By Grace Through Faith

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

Story of Dad saving me in the Myrtle Beach Pool

My dad saved my life that day

I was powerless to save myself

This little passage is really about Salvation

I was saved from drowning in that hotel pool

and I was saved into the strong arms of my father

We are all of us saved from sin and its consequences

We were saved into the family of God

Just as I could not have gotten myself out of that pool as a 3 year old, we cannot get ourselves out of sin and death

There is no salvation apart from God’s work through Jesus Christ

God is not just a nice old man who can make our lives better

I didn’t need my dad to warm up that pool for me or turn on some relaxing music; I needed him to dive in and rescue me

Paul says our salvation is by Grace

Who can tell me what grace is?

Grace is essentially being given something valuable that we do not deserve

Grace is when you forget your lunch money and someone buys it for you

Grace is when you forget to study for the test and you get questions that you already know

You may say, “That’s not fare” and you would be right. Grace is not fare. it is a gift

A gift is something that is given to you out of love

How do you get a gift?

What is your response to a gift?

How is your attitude towards a gift different from something that you buy yourself?

You can’t earn a gift, even if you tried.

It is by definition something that is freely given out of love

Paul says that salvation is “By Grace” and “Through Faith”

I think faith can be a little over complicated and difficult

First of all, having faith is not about you and HOW MUCH of it you have

Faith is all about WHAT OR WHO you have faith in

Who in here can drive? What car do you drive?

You can have all of the faith in the world in the world that your car fan fly, but that’s not going to make get off the ground

But if you put your faith into a 747 over at MCO (no matter how small) then you can fly wherever you like

Our salvation by grace is because of our faith in Jesus Christ, who he is and what he has done for us

No amount of faith or belief in anyone else, including myself, will make any difference in my salvation because no one other than Jesus can save

Something that helps me is to think of faith like Trust

I trust in who Jesus is and that what he says is true

I trust that Jesus really loves me and died for me

None of us have any reason to brag about being saved

If I had someone swam to safety and climbed out of that pool as a three year old, then I would have quite a story to tell

But the only boasting that I can do is in my Father’s love and strength

It is the same for all of us

Paul sums it up identifying us as God’s Workmanship

When I was a teaching assistant back in college, I graded a lot of papers

After I while I could start telling who’s papers where whose before I read the name

what is the difference between receiving something valuable as a gift versus working very hard to save up and buy it for yourself?

I started to get familiar with people’s work or “workmanship”

Your parents could probably tell which one of their kids cleaned the kitchen just by the quality of the work

you can tell the difference between a painting that DaVinci painted versus Picasso

God made us who we are: God’s children

He says that God created us in Christ for Good Works

Notice that the good works come after being “in Christ”

Salvation does not depend on good works, but it leads to them

what is the difference between receiving something valuable as a gift versus working very hard to save up and buy it for yourself?

The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.what is the difference between receiving something valuable as a gift versus working very hard to save up and buy it for yourself?

Compare and contrast a Gifts with Earnings

How do you value one and the other?

What do you do in response to one and the other?

When you give a gift, what do you hope is the response

Given what you know about God, what are some ways that you would describe the quality of his workmanship?

By Grace Through Faith

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