No Boasting, Just Seeing God’s Love for Every Person
[4] But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, [5] even when we were dead in our trespasses, 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 coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. [8] For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, [9] not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:4–9 ESV
Look at the salvation we have received! God didn’t save us because it was His duty, or because of our great awesomeness, but because of His love for us! He did not raise us up out of our sin addictions after we got ourselves clean for 30 days. He came and saved us in the middle of it.
This entire section is pretty amazing and, if you take hold of it and believe it, can change every day you have from now on. In a cosmic way, we have been made alive with Christ right now. The Holy Spirit shows this off when we have thoughts in our head to serve others or give glory to God and it goes against our self-preservation animal instincts. God shows off in our lives when we have compassion for our enemies or mercy on someone that cannot return mercy to us.
God has done all of the work of salvation so that none of us can try to upstage God in the eyes of anyone else. Since God has done all of the work, we can put others ahead of ourselves. Having no room to boast in my own righteousness, I can see the great love God has for you that saved you, and build you up. In the same way, I can see that love God has for you before you believe in Him, so I can serve you regardless of where you faith lies.
The more you meditate on and accept the grace of God sent and delivered in the life and death and life of Jesus Christ, the more you see that this is the only perfect way that any religion can work. None of us, by any means, could make it to God. Not by fasting, suffering, purchasing, donating, sacrificing, or anything else but by faith in Christ. He has done the work and bought the gift, and we are the helpless unworthy recipients.
This is why people organically called it the Good News. Nobody told the first century church, “this is the gospel, which means ‘good news’” because gospel was already in their language and when they heard about Jesus they called it what it was.
It is good news. Let us tell others the good news and hold fast to it ourselves.