1/28/2019

Ephesians 2:8-10

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

There are two equal impossibilities stated in these verses.  The first is “works”, cf Rom. 11:6, Gal. 2:16; Titus 3:5.  The second is that a believer can be sanctified separate from works, Eph. 2:10; Phil. 2:12-13; Rom 8:29.

God’s Law is given in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 and Deut. 5.  In the Gospels and again by Paul, this is summarized by the two great commands of love, for God and our neighbors.  This is clarified for us in I John 3:23.  The commands to us are to believe in Jesus (this is the ultimate in loving God), and to love our brothers.  This is our sanctification.  But this is not our justification.  That comes from the free grace of God.  By faith we receive this, Romans 5:1.

For every believer this has a point of beginning, but no ending. First this is not the miracle-working faith of I Cor. 12.  It is the saving faith that is a gift of God given to all the elect.  Second this is the same faith by which the Spirit of God, who sanctifies us, comes to us, Gal. 3:2; Rom. 8:12-14.