Guarding His Flock Ministries

"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast." Ephesians 2:8-9 

Many Christians think that salvation is not so much a gift to be received, as it is a state to be deserved. Their concept of God is that He will pay them in eternity for what they accomplished in time. To them, salvation is achieved, not received. The tragedy of it is that salvation will never come to them by such an arrangement. As the Apostle wrote, "But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace" (Romans 11:6). Charles Spurgeon summarized the issue well when he said, "One might better try to sail the Atlantic in a paper boat than to get to heaven in good works."

But salvation comes to us by God’s grace. Various definitions of grace have been offered. Some preachers define grace in acronymic fashion: God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Others call it "undeserved favor." The sense of grace may be understood in the very context where the classic verse on the subject stands: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast" (Ephesians 2:8-9). This context defines God’s grace in terms of His unilateral actions toward the believer.

The Apostle Paul begins by defining the condition of the unbelieving world of people. He declares them to have been, "dead in . . . trespasses and sins"; to have "walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air"; to have "lived in the lusts of . . . flesh"; and of having been "by nature children of . . . wrath" (Ephesians 2:1-3). This description of persons apart from the action of divine grace is quite damning, don’t you think? Yet something happened to change the situation of the Ephesian believers from living in that hopeless condition, a change that can only be accounted for by reason of God’s sovereign working in their lives and on their behalf.

Let’s look at the context to see divine grace in action. The pessimistic estimation of our plight takes a sudden turn for the better when Paul writes, "But God . . ." (Ephesians 2:4). Where would we be in life if it were not for that little adversative statement, "But God"? I’ll tell you where. We’d still be dead in our sins. But God’s sovereign grace changed that. In His grace He has done three things for the believer (Ephesians 2:5-6).

First, sovereign grace makes believers "alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)." The way in which spiritual life comes to God’s children is the result of the sovereign working of His grace. Before grace the spiritual heart monitor was flat lined, but after grace, pulsating peaks and valleys signaled the presence of spiritual life. God brings those who belong to Him back from the dead. But God resurrects us.

Second, in grace God raises "us up with Him [Christ]." Not only does God give us a heart beat, He also enables us to walk. The resurrection power of Christ enables us to get up out of our spiritual grave and walk. It enables believers to live like Christ. "We are his [God's] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10). But God rehabs us.

And third, God’s sovereign grace seats "us with Him [Christ] in the heavenly places." God’s sovereign grace positions us in heaven with Christ (Compare Ephesians 1:3, 20). Imagine . . . grace positions us in a choice seat in heaven! But God honors us.

Now let a closing word about grace be stated. "But God . . ." This little adversative phrase defines grace. Could we, by our own power, raise ourselves from our spiritual deadness? "No!" In our own strength, could we rehab ourselves from the paralysis of sin? "No!" Could we by our own might propel ourselves to, and seat ourselves in, heaven? "No!" But God has done all of these things for us, and all according to the sovereign working of His grace![1]

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ENDNOTE

[1] All of the verbs in Ephesians 2:5-6 ("made us alive with Christ . . . raised us up with Him . . . seated us with Him") describe God’s actions towards sinners who have been spiritually grafted into Christ. The participle ("have been saved," Ephesians 2:8) is a "divine passive" where it’s understood that God is the giver and believers are the receivers of salvation. See Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996) 437-438.