For By Grace You Have Been Saved Through Faith Alone

No, Eph. 2:8-9 does not read that way but that is the way most seem to want to read it.
Let me quote the verses for you from the New King James version.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift
of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

There is no believer in his right mind who would discount the grace of God in man's
salvation. You do not believe you deserve to be saved do you? If you cannot count your
own sins I suspect it would not be too hard to find some one who would be willing to do
it for you. And, I add, that is to say nothing of those internal sins that no man can see in
another, those sins that only God knows about you. Many people are unaware that even
evil thoughts are sin in God's sight.

"For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false
witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man." (Matt. 15:19-20 NKJV)
"There is none righteous, no, not one." (Rom. 3:10 NKJV) "All have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3:23 NKJV)

Yes, I am thankful for grace for my own sins wear me down but it distresses me to see
what man has done to Eph. 2:8-9. The passage has been perverted; the perversion has
been made the be all and end all of God's teaching on the subject. It is as if no other
verses in the Bible have any authority on the topic of salvation. If God has spoken
elsewhere it makes no difference for these two verses (I should say the perversion of
them) are all we will take into account and accept. We tell God, in effect, do not waste
your time telling me anything else for I do not want to hear it.

We are unwilling to accept that the same man who wrote Eph. 2:8-9 by inspiration of the
Holy Spirit also wrote other books of the New Testament by inspiration of the Holy Spirit
as well and also spoke in those books on the subject. We forget the Psalmist said, "The
entirety of Your word is truth." (Psalms 119:160)

We pit Paul against himself in order to make sure that Eph. 2:8-9 (our perversion of it)
remains on a pedestal above all other passages on the subject. The passage in Eph. 2
teaches the truth on the subject of how man is saved when properly understood and not
perverted but my problem is with the perversion. The passage is a summary statement of
how man comes to have salvation but where the trouble comes is man's willingness to
define the terms there as he very well sees fit and desires. For example, who gets to
define terms like grace, like faith, like works? And, that is where the perversion comes
in.

Let me define grace for you the way it is commonly defined by man – grace is God doing
all the work and me not lifting even my pinky. It is total unconditional salvation. The
idea is if God makes any demand on me (puts a condition on salvation) it cannot be
grace.
Faith is commonly defined, in this context, as what I believe. It is subjective, not
objective, does not depend on a book, chapter, and verse because it is what I believe. I
knew a lady who once said words to the effect that she did not care what Paul said about
women preachers. She knew what she believed was her idea. Bingo! That is how faith
is commonly defined among men today as it relates to Eph. 2:8-9.

Works is defined as being anything that requires me taking a single breath. If I have to
lift my eye lids it is salvation by works.

I totally reject all of the above. I say it is a perversion of truth. It is a perversion of the
teaching of Eph. 2:8-9. Let us hear a little from Paul, the one no one seems to be willing
to listen to except in Eph. 2. Let him explain himself.

"But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the
Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God which is through faith in Jesus
Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus." (Rom. 3:21-24 NKJV)

This passage speaks of faith and grace as well as justification being a gift. Does this
sound familiar to Eph. 2:8-9? It ought to. But, how does the passage say we are justified
by faith and grace? Answer – "through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." (v. 24)

Well how does Paul say a man enters Christ Jesus where this redemption is – redemption
"is in Christ Jesus?" He says just two chapters later, "do you not know that as many of us
as were baptized into Christ Jesus." (Rom. 6:3 NKJV) Was this a slip of the tongue or of
the pen? No, for he says it again, "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ
Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." (Gal. 3:26-27
NKJV) By the way, can you put on Christ without baptism? (see also 1 Cor. 12:13)

Why is a man a son of God through faith in Christ Jesus? Because he was baptized into
Christ. Reread Gal. 3:26-27 again. I challenge one and all to find even a single passage
of scripture in the New Testament that tells you how to get into Christ outside of baptism.

By faith a man is led to be baptized into Christ Jesus. No one would or could be baptized
into Christ without first having faith in him. Forgiving grace is found in Christ. The
reader will see readily that I do not pit Paul against himself. Faith, grace, and baptism all
fit together into one package. Paul meant what he said in every single passage of
scripture he wrote but those who interpret Eph. 2:8-9 the way most do today have him
fighting himself for they cannot admit he meant what he said in passages like Gal. 3:26-
27.

They cannot understand why he arose and was baptized to wash away his sins (Acts
22:16) unless of course the passage does not mean what it literally says. They have to
symbolize all such passages (and dream up what the symbols are suppose to mean for the
Bible does not tell them). Paul could not have literally meant that a man enters Christ by
baptism no matter what he said about it for that would mean one had to be baptized to be
a Christian, to be in Christ, the very thing they deny. They thus pit Paul against himself
by their man made tradition.

Paul was baptized to wash away his sins (Acts 22:16) and taught that one enters Christ by
baptism. He said Christ is the savior of the body (Eph. 5:23) and that the church is his
body (Eph. 1:22-23) but says that body is entered through baptism. "For by one Spirit we
were all baptized into one body." (1 Cor. 12:13 NKJV) If Christ is the Savior of the body
and you are baptized into that body how are you going to be saved without being baptized
(for the remission of your sins – Acts 2:38, Acts 2:16) the same way Paul was baptized?
This body one is baptized into, the body of Christ, the church, is cleansed "with the
washing of water by the word." (Eph. 5:26 NKJV) No washing of water (baptism) then
no cleansing.

Paul, unlike those today, did not see a conflict between being saved by grace through
faith and being baptized for the remission of sins. As said earlier, it was all part of one
package. Baptism for the remission of sins is a part of God's grace. A man is led to it by
faith.

When Paul was baptized to wash away his sins he did not see that as salvation by works
but salvation by a living faith (by grace you have been saved through faith). When
Ananias, a Holy Spirit filled man sent by God to Paul, told him to "Arise and be baptized,
and wash away your sins" (Acts 22:16 NKJV) faith led him to believe that this was God
speaking to him. When he complied with God's command he was, you get to choose: (a)
justified by faith (b) justified by works.

Let me ask another question. What if Paul had refused to be baptized to wash away his
sins? Would his faith have been a living faith or a dead faith? When you answer that one
you will know why you will find baptism in a proper exegesis of Eph. 2:8-9. The way
Eph. 2:8-9 is commonly understood today it demands a dead faith for there will be no
baptism to wash away your sins found in it according to the common understanding.

Paul believed and obeyed and was saved by grace. We disbelieve and disobey and say
we are saved by grace. Friends, there is a world of difference in those two positions.
Both cannot be right.