Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.”
Here is an illustration to help us understand the principle of Salvation by Grace.
To emphasize the point of salvation being free and a gift from the Lord, our pastor held up a dollar bill and said, “You see this dollar bill? It is a gift to whoever will receive it. Now if you really wanted it, you would have to come and accept it.”
If the pastor was still in possession of the dollar bill when he concluded his sermon, he could have made a strong point of how many souls are lost because they hesitate to accept the gift of salvation until it is too late. Any such plan to bring across that point, however, was foiled when our three-year-old son ran out of his seat to the front of the church and took the dollar from Rev. Massey!
Rev. Massey capitalized on the situation, however, and made and equally impressive point after the roar of the congregation had settled down. With our little son now back in the pew and proudly holding his newly acquired gift, an obviously pleased pastor changed his object lesson to: “If only folks could see the value of God’s great gift, Jesus, they would be running to him also!”
Salvation is by God’s grace alone. There is nothing we can do it to earn it. We must simply accept His gift of Salvation by faith.