"The Glorious Life of Christ, Part 3"
Ephesians 2:8-10

April 27, 2008
by C.W. Powell

Ephesians 2:8-10

“8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Eph 2:8-10)

Paul had prayed for the saints and for you and for me. Because Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we know that his prayer was a good prayer and represented the desire of the Lord Jesus for the church: That the eyes of our understanding might be enlightened, that we might know the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints…we might know the exceeding greatness of his power to those who believe—that great power that raised Christ from the dead.

How does the mighty power of the Holy Spirit, that raised Jesus from the dead, affect the church. The answer is a simple one: It is manifested by the transformation of those dead in trespasses and sins into living images of Jesus Christ, working faith, hope, and charity in them.

As we saw two weeks ago, the state of everyone of us was deadness in trespasses and in sins. We were in a state of spiritual deadness, because we had no fruit toward God, but were in bondage to the devil, bound in the chains of the desires of the flesh and of the mind. We were the children of Adam’s disobedience, walking after the course of the world, knowing only what men know naturally. We were the children of wrath, richly deserving the wrath of God just as everyone else in the world, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We were in a truly hopeless state, as Paul will say in verse 12 of chapter 2:

Eph 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:.

Because the enlightenment of the eyes of the elect does not come at once, and much remains darkness in us, it is necessary that we pray this prayer for one another, and necessary that we love one another and exhort one another, and deal in grace and mercy with one another. “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:” Eph 1:17. If it were not necessary for the church to learn these things, Paul would not have prayed this prayer. In fact, the Ephesian church was one of the “better churches” according to Revelation 2, 3.

We saw last week the remedy for our deadness and hopelessness that proceeds from the love of God and the mercy of God: we have been united with Jesus Christ—united with Christ in the eternal decree of God; united with Christ in His death and resurrection; united with Christ by the Holy Spirit that raises us up to walk in newness of life; united with Christ in His ascension, as trophies throughout eternity of God’s love, power, and glory in His saints. This is the glorious inheritance of the saints, and we have just begun to realize it. When we grow in our understanding of his glorious inheritance, we will give ourselves up more and more to live for Christ and to love the people of God. These things are summarized in verses 4-7

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
7 That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

So now we come to our text to this morning: verse 8-10:

8. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

1. The phrase at the end is three Greek words: the genitive “of God”; “gift” and its article “The” and Literally, “of God the gift”

2. What does the phrase refer to: “Faith” yes, but not only to faith: it is better to say, The gift of God is salvation through faith by grace. The whole package is of grace through faith, and it is the gift of God from beginning to end.

3. Rome would say, “faith is the gift of God, by which we do the works which justify us.” That does not quite fit the grammar. There is no “it” and therefore no antecedent; no verb“ is”; just the words “By grace are ye saved through faith—of God the gift” so the gift is the whole thing: the salvation that is by faith.

4. This is the power that raised Christ from the dead; this is the power of God, which, working through faith, brings union with Christ and newness of life and brings to us the glorious inheritance of the saints.

5. You will never know this power unless you receive Christ only by faith, and abandon all glory and trust in the works that you do.

6. Grace is the great love that is rich in mercy, by which He loved us even in the deadness of our sins and misery, uniting us to Christ, from which all the blessings of salvation, full and complete, come to us by the Holy Spirit. This is not through ceremonies, although we have been given ceremonies as signs and seals of the reality of this salvation. It is through faith, not ceremonies, that this life comes to us. He is the Vine, we are the branches, and without Him we can do nothing. Without true and spiritual union with Christ we are dead and dry and fit only to be burned in the fire. We are salt without flavor and fit for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of me.

9. Not of works, lest any man should boast.

1. This is in case we missed the doctrine of the last verse. God doesn’t want us to miss it.

2. This salvation is not of works. Not of any kind of works. As Paul wrote in Romans 4:

1 What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?
2 For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God.
3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
6 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
7 Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
8 Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. (Ro 4:1-8)

If this is not enough, we back up to chapter 3 of Romans: [Comment on this]

9 What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
17 And the way of peace have they not known:
18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
22 Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; 24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:
30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.
31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law. (Ro 3:9-31)

The law can be established only by perfect obedience. There is only one that established the law, and that is Jesus Christ. Those who boast in the law do not keep the law, they just keep some of the law and pretend about the rest. It is only through faith that the law is established, because faith rests in the finished work of Christ alone.

10. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

1. His workmanship: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2Co 5:17)

3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, 5 For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now; 6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ: (Php 1:3-6)

12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. 14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings: 15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; (Php 2:12-15)

2. Before ordained: Our works are prepared ahead of time. Do not fret and fuss about what you are to do: fear God, and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Trust in Christ, walk humbly with your God. Trust in the Lord with all your heart; “Rest in the Lord, wait patiently for Him.” “Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.”

3. Walk in them: “Walk around in them” Peripatetic. Walking around in the works that God has prepared from eternity. Wow! A Greek wouldn’t miss it: “Fulfilling the ideal of Socrates and Plato” This looks back to verse 2: You “walked around” after the course of the world. You have come under another power than the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience: You are now under the power of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit.

“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” (Eph 2:2-3)

Amen and Amen.

May God Bless you.

Amen and Amen.