By grace you have been
saved . . . it is the gift of God.
—Ephesians 2:8
“What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?” (1 Cor 4:7 NLT). Augustine said the entire doctrine of grace was in this single verse; that absolutely everything we have is a gift of grace.
“We have different gifts, according to the grace given us” (Rom 12:6). Each gift is custom-crafted, to be used to pass along his grace to others: “Whatever gift each of you may have received, use it in service to one another . . . dispensing the grace of God in its varied forms” (1 Pt 4:10).
And to each of us, comes this wrapped-in-love gift: “It is by grace you have been saved, through faith . . . it is the gift of God” (Eph 2:8).
Grace cannot be achieved, only received.