Last week we looked at the first 9 words of Ephesians 2:8 – 10. Nine words summarized into three words from verse 8, the word “for” and the word “grace” and the word “faith”. Nine words summarized into three words where we learned that the gift of salvation is given to us by God’s free grace and is received through the pipeline of faith.
Look at Ephesians 2:8 – 10 with me…
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Last week we looked at the first nine words of this text in verse 8. This week we’re going to look at the next 24 words in verses 8 – 9 and I want to get us rolling by asking this question: What is something you love to do that when you work hard at it produces tangible results that makes you feel good?
There’s a lot of things I love to do and I definitely love to work hard and I certainly get jacked up when I see tangible results from my hard work, which makes me feel really good. So it’s hard to pick just one, but just so I’m answering my own question, something I’ve learned to love to do and something I work really hard at that does produce tangible results that make me feel good is probably my daily workout routine at the gym.
My goal for working out is to lose weight, get fit and be healthier. So I put together a five-day routine and my goal is to follow that routine 3-5 days per week and I’ve been doing it. I’ve been working hard at it since the beginning of February 2017. And there’s been tangible results that I feel great about.
I’ve lost some weight, I’m far more fit than I was a year ago and I’m definitely healthier. In fact, this last week I squatted 270 lbs. A year ago I was squatting 95 lbs. I’m like… going beast mode in the gym yo!!
And that leads me into what I want to say today. Check out this formula I worked up… Doing + working + results = bragging rights. I am a doer. I am a worker. I am a results-oriented person and I love bragging rights.
This is why its super important for me to wrap my head and my heart around this text. Because this text teaches me that the gift of salvation results in humility and humility is a result of resting in the truth that God’s doing + God’s working + God’s results = God’s glory. This truth is counterintuitive to the way I live my life in almost every area. I gotta do stuff every day and I gotta work hard every day and there has to be tangible results produced from the things I do and the hard work I put in otherwise I’m just wasting my time right?
And that’s why I say this truth is counterintuitive because when it comes to my salvation, Paul says that the gift of salvation is given to us by God’s free grace and is received through the pipeline of faith “And this is not your own doing; it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” When I hear this passage and when I contemplate each phrase that Paul uses here, I get a funny uncomfortable feeling deep down inside for a couple of reasons.
#1: I am a doer… (8)
This truth, that the gift of salvation results in humility, makes me feel a little uncomfortable partly because I am a doer. I love to get things done. I really enjoy checking things off my list of things to do throughout the day.
So when Paul says that my salvation is not a result of my own doing I get a little uncomfortable and I don’t know what to do because my ability to do something in regards to my salvation and my right standing and my acceptance before God has been taken away. My ability to do something to make God love me has been removed.
I’ve been reduced (although you could say elevated but for the sake of argument I’ve been reduced) from a human doing into a human being. God didn’t create human doings he created human beings. Therefore I need my tendency to be a human doing to be taken away and I need to be given a fresh biblical perspective on what it means to be a human being in light of the gospel.
The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. The Lord gives humility as he takes away pride. The Lord does this as he reminds me that I am a frail and failing human being whom he has chosen to love infinitely despite my attempts at balancing the scales of everything I fail at doing with everything that I think I do successfully.
This is why the core truth of this text is so important for us to remember. It’s important to remember because the gift of salvation results in humility and humility is a result of resting in the truth that God’s doing + God’s working + God’s results = God’s glory. The second reason this truth makes me feel a little uncomfortable is this…
#2: I am a worker… (8-9)
This truth, that the gift of salvation results in humility, makes me feel a little uncomfortable because I love to work. It’s not just that I love to do things, I love to work. Don’t hear me wrong, I have my lazy moments, and I don’t always enjoy the work I do. Or have to do. But at the end of the day I can say that I love to work.
I am a results oriented person. My hard work results in getting things done and I love the feeling of accomplishment that happens when I get something done. Deep down inside I love giving myself a pat on the back for a job well done. Therefore in some really sick ways, I love to work.
So when Paul says that my salvation is a gift of God, not a result of works, I get a little uncomfortable and I don’t know what to do because my ability to go do some hard work to crank out the awesome results of God’s love gets cut off at the knees and I feel a little fearful because I’m so used to working hard at doing a bunch of things that produce the results I’m longing for. I’m used to working hard to get what I want.
I want to be loved completely. I want to be accepted despite my constant failures. I want to be the center of someone else world. I want to be respected. I want to be successful. I want to be powerful. I want to be admired. I want to work hard to make all of these things happen.
In a sense I want to save myself from the hell of not being lovable and not being acceptable and not being respectable and not being successful and not being powerful and not being admirable. I want to save myself from those things.
But long story short, when it comes to my salvation, it’s a gift to be received not worked for. Therefore instead of doing things or working hard to earn my salvation, I’m learning to trust someone else to do the things that need to get done. I’m learning to trust someone else to do the hard work for me.
I’m learning to place all of my salvivic needs and desires into the hands of someone that I cannot see and that someone that I cannot see is Jesus. And God says that when Jesus hung on that cross he said, “it is finished”. The work is done and the doing is done. You’re mine mow. I’ll love you and accept you forever.
This is why the core truth of this text is so important to remember because the gift of salvation results in humility and humility is a result of resting in the truth that God’s doing + God’s working + God’s results = God’s glory. But there’s still one more problem that this text reveals within me…
#3: I love bragging rights… (9)
I love to brag about how many pounds I squatted this week at the gym. I love to brag about how awesome my wife is. I love to brag about how smart I am. I love to brag about how many books I’ve read this year. I love to brag about the church planting work I’m doing (when it appears to be going well).
But Paul says that my salvation is not a result of works, so that no one may boast. How’s that for a shot to the ego! How’s that for a bragging buzz-kill? I don’t get any bragging rights. But I love bragging rights!
We all love bragging rights. Every one of us loves bragging rights. The mom, who endures doing the hard work of labor and delivery for 17 hours, even though she hates the pain, she loves the bragging rights. Listen to a group of moms compare their stories and you’ll hear it!
The athlete who endures doing the hard work of training, making the team and winning in their sport loves their bragging rights. The gun enthusiast who blows things up every weekend loves doing the hard work of becoming a better marksman and producing the results of tight shot patterns.
The academic bookworm loves doing the hard work of study that produces the results of written papers or high grades or college acceptance letters. And the list could go on and on and on. Where do you just love to do things and where do you just love to work hard so that you can get the results that give you the bragging rights?
You see, the core truth of this text is important to remember in the face of your longing for having the bragging rights because it murders your pride to come to grips with the truth that the gift of salvation results in humility and humility is a result of resting in the truth that God’s doing + God’s working + God’s results = God’s glory. And here’s some more good news…
#4: Bragging gets redeemed… (9)
How does bragging get redeemed? Let me stab at it this way. This passage rips the guts right out of my pride when Paul says that the gift of salvation is not my own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that I no longer have any bragging rights. Makes me feel a little uncomfortable. But you know what? This also makes me feel super energized. Why? Why would this make me feel super energized?
I feel super energized about this because, as every person who’s ever worked a long shift or labored for hours on end or endured a long season of overtime knows, when that day or season is over, you are tired. You are worn out. You’ve got nothing left to give. You are done working. And what’s the best news to an overworked soul or a bone tired body?
The best news to a weary and tired person at the end of a long workday is that warm shower or that cold drink or that comfortable bed or that easy chair in the living room. That warm shower or that cold drink or that comfortable bed or that easy chair in the living room is like the closest thing to Heaven on Earth and you get jacked up to get there. Right?
That’s why I say, bragging gets redeemed. Bragging gets redeemed because Jesus went to the cross for us so that we who are weary and heavy and broken and tired can find eternal rest. And that’s why I get jacked up when I hear that the gift of salvation results in humility and humility is a result of resting in the truth that God’s doing + God’s working + God’s results = God’s glory. I need to hear this because when I do hear this I am reminded that bragging does get redeemed and when bragging gets redeemed I brag on something new.
#5: Now I brag on God… (9)
That’s why this passage jacks me up! In terms of my right standing and acceptance before God there’s no more doing, there’s no more working, there’s no more performing, there’s no more results oriented goal setting and there’s no more strategizing or hiding or pretending or faking my way to the top. There’s only rest in the easy armchair of God’s gift of salvation.
Now that’s a slice of Heaven on earth that blows the doors off of anything I can accomplish or anything I can work for or anything I can do. Now I can get my brag on. But my brag is different. My swagger isn’t the same. Now I boast in the cross of Christ. Now I brag on my Lord and Savior. Now I swagger with my heavenly Father.
I know my rebellious nature. I know my daily struggle in sin. I can sometimes see the filthy horror movie of my past life playing reruns across the movie screen of my mind. I know that no matter how hard I work to do more good things I will still fail in the future.
But God gave his son Jesus for me on the cross of Calvary. But God chose me to be the object of his affection and love. But God did everything that needed to be done to save me from myself. But God did all of the work at the cross of Christ so that I can rest in his presence as a once dead now alive child of God.
But God is the one who created me and purchased me out of the pawnshop of my sinfulness. But God calls me his. But God never left me though I left him so many times. But God saved me despite my past sins, despite my current sin and despite my future sin. But God eternally loves me though I often love him momentarily.
But God consistently and slowly changes me though I consistently and frequently live in disobedience to him. But God constantly smiles over me because of the work of Christ even though I oftentimes frown at him because I don’t get the results I worked for or wanted in this life.
Now I brag on God because even though my flesh is weak and even though my heart consistently fails, the truth is the gift of salvation results in humility and humility is a result of resting in the truth that God’s doing + God’s working + God’s results = God’s glory. Amen?!
Conclusion…
Whenever I start thinking or believing or behaving in a way that says that “my doing + my working + my results = my bragging rights” I begin to preach this to myself instead: “but God is the doer and the worker and the results producer of my salvation because God’s doing + God’s working + God’s results = God’s glory”.
You can stop doing everything to earn God’s love and acceptance. You can stop working hard to pretend you’re better than you really are. You can stop measuring the results of your slow growth process against the picture in your head in your head. You can stop bragging about everything you do or will do better.
You can stop the doing and you can stop the working and you can stop the results chasing and you can stop the self-centered bragging and you can just simply rest. You can rest in the truth that the gift of salvation results in humility and humility is a result of resting in the truth that God’s doing + God’s working + God’s results = God’s glory. Brag on that this week my friends!! Brag on that!!