‘For by grace you are those who are saved, through faith, and this not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.'
This links back to ‘in Christ Jesus'. We are in this position outlined above as ‘those who are saved' because we have put our trust in Christ, and even that salvation was not of ourselves but was a gift given to us by the grace of God, the unmerited, active love and favour of God.
‘By grace.' By God's actively revealed and unmerited love.
‘Through faith.' All God's gifts come to us through our response of faith. As in our hearts we reached out to Him through Christ, and what He wrought for us through His cross, God responds with saving power.
‘And this not of yourselves.' ‘This' may refer back to ‘faith' (but ‘this' is neuter and ‘faith' is feminine, so that it is unlikely) or it may refer to the salvation inherent in ‘you are those who are saved'. Either way it signifies that we have done nothing of ourselves. Faith may be the channel, but it does not deserve anything, nor is it of merit. It is merely the opening though which all that God freely gives us comes. It is the breach in our defences brought about by God when we were dead in sin. It is response wrought in us by His Spirit to something wonderful being offered, and is perfected in us by the grace of God. We long for salvation, we look to Him for salvation, He responds in grace, granting it to us as a gift. It is only then that He works righteousness within us.
‘It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.' Paul could not have put more clearly that salvation is all of God. It is a gracious gift. We do nothing towards it (‘not of works'), we simply respond for our own selfish reasons and suddenly find ourselves engulfed in the active, unmerited love of God. Thus boasting is excluded. All of us are basically on the same level. Those who have responded have nothing to boast about, but much to rejoice in. But they cannot say ‘we have responded because we were better than they' otherwise boasting would not be excluded. We must beware of making faith a somehow superior ‘work'. Faith that is ‘our' work will fail.
Faith as God's gift is true, lasting faith. It is not faith in ordinances or ceremonies, or in the church. Nor is it faith based on deserts. It is faith in Christ Himself. It is faith in the direct working of God (Colossians 2:12). It is faith in the Faithful One. When the Apostolic preacher proclaimed Christ, he did not initially call men to a series of ritual acts, nor did he initially ask him to join the church, he called him to put his trust in Jesus Christ. It was of faith not of works.
There is a type of so-called faith which is shallow and receives nothing. It is temporary, and is passing and fading like the grass (see John 2:23-25, and compare Mark 4:16-17). It is a faith brought about by the event of the moment, fading when the moment fades. It wants to receive any blessings going but the person who has it has no real desire to be saved. They do not want to be changed, they merely want to remain the same and yet go to Heaven. Such faith does not save.
But when a person recognises his sinfulness and longs to be changed in heart and mind, and cries in his helplessness to the Saviour, then he will be truly saved. We only have to look at the description of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector to see this. The one had strong faith, but it was faith in his own goodness in the sight of God, the other had a weak faith that reached out to God for forgiveness and mercy, and rejected any thought of deserving. And it was the latter which received God's response (Luke 18:11-14).