LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS
Unity
Ephesians 2:1-10
INTRODUCTION
Throughout Ephesians, Paul is primarily addressing the issue of unity or rather disunity in the Church. There's a church in Dallas Nancy and I like to visit whenever we are away from Corsicana. I love one of its major ministries: "We pray for the healing of the Church’s sad divisions and for the reunification of the Body of Christ." That is such a wonderful ministry; especially in light not only of the divisions within the church but also effect the divisions are having upon a lost world.
Unfortunately, most of us, when we pray for unity, mean this: "Lord, make those who disagree with me agree with me." Or "Let those who are wrong [who just happen to disagree with me] get right with You [which means they will start to agree with me]." We spiritualize our divisive nature. Without any word from the Lord, people split the church over worship styles, over who's leading the church, etc. I hear so many times younger adults criticizing senior adults because they are inflexible. I hope that younger adults in our church are not like that because during the past 4 years, the only ones flexing have been the senior adults. The senior adults gave up their worship time to accommodate younger adults. They did it for the sake of reaching younger adults and for the sake of maintaining the unity of the church with hardly a word of thanks from those who benefitted from their flexing. Moreover, did the senior adults yield their preferred time of worship to the younger adults out of a sense of wanting to create unity in the church or did they yield out of a sense of compulsion, that they felt like they had no other choice? If out of a sense of wanting to create unity, they did well; if out of a sense of compulsion, they did not do well. Paul wants both sides to foster unity in the church.
Before looking closely at the passage, bear in mind that this passage gives tremendous insight first into the Christian view of man. Next, it will address salvation and God. Finally, in this passage Paul will give us understanding of the Christian view of history, not only of the world but also of the individual Christian. This passage, like so many others in Ephesians, is rich in wisdom and understanding. It is easy to understand why Paul prayed that God give us a heart of wisdom to understand the profound truths of this little letter (Eph. 1:17-18).
UNITY BASED ON A COMMON PROBLEM (2:1-3)
We are more one, more united with other people than what we think because we all have the same problem before we become Christians. Whether we are rich or poor, whether we are Anglo or Hispanic or African-American, whether we are socially elite or socially unsophisticated, whether we are highly educated or just have a GED, before Christ came into our lives, we all had the same, common problem—we were lost!
The Gentiles (2:1, 2)
| 1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, 2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. |
The "you" Paul refers to here in these verses are the Gentiles, especially the Gentile Christians in the Ephesian church. Here Paul is reminding them of their spiritual condition BEFORE they came to faith in Christ.
Look at the spiritual condition of the Gentile Christians BEFORE they came to faith in Christ. They were "dead in trespasses and sins." The fact that they were living—that WE were living—in sin before we became Christians shows that we were spiritually dead, that is dead to God, dead to a spiritual life within us. Moreover, living a life of sin is what actually killed us.
We walked in these sins "according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." There is legitimate theological discussion about the meaning of "the course of this world." The phrase is literally "the age of this world." The Greeks actually had a god named "Aion," that is "age," the same Greek word in v. 2. According to Paul a demonic spirit dominates the mindset of this world. The ancient church fathers actually claimed that this spirit was working in the actual air we breathed and that Christ's death on the cross actually cleansed the air so that our minds could think correctly.
It is so easy to see how this thought relates to our very world. Many today are “breathing in the air of this world.” The air of this world, that is the mindset of this world is the following:
This is the "spirit" of this age that so many people today are breathing into their lives.
According to Paul this attitude, this "age of the world" is energized by none other than Satan himself: "according to the prince of the power of the air." Although fewer and fewer people in America believe Satan exists, this does not mean that he does NOT exist. The fact that approximately 299,999,000 people in America don't realize you exist doesn't mean you don't exist. The majority, as many elections prove, is not always right. According to Paul, the attitudes of the world don't reflect a progressive, enlightened spirit; they reflect Satan himself.
Moreover, Paul characterizes the unsaved Gentile as one who is under the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Non-Christian Gentiles may think they are enlightened or progressive in their attitudes towards the great moral issues of our day: gay marriage, abortion, etc. Paul, though, claims that the non-Christian Gentiles are not progressive; rather, they are disobedient, that is disobedient to God Himself. "But we can't force God's morality upon others," some will claim. Trust me, we are always enforcing somebody's morality upon everybody, either a conservative's or a liberal's or a moderate's. That is unavoidable. According to my brother-in-law who graduated top of his class at the Baylor Law School (that is impressive), every law, every law is based upon morality. To think otherwise is naive or deceitful. Since there are thousands of laws, we are constantly imposing morality upon people. If we are going to force somebody's morality upon everybody, then why not God's morality?
This is the spiritual state of the non-Christian Gentile. According to Paul, he needs salvation.
The Jews or Religious Persons (2:3)
Are the Jews any better off than the Gentiles? Are the Jewish Christians superior to the Gentile Christians who were under the control of Satan? Not according to Paul.
| 3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. |
Whereas Paul claims that the non-Christian Gentile world is under the influence of Satan, the religious non-saved Jew is under the influence of his own flesh.
What does Paul mean by this term "flesh"? He means, first of all, "man apart from God." Second, because man apart from God veers towards evil, the term "flesh" comes to mean "man hostile towards God," that is that element in man which is self-centered and rejects the intrusion of God into his life. This is the problem not simply of the non-Christian Jew, it is also the problem of the religious person of any religion, including Christianity, if that person has not been changed by the Spirit of Christ.
This is the element which has done so much damage in churches I've witnessed. The attitude of the person is "It is all about me!" I've seen "spiritual leaders" in church making major decisions for the church speak like this: "I don't like that!" or "I don't feel good about this or that!" or "I don't want that." Whether they realize it or not, they are equating what they want or feel with God's will. They can't believe that God would ever want something they didn't want or they didn't feel. It is all about them. Forget about God communicating information to them. They may study Experiencing God all day long; however, when push comes to shove, God's communication is irrelevant to them. All that matters is what THEY think. This is the great crime of the non-religious Jew, of the non-saved church go-er in the Baptist church, and of the saved-church member who is refusing to take seriously the rule of Jesus in their lives.
The result is that they become "children of wrath." By "children of wrath," Paul first means that they are destined for wrath. Wrath is their final destiny. Second, Paul may mean that their parent is wrath. Since sons are like their fathers, then they too are wrathful.
This passage should help explain all the wrath both in the church and in society. The November elections this year will most likely reflect the hostility so many people feel towards what's going on in our society. Whether what is going on is right or wrong is irrelevant. What is relevant for us as Christians is that this wrath reflects the self-centeredness we find in society today. Very few people I hear on the radio and on TV are concerned what God thinks about the situation we find ourselves in today politically. For both sides, it is all about "me." We are living according to the flesh, the very sin of the Jew in this passage.
UNITY BASED ON A COMMON SALVATION (2:4-7)
| 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, 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 ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. |
Two of the greatest words in the Bible introduce this passage: "But God." According to verses 1-3 man is on the fast track to destruction, to hell. The non-Christian Gentile is spiritually dead, under Satan's control. The "religious" Jew, the "religious" American is operating out of the flesh, out of his own self-centeredness, equating his desires with God. All appears lost because the dead cannot save himself. If man is left to himself, then all is lost. But now come the 2 great words, "But God . . ." We are lost, BUT GOD saves us; we are blind, BUT GOD now enlightens us. Just like God dramatically stepped in and saved Paul, so now God dramatically steps in and saves us.
Notice how Paul describes salvation in this passage. He doesn't use the words "save" or "enlightens." Rather, he sees our salvation in terms of resurrection, being raised from the dead. According to Paul, we were dead spiritually before Christ came into our lives; at the time of salvation, God raises us spiritually from the dead.
Once more, notice that our salvation is not separate from Christ. God may have raised us up; however, according to Paul, God raised us up with Christ. Christ became a man so that we could experience His own destiny. He became a Man and united us to Himself so that when He rose from the dead, we too could rise from the dead. At the time of Christ's resurrection, God potentially raised ALL PEOPLE spiritually from the dead. The only thing necessary for a person to do to experience this spiritual resurrection is to express faith in Jesus Christ.
Rising from the dead, though, is only part 2 of the rising up process Jesus experienced. There were also a part 1 and a part 3 to Jesus' being lifted up (John 8:28).
Part 1: Jesus is lifted up on the cross. The cross is no longer an instrument of shame. Rather it becomes a throne with the placard above Jesus declaring to the whole world (in Latin: the language of government, in Greek: the language of the common man; and in Hebrew: the language of religion) that Jesus is the King of the Jews and thereby the Lord of the Gentiles as well.
Part 2: Jesus is lifted up from the grave.
Christians understand that these first 2 parts apply to them. We too must die to ourselves, that is take up our crosses daily and follow Jesus. We too rise from the dead spiritually just like Jesus rose from the dead physically. In fact, the whole reason we immerse new Christians in the Baptist church is to demonstrate our belief to the world that just as Christ rose from the dead physically, so we too rise from the dead spiritually (and one day physically too when Jesus returns).
Part 3: Jesus ascends to sit on the throne at the right hand of God.
This part of Jesus' being lifted up is what seems strange to us. God lifts up Jesus on the cross and from the grave to seat Him upon the throne of heaven. Only the Father Himself will not be subjected to Jesus. Everything else will be though: "that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:10-11).
We know these verses backwards and forwards. We don't realize, though, that they make a major statement about us too. Remember who now sits upon the throne of heaven—Jesus, both God AND MAN!!!! Right now, Jesus is experiencing everything God intended originally for man. After God created all things in Gen. 1, He subjected creation to man: "God blessed them [Adam and Eve]; and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth'" (Gen. 1:28).
Although man sinned and relinquished his rights to rule over creation, Christ became man so that He might re-establish those rights. That is the very point the author of Hebrews is making when he claims, "YOU HAVE PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET [referring to us, to man!]." For in subjecting all things to him [man], He left nothing that is not subject to him [man]. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. But we do see Him [Jesus] who was made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone" (Heb. 2:8, 9). Paul is saying just this same thing in Eph. 2:6 when he claims that Christ has seated us with Him in the heavenly places. Right now we are not fully experiencing this enthronement. It, though, is not a matter of "if" we are going to be enthroned with Christ; it's only a matter of "when."
The wonderful thing is that right now we who have the Spirit of Christ living within us can taste what it means to be enthroned with Christ. We don't have to be beaten down in life. The same Spirit which raised Jesus from the dead has raised us from the dead (Rom. 8:11).
The same Spirit of Christ which gave Him life will give us Christ's life if we are willing to live by faith. Paul claims: "By FAITH you have been saved!" We won't experience that life fully until Christ returns; however, we can experience it to a real degree until then. It is all a matter of trusting Christ on a consistent, daily basis. There is no cause for a defeated attitude in the Christian life. Christ has more than conquered death; He has extended that victory to us as well. If we go around beaten down and defeated; it is not Christ's fault. He is extending that life of victory to us. If we are not experiencing it, it is because we are not receiving it by faith on a daily, consistent basis.
This life is not extended just to those who worship the "old" contemporary way. it is extended even to those who worship in a more traditional manner. It is extended to those who worship according to the new emergent model. It is extended to each and every person who will receive Christ by faith daily, regardless of their style of worship, the smell of their clothes, the number of degrees in their offices, the amount of money in their bank. There is only ONE Savior, ONE resurrection, ONE throne.
A COMMON WORKMANSHIP
So God has poured out His grace upon us in Christ Jesus. For what purpose? To leave us in our sinful state as children of disobedience and of wrath? No!
| For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. |
The word translated "workmanship" is the Greek word poiema (pron. poy-A-mah) from which we get the English word "poem." God has a purpose in saving us. Instead of just forgiving us and then leaving us in our state of sin, God is constructing us into His workmanship, into His poem.
What is interesting is that Paul to a certain extent makes the idea of "created in Christ Jesus" a little ambiguous, most likely for a good reason. When it says that we are "created in Christ Jesus," is Paul referring to the original creation, the physical creation not only of the universe but also of us who are human? There are good grounds for thinking he is referring to the original creation. John claims, "All things came into being through Him [Jesus] and apart from Him [Jesus] nothing came into being that has come into being" (John 1:3). Earlier in Eph. 1 Paul wrote that God chose us in Jesus before the foundation of the world, an event before we were saved (1:4). God did not create mankind apart from Jesus. (Remember that Jesus is the divine administrator God uses in ALL His dealings with creation, even mankind.) When God decided to create mankind, He decided to use His Son Jesus as the Prototype, the model upon which God based His design for mankind. When God created us, He created us to be like Jesus. God originally created us to be like Jesus.
However, when God saves us, He also re-creates us. "Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation!" (2 Cor. 5:17). So God is re-creating us. For what purpose? According to Paul, to be like Jesus. "For whom He [God] foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son" (Rom. 8:29). God saves for the purpose of making His sons and daughters so that we will be like His Great Son, Jesus. Going off in any other direction violates the very purpose God saved us in the first place.
So which creation is Paul referring to, the original creation or the re-creation at the time of salvation? Again, most likely both. God's re-creating us at the time of salvation fulfills His purpose for us at the time of our original creation, to be like Jesus. When Adam sinned in the garden, he seriously damaged himself and the human race so that we were no longer like Jesus. Christ comes and not only saves us but comes to live within us to make real God's original purpose for us, to be like Jesus. Anything else will not do.
So what does it mean to be like Jesus? Whatever else it means to be like Jesus, being like Jesus means doing good works: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus FOR GOOD WORKS" (2:10). That sounds strange. What about being loving, holy, patient, etc.? These are indicators that Christ lives within you. However, Paul does not focus on these at this point. Rather he focuses on good works. Whatever else was true about Jesus, He did good works. In fact, good works were such a part of Jesus' life that Peter sums up Jesus' ministry by stating that Jesus went about "doing good" (Acts 10:38).
So what good works is Paul focusing on in this passage? Unity. It is a good work to be unified with others who are part of the body of Christ. It was so important to Jesus that we be unified that on the night before He died, His prayer for you and me was that we be unified:
| "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us, that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. And the glory which Thou hast given to Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me" (John 17:20-23). |
We need to be careful at this point. Too often, those who preach or teach unity understand unity to be "agree with me!" "I made the decision, now get with it!" "I like the decision that was made; now support it wholeheartedly," when in fact if the tables were reversed, they would be griping the loudest and claiming that they were following their conscience. Unity, as Paul shall show later, demands humility on the part of EVERYBODY, not just on the part of those who have to adjust themselves to something they may not agree with but also on the part of those who claim they know God's will. Remember that unity is created when we all let CHRIST, not you or I, be the divine administrator.