Among the concepts in scripture regarding a believer’s salvation, this may be the most beautiful arrangement of words ever sculpted in the English language. Which is pretty cool because their origin is not of the English language and frankly isn’t of this world.
When our grown up kids that were home were sitting around the living room on Christmas morning before we really got into the festivities, they were goofing around verbally. Someone brought up some kind of rules there could be around foot washing and how you could work your way into being clean by washing feet. I don’t remember too many details, I just know it was silly. Winding down their fabrication and giggling (they are a funny lot), I mused on what had just passed. Being me, I mused aloud.
“Isn’t it interesting that when man develops a method for salvation, it is works-based?”
Isn’t it though? Even in jest and absurdity, the way to life is labor. No one could make up the statement “for by grace you have been saved” because it is the epitome of absurdity. In this Bite, we are going to explore from scripture the level of absurd it is and then bask in the radiance and beauty of the truth.
Our tactic is going to be the concentric circles we know and love. Beginning with Ephesians, we will move out and explore the NT for phrases that relate to this idea. Strap your bib on; this could get messy like a one-year old with her first piece of cake.
Within the Letter to the Ephesians
Let’s keep context in mind (always) and read our passage again.
2 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.
Ephesians 2:1–10 (ESV)
When I’m investigating a concept, I want to notice all the different ways the author gives me to understand. It’s true that salvation is by grace, but what word pictures does Paul use to paint such truth? As I see obvious parallels, I will write them down. You may see more and that is fantastic. You write them down too.
- And you were dead. (Dead stuff just lays there) v1
- Made us alive (Dead stuff has nothing to do with being made alive–see above) v5
- By grace you have been saved (question we should have is “what is grace?”) v5, 8
- Saved through faith (another question we should have is “what is faith?”) v8
- This is not your own doing (I’m pausing and letting that sink into my heart, hang on) v8
- Salvation is a gift of God (Gifts are not earned) v8
- Salvation not a result of works (Pre-believers didn’t DO stuff) v9
Let’s meditate for a moment over that list. When we turn the gem different directions and examine the facets of the same stone, what emotions arise in your soul? Matt Chandler has a phrase that I love so much. “Does it stir your affection for Jesus?” As our heart is tenderized by the sheer volume of text Paul used just here in these verses to describe this we-didn’t-earn-spiritual-merit idea, let’s keep going. It’s like spending time in a spiritual sauna: the heart-pores are open. Let’s flush them out and then moisturize them with the truth of God’s word. We want our hearts to be different when we go out from our study.
As we study Ephesians, we want to be sure to try and understand what Paul was saying in his letter first. Casting about in the NT and forgetting our particular context is a common pitfall, I think because there is such a desire to validate what we think we know in scripture. I’m not suggesting we forgo the process of looking at cross references, but the discipline of considering our primary text is often neglected.
Before we venture off to other writings in the NT, is the statement “for by grace you have been saved” a shocking statement, or has Paul been leading into it through chapter one?
Let’s take a few moments to consider where we’ve been and is this new territory?
| Eph 1:3 | God blessed the recipients with every spiritual blessing (Did they DO anything to receive the blessings?) |
| Eph 1:4 | God chose the recipients before the world was that they’d be holy and blameless (Did they DO anything before the world was to show their holiness and blamelessness?) |
| Eph 1:5 | God chose the recipients according to the purpose of his will (Does it say that the choice was because of what they DID or because of God’s will?) |
| Eph 1:7 | God provided means of redemption through blood of Jesus which is the same as forgiveness of sin (Here is something that the recipients DID: they sinned.) |
Only re-examining a few verses into the letter, Paul is already demonstrating this truth that “for by grace you have been saved.” I wonder, if you examine further, would you be able to see (now that our eyes are more tuned into this truth) how Paul’s case that “for by grace you have been saved” is all through what we’ve already studied?
Other Places in the NT
What is happening in our study next easily spills over into the dangerous and murky waters of proof-texting. Which is why I check the context of all the cross references I use in my studies. Proof-texting is the poor study habit (read bad study habit) where the student of the word yanks a verse out of the moorings of its context and uses it to support the doctrine he is trying to prove. That is bad. Stop it.
Instead, like I said earlier, we want to make the effort to learn what it says in the book we are studying first and foremost. In that way, we are more accurate in our interpretation and less likely to invent heresy.
Now then, let’s look at some cross references that illustrate Paul’s point while including some context surrounding each.
In Romans 3, Paul is explaining that both Jews and Greeks are under sin with no distinction between the two groups. In God’s economy, no people group membership yields salvation. Everyone is the same kind of sinner with no merit added to you for any reason. Everyone is the same kind of sinner that needs the same kind of savior. Declaring the reality that the Law does not save, Paul emphasizes the Good News that there is life in having faith in Jesus.
24 …and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Romans 3:24 (ESV)
Within that section, Paul uses language that helped his readers to understand the difference between the condition a pre-believer is in and how God sits before them. They are not justified without faith in Christ and he sits as the righteous judge. All through Romans these two words are used together; God has righteousness and sinners need justification (which can be superficially defined as being declared righteousness). Here in Romans 4, Paul explains in a different way that wages are not gifts but what are earned. Making the case that there is no room for swagger in the justification/salvation of a believer, when a pre-believer simply believes in Jesus, the accounting department (God!) puts the righteousness of Christ into the sinner’s account.
4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
Romans 4:4–5 (ESV)
Paul even turned to the OT right after these verses in chapter 4 to share with his Roman audience how this has been what the adherence to the Law had been pointing to throughout the history of the Israelites. Reading the surrounding verses will keep us from the error of proof-texting. Besides, if I’ve made a mistake in my usage of cross references, the world is a better place if that gets resolved.
We are going to scoot through a few more verses in the NT to see other ways Paul presents this idea of “for by grace you have been saved” before we finish up by adding to our list.
Galatians is our next stop. If you have wondered if Paul, who was inspired to write what God wanted recorded, got mad or was sarcastic, you just need to read Galatians. I’m not saying that as students of the word, we should have our knee-jerk reaction be to resort to the level of hyperbole and tartness of speech that Paul necessarily had (but I’m also not saying we don’t need to sometimes), but boy dandy. Galatians is not your average pious, calm, church-y guy appealing to amend flawed theology.
Galatians is a letter Paul wrote to correct the wrong doctrine that they needed anything for salvation BUT JESUS. Leading up to the verses I’d like us to observe, Paul was in the midst of relating the account of how he had to go confront Peter and the rest of the leaders of the new church about how salvation is by Jesus plus __________. In their case, circumcision filled the blank. Paul called them on their hypocrisy of preaching a works-based salvation.
Paul wove a tapestry of words to explain in different ways how works of the law does not save. Works of the law does not justify.
15 We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; 16 yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.
Galatians 2:15–16 (ESV)
The way to justification/salvation is by faith alone. That’s it. He repeats what he’d shared with the Romans: no heritage, no activity, no anything will justify a pre-believer. Belief that Jesus will save is the means of salvation. “For by grace you have been saved.”
Finally, the last couple of verses we will peruse are in epistles Paul wrote to pastors of local churches. Paul wanted to emphasize and clarify and reinforce to various church bodies, but he also wanted this doctrine to be in the front of pastors’ minds too.
In his letter to Titus, Paul spent the first pages of his papyrus reminding what the congregation should look like as a believing congregation–how to set up the church and what a healthy church should look like. If you read through the letter, chapter 3 turns for a moment to the same account that we are looking at in Ephesians: everyone is sinful, follows lusts and passions contrary to the will of God, and they are haters. No seriously, go check it out, he calls them haters.
Same story, different audience. But like usual, Paul then gets to the heart of the matter. “For by grace you have been saved.”
5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,
Titus 3:5 (ESV)
Paul reiterates that salvation is not because of anything a pre-believer does, but that salvation is on the basis of God’s own mercy. In Titus here, we have it revealed that salvation is by the activity of the Holy Spirit. God provides and accepts Jesus as the sufficient sacrifice while the Holy Spirit does the heart-work of regeneration and renewal.
In Paul’s second letter we have recorded to Timothy, he begins his correspondence with thanksgiving particularly for Tim’s faith. Moving forward, he exhorts the pastor to hold his head high in the midst of sufferings: sufferings of Jesus, Paul, or any of his own for the sake of the gospel. The reason for this? 2 Timothy 1:9:
9 who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,
2 Timothy 1:9 (ESV)
Even pastors and those who have spent hours in mentorship with Paul need to be reminded of this truth that we are studying in Ephesians. Adding to the list we started within the book of Ephesians, let’s add what we’ve learned from these NT verses.
- And you were dead. (Dead stuff just lays there) Eph 1:1
- Made us alive (Dead stuff has nothing to do with being made alive–see above) v5
- By grace you have been saved (question we should have is “what is grace?”) v5, 8
- Saved through faith (another question we should have is “what is faith?”) v8
- This is not your own doing (I’m pausing and letting that sink into my heart, hang on) v8
- Salvation is a gift of God (Gifts are not earned) v8
- Salvation not a result of works (Pre-believers didn’t DO stuff) v9
- Justified by grace as a gift through Jesus, Rom 3:24
- Not working but believing equals being considered righteous, Rom 4:5
- Belief in Jesus causes justification by faith in Jesus, Gal 2:16
- By works of the law no one will be justified, Gal 2:16
- Salvation according to God’s own mercy, Titus 3:5
- Salvation by washing of regeneration and renewal of Holy Spirit (which we may not understand because most of us haven’t studied that–the point is that is the way of salvation is described by actions of the Holy Spirit, not our works), Titus 3:5
- Salvation and calling not because of our works but because of God’s purpose and grace, 2 Tim 1:9
That is a long list and it isn’t an effort on our part to be exhaustive. As I proceed to study elsewhere in scripture, I think this concept is going to be one that is front-and-center in my mind for a while especially now that I see in black and white how important to Paul it is.
Wrap Up
You’ve heard that when a word or phrase is repeated in a few verses or in a book, it is an important concept, right? How important do you think it is that Paul’s immediate audience and now his extended audience both hear and understand this “for by grace you have been saved?” We didn’t even go to a different author or into the OT and we have a long list of different ways to say that pre-believers do not have anything to bring to the table when God saves them. Pre-believers start out dead–they have nothing–and it is all up to God after that.
Which point on that list moves your heart to worship God more? Does the list of man’s non-achievements cause you any surprise? Did you realize that there was this much written about “for by grace you have been saved?”
When I ruminate over the list, right now the concept that stirs my heart to gratefulness and love is that salvation is according to God’s will, his own mercy, his own purpose and grace. Not based on anything I’ve done or not done. Salvation is because of God’s character and nature and not mine. Since it is all on God, I can rest in knowing he knows the problem child he has chosen (me) and that nothing I do surprises him. I want to please him because of his will and choice, but when I stray and follow my own desires, he still loves me and welcomes me since his choice of me was when I was an icky dead thing. Causes worship.
Our Bible Study Bite for today was covered in brief a few paragraphs back. It is the opposite approach to other Bites where we’ve talked about keeping the context in mind as we study. Falling into the dank pit of proof-texting is easy to do, regularly performed by well-meaning Jesus lovers. Like me. I know I’ve done it before, but the point of these Bites is not to finish reading and say, “Well, aren’t I awesome? I know how to do that now and I will never do it wrong again.”
Just like there is no room for swagger in salvation, there also is no room for swagger in learning how to study.
However, we also want to guard against the pitfalls when we can. Ripping a verse out of its context to “prove a point” is not necessary. This is one of the reasons I prefer studying books of the Bible from front to back. Tending toward dwelling on details though I am, I believe that following through an author’s train of thought as he intended his teaching to be presented is the superior method of study to pretty much any other.
By studying an author’s thought flow from beginning to end, we can better see what the author intended to be his main points rather than the reader deciding what his main points were. Or guessing. Or just making it up.
As we keep asking questions of the author and his text and we will be more successful students.
Next time we will finish up interpreting the last couple of verses of this passage before we decide if there are any words we want to explore further in dictionaries.
