Ephesians Chapter 2
(Ephesians 2:1)And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
- We were made alive from the dead state that we were in
- Because we broke the law, God's Law, we were in this position/state/condition
- Because of this we were wayward, lost, floating at sea, at the mercy of the waves of the evil of this world which is both in this world, of this world and is this world
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
- Four things were and still are against us, making it impossible to see or seek God:
- The world system (the course of this world)
- The enemy, the subtil serpent (prince and power of the air)
- The people in this world (children of disobedience) who we dwelt among and dwelt as
- Our flesh was and is against us
- Emphasis should be on "as in times PAST"
- But all we need is God being for us!
When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.
(Romans 8:31)
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
(1 John 4:4)
Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
(Ephesians 2:3)
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
- Our behavior was according to our lusts
- Because of this we were under God's Wrath
- This had to be destroyed at the Cross-this evil in us, in the world's people, in the world's system, in the enemy
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
- ....."But God" says it all, despite everything that was evil said before those two words
- Because God loves.......therefore His mercy. The only reason God can love us enough to save us (the unsaveable) is His Mercy
- God ultimately quickened us through the agency of Christ's death and burial. His Resurrection is now ours
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,
- God is the Resurrection of our life from the dead
- This verse clearly shows us His Omnipotence
- Jesus is the firstfruits, then us being resurrected
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
(1 Corinthians 15:20)
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.
(1 Corinthians 15:23)
But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
(James 1:18)
Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. (by grace ye are saved;)
- This is all according to His will
- If we are saved by grace, we are not saved by works
- Grace is the anti-thesis of works
And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
(Ephesians 2:6)
And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
- Because of His Grace, because of His Mercy, and because of our death and subsequent belief and His Resurrection, and then because of our Resurrection, we get a seat near Jesus and the Father in Heaven
- This together is in eternity, for eternity
That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
- There are two ages left: The Millennial Kingdom and the Age of Eternity, an age that never ends
- The showing us of His riches will be endless, everlasting
- This is the purpose of His creating us and saving us
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
- This is the essence of the Gospel
- This one fact alone, grace, differentiates us from all other beliefs
- The action of grace is through the agency of faith
- The grace, the gift and the "not of yourselves" means it is unearned
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
- Because of the above, works is not involved
- Because we are not righteous in our flesh, this is necessary
- This is because of the Fall which led to our sins and very sin nature
- No true Christian can boast about how good they are, nor how they earned their salvation in any way
- It had to be done this way because:
- We cannot work to be saved, as it is unacceptable to God anyways, and useless to save
- If we could God would not have to save us, and we could boast about how we saved ourselves
- We would not know at what point we could "stop, because we worked enough and we are now saved!"
- God knows we would boast
For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
(Isaiah 64:6)
But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
(Ephesians 2:10)
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
- We are His Workmanship...meaning that we are not our own workmanship, and no one is merely a "self-made man"
- We are a new Creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)
- We each have a unique ministry God has set apart just for us
- It is the only way we can and do glorify God
Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
- We were the uncircumcised, as in the Gentiles. The Jews are "The Circumcised, The Circumcision"
- We WERE Gentiles spiritually (Not Jews), but are now the Church, the body of Christ, in which there is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, just members of the Body of Christ
- As such, we are no longer Gentiles, spiritually, and we are no longer Jews, spiritually
Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God:
(1 Corinthians 12:2)
Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
(Galatians 3:28)
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
(Ephesians 2:12)
That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
- We were without Christ's salvation, not a Jew (with earthly promised blessings), aliens, pilgrims, strangers, without hope, without God, and living on this earth under the rule of the god of this world
- This was now and for all eternity, earthly blessings, distance, hope, in prison with a death sentence
- We were even running fast in the wrong direction!
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
- The Jews, who were supposed to be close to their God, were far off as it was, most of them, most of the time, so now think how far off the Gentiles were
- Only One Person could do all of this repair job on us
- To do it He had to die a bloody death
- Jesus reversed our direction for us, turned us around, closed the distance completely for us
For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
- Jesus is the Prince of Peace
- This middle wall of partition was our sin, impenetrable and unable to be removed by us. God Himself had to do it for us
- No person can remove that wall by themself
- There is sin, struggle, pain, bondage, death, war-or PEACE and LIFE
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counseller, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
(Ephesians 2:15)
Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
- His broken Body is why the chains were broken which bound us
- The Law was those chains, and us breaking the Law
- Jew (one body) and Gentile (one other body) becoming the Church(one body)
- The only time that 1+1=1
And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
- One Body, One Saviour, reconciled to One God, One Father
- The death and shed Blood kills the hatred we had for God, and the hatred God had for our sin
And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
- We as Gentiles were aliens, strangers, pilgrims
- We distanced ourselves from God; not the other way around
- However, the same peace with God was preached to us as to those closer in (Jews), meaning it is the same Gospel
For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
- The theme is One Body (the Son Jesus Christ), many different and unique people, two people groups(we both), Jew and Gentile, reconciled in the Church
- This reconciliation gives us the keys, the password directly to the Father
Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
- "to us-ward" is stronger than just "to us".........it is directional, "toward us", in more of a straight, direct beeline than just to us
- The pilgrims and strangers are now all together as fellow citizens, fellow countrymen, in a country God made for Himself
- "Household" appears seventy times in Scripture, and means "family"
HOUSEHOLD, n. hous'hold. Those who dwell under the same roof and compose a family; those who belong to a family.
I baptized also the household of Stephanus. 1 Cor 1.
1. Family life; domestic management.
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
- Corner stones of buildings are foundations laid to begin construction
- The corner stone determines the location and orientation of all of the other stones and parts of any building
In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
- In construction, the building is built ON the cornerstone
- in Christ, it is built IN the Cornerstone
- Buildings grow by building through adding
- The Church grows like life, literally, spiritually in number and maturity
1. Suitably; properly; with propriety. A maxim fitly applied.
2. Commodiously; conveniently.
(Ephesians 2:22)
In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
- These verses have the Trinity
- The "In Whom" is Jesus Christ (God the Son), God (God the Father)and through the Spirit (God the Spirit)
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