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GRACE according to EPHESIANS 2:8-9:
"8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast."
Looking at the passage, particularly the words, ‘by grace you have been saved‘ leads one to look at the book of Romans (1:16), CLICK it. Whereby, the apostle Paul referred to that grace as the Gospel; the power of God that saves a man thru faith. We will find that in his 1st letter to the Corinthians 15, where Paul wrote:
As we can see, we certainly have no part in it. It was all of God; something we did not ask for, but that which He gave anyway as a gift… to be availed by FAITH. Surely this is the grace that Paul refers to in Ephesians 2:8, 9, is it not? However, while we receive this by faith, it cannot be regarded as something that one sets aside upon receipt. The gift had to be held firmly upon acceptance. The underlying condition is if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you unless ye have believed in vain... In other words, faith is rendered useless or ineffective when we do not hold on to what he preached. How can that be, you might ask. Well, going thru the letters of Paul, we find in Titus 2:11-13 an elaboration of that GRACE, where he says:
“11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ... “
Paul tells us that the gift brings about a godly life or a transformation that typifies such a life. Subsequently, this was further explained by Paul in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians (3:18), in this manner:
"18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
Paul was clearly saying in the fore goings that the transformation affects the recipient of the gift through the Spirit that works it out in him. Jesus in turn, in John 14:26, referred to the Spirit as the Comforter:
“26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.”
Thus, it can be said that anyone who supposedly received GRACE (THE GIFT) thru faith, but is not living by the teachings via that GRACE (mentioned in Titus 2:11-13 above) has not held on to THE GIFT; (the gospel if you will) hence, the faith by which it was received is useless or vain, CLICK it.
Relatively, I remember a story whereby someone received a gift from his friend as a token of friendship. But the recipient forgot all about it, never used it, and just kept the gift somewhere hidden. Time passed, it was the recipient’s turn to return the favor. Having forgotten about the gift, he then gave it back unmindfully. Now, he that gave it to him in the first place--seeing the gift had been untouched--took it back without a word.
For further readings, CLICK ===>here
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