Ephesians 2:8-10
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
When Jesus becomes your Savior, you are saved. You get to go to Heaven. Not by anything that you can do, but because Jesus died and rose again for your sins. I think most of you know that. The next part of the verse is where it gets a little messy. Works. Messy is an understatement. Churches are formed and split over the interpretation of “works.” Especially since it states in verse 8 that we are saved not by works and then in the next few verses it talks about how there are good works that were created by Jesus for us to do before we were even born. This could be seen as contradictory, but let’s unpack that.
We are saved, or Justified, through Jesus’ resurrection. Drop the mic, done. There are no works required. So why the second half of the verses? A relationship with Christ is so much more than a get out of jail free card. Jesus didn’t die so you could be free of guilt when you sinned, He died so that you could be transformed and renewed and experience life the way that it was designed to be lived.
I had a religion teacher once compare faith and works to that of a car and its engine. When a person has faith it’s like the car engine is turned on. When a car engine is turned on you can hear the engine. That sound proves, in a way, that the engine is running. The same is for faith. When a person is transformed by their faith, they want to do good works. Almost like the good works show evidence of an inward transformation caused by the presence of faith.
A car engine sounds as faith is to works. Now that’s not to say that the louder the engine the better the car or the more good works a person does the more they have faith. Some cars, like a Tesla, can be on and you don’t hear it. Some cars, like my first car that was more rust than car, you can hear from two towns away. The same is for faith. Some people do many good works and others maybe do less, so it is not an exact science that good works show the amount of faith a person has, BUT good works do show a transformation of the heart. In verse 10 it even states that God prepared them in advance for us to do… so, I think He wants us to do them.
In the next week hold a mirror to your own life. If you could be a different person observing your life what would you see? How have you been transformed by your relationship with Christ? Journal and pray about it and enjoy the good works that God prepared in advance for us to do.