KASUMIGAOKA
2017/10/22
SERMON: “Saved By Grace Alone” 「恵みによってのみ救われる」
TEXT: Ephesians 2:1-10
I. INTRODUCTION Luther’s Discovery of Grace and Faith
The Reformation was a movement that changed the course of human history. It began when an obscure Roman Catholic monk named Martin Luther fastened his 95 Theses to the chapel door at Wittenberg University 500 years ago. But what gave Luther the boldness to challenge the teaching of the mighty Roman Catholic Church and its supreme leader, the Pope himself? Luther’s courage came from his study of the Bible. As he studied the letter to the Romans, Luther began to meditate on Romans 1:17, “For in [the gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith.’” Gradually, Luther became convinced that nothing less than God’s own righteousness is needed for any man to be counted worthy of entering into eternal life. No matter how carefully he tries to keep God’s law, no man can be justified by his own righteousness. Man needs God’s perfect righteousness, imputed to him by faith in Jesus Christ. That one insight changed everything for the young Augustinian monk. If this is true, Luther reasoned, then much of the Roman Catholic teaching that had emerged during the Middle Ages was wrong. But how could it be corrected? Martin Luther chose his battles carefully. He began by challenging the Roman Catholic teaching about sin, forgiveness, and the sale of “indulgences.”
Last week I mentioned that the main subject of Luther’s 95 Theses was the Catholic Church’s practice of selling indulgences. An “indulgence” was popularly known as a “proof” of forgiveness of sin from the Pope in Rome. When someone committed a sin, he could give an offering to the Vatican and receive a document showing that his sin had been “excused” by the Church. That document was known as an “indulgence.” The idea was rooted in the Roman Catholic teaching that a Christian must do a good deed to “balance” a bad deed. Giving a special “offering” was a good deed. This teaching was a theological error, itself, but it created even more theological problems among the common church members. Many, for example, thought that if they “paid in advance” for an indulgence, they had purchased the “right” to commit a sin in the future, without risking their hope of salvation. Some thought that they could pay with money for the sins committed by others. Forgiveness of sin had become a mere “commodity” that was bought and sold in the Catholic Church “marketplace.” Everyone seemed to think that their sins were offenses committed against the Church’s law, which the Church could forgive. Few seemed to understand that sins are committed against God, and that only God can forgive our sins! But Martin Luther understood this.
Luther realized that the practice of selling indulgences had spread serious misunderstandings about sin, forgiveness, and the importance of the gospel. The sale of those indulgences, together with all of the theological errors connected with it, must be stopped. No Christian should think that he can “pay compensation money” to wash away his sins. Money cannot solve man’s moral problems. Nor can our good deeds give us any hope. We cannot atone for the smallest of our sins by doing any good work. But Christ can do that. In fact, Christ has already done that work for us! We only need to receive God’s gift of forgiveness through faith in our Redeemer, not through the Roman Catholic priest, bishop, or even the Pope. Luther found this teaching throughout the New Testament. It was that understanding of God’s word that gave him confidence to stand alone and challenge the sale of indulgences 500 years ago.
II. THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE OF GRACE IN EPHESIANS 2:1-10
One of the clearest explanations of this fundamental doctrine of God’s grace in our salvation is found in Ephesians 2. In vv. 1-3 the apostle Paul begins by showing man’s true spiritual condition before experiencing the “saving grace” of God. Then, in vv. 4-9, he explains how God has used His supernatural power and grace to save us through the work of Christ Jesus. Finally, in v. 10 Paul tells us what our lives will become, as a result of God’s grace. Let’s look more closely at these verses.
(vv. 1-3) Chapter 2 opens with a remarkably simple statement about man’s condition without God’s saving grace. “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins.” If people really thought about this statement and believed it, most of the world’s religions, except for Christianity, would have no followers. That is because other religions require man to “do something” to improve his situation. Man must first “seek after God.” Man must first change his thinking or his behavior. A man must follow some kind of moral code in order to become a better person. In all other religions man is responsible, in at least a small way, for his own success or ultimate “salvation.” Compared to the Bible, those religions hold a very “optimistic” opinion of man’s moral or spiritual condition. Humanists and even people who reject religion usually have an optimistic viewpoint. They all think that man must somehow become “better” by his own efforts. If man cannot improve himself, then ultimately the human race will fail. But what does Christianity teach? The Bible’s viewpoint is more “optimistic” about man’s future than any non-Christian religion or worldview. At the same time, the Bible is more “pessimistic” about man’s abilities to fix his own problems. That is because God –not man—is the One who guarantees our salvation. As the apostle Paul writes in Romans 9:16, “So then, it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.” Man’s future is entirely in God’s hands. The Christian’s hope rests securely upon God’s plan and purpose and power, not on man’s efforts to improve himself. That is why Paul begins by stating man’s complete helplessness in 2:1. Unless we grasp this fact, we cannot understand the gospel.
The Roman Catholic Church, although it was known as a Christian Church, had forgotten this most basic fact. According to the teaching of the Church in Luther’s day, people must do something before they can receive salvation. They must do some good deeds, give special offerings, buy an indulgence, etc., in order to guarantee their salvation. But what can a man do when he is “dead”? It is necessary to think about what the apostle means here. If a person has died, all that visibly remains is the body of flesh. The body by itself can “do” nothing. There is no voluntary movement, no heartbeat, and no brain activity. The body cannot feel anything—either pleasure or pain. There is no “personality,” because the “soul” has gone from the body. But is this the condition that Paul describes here? No, it isn’t. In v. 2 he says that, even though you were “dead in your trespasses and sins,” you were not unable to move or act or feel anything. Though you were “dead,” you still “walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” In other words, you were not physically dead; but you were “dead” in a different way.
Paul is describing people who were dead in a “spiritual” sense, because they could not feel or respond to the Spirit of God. They were unaware of God’s presence; they could not feel His pleasure or His anger. They could not live and act in obedience to God. They could only live like beasts, not as moral beings created in God’s image. Paul understood this very well, because he had been in that condition himself for many years. He says in v. 3, “we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” When human beings are spiritually “dead,” they live like animals, not seeking anything more important in life than “indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind.” Do you see why people who are “dead” in their sins can do nothing to please God? It is vain to tell such people to “seek God,” or “do good,” or “improve yourself.” They cannot raise themselves from their spiritually “dead” condition. And that is the condition of everyone—the entire human race—until God Himself does something for us!
In vv. 4-9 Paul tells us exactly what God has done for us. God has used His supernatural power and grace to save us through the work of Christ Jesus. First, Paul tells us in vv. 4-5 that God made us alive together with Christ! But why did God do this? God gave us life only because of His own character, not because there was anything good or beautiful in us. He did it because of His own rich mercy and the greatness of His love for us. That is God’s only motive for giving us life when we were spiritually and morally “dead.” He loved us, Paul says, even “when we were dead in our transgressions.” We did nothing to deserve that love. His gift of life to spiritually dead sinners is the supreme demonstration of God’s grace!
The second thing Paul emphasizes is the fact that God “made us alive together with Christ.” In other words, when God gives life to people who were dead in their sins, He brings them into the same spiritual life that Christ has. In fact, God brings them into the closest possible personal relationship with Christ. Peter explains this relationship between Christ Jesus and His followers in 1 Peter 3:18: “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit.” In this verse Peter explains how Christ’s death restores sinners to God’s fellowship: He “died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust.” When Jesus died, He gave His own righteous life in exchange for the unrighteous lives of those whom He brings to God. This is the doctrine of redemption, which Paul had already mentioned in Eph. 1:7. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace.” The point Paul is emphasizing in our text (2:5-6) is that the new spiritual life of believers is experienced only in a new spiritual relationship to the living Lord Jesus. Therefore, it is only “in Christ” that anyone can have a new spiritual life. If you understand the Bible, you will know that Christianity is not a “moral code” to follow; it is a life to live and a relationship with God to enjoy. Everyone who is redeemed by Christ is also “raised up with Him, and seated with Him in the heavenly places” (v.6). In other words, Christ shares with His redeemed people every spiritual blessing (1:3). He shares with us His new life of honor and glory! The past is truly forgotten! “Death is swallowed up in victory!” (1 Cor. 15:54). In Christ we do not just look back at our past with regret. We look forward with anticipation. As Paul says in v. 7, God gives this new life with Christ “in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” The kindness of God which we have already experienced is only the beginning! The surpassing riches of His grace are still to come! Paul summarizes what he wants us to understand about our salvation in vv. 8-9. “For by grace you have been saved through faith,” he says. This faith is not a mere “feeling,” but faith in the Savior Jesus Christ. And that salvation through faith in Christ is God’s gift to you. Salvation cannot come from man; it cannot come from man’s efforts. Salvation is “not of yourselves.” “It is the gift of God.” If this were not true, then perhaps some men could “boast” of their salvation. But no one should boast about a gift he merely received. Neither your salvation nor the faith that brought you to Christ is something you can boast about. Because salvation is not the result of human “works,” no one should boast about it.
This brings us to the last verse of our passage today—v. 10. In this verse Paul tells us what our lives will become, as a result of God’s grace. Now, at last, we come to the “good works” that the Roman Catholic Church had emphasized as a condition of salvation. But instead of being a condition or “cause” of salvation, Paul says that good works are the “result” of one’s salvation! “For we are His [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Everything about man’s “good works” has been planned, prepared, and made possible by God’s work in man. God has done it all. Our salvation began when God “chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him” (Eph. 1:4). It was realized in history when God redeemed us through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ, making us “alive” in Him. And finally, as a testimony to the “riches of His grace which God lavished upon us” (1:7-8), God will bring forth good works in our lives! We are His workmanship, given life in Christ so that we may bear spiritual fruit to the glory of His name.
III. CONCLUSION
In this amazing purpose and plan of God, where do we see any suggestion that God requires sinners to do good works in order to deserve a place in God’s eternal kingdom? Where do we see any suggestion that man the sinner should pay for his sins by serving the Church or by paying money into the Church treasury? Where, in fact, do we see any suggestion that a sinner can do anything to improve his position before God? If you are a child of God redeemed by the blood of your Savior Jesus Christ, you already know the answers to these questions. You know that you once were dead in your sins; but now, because of God’s grace alone, you belong to Him. You did not pay Him for the privilege of entering His kingdom. Rather, He paid the price for you. “For by grace you have been saved, through faith.”