Ephesians 2:8-10
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This sermon was preached by Rev. Chris Roberts during the morning service on May 03, 2009. During this service we looked at the place for faith and works in salvation.
This morning we are looking at Ephesians 2:8-10. This passage concludes Paul’s summary of salvation in verses 1-10. In verses 1-3 we saw the desperate state of man. In 4-7 we are told about God’s saving work. Today’s texts teaches salvation by faith, not works, and the place of works for the believer. In the next section of Ephesians Paul will focus on the unity of believers in Jesus Christ.
The debate over faith and works has gone on since the beginning of Christianity. We humans have it in our heads that to get something we must work for it. We simply do not understand grace. Most people today are more content to rely on what they can do rather than what God would freely give them. But they can do nothing. No one can earn salvation.
Works are first introduced to God’s people through Old Testament requirements. This was most pronounced in the Mosaic law. Righteousness could only be found if someone followed the law perfectly. The problem was no one was successful. No one fully obeyed the law. Everyone fell under God’s just judgment. Those who were called righteous were made righteous by their faith, not by their works.
Some have said the debate over faith versus works is waged between Paul and other writers, James in particular, with Paul focusing on grace and James focusing on works. Does a disagreement like this exist within Scripture?
In today’s passage what we will see is that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, not earned by works, but that works are an essential evidence of and fruit from true saving faith. Let’s read together Ephesians 2:8-10.
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The passage opens with another reminder from Paul that salvation is by grace. God has done the work to bring you to himself. Your salvation is full and complete and secure in Christ. Many Christians are easily tossed about by fear and doubt, wondering if some necessary element is missing in their salvation, but Paul’s words should dispel doubt. Salvation is by grace! Christian, rest in the comfort of the God who has saved you.
Paul previously mentioned that you were saved by grace in verse 5. In verse 8 he adds a new emphasis. He says: by grace you have been saved through faith. In these verses Paul is showing the supremacy of faith over works. Salvation is through faith, not through works. So when he says in verse 8 by grace you have been saved through faith he means something like it is only by God’s grace that you are able to be saved through faith rather than through works. He has already shown that the whole matter of salvation comes from God’s grace, and now he is specifically showing that being saved by faith rather than by works is also by God’s grace.
The argument goes something like this. It is only by the grace of God that you are saved by faith rather than by works. Well, okay, someone might say that salvation is through faith but faith itself comes about by work. So Paul goes on to say no, even this is the gift of God, it does not come through works, leaving no room for boasting. Even the faith by which we are saved is the gift of God.
God could have required that we work in order to merit salvation but then no one would be saved. Without a changed heart no one can please God. Without faith no one can please God and faith can only come from a heart that is not dead in sin.
What is faith? Hebrews 11:1 gives us a brief definition: Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. The rest of Hebrews 11 is filled with examples of faith demonstrated through action. What we see is that faith is something like knowledge and belief put into motion. You believe that pew will hold you up so you sit in it. But that isn’t exactly faith since you’ve been in a pew like it before and have seen many others sit in pews. Faith is when we venture out into the unknown, trusting in the promises of God. Faith is Abraham, willing to leave the home of his fathers and travel across the wilderness to find the promised land. Faith is Joshua, marching around the walls of Jericho. Faith is Peter stepping out onto the waves – at least until his trust gave way to his doubt. In many ways Peter is the perfect example. He had assurance in the power of his savior and so long as his eyes were fixed on Jesus he was safe. It was when his eyes wandered, when he began to question, that he got into trouble and began to sink into the waves. Faith is when the promises of God take hold of us to produce action in our lives.
Faith is not belief. It is not mental assent. Belief will get you nowhere. Many people today believe in God and Jesus Christ but are no better off than the demons in James 2:19: You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe – and shudder! Belief will land a person with the demons. Faith will land a person with God.
Where does faith come from? It does not come from a dead heart. Faith trusts in the promises of the living God and the unsaved person cares nothing about God. Hebrews 12:2 tells us that Jesus is the founder and perfecter of our faith. In the King James Version that reads author and finisher. He is the founder, the author – that is, he establishes it; and he is the perfecter and finisher – that is, he makes it in us what it ought to be. Faith comes from God. Hebrews 12:2 does not mean what some commentators claim, that Jesus as founder means he was the first one to have faith and as perfecter is the first one to live his whole life with faith. The point of Hebrews 12:2 is that God puts faith in us and grows faith in us. In Romans 12:3 Paul assumes that God is the source of faith when he says think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
We see this in our passage. When Paul says in verse 8 And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God he is referring generally to the whole of salvation but specifically to faith. Works would come from within you but faith is not your doing, it is the gift of God. God is the founder of faith.
Several times in Scripture we read about growing in faith. In 2 Thessalonians 1:3 Paul says their faith is growing abundantly; in 2 Corinthians 10:15 Paul hopes the faith of the people will increase; there are many other examples. So faith is the gift of God but God can grow that gift in us. John Piper says “The fact that God gave you yesterday’s level of faith does not mean that his will for you today is the same measure of faith. His purpose for you today may be far greater faith.” Later he says, “God commands what he wills and grants in measure what he commands, but we should always pursue what he commands… God’s gift does not replace our effort; it enables and carries it.” We are to grow in our faith in God. This is not a passive exercise where we sit around waiting for God to dump faith in us. But the growth comes only as God’s gift to us.
What is your role in growing your faith? It is to be like the father in Mark 9:24 who stood before Jesus Christ and cried out, Lord I believe! Help my unbelief. Cry out for faith, then do the things that feed faith. Is your desire for more faith genuine if you pray, “Lord, give me faith!” then go turn on the television? Faith grows by exposure to its object. Fix your eyes on Christ and devote yourself to him. Do this through more prayer, through more fasting, through more time reading Scripture, through more obedience in carrying out his will. This sounds like work that leads us to earn faith but these are exercise of the faith God has already given us. When we find that we have grown in faith, that growth is by the gift of God. This is why it is impossible to gain anything by our works. If even our faith is a gift from God then every act of faithful obedience only increases our indebtedness to God.
So faith is a gift of God and by faith we are saved. We cannot earn our salvation through works. But works stem naturally from faith. Through work our faith grows, and even the ability to do work is the gift of God by the grace of God.
In verse 10 Paul says we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. We are God’s work. The works that we do are God at work through us. Paul is not speaking of all humanity here. Those created in Christ Jesus are believers, Christians, faithful followers of God. We can speak of all humanity as God’s work in a general sense but Paul has something specific in mind for Christians.
Last week we saw that Christians are like God’s trophies, showing the glories of God with our lives. That is something of what Paul has in mind here. We are the ones he is shaping and molding to live in conformity to his will. To that end we are not our own workmanship. We do not mold ourselves to the image of God, he molds us. This Paul writes in Romans 8:29: For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son… Those chosen by God are determined by God to be shaped into the image of Jesus Christ.
Believers are God’s workmanship. And what is he working in us? Good works. He says we are created in Christ Jesus for good works. Your life has a purpose. Your salvation has meaning. It brings forth something in your life. Because you are saved, created in Christ Jesus, you are able to do good works. And not just able to do good works, you are expected to do good works. Let’s put this in other terms. Instead of good works let’s speak of obedience to God. If God has saved you, made you alive in Christ Jesus, then you will live obedient to God. Not perfectly, we know believers can and do sin, but the pattern of your life changes so that your life becomes more and more an example of faithful, obedient living for God.
It is not genuine salvation if there is no corresponding change of life. Saving faith will be demonstrated through works. As we mentioned earlier, this is what faith means. It is not just belief, it is belief put into action.
Perhaps you remember the legendary William Tell, a marksman with the crossbow. Belief says I know William Tell can shoot an apple off my head without hitting me. Faith says here’s the apple on my head, William, take aim. Belief says I know God can make my life meaningful if I live for him. Faith says here, I’m throwing out the bad stuff and living for him. Belief will affirm many truths, faith lives in light of those truths. You say you have faith but you do not act on your beliefs? That is not faith. Faith leads a person to obedient living. Faith leads a person to good works.
Let’s read verse 10 again: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Note the last part of that verse. We are created for good works, works which God prepared beforehand for us to walk in.
The good you are called to do is not an afterthought in the mind of God. For all eternity God has had a plan for your life. God’s promise to Jeremiah and the nation of Israel in Jeremiah 29:11 is also his promise for you and the church: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. The work God calls us to do is not always pleasant or fashionable. It may be a thankless task in the most remote corner of the world. But from before time God has been unfolding his plan. Trust in him. With true faith live in obedience to him and do good.
When you come across a homeless man in need or a brother in suffering or you face the most delightful temptation, be faithful to the will and command of God. These are your good works and by them your faith is demonstrated and God is glorified.
Hebrews 13:20-21:
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
