Ephesians 2:10 - What Does It Mean to You

Oct 21, 2009
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Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
Ephesians 2:9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. [NASB]


As a Fundamentalist and a Calvinist, I quote Ephesians 2:8-9 quite often. But Ephesians 2:10 is every bit as powerful. Even our future good works are prepared for us ahead of time. Thoughts or comments?
 
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Without faith, good works are useless. :)
It all starts with God. By His grace (unmerited favor), He gave you the faith through Christ from whom salvation comes. It is a gift of God that we have done no works to deserve. He created us for good works, but God prepared these for us before creation so that we could walk in them. These three verses should be taken together and are a powerful message to those who think their good works will save them. As you say, good works without faith are useless.

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
Ephesians 2:9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. [NASB]
 
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Hi faithman,

I know for me the key to the verse is understanding what 'that' refers to.

God bless you.
In Christ, Ted

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
Ephesians 2:9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. [NASB]


"That" refers to the previous prepositional phrase. Grace and faith are not from your innermost being. "That" is not from you. "That" is from God, and it is a gift.

I am a mechanical design engineer. When I work on one of my own designs, or even someone elses, I will immerse myself so I know the design inside and out. That's why as a mechanical engineer, I can troubleshoot electronic devices, faulty programming, hardware defects, chemical reactions, vibration effects, etc. I can do that by God's grace on my life, I take no credit. He made me and I'm His to do with as He will.

God is our creator. He knows the number of hairs on your head. (He doesn't need to count so high for me.) He knows our innermost thoughts, and He knows how He created us and how we will react. He prepared good works for us to do in this our lifetime. He knows whom of us will perform these good deeds, and who will not. When we perform any good deeds, God deserves all honor and glory. We too often forget that.

God Bless You,
Faith.Man (aka Bob)
 
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cubanito

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An Augustinian emphasis, which this passage has, would be to respons that it is more important what the passage means than what it means to me, or you, so as to remind ourselves that Truth is an objective reality which is not a matter of opinion. Such a response would be interpreted by many as petulant. Therefore I will not respond in such manner so as not to offend by implication.

From God's point of view, EVERYTHING is predetermined, pre and post conversion, and not one particle in the universe moves without His Will it do so. From our point of view, thereis free will, and the future can be molded by our actions, thoughts and feelings which we can, in part, control. Both statements are True. Logically both statements can not be true. It is classical logic that is flawed. The universe, when not being directly altered by God in what is called a miracle, does not obey the rules of logic. As far as we can tell, it does obey the laws of mathematics, which is a distinct system of thought than logic.

Once you get a grasp of the mathematics of Einstein relativity or quantum mechanics, you will understand why God's Sovereignty and man's free will are both true. His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. Not even after a million years in sinless communion with God will we be able to perceive time and space as He does. I am no Eastern Orthodox aspiring to theodicy, which is syncretic heresy with eastern philosophies. God has chosen to communicate Truth to us in the frail imprecise vessel of human natural language. As pascal wrote into the lining of his coat, He is the God of Abraham Jacob and Isaac, not of the philosophers (I paraphrase).

Pascal is a great philosopher and mathematician, even more so now that he is dead to his body and in sinless life with Jesus Christ. He understood the limits of our human understanding, and I honor his memory when I state that past a certain point, understanding God can only be done on our knees. I will not follow Erasmus and the humanists into the folly of creating a box of systematic theology in which to confine my understanding of God. Neither will I follow the excess mysticisim of Dyonysius the Pseudo-Aeropagite who gace license to the Eastern Orthodox to create an apophatic theology which ended with theodicy. I will confess that God is Truth, even if every man, including myself, be proved a liar.

So yeah, I perform the Good Works, and yeah, it is not I but God who performs them through me as He predestined to do so. And if that does not quite fit into my tiny cranium, so be it. Where I to fully understand God, would he really be God?

JR, the CalvArminian Fundamentalist
 
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Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Gosh, after reading all these posts I find myself not too deep theologically.
"For we are His workmanship" to me means we are the work of His hands...not our own. "Created in Christ Jesus for good works.....that we would walk in them." Not only are we the work of His hands, but He made us with a purpose...to glorify Him through His word...His work...His word. The saved are sanctified....set apart for a special purpose...holy vessels to be used in service to Him.
 
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Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

Gosh, after reading all these posts I find myself not too deep theologically.
"For we are His workmanship" to me means we are the work of His hands...not our own. "Created in Christ Jesus for good works.....that we would walk in them." Not only are we the work of His hands, but He made us with a purpose...to glorify Him through His word...His work...His word. The saved are sanctified....set apart for a special purpose...holy vessels to be used in service to Him.
What seems clearcut to you and me might mean something entirely different to others. But the scriptures seem quite clear to me.
 
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cubanito

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Faith man at the risk again of insulting, be careful when you think that the Scriptures are "quite clear" to you. I afirm Scriptural perspicacity and perspicuity, BUT I also know I am but a child playing at a tiny sheltered part of the seashore. The Sctritures are a vast ocean, and while we can comprehend all we NEED to, and even much more than we need, at the seashore, plumbing their depths are beyond the capacity of the brightest angel, Holy or unholy. Satan found out how out of his league he was when he thought to "win" by killing the Christ. Satan could not plumb the depths how the "seed of the woman" would crush his head; and Satan is way craftier than any of us.

We may indeed state Truth, some easily gleaned from the Scriptures as the poor gleaned among the sheaves dropped of ancient Israel. The full harvest of Scriptural Truth we must be careful not to claim.

JR, still way too arrogant and full of dross despite 30 years of being furnaced, beaten, fired again, beaten and pounded again and again.
 
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Faith man at the risk again of insulting, be careful when you think that the Scriptures are "quite clear" to you. I afirm Scriptural perspicacity and perspicuity, BUT I also know I am but a child playing at a tiny sheltered part of the seashore. The Sctritures are a vast ocean, and while we can comprehend all we NEED to, and even much more than we need, at the seashore, plumbing their depths are beyond the capacity of the brightest angel, Holy or unholy. Satan found out how out of his league he was when he thought to "win" by killing the Christ. Satan could not plumb the depths how the "seed of the woman" would crush his head; and Satan is way craftier than any of us.

We may indeed state Truth, some easily gleaned from the Scriptures as the poor gleaned among the sheaves dropped of ancient Israel. The full harvest of Scriptural Truth we must be careful not to claim.

JR, still way too arrogant and full of dross despite 30 years of being furnaced, beaten, fired again, beaten and pounded again and again.
I take no offense. I was speaking in specific terms regarding Ephesians 2:10, not forgetting the verses before it or after it. My Bible understanding is no more than an infant compared to some of my more learned posters in the Fundamentalist and Reformed sub-Forums.

I take the Bible literally, as I believe it was and is meant to be taken. How could an Arminian interpret Ephesians 2:10 to support his/her point of view?
 
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Yahu

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Ephesians 2:8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
Ephesians 2:9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. [NASB]


As a Fundamentalist and a Calvinist, I quote Ephesians 2:8-9 quite often. But Ephesians 2:10 is every bit as powerful. Even our future good works are prepared for us ahead of time. Thoughts or comments?
As a Calvinist you must be assuming that the faith that brought salvation was from Yah as opposed to our free will. It is WORKS of ourselves that don't bring salvation.

IF we are 'in Christ Jesus' we will walk in those good works. That implies to me that we have to willing yield to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Being led by the Spirit is optional and based on our willing submission to the Holy Spirit so we progress through the sanctification process and become more Christ-like in our behavior which manifests as good works.

Now Calvinism just assumes that the 'elect' are always doing the will of the Holy Spirit which is of course nonsense. I have seen great evil done as a result of Calvinistic doctrine. I have even brought down an entire Presbyterian congregation by a single teaching encounter with the pastor's daughter. She repented of her actions and led her parents out of false doctrine she had been raised in. They repented before the congregation and brought revival with manifestations of the spiritual gifts. They were then tossed from the denomination as a group for rejecting core false doctrines of the denomination.

The prophetic word in my sig is what brought about her repentance.
 
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Yahu

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"That" refers to the previous prepositional phrase. Grace and faith are not from your innermost being. "That" is not from you. "That" is from God, and it is a gift.
There you go assuming that the 'grace AND faith' are from Yah! The grace and salvation are from Him. The salvation is a gift for your faith. You are assuming what 'THAT' is referring towards. Faith isn't the gift, salvation is the gift IF you have faith.

Did Yeshua give faith to the Sidonian woman? No she had faith greater then any He had seen in Israel. It was that faith that brought about the consequences of the healing for her daughter. She wasn't given the faith but CHOSE to believe and have faith. Faith is the prerequisite to receiving.
 
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As a Calvinist you must be assuming that the faith that brought salvation was from Yah as opposed to our free will. It is WORKS of ourselves that don't bring salvation.
Your last sentence assumes free will. The works God prepared for us beforehand were to build us up as Christians. [Ephesians 2:10]

IF we are 'in Christ Jesus' we will walk in those good works. That implies to me that we have to willing yield to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Being led by the Spirit is optional and based on our willing submission to the Holy Spirit so we progress through the sanctification process and become more Christ-like in our behavior which manifests as good works.
You've made logical assumption that I do not agree with (willingly yield). Your argument falls apart there.

Now Calvinism just assumes that the 'elect' are always doing the will of the Holy Spirit which is of course nonsense. I have seen great evil done as a result of Calvinistic doctrine. I have even brought down an entire Presbyterian congregation by a single teaching encounter with the pastor's daughter. She repented of her actions and led her parents out of false doctrine she had been raised in. They repented before the congregation and brought revival with manifestations of the spiritual gifts. They were then tossed from the denomination as a group for rejecting core false doctrines of the denomination.
I'm not part of any denomination. My beliefs are taken solely from the Bible - sola scriptura. Your observations are anecdotal.

The prophetic word in my sig is what brought about her repentance.
Prophetic words of knowledge, charismatic spiritual gifts, etc., are beyond the scope I wanted this thread to take. Regarding the prophetic word in your signature (I didn't read it), I believe in sola scriptura. If your "prophetic word" does not line up with the word of God as written, I'' believe God.
 
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There you go assuming that the 'grace AND faith' are from Yah! The grace and salvation are from Him. The salvation is a gift for your faith. You are assuming what 'THAT' is referring towards. Faith isn't the gift, salvation is the gift IF you have faith.

Did Yeshua give faith to the Sidonian woman? No she had faith greater then any He had seen in Israel. It was that faith that brought about the consequences of the healing for her daughter. She wasn't given the faith but CHOSE to believe and have faith. Faith is the prerequisite to receiving.
You and I are not going to agree, ever. Can you deal with that and we part amicably?
 
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