Join Dr. John Kyle as he delves into the profound truths of Ephesians 2:8-9, exploring how salvation comes not by works but through grace. In this episode of Expository Truths, uncover the depths of what it means to be saved by faith, as Dr. Kyle unpacks Paul’s teachings to the Ephesians. Discover how this ancient message carries relevance and hope for us today, shedding light on the transformative power of God’s amazing grace.
Welcome to Expository Truths, where we exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with Dr. John Kyle, pastor of Faith Community Church in Vacaville. As Christians, we’re called to know the truth and be able to proclaim it. We can know truth when we know the Word of God, which is precise, without error, and powerful and effective for both salvation and spiritual growth. Enjoy digging deeply with Dr. Kyle as he takes us verse by verse through the powerful book of Ephesians, giving us a marvelous summary of the good news of Christ and its implications for our daily lives.
SPEAKER 02 :
Please turn your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 through 9. Ephesians 2, 8-9. The letter of Ephesians was written by the Apostle Paul to the faithful saints living in the city of Ephesus. Paul wrote this, if you remember, while he was under house arrest in Rome in about AD 62. And he wrote it to lay a proper doctrinal foundation for these believers so they could then live out those doctrines for the glory of God. We’re now in the doctrinal section of this book that’s found in chapters 1 through 3. Chapter 1 is basically two long sentences. The first sentence showed us the many amazing reasons that we can and should bless and praise our amazing God. And the second sentence was a prayer by Paul for the Ephesians that we today should be praying for ourselves and for each other as we earnestly pursue the things that we are praying for. Chapter 2 began by telling us that we’re all dead before God saved us. And the good news is that God is rich in mercy. Anybody? Right? He’s rich in mercy. He’s great in love. He made us alive because He’s incredibly gracious. He raised us up to life and gave us His divine power for victorious living. And then to top it all off, He will show us His abundant grace and kindness throughout all of eternity. But God… And He changes everything. Paul continues on in verses 8 through 9. Let’s go ahead and look at that. Verse 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It’s a gift of God, not by works, so that no one should boast. Now, here in this passage, we see the fact which is this, that we, in Christ, we have been saved by grace. Saved from what? Saved from eternal wrath. Saved from the wrath of God against sin. The word saved means to rescue from peril, danger, or destruction. And here, this is talking about your soul being rescued from eternal destruction, from everlasting punishment in hell because of your sin. And look, being saved from that means everything. Right? I mean, nothing else really matters if you’re not saved from that. Right? But if you are saved, then everything else pales in comparison. See, this is the issue. Are you saved? Are you saved? This is what matters. And please note that everyone needs saving. Remember the first part of chapter 2 made it clear that everyone is dead in trespasses and sins. That everyone is a sinner by nature and by choice. That everyone is a slave to sin. That Satan owned us and the wages of sin is death, eternal destruction and hell. Why so high a price? Because sin is a crime against the God of the universe, the Almighty God. And the God of the universe is holy and He’s infinite. And the wages of sin is in proportion to the one to whom that sin has been committed. Therefore, you must pay the wages of your sin for an infinite amount of time in hell, or else a holy and infinite one must pay for your sin as your substitute in your place one time. But who’s able to do that? Christ. Only one, right? Jesus Christ, God the Son. Only one. Jesus, who is 100% God and 100% man at the same time. The only one who was willing and able and worthy to pay the ransom price of our souls. And so He came. Jesus, God the Son, left heaven and He came here. He lived a perfect life. He died on the cross in the sinner’s place and He rose up from the dead and through faith in Him, because of what He did on that cross, because of His amazing grace, you can be saved. You can be saved. How is that possible? Because on the cross, Jesus took the sin of every person who would ever believe in all of history onto Himself and God the Father punished Jesus for all that sin so that He wouldn’t have to punish you. See, Jesus became the believer’s substitute for sin. Jesus paid up what you couldn’t ever pay up. And in return, He gives you, the believer, His righteousness that fits you perfectly for heaven. And now, because of Christ, for everyone who believes, the thing that banishes us from heaven, sin, that’s taken away, it’s paid for in full, and it’s forgiven completely. Result? Saved. Heaven. Glory forever. Hey, talk about good news. Again, this is the best news ever by far. Hey, hell is wretched. And guess what? You don’t want to go there. You don’t want to go there. Biblically, there’s a real place called hell that’s both terrible and suffering and eternal in duration. God is a God of holy justice, and hell is the place where that justice is dispensed and where the wicked will receive the exact measure of punishment that’s due them. It’s a wretched place. And one of the most terrifying truths about hell is that it’s eternal. See, all who pass through its gates are without any hope of future redemption or restoration. Rather, they are eternally condemned. Why? Because of the wretched nature of sin. And just as eternal life is true of every believer, so is eternal dying and punishment true for the Christ rejecter. Scripture has some very vivid descriptions of hell, and none of them are good. Fire. Throughout the Scriptures, the idea of fire is used to communicate the judgment and wrath of God revealed against sin and the sinner. And just as terrifying and intensely painful as literal fire to a burning person, it can’t begin to describe the fire of God’s wrath that’s measured out against the wicked in hell. eternal and unquenchable fire. The emphasis here is that the sufferings of the wicked in hell are forever. There’s no hope of redemption or restoration for those in hell. There will never be any relief for the condemned. Lake of fire and brimstone. This description is given to communicate the immensity and power of hell. Furnace of fire, speaking of intensity. In a furnace, all the terrifying elements of fire are intensified. And here, we find that the intensity of hell’s sufferings will never be diminished. Outer darkness, speaking of alienation, and telling us that the inhabitants of hell are cast out and no place is found for them. They’re not only alienated from God, but from fellowship with others. See, hell is a place of absolute and unbearable isolation, apart from the life and light of God. Doom and hopelessness are related to such darkness. Hell is also described as a second death. The thought that the wicked will live in a state of never-ending death. Yes, they’ll have conscious existence, but with none of the blessings and the hopes and the joys of life. This brief description tells us very clearly that of all the terrors that could ever come upon a soul, hell is by far the worst. And guess what? This is what Christ saves us from. You see? And not only that, but He gives us eternal glory, eternal bliss, eternal joy, eternal satisfaction, eternal life with God and His people forever. This means everything. And look, this all comes by God’s grace. That’s it. We’re saved. We’re rescued. Delivered from this wrath by the grace of God. What is grace? Grace is God’s unmerited favor towards sinners who don’t deserve it. Grace is everything for nothing to those who don’t deserve anything. Grace is God’s free and undeserved bounty. In salvation, people who deserve hell obtain heaven because of God’s grace that flows from the cross. See, God owes me absolutely nothing, but He offers me complete salvation because of His grace alone. Grace is the work of God for undeserving men and women. And it encompasses everything, every good thing that we receive from Him. And it’s by God’s grace that anyone is saved. Note that this is the second time that Paul has said that we’re saved by grace in just a couple of verses. Verse 5, and then it’s also said here in verse 8. Why? Because Paul knew that he needed to repeat himself or people would easily forget what he taught. So, Let this sink in. We are saved by grace alone. Okay? We’re saved by the grace of God alone. It’s all Him. You deserve hell forever. We all do, and it’s only by God’s grace that you have anything good, let alone eternal salvation. Grace, grace, God’s grace. Anybody? Grace that is greater than all our sin. The grace of God. Look what Paul adds. We’re saved by grace through grace. Faith. The word through serves as a marker by which something is accomplished. So salvation is all of grace and the instrument or means that it flows through is faith. Faith alone. Or as the reformers called it, sola fide. Faith alone. What is faith? Faith speaks of trust, confidence, reliance, and assurance. And here, the call is to put your trust, reliance, confidence, and assurance in Christ alone. In His words and in His work for who He is and for what He’s done. Note that biblical faith, saving faith, is much more than just mere intellectual assent, because even the demons believe and shudder, and they’re certainly not saved. Instead, saving faith includes at least three main elements. First, a firm persuasion or conviction. Second, a surrender to that conviction. And then third, a conduct emanating from that surrender. So biblically, if you have true faith in God, saving faith, then it’s going to show in the way that you live your life. Why? Because true biblical saving faith demands it. Because biblical faith can’t help but live out this deep conviction that we have about God. I believe it. I have a deep conviction about it. And I put my whole trust in Christ as Lord and Savior. And it shows. I mean, how could it not show? Right? Biblically saving faith is a gift of God. Again, it’s all His grace where you, through the Holy Spirit, come to the conclusion that He is who He says He is, and He did what He said He did, and He will do what He says He will do, even though you can’t see it. Oh yes, once you’ve seen, it’s easy to believe, but real faith is believing without seeing. It’s the conviction of things not seen, Hebrews 11.1. And then it’s living on the basis of that conviction. The Heidelberg Catechism says that true faith created in me by the Holy Spirit through the Gospel is not only a knowledge and conviction that everything that God reveals in His Word is true, but also a deep-rooted assurance that not only others, but I too, have had my sins forgiven. have been made forever right with God, and have been granted salvation. These are gifts of sheer grace earned for us by Christ and by Christ alone. And that’s right. And may I also add, true faith looks ahead. Right? True faith has a firm conviction and confidence that the best really is yet to come because God says so. And I trust Him implicitly for salvation and for life now and then also for the life to come. Can’t wait. Faith. Faith alone. Note that this is true for every soul that’s ever been saved in human history. That we are saved by God’s grace through faith. That’s it. I’ve heard people say, people were saved by works in the Old Testament and they’re saved by grace in the New Testament. That is wrong. That’s not true. Instead, people have always been saved the same way. By grace, through faith, and not at all by works, not ever. Always God has saved men by grace, men and women, by grace, through faith, and there is no other way. In Romans chapter 4, the Apostle Paul cites Genesis 15, 6. Abraham believed God, faith, And it was accounted to him or credited to him as righteousness. So again, here we see people have always been saved, justified, declared righteous, right, and perfectly fitted for heaven. They’ve been saved by faith alone. And while Abraham was saved by faith in the one who would come, we are saved by faith in the one who has come. I doubt Abraham understood everything about Christ and what He would do for him years down the line on the cross, but he believed what God had said to him up to that point. He knew that he was a sinner in desperate need of forgiveness and grace, and he surrendered to the Lord in true repentant faith, and he sought to love Him and to live for His glory. And look, when he put his faith in God alone to save him, guess what? God saved him by grace through faith. He believed God, and God accounted it to him as righteousness. In other words, Abraham put his faith in God to save him, and righteousness was then credited or imputed to his spiritual account. Now we know that the reason Abraham was able to be credited with righteousness, which is what he needed to go to heaven, is because of what Jesus would do for him years down the line in the future. And because Jesus, who was God, was perfectly righteous, we know that Abraham’s sin was rolled forward and placed onto Christ, who died so Abraham could live and go to heaven. And in return, Christ’s perfect righteousness was credited to Abraham’s spiritual account. A great trade-off occurred. One writer said it like this, in the case of the Lord Jesus, Abraham’s sin and every true believer’s sin was charged to Christ. In the case of Abraham and every other believing sinner in human history, including us, the righteousness of God, Christ Jesus himself, is put to his account. That’s absolutely right. So again, everyone is saved the same way. Faith alone, because of God’s amazing grace. It’s interesting to note that Abraham was saved 15 years before he was circumcised, so the Jewish people can say that any external act saved Abraham. No, it was faith, always faith alone by grace. Paul goes on and adds that we’re saved by grace through faith, and it’s not of ourselves or of our own works. Verses 8 through 9 again, let me read it. By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it’s a gift of God. not by works lest anyone should boast. So you can’t save yourself, right? And your own good works mean nothing, absolutely nothing, when it comes to your salvation. I mean, Scripture is very clear about that. Many people don’t believe this, and that’s why this is so very important for us to understand. This was a major problem in the early church, especially in the Galatian churches. And so Paul talks about this in Galatians chapter 1, when he warns the church about those who come in and they teach another gospel, which is no gospel at all. What were they doing? Well, they were coming in and they were twisting Scripture. They were saying that we aren’t saved by faith alone. They were adding to Scripture, which is heresy. The false teachers of Galatia were called Judaizers. The Judaizers were Jews who had made a superficial profession of Christ, but who then turned back to their Judaism and they then sought to turn Christianity into a works-based religion, into a mixture of Judaism and Christianity. So these guys came into the early church and they basically taught that God still required everyone to observe certain rituals and laws in order to be accepted by Him. Apparently, the Judaizers were attempting to force Gentile Christians to live under the regulations of the Mosaic law, the Old Testament law. One of the specific elements of the law that the Judaizers stressed was the practice of circumcision, where they said that you couldn’t Hear me out. They said you couldn’t be truly saved unless you first became circumcised. Now, circumcision was commanded in Genesis chapter 17, and it was an outward sign of man’s participation in Israel’s covenant or agreement with God. But here’s the thing. Since Christ came and died on the cross, Jesus completed the law, He fulfilled the law, and we today are no longer under that law. See, it’s not about circumcision or eating kosher and so on, no. It’s about Christ and what He accomplished for us on the cross. And then, once we’re saved, it’s about honoring Him out of our intense love for who He is and for what He did, not to earn something that we already have, but to glorify Him because we are compelled by passionate love to do so. False religion says that you need to work your way to get into heaven or that you need to help God get you into heaven. Christ and. Faith and. Grace and. And that’s exactly what the Judaizers were teaching. True religion, however, Christianity, the Bible, says that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, not by works so that no one can boast. And so they’re diminishing Christ. and what he did, and what he accomplished. They’re saying, Christ didn’t really do enough to save us. They’re basically saying that you’ve got to let Moses finish what Christ began. What? Or rather, you must yourself finish, by your obedience to the law, what Christ began. Or, you must add your works to the work of Christ. You must finish Christ’s unfinished work. That is called heresy. See, it’s not faith and. It’s faith alone. There’s no and in the Gospel. You add one work to grace and you’ve reversed it and you’ve turned it into a works-based system which is no Gospel at all. Again, works only come after true salvation to prove who and whose we are, but never before. Never before. See, praying seven times a day won’t get you into heaven. Being baptized won’t get you into heaven, and baptism isn’t a part of salvation. Giving money won’t get you into heaven. Going to church won’t get you into heaven. Not that prayer and being baptized and giving and going to church aren’t good, but they aren’t what saves you. Jesus alone saves by His amazing grace through faith in Him alone. Biblical grace is undeserved favor. It is God’s blessing on the truly unworthy. We’re saved by grace alone, not by a mixture of God’s grace and our good works. No, it’s all God. From first to last, it’s all. Every bit of it is undeserved. Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith. And grace isn’t God doing 95 or even 99.9% with us making up the difference. No, grace is God doing 100% of it where we recognize that we are completely unworthy and have nothing to contribute. You say, okay, but what about faith? I put my faith in Him. I did that. But look, faith itself is a gift of grace from God. So again, all the glory goes to Him, not of yourselves. It’s a gift of God. Right? Verse 8. That statement refers to the entirety of salvation from beginning to end. And although people are required to believe for salvation, again, look, even that faith is part of the gift of God which saves, and it’s something that can’t be exercised by one’s own power. In Philippians 1.29, Paul says, “…for to you it’s been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him…” but to also suffer for His sake. So both belief and suffering are gifts from God. You say, suffering, a gift? Yes, because Christians grow most through suffering. You say, belief, a gift? Yes, because dead men and women can’t believe unless God awakens them. And when He awakens them and makes us alive and gives us faith, our first response is to believe and accept the salvation that He freely offers. But here’s the point. God’s grace is preeminent in every aspect of salvation. It’s all grace. In light of this amazing truth, guess what? No boasting. Lest anyone should boast. Now look, if any part of salvation, including the faith that saves, comes from us, then we have some grounds for a little bit of boasting. But if salvation is totally of the Lord, then He alone gets all the glory. Paul’s conclusion, we have no reason to boast at all in ourselves when it comes to salvation. The word boast means to publicly display and proclaim your contentment with your own achievements. Look at me. Look at what I did. Look at how good I am. So you’re very proud of yourself and then you boast about it. But we have no grounds for boasting in ourselves of any kind. Look, Paul says that when it comes to heaven, we have nothing whatsoever to boast about. We are saved because of a gracious gift of God to which we contribute nothing. Now, sometimes we say we’re saved by faith. When we say that, we think that we’re saved because we have more faith than the other guy. And we say, if you had more faith like me, then you could be saved as well. That’s wrong. Again, all the credit goes to the Lord. None goes to us. Biblical grace leaves no place for satisfaction in one’s own achievement. Salvation is all of God. So, boasting is excluded. And the tense of the word means that it’s excluded once and for all. Never do it. Not ever. Hey, you’re no better than anyone else. Right? We know this. Maybe we’re a lot worse. We’re no better than anyone else. We’re all undeserving, wretched sinners who deserve wrath. There’s no boasting except in God. This should impact the way that we live. This should impact the way that we live radically. And we’ll see that next week when we look at verse 10. But does this impact you? No. Does this not capture your heart? Does this not fill you to the brim with love for a God who would do all of this for you? An undeserving rebel like you and me? This is what the Bible teaches. It’s wholly Him. You owe it all to Him. You know, this is good news for every sinner because this means that there is hope for every sinner. Because if salvation depended on me, then no one would be saved because we’re dead. But if it depends on the Lord who is good, anybody? And gracious and merciful and kind and loving and mighty to save, then guess what? There’s hope for all of us, even for the worst of sinners. Hey, never give up hope for a lost soul because God can do it. God can do it. May our hearts be filled with love for our amazing God today, our God of amazing grace.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thanks for joining us for today’s exposition from the book of Ephesians on Expository Truths with Dr. John Kyle. Continue on with us next week at this same time, and to find this sermon in its entirety as well as other sermons, visit vacavillefaith.org. Faith Community Church seeks to exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with a commitment to glorifying God through the pure, deep, and reaching message of the gospel through faithful exposition. Pastor John is the preaching pastor at Faith Community Church of Vacaville, a seminary professor, and a trainer of preaching pastors overseas. Join Faith Community Church for worship Sundays at 9 and 1045 a.m. Located at 192 Bella Vista Road, Suite A in Vacaville. To learn more, visit vacavillefaith.org or call 707-451-2026. That’s vacavillefaith.org.
