“Not of works, lest any man should boast.”
(Ephesians 2:9)
Paul’s concern in Ephesians 2 is the deliverance of lost and condemned sinners from their natural state into acceptance with God and salvation through Christ. So he begins by describing what sinners are by nature: dead in trespasses and sins, walking according to the course of this world, and children of wrath (2:1-3). Because before magnifying grace, the depth of human misery and insufficiency must be established.
Against that condition Paul places the decisive words, “But God,” (v. 4). The whole transition from death to life, wrath to acceptance, and ruin to salvation is accomplished through God’s mercy, love, grace, and kindness. He makes this explicitly clear.
Paul then begins to magnify grace by gathering together its richest expressions. God is “rich in mercy.” He acts because of the “great love” wherewith He loves His people. He displays “the exceeding riches of his grace” in kindness through Christ. His purpose here is not to recognize grace as one factor among several, but to fill the believer’s mind with the sense that grace alone deserves the glory for salvation.
This is why boasting must be excluded. If works contributed to the ground of our acceptance in Christ, man would possess something in which to glory.[1] But Scripture permits no such claim. The glory belongs to God, not our worthiness.
The expression “by grace ye are saved” includes the whole gracious deliverance believers receive in this life. Conversion and sanctification are works of sovereign grace. Fallen man is naturally guilty and exposed to wrath, which is why Paul here directs the sinner entirely away from himself and toward the grace of God in Christ.
Believers are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Works follow salvation, but they do not cause it. God has ordained that His people should walk in holiness, but good works cannot be turned into the foundation of justification without overturning the very order Paul establishes.
And yet the human heart constantly tries to recover some portion of the glory grace excludes. Even when we confess salvation by grace alone, we may still secretly rely on our obedience, discipline, knowledge, usefulness, sorrow for sin, or spiritual progress to earn God’s favor. The gospel leaves no room for this. Grace must remain the whole cause of salvation, and every ground of boasting in self must be done away with.
Contemplations:
- Where I Still Want Something to Boast In. You have made salvation a work of grace, yet I still look for reasons to feel superior, secure, or worthy in myself. Forgive this instinct to recover a glory Your gospel deliberately removes. If salvation is Your work, then boasting belongs nowhere in me. Teach me to be content with receiving everything from Your hand and returning all praise to You.
- When I Quietly Add Myself to Grace. I can confess that salvation is by grace while inwardly treating my own effort as though it completes what grace begins. And yet Your mercy, love, kindness, and grace alone are the cause of my deliverance. Keep me from building a system in my heart where Christ supplies most and I supply the rest.
- Put My Good Works After Salvation, Not Before It. You created Your people in Christ Jesus unto good works, and I do not want to despise what You have ordained so keep me from reversing the order. My obedience must flow from grace. Let good works be fruit, evidence, duty, gratitude, and service, but never the ground on which I expect acceptance. Teach me to pursue holiness earnestly while resting in Christ alone for justification.
- Make “But God” the End of My Self-Confidence. I was not just weak, I was dead in trespasses and sins, exposed to wrath and unable to rescue myself. Then came the words that dismantle pride: “But God.” Every difference grace has made begins with You. Whenever I am tempted to think too highly of myself, bring me back to what I was by nature and to the mercy that intervened.
Prayer (Confession):
Merciful Father, I confess how deeply the desire to boast still clings to me.
You declare that salvation is not of works, yet my heart continues to search for something in myself on which to rest. I look to obedience, knowledge, discipline, usefulness, consistency, and spiritual experience as though they could contribute to my acceptance before You.
Forgive me for diminishing grace by quietly adding myself to it.
I was dead in trespasses and sins. I was under wrath. Nothing in me could initiate the work of deliverance. Yet You, being rich in mercy, acted according to Your great love and exceeding grace in Christ.
Strip away every false confidence. Let me see more clearly that justification, conversion, sanctification, and every spiritual blessing come from Your gracious hand.
Keep me from despising good works, but keep me equally from trusting them. Make me zealous to walk in the works You have ordained without ever turning them into a foundation for boasting.
And when pride rises, humble me with the words, “But God.” When self-confidence grows, remind me that I am Your workmanship.
Let all glory return to You for the whole work of salvation, from beginning to end.
In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Further Scripture References:
2 Tim. 1:9; Titus 3:5; 1 Cor. 1:29; Rom. 3:20
[1] John Owen, The Doctrine of Justification by Faith through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ, Explained, Confirmed, & Vindicated, (London: Printed for R. Boulter .., 1677), 516-520.
