Ephesians, 2:6-10

I'd like to begin today and first of all thank Brad for a great lesson last week. I enjoyed listening to that and really. Listen, Brad, I was thinking, gee, you know, this guy is a one-stand show up here. I mean, he's knowledgeable, he's passionate, he's humorous, he's practical. I was going to say, well, why should I? Let's have Brad teach every week. But you got me today, like it or not. So here we are. So you've got to put up with the old man up here today and not one of these. young, vibrant guys here.

So I think to appropriately set the stage for verses 6 through 10, and by the way Vern came in this morning just a few minutes before the class started and he looked up at the verse on the board and he said, gee, you get all the good stuff. I said, well yeah, to think that we've got Ephesians 2, 6 through 10 to cover in one lesson is really kind of an unbelievably challenging circumstance to be responsible for, but we'll let the Spirit lead and trust that the way this book has been divided is appropriate for the timetable that we have. So let's read. Jeremy, I'm going to ask you to read verses 1 through 10 in Ephesians 2, and then we'll pick up today's lesson at verse 6. the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all have once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying on 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 and 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 and kindness towards 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, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

So, beginning with verse six now, it begins with and, so that means that something had to occur before it. And that's really relevant here in terms of and raised up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So, and even when we omitted here from the text, my apology, we were previously dead and trespasses as sins, takes us back to verse five, which is where Brad concluded last week. even when we were dead in trespasses or sins, has made us alive together with Christ, by grace are you saved. So this is a continuation of the passage in 2.5 that you ultimately looked at more carefully last week. I really like that King James here, and many versions have this, that made us sit together, you know, like God made us. Yes, sir. You know, the command of God to make us sit together is an incredibly strong statement. Not that we need that. And if you go back to the inner linear Greek, actually, make is not there. But all the translations seem to use this as a verb of emphasis. I don't know why. Bert probably does, but I don't.

I don't know that this is why, but it certainly does indicate that it was God's doing. Let's leave it out and see how he says it raises up together and seated us together in heavenly places. I mean, that doesn't distract from the verse for the fact of who is the author of our positional location. But I love it. Make us. Sit up there, Wayne. You may not like this. This is my plan for you.

And as Nancy has said, this is still His will, not our choice. I mean, this is from the throne. This being dead in trespasses and sins and saved by grace is a throne-based decision. This isn't us making the decision we're going to go be seated upstairs. And you know Ephesians 1 just repeatedly establishes in that wonderful position that we have at the right hand of God. And this now reemphasizes it as we've kind of gone back to the act of salvation. Okay, raise this up together.

Let's look at Colossians 3.1 and 3.12, both good verses to look at this verb form and consider our position as an act of God on behalf of the believer.

So, Colossians 3.1, If ye then be risen with Christ, Seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. If ye be risen is, by the way, best translated, co-raised. I mean, this is the idea of God ultimately, as he buried us with baptism unto death, co-resurrected us in the person, with the person of the Lord Jesus.

Okay, so Colossians 2.12, buried with him in baptism, which also ye are risen, co-raised, with him through the faith of the operation of God who has raised him from the dead. So this is an active process on his behalf and a passive one on our behalf. We in fact have no say in the matter. And you know if you drill down into essential truths of the body of Christ, this one gets missed all the time, doesn't it? that this being buried with him, our sin nature being co-crucified and buried with him, and then God by his active grace raising us with Christ to put us positionally where we're at.

If you surveyed a hundred people who were members of the body of Christ, how many grasped this concept to begin with, much less have an ownership for it? Very few. Very few. You know this is so, so important because it really gives victory and it gives joy and it gives glory to where it's deserved in the Christian walk. And we're going to really look at this in much more detail in the verses that follow here. Yes, Nancy.

Randy and I were talking about this yesterday, about understanding that we are identified with Christ in this. he was saying no I didn't understand this when I was a teenager and I said well neither did I and I didn't say it but I thought wow how much that would have affected all of my parenting of the kids we would have taught it to them had we known it we didn't know it. No but what gets you to the point where you know this and have an understanding at least a glimpse of what this is all about? Just think out loud with me. What gets you to the point where you recognize the truths of Romans 6? Not only that your sins were forgiven, but you've been co-crucified, co-buried, and resurrected in Him.

Jeremy. For me, it was the teaching here at Holly Hills. I think the only way it can happen is if you have a local fellowship that's totally dedicated to teaching the Word of God. And because we have that dedication here, we were able to get that accurate, proper teaching, and I don't think without that I would have never come to this. What if you would go to the church up the street and they claim to be teaching the Word of God? This isn't here to be an atmosphere of comparative theology, but you felt that this was where the truth was because that's where the Spirit was leading you, but I think there's another potential answer to this question. you have to try the other way, and work, work, work, work, work, and then finally it never happens and you're frustrated, and you go, something else has to be the answer.

And certainly, certainly that can be true, but we have children who are growing up here, with this teaching, and being taught this, so I think part of it is the teaching. It's also the work of the spirit as we read the word. Yes. That is his job. Absolutely.

You know, if you think about this, and this is going to be a little bit tangential in terms of the thought process, kids are under law. Aren't they, Brad? How you doing, Brad? Now you think about a five-year-old or a ten-year-old, I mean, the principle of grace is something they might see reflected in their parents or their grandparents. But kids need to have rules. And why do kids need rules?

Because it's in nature. You mean we're born with that? No, but where I'm going with this concept is the fact that yes, the Word is truth, and we see it perfectly well revealed here in the fact that we're raised with Him after being buried with Him in baptism unto death, and positioned in heavenly places.

But the act of the earthly life is one of coming to the end of yourself, is it not? I can't tell you, I speak personally but I think everybody can reflect on this, how often have you tried to be a better Christian and it just doesn't make it. I remember after I got saved that ultimately I felt I owed God so much for bringing me to a saving relationship and I started doing everything I possibly could in terms of time and the word which was beneficial. the time of the word, church, Wednesday night services, prayer groups, on and on. I finally said, I don't think I'm giving God all he needs. The frustration of ultimately coming to the end of yourself, realizing that the truth of position is where Christian life begins. And that doesn't mean we let go, let God. That's not the act of faith.

We're going to deal with that this morning, about created unto his workmanship, right? The Christian life still is one that is abundantly refreshed with good works. But James is only interpreted in context of an understanding of Pauline theology. If James were the only book after the gospel account, we might get a little confused. And James, by the way, does reflect an atmosphere of faith as the basis of our works too.

Any thoughts? Raised up together is really a central truth of the victorious and the passionate Christian life we all are here to live. All right, good. Brad, I enjoyed listening to your lesson last week. I was thinking maybe you should be up here today.

So it constantly reminds us of our citizenship, and Hal and I used to have fun with this because, I mean, I really, and I've said this before from this position here, is that, you know, when things get pretty distraught here for your citizenship, isn't it like a drink of fresh water? just reflecting on that we have a place in eternity and that our citizenship is not here, but it's in heavenly places.

We have very little grasp of eternity, don't we? Brad, tell me what eternity is. If I'm someone who has never heard the word, you're not you know, describing it adequately. I'm not quite sure what that means. I like describing the taste of garlic. Yeah. Where'd that come from?

I'll consider that unacceptable, thank you. So citizenship's always that soft pillow for a tired head. You know, this earthly scenario gets old after a while. but to allow us to become self-centered and depressed about the worldly situation around us, much less our old nature from which we've been saved from, positionally and hopefully conditionally.

Our citizenship is where the focus and the rest should be. I think I just answered the question I'm posing now. How can this help us in our daily walk? I think very importantly, Our citizenship is the principle by which eternity becomes reality testing even though we can't very well describe it. Bob, can I say something? Yes, please, Doug. Look at citizenship. What does citizenship really mean?

The reason I say that, I was born in another country. Where were you born, Doug? The United States. Where were you born? I was born in Canada. Canada. That is a distant land. My citizenship is here. Okay, let's ask a question, other thoughts. What's citizenship? You want us to think... We receive citizenship. And what obligation do you have? Well, many believers would claim joint citizenship, right? The one here and the one in eternal places, right? So what is citizenship? Just let's define it in very colloquial terms. What does it mean to be a citizen in the United States?

It means you have certain rights and responsibilities within the place that you live, which do not translate to another country. Doug's rights as an American citizen, even though he was born in Canada, don't translate over. If he were to go on vacation to Canada, not all of those same rights would be his in that country. Right, if we extend that politically a bit to the day in which we live, it's not only rights, it's entitlements, right? So it certainly is the rights of being in a certain geographical location that we call a country.

What else is citizenship? Isn't it a community of people? I mean, so if we're from the United States and we're in Hungary, ultimately to find another U.S. citizen gives you a sense of belonging because he or she is also from the same country you are. The same should be true of the citizenship that we have in heavenly places. That's an eternal citizenship which makes us part of a body, a community, and really, I think, defines who we really are. Now, again, joint citizenship is not uncommon these days. Are you jointly citizen in Canada because you're born there? Is that always true nowadays, by the way? Being born in a country gives you automatic citizenship for life there?

I just don't know the answer to that. It depends on the country. Margaret says yes. No, I said no. Oh, you said no. It depends on the country. Yeah. The law of the land, sort of. Well, we don't need to spend time, but yes. Bob, I'm sure you, in the original language, the word politics, the manner of conversation, the word politic, That's where we get our word politics.

But the thing is that what Satan has done is really divided Christians. Because you have Democrats in the middle, Republicans or whatever. And when the issues are gone today, you can be a Christian, and genuinely Christian, and then have, I'm being one political party or the other, but the division between Christians because of the political party has really caused an incredible, just like you might say, or agreement as to this world, that's why we're focused should be on things above, not on this political system on the earth. And it's so crucial to understand that, boy, I tell you, we talk to Christians where you can't even focus on anything political. If you were to try to disagree with something that, you know, whatever side you take, You argue, you fight. And so Satan's done a good job dividing Christians because of the politics that we have on the earth. And it's not in heaven. We're not seeing a political position in heaven.

It seems like you've opened up a door into a big room. And this is a very important point. It'd be interesting to extend this conversation sometimes afterwards because of the nature of this whole discussion. I mean, some people, I'm going to just give you a hint of what I'm thinking about.

Some people would say we shouldn't even vote in this world. Because our citizenship is really not here, it's heavenly. So why should we be part of the earthly process other than obey the laws in the land in which we're living, right? I don't know, I mean, I could, I mean, going to one extreme, you could take that position. Yes, right. I don't know if this is a summary or not, but Abraham looked at his life as a sojourner. And it's his life that really governs us. And by that I do mean governs us as his citizens. He's our head. We're part of his body.

I think Roy's brought up a great point, this concept of a sojourner. And I've said this before, but Sharon, my late wife, used to have a sign on the refrigerator that said, Heaven is my home. and Earth is just my business address. There's a lot of profound language there that allows you to think of yourself as a sojourner. Miles used to say, keep looking down. Yeah, love it. I love that.

Alright, to keep going here, we have Ephesians 2.7.

Ephesians 2.7 says that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness, I've used that in parens, towards us in Christ Jesus.

So what's this ages to come stuff? Of course, when I give you the answer to follow you, look down at your sheet and say, huh? In a sense, I think what we ought to do is provide questions with no answers. Whether there's any, you know, curiosity going on upstairs about what this question is drilling at.

I mean, is this the kingdom age? Or is this our eternal positioning and ultimately conditioning in the Lord Jesus Christ forevermore? Or is this just at the time of the writing of this account? Nancy? Here I am, opening my mouth again. Please, keep opening it. I'm asking kind of a further question with this. Is this the ages, because it's plural, to come Is it talking, in fact, about the tribulation period, the millennial kingdom, and eternity, the new heavens and the new earth?

Because are those not further ages beyond what we have now? And yet, His grace and His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus Exactly, and it's hard to believe that he would parcel this out only at certain times for people he's just called unto himself. I mean, I looked at a lot of commentaries here and the only thing I could come away from reading is this is to be interpreted literally. It means now and then. The ages of what we're about. The ages, once you become saved, those ages are present. The age of the present and the ages to come. This is a never-ending extension of God's great grace.

This isn't just particular for one particular time. I like that. That's very literal. I really like that interpretation. From this point forward, He might show. We're going to come back to might show in a second. I like this kind of conditionalism. The exceeding riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ. So let's interpret this fairly literally. The age or ages to come is right now and from this point forward for eternity. So he might show.

Another translation would be display. I mean similar interpretation. Is there some doubt here? What's this might show? Well, might show is aorist tense, middle voice, and subjunctive mood. Okay, so let's look at that in a little bit more detail. The aorist tense, as you well know, is characterized by an emphasis on precise action. And the concept of this verb is not necessarily indicative of past. I mean, we typically interpret it as past, but aorist can be used for the present tense or the future. Most often, though, it's interpreted as one thing done at one point in time, and that is historic, not present or future. All right, the middle voice indicates the subject performing the action upon himself or on his own behalf.

And I'd like for us to turn to Ephesians 1, verses 6 12 and 14. And Wayne, if you could read all three of those verses for us, that'd be great. We've already been over these verses, but let's take another look. Ephesians 1, 6, 12, and 14. To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Gilead 12.

That we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ. earnest of our inheritance, and to the redemption of the purchased possession, and to the praise of His glory. What's the emphasis of these three verses in terms of the subjunctive mood?

Which also pertains to Ephesians 2.7? Whose glory? It's the Heavenly Father, right? This is all to His glory. we come in open handed with nothing to bear to His glory which is nicely interpreted here because that He might show the riches of His grace towards us in crisis entirely for His benefit.

Yes Nancy? Could you say that the might here doesn't mean maybe He will, maybe He won't but that it opens the possibility that He can? And I really am asking that question. No, I think you're on the right track. Let's finish this. The subjunctive mood is the mood of possibility and potentiality. So, you know, the described action may or may not occur, depending on the circumstances. Does that sound like God? Oh, by the way, I feel like it.

The richest in my glory for eternity. And if I don't feel like it, I'm not sure I'm really caring a whole lot about your behavior today. We're maybe going to, you know, withhold some of that glory. Some of those exceeding riches that I'm ultimately going to be directed towards you.

But shouldn't I refer back to the first verse? That, I mean, he seated us in the heavens so that he could show us. Isn't that where it's pointing back? So you think the might shows the condition as being positioned and seated, right? I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that.

The idea that God would in any way make a promise that's conditional is not consistent with his nature, is it? So whenever something in scripture seems contrary to what everything else in scripture says, we're not very good in interpreting the language in which the text is written. So what might he show? Well, he's going to show us and has shown us and will continue to show us from this point forward the exceeding richness of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. So the question we always return to, do we deserve any of this?

Of course not. I mean, we don't need to really discuss that in much more detail. Notice the condition. The condition is in Christ Jesus. That's the condition. And again, if we think of anything about the Calvary experience of the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect God-man, then in fact this can't be interpreted conditionally, as if there's something that needs to happen for these exceeding riches that we see. So it says that this is going to be a part of his extended grace. So these riches of his grace are what he's extending.

So let's, you know, I mean, I think Hal preached for two years on grace. I mean, it was 18 months or something like that. So we're going to take it in 30 seconds here. So when you think about grace, and Vern's taught this too, I really like this as a very simplified definition of mercy and grace. And by the way, I would contend that a lot of people mix these two up.

Mercy is spared undue punishment. Okay with that? Whereas grace is receiving undue benefit. Yeah? Don't you mean mercy is spared due to punishment? Spare due, you're perfectly correct. I was already extending myself to grace. Spare due punishment, you're absolutely correct. Yeah, you're absolutely correct. And I'm wondering about my spelling. This is D-U-E. Okay, make that correction in your handout everybody. Spare due punishment and receiving undue benefit, D-U-E. All right.

Are we okay with those definitions? With the spelling corrections? All right, verse 8, which many might consider one of the most uplifting verses in scripture, one of the first that many of us memorized after we got saved, right? It's a shame we have to spend such a limited amount of time on it, but, for by grace you've been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, but it's the gift of God.

So, to what does this for relate? Whenever you see for, therefore, as Jay Vernon McGee says, if you see therefore, what's it there for? So wherefore, what's it, where's the wherefore? So the for I think here again relates back to Ephesians 2.5, even when we were dead in sins, have made us alive together with Christ for grace are you saved. What Brad covered last week with you. And I simply, when I saw this, was reflecting, as I had so many times, wow, such an incredible verse of truth, right? And if there's a single verse that ultimately captures everything about the truth of God, there are many verses, but this one, I think, is one of the great ones in scripture.

Let's look carefully at the components. Who's the object? Who's the object? Yi. Yeah, Yi sounds plural, but actually in context it's the first person singular. It means each and every one of us individually who are sick. Jack, it's Winnie, it's Margaret. I mean, it's each of us individually. It could mean collectively the body, but in fact it's in the first person. So I make it very personalized, the direction of this verse. How were you saved? I don't know, I guess maybe I'm mixed up.

I'm thinking first person is me, myself, and I. when Bob speaks to the Well, it's written ye in many of our versions, but it's actually in the language first person singular. So each one or all of us individually are ye. So it's written, I think, in the body. First person singular would be each one of us individually. yeah first persons plural would be we each and every one of us individually are we so I don't think we You don't need to spend that much time here.

All ye, all of us, have been individually saved. This isn't a group effort, typically. Second person plural. It's not singular, it's you. You plural. Where, here? In the text, in the Greek text. Really? Because I got it as first person singular. It's second person. Right, so I have bad sources. So how are we saved?

Again, Ephesians 2.5 and also Romans 5.24. We could look at a multiplicity of text here for this.

Romans 3.24 it says, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and being justified freely by his grace for the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So, compared to what? Compared to the works of the law, right? I mean, the principle of grace is the principle of salvation, not the principle of good works or the works of the law.

And I think in context, probably that is a very reasonable and obvious interpretation. Because the spirit that works through the power of each and every one of us works ultimately against the power of the Spirit of God. Again, first four verses of Ephesians 2. And Romans 4-5 for this one too. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. So that verse actually introduces the principle of faith, which we'll get to in a second.

So when were you saved? How many people can identify a date? Some people can't, which means that throughout their existence they had that security and knowledge of the fact that they were eternally blessed by God's great grace and salvation. I'm not sure you have to identify a date. You certainly have to be knowledgeable about the truth of our salvation.

So, are ye saved is kind of an interesting verb. Are is in the present tense. but saved is a perfect tense verb. And Strong calls this a prolonged form of a primary defective verb. And I'm not sure that we need to discuss that at great length. But the concept is that I think, you know, that I kind of was saved and I am currently being saved, and I'm eternally going to be saved. I mean, this kind of past, present, future application is really a probably fairly reasonable interpretation of this defective verb. I'm not sure why that term was chosen. But this verb could be, I think, interpreted in any of the tenses that we can reflect on. And that's kind of a neat concept.

I mean, in a sense, when were you saved? Historically? When you believe. Okay, that's your date for salvation. At the cross. At the cross, okay, so that's your particular date. And if you believe your name has been written in the book of life, I don't want to be Calvinistic here, but I mean the point is that God has seen us as being saved from the beginning of time. So, in the past we have a date, we have the cross, and we have eternity. Whereas God has seen us eternally in His Son. And we presume that God sees everybody eternally in His Son, but some ultimately don't come to salvation. I mean, the point is, we don't want to be exclusionary. We have no clue as to the Book of Life and whose names are written in there. And that's not our business. Our business is to reflect His glory in the Gospel message and in our lives. Okay, so, and being present saved is kind of like we have the salvation being worked out in us each and every day, correct?

I mean, so this present tense kind of interpretation is that active process. Brad, you look like you have some wisdom here. Yeah, just as we're talking about it, it makes me think of Something Vern told me that just blew my mind. I've been talking about the tenses of salvation when I was just first coming to Holly Hills. And he just, he said that we were saved from sin's penalty. We are being saved from sin's power. We will be saved from sin's presence. So that three-tenths concept of interpretation is something that you're comfortable with, and Vern is too. And then will be saved, obviously, is that eternal presence with the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's citizenship stuff. We may be living in Hungary, but our citizenship's in the United States, right? That same principle of where your home is and where your community resides. Any thoughts about this process of salvation and the timing of it, Roy? I like that. Did everybody hear that?

You are is the verb and then what are you? You are having been saved existing. So there's present and past. Where do you get future out of that? It's perfect passive that you have been active in the past with inviting results today. So the perfect kind of gives that extenuating circumstance to the verb. based on that perfect action. Don't you think that it's a neat thing to reflect on, isn't it? That this verse really encompasses from time past eternally to time future eternally and we individualize that concept.

Whether it be ye or you or whatever. It's all of us. It gives us a sense of the eternal covenant. I'm sorry? It gives us a sense of the eternal covenant. In a sense, this is an exemplification of his riches being portrayed to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. So what's the basis of our salvation? The adequate work of Christ.

Well, and how do we get there? I mean, how do we come to be saved? I guess maybe I should have rephrased that. What's the vehicle? Faith. So are you saved by faith? So you're saved by grace. The vehicle is in fact, right. First of all, you have to have information. Well, we're going to get to that. You should go to the head of the class. I'm just smiling. It sounds like I need to be at the end of it.

So, Ephesians 1, 19 and 20, we dealt with this a couple weeks ago. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he brought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him in his own right hand. We're told in verse 19, towards us who believe, right? I mean, this message is directed to the believer. And, you know, some people look at this and think that faith is the gift of God.

Do you like that? We had that discussion several weeks ago because our Parker Bible study believes that. And we really went around and talked about that. So I'm glad you brought it up. So from whence does faith come, Doug? We're kind of getting to your point here right now. Well, let's look at a few verses. So, Doug, could you look at Romans 10, 17?

And Marilyn, how about you here? Well, I'm going to make you, you don't have to do it. Cheryl, how about you? Could you look at 1 Corinthians 3, 6, and 7? Just read those when you get those. It's hard to juggle all this stuff. So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. So you've answered your own question there. Oh, you got your electronic version down here, okay. So this deals with kind of Paul's service extended to the Church of Corinth. So go ahead.

I planted a palm's water, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. All right, so the idea is Paul is watered and God gave the increase. You know, the principle of the Christian life extended to the sphere of the unbeliever is an important message, but you know, preaching the word of God, as Romans 10 indicated, hearing the word of God is an important concept. But from whence does faith come? Is faith Do we need... God needs to give us that last bit of faith to come to be saved? Or is that faith within every man or woman, you know, in terms of their earthly existence, with the capability to respond to the truth once it's presented and God gives the increase?

I mean, this could be, you know, a topic for the next year here, actually, just to debate and discuss. What are the thoughts? before we crash through 9 and 10 to finish up. Maybe a summation statement, the passage that you read first, that Doug read, is the noun. The scriptures are the facts that come to us. We hear the facts.

And then the verb faith means that we act on those. We trust them. salvation package okay okay so the faith response occurs from within correct the faith is based on the information presented to it do we believe it or not every man and woman at least who has the intellectual capability so we best understand it I'm not sure about someone who is born and intellectually incapable of receiving effects we'll give that to God I presume that those people get get just do but But nevertheless, we all have some presentation of his facts. And even if you think about it, the person who's never heard the gospel and never seen the word of God has creation and their own conscience at least to have to respond to before a heavenly being. So I'm not saying you're saved by creation, you're saved by the cross. But yet that act of faith on behalf of every man is there for the evidence that's presented to him or her in terms of responding. And God gives the increase because ultimately as we believe, that increase validates the truth of what you've responded to.

So important, I think. All right, very quickly, not of works lest any man should goad. A convincingly negative final clause. Works could mean lead or toil or act or anything that's a human effort. These are not things that are ultimately for us to really be boasting about. Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. Interesting. and by grace then it's no longer of works otherwise grace is no longer grace but it is of works. It is no longer grace otherwise work is no longer work. So grace and works are like oil and water. You need an emulsifier and that's Christ. To allow the water and the oil to be miscible. Think about your salad dressing tonight when you put it on.

Alright, best interpreted is that not of worse than any man should boast. And this boasting concept really is not simply bragging or acting overly confident or cocky about an issue, it's actually glorying in it and actually rejoicing in it. I think Brad last week was beautiful the way he brought out the human element as to how people's credibility is related to looks or education or profession or all these kinds of things. These are things man glories in. He just doesn't boast about them. He in fact revels in them.

And this is really a very strong negative final statement in Ephesians 2.9.

So, I say simply we're so very unworthy with God all around us. What's there for us to take credit in any way? I mean, there's nothing for us to really do other than recognize that it's all by His grace. that no flesh should glory in his presence. So there's no room, again, oil and water is a good way to think about this.

The old nature, the sin nature has no part with the new man each one of us has in Christ Jesus. Now I think on a day-to-day existence, and I also was going to say see Titus 3, 3-5, in fact I think I will turn there, you don't have to turn there, I'll just read it to you. This is a nice kind of section that reflects this truth. For we ourselves also were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after the kindness and love of God our Savior towards man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit.

When you interpret that process of salvation as past, present, future, that means there's no room for works now in terms of glory or boasting in those works. That's a process that's ongoing. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works.

The interlinear Greek translates workmanship as masterpiece. Isn't that beautiful? I looked at 12 to 15 different translations in my Blue Letter Bible online, and only the Living Bible, if you will, uses masterpiece. All the other 12 or 13 uses workmanship.

This would be one time I'd choose the Living Bible, because the Interrelated Group does say masterpiece, and that's precious, isn't it? and we've been created for good works and John said you didn't choose me but I chose you and appointed you to go forth and bear fruit. You know that verse.

So how are you doing here? Well, all it's in Christ Jesus and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. If God prepared them beforehand are we simply robots? Well, I'm going to say we're not, and I wish we had a little more time for this, but the fruit of the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ is in all of us, and that fruit is really described very nicely, as you know, in Galatians 5. Now, He who prepared us for this very thing is also giving us the Spirit as a guarantee, and that's the fuel for the engine. The car's in place. We need to put fuel in it to start it. and the Spirit in fact engages us and energizes that new life we have in Christ Jesus.

And the life that's lived in the power of the old man gives rise to a wretched man that I am. And the question we all often ask, at least I do, is, and who shall deliver us from the body of this death? You know, it's hard sometimes, and I'll end with this, it's hard sometimes to really I think understand what is the work of God using the power of the Spirit and the new man in each and every one of us. Oh, and here's kind of a Bob Eccle maybe overly simplistic and maybe an incorrect assessment, is I think when we're paying attention to how well we're doing, we have to question the source of the good works that flow in us and through us. I mean, I think the Christian life lived by the power of the Spirit is a life that gets lived out, that ultimately we're not noting it along its path. Now that doesn't mean we shouldn't be responding to the power of the Spirit to convict us of those thoughts and deeds that were ultimately self-driven. But I think as we grow in grace and humility before the Lord, looking at His power and exceeding which is extended through us, is that life is a life that shows up. And the source of the truth of that life is the Word of God. And that's why it's so important to be in the Word and responding to the truth that God reveals to us there.

Bob, close us in prayer, please. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you again for who you are. We thank you for your salvation through your Son, Lord Jesus Christ. Now we pray for the service to follow, as for the teachers in there, pray for each of us and we thank you again for the opportunity to gather together and study your word. We pray in Jesus name.