If you were here last week, I hope you left understanding what grace is. To recap, grace is God’s initiating act of loving kindness to people who had no love for Him. God acts graciously towards us apart from our best of works or our worst of sins. Since God’s grace then is apart from anything that we do, you might have been wondering, “If that is the case, then what about faith? How does faith fit in to last week’s understanding of grace?” Charles Spurgeon gives this illustration:

By faith all things become possible to us; yet the power is not in the faith, but in the God upon whom faith relies. GRACE is the locomotive engine, and faith is the chain by which the carriage of the soul is attached to the great motive power. The righteousness of faith is not the moral excellence of faith, but the righteousness of Jesus Christ which faith grasps and appropriates. The peace within the soul is not derived from the contemplation of our own faith; but it comes to us from Him who is our peace, the hem of whose garment faith touches, and virtue comes out of him into the soul.

According to Spurgeon, faith is the natural response to the present reality of God saving sinners. Faith does not power our love for God. God does that. Instead, faith is the instrument which God uses in us to love Him. So you need to understand that faith is not the ability to be a ‘good person.’ Instead, faith takes Christ’s righteousness as our own given to us by God’s grace and applies it to our lives. Faith flows from the righteousness of Christ and makes us want to be more like Him. So if God’s grace initiates, there will always be a true and natural faith that flows from that grace.

Therefore, I’d like to examine two aspects of this faith-grace relationship found in Ephesians 2:8-9: 1) A further development of this relationship between faith and grace, and 2) An understanding of faith as God’s gift.

Faith and Grace: The Means and Ground (v. 8 )

To understand this relationship between faith and grace, you need to know that grace is the ground of faith and faith is the means by which God’s grace is appropriated in our lives. Now, I know you’re wondering, “What in the world does that mean?” Well think of the word ‘ground’ as you would the foundation of a building. When we were in Africa, we were working on a future building site for Hands at Work. At the time, we were laying bricks to build the walls. But of course, before we did that, the foundation had to be laid. This foundation, or the ground, would support every brick, the roof, the windows, the electrical wiring, the plumbing, everything that was to consist of the eventual building. And in the same way, when Paul says in verse 8, “For by grace you have been saved,” the word ‘for’ is a word that signifies this ground. Like that building in Africa, God’s grace is the foundation upon which our salvation is based and in which faith is lived out in our lives. If you can remember Titus 3:3-6, that was Paul’s point. God’s grace is foundational to the Christian life. But to fully understand this grace, we need to examine the context of Eph 2:8-10 by first looking at verses 1-7.

Verses 1-3 again lay out this preface to grace: our sinful state must first be realized in order to understand the full depth and breadth of grace. In last week’s text, Titus 3:3 provided that preface when Paul wrote: “For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.” Only after this statement does he say: “BUT when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy.” Grace is understood in light of sin. Another place we see this connection between the preface of sin and the full realization of grace is Romans. Romans 1-3 has laid out God’s case against a humanity that had no love for Him. In Romans 3:9 Paul quotes Psalm 14 by saying, “None is righteous, no, not one.” And he closes this section in Romans 3 by saying in verse 20: “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” It seems utterly hopeless, until we read once again that treasured conjunction BUT: “BUT now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe.” So here in today’s text, verses 1-3 employ the same approach. Look at the phrases Paul uses to describe the hearts’ of all people: “dead in the trespasses and sins” (v. 1), “following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air” (v. 1), “sons of disobedience” (v. 1), “lived in the passions of our flesh” (v. 3), “carrying out the desires of the body” (v. 3), and “by nature children of wrath” (v. 3). And then here is the grace response in verses 4-7: “BUT God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” I could spend two more messages just explaining the gracious love of these verses. But all I ask you to see is the contrast between verses 1-3 and verses 4-7. The ugliness and darkness of verses 1-3 reveals even more the brilliance and magnificence of verses 4-7. Or as Jerry Bridges describes the contrast of the black velvet of sin makes the diamond of grace shine that much more brilliantly.

So once again, grace, God’s amazing grace that saves wretched sinners like me, is the foundational ground according to verse 8. And what about faith? According to verse 8, if grace is the ground, then faith is the means by which the ground is fully realized. Verse 8 tells us: “For by grace you have been saved through faith.” I like Spurgeon’s picture of faith as the chain that links one’s soul to the great locomotive of grace. Faith is God’s grace in action in our lives, creating the desire to be more like Christ. But we must remember, faith doesn’t save us. Christ saves us. Theologian John Gerstner describes the relationship between grace and faith this way: “Scripture is teaching us that the faith which saves is not a work. It has no spiritual value in itself. Strictly speaking, the true Christian church does not teach justification by faith. It teaches justification by Christ. Where does the faith come in? It is simply the uniting with, joining, with, becoming one with, the Lord Jesus Christ.” John Gerstner isn’t the one who invented this. The Bible repeatedly remarks that faith is a work of God given to us. We only need to look at verses 8-9 to see this for ourselves.

The Gift of Faith (v. 8-9)

Verses 8-9 give us three phrases that make it quite clear that faith is a gift and not something we earn. Paul tells us that this grace through faith that leads to our salvation is “not of our doing.” It is also a “gift of God.” And finally, just in case if you missed Paul’s point, he tells us that it is “not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” These three phrases build the strongest of cases against any attempt to make faith itself something that the Christian achieves. That is we do not have faith in faith, we have faith in God.

And yet, we Christians continue to find ultimate value in what we do rather than in what Christ has done. And then we think faith is ‘trying harder to believe in God’ or ‘disciplining yourself, your heart, your mind, to follow Him more’ or ‘trying to convince yourself that if you pray without doubting then God will answer your prayers.’ This has led us to have a gas-tank view of faith. Many of us have believed that faith is quantitative, something you can measure much like your fuel gauge in your car. Sometimes you have greater faith, and sometimes you have smaller faith. According to this view, faith goes up or down as a result of 1) your good works (your devotional life, your involvement at church, the amount you tithe, the kindness and ‘niceness’ you show to others), 2) your sins (when you sin any sin, when you’re in a bad mood, when you don’t spend any time thinking about God), 3) your circumstances (when you have the possibility of getting a better job, you just need ‘greater faith’ to get the job, illness-if you have bigger faith, there will be healing), and 4) God’s favor or disfavor over you (God is like your ill-tempered father. You have to walk on egg-shells around Him so we won’t throw a fit, but when He’s in a good mood, He’ll buy you something). Thus, the gas tank is filled by our devotional lives and other good works and is emptied by our sins and God’s anger.

But the problem with this gas tank scenario is that faith, according to verses 8-9, is a gift of God. And this gift is given to us entirely apart from any condition we are in, any sin we commit, any good work we achieve. This destroys the gas tank mentality. Faith is given to you not because of what you do, but simply because of God’s loving kindness. According to Romans 5:8: “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Therefore, there is no such thing as great faith (a faith we obtain by our efforts or will), but rather, faith in a great God. A. W. Pink puts it this way, “The great mistake made by most of the Lord’s people is in hoping to discover in themselves that which is to be found in Christ alone.” (Quoted from Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace, 101)

So you might be wondering, “We hear so often that people in the Bible have great faith, what does such faith look like then in light of what you have just said about faith?” To cover this topic fully would probably take a future sermon series down the line, but let me just give you two points from Scripture on faith. First, when we think of faith most people think of Hebrews 11, what many consider to be the “Hall of Fame” of faith. At first glance, it seems as though these men or women, by their personal great faith, believed in God. That is, faith itself was the effort needed to do the great things these men or women accomplished for God. But you have to view chapter 11 in light of chapter 10. Faith was made possible because of what God had accomplished through His Son. In fact, 10:1-13 makes the case that the whole sacrificial system was insufficient to ever truly save anyone. So Moses who instituted this system and who is a card-carrying member of the Hall of Fame of faith in chapter 11, sets up a system that ultimately provided no faith at all. As Heb. 10:4 says: “For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Verses 11-18 emphasize that God had done the work of saving people through His Son. Verses 11-12 say: “And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 BUT WHEN CHRIST had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” Verse 19 tells us that we can enter with confidence (Faith) BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS. And then listen to verses 21-22 which proclaim these incredible words: “AND SINCE we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” With all of this in mind, the writer moves to give examples of those who had this full assurance of faith. They had faith not in their faith, nor in their good works, but in a gracious God who gave them this gift despite their heart’s condition.

Also, I can think of no other Bible text that might lead us to believe that faith is quantitative then Matthew 17:20: “He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” The disciples were trying to heal an epileptic boy and the father lets Jesus know that they couldn’t heal him. Verse 20 was Jesus’ response.

Now from this text, it seems as though faith is quantitative. The mustard seed was considered to be the smallest of seeds and yet it would eventually grow into this large tree. Surely you might think here is a clear picture where faith is about growing your faith from something tiny to something bigger. I must confess that this text used to be quite a discouragement for me. If Jesus was saying faith as small as this seed can move mountains, and since I can’t move mountains, then surely my faith was virtually non-existent. And then of course, I asked, “Why is my faith so small?” Guess what answer comes to mind? Well, I don’t pray enough. I haven’t read the Bible enough. I get so easily distracted by different pleasures: sports, good food, the latest gadgets. If I cut these out of my life, then I’ll have greater faith. You see, from this text it is far too easy to believe that faith is directly proportionate to our works. But guess what? That’s exactly what the disciples and the boy’s father believed. So Jesus says in verse 17: “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” The disciples’ believed that since they were following Jesus, this great teacher and miracle worker, some of his ‘karma’ might rub off on them. The boy’s father probably figured that Jesus’ disciples had some special power in them because Jesus was this great magic man.

You see, they had faith in themselves, what they saw, what they thought were solutions. But their faith was not in Christ Himself, as Son of God, Savior. And so Jesus rebukes them as people of no faith (faithless). Now going on to verse 20, Jesus was not saying that they had small faith and just needed bigger faith. What he was saying was that faith was not quantitative at all. Faith cannot move mountains. You can’t conjure up enough faith to do that. But faith knows that believing in a great God who absolutely can move mountains is what we truly need. Faith believes that only God can do the impossible (Luke 18:27). So the response we should have to this text is not to pray for more faith to do great things. But instead, we should worship a great God who can do all things and thank Him for the gift of faith He has already given to us. We must come to realize that a true inward look at our own hearts leads us to see how morally bankrupt we are before a holy God. And then we must come to know that it is only by the blood of Christ that can we come with confidence and faith to Him. In this, we respond with thanksgiving and worship for God’s great grace. And then we act in true faith by longing to repent of sins, read God’s Word, forgive those who trespass against us, serve the Lord in ministry, in missions, etc. True worship cannot take place without the gift of faith and true faith is non-existent apart from God’s sovereign grace.

Faith and Grace Applied Separately and Together

So from our perspective we always respond in faith. I am never to think that because God’s grace is so abundant to me that I need not live the life of faith. The Bible would say such a person has a wrong view not just of faith, but of God’s grace. Jude tells us: “For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 4) Notice these false teachers were very subtle in their attempts to undermine the Gospel. This application of a biblical grace-faith perspective is very important. Look at what Jude was warning against: people attempting to “pervert the grace of our God” by living with sensuality, or with worldliness. This is exactly what Paul warns against in Romans 6:1-2: “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” If you think that faith means you can sin as much as you wish without any consequence, can live a life without discipline and self-control, that you need not pray or read Scripture because of God’s great grace, then Jude would refer to such a person as “ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God.”

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. Richard Gilbert 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.” (Quoted from Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace, 77) Jerry Bridges has this to say: “We speak of the gift of salvation and the cost of discipleship. The ‘cost of discipleship’ is not necessarily an unbiblical expression, but the connotation we built into it is. We often convey the idea that God’s grace barely gets us inside the door of the Kingdom, and after that, it’s all our own blood, and sweat, and tears.” (Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace, 77) Is it any wonder why then that for so many of us, faith has often seemed like drudgery and a burden?

Faith is meant to be a life of joy. It is meant to be the most freeing experience we could ever enjoy. And it could be if we simply understood this relationship of faith and grace as the Bible teaches it. So what does faith practically look like in our lives then? I’ll talk about that next week.