect tense of you have been saved implies all the following at once:
You have been saved by His grace;
You remain saved by His grace;
And you will forever be saved by His grace.
The perfect tense of our salvation from spiritual death into spiritual life therefore grammatically emphasizes both the certainty and permanence of God's saving work. Believers have already been saved from death to life, and the results of that salvation will forever remain unbroken and endure forever.
What the perfect verbal tense of you have been saved implies about your eternal assurance of being delivered from the penalty of sin as a believer is explicitly stated elsewhere in the Bible.
No one can snatch believers from the Father’s or Christ’s hand. (John 10:28-29)
Nothing can separate believers from the love of God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:31-39)
The Gift of Eternal Life is irrevocable. (Romans 11:29)
Having repeated his claim that believers have been saved by grace (Ephesians 2:5b), Paul adds the expression: through faith.
The phrase through faith begins Paul's elaboration on how this gracious salvation from spiritual death to spiritual life is received. It is received through faith.
Again, the expression you have been saved by grace through faith (v 8) describes how God's grace is the basis by which our salvation is offered, and faith is the means through which we receive it. This distinction is worth repeating: God's grace is the basis of our salvation. Faith is the means by which we receive it.
Grace is God's provision of salvation. Jesus accomplished everything necessary to save us through His death and resurrection. God offers this salvation freely to all people. Faith is the response that receives what God has already graciously provided.
Faith is the means by which God's gracious salvation from spiritual death to eternal life is received. Faith does not earn salvation any more than an empty hand earns a gift. Faith simply receives what God freely gives. God is the Giver. Salvation is thegift. Faith is the open hand that receives it.
The Greek word translated as faith in v 8 is πίστις (G4102—pronounced "pis-tis"). Pistis means "faith," "belief," "trust," "confidence," or "reliance." Faith is the act of trusting something or someone to be true and dependable. Jesus described the faith needed to receive new life in Him as being the same faith the Israelites had in the wilderness when they looked on the bronze snake to be healed from the venom of deadly serpents (John 3:14-15). It is only faith sufficient to look in hope.
The object of saving faith is Jesus Christ. It is the power of Christ that saves, not the purity of faith. Enough faith to look in hope is sufficient to receive the power of salvation and a new spiritual birth.
Jesus is the person we believe in and/or entrust ourselves to receive the Giftof Eternal Life. Jesus who is God in human form and the Messiah, is the only person who can save us from being cut off from God and reconcile us to Him. When we receive this free gift, He also restores His great destiny for our lives. Jesus is the only one who can rescue us from death and restore us to eternal life (John 14:6,Acts 4:12).
To have faith in Jesus to receive the Giftof Eternal Life simply means to believe that He is the Son of God and trust in His provision of grace (that He died for our sins, was buried, and rose from the dead (John 3:16,1 Corinthians 15:1-4). It is looking at Him on the cross, hoping to be delivered from the poisonous venom of sin (John 3:14-15).
We are saved from spiritual death to life through a simple faith in Jesus. Simple faith means it is not complicated or combined with anything else. Simple faith is not "faith + works"; or "faith + confession of sins"; or "faith + repentance of sins" or "faith + anything else." It is enough faith to look at Jesus, lifted up on the cross (John 3:14-15). The focus is not on the amount of faith. The focus is on the object of the faith.
Simple faith is "faith + nothing." Simple faith is "faith alone in Christ alone."
Jesus explained the simplicity of this saving faith to Nicodemus when he said that just as the Israelites were saved from the poison of snakes in the wilderness by having enough faith to look upon the bronze serpent, so too are we saved from the poison of sin by having enough faith to look on Jesus, crucified for our sins (John 3:14-15).
In order to be saved from spiritual death and be born into eternal life, we simply need enough faith to recognize that we are thirsty and come to Jesus, the living water, for a free drink (Revelation 21:6).
Saving faith simply looks away from self and trusts entirely in Christ.
This simple faith to be born again is a one-time belief. The faith to be born again does not have to grow or even be sustained over a period of time. God calls us to have a living and growing faith in Him in order to gain the full benefit and experience of our new life in Christ. But the new life in Christ is a gift that is freely given, and is, in no way, a result of works. Because we do nothing to gain or retain, we also can do nothing to lose this gift. This is sono one may boast. We have no impact other than to receive.
Moreover, because Paul writes that we are saved through faithand not of ourselves (v 8), and not of works, this means that faith itself cannot be a work.
It is to our great advantage if our faith grows and endures because of the immense rewards God has for those who love Him and live as faithful witnesses (2 Corinthians 5:9). But God does not require us to have a living or growing faith to receive or maintain the Gift of Eternal Life.
If we simply believe in Jesus as the Son of God and entrust ourselves to the saving power of His life, death, and resurrection even for an instant, we are eternally born into God’s forever family. If this is true for you, then nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:39). No future doubts or sin can undo or take the Gift of Eternal life away.
Jesus repeatedly taught that eternal life is received throughfaith in Him (John 3:16, 5:24, 6:47, 11:25-27). John writes that everyone who believes in Jesus is born into God's eternal family (John 1:12). Paul told the Philippian jailer that if he would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he would be saved (Acts 16:31). These verses are but a few examples of how the Bible consistently teaches that the means through which people receive the Gift of Eternal Life is not throughworks, merit, or religious performance, but through faith in Jesus Christ.
In the context of Ephesians 2, faith is the means by which spiritually dead people become spiritually alive together with Christ. Faith is how those who are separated from God are reunited with Him. Faith is how those who are under wrath receive mercy. Faith is how those who are cut off from God are eternally reconnected to God. Faith is how those who were dead in their trespasses and sins are made alive together with Christ.
Salvation is entirely God's gracious work from beginning to end, but it becomes ours throughfaith.
In the coming phrases of Ephesians 2:8-9, Paul makes it abundantly clear that believers do not contribute to their salvation from spiritual death into being born into eternal life throughworks, merit, effort, or religious achievement. Believers simply trust in Jesus and receives throughfaiththe gift of grace that God freely offers.
…AND THAT NOT OF YOURSELVES (v 8b)
Immediately after saying For by grace you have you been saved through faith (v 8); Paul writes: and that not of yourselves (v 8).
This is an explicit declaration that we had no part in being saved from spiritual death to being born into eternal life.
The phrase—and that—refers back to the entire statement Paul has just made: For by grace you have been saved through faith (v 8a). What follows—not of yourselves (v 8b)—is a continued thought that elaborates on verse 8a.
More to the point, the conjunctive phrase and that contrasts the true means of our salvation from the false means of our salvation. You have been saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus. Youhave not been saved of yourselves or your own efforts.
The phrase not of yourselves means that this salvation does not originate from us. It did not arise out of us, nor depend upon us as its source. We did not generate the grace that saved us. We did not send Jesus to fulfill the Law and die in our place. We did not provide the sacrifice that paid for our sins. We did not cause Jesus to rise from the dead. We do not raise ourselves from spiritual death. God alone is the source of this salvation.
Your salvation from the penalty of sin was offered by God's grace (the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God) and you received this salvation through faith in Jesus, entrusting yourself to His work. There was nothing of yourself that was deserving of the Gift of Eternal Life. All we did was simply have faith in Jesus that He and His work is sufficient to make us alive in Him.
The content of that faith is enough faith to look, in hope. Jesus set this very low bar in John 3:14-15, comparing gaining life in Him lifted up to those who gained life from looking at the bronze snake in the wilderness that was lifted up.
Thus, are we saved by grace through faith and not of ourselves (v 8).
…IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD (v 8c)
Paul continues his explanation of salvation by following up with the phrase: it is the gift of God (v 8).
The pronoun—it—refers to the salvation Paul has been describing throughout Ephesians 2:1-8. This salvation is from spiritual death to spiritual life, and it does not come from ourselves because it is the gift of God (v 8).
God is the source of our salvation. God is our rescuer. God is the one who freely gives us salvation from spiritual separation from Him and makes us alive together with Jesus.
This salvation is a gift.
A gift is something that is freely given and received. A gift is not earned, purchased, achieved, or deserved. If something is earned, then it is no longer a gift but a wage. Paul makes this same point elsewhere when he writes: "Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due" (Romans 4:4). A wage is earned and owed. A gift is freely given,
"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23)
God is the giver of this gift. That is why Paul says salvation from spiritual death and to being made alive in Christ is the gift of God.
Salvation from spiritual death to eternal life is not a wage that God owes us. It is a gift that God freely gives to those who believe in Jesus.
The giftof God which Paul is describing is what we have referred to throughout this commentary as "the Gift of Eternal Life."
The Gift of Eternal Life is God's gracious provision through Jesus Christ whereby sinners are forgiven, made spiritually alive, reconciled to God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and granted eternal life in His forever family. This gift was purchased entirely by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and is freely offered to all people. Because it is God's gift, it cannot be earned through human effort, improved through human merit, or deserved through human goodness.
God first gave us this gift, when He gave Jesus, His only begotten Son (John 3:16). God gave us the gift of salvation from spiritual death because He greatly loves us (Ephesians 2:4).
We are "justified as a gift by His gracethrough the redemption which is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24).
Paul's point in Ephesians and elsewhere is straightforward: if salvation from spiritual death into eternal life is the gift of God, then it cannot simultaneously be something that we contribute toward, accomplish, or deserve. We receive this giftthrough simple faith in Jesus Christ.
Having stated positively that salvation from spiritual death and into eternal life is the gift of God, Paul next states the same truth negatively.
NOT AS A RESULT OF WORKS(v 9a)
Paul now states negatively—not as a result of works (v 9)—what he has already stated positively—salvation from spiritual death into eternal life is the gift of God.
Because it is the gift of God, it is not as a result of works (vv 8-9).
The plain meaning of this clause (not as a result of works) is that no work we perform can earn, obtain, secure, or contribute to our salvation from spiritual death into being made alive with Christ.
Before we dive further into the meaning of this clause, we should point out that Paul is not saying works (living righteously by faith and/or doing things that please God by faith) are not important. Indeed, in the next verse, Paul describes their importance when he declares that God created us for good works (Ephesians 2:10). (See The Bible Says commentary for Ephesians 2:10). What Paul is saying in this clause is that our works have no capacity to improve our eligibility to receive God's Gift of Eternal Life.
Just as being physically born is a gift, so it is with spiritual birth. And just as our choices after birth determine the extent to which we fulfill our human potential, so it is with our spiritual potential. Birth is a gift, life is a choice.
The clause not as a result of works (9a) reinforces the meaning of the earlier clause: and that not of yourselves (v 8b). The Gift of Eternal Life from spiritual death is neither of ourselves nor as a result of our works. Just as we did not plan, or in any way participate in our physical birth, so it is with spiritual birth (John 3:3). None of us can say "My physical birth is something I earned." The same is true for spiritual birth.
The results or outcome of our works is death because we are born in sin, and fall short of God's standard of righteousness (Romans 3:10-12, 23). The result or wages of our dead works is death and separation from God, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:23).
The Greek phrase that is translated not as result of works (v 9) does not explicitly contain the word "result" in it. It literally says, "notfromworks." From our sinful works we are dead and cut off from God. As has been stated repeatedly in this commentary, our works do nothing to save us from being spiritually dead. Our works do not make us alive or spiritually connect us to God—they separate us from Him.
When Paul says that salvation from death to life is not as a result of works, he means that our salvation from death to life is nota result of our works.
We are saved from eternal death to eternal life asa result of the perfect and finished work of Jesus Christ. We have not been saved on the basis of our works of righteousness, but rather wehave been saved on the basis of Christ's works of righteousness which He imputes to us by His grace (1 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Law on our behalf (Matthew 5:17). He lived the righteous life we failed to live. He died the sacrificial death we deserved to die. And from the cross, Jesus declared: "It is finished" (John 19:30). By His perfect works, Jesus became the propitiation for our sinful works (1 John 2:2). The work necessary to pay for sin and reconcile us to God was fully accomplished by Christ. Therefore, we are notsavedby our works, but by His works.
Paul says to the Romans: "by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight" (Romans 3:20) and that "the righteousness of God has manifested… in Jesus Christ" (Romans 3:21-22).
TheGiftof Eternal Life rests upon what Jesus has done for us, not upon what we do for Him. Paul says to the Romans:
"But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many." (Romans 5:15)
The Bible repeatedly reinforces the truth that we are not savedby our works.
When Peter insisted that Jesus not wash his feet, Jesus told his disciple: "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me" (John 13:8). Jesus said this to indicate to Peter that Peter would not be able to cleanse himself of his sins enough to redeem himself by his own works, and that the only way Peter could be forgiven and cleansed of his sins was to receive Jesus's giftof washing Peter's sins away and giving Peter new life in Him.
Paul writes that God "saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy" (Titus 3:5). Likewise, he explains that a person is "justified by faith apart from works of the Law" (Romans 3:28).
And later in Romans, Paul argues that even the Jewish patriarch, Abraham, was declared righteous by God on the basis of his faith and not his works (Romans 4:3). Paul contrasts works and wages with grace and gifts and showed that righteousness is credited throughfaith rather than earned throughworks:
"Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness." (Romans 4:4-5)
The consistent testimony of the Bible is that salvation from spiritual death into eternal life is received throughfaith and not credited or achieved through our own efforts.
Faith is trusting in Jesus Christ. Works of faith are actions we perform, trusting God's rewards will be superior to anything we can gain from the world (Hebrews 11:6).
It is good to confess our sins. It is also good to repent of our sins. But it is important to view such actions as a part of our walk in Christ and are works of faith. Consequently, confession and repentance are not something we rely on to add to the free gift that He gives us. If we slip into trusting in our own works, even works that are good for walking in fellowship with God, we are falling into boasting, which is counterproductive to our walk.
Confession translates the Greek word ὁμολογέω (G3670—pronounced "hom-ol-og-eh'-o"), which means "to confess," "agree," or "acknowledge." In the context of sin, confession means agreeing with God that our actions, thoughts, or intentions were sinful.
Repentance translates the Greek word μετάνοια (G3341—pronounced "met-an'-oy-ah"), which means "a change of mind."
We can use the word "repentance" to refer to changing one's belief about Jesus and His ability to save us from death to life. Repentance, in that sense, is repenting of not looking, and choosing instead to look, in hope. The key is the object of the hope. "What are we looking at?" What are we trusting in? If the answer is anything other than "Jesus lifted up on a cross" then we have slipped into adding works.
Confession and Repentance are important parts of the Christian life as a means of maintaining fellowship with God and others (Luke 13:3,Acts 26:20,1 John 1:9). They help believers walk with God, grow in spiritual maturity, and experience the fullness of life He intends for them. But what we generally view as confession and repentance belong to the Prize of Eternal Life rather than the Giftof Eternal Life.
If our hope for the Gift is based on our confession or repentance of sins, we might find ourselves asking questions like:
"Have I confessed enough to be accepted by God?"
"Was I sincere when I repented of my sins in order to be accepted by God?"—and/or "If I was sincere in my repentance, then why am I still doing the same sins?"
"Do I really have eternal life and am I truly accepted by God if I am still sinning?"
These questions and others like them are natural, because we have a tendency to focus attention on ourselves and our works rather than on the grace and finished works of Jesus. We like to have a sense that we control something, rather than simply trust the goodness of God.
But the reality is that the goodness of God is our only hope. It is Jesus who paid for our sins. His finished work does all, we add nothing when it comes to healing our separation from God's righteousness. By His grace we become the righteousness of Christ in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is good news, great news, as we cannot in any way bear such a burden.
Paul's point in Ephesians 2:8-9 emphasizes that we can have confidence that we are saved from spiritual death into eternal life because of what Jesus did. We are freed from worrying about our own inadequacies. We will always fall short (1 John 1:8). But our hope is in Him, not ourselves.
God's grace should free us from worrying about being fully accepted as a child of God, because we are saved from spiritual death by grace through simple faith in Jesus and that not of ourselves and not as a result of our works (vv 8-9). God is our Father and will discipline us. But He will never reject us from being His child (2 Timothy 2:13,Hebrews 12:6).
SO THAT NO ONE MAY BOAST(v 9b)
Paul concludes his explanation of salvation from spiritual death into eternal life with the phrase: so that no one may boast.
By saying so that, Paul introduces the purpose of what he has just explained in Ephesians 2:8-9a.
Salvation from death to life is by grace, through faith, not of ourselves, the gift of God, and not as a result of works, so thatno one has any grounds for boasting before God.
To boast means to glory in, take credit for, or pride oneself in an accomplishment. If our salvation from spiritual death into eternal life were based upon our works, then we would have reason to boast about what we had done to obtain it. But because salvation is entirely God's gracious gift and rests upon the finished work of Jesus Christ, all boasting is excluded.
Not boasting about one's salvation from death is the same conclusion Paul reaches in Romans 3. After he declared Jesus as "the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Him" (Romans 3:26b), Paul then asks and answers his rhetorical question: "Where then is boasting? It is excluded" (Romans 3:27).
Noonemayboast that one's own works, wisdom, righteousness, ability, virtue, etc. made any contribution to their salvation from the penalty of sin. No one may boastthat they have saved themselves. Everyone who comes to God gets there the same way: by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (John 3:14-16, 14:6).
The only proper response to such a great salvation is not boasting in ourselves, but gratitude, worship, and boasting in the Lord. As Paul redirects the proud Corinthians: "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:31).
Because salvation of being born into eternal life from spiritual death is entirely God's work from beginning to end, all the glory belongs to Him who gave us this incredible gift and accomplished our salvation by His own righteous blood.
Having explained the roles of grace, faith, and no works as they pertain to God's Gift of Eternal Life, Paul will next describe the proper purpose of works in the believer's life in the next verse—Ephesians 2:10. We become God's child through a free gift of faith. But God adds us to His family with a great purpose—He has work for us to do. And it is in following Him in this work that we find our fulfillment.
Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
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Ephesians 2:8-9 meaning
Ephesians 2:8-9 explains that salvation from spiritual death into eternal life is God's gracious gift, received through simple faith in Jesus Christ rather than being something that is earned through human works, so that all glory belongs to God alone.
In Ephesians 2:1-7, Paul wrote his Gospel statement describing the hopelessness we had when we were spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins before God intervened. Paul stated this former reality for believers prior to coming to faith in Christ in Ephesians 2:1-3.
Paul explained that before God made us alive with Christ, we were dead in our trespasses and sins and we lived according to the lusts of our flesh, under the influence of Satan, and were by nature children of wrath.
Paul stated believers' current reality in Christ in Ephesians 2:4-7.
He declared that God, who is rich in mercy and because of His great love for us, made us alive together with Christ, raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace toward believers. Paul reminds believers that God did all these incredible things for us even while we were still dead in our sins.
And tucked in the middle of this amazing declaration of what God has done for us, Paul mentioned an important parenthetical statement: "by grace you have been saved" (Ephesians 2:5b). God's grace is the basis for our salvation from death to eternal life.
The idea that we are saved by grace is so loaded that Paul, immediately after completing the rest of his thought in Ephesians 2:7, repeats, expands, and explains its fuller meaning.
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast (vv 8-9).
Ephesians 2:8-9 is divided into five clauses:
FOR BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED THROUGH FAITH… (v 8a)
The expression you have been saved by grace through faith (v 8) means that God's grace is the basis by which our salvation from spiritual death to eternal life is offered and faith is the means through which we receive it.
The first clause For by grace you have been saved through faith (v 8a) is almost a verbatim repetition of Paul's important parenthetical idea from Ephesians 2:5b: "by grace you have been saved."
The two differences between the clause in each verse are that verse 8a begins with the word For and verse 8a ends with the phrase through faith.
The word For primarily connects Ephesians 2:8-9 to Paul's Gospel statement in Ephesians 2:1-7. For shows that what he is about to say in verses 8-9 pertains to what he just said about the Gospel in Ephesians 2:1-7.
Paul uses the word For before he restates the phrase from Ephesians 2:5b, by grace you have been saved, to indicate that he is about to elaborate on what it means to be saved by grace. Paul is about to elaborate on the basis by which God saved believers from spiritual death and brought them into spiritual life with Christ.
The basis by which you (the believing readers of Paul's epistle to the Ephesians) have been saved from spiritual death into spiritual life is God's grace.
The Greek word that is translated as grace is χάρις (G5485—pronounced "khar-is" and often spelled "charis"). Charis means "grace," "favor," or "kindness." Grace in this context describes God's favorable kindness toward us. The word "charis" indicates someone is favorable toward someone or something, with context determining who is favorable and for what reason. We can see this in Luke 2:52 where Jesus grew "in favor ['charis'] with God and men."
In Luke 2:52, men look on Jesus with favor, and God did as well. For each, the favor had to do with Jesus's "wisdom and stature." We can also observe in 1 Peter 5:5 that God "gives grace ['charis'] to the humble." This tells us that God favors those who humble themselves before His face.
In each case where God exhibits favor or grace, it is because God chose to do so. God cannot be obligated. If God favors someone for being humble, it is because God chose to favor them; He decided their humility. God cannot be obligated due to a standard of humility outside of God Himself. God is the standard. So, regardless of the circumstance, God's favor or grace is always an act of His mercy.
God delivers us from our broken state of being fallen and separated from Him purely because of His love. His saving grace toward us is freely given. It is not earned. It is not as a result of works (v 9).
The Greek word translated as works is ἔργον (G2041—pronounced: "er-gon"). Ergon means "work," "deed," "action," "task," or "accomplishment." It refers to something that is done, produced, or brought about through effort and activity. The English word "energy" is derived from a related Greek word, ἐνέργεια (energeia), which describes active working or operative power. Thus, an ergon is the result, product, or accomplishment that comes from the exercise of effort, activity, or energy. The point is that our salvation from spiritual death to life is that there is absolutely no connection between anything we do and the saving grace of God.
We are born dead in our trespasses in sins (Ephesians 2:1, 5, Colossians 2:13). It was not that we turned over a new leaf. Jesus died for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8). Being saved from the penalty of sin is one hundred percent based on Jesus's finished work on the cross (Hebrews 10:12-14). All the requirements of the law were satisfied by Him on the cross (Colossians 2:14). We can neither add nor detract from Jesus's finished work. We can only receive through faith, or refuse to receive through faith.
God's grace toward you when you were dead in your transgressions is unearned and freely given (Romans 3:24, 11:6). This application of God's grace or favor toward you is not payment for something you have done. His grace in this application is His favorable kindness freely given according to His own rich mercy and great love for you (Ephesians 2:4). Paul says in Ephesians 2:8c that salvation by grace is the gift of God (v 8).
The grace by which you have been saved from spiritual death to eternal life is primarily twofold:
The expression that is translated you have been saved is a form of the Greek term σῴζω (G4982—pronounced "sō-dzō"). Sōzō means "to save," "to rescue," "to deliver," "preserve from danger," "heal," or "to make whole." "Sozo" refers to something being delivered from something, with context determining what is being delivered from what.
An example is Matthew 9:21, where a sick woman determined that if she touched the hem of Jesus's garment, she would be "sozo"—healed from her sickness. Another example is Matthew 8:25, where Jesus's disciples cried out, "Save us ['sozo'] Lord"—seeking Jesus to deliver them from perishing in the storm.
Every time Bible readers encounter a salvation passage, it is helpful if they consider the four questions of salvation to better understand its meaning. Context answers the four questions and determines the meaning of salvation. Context determines the following about salvation:
The context for saved in Ephesians 2:8 is identical to its context in Ephesians 2:5.
1. What is saved?
The object of this salvation is you (Ephesians 2:1, 4).
The passive voice of the verbal phrase you have been saved explicitly states the object of salvation as you. You are the ones who are saved.
Specifically, you consists of the believers of Ephesus who were Paul’s initial recipients of this letter. More generally speaking, you refers to all of Paul’s Ephesian readers who are believers.
2. Who saved us?
The rescuer in our salvation is God (Ephesians 2:4a).
God is our Savior. God is the One who saved us in His rich mercy and His great love for us (Ephesians 2:4a).
The passive voice of the verbal phrase you have been saved implies from the surrounding context that your rescuer and savior is God.
The passive voice of the verbal phrase you have been saved points to an important truth about our salvation from spiritual death to spiritual life.
This truth is that God saved us; we do not save ourselves.
You receive salvation. You have been saved. You did not save. God is your acting Savior. You are the recipients of His saving action. He saved you and made you alive again. You would have remained dead in your transgressions and eternally separated from God if He had not been rich in mercy and graciously intervened on your behalf.
Paul will explicitly reinforce this important truth about our salvation throughout the remaining phrases of Ephesians 2:8-9: and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
It is important to remember that God is the one who saved us by grace and that we do not and indeed could have never saved ourselves.
3. What were we saved to?
The purpose of this salvation is to be reunited with God and Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:5-7).
God saved you to be made spiritually alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:5a), to be resurrected with Him (Ephesians 2:6a) and seated with Him in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6b).
4. What were we being saved from?
The escape of this salvation is spiritual death caused by sin, and it is the wrath of God (Ephesians 2:1-3). In the case of being dead in our sins, separation from God is an eternal destiny that is thwarted through faith in Jesus.
God saved you from being spiritually dead in your sins and transgressions (Ephesians 2:1, 2:5a)
Before continuing, it may be beneficial to further explain the death that you have been saved from and the meaning of Paul's expression: "dead in your trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1—See also Ephesians 2:5a).
From a Biblical perspective, death means separation. It is not simply the end of existence. When someone physically dies, the Bible says that their spirit and soul separate from their body (Ecclesiastes 12:7, James 2:26). Death describes a severance or a cutting off. Death is what happens when something gets pulled apart from what it was made to be joined to.
The death Paul is describing in Ephesians 2:1, 5 that you have been saved from is spiritual death.
Spiritual death is being cut off and severed from connection and/or fellowship with God, one another, and inhabiting His good design for our lives. Accordingly, spiritual life is connection to God, one another, and walking in His design. Jesus defined eternal life as intimately knowing or being connected to God (John 17:3).
God created human beings to live in harmony with Him, one another, and His good creation (Genesis 1:28). He gave Adam one command to obey to keep this harmony—not to eat from the forbidden tree (Genesis 2:16-17); and God told Adam that the day he disobeyed this command would be the day he would die. Adam and his wife disobeyed God, and though they did not drop dead physically, they separated themselves from God and suffered spiritual death.
Paul summed up the sad saga of humanity’s spiritual separation in Romans 5:12 when he wrote: "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned."
This was your situation when you were dead in your trespasses and sins—you were:
(Isaiah 59:2)
(Genesis 3:16-19, Ecclesiastes 1:2-11)
(Romans 7:15, James 1:8)
(Galatians 5:15, 19-21)
(Revelation 20:14)
Moreover, you were without hope of altering or improving your state of spiritual death. In the verses that follow this Gospel summary in Ephesians 2:8-10, Paul calls upon his readers to:
"Remember that you were at that time separate from Christ…having no hope and without God in the world."
(Ephesians 2:12)
By God's grace, all of this separation, futility, despair, and eternal doom of spiritual death in our sins is what you have been saved from. Being saved from spiritual death to spiritual life is one of the most important blessings of the Gift of Eternal Life.
The term Gift of Eternal Life comes in part from this passage when Paul says that salvation is "the gift of God" (v 8c).
Ephesians 2:1-9 is one of the main extended passages in the Bible that discuss the Gift of Eternal Life. Another is Romans 3-4.
Taken altogether, Ephesians 2:1-9 can be seen as Paul's description of the reality of what it means to be unbeliever who is separated from God and a believer who has been united with God.
Finally, before we move on to explaining the expression through faith we must point out another major truth about our salvation from spiritual death to spiritual life. It is the truth that our salvation from spiritual death to spiritual life is eternally assured.
This truth is strongly implied in the Greek verbal tense that Paul uses in the phrase you have been saved. The Greek verbal tense used in the word saved is the perfect tense. (The perfect tense was also used for "saved" in Ephesians 2:5).
In Greek, the perfect tense emphasizes the ongoing effects and consequences of an already completed action.
When Paul writes you have been saved, he is declaring that God has already rescued you (Paul’s believing readers) from spiritual death and brought you into spiritual life with Christ. This saving action is already accomplished. It was accomplished when you first believed in Jesus as the Son of God and entrusted yourself to His saving grace (John 1:12, 3:14-16, 5:24).
But at the same time, the perfect tense describes an action that has been completed in the past, it also strongly emphasizes the ongoing effects of that completed action.
In the context of the perfect tense expression: you have been saved, the consequences of this salvation are ongoing. These consequences continue from the moment you were first saved by grace through faith into the present and they extend throughout eternity. This is because our salvation from the penalty of sin is through Christ alone, and Christ is eternal. Therefore, it is eternally assured.
Thus, the prefect tense of you have been saved implies all the following at once:
The perfect tense of our salvation from spiritual death into spiritual life therefore grammatically emphasizes both the certainty and permanence of God's saving work. Believers have already been saved from death to life, and the results of that salvation will forever remain unbroken and endure forever.
What the perfect verbal tense of you have been saved implies about your eternal assurance of being delivered from the penalty of sin as a believer is explicitly stated elsewhere in the Bible.
(John 10:28-29)
(Romans 8:31-39)
(Romans 11:29)
Having repeated his claim that believers have been saved by grace (Ephesians 2:5b), Paul adds the expression: through faith.
The phrase through faith begins Paul's elaboration on how this gracious salvation from spiritual death to spiritual life is received. It is received through faith.
Again, the expression you have been saved by grace through faith (v 8) describes how God's grace is the basis by which our salvation is offered, and faith is the means through which we receive it. This distinction is worth repeating: God's grace is the basis of our salvation. Faith is the means by which we receive it.
Grace is God's provision of salvation. Jesus accomplished everything necessary to save us through His death and resurrection. God offers this salvation freely to all people. Faith is the response that receives what God has already graciously provided.
Faith is the means by which God's gracious salvation from spiritual death to eternal life is received. Faith does not earn salvation any more than an empty hand earns a gift. Faith simply receives what God freely gives. God is the Giver. Salvation is the gift. Faith is the open hand that receives it.
The Greek word translated as faith in v 8 is πίστις (G4102—pronounced "pis-tis"). Pistis means "faith," "belief," "trust," "confidence," or "reliance." Faith is the act of trusting something or someone to be true and dependable. Jesus described the faith needed to receive new life in Him as being the same faith the Israelites had in the wilderness when they looked on the bronze snake to be healed from the venom of deadly serpents (John 3:14-15). It is only faith sufficient to look in hope.
The object of saving faith is Jesus Christ. It is the power of Christ that saves, not the purity of faith. Enough faith to look in hope is sufficient to receive the power of salvation and a new spiritual birth.
Jesus is the person we believe in and/or entrust ourselves to receive the Gift of Eternal Life. Jesus who is God in human form and the Messiah, is the only person who can save us from being cut off from God and reconcile us to Him. When we receive this free gift, He also restores His great destiny for our lives. Jesus is the only one who can rescue us from death and restore us to eternal life (John 14:6, Acts 4:12).
To have faith in Jesus to receive the Gift of Eternal Life simply means to believe that He is the Son of God and trust in His provision of grace (that He died for our sins, was buried, and rose from the dead (John 3:16, 1 Corinthians 15:1-4). It is looking at Him on the cross, hoping to be delivered from the poisonous venom of sin (John 3:14-15).
We are saved from spiritual death to life through a simple faith in Jesus. Simple faith means it is not complicated or combined with anything else. Simple faith is not "faith + works"; or "faith + confession of sins"; or "faith + repentance of sins" or "faith + anything else." It is enough faith to look at Jesus, lifted up on the cross (John 3:14-15). The focus is not on the amount of faith. The focus is on the object of the faith.
Simple faith is "faith + nothing." Simple faith is "faith alone in Christ alone."
Jesus explained the simplicity of this saving faith to Nicodemus when he said that just as the Israelites were saved from the poison of snakes in the wilderness by having enough faith to look upon the bronze serpent, so too are we saved from the poison of sin by having enough faith to look on Jesus, crucified for our sins (John 3:14-15).
In order to be saved from spiritual death and be born into eternal life, we simply need enough faith to recognize that we are thirsty and come to Jesus, the living water, for a free drink (Revelation 21:6).
Saving faith simply looks away from self and trusts entirely in Christ.
This simple faith to be born again is a one-time belief. The faith to be born again does not have to grow or even be sustained over a period of time. God calls us to have a living and growing faith in Him in order to gain the full benefit and experience of our new life in Christ. But the new life in Christ is a gift that is freely given, and is, in no way, a result of works. Because we do nothing to gain or retain, we also can do nothing to lose this gift. This is so no one may boast. We have no impact other than to receive.
Moreover, because Paul writes that we are saved through faith and not of ourselves (v 8), and not of works, this means that faith itself cannot be a work.
It is to our great advantage if our faith grows and endures because of the immense rewards God has for those who love Him and live as faithful witnesses (2 Corinthians 5:9). But God does not require us to have a living or growing faith to receive or maintain the Gift of Eternal Life.
If we simply believe in Jesus as the Son of God and entrust ourselves to the saving power of His life, death, and resurrection even for an instant, we are eternally born into God’s forever family. If this is true for you, then nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:39). No future doubts or sin can undo or take the Gift of Eternal life away.
Jesus repeatedly taught that eternal life is received through faith in Him (John 3:16, 5:24, 6:47, 11:25-27). John writes that everyone who believes in Jesus is born into God's eternal family (John 1:12). Paul told the Philippian jailer that if he would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that he would be saved (Acts 16:31). These verses are but a few examples of how the Bible consistently teaches that the means through which people receive the Gift of Eternal Life is not through works, merit, or religious performance, but through faith in Jesus Christ.
In the context of Ephesians 2, faith is the means by which spiritually dead people become spiritually alive together with Christ. Faith is how those who are separated from God are reunited with Him. Faith is how those who are under wrath receive mercy. Faith is how those who are cut off from God are eternally reconnected to God. Faith is how those who were dead in their trespasses and sins are made alive together with Christ.
Salvation is entirely God's gracious work from beginning to end, but it becomes ours through faith.
In the coming phrases of Ephesians 2:8-9, Paul makes it abundantly clear that believers do not contribute to their salvation from spiritual death into being born into eternal life through works, merit, effort, or religious achievement. Believers simply trust in Jesus and receives through faith the gift of grace that God freely offers.
…AND THAT NOT OF YOURSELVES (v 8b)
Immediately after saying For by grace you have you been saved through faith (v 8); Paul writes: and that not of yourselves (v 8).
This is an explicit declaration that we had no part in being saved from spiritual death to being born into eternal life.
The phrase—and that—refers back to the entire statement Paul has just made: For by grace you have been saved through faith (v 8a). What follows—not of yourselves (v 8b)—is a continued thought that elaborates on verse 8a.
More to the point, the conjunctive phrase and that contrasts the true means of our salvation from the false means of our salvation. You have been saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus. You have not been saved of yourselves or your own efforts.
The phrase not of yourselves means that this salvation does not originate from us. It did not arise out of us, nor depend upon us as its source. We did not generate the grace that saved us. We did not send Jesus to fulfill the Law and die in our place. We did not provide the sacrifice that paid for our sins. We did not cause Jesus to rise from the dead. We do not raise ourselves from spiritual death. God alone is the source of this salvation.
Your salvation from the penalty of sin was offered by God's grace (the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God) and you received this salvation through faith in Jesus, entrusting yourself to His work. There was nothing of yourself that was deserving of the Gift of Eternal Life. All we did was simply have faith in Jesus that He and His work is sufficient to make us alive in Him.
The content of that faith is enough faith to look, in hope. Jesus set this very low bar in John 3:14-15, comparing gaining life in Him lifted up to those who gained life from looking at the bronze snake in the wilderness that was lifted up.
Thus, are we saved by grace through faith and not of ourselves (v 8).
…IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD (v 8c)
Paul continues his explanation of salvation by following up with the phrase: it is the gift of God (v 8).
The pronoun—it—refers to the salvation Paul has been describing throughout Ephesians 2:1-8. This salvation is from spiritual death to spiritual life, and it does not come from ourselves because it is the gift of God (v 8).
God is the source of our salvation. God is our rescuer. God is the one who freely gives us salvation from spiritual separation from Him and makes us alive together with Jesus.
This salvation is a gift.
A gift is something that is freely given and received. A gift is not earned, purchased, achieved, or deserved. If something is earned, then it is no longer a gift but a wage. Paul makes this same point elsewhere when he writes: "Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due" (Romans 4:4). A wage is earned and owed. A gift is freely given,
"For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."
(Romans 6:23)
God is the giver of this gift. That is why Paul says salvation from spiritual death and to being made alive in Christ is the gift of God.
Salvation from spiritual death to eternal life is not a wage that God owes us. It is a gift that God freely gives to those who believe in Jesus.
The gift of God which Paul is describing is what we have referred to throughout this commentary as "the Gift of Eternal Life."
The Gift of Eternal Life is God's gracious provision through Jesus Christ whereby sinners are forgiven, made spiritually alive, reconciled to God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and granted eternal life in His forever family. This gift was purchased entirely by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and is freely offered to all people. Because it is God's gift, it cannot be earned through human effort, improved through human merit, or deserved through human goodness.
God first gave us this gift, when He gave Jesus, His only begotten Son (John 3:16). God gave us the gift of salvation from spiritual death because He greatly loves us (Ephesians 2:4).
We are "justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:24).
Paul's point in Ephesians and elsewhere is straightforward: if salvation from spiritual death into eternal life is the gift of God, then it cannot simultaneously be something that we contribute toward, accomplish, or deserve. We receive this gift through simple faith in Jesus Christ.
Having stated positively that salvation from spiritual death and into eternal life is the gift of God, Paul next states the same truth negatively.
NOT AS A RESULT OF WORKS (v 9a)
Paul now states negatively—not as a result of works (v 9)—what he has already stated positively—salvation from spiritual death into eternal life is the gift of God.
Because it is the gift of God, it is not as a result of works (vv 8-9).
The plain meaning of this clause (not as a result of works) is that no work we perform can earn, obtain, secure, or contribute to our salvation from spiritual death into being made alive with Christ.
Before we dive further into the meaning of this clause, we should point out that Paul is not saying works (living righteously by faith and/or doing things that please God by faith) are not important. Indeed, in the next verse, Paul describes their importance when he declares that God created us for good works (Ephesians 2:10). (See The Bible Says commentary for Ephesians 2:10). What Paul is saying in this clause is that our works have no capacity to improve our eligibility to receive God's Gift of Eternal Life.
Just as being physically born is a gift, so it is with spiritual birth. And just as our choices after birth determine the extent to which we fulfill our human potential, so it is with our spiritual potential. Birth is a gift, life is a choice.
The clause not as a result of works (9a) reinforces the meaning of the earlier clause: and that not of yourselves (v 8b). The Gift of Eternal Life from spiritual death is neither of ourselves nor as a result of our works. Just as we did not plan, or in any way participate in our physical birth, so it is with spiritual birth (John 3:3). None of us can say "My physical birth is something I earned." The same is true for spiritual birth.
The results or outcome of our works is death because we are born in sin, and fall short of God's standard of righteousness (Romans 3:10-12, 23). The result or wages of our dead works is death and separation from God, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:23).
The Greek phrase that is translated not as result of works (v 9) does not explicitly contain the word "result" in it. It literally says, "not from works." From our sinful works we are dead and cut off from God. As has been stated repeatedly in this commentary, our works do nothing to save us from being spiritually dead. Our works do not make us alive or spiritually connect us to God—they separate us from Him.
When Paul says that salvation from death to life is not as a result of works, he means that our salvation from death to life is not a result of our works.
We are saved from eternal death to eternal life as a result of the perfect and finished work of Jesus Christ. We have not been saved on the basis of our works of righteousness, but rather we have been saved on the basis of Christ's works of righteousness which He imputes to us by His grace (1 Corinthians 5:21).
Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Law on our behalf (Matthew 5:17). He lived the righteous life we failed to live. He died the sacrificial death we deserved to die. And from the cross, Jesus declared: "It is finished" (John 19:30). By His perfect works, Jesus became the propitiation for our sinful works (1 John 2:2). The work necessary to pay for sin and reconcile us to God was fully accomplished by Christ. Therefore, we are not saved by our works, but by His works.
Paul says to the Romans: "by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight" (Romans 3:20) and that "the righteousness of God has manifested… in Jesus Christ" (Romans 3:21-22).
The Gift of Eternal Life rests upon what Jesus has done for us, not upon what we do for Him. Paul says to the Romans:
"But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many."
(Romans 5:15)
The Bible repeatedly reinforces the truth that we are not saved by our works.
When Peter insisted that Jesus not wash his feet, Jesus told his disciple: "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me" (John 13:8). Jesus said this to indicate to Peter that Peter would not be able to cleanse himself of his sins enough to redeem himself by his own works, and that the only way Peter could be forgiven and cleansed of his sins was to receive Jesus's gift of washing Peter's sins away and giving Peter new life in Him.
Paul writes that God "saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy" (Titus 3:5). Likewise, he explains that a person is "justified by faith apart from works of the Law" (Romans 3:28).
And later in Romans, Paul argues that even the Jewish patriarch, Abraham, was declared righteous by God on the basis of his faith and not his works (Romans 4:3). Paul contrasts works and wages with grace and gifts and showed that righteousness is credited through faith rather than earned through works:
"Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as what is due. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness."
(Romans 4:4-5)
The consistent testimony of the Bible is that salvation from spiritual death into eternal life is received through faith and not credited or achieved through our own efforts.
Faith is trusting in Jesus Christ. Works of faith are actions we perform, trusting God's rewards will be superior to anything we can gain from the world (Hebrews 11:6).
It is good to confess our sins. It is also good to repent of our sins. But it is important to view such actions as a part of our walk in Christ and are works of faith. Consequently, confession and repentance are not something we rely on to add to the free gift that He gives us. If we slip into trusting in our own works, even works that are good for walking in fellowship with God, we are falling into boasting, which is counterproductive to our walk.
Confession translates the Greek word ὁμολογέω (G3670—pronounced "hom-ol-og-eh'-o"), which means "to confess," "agree," or "acknowledge." In the context of sin, confession means agreeing with God that our actions, thoughts, or intentions were sinful.
Repentance translates the Greek word μετάνοια (G3341—pronounced "met-an'-oy-ah"), which means "a change of mind."
We can use the word "repentance" to refer to changing one's belief about Jesus and His ability to save us from death to life. Repentance, in that sense, is repenting of not looking, and choosing instead to look, in hope. The key is the object of the hope. "What are we looking at?" What are we trusting in? If the answer is anything other than "Jesus lifted up on a cross" then we have slipped into adding works.
Confession and Repentance are important parts of the Christian life as a means of maintaining fellowship with God and others (Luke 13:3, Acts 26:20, 1 John 1:9). They help believers walk with God, grow in spiritual maturity, and experience the fullness of life He intends for them. But what we generally view as confession and repentance belong to the Prize of Eternal Life rather than the Gift of Eternal Life.
If our hope for the Gift is based on our confession or repentance of sins, we might find ourselves asking questions like:
These questions and others like them are natural, because we have a tendency to focus attention on ourselves and our works rather than on the grace and finished works of Jesus. We like to have a sense that we control something, rather than simply trust the goodness of God.
But the reality is that the goodness of God is our only hope. It is Jesus who paid for our sins. His finished work does all, we add nothing when it comes to healing our separation from God's righteousness. By His grace we become the righteousness of Christ in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). This is good news, great news, as we cannot in any way bear such a burden.
Paul's point in Ephesians 2:8-9 emphasizes that we can have confidence that we are saved from spiritual death into eternal life because of what Jesus did. We are freed from worrying about our own inadequacies. We will always fall short (1 John 1:8). But our hope is in Him, not ourselves.
God's grace should free us from worrying about being fully accepted as a child of God, because we are saved from spiritual death by grace through simple faith in Jesus and that not of ourselves and not as a result of our works (vv 8-9). God is our Father and will discipline us. But He will never reject us from being His child (2 Timothy 2:13, Hebrews 12:6).
SO THAT NO ONE MAY BOAST (v 9b)
Paul concludes his explanation of salvation from spiritual death into eternal life with the phrase: so that no one may boast.
By saying so that, Paul introduces the purpose of what he has just explained in Ephesians 2:8-9a.
Salvation from death to life is by grace, through faith, not of ourselves, the gift of God, and not as a result of works, so that no one has any grounds for boasting before God.
To boast means to glory in, take credit for, or pride oneself in an accomplishment. If our salvation from spiritual death into eternal life were based upon our works, then we would have reason to boast about what we had done to obtain it. But because salvation is entirely God's gracious gift and rests upon the finished work of Jesus Christ, all boasting is excluded.
Not boasting about one's salvation from death is the same conclusion Paul reaches in Romans 3. After he declared Jesus as "the just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Him" (Romans 3:26b), Paul then asks and answers his rhetorical question: "Where then is boasting? It is excluded" (Romans 3:27).
No one may boast that one's own works, wisdom, righteousness, ability, virtue, etc. made any contribution to their salvation from the penalty of sin. No one may boast that they have saved themselves. Everyone who comes to God gets there the same way: by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (John 3:14-16, 14:6).
The only proper response to such a great salvation is not boasting in ourselves, but gratitude, worship, and boasting in the Lord. As Paul redirects the proud Corinthians: "Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:31).
Because salvation of being born into eternal life from spiritual death is entirely God's work from beginning to end, all the glory belongs to Him who gave us this incredible gift and accomplished our salvation by His own righteous blood.
Having explained the roles of grace, faith, and no works as they pertain to God's Gift of Eternal Life, Paul will next describe the proper purpose of works in the believer's life in the next verse—Ephesians 2:10. We become God's child through a free gift of faith. But God adds us to His family with a great purpose—He has work for us to do. And it is in following Him in this work that we find our fulfillment.