Ephesians 2:8-9 and Works

 Ephesians 2:8-9 is very often cited to prove that works play no part in salvation.  Here is the passage:

 

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast."

The error in this understanding of the verse is that it does not connect the works with the saving. It connects the works with the faith. It says that grace saves us through faith, and this faith is a gift of God rather than being the result of works. This passage teaches the same thing that the Council of Trent taught in canons 1-3 of the Decree on justification (especially 3):

CANON I.-If any one says that man may be justified before God by his own works, whether [they are done] done through the teaching of human nature or [the teaching] of the law, without the grace of God through Jesus Christ; let him be anathema.

CANON II.-If any one says that the grace of God through Jesus Christ is given only so that man may be able more easily to live justly and merit eternal life, as if by free will without grace he were able to do both even if it were difficult; let him be anathema.

CANON III.-If any one says that without the prevenient inspiration of the Holy Ghost and without His help, man can believe, hope, love, or be penitent as he ought so that the grace of Justification may be bestowed upon him; let him be anathema.

 

In other words, the faith through which God saves a person and that grace by which one is able to have faith are not given because of works.  They are given freely as gifts. There is a belief that eventually came to be called semi-Pelagianism that holds that in salvation, man may do good works and seek out God all on his own, and because of that God meets man halfway and gives Him grace and faith as a result. Ephesians 2:8-9 condemns this concept (though the name wouldn't be given to it for centuries). It says that whatever faith one has, it is a gift of God and was not earned by the believer himself. 

 

However, the verse does not exclude works as being necessary for salvation in some way.  In fact, the very next verse (10) says:

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

The word 'for' at the start of a sentence in the Bible (and in modern usage) usually means ‘this is because.’ It is a way of linking the current idea to the preceding idea by explaining that the current idea is the reason for the preceding one.  Read as a whole, the passage says:

 

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

 

When taken as a whole, Ephesians 2:8-10 contrasts men’s works to Christ's and teaches that the faith which men have is given as a gift because of the work of Christ, not because of the work of men.  The passage cannot therefore mean to relate the works to the salvation, because then the comparison between the "works" of men and the "workmanship" of Christ would disappear and the “for" would be completely out of place. The passage says that the faith is not given because of works because we are Christ’s workmanship.  The King James translation makes this even clearer:

 

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.

 

This translation is actually very faithful to the Greek in this verse, and makes clear what it actually says in the original language.  The grace is what is not of ourselves, and the grace is what is not of works.  It is not the salvation which is being said not be of works; the Greek makes the evident. It also cannot intend to speak negatively of men’s works in general because then it would declare in verse 10 that these works are the workmanship of Christ after having spoken negatively of them in verse 9, thereby speaking negatively of Christ's workmanship.  However, there is a negative quality to the reference to works in verse 9.  The negative about the works is that they do not earn faith. 

 

This is clear when it is noted that verses 8 and 9 refer to the means by which one comes to faith while verse 10 refers to the actions of a person who already has faith.  Verse 10 mentions works to reinforce the positive side of them after having said something negative in verse 9. The phrase in verse 10 which fulfills the purpose of the ‘for’ and explains the reason for the previous idea is “we are His workmanship”. The remainder of the verse is a qualifier to this.  It states that men are created in Christ, that is created anew by His grace (see 2 Cor 5:17) to do good works. It is there because without it, it would be possible to read the passage to mean that good works were not important. Without this qualifier, St. Paul would have written:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship.

This would have left out the concept of works entirely from the discussion. However, St. Paul instead qualifies the exclusion of works in the matter of coming to faith by pointing out that men are indeed created "for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." He points out that men should indeed walk in good works, because that is why Christ created them in Him. Without this short phrase, the verse would emphasize the role of faith and grace in salvation while downplaying and excluding works.  If St. Paul had done this, the message of faith alone would have come across loud and clear. He was careful to qualify the statement for this very reason.

 

God bless,

 

Shane Coombs 2006