212. Salvation is a Gift
Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is a the gift of God.
The central and crucial doctrine of Justification by Grace through Faith is the promise of salvation. The emphasis in this verse is on the free gift of grace. The emphasis is on God’s doing it all; it is all God’s action. The Father plans it; the Son earns it; the Spirit distributes it. Grace is amazing because it is hard to believe and hard to fathom. We are so used to getting what you pay for; it is the gift of God, not of works; it is getting what someone else paid for. Grace = earned by Christ and given to us as a free gift. It is difficult, actually impossible, for the human mind to conceive of anything so precious being so free. “There must be something I can do.” Grace says, “There is nothing you can do; it’s all been done.”
We are saved by grace and through faith; it sounds the same, but it is actually a little different. Grace saves, or even more exactly, Jesus saves. Faith does not save; it only receives; faith does not do anything or contribute anything to the saving. Faith does not make it so; faith does not make it happen; grace does. Faith is not a good work; faith does not merit anything; the merit and blood of Christ is the work. I am a mere recipient of the favor and blessing of salvation; the Holy Spirit implants the faith in the heart when He opens the heart by the Gospel. In this way it is through faith: faith makes it personal; faith makes it my possession.
By grace through faith = grace saves, faith receives. The promise of salvation is a free gift, and it must often be remembered that it is free. However, that does not mean that grace is cheap, and we cannot just use it for license. Grace is extremely expensive:it costs the sacrifice of the Father and the life of the Son and the work of the Holy Spirit. Great love makes grace free to me. Thank you, Lord.