Salvation-based Works

The story of the Bible is the story of grace. At the core of the Bible is a great story that tells us two things. First, if God left us to ourselves we would have no hope. On the other hand, God has poured out his love to undeserving rebellious creatures saving them and transforming them in ways that we could not imagine. As Paul continues explaining the identity of the Christ-follower in this incredible letter to the Ephesians, he clearly explains the source of every aspect of salvation and transformation. We really want to find a place where we can take credit, feeling proud for how we joined God in what He is doing. Paul reminds us that everything in the Christian life is a result of God's powerful grace flowing into our lives. We are saved by His grace. Yes, we must believe, but that is also a result of God's grace. And we are even called to do works, but we will find out that any good work we do in God's Kingdom was prepared beforehand for us, and the ability to do these works flows from grace. For the follower of Jesus, the amazing message of the Gospel is that it is all grace, and at the end we will declare that "I had nothing to do with it." This morning, Weston Ely, one of our elders, will preach on Ephesians 2:8-10, one of the most important passages in the Bible.