Paul gives us the foundations of salvation in Ephesians 2: 8-9. In this daily devotional, the first in the Foundations of Salvation series, we look at what salvation and grace are. Grace is the foundation of salvation.
Nuggets
- Salvation means we are not only saved from our sins by redemption, but we are also delivered from spiritual death.
- If we admit our sins, believe Jesus is our Redeemer, and confess God as our Sovereign Lord, God will forgive us of our sins and grant us salvation.
- Grace is a free and unmerited gift from our Heavenly Father given through His Son Jesus Christ that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers.
- Through God’s kindness, He shows mercy and compassion to us.
- The foundation of God’s actions is His unfailing love for us.
Devotions in the The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians series
If you look back at Ephesians 2: 7 in the What Are Heavenly Places (1.1) devotion, we see that Paul gave a quick glimpse of Ephesians 2: 8-9. “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” (ESV). To him, everything regarding salvation was built on grace.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
We talked about immeasurable meaning God will kick it to the next level. It is talking about kicking up the riches of His grace here.
Then Paul kicked it up in verses 8 and 9. These are oft-quoted verses because this is the foundation of salvation.
We’ve talked before about grace, faith, and works, but separately.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Let’s tie them all together. Since we will be discussing the foundation of salvation, there are so many pieces. We are going to break this up into two devotions.
Let's Put It into Context #1
Here is a running list of nuggets for the series.
Let's Put It into Context #2
“Consequently, he [Jesus] is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Heb. 7: 25 HCSB).
If you’ve read previous devotions of mine, you are probably asking, “What is this Chick — a walking dictionary?” I like to start out with definitions. I feel that gives a good foundation and makes sure we start out on the same page.
Salvation is the gift of life through the deliverance from condemnation and sin to acceptance and holiness and changes us from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive.
- Sin is not believing that Jesus is our Savior to save us from our actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
- Pure means not being sinful or having the stain of sin.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Virtues are standards of moral excellence.
- Holiness is the transcendent excellence of His nature that includes elements of purity, dedication, and commitment that lead to being set apart.
- Purity means possessing God’s moral character, having eliminated the stain of sin.
- Spiritual death is the spiritual separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin.
- The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
If we do not admit our sins, do not believe on Jesus as our Redeemer, and do not confess God as Sovereign Lord, we will experience eternal spiritual death.
If we admit our sins, Jesus becomes our Redeemer.
Redemption is where God bestows His gift of grace on us in order to deliver us from sin.
- Grace is a free and unmerited gift of love from the Heavenly Father, given through His Son, Jesus Christ, that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is our Redeemer because
- He was born of a virgin, making Him 100% God and 100% man;
- He gave His life on the cross for us so that His blood could pay the price for our sins; and
- because of God’s great might and power, He rose from the grave, conquering death and paying the price for our sins.
If we ABCD, God will forgive us of our sins and grant us salvation.
Forgiveness is, when we ask, the act of God pardoning us because we have shown repentance for breaking His laws and commandments, which allows us to become holy as He is.
- Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to changing ourselves through obedience so that we no longer do the wrong things.
Glossary
Is this all we have to do? Well, yes and no. Yes, ABCing does mean we have been forgiven of our sins and have been given eternal life.
To read What Does It Mean to Come After Him?, click the button below.
But then comes the D part. We have to demonstrate that commitment. We have to change our lives so they more closely align with how God would have us live. We have to follow Jesus and imitate Him.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
You see, our salvation is a three-parter. God initially forgives us of our sins and restores our relationship with Him. He makes us a spiritual being.
Then comes the hard part. That salvation changes us, but we are still in this earthly body. We have a long way to go to learn about who God wants us to be and make those changes. That makes us a work in progress.
We won’t “arrive” at where God wants us to be until we get to heaven either after we die or when we are called home. We will be changed into a spiritual body then (I Cor. 15: 52).
Grace
“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” (Eph. 2: 8-9 ESV)
The foundation of salvation is grace. Again, grace is a free and unmerited gift of love from the Heavenly Father, given through His Son, Jesus Christ, that enables salvation and spiritual healing to believers by the work of the Holy Spirit.
God didn’t have to extend grace to us. When Adam and Eve first disobeyed Him, He could have said, “I’m done here.” But He didn’t.
God didn’t give up on us because of “… the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2: 7 ESV). Kindness permeates the grace. Zechariah 7: 9 says, “This is what the LORD Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another’” (NIV).
Through God’s kindness, He shows mercy and compassion to us. We’ve said that mercy is where God doesn’t judge us to the extent He could have. Even though we deserve bad things as punishment, He doesn’t give them to us.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
The foundation of God’s actions is His unfailing love for us. “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5: 8 ESV).
Why did God offer us salvation through His grace? He did it so His name could be praised. He did it for us to clearly see His glory.
Churchy word alert. What is God’s glory?
Glory expresses the essence of God — His majesty, splendor, and beauty — representing the attributes of God resulting from the authority and holiness of God. It is how we see who God really is.
Let’s think about that a second. At first glance, we may have said, “Oh, God is doing all of this to get recognition. Isn’t that self-serving? At the very least, isn’t that arrogance?”
No. It is God introducing Himself to us. It is God revealing to us Who He is and explaining why He does what He does.
Sovereign God — Creator of all the universe — is doing all of this to restore our relationship with Him. He wants us back.
Yes, God does this so we can love Him and sing His praises. In return, we get this wonderful gift of salvation. We get something that we could never do ourselves.
We come out so on top. We will never be able to out-give God. By giving us everything He wants to give us, we should gladly and sincerely sing His praises.
Making the Connections
Grace is the foundation. Salvation is what is built on the foundation.
God does it all out of His love for us. Think of how much love it took to send His Son to die for us.
In most religions, the people sacrificed humans to their gods. Here God the Father sacrificed God the Son for the people.
How Do We Apply This?
If you have not admitted that your relationship is not right with God,
have not asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior,
and have not confessed your sins,
please read through the Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
Loving Heavenly Father. I admit that I am a sinner. Up to now, I have followed the call of this world. I believe that You sent Your Son Jesus to live on this earth, die on the cross, and be raised to life again so that my spiritual death could be changed to everlasting life. I don’t understand how You did it all, but I have faith that You did it. I want a relationship with You. Fill me now with Your love and Your mercy. Equip me to live my life to be the person You would have me be. Help me find like-minded believers to learn more of You. Most of all, help me find You through Your Word and communication with You. Thank You, Lord, for saving me. Amen.
What do you think?
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