Saved by grace

Fa583

Good morning and welcome in today. Today we are and take a look at the following scripture.

Eph 2:8-10

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.

¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

He teaches by grace are you saved through faith. In order to be saved you have to have faith and trust in God. Because of that, you have to understand what that truly is. Faith is complete confidence or trust in somebody or something. It is also a strong belief in God and the doctrines of Christianity.

Faith is defined as loyalty to duty or to a person or a thing. We are saved by grace but it is through faith. Real faith results in obedience to Christ and the things that he teaches. We have forgiveness and mercy with God in the Christian church but if you truly have faith it’s going to result in a changed life.

Salvation is a gift from God. Salvation with God is something that you cannot earn.

How many of you ever received a gift during certain days of your life. A gift is something that is given willingly to somebody else without any kind of payment or remuneration. It is a present. A gift is something that is voluntarily transferred from one person to another without any kind of compensation.

The gift that God gives unto each of us is forgiveness which He doesn’t require any compensation for. God simply forgives us of our sins. That is the way that God wants to treat us to treat each other in the church. he wants us to be merciful with each other as he is merciful towards us. Salvation is something that we cannot obtain by ourselves.

…by grace are you saved through faith.

We cannot earn our salvation. There is nothing we can do but admit the fact that we are sinners. We have to come to God and accept the fact that we need His mercy. By Grace we are saved. It’s about accepting the fact that we’ve all come short of the glory of God and apologizing for what we have done. The grace of God is a gift He grant’s us. Granted, none of us are worthy of this gift but he gives it to us anyway.

Imagine being a child who gets a gift but you feel that you have to repay it. If you feel that way it’s really not a gift. A gift is something that comes without any kind of strings attached. A gift of something that is given completely voluntary without any kind of payment back.

Imagine somebody giving you a gift at a birthday party but they told you that you needed to cut their lawn in return for the gift. Was it truly a gift then? A gift does not have any kind of attachment.

Imagine going to a celebration somewhere when everybody brought you a bunch of presents. All the people there demanded that you pay for each of your presents. Those are not gifts. The scriptures clearly teach us that we cannot save ourselves God grants us a gift but we have to trust and believe in his forgiveness. You are saved through faith which means to trust in his forgiveness and not in ourselves.

Forgiveness is a free gift from God. Not of works lest any man should boast. No matter how many good deeds and nice things that you do to others, we cannot inherit eternal salvation by works alone.

The proud Pharisee boasted about his religious works and achievements yet it was the humble publican who was justified before God and forgiven. We are not saved by our own works.

To boast about oneself means to speak about your own accomplishments. It Is by grace that we are saved. It Is by God’s mercy and forgiveness that any of us good ever inherit eternal life someday. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Because of that scripture, all of us need to receive God’s forgiveness.

We cannot inherit heaven by our own works. We inherit Heaven because of the works of Christ. We inherit Heaven because of what Jesus did for us at the cross. It is His gift unto us. No matter what we could ever do, we cannot save ourselves. Salvation is accepting the truth that we are all sinners. It is accepting the truth about God’s forgiveness.

Salvation is not of works because it causes you to boast and to speak highly of yourself. When you boast means to talk about yourself with satisfaction. You talk about your own abilities. To boast is to speak about something that is a source of pride and self satisfaction in your life. Our boast is in the Lord Jesus and we praise the one who died on the cross for our sins.

When you boast about yourself, it means to talk proudly about your own abilities. When the Apostle Paul spoke about his own achievements, he said,..not I but the grace of God that was in him. Paul’s boast was in what Jesus was doing in him.

The gift of Salvation is not of works. Salvation is ultimately a gift of God’s mercy and Grace. God wants us to repent and turn from sin. Salvation is not of works and that’s why everybody needs to come to Christ Jesus. All of us have a sin issue that needs to be taken care of. All of us have come short of the glory of God. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God before ordained that we should walk in them.

Workmanship is something that is made or produced. The scriptures teach that we are His workmanship.

I want you to think about something for just a moment. Imagine that you created a painting. It took you numerous hours to do it. You finally took credit for it because after all, you made the painting. Everything that we are and everything that we could ever become is because of Christ’s workmanship in our lives.

It is God that gives us the abilities that each of us have. We cannot boast about things in our lives that God’s grace is doing through our forgiven hearts.

When we become believers in the Lord Jesus Christ we are commanded to be filled with good works. We are created by Christ Jesus unto good works. We cannot attain salvation by what we do as the Apostle Paul taught. We are all sinners who come short of the glory of God. Good works result in our lives because of what Jesus is going through us.

God wants us to become perfected. We are perfected through good works.

Salvation is a gift from God. It is a result of faith towards Christ. Without faith a person will not be saved. You must have faith because the scriptures teach us that it is by grace that you are saved through faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God. It’s not of works lest any man should boast.

We cannot attain salvation by our own works, we have to come to Christ Jesus for forgiveness. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. God wants us to do good and kind things to other people. What’s required is that you have faith and trust in the person who God sent to deliver you from your sins. Jesus is that person. God wants us to be forgiving with others in the church too.

Think about those things for today and Lord willing we will talk to you some more tomorrow. Till then bye-bye everybody.