Faith and Grace

Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Tim Keller

In this episode of the Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast, Tim Keller explores Ephesians 2:4–10, focusing on the transformative power of grace i

Key takeaways

• Salvation is entirely by grace, not based on human effort or merit.
• Faith is not a work but the means by which we receive God's grace.

Main topics

• Grace as the foundation of salvation
• Faith as a gift from God

Notable quotes

"For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves. It is the gift of God."

"We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Conclusion

True Christian faith begins with God's unmerited grace, received through

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:03) Welcome to Gospel and Life. We live in a culture that encourages us to focus on ourselves, our needs, our goals, our fulfillment. But what if our lives only made sense when we see them as part of a much bigger story? This summer, we're featuring one of Tim Keller's longer sermon series in which he teaches about the core truths of the Christian faith and the big picture of God's ultimate plan of salvation for humanity, revealing how we can find real meaning growth and change in Christ. Speaker 1 (0:40) Let's take a look at the passage we've been looking at. And we actually tonight, tonight and next week, we will be looking at the last part of chapter two of Ephesians, which is a chapter we've been looking at for a while. And I'm going to read to you the latter section. Of this section of chapter 2. Ephesians 2, verse 4 to 10. It's printed in your bullet. But because of his great love for us. Speaker 1 (1:14) God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus 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. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. This is God's word. We've said that chapter 2 is actually a before and after picture of the Christian. It shows us what our lives are like before we encounter the living Christ and after. Speaker 1 (2:24) Verses 1 to 3 tell us what we're like before, verses 4 and following what we're like after. And we said, and we've been saying that it's clear that becoming a Christian or meeting Christ, the difference between before we meet Christ and after we meet Christ is not a difference, it's not one of degree. It's a qualitative difference. We're not just improved. We're not just making progress. We're changed. We're moved from one realm into another realm. So in verses 1 to 3, in verses 4 to 7, we see the great contrast. And we actually spent a good amount of time last week recapping those to make sure we saw them. That we're dead in sin. We're made alive in Christ. Speaker 1 (3:14) Before, we are having to gratify the cravings of the sinful nature. So we're in bondage. Afterwards, we're in freedom. We're raised and seated. Before, we're condemned. We're children of wrath. Afterward, we're already, past tense, seated in the heavenly places. If you're a Christian, you're already seated in the heavenly places, see? Past tense. Which has got to mean, since you're not there actually, it must mean that you're there virtually. It's a great English word, virtually, from the word virtue. It means that because of what Jesus has done for you, you're already as accepted. And as loved by God as if you were Jesus himself with his perfect record. So we're looking at all this. That what a huge change. We've moved from death to new life. We've moved from bondage to new freedom. We've moved from condemnation and guilt to a new position or status. And if you're a first time visitor tonight or if you haven't heard the recaps over these last three weeks, I cannot go back in and explain all that. I just want to move and show you that Speaker 1 (4:21) This week, Paul doesn't just show us what we were and what we are, but now in verses 8, 9, and 10, he tells us how to get from what we were to what we can be. He tells us how to get there. He's talking about before and he's talking about after, but now in verse 8, 9, and 10, he tells us how to get from one to the other. The 8, 9, and 10 is the bridge. This is a perfect compendium of the Christian life. See, as we mentioned last week, verse 7 tells us the reason that God has done all of these great things. Why did he give us new freedom? Why did he give us new life? Why did he give us a new record and a new position? And the answer is in verse 7, so that in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace. Speaker 1 (5:11) I continue to think about this. It's an amazing statement. Speaker 2 (5:15) We're Speaker 1 (5:16) told Speaker 2 (5:16) that in the future, Speaker 1 (5:17) all of us who believe in Christ will be like laser light shows of God's grace for all eternity. Speaker 1 (5:25) We're going to be looked at with amazement. We're going to have all the other people of the universe. Now, somebody says, who are the other people? And I don't know. All we know is, for example, there might be lots and lots and lots. And I said, who knows? I said, who knows? People after me asked me, where is that in the Bible? It's not. I said, there might be lots. If there are other planets full of beings that have never fallen into sin, it means there's all sorts of other races besides the human race. We know of at least one other race made in the image of God. We know of at least one other order of being who are called sons and daughters of the king, and that is the angels. The angels are called his sons. So we know there's at least the possibility of other orders of being who are also God's children, also in God's family, besides humans. And who knows what all there's going to be? All we know is those of us who are redeemed are being redeemed and being given all these gifts because we're going to be taking away the breath, of other sons and daughters of the King throughout all eternity. When we walk on by, there's going to be something about us that's going to be just showing God's grace to anyone who looks. We're going to be display cases. We're going to be fireworks displays. We're going to be laser light shows. Speaker 1 (6:43) Oh, I don't exactly understand this either, you know, but that's what it says. You know, if you want to get at this, and I'm not trying to defend it or even explain it or understand it as fiction, but Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien, who wrote Lord of the Rings, wrote a very difficult, I think, but strange and kind of beautiful compendium of his own myths. He wrote his own mythology called the Silmarillion. And in the Silmarillion, there's an account of creation. And it's just his own account of how God created the universe. And it's not, it's, you know, well, never mind. I don't want to get into literary criticism. It's actually his own alternate mythology. And in it, God speaks to these angelic creatures. And he says, here's the plan for creating the world. Go to it. And of all the angelic creatures, one of them, Melkor, decides that he wants to be his own boss. He's the Satan figure in the mythology. And as he goes down with the other angels to try to create the world, he decides he's going to do his own will. He decides he's going to do his own thing. He's going to ruin what God wants to be done. And he's going to try to take the universe for himself. It's a very fascinating story because what happens is, as the other angels go down to try to create the world the right way, they create light. But Melkor brings in darkness and they create warmth and Melkor brings in biting cold. But in the end, the great God pulls them all back in and he overcomes Melkor and he says, you are no match for me. I have now overcome you, but I want you to know that you have not blemished or detracted one bit from my will. I am too great for you, Melchor. You thought you were ruining by bringing evil and sin into the world. And even though much pain and much suffering is coming into the world, I will overcome it. And when it's over, I want you to see that all you have done is enrich the final product. Yes, Melchor, you brought in cold instead of the warmth, but now instead of just rain, there's snowflakes. Yes, Melchor, you brought in darkness instead of just the light, but now we've got something called stars. Speaker 1 (9:16) all you can do is enrich my creation. I will overwhelm your evil. I will dispense your evil. And when it's all done, all you will have done is brought out more glory in what I originally had put there than you thought was there. And in the same way, it's just a very interesting way of trying to get at what Paul is saying here. He's trying to say, in spite of the sin, in spite of the wickedness, in spite of our rebellion, God will bring glory out of it because we will show to the universe something Speaker 1 (9:47) that otherwise would not have been seen in God some other glory called his grace. people will be amazed. See, why is God doing all these great things? Why did he send his son? Why was his son born in a manger? Why does his son have to die? Why then through the death of his son do you have these incomparable gifts? New life, the new birth. New freedom. New record, new position. Why? It says, in order that in the coming ages you might show forth. You might be trophies. You might be display cases of his incomparable grace. Now, having said that, Paul almost seems to be adding an afterthought. But if we look carefully, we'll see that what he says in verses 8, 9, and 10 is not just an afterthought. Because he goes on and says, for after all. Now, he doesn't say after all. I'm trying to give you the sense. For after all, it's by grace you've been saved. Speaker 1 (10:47) You weren't just saved for grace. You were saved by grace and through grace, through faith. And this not of yourselves is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. What Paul is saying is, you were this way in sin. You are now this way. You were this way before. You're this way now. And even the way we get from one to the other is by grace. And Paul gives us a compendium of how to become a Christian. Paul gives us a compendium of what it means to become a Christian. Speaker 1 (11:28) See, verses 1 to 3, what it's like not to be a Christian. Verses 4 to 7, what it's like to be a Christian. And verses 8, 9, and 10, what it's like to become. How to get from one to the other. And in it, you've got three basic concepts. And the order of them and the relationship of each one to one another is critical for you to understand what it means to be a Christian. Look carefully. Grace leads to faith, leads to God's workmanship. Speaker 1 (11:56) Grace is the cause of faith, which is the cause of good works, a life of greatness, a life of grandeur, a life of God's works being done through us. Your life will be a complete loss and a complete wreck. You will have psychological problems. Speaker 1 (12:19) You might completely miss all that God intends for a human being to have if you get these three things out of order. I just want you to know that we're playing with fire here. This is like going into that part of the nuclear reactor