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Gifted into Glory: Saving Faith as the Providential Grace of God · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to Reformed thinking. I am so glad you could join us
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for this deep dive today. Let's let's start right off the
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bat with a bit of a mental exercise.
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It was good. So picture someone handing you a
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gift. It is a, you know, beautifully
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wrapped box and the person offering it to you says it is
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completely free, no strings attached.
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You do not have to pay a single cent for it.
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Right, a true gift. Yeah, a true gift.
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But here's the catch. You still have to use your own
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physical muscles to reach out and take it.
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Like your arm has to extend, your fingers have to close
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around the box, you have to physically pull it toward your
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chest to make it yours. To receive it.
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Exactly. The gift is free, sure, but your
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action is required to finalize the transaction.
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Now let's map that onto the idea of salvation, because we hear
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all the time that salvation is a free gift.
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Oh, constantly. It is the most common language
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we use. Right.
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But the automatic assumption that you and I carry around,
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especially in our modern autonomy loving minds, is that
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we still have to supply the decisive movement.
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We think the human will has to reach out and take the gift,
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making our own independent contribution to the whole
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process. Like we have to meet God halfway
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or at least take the final step. Yeah, we like to think we are
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the captains of our own souls, possessing the inherent
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capability to steer our lives toward the good.
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But, and this is what we're getting into today, what if that
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entire framework is fundamentally flawed?
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What if the Bible's view of the human condition renders that
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that reaching out utterly impossible?
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That is a massive question. It really is.
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So today we are taking a deep dive into Ephesians chapter 2,
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specifically verses 4 through 10, and we have two incredibly
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detailed scholarly theological texts guiding our conversation.
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The first one is titled Gifted into glory, Saving faith as the
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providential grace of God. And the second is.
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The decisive hand. Yes, the decisive hand saving
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faith as the sovereign gift of Providence.
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Our mission today is to evaluate a concept that challenges the
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very core of how we view ourselves, the idea that the
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choice to believe the Gospel is an unearned, sovereignly granted
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gift of Providence. And not a human achievement.
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Right. So to kick this off, I look at
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that gift box analogy and I mean it makes so much logical sense
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to our everyday experience. If the gift of grace is offered,
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doesn't the human will have to supply the decisive movement
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that finalizes the transaction? Well, that analogy of handing
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someone a gift box is universally understood because
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it perfectly captures how the natural human mind processes
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transactions. We live in a world of cause and
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effect of, you know, offers and acceptance.
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Yeah, 2 for tat. Right.
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However, answering your question requires us to hit pause and
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look at the precise diagnosis of the human condition as presented
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in the biblical text. Before we can talk about the
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mechanical of receiving a gift, we have to look at the state of
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the person the gift is being offered to.
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OK, so the condition of the recipient.
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Exactly. Our deep dive takes us straight
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into the first 3 verses of Ephesians chapter 2 and the text
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diagnosis. Fallen humanity with the
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condition that completely shatters.
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That gift box analogy is as we are completely dead in
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trespasses and sin. Dead, not sick.
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Right. The authors of our source texts
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stressed that this condition is not a spiritual sickness.
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It is not an injury. I mean, a sick person can still
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swallow medicine. An injured person can still call
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out for a doctor. But the text uses the concept of
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death. It describes absolute,
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irreversible spiritual inability.
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To give this some historical theological weight, the
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documents reference Chapter 9, paragraph three of the
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Westminster Confession. OK, what does that say?
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That document notes that man, by his fall into a state of sin,
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has wholly lost all ability of will to any spiritual good
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accompanying salvation. Wholly lost.
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Wholly lost. It states clearly that a natural
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person is altogether reversed to that good and dead and sin.
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They are not able by their own strength to convert themselves
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or even to prepare themselves for conversion.
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I want to stick with that phrase, prepare themselves for
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conversion because that is where the friction usually happens for
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people listening. Oh, absolutely.
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We often picture salvation as God throwing a life preserver to
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a drowning man. You know, the man is thrashing
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in the water, he is coughing, he is struggling, his head is
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dipping below the surface, right?
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But he still has just enough vitality, just enough energy to
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reach out his and grab the ring that is tossed his way.
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In that scenario, God provides the life preserver, but the man
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provides the grip. That is how most people view it,
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yeah. But if we take this text
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literally, the man is not thrashing on the surface.
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This text suggests the man is already at the bottom of the
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ocean. He is utterly devoid of breath.
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He is lifeless on the sea floor. And a corpse cannot grab a life
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preserver, no matter how perfectly it is thrown or how
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brightly colored it is, or how buoyant it might be.
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If we accept the diagnosis of absolute death, that life
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preserver analogy completely breaks.
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Down it falls apart completely. And yet this is so hard to
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swallow because we do not look like corpses walking around.
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No, we don't. We make choices all day long.
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We choose what to eat, who to love, what career to pursue.
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So how does the text reconcile the spiritual death with the
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very real physical and mental activity we see in every human
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being? Well, that is a crucial
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distinction to make. The text is very clear that
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these spiritually dead individuals are highly active.
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I mean, Ephesians describes them as people who walk, desire, and
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follow the passions of the flesh.
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So they are doing things. Oh, they're animated.
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They are making choices, but their animation is entirely
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directed toward rebellion. They are completely lifeless
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toward God. When we contrast this biblical
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reality with ideas that promote an unfettered free will, what
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theologians historically called Pelagianism or Arminianism, a
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massive divide becomes apparent. OK, unpack those two for me.
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Sure. So Pelagianism suggests human
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nature is basically fine and can choose God at any time.
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Like we are completely unaffected by the fall.
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Right, and Arminianism often suggests we are severely sick
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but still retain a spark of ability.
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Or the God gives everyone just enough grace to restore their
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free will to a neutral position. So bringing them back to the
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surface of the water so they can grab the ring.
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Exactly. But our source texts point out
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that a dead soul does not have an untouched island of spiritual
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ability that somehow survived the fallen Eden.
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There is no pristine sanctuary of moral capability hidden deep
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in the human heart waiting to be activated by a persuasive
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emotional argument. Dead people do not cooperate.
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They do not reach out. They contribute absolutely
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nothing to their rescue except the sin from which they
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desperately need to be rescued. The sources point out that
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chilling reality of what it means to be children of wrath by
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nature. As the text says, it means being
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entirely bound by depravity without even realizing it,
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following the Prince of the Power of the Air, and feeling
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completely autonomous while actually being entirely enslaved
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to a fallen nature. That is a terrifying diagnosis.
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I mean it means the chains are invisible and the person wearing
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them thinks they are completely free.
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Yeah, the illusion of freedom. And we have to remember that
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this state of death was not a theoretical abstraction for the
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original audience. It was the literal historical
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reality for the first people reading Paul's letter in the 1st
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century Greco Roman world. Absolutely.
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The cultural context is huge here.
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Yeah, the discussion in our source materials shifts to the
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physical metropolis of Ephesus. To give us some context, Ephesus
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was a crown jewel of Asia Minor. It was a massive, bustling port
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city, and it was entirely dominated by the cult of
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Artemis, also known to the Romans as Diana.
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Right, they had that massive temple.
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They boasted a massive temple that stood as one of the wonders
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of the ancient world. But it was not just a tourist
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attraction. The entire economy, the culture
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and the civic pride of the city were tied directly to idolatry.
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It was their livelihood. We can see this vividly in Acts
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chapter 19, where a riot breaks out because the gospel was
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threatening the livelihood of the silversmiths who made
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shrines to Artemis. Ephesus was a hotbed of magic
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arts, sorcery, and intense spiritual darkness.
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Yeah, the text talks about them burning their magic books.
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People were burning scrolls of magic worth fortunes when they
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came to faith. This was not a neutral secular
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environment. This was a literal daily
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existence surrounded by demonic influence and institutionalized
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paganism for those believers before they were brought to
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faith. Which makes their conversion
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even more shocking. So you have a group of people
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completely submerged in this dark, idolatrous culture.
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How does the concept of grace even compute for someone coming
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out of that background? It wouldn't compute at all, and
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that is why understanding the Greco Roman world is so vital.
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We have to look at how their entire society functioned.
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The Roman Empire operated strictly on a patron client
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system. OK, how did that work?
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Well, in this societal structure, gifts which in Greek
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were termed karis, the very word we translate as grace, we're
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never truly free. In the modern sense, they
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function more like a binding contract.
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So there were strings attached. Always strings attached, a
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wealthy or powerful patron would bestow a favor, financial
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backing, or political protection upon a client.
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In return, the client was strictly obligated to respond
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with public allegiance, service, and honorable actions that
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validated the patient's gift. So you earned it after the fact.
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Almost. It was a system built entirely
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on reciprocal loyalty and merit. You received Karis because you
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were expected to pay it back in social currency.
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Therefore, the concept of an entirely unmerited unilateral
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favor given to a rebellious enemy was intellectually alien
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to the Ephesian mind. It just did not make sense to
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them. It went against the very fabric
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of their economic and social existence.
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Against this backdrop of deeply entrenched paganism, a magical
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worldview, and societal expectations of reciprocal
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merit, the message of the Gospel was a radical, paradigm
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shattering revelation. The Ephesian believers possessed
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no natural inclination toward the God of Israel.
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They had no native disposition to choose a Jewish savior who
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was crucified by the Roman state.
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Left to their own devices, following the natural desires of
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their minds, they would have continued marching toward
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destruction under the banner of Artemis.
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Because that is what they're dead nature wanted.
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Precisely their entire world view was conditioned by
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religious spectacles, hidden power through magical
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incantations, and a philosophical Polish that could
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never raise a dead soul. They were not naturally superior
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to their Pagan neighbors. They were completely alienated
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from the covenants of promise, living without hope and without
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God in the world. That brings up an incredibly
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practical point regarding their cultural conditioning.
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If their entire culture and economy were wired for
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reciprocal merit, wouldn't these Ephesian believers naturally try
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to smuggle some of that merit based thinking into their new
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faith? Oh, without a doubt, it is human
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nature. It seems highly likely that
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someone accustomed to the patron client system would assume that
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they needed to perform certain actions or, you know, conjure up
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a certain level of cooperative will to validate the grace they
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were receiving from the ultimate patron God.
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They would think they owe him a specific debt to keep the grace
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flowing. Right, They might think, OK, God
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has offered me this incredible favor by saving me.
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Now I must prove myself worthy of it.
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I need to show my loyalty. Or at the very least, I need to
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show that I was smart enough or spiritually sensitive enough to
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accept the offer when my neighbors rejected it.
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Yes, looking for that 1% of contribution.
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That human tendency to want to contribute to our own standing
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must have been overwhelmingly strong.
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We still do it today. We want to bring something to
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the table, but because the Ephesians could not rescue
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themselves from that cultural and spiritual grave, the
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solution had to come entirely from the outside.
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It had to be external. And this brings our discussion
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to the greatest pivot in the text, an absolute shift in the
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narrative. Because they could not reach
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out, because they were lifeless at the bottom of the ocean, the
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rescue operation had to be completely 1 sided.
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The deep dive focuses heavily on Ephesians chapter 2, verses 4
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through 6, beginning with two monumental words.
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Oh. God, but God.
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In the Greek it is ho de theos. At this exact moment, the
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subject of the action completely shifts.
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It moves away from the dead, motionless Sinner and squarely
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on to the sovereign Creator. A.
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Total shift in agency. And the text tells us the
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motivation for this intervention is not found in anything
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attractive or cooperative within the Sinner.
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It is motivated exclusively by the abundant mercy and great
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love residing within the character of God Himself.
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Those two words but God represent one of the most
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astonishing reversals in all of biblical literature.
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It signals a complete departure from human effort and a move
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toward what theologians term monarchistic resurrection.
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Monarchistic. Let's break that down for the
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listener. Yeah, so monarchism is a word
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made of two parts, mono meaning 1 and ergon meaning work.
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It means that the action is entirely 1 sided.
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God act unilaterally to accomplish the rescue.
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There is no cooperation from the corpse.
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One worker. One worker.
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The analysis in our documents highlights the brilliant
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grammatical architecture the author employs to prove this
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point. The text uses 3 specific Greek
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compound verbs, all starting with prefix sin, which means
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together with. OK, so sin something.
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Right, we have sinicho poison, which translates to made alive
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together, then synagiron meaning raised together, and finally
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synagathism meaning seated together.
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Made alive, raised, seated all together with.
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Exactly. And the subject governing all
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three of these massive actions is God.
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The object receiving the action is a spiritually dead
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individual. And they were doing all of this
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together with Christ. This grammatical structure
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establishes the vital doctrine of federal headship.
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It means believers are united with Christ in such a
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comprehensive, unbreakable way that His historical physical
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resurrection in the 1st century guarantees their spiritual
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resurrection. Because they are tied to him.
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Yes, when Christ was raised from the tomb in Jerusalem, the elect
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were spiritually raised with him in the mind and decree of God.
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This is an accomplished, decisive action.
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The text does not describe a halfway resurrection, where a
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soul is given a little bit of life and left suspended, waiting
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to see if it will decide to complete the process.
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Not treading water, no it. Describes A victorious,
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permanent translation from darkness to light.
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God creates the life, God raises the soul, and God seats the
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believer in the heavenly places. I can hear the objections
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forming right now though. Oh, I'm sure you can.
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If God does all the resurrecting and seating, it sounds like
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humans are just passive chess pieces being moved around a
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board by a cosmic player. Like we have no agency.
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Do our choices even matter? It is a very common reaction.
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That is a pushback that you hear constantly when discussing
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sovereign grace, and it is a fair question to ask if the
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action is entirely unilateral. If it is a monarchistic
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resurrection where God does absolutely everything from the
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initial awakening to the final seating in the heavenly places,
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where does human volition fit in?
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Where is the free choice? It almost feels as though this
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framework ignores the human experience of deciding.
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We experience salvation as a series of intense, deeply
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personal choices. I mean, we hear a message
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preached. We weigh the claims in our
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minds. We feel the weight of our guilt
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and our conscience, and we make a conscious, deliberate decision
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to turn away from our old habits and trust in Christ.
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We do. That is a real experience.
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We choose to believe so. If God is the sole initiator and
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executor of this resurrection, how do we reconcile that with
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the very real, tangible experience of making a choice?
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The answer requires looking closely at the specific
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mechanism of salvation. We do believe the text does not
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deny that. But where does that belief
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originate? Yeah, it is the $1,000,000
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question. The conversation in our source
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texts tackles this by dissecting Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8:00
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and 9:00. Those verses famously state that
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salvation is by grace through. Faith by grace through faith,
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yeah. It is undeniable that faith is
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the instrument. The text explicitly says we are
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saved through faith, but the origin of that faith is the
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critical issue that must be resolved to understand the
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dynamic between divine sovereignty and human choosing.
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To address the tension of human choice, we have to refer back to
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the diagnosis we established earlier.
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The spiritually dead still walk and desire.
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Humans do make real choices. You are not a robot.
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You are acting according to your desires.
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But the problem is that your desires are entirely bound by
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sin until God unilaterally imparts new life.
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You choose according to your nature, and your nature has
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fallen. A dead tree produces dead
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leaves. Exactly.
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You freely choose to run from God because that is what a
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fallen nature desires. So when a person chooses to
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believe the gospel, that choice is entirely real.
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The person is genuinely believing, but that choice is
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the result of the new nature that was just sovereignly given
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by God. The new nature produces the new
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choice, yes. The new nature produces new
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desires which produce new choices.
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This leads directly to the exegetical crown jewel of the
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passage in verses 8:00 and 9:00. The source texts breakdown the
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Greek syntax meticulously to show who is responsible for this
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new faith. OK, let's get into the grammar
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here. The phrase is by grace.
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You have been saved through faith.
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In Greek, nouns have gender. The noun for grace is charity,
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which is feminine. OK, charity is feminine.
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The noun for faith is pistas, which is also feminine.
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However, the next phrase says and this is not your own doing.
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The demonstrative pronoun translated as this is the Greek
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word tuto and Toto is neuter. Neuter, not feminine.
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Right. This is a massive grammatical
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clue. A cardinal rule of Greek syntax
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is that pronouns generally agree in gender with their
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antecedents. Because tuto is neuter, he
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cannot refer solely to the feminine noun faith, nor can it
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refer solely to the feminine noun grace.
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If Paul wanted to say this faith is not your own doing, he would
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have used the feminine pronoun. Exactly.
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Instead, the neuter pronoun refers conceptually to the
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entire preceding clause. It gathers up the whole
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comprehensive act of being saved by grace through faith.
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The whole package. The whole package.
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Furthermore, the neuter pronoun is attracted to the predicate
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nominative later in the sentence, the Greek word Duvan
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meaning gift, which is also neuter.
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Therefore, the grammar demands that the entire process of
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salvation, including the very awakening of saving faith
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itself, is the sovereign gift of God.
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That is airtight. It really is.
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The documents bring in other scriptures to corroborate this.
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Philippians chapter one verse 29 says it has been granted to you
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to believe. Second Timothy chapter 2, verse
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25 speaks of God granting repentance.
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Granting repentance. Believing and repenting are
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actions we take. We do the believing, we do the
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repenting, but they are actions granted to us by God's
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Providence. The capacity and the desire to
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do them are gifted. That grammatical breakdown
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changes everything. Let's try to conceptualize this
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with a medical analogy, because I think it helps visualize the
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sequence. Yeah, think of a medical team
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using a defibrillator on a patient whose heart has
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completely stopped. The patient is flatlining.
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The heart is completely still incapable of generating its own
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rhythm. They are clinically dead.
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Right. The doctor applies the paddles,
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the current surges through the tissue, and suddenly the heart
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contracts. Boom, boom, boom.
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Now is the heart genuinely beating?
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Yes. Is it genuinely pumping blood
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through the body? Yes.
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The heart is doing the work of beating.
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Exactly. But did the heart originate the
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electricity that caused that first contraction?
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Absolutely not. The electricity came entirely
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from the outside, from the power source of the defibrillator.
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In this analogy, saving faith is the new rhythm of a heart that
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has been shocked into life by the Holy Spirit.
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I love that the person truly believes they truly trust, but
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that trusting is the breathing, the heartbeat of a newly
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resurrected soul. Our sources discuss how this
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absolute dependence on God's initiative destroys the concept
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of what is often called partial regeneration or prevention
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grace. Right, which we touched on
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earlier with Arminianism. Yeah, those are theological
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systems proposing that God gives a universal enabling grace to
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every single human being. They argue this grace merely,
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well, wait. They argue this grace just
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restores free will to a neutral point, lifting everyone out of
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the grave just enough that they can make a free choice, leaving
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the final decisive action in the hands of the Sinner.
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Right, taking them from a -, 10 to a 0.
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Yes, they suggest, God brings everyone to a state of being
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savable, but the individual must supply the deciding vote.
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But the Greek syntax we just discussed, combined with the
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vivid imagery of moving from absolute death to life,
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completely dismantles that idea. You do not have resurrect a
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corpse. No, you don't.
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If the heartbeat of faith is completely supplied by God's
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energy, the immediate consequence is the total
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annihilation of human pride. Which brings us to the societal
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and personal implications of this doctrine.
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Verse 9 explicitly says all of this is structured, not a result
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of work, so that no one may boast.
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The boasting is the key issue here.
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This wasn't just a theological truth for the Ephesians.
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It was meant to flatten the ground between the highly moral
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Jews and the Pagan Gentiles sitting next to each other in
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the Ephesian church. The annihilation of human pride
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is the primary authorial intention behind the text.
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Paul wants to eliminate boasting entirely.
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If faith were viewed as a cooperative effort where God
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does 99% of the work, but we provide the 1% of faith to
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finalize the deal, gratitude would inevitably be divided.
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We would pat ourselves on the back for that 1%.
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Absolutely. A synergistic view, which means
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working together inherently allows a person to secretly take
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credit for making the right choice while their neighbor did
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not. Think about the psychological
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implications of that. It is.
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Huge. One could look at an unbelieving
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friend or a family member who rejects the gospel and think we
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both heard the same message. We both received the same
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provenient grace, but I was wise enough or sensitive enough or
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humble enough to accept it while they were stubborn and blind.
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That is just spiritual pride disguised as gratitude.
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It introduces A subtle but incredibly destructive form of
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boasting into the Christian life.
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It locates the ultimate decisive factor of salvation in the human
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will rather than in the sovereign mercy of God.
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But sovereign grace, as outlined in Ephesians, destroys all
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ethnic superiority and spiritual elitism.
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It levels the floor completely. It forces the moral, law abiding
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individual, perhaps a Jewish convert who had kept the tour of
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their whole life, to stand on the exact same level as the
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former idol worshipping Pagan who used to buy silver shrines
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for Artemis. Both were corpses.
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The well dressed corpse and the rotting corpse are equally dead.
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Man, that is a Stark image. Both contributed nothing but
22:50
guilt to their salvation. Both were granted lies solely by
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unmerited mercy. This level the playing field in
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Ephesus, creating a unified body of believers who could only
22:59
point upward when asked why they were part of the family of God.
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They couldn't point to their resume, No.
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The text refuses to allow the Sinner to share the throne with
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God. The saved person can only
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attribute their standing to the decisive hand of Providence,
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recognizing that the very faith they exercise is a sustained
23:18
miracle of God's grace. You are a Christian today solely
23:22
because God decided to be merciful to you, not because you
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outsmarted your unbelieving neighbor.
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I have to play devil's advocate here, though, because this
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challenges our everyday observations about human
23:32
behavior. We all know people who seem
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naturally more empathetic, highly moral, or incredibly
23:37
sensitive to the needs of others, even outside of any
23:40
religious context. Sure, common grace produces a
23:42
lot of civic goodness. Right.
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They're just good people by conventional societal standards.
23:47
They volunteer, They give to charity, they treat their
23:50
spouses well. Conversely, we know people who
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are callous, selfish, and cruel. Doesn't it feel completely
23:56
counterintuitive to tell a listener that someone's natural
23:58
empathy, their good upbringing, or their inherent moral compass
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plays zero role in their coming to faith?
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It does rub people the wrong way.
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We tend to assume that a person who is naturally kind is somehow
24:10
closer to the Kingdom of God than a hardened criminal.
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We assume that their moral framework makes them more
24:16
receptive to the gospel, that it acts as a stepping stone.
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But if we take this text at its word, all those natural virtues
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are utterly useless in generating spiritual life.
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A nice dead person and a mean dead person are both dead.
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Both are completely unresponsive to God without the Spirit.
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But once boasting is completely removed and we accept that we
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contribute nothing to the root of our salvation, a new
24:39
theological dilemma rears its head.
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If we are completely passive in our spiritual resurrection, and
24:45
if our works play absolutely no role in securing our standing
24:48
before God, what about the fruit of our lives?
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Why be good? Exactly why do anything good at
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all? This brings our deep dive right
24:56
into Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10.
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The text states that believers are God's workmanship.
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That translates the Greek word palima.
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We are created in Christ Jesus for good works which God
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prepared beforehand. The Greek word is pro atomeson
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so that we should walk in them. Prepare beforehand.
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This verse seems specifically designed to catch anyone who
25:16
might try to use the doctrine of sovereign grace as a get out of
25:19
jail free card or an excuse for moral laziness.
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You've zeroed in on a crucial balance in the text.
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To address your point about the good person.
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It is absolutely true that natural morality cannot cure
25:32
spiritual death. As you said, a well dressed
25:35
corpse is still a corpse. The ground is perfectly level at
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the foot of the cross, regardless of an individual
25:41
societal standing, natural temperament, or charitable
25:44
giving. But regarding verse 10, the
25:46
expert analysis in our sources carefully distinguishes between
25:49
two concepts that we cannot afford to mix up Works as the
25:53
ground of salvation and works as the fruit of salvation.
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Ground versus fruit. Making worse the ground of your
25:58
salvation is legalism. It is trying to earn the gift,
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but works as the fruit of salvation is the necessary,
26:04
inevitable result of being a new creation.
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The text fiercely rejects antinomianism.
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Antinomianism. Let's define that.
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Anti means against and nomos means law.
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Antinomianism is the dangerous idea that free grace makes
26:19
obedience optional, or that how you live is irrelevant because
26:23
you are already saved. Like I'm forgiven so I can do
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whatever I want. Exactly.
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Paul does not replace works righteousness with spiritual
26:31
laziness. The word Paul Yuma emphasizes
26:34
God's craftsmanship. Think of a master artist
26:37
creating a masterpiece. The believer is a newly created
26:40
entity formed in union with Christ, and this new creation
26:44
has a specific predestined purpose.
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Good works. They are made.
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For it, God's Providence includes not only the granting
26:50
of the initial faith, but the meticulous preparation of the
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believers ongoing path. The text says.
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The good works are prepared beforehand so that the believer
26:58
will inevitably walk in them. God is amazing.
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This brilliant framework preserves human responsibility
27:04
without surrendering divine Providence.
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The Christian truly walks. We choose, we labor, we repent
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of our sins daily, we pray constantly, and we strive to
27:13
obey. Yet behind and beneath all that
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walking is the God who creates the desire, prepares the
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circumstances, sustains the effort when we are tired, and
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ultimately receives all the glory for the fruit produced.
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I find a gardening analogy really helpful here.
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Think of an apple tree. You do not staple apples to a
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dead dry branch and call it an apple tree.
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No, that would just look ridiculous.
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That is what legalism tries to do.
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It takes a spiritually dead heart, attaches external works
27:41
to it like church attendance or charitable giving, and hopes it
27:44
counts as spiritual life. But it is just Deadwood with
27:47
fruit stapled to. It an imitation of life.
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Instead, God plants a living apple tree.
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He changes the nature of the wood, and because it is alive,
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and because it's fundamental nature is now to be an apple
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tree, it naturally produces apples over time.
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The apples do not make the tree alive.
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They are the evidence that the tree is alive.
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That is spot on. The root produces the fruit.
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But if the works are prepared beforehand, what do we say to a
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listener who looks at their own life and feels they are failing
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to produce those apples? What about the person who hears
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this and thinks if God prepares the good works and I am
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struggling constantly with the exact same sins year after year,
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perhaps I am not his workmanship after all.
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The doubt creeps in. They might feel a crushing
28:26
weight of doubt, wondering if their lack of visible,
28:29
consistent fruit invalidates their faith entirely.
28:33
That feeling of failure or weakness brings the practical,
28:36
everyday implications of this theology right to the forefront
28:39
for the listeners daily walk. We have to apply this to real
28:41
life. We have to address how this
28:43
doctrine functions, not just in a pristine theological textbook,
28:47
but in the muddy trenches of normal life where people
28:50
struggle, fail and experience massive doubt.
28:53
The sources highlight that this doctrine is actually designed to
28:55
provide immense pastoral comfort as well as incredible
28:59
evangelistic courage. The pastoral comfort provided by
29:02
this doctrine is unmatched, matched especially for the
29:04
struggling believer. If your salvation depended on
29:07
your ability to maintain a certain quota of good works,
29:10
you'd be paralyzed by anxiety every time you failed.
29:13
You would never have peace. Never but Grace reshapes and
29:18
trains the believer, ensuring that the new creation will walk
29:21
in the appointed path. Even through periods of intense
29:24
struggle, backsliding, and apparent failure, the texts
29:28
highlight a beautiful truth. Weak faith that truly receives a
29:33
strong Christ is still saving faith.
29:35
Weak faith, A strong Christ. A person does not need a
29:38
flawless performance to validate their standing before God.
29:41
They need a genuine reliance on the Savior.
29:43
A bruised Reed, as the prophet Isaiah says, he will not break.
29:46
The struggling believer is not commanded to manufacture
29:49
confidence from within their own messy track record.
29:51
Because that track record is flawed.
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They are directed to look outward, to look to the God who
29:56
raises the dead. Assurance grows as the soul
29:59
looks away from its own fluctuating performance and
30:02
rests entirely on the unshakable Providence of God.
30:05
If God started the work by raising you from the dead, he
30:08
will finish it. He doesn't leave a resurrection
30:11
half finished. Exactly.
30:13
Furthermore, this theology provides incredible evangelistic
30:16
courage. The documents reference the
30:19
great 19th century preacher Charles Spurgeon, specifically
30:22
his views on the bondage of the free will.
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Oh Spurgeon is great on this. Spurgeon noted that because God
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grants faith through the preached Word, the church must
30:31
reject pragmatic, seeker sensitive methods.
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We do not need to treat sinners as consumers to be entertained.
30:37
We do not need smoke machines, manipulative lighting or diluted
30:40
man centered messages to manufacture a psychological
30:43
decision. Which is so common today.
30:45
It is everywhere. Instead, we rely entirely on
30:47
ordinary means, preaching the Bible, teaching doctrine, and
30:50
praying. We do this because the Holy
30:52
Spirit uses the Word of God to impart life as stated in first
30:56
Peter chapter one verse 23. So the word is the tool.
30:59
This means the minister can proclaim the hard truths boldly,
31:03
the parent can pray for a wandering rebellious child with
31:06
enduring hope, and the everyday believer can share their faith
31:10
with a neighbor without the paralyzing fear of saying the
31:13
wrong thing, knowing that God is the one who ultimately opens the
31:16
heart, not our clever arguments. That removes so much pressure
31:19
from evangelism, but it also raises a very common, highly
31:24
logical objection that we hear all the time.
31:26
If God does all the saving, and if faith is a predetermined gift
31:30
of Providence that will inevitably be given to the
31:32
elect, doesn't that make people lazy and evangelist?
31:35
Fatalism argument. Yeah, why share the gospel at
31:37
all if God is going to save them anywhere?
31:39
If the outcome is already written in stone from eternity
31:42
past? If the dead will be raised by a
31:44
unilateral act of God, regardless of human
31:46
intervention, it seems perfectly logical to some people to just
31:49
sit back, relax, and let God do his work.
31:52
Like go and let God. Right.
31:54
Why expend the energy? Why risk the social rejection of
31:57
talking to your Co worker? Why cross oceans and risk your
32:00
life as a missionary to share a message?
32:03
If the sovereign decree is already established in heaven,
32:06
it is incredibly easy to see how someone might adopt A fatalistic
32:09
mindset, concluding that human action is superfluous in the
32:12
grand scheme of divine Providence.
32:15
Whatever will be will be. But that is a misunderstanding
32:18
of Providence. But our sources address this
32:20
head on, countering the idea that sovereignty breeds apathy.
32:25
The authors argue that this theology should actually be the
32:27
greatest fuel for mission and outreach, completely removing
32:30
the anxiety of performance and replacing it with a bold,
32:33
courageous dependence on the Creator.
32:35
The counter argument to the fatalistic objection is
32:38
logically bulletproof. Within this theological
32:40
framework. The answer is that God ordains
32:42
the means of salvation just as surely as he ordains the ends.
32:45
The means and the ends. He is decreed that the elect
32:48
will be saved, yes, but he is equally decreed that they will
32:52
be saved exclusively through the specific mechanism of hearing
32:55
the preached gospel. Romans chapter 10 asks how are
33:00
they to hear without someone preaching?
33:02
So our preaching is part of the plan.
33:05
Therefore, evangelism is not rendered useless by God's
33:08
sovereignty. It is rendered absolutely
33:10
essential because it is the very instrument God has chosen to
33:13
employ to accomplish His eternal purpose.
33:17
As you noted, this removes the crushing pressure of
33:20
manipulation. We don't have to be salesman.
33:22
If the results depended on our eloquence, our persuasive sales
33:25
techniques, or our ability to debate an atheist into
33:28
submission, we would be terrified to ever open our
33:31
mouths. But because God is the one who
33:33
gives the increase, we can share the message with freedom.
33:36
We preach the gospel to dead men because God has promised to use
33:40
that preaching to call them from the grave, just as Jesus called
33:43
Lazarus from the tomb with his voice.
33:45
That changes the whole perspective on mission work.
33:47
This doctrine is not a soft pillow for laziness.
33:51
It is a massive motivation for worship, prayer, and persistent
33:55
holy living. It teaches believers to wake up
33:58
every single day recognizing that their faith is a continued
34:02
miracle of mercy. It provides the guarantee that
34:05
our evangelistic efforts will not be in vain because God has
34:08
sheep that will hear His voice. That perfectly brings our beep
34:11
dive to its final thematic conclusion by looking at the
34:14
eternal purpose found in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 7.
34:18
We've talked about the past being dead and sin.
34:20
We've talked about the present being raised and walking in good
34:23
works. But verse 7 gives us the cosmic
34:26
why behind all of this? The grand finale.
34:28
The text states that God saves us so that in the coming ages he
34:31
might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness
34:34
toward us in Christ Jesus. Salvation is not just a
34:37
localized rescue mission to save individuals from hell.
34:41
It is part of a massive, cosmic, eternal exhibition of God's
34:44
generosity. A.
34:45
Display for the angels the. Kindness shown to a complete,
34:48
completely dead, rebellious Sinner becomes a trophy of grace
34:52
that will be put on display for all of eternity to the angelic
34:55
host. That is an overwhelming thought
34:58
to process. It lives the entire discussion
35:00
out of the realm of academic theology and places it directly
35:03
into the context of awe and worship.
35:06
It humbles you completely. We are dealing with concepts
35:08
that stretch from before the foundation of the world, invade
35:11
our present historical reality in the trenches of our daily
35:14
lives, and extend into the endless ages to come.
35:18
So I want to leave you with a final lingering question to
35:20
consider tomorrow morning as you go about your routine.
35:23
If the very faith you exercise is a perfectly timed gift of
35:27
Providence and not your own autonomous achievement, how does
35:31
that shift your perspective on the seemingly mundane everyday
35:34
choices you have to make? That is a great question to
35:37
reflect on. If every inclination toward the
35:39
good is a result of his workmanship, how does that alter
35:43
the way you interact with your family, your Co workers, and
35:46
your own internal struggles with pride?
35:48
Thank you for joining Reformed Thinking for this deep dive.
35:51
We encourage you to keep looking at the text with fresh eyes,
35:54
recognizing the massive implications of a grace that
35:57
actually raises the dead. The implications are truly
36:00
limitless when you grasp the magnitude of what has been
36:03
accomplished on your behalf. Did you consider that final
36:06
question? Remember that the ordinary,
36:08
seemingly mundane moments of obedience, biting your tongue
36:11
when you were angry, choosing to forgive a friend, doing your job
36:15
with integrity are the very works prepared beforehand for
36:18
you to walk in. The daily grind is part of the
36:20
plan. Your daily life is the canvas
36:23
upon which God is displaying His craftsmanship.
36:25
You are not striving to earn your place.
36:28
You are walking out the reality of a life that has already been
36:30
secured. The pressures of performance are
36:33
replaced by the quiet confidence of a completed work.
36:37
The anxiety of trying to maintain your salvation through
36:40
your own willpower is replaced by the assurance that the God
36:44
who authored your faith will be the one to perfect it.
36:47
Amen to that. This understanding does not lead
36:49
to complacency, but to a vibrant, grateful and active
36:52
pursuit of holiness, fueled by the realization that you've been
36:56
gifted into glory. The entire trajectory of your
36:59
existence is held securely in the desalusive hand of
37:01
Providence, guaranteeing that the grace which initiated your
37:04
rescue will carry you safely home.