And the rest is details....

Ephesians 2:8,9. NASB
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a results of works, that no one should boast.

Ephesians 2:8,9. Wuest Expanded Translation
For by grace have you been saved in time past completely, through faith, with the result that your salvation persists through present time; and this [salvation] is not from you as a source; of God it is the gift, not from a source of works, in order that on one might boast.

The pithiness of these two verses contains many wonders. The revelation of salvation, the mystery of how our faith interacts with God’s grace, the mercy of an undeserved gift.

The blessing of the gift is that I have been completely saved already. And that salvation persists through time into today, and into the future.

The passage turns upside down all the conventional wisdom of the world: you get that which you earn. It turns upside down the commercials and ads that announce to us all the things that we deserve.

Glory to God that we do not get that which we have earned! That we do not get what we deserve!