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To: annalex; RnMomof7; metmom; Dr. Eckleburg; 1000 silverlings; Alex Murphy; bkaycee; blue-duncan
The recepients of the letter are said to be "quickened" and in some sense even "saved". and the passage explains how that happens: by grace alone through faith and walking in the good works. So that is how we all, not just Ephesians, are saved.

Except, it does not say that is how it happens.

Ephesians 2:1 says: And you [hath he quickened], who were dead in trespasses and sins. We WERE dead in our sins, but have been made alive (quickened).

Ephesians 2:5 - Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And why has he saved us?

Ephesians 2:7 -That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in [his] kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Then we see how that grace is obtained in verses 8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.

We, who were at one time at enmity with God, strangers and aliens from God, have now been reconciled to God through the blood of the cross. That is certainly the meat of the entire book to the Ephesians and to us all. And God, who in his mercy and love towards us, made us alive in Christ and enables us to walk in the paths he has created for us, the "good works" he has both prepared for us and, through his spirit, causes us to walk in them. Don't shortchange God by insisting that those good works are the means to salvation because it is only because of his abundant grace that we even have any chance to be saved. And why, some may ask, would God do this? He answers in what is probably my most favorite verse, verse 7: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in [his] kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

He lavishes that grace on us, how dare we even think our measly efforts can add to that?

2,927 posted on 11/22/2010 6:23:24 PM PST by boatbums (God is ready to assume full responsibility for the life wholly yielded to him.)
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To: boatbums; RnMomof7; metmom; Dr. Eckleburg; 1000 silverlings; Alex Murphy; bkaycee; blue-duncan
[re. Eph 21-10] He lavishes that grace on us, how dare we even think our measly efforts can add to that?

Our efforts do not "add to grace"; verse 9 makes that clear. However, grace stirs us both to faith and to good works, in which we "should walk".

4,391 posted on 12/02/2010 5:48:36 PM PST by annalex (http://www.catecheticsonline.com/CatenaAurea.php)
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