Week 5 · Wednesday

Salvation by Grace Alone
by Dan Metzger

Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is 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. 

This is one of my (and all Christendom’s) favorite verses. Coming from a religious background based primarily on works, understanding this passage was mind boggling. No matter how hard we try, we cannot work our way to heaven; we cannot pile up enough good works to be acceptable to God. My mentor in my early Christian days illustrated the concept of works-based salvation this way: it would be like lining up everyone on the West Coast and have them try to swim to Hawaii. I might make it a couple of hundred yards, Mark Spitz (this really dates me) maybe a hundred miles, but we would all fall short of the goal of Hawaii and we would drown. Trying to make ourselves acceptable to God through our good works is just as futile, since the gulf between God’s holiness and our sinfulness is so great. Though some might rack up many more good works than others, we all will fall terribly short.
But God has another plan—salvation by grace through faith as a free gift! What a liberating concept that was when I first heard it. It’s only through faith in Christ’s atoning death that the gulf can be bridged between God and us. I do good works, not to appease Him, but out of gratitude for all that He has done.

Prayer: Thank You for offering salvation to me through faith in Jesus, a free gift I so very much did not deserve. Help me to rest in the security of that salvation and lead me to do good works out of a grateful heart. Give me opportunities to share this good news with others today.