If One Verse Was All We Needed

by Terry Wane Benton

If one verse said it all, and we needed no more than one verse to be saved, I would choose Ephesians 2:5. "By grace you have been saved." That way, I wouldn't have to believe, repent, confess, or be baptized. I would rest my case here and just tell people they have been saved by grace. However, the problem is that while this is true, it is not universally true. It is written to people who believed, repented, confessed faith in Jesus, and were baptized. It is these people who are saved by grace. (Acts 19:6; Ephesians 1:12-13; 2:1-6; 5:25-26; Galatians 3:26-27). Therefore, it would be incorrect to take Ephesians 2:5 out of context and apply it to people who are unlike the Ephesians, who trusted and obeyed Jesus for salvation by grace.

Ephesians 2:5 is true for a specific type of person. By grace, you can be saved, but you are not saved by grace until you meet the terms or conditions of pardon. Acts 2:36-41 shows us that "remission of sins" (grace) is given at a certain point in faith. So if you do not have faith in Jesus and meet these same conditions, you are not yet a person who has been saved by grace. The 3000 moved from "can be saved by grace" to "have been saved by grace" when their faith moved them to repentance and baptism in the name of the Lord. The Ephesians operated under the same conditions. They too had the same baptism (Ephesians 4:3-4).

If we could pick one verse and dismiss all other verses on the subject of salvation, we would probably make the same mistake as I would if I took Ephesians 2:5 out of context and pretended that we are all saved by grace. No! This verse is written to people who have been saved by grace because they believed and met the terms of pardon. Others were not in the "have been saved by grace" category. They are all in the "can be saved by grace" category until they hear and obey the gospel of Jesus Christ in the same way. (Mark 16:15-16; Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:36-41). There is not a single verse that tells the whole truth. It reveals the truth within the confines of a broader context, and the entire Bible provides the complete truth.

Grace is longing and waiting to save you, but you must meet the terms and conditions of pardon.