Ephesians 2:1-10

¹ “And 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. 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.”

Salvation!

WOW!

“Saved!” What a wondrous and happy thought! As I have been thinking about the second in this series of five sermons on “The Doctrine of Salvation” I am overwhelmed by the very thought of the word… and the idea… let alone the reality of actually, really, certainly being saved.

This is not a difficult concept for me. I have been saved; and, I have been saved at multiple times and in multiple ways.

Huh? Of course, I have only been saved “spiritually” once. But I have had my life saved several times. I have had two serious motorcycle accidents; (I seem to be a slow-learner) I have survived some fairly close calls in Viet Nam; and I have, by the grace of God, survived stage four cancer.

Yesterday, July 29^th, 2013, was the 13^th anniversary of my cancer surgery. As you can imagine, I have spent a lot of time over the past few days thanking God for His intervention and for leading me to Drs. Wall, Sobol, and Elliott whom He used to bring about this “salvation.” Of course I realize that these men and their staffs did not “save” my earthly life, they merely extended it. Nonetheless, I am thankful for these thirteen years and my present good health.

By the grace of God, on November 6^th, 1982, I experienced the new birth. I won’t go into all of my testimony, since almost everyone reading this knows it well, but, I am most thankful of all for that reality in my life!

As I have prepared for my sermon this coming Lord’s Day, I have been again and again moved by the fact of God’s grace. Grace means, “unmerited favor” and you can be sure of this… my salvation was completely unmerited. As was yours.

But, I want to go beyond just this and make it clear that salvation is not only by grace; it is by GRACE ALONE!

Many people are confused by this concept. Many acknowledge that grace is required for salvation, but the reject the idea that God saves sinners by grace apart from any and all works or efforts of the sinner.

I am planning to take time in the introduction to the sermon to explain as clearly as I can that there are only two logical possibilities as to how God will deal with sinners. They will either receive justice from Him, or they will receive non-justice.

Careful here!

There are three categories of non-justice: injustice, mercy, and grace. We can eliminate injustice from the discussion as the Bible clearly says of God, “What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means!” (Romans 9:14 ESV)

There is no injustice in God. Period. That leaves the two other forms of non-justice, i.e., mercy and grace.

Unsaved sinners will receive perfect justice from God and saved sinners will receive both mercy and grace. Let me explain the distinction between the two:

“Mercy” is when a sinner does not receive what we do deserve for our sins! “Grace” is when a sinner does receive what we do not deserve. Our merciful and gracious God has promised both mercy and grace to all who repent of our sins and believe in Jesus as our Savior and Lord.

“Hallelujah! What a Savior!”

Near the end of his earthly life, John Newton (author of Amazing Grace) famously said, “Although my memory’s fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior.” One does not get more theologically profound than that!

Our focal passage clearly provides three great truths about our salvation:

(2:1-5) Sinners are spiritually dead and because we are spiritually dead there is nothing we can do to save ourselves or even assist God in His work of saving us!

(2:6-7) The reason God saves sinners by grace alone is that in the ages to come He will demonstrate the immeasurable riches of His grace! Bad news for the narcissists… even our salvation is not about us; our salvation is about God!

(2:8-10) Sinners who are saved are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone!

Salvation! WOW! “Saved!” What a wondrous and happy thought! As I have been thinking about the second in this series of five sermons on “The Doctrine of Salvation” I am overwhelmed by the very thought of the word… and the idea… let alone the reality of actually, really, certainly being saved.

But, I repeat myself. “WOW!”

I hope to see you Sunday with a smile on your face, your Bible in your hand, and your family and friends by your side!