Faith and Works, Getting the Order Right (an epilogue to The Unexpected Way series): The way of salvation is all about faith in what Jesus has already done. However, after salvation, the Christian life is then all about grace-motivated, Spirit-empowered good works. The relationship between faith and works can be tricky, but we must get the order right. Recorded on Oct 23, 2022, on Ephesians 2:1-10, by Pastor David Parks.

This message is part of our sermon series “The Unexpected Way,” from the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew 5-7 in the Bible. The way of Jesus is totally unique; it’s different from every other way of life, philosophy, or religion. Why? Because the teaching of Jesus — emphasizing holiness, humility, justice, faith, and sacrificial love — leads to a whole new gospel-centered ethic. This ancient ethic, if actually practiced, has the power to bring abundant love and joy, and peace to anyone, anywhere today. This is the way.

Sermon Transcript

All year, we’re focusing on Learning the way of Jesus, which means that all year we’re trying to answer the question, “If the gospel is true, how then should we live?” And we’ve just finished working through a very famous teaching of Jesus called the Sermon on the Mount. We spent three full months going through what is honestly one of the most influential teachings of anyone, anywhere, in the history of the world. That’s the power of Jesus. But before we start our new sermon series called Redeeming Regular Life, which starts next week, I felt led to do a little epilogue here at the end of this series. And the reason is that there’s a fundamental danger in listening and trying to obey the teaching of Jesus. And it’s not only the temptation to ignore his teaching. Disobedience is the ditch on one side of the narrow path of following Jesus. And, of course, that is a problem. The way of Jesus is sometimes very hard and painful. And it’s tempting to ignore the bits we don’t like or are particularly difficult. But that’s not the only problem. There’s a ditch on the other side of the road. There’s a trap that many people fall into in trying to obey the teaching of Jesus or really in trying to do anything for God. The problem/trap is confusing the Christian life with the way of salvation, to forget that we are saved by grace through faith and not by our obedience/righteousness/works. So before we have another sermon on how to live in light of the gospel, we need to revisit faith and works and make sure we get the order right. Because, and here’s why this is so important, if we get this wrong, it’s possible we never understood or believed the gospel in the first place. Given what’s at stake, we must be clear. So if you have a Bible/app, please open to Eph 2:1. We’ll read this and then unpack it together.

Ephesians 2:1-10 (NIV), “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh  and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 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. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” 

So Ephesians is an epistle or letter from the Apostle Paul to the...