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Ephesians 2:8-9

For about a tenth time on this thread someone quotes to me Eph 2 trying to stop at verse 9. But verse 10 is what I was alluding to in my post: "we are [God's] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them".

Ephesians 2:8-10 teaches salvation by grace alone; grace is not by our works; faith and works both are product of grace and both are necessary for salvation, and God alone gets the glory.

God doesn't go against His Word. What He said here IS the way it is....For it is by GRACE you have been saved, through FAITH and this NOT from yourselves, it is the GIFT of God— NOT BY WORKS, so that no one can boast.

The Greek word for "workmanship" used here is "POIEMA," which means "to make." The word signifies that which is manufactured, a product, a design produced by an artisan. It is the word from which we get our English word "poem."

We are God's poem--His work of art. It is just as foolish for us to boast of our part in salvation as it would be for a masterpiece painting to boast of painting itself.

There is a vast difference between being saved BY good works and being saved UNTO good works as stated here. Good works do not gain us salvation, but they do affirm that salvation has been received into one's life. Good works cannot produce a new nature, but a new nature should produce good works.