Ephesians 2:7,8 - It is by grace you have been saved

2:7

There is a purpose in God raising us up with Christ and seating us with Him in the heavenly realms. This purpose is that the “incomparable riches of His grace” might be displayed to all in the ages to come. And this grace is expressed in His kindness towards us in Christ. This has both a now application, for later Paul will talk about the good works that God has for us to do, and a future application. But the key element is the demonstration of God’s grace. In Jesus’ time on earth the religious leaders were offended because He showed grace to prostitutes, tax collectors and sinners. God is in the business of demonstrating His grace. We need to take hold of this both in relation to our own lives and in relation to the lives of others. What is God doing on your life? Part of it will be demonstrating His grace, so even if all seems lost we should never give up. What about the lives of others? We should look for a demonstration of His grace there too.

2:8

For we have been saved by grace. How did this grace come into operation in our lives? Through faith. Salvation is the gift of God, it is nothing to do with us. We will so often look for some worthiness in ourselves, especially when things are going well. Or if things are going badly we will give up hope for we are painfully aware of just how unworthy of salvation we are. Both these reactions are wrong and dangerous. We are saved purely by grace. And the faith we show does not earn anything, rather it enables us to appropriate the grace that God gives us, it makes it effective on our lives. The “this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” refers to the whole matter of salvation.