Episode 88: Saved by faith alone?

In the name of the glorious Trinity, Father and Son and Holy

Spirit forever. Amen.

Glory be to the everlasting mercies which sent you to us, O

Christ, the light of the world and the life of all.

Give us wisdom. By your law and enlighten our

impulses. By your knowledge.

Sanctify our souls by your truth, and grant that we may be

obedient to your words and may fulfill your commandments at

every hour. O you who?

Enlightens the rationale with the knowledge of your greatness.

Do enlight, O, my Lord, our thoughts that we may meditate

upon your holy and divine scriptures at all times, O.

Lord of all. Father and Son and Holy Spirit.

Forever. Amen.

Two points that are so emphasized and stressed by my

Protestant friends when speaking about salvation are by grace and

faith alone and now obviously quoting or perhaps misquoting

Ephesians. St.

Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 2 verses 8 to 9 which

Ephesians 2:8–9

reads for it is by his grace that we have been saved through

faith, and this faith was not from you, but it is the gift of

God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Now face value those two points. Yes we need to emphasize.

But here some some say that it's not faith that is a gift, but

rather grace. Because faith is a self labour

accomplished myself. Well OK, but I ask how can faith

have saved the Ephesians, the church in Ephesians, unless God

had willed to accept them by means of that faith.

So you see it's a work between God and men.

And yes it all goes back to God. Faith, Grace, and even deeds.

Why? Because if Christ had not come

and called the Ephesians and the entire world to faith in him,

they would certainly have heard, wouldn't have heard him and they

wouldn't have obeyed him. They wouldn't have obeyed the

calling. Hence St.

Paul writes in Romans chapter 10, verse 14, how shall they

Romans 10:14

believe in him of whom they have not heard so?

Even faith is from God because Christ came and preached the one

faith, one true faith in God, in himself and in the Holy Spirit.

One thing though, let's go back to the verse and not sure if you

notice that the word alone does not appear in the verse.

So is it being added in these statements?

To emphasize the emphasis and make a point, let me read it

again, For it is by His grace that we have been saved through

faith, and this faith was not from you, but is the gift of God

through Jesus Christ, not of works.

Lest anyone should be boast the word, let's play Sola Scriptura.

The word alone does not appear in the in the in the verse

likewise just believe, just believe and accept Jesus Christ

in your heart and you will be saved.

And again quoting or misquoting maybe Romans chapter 10 verses 9

Romans 10:9–10

to 10 which reads If any of you will confess with your mouth our

Lord Jesus and you will believe in your heart that God has

raised him from the dead, you shall have life.

The word just or accept don't appear in that verse.

Once again, as I said, no word they've been added.

Now when you add to the Holy Scriptures and to the Word of

God, can you be held in contempt of Deuteronomy According to

chapter 12 verse 32 which reads And God commands every word that

I command to you, keep it and do you shall not add upon it and

you shall not subtract from it. Or Proverbs chapter 30 verse six

Proverbs 30 · chapter mention

do not add to his words lest he rebuke you and you be proven a

liar. Now themes are warning words, so

let's take a look at Ephesians chapter 2 and examine.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Notice I said Ephesians chapter 2 and not only verses 8:00 to

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

9:00 because there are 22 verses in that chapter and we can't

come to a conclusion on salvation just by looking at

those two on one verse. Let's examine Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

2 and examine and see what it's all about.

What is it talking about? Certainly in Isaiah as I said,

not just one mere verse to come to a conclusion in regards to

salvation. What about the rest of the 21

verses? What do we do with those or 19

or 20 verses? Before we delve into this, a

little info on the church in Ephesus.

Ephesus was a a coastal city in Asia Minor, nowadays Turkey, and

the church was comprised of both former Jews and former Gentiles.

Note the word former that can be simply defined as BC Jews and BC

Gentiles still guilty, still condemned under the law

according to the law, corrupted fallen state, sin and in death.

So what Saint Paul is doing to the BC Jews and the BC Gentiles

in Ephesians chapter 2? He's taking them back to BC

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

before our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ from verses one to

three. And we're going to break these

verses down. And then what does he do?

He brings them to where they are verses 9 or 4 to 9 after AD

Anodon Dom Anodomini which means in the year of Our Lord and

that's until verse 9. Keeping in mind still there are

still 13 verses we need to continue to read to get the real

and true understanding of the message which pertains to

salvation. Yes, let's break it down and

when we do break it down, this is how it plays out.

The Ephesians, Jews and Gentiles were number one verse one dead

in trespasses and sins by choice not by nature.

God created everything good. Those who were Gentiles and non

Jews had the breath of life. They had the law written on

their hearts so their nature was good.

So by choice they were dead in trespasses and in sins.

Pay attention. This is before Paul introduces

them to being saved. From what?

Dead in trespasses and sins? Walking in sin, following in the

course of the world, Verse 2. Again in verse two, following

the Prince of the power of the world, That is the devil, the

collaborator, the power of the devil.

That's what they were following. They had a spirit, a satanic

spirit at work in them as children of disobedience.

So the passions of their flesh, including Paul himself, he's

saying we all once lived in this dilemma.

In this predicament they were following the desires of the

body and the mind is all in verse 2.

By nature they were children of faith.

Now by nature, not that God created their nature corrupt.

No is that by their free will they brought on the wrath of

God. By nature they were children of

wrath. Through their free will they

brought on to themselves the wrath of God.

So that's verses 123. Now comes verse 4 where Paul is

talking about the richness of the mercy of God.

So they were in that dilemma. They were in that sin.

They were in the fallen, corrupted, corruption, sin,

fallen away from from grace, from the presence of God, from

the relationship of God. And now Paul wants to tell them

that now what God has done to them or done for them because

God did not desire them to perish.

Verse 5 They were made alive with Christ.

Through Christ. Once again they had been formed

anew. And where do they receive this

newness of form in their baptism?

Because they had baptized. And then Paul goes on to say

that they were saved by grace. This all that happened prior BC

before Christ. This was all you're doing.

And yet God still showed his mercy and God renewed you.

God redeemed you through Jesus Christ not because you were

worthy because of your deeds. Don't you dare boast because

your deeds were evil. God renewed you by His grace.

God raised you from the dead by His grace.

God renewed you in baptism. By His grace.

Romans 6 verses four to five. We were buried with him in

baptism into death. For as Jesus the Messiah arose

from among the dead in the glory of his Father, in this way also

we shall walk in a new life. For if we have been planted as

one with him in the likeness of his death in baptism, in this

way also we shall be in his resurrection.

Don't even boast about the faith because that too was from God.

Because if Jesus had not came come, we would not believed in

Him and there would have been no faith and we would still be in

that same predicament of the punishment of the law, Oh holy

sacrament, Baptism, the mystery of Baptism, how you are

downplayed, how you are moderated by ignorance.

You know people think baptism is only a sign, is only a symbol.

Mighty brother, mighty sister, you're being put to death.

You are taking part in Christ's death and resurrection for

baptism. It's not just a mere symbol.

And this again not because of what the Ephesians did be seen.

Again. They were dead in trespasses and

sins, walking in sin, following the course of the world,

following the Prince of the power of the air.

But beloved, when Paul claims rightly and rejoices them by the

truth that they were saved from their past, this does by no

means mean that it has been wrapped up in a little leat,

little neat package, as they say, and it's done.

That's it. There is nothing else you need

to do. You can, you can continue

sinning. You can live a life according to

what you desire. Because you have been saved by

grace. Grace.

You know, Saint Paul writes to Jude that those who used grace

as a license of sin, he's talking about those people who

today are claiming that I've been saved by grace because

Saint Paul is quoting this or he's teaching us this in

Ephesians chapter 2, verse nine. Well, we just talked about what

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Saint Paul is talking about. For those who emphasize this

cliche, this point that I have been saved by faith alone.

Deeds have got nothing to do. There is nothing else we need to

do. Well, be prepared.

Stop, stop everything. Stop everything.

One of my sisters messaged me and said, Ravi, send me a

picture of her laying back and saying I stopped ironing.

I think it was or that I stopped washing the dishes.

Yes, stop. Because now there's going to be

a bubble burst, there's going to be a rain on a parade.

There's going to be an awakening.

Polite, loving, caring, gentle and certainly a correcting drum

roll, drum roll, drum roll. The Ephesians and you and I

today who have received salvation and have received new

life in Christ, and we are living in Christ, as Saint Paul

states in Romans chapter 8. Therefore there is no fault for

Romans 8 · chapter mention

those who are in Christ, and some versions have stopped at

that point, but no the true version.

Because you know what? You know some of these Bible

versions, you know that those authors have have have also

implemented their theology into the translation.

And woe, woe, woe to those people.

Woe. For there is no fault.

For those who are in Christ yet not live according to the flesh,

there is no fault but not living according to the flesh.

Do not for one minute dare to claim for yourself that you are

worthy of what Christ has done to you and you now do not have

to continue or do anything else because it is by grace.

Don't kick back and don't be laxed.

And don't claim victory yet, beloved.

Fight the good fight. We need to continue.

You know it's not a hook, line and sinker victory.

No, no. There's still got to be a fish.

You have the hook, you have the line, You have the sinker.

We need to continue to fish. And here is the busting of the

bubble. Here is the raining on the

parade. Read verse 10.

Please read it with me. If you have your bibles opened,

he's telling the Ephesians from the past, from the BC you have

been saved from that now. The punishments, the punishment

has been paid, the debt has been paid, The sacrificial lamb has

been slained. The only sacrificial lamb that

appeased God, which is Jesus Christ has been slained.

That past is gone. That past has been put.

It's a history now, but going on verse 10, Are you ready?

Are you equipped? Here we go, For we are His

creation, God's creation. Praise and glory be to His name,

who are created in Jesus the Messiah, Jesus Christ for good

works. Let me repeat it for good works

which God has before prepared for us to walk in.

There was good, There was goodness, God had prepared.

But we dropped the ball and we're going to talk about this

next episode. Why is it that before this

verse, Paul is saying don't boast about your deeds, Your

deeds did nothing for you apart from corrupted you.

But here he's telling us don't betray good deeds now.

So which one is it? Well, we'll talk about that next

week or next program, next episode.

So we are created for good deeds, but we drop the ball,

beloved. But now after being saved from

the past and remaining in faith in the new life that we have

received through baptism through Jesus Christ, we are also called

to doing good deeds. For how long we'll talk about

this next episode. Always keep in mind faith alone.

According to James chapter 2 verses 14 to 16 is dead.

James 2:14–16

Faith alone is dead. There was nothing we had to do

to receive Jesus Christ. We did not ask for the Lord to

send us the Saviour while we were sinners.

Jesus died for us. Amen.

And praise be to his name. He's resurrected now.

Al Masih come Hakkan come. Christ is risen.

Indeed He is risen. He's risen, but we didn't ask.

We weren't worthy. But God, out of the abundance of

His love and goodness and mercy and grace, sent His only

begotten Son, and did not spare him until the death of Christ on

the Christ. And we were saved from that

everlasting or we were saved from that punishment of sin and

the corruption. But now we have an obligation to

the Lord and we're going to read some verses.

Keep this equation in mind. Faith which means living in the

new life with Christ that we have all received in Holy

Baptism plus good works. No one can debate debate this

now. It's in the verse verse 10 for

good works. So faith that is living in the

new life with Christ plus good works times.

It's greater, a greater power, right?

Faith plus good works. But times the grace of God

equals eternal life, eternal everlasting life with Jesus

Christ eternal salvation. Let me give you an example.

There is a boy that is drowning. A boy is dying and I jump into

the water and rescue him from the waters and I resuscitate the

boy and the boy comes back to life, is breathing and he's

saved, delivered from that death.

Now what will my suggestions be to the boy?

Do you not know how to swim? No.

Well you need to go. Now is what you need to do.

I've saved you. To continue to remain in this

salvation, you need to go and get some swimming lessons.

I would encourage the parents to take the child for swimming

lessons. I would then teach the child

that when you come to dive into the waters, make sure that

you're not in the deep end. Make sure that it is the shallow

end, but regardless, if you take your swimming lessons and you

can swim, then you can jump into the waters.

But be careful where you jump now.

If the boy does not take heed to what I have suggested, what I

have commanded, what I have request and instructed, and the

boy jumps one more time into the water.

Will my first act of salvation save the person's or the boy's

life? No, it won't.

The boy has to do something to continue to remain in that first

salvation that he has received. From my goodness that I jump

into the water. It is the same.

Christ has has saved us once and for all from the punishment of

the law, from the corruption, from the dead state of man of

the law. But then he has also instructed,

according to the Scriptures, that in order to, in order to

remain in that relationship in that salvation and the benefits

of the salvation and the fruits of the salvation, I must

continue with good deeds one more time faith living in the

life or the new life in Christ plus good works times.

The grace of God is eternal salvation, eternal life.

And for those who debate works, let me read Matthew 1627.

We're going to talk about this more next episode.

For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father

with the holy angels, and then he will repay each men according

to his works deeds. There is a reward.

If these are not significant, not important, why are we being

rewarded for our deeds? Matthew 2523 and the master will

say Jesus Christ. Well done.

Listen to this very carefully. Well done.

Good and faithful servant. You can't tell me he's talking

about faith. In both both instances.

Good means good faith. No, no faithful means you're in

faith. Well done.

Good and faithful servant. What does the servant do?

He serves the master. He does.

He has deeds. He has a service, obligation,

well done, good and faithful servant.

If goodness was of no avail, why would the Lord not say, Well

done, faithful servant, come and enter the bliss and the joy of

your Father. Praise and glory be to the

Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

Now not all times and forever. Amen.

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God bless you all.