Ephesians 2:8-9

Saved

So far Paul has painted a very clear picture of who we were, who we are and the means by which God moved us from the camp of His enemy to that of His friends and family.

God’s perfect love and character led Him to pour out mercy on those dead in their sin so that they might have faith and be resurrected to life and ascend into heaven at God the Father’s right hand with Jesus.

And this leads us to a fantastic moment of clarity and understanding: We are saved. This is not a future blessing but a present reality. Those who have experienced the grace of God and placed their faith in the work of Jesus for their salvation stand presently saved.

Saved — But saved from what?

Leonard Ravenhill once asked this question in a sermon he preached, “ If I was to ask you tonight if you were saved? Do you say 'Yes, I am saved'. When? 'Oh so and so preached, I got baptized and...' Are you saved? What are you saved from, hell?Are you saved from bitterness?Are you saved from lust? Are you saved from cheating?Are you saved from lying? Are you saved from bad manners?Are you saved from rebellion against your parents? Come on, what are you saved from?”

It is vitally important that we understand the answer to Ravenhill’s question. Being saved for many people simply means they have been rescued from an eternity in hell. That is all they wanted and their hope is in just that. These folks haven’t a care in the world about salvation from sin, rebellion against God or any wickedness of their life.

The Ephesians knew a much broader and complete definition of this world…all of the early church did. The Ephesians were living in a city filled with idolatry, witchcraft and the occult. Many of these believers had been saved from such a life filled with sin. Many of them had worshipped at the statue of Artemis, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. They had been saved from their idolatry.

The Ephesians understood their salvation in terms of a change of eternal address but also salvation from their present slavery to sin. For the readers of Paul’s letter their salvation was a present reality not some future event.

These believers had placed faith in the Gospel and it had saved them from their spiritual death and all of the sin that had accompanied that way of life. This gave them confidence in their future because of the present reality they enjoyed in Christ.

“I serve a risen Savior, He’s in the world today. I know that He is living whatever men may say. I see His hand of mercy. I hear His voice of cheer. And just the time I need Him He’s always near. He lives, He lives! Christ Jesus lives today. he walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way. He lives, He lives! Salvation to impart! You ask me how I know He lives. He lives WITHIN MY HEART!”

We can sing such a hymn because we know Christ has filled our heart, changed our life, saved us from the consequences of our sin and saved us from the power of sin as well.

This word translated “saved” is a Greek tense which means something that happened at a point in time of the past with a present and future affect. I was saved, am saved and will always be saved…rescued from spiritual death, hell, sin and its power.

Grace

I am saved by grace. This is important to fully understand as well. There are a lot of people who believe they are saved by faith but that is not what the text says. It says we are saved by God’s grace. Faith is the means by which we receive our salvation…we will get to that next. But, we are actually saved by grace and grace alone.

Illustration: once a little boy was walking to school down a little dusty farm road when a friend joined him, They began to talk about school, recess and the fun ahead as the clouds gathered overhead. When the pair were about halfway to school they heard a clap of thunder and a flash of light…about a quarter mile up the road lightening had struck an old oak by the road. The boys were close enough that the hair stood up on their arms from the electricity that had passed through the tree. The old tree was split right down the middle by the strike.

One of the boys began to whoop and hollar in excitement for what he had just seen while the other began to tremble with fear at what might have been. If his friend had not joined him and his gait been slowed just a bit he might have been struck rather than the old tree. Or he could have been close enough to the tree to be crushed as the mighty oak fell across the road.

When the boys got to school, just ahead of the rain the little frightened boy shared with his teacher his thoughts on what he had seen on his way to the old schoolhouse. The teacher smiled and whispered to the boy. “Robert you have seen God’s grace this morning. He chose to spare you being struck by lightening or crushed by the tree.” The little boy said, “But why would God spare me?” The teacher said, “That’s the question we all ask when we realize God has saved us by His grace. You could never have known the lightening was about to strike. You could never have saved yourself from it had it struck near you. God decided to save you and now you will forever be in awe of His care for your life.”

I was dead in sin — I could not have known I was lost. Could not have known the spiritual death and hell in my future. I needed grace to show me these things and grace to save me from them.

Grace — God’s unmerited favor poured out on mankind.

A lost man is condemned and incapable of reversing that condemnation. Even if he were to live a perfect life the failure of his past would hold forever outside of salvation and heaven.

Salvation, beginning to end, is God’s work. While I was still a sinner and spiritual completely dead, Christ died on the cross to save me. I was shown mercy, love and God’s grace.

Grace is the work of God on my behalf to save me…period.

Faith

Faith — Belief plus trust which equals a changed life. This is the conduit or pipe through which grace flows from God to my hands so that I might obtain and enjoy the salvation of the grace of God.

We must be careful that we not confuse the means of which we are saved or we will fall back into a salvation by works theology and miss the peace and assurance of grace.

Many people are relying on their faith for their salvation! They are always walking around stressed and worried: Do I believe enough. Do I trust enough. Am I changed enough. They have been duped by the enemy to a false theology of salvation by faith instead of grace. But our faith can add nothing to our salvation!

Faith which receives Christ is as simple an act as when your child receives an apple from you, because you hold it out and promise to give it the apple if it comes for it. The belief and the receiving relate only to an apple, but they make up precisely the same act as the faith which deals with eternal salvation, and what the child’s hand is to the apple, that your faith is to the perfect salvation of Christ.

The child’s hand does not make the apple, nor alter the apple, it only takes it; and faith is chosen by God to be the receiver of salvation, because it does not pretend to make salvation, nor to help in it, but it receives it.

Faith is only the conduit…the means by which we receive. Salvation comes to us through the means of faith but God’s grace is what actually saves us.

Even that ability to believe and trust are given to us by God’s grace. We were dead! We could never have understood the revelation of God nor come to believe and trust in it apart from grace.

Salvation is not of ourselves — We receive it as a gift…brought by grace.

Conclusion

Years ago above the Falls of Niagara a boat was upset, and two men were being carried down the current, when persons on the shore managed to float a rope out to them, which rope was seized by them both. One of them held fast to it and was safely drawn to the bank; but the other, seeing a great log come floating by, unwisely let go the rope and clung to the log, for it was the bigger thing of the two, and apparently better to cling to. Alas, the log with the man on it, went right over the vast abyss, because there was no union between the log and the shore. The size of the log was no benefit to him who grasped it; it needed a connection with the shore to produce safety. So when a man trusts to his works, or to sacraments, or to anything of that sort, he will not be saved, because there is no junction between him and Christ; but faith, though it may seem to be like a slender cord, is in the hand of the great God on the shore side; infinite power pulls in the connecting line, and thus draws the man from destruction. Oh, the blessedness of faith, because it unites us to God!

Saved by grace…through faith…a faith in God and His grace.

God is showing many in this room grace…maybe somebody for the first time...

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