Ephesians
2:1-10
You were dead
through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course
of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is
now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in
the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we
were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else. But God, who is rich in
mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead
through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ --by grace you have
been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the
immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by
grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is
the gift of God-- not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in
Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of
life.
For
by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it
is the gift of God-- not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
·
What we
hear in this passage from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians might be called
“thick-cut theology.” It isn’t spiritual milk for the newest disciples; It is
the real meat of the Good News and there’s lots to chew on here. Some might
find it hard to swallow.
·
Step by
step then; by grace you have been
saved… That phrase lays low all attempts to earn God’s favour or
heaven or however you want to say it. We don’t like grace at first; we prefer
accomplishment with all the accompanying parades, speeches, and theme music…
like the parades that follow the winning of the Stanley Cup. We think we like
saving ourselves and working our way into heaven, and getting what we deserve.
·
Getting
what we deserve, the sort of thing that is called “Karma” in a number of
places, carries with it the idea that everybody else should get what THEY
deserve, too. This implies that we can (and possibly should) decide what others
deserve.
·
Next step: you have been saved through faith.
Do our beliefs save us? If they do, what do we need God for? What do we need
Jesus for? What is the value of the Cross? Being saved through faith means our
faith grasps the presence of grace, especially when our senses and our
intellect do not and can not.
·
Next step: this is not your own doing; it is the
gift of God. Simply put, there is no “do-it-yourself” salvation.
There is no buying heaven and there is no storming of heaven and taking it by
violence. We are not “self-made” saints, who can be proud of humility and having
achieved a seat at the heavenly banquet through hard work, perseverance, and
blessed coincidence.
·
Next step: not the result of works... We
have to face facts: we like success and successful people and we honour hard
workers. And we should. We like league leaders and gold medal winners. There
really is no reason not to. The recognition of excellence is not a bad thing.
This sometimes leads people to excel at things themselves. These, however, are
things within our reach to do. It is the grace of God and the gift of salvation
that is the point of our discussion here. We all have our gifts – whatever they
might be, and we should take them for what they are – as gifts of God that we
are able to cultivate. Our relationship with God is not such a gift, that is,
one that depends on our cultivation. What really happens is our recognition of
God’s grace as a free, undeserved gift leads us to want know and understand
more.
·
The next
step: so that no one may boast.
Paul takes note of boasting in more than one place in his letters. Jesus
mentions it is a sideways manner in telling what the so-called “hypocrites” do;
blowing a horn as they give alms, praying on street corners in order to be
seen. If salvation is a gift, then no one has any grounds on which to boast. Is
one person’s salvation of higher quality than someone else’s? Are you more
saved than me? If we have all received the gift, there can be no boasting.
·
We might
think about the holy people we’ve met and the saints we’ve read about. They
stand as reflections of God’s grace in a very tangible way. There is no
boasting here, but there is a recognition of the gifts of God for all to see.
Such people would be the first to admit that all they have was owed to God and
not to their own work and actions.
·
There is
another step not mentioned in the part of the passage I’ve focused on. We can
·
Now that’s
the way to live… in gratitude through grace.
For
by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it
is the gift of God-- not the result of works, so that no one may boast.
No comments:
Post a Comment