Faith Not of Our Own Doing

Ephesians 2:8-10 ESV

“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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

So, what is God’s grace to us? It is his kindness towards us, his favor. It is him leaning towards us to share his benefit with us. It is Jesus Christ freely extending himself to give himself away to people, freely extending Himself (His favor, grace), reaching (inclining) to people because He is disposed to bless (be near) them (source: biblehub.com interlinear).

And how did Jesus Christ extend himself to us to show us his favor? He who was God in the flesh (both man and God) willingly gave himself up for us by dying on a cross for our sins. For he who knew no sin became sin for us on that cross so that when he died, our sins died with him, so that by his grace, and by God-persuaded faith in Jesus Christ, we might die with him to sin and live to his righteousness, and that we might live for him and no longer for ourselves, and that we might now honor him with our bodies (our lives).

[1 Peter 2:24; 1 Corinthians 6:19-20; 2 Corinthians 5:15; Romans 6:1-23]

So, God’s grace to us is not just forgiveness of sins and a free ride into heaven, as many would have you believe today. For God’s grace, which is bringing us salvation, trains us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives while we wait for our Lord’s soon return. For Jesus Christ “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (see Titus 2:11-14; cf. Ephesians 2:10).

And what is faith? It means faithfulness, belief, trust, confidence, and fidelity. So it means being faithful to God/Christ as a bride should be faithful (pure, unadulterated) in her relationship with her husband (and vice versa). And it means to be persuaded (convinced, converted, won over) by God (see John 6:44). And it is the divine persuasion of God’s will for our lives. And so what will he persuade us about? He will persuade us as to his holiness and righteousness, and of our sinfulness, and of our need to repent (to turn from our sins) and to follow him in obedience and in godly living.

And what else should we know about faith? Jesus Christ is the originator and the perfecter of that faith, and the faith to believe in Jesus comes from God, and it is gifted to us by God, and it is not of our own doing. So we don’t get to determine what that faith looks like. God does, and he reveals that to us through his written word. For he defined faith as obedience to him, and he defined disobedience as unbelief. And Jesus said if we would come after him that we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin and to self) and follow (obey) him, for if we don’t, we will lose our lives for eternity.

[Hebrews 12:1-2; Ephesians 2:8-10; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Luke 9:23-26; Romans 6:1-23; Matthew 7:21-23]

So many people are quoting only verses 8-9 and they are leaving out verse 10 which is critical to the whole meaning of this passage, as is the whole chapter 2 of Ephesians, and as is the entire book of Ephesians. And so they pull verses 8 and 9 out of context and then they teach a false doctrine of salvation from those two verses which is permeating the church here in America. For so many are being taught that they don’t have to do anything but that God does it all, and so they have the understanding that nothing really has to change in their lives, and so many are continuing in sin.

But God didn’t say no works are required of us. He said the opposite. What he said is that we can’t be saved by our own works of our own flesh. We can’t just do “good works” of our flesh and think God is going to accept them, which is what the Pharisees were doing. But we are saved to do the good works of God which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them, that these works of God should now be our practice. And obedience to our Lord and to his commands (New Covenant) and living holy lives, and not in sin, are required of God for our salvation and eternal life with God.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

For, again, Jesus Christ did not give himself up for us on that cross just to forgive us our sins so that when we die we get to go to heaven. He died to transform our lives and to deliver us out of our slavery to sin and to empower us to live holy and godly lives, pleasing to him, in his power. Yet, if we don’t repent of our sins, and if we continue in deliberate and habitual sin, and we do not obey our Lord’s commandments under the New Covenant, in practice, and if we don’t walk in righteousness, then we do not have eternal life with God and heaven is not our eternal destiny. Please believe this!

We’ve a Story to Tell to the Nations

By H. Ernest Nichol, 1896

We've a story to tell to the nations,

that shall turn their hearts to the right,

a story of truth and mercy,

a story of peace and light,

a story of peace and light.

We've a song to be sung to the nations,

that shall lift their hearts to the Lord,

a song that shall conquer evil

and shatter the spear and sword,

and shatter the spear and sword. 

We've a message to give to the nations,

that the Lord who reigneth above

has sent us His Son to save us,

and show us that God is love,

and show us that God is love. 

We've a Savior to show to the nations,

who the path of sorrow has trod,

that all of the world's great peoples

may come to the truth of God,

may come to the truth of God. 

For the darkness shall turn to dawning,

and the dawning to noonday bright,

and Christ's great kingdom shall come on earth,

the kingdom of love and light.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmmOZ4ROJp0

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