Ephesians 2:8-9

Monday:	Red Cord of Salvation
Bible Lesson:	Rahab was saved because she believed in God, and we are saved the same way.
Memory Verse:	Ephesians 2:8-9, For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.

Introduction: [Needed]

[Needed]

Explanation: Ephesians 2:8-9

[Show the verse and read it aloud.]

What's grace? Grace is when somebody does something nice for you that you don't deserve. If you steal your older brother's favorite CD, and you drop it and it gets scratched and won't play anymore, what do you think your brother would do? (Accept answers.) What if he doesn't? What if he goes out and buys a copy of the same CD, for you? That's grace.

What's faith? Faith is trusting in something you can't see. When Rahab hung up the red cord, she hadn't seen herself and her family saved yet. She trusted that it was going to happen, because she believed in God. That's faith.

What are works? Works are things that you do. You know some people think that if they're nice enough, if they pray enough, if they give enough money to the poor, and do enough good things, then they can earn their way into heaven. This verse says it doesn't work that way. It is by grace we are saved, through faith, not by works.

This verse also says that it doesn't come from ourselves, so that no one can boast. What does it mean to boast? Boasting is a lot like bragging. Have you ever done anything that you were so happy about, you wanted to tell people you did it, so they'd know how good you were? This verse says that if we're saved – if we believe in God and follow Jesus – we can't brag about it, because it's not anything we could have done ourselves. It's a gift from God.

Game: Covered Words

Cover up one word on the poster at a time, starting with small, unimportant words, and have the children read the verse as a group each time, inserting the missing words. Keep covering up words until the whole verse is covered up and the children can say the whole verse.

Alternate Game: Sign Language

Tell the children that you're going to learn sign language for this verse. Explain that sign language is what deaf and mute people use to communicate. Show the children the sign language as you say the verse through one or two times, then teach them the sign language for each word individually, and help them do the sign for that word until they can do it. When you've done all the words, start putting them together. Make sure you and the children are saying each word out loud while signing it. Put longer and longer strings of words together until eventually the children can say and sign the whole verse.

Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.