You can’t muster up enough faith apart from God’s grace to believe. If your salvation was up to you, you would never have it. God saves us because God wants to save us. Nothing inside us compels God to save us. The prime mover in your relationship to God is God. Now, look at the last phrase of verse 8, “And this is not your own doing it is the gift of God.” Here’s what Paul is saying, and it’s what the entire New Testament says, the totality of our salvation-by grace through faith-is God ’s gift. It’s believing that God has never once failed one man or woman who has trusted him and he’s not going to start with me. It’s looking to God and trusting that his grace is sufficient to save because it always has been. So if God promises that tomorrow will bring something, and if I trust God for tomorrow, I have faith in something I have not yet seen.”įaith is the rock-solid surety of God’s promises based on God’s character. Sproul says, “The idea is this: I don’t know what tomorrow is going to bring, but I know that God knows what tomorrow is going to bring. Faith understands that though God is invisible, his promises are certain, because we’ve seen then in Jesus Christ. Biblical faith looks at the world and sees God’s hand all over. Faith is not a leap in the dark, where we don’t know what’s on the other side, so we just hope it’ll turn out ok. The book of Hebrews defines faith as “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” So faith is forward looking. It’s both trusting God will crush Satan’s head and the action of putting on the pants God provides. It’s the hand that reaches out and grabs. So, what about that other word, faith? If grace is the basis of salvation, faith is the instrument of salvation. It's God’s kindness and care bringing life where death reigns. It's as big as crushing Satan’s head and as small as a pair of pants. Immediately after, what does God do? He clothes Adam and Eve, covering their newfound nakedness. When Adam and Eve sinned, God said he would crush the serpent’s head by the seed of the woman-the woman who had just caused the fall of creation. Grace is an outpouring of good when only wrath is deserved.Īnd grace runs throughout the Bible. It’s not adding sprinkles to a wonderful cupcake. Grace is giving an A to a student who rarely showed up, who never passed a test, who never got any question right. Grace is not grading on a curve-bumping a letter grade to a student who tried really hard. Grace is God’s activity of good to those whose activity is bad. Grace is God’s consistent provision for his people who can’t provide for themselves. Grace is God’s kind disposition toward sinful people who can't get their act together and can’t obey and can't find their way to him. Two words stand out in this phrase: grace and faith. And this is not your own doing it is the gift of God.”īy grace you have been saved through faith. Look verse 8: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. 10)įirst, God saves us by grace through faith in Christ God saves us by making us a new creation in Christ (v. God saves us by Christ’s merit, not ours (v. God saves us by grace through faith in Christ (v. So today, let’s consider that kiss of grace-how God saves us.ġ. God had to make us alive, not just wake us up. How did we break the curse of sin? We didn’t. That’s what Paul is saying in Ephesians 2:8-10. You couldn’t say, “Well, I just thought about it and decided, ‘It’s time to wake up!’” You couldn’t say, “Well, I just claimed the victory for myself.” You also couldn’t say, “I asked the prince to come and he came.” You couldn’t say any of that. All the news shows want an interview, and the first question they ask is, “What did you do to break the curse?” Let’s imagine you’re the princess and you’ve been awakened from a deep sleep. Remember the Disney movie Sleeping Beauty? A princess is cursed into a deep sleep and nothing can wake her but a kiss from the prince. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. And this is not your own doing it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. So let’s read it now.Ĩ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And verses 8-10, our text today, tells us how God saves. Verse 7 tells us why God saves: so that in the coming ages God could show us the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Verses 1-6 tell us what happens when God saves: bringing us from death to life. In Ephesians 2:1-10, Paul explains salvation.
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