You do know that there is this sarcastic phrase circulating from those who do not believe in the eternal security of the believer – “Once saved always saved.” It’s more of a derogatory label directed at those who believe they are eternally secure in the Person and work of Jesus Christ. Such critics believe you are going to heaven as long as you do not willfully sin against God before dying. In other words, you have repented of any willful sin before slipping out into eternity.
It is similar to the Roman dogma of last rites, but the difference is you do not need a priest or pastor to administer it. This position contains a host of issues. Any evangelical theologian worth his weight of salt would know such belief or practice is tantamount to a working salvation, meaning, God has done His part; now salvation is up to the individual to do his or her part. Paul said something completely different than this inherent need to earn this or that for salvation,
(Eph 2:8) For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
(Eph 2:9) not of works, lest anyone should boast.
But the Apostle Paul through the inspiration of Scripture argues that it is not of yourselves but by grace (Gk, charis, already mentioned in Eph 2:5) you have been saved through faith [Gk, pistis]. Some may interpret faith as a cause and, therefore, a form of works, but God does not view faith as works anywhere in Scripture, and neither should we! Paul did not say, because of or on account of faith we are saved but through faith. It is analogous to a channel rather than a cause through which salvation flows.
And that is a much-debated phrase. This demonstrative pronoun normally has a noun to refer back to. A common opinion among evangelical scholars is that this pronoun refers to the whole act of salvation, citing the gender of the pronoun that is neuter and not referring back to grace or faith in particular because they are feminine in gender, but it must include them since they are part of the whole construct of salvation if we take that explanation of what it refers back to.
In the context of Scripture, works are always viewed as a product or fruit of salvation, never the cause of it. Grace is the basis of salvation; faith is the means of it, not works (cf. Rom 4:5; Jn 1:13). Hence, and that [your salvation is] not of yourselves. Wuest literally translates Eph 2:8b, “and this (salvation) is not from you as a source; of God it is the gift,” The New Testament: An Expanded Translation (Eerdmans, 1961), 451.
For by grace are you saved – We are not brought into a spiritual situation, condition, or state in which salvation is achievable in the future. In biblical reality, we are literally saved at the very moment we receive God’s gift of salvation through faith alone, and instantly, graciously, and judicially we are declared righteous by God and ripped out of darkness into the Light! Amen. Nowhere in the Scriptures do we ever read of anyone being saved against his or her will.
Now, the question is this; why is salvation not sourced in works? Let me give an oversimplification theologically and then practically. We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners; it is traced back to Adam (Rom 5:12). In our sinful state, there is nothing we can offer or do to alleviate the distance between our sinfulness and the holiness of God.
If left in our egregious sinful state, we would eventually die and be eternally separated from God, suffering eternal destruction of an incomprehensible magnitude for the penalty of sin, known as the second death. This is the abysmal theological dilemma of a lost person: his depravity and impoverished state of no hope and without God in the world, and there is nothing he can do about it. The solution would have to come from a Source completely outside of man and provided with an opportunity to avoid the bleak and unfathomable horror waiting for him in eternity without Christ.
God, Himself is the Source, not works because bridging that gulf between man and God would require something that we cannot earn through effort and do not deserve, which is, redemption. As a believer, it is vital we grasp just how serious our sinful condition once was by what it took to bring man to God in order to offer him salvation through the death of His Son. This can be challenging for us to appreciate the divine solution because we are saturated by sin all around us and can become desensitized by the exposure and commonality of it if we are not careful. In short, we often do not share the Creator’s abhorrence of sin around us and particularly when we share the world’s view of it. Sadly, there is generally no fear of God when it comes to sin.
The solution to man’s dilemma of sin is God’s own Son paying for the penalty for sin on man’s behalf; this throws in sharp relief not only the lethality of sin but to the extent that God was willing to go to provide a way to redemption for man. It is impossible to fathom the gravity of sin that if left unabated leads to an eternal destiny of unimaginable horror. Imagine if you will that it took the death of God’s Son on the cross to bridge the gap between us.
Our transgression set in motion an irreversible course that would demand the holiness of God to be propitiated. God so loved the world is an amazing thing, but the cost to prevent man from perishing is mindboggling. I think it will be the celebration of and for eternity what Jesus did for you and for me on that cruel cross on a hill in Jerusalem. God loved us that much to have His Son crucified for us even when we were at Eph 2:1-3 (cf. Rom 5:8). Let’s talk about our spiritual biography prior to our salvation and see why works won’t work in the salvation of man.
When we read about us before Christ in Eph 2, we see a dramatic difference between being spiritually dead before Christ and spiritually alive after Christ. So, I’m going to get to the number one reason, right off the bat, why works won’t work in Eph 2:1,
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins [emphasis mine].
Paul under inspiration is being elaborately obvious – a dead man can’t do diddly. Have you ever witnessed a corpse doing anything? Notice what Paul said in v1,
And you [the Ephesians] He made alive [italics is an indication of words supplied by translators to make sense for the English reader; cf. Eph 2:5], who were dead [Gk, nekros, a corpse, emphasis mine] in trespasses and sins [suggest deliberate acts and failures against God].
Read this verse apart from the addition in italics. It is pretty blunt. Paul is talking about people who are alive but spiritually dead due to their sinful nature. They are spiritually dead not because of their acts and failures (sinning), but because of their very nature, they (you and I) are sinners.
Why works won’t work for salvation is because of the overtly obvious, a dead man can’t work! He attempts to manhandle spiritual things by physical means. As long as the Holy Spirit does not live within his heart, he is spiritually dead, useless as a corpse. If a person has never experienced the transformational power of the Gospel message, he or she is dead.
There is not any kind of work, no matter how sincere, good, and great in number that is going to make this man or woman alive apart from Christ (cf. Eph 2:5). As long as a person is blinded by his unbelief, he will never realize that he is spiritually dead though he is alive physically. The devil has him bamboozled to keep on working his way to glory, hoping that his good works will outweigh the bad (2 Cor 4:4)! The source of salvation is not of works, but God!
There are three deaths in Scripture: spiritual death (temporal), physical death, and eternal or second death. Death in Scripture is understood to be a separation, not annihilation or cessation of conscious existence.
Spiritual death or separation is the spiritual makeup of man separated from God. Physical death or separation is when the soul and spirit are separated from the body. With the second death, both soul and body are eternally separated from God. The physical body will be restructured and rejoined by the soul of the lost at the Great White Throne judgment. Then the angels cast both soul and body, into the lake of fire to pay for the penalty of their sin in conscious existence for an eternity without end, without hope, without God, in the lake of fire.
Those who truly believe that salvation is sourced in works, do not know the Lord. Nobody goes to heaven by accident by being mistaken about salvation. No one will enter glory and find out that it wasn’t by works that saved you, and you responded by saying, “My bad!” And then hearing, “Well done you good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord!” This is reprehensible to the holiness of God! The Apostle Paul spoke of such people as accursed (Gk, anathema) in Gal 1:8-9.
Think of this after reading Eph 2:2-3. Again, those who believe that salvation is sourced in works are lost. They are embracing the world’s ideas of living and obeying an unseen ruler who is the adversary of God, His children, and anything related to Him. These people are following their impulses and imaginations generated by their evil nature, and in reality, are under the wrath of God. You see why works won’t work as a source of salvation. This is a huge lie by Satan that salvation is sourced in works or good works, not God, and the majority of the world buys into that lie.
What works could not do, God did by His grace (Eph 2:5-6) – He made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Works could never ever do that irrespective of time! What God did by the resurrection power that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead physically (Eph 1:19-20) is the same mighty power that made us alive spiritually – And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1; cf. Eph 2:5). <><
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| To Part 2 |
