The Story of the Church
Ephesians 2:1–22 – Learning to Live Under the Reign of Christ
Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Life in the Spirit – July 21, 2024 (am)
We have an unusual opportunity today. It’s rare that we get to experience the whole of Eph.2 in one sermon. One piece though it is, it divides so nicely right near the middle such that individual salvation and beginning sanctification is described in vv.1-10, then the resulting nature of the unified collection of all believers together in the church is described in vv.11-22. So, it’s most often divided at least in two, if not into many more parts.
This morning, though, we’re going to look at it in one piece. And when the subject is biblical theology or the storyline of redemption, the big picture of what God is doing in the world, his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him (1:9-10), we’ll benefit greatly from seeing Eph.2 as a unit, as one amazing work of God told in two discernibly distinct but inextricably linked parts. So, even though seeing it as a unit means we won’t get to stop and inspect the bark on every tree in this dense biblical-theological forest, we’ll get to appreciate more fully the absolutely breathtaking parameters of the forest as a whole. So, gaze at this forest through two lenses.
See God’s Nature Revealed in His Salvation and Receive It – 1-10
Paul begins to address directly in c.2 the people he’s just prayed for at the end of c.1. And he describes their spiritual state, actually the state of all humanity before meeting Christ, about as vividly and succinctly as we’ll find anywhere in Scripture. It lays the foundation for understanding our need for salvation even as it expresses a truth, a fact, about us that’s lost on many, many people, believers and unbelievers alike. This is a truth which simply can’t be over-estimated and its importance. 1 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.
If we fail to understand this truth, we’ll fail to understand why it is that God needed to intervene in human history to provide salvation at all, not to mention why it took the second Person of the Trinity becoming a human Being to provide it. Apart from the work of Christ in this world—living a sinless, perfect life and meeting the revealed standard of God then dying a sacrificial death in the place of all who receive it by faith—human beings like us are hopeless, dead in our trespasses and sins (1), separated from God, objects only of His wrath (3), destined for His eternal judgment.
That’s just who we are. 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. That’s our God! That’s perhaps the clearest portrait of Him that we could paint. He’s a God Who’s rich in mercy and great in love, even toward those whose sin, whose rebellion, whose utter rejection of Him with prejudice, is wholly and completely against Him (Psa.51:4). But [He still] made us alive [in] Christ (3:4), wholly by His grace, meaning, as a completely free gift, unearned, undeserved, unqualified.
Reconciliation with Him both in time and for all eternity, that’s what our God provides rebel sinners in His salvation. And that’s the portrait He paints of Himself for His creatures to understand Him, to know Him, to relate to Him. This world thinks of God very differently. Either He’s completely loving and holds us to no standard at all, or He’s completely holy and just looks for opportunities to pour out His wrath on us. But Scripture presents Him very differently, as a God Who’s completely holy and does hold that standard, and yet is long-suffering with the sin of His creatures, waiting patiently for all who’ll embrace the gift of His absolutely incomprehensible love (2Pe.3:9).
And those who do are 6 … 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. He saves us to display the riches of his grace—not the wisdom of our discernment to recognize his grace, nor the humility of our hearts to admit our need for it, but the riches of his kindly given grace, His abounding grace, and redeeming kindness! 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. Now, here’s the outcome, our effort. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. God saves us because He’s prepared a job for us to do! And we’re uniquely crafted by Him to do it, both natural and spiritual gifts, as we’ll see a bit later on here, and also in a number of other texts. This is the nature of our God revealed in His salvation! Why would we not receive it?
Recognize the Grand Scope of God’s Salvation and Live It – 11-22
From there, Paul moves into one of the most vivid and succinct descriptions of the overall aim and outcome of our salvation that appears in his letters, how it is that God intends to accomplish his purpose, the mystery of his will, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him (1:9-10). Without explicit reference to Gen.12, we’re learning how God has purposed His salvation—which originally seemed to be meant for His old covenant people, Israel—to extend to all the families of the earth, to every nation in the world (Rev.7:9-10), as He promised to Abraham (Gen.12:1-3).
So, he begins this section not with the separation of all people from God due to their sin, but with the separation of the 11 …Gentiles (11), yes, from Christ (12), but also from the commonwealth of Israel (12). They’re 12 …strangers to the covenants of promise, thus having no hope and without God in the world. Up until the cross, the Gentiles had been separated from all that God was doing in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. The implications are that everything the Gentiles were separated from in the past regarding God’s salvation, His covenant, His people, they’re now joined to, included in; there’s a place for them as they receive the blood of Christ by faith as payment in full for the debt of their sin. So, those who once were far off have been brought near (13).
Paul explains: 14 For he himself is our peace, He brought Jew and Gentile together, saved them by one and the same sacrifice. [He] has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility, which was enormous! Human history has known no dividing wall that’s been higher or thicker. But Jesus [broke] it down 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances…. If this statement doesn’t shock you, you’re not listening very closely! Didn’t Jesus say (using the same word): Mat.5:17 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. So, what is Paul saying here?
Context is key. Jesus was comparing the true meaning of the law (the standard of righteousness it sets) with the Pharisees interpretation of it. Paul is talking about the requirements of the law as the means for maintaining right (covenant) relationship with God, particularly circumcision (11), the main physical distinction between Jews and Gentiles (Stott 11) and the illustration in the flesh of submission to the law of Moses (11) and therefore of all that Gentiles were separated from (12) at one time (11). To the Colossians, Paul wrote: Col.2:11 In [Christ] you (Gentiles) were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ…. 16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. The law anticipated God’s coming salvation, but it couldn’t accomplish it. Only Jesus can save us.
So, Jesus [broke] down [that which separated Gentiles from Jews] 15 by abolishing the law of commandments…, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, so that He might save both by one sacrifice into one body, thereby killing the hostility.
19 So then [the Gentiles] are no longer strangers and aliens, but… fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, one new people of God, sealed (1:13) by one Spirit (18) and so together (4:4-6) as the temple, the dwelling place for God by the Spirit (22), united under the reign of Christ (1:9-10) now and for eternity.
Conclusion
Do you understand what this means? Under the old covenant, God lived in a tent, then a building, behind a veil, behind an entry room behind an altar behind another veil behind a washbasin behind another altar behind another veil, separated from the people who are the insiders here in Eph.2, those who were set apart as His people, receivers of the covenants of promise, receivers of the law, His holy standard. But God was cloistered away from these insiders, approachable only if something died—qualifying animals from their precious flocks, flocks that sustained their life as both food and labor. And even then, it was only their highest-ranking priest who could enter God’s presence, and that just once a year to transact relationship-sustaining business. Yet, all the rest of the year there still had to be a steady stream of animals dying in order for Him to stay there, their own deaths symbolized by the death of these animals so that God’s holiness wouldn’t be compromised. Yet, He still remained invisible, and terrifying, to His chosen people!
But what do we see here? Once His plan of salvation is implemented, not only His chosen people but anyone from anywhere who will receive His free gift will be embraced not only as family but will be included among those who together are now the temple in which He lives, so separation of any kind!
We read in the OT that the temple is sometimes referred to as the place God [chose] to make His name to dwell there (Deu.26:2). That’s a very good description; we hear the sacred specialness of it. What we hear in our passage today, though, is that we, the church, are now the place God [has chosen] to make His name to dwell there (22; cf. 3:15). And that’s not just an arbitrary or off-the-cuff change. This is God’s purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him (1:9-10)—Jew and Gentile both, reconciled to God in one body through the cross, thus killing the hostility, not just God to redeemed sinners, but also Jew and Gentile to one another in such harmony, such peace, shalom, that God dwells there by His Spirit!
This is God’s salvation plan. This is the salvation Jesus has accomplished for us. This forms the church that gathers regularly to reaffirm our standing with God and our unity with one another, remembering it all at the Lord’s Table.
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Resources
Arnold, Clinton E. 1992. Ephesians: Power and Magic. Grand Rapids: Baker.
, gen. ed. 2002. Zondervan Illustrated Bible Background Commentary. Vol. 3, Romans-Philemon. Ephesians, by Clinton E. Arnold, 300-340. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Beale, G. K., ed. 1994. The Right Doctrine from the Wrong Texts. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.
, & D. A. Carson, eds. 2007. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Ephesians, by Frank S. Thielman, 813-833. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic.
Bruce, F. F., Gordon D. Fee, & Ned B. Stonehouse., gen. eds. 1984. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians, by F. F. Bruce. Ephesians, 227-442. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
Calvin, John. 1854. Commentary on the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians and Ephesians, trans, by William Pringle. Ephesians, 189-344. Logos.
Carson, D. A., ed. 1999. Pillar New Testament Commentary. The Letter to the Ephesians, by Peter T. O’Brien. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans.
, R. T. France, J. A. Motyer, & G. J. Wenham, eds. 1994. New Bible Commentary 21st Century Edition. Ephesians, by Max Turner, 1222-1244. Leicester, Eng.: InterVarsity.
Dever, Mark. 2005. The Message of the New Testament. Ch. 6, The Message of Ephesians: Grace, 235-257. Wheaton: Crossway.
Dockery, David S, ed. 2024. New American Commentary. Vol. 31, Ephesians, by Terry Wilder. Nashville: Broadman & Holman.
Gasque, W. Ward, NT ed. 1993, second printing. New International Biblical Commentary. Vol. 10. Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, by Arthur G. Patzia. Ephesians, 121-294. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson.
Grudem, Wayne, ed. 2008. ESV Study Bible. Study notes on Ephesians, 2257-2274, by S. M. Baugh. Wheaton: Crossway.
Hodge, Charles. 1991. Geneva Series of Commentaries. Ephesians. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth.
Hubbard, David A., & Glenn W. Barker. 1990. Word Biblical Commentary. Vol. 42, Ephesians, by Andrew T. Lincoln. Dallas: Word.
Hughes, R. Kent. 1990. Preaching the Word. Ephesians: The Mystery of the Body of Christ, by R. Kent Hughes. Wheaton: Crossway.
Lloyd-Jones, D. Martyn. 2003, third printing. Ephesians, eight volumes. Grand Rapids: Baker.
Longman III, Tremper, & David E. Garland, eds. 2006. Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Vol. 12, Ephesians-Philemon. Ephesians, by William W. Klein, 19-173. Grand Rapids: Zondervan.
Morris, Leon, ed. 1989. Tyndale New Testament Commentaries. Vol. 10, Ephesians, by Francis Foulkes. Downers Grove: InterVarsity.
Keskin, Nancy. 2004. Ephesus, trans. by Anita Gillett. Istanbul: Keskin Color Kartpostalcilik.
Moule, H. C. G. 1977. Studies in Ephesians. Grand Rapids: Kregel.
Osborne, Grant R. 2017. Osborne New Testament Commentaries. Ephesians: Verse by Verse. Bellingham, WA: Lexham.
Sproul. R. C. 1994. The Purpose of God: An Exposition of Ephesians. Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus.
Stott, John, NT ed. 1979. The Bible Speaks Today. The Message of Ephesians, by John Stott. Downers Grove: InterVarsity.
NEXT SUNDAY: To Know the Love of Christ, Ephesians 3:1-21