Sermon Notes: Ephesians 2:8-9 – Grace
These are the notes of the sermon preached by Andy Evans on the morning of the 17 January 2010. Click here to download or stream the sermon audio.
Ephesians 2:1-10
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— 6and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you have been saved through faith. 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. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
1. GRACE
a. A Gracious God
The glorious grace of God is the central preoccupation of the Apostle Paul and the great theme of his letter to the church in Ephesus.
In Chapter 1 Paul unpacks the glory of God’s grace. God acts, God intervenes and God saves. This is ultimate reality and this is the truth of the universe and world in which we live. Science purports that the universe began with a big bang and that this world, life and everything are but ripples, consequences, of that cataclysmic event. Scripture teaches that creation has a Creator who is at work and active in his creation.
Paul wants believers to see the hand of God at work in all things and, particularly, in the great story of salvation. This is why Paul reminds believers that this God, our God, blesses (Ephesians 1:3), chooses, predestines (Ephesians 1:4-5) and, in and through Christ, redeems and rescues us (Ephesians 1:7). Moreover, in the fullness of time, this mighty God will bring all things into conformity under the dominion and sovereign rule of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:10).
God is at work, working all things in accordance with ‘the purpose of his will’ (Ephesians 1:5) and ‘to the praise of his glorious grace’ (Ephesians 1:6).
Last week, Paul went further and we saw that this great God who works so graciously towards men and women acts in perfect accordance with his character, for this God is ‘rich in mercy’ and abounding in great love (Ephesians 2:4).
The mercy of God is the great grounding of our salvation. Paul explains,
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. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
b. Grace is…
Paul begins by setting out the foundation upon which our salvation is grounded: salvation is a grace-gift from a God who is ‘rich in mercy’ (Ephesians 2:4),
For by grace you have been saved… it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8)
We are saved because God chooses to do so and God chooses to do so because he is gracious, merciful and kind. This truth is massively important and reminds us that the character and nature of God, his goodness, his great love and his merciful kindness, is demonstrated and displayed in salvation and in his church.
Moreover, this gift is freely given, irrespective of any merit or worth within ourselves. Paul shows us this by setting out clearly what grace is not. Paul writes that salvation,
…is not your own doing (v. 8 )
And,
not a result of works (v. 9)
This is fundamental to understanding the Gospel of Grace. Paul wants us to understand that our salvation is a free grace gift from God, given irrespective of anything we might do and any good works we might have undertaken. We do not deserve this gift and it cannot be earned.
The truth that this gift is unmerited and undeserved magnifies the glory of grace and the generosity of the Giver. In truth, all of us instinctively understand this to be true.
Imagine with me that, in the middle of the summer, we determine to purchase the Christmas Gift of Gifts for our beloved. Over a prolonged period of time we surreptitiously watch and listen attentively, searching for the most subtle and inadvertent of hints as to what this much wanted gift might be. As the summer wanes into autumn, it clicks, the hint is dropped, the perfect gift is identified and then the search for that ‘thing’ begins. We search and scour the high street and the internet and then, finally, find the much in demand ‘thing’, the perfect gift, order it and wait.
Finally, with just a few days to go, the thing arrives.
Imagine now that it is Christmas day and you hand him or her this perfect gift, immaculately wrapped. Imagine the look of wonder as they open the thing and the special, much-wanted and much sought gift is finally revealed.
Now imagine that they thank you and reach for their wallet or purse. Imagine that they are now writing out a cheque for the full amount and are passing it to you.
We all immediately understand why this is a problem. You see, the moment the cheque is received the gift is no longer a gift. Payment nullifies grace.
Paul makes this very point in his letter to the church in Rome,
But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. (Romans 11:6)
Paul resists all such attempts to belittle and nullify the grace of God. Salvation is a gift that we do not deserve and are incapable of earning.
2. FAITH
a. Through Faith
But this leaves a huge question unanswered. If God is ‘rich in mercy’ and, as the Apostle John puts it, ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8), why is it that not everybody is saved? If Christ’s work on the cross (the embodiment and culmination of God’s gracious activity) is universal in its provision (meaning that the grace of God and the effects of the cross are expansive enough to cover all people at all times everywhere), why is it that some perish and some remain ‘children of wrath’?
It is true that the love and grace of God is expansive and that the grace-gift of salvation is free, unmerited, undeserved and predicated upon his goodness irrespective of our own worth and yet there is further crucial element to this equation. Consider,
For by grace you have been saved through faith. (Ephesians 2:8)
We are saved by grace and through faith. Salvation is a grace gift which must be received ‘through faith’.
In this context, the word ‘faith’ (pisteos) basically means to trust or believe in something or someone. Paul’s usage here goes further and suggests that the state of believing is based upon the reliability and trustworthiness of the one trusted.[1]
There is a grave warning in all of this for believers and unbelievers alike.
It is not enough to rely on the truth that ‘God is love’ (which he most assuredly is) and it is not enough to hope that everything will work out for us simply because God is ‘rich in mercy’ (which, again, he is). Such vague and abstract notions lead to inactivity and unresponsiveness. God requires a faith response. And this faith response has substance and depth. It is more than a simple crossing of the fingers and hoping for the best. It is more than a clicking of the heels and a hope that we will ‘find that happy place, find that happy place, find that happy place’.
The faith that Paul talks about has an object and has weight.
Paul is talking about more than a simple intellectual assent to a series of propositional truths: yes, I believe there is a God, yes, I believe he is rich in mercy, yes, I believe Jesus lived and, yes, I believe he died to save sinners? Elsewhere, Scripture cautions against mere intellectual assent,
You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! (James 2:19)
This should cause holy fear to shake our very souls. The demons intellectually assent to the truths of Scripture.
To have faith takes us further.
b. Faith: Past
The ‘through faith’ demands so much more than intellectual assent or vague hopefully feelings that everything will turn out okay. The clue to this is in the ‘For’. Paul writes,
For by grace you have been saved through faith. (Ephesians 2:8)
The word ‘For’ links this unit of thought with that which goes before. Paul is referring back.
As we have considered over the past two weeks, Paul begins by describing the situation of men and women outside of the grace and salvation presented in verse 8. We were lost, blind, enslaved and ultimately dead (Ephesians 2:1-3). A supernatural and miraculous intervention was necessary and, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God made those of us who are his alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:4-6). Salvation is nothing less that resurrection.
Moreover, this work (described throughout Chapter 1 and in Chapter 2, verses 4, 5 and 6, is a sheer grace gift from a God who is ‘rich in mercy’. This explains the jarring interjection in verse 5,
by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:5)
The ‘For’ points back to verses 4 to 6 and verse 5 points forward to verses 8 and 9. Paul exhorts us to believe, trust and put our faith in the God who thus works so graciously towards us.
This changes the way that we see everything.
Formerly, we refused to acknowledge the hand and grace of God at work in creation and throughout history. Formerly, we regarded the events described in the gospels as either fantasy, happenstance or cold, irrelevant history.
To receive salvation by grace and through faith radically changes our perspective. Now we see the hand of God at work in everything.
Paul deals with this in what is perhaps the most important passage in Scripture,
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:21–26)
Note that Paul’s thinking here is in perfect accord with Ephesians 2:1-10.
In Romans, Paul states that ‘all have sinned’ (v. 23) and, in Ephesians, he explains that we were ‘children of wrath, like the rest of mankind’ (v. 3). In both passages, salvation (or in the language of Romans 3, justification) comes ‘by his grace as a gift’ (Romans 3:23 and Ephesians 2:8) and, in both, there is an emphasis upon the necessity of faith:
the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe (Romans 3:22)
[We] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Romans 3:24-25)
And,
that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
It is not enough to agree with the propositional truths of Scripture, faith is required.
Those of us who believe have experienced the truth of this.
At one time, we looked upon Jesus as a charlatan; good, but deluded… perhaps even insane. We believed a historical figure, Jesus of Nazareth, lived. We believed that the facts of his life loosely (or perhaps we believed, closely) accorded with the gospel accounts. We accepted that he was a good, maybe even an exceptional, man. We perhaps believed he was a prophet, a mystic or a great teacher. Some of us may even have believed that he lived an exemplary life and accepted that he died an exemplary death. It just may be that some of us even accepted that he was raised from the dead.
We now know, however, that this alone is not enough. Paul understands that more is required.
Now, as we look at Jesus we see more than a good man; we see God’s righteousness, his standards, his holiness, his character and the embodiment and fulfilment of all that is set out in the Old Testament. Jesus is the God-Man, the Word made flesh. We have faith in him knowing that he is indeed the righteousness of God and, in trusting and seeing this, we receive and depend on his righteousness. We say to ourselves that in Christ Jesus we see God and, consequently, his heart, his will and his glory. We accept this as truth and this changes everything and we now live and seek to know, love, follow and honour him.
This is what it means to receive the gospel through faith.
And now, as we gaze upon the cross, we see more than a horrendous miscarriage of justice and so much more than an ignominious death (although the cross is still both of these things). Instead we see the righteousness of a holy God who must deal with sin and we see the grace of this same God extended towards sinners.
Moreover, now we understand that the cross is designed for us; that this is the way that God is able to justify us and maintain his holiness and glorious reputation.
Now, as we look at the cross, we see not only Christ’s sufferings, but we also see his glory as he pays for our sins and strikes the decisive blow against sin and death. Now, as we behold his beaten and bruised body we see mercy and receive forgiveness.
This is what it means to receive the gospel through faith.
And this is Paul’s intention in Ephesians 2:8,
For by grace you have been saved through faith. (Ephesians 2:8)
God extends grace and we trust in his grace and his goodness. God sends forth his Son and we trust in him, believe in him and place our faith in him. Christ suffers and dies and we cling to the cross as the means by which we are justified and the font from which forgiveness flows. We look to the empty tomb and believe that he rose from the dead; that he lives still and we hope in this and cling to this truth as our source of life and the strength by which we are able to live for him.
This is what it means to be saved by grace through faith.
c. Faith: Present and Future
Before we move on, there is something further to note which will prove crucial next week.
The phrase ‘you have been saved’ (in both verses 5 and 8 ) is grammatically ambiguous in that Paul chooses to use the perfect tense which connotes both completed action, ‘you have been saved’ as we have discussed, and continuing results, ‘you are saved’.
Why does Paul so choose to write? Is this an accident or simple lack of clarity?
Rather, I would argue that Paul intends this statement to refer both back and forward. The declaration, that ‘by grace you have been saved’ points back to the finished work of Christ and the realisation of this in our lives as we are supernaturally brought back to life. We have considered this at length above.
But this statement, ‘by grace you are saved’ also points to the present and beyond because the effects of the cross continue to resound and work in our lives.
And so, even now, God is still at work pouring out ‘every spiritual blessing’ (Ephesians 1:3) upon those who are his. God is still at work supplying the grace we need to live the life he calls us to.
This will become crucial next week when we think about verse 10,
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)
But for now, Paul wants us to feel secure. His grace worked towards us was not in vain. We responded in faith and the result is that we are (present tense) saved.
d. Faith as a Grace Gift
But Paul’s emphasis upon the necessity of faith raises a perplexing question.
God offers grace and we respond with faith. What then does this do to Paul’s assertion that salvation is a result of the sheer unmerited and undeserved grace of God? Is salvation somehow contingent upon us having or exercising faith and if this is the case, what does it do to grace?
Consider again Paul’s formulation of God’s work in salvation,
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8)
The question is this: What is ‘the gift of God’? Paul cannot be referring to grace because he would simply be repeating himself: ‘the grace-gift is a gift’ is plainly unnecessary. It is unlikely that he is talking about salvation because grace and faith as the means of salvation, rather than salvation itself, is the subject of the sentence.
Paul is talking about faith. Faith is the gift from God.
Consider now the implications of this: God extents his hand of grace and men and women respond in saving faith. But it is God who bestows upon them the saving faith.
And this is necessary. Too often we draw on unhelpful analogies: Without God we are sick and dying, he holds the cure and we just need to open our mouths, then swallow. Or, we are lost at sea moments from drowning when he stretches out a hand and we just need to take hold of him.
Now, I accept there may be an element of truth in all of this, but we must remember that none of these analogies correspond with the picture Paul presents.
We were dead. Dead people do not open their mouths. Dead people do not swallow. Dead people never, ever stretch out their hands. Dead people are dead.
God displays his grace everywhere, but we are dead and do not see him and are unable to respond to him. This is the miracle of salvation: in grace he acts, supernaturally imparts the faith we need to respond and we are saved.
The result of this is profound.
3. BOASTING
There are three profound implications in this for both believers and unbelievers alike.
a. Faith vs. Works
When, in verse 9, Paul talks about works he is warning against an instinct that is hard-wired into all of us.
We all instinctively push back against grace. Try buying a coffee for a friend and it will invariably result in a race to the till and an argument over who is going to pay for the bill. A loved one buys us an unexpected and extravagant gift and we inevitably respond, ‘You shouldn’t have’.
There is something within all of us that pushes back against grace.
This impulse is so destructive because it leads us a bad kind of working; the kind of working that either seeks to win favour with God or somehow pay him back. This bad kind of working nullifies grace and eventually will blind us to grace.
We will find ourselves looking at the cross and thinking: foolishness. We will find ourselves responding to the exhortations to simply believe, trust and rely and instead argue: it cannot be that easy.
b. The Necessity of Grace
This is lethal for believer and unbeliever alike. You and I need grace for our salvation and continuing sanctification. There is then a continual requirement to have faith in his goodness.
We see the grace of God displayed and extended to us through the cross and we respond in faith: Jesus you died for me, and we are saved.
By grace through faith we are saved.
But our dependency on grace is continuing. We are called to walk, we are called to obey, we are called to live out the gospel and none of this is possible without his grace. We must continue to believe that he will supply all we need.
By grace through faith we are saved.
And we fail. Pitifully and miserably fail. We still depend upon his grace for continuing forgiveness. We know that we may stumble, but we will never fall irrevocably. We know this because we believe that he is gracious. We stumble and are dismayed, but we never despair for we know he is gracious. We slip into sin and we run to him, not from him, for we know that he is enough and his grace is sufficient.
By grace through faith we are saved.
c. We Boast
And the end of all this is that we boast and do not boast.
Paul understands that salvation is set up in such a way that we might receive none of the glory. We are saved, but there is no place for self-aggrandisement or self-glory,
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. (Ephesians 2:8-9)
Boasting in our own goodness and our own worthiness is deadly to the soul. ‘Boasting perverts human autonomy by making it the object of trust’.[2] And ultimately such self-trust and self-reliance is idolatry.
Grace excludes such godless boasting.
But, in the same moment, grace compels us towards Godly boasting,
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26–31)
A right view of ourselves, our weakness, our failure and our sin magnifies grace and results in praise. A right view of God and our utter dependency upon him results in praise.
By grace, sheer grace, we have been saved, through faith. Let us now boast in him.
[1] Arndt, William, Frederick W. Danker and Walter Bauer. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
[2] Andrew Lincoln, WBC, pp.112-113