[Transcript represents full sermon's text]

       We are continuing along in our study of the book of Ephesians. We arrive at chapter 2, verse 8 today, and we will go verses 8 through 13 of chapter 2. And why don't we just go ahead and get into the text? So, Ephesians 2:8: “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” (ESV).

       We are pretty familiar with that, those set of verses there, especially if we're in the Evangelical world, that's probably one we're going to hear quite a bit. And why is that? Well, because that's the sole basis really for Protestantism, right? So early 1500s, to rewind the tape a little bit, we can rewind back to a guy named Martin Luther. And he protested against the Catholic Church. So Protestant. Protest-ant. Everyone that follows in his footsteps is a Protestant. The point that Luther was trying to make and the point that I'm going to set before here today is that we can't do anything to acquire our salvation other than freely choose to believe. There's nothing we can do that's going to make us holy before God in our lives by our own efforts. We've all sinned, we've all fallen short of the glory of God, as Paul says in Romans chapter 3. None of us are in perfect standing before God, whether you believe in the inherent sin-nature, which we discussed last time, and we're going to get a little bit more into that again today, or whether you believe people choose to sin after they're born, doesn't matter as far as the fact that there is no human being who is holy before God and his sight that can die without Christ's sacrifice on the cross, the shedding of his blood, without trusting in what Christ accomplished. Luther's emphasis was justification by faith. That would be faith alone. He believed that it's a gift from God, that when we accept Christ, that's our free gift from God, our salvation, and that it's not something that we work towards in our lives.

       We don't earn favor with God by doing good things, by doing church things, by following church ordinances, rules, or living in certain prescribed ways. We don't gain favor in the deity's eyes in that way, shape, or form. And if we look at verse 9, he says, “not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (ESV). This is why I personally believe in the inherent sin-nature all the way back from Adam. It seems to me, and I brought this up last time, that if we are born neutral or just born with a corrupted nature that's susceptible to sin, and if either one of those latter two positions is the case, to me that means in all likelihood probability, it's almost, we would say, a mathematical certainty that certain individuals would be able to live their whole lives without sinning because statistically, there would be those that were able to accomplish that even if the vast majority of others weren't. That just seems like the math there, how that would work out. Again, if you hold those views, that's totally up to you, but that's how I see it.

       Now, some Christians think, and this should be brought up because I brought up Martin Luther, so that leaves the Roman Catholic camp as obviously believing something different. We could also bring up Eastern Orthodox Christians or even some Anabaptist Christians, probably the majority of Anabaptist Christians, who believe that there is some type of proof, I guess you would say, that has to be demonstrated throughout one's life. We could also, and I don't want to get into the Roman Catholic theology, because I myself, I'm not super big into that. I don't know the ins and outs of all that. But if we look at it from an Anabaptist perspective, because that's something I've studied quite a bit more, some Anabaptists would believe that even though you are born again, even though you become a new creation, that that salvation isn't guaranteed or has to be maintained in some way, shape, or form throughout one's life, or they could potentially lose it. So a lot of Evangelicals would point at that and say that's salvation, faith plus works. That's no good. That's wrong. That doesn't count. These people do believe that you have to be born again. They believe they are born again, but that somehow works incorporate into that. I think that's a gray area for them.

       I don't personally believe that. I would not co-sign that. I would not sign off on that. But there is that gray area where there are some Christians who do appear to be saved. They don't appear to be lost. Some would say, some would go so far as to say they're lost. I would not say that they're lost. I think any denomination sect of Christianity contains lost people, but it's a gray area, and that for some reason they don't have that assurance of salvation. They think that there's something that has to be proved, if you will, as you go through life. And I don't mean to be rambling on, but just be aware that that is a thing. Anabaptists, perhaps some Eastern Orthodox, perhaps some Roman Catholics that would fall into that. I think the Evangelical approach is way easier because we don't believe that. We're not concerned about that. We believe in salvation as a thing that happens at one moment in time from the moment you believe. And it's not something that has to be proved over your lifetime in order to be saved. So that's a basic flyover view of it there.

       Why don't we go to verse 10? “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (ESV).

       Another famous, popular verse. Let's break this down because there are some things going on that it's a complex verse, I guess. For we are his workmanship. Let's start there. What does that mean? Well, if you take a predeterminist mindset, if you take a monergistic mindset, to throw out a theological term there, you can look that one up on Wikipedia. So monergism, that, if you take that view, you believe that God basically does everything as pertains to bringing us into salvation with himself. It's God electing people and drawing them to himself. We are familiar with this in the Evangelical world and the Calvinist mindset of people, of it being solely God's work in that regard. I personally would not take that approach in that, while I think that Jesus' work on the cross was all his work, fully accomplished by him that brings us under right relationship with God. I think there is an element of our own free will personal choice that comes into us somehow in cooperation with God, choosing to believe while God is obviously presenting the truth before us. I think there's a cooperative effort there. I would not say it's 100% God just drawing us to himself and us not having any free will choice in that. I think the Bible in the New Testament, I think it's clearly demonstrated that you can resist the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 7 is coming to mind when Stephen was talking to the Pharisees, the Jewish leaders there. And he said, “You always resist the Spirit of God.” All right. Something to that effect. So that is my position.

       This likely, this workmanship concept, likely refers, if we go back to Ephesians chapter 1, to verse 12, and there Paul said, "so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.” Notice two things there. He said, we who were the first to hope in Christ, that free will choice, and might be to the praise of God's glory. That's the point when Paul says that the church, and remember, we got to think in a collective mindset. It can be so easy to fall into our individualistic mindset. For we, the church, are his workmanship. I think that's more the aim that Paul's going for rather than we individually are his workmanship. We, the church, are his workmanship. And why? Back to Ephesians 1:12, it’s for the glory of God. God gets that glory and that he does absolutely what is righteous and good and perfect and making people, restoring people to be whole and complete within themselves, which is whole and complete within the truth, which is whole and complete within God himself. It's actually why we were created as humans.

       Again, God is bringing things around about back to the way they were supposed to be before the fall. And if we look at the verse in verse 10 in Ephesians 2, “for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” “[C]reated in Christ Jesus for good works.” That’s the point, is that we know in Genesis chapter 1, there at the end, that God rested from his works. Remember, just as God works, we ourselves are created to work. We are created to do good, to love our fellow man as we already love God. We're created for that. That's the purpose. It's easy with our mindsets and our church-geared minds, if you will, to look at that word good works or phrase there and think, well, so we're created in Christ Jesus for church works or for ministerial works. It's easy to change the meaning of that. No, it's just a general good works as God is good and created the world and worked that out. And at the end there in Genesis 1, I think it's verse 27, it says it was very good. Well, those were works God did, the work of creation. Well, we are to create ourselves. We are to create good things. So it's not this churchy concept of good works. I think it's easy to read into that and overlay it with a preconceived notion.

       But then Paul goes further. So “created in Christ Jesus four good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (ESV). Again, if we're taking a collective viewpoint of this verse, God prepared them beforehand. Remember, if we go back to Ephesians 1, verse 4, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us and the beloved. We can see the same thing being reemphasized, which God prepared beforehand. In other words, it's not this individualistically predetermined will of God for each and every one of our lives in all likelihood. It's more of a collective view. Now, put a little asterisk there because I'm going to come back to that. But the point is that God wanted us from the very beginning to be whole and complete in him. And Paul told us in Ephesians 1 that he predetermined that. And now anyone who accepts the truth, who comes into the body of believers, gains that whole and completeness plan and will work that out in their lives. And then in glory to come, we'll practice those wonderful things. Everything will be the way it should be. We will act the best we can.

       And Paul says, “that we should walk in them.” So that's starting now. That's starting after our conversion on the earth. Even though we still have sin inhabiting our bodies, even though we don't get rid of our inherent sin-nature from the moment we believe, we have a different goal, a different objective that we walk to be like Jesus would be and not to be like the sinful world would be or the sinful world systems or however you want to paint that. That's not our goal. That's not our aim. Let's rewind a little bit and look at it from an individualistic view, because there is something to be said for that in a sense. And if we read created in Christ Jesus four good works, which God prepared beforehand, so individually each one of us, he prepared good works beforehand that we should walk in them. Well, I personally would not necessarily take that view other than to say God does prepare certain individuals for sure for a specific mission, for good works. And we get that demonstrated for us, like say in Galatians 1:15. If I tap over there, this is Paul. “But when he who had set me apart before I was born” (ESV). There, we have a case of an individualistic calling of God upon someone's life before they are born. That is pretty amazing, right?

       Now was that a guarantee that Paul would do, be the apostle to the Gentiles, and all that? Well, if the Jews had accepted Jesus, we would have never gotten to that point. If the Jews had accepted Jesus in Acts chapter 7, through Stephen's speech, we would have never gotten to this point. So we might think of it like, well, that was God's plan and place if it got to that point. And it got to that point, so that's what was carried out. Paul will talk about, in Ephesians chapter 3, in verses 11 and 12, he will talk about the giftings by the Spirit, which each and every Christian, we think, has at least one gift. Some have multiple gifts: two, three, whatever. That's something that's individualistic that happens after we are saved. But would we say that every single person has that calling that Paul talked about in Galatians 1, being set apart before they were born for this, that, or the other?

       I personally would not take that view. I don't think that, and I think this becomes problematic because there's this tendency to think that each and every one of us is almost like a Biblical character in a sense, where we all have these special missions that we're going to carry out and do this, that, or the other. Sure, God does have individualistic purposes for us at some point. But is it that we're all preordained to do this, that, or the other? I would say the majority of the time, probably not. There are certain people that God has, at some point, that they're going to do this, that, or the other, like the Apostle Paul. But we are not all in those kinds of shoes. We're to be imitators of Paul, but we're not all these Biblical characters walking around. So I would use caution with that.

       I think when we do view ourselves with that lens of God's preordained this, preordained that, for me, me, me, I think the problem with that is that it sets expectations high for God to do this, that, or the other. And that sets us individually at a high level of importance for this, that, or the other to occur. And then when it doesn't happen, when that's not our experiential reality, then people get upset. It can even lead to people leaving the faith because God didn't fulfill those seeming expectations that they thought they were entitled to. And that's kind of strong there. That's getting a little bit bold. But it's something that we need to consider and think about carefully. To remember that a lot of times in our text, Paul is thinking collectively. He's not usually always thinking individualistically. And again, as I brought up, I think in the introduction, we all have that Jeffersonian mindset, that American individualistic mindset, at least here in the United States. Perhaps people in other cultures, societies, can understand this a little bit differently. Like, for instance, just to bring up sort of a random example, the Eastern Orthodox believers definitely maintain a more collective communal life, than, say, the average Evangelical. They probably have a better grasp of this understanding because of that, because they're not so individualistically focused. So that's just one example, many examples that could be brought up.

       But let's go ahead and move on to verse 11 in Ephesians 2. “Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world” (ESV).

       Again, like our last set of verses, a lot is going on , a lot to break down. So, “made in the flesh by hand.” That was the way the old system, the Old Testament law, the old covenant, that's the way it worked, where people were initiated into that covenant. The sign for that was circumcision. And that's the male side of it. That was the outward sign. That a male who was circumcised was part of the Jewish community. The point is that that was made in the flesh by hand. When we, the difference is under the new covenant, when we come to accept Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, that is something that happens on the inside. That's why you'll hear every once in a while a preacher say that the circumcision does not correspond to water baptism, right? Well, that's true in a sense, because there's a debate in the theological world as to whether in the Old Testament, it was faith alone that one was counted as righteous before God, or whether it was faith plus works that one was counted righteous before God. And that comes up in some dispensational arguments and stuff like that. But the point is that these Gentiles who were not circumcised, who did not have that outward sign, and the flesh by hand, that they were not part of Israel. And they were on their own. And Paul goes so far, which is pretty bold, says “having no hope and without God and world.” So they weren't part of the commonwealth of Israel. They were strangers to the covenant's promise. All the stuff God said in the Old Testament, unless somebody converted, which seems to have been pretty rare, they were outside of all that. All the Gentiles who would be related to the Ephesians, because they're a Gentile church, they're descendants. The people that came before them were not part of that.

       And Paul says, “having no hope and without God in the world.” Well, that's an interesting statement, and we can ask the question: what does that mean? What would that mean, “no hope and without God in the world”? We can think of three different texts I wrote down. First, I'm going to go to Genesis chapter 14 and verses 18 through 20. Tapping there, and this is Abraham and Melchizedek, so what it says, verse 18, is: “And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand! And Abram gave him a tenth of everything” (ESV). That is interesting there because Melchizedek was not part of Abram's group. He wasn't part of Israel, but yet he seemed to be in communion and know who he calls God Most High.

       That's something to chew on there. If we go to Genesis 17, in verses 20 and 21, tapping over there, we see, “As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year” (ESV). Wow. That is interesting because, and you'll hear—I heard a preacher probably a month ago say that, oh, you know, it's Abraham's mistake that has caused all the chaos over in Israel between Israel and Hamas and, you know, Palestine and the descendants of Abraham versus the descendants of Ishmael. But what we have to remember is that that actually isn't the true story because God was the one, as stated in Genesis 17. God takes full responsibility. He says, “As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation” (ESV).

       So is it Abraham's fault that the descendants of Ishmael are so great, if you want to view it that way? No, God established that. All right, that was from God. However, what I would say to that is I think God originally intended it to be a good thing. I think he intended for the descendants of Ishmael to believe in him in a way that is righteous and good. What I'm not saying is that what we see today with the whole creation of Islam and the Muslim religion is from God or created by God and is a good thing. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is that God may have originally intended for Ishmael and his descendants to be in communion with him, but it's somewhere along the line that the great deceiver Satan got in the middle of it. All right, so Satan messed everything up. This is me postulating, theorizing, putting one thing, you know, things together from the evidence available. Satan messed everything up, and now we have what we see where they believe in a God called Allah, who they think is God the Father. And they do acts of violence against Christians, against Jewish persons. Not all, certainly not all, not the majority, I would even say, but there are those who believe within their religion that that's the way they're supposed to do. So that is not what God is talking about in Genesis chapter 17. But Satan has perverted that plan, apparent plan of God from Genesis chapter 17.

       And we can also look at Acts chapter 17. I know we're getting kind of in a rabbit hole, but let's look at Acts 17. Verse 23, Paul says, “For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: To the unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you” (ESV). There's this question that has arisen in theological conversation, if we tap back to Ephesians, and that is to what extent does God work and has God work with those outside originally of the commonwealth of Israel and then even those in this day and age outside of Christ? To what extent is their work going on? Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 that we are not to judge those outside the church. I remember hearing an Eastern Orthodox minister, I'll call him, say something to that effect, that does God work with those outside the church to try to work something out? We don't know, he said. That's outside of our, like, basic jurisdiction, if you will. That's me phrasing it that way.

       Okay, but Paul says, “having no hope and without God in the world.” All right, so if we're looking at that in terms of salvation, if we're being super dogmatic there, having no hope and without God in the world, if we're looking at that as we initially read it, probably, where, oh, they're not saved, can't be saved kind of way. Or if we're looking at that, secondly, the second option would be having no hope because they're not part of Israel and without God because they're not part of Israel. Depending on which perspective we take, the first perspective would be the highly predominant perspective in Evangelical Christianity. If that's the perspective, then everyone outside of Jesus Christ, outside of Israel would be guaranteed lost. But if somehow, in some way, in a way that we really don't understand, as I just brought up in those three verses, or three passages, Genesis 14, 18 through 20, Genesis 17, 20 and 21, Acts 17 and verse 23, if somehow God has been trying to work with people, but it's not a complete picture. Like, an easy example that comes to mind is when Apollos was preaching, remember, and Acts, but he only knew the baptism of John, and then Aquila and Priscilla found him doing that and led him into a more correct, accurate way. If it's something like that, that God still wants people to come into a more correct and accurate way, if that's possible, or if it is the first theory, just that dogmatically anyone who was outside of Israel or is currently outside of Christ is guaranteed no hope, lost, without God, without having hope, and without God in the world, having no hope, Paul said, and without God in the world, then it just depends on what perspective you try to adopt, try to go at it.

       I know people on a personal level that tend to want to take the second approach that I just talked about there, but they generally will not be able to articulate it because they'll say, “Well, we don't know how it's working out.” Okay, but I'm just bringing both of those perspectives because there is that tendency when we read this to think, “Oh, wow, if I want to try to believe that God is working in ways we're not understanding, well, this verse just shot that down.” Well, maybe, but not necessarily. That's something I'm just going to leave it at that. Don't want to spend any more time there.

       Let's go to verse 13. “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (ESV). This is our final verse for today.

       There's that famous phrase, the blood of Christ. Jesus paid a personal, heavy price for anyone who wants to come into a relationship with God to be able to do that. He gained victory over Satan. The powers that be, Satan had the world in his hands. He ruled the world. Jesus, God, through their actions, through carrying out the whole plan of the cross, got the world back. And Satan was disarmed. The rulers and authorities, those in his realm, were disarmed. They lost. That's done and over with. Doesn't mean they still won't do things today. Doesn’t mean we still don't have a sin-nature. But we ourselves are saved from the power of Satan. Satan can't put a claim on our soul like he may have been able to before. This goes back to what I was saying about the inherent sin-nature, why I think that fits well with this. I think that line of thinking fits well. So Jesus also, through the work of the cross, saved us from the destruction that sin causes. Because now we can have victory in Christ over our sin natures. We're not bound to sin, powerless to make mistakes, to have no ability to say no to sin. We can choose to cultivate a righteous life, to grow, to make better choices in our lives, to learn new things, to become more like Jesus.

       “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ” (ESV). So it's from Satan's power to God's power. We become whole and complete, a new creation when we believe in Jesus Christ. Paul seems to be arguing that by what Christ accomplished, that opened up the floodgates, if you will, so that anyone in the whole world; it's not through joining the Jews in the Old Testament ways. Now it's anyone in the whole world who wants to believe in God, who wants to trust what Christ accomplished on the cross, his rising from the dead even, to trust in those things, can be brought into God's family. It's no longer that exclusive group of the Jewish people. Anyone can come into the family through the work of the cross, through the blood, the heavy price that was paid by Christ. Jesus paid a heavy price on the cross to give us that personal ability to have victory over Satan in our lives. And anyone who chooses to believe in what Jesus accomplished through his death and resurrection. Anyone who chooses to believe in that can have the free gift of salvation from their personal individual sins be brought into the family of God forever and ever. It's an incredible thing. And anyone can freely make that choice today.

- Daniel Litton