The Solas-Sola Gratia

Grace alone

Ephesians 2:1-10

2 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² 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— ³ 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. ⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

 

We are in the midst of a brief study on the 5 solas of the Reformation. Last week we looked at the principle of sola scriptura- scripture alone. That is what the theologians called the formal principle. To the glory of God alone is the final principle. Grace, Faith, and Christ are a triad which make up the Material Principle of the Reformation. That is, they are the substance of our salvation. Our salvation is completely based upon the work of Christ, Faith is what we exercise to receive that salvation, and grace is what God does, which enables us to have faith.

 

This week while praying for the church, I was interrupted by my wife calling from the other room. I begrudgingly went to see what she was concerned about to discover a truck stuck in our ditch, sitting at almost a 90 degree angle, trying very much in vain to remove himself.  I went out to help him, but there was little I can do, but to assure him I wasn’t angry and wanted to help. He called a tow truck, but it wasn’t able to help, so they called another with a winch and cable. This finally pulled him out- and he drove off into the sunset. This incident illustrates the three major approaches to salvation

 

Your work- I could have told him, he was all on his own- “Pick the truck up out of the ditch.”

Part yours, part another- “Call a tow truck to get you half way out you do the rest.”

All another- “The tow truck will do all the work for you until you are on the street.”

 

These three approaches illustrate the various ways people try to approach salvation.

• Your work alone- Was the idea constructed by the monk Pelagius- also theological liberals.He believed that Grace is the natural capacity for doing good. The ability to do the right thing. Which all humans have separating them from animals. (Morality) St. Augustine soundly refuted the doctrines of Pelagius and he was eventually condemned as a heretic by the Catholic church/

However, by the time of the Reformation, the majority of the priests tended towards Pelaginaism.

• Part yours, part another- this illustrates what is called semi-pelagianism that God provides the opportunity to be saved, but you do the work. Grace plus works = salvation.This was the official position of the Catholic Church during the Reformation and continues to be so.

 

• All another- This is the biblical view, and the view clarified by the reformers with the Latin phrase Sola Gratia. It affirms that because of our sinful condition, we are completely dependent upon God to save us- there is nothing we can do to bring about our salvation.

 

Luther-

“To be convinced in our hearts that we have forgiveness of sins and peace with God by grace alone is the hardest thing.” God has surely promised His grace to the humbled: that is, to those who mourn over and despair of themselves….But a man cannot be thoroughly humbled till he realizes that his salvation is utterly beyond his own powers, counsels, efforts, will and works, and depends absolutely on the will, counsel, pleasure and work of Another -- God alone.

Calvin-

In vain people busy themselves with finding any good of man's own in his will. For any mixture of the power of freewill that men strive to mingle with God's grace is nothing but a corruption of grace. It is just as if one were to dilute wine with muddy, bitter water.

 

 

Outline

1. The Problem- Our Natural Condition (1-3)
2. The Principle- Saved by Grace Alone (4-9)
3. The Practice- Good works (10)

 

1. The Problem- Natural Condition (1-3)

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins ² 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— ³ 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.

 

Dead means dead. This is obviously not talking about literal death. Is speaking of spiritual death- before a person is saved they are spiritually dead. That is the condition of all people as they enter into the world. We are born spiritually dead. He describes this death by saying in trespasses and sins in which you walked. Both words, trespasses and sins, describe the breaking of God’s law, walked indicates that this was the way we lived.

 

Trespasses- breaking the law. You cross the line of what is acceptable. Notice this word is plural- meaning we do this a lot.

 

Sins- means literally to miss the mark. We fail to meet the standard God has set for us. We don’t hit any spiritual bulls’ eyes. We cannot reach the expectations he gives us. We struggle greatly with just the beginning of the ten commandments.

⁴ “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵ You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  (Deut 6:4)

 

The fact that we lived in continual trespassing and sin, simply illustrate the reality of our spiritually dead condition. We can’t help but sin.

 

Following the course of this world

This simply means we were doing what every other unbeliever was doing.

we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,

We did what we were not particularly concerned with what God wanted.

 

Following the prince of the power of the air

following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience

Quite simply this is describing Satan.

⁹ And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (Rev 12:9)

¹⁹ We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. (1 John 5:19)

We were puppets fulfilling his designs upon our lives.

 

We were slaves of Satan.

³⁴ Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. (John 8:34)

This is what Jesus meant when he told the religious leaders of his time-

⁴⁴ You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)

 

One might think- “I was doing my own will not Satan’s. I might not have been serving God- but my life wasn’t Satanic.” If you weren’t living according to God’s will you were doing Satan’s will. That is Satan’s will. Adam and Eve in the garden also thought they were just doing their own thing, they listened to Satan, did what he wanted, and the world has been full of suffering ever since.

 

The fact that we served Satan is primarily seen in what he says next,

³ among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind,

We lived according to our fleshly impulses and desires. We just did what we felt like. We were ruled by our own convictions and our own desires- but not God’s. And it was on account of this self-will that we were enemies of God and under his wrath.

 

Notice, that the problem is not simply that God was angry with us, but that our very nature called upon his wrath.  

What is wrath? Wrath is what the family members of those gunned down in Las Vegas recently feel towards Stephen Paddock. That is what God feels towards all unbelievers.

“The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.” (Ezra 8:22)

 

And notice this was our nature. Ours was a nature problem, not just an action problem. We needed a new nature, not just a new direction in life.

 

How can a person change their nature? Not to mention the fact that according to verse 1, they are spiritually dead. How does a dead person change his nature? This demonstrates how massive the problem is. There is nothing that one can do about it.

 

John Calvin, speaking of God says- he embodies sovereign justice; he is all purity and perfection and, therefore, he detests what is evil. Yet we are totally corrupt and there is only wickedness in us; it follows, therefore, that God must hate us. However, if he hates us, woe unto us, for we are damned. This is why we need to be justified before we can be pleasing to God. This means we must be cleansed from our sins and transgressions; otherwise, we could never appreciate God's mercy. (Calvin)

 

“So he [Paul in Titus 3:5-7] discards all boasted free will, all human virtue, righteousness, and good works.  He concludes that they are all nothing and are wholly perverted, however brilliant and worthy they may appear, and teaches that we must be saved solely by the grace of God, which is effective for all believers who desire it from a correct conception of their own ruin and nothingness.” (Luther)

 

Some of the worst words a person can hear in this life are- “the cancer is untreatable and you will die”…..

But what Paul is saying is even worse news. It is saying you are already dead, and the consequences are eternal wrath.

 

That is the condition of every person who is outside of Christ. It is our job to tell them the news of their real condition. There is no way to do this cheerfully, if we are being honest. A physician telling a patient that their illness is terminal will not do so with a smile- if they really believe their diagnosis. They also wouldn’t yell and threaten. They will do it carefully and soberly. And yet, if they know that there is a drug that can be administered to fight the disease, they can offer their diagnosis with hope.

 

What the Reformers recognized is that if the problem is a nature problem and not just a bad choices problem- then we can only be saved by Grace alone.

 

2. The Principle- Saved by Grace Alone (4-5)

⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

 

Paul notes that there are two aspects of God’s character that prompted is extension of grace to us: mercy, and love. And he qualifies these attributes with superlatives- Rich in mercy; Great love. It was because of his immense mercy and love that grace is extended to us. So even though God is infinitely angry at our sin and rebellion- he is nonetheless indomitably loving. Unless we recognize how utterly ill-deserving we are of mercy, we will fail to truly understand the amazing love of God. Which is why Paul draws us back again to our condition prior to being saved-

⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved

 

Our Condition: We were dead. We were in a position of absolute vulnerability. There was nothing we could do to rescue us from our condition and expectation of judgment. And so in love, God rescued us and made us alive together with Christ- saving us by Grace. He clarifies what he means in verses 8 and 9.

 

Our Salvation: By Grace you have been saved.

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

 

Because there was nothing we could do to save ourselves. God had to bring us spiritual life. Salvation is a work he alone can accomplish, for there was nothing we could do to save ourselves.  Not of your own doing. It is the gift of God. Not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

“Grace is given freely to those without merits and the most undeserving, and it is not obtained by efforts, endeavors or works, whether small or great, even of the best and most virtuous of men, though they seek and pursue righteousness with burning zeal.” (Luther)

 

There is absolutely nothing that we can take credit for. There is nothing we can boast in. This was a work completely accomplished by God. This verse obliterates the Roman Catholic understanding of salvation. That God gives us grace and we do the rest.  The only thing we do is exercise faith- which I will explain next week. Other than that our salvation from sin and wrath is completely a gift of God. We are saved by Grace alone. And notice the results of this grace, what this grace accomplishes.

⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

 

We are made co-heirs with Christ. We will rule alongside him. We will be given this same honor, and we did nothing to deserve it. This is like giving the 911 attackers a memorial at ground zero- honoring them alongside the first responders who died. Or, honoring the Japanese pilots who died at Pearl Harbor alongside the USS Arizona.

 

We were the enemy, but we will be honored as kings- and we did nothing to deserve it. Grace not only gives us new life, not only does it eradicate our punishment- it puts us in a place of honor and that honor will never cease.

 

⁷ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

 

An eternity of honor and pleasure and joy- and we did nothing to deserve it. It is simply the result of Grace alone.  But being saved by grace alone does not mean that we do nothing. True, we do nothing to bring about that grace. We are saved completely by God’s work, not our own. However, God’s grace is effectual. It is powerful; it truly brings about spiritual life in dead souls. And that life becomes evident. The evidence of regeneration is that we do good works.

 

3. Practice God-honoring life

¹⁰ For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

 

Workmanship: This is the greek word poema- which means we are God’s special creation- his poem. The phrase “in Christ” shows that he is speaking only of believers. He created (caused us to be born-again) us for a purpose. God created all people, but believers were saved by grace for a higher and more beautiful purpose.

 

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Cor 5:17)

 

put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, ²³ and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴ and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Eph 4:22-24)

 

When a person comes to Christ, they are given spiritual life and their new life produces good works.

 

Good works: Good works does not simply refer to doing good things like feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, and helping elderly people across the street. All of which we should do. It refers to much more: living out the grace of God in our lives, putting on display the amazing transformation that he has accomplished; Doing God’s work, God’s way. Living the life God has called us to live.

 

¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. (Matt 5:16)

 

⁸ And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. (2 Cor 9:8)

 

¹⁰ so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God (Col 1:10)

 

²⁴ And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, ²⁵ not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Heb 10:24-25)

 

The Reformers recognized that such good works are a result of grace, not a means to earning grace as the Roman Catholics believed. This is why they emphasized again and again that salvation was by Grace alone.

 

“Yes, dear friend, you must first possess heaven and salvation before you can do good works.  Works never merit heaven; heaven is conferred purely of grace.” (Luther)

 

How else does the Grace of God affect how we live?

 

Amazing grace! How sweet the sound

That saved a wretch like me,

I once was lost, but now am found,

Was blind but now I see.

 

These words were written by John Newton- who was once a wicked slave trader who mocked God regularly. He once said- “I know not that I have ever since met so daring a blasphemer”.

 

“[The ‘wretch’ who has been saved by grace] believes and feels his own weakness and unworthiness, and lives upon the grace and pardoning love of his Lord. This gives him an habitual tenderness and gentleness Spirit. Humble under a sense of much forgiveness to himself, he finds it easy to forgive others”

 

He puts it in a picture:

 

A company of travelers fall into a pit: one of them gets a passenger to draw him out. Now he should not be angry with the rest for falling in; nor because they are not yet out, as he is. He did not pull himself out: instead, therefore, of reproaching them, he should shew them pity. . . . A man, truly illuminated, will no more despise others, then Bartimaeus, after his own eyes were opened, would take a stick, and beat every blind man he met (Richard Cecil, Memoirs of the Rev. John Newton, p. 105).

 

Forgiveness- It is not just a command, but an expression of worship in light of Grace!

 

Understanding God’s Grace towards us helps us to forgive others, it also helps us to love God even more.

 

Leads to greater love

 

³⁶ One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at table. ³⁷ And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, ³⁸ and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. ³⁹ Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” ⁴⁰ And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.”

⁴¹ “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. ⁴² When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” ⁴³ Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” ⁴⁴ Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. ⁴⁵ You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. ⁴⁶ You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. ⁴⁷ Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” (Luke 7:36-41)

 

Leads to greater confidence in his love for us

 

⁸ but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8)

 

Charles Simeon, who was a pastor and friend of John Newton’s wrote about this truth once.

By constantly meditating on the goodness of God and on our great deliverance from that punishment which our sins have deserved, we are brought to feel our vileness and utter unworthiness; and while we continue in this spirit of self-degradation, everything else will go on easily. We shall find ourselves advancing in our course; we shall feel the presence of God; we shall experience His love; we shall live in the enjoyment of His favour and in the hope of His glory. . . . You often feel that your prayers scarcely reach the ceiling; but, oh, get into this humble spirit by considering how good the Lord is, and how evil you all are, and then prayer will mount on wings of faith to heaven. The sigh, the groan of a broken heart, will soon go through the ceiling up to heaven, aye, into the very bosom of God. (Moule, 137f)

 

It is God’s grace alone that empowers Christians to do good works, and to forgive others, and to love others, and it’s the knowledge of his abundant grace that gives us such great confidence in his love for us right now.

 

 

              Sermon Review and Discussion Questions

1. Challenge: What are the formal, final, and material principles of the Reformation?
2. What are the three major views of how man is saved?
3. What principles in verses 1-3 demonstrate how great man’s need is for salvation?
4. What part did we play in our salvation?
5. What is the evidence that a person has been saved by grace?
6. How should understanding the grace of God affect our individual lives?
7. How should understanding the grace of God affect our ministry as a church?

            Children’s Challenge Questions

1. What are the three major views of how man is saved?
2. What words in versus 1-3 describe how bad people are before they are saved?
3. What part did we play in our salvation?
4. Why should verses 6 and 7 shock us?
5. What are some good works that should be revealed in our lives after we are saved?