We can permit someone to take our crown. We can be cut out of the Vine, out of Christ. We are secure in Christ as we keep walking in Him. But let not the believer who acts willfully think God is obligated to pour glory upon him because he has taken the four steps of salvation. Those who have taught him this deadly error will have to answer for it at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

You can lose your place in the army of the Lord. You can have your talent taken from you and given to another. You can have the door shut in your face. Let us not fasten on the "precious promises" and ignore the "wrathful warnings."

Now, in this context of Scripture and thought, we are ready for Ephesians 2:8,9.

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. (Ephesians 2:8,9—NASB)

The Lord Jesus Christ has presented to us a kingdom of life and glory, a kingdom with the power to drive all unrighteousness and impurity from us.

We have not placed our trust in the Law of Moses or any other religious or moral code to make us acceptable to God. We have placed our faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone to save us.

(How Paul must have feared at times to go against the teachings he had held sacred at one time! What faith it took to boldly declare that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision meant anything, only the new creation in Christ. After all, circumcision went back to Abraham. Circumcision was the sign of membership in God's Church, God's called-out people. What courage it took to obey the invisible God and turn from the deepest beliefs of his soul!)

Yes, we have been lifted from the world and Satan by grace and not by striving to obey the tenets of any religion, including the Law of Moses. Christ's atoning blood has forgiven our sins and the power of His resurrection has lifted us from the life of sin and death.

God has called us by His grace. We did not choose Christ, Christ chose us and ordained us that we should bear the fruit of righteousness and holiness.

Can you see how different this is from the current "ticket" doctrine, that Christ is our ticket to Heaven no matter how we behave? What a departure from the context this is!

The next verse puts it together. No preacher or teacher should ever quote Ephesians 2:8,9 without including verse ten. If he does he gives a false impression of the nature of salvation.

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10—NASB)

We are God's workmanship, the product of His hands. We are becoming a new creation in Christ.

God prepared the "good works" from the foundation of the world. Then He called us to walk in the good works He has prepared.

He who overcomes will inherit all the treasures God has created for us.

It reminds us of the statement the Lord made concerning James and John, saying that to sit on His right hand and left would be given to them for whom such high stations have been prepared.

To be continued.