Salvation by Grace through Faith

Big idea: Salvation is a gift of God to be received by faith in Jesus Christ.

Salvation is...

1. Salvation IS by grace though faith.
2. Salvation IS NOT by human effort.
3. Salvation IS a gift.
4. Salvation IS NOT by works. 
5. Salvation IS NOT for the glory of man.

• Automated Transcription
• 0:21
  Well, good morning, friends, church family. Please stand with me for the reading of God's word. We want to pray for our Nepali family. Milat Bible Church is predominantly Nepali speaking. They ask for prayer because their country had that very serious flood, hundreds of people dead, many still missing. So we're going to pray for that as well, and we are in Ephesians chapter two among some of the most important verses in the Bible. Not that they're not all important, but you'll see why they're so important as I read them to you, and as we think about historical context, our context today. So Ephesians two eight and nine. They were among the first things I memorized as a new believer coming out of Roman Catholicism into evangelical biblical Christianity. They're so so vital. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. This is the word of the Lord. God, we do thank you. You you spoke to us through your word, Lord Lord Jesus. We thank you for being the Word made flesh. You came, and what you did spoke to us. Who you are speaks to us. But Holy Spirit, you inspired these words, recording everything from Genesis on to communicate who God is, how to relate to Him. You, Holy Spirit, gave us the Gospels where we see Christ, and now you, by your Spirit, are are teaching us how to apply those. These are really important verses. People have gotten them wrong for centuries, and gotten the concept of salvation wrong for centuries to their eternal peril. And getting them right is the greatest blessing, the greatest cause for songs, orchestras to gather, choirs to sing, for a congregation to gather tonight. These prompt all of those things in worship. Help us do that. We pray for Nepal and the cities and villages which were ravaged by a massive flood, and there are many internationals, many Americans in the missing or now dead category, and so there would be lots of families grieving, mourning. Our own Milap Bible Church, where where so many have come from Nepal, are grieving likely loss of fellow believers and loss of loved ones who did not yet trust Christ, which adds a double grief. Pray that you would encourage and strengthen. And as we need to remember, our life could end at any time. And the moment that we see you in glory, we want it to be a day of rejoicing, not a day of dread, having to bear up under our judgment. So these things help us with. I pray for churches in our city. I think of Mosaic Fellowship, pastored by John Repsold, who has a huge heart for the unity of churches in Spokane, for the power of the gospel to go out and wants to serve the the fire victims. Pray that you would empower them and their network, and we would pray that above all, Christ would be on display in His saving grace and power for all eternity. In Christ's name, Amen. You may be seated. A number of years ago, I was doing a lot of brick oven cooking. I had built a brick oven in our backyard and our in our house on the north side. We loved it. It was really fun. We thought that it would be fun to get some of those small cast iron pans, like individual serving size pans. And we looked online. We found a set. It was a great price, which should have been a warning to us. When we got them, they were like they were like this big, and I think I don't know if remember if they were four inch or whatever whatever the size was. We opened the box and we're like, oh, they sent us the wrong thing. Then we read the description, and it was just what it had described. We just didn't take a tape measure out when it said, "Here's what they are. We were really motivated to misread it by the price. Because it was so cheap, they make great cookies now. Chocolate chip cookie, a little ice cream on top. It's they're still useful in their little way.
  
  5:10
  Seeing measurements and descriptions, you know, it's so you get it wrong with some cast iron dishes, I bet everybody's done that. You saw the description, you didn't really read the description, and you wasted a few bucks. It's one thing to waste a few bucks ordering a product, but out of a necessary contrast, it's another to misread the Bible for the sake of your eternal soul, we can hear and read about the gospel of Jesus Christ and salvation in Him, and we can import what we want into it. We can ignore parts of it. We can be so conditioned by how the culture thinks of things, that we are just thinking that it's saying what we want it to say, and we can get it fundamentally wrong. It's a really serious thing. The day God calls your soul into His presence, or he returns to not have misread, misunderstood, imported your own meaning into what God has laid out here. You could miss salvation entirely. We're in chapter two of Ephesians, going through it. Paul has been addressing these last four weeks a key question: What is salvation, and how does a person get it? And there's no more important question in any age. If you can control that narrative, you can control the masses. That's what the Roman Catholic Church has thought for many centuries, and so have many others. It's important what you think it is, and there's there's three components. Three components. I think it's helpful to put these down, and I encourage you write your notes because we're trying to get clarity so you know how to think through these things. Three components: salvation, salvation, salvation is the deliverance from danger into a state of safety. That's what the word sozo means-deliverance, a healing, or a deliverance. Paul says in Ephesians two one through three that the danger was living in a death in sin. It's it's a living death. He he describes you were dead in your sins and trespasses, living according to the course of the world, living according to the Prince of Power of the Air, fulfilling your passions and sinful desires. It might be helpful to to pull back to your mind scenes of rioting, scenes of rioting and rioters. The rioters are often protesting something. The man by looting and and ransacking a neighborhood, destroying a store, taking stuff for yourself. This is essentially how Paul describes every human: is they're among the rioters against God, pillaging, stealing, and John read this great cross reference: haters of God, haters of men. Like that's that's what was going on. Salvation is being rescued from that danger because it is in God's mind; He sees all of it, like video cameras catch a lot of it. He sees all of it, and he captures it. And his justice will come. The wrath of God. We're under the wrath of God. We were, but that's the danger. The rescue, because salvation is ultimately a rescue word, is being made alive in Christ, able to respond to Him, being raised with Him above death and above sin, being seated with Him above the powers of the world that influence us to sin. It's a rescue from estrangement or enmity with God and hostility with God to life with God. We said last week in a simple statement that salvation is union with Christ. We've loved talking about this this week as I posed the question to my wife at lunch: Define. Salvation succinctly. Thursday morning, she said, "I have one word. It's restoration. That's a good one word. Restoration. It is being estranged from God, at war with God, being forgiven by God, and restored to God in a relationship with Him. Let's talk about the gospel. What's the gospel? The gospel is news. It is news of historical action taken by God. It's what makes salvation possible. Jesus, God the Son, was born into the world, lived among us. He was crucified. He was buried. He was raised from the dead and ascended to the throne of God. All according to God's eternal plan in Scripture. Ephesians one talked a bit about this. That's the gospel. The gospel is what God did through Jesus Christ. Our doctrinal statement has this now, as we're going to combine some thoughts together. Our our doctrinal statement has a great definition, and each word is pregnant with meaning.
  
  11:19
  Like you could think of each word being like like volumes of a book, but let's let's walk through it. Salvation is that great that gracious act of God, where through the atoning blood, that is the death of Christ, He redeems and reconciles certain individuals to Himself. Okay. Here's what salvation is. Here's what the gospel is. What's the response to that? That's the topic of the day. It's the topic of the day. What's the response to the news of what Jesus has done to reconcile us to God? How does a person get salvation? It's the big idea for us this morning. Salvation is a gift of God to be received by faith in Jesus Christ, salvation is a gift of God to be received by faith in Jesus Christ, and you receive it by faith in Christ, or you reject it by faith in something else. Faith is always involved. You receive it by faith in Christ, or reject it by faith in something else, and it's been really easy to get these wrong for all of human history. It's been so easy that Paul has has to describe saving faith in a series of affirmations and denials to bring clarity, and he has to do this for Christians, because Christians who start with an understanding, often because of pride or ignorance, or just human flesh sin residing in us, steer away from salvation by grace to salvation by works or merit or association. If I can be associated with the right people, maybe some of their magic will rub off on me. It's been so easy, and by this, he produces the right and joyful understanding of the role of obedience and good works in the Christian life, which we will get to next week. During the Reformation, theologians developed five simple statements to help keep the Christian life and the church On the rails in its journey, serving the Lord on the way to a new heavens and a new earth, they're called the five solas. Solas, because Latin is cool. It's so cool, even though no one speaks it, the oaks makes all the kids learn it. Part of the cool kids. Since it's close to Italian, it is precious because my wife is Italian. Here they are. Sola fide, sola fide. Salvation is by faith alone. Sola gratia. It is based on God's grace alone, faith alone, grace alone. It is through Christ alone. Sola Christus. It is His work alone. It is according to the Bible and its authority alone. 113 talked about when people heard the the word of truth, the gospel, they believed. It's by God's word, its authority alone. Lots of people came up with other authorities that people had to listen to, and the reformers went back to the sole authority in the Scripture, and it is for God's glory alone. It's for God's glory alone, sola Deo Gloria, for God's glory alone, not the glory of the church, not the glory of men, not the glory of preachers or holy people, for God's glory alone. Since He wrought it, makes it, creates it, and finishes it. He is the one who gets all the praise and glory, and we love to sing about it. We love to sing about it, recognizing who we once were and who we are. We need to go through this. We're just going to take the outline, finding it. It's these series of affirmations and denials. Salvation is. Salvation is not. Salvation is. Salvation is not. Salvation is not. Like that's that's how this is going to roll. We're going to follow the ises as in nots through this so that we can understand it correctly. And it is absolutely essential because you're doing one of two things: you're relying on what God provides, or you're relying on yourself for something you think is heaven. Whatever it is you think it is heaven, you're relying on that for heaven, or you're relying on God for Christ. So let's take them phrase by phrase. Salvation is by grace through faith. Salvation is by grace through faith. Grace is the divine basis. Salvation is restoration to God. Faith is the human means. Faith itself is breathed into us by God, the Holy Spirit. For by grace you have been saved through faith. God's grace in salvation is by definition His favor toward undeserving sinners.
  
  17:30
  As we look at this passage, we were dead in rebellion, the looters, the rioters, rampaging the neighborhood, trying to stick it to the man, God, and God exercised out of his very nature his grace. What is grace? Grace is the disposition of God, an act of generosity, goodwill, kindness toward undeserving people. God was gracious in creating the world and creating mankind to live on it. They didn't deserve it. He graciously gave it. There's grace in creation. There's grace in His sustaining work right now, a refreshing rain that made all of our cars dirty yesterday, was a gracious act of God. This is going much farther than that. God is filled with grace even toward his enemies, Paul writes this in another dimension of salvation called justification-being made right with God, being able to stand before God based on what Jesus does. He says it this in Romans 324: You are justified by His grace as a gift. Just to make sure you understand what grace is, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, He created by grace. He redeems by grace. He recreates by grace. It is His gracious disposition, and it's described in terms in Ephesians as riches of grace. Paul makes it as clear as possible what salvation is in these passages. Is so by grace you have been saved. It's a past tense word, have been saved. So he's talking to Christians, but I want to tell you, if you're not a Christian, you need this just as much because right now the the way you're living your life, the way you're pursuing things, what you think you're getting out of life, you have some picture in your mind of "I get this thing, and that's the heaven to me. And then you have a series of things that you think, "Well, this is how I get it. It's almost always some. Kind of work checklist to do it. We have to think of it in in the right ways. We were dead in our sins, meaning we were unable and lifeless. Maybe let's move it from unable to lifeless to actively hostile, it's as if we had one of those small sledgehammers in our hand, going through the neighborhood in a riot, smashing the window, seeing it burst open and going in and stealing God's stuff out of it for ourselves. When we think of grace, you need to recognize that when God saw you with hammer in His hand in your hand as an enemy of His. Okay, like I'm really not a bad person. I'm generally a nice person. I don't do a lot of bad things. Okay, so maybe you were the person in the back alley after the doors, or after the glass was broken and some people exited the back. You saw the door open, and you kind of went, "Oh, well, I wouldn't mind taking you know these things for myself. And you sneak out the back of the door. You're caught red-handed one way or the other, hammer in hand, goods in your bag, and God had a gracious disposition, a kindness, a goodwill toward you, and the gospel was spoken, and you were made alive. Recognizing you had the goods in your hand, you were guilty, having only one thing to do, turning to Him and what He has provided in Jesus Christ. God's grace, God's grace, manifested itself to hostile sinners. By grace, you have been saved from a spiritual life without God, opposed to God, actually obeying the devil and his lies, following that, deserving the wrath of God, God's grace in an entirely different order than open opening the door for the person who's coming in. Entirely different order. His good intentions, generosity, kindness were not merely to sufferers of brokenness, sufferers under other people's sin certainly is active toward that. It was toward active rebels. He says, "You have been saved. It's it's clunky in English. Have been saved, but the the way to translate it is you are the have been saved people. Here's who you are now. Salvation came in the past, and all that God has done in Christ is still true for you. You are now in the saved category. I know many of you were not here last week. Let me maybe make a series of knots for you here. Salvation is not heaven. Salvation is not reformed virtues.
  
  23:49
  Salvation is not enjoyment of blessings. Salvation is not joy or peace or even life after death. It is not better relationships and good advice for improved living. Salvation is is rescue from spiritual death into life with God. I was sent an article from Desiring God Ministries. The opening is worth its own statement. When God became heaven to me, I mean, if you were like me, as a kid hearing about hell being terrible and heaven being glorious, our sin, my sin getting in the way, Jesus providing that, you'd like sign me up. I don't want to go to hell. Good job. At least you're not dumb. But you would think, you you think well then I've I've got to figure out how to work this system so that I get in as a Roman Catholic kid, fourth grade. I went through catechism, and essentially here's how you get to heaven. The church does its. Including baptizing you, and you show up, and it, you know, shake the eight ball, and out comes something. It does its juju for you. It's got this magic. Church has part of it. You definitely have part of it, and Jesus has part of it. So, what the church does, what Jesus does, what you do, at least gets you out of purgatory, or at least gets you into purgatory, so you can get out of purgatory by continuing to do something good. I don't know what you do in purgatory to do good, but we were told we did, and then eventually you end up in heaven. Well, salvation is not heaven. Salvation is God. Salvation is a relationship with Jesus Christ, which you could start today if you don't have it, and it continues on into eternity. My first exposure to an evangelical gospel message-I was at 13. I knew I was going to hell, and somebody stood up at our camp and said that if you trust Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins, you stand and pray this prayer, you can be saved. And I'm like, I know I'm going to hell. I don't care if 1000 people are looking at me. I stood up and I said the sinner's prayer with a lot of other people standing up with me in my heart. I said the sinner's prayer, and you can believe the relief that I had. Not going to hell. I mean, I was bouncing with excitement, but pretty soon, desires for sin were way more powerful than desires for God, and I continued on in certain patterns of sin until I ran out of any joy in them, and I finally surrendered to God for God. Paul is crystal clear: salvation is union with Christ or restoration to God. It's taking God for your heaven. If we use some modern language, by grace you are saved through faith. Through faith, the verb form of faith is to believe. In 113, Paul had said to Christians, "When you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, you believed in Him. Of faith, saving faith is a reliance on arrest in or a trust of something, and in a very real sense, you had faith to get you from your home or apartment here today. You trusted that when you put your keys in and turned it on, or you walked over to the bus stop, that the bus would show up, or you trusted a whole source of a whole sort of mechanical realities and streets that let you get here. You believed in something that was not yourself. So, in this sense, faith is not a work; it's a reliance on something. So, faith can never save you because it's a reliance on something else. But it's critical to think what your faith is in. Saving faith puts faith in Christ alone, and in the context, God even enables us to believe. You you might be sitting here this morning, and you recognize realities of sin, your enslavement to it, the trouble that you're in. It may show up because your Savior has been a certain thing. If I get a job in a firm that does this, and I make this kind of money, and I can have this kind of life, and I can have this kind of family. That's my heaven on earth. Like I might, I might put something in that.
  
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  You realize because you're far enough along, like nothing's working. The focus got to shift. It's you've got to shift it to Jesus. And as the Spirit is working in your heart, it's something deep and heartfelt in you that recognizes Jesus. I am a sinner. I am guilty. I trust the life you lived on my behalf. I trust the death you died on my behalf. I trust that you were raised. I trust that you ascended. I trust that you're seated on the throne of heaven, and you share that life with me. I come to you. I come to you alone for your grace alone. A component of repentance, which is always a an expression of faith, I stop believing these things. I renounce believing these things as my savior or my way in, and I trust in you alone. I mean, you could be right here, right now. That needs to be the cry of your heart. Salvation is by grace through faith. Then we have the is nots to clarify it. Salvation is not by personal effort. Salvation is not by personal effort. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, Paul makes that clear. But just to make it clearer, here we have a denial. It is not of your own doing. Literally, it's not of yourselves. It doesn't come from you. It comes from outside of you. The this here refers back to the phrase from one to eight. Certainly, it encompasses grace, saved, and faith. But this, like so often, when Paul says this for this, he is summarizing a chunk of reasoning, and here it is. It doesn't come from you. Paul has to say this because we still live in bodies with residing sin, and one of the things we do in residing sin is we get a gift, and then we take credit for deserving it. We we think that something is given to us, and we have something that we've done to earn it. Or, well, now that I have been lifted out of the lake, dead from the bottom, set on the dock, given new life and resuscitated, made alive. Well, now I'm going to do everything in my power to show that I was worthy of it. Humans are like that. We think now I'm going to pay it back. He says this is not by your own doing. You can't get more emphatic. None of it comes from within yourself. There's nothing about you. There's nothing about your family heritage. There's nothing about the church that you're connected to. When I was a Catholic kid, You're saved ultimately as long as two things happen: you get baptized in the Catholic Church, and you don't commit a mortal sin. You commit the little ones, but don't commit the big ones. I mean, you could still like pay your way out if you commit the big ones, but you know, if you're baptized and you don't commit a mortal sin, like I mean, you might spend a long time in purgatory, but eventually you're gonna you're gonna get there. That's the reliance on something else. What this thing does for me. Some people do that about their Christian upbringing, their family heritage. They they rely on somebody else's work that's not Jesus. It's not by right association. It's it's not by a list of good behavior in your mind proving yourself. It's not by human effort. So salvation is by grace; it is not of yourselves. The third affirmation is: it is a gift. It is the gift of God. It is God's gift. Grace is the divine favor underlying salvation. Salvation took a form in Jesus Christ, and is offered as a gift. It's not a loan. God does not say, "I will start you with a little; you pay me back when you get more. It's not a payment. The word "gift" is beautiful. It's something meant to bless. It's something meant to be received and enjoyed by the recipient, a gift is something to be received, and only received. Since faith and the works it produces are given by grace, you never have anything to pay God. And the irony is, you you don't have anything to pay him with that's not already his. The energy propelling your life and your thinking is his. All the stuff you have is his. It's a gift.
  
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  For you right now, you you might easily recognize the last 100 ways you sinned against God. How can I be saved? I mean, look at me. Look at all I've done. Of course, the devil loves to tell you, "Yep, look at all you've done. So you try to do better. You stop being as bad. You try to improve, so that you're thinking that you're more deserving, and you set a picture in your mind. So I understand this thing about how to get to heaven, and it's with Jesus. But you know, I'm also I also want to be a really good Christian dad. I want to be a good Christian mom. I want to have a good Christian family. Now it's super popular to have a really good Christian diet. Apparently, so now if I eat the right way and I buy the right foods, I could be a really good steward of my body, and I want to be a good steward of my body. And pretty soon, all these things that you do that are good, which might be an outflow of faith, now turn into goals to achieve. And as you start checking them off, you start thinking, "Look at me! I did it. I mean, we ate organic for a month, which is probably the best tasting food there is. I'm not not saying it's not, but it's so easy to take on pride and accomplishment, and you think of the last 100 sins you committed, and you're like, "Well, maybe I can work off those, and I can finally, I can, I can worthy myself back into God's good graces. Paul has to write this to Christians, and what you're really doing, what you're really doing, is revealing what you think about God. You either think He is a killjoy or a Scrooge. He is a killjoy in that if it's fun and enjoyable, like a box of ding dongs, it must be bad. God doesn't want me to have anything fun. He's a he's a killjoy, or he's a Scrooge. Like I want to have some things that are fun, so I go on the whole 30 diet. So at the end of the whole 30 diet, I can eat two pieces of pie without guilt, because God doesn't want me to have any fun. Those are just the food versions. I have all kinds of other versions. How to get the intimacy you want in marriage? How you get the the new man cave? These are all negotiated things. Like, honey, I'll give you this if you give me this, and I work for those things. God's a Scrooge. Like, what we have to do to get blessings out of God is do something to impress God, so that He opens those cold, stony fingers to give us things that are enjoyable. Because He's boring. I mean, if you're honest, God's a Scrooge. He doesn't give me the things that really delight me, so I've got to do the things to impress Him, so that He gives me the things that are really my heaven today. How impressive are you? Remember, this is a gift. It's a gift of God. What God gives you as a gift, and the heaven-if we're going to use that language-is God Himself to abundantly enjoy. In the story of the prodigal son, there's two sinful sons. The one went away, squandered his father's wealth, thinks the better of it after everything is gone, recognizing who his father really is. The other, who is the good son, gets really angry and despises his father because his brother gets a party when he comes back, and he says to his father, "I was a good son. I obeyed all the rules, and you've never even given up a goat for me. I've never even had the fattened goat, so I could have a party with my friends. And I'm sure the father's like, "Really? That's the thing. Of all the things you want, Is the goat? Wow, you're mad at me because you didn't get a goat. Of course, the Father says you've always had me. God is the gift, and God brings us to Himself. Salvation is a gift, a free gift, not a payment for good behavior, not relenting of wrath because of penance. It's a gift, which leads to the other negation, affirmation, negation.
  
  39:54
  Salvation is by grace through faith, not by work. It's a gift from God. It is not by works. There is nothing a human. Do to do can do to earn or merit it. This is where the not by our own doing is met by the actions. The not by your own doing says there's nothing you could generate from within yourself. This emphasizes the merits or accomplishments or dutiful works in In my background with Roman Catholicism, it could be somebody else's works, like the saints. You you could get the merits from somebody else. You get the merits from Jesus. You get the merits from the saints. It's not by works, and in everyday Jewish religion that Paul lived in, there was an emphasis on works. Being a good Jew, most Jews had turned to God's good and loving commandments. They'd turned them into rules and works to pry the cold bony fingers of goodness open, so God would do things for us. In that case, it's very much like the the life of the average Greek or Roman. If if you haven't seen the Odyssey, at least read the books, but let's just think of this. Let's think of this, and your heaven is the the the CEO of a company. So you start at the entry level, and you want to get to the CEO level. Think think of the Cyclops. This this is a great illustration of the story. The Odysseus trying to get home. He's starving. They land at a place. They realize there's food. They go up into this cave and it's filled with food. And they're like, "Man, can we find the owner of this? Because we really are starving. It'd be great if these could give it. In comes this giant cyclops, who closes the rock on the cave and then goes, people they look yummy, and he starts eating them. Eventually, eventually they realize this guy is horrible. We need out, so they get this big stick and they sharpen the tip, and they blind the cyclops. After blinding the Cyclops, they manage to sneak out with him blind. But Poseidon is the Cyclops's father, and is now putting a curse on them. And there's no winning. You could go to this island for some food, but the Cyclops is going to eat you. And then if you offend the cyclops by blinding him, then the father's going to destroy you. Like this is horrible. Well, that's what it's like when you put your faith in money, thinking that the goal for you is the CEO position, the top position. Yeah, the cyclops is on the way, do eat some people, but I'm just gonna step aside because my goal is still this other thing, and you live in a terrible world, trying to escape the bad, trying to work the magic so that you can get ahead. And Paul is clear and fundamental about salvation. It is getting God, not promotion. It is getting God now and forever, and it is only possible in Jesus Christ, and you can do nothing but receive it by faith. Receive it by faith. It's not because of your works, but because of His own purpose. Second Timothy one nine says, "It's according to His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus. Or as John read to us in Titus three five, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy. This is why he did it. It's it's a gift. It's not by your effort. Well, if it's not by my effort, what do I do? You say to God, I can't do anything. Rescue me. Rescue me. Well, what about works? Well, they're a result of being a new creation, not a list of boxes to tick to impress him. We'll get to that next week. How do works fit into this? This has always been the rebuttal from my Roman Catholic friends. Well, what about works? You certainly do have to works. They're so conditioned in works finishing the job that they just can't imagine that works. Aren't involved in getting God forever. Like this is all too easy for you. Just believe and you get in. You don't know what happens when you believe. You're born again. You're made alive. You're seated with Christ.
  
  45:12
  You are divinely energized to live in the world according to original design, which we'll get to next week. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone, not by human effort. It is a gift. It is not by a payment of works. Number five, salvation is to God's praise alone, or so that no one would boast. Here's that negation, and so we've started to see sola fide by faith alone, sola gratia by grace alone, sola Christus by Jesus' work alone, faith in Jesus Christ. Chapter one, we saw the truth alone, the Scripture alone, and here we find out what it's all for. In an ultimate way, it is for God's glory alone. He says it in the negation, so that no one may boast. No one may boast. Boasting in this context is a way to claim credit and honor. It's a way to claim you can be proud of yourself. You can brag to others. You can brag to yourself. You can tell God you have something that that you must pay for all the deal making with God. God, if I want this, I'll do this. If you give me this, is all this kind of thing. And here's what's so blinding about sin: sin is essentially seeking anything for life apart from God. The first sin was simply to be able to stand apart from God on equal footing with God, knowing now what God knows and being able to run my life the way I wanted. It was not a life in rejection of God in their minds. It was a it was a life on equal footing with God. Which was a pride and an unbelief as to His praise alone. Sin is essentially seeking anything for life-that energizing principle that gets you out and out of bed in the morning, seeking anything for life apart from God. Even recognizing the one true God, we can act as if there are things we can do to impress Him into giving us the things we want more than Him. You cannot. Let's say this this way: You cannot impress God into saving you. Salvation is by grace alone. Is a specific denial. Salvation by grace alone is a specific denial of human ability and preserves the truth that God alone is worthy of praise. The ultimate purpose, as we saw in chapter one, was in God's plan in redemption was the expression of His glory for the enjoyment of His people. That's why the the verse ahead of this, so that in the coming ages, in the coming ages, the He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. It is for his display of his glory. What is salvation? Salvation is being entirely spiritually dead toward God, not experiencing any life in Him. It is being rescued from that death into life with God through Jesus Christ. How do we get it? We get it on the basis of God's grace. Through the work of Jesus Christ and receiving the work as a gift, no ability, no works, no boasting. So, even though you might have heard the gospel, you might have even responded to the gospel. You might not have gotten what you thought, and you might be relying on a false confidence. In the modern way of thinking, is well, I'm just good enough because I'm human, or we think we've done good enough to make it. the modern context, we make all kinds of other things our heaven, and all of those are achieved by works. We'll look at the role of good works next week. You've all purchased something online. You've all purchased something online. When you got it in the box, you're like, "It's not what I thought it was. Everybody's done that. Losing a few bucks is one thing, but there's a day where Jesus is going to return, or He's going to call your soul from your body, and you're going to have to stand before Him. And at that point, you want to have known and responded in faith to the free gift, lest you are judged for the pride of rejecting him and not enjoying him, it means eternity. Let's pray, Father. Thank you for a clear word from the Apostle Paul: what salvation is, what it's not.
  
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  I remember so clearly working it, and in my my very flesh, all of us have at some hours, moments this week turned some earthly thing into an ultimate thing, thinking it's our heaven, and we worked at getting it, either disappointed or proud when it didn't come through, or when it came through. God, we would pray that we'd recognizing recognize that you are our life, and that you gave us that life through Jesus. Jesus, we trust you alone, Christ's name, Amen.

Dan Jarms

Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.

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