WHAT a rich and full compendium of the gospel; what a gold mine of peace giving truth we have in Ephesians 2:8, 9, 108For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:8‑10)! Oh! that many a seeking, doubting, anxious soul, as he now reads these three lovely verses, may through God’s goodness find the object of his search, the dissolution of his doubts, and the end of his anxiety. “For 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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Now, I don’t think that we could do better than simply take each sentence by itself, and thus analyze the whole.
1. “By grace.”―The grace of God is the source, and only fountain-head. “God is love,” and His grace is that love, in action, on behalf of poor sinners.
2. “Are ye saved.”―Salvation present, full, conscious, and happy, is the result. No room is left for a doubt or a question. It is not “are ye being saved,” as though salvation were progressive. It states an accomplished fact. Other epistles may view salvation as future, but “Ephesians” sees it, as in the light of divine counsels, a present possession.
3. “Through faith.” ―Yes, faith is the hand, empty, poor, and needy, that is put forth to receive the treasure presented by grace. Salvation is, as it were, forced on no one―nor am I viewed and treated as a machine. It comes to me, and becomes mine, on the principle of faith―not by feeling, not by an internal evidence, but by that simple act by which I turn away from myself and look to God. It is “through faith.”
4. “And that not of yourselves.”―Self is not the parent of this salvation. If I had to save myself, how soon would I be lost? If Adam innocent fell under temptation, how soon would I, “in whose flesh no good thing dwells,” fall in like manner? A human salvation must partake of human infirmity, and result in sad imperfection. Hence resolutions reformations, “new leaves,” and all such things, are “of yourselves,” and therefore cannot save.
5. “It is the gift of God.”— A gift, observe, not a thing sold. It is free, like the air. It is so immensely valuable, and I am so absolutely destitute that did it come in the way of sale I could not purchase it. The moral gulf between God and man is so enormous that no engineering skill could bridge the distance. Did God not “devise the means,” we should be left forever on the wrong side. But blessed be His name, “God is love,” and therefore He loved and He gave; and now salvation is His gift. Could six words be found more sweet, more welcome, more precious, than “It is the gift of God?” Do pause, dear reader, and prayerfully, thankfully, ponder and weigh each one of these charming monosyllables.
6. “Not of works.” ―Another short sentence equally important. The ax lies at the very root! The sentry is posted at the gate! The flaming sword turns every way! The king looks for the wedding garment! Heaven refuses the legalist: “Not of works” cuts away all ground of hope in myself. “Not of works” humbles me to the dust, “Not of works” stains my pride, and bids me “make haste and come down.” “Not of works” tells me that my righteousnesses are as filthy rags. “Not of works” gives me my true place as a poor guilty sinner, utterly at the mercy of God, and bids me renounce all confidence in myself. “By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight.”
“Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill thy law’s demands.”
6. “Lest any man should boast.”―If I could reach heaven by dint of my works, then I should boast forever of my powers. I should worship, not God, but myself. The pride that ruined Lucifer would swell my bosom, and stiffen my neck through eternity. But the God that drove out the angels for this sin would not allow it in others. Nay, He condemns it now. All boasting in self is annulled; it has no possible place. It is neither pride, nor arrogance, nor boasting, for the believer to say he is saved. It is “not of works” (but of grace), lest any man should boast.
7. “For we are his workmanship.”―What could be more absolute? We speak of God creating the world out of nothing, and so He did; the world is His workmanship. But whilst He displayed wisdom, and design, and skill in that creation, how much more was needed on His part to make us (sinners) His workmanship? In this the whole question of sin had to be settled. Mere power could not suffice. An answer had to be found to the effects of sin and the works of Satan. Sin had to be atoned for, and ultimately banished. And how? “Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world.” A complete answer is found in the death and resurrection of the Son of God. Satan, sin, death, the grave, all find their answer there, so that God is now free, in righteous grace, to make us His workmanship―make us the fair vessels of His mercy, and the glad recipients of His salvation.
8. “Created in Christ Jesus unto good works.”―It is a new creation, indeed. It is not the old renewed, nor altered, nor improved; it is a creation in Christ Jesus―an entirely different order of things―a creation into which the serpent may not intrude with any prospect of victory as of old, and where, in man, mere innocence has given place to righteousness, and where the possibility of failure is precluded by the very fact of that creation being, not in nature, but “in Christ Jesus.” That creation cannot fail, though meanwhile we who are “created in Christ Jesus” may, alas! do so, as still in the body. Yet just as God embellished and beautified the first creation, placing in Eden flowing rivers and fruitful trees, so in us the lovely fruits of “good works” are to decorate the new―exquisite proofs of the character of the salvation that our God has given us. It is not “of works,” but it is “unto good works.” They are the evidence before men that our salvation finds its source and strength in the grace of God.
9. “Which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”―No other conduct could please God. His children must walk after Him. He is holy, so are they. We are to walk in the ways of good works. If we do not, it is but a proof that we are not His children, and that we are strangers to His salvation. No path is so truly happy, no so divinely free, as that of obedience to God, the performance of those good works to which every true believer is called.
Dear reader, may God use the wealth of truth contained in these three verses to carry most positive blessing to your soul, that you may be saved, and know it, and then boldly confess it, and live daily in the bright unclouded sunshine of it, to His praise and glory.
J. W. S.