Ephesians 2:8

8. For In view of this divine organic process now completely stated.

By grace Gratis, for nothing in return.

Are ye saved Not merely converted, justified, and sanctified; but gloriously saved saved from death, the devil, and hell; saved to resurrection, Christ, God, and glory, in the full sight of the endless aeons to come.

Through faith As the instrument in God’s hands; the handle by which he gets hold of us to snatch us from Satan and spring us into heaven. For the Greek preposition for through, here, is the preposition of instrumentality. Hence faith has three aspects. When, (1) it is said that God justifies us through faith, then faith is the instrument with which God rescues us from sin and hell. When (2) it is said “The just shall live by faith,” then faith is to us the means by which we live. When (3) it is said, “Believe and thou shall be saved,” then faith is the condition upon which we are justified, regenerated, and elected to holiness here and heaven hereafter. That faith is indeed empowered in us by the grace underlying our probation: but that faith freely exercised by us, and seen by God, is the underlying condition of our election in time; and foreseen by God is the underlying condition in our eternal election before the foundation of the world, as described in Ephesians 1:4; Ephesians 1:11, where see notes.

And be it especially noted that in St. Paul’s view there is no contradiction between the gratuity of our salvation and its conditionality. There is no contradiction between our being saved by grace and its being through faith; just because faith towards God, though a right thing in God’s creatures towards him, and an excellent thing in itself, is not a merit that pays God for any thing, or obligates him to any donation to us. It is his right to drop us into nothingness any moment he pleases, and no wrong is done us. Far less can our faith entitle us to pardon for past wickedness, to a blotting out of past books, and a conferring a glorious immortality at God’s right hand. Notwithstanding the free, rightful, excellent exercise in faith by us, every thing comes from God to us by grace. Surely the faith with which a beggar stretches forth his hand to receive the donation of thousands from a millionaire would not be a merit, a work, a compensation to the donor, neutralizing the graciousness of the gratuity. See note, Romans 3:24; Romans 3:27.

And what a reasonable, beautiful, and delightful condition proffered is this simple coming into obedience to and harmony with God by a pure act of free, submitting, and confiding faith. It is at once the due act of a yielding rebel to a rightful sovereign, and of a returning prodigal to a rightful and ever gracious parent. Gracious, indeed! for it was while dead to God and alive to and with the devil, that God loved us and laid the plan of our rescue.

That… it Both, as well as not of works, in next verse, refer to being saved, and not to faith. Faith is, indeed, truly said to be the gift of God; but it is faith as a power, not as an act, that is God’s gift. So sight is either a power or an act. Sight, as a power, is the gift of God; but sight, as an act, is our own exertion of power.

Not of yourselves The whole structure of the apostle’s view of our rescue from the depths, and exaltation to the heights, and our consequent utter gratitude to God, is wholly overthrown if ours is a self-salvation. Our faith, as an act, natural and divinely empowered, is from ourselves: but not our salvation. The structure of that salvation requires all the power depicted in Ephesians 1:19.

Gift Donation; not pay or wages earned.