Part 2
What comes next in God’s plan of salvation?
by Loren Stacy
Ephesians 2:1-9 destroys the idea that people can save themselves from the wrath of God against sin. Most religions focus on things one must do or not do to merit God’s favor. But, as an apostle of Jesus Christ, Paul insists that salvation is by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. That is the essence of biblical Christianity.
As we read verse 10, however, we see that Paul immediately anticipates a dangerous misunderstanding: If good works do not save us, why should we be concerned with good works at all? Why learn God’s Word and try to obey it? Why not just live any way we may please?
Paul answers these questions: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (v. 10).
We are not saved by good works, but we are saved for good works. As the early reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin famously insisted, we are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone. True and saving faith in Jesus Christ is the gift of God to those individuals who have been born again (John 3:3, 7). Such persons have been regenerated by God, spiritually transformed by God — from dead in sin to alive in Christ. The evidence of that transformation is the good works that always result from that transformation.
Workmanship
Ephesians 2:10 reveals several important things about those who have truly been born again.
First, it tells us that we who are saved are God’s workmanship. Workmanship is translated from the Greek word poyaymah. It means something that has been skillfully crafted, like a beautiful work of art, music, or literature. Paul reminds us that there is no room for human pride when it comes to the work of salvation because that work is God’s work. God saves us from Himself (from His wrath against our sin), by Himself (salvation is His work, not ours), and for Himself (for His glory).
New creation
Second, verse 10 tells us that we are re-created “in Christ Jesus.” As someone has said, Christianity isn’t just another self-help program, behavior modification, or moral improvement. Authentic Christianity is radical, to-the-core transformation. We are not just repaired or improved; we are re-created! We are regenerated spiritually, born again in Christ Jesus: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Once again, God’s Word is driving home the point that our salvation is God’s work, not ours. Before we were born again, we were
dead in the trespasses and sins in which [we] once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience — among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind (Ephesians 2:1-3).
Those who are dead know nothing and do nothing. They cannot re-create themselves or bring themselves back to life. So how did we who are new creations in Christ become new creations in Christ? Verses 4, 5: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ — by grace you have been saved.” And why has God given us new life in Christ? According to Ephesians 2:10, “for good works.”
Salvation’s fruit
Third, good works are the purpose, not the cause, of our salvation. This is a crucial point that so many miss. They place so much weight on God’s grace that they deny the importance of good works. Others place so much weight on doing good works that they deny God’s grace.
Ephesians 2:1-10 tells us the truth of the matter. We are saved by God (by His grace through a fully saving trust in Christ that God gives us) for the purpose of doing good works. Those works are not the root of our salvation, but they most definitely will be the fruit of it. No one is saved by doing good works, but anyone who truly is saved does good works.
This is a critical concept. The biblical gospel is that God grants salvation as a gift of His grace through faith and that true salvation leads us to do good works. Our salvation, therefore, truly is by God’s grace alone, through a God-given faith alone, in Christ Jesus alone, to the glory of God alone. Any “gospel” that says you must perform certain good works to earn salvation is a false gospel. Any “gospel” that says you must obey or sacrifice or do certain things to earn salvation is a false gospel. Any “gospel” that says you must add something of your own work to the work of Christ to earn salvation is a false gospel.
The true gospel is not “Jesus plus something more.” It is that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. Jesus said:
“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit [i.e. good works], for apart from me you can do nothing. . . . By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit [i.e. good works] and so prove to be my disciples” (John 15:5, 8).
Beforehand
Fourth, God himself prepared these good works that true believers do. Ephesians 2:10 tells us that He “created [us] in Christ Jesus for good works, which [He] prepared beforehand.”
This is another acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty. Not only has God ordained our salvation, God also has ordained the transformed lives that we live once we are saved. And verse 10 says that He did this beforehand. Before He saved us. Before the foundation of the world.
New walk
Fifth, we have been created in Christ Jesus to fulfill God’s plan. God ordained the good works of each true believer beforehand so “that we should walk in them.” Before God gave us new life and faith in Christ, we “walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience” (v. 2). After God gave us new life and faith in Christ, we walk, following the path of good works that God created for us beforehand. We walk following Christ. We walk following the Holy Spirit.
Beware
Taken altogether, Ephesians 2:8-10 provides an amazingly concise statement of God’s plan of salvation. In these three brief verses, it tells us how we are saved and why we are saved. We are saved by God’s grace through a God-given faith in Jesus Christ, and we are saved to do the good works that God prepared beforehand for us to do. Our salvation, from start to finish, is God’s work.
There are two deadly errors that derail too many people. First, beware of trusting in yourself for your salvation and that your knowledge or good works can earn salvation.
Second, beware of taking God’s grace and mercy for granted. Beware of any thought that God’s grace and mercy are a license to sin now, repent later, and be forgiven. None of us should presume upon God’s grace. Habitually doing so is evidence that we’ve never really received it.
Ephesians 2:1-10 is a statement of the gospel, and Ephesians 2:8-10 is a three-verse summary of it all.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
