SOLA GRATIA (Ephesians 2:1-10)

SOLA GRATIA (Ephesians 2:1-10) INTRODUCTION I want to continue my series on the Five Solas of the Reformation. We have looked at Sola Scriptura, the issue here is, What is the ultimate and infallible authority for faith and life? The Reformers said, It is the Bible the Scriptures Alone. Then we looked at Sola Fide, the issue here is, How does a person become righteous before God? The Reformers said, It is Faith in the promise of God s gift of Christ s righteousness to those who believe in Jesus Christ Faith Alone in Christ Jesus and his righteousness. Now we want to look at Sola Gratia Grace Alone. What is the issue here for the Reformers? Certainly every strip of Christians believes in God s grace. What needs to be clarified about God s grace? THE MEANING OF GRACE Grace is a big topic in the Bible. There are many verses which mention God s grace. There are at least 137 times the word appears in the NKJV Bible. 119 of them are in the New Testament. The common definition of grace is God s unmerited favor. Grace is God being favorable to us not because we deserve it, but because of God s great love for us. God is a gracious God. He loves to shower us with His blessings, not because we deserve them, but because that is who God is! In I Peter 5:10 God is called the God of all grace. In Hebrews 10:29 the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of grace. In John 1:14 Jesus is said to be full of grace and in I Corinthians 1:4 He is the giver of grace. Grace sometimes is used to speak of any positive work of God done in or for us. Paul says that his whole life is a product of God s grace. 1 Corinthians 15:10 NIV (10) But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them--yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. Grace covers every positive thing that God does for us and in us and all that He gives us. Every favor that God does for us is part of His grace. This includes October 29, 2017 Corntassel CP Church Page 1

the forgiveness of sins, the gift of Christ s righteousness, the gifts of the Spirit, eternal life. Every good gift that comes from the Father is part of His grace towards us. All Christians would agree to this, so why did the Reformers insist on Sola Gratia Grace Alone. What were they talking about? They were talking about grace in salvation. We are saved by grace. Salvation is by Grace Alone. Salvation is a gift of God. All of salvation is by God s gift. God s call is a gift. Faith is a gift. Repentance is a gift. Regeneration is a gift. Justification, sanctification, glorification - all are gifts of God. For the Reformers Sola Gratia means that salvation is by grace alone from beginning to end. Or to put it in the words of Jonah, Salvation is of the Lord. THE NECESSITY OF GRACE TO BE SAVED The classic passage on salvation by grace is Ephesians, chapter 2. Twice in this passage the exact phrase is used; it is by grace you have been saved (Verses 5 and 8.) The chapter starts off by declaring without equivocation that we were all born dead, i.e. dead spiritually. And a dead man must come to life before he can come to Christ. (1) As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, (2) in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. (3) All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. When Adam sinned he and all his posterity died spiritually and fell into bondage to sin. The necessity of God s grace in salvation is demanded because we are spiritually dead. A person can t come to Christ apart from the grace of God. Jesus put it this way: John 6:44 NKJV No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. October 29, 2017 Corntassel CP Church Page 2

What can a spiritually dead person do spiritually? Nothing! Can he have true spiritual desires, spiritual inclinations, spiritual affections for God, make spiritual choices? No. Paul describes the situation of fallen man in Romans 3: Romans 3:9-12 NIV (9). For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. (10) As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; (11) there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. (12) All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.". This describes a spiritually dead person. This describes every human being before God s grace comes to them. The necessity of grace in salvation is not only that we don t deserve salvation; it is our total inability to even want or will salvation. When thinking of the fall of man what part of man fell when Adam fell? Every part. His mind was darkness, his emotions were turned from God to only self-love, his inclination was only towards sin, not towards God. His will fell into bondage to sin to where he would choose what pleased him, his self-love, his pride; not God s will. In other words sin affects every part of a person s make-up. It was the inability of the will of man that the Reformers were focused on. This gets us into the discussion of free-will. Many today hold to a view of free will that doesn t match what the Scriptures teach about fallen man. Down through church history there had always been a battle with those who advocated man s will wasn t touched by the fall and he has free-will to live for God, to cooperate with God in salvation. In the days of Augustine in the 5 th century there arose a man named Pelagius who taught that the fall of man only affected Adam, not his posterity. The fall of man didn t corrupt the will of man nor the ability of man so much that he couldn t keep God s law and live a life worthy of salvation. Following Christ s example is what is needed for salvation. Now Augustine fought tooth and nail against this doctrine. Augustine espouse that God s grace is necessary for salvation. Augustine became known as the Doctor of Grace. Not only is grace a necessary condition of salvation, it is the only sufficient cause of salvation. Man s will is in bondage to sin and cannot choose anything but sin. Man s free will is free to choose sin, but not free to choose that which is good. If man is to be saved, God October 29, 2017 Corntassel CP Church Page 3

would have to do something in man first. God would have to grant grace to a person before they are able to believe in Christ. Salvation is by Grace Alone. In Martin Luther s day he had to argue against Erasmus, who advocated a form of free will that argued that man has freedom of choice apart from the special grace of God. Only after coming to Christ did God make his grace known, Erasmus would say. Luther wrote a book titled, The Bondage of the Will. Luther saw the issue as being to what degree the human will is enslaved by sin. Luther saw man s will as in bondage to sin. Where Jesus said: "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.. (36) if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. John 8:34-36 NKJV The question Luther wanted to address was to what degree are we dependent upon grace for our liberation from this bondage to sin? To deny that our will is in bondage to sin is to strike at the necessity of God s grace and at the need for Christ s atonement to redeem that part of man.. Luther s conclusion was that we are totally dependent on God s grace to move our wills to trust in Him. Now man still has a will or freedom of choice, just like he still has a mind that thinks. He still can make choices freely. But one choice he can t make is to give himself spiritual life. He cannot will himself to be saved. He needs someone outside of him to give him life. A person becomes a child of God, not by his will, but by the will of God. John 1:12-13 NKJV But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: (13) who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. The Reformers wanted to bring this Biblical truth back to the forefront of discussion and belief. Sola Gratia: Salvation is by grace alone from beginning to end. It starts with God s act of grace of freeing the will or moving the will or drawing the will to trust in Christ. God s grace continues by giving everything needed for salvation by His free grace. IS SOLA GRATIA IMPORTANT TODAY? October 29, 2017 Corntassel CP Church Page 4

Sola Gratia was not only needed in the days of the Reformation, it is still needed today and not only needed but is critical for our faith, for preaching the Gospel, and for the health of the church. If man has an unfallen will that has not been corrupted by sin, then Christ s atonement was not needed for the whole man. Man has something that is not in need of Christ s work of redemption. That something is his will. This is a serious flaw in the understanding of the work of Christ. Jesus death on the Cross and the work of the Holy Spirit is not totally needed to be saved. This is serious. Also if salvation is not totally by grace, then the doctrine of Justification by faith alone is not needed. Could this be why we don t hear much preaching on Justification by faith today? The lack of clarity on Sola Gratia silences the doctrine of justification by faith in our preaching today. Much of the preaching today, especially on TV, is either the health and wealth gospel, the self-esteem gospel, and the moralistic therapeutic gospel. Preachers spend most of their times preaching on how to get God to bless you with health and wealth, or how to build up your self-esteem, or how to cope with your daily problems in life. These approaches to the gospel don t touch on the greatest problem of mankind which is being spiritually dead and in need of a supernatural work of God s grace for the totality of life. These approaches to the gospel don t deal with the spiritual condition that Paul describes in Ephesians 2. As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, (2) in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. (3) All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. Thirdly if Sola Gratia is denied we will have a basis to boast in ourselves when determining how we were saved. We may not express it as boasting, but if movement of our will is not totally by God s grace then it must be that we are smarter than those who hear the gospel and reject it. Or we are wiser, or maybe we are not quite as great a sinner. This is the problem Ephesians 2:9 speaks to. October 29, 2017 Corntassel CP Church Page 5

Ephesians 2:8-9 NIV For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast. CONCLUSION What am I asking you to do in light of God s grace? I am asking you to do those things which Paul mentions in Ephesians: 1. First is to admit your inability to save yourself and call out for the mercy and grace of God. by grace you have been saved 2. Then if you are saved to praise Him for His grace and glory in it. (Eph 1:6 NKJV) to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved. 3. Thirdly, you need to experience or savor the riches of the grace of God. As you would savor and enjoy a million dollars, do so to the grace of God. (Eph 1:7) In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 4. Throughout your earthly life you need to look forward to being God s recipients of His grace for all eternity where He will you will be on display of His Grace to all of creation. (Eph 2:7 NKJV) that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 5. Finally to join with Paul and proclaim the availability of God s grace to everyone. Put Sola Gratia as the part of the core of the Gospel message. (Eph 3:8) To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ Grace is God s unmerited favor to the ill deserving. Grace is God s favor, Him being favorable to you. It is more than God s favor. It is God s unmerited favor. His favor is not based on our merits, but on His love, because we don t deserve God s favor. It is more than unmerited favor. It is God s unmerited favor to those who deserve the opposite. Our sins deserve death and hell. In other words God s grace gives us heaven as a free gift. Sola Gratia says that all of salvation is of the Lord. Let s humble ourselves before God this morning and receive more and more of His grace. Amen? Amen! October 29, 2017 Corntassel CP Church Page 6