For by grace you have been saved through faith … it is the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8 (NKJV)
We are great at complicating life. For example, try reading the sentence, “All the faith he had had had had no effect on the outcome of his life.” While it may look like someone copied “had” and pressed the paste button a few too many times, this is actually an example of what happens when the past perfect tense gets used back-to-back. The first and third “had” are the auxiliary verbs, while the second and fourth ones are the main verbs. Stylistically speaking, the sentence would probably be less confusing if written, “He had had a lot of faith, but it had had no effect on the outcome of his life,” but what fun is that?
How I loved The Jungle Book as a child. It was a thrilling, adventure-filled journey with the boy Mowgli as he made his way to the man-village with Bagheera, the wise panther. Along the way he met the bear Baloo, who taught Mowgli the catchy song, The Bare Necessities (of life). The opening lines state, “Look for the bare necessities, the simple bare necessities.” I was thinking of this as I read Ephesians 2:8 which gives us the simple bare necessities of salvation.
Pay close attention to ten single-syllable words: “by grace … through faith … it is the gift of God.”
One of the outstanding aspects of the gospel is its simplicity. As Charles Haddon Spurgeon said:
God be thanked for the simplicity of the gospel.
Jesus said, again in single syllable words:
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32 (KJV)
Don’t complicate what God made simple. Paul warned:
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3 (KJV)
Are we getting side-tracked by the superficial and secondary? Do we need to return to the main menu: the exquisite simplicity of the gospel? By grace … through faith … it is the gift of God.