“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 works, so that no one may boast.” – Ephesians 2:8–9
This is maybe one of the clearest verses in passages, Ephesians 2:1–10, describing the Gospel and how we can be saved. I would even just real quick give you a quick Gospel acrostics. So think G-O-S-P-E-L based on Ephesians two here. G, think God’s character. God is holy. He hates sin, and yet he loves to show his salvation. We see his holiness, his love, his grace, his mercy, and his wrath all over this passage, the character of God, G.
We are saved by grace through faith in Christ.
Then O, the offense of sin. This passage describes us as dead in our trespasses and sins given over to the passions of our flesh like children of wrath by our very nature. We have offended God in our sins. So, God is holy. We have offended him. G-O-S, the sufficiency of Christ. God has sent Jesus to do what we could not do, to save us from our sin. His life, his death, his resurrection make salvation possible, which then leads to the P in Gospel. So God’s character, offense of sin, sufficiency of Christ, then P, personal response.
Ephesians 2:8–9 Teaches Us How to Respond to the Good News
How do we respond to this good news of what God has done in Christ? We place our faith in him. By grace you have been saved through faith, not your own doing. Our personal responses, not try to do a bunch of things for God; no, we trust in what God has done for us. We trust in Christ and what he has done for our salvation, that’s the P. That leads to E, eternal life and eternal urgency. All of our lives are dependent forever on how we respond to Christ. So, we’re provoked to trust in him today, to call other people to trust in him today because life and death, eternal life and everlasting death hang in the balance. Heaven and hell hang in the balance with how we respond to Christ, eternal life, eternal urgency.
G-O-S-P-E, all of that leads to L, life transformation for we are his workmanship. Verse 10 goes on to say, “Created in Christ Jesus for good works.” So, this Gospel changes the way we live, changes every facet of our lives. G-O-S-P-E-L, God’s character, the offense of sin, the sufficiency of Christ, personal response to him, eternal urgency and how we respond to him that then leads to life transformation. Oh God, we praise you for this Gospel. We praise you for saving us by grace through faith. This is a gift from you for which we give you glory.
Ephesians 2:8–9 Thanks and Praises God for the Gospel
We pray today. As we praise you, thank you for the Gospel, we pray that you will help us to spread this Gospel. God, help us today to sow seeds of the Gospel around us, to speak about your character, to speak about the offense of sin, to speak to others about the sufficiency of Christ of who Jesus is, to call others to personally respond to Christ. Help us not just to share information about Jesus. God, help us to persuade people, to trust in Jesus by the power of your spirit to do that knowing that their eternity hangs in the balance.
Father, we pray for life transformation in us that leads to Gospel sharing with those around us. God, we pray that this Gospel would spread through our lives today, this week, through our churches today, this week. We pray that this Gospel would spread around the world particularly to people who have never even heard it. In Jesus’ name we praise you for the Gospel, and we pray that you would use our lives for the spread of the Gospel. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
