Thoughts From Ephesians 2 - Part 2

  But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph. 2:4-10

      I would be remiss not to talk about the elephant in the room in chapter 1 and here early in chapter 2 and that is Calvinism. Chosen appears twice, predestined appears twice along with words such as dead being used to describe our pre-salvation condition along with here in verse 8, Calvinists say that faith is a gift is the interpretation. I had spent many years in a reformed church which held to the belief that regeneration precedes repentance because how can a dead person respond to the gospel without being brought back to life first. And if we say salvation requires our faith, isn't that a meritorious action on our part or a work and the Bible says we aren't saved by works? Sola Gratia implies only grace saves us and rules out us playing a part in our salvation, they would say.

      As to predestination, I believe in corporate predestination not individual meaning God chose a people in Israel and has chosen a bride for Christ, the Church. We all are invited to join, "whosoever will may come", but only a few will. God in his foreknowledge knows who will and opens their eyes to accept the good news although I believe everyone when they stand before the Lord will look back on a time where He opened their eyes and they chose to reject Him. I think of "dead" as being asleep which the Bible uses "asleep" to describe death over 70 times. The alarm clock of the gospel goes off and people have a choice; they can arise or they can turn it off and continue sleeping or hit the snooze button.

       My views come from the fact that to believe the doctrines of Calvinism takes away free will and dooms people to hell without ever standing a chance. God was so into free will that He put a tree in the garden so that we would choose to obey Him knowing it would cost Him His Son. Here in verse 8 Calvinists would say "this" refers to faith being a gift from God whereas I would interpret the "this" to be referring to "saved" - salvation is a gift from God, not faith. Romans 3:20-27, 4:5,16, Gal. 2:16, 3:2,5,6 all talk about faith not being a work. Our faith doesn't undermine grace, it establishes grace. Believing in Jesus is not a work, it is our response to the gospel, yet He gets all the glory because He accomplished salvation and has drawn us through the wooing of the Holy Spirit and opening our eyes to the truth without which we would "hit the snooze button". 

      When I work nights in Memphis, I have to change my ring tone on my phone to something loud and obnoxious because I would otherwise sleep through my notification sounds. In my life, the Holy Spirit brought the gospel to my sleeping soul with a blaring wake up ring that I couldn't sleep through. Did I make a choice to get up. Yes. Did He make me an offer I couldn't refuse? Yes. Both free will and predestination can be true in this scenario. And Ephesians 1 also makes the process of salvation clear in verse 13 - we hear the gospel, believe the gospel, then receive the Holy Spirit. That's repentance before regeneration and that's what I believe the Bible teaches.