are to come in the future, we do not know, but we are certain of one great fact that, as

each age succeeds age, the crowning display of God's grace will be shown in His

kindness revealed in increasing measure in all its fullness.

Again Paul returns to the theme of grace, which for him was inexhaustible.  Grace

for ever rules out human goodness or merit, so however high or great the blessings are,

there can be only one basis for them, namely the "exceeding riches of His grace". Riches

of grace are seen in the Son's redemptive work (1: 7), but exceeding riches is the only

expression that befits the Father's kindness in the future age. Verse 8 gives perhaps the

most concise summing up of the gospel of grace in the N.T. revealed through Paul: "for

by grace are ye saved through faith: and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not

of works, lest any man should boast" (8, 9).

This is an extension of the parenthesis of verse 5. The believer's salvation springs

solely from the grace of God and is made our own possession by faith or trust in Christ

alone. And all of this is a gift of God, not just faith alone. It is the whole grace-by-faith

salvation that God has given us, and faith is the channel through which we receive it. It is

"not of works, lest any man should boast" (9). If man was able to do anything in

connection with his salvation, he would have something to boast about, but God has so

arranged it that this is impossible, and He alone must have all the glory in saving

mankind. This high and holy calling starts with grace and continues with it in the coming

ages. Do we constantly rejoice in this?

While the Apostle in Eph. 2: 8, 9 gives his concise summing-up of the gospel of

grace, which rules out good works or human merit, we must not deduce from this that

Paul was an Antinominian, or against the law from any angle (see Titus 3: 1, 8, 14). To

get complete balance we must not divorce verse 10 from verses 8 and 9: "For we are His

workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained

(margin, prepared) that we should walk in them". To get the teaching of the N.T. for the

present time relative to good works clear in our minds, is to make a considerable step

forward in the knowledge of the Truth. Good works can never be the ground of the

believer's salvation, but they should be the fruit or result of it in his daily life. Thousands

never get this clear, stressing one at the expense of the other, or getting them in the wrong

We should be careful too, to avoid any fatalistic ideas about these "good works".

Verse 10 does not teach that we produce them automatically because "God hath before

ordained that we should walk in them". The margin tells us that `ordained' can read

`prepared', and the teaching is that God has prepared us by redemption and grace so that

we are now free to produce these works or fruits of the Spirit which are according to His