But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, (5) even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), (6) and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, (7) that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (8) For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, (9) not of works, lest anyone should boast. (10) For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

The letter to the Ephesians was written by the apostle Paul. In our verses today Paul reminds the Christians in Ephesus that the natural state of man is one of condemnation and spiritual death; believers are delivered from that state by the grace of God in Christ Jesus. The design of God is the manifestation of the riches of His grace. By God alone in Christ, by grace alone, are the faithful saved – the gratuitous nature of salvation is the prominent idea of these verses and Paul returns to this truth again and again – that man neither deserves to be saved nor can redeem himself. Time is collapsed here as salvation for the faithful, in measure, is already enjoyed and its continuance is certain by the nature of our union with God.

Salvation is entirely of grace. We are saved by grace; saved in faith and not in works or merit. Even faith is not of ourselves but is the gift of God. Works without ANY qualification are excluded and we are NOT self redeemed but only of Christ. We are God’s workmanship and He and not ourselves has made us what we are. That men are elected/chosen to holiness proves that holiness is not grounds of election – Paul is saying that “created in Christ Jesus for good works” is not the ground on which men are chosen but the good works are the inevitable result of conversion.

My favorite, c.s.Lewis writes in Weight of Glory “And that is enough to raise our thoughts to what may happen when the redeemed soul, beyond all hope and nearly beyond belief, learns at last that she has pleased Him whom she was created to please. There will be no room for vanity then. She will be free from the miserable illusion that it is her doing. With no taint of what we should now call self-approval she will most innocently rejoice in the thing that God has made her to be….”