He continues with another long sentence, overflowing with passion.
Ephesians 2: 1-10
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us // up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
There’s a before and after thing going on, BC and AD, hinging on v.4 but God.
Children of Wrath (vv.1-3)
Ephesians 2: 1-3
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Paul is blunt. You were dead in trespasses and sins (v.1). A ‘sin’ is an error or a shortcoming (hamartia), a ‘trespass’ is like a boundary violation, or breaking a particular law (παράπτωμα)—they are both sufficient to kill us: All have sinned; the wages of sin is death.
This was the whole story of our lives. We were all in bondage to sin of one sort or another, and in particular the prince of the power of the air (v.2), otherwise known as the accuser or ‘devil’ (diabolos 4:27; 6:11).
The diabolos, the prosecuting counsel, has us bang to rights—and we know this. We are utterly lost outside Christ. I think it’s hard for us to see how lost that is, but Paul takes no prisoners:
You were dead…
We recognise that once we were in this state and that Christ has transformed us. We are redeemed!
By ‘you’, Paul means the Gentiles, but in reality (v.3 like the rest of mankind) everyone was in the same condition. We, and everyone else outside Christ, are sons of disobedience, the children of wrath.
- ‘You were dead’. In what respect is this true?
But God (vv.4-7)
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus
We said at the end of Chapter 1 that Christ is risen from the dead and exalted to the Right Hand of the Father, and that we are his body. He has all authority in heaven and on earth and that power is situated in us, his body, the church.
So, God … made us alive together with Christ … and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus… (vv.4-6). We should probably take a moment with that.
Even though we’re in Christ, we have a problem understanding the magnitude of what God has done for us, of what he has invested in us.
- We struggle to believe in anything supernatural and, honestly, it makes us a bit uncomfortable.
- We don’t think we deserve any favours from God. (We’re right, but this is grace. And it’s not really about favours for us, anyway.)
- We think that, somehow, we have to grow the kingdom of God by our own efforts, which is just a silly idea.
He has made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in just the same way as he did with Jesus (1: 20)
He made us alive
He gives us life; we are born again from an incorruptible seed (John 3: 16; 1 Peter 1: 23) so that we can produce everlasting fruit (John 15: 8, 16; Gal 5: 22, 23). God’s original commission to the Man and the Woman was to be fruitful (Gen 1: 28); he has made that possible once again.
He raised us up
Romans 6: 4: just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Romans 8: 11: he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Compare: Col 3: 1
So, is this now or is it yet to come?
Clearly the resurrection of the body that Paul describes in 1 Cor 15 is yet to come, just as Jesus’ kingdom is yet to come. But also, as Jesus kingdom is here now, as we walk under his sovereignty, so as we bear witness to his resurrection, his resurrection lives in us.
He seated us with Christ (cf. 1: 20)
Colossians 1: 1-3: For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
This is what makes martyrdom not just possible, but sort of inevitable, at least in the teaching of the apostles.
‘We were dead’, Paul has told us, and we have ‘put to death’ that ‘dead’ life and we have ‘put on Christ’ (Romans 3: 14; Gal 3: 27).
Remember John 14: 1-7?
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
- What are the implications of this for our lives?
v.7
… so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
There are two things here.
First, God is showing his amazing grace to the whole of his creation, the demonstration of his love in bringing life out of death and order out of chaos.
- A demonstration to the world.
- A demonstration to the Powers.
As we’ve just seen.
And second, we are the beneficiaries of this. We live in this reality.
vv.8-10
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Saved by grace vv. 5 and 8
… by grace you have been saved (v.5) … For by grace you have been saved through faith (v.8)
Paul uses the perfect tense; this is something that has been completed. We have been saved. That work is done, and it was nothing that we did. We believed: that’s it.
This reinforces the sheer enormity of God's mercy, love, grace, and kindness which has brought about such an altered state of existence for Christians.
Richard Carlson
Let’s take another moment to consider the narrative of this. We were dead in our sin; subject to the prince of the power of the air; children of wrath; but God because of his character (because he is rich in mercy, and in his grace—remember Exodus 34: 6: The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness) has made us alive, raised us up and seated us with Christ.
- Where is Christ (Eph 1: 21)?
- Where are we?
His workmanship (vv.8-10)
This reminds me of Adam and Eve in the Garden with God—his workmanship created for good works. He has re-created us through Christ.
We were dead, but he has given us life, he has raised us and seated us with Christ. Literally, there was nothing we could do to help this process … we were dead.
vv.8,9 this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
So… Why has God done this?
For good works
While our own efforts can get us nowhere, in Christ it is a different matter.
First, he works in us…
We are his workmanship; God is re-establishing the order of his creation in the church. When we pray ‘Your kingdom come’, this is what we mean.
Second, he works through us…
He created us for good works.
We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Isa 26: 12
O Lord, you will ordain peace for us,
for you have indeed done for us all our works.
I think several things flow logically from this. You may disagree, in which case, please do so.
1. God’s holy people are the means by which Jesus’ power and authority is revealed in the world until he returns.
2. The church, the community that they establish, is like a bridgehead of his kingdom in this world.
3. The church is under Christ’s authority—in fact it is Christ’s authority. We are no longer under the authority of Satan.
We could say a lot more than this, but you get the idea. Of course, all kinds of practical problems immediately arise, some of which Paul will address in the rest of the book.
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