I MUST HAVE DONE SOMETHING GOOD

Eph 2:7-11

I’ve taken this title from lyrics of a song that has been mentioned a few times these past few weeks here at church from the “Sounds Of Music”. The first time was during our Reformation Service and the second time mentioned in Adult Sunday School. It’s a title that many in the church believe this statement to why they are saved. It’s a title that many in the church perceive that we played a part in our salvation because we are by nature good.

The song goes like this…..

“Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could,

So somewhere in my youth or childhood,

I must have done something good,

For here you are, standing there loving me,

Whether or not you should,

So somewhere in my youth or childhood,

I must have done something good.”

There is a danger to lyrics like this because what it tells the listener “I must have been pretty good for you chose me.” But sadly! It’s just not grace and this is the complete opposite to what Paul is telling us this morning through the written Word. If you want to see what grace truly means then look to Jesus that is where it’s been expressed…in His birth, life, death, His resurrection and ascension into glory. Our response in salvation is faith, but even that is not of ourselves but is the gift of God. Faith is nothing that we do in our own power or by our own resources. If it were so then salvation would be in part by our own works.

Faith is a gift from God!

“Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ:” 2 Pet 1:1

“For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,” Phil 1:29

“And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.” Acts 3:16

Because grace is defined as unearned act of God and salvation is the sole work of God alone then everything about our lives whether its grace or faith is a gift from a holy God who looked at your dead spiritual state and said “I want him or her in my family and I will do whatever it takes to get that person in my family.”

God gives us the gift and resources we need to attain eternal life.

There is a story told of a man who was eagerly but very late to a revival meeting and found the workmen tearing down the tent in which the meetings had been held. Frantic at missing the evangelist, he decided to ask one of the workers what he could do to be saved. The workman, who was a Christian, replied “You can’t do anything. It’s to late.” Horrified, the man said “what do you mean? How can it be too late?” “The work has already been accomplished,” he was told. “There is nothing you need to do but believe it.”

See every person lives by faith….even the atheist to the Satanist.

When we go to a restaurant for dinner.

When you put your money in the bank.

When you purchase something online.

When we get into our car/trucks and head out somewhere.

When you board a plane.

When you watch the Leafs thinking this is the year.

Life is a constant series of acts of faith, no human being could live a day without exercising faith. When we accept the finished work of Christ on our behalf, we act by the faith supplied by God’s grace. The supreme act of human faith, the act which, though it is ours, is primarily God’s. Again think about that for a moment! When a person chokes or drowns and stops breathing, there is nothing he/she can do. If he/she ever breathes again it will be because someone else starts him/her breathing. A person who is spiritually dead cannot even make a decision of faith unless God first breaths into him/her the breath of spiritual life. A dead person has nothing to offer. Hence the fact they are “DEAD” See, faith simply breathing the breath that God’s grace supplies. That’s why it’s important to look at this portion in its proper context and the verses that go before it before we can understand what God is a saying to the reader.

Is it grace or faith? No it’s both and they are both a gift of God. After reading Ephesians chapter 2, do you still think you must have done something good?” I can tell you the only thing I’ve done right in my salvation is recognize my sin and what it cost a loving Savior who died for my sin. I was alive to this world and dead to the things of God before grace came into my life and tore my world apart by His great love. Now that we understand that…. Paul turns our attention to a foundational and fundamental truth to the gospel.

“By grace alone and not by my works”

Attaining salvation isn’t a bunch of do’s and don’ts as Pastor Agnew said “Is your religion a two letter word or a four letter word?” Is your Christian life a life “Do” do all you can to obey God, do your best and His grace will hopefully see you through. Or is your Christian life “Done” meaning it’s finished as Christ said on the cross. Nothing more to pay. Nothing more to do to be saved! Finished and completed in Christ alone. See, it’s the difference between Gospel plus to the Gospel of grace alone.

  

WE ARE NOT SAVED BY GOOD WORKS

Paul says that grace comes through faith! This is the human response….Belief as we have read in chapter 1:13. Faith is the instrument by which we lay hold of Christ, but faith is not a work. It is a gift as I’ve previously said as Paul wrote to the church in (v8) it is God’s gift and that also includes “faith”. The grammar indicates that the whole of salvation is to be viewed as a gift.

Grace, faith and salvation is a gift.

We should never think of salvation as a transaction in which God provided grace and we provide faith. Now as I’ve said previously! You and I do not deserve salvation. There is nothing you can do that will make you worthy of it. You cannot be saved by keeping the Ten Commandments, for the Scripture clearly shows that you have not kept them. Romans 3:20 says "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." The same thing is told in Galatians 3:11 which says "But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith." Many, many Scriptures repeat again and again that there is no salvation through human goodness. "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." Titus 3:5. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Eph. 2:8-9. It’s not of works; it is not something a person can earn through supposedly meritorious deeds. 

It cannot be earned, for instance by……

Conformation

Baptism

Church membership

Communion

Trying to keep the Ten Commandments

Living by the Sermon On the Mount

Giving to charity

Being a good neighbor

Living a moral and respectful life.

The minute you think you are saved by your goodness or works, it truly diminishes the beauty and the power of the gospel. The minute you think I must have done something good, it destroys the beauty of the Cross and its meaning.

We are not saved because….

We are smarter than others,

Prettier than others

More gifted than others.

Our salvation was the work of God and through that work God showed us astonishing grace when His only Son look our punishment on that old rugged cross. We had as well admit, then, that no man deserves saving and no man can save himself. Salvation must be free or the sinner could never get it. In fact, it takes blood to pay for sin, for the Scripture says "Without shedding of blood is no remission." Hebrews 9:22. 

"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."—Romans 5:6.

  

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all."—Isa. 53:6.

Peter tells us that all of us are bought by the blood of Christ "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." I Peter 1:18-19.

Every lamb, heifer, goat, turtle dove and pigeon offered in the Old Testament times on the altar pictured this:….. That man, a guilty sinner, must have some innocent one to shed his blood to pay for one man's sins. Jesus died for our sins, and, thank God, salvation is bought for every man in the world, if he will have it, as the free gift of God.

"For the wages of sin is death; but the GIFT of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."—Rom. 6:23.

If man could be saved by his own good works then the death of Christ was unnecessary.

“I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.” Gal 2:21. What Paul says before this verse is music to my ears when I think about the Cross and the implication it brings to my life. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Gal 2:20

We all need to be rescued from the dark rebellion of our own hearts. There is only one hope for us…and that is the amazing, forgiving, rescuing transforming and delivering grace of Jesus Christ. Take what Paul is telling us this morning and throw away your wrong Theology if you are a person of your does because it is done! Remember that church membership will not save you. If you have been baptized, that cannot save you. Baptism does not save, does not keep anybody saved. It is only an act of duty for those who have already been found by Christ. A moral life or membership or good citizenship—these must all fail to bring salvation, for it is "not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us" (Titus 3:5). Don't depend, then, on what you do, but on what Jesus did and promises to do for you. Our lives hang by a string of sovereign grace and in that grace God breathed into your lungs the gift of eternal life, not because you’re good or could find Heaven on your own, but because you were lost and dead living a life without hope.

We all stand before God deserving of His anger.

How grateful we ought to be that Christ bore our penalty so that we could bask in God’s grace. Grace that Paul says that …….You have been saved (past tense), you are being saved (present tense), and you will be saved (future tense).

Think about that!

Dead in trespasses and sins…..Alive together in Christ.

Sons of disobedience…..Raised up with Christ.

Children of wrath….seated with Christ.

Children of wrath….recipients of generous mercy.

Children of wrath….recipients of great love.

Children of wrath….recipients of rich grace.

His kindness towards us

His grace in His kindness towards us

The riches of His grace in His kindness towards us

The exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness towards us.

Do you see the progression of Paul’s letter from the beginning of chapter two? Paul is building words upon words to drive home the point of our salvation it’s all because of God and His unmerited grace He lavishes upon sinners like you and me.

  

Do you know this grace? 

If so then you can identify with John Newton when he said ….“I am not what I ought to be — ah, how imperfect and deficient! I am not what I wish to be — I abhor what is evil, and I would cleave to what is good! I am not what I hope to be — soon, soon shall I put off mortality, and with mortality all sin and imperfection. Yet, though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor what I hope to be, I can truly say, I am not what I once was; a slave to sin and Satan; and I can heartily join with the apostle, and acknowledge, "By the grace of God I am what I am.”

That’s grace…… that’s off the charts grace!