Sermon Tone Analysis

Our Scripture lesson this morning comes from Ephesians 2:1-10, which was one of our texts last Sunday.

There are two reasons why I have chosen to read from this text again: First because it is such a key for not only understanding the role of grace in salvation, but also of faith.

Second, it highlights that both grace and faith can only be properly understood in relational terms.

We often reduce Christian doctrine to a cold intellectual exercise, when in fact it should drive us to a warm, heart-felt relationship with God! God is gracious towards the human beings He has created because He loves them and created them to be in a relationship with Him.

Conversely, faith is the only appropriate response to such a gracious and loving God.

The lack of faith is a sign of how deeply a person’s relationship with God has been damaged by sin.

Let us now hear God’s Word to us from Ephesians 2:1-10.

I want to begin today’s message by reviewing one of the key points of last week’s sermon:

Grace Describes God’s Relationship Towards Sinners

We saw this very clearly in Exodus 34:6-7, but we also see it in Ephesians 2:1-10.

Paul begins chapter 2 with a brutal assessment of the human condition—we are dead in our trespasses and sins!

This is not a pretty picture, because to be spiritually dead means we have no hope within ourselves.

For this reason many have rejected the biblical doctrine of sin—they refuse to believe that a person is in such bondage to sin that they are spiritually helpless and hopeless.

This is a frightening place to be when you don’t know or believe that God is gracious and merciful.

As I pointed out, most people assume that God’s first response to our sin is wrath and judgement.

Of course the Bible does say that God judges sin and that sinners are under his wrath.

Last week we saw from Exodus 34, that God “will by no means clear the guilty” and in today’s passage that all of mankind are “by nature children of wrath.”

However, judgement and wrath are NOT the emphasis of these two passages or the rest of Scripture for that manner!

Humanity may not have hope within themselves, but because God is merciful and gracious there is great reason for hope!

In order that we would not miss the reason for our hope Paul says this right after he reminds us that we are all by nature “children of wrath”:

Paul does not stop there, in verse 7, he writes this:

Did you catch the significance of this?

It will not be until the age to come that the fullness of the grace God is giving us now, will be fully appreciated!

Only resurrected minds will have the ability to comprehend what God has done for us in Christ Jesus!

Last Sunday, using Exodus 34:6-7, I said that grace is God’s first response towards human sin.

Because we are so ungracious to other people, we assume that that is the way God deals with us.

The bible certainly speaks of God’s justice and his wrath towards sin and sinners, but this is not his first response.

Perhaps it would be good that we look at that passage again so we can see it for ourselves.

Two things about this passage that teach us that grace is God’s first response towards human sin.

First the order: grace comes first and after grace comes judgement.

Second, the extent, God shows grace and love for thousands of generations, but judgement only until the fourth generation!

This order and comparison are not accidents.

We find this throughout Hebrew literature.

This is the way the Hebrews communicated truth and the truth they are communicating is that God’s grace takes priority over His wrath!

The devil of course wants us to believe otherwise.

He comes to us as a false christ and attempts to reverse the order.

His name Satan, means Accuser and Jesus taught that by nature he is a murder.

His desire is to kill all hope within us, so that we will not turn to God in faith.

Because this series is on the five key Reformation doctrines, I want to use some of the Reformer’s quotations to illustrate my points.

As to this Satanic lie that God’s wrath takes priority over God’s mercy, Martin Luther wrote:

This was a sheer lie, a bewitchment of the devil, and a fanatical definition of an alien Christ, about which Scripture knows nothing at all.

It depicts Christ, not as a judge or a tempter or an accuser but as the Reconciler, the Mediator, the Comforter, the Savior, and the Throne of grace.

God is a God of grace, and when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see that grace our hearts are filled with love and faith towards him.

John Calvin, another Reformer, makes this observation:

But how can the mind be aroused to taste the divine goodness without at the same time being wholly kindled to love God in return?

For truly, that abundant sweetness which God has stored up for those who fear him cannot be known without at the same time powerfully moving us.

And once anyone has been moved by it, it utterly ravishes him and draws him to itself.

Our being “ravished” by the beauty of God’s love and grace points us to the true nature of faith and our second point:

Faith (or the Lack of) Describes Our Relationship to God

John Calvin very intentionally used the word “ravished,” for he understood that when Scripture speaks of the relationship between Christ and His church.

Just as a bride is to receive and rest in the arms of her husband to protect and provide for her, so we are to receive and rest in Christ.

Paul beautifully describes it this way:

Christ is a husband worthy of our trust, that is the whole point!

Paul is saying to men, be husband worthy of trust, just like Jesus!

But if Christ is worthy of our trust, it would be wrong for us not to give it to Him.

That is why I said Faith (or the Lack of) Describes Our Relationship to God.

Faith is the indicator of how healthy our relationship with God is.

You see...

Only Through Faith Alone Can You Enjoy a Saving Relationship with God

Many people think we are saved by faith.

It is not that uncommon to hear someone say, “Faith is the only thing that you can contribute to your salvation.”

This is a very dangerous thing to say, because it makes faith a work and something we can boast in.

It is very easy to look at the unbelief of other people and take pride in the fact that we are not like them—at least we believe!

But in our text today, Paul excludes both works and pride.

That said, faith IS something we do, something we MUST do to be saved!

So what role does faith play and why must do have it?

We have already been told by Paul that it is by GRACE that we have been saved.

So it is grace, not faith that saves us.

The word “through” is telling us the instrument by which we can enjoy this salvation.

Martin Luther and the other Reformers liked to speak of faith being like a bowl.

Imagine yourselves as a refuge in a food line.

You have waited all morning to receive your ration.

You see the people before you cupping their hands into bowls to receive the food.

When the time comes for you to receive your food you refuse to cup your hands and as a consequence your food falls to the ground!

Faith is nothing more than our cupped hands by which we receive God’s grace!

True faith is humbling—it is nothing more than being like a beggar holding out his hands to receive God’s bounty!

As Paul writes to the Corinthians, “What do you have that you did not receive?

If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?”

So many reject the doctrine of Salvation by Grace Alone, Though Faith Alone because they want to leave room for human boasting.

Last Sunday I spoke of the difference between Rome’s view of “infused” grace verses the Reformers view of “imputed” grace.

Rome viewed (and still views) grace and righteousness as something God infuses us with.

If we make good use of that grace and become righteous in our own deeds we will be saved.

This is one of the reasons Rome invented the doctrine of Purgatory, obviously no one in this life obtains the perfect righteousness needed to be in God’s holy presence, Purgatory gives them more time to work things out.

Contrast this with the biblical view of Righteousness by Faith.

There is perhaps no passage that more beautifully illustrates this than Philippians 3 where Paul gets very personal and shares with his readers the transformation of faith that took place in his life.

Earlier we heard John Calvin say that true faith is “ravished” by the beautify of God’s grace, mercy, love and faithfulness—Paul clearly is a man who was ravished by the beauty of Christ!

He looks at all the things he once trusted in and took pride in and now considers them as “rubbish”!

Once you have seen the righteousness of Christ, no other righteousness will do nor is any other righteousness needed!

Now some call this imputed righteousness a “legal fiction.”

How can God receive me as righteous, based on Christ’s righteousness?

This is were the marriage metaphor we spoke of earlier is so helpful.

Using Ephesians 5, Martin Luther explains how by faith we can be justified and counted righteous.

But faith must be taught correctly, namely, that by it you are so cemented to Christ that He and you are as one person, which cannot be separated but remains attached to Him forever and declares: “I am as Christ.”

And Christ, in turn, says: “I am as that sinner who is attached to Me, and I to him.

For by faith we are joined together into one flesh and one bone.”

Thus Eph.

5:30 says: “We are members of the body of Christ, of His flesh and of His bones,” in such a way that this faith couples Christ and me more intimately than a husband is coupled to his wife.

(Luther’s Works, Vol.

26: Lectures on Galatian)

The point Luther is making is this: In a biblical marriage, all that a husband owns becomes the property of his wife, in the same why, all that Christ owns becomes the property of His bride-the church!