As I said in the last blog, the
basic ideology of the TV show “The Good
Place” is erroneous. It asserts that
if you pile up enough good works, you are granted entrance to “The Good Place” or
Heaven. But this is flawed logic. Last time, I quoted Ephesians 2:8-9 as one
example from the Bible that declares that we are put in a right relationship
with God by grace, through faith, not works.
These powerful verses are even more potent when you consider the context
of this passage.
The
context starts in Ephesians 2:1, which says, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once
walked, following the course of this world.”
I’ve underscored that phrase “you were dead in trespasses and sins”
because I’m going to get back to that in a minute. For now, contemplate with me that the Bible
is telling us that we all once walked in sins and we followed the course of
this world. I’m convinced that someone
is reading this and inwardly you are disagreeing with the Bible’s assessment. But we must go with what the Word of God says, even
if makes us uncomfortable; the Bible unequivocally declares that all have
sinned, and therefore, stand guilty before Him.
Thankfully,
we are not left there. Look at verse 4
of Ephesians 2: “But God…” let me stop there.
These two words are like beautiful music. We were dead, helpless, sin-soaked, and
rebellious, and we didn’t even know or care, but God chose to do something
about it. “But God…because of His great
love with which He loved us, [verse 5] even when we were dead in our
trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.” When you put this together with the
terminology underscored in verse 1, we see that we were dead, but now through
Christ, we are alive. Let me illustrate
this.
Recently
I was about to mow the lawn when the lawnmower decided that it didn’t want to
start. I wasn’t out of gas or oil or
anything like that; the mower was simply unresponsive to anything I did. Further, this lawnmower is really old –
probably 20 something years old – so I speculated that the mower had simply
died of old age (which made me sad, because it’s my dad’s lawnmower). A few days later, I tried to start the mower
again, and it started right up! The
mower that was dead is now alive. Yes, I
know that I probably just flooded it or something, but for all intents and
purposes – at least in that moment – it was dead. In the same way, we were dead and
unresponsive to God until He made us alive.
It wasn’t because of anything we did; it was God’s power alone. This, dear readers, is the context of
Ephesians 2:8-9.
But
we dare not stop at verse 9; I love Ephesians 2:10 as well. It reads, “For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for good works,
which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (italics added). This verse answers the question that I’m sure
has been plaguing you for almost two blogs now.
Inwardly, you’ve wondered, “Are works important for the Christian?” The answer that comes screaming from the
Bible is a resounding yes. “We are not saved by our works,” writes Constantine
Campbell in his book “Grace: Accepting
God’s Gift to You”; “They are not for salvation, yet good works matter.”
This
is further crystallized by these words at the end of verse 10: “which God
prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” What an encouraging thought! Once again, to quote Campbell’s words, “This means
that even our good deeds are given to
us by God. God doesn’t just save us by
grace and then leave us to our own devices…God plans the good things he wants
us to do, and he enables us to do it…we should take comfort in that. He is in the driver’s seat, and we are glad
to go where he takes us.” Amen and amen!
Kevin
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