Foundations: Good Works (Week #7) Ephesians 2:8-10

A sermon preached on Sunday, October 17, 2010 at Hebron Baptist Church, Denham Springs, Louisiana by Pastor Joe Alain.

Sermon Series: Foundations: Lessons on Christian Living
Today’s Sermon: Good Works

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 2:4-10 (Focal, vv.8-10)
Memory Verse: Ephesians 2:10, NIV, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

Ephesians 2:8-10 (English Standard Version)
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. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Here is one of the most complete descriptions of the nature of salvation and what salvation produces in our lives. These verses describe what it means to be in Christ. We will examine this great passage in two parts: Salvation as the gift of God, and sanctification, as the work of God in the believer’s life. Both parts are essential for us to understand.

I. Salvation: The Gift of God (2:8-9)
Faith and works are two sides of the same coin. You cannot have one without the other. You cannot have faith without good works and good works as the Bible describes are produced by people of faith. To help us understand the relationship between faith and works, I want to use a statement that John Calvin made that expresses the truth of this passage. The two parts of his statement form the two sections of this message. First, Calvin said what all the reformers voiced, “It is faith alone that justifies” (Calvin).

What does this text in Ephesians say to us about salvation – this “faith alone that justifies”?
(1) Salvation is by grace
Paul reminds his readers in verse 8 (as in v.5) that they owe their salvation entirely to the undeserved favor of God, “For by grace.” God’s grace is His unmerited favor that He grants to us who have sinned against Him.

(2) “Been saved” from what? (Rom. 5:9) – Wrath
It is because of God’s grace that Paul can say “you have been saved” (pf. tense). And what are we “saved” from? This is a valid question that is expressed by many people today. Many do not know why they need God’s salvation. Romans 5:9 tells us why we need to be saved. To be “saved” is to be saved from the wrath of God due to us at the final judgement because of sin. The phrase, “you have been saved” is the equivalent of saying “you have been justified.” See Romans 3:23-24.

(3) To be “saved” is to be secure (pf. tense)
This salvation or justification is complete in the sense that no defect or inadequacy mars God’s purpose. To be “saved” means that the believers salvation is completely secured. The action of “saved” involves a present and ongoing state which has resulted from a past action. In Christ the Christian can correctly say “I have been saved, I am saved, and I will be saved!” If salvation was obtained by some human effort on our part, then it would not be complete, but because salvation is “by grace,” and it is wholly of God, we stand justified (“saved”) before God for all time. The wrath of God fell on Jesus at the cross. “By His blood” we are justified (Rom. 5:9).

How does this salvation come to us? How do we enter into this justified “saved” state of being?
(4) Salvation is received “through faith”
Salvation is appropriated “through faith,” (Rom. 5:1) which is confident reliance in Christ Jesus as the only means of our salvation. Faith is only as good as its object. Who then is worthy to place trust in to save us from eternal wrath? There is but one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the object of our faith. See Gal. 2:16; Rom. 3:22, 26. The passages in Romans describe how God can be perfectly just and yet still justify us. God’s justice was satisfied in the cross.

(5) Faith comes from God – “and this”
It’s important for us to see that faith, however, is not a quality, a virtue, or a human faculty that some people are predisposed towards. Saving faith is not something that man can produce. It is simply a trustful response that is itself evoked (or prompted) by the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (Jn. 6:44). The word translated “can come” is the word that means “to be able.” Man alone does not have the moral or spiritual ability to come to Christ unless the Father “draws him” and gives him the inclination to come and the ability to place trust in Christ.

The key to this interpretation is found in the phrase “and this.” Does the “not your own doing” point to “faith” or to “saved” or to the entire process? From start to finish the entire process is God’s doing. Grace and even faith are included in this “gift of God,” so that in every aspect salvation is the gift and work of God.

(6) Boast in God alone – “not by works”
So that no one would misinterpret faith as being our contribution to salvation, Paul immediately adds the phrase, “ it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” The “gift of God” is found in various places in the NT. For example, it is the gift that brings justification (Rom. 5:16), the “gift of righteousness” (v.17), the gift of “eternal life” (Rom. 6:23), and the gift of Himself (Jn. 4:10). Because salvation is a gift and “Not a result of works” (i.e., self-effort), there is no grounds for our boasting (Rom. 3:27).

Based on what is revealed in these two verses, let me ask you a very important question, “Have you “been saved” “by grace”? Has there been a point in time where you by faith accepted what God has done for you in Jesus? Have you been declared justified? Do you have the assurance of your salvation? If not, has God given you the inclination to reach out to Him in faith? “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17). Is the Father drawing you to believe in Jesus? If so, “Believe [faith, trust] in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). “Whoever hears my word and believes [faith, trust] him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned” (Jn. 5:24).

II. Sanctification: The Work of God (2:10)
(1) Receiving God’s gift is just the beginning
The entire process of salvation is God’s doing (see 2 Cor. 5:17-18) but our salvation does not end with the reception of God’s gift. Again, Calvin said, “It is faith alone that justifies,” “But faith that justifies can never be alone.” (Calvin). Sanctification is the process of becoming like Jesus, growing in grace. The “good works” produced through us are evidence that God is at work in our lives. See James 2:14-26, esp. vv.22-24. There is no contradiction between faith and works as we will see in Eph. 2:10.

(2) Christians are God’s “workmanship” (Rom. 1:20)
Paul used a word to describe believers that he alone uses in Scripture and does so only twice. It is the word translated here as “workmanship” in the phrase, “For we are His workmanship.” Our English word “poem” is derived from this Greek word. Literally, you might say that Christians are God’s poems, works of art. This is how God describes those who are in Christ. We are His special new creations. God has made all people in His image, but sin has marred, defaced the image of God, not destroyed it. However, in Christ, and only through Christ are we created anew by God.

The only other occurrence of this word is in Romans 1:20 where it says God’s “invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made (“Poiema”).” We see evidence of the creator in His “workmanship” in creation. To see a Christian is to see a new creation that only God could have created. Only God can take sinners and make them saints. Only God can make the unclean clean. Only God can redeem the ruined. Only God can cleanse the soul and make us new!

(3) A miraculous new status – “created in Christ Jesus”
How have we become “God’s workmanship”? The next phrase tells us, “created in Christ Jesus.” The verb “to create” in the OT Hebrew would be “barah” and it is only used of God and denotes the creative energy he alone can exert. Here the verb denotes a past completed action that has abiding results, and the emphasis on the action is that God alone is the one who has done the creating (aorist, passive, participle). It is God who has made us new creations, “God’s workmanship.” The great hope that we have is that God is still making new creations in Christ. And what God can do in a life is nothing short of miraculous. Salvation, the new birth is comparable in quality to the creation of the universe! No natural process can accomplish or explain either miracle.

(4) Our new life’s purpose – “for good works”
What is the purpose of God making us His “workmanship”? In Christ Jesus we are recreated, “for good works,” God’s original intention for us. “Good” means profitable, benefitting others, and carries the idea of beauty or that which is attractive. That which is done to benefit others is beautiful because it is a God-work. It’s been said that “good deeds are God deeds.”

Producing “good works” signifies every kind of activity undertaken for the name of Christ, it is being fruitful for God. It is taking on the character of Christ – His attitude and actions. Good works reflect Christ’s life flowing through us. It is as Christ said, letting “your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven” (Matt. 5:16).

True faith produces good works. Works never produces salvation, but salvation always produces good works. A man is not justified by works, but a justified man works. Works are the consequences, not the causes of salvation. They are the fruit, not the root of salvation. One must be a Christian before he can live as a Christian. He must be good before he can do good.

(5) The path has been “prepared beforehand”
The good and beautiful works that God has for us to do have been “prepared beforehand” by God Himself. Here is an aorist active verb which means that these works that God has prepared have been established by God from a point in the past. The road has already been built. Here is a further reason why the Christian has nothing left to boast about. Even the good that you and I do now has its source in God, who has made it possible. As Paul reminds us, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). If God has prepared beforehand good works for me to do, then I need to first, know God and then let God reveal to me those good works that He wants me to do. And He will!

(6) Where will you “walk”?
Why has God prepared these good works? So “that we should walk in them.” The word “walk” means to live or to conduct yourself. The word is also found at Romans 6:4 where Paul encouraged the Roman Church to “walk properly” and 13:13 where he encouraged them to “walk in newness of life.” The verb is a subjunctive aorist which denotes possibility but the outcome is still as of yet an unknown. Therefore, the best translation is “should walk” (ESV, NASB, NKJV). The point is, the road that God has prepared lies before us but we must chose to travel upon it. Our walking in “good works” is contingent on our obedience.

As we do the “good [beautiful] works” that God has “prepared beforehand,” our life will be a beautiful expression of God’s handiwork. As we walk in “good works” it’s as if we are filling-in the shapes, the colors and the textures to the work of art that we are becoming in Christ.

So how is your painting progressing? How are the lines coming along in the poem of your life? Are you living as “God’s workmanship”?

For His Glory!
Pastor Joe