Salvation By God's Grace Through Faith

Grace Bible Church Expository Sermon Notes

Salvation By God's Grace
Through Faith

cf. Eph. 2:8-10 The Lord's Day 5/4/97 PM

The power of God is illustrated not only by resurrecting Jesus Christ and seating Him in the place of exaltation (cf. Eph. 1:19-23) but in the spiritual resurrection and spiritual seating of believers in Christ (cf. Eph. 2:1-7). This incredible power took us from our former lost condition of being spiritually dead in trespasses and sins, enslaved by the world and Satan and under the condemning sentence of God's wrath, to spiritual life and a position seating in heavenly places. This salvation is now described by the Apostle as: by Grace through Faith; and Unto Good Works.

Salvation is By Grace through Faith

Ephesians 2:8-9For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.

In this paragraph is the most concentrated repeating of the theme of grace anywhere in Ephesians. Paul's object is to point out that salvation is gratuitous and without human effort at all, i.e., by the unmerited favor of God. Salvation is not by doing works of righteousness; it is not by being faithful in church attendance; it is not by consistently reading the Bible or engaging in daily prayer; nor is salvation a reward for keeping or trying to keep the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount; salvation is not by performing benevolent works or contributing financially to worthy causes. Salvation is only through faith . ⁽¹⁾

Paul is quick to remind the Ephesians believers that this salvation by grace through faith is not of yourselves: it is a gift of God . The term faith (Greek, pistis ) is a feminine noun and normally the demonstrative pronoun would need to reflect the same gender, i.e., feminine. However, the pronoun Paul uses is neuter (Greek, touto ). What precisely is the gift of God? Is it faith? or the whole saving work through Christ? Several views are recommended:

A. The Gift of God is Faith. It has been suggested that the pronoun touto refers to the act of believing which would exclude the demand for the pronoun to have the same gender as faith. ⁽²⁾ Some who hold this view also suggest that sometimes in Greek literature, a demonstrative pronoun refers back to a noun of a different gender. ⁽³⁾

Refutation: the weakness of this view is the change in gender between noun (i.e., faith or pistis is feminine) and demonstrative pronoun (i.e., this or touto is neuter). Even if it was the act of believing , the feminine pronoun would still be expected.

B. The Gift of God is Grace by Faith Salvation. It is suggested that the pronoun touto refers to the concept of grace-by-faith salvation , which is the preferred Biblical view because a demonstrative pronoun regularly takes a conceptual antecedent. ⁽⁴⁾ The Apostle Paul's point is that the whole saving act of God, i.e., grace, faith and salvation is a gift given by God void of any human merit . ⁽⁵⁾

Salvation is also not of works, i.e., no human effort or good deeds produced salvation from sin. cf. Rom. 3:20; Gal. 2:16. And because of this, no man can possibly boast as if he/she accomplished, added to or won salvation. cf. Rom. 3:27; 4:5; 1 Cor. 1:31. The whole context argues for the fact that salvation is all of God's grace through the instrumentality of faith. ⁽⁶⁾ Hence, the Apostle repeats the same truth, i.e., it is a gift of God. This is known as tautological or redundant which means to press a point by repetition so that its meaning is secure without any misunderstanding.

When God purposes to preclude boasting, or even the possibility of it, he resolves to effect His design in this one way, by filling the mind with such emotion as shall infallibly banish it. he furnishes the redeemed spirit with humility and gratitude - such humility as ever induces man to confess his emptiness, and such gratitude as ever impels him to ascribe every blessing to the one source of Divine generosity.⁽⁷⁾

Salvation is Unto Good Works

Ephesians 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

The reason (Greek, gar ) for the statement of vss. 8-9 is now set forth, i.e., we are God's workmanship, created unto good works . The Apostle is saying, it is not by our works but we are His workmanship. The term workmanship is poiema and although we get our English word "poem" from this Greek term, this is not to suggest the term is limited to that. ⁽⁸⁾ Often this word is used in the LXX as a synonym for work and in the only other reference in the NT the term refers to God's creation work. cf. Rom. 1:20. Believers are God's work (cf. Rom. 14:20; Phil. 1:6) created for the purpose of performing good works . Notice we are created unto good works, i.e., God has sovereignty created believers for the purpose of being a distinctive creation, dedicated to good works. cf. 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15, etc. ⁽⁹⁾ The term translated work (Greek, ergon ) is any effort made. This involves every area of effort expended.

What then, is the meaning of the word "works"? It is a word which is applied to all kinds of effort. Work is an effort made…It includes all the activities of life, all the effort a man makes, not on Sunday only, but on every day of the week; not here in the sanctuary…but…the school, the office, or any professional employment.⁽¹⁰⁾

God in His sovereignty has ordained (Greek, proatoimazo means to prepare beforehand) these specific intrinsically good efforts. He has determined that the elect would walk through life doing intrinsically good efforts for His glory. ⁽¹¹⁾ All of life is lived coram Deo , i.e., before the face of God or under His providential control. The desire, the ability and opportunity to perform good works are all from God. No wonder there is no boasting, for all is of God.

Main Idea: Salvation is not by the determination or works of man but by the power of God's grace, through faith. And all of salvation, from first to last, is a gift of God. Those of the elect are a special work of God whereby He providentially orchestrates the efforts of their lives for His glory.

Exploring the Bigger Picture

The Invisible Hand: Do All Things really Work for Good by R. C. Sproul (Word Publishing, 1996) is a basic work on God's providence, using examples of Biblical biography to illustrate and adding numerous points by various theologians and philosophers to flag unanswerable questions.

The Love of God: He Will Do Whatever it Takes to Make Us Holy by John MacArthur, Jr. (Word Publications, 1996) deals with the universality of God's love in view of the Biblical doctrine of particular Atonement, correcting the false idea that God only loves the elect. We wish MacArthur would have commented on Matt. 7:23 in view of his position but otherwise it is a good treatment of a difficult are of theology.

Putting Amazing Back into Grace: Who Does What in Salvation? by Michael Horton (Baker Book House, 1994) is one of the best popular treatments of God's sovereignty in salvation, reclaiming for the laymen the historic Reformed Biblical position. This book has some good study questions for class discussion at the end of each chapter.

What Should I Do About This Message?
- Application Recommendations -

Salvation is all initiated by the grace of God. Instead of being proud for being elect this doctrine is the most humbling of all teachings of the New Testament.

Do you labor under the mistaken impression that you somehow by your goodness attracted the love of God? Carefully read Romans 9:15-16 and 1 Cor. 1:26-31 to correct such thoughts of pride.

Memorize Ephesians 2:1-10 word-for-word, in the next two weeks. Quote these two paragraphs throughout the day and especially before your personal prayer time, to set your heart right with God.

Our children need to realize that salvation isn't earned by what they do but is a gift of God and will result in what we do from then on.

Assign your children to memorize Ephesians 2:8-10 in the NIV this week and discuss at dinner, as a family, the implications after they have reviewed them to you.

As you pray with your children, make sure to thank God for His gift of salvation and His determination to make us into different people than others.

The virtue of genuine humility comes from the heart and is a result of deeply reflecting on the grace of God toward us who believe. With your discipleship partner, discuss in what practical ways you both could cultivate a heart conviction of thanksgiving for the gift of salvation and the goodness of God's providence toward us.

Footnotes:

1. John Eadie summarizes this phrase: "The dative chariti [English, grace ], on which from its position lies, expresses the source of our salvation, and the genitive pisteuos [English, faith ] with dia [English, through ] denotes its subjective means or instrument. Salvation is of grace by faith - the one being the efficient, the other the modal cause; the former the origin, the latter the method, of its operation." cf. A Commentary on the Greek Text of Paul to the Ephesians (Baker Book House, 1979), p. 149.

2. Those who hold that faith is the gift of God are: Chrysostom, Theodoret, Jerome, Beza, Grotius, Bengel, Charles Hodge, A. Kuyper, William Hendriksen and John MacArthur, Jr. Many Calvinistic interpreters have been attracted to this view pointing out that faith is not generated by fallen man. cf. 2 Peter. 1:1; Phil. 1:29; Acts 3:16, etc.

3. cf. R. H. Countess, Thank God for the Genitive, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, 12 (1969), pp. 117-22. Unfortunately, the author provides no NT examples which seriously puts his thesis in question. And while it is true that on rare occasions a gender shift between the demonstrative pronoun and its antecedent, the pronoun is almost always caught between two nouns of different gender. cf. Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Zondervan, 1996), pp. 334-335. The only NT example is Phil. 1:28 which is a debated passage.

4. In the NT there are 15 examples of kai touto (English, and that ) referring to a concept: Luke 3:20; 5:6; John 11:28; 18:38; 20:20; Acts 7:60; 1 Cor. 7:37; Phil. 1:9; Heb. 6:3 and Phil. 1:28, which is a probable reference.

5. Representatives of this view include: John Calvin, H. A. W. Meyer, Henry Alford, Charles J. Ellicott, John Eadie, A. T. Robertson and R. C. Lenski. An alternative view to the above is recommended without much acceptance, i.e., that kai touto is adverbial and intensive but without an antecedent. They would translate: "For by grace are you saved through faith, and [you are saved] especially not by your own doing; it is the gift of God." This view is well established as possible.

6. This is not to lend emphasis a specific act of faith, as if a person is saved if they believe the Gospel at a moment in time but reject it later. Faith is of a continuing nature. cf. John 3:15-18, 36; 5:24; 6:35, 40, 47; 7:38; 11:25-26; 12:44, 46; 20:31; Acts 10:43; 13:39; Rom. 1:16; 3:22; 4:5; 9:33; 10:4, 10-11. Each of these passages use the present tense pisteuo to point out the continuance of saving faith.

7. cf. John Eadie, A Commentary on the Greek Text of the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians (Baker Book House, 1979), p. 155.

8. Some have rejected the idea that workmanship (Greek, poiema ) refers to poetry, but the term has an element in which this is true. Barth concluded that the term could mean a work of art, especially a poetic product, including fiction. cf. Fritz Rienecker and Clean Rogers, Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament (Zondervan Publishing House, 1976), p. 525. However, this meaning is also too limiting, i.e., it doesn't only mean a poem or piece of art.

9. The term translated good (Greek, agathos ) means that which is intrinsically good. In Titus 2:14 and 3:8 the term good (Greek, kalos ) refers to utilitarian goodness or useful, i.e., honest occupations, daily responsibilities and routine business.

10. G. Campbell Morgan, The Westminster Pulpit (Baker Book House, 1954), vol. I, pp. 246-247. He continues: "It is the effort of your life, whether, I repeat, for pleasure of profit…its efforts put forth every day in every place, for pleasure or profit - He sets the works of my life in relationship to the infinite and eternal glory, in relationship to the great work of God in my character, in relationship to the fact that God is the Master Workman, making me through all these processes what He would have me be. This is a message of comfort if we will have it so. He has foreordained the works of the man He is making. He has been ahead of me preparing the place to which I am coming, manipulating all the resources of the universe in order that the work I do may be part of His whole great and gracious work. God has fordained good works. he has prearranged the forces of nature and the facts of life so that when I rise in the morning and begin to make my effort, it may be an effort in harmony with His character, a good work, whether I preach or play, whether I labor for pleasure or profit." Ibid., p. 247.

11. Under a different analogy, Jesus teaches on the necessity of works or fruitbearing for the believer: "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit…Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing…If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples." cf. John 15:2-8.