Ephesians 2:8-9 (NKJV)
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 Not of works, lest anyone should boast.
People are saved by grace through faith. It is your faith in God’s grace that saves you. Grace is what God did through Jesus Christ; therefore, your faith in what God did through Jesus Christ is how you get saved. Grace is what God did through Jesus Christ as an act of His love for you. God’s grace has provided the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.
Grace alone will not save you and faith alone will not save you. A person is saved by grace through faith. God provided salvation for every person through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but not everyone is saved. Why? Because a person must respond to God’s grace with faith in order to receive salvation. We have defined grace, now let’s define faith.
Faith is your positive response to what God has already provided by grace. Grace is God’s responsibility; faith is your responsibility. Faith is your positive response to something God has already done. Faith takes what God has already provided. God’s grace has already provided salvation, but faith is the way a person receives it.
Faith is not something you do to gain salvation. Salvation is either dependent on faith in what Jesus did or it is dependent on faith in what you do. Your faith is either in Jesus and what He did (that’s grace) or in yourself and what you do (that’s works).
Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done. God doesn’t love us based on our performance. It is faith in what Jesus did that makes us acceptable to God, not how many good things we have done. Faith is not what you must do to make God act on your behalf – you need only to respond to what God has already done.
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