Ephesians 2:3-10

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

God's grace is truly amazing.  Through Jesus Christ, God has forgiven our sin and saved us from death.  We are promised eternal life through belief in Jesus.  Salvation begins now, and it changes everyting in our life.

A little English lesson is important to understand this important verse from Ephesians.  The present perfect tense of the verb "to be saved" is used.  This means:  something happened in the past, but with continuing consequence.  "I have been saved," means that my salvation began in the past but continues into the present and future time.

In other words, we have been saved by what happened in the past, the sacrificial death of Christ.  Secondly, our salvation continues to unfold in our life as we experience more of life in Christ through his body, the Church and through his Spirit.  We look forward to eternal life when believers will experience the completeness of our salvation in heaven.