Why Subtle Bragging Hurts Geeks (In Search Of Truth, Ephesians 2:8-10)

Ephesians 2:8-10 (ESV)
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.


In previous verses, Paul described the rebellious and wrath-deserving condition that all humans start in by default. This sad condition then highlights the nature of our rescue: God's undeserved favor (grace) toward us.

v.8-9

We're going to take just a brief detour from Paul's intended focus in these verses. It's very important to recognize that Paul's intent here is NOT to explain the nature of human free will in the context of God's sovereignty. But because these verses are appealed to in those hotly debated issues, I wanted to acknowledge and briefly comment on that potential elephant in the room.

The subject of discussion is often what the word "this" refers to in verse 8. Is Paul saying that being saved is not of our own doing, or that faith itself is not of our own doing? Which of these is "the gift of God"?

In the Greek here the word for "this" is grammatically compatible as a reference to "faith", but whatever "this" refers to is also said to be "not your own doing" and "not a result of works". Most modern commentators conclude that if the word "this" refers specifically to "faith" Paul would be elaborating on what is already obvious. So instead they connect "this" with either "you have been saved" or "you have been saved by faith", rather than zeroing in so specifically on "faith" only.

While faith is certainly not a "work" or a result of good works (faith and works are contrasted throughout scripture), it would be a mistake to say that faith does not at least partially originate from ourselves, since we are each held accountable by God for the choice we make regarding belief in Jesus.

The error often made by both sides in the debate over human Free Will and God's Sovereignty is the assumption that God is operating only within, and according to, the linear paths of cause and effect that are bound by time.

Astronomer Hugh Ross in his book "Beyond The Cosmos", makes a compelling case for the idea that God exists and operates outside the limitations of time as we know it, and therefore exercises his higher dimensional Sovereignty in a way that is completely compatible with our lower dimensional free will. The alternative to Ross's view, I believe, results in a distortion of scripture in order to favor either human free will or God's sovereignty. The two are absolutely compatible and Paul's words here remain consistent with that conclusion.

Although metaphors will ultimately fall short (especially when describing realities that are removed from time by using an example bound by time), metaphors can still be helpful. So here's me taking a crack at one:


God's undeserved favor is what rescue us, and we receive that gift through our trust in him. It's an act of the will similar to a beggar who accepts a gift from someone passing by. The giver holds out a gift of food in their hand. It's the gift that gives life and that will rescue the beggar from starvation. But the beggar (perhaps jaded by jokes previously played at his expense) still has to choose to trust that this passerby's offer is genuine, and that he won't pull his hand away from the beggar at the last second. The beggar has to reach out and accept the food being offered.

When the beggar does this, it's not necessarily because he is virtuous in any way. In fact it might be that his acceptance of the gift required encouragement and coaxing from the giver. Accepting the gift isn't a good deed. It's just someone reaching for a source of life that has graciously been revealed and offered to them by the giver.


Again, the metaphor falls short. But hopefully it at least demonstrates how accepting the gift of salvation from the penalty of sin is not a "good deed" or the result of some inherent superior goodness in a person.

Discussions about the ideas of faith and works often come to this passage, so I wanted to comment on those things briefly. But we should remember that those issues aren't Paul's focus, and be careful not to miss what Paul IS emphasizing and teaching here.

As those who are trusting in Jesus to rescue us from the penalty of sin, we are rescued not because God looked ahead in time and saw what good Christians we'd make, but by his completely undeserved favorable treatment. We are, by definition, not entitled to God's grace. It should baffle us every time we think of it, because his rescue of us is completely undeserved. It's the result of God offering rescue as a gift, and us trusting the authenticity of that offer just enough to reach out with our grubby hands and grab it.

There is no room for boasting about our initial decision to trust Jesus to rescue us. If some of us came to faith earlier in life than others, it's because Jesus graciously provided us with different circumstances and/or coaxed us in different ways compared to others. We're not somehow elite, we are bafflingly blessed for no specific or unique reason we can name.

v.10

Jesus rescuing us from our deserved punishment is not the result of any good we did or that he knew we would do. It's more like the other way around. We have been rescued for the purpose of doing good.

The Greek word used when believers are referred to as God's "workmanship" is where we get our English word "poem". We are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), a work of art made for the purpose of engaging in God's plans for the world. And before we even became new creations through Christ, God orchestrated and set in motion countless events to prepare specific work for each of us to engage in.

God rescued us, gave us purpose and moment by moment provides purposeful work for us to get involved in for the good of ourselves and those around us. It's all him and we have nothing left to boast about except for how good he is to us. (John 15:5)


SO WHAT'S IN ALL THIS FOR GEEKS?

I've met a few geeks now and then who will try to steer conversations a bit to highlight their spiritual maturity, but it's not common. What is common, to me and I suspect to a lot of geeks, is a silent desire to be well thought of by those around us. We would never say this of course. We might even deny it to ourselves because we know we shouldn't be preoccupied with the approval or admiration of others. But it's still there inside of us, being fed and nurtured all the time by entertainment stories about singular chosen heroes who are ultimately defined and valued for their skills and accomplishments, even if these things are selfless, heroic deeds that ARE worth commending.

Paul is informing us here that, although we are created and purposed for doing good (maybe even heroic) things, we have no room for boasting. Again, I don't think many of us would verbally boast, but the commands of scripture are ultimately about our hearts, as Jesus made clear.

There is no room for us to become self-satisfied because of even our selfless actions or our spiritual maturity. We've got to run from those feelings the moment we detect them and turn them into gratitude for all the wheels God set in motion and the baffling favorable treatment he has given us that makes our good works or spiritual maturity possible. It's a fine line between being grateful for what God does through us and feeling superior in purpose or maturity.

Me bringing this up isn't just a wagging finger. My hope is to spare myself and all of us the weight and stress of expectations that naturally fill our lives the more we allow the approval or admiration of others to define our significance. The hidden dark side of boastful hearts is letting others define how we feel about ourselves. And I'm guessing we've all had enough experience with that to know it's not where we want to be.

Instead, Paul is hoping we will see the beautiful new creations we have become, and that we will humbly and gratefully take advantage of partnership with what God is doing.


Resources typically used to prepare this study include:
"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House)
"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press)
Thayer's Greek Lexicon
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance
Blueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality)