For ye are saved by grace, through faith; and this not of yourselves; it is God's gift
One short line names the source of salvation, the means of receiving it, and the One who supplies both. It has raised two questions ever since: is salvation finished or still in progress, and does the faith itself come from God?
The verb is not "you are being saved." Commentators point to the tense: the work is done, and it stays done.
William Kelly"By grace you have been saved." By this he means that we have been saved and are saved. We enjoy now what is already past and complete before God. It is a finished fact, because it is in Christ, and everything here is in Christ… The Saviour is seated on high, and salvation is so fully in Him that we are not in the process of being saved. We are saved, and we need nothing more on this point.
Other letters speak of salvation as something still ahead. One writer marks the difference:
W. W. FeredaySalvation is looked on in Ephesians as an accomplished and present thing. In Philippians 2:12-13 and Romans 8:22-25 the believer is a traveller here below, as in 1 Peter too. He is surrounded by difficulties and dangers. He looks ahead to salvation at the coming of the Lord Jesus. But that would not suit Ephesians, where we are viewed as blessed in the heavenly places. We have been and are saved.
Grace opens the door to people with no claim at all. But it does not brush sin aside. God's throne had to be satisfied first.
W. W. FeredayAnyone who knows how sick his own heart is will be glad to hear this. A principle like grace gives hope to the most unworthy. It opens the door for all of us. But grace must have righteousness as its foundation. Otherwise God's grace would be treating sin as a light thing, and that is impossible. God's throne must keep its majesty, whatever the cost… Here the cross of Christ comes in, which is both the full answer to everything God requires and the full expression of the grace in God's heart toward people who have gone wrong.
Faith is the way grace reaches us. It earns nothing. Its whole value lies in what it looks at.
Leslie M. Grant"Through faith" is the way we receive such grace. Faith is not a thing of merit in itself. It recognises that all the merit is in the Lord Jesus Christ, and it puts its confidence in Him alone.
Writers have long argued over the words "this is not your own doing." Some say "this" covers salvation as a whole. Others say it points to the faith. One writer works through the wording itself:
J. N. DarbyThose who oppose this truth say that "this" cannot go with "faith," because in Greek the word faith is feminine. But by that rule it cannot go with "grace" either, because grace is feminine too. Then they say it goes with the whole thing, salvation. That makes no sense. Read it that way: "By grace you have been saved through faith, and this (this salvation) is not your own doing; it is the gift of God." Of course salvation by grace is not our own doing. If it were, it would not be grace. Nobody imagines that grace comes from himself, so on that reading "and this" says nothing. But people do imagine that faith comes from themselves. So after saying it is by faith, he adds, "and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God."
A second writer puts the same point in a picture.
F. B. HoleThe grace is God's: the faith is ours. Yet even our faith is not of ourselves. Faith is not something the human heart grows on its own… Faith is no weed. It is a rare flower. Once the heavenly Father plants it, nothing can pull it up. It is the gift of God.
If everything is given, there is nothing left to take credit for — and that changes what a Christian becomes.
Arthur PridhamIt is clear that boasting is excluded where salvation is of grace. Believers are not boasters but worshippers. With a wise and understanding heart they adore the God they have learned to know and love, because He has shown His own rich grace in Jesus.
- Grace — the cause. Salvation starts in God's unearned favour. That favour rests on righteousness, won at the cross — sin was not brushed aside.
- Faith — the channel. Faith carries no merit of its own. It rests the whole weight on Christ and owns that all the merit is His.
- Gift — even the faith. Writers differ on whether "this" points to faith or to the whole of salvation. They agree on one thing: God gives the believing heart; we do not produce it.
- Finished — not in progress. This letter states salvation as done. We have been saved and are saved, complete in Christ, who is already seated on high.
- Worship — the result. Where nothing is earned, boasting dies. The saved person speaks as a worshipper, not a boaster.
not on the principle of works, that no one might boast.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has before prepared that we should walk in them.
The verse just before shut the door on human effort as the ground of salvation. This verse opens a different door: the same grace that saves also produces. It raises two questions at once — what has God made of us, and what is the "work" that now belongs to a saved person?
The verse begins with "for," tying it back to the statement that salvation is not of works. One writer sets the two sides side by side and shows they never compete:
T. B. BainesAll is of grace. Works can have no place here, nor the boasting of man. But is God indifferent to good works? No. As to our standing, good works have no place, because we are God's workmanship. But this very fact demands that good works should follow as a result. We are not created by good works, but we are created for them.
That order removes both pride and laziness at the same time:
Leslie M. GrantBelievers are seen to be "His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus." Precious work of new creation, by power infinitely higher than all human work! Yet His work in us is "for good works," for good works are the proper result after God's work has brought salvation. Yet God has prepared even these good works beforehand 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 Greek word behind "workmanship" carries an artistic sense:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe word "workmanship" is in the Greek "poiema," which gives us our word "poem." It is a beautiful thought to call those who are saved by grace, and joined to Christ, "the poem of God." The word "poiema" can also mean "masterpiece" or "masterwork."
The only other place the same word appears measures this one:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinIn Romans 1:20 it describes the physical creation… But the creation of the universe out of nothing is not the greatest masterpiece of God. God has done something greater. He has produced a work which reveals Him in a far higher degree. That greater masterpiece is the redemption of sinners.
"Created" is a deliberate word, not a word for mending or reforming. One commentator explains why it matters:
Arthur PridhamBeyond doubt, it is to press on our minds that this work of God is completely new. It is not an adaptation of something that already existed, but a new creation. A believer carries nothing of himself into Christ. He is another man, a new man… In Him and from Him we receive another nature, a new and completely different life.
These works are of a new kind. God settled them in His mind before the world began:
William KellyThese are not the good works of the law. They are not even the works that human judgment might call good. They are an offering of a new character, heavenly and of grace. God had it in His mind and settled it all about us before the world we are now brought into existed. Before the world was made, the same God purposed to save us and bless us with Christ. He also marked out a certain line of walk, a special course of action. He expected those who received such favour to walk in it.
Ephesians itself spells out what they look like:
Hamilton SmithThere are indeed works that suit the place of blessing God has brought us into. He prepared them beforehand so that we should walk in them. These works come before us later in the letter. There we are urged to walk worthy of the calling, to walk in love, to walk as children of light, and to walk carefully.
Notice that God prepared two things — the walker and the road:
C. H. MackintoshGod has created us to walk in a path of good works, and He has prepared the path of good works for us to walk in. It is all of God, from first to last — all through grace, and all by faith… But remember: it is useless to talk about grace and faith and eternal life if the "good works" never appear.
This should quiet an anxious believer's search for a mission:
Michael VogelsangThis shows two things. God's purpose is that His people should do good works. And we need not search anxiously for the good works we are to do, because God has appointed them for us. We simply have to abound in them.
Being made "in Christ" supplies both the power and the pattern:
Scripture QuarterlyMan in the flesh can never produce good works. But God gives those He has created in Christ the ability to work in a way that glorifies Him and gives Him pleasure. Created "in Christ," we share Christ's character, and so we can display His features of grace and beauty.
- His work, not ours. Salvation is not created by good works; we are created for them, so the sequence never reverses.
- His masterpiece. "Workmanship" is poiema — God's poem. Redemption is a greater masterwork than the making of the universe.
- His new creation. Nothing old is adapted or patched; the believer receives a new nature and a new life in Christ.
- His prepared path. God made both the walker and the road, so the works are ready and waiting, not something to hunt for anxiously.
- His character displayed. Because we are in Christ, the walk of love, light and care in the later chapters becomes possible. That leaves no room to boast and no excuse to sit still.