The Good, the Bad, and the Saved
Ephesians 2:5-9
Even when we were dead in sins, [God] hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come He might shew the exceeding riches of His grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Clint Eastwood began acting in 1955 (in the movie Revenge of the Creature) but his career really took off with his roles in spaghetti westerns (movies about the American old west made in Italy), the most famous of these being The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Two other actors starred along Eastwood in the film and one portrayed the good-Eastwood, the bad-Lee Van Cleef, and the ugly-Eli Wallach.
In the reading today, we are told that it is by grace through faith we are saved, and that grace and that faith is not of our selves it is a gift of God, not of good works. This is a very important passage as we are told that it is not the work of our own lives that merits our salvation but it is a gift God gives to us. With this we can say that people are divided into three different groups; the good, the bad, and the saved.
History is filled with good people; we all know good people and our church is made up of good people. There is nothing wrong with being good, this is something we should aspire to become. However, the good people I’m referring to believe in their own righteousness. They know they are good enough to enter into Heaven on their own merits. They trust in themselves and their abilities to somehow be able to impress or win God’s favor. They believe that God will be overjoyed to welcome them into Heaven just on who they are. These people believe their goodness, their holiness, is all that God requires for them to enter into eternal life. And while they may indeed be saved, as it is trust and belief in God and His saving work that determines salvation, their view of how things work is skewed.
The truth of the matter is that our goodness cannot and does not gain us anything in the eyes of God. We know this because we are told that our thoughts and actions are sinful, as we are told in Romans 3:10, “As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one”. With our unrighteousness, we no longer have our goodness, in the eyes of God. And without goodness, without perfection, we cannot enter into Heaven.
At the end of the movie “Crazy As Hell”, the main character found himself in hell and in the presence of the devil. The character cried over this and defended himself by saying “But I’m a good person”. The devil asked him, “Then why are you here?” The implication being that the character was not a good person and that was the reason he was in hell. The truth of the matter is whether or not you’re a good person (at least in the eyes of the world) does not determine where you spend eternity. If we had the ability to see those souls in hell we would end up seeing a great many good people there; Mohandas Gandhi, Siddhartha Gautama, who the world knows as Buddha, and Confucius are just a few of the famous people that most people would like to pattern their lives after. And yes these are good people, as the world defines and sees “good”. And while we might want to pattern our lives after these men we must remember they were not believers and therefore they are lost.
There is no doubt about the bad. We see them, we encounter them, we have to deal with them. These people are easy to identify, they are the ones that don’t seem to care about anyone or anything but themselves. They look at others with the view of what that person can do for them. Words such as law-abiding, morality, upstanding, honesty, respectable, ethical, integrity, and truth are unknown words in to them. They seem to take some sort of pleasure breaking the laws of both God and man. If we all wrote up a list of bad people in history, I would be willing to believe that at the very least, four of everyone’s top five would be the same.
But these are those who the world sees as bad and we must look at the bad as God sees bad. To God, all sin is bad. Sin is disobedience against God and His Word. It is sin that God sees in each one of His children. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 51:5; “Behold I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” “Behold, I was formed in sin; behold, I am sin.” We know that all people are sinful, we know that all people are unclean and have fallen short of the glory of God. And because of this God does not see us as good.
The saved are different. The saved know their condition; we know we are sinful. We understand that on our own there is nothing good in us. We recognize our lost condition, a condition we inherited from our ancestors Adam and Eve. Even though we inherited our condition, we know we have done enough on our own to receive, or even expect, nothing more than God’s wraith and punishment, both here on earth and throughout eternity. We understand that there is nothing we can do, nothing we can say, no height we can achieve that will cause God to see us any other way. We recognize the need for the Savior God has provided to us as we know that is the only way we can be seen by God as good. We believe and trust in the gift of faith and salvation God gives to everyone.
What exactly is a gift? Let’s say that Mickey collects refrigerator magnets and he shares his collection with us here. Let’s say that I’m out one day and see a magnet that he doesn’t have but one that I know he’ll like and I buy it for him. The next Sunday I’m here I give him the new refrigerator magnet. As we look at this, we will see that at no point in time did I ever own the magnet. When I bought it from the store, ownership went from the store to Mickey, as it was bought for him. Mickey never asked for it and I did not ask for any compensation for the magnet, so he does not have to do anything to get the magnet. Since he was the owner upon purchase, he does not need to ask for or assert ownership of the magnet. Mickey’s only choice in ownership of this refrigerator magnet is not to keep it.
The gift of faith and salvation God gives to us operates the same way. Before creation, God had the plan for our salvation in place. Before creation, the gift of salvation was ours. Our name was on the “gift tag” presented to us by God. Upon Jesus’ suffering and death our salvation, that had already been designated a gift for us, was paid. The gift of salvation is freely given, without our asking and without our claiming it. And like Mickey and the magnet, the only option we have with the gift of salvation is to throw it away.
We are told twice in the passage I read that it is by grace we are saved. We are also told we are not saved by good works lest anyone should boast. Our salvation is based upon and secured by God alone. Without our input, without our works, to aid in securing our salvation, we cannot come to God and say, “See, look at what I did, God. I did this so I can get into heaven. You owe me this.” If we must complete a single requirement, perform a single act, think a single thought, then we work toward our own salvation. Not only does this go against what God has told us, but our works must then finish the saving actions that were only begun, and not completed, by Jesus.
We as believers know differently. The bad may not care about their salvation and have thrown that gift away by not believing in God at all or by not allowing themselves to bowing and following some unseen Being. The good can see themselves cooperating with God in their salvation; they can see themselves that somehow their thoughts and actions can influence God and His decision into allowing them to eternal life.
The saved know differently. The saved know just how precious and necessary the gift of salvation truly is. We follow and believe in a God that loves us so much that He would not allow His creation to be separated from Him. The saved understand that God has given to his people a way to regain their lost perfection and enter into Heaven to be with God for all eternity. The saved know it is not because of who we are but in spite of who we are that He has done this. The saved know that God held nothing back; He gave His only begotten Son to stand in our place of His judgment. His Son suffered the punishment of death and hell we rightfully deserve so that we would not receive the eternal death and punishment our sins have earned us.
God has given to His people the greatest gift anyone can imagine, and that is the gift of forgiveness and mercy through His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. With this gift our sins have been put away and we are no longer lost. With this gift our created form of perfection is restored to us. With this gift His people have been given back their place in Heaven. Whether this precious gift is received and treasured or thrown away, we know that God has given it to all His people, the good, the bad, and the saved. Amen.
