Salvation is a gift of God so that no one may boast as having deserved it. It is received through faith which excludes boasting. This is stated in one of the clearest passages on how one is saved in all the Bible – Ephesians 2:8,9. Paul concludes in verse 10, for we are His workmanship. As God’s workmanship – the product of His hands – His masterpiece – we understand that we are displays of His glory in this life, where we are created in Christ Jesus for good works. Jesus taught that the light of good works which the church reflects, displays the glory of God. (Mt. 5:16). The time for final exhibition is yet to come; heaven is the final showroom, but here on earth God is already showing what He can do through His church.
Lest anyone think that works are of human origin, Paul concludes the statement confirming what he has already said about our salvation: that our works are also created and prepared beforehand by God. God guarantees that these works will be done, not merely by teaching what is good and by providing Christ as an example, but by creating us with a new heart and the power to perform these works. Until God has done this, any virtue that any man may have of his own accord is useless – as the prophet Isaiah wrote, they are like filthy rags (Is 64:6). Legalists have always tried to hang the accusation of ‘antinomianism’ over sola fide, but what they seem unwilling to understand is that it has been the understanding of the Gospel from the time of the Reformation that: “justification is by faith alone, but not by the faith that is alone.” In other words, good works are the necessary products of true saving faith.
