“For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Eph. 2:8-9 ESV
This passage of scripture is a foundational scripture to the
Christian faith, but it is probably the most widely misinterpreted and
misunderstood passage of scripture with regard to our salvation from sin by God’s
grace.
And, that is because it is often taught out of context – out
of both the immediate context, and out of the context of the whole of the book
of Ephesians, as well as out of the context of the consistent teachings on
salvation throughout the New Testament.
So, let’s break it down and see what it is really saying, in
context.
First of all, let’s look at the meaning of the word “grace.”
It means God’s favor, his kindness extended towards us, which is a gift to us.
That means there is nothing we can do to deserve or to earn it. He gives it
freely of himself. So, not one of us can boast that somehow we did something in
our own flesh to accomplish our own salvation from sin. We did not! We can’t!
But, do we have a part in it? Yes, we do! We have to believe
in Jesus Christ and in what he did for us on that cross in providing the way
for us to be saved from our sins and to have eternal life with God. Yet, I
believe, contextually, that both God’s grace and the faith to believe in Jesus Christ
are gifts from God. We just have to accept them into our lives and apply them
in the ways that God’s Word teaches that we must apply them.
For, even the meaning of this word “faith” bears that out.
The word means to be persuaded, and in this case to be divinely persuaded by
God as to his will for our lives (1). So, not only is God’s grace to us not of
ourselves, but the faith to believe in him is also not generated within
ourselves. They both come from God, but they must both be activated within our
hearts and lives. This is our heart response to God to what he freely has given
us.
So, the faith that is required for us to be saved from our
sins and to have eternal life with God, because it is divinely persuaded, and
because it is gifted to us by God, will submit to our Lord and to his will for
our lives. If it doesn’t, then it is not genuine faith. So, if you are told
that you can believe in Jesus and that you don’t have to repent of your sins or
walk in obedience to his commands, then that is not genuine faith. It is not
from God!
What is the gift?
And, that brings me to the next point here which is the
immediate context of these verses. Too many people freely quote these two
verses and try to communicate that we have no part in our own salvation
whatsoever, but that isn’t true. Can we produce it ourselves? No! Can we do
anything to earn or to deserve it? No! Is it a gift from God? Yes! It is! But,
what is the gift? That is the big question. And, the way to answer it is in the
context.
For example, verses 8 and 9 are most always quoted alone, as
though they stand alone, but do they? What about verse 10? It is part of the
context.
“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
So, here we have the crux of it all. Yes, we are saved by
God’s grace. And, yes, even the faith to believe in him is gifted to us by God.
But, what are we saved from? And, what are we saved to? Those are the big
questions.
Well, we have to look at other scriptures to tell us what we
are saved from, but it is clear here what we are saved to. When we truly trust
in Jesus Christ to be our Lord (owner-master) and Savior (from sin), we are
yielding our lives now over to the control and ownership of Almighty God. For,
when Jesus shed his blood for us on that cross, he did so in order to buy us
back for God, so that we would now be God’s possession, so that we would now
honor God with our lives and no longer live for ourselves (See: 1 Co. 6:20;
Titus 2:14; 2 Co. 5:15, 21).
So, what are we saved to? To now be God’s possession, for
him to be Lord (owner-master) of our lives, for us to now be his workmanship,
and to do the good works which God prepared beforehand that we should not just
do, but in which we are to walk (in lifestyle, in practice, as a matter of
course in our daily conduct). And, we can learn what those good works are by
reading the New Testament of the Bible one verse at a time.
But, we don’t do them in our own flesh, and we don’t do them
to earn or to deserve our own salvation from sin. We are only able to do them
in the power of God’s Spirit now living within us, under the guidance and
direction of our Lord. So, they are God working through us, but as we cooperate
with his work and we do what he says to do in his power and strength.
So, what is the gift? What are we saved from? And, what are
we saved to? Well, surely we are saved from hell (eternal punishment and
damnation) and we are saved to have eternal life with God. But, is that all
there is to it? No!
From and To
Ok, here is where we look at the context of Ephesians, as a
whole, and then compare that to other scriptures in the New Testament that say
the same thing. But, there is not space here to discuss all of Ephesians, so I
will focus on a few key verses in chapter 4 which tell us exactly what we are
saved from and what we are saved to, i.e. what this free gift entails.
“Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ! — assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” Eph. 4:17-24 ESV
So, what is this saying? The way we should have learned
Christ, if we were taught the truth in him, is that we should no longer live in
sin like we did before we believed in Jesus with God-given faith. That is
pretty clear, isn’t it? Our lives should no longer be given over to sensuality,
greed and every kind of impurity and evil practice. Why? Because Jesus saved us
from that life. He redeemed us back for God. He delivered us from our slavery
(bondage, addiction) to sin by his grace, through God-given faith in him.
The truth in Christ Jesus, i.e. the way in which we come to
know him, which is by God’s grace, through God-given faith in him, is by
putting off our old self-life by dying with Christ to sin – to all that is of
the flesh which is corrupt through deceitful desires. These are to no longer be
a part of our lives. And, then we are to be transformed (metamorphosis) of the
Spirit of God away from those old lives of living for sin and self to new lives
in Christ Jesus, our Lord, which are created in Christ Jesus to be like God in
true righteousness and holiness. This is God’s gift of grace to us!
But, this is not the only place it says this. This is taught
all throughout the New Testament, over and over and over again. We are taught
that Jesus died on that cross that we might die with him to sin and live with
him to righteousness (1 Pet. 2:24). We are taught that he died that we might no
longer live for ourselves but for him who gave his life up for us (2 Co. 5:15).
And, we are taught that belief in him means we are crucified with Christ in
death to sin so that we might walk with Christ in his righteousness (See: Lu.
9:23-25; Rom. 6:1-23; Rom. 8:1-17; 1 Jn. 1:5-9; Tit. 2:11-14, etc).
And, we must understand here, as well, that this is not
optional. And, we need to understand, too, that our salvation is not past tense
only. We are saved (past), but we are being saved (present and ongoing), and we
will be saved (future) when Christ returns for us and our salvation is
complete.
Thus, scripture teaches that salvation is not some one-time
experience, we then live our lives, and one day we go to heaven. Scripture
teaches our salvation from sin as continuous, and as a walk of faith in Jesus
Christ whereby we die daily to sin and self, and whereby we daily put on the
armor of God with which to fight off Satan’s evil schemes against us, and
whereby daily we walk (in lifestyle) according to the Spirit of God and not
according to our flesh. And, this must happen if we want to have eternal life
with God (Lu. 9:23-25; Rom. 8:1-17; 1 Jn. 1:5-9; Gal. 5:19-21; Gal. 6:7-8).
So, if we want to be saved from our sins and have eternal
life with God, and if we want to apply Ephesians 2:8-9 to our lives, then we
must understand what it is saying, and we must apply it in the context in which
it is written, and we must compare it to other scriptures on the subject of
salvation. For, it is the truth which will set us free. So, know the truth,
believe the truth, and walk the truth in obedience with your Lord, and you will
be saved from your sins and you will have eternal life with God.
Your
Servant
An
Original Work / September 21, 2011
Lord, I love to have You near me
As I go throughout my day,
Walking daily in Your footsteps,
As I humbly pray.
List’ning to You, hear You teaching
Me to live and work for You,
Lord, I pray You lead and guide me
Daily in Your truth.
Lord, I want to be Your witness,
Telling others of Your grace;
Telling how they can be set free
Of their sins today;
Share with them the love of Jesus,
He died on a cruel tree,
So that we’d be forgiven
For all eternity.
Lord, I want to serve You only,
As I bow on bended knee,
Making You my Lord and master,
And Your servant be.
Humbly walking in obedience,
Doing what You say to me,
Lord, may I be an example
Of one who’s set free.
P.S. If you have questions about any of this, you are free
to ask away and I will do my best, by God’s grace, and in his power at work
within me, to answer your questions. Your comments are welcome, as well.
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