By grace through faith

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. - Ephesians 2.8-10

Ephesians 2.8-10 might be the best single mini-lesson on the doctrine of salvation in the entire word of God It summarises, in just a few short words, how we got saved and what we ought to do about it.

It all starts with ‘for by grace are you saved through faith’ and we could really stop there in many ways. That summarises what salvation is all about.

If we weren’t for the grace of God there would be no hope for salvation and if I were not for the gift of faith we could never exercise it.

Salvation is all of God. We’ll look at this a lots more in the next couple of days but it is clear even in these few words.

By grace we are saved
Through faith we are saved

And as a result
To God alone be the glory

There is no room there for works. There is no room there for our own effort. Even is there was we would all for short of the glory of God.

So we rely on grace alone, through faith alone. And that makes al the difference for all eternity.