Knowing we are saved by faith (Sermon at FFMC 8/3/20)
Knowing we are saved by faith
1And 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. 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— 6 and
raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ
Jesus, 7 so that in the coming
ages he might show the immeasurable riches of
his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8For by grace you
have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift
of God, 9not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10For
we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:1-10)
Introduction
The Reformers – those like Martin Luther and John
Calvin - who 500 years ago wished to change the practices of the Roman Catholic
church of their time – had 5 truth they emphasized, 5 ‘solas’. ‘Sola’ is the
Latin word for ‘alone’ or ‘only’. Sola Scriptura – Scripture alone, sola
Christus – Christ alone, sola gratia -
grace alone, , sola fide – faith alone, and sola Deo Gloria – to God
alone be the glory.. It was not that the Catholic Church taught that faith was
not needed for salvation, but what was radical about the Reformers was that
they said that faith alone was needed. Today we will look at two of the
solas: faith alone and grace alone
Faith
Because faith as the only ground of getting
right with God was such a central topic in the Reformation, the Reformers took
care to define exactly what kind of faith saves. Last week Eric reminded
us that there are 3 parts to saving faith:
- ‘Notitia’ means knowing the truth (comprehension)
- ‘Assentia’ means agreeing with the truth (consent)
- ‘Fiducia’ means trusting the truth (commitment) -depending on it, relying on it to save us, loving it. This is the critical step that saves.
In February 2019, I told the story of the tightrope
walker Blondin at the Niagara Falls. Blondin trundled an empty wheelbarrow across the rope,
and all the spectators cheered. He then placed a sack of potatoes in the
wheelbarrow and repeated the feat. Then he asked the crowd, “Do you believe I
could wheelbarrow a person across the tightrope?” Everyone shouted that he
could. But the crowd went silent when he asked for a volunteer. When it
counted, no one had real faith in Blondin. But his manager let Blondin take him
on his back across the Niagara Falls.
His manager had full assurance of faith, and entrusted his life to Blondin. We
must have that same complete dependence on Christ alone in order to be saved.
We trust that His perfectly righteous life, His atoning death and His resurrection
are enough to cover our sins and make us holy in God’s sight. That simple act
of trusting saves. We are saved through faith.
Grace
The passage gives us another important truth about
salvation. We are saved ‘by grace through faith’. Three times (v
5, 7, 8) the word ‘grace’ is mentioned. Grace is ‘unmerited/undeserved favour’.
Salvation is a gift of God’s grace. So the special kind of faith (trust)
required for salvation is a gift of grace (v.8). This passage clearly says that
everything in salvation comes from God, so that “no one may boast’. Sometimes
that is hard for people to accept – we are in an Asian culture where it is
expected that we return favours done for us. It is often hard to receive
without giving. So it is not easy to accept the idea that all we need to be
saved is to trust, and that even the ability to trust cannot come from
ourselves, but on God. Every religion except Christianity sees salvation as a
reward for good behaviour – it is earned by good works. But the Bible
says we are saved for good works (v.10), not by good works.
Salvation is a gift – an undeserved gift of grace.
Why do we need grace? Many people don’t think so. They
believe that good works are enough. By being sincere, “not hurting anyone” and “doing
the best they can” they will have a good afterlife. Grace has no appeal to
them.
The Bible tells us that we need grace because of what
we are saved from.
- We were saved from sin. Our existence was characterized by “trespasses and sins” (v.1a), that is, we were completely unable to please God. Our behaviour was evil, filthy - disgusting to a totally holy God. We may know people who are distressed when they, their clothes or their possessions are ‘dirtied’. God’s purity and rejection of this exceeds this like the noonday sun exceeds a candle, and it is not a weakness, but a integral part of His nature. He is the thrice-holy One (Is 6:3). Our attempts to be righteous can never be enough to save.
- We were saved from the power of the world and Satan. We followed the ways of the world around us, and the example of the Devil (v. 1b). This manifested as ignoring God’s standards and following our own desires (v.3). In fact, we not only ignored God, but like Satan, were rebels and traitors to our Creator, returning evil for good.
- We were saved from the just wrath of God. By nature - in our inmost selves, we were not ‘good’ and sincere people. We fully deserved God’s righteous anger “like the rest of mankind” (v. 3).
- We were saved from death (v.1a, 5). We were not merely spiritually sick and weak in need of medicine – we were dead – unresponsive to God in our spirit, without any relationship to Him at all. We were separated from God and completely unable to save ourselves. Dead people cannot make themselves alive. Dead people have no power to reach out to God.
So we need grace because we were totally helpless and
totally undeserving. God found nothing lovable in us – nothing good or worthy. God
owed us nothing. God needed and needs nothing from us. Without grace we have no
hope. Without grace we cannot have the kind
of faith that saves: a childlike trust in Christ’s work alone. It is grace
alone, enabling faith alone, in our hearts in Christ alone that saves.
D A Carson has this wonderful illustration that I will
modify a little. It’s about a boy and a girl in a romantic situation where the
boy says. “I love you – I love the way you smile – I love the smell of your
hair, I love the sound of your voice – I love your sense of humour”. The boy
does not say, “I love your bad breath – I love your pimples – I love your bad
temper”. You see – when we love, we love that which is lovable. The love we
show to one another is to a large extent, deserved. When God loves, He loves that
which is unlovely. He loves us undeservedly. He loves the equivalent of rotting
corpses with no beauty or worth. That is an illustration of the greatness of
God’s grace! This grace is truly amazing. If we do not see that we are lost,
dead, helpless, ugly and worthless; if we think that somehow we deserve to be
saved, grace is not ‘amazing grace’.
The “But God” of v.4 says it all. Through the Cross of
Christ, He saved us. We were dead, but God made us alive. We were His enemies,
but God made us His children. We were depraved and spiritually ugly, but God made
us alive together with Christ” (v.5) and “raised us up” (v. 6). He showed us
“immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness” (v.7). All we could not do, God
did. He gets all the glory; we get all the benefits.
Good theology must lead to worship. Spiritual truth
must lead to a changed life.
Knowing that we are saved by grace through faith means that we are asked
to live in a certain way. The knowing is no good without the being and doing.
A life of faith
First, we are to live a life a life of faith. Eric mentioned this last week, but it is worth
repeating. We have been saved by faith (Eph 2:9). We are justified -
forgiven of sins and adopted into God’s family. But salvation also has a
present and future dimension. We are being saved (Phil 2:12, 2 Cor 1:18).
This means that we are being sanctified. We are growing through the power of
the indwelling Holy Spirit into the image of Christ (2 Cor 3:18). We will be
saved (Rom 5:9). We will be glorified with wonderful new bodies and minds. So
we were saved from the penalty of sin, are being saved from the power of sin,
and shall be saved from the presence of sin.
All of salvation is accomplished by faith - by
trusting in Christ. In our daily life we have to show the same childlike trust
that we showed when we believed and received Jesus as our Saviour. God is fully
worthy of our trust in all the challenges of life. To be a ‘faithful’ Christian
is to keep trusting in His goodness and care for us despite suffering and
disappointments, grief and trial.
In this time when non-Christians around us fear the health
and economic impact of coronavirus we have the opportunity to show them what it
means to trust God – not that God will stop us from getting sick or poor – but
that in all things we believe that He still is in full control and He does all
things in love for us.
A life of grace.
Then we are asked to live a life of grace. Sometimes
we joke about this – when we say “I live by grace” we mean that we constantly
need people and God to overlook our failings. So we can wrongly use the idea of
living by grace to excuse wrong attitudes and actions. But to live a life of
grace is not to live carelessly. Paul addressed this issue in Romans 6: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue
in sin that grace may abound?” (v.1) Then he says, “By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (v.2)
In other words, if you are really born again into a new life, you will never take
grace for granted.
Jesus tells the parable of the unmerciful servant (Mt
18:23-35) to warn us that we who have received grace must show grace.
The servant was forgiven of a debt that was impossible to pay, but he went to
immediately demand that someone else who owed him a trivial sum face the full
penalty for what he owed. Jesus reminds us that we were forgiven by God of an infinite debt. Therefore we must forgive
others of their relatively small debts when they offend and hurt us personally.
Teaching
about grace cannot be only about the benefits of grace, but about the responsibilities
of grace.
There will be times when we must treat people better
than they deserve. I am not saying that we must do this all the time. Teachers
cannot give students full marks for bad work, judges cannot acquit the guilty,
parents must discipline children and businesses must run on contracts. We must
not reward bad or sinful behaviour, but there are times when in grace we have
to overlook it and forgive.
Conclusion
Let me close by asking the most important question
anyone can ever ask you!
Are you saved? Do you know if you are saved?
If you are a believer - it is not good enough to say
“I hope so” or “I think so” or “only God knows” Assurance of salvation is a
precious gift that every child of God is meant to have! “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our
hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” (Gal 4:6) There is therefore now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Ro 8:1). Do you have full
assurance that if you get coronavirus today and fall into the 2% or so category
who will die from it, that you will be in the Lord’s presence? Do you fear
death because you do not know your destiny? God’s Word says, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the
faith; test yourselves. Do you not realise that Christ Jesus is in you –
unless, of course, you fail the test? (2 Cor 13:5) “Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make
every effort to confirm your calling and election. (2 Pe 1:10) Examine your
faith in God and be sure of your salvation. Cling to Him in complete trust.
Believe that the one who saved you out of His amazing grace will continue to
regard you with the same grace.
Some of us have been in church for years but are not truly saved. Some have been bornin this church but have never personally committed themselves to Christ. Some have never heard the Gospel clearly before. Hear this if you are not a believer:
All your goodness, all your effort is useless to God.
If God is opening your heart to see all that He has done for you, and you see
His goodness and beauty – the “immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us
in Christ Jesus” then, come to Him in faith, put your whole trust in
Christ. He says, “28 Come to me, all who labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon
you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find
rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light.” (Mr 11:-28-30). Give up your
burden to Him, and just come.
Audio here
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