Letter to the Ephesians -- Chapter 2
Having prayed for the Holy Spirit to continue His work in the Ephesians’ lives Paul continues on to summarize the full counsel of God. In arguably the most beautiful summarization of the Scriptural proclamation, Paul succinctly hits on the three main divisions of God’s Word: the Law, the Gospel, and Sanctification. Paul distinctly proclaims each truth, staying true to the Scriptural order of proclamation that must be followed.
Paul begins by declaring the Law of God: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:1-2). Thru the Law of God our sinfulness and depravity is brought to light. We are not mostly good men who occasionally sin and slip up, but we are seen to be completely dead in our sins and transgressions. “You were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature” (Colossians 2:13). Paul uses the word “dead” in order that we might see the helplessness of our slavery in sin. What can a dead man do? Nothing, absolutely nothing at all. In fact a dead man does not even realize he is dead, his true state is hidden from his eyes because there is no life in him. Sinful man therefore sees sin as the occasional slip up or error and thinks it is an easily enough conquered or ignorable thing. In this blindness of sin we have learned to overlook the widespread corruption of our sinful thoughts, words, and deeds, and therefore God decreed His Law in order to reveal and make known our sin: “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21). “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). “They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:29-32). If any man dare pretend that he has not participated in these sinful acts, words, and thoughts then he is deceiving himself and is also calling God Himself a liar. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us…If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives” (1 John 1:8, 10). Even if we were to outwardly keep the entire Law, if we then stumbled at even one point we would be guilty of breaking the whole Law in its entirety. “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10). But why does one “slip-up” mean we are guilty of the entire Law? Because the Law of God is not a legalistic outward and external command, but it is a spiritual command that aims at something deeper than outward deeds. “The law is spiritual” (Romans 7:14).
Paul therefore goes on to point to how our sinful acts are merely symptoms and indications of something darker and more sinister that is going on deep inside of everyone of us. “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts” (Ephesians 2:3). Every man at one point lived gratifying these desires that flow from our “sinful nature”, that is, from our very core and heart, the very origin and nature into which we were born. “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). Every person is born into this death and sickness and once lived in slavery to this corrupted heart, following its desires and cravings. From this heart, nature, and flesh flow the evil cravings and desires of sin. “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Matthew 15:19). The root problem therefore is not an exterior “behavioral” issue but a heart that is damaged, spoiled, flawed, disfigured, distorted, and ruined to its very core (and this is what the Law was given to reveal). The heart of sinful man is completely depraved and corrupted and, as Paul said, is dead to all good. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (Jeremiah 17:9). “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). Because everything we do is done apart from true fear, trust, and love of God (against the 1st commandment), even the external “good works” and “righteous acts” that flow from our hearts are nothing but worthless, despicable rags and dung. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away” (Isaiah 64:6). This depravity finds its origin in the fact that in our hearts we do not follow the one God, fearing, trusting, loving, and obeying Him, but that we instead follow the spirit of this world, Satan, obeying his ways and temptations by making gods of ourselves and the created things of this life. “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25). Because of this sin and rejection of God our Creator we cannot inherit His kingdom and we stand condemned before His almighty wrath and judgment. “Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming” (Colossians 3:5-6). “Because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5). In fact because of our sinful flesh and depraved and blackened hearts Paul goes on to state that we are by nature the objects of God’s wrath: “Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). In this profound statement Paul once and for all shatters any notion that we can be good or righteous in and of ourselves. Every human being is born into the death of sin and under the wrath of God Almighty because we share in the sinful nature that is passed down to us thru our parents. “In Adam all die” (1 Corinthians 15:22). “The many died by the trespass of the one man…judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation…by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man…the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men…through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners” (Romans 5:15-19). However we are not condemned “because of our parents” but because of our own evil thoughts, words, and deeds that constantly flow from us, bearing witness to the truth of our utterly depraved hearts and nature. “Everyone will die for his own sin” (Jeremiah 31:30). “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin” (Deuteronomy 24:16). “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Therefore each one of us stands against God as His very enemy, opposed to Him in all that we do because we seek the selfish desires of our own heart and not His perfect will which He has revealed in His Law. “We were God’s enemies” (Romans 5:10). “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior” (Colossians 1:21). By declaring how we are not God’s friends, acquaintances, or even indifferent strangers, but that we are in reality God’s very enemies Paul firmly brings down the hammer of God’s Law showing us that all “men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20), and that “there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12). God’s Law has spoken and revealed the hard truth of our wickedness that no man likes to face: We stand condemned before the wrath of God for the disobedience that flows from our completely selfish, depraved, corrupt, immoral, degenerate, dissolute, and wicked hearts.
Thankfully however God did not leave us to die in our filth. “I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’” (Ezekiel 16:6). Even though we deserved nothing but wrath, condemnation, and eternal punishment God helped us when we were helpless: “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5). Wow! When we were dead in the depravity of our hearts God made us alive with His Son, Christ Jesus! God literally raised us from the dead where we were the condemned objects of His wrath. We were dead, helpless, lifeless, hopeless, and beyond cure, and yet God sent His Son to freely redeem us; we who had done nothing but sin against Him, reject Him, and hate Him in the ungodly thoughts, words, and deeds of our evil hearts. “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24). “When we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly…while we were still sinners, Christ died for us…when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (Romans 5:6, 8, 10). “With Christ” and “in Christ” we are raised up from our imprisonment and slavery to sin; we are treated with the kindness that Christ alone deserved, while Christ Himself was punished with the wrath of God which only we deserved. “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6-7). Our salvation therefore is a complete act of grace from first to last. God did not save us because of anything in us or from us, but saved us solely because He is incomparably merciful, kind, and gracious. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Paul is very careful to even state that our faith is not from ourselves. The entire equation of salvation is completed thru God’s gifts, never thru our own works. Even the faith that clings to what Christ did on our behalf is God’s gift to us. Paul cannot make himself any clearer and yet thousands and millions of Christians deny this truth and teach others to deny it also. The language is crystal clear: You have been saved completely and totally by grace (that’s it!), it is all God’s gracious doing in Jesus Christ crucified. Surely faith receives these blessings but even that faith is “not from yourselves”! It is all (all of it!) the gift of God so that no man can boast before Him. There is nothing in our salvation where we can say we were “worthy” or where we “did” something at all, nothing from us makes us commendable, creditable, or estimable for God’s mercy (no choice, no decision, no willing, no nothing!). Christ’s death and resurrection wasn’t our doing, God’s grace wasn’t our doing, and even our faith isn’t our doing. It is all God, from first to last; in other words, “it is by grace you have been saved”!
Paul however does not stop here, but continues on to tell us what this beautiful grace and Gospel has bought and achieved for us in this life: “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). We are a new creation in Christ Jesus, regenerated and renewed in order that we might offer ourselves to the good works God has appointed for our life. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). God has not only cleansed in Jesus Christ thru the promise of Baptism but He has also remade us in Jesus Christ by giving us a new spirit and heart. “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). This new spirit and heart moves us to follow the will of God and His Law. No longer do we or can we live for the sinful flesh and blackened heart that Christ has freed us from. We must leave behind all that belonged to the desires of our sinful nature and put on Christ as our righteousness. “Now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:8-10). This new self in Christ Jesus is a willing and steadfast spirit created and sustained by the continual work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (Psalm 51:10-12). David prays this prayer, asking God to bear with him daily, not letting his sinful body get the best of the new creation that God has put in him. It takes God Himself to work this new heart and spirit within us and to maintain it from the bombardments of the world, our flesh, and Satan himself. “It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Therefore let us pray that thru the continuing promises of God’s Word that we are sustained in the Holy Spirit, offering ourselves no longer to the sin, death, and depravity that once held us, but solely to God’s will and righteousness in Jesus Christ our One Lord and Savior. “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness” (Romans 6:11-13).
Having summarized the full counsel of God Paul continues on to speak of the special situation of the Gentiles. “Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves ‘the circumcision’ (that done in the body by the hands of men)—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:11-12). Gentiles are by definition not members of Israel, that is, they are heathens who were not descendants of Abraham, the covenant of circumcision, and the promise given to him. Therefore the Gentiles were at one time “outsiders looking in” for they were not members of God’s chosen people to whom He had revealed Himself and made a covenant. While Israel had been graced to have God reveal Himself to them, the Gentiles lived in the world without the knowledge and hope of the one true God. Consequently those who are Gentiles need to appreciate this lowly starting position. When all men had fallen into sin and gone astray, “Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin” (Romans 3:9), God graciously chose Abraham, making a covenant with him. Thru this Abraham’s line and family became the descendents of the promise (Israel), and were made the chosen people of God; they had God’s very presence and favor. In Christ Jesus however things have changed: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13). We Gentiles who were once complete heathen outsiders, who had no hope, have now been brought into the fold thru the blood, sacrifice, and atonement of Christ. In Jesus Christ God has made a new covenant, not only with Israel (like the old covenant) but also with all Gentiles, with all men to the ends of the earth. Speaking of Christ to come God said: “I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness” (Isaiah 42:6-7). “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6). All Gentiles therefore have extra special reason to be grateful and thankful to God, for He did not abandon us and “play favorites” but worked thru Israel to save us all.
Paul continues on to speak of the unity which Christ’s sacrifice brought to the world: “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations” (Ephesians 2:14-15). Christ is not just a bringer or giver of peace; He Himself is our peace. We must not look to abstract ideas and notions of peace; the only real peace is Christ Himself. We must adhere to His person for in His person exists the only real peace, reconciliation, and harmony with God the Father and our fellow man. Therefore in Jesus Christ the barrier and animosity between Jew and Gentile (and between all men) was destroyed. The law and old covenant which divided the two groups was broken asunder in Christ as he fulfilled the Law, cancelling the regulations that stood opposed to all men. “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14). No longer is God only the “God of Abraham” but He is now the God of all men because Christ fulfilled the promise of Abraham even for the Gentiles. “Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith” (Romans 3:29-30). Christ brought the Gentiles into the family of Abraham and into the promise of the Messiah. “His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility” (Ephesians 2:15-16). Before Jesus Christ came to us the Jews and Gentiles were diametrically opposed. The Jews (the natural descendants of Abraham) saw the Gentiles as their enemies who attempted to force their heathen ways upon them. This hostility however was put to death thru the Cross, where Jesus united both groups into one body in Him. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). In the new covenant the members of the old covenant (the circumcised) and the heathens (the uncircumcised) are united by the one faith of Jesus Christ. Blood lines no longer determine one’s favor with God, but now it is the promise in Jesus Christ. “It is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring” (Romans 9:8). In Christ we are all children of the promise, as thru God’s grace in Jesus Christ we are compelled to call upon God the Father, the God of Abraham. In this promise the difference between Jew and Gentile is abolished forever. “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him” (Romans 10:12).
Thru this proclamation Paul means us to see that Jesus truly came for all men, both those who were far away and those who were near; no worldly position is out of the reach of Christ. “He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near” (Ephesians 2:17). This Gospel message of the new covenant in the blood of Christ is one that preaches peace to all men regardless of station, past, history, class, or any other division that men create between themselves. “Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” (Colossians 3:11). Where sin once separated us completely from God our Father, we now have unqualified access to Him thru Jesus Christ’s redemption. “For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit” (Ephesians 2:18). Because we are baptized into Jesus Christ we all are reconciled to God the Father thru the Spirit’s work. “We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Corinthians 12:13). This Spirit of God has united us in Christ and keeps us in this unity till life everlasting.
In conclusion Paul drives home his ultimate point: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:19-20). Through Jesus Christ we who were once outsiders and foreigners are now fellow citizens with the chosen people of God; in fact we are not just generic citizens but now are part of God’s very family, we are His very own children. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Romans 8:16). As members of God’s household (as His children!) we are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, that is, upon the Scriptures. It is their proclamation of God’s Word that solidifies the truth, that is, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, our cornerstone. Without this cornerstone of Christ we are absolutely nothing and without the foundation of the Scriptural testimony there is no firm and persevering building on Christ. “In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:21-22). Thru Christ’s atonement we have become members of His body, becoming the building of the true temple of God. “Don't you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). As God’s true temple we are now the real dwelling place of the Spirit of God on earth. “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4-5). Thru the Spirit’s continual work in our lives we are being built into a spiritual house for God to dwell. This work must be God’s work for He is the only true builder who can accomplish this amazing work. “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1). All the effort, willing, and striving in the world will get men nowhere, it is only by Christ’s work that anything can be done. Therefore let us pray that we praise God daily for the unity He has brought us in the Cross and how He continues to dwell, work, and build in our lives for the sake of Jesus Christ, carrying our burdens, being our peace, and sustaining us in the promise of the life to come. “The dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4).
Paul begins by declaring the Law of God: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 2:1-2). Thru the Law of God our sinfulness and depravity is brought to light. We are not mostly good men who occasionally sin and slip up, but we are seen to be completely dead in our sins and transgressions. “You were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature” (Colossians 2:13). Paul uses the word “dead” in order that we might see the helplessness of our slavery in sin. What can a dead man do? Nothing, absolutely nothing at all. In fact a dead man does not even realize he is dead, his true state is hidden from his eyes because there is no life in him. Sinful man therefore sees sin as the occasional slip up or error and thinks it is an easily enough conquered or ignorable thing. In this blindness of sin we have learned to overlook the widespread corruption of our sinful thoughts, words, and deeds, and therefore God decreed His Law in order to reveal and make known our sin: “The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-21). “Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). “They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them” (Romans 1:29-32). If any man dare pretend that he has not participated in these sinful acts, words, and thoughts then he is deceiving himself and is also calling God Himself a liar. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us…If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives” (1 John 1:8, 10). Even if we were to outwardly keep the entire Law, if we then stumbled at even one point we would be guilty of breaking the whole Law in its entirety. “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10). But why does one “slip-up” mean we are guilty of the entire Law? Because the Law of God is not a legalistic outward and external command, but it is a spiritual command that aims at something deeper than outward deeds. “The law is spiritual” (Romans 7:14).
Paul therefore goes on to point to how our sinful acts are merely symptoms and indications of something darker and more sinister that is going on deep inside of everyone of us. “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts” (Ephesians 2:3). Every man at one point lived gratifying these desires that flow from our “sinful nature”, that is, from our very core and heart, the very origin and nature into which we were born. “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). Every person is born into this death and sickness and once lived in slavery to this corrupted heart, following its desires and cravings. From this heart, nature, and flesh flow the evil cravings and desires of sin. “Out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Matthew 15:19). The root problem therefore is not an exterior “behavioral” issue but a heart that is damaged, spoiled, flawed, disfigured, distorted, and ruined to its very core (and this is what the Law was given to reveal). The heart of sinful man is completely depraved and corrupted and, as Paul said, is dead to all good. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (Jeremiah 17:9). “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). Because everything we do is done apart from true fear, trust, and love of God (against the 1st commandment), even the external “good works” and “righteous acts” that flow from our hearts are nothing but worthless, despicable rags and dung. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away” (Isaiah 64:6). This depravity finds its origin in the fact that in our hearts we do not follow the one God, fearing, trusting, loving, and obeying Him, but that we instead follow the spirit of this world, Satan, obeying his ways and temptations by making gods of ourselves and the created things of this life. “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator” (Romans 1:25). Because of this sin and rejection of God our Creator we cannot inherit His kingdom and we stand condemned before His almighty wrath and judgment. “Sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming” (Colossians 3:5-6). “Because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed” (Romans 2:5). In fact because of our sinful flesh and depraved and blackened hearts Paul goes on to state that we are by nature the objects of God’s wrath: “Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3). In this profound statement Paul once and for all shatters any notion that we can be good or righteous in and of ourselves. Every human being is born into the death of sin and under the wrath of God Almighty because we share in the sinful nature that is passed down to us thru our parents. “In Adam all die” (1 Corinthians 15:22). “The many died by the trespass of the one man…judgment followed one sin and brought condemnation…by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man…the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men…through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners” (Romans 5:15-19). However we are not condemned “because of our parents” but because of our own evil thoughts, words, and deeds that constantly flow from us, bearing witness to the truth of our utterly depraved hearts and nature. “Everyone will die for his own sin” (Jeremiah 31:30). “Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin” (Deuteronomy 24:16). “Sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Therefore each one of us stands against God as His very enemy, opposed to Him in all that we do because we seek the selfish desires of our own heart and not His perfect will which He has revealed in His Law. “We were God’s enemies” (Romans 5:10). “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior” (Colossians 1:21). By declaring how we are not God’s friends, acquaintances, or even indifferent strangers, but that we are in reality God’s very enemies Paul firmly brings down the hammer of God’s Law showing us that all “men are without excuse” (Romans 1:20), and that “there is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one” (Romans 3:10-12). God’s Law has spoken and revealed the hard truth of our wickedness that no man likes to face: We stand condemned before the wrath of God for the disobedience that flows from our completely selfish, depraved, corrupt, immoral, degenerate, dissolute, and wicked hearts.
Thankfully however God did not leave us to die in our filth. “I passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’” (Ezekiel 16:6). Even though we deserved nothing but wrath, condemnation, and eternal punishment God helped us when we were helpless: “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5). Wow! When we were dead in the depravity of our hearts God made us alive with His Son, Christ Jesus! God literally raised us from the dead where we were the condemned objects of His wrath. We were dead, helpless, lifeless, hopeless, and beyond cure, and yet God sent His Son to freely redeem us; we who had done nothing but sin against Him, reject Him, and hate Him in the ungodly thoughts, words, and deeds of our evil hearts. “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:23-24). “When we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly…while we were still sinners, Christ died for us…when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son” (Romans 5:6, 8, 10). “With Christ” and “in Christ” we are raised up from our imprisonment and slavery to sin; we are treated with the kindness that Christ alone deserved, while Christ Himself was punished with the wrath of God which only we deserved. “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6-7). Our salvation therefore is a complete act of grace from first to last. God did not save us because of anything in us or from us, but saved us solely because He is incomparably merciful, kind, and gracious. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Paul is very careful to even state that our faith is not from ourselves. The entire equation of salvation is completed thru God’s gifts, never thru our own works. Even the faith that clings to what Christ did on our behalf is God’s gift to us. Paul cannot make himself any clearer and yet thousands and millions of Christians deny this truth and teach others to deny it also. The language is crystal clear: You have been saved completely and totally by grace (that’s it!), it is all God’s gracious doing in Jesus Christ crucified. Surely faith receives these blessings but even that faith is “not from yourselves”! It is all (all of it!) the gift of God so that no man can boast before Him. There is nothing in our salvation where we can say we were “worthy” or where we “did” something at all, nothing from us makes us commendable, creditable, or estimable for God’s mercy (no choice, no decision, no willing, no nothing!). Christ’s death and resurrection wasn’t our doing, God’s grace wasn’t our doing, and even our faith isn’t our doing. It is all God, from first to last; in other words, “it is by grace you have been saved”!
Paul however does not stop here, but continues on to tell us what this beautiful grace and Gospel has bought and achieved for us in this life: “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). We are a new creation in Christ Jesus, regenerated and renewed in order that we might offer ourselves to the good works God has appointed for our life. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). God has not only cleansed in Jesus Christ thru the promise of Baptism but He has also remade us in Jesus Christ by giving us a new spirit and heart. “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36:26-27). This new spirit and heart moves us to follow the will of God and His Law. No longer do we or can we live for the sinful flesh and blackened heart that Christ has freed us from. We must leave behind all that belonged to the desires of our sinful nature and put on Christ as our righteousness. “Now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:8-10). This new self in Christ Jesus is a willing and steadfast spirit created and sustained by the continual work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (Psalm 51:10-12). David prays this prayer, asking God to bear with him daily, not letting his sinful body get the best of the new creation that God has put in him. It takes God Himself to work this new heart and spirit within us and to maintain it from the bombardments of the world, our flesh, and Satan himself. “It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Therefore let us pray that thru the continuing promises of God’s Word that we are sustained in the Holy Spirit, offering ourselves no longer to the sin, death, and depravity that once held us, but solely to God’s will and righteousness in Jesus Christ our One Lord and Savior. “Count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness” (Romans 6:11-13).
Having summarized the full counsel of God Paul continues on to speak of the special situation of the Gentiles. “Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called ‘uncircumcised’ by those who call themselves ‘the circumcision’ (that done in the body by the hands of men)—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:11-12). Gentiles are by definition not members of Israel, that is, they are heathens who were not descendants of Abraham, the covenant of circumcision, and the promise given to him. Therefore the Gentiles were at one time “outsiders looking in” for they were not members of God’s chosen people to whom He had revealed Himself and made a covenant. While Israel had been graced to have God reveal Himself to them, the Gentiles lived in the world without the knowledge and hope of the one true God. Consequently those who are Gentiles need to appreciate this lowly starting position. When all men had fallen into sin and gone astray, “Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin” (Romans 3:9), God graciously chose Abraham, making a covenant with him. Thru this Abraham’s line and family became the descendents of the promise (Israel), and were made the chosen people of God; they had God’s very presence and favor. In Christ Jesus however things have changed: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ” (Ephesians 2:13). We Gentiles who were once complete heathen outsiders, who had no hope, have now been brought into the fold thru the blood, sacrifice, and atonement of Christ. In Jesus Christ God has made a new covenant, not only with Israel (like the old covenant) but also with all Gentiles, with all men to the ends of the earth. Speaking of Christ to come God said: “I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness” (Isaiah 42:6-7). “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6). All Gentiles therefore have extra special reason to be grateful and thankful to God, for He did not abandon us and “play favorites” but worked thru Israel to save us all.
Paul continues on to speak of the unity which Christ’s sacrifice brought to the world: “For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations” (Ephesians 2:14-15). Christ is not just a bringer or giver of peace; He Himself is our peace. We must not look to abstract ideas and notions of peace; the only real peace is Christ Himself. We must adhere to His person for in His person exists the only real peace, reconciliation, and harmony with God the Father and our fellow man. Therefore in Jesus Christ the barrier and animosity between Jew and Gentile (and between all men) was destroyed. The law and old covenant which divided the two groups was broken asunder in Christ as he fulfilled the Law, cancelling the regulations that stood opposed to all men. “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14). No longer is God only the “God of Abraham” but He is now the God of all men because Christ fulfilled the promise of Abraham even for the Gentiles. “Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith” (Romans 3:29-30). Christ brought the Gentiles into the family of Abraham and into the promise of the Messiah. “His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility” (Ephesians 2:15-16). Before Jesus Christ came to us the Jews and Gentiles were diametrically opposed. The Jews (the natural descendants of Abraham) saw the Gentiles as their enemies who attempted to force their heathen ways upon them. This hostility however was put to death thru the Cross, where Jesus united both groups into one body in Him. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). In the new covenant the members of the old covenant (the circumcised) and the heathens (the uncircumcised) are united by the one faith of Jesus Christ. Blood lines no longer determine one’s favor with God, but now it is the promise in Jesus Christ. “It is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring” (Romans 9:8). In Christ we are all children of the promise, as thru God’s grace in Jesus Christ we are compelled to call upon God the Father, the God of Abraham. In this promise the difference between Jew and Gentile is abolished forever. “There is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him” (Romans 10:12).
Thru this proclamation Paul means us to see that Jesus truly came for all men, both those who were far away and those who were near; no worldly position is out of the reach of Christ. “He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near” (Ephesians 2:17). This Gospel message of the new covenant in the blood of Christ is one that preaches peace to all men regardless of station, past, history, class, or any other division that men create between themselves. “Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” (Colossians 3:11). Where sin once separated us completely from God our Father, we now have unqualified access to Him thru Jesus Christ’s redemption. “For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit” (Ephesians 2:18). Because we are baptized into Jesus Christ we all are reconciled to God the Father thru the Spirit’s work. “We were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink” (1 Corinthians 12:13). This Spirit of God has united us in Christ and keeps us in this unity till life everlasting.
In conclusion Paul drives home his ultimate point: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone” (Ephesians 2:19-20). Through Jesus Christ we who were once outsiders and foreigners are now fellow citizens with the chosen people of God; in fact we are not just generic citizens but now are part of God’s very family, we are His very own children. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). “The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Romans 8:16). As members of God’s household (as His children!) we are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, that is, upon the Scriptures. It is their proclamation of God’s Word that solidifies the truth, that is, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, our cornerstone. Without this cornerstone of Christ we are absolutely nothing and without the foundation of the Scriptural testimony there is no firm and persevering building on Christ. “In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Ephesians 2:21-22). Thru Christ’s atonement we have become members of His body, becoming the building of the true temple of God. “Don't you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16). As God’s true temple we are now the real dwelling place of the Spirit of God on earth. “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:4-5). Thru the Spirit’s continual work in our lives we are being built into a spiritual house for God to dwell. This work must be God’s work for He is the only true builder who can accomplish this amazing work. “Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain” (Psalm 127:1). All the effort, willing, and striving in the world will get men nowhere, it is only by Christ’s work that anything can be done. Therefore let us pray that we praise God daily for the unity He has brought us in the Cross and how He continues to dwell, work, and build in our lives for the sake of Jesus Christ, carrying our burdens, being our peace, and sustaining us in the promise of the life to come. “The dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:3-4).
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