May 28, 2017: It is All a Gift – Landon Lynch

The conversation surrounding works and grace is a long-standing one. Many different biblical authors refer to a distinction between grace and works, and many church fathers/mothers interpret the text in an effort to sort out the spiritual weight of both. The Reformation still has this faith/works distinction as one of it’s more available explanations—even though this oversimplifies things. What’s fascinating is how quickly, even in the protestant circles who were supposed to be reforming the supposed “works-based Catholics,” we still make our way back to our focus being the work of the receiver (faith) instead of the giver (grace). 

 

For the Ephesians, Artemis needed to be appeased through works or else plague and famine would result. These works were everything from regular temple rituals, to offerings, to timely parades, to pre-marital sexual abstinence for women…just to name a few. Gifts from Artemis were really only gifts in the sense that she could choose to do evil to people, but she could be appeased and give good things instead. Gifts, or grace, from the gods in this sense was little more than a transaction, a cosmic math problem resulting in winners and losers, those who could boast for getting it right and those who could not. But for Paul, divine grace in its truest form is all about divine initiative. 

 

Interestingly, the distinction between grace and work has often turned into a Christian debate between faith and work, and many people use this very verse as ammunition in the debate about the value of faith of the believer vs the value of the work of the believer. But Paul’s assertion to the Ephesians transcends such debates and changes the focus of the conversation. Where we often want to focus on what we can control, Paul invites us to focus on that which is uncontrollable, unmanageable and untamable: God’s grace. It isn’t that works don’t matter (v. 10), it’s just that when it comes to getting grace and gifts from God our works are moot. God’s grace always beats our best works to the punch. We could never earn something he hasn’t freely given (Lk 15). And if we understand this we could possibly find ourselves in receipt of grace and having a very different conversation about what our works in this world might work towards.