Ephesians
2
In last week’s lesson on Ephesians
1, we found out that God pre-ordained and chose us before He created the world
to be in a relationship with Him. He loves us so much that He created us for a
relationship with Him. He loves us so much that He provided a way for us to
return to Him even though we are sinners and He cannot be in the presence of
sin. The way He made for that to happen was to give the perfect redeeming
sacrifice that removes the sins of our past and of people since the beginning
of time. The sacrifice of animals as prescribed in the Old Testament was not enough
to remove sin completely from a person, from their consciousness as well as
their hands. Jesus sacrifice of His life for our sins wiped away the taint of our
sin from our hands and removed our guilt and consciousness from sins (Hebrews 10:2).
So in chapter one we find God loves and cherishes us so much that He gave His
Son, Jesus Christ, die as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. This shows how
God lavishes His love on us.
In chapter 2, Paul began by
directing attention to the Ephesians Christians. Remember, they are Greek
(Gentile) Christians. Also, remember that Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesian
Christians and to every faithful follower (Eph. 1:1). At the beginning of
chapter two Paul spoke to the Ephesian Christians when he said, “And you were
dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the
course of this world, according to the principles of the power of the air, of
the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” Paul addressed
these Ephesian Christians and reminded them who they were; they were dead eternally
and spiritually because of their trespasses (lapses from truth and
righteousness) and their sins. They were not any different from any of us
“faithful followers” now. We each lapse and have lapsed from truth and
uprightness (godliness). We each miss the mark and wander from God. These
trespasses, Paul said, come from walking in this world where the dark forces of
wickedness wander. These dark forces of wickedness, on which Paul expounds in
Ephesians 6:12, are from the “prince of the power of the air.” They are of the
“spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience" (2:2), the people
who are obstinate to God’s will. Remember, God gave humankind a gift when He
created us. He gave us our own will to choose to follow Him or our own desires.
That is where sin entered and continues to mislead us from the perfect path.
When Paul arrived at verse three, he
included all Christians in his teaching here. He said among sinners, “we, too,
all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the
flesh and of the mind and were the nature of the children of wrath, even as the
rest.” That is a powerful statement. It reminds me of what Paul wrote in Romans
3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” The lusts of
which Paul spoke are strong internal sexual desires or desires for something. When
we allow these lusts to control us instead of God, we are sinning. The
indulging of which Paul spoke is external actions of filling the desires. Sinning
is both internal, lusting (such as coveting), and external, acting upon those
lusts. Jesus said in Mark 7:15, "There is nothing outside the man which
can defile him if it goes into him; but the things which proceed out of the man
are what defile the man.” This is what makes a people “children of wrath.” When
a person chooses to turn away from God’s right ways, he or she is a sinner even
as the rest of humankind. No one is immune from temptation and sin.
The good news, and the point of this
whole chapter, is what God did and is doing. The world and life are not about us,
but about God, Creator and Redeemer. Verses four through seven say,
But
God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with
Christ, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing
riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. [NASB]
That
is a mighty mouthful. It speaks about God. It begins with “But God,” which
draws our attention back to the main thing, God. What did God do that is so
important? He did not just make us alive, raise us up with Him, and seat us in
the heavenly places with Christ Jesus. He lavished his mercy on us because He
loves us. The Greek word used for mercy means the kindness and clemency of God
choosing not to give us what we deserve, punishment. Paul spoke of this in
Ephesians 1:7. His mercy came from His great love. This sounds somewhat blasé
so let us go deeper. God’s grace and mercy come from His insurmountable and
unlimited kindness and love. This love, as Paul said in chapter one, is
“lavished” upon us. Lavished means to be over and above measuring, to be abundantly
overflowing. His love, Paul stated in Ephesians 3:18-19, is higher, wider, and
deeper than we can ever comprehend and surpasses knowledge. Even when we were
dead in our transgressions, our misdeeds/deviation from truth and uprightness, He
loved us. What did He do for us because of His love? The practicalities are
that God made us alive in Christ. He raised us up with Christ from mortal death
to new life dedicated to God. He gave us hope of being raised up from death.
God seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He placed us
together with Him. God did this so that “He might show the surpassing riches of
His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (vs. 7). He did this to show
the transcending exceedingly great beyond imagining riches of His merciful
loving-kindness and favor. Because of God’s immeasurable, merciful
loving-kindness, He made us alive, raised us up with Christ, and seated us with
Him in the heavenly places in Christ.
Paul stated it succinctly in verses
eight and nine when he said, “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, so
that no one may boast.” God’s action of providing salvation from death, eternal
separation from God, Paul again stated, comes from His grace. We can do nothing
to save ourselves or earn God’s grace. God’s grace comes because of His exceeding
and abundant love and mercy. Because we can do nothing to gain our salvation
from death, we cannot boast of having achieved it. Even faith is a gift from
God. Remember when Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 12, he listed
spiritual gifts that God gives. One of these gifts given by God is faith. God
gives us faith to believe. What is faith then if not something we have, but is
important for salvation? The writer of Hebrews said in 11:1, “Faith is the
assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen.” We must
choose to exercise the faith that God gives when we ask for it as we seek Him. We
must believe and then we will receive salvation from God, a salvation that is
not from ourselves. Salvation is a gift of God, nothing we can ever do.
Salvation comes from God. Faith comes from God.
God’s goodness, grace, and mercy, come from His
surpassing and abundant love. This love is why God created us to be in
relationship with Him, why He predestined us to be His children from the
foundations of the world, and why He prepared a way for us to return to Him
through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. We are God’s
workmanship. He created us. God recreates us, transforms us back to His image,
in Christ Jesus for excellent and upright works, which God prepared beforehand
(vs. 10). God created us to be in a love relationship with Him. He gave us the
gift of free will, knowing our inclination to choose to follow our lusts and
act upon them. Because of this and His great surpassing love, God prepared
beforehand a way for us to return to relationship with Him through the death
and resurrection of His Son. He wants us to walk with Him and to work with Him.
He created us and prepared a way for us to be transformed back into the image
in which He created us.
Paul said in verse eleven, “Therefore,
remember,” and repeats it in verse twelve for emphasis. Remember that you, the
Gentiles, the Ephesian Christians, who did not follow the Laws of the
commandments and the rules and doctrines that came from them, remember that you
did not circumcise your boys. You were “separate from Christ, excluded from the
commonwealth and strangers to the covenants of promise having no hope and
without God in the world” (vs. 12). The Greek word for our English word “excluded”
means alienated and estranged. The Ephesians were aliens and estranged from the
citizenship of Israel in Yahweh with the rights that engenders. They had no
claim to God because they were outside the covenant of promise; they were not
Israelites. The Ephesians were strangers outside of Israel without the
knowledge or any share in the covenants of promise. They had no hope and were
without joy, having no confident expectation of eternal salvation because they
did not have God in their lives.
Paul, then, stated, “But now” (vs. 13).
Something great was about to be spoken to the Ephesians, something to give them
hope. Paul said, “But now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been
brought near by the blood of Christ.” These Ephesians, because they believed in
Jesus Christ as the Son of God who came to take away the sins of the world, now
had an inheritance with the Israelites.
How does this happen? Paul said,
For
He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the
barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is
the Law of the commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He
might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might
reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to
death the enmity. (vs. 14-16, [NASB])
Wow, a mouth and mind full. Let us look at
this closer. The peace that verse fourteen speaks of is tranquility, surety, and
safety through salvation. This peace is the state of a tranquil soul that knows
of its salvation, no fear of eternal separation from God. Later, Paul spoke of
both groups. These groups were the Jewish Christians and the Gentile
Christians, the circumcised and uncircumcised. Before the Jewish Christians followed
the Law of the commandments given through Moses from God from which the Jewish leaders
made rules and regulations of life. So the Jews circumcised the foreskin of the
boys in obedience to God to show they were in relationship with God. A covenant
relationship, what the Israelites had with God, means a relationship that to
which both parties contract themselves and requires both parties to fulfill their
side. For the Jews, they had to follow the Ten Commandments and the rules that
came from them to be in relationship with God. Because of the Gentiles did not
have a covenant relationship with God, shown in their flesh by uncircumcision, they
were outside the promises of God that the Israelites enjoyed. Christ came to fulfill
the covenant between the Israelites and God. Since the Israelites could not
fulfill their side of the covenant because of their sinfulness, the covenant
never could be fulfilled and they would be separated from God forever. God
provided the way for the covenant's fulfillment by providing the perfect
sacrifice in the death of His Holy Son, Jesus Christ. The cows and sheep
mandated to be the sacrifices for the sins of the Israelites never were
effective to remove the sin of the people. The sacrifices cleansed them for
that point in time, but they continued to be sinners carrying the guilt and
consciousness of sin. Jesus’ sacrifice of Himself as the ultimate and perfect
sacrifice removed our sins from the past and forever, from our hands and our
consciousness. His sacrifice was perfect and fulfilled the covenant. Only God
could completely fulfill the covenant and in His love, He did that through the
death of His Son. Because Jesus is the fulfillment of the covenant God made
with the Israelites, no wall or barrier separates Israelite from Gentile. Any
person who believes in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior for our sins
becomes a recipient of the new covenant, the Messianic covenant. This is how
Christ “broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in His flesh
the enmity” (vs. 14-15). The enmity was the separation of Jew and Gentile
because of the Mosaic covenant before the Messianic covenant.
Paul returned to what God did when He
provided salvation and why. He became more specific each time he spoke of this.
He said God did this so “He might make (create) the two (Jewish and Gentile
believers) into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them
both in one body to God through the cross, by having put to death the enmity”
(vs. 15-16). God’s new covenant through Jesus Christ made one people out of all
His believers. This is the “one new man” Paul mentioned in verse fifteen. By
doing this, Jesus established peace. He brought tranquility through salvation.
Instead of there being dissension between Jewish and Gentile believers, they
had Christ’s covenant in common and became unified through Him. He reconciled them
back to a former state of harmony, before the fall of humankind through the
cross. God wanted to reconcile humankind and bring them back into harmony with
one another. He put enmity to death with the new covenant brought into being
through Christ’s death and resurrection. Paul quoted Isaiah 57:19 to highlight
that this was God’s intention from the beginning. He quoted, “And He came and
preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near.”
Isaiah prophesied of this tranquil state of humankind when he spoke this to the
Israelites. Paul recalled it for them.
Paul continued by stating how God made Jew
and Gentile unified and established peace in verse eighteen. He said, “For
through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.” We have a
relationship to God where we are acceptable to Him because our sin does not
keep us away (Eph. 3:12). We have assurance He is favorably disposed toward us
because Jesus’ perfect sacrifice took our sins completely away. When we
accepted Him as our Savior, He put His Spirit in us. His Spirit in us
intercedes for us to the Father.
To wrap this up, to restate who we were and who
we now are, Paul wrote,
So
then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with
the saints and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus being the corner stone, in whom the
whole building is being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the
Lord, in whom you also are being built together through the Spirit. (vs. 19-22,
[NASB])
The
Gentiles of Ephesus and non-Jewish believers are no longer strangers and
aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints. We have knowledge of God and share
in the covenant with the Jewish Christians. Before, we Gentiles did not have
citizenship in God’s kingdom, but now we are included in the promise and
covenant through Christ in eternal salvation. We are fellow citizens with those
who have gone before us, the saints, the holy ones dedicated to God for His
purpose who had a relationship with Him. We now belong to and are devoted to
God’s household. As a part of God’s household, citizens of His kingdom, God built
us on the foundation of believers who went before us, the apostles and prophets
(Eph.3:5), even on Christ Jesus, the chief corner stone of the building. This
building is the act of God, not of our doing. God continues building even now
because the temple is still being fitted together. His holy temple is growing. The
temple, the building made of faithful followers into one body, is active and continues
to grow in the Lord. Christians are being built together into a dwelling of God
through the Spirit. We do not accept God’s grace and mercy in the form of Jesus
perfect sacrifice and leave it at that. Christians are to grow and keep on
growing in our relationship with God and in our likeness to Christ. That will
stabilize the building of God’s temple, the Church.
Salvation is a onetime occurrence. It
happened once for all humankind when Jesus died on the cross in our place.
Sanctification is a continuing occurrence throughout the rest of our lives as we
walk with God becoming more Christlike. We must continue to be active in
becoming like Christ so that the holy temple is growing. To consider that I am
counted as worthy to be added on top of the saints who went before me is unimaginable;
I am not worthy. I do not want to let God down, fail to grow in Christ, and not
become more like Him. I do not want to fail to continue to build or grow the
temple together with other Christians through Jesus Christ.
God chose us and predestined us to be in a
love relationship with Him before He created the world. He chose to give us
free will because of His love. Knowing that we would choose to walk away from
Him, to sin, God provided a way, from before He made the world, to bring us
back into relationship with Him, to transform and recreate us in His image. The
way God did this was through the offering of His Son, Jesus Christ, the pure
and sinless One, as the substitute for our death, due because of our sin. God
planned this before He created the world. He loved us so much that He accepted
the great pain of having His Son crucified as the sacrifice for our sins. We
did nothing to offer the perfect sacrifice. God prepared it beforehand. We did
nothing to earn the sacrifice of the pure life of Jesus Christ. For we all have
sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God loves us with His great,
unlimited, immeasurable love.
His love is His own doing. God’s creating and
re-creating us is His own doing. The perfect sacrifice is God’s own doing.
Christ’s resurrection from the dead to give us eternal life with Him is God’s
own doing. We are sinners. If we are “faithful followers,” we still sin, but
are forgiven and assured of our salvation. We are powerless, but God adopted us
as His children. We rest assured knowing God made us alive, raised us up, and
seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. He did this to show
the surpassing riches of His grace, His undeserved love for us.
As Paul told the Ephesian Christians, before they
were spiritually and eternally dead living according to the lusts of their
flesh and indulging their flesh and minds. When they believed in and accepted
Jesus Christ as their Savior, God made them alive, raised them up with Christ,
and seated them with Him in the heavenly places. They were no longer strangers,
but fellow citizens in God’s household. God gives this to each follower of
Christ. He adopts them as His children and gives them an inheritance in His
kingdom.
This
leaves us with a few questions.
- Are you a “faithful follower” of Jesus Christ?
- If you are, are you growing in Christlikeness and being built upon the foundation of His temple?
- What do you need to do to continue in your relationship with God?
- If you are not a follower of Jesus Christ, have you asked God to show Himself to you and give you faith to believe so that you will be adopted as His child?
We each must come to this point in life.
We each must decide if we will accept God’s gift of
unlimited and immeasurable love and salvation.
Will you ask God to show Himself to you today?
