Walking With Christ

Ephesians 2:8-10 (8)For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, (9)not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (10)For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.(ESV)

This verse is so dense. It’s also the main structure of Christian nature. If Christ is the corner stone, this verse could be considered the frame that stands on top of it. When friends ask about the root of my faith I tell them that Jesus died on the cross so that we could be saved by grace, through faith, and unto good works.

We don’t receive the Holy Spirit because we follow the rules. We receive the Holy Spirit when we are saved because we believe in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We don’t deserve grace. We can’t earn grace. We can’t do anything to make ourselves worthy of it. It’s a gift from God for us.

It’s important to understand that the Holy Spirit is the part of God that we have here on earth. It’s not Jesus. We read about that in Romans 8.

Romans 8:9-11 (9)You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. (10)But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. (11)If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.(ESV)

Paul wasn’t talking about following the law. He was talking about salvation through Jesus. This means that it isn’t our good works that save us even though being saved will lead to good works. Faith without works is dead (James 2:26) and works without faith is nothing (1 Corinthians 13:2).

If the law can’t save us then why were we given the law in the first place? In Galatians, Paul answers that very question. Simply put, it was to show us that we could not follow the law. It was to show us our sins and our need to be saved.

Galatians 3:19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary.(ESV)

Before faith came, we were prisoners to the law. Now, with faith, we have freedom. We are justified by faith.