Saved by Grace, Made for the Good Works God Already Prepared

Introduction

You may have found yourself thinking about God and feeling, without quite putting it into words, a slightly anxious question rise up : "Why did God save me? What does he really expect from me? What has he actually done in my life?" This kind of thought often comes in moments of discouragement or difficulty, when it's hard to see God's hand at work.

This Momentum message pauses on Ephesians 2:8-10 to answer those questions through a very concentrated text. Jesus saved you simply by his grace, and he did it with a purpose : so that you would carry out good works, prepared beforehand and written into eternity. Saved by grace, created for prepared works : that's the path Paul lays out for you in three verses.

Message Outline

1. Saved by grace, not by what you produce

• The starting text is verses 8 and 9 : "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, that no one would boast."
• Grace is God's unmerited favor, 100% that. But the preacher points to an older meaning of the word : before the New Testament, grace also evoked beauty, a certain charm, blessedness. That sense should stay in your definition too.
• Being saved is beautiful. The salvation that comes from God is meant to become the most beautiful thing in your life, a source of beauty even as you walk through what is ugly and dark. God set his eyes on you and showed you a favor you don't deserve.
• The preacher illustrates this with a true story : Garcia Lopez de Cardenas, a Spanish conquistador, the first European to discover the Grand Canyon in 1540. He was searching for the mythical cities of gold. He arrives at one of the greatest natural treasures on the planet, and his only thought is : "no water, useless." One star on Google, he moves on and disappears from history.
• That's often your story with grace too. "Yes, you saved me, God, but I wanted this. If only things were more like that instead." Don't forget the miracle given in Christ, the one in verse 4 of the same chapter : "But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ." It brought him joy to save you.
• Cardenas didn't invent the Grand Canyon. His part was to appreciate the beauty, to go down a little, and he would even have found the water. Your part is to receive the beauty and appreciate what God has done. It's good for your soul, at any moment, anywhere.

2. Faith : activating a gift, not earning it

• "For by grace you have been saved through faith." God uses the faith he has invested in you. It's the natural response to this gift. Faced with a salvation this magnificent, offered through the blood of Christ, the most natural thing, once it's unveiled to you, is to believe and take hold of that salvation.
• Faith is something you have to activate. A bit like that bank card they mail you every three years. It doesn't work in your pocket, and it doesn't work online. You have to take the card out, go to a store or the bank, and activate it.
• Faith is trust in evidence that has been revealed to you, evidence that can't be seen with the naked eye. It's both a revelation and a step you take. Without either one, it doesn't work.
• So an old question arises : if God expects you to believe, does your faith become something you can take credit for? No. Verse 8 says : "that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." Faith itself is a gift. Without the Holy Spirit coming to convict you (of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, as Jesus says), no one seeks God.
• Verse 9 adds : "that no one would boast." Picture the scene in heaven : someone says "Jesus saved me," and another says, "Yes, but what I did was..." It would only take a good number of people boasting to turn heaven into hell. All the glory necessarily belongs to God.
• The preacher quotes a sermon by D.A. Carson heard years ago : if, in heaven, you told an unsaved friend "the difference between you and me is that I believed," who would be the smarter one? No. The difference between you and him is what God did in his unimaginable generosity. To him be the glory, always and forever.
• Spiritually, you were dead. There was nothing there except God's generous kindness toward you. If you placed in him the faith he gave you, that should be a source of wonder beyond ordinary moments. And if you doubt, pray : "Lord, help my unbelief." He is there. He is faithful.

3. Created for good works prepared beforehand

• "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them." (verse 10). Jesus didn't save you because you had accomplished something. He saves you to accomplish what he has already prepared for you.
• God is the artist and the architect. As such, he sees you a little differently than you see yourself. He sees your flaws, even better than you do, because he doesn't exaggerate, he isn't harsh, he doesn't compare you to others. He sees you as you are. And he loves you as you are, with the vision of what he will make of you.
• This is the skill of an artist. Like a potter with clay, he shapes you toward what he wants you to become. In Christ, you'll be more yourself than anywhere else, because he is first your creator, and because in changing you, he's making you become the person you know you should be. That brings a certain peace to the soul.
• This world has a lot of ideas about who you are. Your bosses have ideas about who you are. Some are true, others are colored by their biases, their desires, their needs. God is not your boss. He is your Savior, your God, he knows you perfectly, and he knows exactly what he's going to make of you.
• "We were created in Christ Jesus." Paul points back to creation itself. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. That Word became flesh, lived among us, gave his life for you. Redeemed, you now live because of his life in you. If everything physical was created by his Word, if the Word became man, if the Word is infused in you by the Holy Spirit, you need that Word daily to stay pliable in the potter's hands.

4. Jesus, your example : doing what the Father has prepared

• To see what it means to "walk in the works prepared beforehand," look at Jesus. In John 5, he heals a paralyzed man at the pool of Bethesda, on a Sabbath day. You know the story : legend said an angel would come down and stir the water, and the first person to enter would be healed. This man had believed it, but as a paralytic, he had no other strategy.
• Jesus enters, sees him, sets his eyes on him, and asks : "Do you want to be healed?" "Yes Lord, that's why I'm here." Jesus heals him, out of generosity, out of kindness, and no doubt also because he saw the look on the faces of those who didn't like him doing good works on the Sabbath.
• What Jesus tells them next is decisive : "My Father is still working, so I am working, too." (John 5:17). Jesus is so in communion with the Father that he sees the Father working in this man's life, and he's drawn there. And then he's the one who heals him.
• Further on, verse 30 : "I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous; because I don't seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me." As the Father works, Jesus works. He does the works the Father prepared beforehand for him. He is your example.
• The Father has already prepared beautiful things for you. You don't have to try to prove who you are. You're not here to leave your mark : you're already loved, already adopted. The Father, who is a good father, won't leave you idle like a spoiled child. He knows exactly what you need, what will bring you joy, even after years of suffering or trials.
• That's why it's so important to live in communion with him : taking moments to appreciate his beauty, praying, reading his Word, going to church, sharing, encouraging others. He's like a good father teaching his son to walk : he takes you by the hands, he lifts you up, you fall, he picks you back up, one step, then another. Your part is to lift up your hands, to take hold of his. After you've walked, he teaches you to run.
• That's the life of grace : "God, I have things prepared for you." Now, walk in them. It starts very ordinary : reading the Bible, praying, refusing sin, selling chairs on a classifieds app. One step leads to another. Who knows what the Lord wants to accomplish through your life? It's up to you to take up the adventure.

Key Takeaways

• Salvation by grace is a gift, but it's also beauty. Don't miss the wonder by fixating on what you lack, like Cardenas standing before the Grand Canyon.
• Faith is a gift from God that you have to activate. It is never something you can take credit for before him or before anyone else.
• You are "his workmanship" : an artist is shaping you. God loves you as you are, with the vision of what he will make of you, he won't leave you as you are.
• The good works are already prepared beforehand. You don't invent them, you walk in them, following the example of Jesus, who does what the Father is doing.
• The life of grace starts with the ordinary : the Bible, prayer, refusing sin, a concrete act of service. One step leads to another : it's up to you to lift up your hands.

Personal Application

1. Where, this week, have you become like Cardenas, so fixated on what you lack that you no longer see the beauty of what God has done for you?
2. Can you put your faith into words as a response to a gift, or has it quietly become, in your mind, a performance meant to set you apart from others?
3. Which "inner boss" (the voice of the world, the voice of people around you, your own voice) speaks louder in you than the voice of God your Savior, about who you truly are?
4. Following Jesus' example in John 5, where do you see the Father working around you right now? What does it practically mean to "join in what he's doing" rather than invent your own brand?
5. Name one ordinary act (reading the Bible, praying, refusing a specific sin, a simple act of service) that you'll put into practice this week, without waiting for the big life plan.

Scripture References

• Ephesians 2:8-10 · "for by grace you have been saved through faith... For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them."
• Ephesians 2:4-5 · "But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ."
• John 5:17 · "My Father is still working, so I am working, too."
• John 5:30 · "I can of myself do nothing... because I don't seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me."
• John 1:1-14 · "In the beginning was the Word... The Word became flesh, and lived among us."

Frequently Asked Questions

If God expects me to believe, does my faith become something that earns my salvation?

No. Verse 8 is explicit : "that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." Faith itself is a gift, activated by the Holy Spirit, who comes to convict you of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Verse 9 explains why : "that no one would boast." As the preacher recalls, quoting D.A. Carson, if in heaven the difference between you and an unsaved friend came down to your faith as a performance, that comparison would turn right back on you. The difference is what God did in his unimaginable generosity. All the glory belongs to him.

How can I concretely discern the "good works prepared beforehand"?

Look at Jesus in John 5. He doesn't start by chasing his own personal plan; he watches the Father working and joins in what he's doing. For you, it's the same movement : stay in communion with the Father (prayer, the Word, fellowship), to see where he's already at work around you and join him there. The preacher emphasizes that this starts very ordinary : reading the Bible, praying, refusing sin, a very concrete act of service. One step leads to another : you don't need to know the whole grand plan in advance to lift up your hands today.

Is grace just God's unmerited favor?

That's 100% true, and a bit more. Before the New Testament, the word also carried a sense of beauty, of charm, of blessedness. The preacher points out that this older sense should stay present in your definition. Being saved is beautiful. Salvation is meant to become the most beautiful thing in your life, a source of beauty even as you walk through what is ugly or dark. That's the warning in the story of Cardenas before the Grand Canyon : don't miss the beauty of the gift because you're fixated on what you don't have.