Grace through faith

To embrace the beauty of life, we must first face the reality of death. Last week, we acknowledged the pathway of death. From the moment we take our first breath, death looms on the horizon.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:4-10 ESV).

This is the gospel. This is the salvation story. And it’s more beautiful than words can explain.

This week, I want to focus on grace through faith. It might seem simple, but there is no other way to salvation. Let’s look at verses 8 and 9 again.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (ESV).

Salvation is not the result of how good you are. It’s not about being a “good person.” It’s not about how often you attend church. The Bible is clear that salvation is the result of grace through faith. And this is a work of God.

This seems counterintuitive. We live in a world where there are problems to fix. So, we break our backs trying to find solutions. But when it comes to our death apart from Christ, there’s nothing we can do on our own. Salvation is the result of grace.

Paul says elsewhere, “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins” (Rom. 3:21-25 ESV).

Have you found life in Christ? Have you experienced grace through faith? If not, I hope you do today.