Ephesians 2:1-10. God s Riches Turn Filth Into Masterpieces

Transcription

1 Ephesians 2:1-10 JD God s Riches Turn Filth Into Masterpieces Constable notes that this passage concludes Paul s revelation of the Christian s individual calling in Christ. Chapter two begins by showing how separated the audience had been from God. Wuest points out that this death or separation was due to our trespasses and sins, in that it was moral and ethical, not physical. Verses two and three are somewhat parenthetical. Hoehner calls this a delineation and Wuest an interruption. Hoehner breaks up this aside into three parts, saying that the unregenerate 1)follow the world s peer pressure, 2) follow Satan s leadership as they are in his clutches, and 3)they are entangled with the spirit of disobedience from the kingdom of the air. Wuest and Hoehner agree that this spirit is not Satan, but more like a way of thinking and acting. Hoehner and Constable go on to say that the lost are following their fleshly cravings and as such have a close relationship not with God but with His wrath. Wuest discusses how these verses paint a picture of the concept of total depravity and how this relates to original sin. Paul next moves on to contrast the lost condition with the condition of believers. Wuest describes the parallel situations of God being wealthy in a sphere of mercy and us being dead with respect to trespasses. Constable defines mercy as undeserved kindness. In discussing the periphrastic construction by grace ye are saved, Wuest analyzes the tenses and renders this fuller translation: by grace you have been saved in past time completely, with the result that you are in a state of salvation which persists through present time. Hoehner points out three things that God s love has done: 1) made us alive with Christ, 2) raised us up with Christ, and 3) seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ. Wuest discusses how these actions fit in with three aspects of salvation: justification, sanctification (positional and progressive), and glorification, all of which are based upon an initial act of faith. Regarding verse seven, Constable points out the ultimate doxological purpose. The acts of God in saving believers will demonstrate his grace and kindness. Wuest paints a picture of God lavishing blessings upon believers with the angels as an audience. Verses eight and nine are parenthetical and explain the incomparable riches mentioned in verse seven. Constable notes that faith is not an act or meritorious work (quoting Morris). All three commentators note the debate about what that (touto) refers to, but all three agree that due to the Greek grammar (touto is neuter) it could refer to grace or faith (which are feminine), but to the preceding concept, that of salvation. Since salvation is not of works, it is wholly by God. All three commentators do an excellent job of ascribing all credit for our salvation to God, leaving nothing for believers to boast about. Furthermore, Constable quotes Wiersbe who notes that since we are not saved by good works, we cannot be lost by bad works. In verse ten, Hoehner and Constable describe how the saved themselves are God s workmanship (poiema, not ergon). The commentators agree that we are not saved by works, but rather for the result that we will perform works which He has planned since eternity past. Constable points out that walking in good works is not inevitable, and explains the lordship issue well. Hoehner also clarifies that we are to walk in these works, not work in them, since they are God s. Wuest notes that we are to order our behavior in a sphere of these good works.

2 RW From Death to Life through Grace In Ephesians 2:1-10, Paul described the Ephesians condition when separated from God, what God did to change their separation into fellowship with Him, and finally their condition as a result of their fellowship with God. Prior to belief in Christ Jesus, the Ephesians were dead in trespasses and sins. They had wandered off of God s intended path, trespassed. They had missed the intended target of glorifying God, sin. They existed in a world that operated upon those principles. The world in which they had lived had a ruler, Satan, and he had been given authority over all aspects of their existence separated from God. As a result of their separation, they were destined for God s wrath. God s wrath was to be the necessary and natural result of this separation. If God were merely a holy God, then God s wrath would have been the end of the story. But God was also rich in mercy, rich in love and rich in grace. Because of God s mercy and great love, He changed the condition of the Ephesians from one of separation to one of fellowship by His grace (their salvation). God accomplished their salvation by making them spiritually alive together with Christ and then because of their new life with Christ, God placed them spiritually where Christ was in the heavenly places. God took them from death to life to demonstrate His grace for eternity. The Ephesians salvation was a gift from God and faith was the instrument that God used to make His saving grace effective. The Ephesians salvation took place when they were still dead in their transgressions, when they were still operating in the system separated from God and capable of nothing but trespasses and sins. There were no good works that the Ephesians could point to as a reason for God s saving grace. Salvation was a gift to the believer from God and as such all credit for this salvation went to God. As trespasses and sins characterized the Ephesians walk in separation from God, good works would characterize the Ephesians walk in fellowship with God. But these weren t just any good works but rather good works specifically prepared by God for the purpose of the believer to operate in them. Since the believer was God s workmanship, and the good works were prepared by God beforehand, then all the glory that resulted from the believer s salvation and walk in good works would be given to God. The believer was now seen to be walking on the right path (no longer trespassing) and hitting the intended target of glorifying God (no longer sinning). JM GOD S SALVATION PLAN- YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW Ephesians 2:10 are passages in which the redemption of the believer is dealt with in the context of past, present and future events and expectations. Verses 1-3 remind the reader of his spiritual condition before his life with Christ. A portion of chapter 1 dealt with the election of believers. The transition of the discussion from Chapter 1 to the beginning of Chapter2 is illustrated by a quote from Charles Spurgeon. When asked about election he said, God chose me before I came into this world, because if He had waited until I got here, He would never have chosen me. It is this depraved nature that is recalled in verses 1-3. As some (cults) today (and in the past) teach that many living people will not see physical death, J. Vernon McGee counters with the idea that many living today are already dead. That is the condensation of Paul s thoughts as he is setting the stage from which to remind us of the hopeless depths from which we were redeemed into the life now being lived through our salvation in Christ. This section (all of verses 1-10) serves as a reminder of how and from what we received this salvation and our responsibility of living with such a reward. Verses 1-7 in Greek are one continuous sentence. This is the type of statement that I would call a yes-but statement. The sentence can be considered a before and after or a compare and contrast idea. The initial statement is a fact, but it is tempered or modified by a following amplification. We were dead but now alive

3 through our redemption. God will offer justice to all of the Earth, and that might sound good, but through Christ the believer can have grace. The depravity of our preredemption lives requires grace as the only mechanism to reconcile with God. Justice alone only condemns. Grace gives unwarranted life to a sinner. Verses 8 and 9 make it clear mans part in salvation. Man does the sinning and God does the saving. God might have infinite love- and He does, but that does not save us. He has unlimited mercy, but that does not save us. He gives us adequate faith, but that does not save us. Our salvation only comes through the unfathomable (by Man) grace of God. The addendum of verses 8 and 9 to the statement at the end of verse 5 make this clear and irrevocable. We are the handiwork of God physically through the miracle of creation and also spiritually through the work of Jesus Christ. As we see in verse 10, just as we were chosen by God for salvation, our tasks were also predetermined in a way to glorify God. Our reward is that of a close relationship with our Creator and Savior while honoring Him with our appointed tasks to His glory. CM From Death to Life, by His Grace 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. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:1-7 being another long sentence in the Greek, Hoehner and Constable took great pains to analyze the sentence structure as to its subject ( God ), its three main verbs ( made alive, raised up, and seated ), and its object ( us ). Constable goes further to label the prepositional phrase in Christ as modifying us, but this writer would object that in Christ more properly defines the verbs themselves. Though the reasons for such a position would be outside the scope of this summary, further research on the verbs themselves with respect to Ephesians 1:20 would be uplifting itself! Both Hoehner and Constable launched their remarks on Ephesians 2:1 by trying to drive home the reality, reality, the seriousness, and the hopelessness of the spiritually dead state of the unregenerate. Hoehner Hoehner characterized death primarily as the absence of communication with the living. One who is dead is dead spiritually has no communication with God; he is separated from God (p. 622). Again, research research relating this significant aspect of spritual death with examples of the interchanges between God between God and many OT personages such as Solomon (II Chron. 7:12) might also shed light on the dead the dead condition of the unregenerate. Both commentators expounded upon the three symptoms Paul used to describe the believers former state. former state. Although they do concur that the first symptom involves the unregenerate following the the ways of the world (C., p. 23; H., p. 622), Hoehner describing it as unbelievers following the lifestyles of other unbelievers (H., p. 622), they do not address the aion aspect of the word ways. ways. Wuest s (p. 61) comparing the word course (aion) with the German word zeitgeist, or the spirit the spirit of the age, reveals the true scope of ways of the world, and helps to relate this tendency on tendency on the part of the unregenerate to follow the person who is promoting this philosophy, namely, namely, Satan (C., p. 23), which is the second indication that a person is unregenerate. The commentators commentators diverge in identifying the third trait of the unbeliever, Constable identifying in verse 3 the verse 3 the next indication that a person is unregenerate: the unbeliever characteristically gives in to his or to his or her fleshly desires and thoughts (C., p. 24). Both commentators concluding this section by section by comparing the two phrases which describe unbelievers: sons (huios) of disobedience and and children (tekna) of wrath, brings to mind Proverbs 20:11, Even a child is known by his doings, doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right. Constable s sobering conclusion was that that unbelievers have a close relationship to God s wrath because of their rebellion against Him ( John ( John 3:36) (p. 24). With the phrase But God, the door exiting the chamber of horrors opens to the pure Sonlight of His grace His grace and His great love for us even when we were in our former putrifying condition. True to His His agape love, God sought the highest good in the objects of His choice even though we were rebellious rebellious sinners (C., p. 24), that highest good being the raising the objects of His mercy to new, eternal

4 eternal spiritual life in His Son. The only way a spiritually dead person can communicate with God is to be made alive by the One who is Himself alive and who gives life to the dead (Rom. 4:17) (H., p. 623). Now He can really talk with us no longer creatures resident in the Garden, we have been seated, spiritually, in the heavenly realms with Christ Himself! Even though our bodies are still on this planet, spiritually we have a new, powerful, and unique (H., p. 623) position in Christ which demands that believers have a new set of values (H., p. 623). All of this is for God s doxological purposes in the ages (aion) to come. Salvation is the gift of God, God, not by works since its basis is grace and its means of reception faith (C., p. 25). It was encouraging to read Constable s quote from Wiersbe, Since we have not been saved by our good works, works, we cannot be lost by our bad works (C., p. 25). Our salvation being so far removed from being being dependent upon our own works, we ourselves are His workmanship! Hoehner pointed out that we are that we are to walk in, rather than work, the good works God has prepared for us, noting that God has God has prepared a path of good works for believers which He will perform in and through them as they as they walk by faith (H., p. 624). Now that is good news! SK Where we came from The commentaries showed that Paul reminds the believers where they came from and how they followed the passions and desires of the flesh or our sinful nature just like everyone else and that we were spiritually dead. Paul shows our hopelessness in our natural condition as children of wrath and sons of disobedience. Even though we did not consider God, He loved us so much that He sought us out and made us alive through Christ. This is grace, that God saved us and brought us back into relation with Him even though we did not deserve it and haven t done anything that would earn it. In God s grace, God receives the glory for the gift He gives us. We have nothing we can boast about. We can t say that we did anything to earn it or deserve it. God created us for His purposes and He has every right to do with us as He wills. We should praise Him that His will for us is good works that bring glory to Him. But it s more than where we are now, it also has to do with were we came from. We are not just out on our own but under the power of Satan. We like to think of ourselves as being independent but without Christ we are following the prince of the power of the air in our disobedience to God. WA The Christians Method of Salvation Living in the world-2:1-3 In this section Paul describes the way of life for the unredeemed. The unrepentant are dead in trespasses and sins. We walked according to the ways of the world in open rebellion against God prior to our salvation. The unrepentant still do so. We were dead in our transgressions and children of wrath. The phrases children of wrath and the sons of disobedience refer to the lost, which are still under the sway of their lusts, sinful flesh and the powers or the air (Satan). Children of wrath is a picture of the future disposition of the unsaved, that judgment will come is a foregone conclusion. Revelation 20:11-15 gives a vivid description of the fate of the unbeliever. As a note this section focuses on what Christians have been saved from and does not mean that the faithful will no longer struggle with our ingrown sinful nature. The key word in the last section is struggle. During a Christian s life he will continually struggle with his sinful nature. Undeserved Grace 2: even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), The salvation we have received, that was predestined to us (Eph 1:4), was given to us while we were still reveling in our sinful all knowing ways. We have no way to claim salvation on the basis of our merits or

5 works. We have been given an inheritance that is beyond anything we could imagine. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. Singlehandedly this passage puts to bed the notion that works are required to be saved. God s grace is sufficient, and the only reason we can have salvation. Paul uses the word grace three times in five verses to highlight the importance of our understanding that grace is the avenue of our salvation, not us or our works. To further illustrate the point Paul shows that even our good works are really done by the will of God. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.