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Ephesians 2:8-9

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith;

and that not of yourselves, 

it is the gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.

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God is a God of giving.  Throughout the Bible it is obvious – He gives, we receive.  It is a fundamental part of His nature, and rather than giving reluctantly He is happy to do it.  His constant giving in a gazillion ways shows the great extent of His love, goodness, power, kindness – and all the rest of His excellent traits.  Seen correctly, His giving to us out of His unlimited abundance results in our being delighted in Him and expressing that delight through praising Him for who He is.

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God’s giving nature shows itself most fully in His provision to pay the penalty for our sin, .  God provided (provision = “grace”) the solution of payment for our sins through Jesus’ death on the cross.  The penalty cost for our sins was so great that there was nothing we could possibly do to “earn” our way out of the mess through any amount of good deeds (“works”) of our own.  God freely provided the payment for our release so that we could not boast of anything we did on our own, and so that He could fully show His greatness through doing it for us.  We get the benefit, He gets to show who He really is.

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Pride is a major hindrance to salvation.  Pride says “I can do it myself, I don’t need God”, or “I don’t need to be saved”, and refuses to humble oneself to admit need – which is the basic first step to accepting the Gift which God offers.  This pride is in fact a second offense to God – the first was the prideful rebellion against Him (sin) that created the need for salvation, and this second offense is the prideful refusal to accept His Solution for the initial rebellion.  God is wise to set it up this way that the humble acceptance of His solution is the gateway for salvation, as any other way would allow man to boast of his own human solution, furthering the cycle of pride.

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For some practical steps on how to take advantage of God’s free gift, please see “Steps To Peace With God“.

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Here is the complete discussion from Ephesians 2 (it’s best to start with Ephesians 1)

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Ephesians 2:1-10

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2 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, ² in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

³ Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 

⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.