Not By, but For
Text: Ephesians 2:8-10
By: Ken McKinley
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This is one of the most well known passages of Scripture from the Bible, and it’s also one of the most debated. If I was to take a poll within the Body of Christ, across all denominations, and I was to ask, “What would you like to see happen within the Church, among believers?” I am sure that most people would respond with “unity.” And that’s a good thing. The Barna Research Group has stated that there are over 30,000 Protestant Denominations in the world today, and so it’s almost an embarrassment that we as Christians claim to serve one God, we have so many different groups claiming that they alone teach the correct doctrine. For more than 400 years there has been a pretty serious rift between Catholics and Protestants, but in recent years efforts have been made to close that rift. In 1997 the Evangelicals and Catholics Together movement took place.
And again I’ll say that I think unity among believers is a good thing, we should be very careful that we understand what we are agreeing on, and that it is the truth, and that we are not compromising just for the sake of unity. And that’s why we have this debate over this passage of Scripture in Ephesians. Every Protestant denomination out there will agree that we are saved by grace through faith, and to my knowledge that is also what the Catholic Church would say they believe. The debate is not over the wording of the passage, it’s over the understanding of those words.
Does God apply His grace which saves us when we join a church or denomination? Does He apply it when we are baptized? Do we have to come forward and make a public profession of faith in order for God to apply His saving grace to us? And what about that faith; does God give us His grace after we have faith? Or does He give us the faith as part of His gift of grace, which in turn saves us? Do we ourselves muster up the faith to believe in God, and if so is it up to us to maintain that faith so that we will be saved at the end of our lives? You see all of these questions are being debated among professing Christians, and this is one of the main reasons we have 30,000 Protestant denominations and something like 6 Catholic denominations (though they would never admit to this). Several years ago a group of British and Scottish pastors gathered in Oxford to debate what was unique about Christianity. They discussed the incarnation, the Bible, the end times, and several other things. Eventually C.S. Lewis wandered into the room and asked the scholars what they were discussing. When he heard their reply Lewis said, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.”
Grace is God’s unearned, undeserved favor. Grace is God giving you a priceless gift that you can never repay. Grace is God carrying you because you are unable to walk.
Paul began this chapter describing the pitiful condition all of humanity was in. He talked about our death due to sin, and how sin was our master. But then he spoke of how God makes those who are dead in trespasses and sin, to live again. He says that it is by grace that you have been saved. I want you to notice that when Paul talks about the Christians salvation he uses the past tense. He says, “You HAVE BEEN saved.” In other words, the action is completed. Grace has already done everything required for your salvation. That’s why Jesus; when He hung on the cross, said, “It is finished.” In other words, all that needed to be done in order to save us, had already been done. What that means is; that the grace that saves us doesn’t need our help. If we believe that we are saved by God’s grace + our church membership, or God’s grace + our baptism, or God’s grace + our profession, or God’s grace + our good works, or God’s grace + anything, then we have made a grave mistake in our understanding of the Gospel.
Now here in the U.S. you will sometimes hear people say, “Ah, but the Lord helps those who help themselves.” And the next time you hear someone say that, ask them where that passage is located in the Bible. They won’t be able to tell you, because it’s not in the Bible. It’s a quote from Benjamin Franklin. They might say, “Well but it’s a principle that the Bible teaches.” But that’s not true either, in fact I would argue that it is a direct contradiction of what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches that man is helpless and hopeless without God. The Lord says, in John 15:5, “Without Me, you can do nothing.”
We sometimes think of God’s grace as a ladder that He lets down to us, but then it’s up to us to climb out of the danger that is approaching. But let me tell you what the reality of the situation is. The reality is that we are like a caterpillar in dry grass, surrounded by a ring of encroaching fire. There is no escape. God’s grace is the hand that reaches down and picks us up and saves us from certain destruction. The only hope you and I have is the grace of God. That’s why Paul says that there is to be no boasting.
Turn with me to 1st Corinthians 1:30-31 (read). If you want to boast, then boast in what the Lord has done for you, because without Him, you… and I… could do nothing. The glory belongs to God alone.
But what about faith? What is faith’s role? Is it something we muster up on our own? In our text Paul has told us HOW God saves us – by grace, then he tells us the means God uses to save us – through faith. In other words, do you have faith in God, and in what God has done? Do you trust what He has done is more than enough to save you, or do you think you can add anything to the finished work of Jesus, by doing good works? That’s what faith is, it is trusting in what the Lord has done was more than enough to save you, despite your being dead in trespasses and sin, and that there is nothing you could ever do to add to this finished work.
You see, your faith is only as good as the object you place it in. If your faith is in your church membership then you are lost. If your faith is in your baptism, then you’re lost. If your faith is in your profession, then your faith is in something you have done – and you’re lost. If your faith is in your faith – then you’re lost. Biblical faith doesn’t look inward to what we’ve done, it doesn’t look outward to the things of this world, it looks upward to Christ. Our faith must be in Christ alone.
And here’s the kicker: When we look at our text we read that we are saved by grace, through faith, and then Paul says, “And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” When Paul says that we know that he’s not talking about grace being from us. It would make no sense for him to say, “You are saved by undeserved, unearned favor, through faith, and that unearned, undeserved favor is not from yourself.” So what is Paul saying is not from ourselves, faith? Actually he’s saying that salvation is not from ourselves, and not just salvation, but no part of salvation is from ourselves, not the grace that saves us, nor the faith that receives it. Salvation is of the Lord. Including the faith to believe. Romans 12:3 says that we should not think too highly of ourselves because it is God who has dealt to each one of us a measure of faith. Romans 10:17 tells us that faith comes by hearing. But in Romans 11:8 we are told that God can give eyes that may not see, and ears that may not hear.
All throughout the Gospels Jesus said, “Let him who has ears to hear, hear.” And Hebrews 12:2 says that we are to look unto Jesus who is the Author and finisher of our faith.
My point is; that all of salvation is a gift from God. There is nothing we could ever do in order to make God save us. It is something He does entirely by Himself for us and to us.
Now if you’re like me; the question you have is, “Why? Why would God save a wretch like me?” Well I can find two reasons in the Bible. The first one is right there in our text. It tells us that God has saved us by grace, through faith, for good works. And again Paul uses the past tense. He says, we ARE SAVED, you HAVE BEEN saved, by grace, through faith, and this salvation is not of yourselves, it’s the gift of God. So we can’t boast about it. He then says we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, for good works, which God prepared beforehand, so that we should walk in them. That word, “workmanship” is the Greek word polema, and it means that we are God’s masterpiece, a special creation.
Think about that for a minute… I’ve seen a lot of the world, I’ve seen the mountains of Bosnia, the Rocky Mountains, the Grand Canyon, the coasts of Somalia, the jungles of South America, the plains of Oklahoma, the Scottish Highlands. I’ve seen sunsets that take your breath away, and sun rises that are incredible. I’ve seen a lot of the natural beauty of this world, and I’m sure you have too, but as beautiful as the natural creation is, it is nothing in God’s eyes compared to you and I. We are God’s masterpiece. We are the crowning of His creation. Why? Because we are created in His image and after His likeness, that’s why abortion and murder are grave sins. But when we are redeemed and when we are in Christ, we have received the finishing touch of His masterpiece, and we are as we should be – justified in His sight. So why does God save us? Because we are His masterpiece, created to do good works.
James tells us in James chapter 2 that faith without works is dead. You see the grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone is what saves, but the faith that saves is never alone. Good works are the consequences and the evidence of salvation.
It’s a serious mistake to think that if you are saved you can live however you want. The Bible is clear that a person who is saved will grow progressively closer to God, and by doing so they will get progressively further from sin. Turn with me to Ephesians 4:17 (Read)
Now go on down to verse 25 there (Read Eph. 4:25). You see; we can’t do those things without grace. We have to be a new creation with a new nature to do these things.
Now I said that I knew of two reasons that God saved us, the first one was for good works, the second one is because He loves us; that’s what John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…”
God loves you so much that He sent His Son to take your punishment and die in your place. Again; that is grace. We don’t deserve to have the sinless Son of God dying in our place for our sins. We deserve the divine wrath of God and eternal punishment. And yet God saved us.
So we might all agree that unity is important within the Body of Christ, let’s unite around the Gospel. We should never dilute it for the sake of unity. Our unity should point to God’s grace which saves us through faith, so that we might do good works.
INVITATION AND PRAYER
