Salvation by Grace through Faith

Bible Reading

Ephesians 2:1–10 NLT

1 Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. 2 You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. 3 All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. 4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!) 6 For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus. 7 So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. 8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

Introduction

The passage we just read is only a small section of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, and yet Paul has summarised in those ten verses what he takes the first eight chapters of Romans to explain! Now, I’m not going to spend eight chapters worth trying to unpack these verses. Rather, I want to try to think about the key messages, and how they play out in our current world.

I think you’ll agree that there are three key messages in this passage, and they are:

We were all lost (dead) in our sins

God saved us (raised us to life) by his grace, and we accept this through faith

We are God’s masterwork in order to do the good works that he planned for us

You could say that these three messages fit into this common, thematic pattern:

Problem

Solution

Purpose

So let’s look at these three themes.

The Problem

The problem that Paul exposes is very simple, but rather hard for us to believe. Paul claims that we’re dead in our sins, but I’m pretty sure most Australians, and most Westerners, don’t feel dead.

Interestingly, art often holds up a mirror to our society and shows us things that we find hard to see in everyday life.

Last week, I saw Russell Crowe’s latest thriller, Unhinged. In it, he plays a man, I’ll just call him The Antagonist, who has lost his purpose for living. He’s divorced, he’s lost his job, and he’s lost all restraint. He has become unhinged. The movie starts with him bashing his wife and her new man to death with a hammer, then burning down their house. It’s brutal and shocking.

We’re then introduced to the protagonist, Rachel, a young mum who is also recently divorced, struggling with her own job, her aging mum, and her irresponsible brother. Not to mention her own lack of self-control. While these two characters are in very different places, it’s clear that both are struggling with the reality that life is not delivering what they want out of it. When Rachel aggressively beeps The Antagonist when he ignores a green traffic light, he decides its time to teach her that actions have consequences, so he steals her phone and starts slaughtering the people in her contacts.

The movie is a very potent critique of the problem of individualism. What is individualism? Like all “isms” it proposes that a certain thing has the highest value, in this case, the individual. Theologians or philosophers might call this the problem of radical autonomy—when human beings measure everything by how it meets their individual needs or desires. Both The Antagonist and Rachel have lived lives of typical, Western individualism, and it has lead to loss and suffering. The opening titles of the movie show numerous real-world clips of the dissolution of individualistic America. When The Antagonist starts torturing Rachel by threatening her community, we see how important relationships are, and the flaws in individualism. In the end, Rachel can only defeat The Antagonist by joining together with others in her life. The solution to individualism, according to the makers of Unhinged, is collectivism.

What is collectivism? As you would expect, it is valuing the group, the tribe, the collective, above all else. Unhinged is not alone in preaching the gospel of collectivism, every single Pixar movie does the same. The heroes of Pixar movies cannot triumph unless they work together, whether they are toys, fish, emotions, bugs, robots, or superheroes. So, is collectivism the solution to this problem of being dead in our sins? Maybe not.

Does anyone know what this is a photo of? I’ll give you a hint, it’s in a city called Nanjing, previously Nanking. Yes, these are the skeletons of some of the many Chinese who were slaughtered by the Japanese in what is known as the Rape of Nanking. Japan is one of the most collectivist societies in the world, and has been for centuries. You see, collectivism may protect those who are part of the group or tribe, but it is often worse for those outside the group. Just think of horrors like Somalia, Cambodia, Communist China, Communist Russia, and so on. Millions of people were killed in these places by collectivist groups, and none of those were driven by religion, by the way!

So individualism destroys us by destroying our vital relationships, and collectivism allows (perhaps even encourages) brutality against those outside the collective. What would it look like to not be dead in our sins, then? How would we relate to one another?

A story about a loving life

Let me share a story that illustrates what true life should look like.

Back in the 1870’s and 80’s, North Queensland was the site of several gold rushes. Far up in the gulf country, alluvial gold was discovered in the Palmer River, and about thirty thousand prospectors flocked there to try their luck. The roads linking these tiny settlements to services, like the busy port of Cooktown, or the world class stock exchange of Charters Towers, were dangerous and unreliable.

One winter, a young prospector, fortunate enough to have found a few good nuggets, decided to return to civilisation, sell his gold, and get on with life. He started down the road from Palmer River, alone. He couldn’t afford guards, so he had hidden his small nuggets in his saddle. On the second day he was brutally attacked by bushrangers, who stole everything of value, including his horse (and its saddle), and left him lying by the side of the road, barely alive.

A couple of hours later, a business man, returning from establishing a new store in Maytown came past. His guards saw the figure of the young man lying by the road, and they realised that this was bushranger territory. With hardly a word they spurred their horses on, and the entire group disappeared in a cloud of dust.

Some time later a travelling magistrate, accompanied by his armed officers, arrived. The magistrate noticed the man first, and he too recognised the danger. It looked as if the man was dead, anyway, so there was no possibility of real justice here, so he allowed his concerned officers to rush him on. They, too, disappeared in a cloud of dust.

Some time later, a lone Chinese miner came riding by. At this time the Chinese were despised in Australia. Almost two-thirds of the people on the gold fields were Chinese, and their persistence and cooperation with one another, which generally led to greater success, irked the British settlers immensely. A lone Chinese man was unusual, though, and he too recognised the danger. And he knew that a further danger was that he could be blamed for robbing and wounding the man himself. But he noticed that the young man seemed to be breathing, and so he stopped. He bound the man’s wounds, put him on his horse, and headed off to the nearest station homestead, where he paid for the man to be cared for for a few days, while he found a doctor to care for him.

Which of these people demonstrated how humans should live? How would you describe their ethic? Love your neighbour as you love yourself. And your neighbour is whoever you encounter who is in need.

Now, the problem with this ethic, is that human beings have never been able to live this way. We can’t love our neighbours as we love ourselves, unless our neighbours are a very limited group of people indeed. The actual history of the Northern Goldfields is proof of this. What, then, is the solution to our problem of being dead in our sins?

The Solution

There is no human solution. However while there is nothing we can do, God can do something. God gives us his life! As Paul says,

Ephesians 2:4–5 NLT

4 But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, 5 that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)

This is one of the most offensive teachings of Christianity: there is nothing we can do to help ourselves. It offends both the individualist, who wants to rule their lives according to their own principles, and it offends the collectivist, who wants to live in harmony with the surrounding group. Christianity offends pretty much everyone.

As Paul says,

Ephesians 2:8–9 ESV

8 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.

If we are Christians, it’s not because we’re better people, but because God showed us his grace, and we accepted it by our faith. Our position as adopted children of God is a gift, not a reward. It doesn’t matter how long I have been a Christian, I am no more a child of God than someone who gave their life to Jesus this morning.

If we cannot boast, then what can we do?

The Purpose

Which brings us to the final message: our purpose.

Paul tells us:

Ephesians 2:10 ESV

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Because God has made us new, we are now his beautifully crafted ambassadors, ready to do good works. But what good works?

In the story of the Good Chinaman we’ve already seen an example, and in the latter half of Ephesians, Paul gives us many more examples. Such as,

Ephesians 4:28–29 NLT

28 If you are a thief, quit stealing. Instead, use your hands for good hard work, and then give generously to others in need. 29 Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.

Sounds pretty straight-forward, doesn’t it? But it’s not! This idea that we should use our hands for good, hard work is a shocking one in many societies, including large swathes of our own. Modern Australians are happy to outsource the hard work in their lives.

But what about giving generously to others in need? Notice it doesn’t say give generously to your family or friends, even if they’re not in need. Nor does it say to give generously to strangers who are not in need. We’ll unpack this further later in this sermon series, but this, too, is quite a radical command.

And what about the next command? We often hear people saying, “Language!” But Paul is very specific here: no foul or abusive language because what we say should be good and helpful in order to encourage whoever is listening. That’s the crux of these good deeds we have waiting for us: they are to build up the body of Christ, rescuing people from death and nourishing them in their new lives. This is not an onerous task, it’s a joyous one!

That’s what every Christian is called to. Not just Pastors, or Deacons, or mature Christians, or parents. Every Christian. Imagine: if we are all building up one another and those around us, drawing people to Christ by our example, what could happen! Some Christians make a habit of praying for revival. And that’s a fine thing to do. But revival starts in our hearts and in our hands. God has chosen us for a purpose: to build his kingdom. The works he’s prepared for us are ready to do. So let’s get to it!