Salvation By Grace
Fundamentals 2021 • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction
Introduction
Greetings…
Theme of series this year is “Fundamentals” with a focus on examining the “pure spiritual milk” that helps us grow up into salvation.
2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—
In Ephesians 2 we find Paul shifting his discussion from the blessings found in Christ to how those blessings came to be.
Remember God has blessed those in Christ with “every spiritual blessings in heaven” (Ephesians 1:3).
The avenue by which one finds themselves “getting into Christ” is scattered throughout the scriptures.
In Ephesians 2:8 we get a glimpse at the first requirement for our salvation wherein Paul writes…
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
There is so much confusion in the religious world concerning this word “grace” so today I hope to break it down so that we may walk away today having a better understanding of what grace is and it’s role in mankind’s salvation.
What Does Grace Mean?
What Does Grace Mean?
The Word Grace Means…
The Word Grace Means…
Simply put, “favorable gift.”
The word “grace” found in our text is also found 154 times in the New Testament and translated as grace 123 times in the ESV.
Though the word, in the N.T., more often than not is dealing with God’s gift of salvation that doesn’t mean that is how the word is always used.
One only needs to look at the different uses of it to determine this such as its use as...
Gift
3 And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem.
4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.
Credit or Benefit
32 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.
Favor
30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.
9 But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, “Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and there be tried on these charges before me?”
Knowing this is vital, because it shows us the intended use of the word in the Bible.
This understanding also makes passages like John 1:16-17 more clear.
16 For of His fulness we have all received, and grace upon grace.17 For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
This passage has been used by many to say that there is no such thing as “grace in the Old Testament.”
That couldn’t be further from the truth when you understand the word grace simply means “favorable gift.”
The Greek translation of the O.T. i.e. the LXX uses the Greek word “charis” seventy-five times.
We find it in such passages as...
8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
11 For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold From those who walk uprightly.
Remember this is the same word as found in Ephesians 2:8 and Titus 2:11.
So what does John 1:16-17 mean then considering what we know now?
It means that the law of Moses had a job, to guard God’s people until the Father could deliver His favorable gift i.e. salvation to mankind during the “fulness of time.”
24 So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian,
Summary
Summary
Knowing what grace really means opens up a whole world of beauty found in the Bible.
This information allows us to see God’s loving kindness throughout time not just during the time of Christ and afterwards.
Unfortunately, many, like with the John 1:17 passage, have taken Paul’s words in Ephesians 2:8-9 out of context.
This has created a doctrine that is contrary to soundness or logic.
The Grace Only Doctrine
The Grace Only Doctrine
It Is Not A New Doctrine.
It Is Not A New Doctrine.
This doctrine “sola gratia” seems to have it’s first “establishment” in 529 at the Council of Orange by Catholics.
However, it was during the Reformation movement that we see it take even greater hold.
“Sola gratia” i.e. “grace alone” is one of the “five solae” which were vital parts of both Luther’s teachings and Calvin’s.
The doctrine of “grace only” states...
“a sinner is not accepted by God on account of the change wrought in the believer by God’s grace, and indeed, that the believer is accepted without any regard for the merit of his works-for no one deserves salvation.”
The Bible & Grace Only.
The Bible & Grace Only.
We are saved by grace.
5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
We are also saved by faith.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are also saved by belief & confession.
9 because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.
We are also saved by repentance.
46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.
19 Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out,
We are also saved by immersion for the forgiveness of sins i.e., the washing away of sins.
16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
16 And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.’
Summary
Summary
The point is this, we are most assuredly saved by grace but we are not saved by grace alone.
So what does it mean to be…
Saved By Grace
Saved By Grace
Being Saved By Grace Doesn’t Mean…
Being Saved By Grace Doesn’t Mean…
Perseverance of true believers i.e. “once saved always saved.”
Most in the denominational world believe in the dangerous doctrine of “once saved always saved.”
Saved by Grace The Concept of Perseverance
breakers.
What the doctrine of the perseverance of true believers does mean is this: those who have true faith can lose that faith neither totally nor finally.
To accomplish this destructive doctrine or teaching they must twist, abuse, and ignore simple passages found in the Bible.
4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.
Saved by Grace Cases of Actual Apostasy
What Paul is saying in effect is that if we seek to be justified by the works of the law in any way or degree whatsoever then we have abandoned or fallen away entirely from justification by grace.
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,
Saved by Grace Cases of Actual Apostasy
The word “faith,” however, as is common in the Pastoral Epistles, is here used in the objective sense, as meaning the truth which is believed (fides quae creditur) rather than the act which appropriates Christ and his merits (fides qua creditur). What Paul is saying here is that in later times many will fall away from a profession of the Christian religion.
The Bible is full of passages that clearly demonstrate this doctrine as false and thus dangerous but we shall look at only one.
Look back at what was said earlier as you turn again to Galatians 5:4.
Saved by Grace Cases of Actual Apostasy
What Paul is saying in effect is that if we seek to be justified by the works of the law in any way or degree whatsoever then we have abandoned or fallen away entirely from justification by grace.
4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.
4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
4 I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace.
You can clearly see it is “someone” that fell from grace.
Those someone’s were Jews that had obeyed the gospel already.
15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
There is no such doctrine of “once saved always saved.”
Are there true believers, sure, but there are also true believers that sin, fall away, and need restoration and as such they have been “saved by grace” and then “fallen from grace,” hence the need for restoration.
1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
That everyone will be saved.
Yes, the gift of God’s grace has been gifted to all.
11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,
No, not everyone will accept God’s gift.
13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
If grace was all that was needed for us to be saved then grace alone would save but as we already discussed that isn’t the case.
Therefore, not everyone will be saved, only those that do the will of the Father.
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
That there is nothing we have to do to be saved.
Because Paul said in Ephesians 2:8 that we are saved not by “man’s doing based on his result of works” this has led some to think we have no work to do in our salvation.
However, every aspect of obedience to God is a “work.”
28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
That God’s plan of salvation involves no law.
14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
This is perverted by many to suggest that we are not under any law today but “grace” and if you say we must obey God’s word i.e., his law today they will say we are under grace not law.
2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.
Paul, in context, is talking about the Mosaic law throughout Romans.
7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
So, what does beings saved by grace mean then?
Being Saved By Grace Means…
Being Saved By Grace Means…
I understood my spiritual position.
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 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— 3 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.
I understood Jesus was the Father’s ultimate gift.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
21 But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 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. 26 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.
I understood I must trust that “grace” wholeheartedly.
5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” 6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”
7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.
I understood the cost of accepting that gift.
26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,
30 saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.
Summary
Summary
The roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8) has had his way with so many when it comes to the false doctrine of “perseverance of true believers i.e. once saved always saved.”
The truth concerning “salvation by grace” doesn’t need impurities to true, it only needs true to sustain itself.
Let us shout for joy to any that will listen of the saving grace of our God.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Jesus said it best in John 8:32, “…the truth will set you free.”
The beauty of salvation by grace for each of us is without measure and worthy of constant meditation and reflection on our behalf.
Invitation
1 Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; 2 but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,
32 “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.
8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 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. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.