What Does Salvation by Grace Through Faith Mean?

Ephesians 2:8-9 is an absolutely critical important essential statement of scripture it's foundational fundamental it explains the Theology of our Salvation so Grace is traditionally defined as unmarried favor something we don't deserve uh I I I like the I prefer the definition Grace is God's gift to us and God's work in us because Grace is not merely passive it's I'm just giving you something grace is active I'm transforming you so the doctrine of grace says we're Saved By God's love and God's action not our works we could never earn our Salvation because of our good works our parentage our church membership or paying tithes or any other Criterion you could come up with now we're created to do good works as verse 10 goes on to say but Salvation comes strictly from God it's God's gift to us and it's God's work in US faith is our trust in God it's our Reliance upon God it's more than mental ascent and in the English language sometimes we say I believe or to have faith can can just be an opinion divorced from any intent to act upon it but in the Bible saving Faith saving Faith always includes response and obedience in other words you you cannot have a disobedient believer that's an oxymoron if you're disobedient that doesn't mean you believe you might say you believe but your belief is shown by your action and the Book of Romans which is probably used more than any other to Champion uh Salvation by grace through faith or justification by faith is very clear that the faith it's talking about is includes obedience so Romans 1:5 um uh The Obedience of Faith Romans 16:26 obedient to the faith um Romans 6:17 uh you you were Sinners but you were saved by obeying the doctrine so um the Bible is abundantly clear that faith in the saving sense in the biblical sense is a Reliance trust obedience you cannot separate that and I've used many many illustrations o over the years uh to demonstrate that but one example is uh there was a tight rope Walker that that walked over the top of niiger Falls when that was allowed and uh thousands of people gathered to watch him and so he took a wheel bear and started rolling along and people were cheering him and he wanted to know do you think I can do it you know if you cheer me on I'll do it and of course everybody's cheering on so he looks to one person says get in the wheelbarrow I'll push you along of course nobody would volunteer so they had faith in the middle Ascent of standing on the sideline saying yeah I think you could do it but they weren't willing to commit their lives to the their belief that he could do it so when when the Bible says believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved does it mean standing on the sideline saying go ahead Jesus you can do it or does it mean I submit my life to you so if you're really not the Savior I'm going to be lost if Buddha is the savior my whole eternity is destroyed I'm committing my life to you well obviously that's what the Lord is talking about so we're saved by grace that Grace is announced to the whole world and made available to the whole world and actually operates I believe to draw the whole world but for that Grace to be active in a saving sense there must be faith on our part we must receive it so our our faith is our positive response to God's grace our active Reliance upon God now let me give you some scripture Titus 2 11-12 says the grace of God that brings salvation is appear to everyone so I believe everyone even someone who's never heard the gospel has at least got a witness of God through creation according to Romans 1 and through conscience according to Romans 2 if they will respond to what they do know God will lead them to Salvation much as he did Cornelius in Acts 10 did not know how to be saved but through his prayer God led him to a place where he could be saved so God's grace but going back to Titus 2 11-12 it says the grace of God that brings salvation is appeared to everyone teaching us that we should deny ungodly lust and live soberly righteously and holy so Grace teaches us so Grace is active J Grace changes us so if you're saved by grace through faith and you still live the same old life no you're not allowing Grace to operate so that's where I say grace is not only God's gift to us but it's God's work in us it will lead to a transformed life it will lead to the pursuit of Holiness and if we don't see that that means we're not letting Grace work another definition that doesn't use the actual word Grace but Titus I mean excuse me Philippians 2:13 says God you know to two well let's go back Philippians 212 and 13 12 says to work out your own salvation but then 13 says for it is God who's working in you so he's not talking about earning your salvation but he says God is working in you but you have to work it out you have to manifest it so God can work in you but you still have to pray you still have to pursue Holiness you have to get rid of ungodly habits you have to go attend church faithfully and hear the preaching and teaching the word so you have to work it out not in the sense of you can save yourself but in the sense of you have to let it be manifest EST in your life God never forces it on you you have to let it be manifested so but verse 13 says for it is God who works in you both to Will and to do of his good pleasure to me that's a functional definition of Grace God gives you the desire and the power so he'll change your ungodly desire so now you want to do God's will but that would be terrible if you couldn't do anything about it not only gives you the desire he gives you the power to break the bondage of sin actually perform the work so we talk about the life of Holiness it's not about us earning salvation by our good works it's about God changes our desire so what we formally wanted to do now we have an overriding desire to do God's Will and then what we formly couldn't do or failed to do God enables us so it's actually by God's grace that we're able to Bear the fruit of the spirit that we're able to have wholesome relationships that our speech is transformed our dress is transformed our activities are transformed it's working in us now when it comes to responding to the gospel in uh Acts 2 the Apostle Peter preached the gospel which was the death burial and resurrection of Jesus the people asked how they could respond uh he he said the same Jesus that you crucified is the Lord he's the Messiah well obviously they believed him at that point interestingly a few weeks ago many were in the same crowd crying out about Jesus crucify him crucify him now after Peter preached they realized they were wrong they believed Jesus so if salvation were just a mental decision in Acts 237 they cried out men and Brethren what shall we do what Peter should have said don't do anything go home you know during the course of my preaching you changed your mind you now actually think Jesus is the Lord the Messiah well you just accepted Jesus as Lord you just got saved now you didn't feel anything you didn't speak in tongues like we just did but you know we're special don't expect the same thing that you're asking about to actually happen to you too God's not going to do that for everybody he just did it for us uh so good news is you change your mind about Jesus you believe on Jesus you have faith that he's the Lord don't do anything go home if you did anything that would be works but that's not what he said what he said in essence is now that you accept my message you know saving faith has two components you have to uh you have to agree asent accept but you must act you must respond you must obey so he says now that you agree with my message you must act so just as Jesus was crucified you must die to your old life you must repent just as Jesus was bapt was buried we we take a dead person we bury him Jesus died he was buried so now once you have faith in Jesus you repent of your sins you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and then just as Jesus rose to the dead by the power of the spirit with new life so God will fill you with the holy spirit that will be the Life of Christ the Resurrection Life life and you'll be filled with the spirit rise to walk in newness of life so from that perspective acts 238 is not our good works it's actually God's work in us so it's the application of God's grace it's the expression of our faith so when we repent we're responding to the message that's Faith but actually it's God who's turning us from sin if it were our works it would be like a New Year's resolution and we know how effective that is repentance is more than a New Year's resolution it's a work of God so I would argue it's repentance is not our work it's God's work and if you think it's unnecessary well Jesus plainly said in Luke 13 if you don't repent you'll all perish so whatever your theology if you could say repentance is an unnecessary work then you're going directly against Jesus and then baptism again is not our work because I can go jump in the lake that doesn't do me any good I can take a bath that doesn't save my soul it's not my work but the message Goes Forth if you'll repent if you'll believe in me I'll take away your sins when you're baptized so I at baptism it's we're showing up saying God you know I really believe your word I'm trusting you to do it here I am but if God doesn't do it we aren't saved and which is why we always baptize in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ it's a very real expression our faith is in Jesus and what he's done for us and what he's going to do for us so I would argue baptism is a work of God to take away our sins and that's why acts 238 talks about once you repent you're baptized it's for the remission of sins God so that's something God does not uh we what we do and then receiving the Holy Spirit by definition you shall receive the gift by definition it's Grace so some people say well when you speak in tongues that's Sign yourin Works no we're not doing it we're not learning it we're not imitating it nobody's giving it to us it's the gift and in a sense I'm not the one who's asking people to speak in tongues I'm asking open their heart be filled with the spirit when they're filled with the spirit God does it has nothing to do with me or us so I would argue that the message of Acts 238 repent be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ receive the holy spirit is actually not our human Works to save ourselves but it's God's work in us as we receive God's grace as we respond to the message in faith he does the work and and I'll I'll summarize by saying Jesus is the one who actually linked Faith with these three steps Mark 1:15 the initial message Jesus repent and believe the gospel if you truly believe that you're going to repent Mark 16:16 he who believes and is baptized shall be saved so Jesus directly linked when you believe the next step is baptism in order to receive the Salvation I provided and then John said out of their innermost being will flow rivers of Living Water John explained that this he spoke of the spirit that they those who believed on him should receive and he explained it couldn't happen till after Jesus was glorified which of course happened on the day of Pentecost so Jesus himself linked when you truly believe you'll be filled with the spirit and it's not just a generic unknown experience because in Acts 11 when the Apostle Peter was reporting to the council at Jerusalem about Cornelius the Gentiles why did you go preach for these Gentiles you know that's contrary to Jewish custom he said well God sent me and he said why while I was preaching the Holy Spirit fell on them as on us at the beginning well what was the common experience between Cornelius and his household receiving the Holy Ghost in Acts 10 and the initial outpouring in Acts 2 there was no sound of wind or tongues of fire the only commonality was speaking in tongues so he said they received the same they received the Holy Spirit speaking in tongues and then he said they received the same gift as we as who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ acts 11:17 so Peter is explaining and expecting all the leaders in Jerusalem to agree well when you believe you're going to receive the same holy spirit that we received on the day of Pentecost so I just briefly point that out to say no acts 238 is not put in the context of human Works to earn Sal salvation it's put in the context of our faith response to the Gospel of Jesus Christ