IBS Ephesians 2:8-10 (9-20-14)

Inductive Bible Study for Ephesians 2:8-10 (9-20-14)

“For by grace you have been saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

I am so in awe of how much it took for God to save me. I have so much sin and wickedness in my heart that if I was the only one Jesus died for, there would have been no change in how much suffering He went through. God loved this world so much that it pleased Him to crush His only begotten Son in order to save us. That’s why it’s ONLY by grace through faith that I’m forgiven. There is nothing I could ever do to earn God’s gift and I have no right to boast in Christ’s sacrifice. In a previous IBS, I talked about how I thought the only way God was close to me was if I did good things - that’s completely opposite of what this verse says. 

The truth is that there’s nothing I could do on my own to be close to God. It must be by grace through faith that I see my need to surrender to Him, and see that salvation is a gift I could never earn. That’s really difficult for me to swallow. My pride wants to think that my skills, talents and amazingness are what drew God to want to save me. In reality though, I am disgusting and wicked, and it’s incredible that God loves me - but He does, and that’s why I love Him. When we strive to please God by our accomplishments before we are surrendered to Him, He sees them as filthy rags. Ouch. That’s why it’s so important to see our desperate need for Him. After we repent and accept His free gift of grace, our works might still be in vain! I also talked about this in a previous IBS. The point here is that our works are only accepted by God after salvation and if our heart’s only desire is to glorify Him.

We are God’s workmanship - that means that we are the product of Christ’s skill and labor. Jeremiah 1:5 says “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you”. We were made by God, for God. We were created in Christ for good works - remember, not the works which are filthy rags, and not the works that will be burned up because our hearts weren’t in the right place - prepared before we were made, that we should walk in them. How incredible is it that God made our good works before He even made us! Does this mean that God didn’t make good works for those who won’t choose Him? I don’t know. What I do know is that we are all given a choice (usually many) to either follow Christ or live how we want to. I also know that God sees the beginning and end, so He knows who will choose Him.

What I’ve been learning while in Kenya is that I can’t do anything or take credit for anything - all glory to God. Also, I need to be surrendered to Christ so that I can be walking in the Spirit and seeing the works God has prepared for me to do. I am going to memorize these verses.