Our salvation is a gift from God and something we should be thankful for daily. As a result of how our salvation came to be, one thing a Christian should never do is boast about being saved.
Ephesians 2:8–9 (ESV)
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Never have words been truer. Our salvation was so beyond our ability to achieve that we should never even contemplate boasting about it. Without God, we could not have been saved. We could not have provided for ourselves such a perfect sacrifice as Jesus. Only God could set forth His Son to be our propitiation (Romans 3:25). We never could have raised Jesus from the dead for our justification. Only God has the power to do something like that (Romans 4:25). Since God accomplished everything necessary to reconcile man to Himself, there is absolutely no ground for us to boast.
We cannot boast about any work that we have done because they alone cannot save us. We sometimes emphasize that we are not saved by faith alone. That is a scriptural truth that only those blinded by a false theology deny. Listen to the inspired message of James.
James 2:24 (KJV)
24 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
James was not in any way devaluing the importance and significance of faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). However, there are many factors involved in salvation. Yes, we are saved by faith (Romans 5:1), but we are also saved by the Word of God (James 1:21), by the blood of Christ (Revelation 1:5), and even by hope (Romans 8:24). You can see, then, that to say that any one thing, even faith, saves us is to completely misunderstand the Bible.
What we must not forget as Christians is that not only does faith alone not save us, but works alone do not save us either. That is not to say that works do not have anything to do with our salvation. Read the passage above, and you will know that they do.
When Paul wrote that salvation is not a result of works in Ephesians 2:9, he was writing specifically about the works of the Law of Moses, a law that demanded sinless living. Now then, if a person could live perfectly, he could boast. That is exactly what Paul said about Abraham (Romans 4:2). The truth is, however, no man, other than Jesus Christ, has lived a perfect life; thus, no one ever has a right to boast.
Have you ever sinned? If you have, and I am confident that you would admit to having done so, then that means two things. First, you must rely on God’s grace for salvation. I am glad that we have a passage like the one before us. It assures us that God’s grace is real and that He freely offers it to us all. The only reason we can be saved is because we are saved by grace through faith.
Secondly, if you have sinned, like me and everyone else, you should never boast about salvation. That is something we just do not have the right to do. But remember, boasting comes from an attitude. It is produced by an arrogant heart, and arrogance is often produced by how we view others. We should never forget that we are no better than anyone else in this world. If you are saved, the only thing that separates you from the most desperate sinner is the grace of God. Remember the words of Paul. “But by the grace of God I am what I am…” (1 Corinthians 15:10).
As you wind down for the night, think about these things.