Word of Salvation – Vol.52 No.33 – September 2007
What The Grace Of God Provides
A Sermon by Rev Martin Geluk
(Sermon 2 of 2 on “Grace Alone”)
Text: Ephesians 2: 5-10
Scripture reading: Ephesians 2: 1-10
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
In the first sermon on sola gratia, ‘by grace alone’, we saw from the first three verses of Ephesians 2 that every human being is dead in transgressions and sins. The unsaved person follows the ways of the world. The Bible says that the whole world is under the control of the evil one [1 Jn.5:19]. So the unsaved person lives in the realm where the devil is in control. A person may not be aware of this but the fact that he is disobedient to God is an indication that not God but the evil one directs his life. Further evidence of this is seen from the ways he seeks to gratify the cravings of the sinful nature. It comes out in his sinful desires and in his thoughts. The unsaved person is the object of God’s wrath. Summing up the first three verses, we said that every human being not saved by Christ is dead in sin, defiant against God, and doomed to be punished by God.
The purpose of the opening verses of Ephesians chapter 2 was not so much to dwell at length on man’s fallen, sinful nature, but to see very clearly that God alone is able to make such a person, who is dead in sin, come alive in Christ. Verse 4 announced a wonderful turn around. It says, ‘but God’ in His love and mercy showed His grace and redeems the sinner. God is not obligated to save but He does save. That is nothing else but grace! Grace is undeserved favour from God. Grace is freely given. There is nothing is us that earns grace, nothing at all.
This comes out very strongly when we now look at verses 5-10. John Stott says that the first three verses plumb the depth of pessimism about man, but verses 4-10 rise to the height of optimism about God. Verses 1-3 show us what man is by nature, whilst verses 4-10 show us what man can become by the grace of God. First we are shown that man is dead in sin but then we see how God raises the dead sinner to life and exalts him. So let us then see WHAT THE GRACE OF GOD PROVIDES.
1. What God has done.
Don’t forget that the apostle Paul is writing to the Christian believers in the church at Ephesus. They have already been saved by God through Christ. But Paul wants to make it really clear that salvation is by grace alone. So he describes what they were before they were saved. His aim is to have all the believers in the Ephesian church, and every believer listening to this sermon, realise that we have been saved by grace alone, so that we respond to God’s grace with praise and thanksgiving. God deserves all our worship. In the words of Psalm 115 we sing:
“Not to us be glory given but to Him who reigns above,
glory to the God of heaven for His faithfulness and love.” [BoW 115:1]
So what has God done? In one word He has saved us. In both verses 5 and verse 8 we read the same words, “By grace you have been saved.” These words are not just past tense. Salvation is past, present and future. The consequences of God saving you are ongoing. It’s like this – you are people who have been saved and God is continuously working out the full blessings of that salvation.
Now Roman Catholicism and Arminianism teach that salvation can be lost again. But that’s like saying that we or some other power is able to pluck us out of God’s hand. And the Lord Jesus said that cannot happen. He said, “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish: no one can snatch them out of My hand.” Jesus then gives the most powerful reason why that can’t happen. “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of My Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” [Jn.10:28-30].
Those who say that salvation depends partly on Christ and partly on yourself believe that salvation will be lost again if you reverse the part that you contributed towards your salvation. So if you were to commit some terrible sin, if you were troubled with doubts about God and His Word, then you will lose your salvation. But Scripture teaches that God will preserve those whom He has saved. You need to persevere in the faith, but God has promised to help you do that. God will not let you go. He will have you return to Him again and again in repentance and faith. In fact, it is impossible for a believer with a biblical faith to sit back and do nothing. The Christian will remain in Christ, not because the Christian is able to do that but because God will complete the work He has begun. Romans 8:30 says, “Those He predestined, He also called; those He called, he also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.” Predestined, called, justified, glorified – we call this the golden chain of salvation. It cannot be broken because it is God who does it all. And please note that the words – predestined, called, justified, glorified, are all in past tense. As far as God is concerned it has already happened. Our salvation from beginning to end does not depend on what we do. It all depends on what God does. Those He has predestined He will also call and justify and glorify. As far as God is concerned it is as good as done. Salvation is entirely by grace alone.
Let us now note more wonderful things God’s grace provides for those He has predestined, called, justified and glorified. Three things are mentioned in verses 5 and 6 of Ephesians 2. They flow out of verse 4, which says, “Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy’: firstly “made us alive with Christ”; secondly “raised us up with Christ”; and thirdly ‘seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.”
So these three: God made us alive with Christ, God raised us up with Christ, and God seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. Now what’s familiar about those three things? Well, they happened to Christ in the first place, didn’t they! God first of all made Christ alive. It was Christ’s resurrection. Christ conquered the power of sin and death when He arose from the dead. Then, secondly, God raised Christ to heaven; he ascended to heaven. He left the earth to return to His Father in heaven. With Christ’s ascension God the Father acknowledged that His Son had completed the earthly part of His work of salvation. The glory of heaven was Christ’s reward for His suffering and dying on the cross for sinners. Then, thirdly, God seated Christ at His right hand in the heavenly realms. Christ is now on the throne reigning over everything. These three things, then, mentioned in verse 5 and 6, first happened to Christ and they are His resurrection, ascension, and his reign at God’s right hand.
But verses 5 and 6 are not so much talking about Christ, they are talking about the saved. God made us alive with Christ. God raised us up with Christ. God seated us with Him in the heavenly realms with Christ. It is all about us who have been saved by grace. These things happened to us together with Christ. He rose from the dead, He ascended to heaven, He is right now in the heavenly places. And by the grace of God, the saved share in Christ’s resurrection, share in His ascension to heaven, and share with Him the sitting in the heavenly places.
The Bible is talking here about our union with Christ. Christ was not alone when He rose from the dead, when He ascended into heaven, and where He is right now – seated on the throne in the heavenly realms. All the saved were with Christ when He was resurrected, with Him when He ascended to heaven, with Him where He is right now in heaven. Believers are ‘in Christ’.
Yes, as a Christian believer I still live on this earth. Here is where I work and live my daily life. But when Christ arose from the dead into a new life, then I am in that new life also. As a child of God I will not die. Yes, I will die in the body, unless Christ comes back in my lifetime. But in my soul I am made alive forevermore in Christ. I cannot die. I have been given eternal life. The resurrection of Christ guarantees me that. This is part of the grace of God to me. I do not deserve eternal life. It was Christ alone who raised me with Him when He arose from the dead. I did not bring that about myself. I could have never raised myself from the sinful state of death I was in. And now death as eternal separation from God will not come to me, ever.
Then, also, when Christ ascended into heaven, He took me with Him. Christ is not in heaven all by Himself. All believers, all those for whom He suffered and died, are ascended with Him. Again, I am still here on this earth but with Christ I have ascended to heaven. I am part of heaven. I am a citizen of the heavenly kingdom. When I die in the body then immediately the spiritual part of me is in heaven where Christ is. God’s grace has provided that for me.
And together with Christ I, as a believer, am with Christ on the throne in heaven. I am seated with God in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. The heavenly realms, or the heavenly places, is the unseen world of spiritual reality. It’s where the principalities and powers operate. The Bible speaks of the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms [Eph.3:10]. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, the authorities, the powers of this dark world, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms [Eph. 6:12]. Christ has given us the full armour of God to stand our ground against these spiritual forces. Our spiritual weapons are the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, our feet are fitted with the gospel of peace, we have the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and prayer.
Why do I, as a believer, have these spiritual weapons? They are given to me because I am seated on the throne with Christ. I am with Him in the heavenly realms. Together with Christ I am victorious over the evil, spiritual forces of this dark world. The heavenly realms are not just heaven where God alone dwells but the heaven where Christ is fighting a holy war against the devil and his demons. He has won that battle and is winning it. And because I am together with Christ, I cannot lose that battle. The devil cannot defeat me, he cannot separate me from Christ. I am victorious in the fight.
I have used the personal pronoun, I, a lot. I did that because that is how a Christian believer can talk. What I said is what all believers can say, those why are saved by the grace of God.
2. Why God provides the Christian with all this.
Well, certainly not because of anything that was in us. Remember, we were dead in transgressions and sins. We lived in the ways of the world. We disobeyed God’s commandments. We gratified the thoughts and desires of the sinful nature. God acted towards us in the gracious way He did because of what He is in Himself. There are four words in our passage that show how the initiative in saving us is with God. Firstly, there is God’s love. Verse 4a speaks of God’s ‘great love for us’, Then secondly, there is God’s mercy. Verse 4b says that God is ‘rich in mercy.’ Thirdly, there is God’s grace. Verses 5 and 8 say, ‘By grace you have been saved.’ Fourthly, there is God’s kindness. Verse 7 says God expressed ‘His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.’
We were under God’s wrath, but His love triumphed over His wrath. We were dead and totally helpless to save ourselves, but God’s mercy reached the helpless, the down and out. We deserved nothing from God’s hand but His judgment on account of our transgressions and sins, but grace rescued us from God’s justice. We had God’s face turned away from us, but His kindness made Him turn His face towards us. Why did God raise Christians from the dead and give us thrones in the heavenly realms? Out of His sheer love, mercy, grace and kindness.
But there is more. God saved us “in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of His grace” [vs.7]. From the moment God justified us in Christ, He has been showing us the riches of His grace. This will go on for the coming ages. From the time of your justification up to the second coming of Christ, and beyond that on the new earth, we receive all the riches God gives in His grace. It includes forgiveness of sin, assurance of salvation, a spirit of obedience, always being in God’s presence, courage in the face of danger, trust that God never fails, all these and many more are all gifts from the Holy Spirit who has been given us. Then on the new earth the grace of God will continue. We will receive new, glorified bodies, there will be no more death, sorrow or pain, all things corrupt and crooked will be gone: perfection! Salvation is all of that, and it is all God’s grace.
And still there is more. We are God’s workmanship, says verse 10, “created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” A master builder takes his raw materials and builds a beautiful house. A sculptor takes stone from a quarry and chips away at it until he has a beautiful statue. So also did God take rebellious, useless sinners and make us alive and new in Christ. He made us to do things that glorify God and are a blessing to others. Before we were even saved God already had prepared things for us to do in His church and kingdom. You may have been saved to be a godly mother or father. To be a Christian schoolteacher, a Christian carpenter, a Christian medical worker, a preacher and teacher of God’s Word, a youth leader, a Sunday school teacher. Yes, there are many different kinds of works that God has prepared for us to do.
Now all this is God’s grace. God made you a saint, not in order for you to boast about yourself, but to do the good works God has prepared for you. Why has this happened to you? There are billions of people in the world but God chose to save you through Christ. He predestined you, called you, justified you, and glorified you. Many others do not come to faith. So why you and not someone else? What is the difference between you and them? Were you wiser than they? Did you have more virtue? Did you have a better character? Did you have more understanding? Did you make the right decisions? On our knees before God, we know, and every believer knows, that the difference between the unbeliever and believer is nothing of what is in us. We are no more wise, moral, or sensible than anyone else. It is by the grace of God that we are what we are in Christ.
Have we come to Christ? Jesus said, “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me, draws him” [Jn.6:44]. Have we decided for Christ? Jesus said, “You did not choose Me but I chose you” [Jn15:16]. Did you give your life to Jesus? Jesus said, “The Son gives life to whom He is pleased to give it” [Jn.5:21]. Did you then not give any response? Yes, you did, you believed, you repented, you gave your life, you drank and ate the spiritual food God provides. But it was God who worked that response in you. Sinners dead in transgressions and sins cannot come to the living God. The Holy Spirit caused you to be born again. God works faith in us, God adopts us as His children, God saves us.
3. Our response to God’s grace.
How are we to respond to the sovereign grace of God? There are a number of ways. First of all we respond with humble worship of God. This is how the apostle Paul responded when he, in his letter to the Romans, concluded the section on the doctrine of election in chapters 9-11: “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments, and His paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counsellor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay Him? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to Him be the glory forever! Amen” [Rom.11:33-36].
When we speak of God’s grace as His sovereign grace, then we are thinking of God who is the absolute Ruler and on whom our whole salvation depends, yes, even our very existence! So when the apostle John is given a vision of God on the throne in the Book Revelation he sees the creatures around the throne praising the holiness of God and saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come” [Rev. 4:8]. And then God is remembered as the Creator. It says, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for your created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being” [4:11]. Then further on Christ comes into the picture and He is remembered for what He achieved with His death, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slain, and with Your blood You purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth” [5:9-10]. And finally, Christ is seen as the Lamb on the throne, “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power, for ever and ever! . . . Amen” [5: 13-14].
This must be our response when we come to realise the full extent of what God in His grace has planned, executed, and applied to us in the salvation He has given us in Christ.
Then along with humble worship of the God of all grace there is also the response of humble gratitude. When we understand the grace of God then we ought to be the most humble of all people. For God has rescued us from the dominion of sin and the devil and He has made us what we are in Christ. There is no room for boasting.
And finally, there is our humble dependence on God. Once we were guilty and corrupt, we were foolish, weak and unable to please God. But now God has made us His very own. He supplies our every need, provides for us all things physically and spiritually. Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing” [Jn.15:5]. Christ is the vine and we are the branches. If we were to be cut off from Christ then we would just wither and die. But because we are in Christ and He in us, we can bear fruit and be of use to God.
Our response, then, to God for His grace to us, is humble worship, humble gratitude, and humble dependence. Because of all this the Christian prays all the time. We give thanks for his blessing; we ask him to strengthen us for our work. The grace of God brings us to our knees. We are but servants of God, and we pray. So away with our clever planning in which we think we can do it. Away with the approach of the world in the winning of souls. Away with all thoughts of self-sufficiency and self-reliance. Instead, let us live, work and minister in total dependence on the God of all grace. Amen.