June 7, 2026
"By Grace, Through Faith" (Eph 2:1-10)
Series: Heidelberg Catechism Scripture: Ephesians 2:1–10
Hear now the word of the Lord from Ephesians 2:1-10.
And you who were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy because of the love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 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 work, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. This is the word of the Lord. Please be seated. And as you're taking your seats, let's join our hearts together tonight in prayer.
Gracious Father, we thank you for this great text of scripture, a scripture that traces what we once were apart from Christ, what you did for us so that we could become in Christ, and the simple way by which we lay hold of that free gift, through faith and by grace. And so we pray tonight that this would be our hope, that if there's any here who, even having professed these things and confess these things, maybe for many, many years, but who has not yet put their faith and trust in Christ. I pray that tonight this message from your word would speak freshly by your spirit to draw those who need to be saved to faith in Jesus. And for those of us who do know Christ, Father, through whatever tribulations we may have walked through this week, I pray that this would be a great comfort to us, to rest and receive in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ alone for our salvation. In Christ's name we pray.
Amen.
When I was in seminary, every semester there was a sermon that was preached by a particular student who was elected to win a preaching award, the James L. Massey Preaching Award. And I remember the first year. At the end of the first year of my first year in seminary, the man who preached a sermon that day ended up being a PCA pastor his name is Brian Crosby. He preached on justification by faith alone. And I was in the middle of seminary, and one of the things that seminary students have to wrestle with is a certain amount of knowledge that puffs up, a certain amount of pride of, like, well, that's a basic thing to preach about.
Why don't you do something that goes beyond the basics?
And as Brian preached that day, I fell under such conviction for the pride of my heart that really had in some way thought that I was beyond that great doctrine of justification by faith alone. Tonight, you may have heard of justification by faith alone maybe a hundred times, maybe a thousand times, or maybe never, or maybe you've heard it and it never really landed. But tonight's sermon text and what I'm going to be preaching about is the most urgent message that every person has to come to grips with, that we are not saved by any works. There is nothing that we can boast in. There is nothing that we can do.
This week I went out and I was on the streets of Chicago with Jeremy Chong with the opc, and I was trying to learn a little bit about how to do street evangelism with him. And as we were talking to different people. Talk to people. And one of the big questions that I would often ask them is, if you were to die tonight and stand before God, and he asked you, why should I let you into heaven? The answer I would get again and again and again, especially by people who profess that he did believe in Jesus.
Was this so? Well, I think I've been a pretty good person. I think I've tried to keep God's ten Commandments, his moral law. I think I've done well enough. I hope I've done well enough that when I get to die and stand before God, I hope that will be enough to receive me.
Well, what Paul talks about in this passage is that none of us can stand on that basis, that there is nothing that we can be saved by except by Jesus Christ, by grace alone and through faith alone. That's our theme tonight, that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone and in Christ alone. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone and in Christ alone. And so, three parts to our sermon tonight as we look at this famous passage of Scripture. First of all, by grace alone.
By grace alone, we're totally undeserving in this. Second, in Christ alone, He alone can save us. And then third, by faith alone or through faith alone in verses 8 through 10.
1. By Grace Alone (Ephesians 2:1-3)
So let's start with this idea of by grace alone Grace means undeserved or unmerited favor. You know, if you go and commit some crime, you earn what the punishment that you should receive.
But if that crime is forgiven of you, if for some reason someone else were to take your place and take that punishment on your behalf, that is not what you deserve. You deserve to pay the penalty for your sin, and yet someone else took it for you. And that's what we read that Jesus Christ did for us. But where Paul starts in this passage is by proving that indeed we are guilty of crimes. Maybe, maybe not the crimes against the nation or the state or the local crimes that are on the books, but we are criminals who have violated and trespassed God's holy law.
And what Paul says, if we're not alone in this, this is a disease, this is a condition, this is a guilt that pervades the entire human race. And so he says, and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. I remember when I was younger and I was older for this to be the first time that I was at a funeral of someone that I knew well. It wasn't until after I was married that really anyone that close to me had died. It was my grandfather.
I had all four grandparents through my wedding. And a few months after Alice and I were married, my grandfather passed away. And I remember going to that funeral, and I remember seeing the man that had been there my entire life, the man who was always so full of life, would lay there in his casket unresponsively, and I laid my hand on him, and he was cold, and he didn't move. And it's a jarring, shocking, horrifying thing to look upon someone who used to have life who is now dead because they cannot respond to you. Grandpa, get up.
Grandpa, I love you. No response.
And what the scriptures teach here in other places is, is that this is what our spiritual condition is, that we were dead, we're not sort of kind of alive, where we can respond to God if we just try hard enough or listen carefully enough or do some of the right things. We were dead in our sins and trespasses in which we once walked. There's no spiritual spark. There's no responsiveness.
Unless God's voice calls into the grave, as Jesus did for Lazarus and says, lazarus, get up. Unless God does that to us, there's no way to respond. I couldn't say that to my grandfather. We cannot say, get up from your spiritual death. To those around us, we can only share the good news of the gospel for them, and God himself must cut through this.
But we were dead in those trespasses and sins in which we once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, Satan himself, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, the passions of the human reactions and responses, we might call them our emotions. I want this, and so I go do it. I'm angry, so I lash out. I'm sad, so I withdraw from relationships. Those are the passions of the flesh that human beings, just naturally in our sin, live according to.
When we were carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, we were then by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. Wrath is a word that refers to God's anger, his furious judgment against sin. God does not overreact. But when we relate to God, we are dealing with an infinitely holy God. You know, I have a lot of young children at home, and believe it or not, they've broken many things in our home.
If it's a small thing, you know, a little trinket, a little plastic thing, those break instantly upon entering the doors of our home. I don't care. I didn't want it in my house in the first place. No big deal. No harm, no foul.
Let's throw it away and get rid of it and move on. But when they break expensive things, and they have broken expensive things, that can make me upset. The greater the value of what we break, what we violate, the greater the wrath. And when we have violated the holiness of an infinitely holy God, the only fair punishment for that is to stretch the infinite holiness of God in wrath throughout the infinite time of eternity. That's what hell is, and we all deserve it.
All of us stand justly deserving God's wrath and displeasure. And this is what the Heidelberg Catechism 60 reminds us. Even though my conscience accuses me of having grievously sinned against all God's commandments, of never having kept any of them, and of still being inclined toward all evil, nevertheless, without any merit of my own, out of sheer grace. And we'll get to that in a moment, because that's our only hope, the sheer grace of God, what we read in verse 4. But God.
But before we get there, I want to ask you to own your unworthiness. This is so hard for prideful sinners to do. But we need to acknowledge that we fall infinitely far short of the glory of God because of our sins. We are incapable of saving ourselves. We are undeserving of God's favor, and we are indistinguishable.
Sometimes we try to say, well, I'm not as bad as those people. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that we were walking according to the course of this world, like everyone else, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. And so we try to say, well, I'm not that bad. But what the Scriptures call us to is not to deny that, but to embrace that, to own that.
To say, I am a guilty sinner who justly, righteously, fairly deserves the infinite wrath of God through all of eternity.
And it's only when we come to that recognition that we can understand the great, great news of the Gospel that Paul starts to turn toward. We are saved by grace alone, not by anything of us.
2. In Christ Alone (Ephesians 2:4-7)
But the second section reminds us that we are saved only in Christ alone. In verse four. Now, in verse four, those first two words again, as we get to the second section, in Christ alone, those first two words are the most tremendous words in the whole Bible.
But God, though we could do nothing for ourselves on our own, but God did something for us. But God being rich in mercy, not being overly impressed with us, not being blown away by our potential and wanting to draw that out of us, but God being merciful toward undeserving sinners, rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us. Do you hear the circular logic in that? Praise God for the circular logic of his love. Why does God love you?
Why can it be that we should gain from what Christ did for us on the cross was because he loves you. Why does he love you? Because he loves you with great love. It goes around and around for all eternity because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses. He didn't love us because of any lovableness in us, any loveliness in us.
It was when we were dead and unresponsive in our trespasses. That was when he made us alive together with Christ. Now notice the language of our relationship to Christ in in these verses. He made us alive together with Christ by grace. You have been saved.
That's sort of an interjection here that we'll have to unpack a little bit later. And he raised us up with him who? With whom? With Christ. And seated us with him.
With whom? With Christ in the heavenly places where in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us. In Christ Jesus we are saved by grace alone, and we are saved in Christ alone. There is no hope, there is no refuge. There is no righteousness anywhere for us outside of Christ.
And so Christ becomes our fortress. He becomes our refuge. He becomes the one in whom our lives are hidden, so that when God the Father looks upon us outside of Christ, we were justly deserving of his displeasure. Inside Christ we are radiant and pure and spotless. Not for anything that we have done, but only because of what Christ did to take away our shame and our sin and to give us his own righteousness in its place.
Notice here then, that what God intends for us is not the infinite stretch of infinite wrath because of the violations that we have committed against the infinite holiness of God. Rather, it is the infinite riches of his grace and kindness toward us. We deserve one thing by grace God gives us a number another. And so again, Heidelberg Catechism continues in question 60 saying, by sheer mercy God grants and credits to me the perfect satisfaction, righteousness and holiness of Christ, as if I had never sinned nor been a sinner, and as if I had been as perfectly obedient as Christ was obedient for me. If only I accept this gift with a believing heart.
The gospel is what makes Christianity different from every other religion. This is not about making yourself a better person to enter into then by that improvement, some kind of salvation. It is rather, first and foremost by acknowledging that you deserve condemnation. And it's by receiving and resting in Christ alone what he has done for you for salvation. To say that I am still a sinner, but Christ Jesus rose for me so that I might be counted righteous in Him.
If you are looking to your good works, if you're looking to your status as a good person, there's no hope in that. Christ has nothing to to offer you there. But if you come as a vile, wretched, filthy, condemned sinner. In the old days, when a man condemned to death was actually brought out to his execution, they would call out dead man walking. If you recognize that you are a dead man walking and you look to Jesus Christ for your salvation, that is where he has something and he has infinite riches to offer you.
But how do we receive this gift? This brings us to the third part in verses 8 through 10. It is by faith alone or through faith alone.
3. In Faith Alone (Ephesians 2:8-10)
Look at what Paul writes. If you don't have these verses memorized, memorize them tonight. The Lord's day isn't over yet. Take advantage of that time by memorizing Ephesians 2:8, 9, and 10 is a great bonus verse to add on there. By grace you have been saved through faith.
Again, this grace talks about the fact that it is undeserving. We did not earn this. We could not lay hold of this for ourselves. It is only if God is gracious to grant it to us that we have any hope of receiving and resting in this righteousness in Christ. By grace you have been saved.
And it's through faith again. Faith is not some work that we perform. It's not some merit that earns us something for God. God does not look at our faith and say, ah, that's a sharp one there. He figured out my riddle, therefore I will reward him with salvation.
That's not what this is. Faith is the alone instrument of our justification. Faith are the open, undeserving hands that receives the free gift of God through Christ Jesus our Lord, the free gift of eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing.
It is a gift of God. What's a gift? Well, it is a gift of God. Kind of points to that whole verse, that grace of God toward you. It's a gift.
The salvation that you receive, that is a gift. Even the faith that you exercise to receive that gift, that is a gift. It doesn't come from the corruptions and the pollutions and the defilement and the deadness of your own heart. It's a gift that is given to you by the Holy Spirit who brings dead sinners to life. You have been raised up with him and seated in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus by that faith that closes with Christ.
Verse 9. This is not a result of works. So that no one may boast. You can't brag about this your whole life, if you really understand this properly, will be a life of wondering, why me? Why?
Why should I gain from this? Why are millions lost out there? And God chose to give his salvation to an undeserving wretch like me?
And yet the gift of faith, recognizing that we have no claim to it, the gift of faith looks to Jesus Christ and looks to him not as a theoretical savior for theoretical people, or maybe for other people, just not me. The gift of faith looks to Christ and says, you did this for me, didn't you? You did this for me. I receive that. I embrace that.
Thank you, Jesus, for what you have done for me. We are not saved by works. It's not a result of works, but notice what verse 10 says. There's another aspect of this grace, and that is we were saved for good works, not by good works, not the grounds of our salvation, but the fruit, not the root, but the fruit, what flows out of the salvation that we receive. Verse 10.
For we are his workmanship. And as you may know, the Greek word is the word that we get our word poem from. It doesn't mean poem, it's poema, but it's workmanship, his handiwork. The kind of handiwork that a. That a skilled author would put into writing a beautiful poem.
We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works. God doesn't leave us in the wickedness and the defilements in which we once walked. He saves us so that we can live our lives differently, being devoted to good works, not for salvation, but flowing from salvation. Because indeed these are what God prepared before him, that we should walk in Him. This is the path of life, not the path to gain life, but the path of those who have been brought from death to life to enjoy.
Well, I want to ask you tonight, do you know this? Is this old hat? Is this something that you have learned and mastered a long time ago and so scarcely pricks your heart at all tonight? Or maybe have you never heard this? Or maybe have all the times when maybe you did hear this, did those just wash over you?
And the Holy Spirit tonight is gripping your heart so that you realize that nothing you have done up to this point has earned anything from God. And it is only by grace that you can be saved through faith. Don't boast about it. Embrace this. Come to Christ tonight.
Close with Christ tonight. Don't kick this can down the road. Look to him for your salvation. This means that you no longer have to carefully calculate your righteousness. I think I've done enough good things.
And what's more, it means you don't have to cook the books. Well, I'm ignoring some of these things over here and overweighting these other things that I've done over here. Cast that all aside. This is not a result of work so that no one should boast. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
Stop working, stop calculating, stop looking for loopholes to God's law. Receive and rest in Christ alone for salvation as he's offered to you in the Gospel. And if before tonight you've never come to the end of your own righteousness, understand how freeing it is to come to embrace the gospel. Christ lived the completely perfect life. You don't have to.
The pressure is off. Christ himself was beaten, nailed to a cross. And in his physical anguish he also endured far beyond that the infinite wrath of God against your sins. So that you don't have to the dreadful horror of of hell is removed. How are you saved?
Only by grace alone. Through faith alone in Christ alone. So all you who are weary, come to Jesus Christ and find rest for your souls. His yoke is so easy and his burden is so light. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we pray that you would lead us to a deeper appreciation and understanding of the grace that we have received through faith in Christ Jesus.
We do not deserve this. We cannot demand this. But you have so graciously poured it out on your people. Bless us now in Christ Jesus. With Christ Jesus.
For Christ Jesus. For all of eternity. Blessed according to the blood and righteousness of Christ Jesus. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.
other sermons in this series
Jul 12
2026
"Delivered to Us" (I Cor 11:23-26)
Preacher: Rev. Jacob Gerber Scripture: 1 Corinthians 11:23–26 Series: Heidelberg Catechism
Jul 5
2026
"Covenant Baptism for our Covenant Children" (Lk 18:15-17, Acts 2:38-39, I Cor 7:14)
Preacher: Rev. Jacob Gerber Scripture: Luke 18:15–17, Acts 2:38–39, 1 Corinthians 7:14 Series: Heidelberg Catechism
Jun 28
2026
"A Fountain of Blood"
Preacher: Wybren Oord Scripture: Zechariah 12:10– 13:1 Series: Heidelberg Catechism