Most of us are familiar with Ephesians 2:8-10. This is the passage quoted most often to affirm that salvation is a free gift, not something that can be earned through human effort. Here is the passage:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Most of us stop with verse 9. When we do, we miss the full impact of God’s purpose in saving us by grace. According to verse 10, this gospel message extends well beyond that moment when we cross over from death to life. Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection ushers us into a new way of life altogether, one characterized by good works.
These good works have been prepared for us beforehand by God. And as a new creature in Christ, we are to walk in them. But how do we know what they are?
In one of their many conversations with the Lord, the disciples asked Jesus this: “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” (John 6:28)
Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent” (John 6:29).
Paul echoes this truth in Colossians 2:6: “Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.” This new life that we have been raised to live is a life of faith. But this still begs the question concerning good works. Isn’t there something that God wants us to do other than merely trust Him?
In a word, no. We are His workmanship. What counts as far as God is concerned is faith in Jesus. As we trust Him and our hearts respond to the leading of His Spirit in us, we will see the good works He has prepared for us begin to flow through us. And they will be recognizable.
Here is how. First, God gives us new desires. Paul calls them the desires of the Spirit. According to the terms of the New Covenant, these desires equate to the laws God puts into our minds and writes on our hearts. They flow from God’s love and are different, night and day, from the desires of the flesh.
Forgiveness is one of those desires God’s Spirit works in us. It is not normal, humanly speaking, to want to forgive someone who has hurt us deeply. But as children of God, forgiveness of others is a work God has prepared for us to walk in. We know it because God places that desire to forgive in us.
Next, the results of walking in those desires, living them out, can be attributed only to God. We can never be sure how someone will respond. Our imaginations are quick to jump to the negative possibilities, but God always has a better outcome in mind.
Calling up all the courage that we can, we step out in faith and extend forgiveness. What we first experience happens inside. Extending forgiveness calms the soul, brings peace to the heart and turns an anxious moment into one that surpasses understanding.
And then we see God’s work within the relationship. Maybe not instantly, but over time, it becomes clearer to us just how He is working what was a painful situation together for good. Couples on the verge of divorce have testified to the power of forgiveness in restoring their marriage. Assemblies of believers that were divided have come back together as they have walked in the forgiveness of God.
What happens both within and without is far too extraordinary to attribute to human effort. We are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. Let’s walk in them.
Jesus,living under the law of sin and death,in fact dying under that same law,gave yet another “impossible to keep”commandment…to believe in the one whom God has sent.How many people believed in Jesus under the law of sin and death?Zero,none,nada?Was it actually impossible for any human to “believe in the one He has sent”?Yes,until Paul,led by the indwelling Spirit, repeated what Jesus had taught him”Ephesians2:8-10 and Colassians2:6.As you have received Christ Jesus by faith and not your works continue to walk in him by faith and not your works.Both are works of the Spirit,not of human effort.
“Merely trust in Him”?To believe in Him is not an instant in time event.It is a continuous process that only ends when we take our last breath.Thus the verse work out your salvation.
“Merely trust in him”?Are you kidding?No human can do that.The most impossible work for humans to attempt is to”Believe in him”It is a miracle that anyone can believe in him for one instant,not alone all the instants of the rest of your life.To believe in Him is the greatest miracle ever performed for mankind.Believe it!
You said
How many people believed in Jesus under the law of sin and death?Zero,none,nada?
And I see Bible stating many Saints that by belief were and are saved
What is up with that? please explain what you mean to say nada
The rest I see, yet Paul is not the only Patriarch is he? i mean as Paul said to the Corinthians, and rebuked them for those of Paul or Appollos, that they were nothing more than waterers or planters, Christ is the cornerstone, and even Job stated in Job 19:25 that he knew his redeemer lives and will stand on the earth. So to say no one believed is not true from I read and hear in Spirit and truth.
Thank you not arguing for everyone has free choice in free will to choose whom they will follow, themselves or God, this world and is glossy ways in tricking believers to work and be deceived in that work, thinking it is God doing it, when it is not necessarily true. for the enemy has come and is in this world dressed up as an angel of light to fool quite possibly the very elect, yet Father is Faithful to see his Children through, loving every minute of it
Romans 8:2,3
Amen, Brother so we seek to learn from God and hopefully God alone through all the chatter here in this world. Taking all said and heard to the hidden man or our hearts, where we serve God in Spirit and truth, Thank you
Oh Bob and thank you for this, and am using this, truth can be taken away, for nothing can separate God’s love to all, nothing as in Romans 8
Thank you for growing and listening and doing as hear to do as Christ did this very same; walked by Faith alone all the way to his death, trusting Father to raise him back to life as Abraham trusted God to do the same with his promised Child if God let him go all the way, and God knew this and counted this, Faith Abraham showed as righteousness
So What God prevented Abraham from doing God did himself for us with his own Son
to give us new life in Spirit and truth, done in the resurrected Christ for us to walk in Spirit and truth alone, reckoning us our old man flesh nature dead by the death of Christ in the flesh for us here and now. This done, finished in u8s by Faith in what is done, no doubts as was in the beginning with Adam and Eve, doubt cause the eating of and death came to us all.
Now as it took doubt just a smidgeon to the fall came and death from it, it was unbelief that brought this on and unbelief still keeps pone from peace and quietness in the Holy Spirit of God.
So as one man Adam sin entered, actually unbelief brought death to all
And so now by belief one enters his courts with thanksgiving and praise, no time for doubts is there; if too busy in thanksgiving and praise. how can there be ones conscience is thus purged from sin, unbelief. For what other is sin summed up? It is unbelief is what sin is period when all knocked down to a nutshell. so are we going to rest in belief and listen and do as led or stay busy in trying to not sin? If I am busy trying to not sin, thatn I find me caught up in sin, true for you as well? I thank God that God has never left me na dnever will leave anyone to the very end God is Faithful, thank you broither, thank you