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SolaNew TestamentEphesiansSeries: SolaNew TestamentEphesians · Talk No. 3

Grace Alone

Sunday, 11 May 2008

Donny Kwan

Ephesians 2:1-10

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Introduction

A young student named Michael was still in theological college. He took a required course in "clinical pastoral education." In this course every student was assigned to work with a chaplain in a hospital or other institution, and one night each week was on call for emergencies. Late one night, the phone rang, and Michael was called to the local hospital.

A 17-year-old girl had been driving at night with friends, and she had backed into a light pole. The pole had broken off and then fallen forward, crashing down onto the car. A 12-year-old family friend in the car had been severely injured; in fact, she was brain dead when she arrived at the hospital. Michael walked with the 12-year-old's family as they went through the wrenching process of realizing the truth and allowing the life support to be removed.

The following morning, Michael visited the hospital room of the 17-year-old driver. Physically, she was recovering well, but emotionally, she was distraught knowing that her actions had killed her friend. "I'm going to be like a daughter to her parents," she told Michael. "I'm going to go over to their house every day and baby-sit for them. I'll wash dishes for them every night. I'll go over there every week and mow their lawn."

Michael gradually helped her realize the truth that no matter what she did, she could never replace their daughter. She could never do enough to make up for her actions. All she could do was ask for forgiveness and hope that the parents would find it in their hearts to forgive her.

The parents who lost their daughter, amazingly, did forgive this girl. She was set free from trying to pay back a debt she could never repay no matter what she did.

In our relationship to God, we have sinned so greatly against him that nothing we do could ever make up for it. This brings us to another idea that changed the world. Grace alone.

Why grace alone?

Grace alone simply means our salvation from the wrath of God is completely because of something good in God and not of anything good in us.

Before we find out what the bible has to say we need to understand where we have come from in order to understand where we are today.

Last week we heard we were protesting against the church authorities for the teaching and practices that were happening in the 16th century based on Scripture alone not on Scripture and church tradition.

The Problem

Come back with me to the 16th century to the time of Martin Luther. He was a monk for the Roman Catholic Church who was really serious in trying to make himself perfect in order to gain God’s acceptance. He kept asking the questions, ‘Have I really done my best for God? Have I fully realized my God-given potential?’ He had no certainty of his salvation because he was trying to attain it on his own strength. He knew that no matter what he did it was not good enough to earn God’s acceptance.

To this day the official Catholic teaching states: ‘Salvation is made possibly only by grace: meaning the faith and works of men.’ The Roman Catholic view of attaining salvation is a mixture of reliance upon the grace of God, and confidence in the merits of one's own works performed in love.

This created an absence of assurance because how could one tell is they had done enough works?

Luther argued against the Roman Catholic Church in their teaching and practice that a Christian man is to stay uncertain about the grace of God toward him.

The Reformers View

In the period of the 16th century, reformers like Martin Luther, John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli believed that salvation is to be entirely understood in terms of God's gift (that is, God's act of free grace), given to us by the Holy Spirit according to the redemptive work of Jesus Christ alone. Consequently, they argued that a sinner is not accepted by God based on what they did. Rather the believer is accepted by God without any merit to his works—for no one is righteous and deserves salvation as Romans 3:10 tells us.

Simply put, it is someone outside of us who does something for us.

People like Luther, Calvin and Zwingli protested against the Roman Church of their day because of what they found in the Scriptures.

Turn with me to Ephesians 2:1-10

There are 3 things I want to point out from Ephesians 2:1-10 that tell us why it is grace alone

Firstly…

1. We were dead without God’s grace

NIV Ephesians 2:1 ¶ As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,  2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature {3 Or our flesh} and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 

  • What is the situation with humanity? Paul tells us that as for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins.
  • We are dead to God.
  • It does not mean we were dead in the physical sense. We are still here, but rather we were spiritually dead to God. We were considered dead in God’s eyes because of our transgressions and sins against him.
  • How were we dead? In the way we used to live.
  • We followed the ways of this world! This means following the influences and standards of societies attitudes, habits and preferences. These ways are alien to God and his standards.
  • We followed the ruler of the kingdom of the air. This ruler is Satan and this same ruler is now at work in those who disobey God to spurring them to continually reject God and his gospel.
  • Paul points out that we too lived among them and were like them.
  • All people everywhere are dead to God. There is no one exempt from this.
  • We followed our own sinful nature, our own selfish ways and our own selfish desires. We rejected God and his ways.
  • As a result of our transgressions and sins against God we had no hope. We became far from God and were alienated from his life.
  • God looks down at us and sees us as dead to him. Like a Father who sees his son physically alive but no longer recognizing him as his son and no longer relating to him as his son. That is how we were seen by God.
  • Therefore we were by nature objects of wrath.
  • We were in grave danger! We are told that without God’s grace we stood condemned. We deserved to face God’s judgement.
  • Our bad hearts have not and can not choose God. We are dead! We can’t do anything. We are dead without God’s grace. We are dead without God doing anything for us.
  • We are reminded of what we are saved from and Paul draws the contrast between our past life and now turns to our present life in Christ.

2. We are saved by God’s grace

4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,  5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-- it is by grace you have been saved.  6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,  7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 

  • God made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. Why? Because of his great love for us. God loved us so much that he sent his one and only son to die for us.
  • But not only does God love us but he shows us he is rich in mercy. He does this to show us how rich or how great his grace is to us. His gift, his favour, his forgiving mercy shows us his kindness.
  • Much like parable of the unforgiving servant. A servant owed millions of dollars to his owner but he couldn’t pay. His owner showed him mercy and cancelled the debt without the servant having to do anything. How much more merciful is God for the debt we owe him?
  • Another benefit of his mercy to us is that He made us alive with Christ when we were dead!
  • In verses 1-3 we were reminded that we were dead. But now God saves us and makes us alive with Christ. It is a mighty rescue for humanity from death, wrath and slavery. What God has accomplished in Christ he has also accomplished for believers.
  • It is out of God’s initiative that we are saved. He gives us the gift of salvation. A free and unearned gift.
  • How is it a gift? God does it all for us. We are saved by what Jesus did for us on the cross. His death for our sins.
  • The end of verse 5 is the summary statement of what God has done. It is by grace (alone) you have been saved! It is all a work of God for our benefit that we have been saved.
  • For when God saved us he raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
  • God acted to save sinners to show how far, wide and deep is his grace for us. It is extravagant and overwhelming. Can you hear the words of that great Hymn? Amazing Grace, How sweet the sound. That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found; was blind, but now I see.
  • Through grace God expressed his kindness to us in Jesus.

Lastly…

3. We receive God’s grace through faith

8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--  9 not by works, so that no one can boast.  10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

  • How are we saved by grace? Through faith.
  • How is grace different to faith? Grace is how we receive salvation from God where Faith is the method of response to God’s grace.
  • Put another way faith is our response in trust.
  • It has nothing to do with our work for salvation. As pointed out earlier there is nothing we can contribute to our salvation.
  • Look again with me at verse 8 and 9. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--  9 not by works, so that no one can boast. What works can we contribute to our salvation? Nothing! (BLANK)
  • Our salvation is all a work of God. It has nothing to do with what we can do.
  • The idea that we can do something is totally wrong.
  • Why because salvation is a gift of God.
  • It’s like trying to do something to earn a present that someone has offered to you. It ceases to be a gift when you try to earn it. The idea of a gift is something we give to someone who as not worked for it or earned it.
  • Verse 8 says it is the gift of God. If anything we come up with nothing before God.
  • Here is the implication of trying to contribute to our salvation. As soon as we say we have to do something what we end up saying is that Jesus death on the cross was not enough.
  • Jesus did not completely pay the penalty for us. He did not completely take away our sin. He did not completely save us so we can be in a right relationship with God. That is where we end us if we follow that line of thinking.
  • It is an insult to Jesus and what he has done. It’s like telling the family of an Australian soldier your son did not die for his country completely because he died overseas. What an insult!
  • As we receive God’s grace through faith we are also told that it is not by our works, so no one can boast.
  • Man can not claim anything we have done to earn salvation. Rather man receives it as a gift from God. Something that is not earned.
  • Many people in our world think we can do something to get right with God. Coming to church, being baptised, participating in the Lord’s Supper, reading our bibles, praying, but here in verse 9 we are told that no work of man can contribute or give us salvation. Non of it is a work of man to no one can boast about attaining salvation.
  • It is by responding in faith that we are saved. It is only by trusting that what God has said and done. He has done it completely and in it’s entirety to save us through Jesus.
  • God has done it all so that no one can boast. When we have done something great we are tempted to let others know at what great a job we did. But when it comes to salvation there is nothing to boast about except boasting in what God has done for us. (BLANK)
  • While there is no good work we can do to be saved but there is a place for our work. Look at verse 10.
  • When we respond by putting our faith in Jesus we become his workmanship and we do the things we were made to do. We begin to do what God has prepared in advance for us to do.
  • We begin to live the life that pleases God as new creations in response to what he has done for us.

So what now?

God’s grace is given completely in Jesus. We were spiritually dead without God’s grace. But we are saved by what God has done for us in Jesus. Every other religion requires us to do something to get salvation. Buddhism, Hindus, Islam, Mormanism, Jehovah Witnesses, Catholicism. All these require us to do something to attain salvation. But it is only biblical Christianity that tells us that God has done it all. That there is nothing we can do. What is required is a response to what God has completely done for us in Jesus. What God calls us to do is respond in trust.

Now what?

Some of us have been trying to work towards our salvation, trying to do something that is acceptable to gain God’s favour. But the bible tells us that there is nothing we can do. God gives us the gift of salvation through what Jesus did on the cross. God now offers salvation as a gift by trusting in Jesus. God’s word gives us certainty that he has done everything for us so we can have assurance. We are called to trust that God has attained salvation for us and accept his unearned gift. He calls us to accept his way of attaining salvation for us. That is to trust in Jesus as the one who died on the cross in our place taking the punishment for our sins. Trust that Jesus dealt with all of our sin once and for all time. Stop living in a way where we try and earn our place in heaven. For what Jesus did is complete and sufficient.

Conclusion

Are we saved by God’s grace alone through faith? Or are we trying to still earn it? I urge you to respond to God’s gracious gift by trusting in Jesus as the one who has sufficiently done all that is needed for our salvation.