Monday, September 22

Ephesians 2

We're going to be discussing Ephesians 2 in our Young Couples Bible study tonight. One of the best verses in the entire Bible (at least in my opinion) can be found in Ephesians 2.

Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

One of the nuances of that verse that I had never really pondered before was what the word that was refering to in verse 8. The word that is referring to faith. Think about what that means for awhile.

So, not only are we saved by grace through faith, but we can't even take credit for the faith we have that channels grace down to us! Truly we have no room to boast. We could easily think we get some credit for our salvation. I mean, after all, we took that first step of faith, right? But who gave you the faith to take that step? According to Ephesians 2:8 you didn't generate that faith by yourself.

Those of us who have been called to Christ have so much to be thankful for; so much to be humbled by. We were wretched worms living in rebellion to our creator and he reached down, touched us with faith, and channeled grace into our lives unto salvation.

May we rest sweetly in His grip.

I'm looking forward to the Bible Study tonight.
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3 comments:

Mark Nenadov said...

Good thoughts, Luke!

I'm no Greek expert, but since 'faith' and 'grace' are feminine and 'that' is neuter, Bible commentators tend to see the 'that' as referring to the sum total of the two clauses (grace and faith). I think that means that faith is included as a gift of God.

The clear Bible teaching is that faith is a gift of God. For someone who is used to prooftexting and 15 second soundbytes, this may not seem entirely obvious. But as we steep ourselves in the Bible so to speak, we find it all over the place and we will conclude that faith, too, is a gracious gift of God.

A simple, yet enlightening experience is to just look up every reference to "faith, repentence, belief, believed, believes, etc." and observe carefully the words that proceed and follow and contemplate the implications.

We depend on God for our faith. With the apostles we cry out to Christ, "Increase our faith!".

I really like one of William Cowper's hymns, a portion of which says:

"Of all the gifts Thine hand bestows,
Thou Giver of all good!
Not heaven itself a richer knows
Than my Redeemer's blood.

Faith too, the blood-receiving grace,
From the same hand we gain;
Else, sweetly as it suits our case,
The gift had been in vain.""

September 22, 2008 6:10 PM
Traever Guingrich said...

ephesians makes me feel good for believing pauline doctrine/monergism/augustine-ism/calvinism/reformed theology. or as it is otherwise known - the gospel of Jesus Christ.

September 23, 2008 8:21 AM
Luke said...

It was good stuff last night - for sure.

September 23, 2008 8:27 AM

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