Tuesday,
September 18, 2018 - Ephesians 6:24
Grace Orientation as noted in the Book of Ephesians, Pt. 2, Saving Grace!
Grace Fellowship Church
Pastor/Teacher,
Jim Rickard
5. The Encouragement, vs. 21-24.
Eph
6:24, “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with
incorruptible love.”
As we have been noting, “GRACE” is
a key word of the epistle. It opened the epistle, Eph 1:2, and is the subject of the epistle, Eph 2:7-8. It now concludes the epistle. It is a fitting word
because it is God’s grace which saved us and which sustains us today.
The word “grace” is used 12 times in the book
of Ephesians. Twelve is the number of perfect Divine government and
organization. As such, if we want to live under God’s perfect rule and
organization for our lives, we must live by His grace. When we live by His
grace, we have perfect Divine rule and organization within our souls for our
physical and spiritual lives. We continue now with the application of the 12 instances
of “grace” in Ephesians.
4. Eph 2:5, “Even when we were dead in our transgressions, He made us alive together with Christ,
(by grace you have been saved).”
God’s greatest act of mercy is
explained in this verse. This tells us that our salvation is from the grace of
God. As an introduction, Eph 2:5 is
further described in vs. 7-9; by
grace you are saved.
Here, Paul uses the instrumental
Dative case to express the means by which our new spiritual life is
accomplished. It explains how God operates. It refers to “undeserved favor”
that is a constant reminder that God does not manifest acts of mercy toward
people because they deserve them.
This grace tells us of God’s mercy
and love that caused Him to act on behalf of sinful men and women and to do
what was necessary for them, even when they were in such a condition. Our
salvation is expressed this way because of the necessity of an initial act of
our conversion by the grace of God.
God accomplished this spiritual
conversion by the power of the Holy Spirit, using the Word. In God’s grace, He
“made us alive,” speaking of the new spiritual life we have and of the
resurrection life we have in Christ, given to us by God the Father. However,
God does not cease working in believers’ lives after conversion. It is an
ongoing action of grace towards us.
This also speaks of God’s grace in
placing us in union with Jesus Christ. As members of His body, we are united to
Him, Eph 1:22-23, so that we share
His resurrection life and power, Eph
1:19-20.
This is Paul’s impassioned
underlining of what the statement he is making about the grace of God should
mean to us. It draws our attention to the Divine initiative, the definite
accomplishment and the continuing reality involved in having been made alive
together with Christ. Our new situation has been brought about BY GRACE! No one
is beyond the reach of God’s regenerating grace, and no one is beyond the need
for God’s regenerating grace. Being raised from the dead is all of grace.
Therefore, “By grace you have been saved” draws our attention to God’s
sovereign freedom from obligation in saving us. We have been made alive
together with Christ. We are no longer spiritually dead; we have been
spiritually resurrected, transferred from death to life, John 5:24; Col 2:13-14. God also raised us up with Christ and
seated us in the heavenly places. And, in anticipation of our future
resurrection and glorification, we can already begin to live new lives of
righteousness through the work of the Holy Spirit, Gal 5:16; Phil 3:20. Only God the Father, by His sovereign grace
and through the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit, can save a person
through His Son.
5. Eph 2:7, “So that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing
riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
Vs. 7, shows why God
has done all of this for us by His grace. Why from eternity past He has chosen
us to be holy before Him in love? Why has He made us accepted in the Beloved?
Why, when dead in trespasses and sins, has He made us alive, raised us up, and
made us to sit together in heavenly realms with Christ? The answer is found in
this verse.
The revelation of the grace of
God, (i.e., His unmerited love), is the specific object of redemption. Saving
us by grace demonstrates to us, the world, and the angelic realm of the
exceeding riches of His grace done in His kindness, (the noun CHRESTOTES
χρηστότης, “goodness, uprightness, kindness, mercy, generosity), towards us.
For all of eternity the Church will be a demonstration to all creation of God’s
grace. Believers will truly be “trophies” of God’s grace forever. For all of eternity,
you and I will be glorifying God.
“Surpassing riches” also means that the value of His gift of grace
is actually immeasurable. Therefore, the purpose of God in Christ is the
display of His immeasurable grace. The great manifestation of grace is God’s
kindness to us in Christ, and the manifestation of God through men “in Christ”
is for all ages.
In addition, this verse tells us
that God will dispense His grace to us in Christ forever. Ponder the idea of
grace for “ages” to come. Instead of wrath, we have everlasting grace! The
question to us is then, “Do we show in character and conduct the grace which we
have received by reverently submitting ourselves to its transforming energy?”
6. Eph 2:8, “For by THE grace
you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift
of God.”
In this verse, Paul describes the
means by which one receives the incomparable grace gift of new life. This
answers the questions, “How can I receive the grace gift of salvation?”
Here, we see the amplification of
the statement in vs. 5, “by grace you
have been saved.” Faith is the instrument by which we lay hold of Christ.
But faith is not a work. It is a gift. “It
is the gift of God,” refers to the whole process of salvation, not just to
the granting of faith to believe. Because salvation is a Divine gift from the
grace of God, it cannot be earned. Therefore, anyone’s moral efforts or
religious activity cannot earn salvation. We were not saved because we were
smarter than others, prettier than others, better than others, more religious
than others, more giving than others, or more gifted than others. Our salvation
was the work of God. God showed us astonishing grace. He put forth His Son as
our substitute, and He granted us the faith to believe in the Savior.
As we have noted, Divine grace in
salvation is the unrestrained compassion of God acting toward the sinner on the
basis of that freedom already secured through the righteous judgment against
sin; secured by Christ in His sacrificial death.
Grace is the basis for everything
God has done for us:
a. Grace motivated the Father to choose us in Christ before the
foundation of the world, Eph 1:4-6.
b. Grace provided the one-time payment for eternal redemption, the blood
of Christ, who came to earth and died for the forgiveness of our sins, Eph 1:7.
c. And by grace alone we receive this forgiveness and salvation; grace
apart from any merit of our own, Eph
2:8-9.
Though grace is the “objective
basis” for our salvation, Paul also mentions an equally important “subjective
means” of receiving this grace: faith. We are saved by grace, but we
appropriate this grace through faith.
Believers need to accept what God
has provided them in Christ Jesus. Faith is a human activity but a specific
kind of activity, a response which allows salvation to become operative, which
receives what has already been accomplished by God in Christ. Faith, therefore,
is the mere act of accepting what God has done for us in grace; a
non-meritorious act on our part, and not the ground on which salvation is
bestowed. The ground on which it is bestowed is God’s grace. As noted in vs. 7, the manifestation of the grace
of God is the great end of redemption, because salvation is entirely of grace.
The grace of salvation is received
when God opens our blind eyes to the gospel of Jesus Christ, enabling us to
understand it and to accept its promise of forgiveness, for all who believe.
When the veil of death is lifted from our hearts, our minds are illuminated to
have faith in Christ’s death for our sins and His resurrection from the dead.
This faith, apart from any works, is then the sole means of entering into an
eternal relationship with the Father though Jesus Christ the Son by the
regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, grace tells us that God
initiated our salvation, He implemented it, and He receives all the glory for
it. In contrast, we could do nothing to start it, cannot contribute anything to
it, and therefore can take no credit for it.
Grace for salvation also tells us
that sin worked against us and God worked for us, but the great work of
conversion is just the beginning.
The eternal purpose of God is not
the manifestation of His love alone, though His love and His mercy are, like
His grace, mentioned in this context and expressed in Christ’s death; but it is
rather the manifestation of His grace. Out of God’s infinite treasure chest, He
lavishes His grace upon sinners without restraint or hindrance.
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