Good morning. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. Wow! That is the gospel in a nutshell. We didn't do it – God did. If we could do it by ourselves, we would not have needed for Jesus to die for our sins. All we needed was a little faith to believe what God said. The "have been saved" is in the perfect tense. Again that means an action completed in the past with effects felt in the present. It is a done deal - we are saved. A long time ago we talked about the next verse – that we are His workmanship created for good works. The good works come as a result of being saved, not to obtain it. He Himself is our peace. In context He's talking about the Jews versus the Gentiles. But it is true in general. For through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. And so we are fellow citizens with the Saints, and are of God's household. Paul then talks about the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus being the cornerstone. We are all being fitted together into a holy temple in the Lord. At times it seems like some of the pieces don't want to go together – to be next to someone who does not believe exactly the way they do. We are being built into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. He then talks about receiving a revelation that made known to him the mystery – that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus in the Gospel. At this point in time I believe that this revelation happened when Paul got stoned by the Jews and went up into the third heaven. Several verses later Paul talks about Jesus – in whom we have boldness and confidence access through faith in Him. Father thank You that the reader can boldly come into Your presence and ask for whatever he/she needs. He/she receives whatever he/she asks for.

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