“Not by works”

May 28, 2008 at 1:09 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

“For is it by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”               Eph 2:8-10

There is a lot in these 2 verses and I don’t know that I have ever realized it. Some important things really jumped off the page to me this morning.

*Saved=through faith

*It is a gift from God- I think about precious gifts from God in my life- my husband, family, friends and want so badly for a baby. My salvation is at the top of these precious gifts. A gift that I could never repay.

*A gift given not through works so that no one can boast. This puts us all on the same page. He leveled the playing field. There is no way that any of us is greater than the other. No competition. We are all equal. None of us earned Salvation. I am just as important as a woman dying from hunger/poverty on the other side of the world. She is no better or worse than I. There is nothing that either of us can do to earn our salvation. We just have to accept this free gift through faith.

*He did this so that no one can boast. We are without an excuse to boast. There is no boasting about our Salvation or good works because we didn’t earn anything with them in the first place. It is a gift. We are all the same.

*The biggest part that jumped out at me this morning= we were not saved BY our good works but saved FOR our good works. We are created to do good works. This is our purpose- to do good works through Jesus which he has already prepared for us to do. He has things ready for us to do. Its just a matter of us realizing our purpose and walking into those good works. They don’t save us but we were created for them!

Jesus what are the good works you have for me today?