Berean Standard Bible
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.
King James Version
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
About this verse
"For it is by grace you have been saved through faith" — grace is the ground, faith the open hand that receives. Then a triple exclusion: "this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, not by works." And the exclusions have a stated design goal: "so that no one can boast." Salvation was structured, on purpose, to make bragging impossible. Even the verb carries the point — "you have been saved" is passive; it is something done to you, not by you.
Paul writes to the church at Ephesus from imprisonment, and these verses land after a bleak inventory: he has just described his readers as having been dead in trespasses, following the course of this world. Dead people do not contribute to their own rescue, which is why the passage's economics are pure gift. The sentence is arguably the tightest summary of the gospel Paul ever wrote.
Two kinds of readers need this verse. The striver hears rest: it was never a wage, so you can stop trying to earn what was already given. The insecure hear stability: what you did not earn by a good week, you do not forfeit by a bad one. The gift's permanence rests on the giver — which was, the verse says, the whole idea.
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