In the name of Christ Jesus, dear fellow redeemed people of God,

Anyone who wishes to become a writer needs to know the difference between active and passive verbs. Today's writers and editors try to avoid passive verbs as much as possible. Generally, that helps clear communication. However, when we read the Bible, we often come across passive verbs. And that makes a point too. When it comes to our salvation, we are purely passive. Obviously, God does all of the work, so we could say, "God has saved you." But, when we are made the subjects of a sentence, we are passive. So Scripture says here:

1. "BY GRACE"

It says, "By grace you have been saved." The term "grace" refers to God's undeserved love for sinners. Grace is the love that God shows to sinners who don't deserve God's love. How lovable does the world seem today? Saddam Hussein and his henchmen don't seem very lovable. They seem to be cruel and wicked, liars and cheaters. The Arab nations don't seem all that lovable either. They seem filled with hatred. Russia is still double-crossing us. France deceived us, and stabbed us in the back. The Germans certainly don't seem to be allies. The Chinese communists are godless persecutors. The North Koreans want to be our enemies. And what about Americans? In America we see immorality and crime, hatred, discrimination and reverse discrimination. Many churches have departed from the truth. Many Americans have departed from church.

And what about that person you see in the mirror? It is easy to look around and point to the sins of others. But if we are honest, we will admit that we are not worthy of God's love either. How well do you treat the people around you? Are you always perfectly loving to your family members? We don't like to see the results of war, but is there war in our own homes? Do we fight and quarrel with one another? Children, do you always obey your parents? Parents, are you always good examples for the kids, really? Do we always put God first in everything in our homes, or do we put ourselves first? Do we spend far too much money on things that don't matter, and far too little on the work of the LORD? Do we spend too much time on lesser things and too little on greater things? How lovable are we, in God's sight, by our thoughts, words, and actions?

As we look at ourselves, and look around us, and look around the world, we see this enormous cesspool of sin! We do not deserve God's love! We deserve to have God cast us off in disgust. But God didn't do that. Instead, he gave us his grace and love. Jesus said, "God so loved the world." Wow, that's grace! The world certainly didn't love him! The world certainly didn't obey him! The world certainly didn't deserve it. So why did God love the world? The answer is that God is gracious and loving in spite of our sinfulness. He made the first move. He loved us all even though we were unlovable. He loved us enough to save us "by grace."

God would not sit idly by as all people perished in sin. So, God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son to be our Savior. By grace, Jesus Christ, God's Son, lived a perfect life for us, as our Substitute. Then, by grace, Jesus carried all of our sins to the cross. Though the people mocked Jesus and made fun of him, by grace Jesus continued to win our forgiveness. By grace, Jesus suffered, bled, and died for our sins. By grace, he permitted himself to be crucified to save us all. He rose from death because he had won our forgiveness. Jesus said in John 3:16, "that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." And that is the same as what we read here in Ephesians, "By grace you have been saved...." You have been saved. You didn't do it. You were only passive. Jesus won your salvation. Salvation is complete, finished and done. And this is received...

2. "THROUGH FAITH"

The only people who are going to be in heaven are those who believe in Jesus. Salvation is received through faith and rejected through unbelief. God divides all people into two groups. There are believers and there are unbelievers. Those who believe in Jesus Christ are going to heaven. Everybody else is going to perish.

But, what does it mean to believe? What is faith? Faith is relying on someone or something. It is trust. You are all showing faith in something right now, and you might not even be thinking about it. You are trusting what you are sitting on to hold you up. If you did not believe that the church pew could hold you up, you would be sitting much differently, or standing right now. But you trust that the church bench will hold you up and so you just rest yourself on it, and don't think much about it. That is kind of how we believe in Jesus. We rely on him. We trust in his salvation. We don't try to do it ourselves, standing on our own two feet. We simply trust him as our Savior.

It is important that we trust and rely on Jesus and his forgiveness, and not someone or something else. Faith in Jesus is the only way to heaven. Suppose that God were to ask you, "Why should I let you into heaven?" What would you say? If you talk about yourself and your own works, that reveals faith in yourself. That is not the way. If somebody trusts the virgin Mary or the saints, that isn't right either. But, if you talk about how Jesus saved you, that is faith in Jesus Christ. Faith is like the hand that holds the ticket that gets us into heaven. Faith in Jesus is the way to heaven. Now, sometimes our faith is weaker and sometimes it is stronger, but our faith must always be in Jesus and the forgiveness that he won. Jesus clearly said that "whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Believers, you can rest assured that you will be in heaven. We can be certain about our salvation, because it says here: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is...

3. "THE GIFT OF GOD, NOT BY WORKS"

This whole matter of salvation by grace through faith is "the gift of God." God gives us salvation as a free gift. God gives us forgiveness of all of our sins as a free gift. God gives us faith as a free gift too. All of it is God's gift. None of it is our doing. And so, God deserves all the credit for our salvation. These words divide us from many Christians.

Unfortunately, the pope has taught for years that Jesus did not do enough on the cross to pay for all of your sins. His church says that you are saved by faith plus works, that you have to add your own works to earn it. But that's not true. Our works play no role in our justification. It says that salvation is "not by works." We do not do good works to get to heaven, we do good works to thank our Savior who gives us heaven as a free gift.

Other false teachers say that faith is a decision that you make. Those who follow this false teaching go around boasting about making a decision for Christ, as though they deserve the credit. But Scripture says here and elsewhere that faith is the gift of God. The fact that you have faith is "not from yourselves, it is the gift of God, so that no one can boast." God does not want people boasting that they chose him first. He chose us. He saved us. He gave us faith as a gift. How dare we take the credit? We didn't do it, he did! Give God the glory!

God saved us. God gave us faith. God did it all and gave it to us as a free gift. We didn't deserve any of this. We didn't do any of this. We were purely passive. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast."

Does this leave you unmoved? Does this not challenge you to a new kind of life, a life with a purpose? Soldiers are willing to die for their country. Are you willing to live for your Savior? Our Savior went to the cross and died for us. He took all of our sins away. And we did nothing. He worked faith in our hearts and promised us heaven. And we did nothing. But now, we have the opportunity to worship and serve him. Take another look at your life and why you do what you do. Let us worship him in this service, and then let us dedicate our lives to thank and praise, serve and obey our Savior! We have every reason to do this. After all, we have been saved! Amen.