Paul begins Ephesians 2:1-10 with all being dead to God – everyone just going according to the course of this world, pleasing our own flesh and mind – sin having the upper hand in our lives. Living without grace in our lives. But then God’s love and great mercy showed itself in making us alive with Jesus – alive so that we can hear his voice, feel his touch, see what he sees, walk with Him… making us partakers of the divine nature. He causes us to sit together in heavenly places now and promises us more in the ages to come. So, we are not saved by any works that we have done or any goodness in ourselves, but it is his goodness toward us that gives us eternal life.
We are saved ‘by grace through faith.’ (Eph 2:8-10) So where does our faith enter in? Faith is our response to his grace – he has opened our ears to hear his still small voice -do we listen and respond? Do we believe what he has spoken to us? He gives us vision – do we believe the vision that he sets before? Do we follow it? He gives us strength – do we use it to walk with him? To work with him? Or do we prefer to continue to walk according to the way of this world? It tells us of Jesus in Isaiah 50:4-5 that God opened his ear morning by morning and Jesus wasn’t rebellious to it, nor did he turn away from what God ask him to do. He was alive to God. It goes on in Isaiah and tells us that listening to God meant a great deal of suffering to his flesh – the experience of the cross.
How Can We Grow in Grace?
So, we are his workmanship – our lives should declare the work of God in us to all that would be looking on. And his working or the working of his grace in us is to the end that we would walk in good works. Chapters 4, 5 and 6 tell us more of this walk. Good works don’t bring salvation, but grace does, and good works follow grace. We can talk about grace, read about grace, know about grace, but we need to really walk the walk if we want to know grace.
Paul likens grace to a gift – something we can’t earn or buy, but rather it is given to us because of the goodness of the giver. But what do we do with the gift? Does it sit on the shelf in the closet? Is it thrown aside? Or is it something we use on a daily basis because we see its value and respect the Giver? Do we make it our own through use?
The purpose of this www.thefellowshipoftruth.com is to provide information about a non-denominational network of home-based churches that can be found in nearly every country of the world. We are imperfect people trying hard to fulfil the plan that God has laid out for each one of us. We do our best to follow the teachings of the Bible at home, work and in the place of worship. The format and structure are Bible based and very similar to what we read about the early church in Acts and I Corinthians (Acts 1:13 and I Cor 16:19.) Each week we meet in homes for fellowship and worship on Sunday mornings and Bible studies on Wednesday nights. From time to time, we also have larger Gospel services where multiple home-based churches meet together. These meetings serve to strengthen the faith of the believers, and also, help to explain our beliefs to those who are being introduced to our faith for the first time.