Study of Ephesians Chapter 2#
To set the stage, as I go through some of Paul’s more minor books in the New Testament, I am trying to focus on how Paul affected the shape of the modern church, but also how he affected modern society. I am influenced in this idea by books such as The Air We Breathe by Glen Scrivener and Dominion by Tom Holland (the historian, not the actor who played Spider-Man).
The common thread I find in both these books is the idea that the foundation of modern society and modern morality is Christianity. The world that the Ancient Romans and Greek lived in was radically different than the world we live in today. Their assumptions about freedom, justice, and morality were completely different from the ideals that we hold today in Western society.
1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you previously lived according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. 3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
—Ephesians 2:1-3 (CSB)
First off, I think the imagery of being “dead” in our trespasses and sins is an important reminder. From our own lives and from all of human history, we have seen how we humans tend to mess things up when left to our own devices. We crave meaning in our lives and we desire justice and fulfillment, but we struggle to find that. Instead of finding the meaning we seek, we often struggle in vain or lose our way and believe that there is no meaning or purpose to life. When we live our lives in this way, it is almost as if we are dead. We are going through the motions of life without clear direction, relying on our base instincts and desires to guide us. I think this is what Paul means when he says we walk “according to the ways of this world.” We live in confusion and chaos because we so easily become blinded to the true meaning of life.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!
—Ephesians 2:4-5 (CSB)
Even though we are dead in our ways of living, God has taken mercy upon us by sending Jesus to save us. We take this for granted sometimes as Christians, but this point of view requires an incredible amount of humility. To willingly partake of the grace that God is extending to us, we have to truly believe that we are in desperate need of such grace. We have to believe that we are sinful, that we have made a mess of things on Earth.
I love the phrase “made us alive with Christ.” Jesus’ live, death, and resurrection quite literally saved us from death. His death was a means of granting us life. It was a way of reminding us of the life we are truly meant to live, and it provides us a path towards finding that life.
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift — 9 not from works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
—Ephesians 2:8-10 (CSB)
Verse 8 is a great verse that you may recognize. The debate over works versus grace is a common one in Christian circles. Every Christian group believes that God’s grace is vital to the process of our salvation, but many groups argue over the role that our faith plays in the process. Many people have gotten down in the weeds to argue about this topic, but I think everything you need to understand about it is presented clearly in these verses. We are saved by God’s grace through our faith. I believe our faith is a factor because God wants it to be. God desires a close relationship with us and he wants to save us, but he will not force a relationship with us if we are not willing. Faith is our way of accepting God’s mercy and entering into a relationship with him.
I think it’s interesting how verse 10 says we are “created in Christ Jesus for good works.” Even though our works do not save us, clearly works still play a role in the equation. I’ve often heard that works are a product of faith, which I think is a good way of looking at it. Again, it’s important to emphasize that we are not earning our salvation at all. Even whenever Paul mentions the good works that we are created for, he specifies that God “prepared [the works] ahead of time for us to do.” There is nothing that we can give to God that he does not already have. Literally anything that I have, anything that I am capable of providing, I only have it because God created it and me. So I cannot bring anything to the table that God would need. My faith or my belief in God is simply my way of coming to the table. God does not need or want me to bring anything to the table, he just wants me to sit with him and enter into that relationship with him.
11 So then, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh — called “the uncircumcised” by those called “the circumcised,” which is done in the flesh by human hands. 12 At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, and foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, 15 he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. 16 He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. 17 He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building, being put together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you are also being built together for God’s dwelling in the Spirit.
—Ephesians 2:11-22 (CSB)
I didn’t want to split up this group of verses because they flow so well together. Sometimes you just have to let Paul preach and stay out of his way.
This section is a perfect example of Paul working to bring together Jew and Gentile and unite them under one God. He starts by acknowledging the separation. He acknowledges that the Ephesians were Gentiles in the flesh, separate from Israel. He is honest and said that without God, the Gentiles were without hope. But in Jesus, all who were far away have been brought near.
Going back to what I mentioned at the beginning about the effects of Paul’s writings on modern morality and society, what I find interesting here is the idea of cross-cultural community. There was some homogenization between cultures at the time (e.g. Diaspora Jews), but not in the same way that there is today. For much of their history, many Jews were very untrusting and even hateful towards Gentiles. And the Greeks and Romans had their fair share of spite towards the Jews. When Paul talks about Jesus uniting Jews and Gentiles, he is talking about a kingdom that crosses cultures in a revolutionary way. This is something we take for granted in the United States because we are known as a cultural melting pot. This idea of mixing cultures and tolerating other people’s culture is celebrated today, but it certainly would not have been in Paul’s day. This is one way in which we can see the effects of Paul’s writing and Christianity in general on our modern society. I think you could pick nearly any point in human history, and you will find devout Christians who are crossing societal barriers because their devotion to God is greater than their devotion to culture.
I find it very interesting how Paul brings up the law in verse 15. I can understand why a lot of Jews of the time did not believe in Jesus and were not willing to follow Christianity. Saying that Jesus made the law “of no effect” would have been a scandalous idea to many Jews in that time. I believe when Paul talks about Jesus creating one new man from the two, and doing this to reconcile both groups to God in one body, he is saying that Jesus’ life and crucifixion are more important than the law. A better way of saying it might be that Jesus was the ultimate fulfillment of the law.
In an interview recently, biblical scholar and apologist Wes Huff talked about how the law was essentially a mirror to the Jews. It was a mirror because they were supposed to use it to reveal when they were dirty. But instead of using the law as a mirror to reveal something about themselves, Wes said the Jews often tried to use the law to clean themselves. The idea of cleaning yourself with a mirror is preposterous, but I like the metaphor because it shows how the Jews had perverted the law which they had been given. They were trying to use the law in ways that it wasn’t meant to be used, oftentimes making it into a stumbling block that took them even further than God.
If the Jewish law is a mirror that shows people they are dirty, then Jesus is the water that cleanses us. Jesus is the fulfillment of all the prophecies and promises in the Old Testament. Jesus is God’s ultimate method for sanctifying humanity and reconciling us to him. To those Jews who blindly followed their laws without ever understanding the character of God, Jesus was a blasphemer. To those Gentiles who ignored or doubted Jesus, he was just another failed Jewish Messiah, condemned to a criminal’s death. But to the Jews and Gentiles who listened to Jesus and believed, he is salvation.
I believe we have the same choice today. We live in a world that is suffering from pain and confusion. People are broken, desperately searching for meaning and fulfillment. If we listen to Jesus and accept him as our king, then we will no longer be “foreigners and strangers”, but we will instead be “fellow citizens with the saints, members of God’s household.”