Ephesians 2:8-9

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

-Ephesians 2:8-9

As we read in the previous verse, God wants to point to his saving of us and use it as an example of his grace.  This shows his grace because it is by God's grace that we have been saved.  The reason why he can show this act as an example of his grace is because it is an act of his grace that saved us.  In case anyone didn't know already, we don't work for our salvation.  It isn't by some might or power or strength or will on our part that we are saved from our deadness.  It is by his grace and it is a gift.  How do you receive a gift?  You don't offer money or services in order to receive a gift.  A gift is simply given and received.

Now, if it is by grace and we didn't work for it, then it means that we can't boast about it.  If we did something or were the initiators or actors in this event then we would have something to boast about.  If I ran a race and won by my own strength, then I can boast about the victory.  But instead, God runs the race and wins for us when we didn't do anything at all.  Therefore, we can't boast in ourselves but only in God who saved us by grace.

I know it's hard to leave it all up to God.  I think as humans we want to do it all or be the main ones in whatever we accomplish.  To give up and leave it all up to God may be hard.  We can see this in the way people try to attain salvation on their own terms.  Many people try to be "good" people and in some way tip the scales in their favor.  They are "working" their way to heaven and into God's good graces.  Unfortunately, this method will never work.  We are dead in our trespasses and sins.  Fortunately, we are saved by grace through faith.

"Faith" is something I forgot to address.  We know that it is by believing in Jesus that we are saved.  Some would argue that this is an effort on our part.  However, we are not saved by works.  We read here that we are saved by grace through faith.  NLT puts it slightly differently, "God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God".  Apparently, though saved when we believed, we can't take credit for this.  Perhaps I don't fully understand how this works, but the truth is that we don't work for our salvation and can't take credit for it.  Apparently, grace works through faith to save us.  How does this happen and still be void of any work on our part?  The way it works is that our faith to believe in Jesus is a gift.  God's saving grace is that which makes us alive out of our deadness and grants us faith in Jesus.  Faith is a gift.  If it were not for God causing us to believe in Jesus, we would not turn to him.  We know our state before his work in us.  We were following the course of this world.  Another example of our deadness is found in Romans 3 where Paul puts together some verses of how we are all under sin.

“None is righteous, no, not one;
     no one understands;
    no one seeks for God.
 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
    no one does good,
    not even one.”
 “Their throat is an open grave;
    they use their tongues to deceive.”
“The venom of asps is under their lips.”
     “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
     in their paths are ruin and misery,
 and the way of peace they have not known.”
     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

-Romans 3:10b-18

Praise be to God who saves us by grace.