Grace & Works

GRACE AND WORKS: EPH.2:8-9 9-29-07

Today I want to talk for a little while on, being saved by Gods grace plus nothing else added to it.

8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast.

I heard a person say one time that they didn’t believe any one could know if they were going to heaven for sure until we get there.

If we have put our trust in Christ, we can say, “I am saved.” Someone may say,

Lets be mindful that salvation rests upon the grace of God—not upon our faithfulness.

The bible says in PHIL.1:6 6Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

From time to time a child of God may wander from Him, but He will always make a way for us to come back because it is by His grace and that alone that we are saved to start with.

We have a finished salvation.

Sin is the real problem in the hearts of many saved people today. Many saved people don’t enjoy their salvation for that very reason.

There are a lot of saved people that hold on to their past sins and don’t really understand just exactly what being saved by Gods marvelous grace really means.

It seems that some folks are always remembering they’re past mistakes and failures, and by doing that they look to themselves instead of looking to Christ and trusting Him.

Listen dear heart it is because of what Christ has done for us and on the fact that the Holy Spirit has pointed us toward Christ and we have believed the Word of God and have trusted Him, that we can say, “we’re saved.” It’s not an “I hope so” salvation and it’s not an “I’ll try” salvation.

It is a salvation that is by the grace of God, and it comes by means of faith, and it is not of ourselves. It is a gift of God.

Love is one of God’s great attributes, we’re told in 1st john 4:8 that God is love but when this love is related to sinners, it becomes grace and mercy. God is “rich in mercy” we’re told in eph 2:4 and in “grace”(2:7), and these riches make it possible for sinners to be saved.

A lot of people don’t realize that we’re not saved by Gods love, but by God’s mercy and grace.

In His mercy He doesn’t give us what we do deserve; and in His grace He gives us what we do not deserve. And all of this is made possible because of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.

1st peter 2: 24Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

1st peter 3: 18For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit

God revealed His love for sinners. Rom. 5:8 8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

John 3:16 16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

The grace of God has been called “unmerited favor.” And rightly so but also it’s Gods “love in action.”

We’re told in Eph.2:5 that He quickened us . This means He made us alive, even when we were dead in sins. He accomplished this spiritual resurrection by the power of the Holy Spirit, using His Word.

We read in the four Gospels, that Jesus raised three people from the dead: the widow’s son Luke 7:11-17 Jairus, and a young damsel in Luke 8:, and Lazarus in John 11:. And in all three accounts. He spoke the Word and this gave life. We read in Hebs.4:12: For the word of God is quick, and powerful,

These three physical resurrections are pictures of the spiritual resurrection that comes to the sinner when he hears the Word and believes.

Jesus said in John 5:24 24Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

But our spiritual resurrection is much greater than these physical resurrections because it puts us in union with Christ: God “made us alive together with Christ.”

As members of His body we are united to Him now Eph. 1:22-23 22And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.