by Thomas Manton
in ePub, .mobi & .pdf formats
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.—EPH. 2:10.
THE apostle in the context asserteth that our whole salvation is of grace, not of works; he now proveth it. That which is the effect of salvation cannot be the cause of it. But our well-doing is the effect of salvation, if you take it for our first recovery to God; but if you take it for full salvation, or our final deliverance from all evil, works go before it indeed, but in a way of order, not meritorious influence. To think them altogether unnecessary, would too much depreciate and lessen their presence or concurrence; to think they deserve it would as much exalt them, and advance them beyond the line of their due worth and value. The apostle steereth a middle course between both extremes. They are necessary, not meritorious. They go before eternal life, not as a cause but a way; for they are wrought in us by God, and are effects of the begun salvation; so that the good that we do is a part of the grace that we have received, a fruit of regeneration: 'For we are his workmanship,' &c.
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Table of Contents
Sermon I: Created in Christ Jesus Unto Good Works
Sermon II: Created in Christ Jesus Unto Good Works