Good Morning Friends,
Paul says the same thing twice in just four
verses in Ephesians 2. Maybe he did that because he got so caught up in the
excitement that he blurted it out before he was really ready to develop the idea.
Maybe he did it because he really wanted us to understand his point – there
would no missing this point! Maybe he did it because it’s the core of what
Christianity is about.
He said it first in verse 5: “it is by grace you have been saved.”
There it is again in verse 8: “it is by grace you have been saved.” This
second time he adds, “through faith.”
Grace – unmerited favor is its official
definition. It means that this marvelous thing that we have received from God –
this eternal relationship with Him – is something we do not deserve in any way
and have not and cannot earn in any way. We have received it as a gift from God’s
generous and loving heart. That is the only way that it is available. Try to
attain salvation in some other way and you will fail! It is available only as a
gift!
There is only one way to access this amazing
gift – by faith. That is, to trust God for it. If you try to earn, He won’t
give it. If you think you deserve it, you’ve been fooled or are fooling yourself.
Ask for it and believe that He is loving enough and generous enough to give it
– and it’s yours!
That is the core of what Christianity is about
and the basis of what marks Christianity as different from every other religious
system in the world. Every other system is based upon some form of deserving or
earning. You deserve salvation because you are the right ethnicity or have the
right ancestry. You earn salvation by doing enough good works or believing the
right things or saying the right mantras or doing enough penance or in some
other way. Deserve it or earn it are the marks of every other religious system.
But the marks of Christianity are gift and trust – grace and faith.
“It is by grace you have been saved, through
faith.” Thanks be to God!
His, by Grace,
Steve
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