Boasting

From Tim's sermon on 10/30/2011: "Alive with Christ"

Ephesians 2: 8-9: "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."

Tim's analysis of this passage said that a "boast" is something in which you place your confidence. His analogy was to a warrior in the ancient world, who would look to his chariots and horses and boast about his ability to defeat the enemy. In a similar way, we "boast" and take comfort in our talents or money or relationships, wrongly believing that these will save us.

Tim gave a very powerful illustration from his own life, in which he tended to justify himself and seek comfort and worth from the fact that he is such a hard-working minister. He didn't want to ask his wife to allow him to take a few hours off to do something fun; he wanted her to initiate and suggest that he take a break, because he had been working so hard. He wanted recognition and he wanted his hard work to have earned the break. He had been seeking value and worth on the basis of his hard work, not on the basis of Christ.

But my question is: doesn't the passage suggest that the boaster believes he has achieved salvation without the need for God? Doesn't it suggest a narrow type of religious boasting in which the boaster thinks he is so righteous that he doesn't need grace? Is it really correct to broaden our understanding of boasting to include all ways in which we seek value outside of God? For example, I may seek a feeling of worth and value from my wealth without ever believing that my wealth takes away the need for God's grace.