Gracious God, open our minds to understanding, teach our hearts to love, and strengthen our wills to carry out the mission of your Word. Amen.
New Testament Reading: Ephesians 2:1-10
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” Now while this verse is not nearly as well known as, “‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.’” (John 3:16), it perhaps is even more important to our faith and our understanding of what it means to have received salvation through our belief in Jesus
Christ as the Son of God and the Saviour of the World. So, I’d like to have a closer look at it this to try and better understand just exactly what it means.
The verse is found at the beginning of the second chapter of the Apostle Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians and is one of the most meaningful passages in all of Scripture. In it, Paul teaches us that our salvation rests entirely in the gracious work of God. And right at the heart of this passage is that beloved verse: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” And what we’ll learn from this is that salvation is not the result of human achievement, moral effort, or personal goodness—it is a divine gift, given freely to those who deserve it least, but who need it most.
Paul begins with these words, “You were dead through the trespasses and sins in which you once lived, following the course of this world, following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient. All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.”
And what he’s describing in those words is a person’s spiritual state before coming to faith in Jesus Christ. At that time, the Ephesians didn’t follow God but rather followed the ways of the world. And that applies to all of us. Paul says that, before accepting Jesus as our Saviour, we were all dead in our sins, which means, as Paul will say later on, we were “without God” and “alienated from the life of God”. Apart from life with God, we were dead. And just because you’re breathing doesn’t mean you’re alive. We were dead in our sins because of our rebellion against God, and our failure to live according to his will.
Our desires and passions ruled us. Just think about how you act when you lose your temper: the things you say that you would never say at other times; the way you’re happy to hurt those you love the most. And what was the result for those who lived like this? Paul says, “We were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.” That is, our very nature meant that we were under God’s judgement.
This isn’t written to make us feel ashamed, but to bring us to a place of humility. Paul wants us to see that no one enters life with a head start in matters of salvation. Every one of us begins in the same condition—spiritually dead and under God’s rightful judgment. And unless we first acknowledge this reality, our own complete helplessness, we cannot truly grasp the sheer wonder of grace.
Sometimes we need to hear the bad news before the good news will make any sense. And now Paul gives us the good news. He says, “But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” Those words remind us of the opening line of our Responsive Psalm this morning, which was written by King David, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.”
This grace which Paul speaks about is God’s unmerited favour. If you did anything to earn it or deserve it, it is not grace. If God owes it to you because you’re a pretty good person or you’ve tried to do the best you can, it is not grace. Grace means that you get the opposite of what you deserve. We deserve God’s wrath because we have sinned against him. Instead, he saves us by his grace.
To receive salvation, you must know something about God. He is righteous, holy, just, and loving. You must also know that you have sinned against God and stand guilty and condemned before Him. You must know that Jesus is the eternal Son of God, who took on human flesh, born of the virgin Mary. He lived a perfect life and died on the cross as the substitute for sinners, paying on their behalf the penalty that God demands. But God raised him from the dead and he ascended into heaven. He will return bodily to judge the living and the dead, but also to save all that have trusted in Him. These are basic facts, revealed in the Bible, that you must know to be saved.
We were dead in trespasses and sins, but God was rich in mercy, even though our trespasses and sins were against him and his rule. The richness of his mercy emerges from the great reservoir of his love for us.
So, what must be our response to God’s love and forgiveness? Paul gives us the answer. He says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” And what he is telling us is that we are not saved by our good works, but we are saved for our good works. Works are the fruit of our salvation, not the root of our salvation.
God does his work in us and for us so we will walk in the works he has prepared for us to do. If, after coming to faith in Christ, we truly are new people, then God has called us to serve him. It’s part of his plan and purpose for our lives – he’s prepared you to do the works he has prepared for you to do. Rick Warren, an American pastor, says, “Without a purpose, life is motion without meaning.
And God has not only prepared us for good works; he has also prepared good works for us. The things that God wants us to do have been decreed beforehand. This means we don’t have to search hard for what God wants us to do today. Our job is to simply walk in the works God has prepared for us to do and be responsive when these opportunities present themselves.
God doesn’t save us because each of us is so special that he simply couldn’t resist. His grace comes from something far deeper. The Bible shows us that God’s love is set on humanity as a whole—broken, wandering, and far from him, yet still carrying his image. His heart is moved by the need of the very people he created to reflect his character and glory. So, his saving work reaches into a lost and hurting world and, in his mercy, draws individual people back to himself.
And when God saves a person, he is doing more than rescuing one isolated soul. He is restoring his image in that person, renewing what sin has damaged, and sending that transformed life back into the world as a witness to his grace. Every redeemed individual becomes a living testimony—someone through whom God intends to reach others. God’s pattern has always been this: He calls one in order to bless many. He saves individuals not as an end in themselves but as part of his wider plan to bring salvation to others.
That is what the Apostle James, the half-brother of Jesus, meant when he taught his congregation: “Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, ‘Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead” (James 2:15-17). And those actions are meant to go beyond just the physical needs, but extend to a person’s spiritual needs, as well. Remember, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “You are the light of the world…. Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14a, 16.)
Understanding and accepting the fact that we have been saved by grace, and grace alone, means that we must never forget who we were without Christ. We were spiritually dead. This humbles us. It softens our judgment of others. It keeps us from pride. It reminds us that every Christian is a miracle of grace.
It also means that we must rejoice in what God has done for us. He made us alive. He raised us with Christ. He has given us eternal life—not as a prize to be earned, but as a gift to be received. This fills our hearts with gratitude and worship.
And it means we have a new purpose. We are God’s workmanship. Our lives have meaning. Our days have direction. Every act of kindness, every word of encouragement, every moment of service becomes an expression of God’s transforming grace within us. We have Good News to share. There are many people who think they must earn God’s acceptance. They think God is measuring them, scoring them, waiting for them to be good enough. But we’re hear to give them the Good News, “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” To God alone be the glory.
Let us Pray:
Gracious God, we thank you for the wonder of your grace—grace that meets us in our sin, lifts us from death to life, and calls us your own. Today we have been reminded that our salvation is not something we could earn, achieve, or deserve. It is your gift, freely given through Jesus Christ, our Saviour. And so, we bow before you with grateful hearts. As we leave this place, send us out as people shaped by grace. Give us eyes to see the opportunities you place before us. Give us hands ready to serve, feet willing to go, and hearts eager to love. May our lives shine with the light of Christ so that others may be drawn—not to us, but to you. Amen