By Grace Alone

May 10, 2009

Lesson: Ephesians 2:1-10

Key Verse: Ephesians 2:8

Introduction

Paul’s words reach into our hearts that we may know that the saving love of God the Father has made us suitable to be called by his name: “And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. 6:18); having “received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (Rom. 8:15); “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom.5: 2). We daily give thanks to our Father in heaven, “To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; …Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved) …For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Eph. 1:6-7, 2:5, 8).

“By grace we are to understand the free and undeserved love and favour of God, and those graces of the Spirit which proceed from it” (Matthew Henry). We do not have any reason to boast, for it is not of works that we are saved; for we are the Father’s “workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:9-10). Paul writes to the church at Rome that we have been “justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24). The Westminster Confession paints this glorious portrait of Christ reminding us why we belong to our heavenly Father: “Christ, by His obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are thus justified, and did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to His Father’s justice in their behalf. Yet, inasmuch as He was given by the Father for them; and His obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead; and both freely, not for anything in them; their justification is only of free grace, and rich grace of God, might be glorified in the justification of sinners” (11. 3).

Discussion: How is the grace of God revealed in Christ Jesus?

Where We Once walked –Ephesians 2:1-3

Total Depravity! The darkness in which we once walked; and we loved it! Our depravity is defined by Paul: “And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sin.” Brain and heart dead, unable to save our selves we deceived ourselves in believing that we were alive. “Sin is the death of the soul. Wherever that prevails there is a privation of all spiritual life. Sinners are dead in state, being destitute of the principles, and powers of spiritual life; and cut off from God, the fountain of life: and they are dead in law, as a condemned malefactor is said to be a dead man” (M. Henry). We were offenders of the Law of God, transgressors: “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law” (James 2:10-11).

We are by nature bond-slaves of Satan, revealing our allegiance to immorality by what we do: “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” It is not that Satan has the power to do what he wishes, but that his claim is that he is the potentate or governor that should be obeyed; yet is kingdom is only of darkness and death. The unbeliever lives according to the way of the world. God does not relinquish his position as supreme Lord and Creator. John Calvin wrote that God allowed Satan to exercise a mere tyranny, asking, “What is Satan but God’s executioner to punish man’s ingratitude? This is implied in Paul’s language, when he represents the success of Satan as confined to unbelievers; for the children of God are thus exempted from his power. If this be true, it follows that Satan does nothing but under the control of a superior and that he is not an unlimited monarch.”

However, when we walked in the way of the world, could not say that Satan made us do it. For are transgressions are ours that “in times past in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” Without Christ’s atoning work of the cross for us, we are children of judgment, deserving the wrath of God. Unable to satisfy the justice of God we are condemned to death, being transgressors by nature. We therefore find justification in Christ alone to be forgiven and to enter into his eternal kingdom. Thus wrote Paul, “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall not flesh be justified” (Gal. 2:16). The faith we receive belongs to Christ. We receive this faith as a gift, whereby we are convinced that he alone is our Savior and Lord.

Discussion: How do we understand why we need a Savior who justifies us before the Father?

God is Rich in Mercy –Ephesians 2:4-7

We must be reminded of the darkness of sin from which came, that we might more appreciate and rejoice in the saving grace of Christ upon the cross of Calvary; where we who were so blinded, were given sight by the marvelous richness of the mercy of God: But God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved).” There is no suggestion here that God is waiting for us to make some sort of decision before he begins to act. It is while we were still dead in sin that the Spirit of God is working to bring us into the Kingdom of the Son; “For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.” (Col. 5:6). It is a marvelous grace that God “quickened us together with Christ” while we were dead in sins. Our salvation was planned, and therefore executed (for when God speaks it is a surety that it will be accomplished), for we have been so blessed “according as he hath chosen us in (Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love” (Eph. 1:4).

There is a reason that we should know that we were so made alive with Christ, “that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” To know the mercy of God is to reveal his mercy in our lives: “and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8). We are to treat others in a rightful and truthful manner, and to embrace and show kindness to one another. Thus we will do what is pleasing in the sight of our Lord. “We must, in the whole course of our conversation, conform ourselves to the will of God, keep up our communion with God, and study to approve ourselves to him in our integrity; and this we must do humbly (submitting our understandings to the truths of God and our will to his precepts and providences)” (M. Henry). Our works and relationships with one another should reveal the truth, righteousness, justice, and mercy we have received from him.

Discussion: What does it mean that God is rich in mercy?

Created in Christ Jesus –Ephesians 2:8-10

“For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is a gift of God.” A very short and simple statement of the truth of how we have been saved. “God having this in his design, poor sinners should take great encouragement from it. And what may we not hope for from such grace and kindness, from riches of grace, to which this change is owing? Through Christ Jesus, by and through whom God conveys all his favour and blessings to us” (M. Henry). Not only is Christ the object of our faith, he is the full substance of our faith. Faith belongs to the Lord and is given to us as a gift, a gift of grace. This gift of faith has within itself the power to produce in us, life, a life patterned after that of Christ. Calvin testifies of the faith that belonged to Christ and is now ours: “Thou art the life by which alone we live / And all our substance and our strength receive. / Sustain us by thy faith and by thy power / And give us strength in every trying hour. / Our hope is in no other save in thee; / Our faith is built upon thy promise free. / Lord, give us peace, and make us calm and sure / That in thy strength we evermore endure.”

Paul continues, recognizing that the nature of this saving grace is “not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Nothing is left to chance. We are saved through faith, not of our own making but of God’s. James would say, “faith without works is dead.” Following the work of the Spirit in giving us such a faith, we find that the grace of God is continuing to work in and through us, producing in us a glorious nature, which is of Christ. It is ordained that we should be like Christ, or to put it another way, we grow as those who bear the image of God. “It appears that all is of grace, because all our spiritual advantages are from God. We are his workmanship; he means in respect of the new creation; not only as men, but as saints. The new man is a new creature; and God is its Creator. It is a new birth, and we are born or begotten of his will” (M. Henry).

Discussion: What does it mean that we have been created in Christ, and that by grace?