What's So Amazing About Grace?
Notes
Transcript
Handout
English Standard Version Chapter 2
For 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. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Background
Background
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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— among 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.
Why does Paul make a point of saying that we are “dead” in our trespasses and sins? Is he just being hyperbolic?
No, Look at Gen. 2:16-17; 3:6-13 (this was where sin entered humanity; hiding from God so that you will not be seen or discovered is the first indication of sin’s entry and the subsequent fear man experienced shows the movement from acceptance and being unashamed (Gen. 2:25) to the dread of being exposed and being ashamed; in Matt. 8:22 Jesus refers to those in sin as “dead,” as well as in John 5:25. Therefore, Paul is stating our objective spiritual condition in plain language.
What does it mean to be “dead in our trespasses and sins?” (Completely lacking spiritual life or vigor; indifferent to the things of God)
What is the difference between trespasses and sins?
Why is this important?
The Message of Ephesians Ephesians 2:1–3
A ‘trespass’ (paraptōma) is a false step, involving either the crossing of a known boundary or a deviation from the right path. A ‘sin’ (hamartia), however, means rather a missing of the mark, a falling short of a standard. Together the two words cover the positive and negative, or active and passive, aspects of human wrongdoing, that is to say, our sins of commission and of omission. Before God we are both rebels and failures
How does this statement of non-Christians being dead square with the facts of everyday experience? For instance, how can we say that the healthy body of an athlete, the sharp mind of a scholar, or the vivacious personality of a film star are dead?
Because it is not the mind, body, or personality that give one life, only the soul. As Ephesians 4:18 says
They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
Non-Christians are blind to the glory of Jesus Christ and deaf to the Holy Spirit. They have no love for God, no desire to have a relationship with Him, no cry in their heart to reach out to him as a loving father. They are as unresponsive to him as a corpse, and regardless of how their mind or body may be, they are experiencing a living death.
If behind death lies sin, what lies behind sin that we are held in such captivity?
Paul’s answer is the world, the devil, and the flesh.
THE WORLD:
“Following” = kata, which means “after the manner of.”
When Paul says that non-Christians live “after the manner of this world,” what does he mean?
He is combining 2 things: 1) this present age of evil and darkness and 2) society that is organized without reference to God, which expresses and lives by a whole social value system that is alien to God. This value system -permeates and dominates non-Christian society and holds them in captivity, whether it is repudiating God, repudiating absolutes, or any form of injustice.
People tend not to have a mind of their own, but to surrender to the pop-culture of television and the glossy magazines. It is a cultural bondage. We were all the same until Jesus liberated us. We ‘drifted along the stream of this world’s ideas of living’ (JBP).
THE DEVIL:
Here he is named “the prince of the power of the air.”
The “air” could mean “foggy atmosphere” and be a reference of the devil’s preference of darkness to light. It may also explain why “Many people in the ancient Near East believed that the air (aēr)—the sphere between heaven and earth—was the residence of evil spirits.” (FaithLife Study Bible)
It could also reference that the devil has command of those unseen principalities and powers in the unseen world.
What does it mean that the devil is also identified as “the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience?”
See John 8:44
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
So, if the devil is the spirit at work in non-Christian people, what do we know about the mood and work he inspires in non-Christian people?
They do not stand in the truth; they speak lies; and they seek to steal, kill, or destroy what God has set up.
“the works of the devil are to counter the work of God. As a murderer, Satan works against God, who is Life. As a liar, Satan works against God, who is Truth. In the lives of unbelievers, the work of the devil is to keep them from coming to saving faith in Christ, with the result that they experience the second death (Revelation 20:14 –15). In the lives of believers, the work of the devil is to tempt them to sin and thus blunt their effectiveness for Christ in this world.” (GotQuestions.org)
THE PASSIONS OF THE FLESH:
Paul call this the “desires of the body and mind.”
Descriptions of Those Dead in Trespasses and Sins:
Descriptions of Those Dead in Trespasses and Sins:
(Compiled from 2 Pet. 2:10-14; Gal. 5:16-21, and Eph. 5:6)
Bold
Willful
No fear of God
Creatures of Instinct
Blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant.
Count it pleasure to revel in the daytime (Unashamed).
Eyes full of adultery.
Insatiable for sin.
Entice unsteady souls.
Trained in greed.
Deceive with empty words.
Sexually immoral/impure,
Having an insolent disregard for decency,
Serving idols,
Hatred toward God (enmity),
Strife,
Jealousy,
Fits of anger,
Rivalries,
Dissensions,
Divisions,
Envy,
Drunkenness,
Orgies, “and things like these.”
But God
But God
These may be the two best words in all of scripture.
What does Paul say about God in v. 4-7?
Here, Paul is showing that there is an objective reality to our salvation. And it is all God-centric: HE showed us mercy; HE loved us; HE acted while we were helpless to help ourselves; HE made us alive together with Christ; HE raised us up with Christ; HE seated us with Christ in the heavenly places AND HE DID ALL THIS SO THAT HE might show that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
How does Genesis 1:1-4 relate to Eph. 2:4-5?
“made us alive together with Christ” is an act of creation. It is separating the light from the darkness, creating order out of chaos.
How did God make us alive with Christ? See Romans 6:3-4
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
And Gal. 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
God had to kill us with Christ so that He could raise us with Christ. He had to crucify us with Christ “in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” (Rom. 6:6) There were no half-measures with God. Nor any conditional surrenders from sinners. God is giving an immeasurable gift in His grace and we deserve NONE of it.
And this is exactly what Paul says in Eph. 2:8-10
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. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
There is debate over the word “this” in v.8. The issue is whether the word “this” is referring to faith or to grace. It would have been perfectly fine for Paul to have said “For by grace you have been saved through faith…not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” That would have been a perfectly legitimate Pauline construction. So the question becomes, why did Paul add the sentence “And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” What we do not want to infer that faith is our contribution to a spiritual transaction with God. And I think this is what Paul is trying to avoid here as well. The word “this” in the Greek is neuter but the words “grace” and “faith” are both feminine, making the the word “this” a reference not to one or the other (grace or faith) but rather, the whole process of being saved by grace through faith. There are two overlapping realities going on here. On an objective level, God gives us the gift of Christ’s righteousness so that we do not have to suffer the wrath of His judgment, but on a subjective level, God also gives us the faith to believe in the gift, even though we have not yet seen the fulfillment of the promise. Thus, Paul makes it clear that this is not our own doing; it is the gift of God. God does not rely on us in any way to save us. But He does take this spiritually dead person, provides the ability to believe in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, and then in grace does for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
We see a similar process in Romans 4:13-14,16
Romans 4:13–14, 16(ESV)
For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. For if it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void...
That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring—not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,
Faith is dependence on God, not on ones’ own ability. If we had any contribution to salvation, we would be able to boast about what we had done. Thus, the promise of salvation by grace is subjectively experienced through faith so that God’s promise of what He does for you may rest solely on Him (grace), and not you (works). When Abraham believed/had faith, God gave him grace by counting him righteous. This is not owed to Abraham. It is God’s gift to him. Thus, God is not indebted to or dependent upon Abraham’s faith. But Abraham’s faith is necessary for Abraham to experience grace as an eternally secure, inviolable gift.
Indeed we see in Phil 1:29 that God gives faith to believers
For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,
as well as in Acts 18:27
And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed,
This is vastly different from other world religions.
All world religions come down to an aspect of either Mercy or Justice
In Buddhism and Hinduism, because of the doctrine of karma and reincarnation, there is a high sense of Justice, because what you do in this life is rewarded or punished in the next life.
In Islam and Judaism there is a high sense of Mercy, but it is often at the expense of Justice. In fact, we see Paul address this is Romans 3:25-27
Romans 3:25–27 (ESV)
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.
Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith.
So, forgiveness without Justice is a HUGE theological problem!
But Christianity is the only religion that marries justice and mercy without sacrificing either one.
So, what is this gift of being saved by grace through faith?
It is 7 things that we can see in scripture:
New Creation - 2 Cor. 5:17
2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2. New Nature/Self - Col. 2:11-14
In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
God does not want us to “blow out” the self, like Buddhism. He wants us to transform our self so that we are more and more like Him.
3. New Family/Adoption into God’s family (Romans 8:12-17)
So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
4. New Destiny - We are saved from God’s wrath Romans 5:9
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
5. New Life - Romans 6:1-4
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
6. New Purpose - Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
We do good works to glorify God, not ourselves. And these works God makes us zealous to do, knowing they are not in vain. 1 Cor. 15:58
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.
7. New Faith - This is not belief in yourself to “be better.” That is a works-based mentality. Christian faith is not self-made. It is God-made!
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
We are HIS workmanship. HIS “poem, or masterpiece.” Christian faith is the subjective experience as well as the public demonstration of what God, in his grace, has done for us. “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” (2 Co 5:20).
We were dead in trespasses and God made us alive and gave us faith to experience it, both now and throughout eternity. For the contribution that man can make is finite and will not last over time. But God is infinite and His gift will never fade. This is why Paul said “This is not of your own doing.”
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.