Everything We Need
FEBRUARY 19, 2024
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
Recommended Reading: Ephesians 2:4-10
Gnosticism was a dangerous heresy in the first two centuries of the Church. Besides denying the divinity of Christ, Gnostics believed that salvation was achieved through elevated spiritual knowledge rather than through faith in Christ (Greek gnosis means “knowledge”). The letters of Colossians and 1 John were written, in part, to counteract the claims of Gnosticism.
Second Peter likely contained veiled attacks on Gnostic teaching. For example, instead of special spiritual insight available only to a few, God has given every Christian, through the “knowledge of Him,” “all things that pertain to life and godliness.” Through God’s “exceedingly great and precious promises,” we “may be partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:3-4). We are saved, not by mystical knowledge, but by grace “for good works” (Ephesians 2:8-10). God has given us everything we need to manifest Him in this world through the promises in His Word.
If you belong to Christ, you have been called to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the presence of those who have not met Him.
We must come to good works by faith, and not to faith by good works.
William Gurnall