The Daily Office · Ephesians 2:8–10

By grace

Ephesians 2:8–10

8For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,

9not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. One in Christ

What's happening here

Ephesians 2 is Paul at his most lyrical. Verses one through three describe what a person is without God — dead in trespasses, following the course of this world, a child of wrath. Verses four through seven are the "but God" turn. Then verses eight through ten distill the whole gospel into three sentences. The Protestant Reformation made the first two the decisive text for justification by faith alone; verse ten is the often-forgotten complement. The word the paragraph turns on is ordinary Greek that Paul loads past its ordinary usage.

The word that matters

χάριςcharis

Greek · grace — a gift given with nothing owed in return

Charis was a common word in Greek — grace, favor, charm, thanks. In the classical world it could mean a political favor returned, a benefactor's gift that carried a debt of loyalty, the pleasingness of a face. What Paul does is load it with the specifically Jewish theology of the God of the Exodus, the faithfulness-beyond-obligation the Hebrew Bible calls hesed, and insist the gift comes with no ledger attached. By charis you are saved, through faith. And this is not your doing; it is the gift of God.

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