Ephesians 2:8-9 Meaning

for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory.

Ephesians 2:8-9 (ASV)

Paul says salvation comes to you as a gift, reached by faith and handed over by God. He says it more than once inside two lines, that it does not come from you and does not come from works, so that nobody walks away thinking they pulled it off. It is grace the whole way through.

He is writing to people leaning toward the idea that they had to win God's approval, and he cuts that idea off at the root. Since you never earned it, there is no underperforming your way back out of it.

So if you are worn out from trying to be good enough for God, this verse is talking to you, because the weight you have been carrying to earn Him was never yours to lift in the first place.