Not of, but for

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. - Ephesians 2v8-10

Grace – in and of itself it is an amazing word! In this context it is astounding – “by grace you have been saved through faith.” We have another opportunity for a great theological debate here, but let us once again leave that aside. These thoughts are not meant to be a theological treatise, but my own personal reflections.

Here I see a couple of key phrase. ‘It is the gift of God.’ Our salvation, and all that goes with it, is God’s precious gift. Despite the Santa Clause story a true gift is not based on its earning. If I could earn a gift it would be a reward, a payment, or a salary.

God makes that clear in the next verse – salvation is not a result of our works. It is indeed not “of works.” But it doesn’t stop there. We are His handiwork, His workmanship, even His masterpiece. The work that is done is His work.

Now we get to the “but for” bit. We are His workmanship, because He ordained before the very foundation of the world that we were created for good works. There is no option, no out. John MacArthur captured the thought in the tile of one of his books - “Faith Works.” True faith will always work, it was ordained long ago. James reminds us that if there are no works, then there never was any real faith.

Faith is never of good works, but it is always for the purpose of good works.