Gospel Prism

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.

Ephesians 2:8-10

To recap from last week, we must remember that according to Ephesians 2:8-9, God’s great grace gives a person the faith that desires to do good works that flow from a true heart of worship because of what Christ has done for him on the cross. It is grace that spurs on this love to do the ‘work’ of faith. And for the Christian, this understanding of grace and faith is so radically freeing, and yet, too many of us have grown up in the church without this good news. Let me repeat from last week Richard Gilbert who describes this lack of freedom: “It sometimes seems that there is plenty of grace for you if you are not a Christian, but when you become a Christian there are all sorts of laws you must obey and you feel like you were better off before you were converted.” This is not how the joy of faith is to be experienced. So what can faith look like practically in our lives then so that faith could be a joyous faith? Let me give you one more thought on true faith from Ephesians 2:10 and then the practical application of this grace-faith paradigm.

True Faith

Paul writes Eph 2:10: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Verse 10 shows us once again, God is the Master Craftsman who molds us by His initiating grace. And as we see, this is IN CHRIST JESUS. God sent His Son to bear His wrath that we deserved as sinners. So because of this grace, we are given the delight of works of faith. When we have grace as our foundation, then our faith will always produce genuine works. Works do not cause grace. They do not cause God to act. But works definitely flow out of God’s saving grace in our lives.

And so we must pray with this faith. This objective reality, Christ’s work as a demonstration of God’s gracious loving kindness, MUST produce good works in the lives of Christians. So James says in 2:26: “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.” If our lives exhibit no works at all, the question we must ask ourselves is not, “Do I have faith?” but rather, “Do I deeply understand what God has truly done for me?”

So how does this perspective of grace and faith impact our lives? It means that from our view of grace, we know that God acts as He wills which is exactly how He must act to be God. Nothing determines His motives except His own glory. But from our view of faith, we know that good works must be exhibited in our lives because of God’s grace. First, let’s look at prayer in view of this grace-faith paradigm…

Examples

PRAYER: The way we pray is impacted by our view of grace and faith. Think of how many times you have prayed and then have felt God didn’t answer your prayers based of your present condition or lack of good works. If we really believed this to be true, would God ever hear our prayers? Would we ever be good enough for God to answer them? There would never be a place where we are good enough for God to be forced to bless us because of our goodness. Or perhaps you have prayed fervently, believing that your prayers must be answered by God because of your fervency and persistence. And yet, God doesn’t answer your prayer in the way you believe He should, and so you give up on Him. Bryan Chapell tells the story of a nurse friend who would pray with a dying cancer patient. The patient was a grandmother and as her family surrounded her bed to pray, their prayers disturbed the nurse. They called out to God ‘in faith’ for healing. They would encourage each other to pray more because the God of the Bible promised that the more faith they had, the more He would answer. Finally, they willed themselves to believe God will heal. One day, as Bryan Chappell’s nurse friend was making her rounds, she noticed that the woman had died. The family was still in the room and so she offered to pray with them one last time. The woman’s husband’s response startled her as he responded with deep bitterness: “God says to pray and he will answer. We did and he did not. So we’re done with that.” (Bryan Chapell, Praying Backwards, 18)

Do you hear what happened to that man and his family? They didn’t believe in the God of grace, but instead, they believed in their work of faith. God was not sovereign for them. On the contrary, God was bound to respond to their good work of prayer. She should be healed on the basis of their faith, rather than God merely acting on the basis of His own glory. This perspective regarding prayer is a distortion of the biblical relationship between grace and faith.

God does not answer prayer on the basis of our works. We need to remember Ephesians 2:8-9: “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.” God answers prayer by grace as a gift of God. And this grace is through Christ’s finished work in life and death given to us apart from works. And so what is the response that flows from this grace? We pray. We long to pray. We worship through our prayers. We spend more time adoring His grace and his beauty. Prayer is a response of worship because of grace. And so we pray with ‘great faith.’ I used to ask God to help me to pray more. But it never worked. That’s because it was just that, a work. But instead, prayer is the realization that God is so good and merciful. Prayer flows from a heart of utter gratitude and gladness. Prayer grows with more depth (and yes, even with more length) as we come to understand the Gospel of grace.

Therefore, we know that the end goal of all prayer is not that we would get what we want (or at least what we think we want), but rather that we would get what we truly need for our ultimate joy (even though this ultimate joy might mean short-term pain and suffering). This means that we know with deep assurance that prayer is about God rather than what God can give to us. We should not expect to climb onto the divine Santa Claus’ lap giving him our list of expected items because we have been good this year. And yet this is exactly how we often approach God in prayer. We take a moment to worship Him, but then give him our lists and then tell Him He should answer because we have been good, or sincere in praying, or have been praying fervently. Praying through grace with faith is a prayer that worships and adores God for who He is, regardless of the outcome. And in light of this reality, we pray and ask God for anything with fervency, believing God can and will answer us for His glory and our joy (John 15:7). This is how prayer should be understood in light of an Ephesians 2:8-10 view of grace and faith.

Bryan Chapell gives one more example of a person dying of cancer. His name is Eric who was dying of a painful brain tumor. His head was hurting so much that he was dizzy with pain. But when Bryan entered the room, he grimaced with a smile. His wife rose and went outside into the hallway to cry and to let go of the brave face she had put on for her husband. Eric spoke to Bryan earnestly when she was gone. He said: “Bryan, please help my family not to hurt too much. I feel for all of you. I will see Jesus soon, but you have to wait. I just pray that I can glorify the Lord through this.” (Bryan Chapell, Praying Backwards, 27-28)

Eric teaches us about this grace-faith relationship through the lens of Ephesians 2:8-9. Should Eric and his family pray for healing? Absolutely, James 5 teaches us so. But as Eric shows us by example, what he wanted more than anything else was that the power and greatness of God through Christ would shine forth in his life and even in his death. God could heal and sometimes He does. But God can also even use the evil of suffering and death for His glory. Eric had faith that God could even use his illness for His glory and for his family’s joy, even through the incredible pain. This didn’t stop him from praying for relief and healing. But it gave him joy, regardless of the circumstances and trust that God is in control and therefore, he can have peace no matter the outcome. This is God’s grace. And this is not great faith, it is simply true faith.

EVANGELISM: Evangelism is impacted directly by our view of grace and faith. For those of you who have loved ones who do not know Christ, imagine if their turning to Christ was dependent on your faith. Would you ever be able to pray enough for them? Wouldn’t you worry that on one of those days you missed praying for your family, you would actually contribute to their rejection of Christ? For some of you, your loved ones seem so far from God that you could imagine mountains being moved before they would turn to Christ. If your faith, or their readiness (if they’re not so bad, but relatively good people) led to their trust in Christ, you have probably concluded that they would never turn to Him. In fact, this has probably led you to pray LESS for them. You think, “Oh, they’re so far from God, prayer is no use.” This type of thinking is a perspective that is not about a low view of your faith, but actually your low view of the God you worship. You see, believing in the gracious, loving power of God in Christ teaches us that nothing is impossible for God.

Take for example Matthew 8:23-27 and Jesus’ calming of the storm. The disciples cry out to Jesus, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” Now I know we Sunday morning quarterbacks look at this picture and laugh at the disciples thinking, “Don’t you know God is in your boat?” We say this because most of us have never faced a storm on the sea. It can be an absolutely terrifying experience. Some of the guys and I went fishing not that long ago and it was a calm day. Even then, there were some pretty green passengers on board. Now what if there were 10-20 foot waves, as the disciples probably faced? And yet, it was true, God was on the boat. God the Son was on this boat and it was God Himself who said in Job 38:8-11: “Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb, 9 when I made clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band, 10 and prescribed limits for it and set bars and doors, 11 and said, ‘Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stayed’?” You see the disciples should have had peace, not because they had something within themselves that gave them faith. But rather, they were following the God who shut in the sea. Their problem was their unbelief in God the Son, not a lack of faith in themselves.

So when it comes to evangelism and salvation we must remember our faith does not save, God does. And if God has saved you and me, then He can save anyone. And so because of this great grace shown to us through Christ’s finished work, we pray much more for loved ones. We don’t believe that our faith will save anyone. But we do believe that our great God can and wants to save people from sin. And from this perspective flows an urgency to pray, a longing to pray, a consistency to pray, and perhaps most importantly, a perseverance to pray knowing that no one is too far gone to turn to Christ.

So do I think evangelism is important in light of an Ephesians 2:8-10 perspective of faith and grace? Absolutely! I believe BECAUSE OF this perspective I am confident of people turning to Christ. Therefore, I will never give up praying for one’s salvation, and I will never assume that someone is beyond salvation. In fact, this perspective led John Owen, who believed wholeheartedly in unconditional election and limited atonement, to make this plea to all people: “Come, I entreat you; lay aside all procrastinations, all delays; put me off no more; eternity lies at the door.” (Quoted from J. I. Packer, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, 104) We must make our plea to the lost heartily and with urgency, and I know that this grace-faith perspective fuels that plea with sincerity.

But this perspective also keeps us from placing our hopes in ‘revivalistic methods.’ I used to be a strong proponent of such methods. It used to be that we would plan ‘revival meetings’ asking the Holy Spirit to come and visit our holy gatherings. Altar calls were deemed critical to one’s salvation. We simply did not want people to miss what was possibly their sole opportunity to be saved. Getting people to physically raise their hands in affirmation of this altar call was a matter of eternal life and death, or so we thought.

What does one make of these revival movements? Did God ever bless such times? Yes. But a biblical grace-faith perspective teaches us that God blessed those times not because the conditions were ripe (there enough good works done, revival meetings, enough seed prayers like seeding a cloud for rain, a good band, dimming lights, etc.), but because He graciously came to offer the gift of salvation as He so willed. And those moments did not save anyone. Instead, Paul tells us in 2 Cor 4:1-6: “In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” God simply comes and shines lights into the hearts of those who are absolutely blind and He keeps us not for one night of revival, but for an eternity. God will save because He is a God of loving kindness, and our faith leads us to trust Him because of grace. For this reason, we need not doubt that God can and wants to save your siblings, your parents, your co-workers, your neighbors. I know you think they are so far from trusting Christ that you could never imagine them turning to Him. But remember the gracious God, the powerful God you worship. He can calm the raging seas and by His mere word, He put the stars in its place. But even more, He saved you, didn’t He. Then no one is too far gone to be saved by Him. Pray for them and pray as one praying to an Almighty God. But also pray that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

DECISION-MAKING: The way we make decisions is directly impacted by our view of grace and faith. I had a friend who made decisions this way. If he was offered a job by a company, the first thing he thought was that God wanted to bless him through this job. It was always interesting how God’s blessings and his faith in God seemed to correspond with how much money the company was offering and what type of position he was being given. He made it seem as though his faith in God (his ‘good works’) led God to offer him this opportunity. And of course, what happened to him repeatedly was that once he took this job as a ‘decision of faith,’ he found the job to be miserable. Then guess who he blamed? He blamed God. His thinking was, “God, I’ve done all of these things for you, AND I’ve even wanted to take this job for you ‘in faith,’ and look at how you’ve repaid me.” What my friend failed to realize was that his decision-making was anything but a decision of faith. Faith for him meant that his works merited some material benefit with God. God owed him a job that paid well, gave him a good reputation, where people loved him at the workplace, had good hours, and would provide an opportunity to succeed quickly. And what merited this favor from God? He served the church. He gave money to the church. He tried to be morally good. He’d been going to church for a long time, unlike his friends who chose to stay away. Surely, God owed him at least this small favor. After all, isn’t He God?

We might not all think exactly this way, but my friend is not the only one who thinks this way. Every decision we make, from the job we should take, the boyfriend/girlfriend we should date, the house we should buy, etc. is a decision wrestling with the grace-faith connection. If you ever feel entitlement (I deserve this) or self-pity (why is this happening to me) or envy (how come I’m not as blessed as she is), it is probably because you believe your faith merits your rewards. And so we make decisions based on this premise. We wrongly think, “I am entitled to this job, therefore in ‘faith’ I know God wants to bless my decision.” Faith becomes our tool to serve ourselves. But what does an Eph 2:8-10 view of grace-faith look like in our decisions? It means that first and foremost, there is the realization that God has given us everything already through His Son. Romans 8:32 tells us so. Thus, any blessings we receive in addition to salvation is what Paul calls lavished grace in Ephesians 1:8. It also means that we must remember that our good works are ultimately polluted garments (Isaiah 64:6), which essentially merit nothing before a holy and perfect God.

We do God a grave injustice by believing that our works are good enough for God to bless us. Recently, Shua and I have been giving our kids allowance based on the chores they do. One of their chores is to clean their room. I walked by Sarah’s room once and it was quite messy. I called Sarah up to the room and told her she needed to have it clean in order to receive her allowance. When I went back downstairs, about a minute later, she came downstairs as well. I looked at her puzzled and said, “Sarah, did you clean your room?” She answered, ‘Yes,’ with such affirmation. Admittedly, I was a bit skeptical. So I went upstairs to her room and what I saw was that her clothes were pushed under her bed and the toys were shoved under Jack’s bed. A few items were picked off the floor, but all sorts of things still cluttered the floor. To Sarah, her room was clean, but it was far from clean from any objective standard. How many times we also think our good works are good enough, only for God to still see the ‘filth of our rooms’ merely pushed under the bed? All our good deeds are polluted with self-centered motivations. And unless you see this, you will always think your faith, exhibited by your good works, is good enough for God to bless your decisions. There is another way in making decisions from a grace-faith perspective.

Theologian Bruce Walkte describes this view this way: “The Lord provides a six-point program of supervised care in directing His elect. The order of those steps is very important. You cannot start in the middle and skip to the end. If you want to be clear on God’s guidance for your life, you must begin with the first step, then move to the second.” (Bruce Waltke, Finding the Will of God: A Pagan Notion?, 59) Without going into a full-orbed explanation of each detail, I’ll list each one for you since they tend to be self-explanatory:

1) Read Your Bible (2 Tim 3:14-17) – The Bible is the foundation of every decision we make based on God’s grace. It is a call to see your decisions in view of God’s sovereign grace, His redemptive plan, and His call to trust in Him for His glory and for your joy. A proper reading your Bible will guard you against self-centeredness, and protect you against an over-zealous delight in the object of your decision, rather than a delight in the God you worship.

2) Develop a Heart for God (2 Sam 23:5) – God uses your desires in light of your pursuit of His grace, hence the grace-faith connection. If you’re pursuing God and a love for the Gospel, God will give you your desires (Psalm 37:4). Of course, this heart is developed first by a love for His Word and His promises to you as His child made certain by His Son’s finished work.

3) Seek Wise Counsel (Hebrews 10:25) – This is exactly why the church is critical to a life of faith through grace. Waltke writes: “The church is a body of believers gathered together by the Holy Spirit for the purpose of carrying out the principles of God’s Word.” We need men and women who love to turn to Gospel-focused brothers and sisters for counsel when making decisions. If you have not sought out biblical, Gospel-centered counsel when making important decisions, you are probably in danger of making self-centered decisions. When you make important decisions, moving jobs, preparing to enter a dating relationship, career choices, taking on important ministry positions in the church, do you seek wise counsel? But again, we seek counsel that leads us to the Gospel founded on God’s Word.

4) Look for God’s Providence (Ruth 2:3; Eccl. 9:11) – We do not believe in chance. There are no coincidences, but God does work providentially in our lives. Rev. 4:11 tells us this about God, “For you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” All things are held together by His active will. Providence is a part of our decision-making process. God leads providentially. But we never begin here. Providence is a part of our regular and active love for God and His Word.

5) Does This Make Sense? (Josh 9:25; 1 Sam 1:23; 2 Sam 18:4; 1 Chron 13:2) – God allows us to use our head and our experiences to make decisions, when checked on the backdrop of Scripture. Waltke notes: “Don’t fall into the trap of thinking God’s guidance will always be through something spectacular or unique. Often He guides us by simply letting us use our heads.”

6) Divine Intervention – You need to realize that God never intervenes miraculously in the NT in response to a person seeking his will. But we do know that God can sovereignly intervene as He so wills and for His own glory. As Waltke notes, the Bible shows that God sovereignly intervenes miraculously for these three instances: a) to save one of His children from an intolerable situation, b) to reveal a great truth about Him or His Church, c) to reveal why a Christian should act in violation of God’s normative way of guiding people in decision-making.

Conclusion

Next week, I’ll be covering a few more areas on this grace-faith relationship. Also, I’d like to invite you to make suggestions to me on some topics you might want me to address in this biblical grace-faith paradigm.