It is straightforwardly true, according to scripture, that we have been saved by grace. Faith is the product of God’s grace towards us. Faith is the only mechanism God could use to save us by grace because it is the only means that doesn’t require any outward activity whatsoever. It seems obvious enough that faith cannot be a work.
Yet, that is precisely what some of us want to make it. We want to believe that we welled up within ourselves the ability to put our own faith, of our own volition, in Christ. The moment we believe this, we have made our faith a work. Let’s just look at Ephesians 2:1-10 to see how it is so.
you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.[a] 3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us,[b] 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! 6 He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
Paul is at pains to point out our deadness in trespasses and sins. As has often been pointed out, dead people don’t will anything. They don’t do anything and they don’t believe anything. They are dead. Paul, in the first three verses, impresses upon us our deadness that was evidenced by disobedience. However, v4 marks a turning point. He notes that God takes the initiative and makes us alive with Christ ‘even though we were dead in trespasses.’ Our deadness meant God had to take the initiative. It is this, Paul says in v5, means ‘you are saved by grace’.
Paul picks up this idea again in v8. He says ‘you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves.’ Paul has already explained in this same passage that God’s grace is the very means of making us alive in Christ. But he also notes that we are saved by grace through faith and this is not from ourselves but is a gift of God. Minimally, we have to insist something has come from God and not ourselves here. It is either grace, faith or both.
Given Paul has already explained grace is the means of salvation, and the very word refers to being a gift, that certainly must be included. But he adds faith here in v8. It is this addition of faith in v8 that seems to prompt him to assert ‘this is not from yourselves’. Indeed, he asserts earlier ‘you are saved by grace’ but here constructs it as ‘by grace through faith’, leading him to make sure we understand that still doesn’t come from us. It is hard to see how Paul is not saying that both grace and faith come from God. Indeed, it is God’s grace towards dead sinners that produces faith.
That this must be his meaning is underlined by the added inclusion ‘it is God’s gift – not from works, lest anyone should boast.’ All Protestants agree this necessarily means, given boasting could easily emanate from doing some great act to earn salvation, working for our salvation is totally ruled out here. But it must similarly rule out any claim that our belief was worked up by us or that we chose to believe. If doing anything to earn salvation might be a cause of boasting, we can’t escape that choosing the right thought or belief must also constitute a grounds for boasting. We live a society at the moment that is, after all, quite big on ‘right thought’ and it is very specifically a grounds for a lot of boasting and signalling that we hold the right views. It is specious to think this wouldn’t apply similarly to salvation before God.
That this must be Paul’s meaning is clear. He is at pains to say there can be no grounds for boasting. There can be no work that we do to add to our salvation, for it is a gift of grace. Faith is the only mechanism that avoids us doing anything to be saved and is itself a product of grace. We neither do any great works to earn salvation nor do we work up right thought and belief for it either. It is truly by grace we are saved.
If we are convinced that faith emanates from us, then we have necessarily turned it into a work. We have turned it into a work of thought or belief. Our very choice to believe becomes the grounds of our salvation. That ground rests in us and therefore gives us cause to boast. It is not that God chose me simply for his own good pleasure, but I had the good sense, the intellect, the right desire to choose him. I, therefore, have some grounds to boast in salvation as opposed to those who fail to make the right choice, believe the right things, affirm the right views. A faith that comes from me is a faith that is a work and necessarily becomes grounds for boasting. Whatever else Paul might be intending to convey in these verses, he is utterly clear there is no such grounds in our salvation.
Let’s not turn faith into a work but glory in the grace of God. Let us delight in the fact that it is all grounded in him, his sovereign choice, his willingness to submit to death on our behalf so that we – with no grounds for boasting in us as a result – might be saved. Making faith a work robs God of glory that should rightly and only belong to him.