My Take on Ephesians 2:8-9

I’ll start off with a little disclaimer:

I’m not a theologian.
Never have been.
Probably never will be.

Then again, the fact that I don’t zap people with a magic wand or fight dragons doesn’t disqualify me from reading a Harry Potter book or having an opinion about it. So, with that said, I want to take a look at a Bible passage that has literally caused several hundreds of years’ worth of arguments between Catholics and Protestants:

Ephesians 2:8-9

If you have a King James Bible handy, grab it. If you’re like most people, you’ll probably wind up coughing and/or sneezing from the dust you kick up by moving your Bible from wherever it’s been, but no matter. Here’s how my Bible reads:

“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Some Protestants have taken these words and used them to explain that just doing good things won’t get you into Heaven, but that faith in Jesus is, by itself, sufficient. Some Catholics will go on to read the next verse (10), which says,

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

To the average Catholic, this translates to needing to do charity work or perhaps volunteering some time to work for the church. In short, we need to do good deeds because faith in Jesus isn’t sufficient. I believe both sides are a little off the mark. I’ll explain with a visual image that seems to make sense (…at least to me).

Let's say you have a small table and, in the center of that table, sits an empty glass. You’re thirsty and you have a pitcher of water. Pouring water on the surface of the table won't fill the glass, right? All you'll do is make a mess and waste water. Furthermore, you won't be able to quench your thirst by drinking from that glass because, duh, it'll still be empty. At best, you could grab some paper towels, wipe down the table and maybe clear off some dust. That’s the most you could hope to accomplish with a wet table and an empty glass.

However, by filling the glass with an abundance of water, you'll not only have a full glass to drink, but if your glass can't contain all of the water that it's receiving, it will overflow, spilling water on the table. Both examples will get the table wet, but if your primary goal is to quench your thirst, then pouring water on the table is relatively pointless. On the other hand, a glass that is overflowing with water will, by cause and effect, make the table wet.

So, how does God tell the difference between true Christians and people who just say they’re Christians?

Well, only God can answer that question for sure, but if it were up to me to spot the true, blue Christian, I’d look for the dude with the wet table AND the full glass.

Why?

Because God made that table wet… and in my opinion, this is how people will know if you have the love of God in your heart. If the symbolism’s throwing anybody off, think of the water as representing God’s love and the glass as representing the human heart. The spilled water on the table represents your good deeds which, like the water on the table, you can do regardless of whether or not Jesus resides in your heart.

What finite human heart can contain the infinite love of the LORD? None can, so if God has filled your heart with His love, He’s not just gonna give you enough to satisfy your own needs. He’s gonna give you enough love to spread the wealth and actually make you WANT to love and help others. By filling a man’s heart with God’s love, the good deeds that are now within his heart to want to do are actually a very positive after-effect. If you truly have Jesus in your heart and soul, you’re just moved from within to do good for others and it's not something you have to fake.

Doing good deeds because you think they’ll help earn your way into Heaven is like dumping water on your table and leaving your glass empty. If your heart lacks the love of the Lord, then the good deeds you do are relatively worthless in the spiritual sense. God will see your empty glass and know that the water on the table didn’t come from Him.

I’m not saying that this is the correct interpretation of Ephesians 2:8-9, but it’s the one that makes the most sense to me. Much like the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians, the Ephesians passage reminds me of just how pointless it is to have faith without good works or conversely, to do good works with no faith. The full and complete Christian will have both and I doubt either Catholicism or Protestantism would argue with me on that.