"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourself: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast" (Eph. 2:8-9). This letter was written to the Ephesians. They had been saved "by grace...through faith." If we can learn what they did in order to be saved, we know that if we meet the same conditions then we also shall be saved. They "heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation" (Eph. 1:13). Then we read in Acts 19:17-18: "And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. {18} And many that believed came, and confessed, and showed their deeds." And we read in verse 5; "And when they heard this they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Therefore if one is to be saved like the Ephesians, he must hear and believe the word of God, repent of his sins (Acts 17:30), confess that Jesus Christ is the Son of God (Acts 8:37), and be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 19:5; Eph. 4:5, Acts 2:38). The Lord will then add them to His church. "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there was added unto them about three thousand souls; ...And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be [those that were] saved" (Acts 2:41,47).
The writer states: "It [salvation] is a gift of God." The gift of God in Eph. 2:8 is the salvation which God gives to all who meet the condition of pardon (Rom. 6:23). In his classic work, Blacks Law Dictionary, (1891) Henry Campbell Black defined a gift as "a voluntary transfer of property to another made gratuitously and without consideration." He outlines four widely recognized elements of a gift: 1. Capacity or ability of the giver; 2. Intention of the giver to make a gift. 3. Completed delivery to or for the beneficiary; 4. Acceptance of the gift by the beneficiary. If any of these four elements is missing, there is no legal gift. Notice the first three elements deal with actions or characteristics of the giver. The final element concerns the recipient of the gift. "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). The required delivery has been fully performed on God's part, but such a gift is not complete until it has been accepted on the part of the beneficiaries. "Then they that gladly received the word were baptized" (Acts 2:41). What did they receive? The word. What did they do? They were baptized. What does baptism do for us? "Baptism doth also now save us" (I Pet. 3:21). How does baptism save us? By washing away our sins. "Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins" (Acts 22:16). Does the water wash the sins away? No, Paul said "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into his death [Christ shed his blood in his death]? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death [where Christ's blood cleanses]: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:3-4). The new life begins when we are raised from that watery grave of baptism. "Being then [when they were baptized] made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness" (v17-18).
Everything God does for us is an act of grace. Everything we do in obeying Him is an act of our faith. "So then faith comes by hearing the word of God" (Rom. 10:17). God's grace provides us the word or the gospel. When we hear and obey that gospel [the power to save Rom. 1:16], then we are saved by grace through faith!
"If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God" (I Pet. 4:11).
Don H. Noblin
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