Ephesians 3: Life Is a Gift

“I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.” -Ephesians 3:7

Ephesians 2 focuses on salvation as the free gift of God. This is one of the unique blessings of the Christian faith, that we do not work to earn our status with God–it is a gift of grace through faith.

Ephesians 3 highlights an additional gift–life itself: “I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.” All of life is a gift.

Paul addresses a few specific ways in which life is a gift for those who follow Christ. First, being a servant of the gospel is a gift. For someone writing from a house arrest situation because of his faith in Jesus, this is a powerful statement.

Second, the “working of God’s power” is a gift. God works in many ways, but the very fact that God’s power is at work in us who believe in Jesus is amazing. We may not always notice or acknowledge it, but God’s Spirit is at work in our lives. This is certainly a gift.

For those of us who may have been raised in a church context where the focus was mainly on the “getting saved” part, these words are liberating. We are saved by grace as a gift; yet all of life is a gift. Let us live with a heart that responds in gratitude today.

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Dillon Burroughs is the author and coauthor of numerous books and is handwriting a copy of all 31,173 verses of the Bible at HolyWritProject.com. Find out more about Dillon at Facebook.com/readdB or readdB.com.