Sola Gratia - Transcript
And we are going to be in Ephesians chapter 2 have your Bibles go ahead and open up Ephesians chapter 2 looking specifically at it from the context of sola gratia grace Alone, there's a lot of passages you could go to to talk about grace alone But this is one of the foremost and so we're just going to spend time in this Enjoying what we see but tonight we're continuing on in our series of the five solas Looking at the five big themes of the Reformation seeking to find out why they still Matter or in other words trying to answer the question. Are we as Protestants? Still protesting and the answer is yes. The answer is yes. We are still Protesting a resounding Yes, there is a danger in idolizing the past, but there's a greater danger in forgetting the past
Altogether and so we look back to learn ancient timeless principles Applied to our own time and hearts today again the five solas. We are looking at sola scriptura scripture alone sola gratia Grace alone sola fide faith alone solus Christus Christ alone and soli deo gloria to the glory of God alone. Those are the big five We will add to it semper refer manda always Reforming that's also a principle that comes out of the Reformation But tonight as I said is the second of these sola gratia
Showcased for us in the first eight verses of Ephesians 2 Wonderful text to lean on let me read it and I'll tell you how I'm gonna break it down then we'll get there Ephesians 2 1 to 8 and You were dead and it trespasses in sins in which you once walked Following the course of this world following the prince of the power of the air The spirit that is now at work in the sons of Disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind but God Being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us
Even when we were dead in our trespasses Made us alive together with Christ by grace You have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing It is the gift of God Two points here verse 1 to 3 we see the hopelessness without Christ and In verse 4 to 8 we see hopefulness with Christ
First the hopelessness without Christ as Paul begins Ephesians chapter 2 he makes a resounding statement about the hopelessness. That is our natural Condition he says and you were dead in your trespasses and sins this is Absolute Every man and every woman born into this world is not born in danger of death But born into spiritual death Paul goes on to describe what kind of life this death Produces so in our spiritual death. We live generally life following the course of this World what world the world ruled by Satan or the prince of the power of the air? So by following the course of his world
We're really following him and by following him this makes us sons and daughters of Disobedience, what do sons of disobedience do they live in the passions of the flesh? They carry out the desires of the body and they give room for the immoral desires of the mind to grow what's the conclusion of Paul for this sinful living verse 3 we are by nature Children of wrath This is not Paul. Just discussing or describing some drugged out segment of society or the populations that fill prisons. All mankind is in view here. You, me, everybody is in view. Every person we've ever met, every day throughout our entire life.
Accordingly, there are only two kinds of people in the world according to Paul, according to the Bible. This is not bad guys and good guys. The scriptures show us there are bad guys and Jesus. That's the view of the Bible. This means that we are naturally not prone to or naturally given to improvement, but deprovement. We devolve lower and lower and lower into wickedness unless interrupted, but we'll get there. People often come to me wanting to talk about their struggles and they say something like, pastor, I have fallen into sin. It's a great place to begin. It's a great place to begin a conversation, to explore what's going on in the life of somebody in someone's struggle, but it's not exactly accurate.
And it's helpful to point that out at some time in a conversation when someone comes to you with this type of verbiage. It's not exactly accurate. And this text points it out. Nobody falls into sin. We jump. We sin because we want to. We do not sin because someone hurt us or someone sinned against us. We sin because we love sin. The sooner that we embrace that and understand that and see our sin as a battle over what we love and our misguided affections, the sooner we can be on the mend from such struggles. The question, after looking at these first three verses, is very clear, very simple,
and very profound. It's do you believe this? Do you agree with Paul in his assessment of all mankind? Or do you think more highly of yourself than Paul? Many people would read this and they say, wait a minute, everybody I know from babies to toddlers to children to teenagers to young men and women to middle-aged to the retired, they all seem to be bubbling with imagination and stories and life and vibrancy. They all seem to think deeply and burst with creativity and are fully alive in many ways. Sure, according to worldly standards, they might be, but according to biblical standards, they are spiritually dead apart from Christ. Everybody on the planet might be alive and thriving according to the standards of culture,
but according to eternal standards, according to biblical standards, we are born spiritually six feet under. And so, this is the verdict, all mankind, we are born blind to true beauty, dead to true delight, rebellious to true redemption, cold to true clarity, frozen to true feeling, and numb to true knowing. Throughout history, many have engaged with this view. Three views of man and our fallen condition have generally been taught. Pelagius, early on near Augustine's lifetime, would put forward that man is fine and well on his own. He does not need God in order to arrive at a right relationship with God. He's not as fallen as Augustine says.
He's not as bad as many say Paul says he is. He is actually righteous and can on his own work back to God. This is humanism. Later on, we have... That's Pelagius. Later on, we have this halfway view, semi-Pelagian view, where man is believed to be sick and in need of medicine to aid our natural abilities or natural effort in order to come back to Christ. We just need a little help. We need a little help. So Pelagius, Pelagian view, man is fine and on his own can return to God, semi-Pelagian,
man needs a little bit of help from God to get back to God, then we have Augustinianism or the biblical view, I'd say Paul's point of view, man is dead. sin and the only thing required, needed for man to come back to God is resurrection. That's what we need. So we are, bottom line, hopeless without Christ. Now I've not forgotten that we're talking about sola gratia tonight, not total depravity. This is in view. So why go into all this understanding about the true nature of our sin? Well, through sailing the seas of man's corruption, we come to far greater waters, the ocean of God's grace. It is vaster, it is deeper, it is wider, and it is without shore.
It's beautiful. So let's move on, verse four to eight, a hopefulness with Christ. Paul transitions here out of our natural helplessness and hopelessness without Christ to our hopefulness with Christ by beginning with two of the most promising words in Scripture. Many have said this, rightly so, it's a wonderful moment in verse four, but God. These two words represent a new beginning, a break from our sinful past, a miraculous act of a sovereign, gracious God. Our sin is such that we know that there is no human means of accomplishing our own redemption, accomplishing our own resurrection. We cannot do enough. We are not enough.
If any man is to be saved, God must intervene. And these two words tell us that He has done just that, that He has done just that. His intervention into the mess of mankind, His breaking into our brokenness is of His grace. It is all by grace. All throughout the Old Testament, we see this. So by the time we get to Ephesians 2.4, this should not be surprising. It's been happening all along in the Old Testament. Long ago, God was gracious to an undeserving first couple when they first fell by clothing their shame and nakedness with bloody animal skins. He then called and covenanted with Abraham.
He redeemed Israel out of bondage. He gave them the law to reorder their life. He instituted the sacrificial system. He met with them in the tabernacle. He fed them in the wilderness. He spoke to them through the prophets. All of this was grace. All of this was undeserved. More so, we should say all of it was unmerited. And I think we can go further. All the grace of God to man is not only undeserved and unmerited, it's demerited.
We have actively done much to not deserve it, to rid ourselves of the benefit of grace, and yet God gave it anyway. It is demerited favor. Grace is. He was gracious to His Old Testament, Old Covenant people again and again and again until one day the fullness of time had come and God came Himself one more time intervening in the incarnation when Christ Himself broke into our world. The author of the play walked on stage. So God's grace then, how do we define it? Is not some kind of divine benevolence that's vague and undefined toward all mankind. It's not some large smiley divine being who's always cheery.
God's grace is more than His demerited favor. Ultimately, God's grace is a person. The Lord Jesus Christ. This is the grace of God. Look how Paul describes this in the text. Being rich in mercy. Why? Because of the great love with which He loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses. What did God do? He made us alive together with Christ. Back in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 15 to 20, Paul prays for the Ephesians and this church.
He pleads with God in verse 19 and 20 of that chapter that they would know, quote, the immeasurable greatness of God's power toward those who believe according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead. So you see the connection between Paul's prayer and then Paul's teaching. The prayer in chapter 1 and his teaching here in chapter 2. Paul prays that they would know God's great power toward those who believe, power that God mightily displayed through raising Christ from the dead. Then in chapter 2 verse 5, we find that we come to know great resurrection power, not only in beholding Christ's resurrection, but by experiencing our own resurrection from spiritual death to spiritual life when we believe and trust in Christ. And so God did this, how?
Through his immeasurable great might. So Paul's own prayer for this church in chapter 1 verse 19 and 20 is seemingly answered in chapter 2 verse 5 or described in chapter 2 verse 5 when it describes the conversion experience of faith and trusting in Christ. And just in case we don't get it, Paul inserts a little note after verse 5, by grace you have been saved. This little comment lets us know that our salvation, this resurrecting redemption is all of grace. Then in verse 6 he shows us that on that a resurrection from death to life through God's grace in the gospel takes us where Christ's resurrection took him. After Christ made satisfaction for sins and rose from the grave, he ascended on high and
he took a seat at the father's right hand to rule and reign over all things. When God's grace intervenes then in our dead hearts and he raises us to new life, he unites us to Christ. So much so that where Christ is now, we spiritually go also. Where Christ is now, we spiritually are there also. So just as we were once physically alive but spiritually dead apart from Christ, so to now we're physically present here on earth, but once we believe we are spiritually present with Christ in heaven. It's just a bonkers thought to think about that this actually what's going on. This means our new life in Christ is and must be new, entirely new, different, vastly different than our life before Christ.
Back in verse 2 and 3, Paul described our sinful life in the past tense. Did you notice that? Tense he used, in which you once walked among whom you once lived. So just as God broke into our fallen world and intervened in his grace through his son, so to once we are saved by that grace, our lives now must make a new break as well. As you once walked, as you once lived, means you no longer walk and you no longer live. That kind of life, a break away from the old and an opening up toward the new, specifically to use a language of verse 5 and 6. Our lives must break away from a life of sin and death and move toward a life of resurrection and the power of Christ and his resurrection. What is the source of such life in the gospel power?
The grace of God. That's the source. It's all of grace. In verse 7, Paul goes further. To give all this glorious gospel grace a unified purpose. Verse 7 then says, so that in the coming ages, God might show, display the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. So this is something of a purpose statement on why God gave such grace. He did this to display his grace of Christ to the entire world. That's what verse 7 says. The ultimate purpose of giving children of wrath his grace is to megaphone the marvelous
nature of his grace to the whole world from the beginning to the end of the ages. Lastly, in verse 8, Paul gives a... wonderful summary of all this stuff he's mentioned so far in chapter two for by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of God it cannot get any clearer you have to do so many mental and soulful gymnastics to get away and to insert works anywhere in here to say it's not all of grace is to reject scripture salvation comes by grace through faith this is not our own doing it is the gift of God just as a lion will choose to eat meat over wheat because of its nature so to a sinner will choose sin over righteousness because of their nature in order for a lion and the sinner to desire something and choose something that's naturally alien to their inclinations what has to happen an inner transformation has to happen and nature has to change a lion cannot do this a
sinner cannot do this we can amend ourselves certainly to look nicer to be kinder to be cleaner and to be neater but we cannot resurrect a dead heart from the grave to life there has to be someone greater than us outside of us to act upon us to bring us to where we cannot bring ourselves that is only the Lord and his grace so if we're to be saved God must come God must come and enter in by grace so our helplessness without Christ is really great our hopefulness with Christ is far greater this is the message of the gospel this is the gospel sola gratia was recovered in the Reformation and made much of because the gospel had been hidden under all this religious junk for ages and ages and ages that we are more sinful than we can ever imagine but in Christ Christ becoming like us living like us dying for us rising for us ascending for us ruling over us to return for us in Christ God loves us more than we could ever dare hope it's in this gospel the gospel that calls us to remember how holy God is how unholy we are how pure Christ is how he bore
our impurities defeated death for us and how we are now being called by God to repent and believe in Christ it's this gospel that we see the grace of God this is the grace of God so let's return to where we began today I found a quote earlier that was just wonderful there it is our original question was why does sola gratia matter so much in the Reformation to illustrate this let me take you to Luther's life the end of it actually he lived to be 62 62 years old let me paint the picture 29 years had passed since he nailed his 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg Germany being 62 old 62 years old and weary now from his life's work Luther was asked by another gospel preacher to come be a mediator in a family dispute in his hometown of Isleaben Germany through Luther's efforts the dispute was actually resolved but he fell ill in the process and he sensed that his end was near and so he wrote his last will and testament during this time his friend got wind of this named Justice Jonas and he came to his side and he asked Luther do you want to die standing
on Christ and the doctrine that you have taught us and Luther shouted from his bed yes very Luther like right and then as he's his friend heard the gospel again and again and again and read passages like Ephesians to Luther responded with these words these are his last words and then he died we are beggars, this is true." Interesting last words, right? Does that surprise you, his last words of all the things that this famous theologian who shook the world in his own time could have said? It doesn't seem very hopeful on the surface of things, does it? This is beggars, we are true. It does seem a little melancholy that he mentions his own sinful condition as his last words. I mean, this is Luther writing volumes and volumes and volumes on grace, but I don't
think they're strange. I'm rather strangely encouraged by such words. I think Luther knew what we need to remember. After laboring and sweating and agonizing and grinding his soul to the uttermost ends of his abilities and capacities in trying to reach God through monkery, his own words, he realized something that changed his life. He was not enough. He was a fallen man. He was truly helpless and was truly hopeless before God in his own works. This did not leave him despairing though, for at the time he came upon those first words from Romans chapter one, and he said, it was as if I entered the door through paradise
when he read in Paul's letter to the Romans, for I am not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live not by works or by penance, but by faith. In this Luther, he came to the end of himself and he found the beginning of life in Christ. And he learned that works really do save you, but not his. The works of Christ are more than enough to save sinners like us. Christ's work and Christ's work alone give us the grace of God. So when it came time for the reformer to die, he did not deny, he did not twist and did not run away from his own fallen nature, but affirmed, we are beggars, this is true.
In affirming such a statement, he affirmed not just our helplessness without Christ, but our great hope in the grace of Christ. It's kind of a Luther-like way of saying, by grace you have been saved, this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God. And so, the question that falls to us, how do I, a sinner, become right with a holy God? If our answer is anything other than what God has done, we're wrong and we're bankrupt. If our answer is anything about us, then we are bankrupt. But if our answer is the grace of God alone, there is much to hope for. Grace is not merely necessary, it is the sole cause of our salvation. And further, it is the sole reason for anything good, true, and beautiful in the life of a sinner. As Spurgeon would say, it is all of grace.
The quote I wanted to tell you, why does grace matter in the years of the Reformation? Sola gratia resounded so much in the 16th century because it reminded everybody that humanity is not reaching up to God, but grace is God reaching down to us. Amen.
Questions, thoughts, challenges, debate?
