Hello everybody, and welcome in to episode 158 of the Bible 2021 podcast. We are reading Ephesians 2 today and our focus is What Does it Mean to Be Saved by Grace? Saved By Grace Through Faith.. We are a daily 10 minute podcast, where we will dig in to the truth of the Word of God by reading one Bible chapter a day and discussing it. Welcome to new listeners in Thanks for listening! Our goal is to encourage DAILY Bible reading, so you can jump in at any time and join with us. We want to invite as many people as possible to join us in daily Bible reading, so help spread the word and share the podcast Don’t forget about our web-page, Bible2021.com – contact page, show notes, transcript and more– Click here for our Bible 2021 reading plan\
As a reminder, the next few episodes might be a bit on the lean side – a little shorter than ten minutes – because my family and I are heading out of town in a couple of days to visit our family and hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, which means I have to record about 18 episodes ahead of time, because my podcasting equipment is a bit too bulky to fly with. Never fear, I’m sure I’ll be back to my usual long-winded self towards the middle of June, so if you like the long episodes – they’ll be back, and if you prefer the shorties, then enjoy this respite for your ears.
Ephesians 2:8-9 is the great cry of the Protestant Reformers and teaches that glorious truth that salvation – being saved by God and given eternal life in Heaven when we die – is not earned by good works or good character but by God’s undeserved grace. Here are those verses:
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift— 9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
I see four main and major parts of this short passage. First – salvation is BY grace, which means it is not earned or bought. What is grace? Pastor Tony Evans explains: The statement that’s usually given is God’s Unmerited Favor. Let me expand a little bit; grace is the inexhaustible supply of God’s goodness, whereby He does for us, what we can not do for ourselves.
Anthony T. Evans, “‘The Accomplishments of the Cross’ (Part 3),” in Tony Evans Sermon Archive (Tony Evans, 2009), Ro 3:24–31.
Second, salvation is THROUGH faith. What is faith? Faith sounds like a religious word, but it simply means belief. The kind of faith that the Bible calls saving faith is not merely an intellectual belief in something, like I agree that 2 plus 2 is four, but it is a belief that leads you to action. Biblical faith or belief is a responding, following and active belief. Why does salvation come through faith? Here’s pastor David Platt:
Faith is the means of salvation. Faith is the means by which the work of Christ is applied to our lives. Now think about this with me. Why faith? Why is faith the means of salvation? Why not love? Or why not humility? Why not joy? Why not wisdom? Why has God designed faith to be the only means of salvation? And here’s why: Because faith is the anti-work. Faith is the realization that there is nothing you can do—no amount of love you can show, kindness you can show, joy you can have, obedience you can accomplish—but trust in what has been done for you. Faith is the one attitude of the heart that is the exact opposite of depending on ourselves. When we come to Jesus in faith, we are essentially saying, “I give up! I will not depend on myself or my own good works any more. I can never make myself right before you. So I trust you and depend on you completely to do what I cannot do myself.”
David Platt, “The Necessity of Faith,” in David Platt Sermon Archive (Birmingham, AL: David Platt, 2013), 3843.
The third important part of Ephesians 2:8-9 is that salvation is a GIFT (as the word ‘grace’ as already shown us) and that salvation is NOT by works (which the word ‘faith’ has already demonstrated.) Paul is reiterating here that most important truth that he just said – he is repeating himself, because we humans will think that Heaven and salvation can ONLY come through our earning it with blood sweat and tears + many good and epic deeds of righteousness, and Paul is saying here – salvation is BY GRACE, through FAITH – It is an UNEARNED GIFT that DOES NOT come by works.
Finally, the fourth part of Ephesians 2:8-9 is that there must be NO boasting by Christians. Why no boasting? In addition to our many, many commands to humility, the very nature of being saved by Jesus demands that there can’t be any boasting! What is there to boast about when salvation is unearned and unmerited, and it doesn’t come through heroic good deeds, but through simple and active faith? This means that the only thing a Christian has to boast about is the greatness of Christ!
Let’s read our passage and be reminded of the great truth of salvation by grace through faith.
Bible Memory verses for the month of June: Daniel 6:23 The king was overjoyed and gave orders to take Daniel out of the den. When Daniel was brought up from the den, he was found to be unharmed, for he trusted in his God.
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