Ephesians: Grace, not Works, Saves Us
Ephesians 2:8-10 - What saves my soul will also change my life.
“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. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:8-10 NASB1995
I have these three verses marked in my electronic Bible, probably from a previous ‘Bible in One Year” journey. These three verses are worthy of memorization, because they summarize so beautifully the Good News and the reconciliation of humans and God.
So what is grace? This is a fundamental concept in the relationship between us and God. Let’s do a word study from the Blue Letter Bible:
Grace comes from the Greek noun χάρις or cháris (Strong’s G5485), with the following Biblical usages:
grace
that which affords joy, pleasure, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness: grace of speech
good will, loving-kindness, favour
of the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues
what is due to grace
the spiritual condition of one governed by the power of divine grace
the token or proof of grace, benefit
a gift of grace
benefit, bounty
thanks, (for benefits, services, favours), recompense, reward
2.a. - This really sums up the merciful kindness of God. He exerts His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps/strengthens/increases them in Christian faith, knowledge and affection and kindles them to exercise Christian virtues.
We can’t get there through “good works”. I don’t know how many times I have heard the virtues of someone described as “he or she is or was a good person”. This pops up quite frequently at funerals as a way to “help” those who are in a state of grief. Unless that person was saved and was also made acceptable to Him through His grace, their virtues are microscopic compared to their sinful state. We are saved through His grace ONLY and THEN we are put on the brighter path that He has prepared for us full of His purpose and good works. Only then can we escape the darkness.
You can be the nicest, gentlest person in the room/neighborhood/city but you are still a sinner. You could give millions and millions of dollars away and volunteer for every charity that asks but you are still a sinner. You could be a loving parent, a good child, an exemplary employee, a lover of nature and animals but you are still a sinner. We all sin in so many ways and will continue to sin until the day we die, although the Holy Spirit nudges those under His grace back on the path.
Your own good works, as I have described before, are like climbing Mt. Everest (or even a much smaller hill like the guy in the photo) and then standing there in triumph, thinking that you are the best and worthy of the Creator of the Universe, but you should realize the gap between you and God is STILL greater than the distance to the edge of the known universe. Let’s do the math: The distance to the edge of the universe is estimated at 46.5 billion light years. A calculation shows that the height of Mt. Everest is 0.00000000000093 light years. AI could not tell me how many Everests it takes to reach the edge of the universe because the math is too big! My little calculator blew up trying to find that number. That’s what really stands between us and a Holy God (and I’m not saying He’s at the edge of the universe, but I’m using that as an example of the gap between us and Him because of our sin). We close the gap (instantly) by believing in Jesus and His atonement for our sins and His resurrection for our salvation and eternal life.
Grace is a gift from God that comes through our faith in Him. We are His workmanship and we close the gap through that grace. Enduring Word has good commentary on this passage:
a. For by grace you have been saved: Paul cannot speak of this glorious work God does without reminding us that it is a gift of grace, given to the undeserving. We are not even saved by our faith (though faith itself is not a work), but by grace through faith.
i. We can think of water flowing through a hose. The water is the important part, but it is communicated through the hose. The hose does not quench your thirst; the water does. But the hose brings water to the place you can benefit from it.
ii. “The precise form of words here stresses two things. As consistently emphasized by Paul, it is entirely of His grace, His free, undeserved favour to mankind. Then also this salvation is presented as an accomplished fact.” (Foulkes)
b. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: The work of salvation is God’s gift. Paul’s grammar here indicates that the words apply to the gift of salvation mentioned in Ephesians 2:4-8, and not directly to the faith mentioned in this verse.
i. Clarke emphatically states that the original Greek is clear in noting that when it says it is the gift of God, the it referred to is salvation, not faith. The great Greek scholar Dean Alford also clearly pointed out that the this not of yourselves referred to salvation, not to faith in this passage.
ii. Yet, even our faith is a gift of God. We cannot believe in Jesus unless God does a prior work in us, for we are blinded by our own deadness and by the god of this age (2 Corinthians 4:4).
iii. “But it may be asked: Is not faith the gift of God? Yes, as to the grace by which it is produced; but the grace or power to believe, and the act of believing, are two different things. Without the grace or power to believe no man ever did or can believe; but with that power the act of faith is a man’s own. God never believes for any man, no more than he repents for him; the penitent, through this grace enabling him, believes for himself.” (Clarke)
iv. This shows us the essential place of prayer in evangelism. Since God initiates salvation, we should begin our evangelism with asking God to do the initiating, and granting the ability to believe to those we want to see saved.
c. Not of works, lest anyone should boast: God did it not of works simply so that no one could boast. If salvation was the accomplishment of man in any way, we could boast about it. But under God’s plan of salvation, God alone receives the glory.
i. “I thought Napoleon did a good thing, when, on the day of his coronation, he took his crown, and put it on his own head. Why should he not take the symbol that was his due? And if you get to heaven, one half by grace and one half by works, you will say, ‘Atonement profited me a little, but integrity profited me much more.’ ” (Spurgeon)
d. For we are His workmanship: God saves us not merely to save us from the wrath we rightly deserve, but also to make something beautiful of us. We are His workmanship, which translates the ancient Greek word poiema. The idea is that we are His beautiful poem. The Jerusalem Bible translates workmanship as “work of art.”
i. God’s love is a transforming love. It meets us right where we are at, but when we receive this love it always takes us where we should be going. The love of God that saves my soul will also change my life.
ii. We are His workmanship, His creation – something new He has made of us in Jesus Christ. “The spiritual life cannot come to us by development from our old nature. I have heard a great deal about evolution and development, but I am afraid that if any one of us were to be developed to our utmost, apart from the grace of God, we should come out worse than before the development began.” (Spurgeon)
iii. “Our new life is as truly created out of nothing as were the first heavens, and the first earth. This ought to be particularly noticed, for there are some who think that the grace of God improves the old nature into the new. It does nothing of the sort.” (Spurgeon)
e. Created in Christ Jesus for good works: That beautiful thing God is making of us is active in good works. These are just as much a part of God’s predestined plan as anything else is. These good works are valid evidence that someone is walking as one of God’s chosen.
i. “Works play no part at all in securing salvation. But afterwards Christians will prove their faith by their works. Here Paul shows himself at one with James.” (Wood)
Some takeaways:
The work of salvation is God’s gift. Faith is a conduit, but that conduit must be established and salvation is the path.
Even our faith is a gift of God.
Salvation is not through humans but through God.
The grace and power to believe and the act of believing are two different things. God does not repent for us or believe for us. Grace and faith allow us to believe for ourselves (the Clarke commentary above).
God alone receives the glory for the works we do. We cannot boast and push our way to the front of the line in the heavenly realms.
We are His workmanship, His “beautiful poem”. God’s love is a transforming love. What saves my soul will also change my life.
Our old nature is not improved into the new, but it is more like it was created out of nothing.
Paul and James are in complete agreement about works after salvation.
Thinking of God’s gifts makes me think about the distance between God and ourselves. Without these gifts the distance is astronomical; with those gifts and His love there is no distance. This made me think about a really good science fiction movie that is one of my favorites: Interstellar. There is a scene in the movie where one of the astronauts is talking about love (you’d have to see the movie to understand the context). She notes that love, for someone else or something bigger like God, can transcend all time and space. God’s love for us is that way: It is eternal, infinite and it is immediate! What a glorious thought!
Postscript: In an astonishing coincidence (there are no coincidences with God), the pilot of the Artemis II mission Victor Glover said this just before their spacecraft entered a 40-minute communications blackout on the far side of the Moon earlier this evening (April 6):
“Christ said, in response to what was the greatest command, that it was to love God with all that you are. And he also, being a great teacher, said the second is equal to it, and that is to love your neighbor as yourself.”
“And so, as we prepare to go out of radio communication, we’re still going to feel your love from Earth, and to all of you down there on earth and around earth, we love you from the moon.”
My next devotional examines Ephesians 2:11-13 - The Gentiles are reconciled through the blood of Christ.
Heaven on Wheels Daily Prayer:
Dear Lord - Being a believer who also loves pondering the incredible and vast Universe that You created, it gives me such peace to know that Your gifts to me transcend physical barriers and create an intimate union with You. Amen.
Citations and Credits:
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.Lockman.org.
“G5485 - charis - Strong’s Greek Lexicon (NASB95).” Blue Letter Bible. Web. 6 Apr, 2026. <https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g5485/nasb95/mgnt/0-1/>.
Precept Austin was accessed on 04/06/26 to review commentary for Ephesians 2:8-10.
Commentary from Enduring Word is used with written permission and without any alteration. ©1996-present The Enduring Word Bible Commentary by David Guzik – enduringword.com. Within Enduring Word commentary:
Clarke, Adam The New Testament with A Commentary and Critical Notes, Volume II (New York: Eaton & Mains, 1831)
Foulkes, Francis The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 1988)
Spurgeon, Charles Haddon The New Park Street Pulpit, Volumes 1-6 and The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Volumes 7-63 (Pasadena, Texas: Pilgrim Publications, 1990)
Wood, A. Skevington Ephesians, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 11 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1978)