His Love Ministries
Episodes
Thursday Jan 30, 2014
Thursday Jan 30, 2014
Ephesians 2:4 But
God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5
even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by
grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit
together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He
might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in
Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
God’s
Work for Us (4-10)
The focus
of attention now is on God, not on sinful man. “Salvation is of the Lord”
(Jonah 2:9).
We are
reminded of five activities that God performed on behalf of sinners to save
them from the consequences of their sins.
He Loved Us
By nature, “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
He Made Us Alive
This means He made
us alive, even when we were dead in sins. He accomplished this spiritual
resurrection by the power of the Spirit, using the Word
·
Even when dead in trespasses
·
By His grace we have been saved
·
v6 God raised us with Christ - He exalted us
This describes our spiritual, not
physical experience.
Made to sit with Him in heavenly places (to
enjoy his fellowship)
The
Purpose of Salvation
·
v7 He keeps us –
·
Note
that verses 1-3 describe what we were in the past, verses 4-6 what we are in
the present, and verse 7 what we shall be in the future.
3. v8 He gives us Salvation - Saved by grace through faith - God’s riches at Christ’s
expense
a.
Not of ourselves, it is the gift of
God
Grace
means that God does it all for Jesus’ sake!
Salvation
is a gift of God. It does not find its source in man. Furthermore, this
salvation is not “out of a source of works.” This explains salvation by grace.
It is not produced by man nor earned by him. It is a gift from God with no strings tied to it. Paul presents the
same truth in Ro 4:4 -6
V9 Not of works, lest any man should boast
No
one will be able to boast that he or she has done something that earned him or
her salvation. All the glory will go to God for accomplishing salvation.
"Since we have not been saved by our good works, we
cannot be lost by our bad works."
Sin
worked against us and God worked for us, but the great work of conversion is just
the beginning.
v10 We are God's workmanship – God Works In Us
Here
Paul gave the reason salvation is not from man or by works. Rather than
salvation being a masterpiece that we have produced, regenerated believers are
a masterpiece that God has produced.
"Workmanship" (Gr. poieme, from which we get the word
"poem"; cf. Rom. 1:20) means a work of art, a masterpiece. The
Jerusalem Bible translated it "work of art" here.
·
Created in Christ Jesus to walk in
good works,
As a master worker, God has created us in Christ Jesus.
The word translated "created" here (Gr. ktizo) describes only God's
activity and denotes something He alone can produce.
Good works are not
the roots from which salvation grows but the fruit God intends it to bear. God
has not saved us because of our works (vv. 8- 9), but He has saved us to do
good works (v. 10). which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
". . . God has
prepared a path of good works for believers which He will perform in and
through them as they walk by faith. This does not mean doing a work for God;
instead, it is God's performing His work in and through believers.
To walk is to regulate one’s life, to conduct one’s self,
to order one’s behavior.”
·
Which God prepared beforehand
In other words, our conversion is not the end;
it is the beginning. We are a part of God’s “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17), and
God continues to work in us to make us what He wants us to be. His purpose is
to make us more like Christ (Rom. 8:29).
But how does God work in us? Through His Holy
Spirit, “both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13). Christ
finished His work of redemption on the cross, but He arose from the dead and
returned to heaven. There He carries on His unfinished work of perfecting His
church (Eph. 4:7–16; Heb. 13:20–21).
Christ is equipping us for our walk and our work here on
earth. To do this, He uses three special tools: the Word of God (1 Thes. 2:13),
prayer (Eph. 3:20–21), and suffering (1 Peter 4:11–14). As we read God’s Word,
understand it, meditate on it, and feed on it, the Word goes to work in our
lives to cleanse us and nourish us. As we pray, God’s Spirit works in us to
release power. And as we suffer, the Spirit of God ministers to us. Suffering
drives us back to the Word and prayer, and the cycle is repeated.
Too many Christians think that
conversion is the only important experience, and that nothing follows.
We are perfected by
the Word, Prayer, and Suffering
Moses 40 years to prepare him for 40 years of
desert wanderings
At the beginning of his ministry, Moses was
impetuous and depended on his own strength. He killed an Egyptian and had to
flee Egypt, hardly a successful way to start a ministry. But during those 40
years as a humble shepherd in the desert, Moses experienced God’s working in
his life, a working that prepared him for forty more years of magnificent
service.
Joseph 13 years to
prepare him for the throne of Egypt second to Pharaoh
David many years in exile to prepare him for
the throne of Israel
Paul 3 years in the desert of Arabia to
prepare him for Ministry
God has to work in us before He can work
through us;
Mt 5:16 Let your
light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your
Father which is in heaven.
Our good works
show that Christ lives in us.
Lessons
1.
We were
Sinners, but God is our Savior
2.
We were
made into a new creation
3.
We were
saved not by works, but because God wanted to show His glory through His Mercy
and grace
4.
We are
His Masterpiece
5.
He made
us to do good works after our salvation, works are the fruit of salvation, not
the cause or root of it.