Ephesians 2:8
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
For ye are saved by grace (Eph. 2:8-10). This is Truth for all times. All men who have ever been saved have been saved by grace and by grace alone. It has never been by works. Nor has it ever been by grace plus works at any time. No man has ever deserved salvation. The natural man can do no work that could be pleasing to God. The flesh, the natural man, is not subject to the law of God, neither can be.
Salvation has never been forced on any man of any age or dispensation. Peter recognized the universal Truth of this when he said, Whosoever believeth in Him (Acts 10:43), and that also agrees with John 3:16, which uses the same wording. So, salvation comes by faith or belief. That faith may be only like a mustard seed in size at the beginning, but God can make it grow. Man can choose life or death. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. This is the principle given. Faith is not a work but simply the acceptance of a work that has been done and finished on Calvary.
And this salvation is not of works, or out of works, lest any man should boast. Why? So that no man can cheat our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, of the Glory of His finished work. He is to have the preeminence. He is to have The Glory.
For we are created in Christ Jesus. When we believe, then there is a new creation. A new man or new nature is put in us. And all for a purpose; that it might be unto good works. Here is where the works come in. It is after the creation of the new man. And this is logical, for we have seen that the old nature cannot do good works. But here is something that can. It would be very unusual for a man to work before he was hired.
There is a further purpose in this new creation. It is to walk. The new creature has a walk as well as the old one. The old man once walked in trespasses and sins according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. In other words, the flesh is subject to the powers of the world, the flesh, and the devil (Eph. 2:1-3).
We are to walk in these good works for which we were created. An extended discourse about the walk is to be found in Ephesians Chapters 5 and 6. There is the 3-fold walk: walk in love, walk as children of light, and walk circumspectly. The walk in love applies especially to husbands and wives. The walk as children of light applies to parents and children. And walk circumspectly applies to masters and servants. Here is the practical Christian life.
It would be too bad to have a new creature and find that it could not walk but was doomed to be a cripple forever. But there are many spiritual cripples. Some are paralytics. Some are blind. Some have palsy. They never learn the walk. God's purpose is not fulfilled. And both God and this miserable creature are finally disappointed.
If you are saved by grace through faith and become a new creature, then walk worthy of the calling.
