00:00:00:43 – 00:00:28:32
Clint Loveall
Hello everybody. Happy Wednesday. Thanks for being back with us. Appreciate you being part of the journey through Ephesians here as we make our way continuing into this second chapter. I will warn you, pretty dense today. Will probably only look at a couple of verses, maybe three verses, but, these are these are cornerstone verses.

00:00:28:37 – 00:01:09:09
Clint Loveall
Maybe, I don’t know if you’d argue they’re cornerstone verses for Ephesians. I maybe you could make that argument. I certainly think you could make the argument that they’re cornerstone verses for Paul’s theology, or what we call Paul lean theology. And as such, I do think they are certainly foundational, fundamental for the reformed Christian understanding of the essential, nature of these topics, specifically salvation, grace works, and faith.

00:01:09:09 – 00:01:33:34
Clint Loveall
And so it is the best summary that I can think of in the scripture for what we would call the reformed position, the, the Presbyterian Reformed position. So, let me just read for you and then we’ll come back and we’ll try to go through this, for by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing.

00:01:33:34 – 00:01:50:01
Clint Loveall
It is a gift from God, not the result of works, so that no 1st May boast. For we are what he has made us created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

00:01:50:06 – 00:02:39:02
Clint Loveall
I think, Michael, maybe the easiest way to do this is just to kind of go almost word by word here. This first phrase by grace, you have been saved. If you know anything about that period we call the Protestant Reformation, this was the battlecry of those reformers that, as opposed to, the Pope’s declaration or as opposed to one status in the church or one’s works or, status in the confessional, that it is grace that saves us nothing else, nothing earned, only given, nothing declared by any human other than God himself.

00:02:39:07 – 00:03:10:24
Clint Loveall
For grace you have been saved, and that is an action of faith. In other words, in in the act of believing or in the acceptance of belief might be a better reformed way to say it. In accepting the truth of Christ, we then, have access to a new status of life, one that comes to us by the good unearned gift that God has given us.

00:03:10:24 – 00:03:30:11
Clint Loveall
And and I, I, I don’t I, I have to be careful here, Michael, because I don’t want to overdo it. But this really is such a major part of the platform of the reformed faith. And it’s so well stated and simply put here that it’s, it’s maybe easy for me to get carried away.

00:03:30:16 – 00:03:51:00
Michael Gewecke
It is important, I think, that we slow down in a text like this and we really parse out the movements that are happening, because the movements are really important in the text. And I do think it is hard to sometimes see the text through, especially if you do look at a period like the Reformation. This text was a clarion call it.

00:03:51:03 – 00:04:17:20
Michael Gewecke
It remains a clarion call. So we have to process and work through some of those details, because there is a sense in which Paul wasn’t writing in the medieval times, right, that he’s not responding to theology. Now, these words came to have a significant impact in that response. But I just want to make note here that there’s a kind of tension introduced right away by grace.

00:04:17:20 – 00:04:59:51
Michael Gewecke
You have been saved through faith. And this is astonishing because grace, which is a gift, gets put with faith, which you might think, well, isn’t faith in itself a kind of work? And in fact, Clint, some Christian families do think of faith as having with it some level of of works in it. And so I think it gets really interesting very quickly, because if you really start wanting to drill down with theological precision, what you’re going to find is some resistance, actually, because the text is going to say by unmerited gift, you have been made a path, you’ve been given a restoration.

00:04:59:51 – 00:05:34:21
Michael Gewecke
Right? And this is through faith, which faith is in the Christian context, not simply a statement of belief. That would be far too reduced. Faith has with it the idea of an ascent of one’s character and identity to God’s revelation in Jesus Christ. So this idea is that that you do have a way that you’re participating in this gift that’s been given to you, and you have a way of receiving it, and yet it’s going to be abundantly clear if you keep going.

00:05:34:30 – 00:05:57:28
Michael Gewecke
This is not of your own doing. So now, I think that’s another tumbling where once again, it’s resisted. You can’t read faith as well. This is faith is the mechanism by which I make it happen. No, because we’re about to see that’s not your own doing either. It’s this amazing gift has been given that you have been given the gift of participating in.

00:05:57:28 – 00:06:05:16
Michael Gewecke
But let’s be clear about it. It’s not you and I think that that’s an astonishing complexity in a very few number of words.

00:06:05:31 – 00:06:33:43
Clint Loveall
Right. Faith is also a gift. In fact, faith is part of the gift. And again, yeah, Paul makes it explicitly clear this is not of your own doing. Now, obviously, we’ve said that has deep meaning, has deep history in our own tradition, the Presbyterian tradition, the reformed tradition, the Lutheran tradition, all of those products of the Reformation Baptists work their way in there as well.

00:06:33:48 – 00:07:13:21
Clint Loveall
However, think of it where it lands in this original context, Jew or Gentile, neither come to the table with something they’ve earned. Regardless of how Jewish a person has been, how faithful they’ve been in that tradition. This is not your own doing. It is a it is a grace that has been given to you, and you are putting your trust in that grace, not something you’ve done, not the result of works, so that no 1st May boast.

00:07:13:26 – 00:07:50:07
Clint Loveall
And I don’t know if we know this about the context in Ephesus, but we certainly know through Paul’s letters to other churches, there were places where people were boasting of their quote unquote faithfulness or their worthiness. They were making the case that because they were circumcised or because they had been Jewish, or because they kept the law, first Corinthians, ten and 11 is a really good snapshot of that kind of argument where Paul finally then, lists maybe Second Corinthians, where he lists his credentials, but they’re not what you expect.

00:07:50:07 – 00:08:19:37
Clint Loveall
He says, I’ve been imprisoned and I’ve been this, and I’ve been that. But none of that is the reason that Christ has saved me. Christ has saved me because Christ has given me gift. And that’s the idea here. And the Reformation language kind of, loads the faith versus works debate that’s not necessarily in place here, as theological systems or certainly as religious systems.

00:08:19:42 – 00:08:46:16
Clint Loveall
But but Paul is definitely making the point here that this is not the result of something we do, and therefore we can take no pride in it over someone else. Our status as saved is not something we can boast in to someone who we think is less saved, differently saved, unsaved, or whatever. And whatever label you would choose then to use.

00:08:46:21 – 00:09:04:21
Clint Loveall
Paul says, you have nothing to brag about because you did nothing to achieve it. You received it. You put faith in it. But it’s not your work. It’s the work of God through Jesus Christ. And, that that has been a very important tenet to us, Michael, through the years.

00:09:04:26 – 00:09:27:16
Michael Gewecke
So I think the boasting language is really important here, Clint, because what is happening at this point in the argument is an implicit question. What is the benefit or purpose of. Right? So if you’ve received this gift by grace, it’s come to you through faith. It’s not your own doing. It’s the gift of God. Then what is the outcome?

00:09:27:16 – 00:09:47:06
Michael Gewecke
Well, boasting is not just an identity thing. It’s also, what is the point of receiving this thing? Because if we’re being lifted up to the heavenly places, like we just had the previous text, there is in that a kind of honoring or kind of lifting up literally is in the image. And so what is the outcome of that?

00:09:47:06 – 00:10:13:44
Michael Gewecke
Do we become people who looked down from that place on others? Do we become people who are conceded? Do we become people who are entitled? And and fundamentally, it’s going to be abundantly clear in literally just a couple words that that is an incongruent outcome for the Christian life. Right? We have it right here, right? So that no 1st May boast.

00:10:13:57 – 00:10:34:23
Michael Gewecke
And here’s the so what for? We are what he made us create in Christ Jesus for. And this is where it lands on you for a purpose. So you’re not saved by your works, but you’re saved so that you might do them in Christ Jesus. This is a term that we see in other places, like the book of Romans.

00:10:34:28 – 00:10:57:57
Michael Gewecke
This is a really common and difficult very, very razor’s edge kind of argument that Paul makes in several places that Christians are saved and that we are free in that, and that that freedom binds us to the responsibility of serving, of loving, of caring. Right. So if you’ve received freely, then you are in that freedom of receiving.

00:10:57:57 – 00:11:21:36
Michael Gewecke
You are now given the task. It’s for a purpose. It has a intended outcome, and the question ultimately comes to the person. Then hearing or reading this text. So if you’ve received this gift, if you didn’t do any works for it, then what’s the right and fitting works that your life will demonstrate because of it. And that happens in literally less than a sentence.

00:11:21:36 – 00:11:24:10
Michael Gewecke
So I mean, it’s an astonishing package.

00:11:24:21 – 00:11:50:21
Clint Loveall
It’s an unfortunate byproduct on the on the back side of the Reformation argument over faith and works, that we then sort of treat them as two separate categories. And the idea that, well, that if I’m saved by faith, my works don’t matter. Well, that that’s not true at all. And nowhere does Paul say something like that. He says, your works don’t matter when it comes to your being saved.

00:11:50:25 – 00:12:22:28
Clint Loveall
Your works are not the past by which you receive the redemption of Jesus Christ. That’s a gift. But your works then testify to the gift. Your works then display your gratitude for the gift your works. Honor God, the giver of the gift. Michael, I was a I was a religion major at a reformed college, and we were expected at some point during my time there to memorize these passages.

00:12:22:33 – 00:12:54:13
Clint Loveall
Chapter two, verses eight and nine. For by grace you’ve been saved through faith, not the result of your own doing, not works that no one could boast. I later realized how much they had shortchanged us in not requiring us to memorize verse ten, because verse ten completes the thought you’re you’re saved by grace through faith. It is not about works, but then read where he goes seamlessly next.

00:12:54:18 – 00:13:25:33
Clint Loveall
For we are what he has made us created in Christ Jesus. For what? For good works which God has prepared beforehand to be our way of life? What else was prepared beforehand? We’ve seen it twice in chapter one our salvation, our destiny. Before. Before. So before we were saved, there was good work for us to do. And now that we are saved, that is our identity in Jesus Christ.

00:13:25:48 – 00:13:49:33
Clint Loveall
We are created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Are we then saved by those works? No, but there is no sense where those works are separate from our faith, as if faith lives over here and then we choose to do stuff or not. It is an expectation, and it is incumbent upon the Christian to do the work of Christ in their life.

00:13:49:34 – 00:14:15:43
Clint Loveall
And I, I’m I’m often impressed with how well Paul can condense big theological ideas that this is such a beautiful summary of something that literally thousands of books have written about mean and and he gets it here. He nails it in three verses.

00:14:15:48 – 00:14:34:08
Michael Gewecke
I want to stay there for just a second, because I think if you’re listening here, you may underestimate the amount of books written on this passage. That so it is hundreds. If not thousands and, and the, ability of the lifetime to even read all of them. They can be.

00:14:34:08 – 00:14:35:20
Clint Loveall
Impossible ideas.

00:14:35:27 – 00:15:07:12
Michael Gewecke
And but here’s the thing. You can go deep in these ideas and you can completely miss the forest for the trees. And I think what’s fascinating is if you live with that duality, if you really go into the idea that faith and by that I mean Christianity is ultimately a constant division between faith and works. You can certainly dig deep into this text to see the ways in which those things are held in tension, no doubt about it.

00:15:07:17 – 00:15:30:40
Michael Gewecke
But here’s the thing that you miss is that fundamentally, the book that we’ve been in through thus far has been way more interested in Christ and His lordship, in the fact that there is one body in him that this text is interested in pointing out that God works first, and then all of the ramifications of that are the gifts that come to us.

00:15:30:45 – 00:15:55:40
Michael Gewecke
And so when you get to this text, it is striking that because of the gift that God has given to us, therefore the ramifications of that gift has something to say about how we concretely live our life in the world. That that our lives then become a reflection of the gift that God has given and even intended to give from the very beginning.

00:15:55:53 – 00:16:27:19
Michael Gewecke
Here’s the thing. And this is where this all pivots, is that ultimately we become obsessed with measuring works. We become obsessed with, the judging of, well, are these works coming from a, solid foundation or from, good intention? Is this real Christian life, or is this someone pretending? And we get so fixated on even the latter part of the equation that we forget that all of it was gift, that Jesus Christ is Lord and we are not.

00:16:27:19 – 00:16:52:37
Michael Gewecke
And so instead of becoming fixated on looking at works as a measure of faith which some are off to do, it is far more wise to hear this as a natural, that I don’t want to use the word formula, because that’s way too, I that’s way too lifeless. This is the family story. This is the way that faith goes.

00:16:52:37 – 00:17:18:48
Michael Gewecke
It starts with God. It’s lived out through death, and it goes through resurrection. And the purpose of which is witness, the purpose of which is so that those works might speak to the God who enables them. And I think we as Christians would be very, very wise to not get fixated on one section of that story, but rather to realize that we’re called to be part of it and go through it ourselves the whole way.

00:17:18:52 – 00:18:08:30
Clint Loveall
It’s such a beautiful flow here. As Paul says, you’ve been saved by grace, not works. You didn’t do it. You can’t boast about it. You’re saved by the work of Christ. But in Christ you are saved to do the work of Christ, to do good works. And, you know, maybe in our branch of the Christian tree, Michael, we’ve been sensitive to that calling to do good works, because we’ve always been a little nervous that maybe it, it, it smacked of the opponents in the Reformation, you know, that it had a quote unquote Catholic or a works righteousness kind of feel to it.

00:18:08:34 – 00:18:43:31
Clint Loveall
I think Paul makes it clear that that it really is a false distinction, practically speaking, Christians are to lean into doing good works because the Christian life should be full of good works. The Christian should also trust that those good works have nothing to contribute to their own salvation. They only contribute to the glory of Christ that the Christian offers God in gratitude for the act of salvation, which is completely God’s, and which we can do nothing except receive.

00:18:43:31 – 00:19:16:44
Clint Loveall
We cannot contribute to it in any way. And I, I just think there’s a lot to it. There’s a lot to be offered. I think this is this is an incredibly well-written short passage as, again, Paul shows us a path to bring what we think of as these two separate entities together seamlessly and show us, I think, an integrated picture of the Christian life and the Christian experience.

00:19:16:45 – 00:19:24:41
Clint Loveall
I, I do think everyone, I do think every Christian ought to memorize these three verses. I think we would all be well-served if we knew them by.

00:19:24:41 – 00:19:36:00
Michael Gewecke
Heart without a question. And I just want to maybe end here with this final thought into the text beforehand to be our way of life. That’s a beautiful phrase, a way of life.

00:19:36:05 – 00:19:37:12
Clint Loveall
To be the way we live.

00:19:37:21 – 00:20:06:14
Michael Gewecke
Exactly that God has an intention for the way that Christians live out their faith in the world. And I just want to, you know, note that has always been counter-cultural, regardless of what your culture was at whatever time it was. Christians have always lived out that way of life in such a way that made clear that it pushed back on when when you receive the gift of grace, and then therefore you live with the responsibility to share that grace.

00:20:06:21 – 00:20:31:58
Michael Gewecke
It changes how you live. It changes the the values that you bring to any conversation. And so I just think it’s worth noting that that Christians today would do well as Christians throughout all time have done to turn to a text like this and ask ourselves, what is the way of life I’ve been called into? And I suspect that every single one of us will hear critique of the assumptions that we’ve made.

00:20:31:58 – 00:20:55:15
Michael Gewecke
The way of Jesus was always confounding, surprising, and mysterious, and there’s a lot of that that lies ahead of us in our own lives. So I sincerely hope that we are open to the way of life that God prepared beforehand, because that’s the act again, of receiving, not the act of living our way into it or working our way into it.

00:20:55:26 – 00:21:24:47
Clint Loveall
And if we tally even here in this first chapter and a half or so, what we have received, we have received a new life, a new status, and now a new way of living that that those three, those things are inseparable from one another. And and they should not be taken as, as individual realities, because they together represent what it means to follow Christ.

00:21:24:52 – 00:21:42:48
Michael Gewecke
We are grateful that you would spend this time with us. Gather, confess that we didn’t scratch the surface of it. And so certainly, if this has been compelling for you, hope you’ll avail yourself of materials that go back hundreds, thousands of years. And if you want some help on that, feel free to jump in the comments. But it’s good to have you with us.

00:21:43:03 – 00:21:53:02
Michael Gewecke
This has been encouraging. Give this a like if you’re watching on YouTube, subscribe. If you want to hear future episodes like it and we would love to see you tomorrow when we come back live at 2:00 Central Standard Time.

00:21:53:06 – 00:21:53:51
Clint Loveall
Thanks to everybody.