The event was challenging and encouraging in equal measure.

The video of the two teaching sessions and the Q and A is now available courtesy of the kind folks at Jubilee Church.

Session 1 from Jubilee Church on Vimeo.

Session 2 from Jubilee Church on Vimeo.

These are the notes of a sermon preached by Andy Evans on the morning of the 2 May 2010 at Firwood Church. Click here to stream or download the sermon audio.

[Section 2b has been expanded significantly in order to deal with Ephesians 2:20 more fully.]

Ephesians 2:11–22

¹¹ Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— ¹² remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵ by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, 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, thereby killing the hostility. ¹⁷ And he came and preached peace to you who were far off 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 strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. ²² In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

1. INTRODUCTION: THE CHURCH IS…

a. A New Kind of People

The movement in chapter two from Paul’s treatment of the gospel in effecting the salvation of dead, radically depraved sons of disobedience to the creation of ‘one new man in place of the two’ indicates that, in Paul’s mind, the formation of the church of Christ lies close to, if not at the very centre of, God’s purposes in the gospel.

We saw this last week in verses 14 and 15,

Ephesians 2:14-15

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace

Two astonishing things happen at the cross. Firstly, Jesus destroys the hostility and enmity which exists between men everywhere (although, here, Paul has the hostility between Jew and Gentile particularly in view). Secondly, we see that the cross is the means by which Christ creates a new kind of people, the church.

All of which is possible because of Christ. It is not simply that Jesus makes peace (although this is also true, verse 15); Jesus is our peace. Paul understands that to be a believer in Christ is to be in Christ and to be in Christ is to surrender our desires, priorities, perspectives and very lives to him. Suddenly the most important question in the world is, ‘How can I please Christ?’ This kind of thinking and this kind of living brings incredible unity and peace. Believers are called to be Christ-like and Christ-like men and women living humble, loving lives and actively pursue peace.

So too, the church is not simply created by Christ (although this is true, as we shall see), but rather the church is created in Christ Jesus. Paul writes that Jesus,

Ephesians 2:15

…create[s] in himself one new man in place of two…

Christ is the sphere in which the church is created and exists. This is why Paul later describes the church as the body of Christ,

Ephesians 4:11–12

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ

This makes sense, to be a believer is to be in Christ and those who are in Christ are the church of Christ. As believers come together, loving, serving and building one another up, Christ is made visible. The church of Christ is the means by which Christ is made visible in this world.

b. The People of God

But this is just the beginning, Paul then goes on to show us what the church is by using a series of metaphors,

Ephesians 2:19-22

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Last week we considered the first two of these metaphors,  Paul uses the language of citizenship and  adoption.

i. We Are Citizens of the Kingdom of God

Paul writes, specifically with Gentiles in view, that we are,

Ephesians 2:19

… no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints

This reminds us of Paul’s earlier reality check in which he exhorted we Gentiles to remember our former state before Christ’s awesome intervention. He reminds us we were, at that time,

Ephesians 2:12

separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world

Paul would have us remember that we were firmly on the outside looking in. We were ignorant of the law, commands and promises of God. We were, quite literally, without hope in this world.

This is why, for the Gentile, full inclusion, citizenship and belonging  is a most sweet and most glorious thing. We who were formerly far off are now made to be his people, his church. We who were atheists, ‘without God in the world’, are now made to be God’s chosen nation, his true Israel.[1] Indeed, the Apostle Peter reminds believers,

1 Peter 2:9–10

[...] you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

The glory of Christ in the gospel is seen when the church of Christ is rightly understood. In Christ Jesus, God takes a disparate group of people and forms them into a nation which reflect his holiness and proclaim his excellencies.

This is what the church of Christ is made to be.

ii. We Are Adopted into the Household of God

Paul moves from the language of citizenship to the metaphor of adoption, consider,

Ephesians 2:19

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God

Consider the metaphor of citizenship when applied to the UK as we approach a General Election on Thursday. If you are a citizen of the United Kingdom and over the age of 18, you will go into the polling station, take your card and enter the polling booth. You will then mark the ballot slip and your vote will be counted.

This is perhaps the chief benefit of being a citizen of the United Kingdom.

And yet, as we enter the polling station, we will be but one of tens of millions of people casting a vote. You might vote a new party into government and yet, in truth, you are but one person among millions of faceless voters.

This, also, is what it means to be a citizen of the United Kingdom.

This is why it is so important that Paul develops his metaphor of the church further still. The church of Christ, the kingdom of God, is not like the United Kingdom. If you are a believer in Christ, you are not just one of the faceless millions of believers currently alive. You are not just another anonymous Christian in the great roll call of Christians stretching through the ages.

No. Paul reminds us that we are ‘members of the household of God’. We are adopted into the very family of God (1 John  3:1). We are counted as brothers in and brothers of Christ Jesus (Hebrews 2:11-12). We are made to be heirs and coheirs with Christ Jesus (Romans 8:16-17).

This is what it means to be a believer in Christ Jesus and this is what the church of Christ is: the very household of God.

2. A HOLY TEMPLE

But Paul then shifts and develops a third analogy and it is this that I now want to concentrate upon,

Ephesians 19-22

So then you [...] built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,  in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Paul begins by explaining that this new man (verse 15), the church, is a nation, a kingdom of believers, in whom Gentiles receive full citizenship. Paul then adds that this church is also like a family in which believers, Jew and Gentile alike, have access to the Father (verse 18).

Now Paul moves to describe this ‘new man’, the church, as being like a kingdom, which is like a household, which is also like a temple. This structure, ‘grows into a holy temple in the Lord’.

Here, it seems, we are on familiar territory.

All of us, understand what Paul means when he refers to the church as a temple. Irrespective of whether we are of Jewish or Gentile descent, or from a churched or unchurched background, all of us will have experienced (or at least been aware of) places of worship, whether it be the cathedral, church, mosque or synagogue.

Similarly, this reference would have been incredibly meaningful to both Jew and Gentile worshipping in Ephesus in the First Century.

For the Jew, in all likelihood, this reference would have led them to think of Herod’s temple in Jerusalem (we thought about this last week). The Gentile in Ephesus, however, would most likely be ignorant of the significance and architecture of a Jewish Temple. They would, however, have been incredibly familiar with the notion of the temple. The Temple of Artemus, some 120 years in the building, overshadowed the city, religious life and economy of Ephesus.[2] Indeed, such was the grandeur of this temple, that it is considered to be one of the Great Wonders of the World.

a. We are the temple

This is the great danger when we approach passages which deal with the church. This danger is thus amplified when Paul then draws an analogy between the church and a building.

Our culture primarily thinks of church in geographical terms. We speak of going to church, meaning that we are travelling to a specific location. We talk about maintaining the church, in reference to repairing the roof. Or we might talk of a church being beautiful, in admiration of the architectural skill displayed in the building.  This is the way in which the world primarily understands the church. We must guard ourselves against such unbiblical thinking.

When Paul talks of the church, which is like a holy temple, he is talking about us. We are the temple.

This is why the, ‘So you’ (verse 19), with which Paul leads into these three metaphors is so important. Paul wants us to understand that we are God’s temple in precisely the same way that we are citizens of his kingdom and members of his household.

Moreover, the temple of which Paul speaks is a different kind of temple, certainly to that of the Temple of Artemis. This temple, the church, is a ‘holy temple’, a temple set apart for God, a temple which reflects the character and purity of a holy God.

Paul will now proceed to described the nature of this temple and, in so doing, he is describing the church.

b. Foundations

Paul writes that this kingdom, this household, this temple, the very church of Jesus Christ, is,

Ephesians 2:20

built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets

Two things are clear with regards to this passage.

The first thing to note is that Paul writes that the apostles and prophets are, themselves, the foundation of the church. It is not merely that they are laying the foundation as Paul suggests elsewhere.[3] Secondly, all commentators agree that the designation, apostles, refers to the twelve and Paul himself.[4] Those who were commissioned by Christ Jesus to be witnesses and ambassadors of the gospel.

Paul’s intention in using the designation ‘prophets’ is, however, disputed with three exegetical possibilities.

i. Apostles and Old Testament Prophets[5]

The first possibility is that Paul is referencing the Old Testament Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah and the like.

It is not unusual for New Testament writers to reference the Old Testament by referring to the Law and the Prophets (e.g. Matthew 11:13, 22:40; 26:56; Luke 16:16, 29, 31; John 6:45; Acts 10:43, 13:15; Romans 1:2, 3:21). If this is Paul’s meaning, then his intention would be to state that the New Testament church is built upon the foundation of the Old and New Testaments.

Now, this is true, but I suspect this is not Paul’s meaning.  The difficulty with this interpretation is threefold.

Firstly, Paul does not precede ‘prophets’ with the definite article (‘the apostles and the prophets’) which is unusual and would make this the exception among New Testament references to the Old Testament writings of the Prophets.

Secondly, the word order should concern us. If Paul is referencing the Old Testament Prophets, why then would he begin by referencing the apostles? Would it not make more sense to retain the chronology and write, ‘the prophets and the apostles’?

The third, and most compelling reason against this interpretation is found later in Chapter 3 where Paul more clearly defines the group designated as ‘apostles and prophets’,

Ephesians 3:4–5

When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.

Here it is clear that Paul cannot be referencing the Old Testament Prophets. Indeed, Paul intentionally stresses the disjunction between the Old Testament Prophets, who are among ‘the sons of men in other generations’, and this new group designated ‘holy apostles and prophets’ to whom, now, the mystery has been revealed.

Given the proximity and the similarity in phrase,[6] most commentators agree that this group (in Chapter 3 verses 5) is the same group Paul references earlier in Chapter 2 verse 20. Clearly, if this is the case, then our prophets (in verse 20) cannot be the Old Testament Prophets.

ii. Those with the New Testament gift of prophecy

In his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul unpacks the way in which the Holy Spirit equips the church for service and ministry by bestowing various spiritual gifts upon the church, including the gift of prophecy (1 Corinthians 12:4-11). Paul then goes on to set out a hierarchy for these gifts, suggesting that the gift of prophecy should be considered chief among the spiritual gifts,

1 Corinthians 14:1

Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.

We can be confident, therefore, that there were those within the New Testament church with the gift of prophecy. Indeed, Luke, in the book of Acts, cites the four daughters of Philip (Acts 21:9) and Agabus (Acts 11:2 and 21:10) as examples of believers who had received this gift of prophecy. It seems likely also that there were those in the church in Ephesus who had received the gift of prophecy and this is why Paul reminds the church that spiritual gifts are intended for the edification of the church,

Ephesians 4:11–12

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ

The second exegetical position purports that, in addressing the apostles and prophets, Paul is referring to those who have received the spiritual gift of prophecy.

Although this position is not without merit and strong advocates (most modern commentators adopt this position)[7] there are serious and, in my view, decisive weaknesses here.

We have already addressed the first problem in relation to Ephesians 3:3-4 above. It seems from this passage that those Paul has in view are a narrow group. It is to this narrow group of ‘holy apostles and prophets’ that the mystery hidden to other generations (specifically the inclusion of the Gentiles) has now been revealed.

It does not make sense, in my view, to juxtapose the narrow group of apostle alongside the wider (perhaps much wider) community gifted with the spiritual gift of prophecy in such a way as to imply that there is a close correlation. Even if we accept that there is evidence in the New Testament for the continuation of the office of prophet (and I remain resolutely unpersuaded), it is surely stretching matters beyond credibility to suggest that this office shares parity with the office of apostle.  This position demands a close correlation, after all, Paul writes that a revelation hidden from other generations has now been revealed to both the apostles and those who had received the gift of prophecy. Paul further insists that the foundation of the church is grounded upon both groups. This seems somewhat unconvincing.

The second difficulty is that the revelation of Ephesians 3:4-5 is wound tightly into the message and revelation of the gospel. The full inclusion of the Gentiles is at the heart of the gospel message delivered to Ephesus and Corinth. The ‘now’ of verse 5, therefore, necessarily precedes the evangelization, the planting and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the respective churches at Corinth and Ephesus. It makes no sense, therefore, to include those gifted with prophecy in Ephesus and Corinth (or anywhere else, for that matter) with the apostles who were the initial and foundational witnesses to the gospel.

The third difficulty is that this view depends upon a high view of prophecy which seems to me to be lacking in the New Testament. Professor Wayne Grudem, in The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today, persuasively argues that the office of apostle is the New Testament equivalent of the Old Testament office of Prophet.[8]

In order to understand the importance of this observation to the matter in hand, we must remind ourselves of the nature of the office of the Old Testament Prophet. The Old Testament Prophet was one who spoke the very word of God on behalf of God. This is why the Old Testament Prophet is able to declare ‘The Lord says…’ or ‘Thus says the Lord…’ without fear of committing blasphemy (e.g. Exodus 4:22; 1 Samuel 10:18; 2 Kings 20:1; Isaiah 7:7, 43:1, 14, 16; Jeremiah 2:2, 6:6, 6, 16, 21, 22, etc.).[9]

The differences between the Old Testament and New Testament prophet are significant.

There is a difference in respect of authority. The authority of the Old Testament Prophet is absolute, the word of God mediated through the Prophet retains the authority of God (Deuteronomy 18:19). This is not the case in the New Testament where Paul, for example, disregards the exhortation of  prophets and Agabus to cancel his plans to go to Jerusalem (Acts 21:4, 10-11). There is no suggestion that Paul is committing a sin in thus disregarding a prophetic word , rather, the implication is that Paul must weigh, interpret and apply the prophetic word as he himself is guided by the Spirit.

In his letter to the church in Thessalonica, Paul goes further and encourages believes to treat all prophecy with similar rigor,

1 Thessalonians 5:20–21

Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good.

The Greek word dokimazete, here translated ‘test’, means to make a critical examination in order to determine genuineness.[10] Paul’s intention is clear, when presented with a prophetic word, believers must subject the prophecy to serious and sober scrutiny without tipping into cynicism.

Furthermore, Paul here implies a further shift in the nature of New Testament prophecy. The authority of the Old Testament Prophet is considerable (they were, after all, declaring the very word of God). Consequently, the sanction imposed upon a false Prophet was severe,

Deuteronomy 18:20

…the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.

Similarly, the consequence for the Prophet in error was final,

Deuteronomy 18:21–22

And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’—when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

The expectations placed upon the Prophet in the Old Testament is high because their authority is absolute (in declaring, ‘Thus says the Lord…’, their authority is grounded upon His authority). The Old Testament, therefore, prescribes that the false prophet must die whereas he who speaks  presumptuously should be not be regarded  a Prophet (implied in the statement, ‘You need not be afraid of him.’).[11]

We see here, in Paul’s instruction to the church in Thessalonica, that the expectations placed upon New Testament prophecy are less severe. Paul implies, therefore, that a prophecy may contain both good and bad information and that the believer should test the prophecy, discern and receive what is good and disregard what is bad.[12]

It is not credible, therefore, that Paul should intend we conclude from chapter 2 verse 20 that the apostles and New Testament prophets should be consider to be of equal weight and authority. Having understood this, it is difficult to see why Paul would include those with the gift of prophecy alongside those who held apostolic office as being foundational to the establishment of the church; which leads me to the third and preferred option.

iii. The Apostles who are the Prophets

As I have already mentioned, the New Testament office of apostle replaces the Old Testament office of Prophet. In the New Testament church, it is the apostle who has authority to declare the word of God inerrant. It is the Apostle who is now charged with writing and recording the very word of God (the Holy Scriptures).

Practically speaking, this is why we can approach the New Testament with confidence, assured that we are reading the very word of God. Furthermore, we must understand and accept that the word of God as mediated through the apostles carries the same absolute authority which we find in the Old Testament in relation to the office of Prophet.

We find that the Apostle Paul outlines this dynamic in his first letter to the church in Corinth (a church, incidentally, who, in their over-realised eschatology, believed that they were super-spiritual because they spoke in tongues, and struggled against apostolic authority),

1 Corinthians 14:37

If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord.

Three things are clear.

Firstly, Paul equates the authority of the apostle with that of the Old Testament Prophet, Paul’s assertion that his instruction is ‘a command of the Lord’ is akin to the Old Testament declaration, ‘Thus says the Lord…’.

Secondly, the apostolic writings take precedence over any extra-biblical revelation.

It is particularly important that we remember this in our day, given that we are so easily enticed by spiritual experience and the spectacular. Yes, God still speaks and works miraculous wonders in the midst of his people, but, as the Apostle Peter reminds us,

2 Peter 1:19–21

…we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Thirdly, true maturity and true spirituality is evident in submission to apostolic authority and obedience to the Scriptures. Paul continues,

1 Corinthians 14:37–38

If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized.

Those who have been begraced with the gift of prophecy must come under authority and exercise their gifts in accordance with the word of God, under the authority of those whom God has appointed to shepherd the church of Christ and for the benefit and edification of the church. Those who do not recognise apostolic authority are not recognised.

It is this dynamic, the New Testament prophet exercising his or her spiritual gift under the authority and in accordance with the Scriptures, which leads me to the third, and preferred, exegetical option.

Paul reminds the church in Ephesus (and believers everywhere),

Ephesians 2:19-20

So then you [...]built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone

We have already discussed that the phrase, ‘the apostles and prophets’ lacks the definite article. This then opens up the possibility that Paul is, in fact, referring to one group of people, the apostle-prophets. Wayne Grudem argues convincingly that this passage can be translated thus,[13]

Ephesians 2:19-20

So then you [...]built on the foundation of the apostles who are the prophets…

This, then, makes sense of all that we have considered. Paul is in effect arguing that the church is constructed upon the foundation of the apostles to whom Christ has revealed the mystery of the full inclusion of the Gentiles, a mystery which was hidden in previous generations. This helps us understand that the apostles are the New Testament equivalent of the Old Testament Prophets.

Practically speaking, therefore, Paul is showing us that the Scriptures are the result of divine and supernatural revelation which is authoritive  and inerrant in a way in which the New Testament gift of prophecy given generally cannot claim to be. Furthermore, Paul writes that the church of Christ is established upon this solid foundation.

The application for us, in Westwood, Oldham, is clear.

Paul wants us to see that, yes, there is privilege, yes, there is citizenship and, yes, there is even kinship; we have become sons and daughters of the living God. And yet, in all of this there is a demand to submit to the Scriptures.

In our day, in the wake of post-modernism, relativism and pluralism and the emergence radical and unorthodox expressions of church, we must remind ourselves that the true church, the only church, is that which is founded and grounded upon the teachings of Scripture.

This is why, at Firwood Church, we take Scripture incredibly seriously. This is why we endeavour preach carefully out of the text to ensure that we remain closely tethered to the Scriptures. This is why we value bible studies. This is why we encourage you to study and think deeply about the truths of God.  This is why we seek to model and foster obedience to the word of God.

This is not abstract intellectualism.

As we thus think, study, pray and then live, we are laying deep foundations for our lives and the church of Christ.

Paul intends that the church, and this church, be built upon the Word of God.

c. The Cornerstone

Paul, however, develops this thought further.

The teachings and the gospel proclaimed by the apostles-prophets is the foundation upon which the church is built. However, the most crucial of all the foundation stones is Christ himself,

Ephesians 2:19-20

So then you [...]built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone

It is important that we think clearly here. Paul is not placing the ministry of the apostles-prophets alongside Christ Jesus as if they are somehow of equal standing in the foundation of the church. This is why it is important that we understand the importance of the imagery which Paul employs here.

In referring to Christ as the cornerstone, he is referencing the Old Testament and, more specifically, the Prophet Isaiah,

Isaiah 28:16

[...]
“Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion,
a stone, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:
‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’

There is a clue here as to the importance of the cornerstone in first century architecture.[14] The cornerstone was the stone by which the rest of the structure was tested in order to determine whether it met the architects’ specifications. The cornerstone was the first stone to be laid and determined the size and orientation of the remaining foundation and, indeed, the very building itself.

It was thus possible, from the dimensions of the cornerstone, to extrapolate and calculate the dimensions of the entire building.

The cornerstone was the first stone to be laid and the stone which defined the shape, size and orientation of the rest of the building.

The application here is threefold,

i. Jesus defines the church

Jesus Christ is the cornerstone, the defining point within the foundation which determines the solidity and shape of the resulting structure.

Practically speaking then, this changes the way in which we understand the Scriptures. Yes, the church is grounded upon the foundation of the Apostolic teachings, but these teaching must be understood correctly and in such a way that they maintain the centrality and supremacy of the Son of God.

Moreover, Christ Jesus defines what the church is. He is the stone upon which we stand and he is the pattern upon which our lives are shaped and modelled.

If we consider then the application of this in our lives and in the life of Firwood Church, we must ask ourselves the following searching questions,

Are we grounded upon Christ Jesus?

Is he the foundation upon which this church stands?

Are we living like Christ Jesus, taking up our cross daily and following in his footsteps?

Are we ministering like Christ Jesus, are his priorities our priority?

Are we shining forth the glorious light of the glory of God like a city upon a hill (Matthew 5:14)?

Christ is the cornerstone on which the church is grounded and Christ Jesus sets the pattern for what the church is made to be.

If we truly are the church, if Firwood Church truly is his church, then we are patterned in his image.

ii. Jesus is the means by which the whole church holds together

Furthermore, this cornerstone, has a dynamic effect upon the whole structure,

Ephesians 19-22

So then you [...] built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

Earlier in this series we considered the way in which Christ Jesus formed a new people out of two opposed groups of people and the way in which Christ destroys hostility between races and becomes peace for those who believe.

Consider, this morning, Firwood Church. We are a group of believers from different backgrounds, different social groups, different geographical areas and altogether different educational experiences and yet the Scriptures, and indeed Paul, assures us that we are one body. How can this be so?

Part of the answer is found in verse 15 in which Paul reminds believers that, in the cross, Christ,

Ephesians 2:15

…create[d] in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace…

If you are a believer this morning, this has already happened. Christ has, through the cross, united all who believe in him and in this, formed an entirely ‘new man’, the church.

However, this is a dynamic process. The cornerstone of the church, Christ Jesus, continues to join us together.

Practically speaking, this means as we grow closer to Christ, come to resemble him more and grow in our walk with him, our relationships with one another will grow deeper. We walk deeply with Christ and the consequence of this is that we walk more deeply with one another. We come to love Christ in increasing measure. The consequence of this is that we come to love one another more deeply.

We are being joined together in him. This is happening. Even now.

iii. Jesus is the means by which the church grows

There is a second dynamic aspect to the cornerstone, which is Christ Jesus,

Ephesians 19-22

So then you [...]built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

Jesus causes the church to ‘grow into a holy temple in the Lord’. There are two aspects to this.

Firstly, that any numerical growth that we experience as a church is a direct result of Christ Jesus, the cornerstone, working in our midst and advancing the gospel in this place. Jesus adds to his church.

Secondly, Jesus is at work growing us in maturity and holiness. There is a great hope in this.

The truth is, as I have been delivering this message many of us will have felt a huge disjunction between where we are and who he has called us to be. All of us still struggle with sin, some of us still feel the alienation of our former state and some of us feel far off from all God has called us, in Christ, to be.

The great hope of the gospel is that Christ Jesus continues to work in his people and in his church. The great hope of the gospel is that Christ Jesus continues to save us, continues to transform us and continues to make us holy.

We must never forget that Jesus builds his church,

Matthew 16:18

And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

3. CONCLUSION – A DWELLING PLACE FOR GOD

The outcome of all of this is glorious. Consider all the church is made to be,

Ephesians 2:22

In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

In conclusion, there are three final thoughts that I want to draw out,

i. The Gospel is For You

As Paul concludes this passage of thought, he reminds his readers, Gentiles, formally far off from the things of God, that the promise of the gospel, the hope that is the church, includes them,

Ephesians 2:22

in him you also…

The truth is, if you are in Christ Jesus, then all of this applies to you.

You are citizens of the kingdom of God.

You are members of the household of God.

You are being built, transformed and made to be his holy temple.

There is a great encouragement in this.

In this church, Firwood Church, we have first generation Christians sitting alongside third and fourth generation Christians and I can imagine the sense of disjunction and distance may feel considerable.

Know this, if you are in Christ, Paul intends you to receive this truth; yes, you also are his and joined together with the saints being built up into a holy temple.

ii. God Dwells in You

Ephesians 2:22

In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

This is a glorious truth and is impossible to unpack fully here.

Consider the glorious complexity of God’s interaction with the church.

In Christ, God saves Jew and Gentile alike that he might form a people for himself. The church of God is rescued by Christ and for Christ. We belong to him.

In Christ, God reconciles people groups who were formally hostile towards one another that his peace might be experienced and that he might form a new kind of people. The church of God is created (anew) by Christ and for Christ.

In Christ, this new man, finds existence in such a way that we become the physical embodiment of his character, power and purposes. The church of God is created to be a new kind of person that we might be his body on this earth; that we might be his hands and feet in Westwood.

In Christ, God takes men and women lacking substance and stability and unites us and builds us up that we might become a holy temple. The church of God is the holy temple of God grounded upon the Son of God.

And now we find that the temple we are made to be is the dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Feel the magnitude of this: yes, if you are a believer, God dwells within you by his Spirit. You are filled with the Spirit who testifies that you are indeed a child of God (Romans 8:15). Paul goes further, however, and shows us that the church, the united body of believers, becomes the dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Consider the Theophanies described in the Old Testament.

The shaking of Mount Sinai as Moses goes up to meet with God and to receive the law (Exodus 24:15-18).

The consecration of the tabernacle confirmed by the visible and awesome manifestation of the glory of God in the shape of the dwelling cloud (Exodus 40:34-38).

The dedication of the temple in which the glory of God falls with such glory that the priests are overwhelmed and abandon their duties (1 Kings 8:10-11).

All of this, no doubt, weighs heavily upon Paul’s mind as he stretches the analogy of the temple and we see that this imagery accurately depicts the reality of who we are.

The church is the place in which God’s presence is made most clearly manifest.

We are the locus of the present day Theophany.

We are his dwelling place.

iii. God Displays His Glory in the Church

We will return to this as we reach chapter three, verse ten,

Ephesians 3:8-10

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

But know for now that, as in chapter 1, we see the fullness of the glory of the Godhead displayed in the formation and growth of the church,

Ephesians 2:22

In him [Christ Jesus] you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

It is God’s intention that his glory,  his manifold wisdom and glory, be displayed in the church. It is God’s intention that his glory be seen in and through Firwood Church. It is God’s intention that his glory be seen in our lives when we are scattered and when we are gathered.

This is why we must pray as Paul prayed,

Ephesians 3:20–21

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

To him be glory in Firwood Church.

To him be glory in the church in Oldham.

To him be glory in his Church.

Forever. Amen.

[1] The Greek word, atheos, here translated, ‘without God’, is the word from which ‘atheist’ derives. In one sense it is strange to refer to the Gentiles in Ephesus as ‘atheists’ because, we know from Acts 19 that the people of Ephesus were ‘spiritual’ and, most likely, polytheists engaged in the worship of other gods. Indeed, the riot described in verses 21 through to 41 began because Paul was converting people from the local religion and this was impacting upon the idol making business. In using the word atheos of this particular group of people, Paul is making the point that to worship any god other than the true God, Christ Jesus, is to be an atheist and to be ‘without God’. See D. A. Carson, New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, 4th ed. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill., USA: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994). Eph 2:11–22.

[2] Martin, Hubert M.. The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary. New York: Doubleday, 1996. Vol. I, 465 & Aune, David E. Eds. Freedman, David Noel, Allen C. Myers and Astrid B. Beck. Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000. 415.

[3] In 1 Corinthians 3:9-17 Paul shapes the metaphor of the building of God’s temple differently. In the First Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul is the master builder laying the foundation. Here, Paul (among the apostles and prophets) is the foundation. O’Brien, Peter Thomas. The Letter to the Ephesians. The Pillar New Testament commentary. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999. 213.

[4] I discuss this at length in the teaching series, The Holy Spirit. The office of Apostle was held by a specific and narrow group of individuals which included the Twelve (Matthius was selected to replace Judas Iscariot, Acts 1:26), Paul and James the brother of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:7-10). There is an argument that there may have been others outside of this group who were, in some sense, considered to be Apostles. It is argued that this wider group may have included Barnabas, (Acts 14:4, 14), possibly Adronicus and Junias (Romans 16:7) and possibly Silas (1 Thessalonians 2:6). I remain unconvinced that this wider group were considered Apostles in the same sense as the narrower groups because the qualification of the apostle were prescriptive, specifically, that they must be male, a witness to the ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus (Acts 1:21-22), specifically commissioned by Jesus (Acts 24-25) and supernaturally gifted with respect to signs, wonders and mighty works (2 Corinthians 12:12).  See Betz, Hans Dieter. The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary. Vol. I, 310-311;  Walls, A.F. New Bible Dictionary. Ed. Wood, D. R. W. and I. Howard Marshall. 3rd ed. Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1996. 59; Moser, Paul K. Freedman, David Noel, Allen C. Myers and Astrid B. Beck. Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans, 2000. 78-79. & Osborne, Grant R. Elwell, Walter A. and Barry J. Beitzel. Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House, 1988. Vol. 1, 231-233.

[5] Grudem, Wayne. The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2000. 329-346. Grudem helpfully summarises these three positions (to which he adds a forth).

[6] Ephesians 2:20 reads, ‘ton apostolon kai propheton‘, ‘the apostles and prophets’ and Ephesians 3:5 reads, ‘autos hagiois tois apostolois kai prophetais‘, ‘his holy apostles and prophets’.

[7] O’Brien, Peter Thomas. The Letter to the Ephesians. The Pillar New Testament commentary. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999 & Hoehner, Harold. Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic, 2007.

[8] Grudem, Wayne. 2000. 33-43. Grudem argues that the designation, ‘prophet’, had taken on a broad currency in the New Testament period and was used broadly to refer to the pagan ‘prophet’ through to the secular poet. Grudem suggests, therefore, that the New Testament writes instead took the narrow title, ‘apostle’, precisely because it was free from this kind of cultural baggage.

[9] For reference, and by way of example, the phrase, ‘Thus says the Lord…’ appears 69 times in Isaiah and 300 times in Jeremiah.

[10] Arndt, William, Frederick W. Danker and Walter Bauer. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

[11] Merrill, Eugene H. Deuteronomy. The New American Commentary. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001. 274.

[12] Agabus’ prophetic word to the Apostle Paul illustrates the different weight of New Testament prophecy. Agabus prophesies that the Jews will arrest Paul and hand him over to the Gentiles whereas, in reality, Paul is initially rescued by Gentiles from the Jews (although this later develops into house arrest). It is clear, however, that Paul is not bound by the Jews and is not handed over to Rome by the Jews (Acts 21:10-11). Significantly, Paul again ignores the warning and instead determines that he is ‘ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.’ (Acts 21:13).

[13] Grudem, Wayne. 2000. 329-346.

[14] As this is the only occurrence of the word akrogoniaious in the New Testament (the same word used in Isaiah 28:16 in the Septuagint). There is some debate among scholars as to whether this should be translated ‘cornerstone’, as per the ESV, or capstone (placed over the entrance to the temple). If we accept the arguments for ‘capstone’ this would mean that Christ is the key crowning stone to the entire structure. I side with all the major translations (including the NKJV, RSV, NRSV, ASV, etc.) in preferring ‘cornerstone’ as the arguments for translating akrogoniaious as ‘capstone’ depend upon the Testament of Solomon which is a late text (see BDAG and O’Brien, Peter Thomas. 1999. 216-217). There is a useful summary of the etymology of akrogoniaious in Colin Brown, New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1986). 389.

These are the notes of a sermon preached by Andy Evans on the morning of the 25 April 2010 at Firwood Church. Click here to stream or download the sermon audio.

Ephesians 2:11–22

¹¹ Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— ¹² remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵ by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, 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, thereby killing the hostility. ¹⁷ And he came and preached peace to you who were far off 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 strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. ²² In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

1. INTRODUCTION – THE GOSPEL IS

The first week of this study (moving through Ephesians 2:11-22) I sought to persuade you of the importance of this passage to not only this letter, but in understanding the very gospel. Throughout this passage, the Apostle Paul is preoccupied with unravelling and displaying the glory of Christ in the gospel.

Over the past two weeks we have seen two characteristics of the gospel,

a. The Gospel of Peace

i. Peace with God

Firstly, the gospel is a gospel of peace. We find evidence of this in gospel accounts of the nativity. The birth of the Messiah is announced to shepherds by an angelic host declaring,

Luke 2:14

“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

The announcement of the incarnation of the Son of God, the beginning of the gospel, is framed by the glory of God and peace towards men.

In this letter to the Ephesians, we find further evidence of this truth as Paul pictures believers wearing,

Ephesians 6:15

[...] as shoes for your feet [...] the readiness given by the gospel of peace.

And here, in chapter 2, we find that the gospel is encapsulated in the truth that the Son of God comes and proclaims peace,

Ephesians 2:17–18

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

It is important that we remind ourselves of this truth so that we would feel the glory of his grace in the gospel.

Consider this: we were dead because of our own transgressions and sins. We were dead in our rebellion against God. We were rebels, sons of disobedience, servants of Satan, the arch rebel. We were children of wrath under the condemnation of a holy and awesome God who must stand against sin and sinners or else impugn his own righteousness.

We deserve condemnation, wrath, judgement and destruction and yet God comes and preaches peace. This is the beauty of the gospel and in this God displays the glory of his grace.

You see, the gospel is good news precisely because God-made flesh comes and preaches peace. He does not come in wrath and he does not ride out bearing a sword… this time. Instead Christ Jesus comes in humility and servanthood and preaches peace to everyone.

This is the glory of the gospel and this is why the gospel is glorious news.

And yet there is more. Paul has something even more expansive in view than the incarnation of the Son of God. The grounding of this peace is the cross, therefore, primarily Paul cannot have the incarnation of Christ in view. It is true that following the resurrection, Jesus greets his disciples with a declaration of peace,

John 20:19

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

This fails to explain, however, how Christ would preach peace to those who are far off. The disciples were, of course, Jews and, therefore, in Paul’s formulation at least, near.

It seems here that Paul has something bigger in mind that encompasses the incarnation, the cross and the post-resurrection proclamation of peace. Moreover, this ‘preaching’ activity of Christ continues even today as the gospel advances and as his servants proclaim the gospel of peace.

Know this: as you live out the Christian life and faithfully share the gospel with unbelievers, Christ is preaching peace in and through you.

This is why Paul, elsewhere, envisages the glorious welcome given to those who faithfully proclaim the gospel among those who receive the gospel,

Romans 10:15

And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”

We must remind ourselves continually of the grace of God displayed in the gospel. We must allow ourselves to be motivated by the gospel. And we must constantly remind ourselves that we who believe are recipients of this grace.

We were children of wrath (Ephesians 2:3) and yet he came and preached peace to those who were far of and those who were near, all of which leads me to my next point.

ii. Peace with Man

It is important we know that the most important thing in the universe is that we be reconciled to the God who created us and now calls each of us to return to him. This is the message of the cross. Be reconciled to God. Throw yourself upon the mercy of God. Surrender yourself to Him. Come to Him and receive grace for Christ has made a way that we might ‘have access in one Spirit to the Father’ (Ephesians 2:18).

The purpose of the cross is that we might be ‘brought near by the blood of Christ’ (Ephesians 2:13).

But all of this, peace, reconciliation, and access to the Father, is inseparable from a further outcome of the cross: peace on earth between men.

The Gospel of Peace speaks of reconciliation between men and God. This is the principal outcome of the gospel, but it is not the only outcome of the gospel.

This is why Paul references two groups of people, Gentiles, those who were far off, and Jews, those who were near. Paul understands that the relationship between these two groups of people was characterized by hostility and animosity.

We understand that we find evidence of similar hostility, bigotry and racism everywhere.

And yet, the gospel message is this: God becomes flesh and preaches peace to those who are far off and peace to those who are near.

Moreover, Paul expects that this gospel of peace would infect us, transform our lives and spill out into our families, workplaces and neighbourhoods. It is inconceivable to Paul that we should receive such grace, reconciling us to God, and yet remain in enmity towards our brothers and sisters. This is so inconceivable because the cross demolishes hostility and destroys racism, consider,

Ephesians 2:14

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

Here Paul draws on the animosity between Jew and Gentile, because it is current, but also because it is extreme. If Christ can bring reconciliation and peace to these two groups of people, then the gospel can heal any relationship.

It is important also that we remember the grounding point for this is the cross. The cross must remind us that we were hopelessly lost and the separation which existed between us and God was absolute. We were entirely to blame and utterly deserving of condemnation. And yet he came and preached peace.

This is why racism, sectarian violence and hostility is so horrendous, particularly among believers. The idea that we should be beneficiaries of such grace and yet shun our brother is unthinkable in the context of the cross.

The effects and benefits of the cross work vertically, we now have access to the Father (Ephesians 2:18), and horizontally, he has destroyed the dividing wall of hostility which separates people (Ephesians 2:14).

2. THE GOSPEL DIMENSIONS

Paul understands that the cross is purposed, primarily, to establish peace between man and God and, secondly, between man and man. But, in respect of both purposes, Paul has a tangible outcome in mind,

Ephesians 2:14–16

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

a. The Gospel is for ‘me’

It is important we recognise that there are two dimensions to the gospel.

The first dimension is seen in Ephesians 2:1-10 whereby Paul focuses upon the benefits of salvation conferred upon the individual.

We were dead, but he made us alive (Ephesians 2:1, 5).

We were sons of disobedience, enslaved to the passions of our flesh and thrall to the prince of the power of the air, but he made us to be his workmanship (Ephesians 2:2, 3, 10).

We were children of wrath, but, in Christ Jesus, those of us who believe are ‘seated with him in the heavenly places’ (Ephesians 2:3, 6).

Those of us who are in Christ Jesus have received these benefits and hold them to be precious. He brought me back to life. He rescued me from slavery to sin and the things of this world. He bestowed forgiveness, mercy and grace upon me instead of wrath.

The benefits and miracle which is the gospel is incredibly personal. This is because God deals with individuals.

This is the God who called Jeremiah from the womb,

Jeremiah 1:5

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

This is the God who fills John the Baptizer with the Holy Spirit even from the womb,

Luke 1:13–17

But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God,  and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

This is the God who set Paul apart even before he was born,

Galatians 1:15–16

[...] he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles [...]

And this is the same God who chose us, who called us by name, even before the foundation of the world,

Ephesians 1:4

[...] he chose us in him before the foundation of the world [...]

There is a great joy in this and a great exhortation.

The exhortation is this, are you in Christ Jesus? Have you received Christ Jesus as your treasure? Have you surrendered to Christ Jesus as Lord and Saviour?

Because God deals with individuals, we can be sure that the gospel is not a package deal. You cannot ‘buy one and get one free’. You do not receive all of the saving benefits of salvation simply because your parents, or wife, or children are believers and you will not be saved simply because you attend church weekly.

God deals with individuals and God calls individuals to respond. To receive the gospel is the most personal thing.

And there is great joy in all of this:  that  the God of the Universe should know me  intimately,  should choose me specifically, should save, transform and  make me to be a new creation in Christ Jesus. This is a marvellous thing.

b. The Gospel is for ‘we’

God deals with individuals and, in this sense, the gospel is for me and the gospel is for you; the gospel benefits are conferred upon me and the gospel benefits are conferred upon you.

Yet  throughout this passage, Paul is concerned with the outcome of the gospel being seen collectively,

Ephesians 2:14–16

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

This is, of course, closely related to all we considered last week. Two people groups in enmity and hostility towards one another are brought together, the hostility destroyed through the cross of Christ.

But there is more, consider Paul’s emphasis here. Paul writes that the intended outcome of the destruction of the dividing wall of hostility and the abolition of the law of commandments  is that Christ might,

Ephesians 2:15–16

[...] create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

Firstly, note the imagery here, Paul is, once again, talking in the language of new creation. Earlier in this chapter, he was addressing the resurrection/newness of life conferred upon believers. Here he is talking of a new kind of collective creature created out of two previously hostile people groups. The key in understanding what Paul is talking about here is in the reference to ‘one body’ in verse 16. Paul uses this same imagery in Ephesians 4:12, 15 and 16 (and in 1 Corinthians 12:12-26) to describe the church.

Paul wants us to understand that one of the intended outcomes of the cross of Christ is that he might create a new kind of person/people: the church.

This is the intended outcome of the gospel, that Christ might form a people for himself. Indeed, Paul later uses this gospel truth as the reference point when talking about marriage,

Ephesians 5:25–27

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

If we were to ask, ‘Why did Christ suffer the cross’? Paul might answer, Christ died that he might purify a people for himself in order to present this very people to himself. This is the ‘we’ in the gospel. We are not saved through attending church, but we are saved that we might be the church. This is why Christians must dwell deeply with other believers. This is why Christians must serve with other believers. This is why Christians must be part of the church. We are saved to be the church of Christ.

There is no place in Christ for lone rangers. He saved us that we might be one new man.

3. THE OUTCOME OF THE GOSPEL

The question then is what does this new man look like? Paul gives us a few reference points and will return to this later in the letter.

i. United in the Spirit

Hopefully, after last week, I need not belabour this point.

Paul envisages that, in Christ Jesus, two people groups formally in hostility towards one another are reconciled to such a point that they become ‘one new man’ characterized by peace and unity. This must be so because our access to Christ is a collective access made possible through the cross and by the Spirit,

Ephesians 2:18

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Note the emphasis upon the one Spirit. The unity Paul presents is Spirit-enabled. This is why Christians love and value peace. This is why churches across the world are filled with disparate people from different ages, backgrounds, and cultures deeply and closely united. This is what it means and looks like to be in the one Spirit.

Formerly there was hostility, now there is close kinship, peace and love. We are made to be brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. The many are made to be one new man through the cross and by the Spirit, this is what we are made to be.

ii. Equal Standing in the Kingdom

The former hostility between Jew and Gentile was predicated upon a belief that the Jew was blessed and favoured in a way in which the Gentile was not. Israel were the people of God and everyone else (Gentiles) were on the outside looking in.

The cross is, then, the greatest reversal in history,

Ephesians 2:19

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God

To be a stranger was to be a foreigner in a foreign land. This would be the equivalent of being marooned overseas (perhaps as a result of the flight-ban following the eruption of the Icelandic volcano). This is not your home, you do not speak the language and you do not understand the culture.

To be an alien is the equivalent of what it means, perhaps, to be an economic migrant. You live in this country, you, perhaps, speak the language, you have a work-permit, you may even call this home, and yet you do not share all of the benefits that a citizen might enjoy.

This is who we were before Christ intervened. Now, however, we are made to be ‘fellow citizens with the saints’. This should change the way we view ourselves and those around us.

Formerly, we defined ourselves by our nationality, our family, our culture or by our social group, but now, in Christ, we are identified as ‘fellow citizens’ in the kingdom of God. This is good news for everyone, but, for some of us, it is really good news.

Formerly, some of us felt forever on the outside looking in. Formerly, some of us felt ourselves to be second-class citizens. Nobodies.

Know this: in Christ Jesus, we are made to be ‘fellow citizens with the saints’.

And this must change the way we regard ourselves and others. This must change the way that we handle church. This must eradicate the distinctions of the flesh between those who were formerly near and those who were formally far off. Now, in Christ Jesus, we are made to be one body and we are made to be citizens of the kingdom of God.

iii. Belonging in the Family of God

Paul continues and shows us what it means to be on the inside in the kingdom of God,

Ephesians 2:19

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God

This is astonishing. In Christ, even we Gentiles are made to be citizens in the kingdom of God. Moreover, we are elevated to the most privileged of positions: we are made to be members of the household of God.

This, then, makes sense of the incredible access we receive in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit,

Ephesians 2:18

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Paul will later describe the nature of this access in unequivocal terms,

Ephesians 3:12

in [Christ Jesus] we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

Not only do we have access, but we approach Almighty God with bold confidence. How can this be?

In Christ Jesus, we become his children, children of the Living God, he is our Father. Moreover, we are adopted into the household of God, the church is the household of God, and this speaks of intimate access, closeness and relationship with the King of the Universe, our Father in Heaven.

These are the notes of a sermon preached by Andy Evans on the morning of the 18 April 2010 at Firwood Church. Click here to stream or download the sermon audio.

Ephesians 2:11–22

¹¹ Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— ¹² remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵ by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, 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, thereby killing the hostility. ¹⁷ And he came and preached peace to you who were far off 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 strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. ²² In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

1. RACISM DEFINED

a. The Problem

i. Separation from God

Last week, I began by giving you three reasons why this passage should matter a great deal to us. The third reason I presented was intended to persuade you that this passage matters because it deals with the two biggest problems in the universe for human beings.

Last week we occupied ourselves with the biggest of the two big problems: the separation which exists between men and God.

This problem is the big problem facing everyone regardless of nationality, race, culture and ethnicity. We are, Paul writes, by ‘nature children of wrath’ (Ephesians 2:3) and the result of this is separation and alienation from God.

We are all in the same boat.

And yet, there is a difference. Paul addresses this in this passage and allows the distinction between Jew and Gentile to stand. In Paul’s mind, therefore, the Gentile is far off and the Jew is near,

Ephesians 2:17

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

It is important that we do not push this too far. Paul is not saying that the Jews are saved as a result of their Jewishness. No, rather he is saying that there is something about the Jew that results in them being nearer to salvation than the Gentile.

This was our starting point last week. We considered the way in which God operated prior to the incarnation of the Son of God. Before Christ, God revealed himself, primarily, to a particular people group: Israel. Paul addresses this truth elsewhere,

Romans 9:4–5

They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

The truth then is this: Paul is able to write that the Jews were nearer to God because God has poured out favour upon them for hundreds of years. God chose them out of all the nations of the earth. God revealed his law to this particular people from all the peoples of the earth. God spoke to them clearly through the Patriarchs and Prophets in a that he did not speak to any other nation on the planet.

Out of all the inhabitants of the earth, God made a covenant with this particular group of people. They were to be his people and he was their God.

Circumcision was the sign, the seal, of this covenant.

The result is that the Jews were near and the Gentiles far off, but, ultimately both groups were in need of the reconciliation that is only possible through Christ Jesus. This is the message of the Gospel,

Ephesians 2:17-18

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

The greatest problem in the universe for human beings is not global warming, childhood obesity or the prospect of a double-dip recession. This is the greatest problem, that although some of us may be near and some of us may be far off, without Christ Jesus all of us are separated and alienated from the living God. This is why those of us who believe, know Christ Jesus to be the hope of the world,

Ephesians 2:13

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

All of us are in the same boat, all of us are lost without Christ Jesus and yet Gentiles, in our ignorance of the things of God, were far off, whereas  Jews, as recipients of the old covenant, were near.

And circumcision was the sign of God’s covenant with Israel, all of which leads me to the second big problem.

ii. The Covenants of Promise and the Sign of Grace

Paul begins by setting out the problem,

Ephesians 2:11

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands

Notice what has happened here, circumcision is a mark of the covenants of promise (v. 12).

Repeatedly, throughout the Old Testament God reminds Israel that he chose them not because of their merit, but because of his great love,

Deuteronomy 7:6–8

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

We see, then, that God’s choosing of Israel was an incredible act of sovereign grace. It is not because Israel was lovely, but that He is loving. It is not that Israel had intrinsic worth, but that He is worthy. He chooses Israel from the overflow of his great love. He fixes his affection upon this particular people from all the many because this is the kind of God he is.

What was true of Israel is true of us, the Church, today, and this should change the way we think about our salvation. This is where we were in Ephesians 1:4-5,

Ephesians 1:4–5

even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will

God chooses us, not because we have intrinsic value, but because He is infinitely valuable, loving, gracious and kind. He chooses us from the overflow of his great love.

Now all of this matters this morning because it shows us the parallels between Israel’s situation and our situation as believers in Christ Jesus. It also shows us how Israel should have viewed circumcision.

The ‘covenants of promise’ (v. 12) were, in fact, covenants of grace and, circumcision, the sign of the covenant, should have been a reminder of God’s grace towards this chosen people. Instead, however, circumcision led to separation, arrogance, pride and, ultimately, hostility. We see this in verse 11 and we see this in verses 14 and 16.

A grace gift which should have led to thankfulness, humility and love instead results in hatred, enmity and hostility.

This was the problem in the First Century Church and this is the problem in the world today.

iii. Separation between Jew and Gentile

For the First Century Jew, the separation between Jew and Gentile was profound. The Jew had received the favour of God and the Gentile had not. The Jew had received the blessings of God, the Gentile had not. The Jew carried the sign of circumcision, the Gentile did not.

This sense of separation touch everything.

William Barclay, summarises the deep hostility between Jew and Gentile in the following terms,

The Jew had an immense contempt for the Gentile. The Gentiles, said the Jews, were created by God to be fuel for the fires of hell. God, they said, loves only Israel of all the nations that he had made [...] It was not even lawful to render help to a Gentile mother in her hour of sorest need, for that would simply be to bring another Gentile into the world. Until Christ came, the Gentiles were an object of contempt to the Jews. The barrier between them was absolute. If a Jewish boy married a Gentile girl, or if a Jewish girl married and Gentile boy, the funeral of that Jewish boy or girl was carried out. Such contact with a Gentile was the equivalent of death.[1]

Unsurprisingly, then, this deep-seated prejudice permeates every facet of Jewish life: social, cultural and religious. Indeed, the Historian Josephus records that Herod’s Temple had a barrier surrounding the inner sanctuary beyond which Gentiles were forbidden to go. Josephus suggests that tablets, written in Greek and Latin, were placed at the thirteen entrances to this inner area declaring, ‘No foreigner is to enter within the forecourt and the balustrade around the sanctuary. Whoever is caught will have himself to blame for his subsequent death’. ^[2]

All of this perhaps seems distant and alien to our Twenty-First Century sensibilities, until we remind ourselves:

The holocaust in which over six million Jews were slaughtered, incidentally, by Gentiles, took place just a little over half a century ago.

That, as recently as 1992, war broke out in Bosnia following a referendum in which Bosnian and Croat Muslims voted for independence. The Serbian army, led by Radovan Karadzic, set about a campaign of terror and ethnic cleansing in which they slaughtered over one hundred thousand Muslims, most notoriously, in the siege of Sarajevo.[3]

It was only 1994 when Hutu militia turned, overnight, upon their Tutsis friends and neighbours and Rwanda, once among the most prosperous nations in Africa, turned in upon itself. It is estimated that some 800,000 Tutsis were slaughtered in one hundred days of genocide.[4]

Or, lest we convince ourselves that race-related atrocities only happen over there, it was only in 1993 when a young black boy, Stephen Lawrence, was set upon and murdered by white youths and the subsequent police investigation criticized and labelled the investigating police force as institutionally racist.[5]

Again we remind ourselves that it was only in May 2001 when race riots broke out in Bradford, Burnley and in Oldham, just a short walk from this church.[6]

All of this reminds us that the problem that Paul addresses here is incredibly relevant today as we live, work and minister in the racial diverse neighbourhood which is Westwood, Oldham in the middle of 2010.

Paul is addressing racism of the worst kind, a racism which is predicated upon a belief that one side is chosen and the other side rejected by God.

Paul shows us that the gospel of Jesus Christ destroys racism.

iv. Skin Deep

But firstly Paul shows us the folly of the Jewish position which distorted the grace gifts of God and the symbol of this grace, circumcision,

Ephesians 2:11

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands

Paul sets out the true nature of the distinction between Gentile and Jew: they are ‘Gentiles in the flesh’ and Jews by virtue of a circumcision, ‘which is made in the flesh by hands’.[7]

Paul’s intention here is that we see the distinction that has resulted in so much hostility is, ultimately, skin deep.

It may surprise us to hear Paul talk about circumcision in these terms, after all, was not circumcision given as a confirmation of the covenant by God himself? This is the great misunderstanding which resounds throughout much of the Old Testament and the gospels by which the people believed that they were safe, children of God, (remove) by virtue of the flesh, be it circumcision or ancestry. Jesus, however, explodes this myth recognising that gospel transformation is a matter of the heart (Mark 7:1-23) and results in obedience (John 8:39-41)

Paul recognises that circumcision without a heart change is simply a matter of the flesh.

2. THE GOSPEL DESTROYS RACISM

a. He is our peace

As we saw last week, the solution to war, terrorism, racism, violent crime and anti-social behaviour is Jesus Christ. Paul tells us why,

Ephesians 2:14-16

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

Notice that the solution is not simply what Christ does (although Paul stresses that he ‘makes peace’, verse 16), but who Christ is.

He is our peace.

The early church faced open warfare over this issue. The church in Galatia and, at times and in different ways, the churches in Jerusalem and Rome faced this Jewish controversy over circumcision which threatened to tear them apart.

Furthermore, the churched faced white-hot persecution from the state, from their former friends and neighbours and, in some cases, from family members.

In one sense it seems there is no peace to be found.

So too in our day, with war in Afghanistan, Iraq, the constant danger of escalation in the Middle East, and the threat of terrorism and violence on our streets, it seems as though real and lasting peace is far away.

And yet, Paul reminds us: Jesus Christ is our peace.

This changes the way in which we deal with warfare, violence, aggression and racism. Instead of looking for a strategy, we look to a person. Instead of placing our hope in politics or military might, we place our hope in him. Paul will now proceed to show us how it is that Christ Jesus is our peace.

b. He is broken down the dividing wall of hostility

Ephesians 2:14-15

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances

Note how it is that Christ becomes our peace and how he deals emphatically with the Jewish controversy,

[he] has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

Formerly there was a very real hostility between Jew and Gentile, Paul understands that, by the cross, Christ demolishes this divide. Consider now how Christ achieves the destruction of this hostility,

by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances

We need to exercise caution here. Is Paul saying that Christ has nullified the law and that it now no longer matters if we keep the moral laws, including, ‘Do not steal’, ‘Do not commit adultery’ and ‘Do not murder’?

Absolutely not.

Paul is stressing here a monumental shift of emphasis by which the focus has moved from the law, with all of its ordinances and rituals (including circumcision) which resulted in separation, to Christ Jesus. Formerly, for the Jew, the law and the observance of the law (in matters pertaining to circumcision, food restrictions, etc.) were the means by which one obtained peace between men and God. Now, through the cross, Christ Jesus has been made our peace. Now, through the cross, Christ Jesus has rendered the law inoperative. He has abolished the law of commandments and, in so doing, he has become our peace.

We may not face the same controversy around circumcision, but we are equally susceptible to legalism and, similarly, the solution is found in Christ Jesus.

We, too, introduce restrictions which are not prescribed in the Scriptures (whether it be issues around the consumption of alcohol, listening to certain kinds of music or watching anything rated 15 or higher) and then elevate them until they become requirements for salvation. We so quickly find ourselves back in First Century Galatia.

Paul understands that the gospel smashes all such peripheral issues and instead Christ Jesus becomes the only issue. What does He want of me? How can I please Him? How can I most glorify Him? What areas of my life and aspects of my character prevent me from most reflecting his glory?

The gospel relegates secondary issues to the place of secondary issues that Christ Jesus might be most prominent, most visible and most glorious.

c. He has made us both one

But how does the cross deal with racism? How does the cross bring together Jew and Gentile in such a way that we experience peace?

Paul addresses this here,

Ephesians 2:14-16

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

We see that, in ‘abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances’, there is a specific end in view. Christ Jesus thus acts,

[...]that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace [...]

Formerly the law of commandments expressed in ordinances emphasised difference between Jew and Gentile, circumcised and uncircumcised; those on the inside and those on the outside. Paul understands that this difference should have produced an overwhelming gratitude and humility for those on the receiving end, but instead resulted in misunderstanding, prejudice, racism and hostility. Something which was given for their benefit (to keep them from the world) and assurance (a sign that they were His) became distorted and to be understood as sign of superiority.

Christ destroyed the hostility through the cross by ‘abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances’. In so doing, Jesus brings peace and Jesus is our peace.

But the miracle of the cross is greater still, Paul reminds us that all of this is so that he,

Ephesians 2:15

[...]might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace

Formerly we were two collective people groups, Jew and Gentile, separated and in enmity towards one another. In the cross, however, Christ destroys the distinction created by the law of commandments expressed in ordinances and brings peace. He achieves this emphatically and gloriously by making these two people groups to be one person.

This is incredible. Consider Ephesians 2:1-10 in which Paul examines our former state and who we are made to be in Christ Jesus,

Ephesians 2:1–2

And [we] were dead in the trespasses and sins in which [we] once walked [...]

And,

Ephesians 2:3

[...] we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Our former state was perilous and hopeless, but then God intervened in Christ Jesus,

Ephesians 2:4–5

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ [...]

The result of all of this is that we become his poiema, his workmanship, a new creation in Christ Jesus,

Ephesians 2:10

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

The cross produces the miracle of new creation on an individual basis and now on a corporate basis, Christ died,

Ephesians 2:15

[...] that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace

Consider the implications of this. Consider the closeness and intimacy which this implies. Formerly we were in enmity and hostility towards one another. Now the unity and peace which is in Christ is so absolute that two divided peoples become one man.

This is the miracle of the cross.

d. He reconciled us both

But how is it that Christ becomes our peace, Paul unpacks this further,

Ephesians 2:14-16

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

The purpose of the cross is that Christ might create one man out of the two and, in so doing, bring peace. The purpose of the cross is that Christ might reconcile the two now made one to the living God,

Ephesians 2:14, 16

has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility [...] [that he] might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

And, before the throne of God, all superficial distinctions, prejudice and pride is obliterated.

3. HE IS OUR PEACE

There are three applications which come out of this morning’s message: two lesser applications and then the central third application (which, in actual fact, makes sense of the first two points),

i. Blessed are the peacemakers

Jesus Christ has become our peace and so all who are his must be characterised by this same peace,

Matthew 5:9

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

And,

Romans 12:16–18

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

This is a weighty calling and a sobering reminder as we approach a General Election in the midst of a financial crisis and on the back of a political scandal. Such an environment is ripe for the rise of extremism.

We have already seen racist far-right political parties, like the British National Party, increase in prominence and popularity. Christians must stand against racism and hostility. Christians must stand for peace knowing that Christ Jesus is our peace.

ii. Ambassadors of reconciliation

We are called to be peacemakers and we are called to take forth the gospel of peace,

2 Corinthians 5:20

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

This is the message of the gospel. This is the gospel of peace. Paul, however, gives us an increased confidence as we proclaim the gospel in the midst of the multicultural mix which is Westwood. The gospel works for both Jew and Gentile. The gospel works for white British men and women, for the Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indian community. The gospel works for immigrants who have come into the country from Eastern Europe. The gospel works for those of African descent. The gospel works for those with a knowledge of Christianity. The gospel works for those who are ignorant of the living God. Jesus Christ came into the world for those who are far and those who are near,

Ephesians 2:17

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

Jesus came to save people from every nation, ethnic and cultural group that he might create for himself a church to reflect his grace and his glory. The end of the gospel will be seen on that day,

Revelation 7:9–10

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”

iii. Seeing the glory of the Prince of Peace

And God achieves all of this in and through Christ Jesus. The purpose of all of this is that Christ Jesus might be exalted to the highest place. The church is the foretaste of that day in which all things will be united in him. The church is the glimpse of the triumph of King Jesus,

Ephesians 1:7–10

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

This is the end of the gospel, that all things might be united in and under him. This is the kind of peace that the gospel envisages: the creation in submission to and intent on glorifying the Prince of Peace.

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that the Son of God came into the world and preaches peace to those who are far and those who are near. The end of the gospel is that the Prince of Peace will return for those who are his and peace will reign forevermore,

Isaiah 9:6–7

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

[1] William Barclay in John Stott, The Bible Speaks Today: The Message of Ephesians (Nottingham: Inter-Varsity Press, 1979 [2009]). 91.

^[2] David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1996). 963. Paul, of course, experienced the seriousness of this warning when a rumour spread that he had taken an Ephesian Gentile, Trophimus, into the inner courts and is seized by an angry mob (Acts 21:21-31).

[3] ‘Timeline: What happened during the war in Bosnia’, 21 July 2008, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL2164446420080721 and ‘Bosnia-Hercegovina timeline’, 7 April 2010, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/country_profiles/1066981.stm

[4] ‘Timeline: 100 days of genocide’ (6 April 2006), http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3580247.stm

[5] ‘Stephen Lawrence case’, 8 November 2007, http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/nov/08/lawrence.ukcrime

[6] ‘Race “segregation” caused riots’, 11 December 2001, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/1702799.stm

[7] The phrase here translated, ‘made in the flesh by hands’, always means that made by human hands. Often, in the Septuagint, this phrase is used to describe the making of idols (Isaiah 2:18 and 10:11)

These are the notes of a sermon preached by Andy Evans on the morning of the 11 April 2010 at Firwood Church. Click here to stream or download the sermon audio.

Ephesians 2:11–22

¹¹ Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— ¹² remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵ by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, 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, thereby killing the hostility. ¹⁷ And he came and preached peace to you who were far off 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 strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. ²² In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

1. INTRODUCTION – YOU GENTILES

I anticipate that it is difficult for a congregation like Firwood Church to get to grips with a text like this.

The truth is that the significant majority (if not all) of our congregation are Gentile and so the distinction Paul draws between Jew and Gentile is, to our minds, at once hazy and, perhaps, seemingly irrelevant.

There is a danger then that we neglect this text believing that Paul is addressing a problem which no longer exists, at least for us.

I begin by using this text to show you three reasons as to why Ephesians 2:11 through to verse 22 is incredibly important. In so doing, I hope to set us up for the next few weeks.

a. We are Ephesus

It is difficult for us to get our head into the mindset of a 1st Century Jew. Consider that you have been raised in a tradition grounded upon the revealed Word of God dating back centuries. You are of the same bloodline as the Patriarch Abraham with whom God made an everlasting covenant (Genesis 15 and 17). Your forefathers were among those whom Moses led through the Red Sea. You are a descendent of the nation to whom the Prophets spoke on behalf of the Lord. You are of the people that King David led in worship before the Ark of the Covenant.

You have been taught, and hundreds of years of history confirm, that you belong to the nation chosen by God from all the peoples of the earth that you might bear his name.

Only now, in Christ, everything has changed. Suddenly, in Christ Jesus, the promises of the gospel are open to everyone who believes. Moreover, miraculously and astonishingly, all who believe are now counted as Abraham’s offspring,

Galatians 3:27–29

For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.

It is perhaps unsurprising then that in the early church we see a monumental pushback against this expansive gospel of grace.

This then is the problem which the Apostle Paul confronts in his letter to the church in Galatia in which it appears that Jewish converts to Christianity are pushing a hybrid form of Judeo-Christianity which insists on circumcision as a requirement of salvation.

This is no trivial matter in the eyes of Paul and is seen as a distortion of such a magnitude that in the hands of the Judaisers, the gospel becomes something else entirely bringing condemnation rather than salvation,

Galatians 1:8

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

We will return to this in more detail next week, but, for now, it is enough to understand that Paul is addressing something that was a very real problem in the early church. One can easily imagine the Jews in Galatia sneeringly referring to their half-breed Gentile brothers and sisters as ‘the uncircumcised’. And one can similarly imagine these same Jews wearing the badge, ‘the circumcised’, with honour.

But Ephesus is not Galatia.

The thing that strikes us as we read through Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus is just how different it is from the majority of his other letters. We know that the Apostles face opposition to the gospel almost everywhere and it is usually possible from the letters to reconstruct the nature of this opposition and to catch a dim reflection of the gospel opponents.

In Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, however, we find no such inference. Yes, Paul deals with matters of doctrine and, yes, particularly from chapter four onwards, Paul addresses matters of praxis; despite this, however, there is little sense of any opposition behind the scenes.[1] As we read, there is little sense that Paul is writing in order to address false doctrine or opponents preaching another gospel.

Similarly, we find no evidence or suggestion, at least in this church, of discord between Jew and Gentile and indeed, the historical evidence suggests that this church was overwhelmingly and predominantly Gentile.

This is important, because Paul is writing to a congregation who, like us, are remote from the sharp edge of this particular controversy. He is writing to a congregation who, like us, are not labouring under the dismissive label of ‘the uncircumcised’.

I imagine, therefore, that whoever was charged with reading this letter out to the church in Ephesus may have faced a similar confused, ‘But how does this apply to me?‘.

And yet, Paul urges them,

Ephesians 2:11

…remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh…

It is as though Paul, aware of their distance from this controversy, wants them to feel their ‘Gentile-ness’. This same Paul writes to us this morning and urges us to remember.

I return to this shortly.

b. This is the gospel

The second reason we must pay close attention to this passage is because of the way in which Paul leads out of verses 1 to 10 into verse 11.

Those of you who were around in the early part of this year will remember that we spent a number of weeks unpacking verses 1 through to 10. You will, no doubt, recall that in this periscope, the Apostle  Paul exults in the miracle which is the gospel.

Paul wants us to understand the magnitude of all we have in Christ and so presents us with a series of antithesis in order for us to feel the weight of our former state and the glory of our rescue: in Christ, therefore, we are brought from death to life (Ephesians 2:1, 4), from disobedience and wrath to position of favour (2:2, 3, 6, 10) and we are released from our former slavery to the passions of our flesh into a freedom found only in the Son of God (2:3, 5).

The summation is that this great salvation in Christ Jesus is a grace motivated, faith enabled act of God which is comparable in its magnitude to the divine act of creation.[2]

All of this leads into verse 11 through to 22. Paul signals this continuous flow of thought in verse 11,

Ephesians 2:11

Therefore remember…

The ‘therefore’ indicates that this unit of thought is linked to that which has gone before. As we have just seen, in verses 1 through to 10, Paul has used antithesis that we might see the glory of the gospel in the disparity between who we once were and who we are now made to be. Paul returns to this line of argument in verses 11 through to 22.

This is why verses 11 through to 22 are so important. No believer would dare say, ‘I do not need to know nor care that, in my former state, I was spiritually dead’. To minimise or trivialise our ‘deadness’ outside of Christ is to devalue our aliveness in Christ.

Similarly, we must take great care in dismissing verse 11 through to 22. These are not mere trivialities. Paul is unpacking truths which lie very close to the heart of the gospel.

c. The two greatest problems

The third reason we can be confident that this passage matters is because Paul seeks to deal with the two greatest problems humanity has ever or will ever face.

i. Hostility between people

The first issue that Paul deals with will occupy us next week. Paul deals with the issue of hostility between people. This is the problem addressed in verse 11,

Ephesians 2:11

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands

The hostility in view here is between Jew and Gentile, but, in truth, it could apply to any collision of cultures, people groups or nations that you care to mention. We will unpack this at length next week, but Paul later presents the glorious solution to the monumental problem,

Ephesians 2:14

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility

‘He’, being Christ Jesus, has brought reconciliation and peace to two groups of people previously divided in hostility and animosity. Formerly there was enmity, but now He has become our peace.

ii. Hostility between men and God

Paul then moves to the second big problem which is, in fact, the greatest problem in the universe for men and women outside of Christ.

Yes, the human race is characterised by separation, hostility and strife between one another.

And, yes, we live in a society familiar with the horror of war, the threat of terrorism and each of us live in the dark shadow of violence and danger on our streets. This is no doubt a monumental problem.

The greatest problem, however, is the state of separation between men and women and the Living God.

This, from a human perspective, is the greatest problem in the universe. This is the great theme of the gospel which Paul now addresses.

This is why this passage is monumentally important.

Paul is urging us to remember the gospel.

2. SEPARATION

a. Without a hope in the world

Paul begins by addressing the separation between people, specifically Jew and Gentile,

Ephesians 2:11

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—

He then moves to address the Great Problem,

Ephesians 2:12

remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

The construction here is similar to that found in verse 1 through to 10. Paul is describing our former state, ‘separated from Christ’, in the starkest possible terms.

We must never forget that our former situation was bleak and hopeless. We were without ‘hope and without God in the world’. If you are an unbeliever you must see that this is your present situation.

Paul now gives us three reasons for the desperateness of our former state.

i. We were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel

Paul reminds us that, apart from Christ, we were ‘alienated from the commonwealth of Israel’.

This sets us up for where we will be going next week as we consider problem number one, hostility between Jew and Gentile and, by extension, between people in general.

For  today, however, Paul is making the point that Gentile’s were firmly on the outside of God’s purposes and promises. We were, at the very best, looking in.

Paul urges us to remember this,

Ephesians 2:11-12

Therefore remember  [...] that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel [...]

This is the starting point for believers. God chose a nation, a particular nation, from all the peoples of the earth and that nation was not us.

The Psalmist reminds Israel of the greatness of this truth and the privilege of their chosen-ness,

Psalm 147:20

He has not dealt thus with any other nation;
they do not know his rules.
Praise the Lord!

And the Jews felt the weight and privilege of this. The practicing Jew would, therefore, daily thank God that he had not been born a Gentile.[3] To be a Gentile was to be apart from the chosen people and to thus be separated was to be on the outside of God’s purpose and promise.

To be on the outside was to be without a hope.

Paul exhorts us to remember this. This is where we once were. This is who we once were.

ii. We were strangers to the covenant promises

Moreover Paul urges us to remember that we were also ‘strangers to the covenants of promise’,

Ephesians 2:11-12

Therefore remember  [...] that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise [...]

We see that this problem stems from the first. God chose a particular nation and to this nation revealed his Word, his Law and his promises. Paul reminds us of this elsewhere,

Romans 9:4–5

They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

Consider for a moment the significance of this.

The principal means by which God revealed himself was entrusted to a particular people group. God revealed himself to and through the Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, Moses and Joshua, in a unique way and Israel was the beneficiary of this grace. Similarly God spoke to and through the Prophets and, again, Israel was the beneficiary of this glorious grace.

To Israel alone God revealed his character, nature, power, will and promises. They alone had heard the voice of God: ‘The Lord says…’

Now consider what it means to be on the outside of this. Imagine what it means to have not been chosen. To have not received the prophetic word. To have not received the Law. To live in ignorance of the Word of God.

This is our state outside of Christ.

Without Christ you and I would be firmly on the outside. Worst still, in our ignorance, we were unaware of what even constituted ‘inside’ and ‘outside’. Without Christ we were literally floundering in the dark not even knowing what it is like to bask in his glorious light.

Without Christ our state, as Gentiles, is hopeless.

iii. We were far off

All of which leads Paul to conclude that because of this, we Gentiles were alienated, strangers to the things of God and far off from him. The glory of the gospel, however, is that God intervenes, becomes flesh and hunts us down.

Jesus Christ came to seek and save the lost,

Luke 19:10

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.

As we will see over the coming weeks, the glory of the gospel is this,

Ephesians 2:17

And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

b. Now in Christ

i. But now

In Christ, everything changed.

No longer is the revelation of God limited to a particular people, in Christ the light of the glory of God is visible to all. We see this confirmed as Simeon prays over the baby Jesus at his presentation in the temple,

Luke 2:29–32

“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”

As Gentiles, before Christ we were lost and blind to the things of God. In Christ, however, the light of the revelation of God now goes forth to all peoples.

This is why the Apostle Paul is able to declare,

Ephesians 2:13

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

But now something has changed.

But now there is hope.

But now Christ has come.

This is ground-shaking.

Formerly we were without a hope in the world, but now something has happened, God himself has intervened.

Christ Jesus has come.

ii. In Christ

The advent of Christ changes everything: now the light has gone forth to the Gentiles. Moreover, the terms of inclusion have radically and dramatically changed.

Formerly, under the Old Covenant, one had to be incorporated into Israel in order to participate in the promises and benefits of God. For the Gentile this meant conversion and circumcision.

Under the New Covenant, however, salvation is not linked to nationality or ethnicity, rather, those who are in Christ are brought near.

This is glorious news for Gentiles everywhere. In Christ, we are brought near. In Christ, as we shall see in the coming weeks, we are incorporated into the covenant community of the people of God.

In Christ there is hope.

All of which makes this passage incredibly personal.

Perhaps your security is grounded in the fact that your parents, grandparents and great grandparents attended church. Perhaps you feel safe because you yourself have attended church for year upon year. Perhaps your security is grounded upon the fact that you read your bible, perhaps you even study your bible diligently. Paul blows all of this out of the water. The only test that matters is this: are you in Christ?

Have you surrendered your desires, ambitions, wants; your very life to him, to such an extent that he has become your Lord and your very great reward? Are you able to say with the Apostle Paul, ‘For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain’ (Philippians 1:21)?

This is what it is to be in Christ.

c. Now brought near

We were once without hope, without identity and far off from God and all of his promises. Now, however, in Christ Jesus, we are brought near. More specifically, we are brought near because of the cross. Consider,

Ephesians 2:13

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

In this we see something of the glorious sufficiency that is found in Christ.

We Gentiles were without hope. We were far off from the things of God, but something changed.

Christ came.

Christ died and, in his death, made it possible for those of us who are in him to be brought close. But, close to what?

Paul picks this up later in the passage,

Ephesians 2:18

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

We will spend some time unpacking this in the coming weeks, but for this morning, allow the glory and wonder of this to wash over you.

We Gentiles, we who were without a hope and ignorant to the things of God.

We who were far off.

We Gentiles, have now been brought near to God.

How near? We have been graciously given access to the very throne room of God. This is the glorious good news of the gospel for Gentiles everywhere.

3. REMEMBER

Paul begins by exhorting ‘we Gentiles’ to remember our former hopeless state,

Ephesians 2:11–12

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

All of this remembering is intended to awaken us to the glory in verse 13,

Ephesians 2:13

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

In all of this, Paul, I think, intends us to see three specific responses.

i. Humility

We will return to this next week, but it is worth considering how Paul deals with the disparity between Jew and Gentile,

Ephesians 2:11

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—

We need not know a huge amount about the context of this to understand that the term, ‘the uncircumcision’ is not intended as a complement. In truth, Paul reminds us as Gentiles that the Jews sneer at those of us who are outside Israel. Paul then moves on to emphasize why we Gentiles are at such a disadvantage.

This is not to say that these Jews are right. Paul indicates this by undermining their confidence in the covenant sign, in their case, this circumcision ‘is made in the flesh by hands’.

The gospel is emphatic, both Jew and Gentile need Christ Jesus.

And yet our state as Gentiles was more desperate and hopeless than theirs. We were the ones who were far off.

This should fill us with incredible humility. This should feed our dependency upon Christ Jesus.

There are two components to the gospel.

Firstly, the Gospel content which is centred around the person and work of Christ Jesus. God becomes flesh in order that he might rescue us through his death on the cross and his miraculous resurrection. Without the content of the gospel there can be no salvation.[4]

Secondly, however, we must understand the need for a Rescuer. This is Paul’s intention in verse 1 through to 10 and this is Paul’s intention here.

If you are an unbeliever, Paul wants you to feel your desperate need for a Saviour, that you might run to Christ Jesus. He wants you to feel your alienation, your separateness and the distance which remains between you and God and (as we shall see next week) between you and your fellow man.

Believer and unbeliever alike.

Paul wants you to see that you might be humbled. He wants you to be humbled that you might cling to Christ as the only hope in this world.

ii. Confidence

But none of this is intended to remove the confidence which comes with verse 18,

Ephesians 2:18

For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Through Christ Jesus we both, Jew and Gentile, have access to the Father. This is glorious good news. This is the heart of the gospel. There are no second class citizens in the kingdom of God.

And with all of this comes a holy confidence rooted in the cross of Christ Jesus,

Hebrews 10:19–23

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

iii. Praise

This sermon series is entitled ‘His Glorious Grace’ for a reason.

Throughout these first two chapters Paul has held the gospel in his hand like a precious jewel, turning it this way and that so that it might catch the light and we might see His manifold glory.

Paul reminds us of who God is that we might see his glory magnified in the gospel. Paul reminds us of all God has done in and through Christ Jesus that we might see his glory in the gospel. And Paul reminds us of who we were and who he has made us to be that we might see the magnitude of his awesome glory in the gospel.

And the focus of all of this glory is upon his grace. He poured out grace abundantly in and through Christ Jesus and we are the beneficiaries of this glorious grace. Paul’s intention is that we see this. Paul’s intent is to magnify his grace that we might depend upon it and glory in it now and for all of eternity.

To him, be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen (Ephesians 3:21).

[1] This is not to suggest that there was no opposition in the church in Ephesus at any time. Paul warns the Ephesian elders that ‘fierce wolves will come in among you’ (Acts 20:28-30) and, tragically, in Revelation, we find that this same church has abandoned ‘the love [they] had at first’ (Revelation 2:4).

[2] Paul strengthens this association in verse 10 in presenting believers as the pioema [workmanship] of God. I discuss this in more detail elsewhere.

[3] Bruce, F. F. The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians. The New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1984. 292

[4] Consider, for example, that which Paul states to be of first importance in 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, the death, burial and resurrection of Christ and the actual bodily appearance of the resurrected Son of God.

These are the notes of a sermon preached by Andy Evans on the morning of the 24 January 2010 at Firwood Church. Click here to stream or download the sermon audio.

Ephesians 2:1-10

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— ³among 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. ⁴But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— ⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For 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. ¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

1. ALIVE

a. Paul’s Preoccupation with Aliveness

The aim in preaching through books of the Bible is to pay close attention to the detail of Scripture while keeping the big picture in view. It has taken us 15 weeks to reach Chapter 2 verse 10 and the danger in this is that I may, inadvertently, unnaturally interrupt the Apostle Paul’s flow of thought. Each week, therefore, we must take care to ensure that we see how our passage links in with all that has gone before.

This week’s unit of thought begins back in Chapter 1 with Paul praying,

…that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:18–20)

Paul prays that believers would know the hope they have in Christ, the inheritance secured in him and the awesome resurrection power at work towards those who are his.

Paul now proceeds to show us why this resurrection power is necessary,

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked… (Ephesians 2:1–2)

The ‘And’ gestures back to the preceding chapter because Paul wants us to understand this power in the context of our former situation. (If you are an unbeliever, then Paul is talking of your present circumstance and need.) The resurrection power Paul speaks of in Chapter 1 is precisely necessary because the human condition is so utterly hopeless. We are dead spiritually, experientially and judicially. We were ‘by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind’ (Ephesians 2:3).

And then, at verse 4, Paul’s thought shifts to God with the glorious interjection, ‘But God’,

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— (Ephesians 2:4–5)

Paul, here, answers the question that no one is naturally inclined to ask.

When confronted with the reality of God’s just and holy wrath against sinners, we are all swift to point the finger and accuse God of severity and injustice. The question most commonly on our lips is how can this loving God condemn anyone to hell? We rarely think to ask why this just and holy God would suffer any of us to live.

Paul understands that God’s motive in making dead people come alive is himself. God is gracious and loving and acts in complete accordance with his gracious and loving nature. God is gracious and loving and acts in order to display his glorious nature (Ephesians 1:6).

This then, last week, led us into verses 8 and 9 and now, this week, into verse 10.

Consider how these two clauses (verse 8 to 9 and verse 10) expand on verses 4 and 5. Consider how this helps us understand the extent of the aliveness we receive in Christ. Paul writes,

But God… made us alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:4)

before expanding on this with the explanatory clause,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. (Ephesians 2:8)

and then further developing this gracious gift of life in verse 10,

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

b. The Extent of this Aliveness

Throughout his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul emphasizes the miraculous nature of salvation and this leads him to exult in the sovereignty of God and his glorious grace. In order to help us understand the extent of the gracious gift of salvation, Paul draws on a number of metaphors,

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace (Ephesians 1:7)

Salvation entails forgiveness and is nothing short of redemption. This redemption is necessary because we were formerly enslaved to the desires of our flesh, the bondage of sin and the deceit of the enemy (Ephesians 2:1-3).

even when we were dead in our trespasses, [God] made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— (Ephesians 2:5)

We have considered the truth of this over the previous three weeks. We were dead and God has made us alive ‘together with Christ’. Salvation is nothing less than resurrection.

2. NEW CREATION AND THE POIEMA OF GOD

a. Creation and the Creator

In verse 10, Paul focuses upon the result and implications of this aliveness and, in so doing, draws upon another metaphor,

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

We are dead, lost and utterly without hope and then God, because he is that kind of God, intervenes in grace and love. We are imprisoned, he sets us free. We are dead, he makes us alive. The end result of this gracious intervention is that those of us who believe are ‘his workmanship’.

The Greek word, poiema, here translated, ‘his workmanship’ is an unusual word and is only used on one other occasion in the New Testament. This other occurrence is, I think, both significant and illuminating. Paul writes elsewhere,

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made [poiemasin]. So they are without excuse. (Romans 1:18–20)

Before we move on to consider the word, poiemasin, the root of which is poiema, translated in verse 20 as, ‘things that have been made’, it is worthwhile considering the correlation between this passage and Ephesians 2:1-3.

In Ephesians 2:1-3 we are held responsible for our former condition: we walked in our trespasses and sins, we followed the lies of the world (and, in doing so, the lies of Satan) and the passions and desires which enslaved us were our own.

In Romans Chapter 1, Paul unpacks this further. The backdrop to all this is that God is perpetually and gloriously revealing himself to men and women. Paul presents us with three ways in which God self-discloses: through Scripture, through our consciences and, in the passage above, through creation.

This is important because it frames all that we have read in Ephesians Chapter 1. Yes, our God is at work even before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4) and, yes, God is at work choosing and initiating. However, we should never read in this that we are somehow exempt from responsibility. God works and his ways are mysterious and inscrutable (Romans 11:33). The counterpoint to this is that God reveals himself everywhere in his creation.

Why then is it that men and women remain blind to the truth of God? Paul understands that, in addition to being dead, we are also truth suppressors (Romans 1:18). We see the glory of God in creation and we either crush the sense of wonder stone-dead or fixate upon the lesser created thing and suppress any thought of a Creator God.

This is why Paul’s use of the word poiemasin (root, poiema) is so important. Paul is trying to convey that behind creation lies the hand of the Creator. Poiema, from which our word ‘poem’ derives, conveys so much more than evolutionary theory would have us believe. Poiema, ‘the things that have been made’ (Romans 1:20), points to the Maker.^[1]

Imagine this: you are walking down a deserted beach and you see and ‘L’ sculpted in the sand. You might imagine that this is a coincidence and a result of either the wind or the waves. Imagine, however, that the ‘L’ was preceded by another ‘L’, an ‘A’, a ‘H’ and a ‘S’ and, as you looked, you read, ‘Shall I compare thee to a summers day…’. Imagine that you are not simply gazing at an anomalous ‘L’, but at a poem.

Suddenly the natural response is to look for the poet.[2]

Paul understands that creation is like a glorious poem inviting us to see the hand of the Creator, the great hand of the Poet, behind and in all he has made.

b. Creation and New Creation

If we move then to Ephesians Chapter 2, Paul is conveying two things.

Firstly, Paul is referencing creation. God created all things (which, consequently, bear his imprint) and now this same God is at work shaping, crafting and bringing dead things to life. Paul has previously used two illustrations to describe salvation, God redeemed us and God made us alive. Now Paul wants us to see that salvation is nothing short of new creation.

Paul makes exactly this point elsewhere,

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

Paul is referencing the Genesis account of creation in which God speaks everything into being (beginning at Genesis 1:3). Paul understands that our salvation is only possible because this same Creator God spoke into being things that are from things that are not (in this instance, we can specifically point to ‘faith’, Ephesians 2:8, and life, Ephesians 2:5).

Paul understands that our blindness was absolute. We were unable to see Jesus as he truly is and, consequently, were utterly unresponsive to the gospel. The solution is that the Creator of the universe speaks light into our lives and the result of this is that we are now able to see Jesus as he truly is: the glorious God of the universe.

c. Creation, New Creation and Christ

There is a second component to this new creation which I want to reference here and then leave to one side until we return to Ephesians in a few weeks time. Paul later writes that Christ, through the cross,

[… abolished] the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace (Ephesians 2:15)

This is a great and weighty truth for the church in Ephesus and for Firwood Church, Oldham. We, like the church in Ephesus, were predominantly formally Gentiles, separated from the commandments, promises, people and purposes of God because of our ancestry. In Christ, however, the two distinctive groups, Jew and Gentile, are made one man. For now, note this reference: Paul picks up the new creation reference of verse 10 and unpacks this further in verse 15.

The main reason I pick this up here is to show the importance of Christ Jesus, his death and resurrection in this creative act.

Paul writes,

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:10)

There is no creation apart from Christ Jesus,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. (John 1:1–3)

There is no salvation, life or new creation apart from Christ Jesus.

Jesus, the God-Man, is the means by which God chooses to work his redemptive, salvific and creative purposes. As such Christ Jesus is the focal point of the glory of the Godhead in all things (Ephesians 1:20-23).

The result of this creative activity in Christ is that we are made to be his poiema. We, believers in Christ Jesus, are his creation formed by his hand and bearing his imprint.

3. PURPOSEFUL NEW CREATION

a. New Creation with Purpose

This is a weighty truth: believers are new creations created in Christ Jesus to bear the imprint of their Creator.

Let me prove this to you.

Paul writes,

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

God’s creative work is always incredibly purposeful. We who are his poiema are created ‘for good works’.

This exhortation to believers to engage in good works is a reoccurring theme throughout the Scriptures and throughout Paul’s letters. Elsewhere, Paul prays that our acts of goodness might bear fruit (Colossians 1:10) and that our hearts might be established in good deeds (2 Thessalonians 2:17).

What then does Paul intend when he writes that believers were created afresh ‘for good works’? Paul wants believers to understand that our salvation is purposed that we might live our lives in accordance with God’s character and values. We serve a good God, Paul urges us to live good lives.

This is what it means to be his poiema. We bear the imprint of the living God.

And there is a dynamic in this. Paul writes that we were,

…created in Christ Jesus for good works […] that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

Paul sets this kind of walking over and against our former walk; consider,

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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 (Ephesians 2:1-2)

We formerly walked on a path characterised by sin, the values of the world and the standards of Satan. It is not simply that we occasionally slipped up, but rather that our lives were patterned after our own godless desires and passions. To walk this way is to walk in a manner utterly at odds with the values of the living God.

This is why, throughout Ephesians, Paul urges believers to walk differently,

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. (Ephesians 4:17)

There was a way of walking in which all of us formerly engaged. We walked in futility because we thought futile thoughts. The fruit of our natural inclination is to suppress the truth: that creation has a Creator, that God is praiseworthy, that God is worthy to be pursued and treasured above all things and that this same God calls each one of us back into relationship with him. We suppress the truth and the result is that our thoughts become darkened and we become futile in our thinking (Paul unpacks this further in Romans 1:18-32).

Paul understands that we were rescued from our former ways that we might walk in a wholly different manner. This forms the basis of a reoccurring exhortation throughout this letter,

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (Ephesians 4:1–3)

Paul reminds believers that they are new creations, his poiema, and urges us to live in a manner worthy of such a high calling. Note also that Paul lists examples of the kind of good deeds which believers should actively pursue. We are called, no, made, to live in humility, gentleness, patience and peace.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1–2)

Paul now exhorts believers, as his poiema, to imitate him and walk like Christ. We are created anew in Christ Jesus that we might walk (in good deeds) like Christ Jesus.

Similarly, Paul encourages believers to walk in the light as he is in the light (see also 1 John 1:7),

for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:8)

And exhorts us to walk in wisdom,

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise (Ephesians 5:15)

Believers are saved for such a purpose as this: that we might reflect the image, character and values of the God who rescued us and breathed new life into us.

b. New Creatures, New Nature

Having unpacked all of this I must now turn and address an objection that some may raise based on all we discussed last week.

In Ephesians Chapter 2, verses 8 and 9, Paul emphatically stated that our salvation is grounded wholly upon the grace and mercy of God and is given apart from any good works or merit or worth that we might possess in and of ourselves,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

The question which may now arise is how does Paul’s insistence that we were created ‘for good works’ fit into this system of salvation by grace alone through faith alone? Is Paul contradicting himself in saying that, on the one hand, our salvation is wholly attributable to the grace of God and then, on the other, that we are required to devote ourselves to good works? Or is it that Paul is exhorting us to somehow repay God for his goodness to us with good works?

This is why it is important that we pay close attention to the tense Paul employs here; believers are,

…created in Christ Jesus for good works […] that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

Notice that we are not the subject of this passage, God is. We are the objects on whom God pours out mercy, blessings and life. He acts and we received. This is the sense which is conveyed here. Paul does not add an exhortation, ‘so, walk in them’. He writes simply and matter-of-factly that believers were saved to so walk.

There is great force in this. Paul is not saying, God made you new, therefore… Rather he is saying, God made you new, therefore you are…

God has worked an act of creation and we are what he has made us to be: new creations. New creations think differently and act differently. Our new walk is altogether different from our former walk because we are new creatures.

There is a shift of emphasis then. You might say, ‘Who are you to tell me how to live?’ Paul would respond: ‘Walk in accordance with your nature’. You might say, ‘Who are you to criticize how I live?’ Paul would respond, ‘Why is it that you claim to be new, but continue to act like the old creature?’

It would be a gross error, this morning, to hear this message and then leave believing that the solution to your situation is to try to be a better person. Paul wants you to be a different person and he knows that as God effects this work in your life, your behavior will follow.

Martin Luther, the great Reformer, reminds us that, “Good works do not make a man good, but a good man will do good works.”^[3]

Unbelievers, recognize that your situation is so bleak and so desperate that nothing short of new creation will remedy your state. Believers, test yourselves, examine whether you are living lives in accordance with your new nature. If not, you need begin by examining your heart in order to determine whether you are indeed his (2 Corinthians 13:5). If not, you need to repent, turn from your own self-righteousness and instead throw yourself upon his grace.

c. New Creation, New Works and Grace

The objection we have just addressed is how one might respond to Paul’s insistence on the necessity of grace given his exhortation towards good works? Does not the emphasis upon good works somehow devalue grace? Paul provides the answer to this in verse 10. Consider,

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

The emphasis in this entire passage, indeed, this entire letter, is that, in relation to salvation, God acts first, he acts in grace and he acts decisively. Paul begins to unpacks this for us in Chapter 1,

he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, (Ephesians 1:4–5)

Paul wants us to understand that our salvation is predicated upon his unconditional election. He chose us before there was an ‘us’. He chose us before the foundation of the world and the determining factor was not our goodness, our intelligence or our receptiveness, but, rather, ‘the purpose of his will’. He acted first and he acted decisively.

But how, you may ask, does this sovereign and unconditional election interface with the requirement that we believe and follow him? Paul addresses this in Chapter 2,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9)

God reveals himself through nature, through our consciences, in Scripture and, finally and perfectly, in his Son and he calls us to respond in faith and belief. Paul here confirms this, ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith’, but note that even the faith by which we respond, ‘is the gift of God’.

This God chooses a people for himself, provides, in Christ, a means for their rescue and then provides them with the very faith with which they are called to respond. He does this because such radical intervention is necessary. We were dead. We were enemies. We were ‘children of wrath’. And he does this because it is in his nature to so act. He is ‘rich in mercy’ and loves us with a great love (Ephesians 2:4).

But Paul takes this further still. Because of this great intervention and his expansive grace we are made to be new creations, his poiema, that we might walk accordingly. And even in this he is at work preparing, in advance, good works that we might walk in them.

This is important for three reasons,

i. God reigns over every aspect of our lives

Consider the implications of this.

Before the foundation of the world God was at work choosing a people for himself. With this same astonishing comprehensive foresight, God shapes history in order to ensure that his people are provided with an opportunity to engage in good works.

This removes any possible excuse for passive, unresponsive Christianity without action and works. Paul assures us that the provision of good works is bound up in the salvation package. I do not think that it is too great a stretch to think of this provision in the same terms as the ‘every spiritual blessings’ that Paul addresses in Ephesians 1:3. If you are a Christian, God has prepared and provided a ministry and good works for you to walk in.

It is no coincidence when you find yourself confronted with a need or ministry or act of service. God has prepared this for you to walk in. And, so, walk in it.

Look, then, for the hand of God at work in your life. Follow his leading. Follow the need. God saved you for this purpose.

This is incredibly challenging, there is no excuse for idleness. But this is also incredibly encouraging. There is no such thing as happenstance and there is no such thing as coincidence.

God saved you. God has prepared the path upon which he now calls you to walk.

ii. God’s grace is sufficient for the life he has called us to lead

The link between this walk and his grace is twofold. The first clue is seen in the first word of this sentence, ‘For we are his workmanship’. The ‘For’ gestures back to verses 4-5 and which focus upon the saving grace of a God who is rich in mercy and through to verses 8 and 9 which emphasize the necessity of this grace.

Furthermore, it is clear that we should view the preparation of good works as a grace gift.

Let me unpack this further.

Paul wants us to see that our ministries are predicated upon his grace not our worth. He gives us particular ministries because he is gracious and kind. The promise in this is that he will supply us with all that we need to so minister, serve and walk. He calls us to walk in the good works he has prepared in order that we might remember and rely upon his grace.

Paul addresses this truth more directly, elsewhere,

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work (2 Corinthians 9:8)

All of this is incredibly liberating.

God calls us for a purpose. He provides work for us to do. He provides all we need to live obedient lives that we may ‘abound in every good work’.

This makes sense of the perfect tense in verses 5 and 8,

…by grace you have been saved… (Ephesians 2:5, 8 )

This could also rightly be translated,

…by grace you are saved… (Ephesians 2:5, 8 )

Paul clearly has his eye upon saving grace grounded in two historical moments: the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the moment we responded in and through faith. Paul does not lose sight of the continuing effects of this grace, however. He understands that we were saved by the sheer grace of God and, in the same way, by his grace and kindness we are being preserved and sustained.

This is why we are called to walk in good works rather than to work in them. The correct emphasis is this: we are not ‘doing a work for God but God [is] doing a work in and through the believer’.[4]

And so to we are asked to respond in faith. Yes, we believe him to be true to his word. Yes, we believe he is faithful. Yes, we believe he is enough (whatever our circumstances) and, yes, we believe he continues to provide abundant grace that we might walk in good deeds.

We were saved by grace and through faith. We are being saved by grace through faith.

Unbelievers, trust in this. Believers, walk in this.

iii. God displays his extravagant grace in our walk in Christ

Finally, the grace of God leaves no room for boasting.

He saves us, he makes us new and he gives us work and ministries that we might display his grace in our obedient walk.

He calls us to leave our old walk and to instead walk in accordance with our new nature. Children of God imitate their Father in heaven. Servants of Christ walk the path Christ walked.

He calls us to risky, dangerous and even terrifying places that we might serve him and walk in good deeds. He calls us to take up our cross, lay down our lives and serve him.

All of this looks crazy and all of this seems impossible. And yet, he gives us the strength and grace that we might walk faithfully and display his grace and power.

He wants people to be astonished that he might call us. He wants people to be astonished that he might so use us. He wants people to see him in us: his glory and his glorious grace.

[2] Illustration taken from Piper, John. ‘Displays of God Remove the Excuse for Failed Worship’ (27 September 1998) in Sermons from John Piper (1990-1999). Desiring God; Minneapolis, MN, 2007; 2007.

^[3] Bruce Shelley, Church History in Plain Language (Waco: Word Books, 1982), p.260 – cited in Jim Townsend, ‘Saved by Grace Alone – This is all my plea’, p. 239.

[4] Harold W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary (Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, Michigan. 2002, 2007), p. 349.

These are the notes of the sermon preached by Andy Evans on the morning of the 17 January 2010. Click here to download or stream the sermon audio.

Ephesians 2:1-10

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— ³among 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. ⁴But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— ⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For 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. ¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

1. GRACE

a. A Gracious God

The glorious grace of God is the central preoccupation of the Apostle Paul and the great theme of his letter to the church in Ephesus.

In Chapter 1 Paul unpacks the glory of God’s grace. God acts, God intervenes and God saves. This is ultimate reality and this is the truth of the universe and world in which we live. Science purports that the universe began with a big bang and that this world, life and everything are but ripples, consequences, of that cataclysmic event. Scripture teaches that creation has a Creator who is at work and active in his creation.

Paul wants believers to see the hand of God at work in all things and, particularly, in the great story of salvation. This is why Paul reminds believers that this God, our God, blesses (Ephesians 1:3), chooses, predestines (Ephesians 1:4-5) and, in and through Christ, redeems and rescues us (Ephesians 1:7). Moreover, in the fullness of time, this mighty God will bring all things into conformity under the dominion and sovereign rule of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:10).

God is at work, working all things in accordance with ‘the purpose of his will’ (Ephesians 1:5) and ‘to the praise of his glorious grace’ (Ephesians 1:6).

Last week, Paul went further and we saw that this great God who works so graciously towards men and women acts in perfect accordance with his character, for this God is ‘rich in mercy’ and abounding in great love (Ephesians 2:4).

The mercy of God is the great grounding of our salvation. Paul explains,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

b. Grace is…

Paul begins by setting out the foundation upon which our salvation is grounded: salvation is a grace-gift from a God who is ‘rich in mercy’ (Ephesians 2:4),

For by grace you have been saved… it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8)

We are saved because God chooses to do so and God chooses to do so because he is gracious, merciful and kind. This truth is massively important and reminds us that the character and nature of God, his goodness, his great love and his merciful kindness, is demonstrated and displayed in salvation and in his church.

Moreover, this gift is freely given, irrespective of any merit or worth within ourselves. Paul shows us this by setting out clearly what grace is not. Paul writes that salvation,

…is not your own doing (v. 8 )

And,

not a result of works (v. 9)

This is fundamental to understanding the Gospel of Grace. Paul wants us to understand that our salvation is a free grace gift from God, given irrespective of anything we might do and any good works we might have undertaken. We do not deserve this gift and it cannot be earned.

The truth that this gift is unmerited and undeserved magnifies the glory of grace and the generosity of the Giver. In truth, all of us instinctively understand this to be true.

Imagine with me that, in the middle of the summer, we determine to purchase the Christmas Gift of Gifts for our beloved. Over a prolonged period of time we surreptitiously watch and listen attentively, searching for the most subtle and inadvertent of hints as to what this much wanted gift might be. As the summer wanes into autumn, it clicks, the hint is dropped, the perfect gift is identified and then the search for that ‘thing’ begins. We search and scour the high street and the internet and then, finally, find the much in demand ‘thing’, the perfect gift, order it and wait.

Finally, with just a few days to go, the thing arrives.

Imagine now that it is Christmas day and you hand him or her this perfect gift, immaculately wrapped. Imagine the look of wonder as they open the thing and the special, much-wanted and much sought gift is finally revealed.

Now imagine that they thank you and reach for their wallet or purse. Imagine that they are now writing out a cheque for the full amount and are passing it to you.

We all immediately understand why this is a problem. You see, the moment the cheque is received the gift is no longer a gift. Payment nullifies grace.

Paul makes this very point in his letter to the church in Rome,

But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. (Romans 11:6)

Paul resists all such attempts to belittle and nullify the grace of God. Salvation is a gift that we do not deserve and are incapable of earning.

2. FAITH

a. Through Faith

But this leaves a huge question unanswered. If God is ‘rich in mercy’ and, as the Apostle John puts it, ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8), why is it that not everybody is saved? If Christ’s work on the cross (the embodiment and culmination of God’s gracious activity) is universal in its provision (meaning that the grace of God and the effects of the cross are expansive enough to cover all people at all times everywhere), why is it that some perish and some remain ‘children of wrath’?

It is true that the love and grace of God is expansive and that the grace-gift of salvation is free, unmerited, undeserved and predicated upon his goodness irrespective of our own worth and yet there is further crucial element to this equation. Consider,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. (Ephesians 2:8)

We are saved by grace and through faith. Salvation is a grace gift which must be received ‘through faith’.

In this context, the word ‘faith’ (pisteos) basically means to trust or believe in something or someone. Paul’s usage here goes further and suggests that the state of believing is based upon the reliability and trustworthiness of the one trusted.[1]

There is a grave warning in all of this for believers and unbelievers alike.

It is not enough to rely on the truth that ‘God is love’ (which he most assuredly is) and it is not enough to hope that everything will work out for us simply because God is ‘rich in mercy’ (which, again, he is). Such vague and abstract notions lead to inactivity and unresponsiveness. God requires a faith response. And this faith response has substance and depth. It is more than a simple crossing of the fingers and hoping for the best. It is more than a clicking of the heels and a hope that we will ‘find that happy place, find that happy place, find that happy place’.

The faith that Paul talks about has an object and has weight.

Paul is talking about more than a simple intellectual assent to a series of propositional truths: yes, I believe there is a God, yes, I believe he is rich in mercy, yes, I believe Jesus lived and, yes, I believe he died to save sinners? Elsewhere, Scripture cautions against mere intellectual assent,

You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! (James 2:19)

This should cause holy fear to shake our very souls. The demons intellectually assent to the truths of Scripture.

To have faith takes us further.

b. Faith: Past

The ‘through faith’ demands so much more than intellectual assent or vague hopefully feelings that everything will turn out okay. The clue to this is in the ‘For’. Paul writes,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. (Ephesians 2:8)

The word ‘For’ links this unit of thought with that which goes before. Paul is referring back.

As we have considered over the past two weeks, Paul begins by describing the situation of men and women outside of the grace and salvation presented in verse 8. We were lost, blind, enslaved and ultimately dead (Ephesians 2:1-3). A supernatural and miraculous intervention was necessary and, through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God made those of us who are his alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:4-6). Salvation is nothing less that resurrection.

Moreover, this work (described throughout Chapter 1 and in Chapter 2, verses 4, 5 and 6, is a sheer grace gift from a God who is ‘rich in mercy’. This explains the jarring interjection in verse 5,

by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:5)

The ‘For’ points back to verses 4 to 6 and verse 5 points forward to verses 8 and 9. Paul exhorts us to believe, trust and put our faith in the God who thus works so graciously towards us.

This changes the way that we see everything.

Formerly, we refused to acknowledge the hand and grace of God at work in creation and throughout history. Formerly, we regarded the events described in the gospels as either fantasy, happenstance or cold, irrelevant history.

To receive salvation by grace and through faith radically changes our perspective. Now we see the hand of God at work in everything.

Paul deals with this in what is perhaps the most important passage in Scripture,

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Romans 3:21–26)

Note that Paul’s thinking here is in perfect accord with Ephesians 2:1-10.

In Romans, Paul states that ‘all have sinned’ (v. 23) and, in Ephesians, he explains that we were ‘children of wrath, like the rest of mankind’ (v. 3). In both passages, salvation (or in the language of Romans 3, justification) comes ‘by his grace as a gift’ (Romans 3:23 and Ephesians 2:8) and, in both, there is an emphasis upon the necessity of faith:

the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe (Romans 3:22)

[We] are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. (Romans 3:24-25)

And,

that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

It is not enough to agree with the propositional truths of Scripture, faith is required.

Those of us who believe have experienced the truth of this.

At one time, we looked upon Jesus as a charlatan; good, but deluded… perhaps even insane. We believed a historical figure, Jesus of Nazareth, lived. We believed that the facts of his life loosely (or perhaps we believed, closely) accorded with the gospel accounts. We accepted that he was a good, maybe even an exceptional, man. We perhaps believed he was a prophet, a mystic or a great teacher. Some of us may even have believed that he lived an exemplary life and accepted that he died an exemplary death. It just may be that some of us even accepted that he was raised from the dead.

We now know, however, that this alone is not enough. Paul understands that more is required.

Now, as we look at Jesus we see more than a good man; we see God’s righteousness, his standards, his holiness, his character and the embodiment and fulfilment of all that is set out in the Old Testament. Jesus is the God-Man, the Word made flesh. We have faith in him knowing that he is indeed the righteousness of God and, in trusting and seeing this, we receive and depend on his righteousness. We say to ourselves that in Christ Jesus we see God and, consequently, his heart, his will and his glory. We accept this as truth and this changes everything and we now live and seek to know, love, follow and honour him.

This is what it means to receive the gospel through faith.

And now, as we gaze upon the cross, we see more than a horrendous miscarriage of justice and so much more than an ignominious death (although the cross is still both of these things). Instead we see the righteousness of a holy God who must deal with sin and we see the grace of this same God extended towards sinners.

Moreover, now we understand that the cross is designed for us; that this is the way that God is able to justify us and maintain his holiness and glorious reputation.

Now, as we look at the cross, we see not only Christ’s sufferings, but we also see his glory as he pays for our sins and strikes the decisive blow against sin and death. Now, as we behold his beaten and bruised body we see mercy and receive forgiveness.

This is what it means to receive the gospel through faith.

And this is Paul’s intention in Ephesians 2:8,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. (Ephesians 2:8)

God extends grace and we trust in his grace and his goodness. God sends forth his Son and we trust in him, believe in him and place our faith in him. Christ suffers and dies and we cling to the cross as the means by which we are justified and the font from which forgiveness flows. We look to the empty tomb and believe that he rose from the dead; that he lives still and we hope in this and cling to this truth as our source of life and the strength by which we are able to live for him.

This is what it means to be saved by grace through faith.

c. Faith: Present and Future

Before we move on, there is something further to note which will prove crucial next week.

The phrase ‘you have been saved’ (in both verses 5 and 8 ) is grammatically ambiguous in that Paul chooses to use the perfect tense which connotes both completed action, ‘you have been saved’ as we have discussed, and continuing results, ‘you are saved’.

Why does Paul so choose to write? Is this an accident or simple lack of clarity?

Rather, I would argue that Paul intends this statement to refer both back and forward. The declaration, that ‘by grace you have been saved’ points back to the finished work of Christ and the realisation of this in our lives as we are supernaturally brought back to life. We have considered this at length above.

But this statement, ‘by grace you are saved’ also points to the present and beyond because the effects of the cross continue to resound and work in our lives.

And so, even now, God is still at work pouring out ‘every spiritual blessing’ (Ephesians 1:3) upon those who are his. God is still at work supplying the grace we need to live the life he calls us to.

This will become crucial next week when we think about verse 10,

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

But for now, Paul wants us to feel secure. His grace worked towards us was not in vain. We responded in faith and the result is that we are (present tense) saved.

d. Faith as a Grace Gift

But Paul’s emphasis upon the necessity of faith raises a perplexing question.

God offers grace and we respond with faith. What then does this do to Paul’s assertion that salvation is a result of the sheer unmerited and undeserved grace of God? Is salvation somehow contingent upon us having or exercising faith and if this is the case, what does it do to grace?

Consider again Paul’s formulation of God’s work in salvation,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8)

The question is this: What is ‘the gift of God’? Paul cannot be referring to grace because he would simply be repeating himself: ‘the grace-gift is a gift’ is plainly unnecessary. It is unlikely that he is talking about salvation because grace and faith as the means of salvation, rather than salvation itself, is the subject of the sentence.

Paul is talking about faith. Faith is the gift from God.

Consider now the implications of this: God extents his hand of grace and men and women respond in saving faith. But it is God who bestows upon them the saving faith.

And this is necessary. Too often we draw on unhelpful analogies: Without God we are sick and dying, he holds the cure and we just need to open our mouths, then swallow. Or, we are lost at sea moments from drowning when he stretches out a hand and we just need to take hold of him.

Now, I accept there may be an element of truth in all of this, but we must remember that none of these analogies correspond with the picture Paul presents.

We were dead. Dead people do not open their mouths. Dead people do not swallow. Dead people never, ever stretch out their hands. Dead people are dead.

God displays his grace everywhere, but we are dead and do not see him and are unable to respond to him. This is the miracle of salvation: in grace he acts, supernaturally imparts the faith we need to respond and we are saved.

The result of this is profound.

3. BOASTING

There are three profound implications in this for both believers and unbelievers alike.

a. Faith vs. Works

When, in verse 9, Paul talks about works he is warning against an instinct that is hard-wired into all of us.

We all instinctively push back against grace. Try buying a coffee for a friend and it will invariably result in a race to the till and an argument over who is going to pay for the bill. A loved one buys us an unexpected and extravagant gift and we inevitably respond, ‘You shouldn’t have’.

There is something within all of us that pushes back against grace.

This impulse is so destructive because it leads us a bad kind of working; the kind of working that either seeks to win favour with God or somehow pay him back. This bad kind of working nullifies grace and eventually will blind us to grace.

We will find ourselves looking at the cross and thinking: foolishness. We will find ourselves responding to the exhortations to simply believe, trust and rely and instead argue: it cannot be that easy.

b. The Necessity of Grace

This is lethal for believer and unbeliever alike. You and I need grace for our salvation and continuing sanctification. There is then a continual requirement to have faith in his goodness.

We see the grace of God displayed and extended to us through the cross and we respond in faith: Jesus you died for me, and we are saved.

By grace through faith we are saved.

But our dependency on grace is continuing. We are called to walk, we are called to obey, we are called to live out the gospel and none of this is possible without his grace. We must continue to believe that he will supply all we need.

By grace through faith we are saved.

And we fail. Pitifully and miserably fail. We still depend upon his grace for continuing forgiveness. We know that we may stumble, but we will never fall irrevocably. We know this because we believe that he is gracious. We stumble and are dismayed, but we never despair for we know he is gracious. We slip into sin and we run to him, not from him, for we know that he is enough and his grace is sufficient.

By grace through faith we are saved.

c. We Boast

And the end of all this is that we boast and do not boast.

Paul understands that salvation is set up in such a way that we might receive none of the glory. We are saved, but there is no place for self-aggrandisement or self-glory,

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Boasting in our own goodness and our own worthiness is deadly to the soul. ‘Boasting perverts human autonomy by making it the object of trust’.[2] And ultimately such self-trust and self-reliance is idolatry.

Grace excludes such godless boasting.

But, in the same moment, grace compels us towards Godly boasting,

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26–31)

A right view of ourselves, our weakness, our failure and our sin magnifies grace and results in praise. A right view of God and our utter dependency upon him results in praise.

By grace, sheer grace, we have been saved, through faith. Let us now boast in him.

[2] Andrew Lincoln, WBC, pp.112-113

These are the notes of the sermon preached by Andy Evans on the morning of the 10 January 2010. Click here to download or stream the sermon audio.

Ephesians 2:1-10

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— ³among 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. ⁴But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— ⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For 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. ¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

1. THE EXTENT OF OUR DEADNESS

As we considered last week, verses 1 through to 3 were all about highlighting the extent of our deadness. The Apostle Paul references this again in verse 5,

even when we were dead in our trespasses (Ephesians 2:5)

Despite the presumptions of unbelievers, Biblical Christianity is not mere wishful thinking or optimistic positivism; the gospel is grounded upon objective reality.

It is important that we remember this principle. There is a trend in evangelicalism which has seeped into the church from the self-help culture of the world. This philosophy encourages us to embrace the champion within us, to release our inner super-hero and to love ourselves just a little more.

This is all at odds with the way in which Scripture presents us and, in verses 1 through to 3, Paul presents us with the ultimate wake-up call which pushes back hard against all such therapeutic deism. Paul provides us with a sharp reality check,

And you were dead in the trespasses and sin in which you once walked     (Ephesians 2:1-2)

following the course of this world (Ephesians 2:2)

following Satan ['the prince of the power of the air'] and the spirit of disobedience [we were, in fact, sons of disobedience] (Ephesians 2:2)

living in the passions of our flesh (Ephesians 2:3)

carrying out the desires of the body and the mind (Ephesians 2:3)

and were under the right and just condemnation of God [we were 'by nature children of wrath] (Ephesians 2:3)

Paul explains the extent of our deadness, enslaved to our sin, our passions and our flesh; enslaved to the Satanically inspired philosophies of this world, duped by Satan himself and because of all of this we lived under the holy and just death sentence issued by God against all disobedient, God-belittling sinners.

All of this limited our capacity to live and experience life in all its fullness; it is Jesus alone who bestows abundant life (John 10:10). All of this blinded us to the truth of God, the goodness of God and the things of God.

The death Paul describes is spiritual, experiential and, ultimately, judicial.

This is the great reality check. This is a call for believers to think clearly and unbelievers to see clearly.

Christians are the ultimate realists, we see the world as it is (subject to futility, Romans 8:20) and ourselves as we were, dead, blind and enslaved.

2. GOD

a. But God

This matters because Paul wants us to feel the astonishing force of verse 4,

But God, being rich in mercy… (Ephesians 2:4)

Think about the hopelessness of our former state when we were but sons of disobedience and children of wrath. Think about the extent of our blindness, perhaps we ridiculed the gospel and mocked Christians. Think about the depth of our former depravity, some of us were very bad whatever measure of morality we compared ourselves against. Think about the totality of our bondage; some of us felt this acutely in our addiction to drink or drugs.

But God…

This is the gospel-truth that Paul has spent much of chapter one unpacking for us. God acts. God intervenes. God saves. And all of this is necessary because we are utterly incapable of helping ourselves. At the risk of stating the obvious: dead people are dead and are of little use to anyone, much less themselves.

But God…

The gospel begins with a God who acts, a God who intervenes. Paul is about to unpack this further.

b. This Merciful God

Paul begins by focusing in on the character of God.

Considering the extent of our deadness and the depth of our depravity, we might well find ourselves asking why God would bother to intervene. Now, there are many answers to this question, and Paul has already unfolded a number throughout chapter one, but here Paul focuses on just one,

But God, being rich in mercy… (Ephesians 2:4)

This God, our God, the God who intervenes in history is rich in mercy.

It is worth dwelling on this phrase for a moment.

Repeatedly throughout the Old Testament, God reveals himself to men and women. We see a dramatic example of this in Exodus 34. Earlier, in chapter thirty-three, Moses asked God to show him his glory (Exodus 33:18). God agrees and takes Moses up the mountain and, shielding him with his hand in the cleft of a rock, passes before him declaring,

… “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6–7)

The Lord reveals himself to Moses and declares something of his nature: this God, our God, is merciful, gracious, patient, loving and faithful. The word, hesed, here translated, ‘steadfast love’, is particularly significant as it is translated in Greek as eleos, a word that Paul uses to describe the mercy of God. The mercy Paul has in mind is steadfast.

Moreover, eleos, the word Paul uses to describe the mercy of God is generally used to refer to generosity or mercy demonstrated towards an undeserving party. This is why the passage from Exodus is illuminating.

We may remember that Moses went up the mountain a first time to receive the law and, while he was up there, the people of Israel rebelled and persuaded Aaron to make them an idol in the form of a golden calf. The people then indulged in idolatry and debauchery (Exodus 32:1-6).

God rightly and justly responded to this disobedience with holy anger. Scripture tells us that the wrath of God burned against the people (Exodus 32:10) and yet, in mercy, he relented.

God’s self-disclosure as the epitome of ‘mercy’ and ‘steadfast love’ is grounded upon the demonstration of his mercy towards a rebellious, fickle and unfaithful people. The unworthiness of the object of his affections (Israel and now us) serves to cement the truth that this God, our God, is steadfastly loving while emphasising the extent and, in doing so, the sheer beauty and glory of this mercy

This truth maps into Paul’s understanding of the character of God in his letter to the Ephesians. They, and we, were formerly idolaters, God-belittlers and God-haters and yet God intervened and showed mercy, because he is merciful, loving and kind. Paul’s point is that this is the kind of God we serve.

Feel then the weight of this truth. Marvel at his glorious grace.

But God, being rich in mercy… even when we were dead in our trespasses (Ephesians 2:4a-5)

You see, our deadness has a moral component. It is something for which we are wholly responsible. We were dead because of our choices, our lifestyle and our wholesale rejection of God. And, yet, in his mercy, he stepped in and everything changed.

c. This Loving God

This God, our God, thus feels in accordance with his nature,

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us

This prepositional phrase expands upon the first. Our God is, as the Apostle John states so emphatically, characterised by his love,

…God is love. (1 John 4:8)

Let’s just pause for a moment to clarify this.

The truth of God’s loving nature and this passage from the Apostle John’s first Epistle, is perhaps the most abused and misquoted truth in Scripture. Often times the love of God is placed over and against the truth of God’s justice and is used to negate the idea that there will be any reckoning or judgement over sin. This is a gross distortion of the gospel and completely out of step with Paul’s thinking.[1] Last week Paul emphasised our state outside of Christ,

[we were] by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind (Ephesians 2:3)

God feels just and righteous anger towards sinners and sin. For those who refuse to repent there is only the fearful expectation of judgement and wrath. We must never underplay this. God is holy and feels a focused, just and righteous anger towards sin and rebellious sinners. And yet this same God is characterised by his rich mercy and his great love. Yes, God is holy and pure. Yes, God is just. And, yes, God responds in righteous anger towards rebellion, idolatry and God-belittling men and women. And yet his default position is love.

This God ‘is rich in mercy’ and, as such, he feels and, as we will see, acts in accordance with his nature.

Consider the way in which Paul loads expansive clauses one on top of another,

But God,

being rich in mercy,

because of the great love

with which he loved us (Ephesians 2:4)

God is rich in mercy and possesses, or feels, great love. But this is not an abstract emotionalism, rather it is directed towards us. We are the object of his affections and his affection for us is great.

The Scriptures return to this monumental truth again and again and it is clear that the Apostle Paul never got over his wonder at the glory of God’s extravagant grace and he returns to this great theme again and again,

…God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:5–8)

As in Ephesians, the greatness of God’s mercy is demonstrated in the unworthiness of the objects of this same mercy. God steps in at the right time when we were enemies of God, hostile to the things of God and living in active rebellion.

God steps in at the right time, when we were sinners, that he might show his love for us.

This is precisely Paul’s point in Ephesians chapter two. Paul wants us to see the greatness of the mercy of God and the glory of his grace and understands that in order to do this we must understand the hopelessness of our former state that we might see the richness of his mercy and the greatness of his love. We were dead and utterly blameworthy for that death and yet God sent rescue, not because he must, but because this is the kind of God he is.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38–39)

Herein we find a further application. The point of this passage is that our assurance is grounded upon the truth that his mercy and love is vast and expansive. This is why we do ourselves great harm in diminishing the depth of our depravity. To pretend that we are not that bad really minimises the necessity for grace. But what do we do when we stumble more greatly than we imagined we could? What do we do when we finally glimpse how wicked our heart actually is?

In all likelihood this will lead us to despair. We have previously shunned the grace of God and, in all truth, depended upon our own righteousness. When the illusion of this is stripped away, well, what then?

Understanding our true state before a holy God opens our eyes to his extravagant mercy and love and in this there is great assurance. In Christ, in the cross, in our salvation, in him transforming us into increasing conformity with Christ we see the greatness of his love. In this there is great security. This great love will never let us go. This great love will never let us fall.

Paul wants us to see and this is why he reminds the saints in Ephesus,

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us (Ephesians 2:4)

d. This Resurrecting God

This God who is characterised by his rich mercy and great love acts in accordance with his very nature,

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:4-5)

This is the full force behind ‘But God’ in verse 4. This mercifully loving God acts miraculously, gloriously and in great power. While we were dead he made us alive.

Understand this, unbeliever, your situation is grave, self-discipline, self-help and self-improvement will not remedy the problem: you are dead.

And know this, believer, your salvation was a glorious and miraculous thing in which God displayed his glory. You were dead and he has made you alive.

Scripture talks about salvation in dramatic terms because the truth of it is earth-shaking. We were lost, blind, imprisoned, condemned. To all extents and purposes we were dead. And yet God, because he is merciful and because he is loving, chose to act and rescue those who so scorned and belittled him. This rescue was utterly miraculous and we do well to exult in the truth of this.

Dead men and women made alive.

With Christ.

Christ is our reference point and this should cause us to reflect on Paul’s earlier celebration of God’s resurrection power gloriously displayed in Christ and now at work towards those of us who believe (Ephesians 1:19). Jesus Christ was physically raised from the dead and this same resurrection power has bestowed spiritual life upon men and women who were spiritually dead.

Paul, however, goes further here and returns to the central truth he expounded throughout chapter one. Christ is the sphere in which all of God’s mercy, grace and blessings are made available.

There are two implications here.

The first is obvious (I would hope) and fundamental. There is no resurrection, and there is no being made alive, outside of Christ. Because of the cross and the resurrection of the Son of God, eternal life is made available to all who call upon his name and trust and believe in him. Apart from Christ there is only wrath.

The second implication which, in truth, is Paul’s primary concern here, is that this rescue, this salvation and this life entails unity with Christ. We were raised with and in Christ.

Paul now proceeds to cement the implications of this truth.

3. ALIVE

In verses 1 to 3, Paul unfolds the extent of the deadness experienced by all unbelievers. Paul now explains the glorious implications of the new life we receive in Christ.

a. Raised up with Christ

Paul writes,

even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:5-6)

Paul begins by examining our former state: we were dead, lost, powerless and enslaved. Paul now examines what it means to be made alive in Christ Jesus. God made us alive with Christ and, in so doing, raised us up with him.

There is an intentional parallel here with Ephesians 1:20. Paul prays that we would know,

…what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. (Ephesians 1:19–21)

Here Christ is the object of God’s great activity. Paul understands that in the resurrection and ascension we see the exaltation of the Son of God. Paul further understands that this exaltation, and his supremacy, is absolute. Christ has been raised ‘far above every rule, authority and power and dominion’ (v. 21).

Clearly Ephesians 2:5-6 cannot mean the same thing for believers.

For believers, there is a ‘raising up’ and this is intended to contrast with their former state. Formerly we were of the grave. Formerly we were in bondage to our flesh, the Christless culture around us and, ultimately, Satan himself. We were dead and utterly enslaved.

Now we are made alive, now we are raised up and now we are seated with Christ.

This is not a matter of authority, but rather an issue of position. Because of God’s mercy, our ignominy has been replaced by a privilege, honour and, ultimately, glory.

For the church in Ephesus, this change in position would have felt both immediate and profound. Many of these believers came out of a background of occult practices and idol worship. We know that this particular church faced fierce opposition and was under a great attack from false teachers and counterfeit gospels. Paul later reminds them that believers are engage in a savage spiritual battle,

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

In truth, I suspect that we do not feel this as intently as saints who have gone before us. We live in an incredibly materialistic world and we tend to focus our attention on material obstacles. Paul wants us to see that beneath all of this, satanic forces are at work. The course of this world is influence by the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:3).

This is why there is great comfort and encouragement in the truth that we are raised and seated with Christ. Some of you still wrestle with specific and dark sins; perhaps you are still struggling to overcome anger-issues, lust and all consuming greed.

Some of you still live with the legacy of substance abuse and may still be wrestling with addictions of one kind or another.

Paul wants you to know that, on the one hand, your struggle is real. Your struggle is a struggle and you should expect to experience the sense of exertion which comes with this.

But Paul also wants you to know that your struggle has a spiritual root and, whereas formerly you were in bondage, you are now raised and seated with Christ in the ‘heavenly places’ (Ephesians 2:6). This is why the location is so important. In Ephesians 1:3, Paul writes,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Ephesians 1:3)

Paul wants believers to see that, at this very moment, Christ is seated in the most exalted position in the universe and that this position enables him to pour out extravagant blessings upon those who are his. Moreover, Paul wants us to understand that it is not simply that we are ‘down here’ and he is ‘up there’ dropping love bombs from some remote and detached place. Paul wants us to know that we are with him and we are in him and, as such, we have access to him and in him there is every spiritual blessing.

b. Truly Alive

There are three earth shattering implications in all of this.

a. Right Living

As we move through this letter we will find that there are weighty exhortations for those of us who believe,

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 5:1–2)

Feel the weight of this. Paul says that believers should imitate God and should seek to pattern their lives in accordance with the character of God. Paul says that believers should walk like Christ and love like Christ and to do this is to walk the way of the cross.

How is this possible?

Paul understands that God’s resurrection power towards those of us who believe is incredibly purposeful. We are saved for his great purposes. We are saved that we might follow after him, that we might pursue righteous and that we might grow in increasing conformity with the Son of God who loves us and gave himself for us. All of this brings pleasure to God.

Formerly God responded in wrath. Now God looks upon those of us who are his, those of us who are beloved children, with rich mercy and great love. Paul calls us to walk in this and live in the light of this great truth.

b. Right thinking

We will consider this more carefully next week, but we have skipped over a central thought in this passage. It would be good for us to meditate upon and think deeply about this over the coming week,

by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:5)

One outcome of us understanding and seeing the depth of our depravity is that we might see and depend upon his lavish grace. Our ‘being made alive’ and our being ‘raised up’ are dependent upon grace. He chose, in the richness of his mercy to fix his great love upon unworthy and undeserving sinners. It is important we feel this so that we might live in the truth of this. By grace we have been saved.

c. The Right Response

Salvation begins with God and the end of salvation is the glory of God,

so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:7)

This is mysterious and profound. Paul understands, and wants us to see, that our individual salvation is bigger than anyone of us and bigger than Firwood Church. Paul wants us to see that the glory of God and the glory of Christ is the main focus of this action.

We were saved so that ‘the immeasurable riches of his grace’ might be displayed and made to look altogether glorious.

Our salvation is bigger than us.

We were saved so that we would be vessels of his mercy shining forth the glory of his grace now and in the coming ages.

Our salvation is bigger than us.

You and I will live out our lives and eventually die, but the glory of his grace will shine on. The saints who follow us will remember his grace at work in our lives. Our children will remember the way in which Mom and Dad shared the good news of the gospel and lived the thing out. They will remember the grace of God at work in us and towards us and, by God’s grace, at work toward them.

And on that day, when he returns, and, as the saints gather round his throne, we will remember and we will glory in the Lamb who was slain and his glorious grace. This song will never end and the glory of God’s immeasurable grace will continue to reverberate and resound throughout all eternity.

]]> http://www.firwoodchurch.com/blog/sermon-notesephesians-24-7-alive/feed/ 0 http://www.firwoodchurch.com/blog/sermon-notes-ephesians-21-3-dead/ http://www.firwoodchurch.com/blog/sermon-notes-ephesians-21-3-dead/#comments Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:11:55 +0000 Andy Evans http://www.firwoodchurch.com/?p=3234 These are the notes of the sermon preached by Andy Evans on the morning of the 3 January 2010. Click here to download or stream the sermon audio.

Ephesians 2:1-10

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— ³among 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. ⁴But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ— by grace you have been saved— ⁶and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, ⁷so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. ⁸For 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. ¹⁰For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

1. EYES WIDE SHUT

a. Bad

Gideon Thomas, my two-and-a-half year-old son is a Star Wars nut.

Through Star Wars he is beginning to grasp the principle of goodies and baddies. He understands that Darth Vader is bad and Luke Skywalker is good. He understands that Darth Maul is bad and Yoda is good. When it comes to Anakin Skywalker (who is, through the prequels, corrupted and becomes Darth Vader), Gideon will oscillate between ‘Good’, ‘Bad’, ‘No, good‘, ‘No, baaaad‘.

As he grows older, he has now begun to apply these delineations to the real world. Mummy and Daddy are good (in his strange universe). With regards to baby Noah  (my nine-week old son), however, he is altogether undecided. But when the attention turns to his own character and behaviour, he is both unequivocal and vociferous: Gideon is good, good, good and most certainly never bad.

This illustrates the problem with people (by which, I include you and I). We judge others in absolute terms. The thief is baaaad. The murderer is baaaad. The paedophile is baaaad. And yet, when it comes to our own behaviour (in comparison with the thief, murderer and paedophile) we are swift to minimise our faults and accentuate our virtues. The truth is, we do not believe that we are as bad as we truly are and we kid ourselves, telling ourselves that we are better than we actually are.

All of this is cancerous to the soul. Let me explain.

The Apostle Paul’s purpose in Ephesians Chapter 1 was to set forth the glory of God and, specifically, the glory of his grace displayed most perfectly in Christ Jesus and towards those who are his.

Consider,

In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. (Ephesians 1:4-6)

To present ourselves as essentially good diminishes the necessity of salvation and, in so doing, obscures the glory of the grace of God. Ultimately, such thinking will lead to self-reliance and self-righteousness both of which will dupe us into believing that we know better than Christ or, worse still, into believing that we have no need of Christ.

Ultimately, such poisonous thinking will kill us. Scripture, however, is the antidote to such self-deception. Scripture provides the much needed reality check.

Indeed, Paul specifically addresses such mis-thinking in his letter to the Romans (specifically chapters 1 through to 3) concluding that,

“None is righteous, no, not one;
no one understands;
no one seeks for God.
All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
no one does good,
not even one.” (Romans 3:9-12)

Similarly, Paul bluntly and precisely addresses the human condition at the beginning of the second chapter of Ephesians. This reality check is necessary that we might grasp the magnitude of all Paul has addressed in chapter 1 and all he will address in chapter 2.

Moreover, this reality check is necessary that we might understand, receive and live in the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

b. Who?

i. You

Paul writes,

And you were dead… (Ephesians 2:1)

Before we consider Paul’s intention here, it is important that we ask the fundamental question as to who Paul is addressing. This is important because, in addition to minimising our manifold faults, we also are expert at deflecting. There is a tendency within all of us then to persuade ourselves that passages of this ilk are addressed to someone other than ourselves. This, we maintain, is for the irreligious, the drunk, the wife beater, and the drug addict. We must, therefore, begin by asking who it is Paul is addressing when he writes that ‘you were dead’.

It is clear that Paul, as he has done throughout chapter 1, is at least addressing the church in Ephesus. The letter is addressed to ‘the saints who are in Ephesus’ (Ephesians 1:1) and it is both consistent and reasonable to deduce that Paul is address the aforementioned saints here.

However, as we saw throughout chapter 1, it is clear that Paul’s address is universal and transhistorical in its scope. Chapter 1 was addressed to believers everywhere and, as we move into chapter 2, it is evident that Paul’s scope is similarly broad,

…we all [including at least Paul and the church in Ephesus] once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind… (Ephesians 2:3)

In verse 1, Paul begins by addressing ‘you’, by verse 3 this shifts to ‘we’. We can reasonably conclude, therefore, that this passage at least deals with the situation of both Paul and the believers in Ephesus. Paul, however, develops this further,

…and [we] were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind [including all people everywhere] (Ephesians 2:3)

And so when Paul writes that ‘you were dead’, he is addressing believers in Ephesus; he includes himself and then applies this to ‘the rest of mankind’. This an emphatically comprehensive answer to the question, ‘Does this passage apply to me?’. If you are a believer, this passage is for you as a member of the body of Christ). If you are an unbeliever, this passage addresses your situation as a member of the human race.

This passage is incredibly relevant for people everywhere and at every time and in every place.

ii. Were

But note the tense. Paul writes that ‘you were dead’.

Paul is addressing a people who were once dead and are now otherwise. We will deal with this more fully in the coming weeks as Paul expands on this in verses 4 and 5,

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ… (Ephesians 2:4-5)

If you are a believer in Christ, then this passage applies to you. You were once dead, but are now made alive together with Christ. If you are an unbeliever here this morning, then this passage applies to you: you are dead and yet Christ, this very morning, offers you life.

2. DEAD

a. In the trespasses and sins

i. The Walk

If you have been around church for a while, in all likelihood you will read Paul’s assertion that we were dead and barely raise an eyebrow. If you are an unbeliever and new to the Scriptures, you might want to challenge this assertion and point out, not unreasonably, that, at this very moment, your heart is beating, on average, 70 to 75 times each minute and, in the course of this very service, that your bone marrow will produce between 13,500 million red blood cells.

Given all the evidences of life, it is not unreasonable to ask what on earth Paul is talking about when he writes that believers were formerly dead and that unbelievers are currently dead.

Paul spends verses 1, 2 and 3 unpacking this.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins

For Paul this deadness has a specific context and cause. We were/are (depending on whether you are a believer or not) dead in and because of our trespasses and sins.

In so writing Paul captures two aspects of our former walk: our trespasses were manifold and varied (hence plural). We were engaged in every kind of trespass. Anger, check. Lust, check. Greed, check. Envy, check. Need I go on?

There is, then, no advantage in pointing at the pervert or adulterer when we ourselves were (or, perhaps still are) consumed by lust and there is no advantage in pointing at the murderer when we ourselves are overwhelmed by anger and rage (Matthew 5:21-22 and 27-28). We were in trespasses (plural) and we were in sins (plural).

But also our involvement in trespasses and sins was immensely personal, this is something in which we once walked. Paul wants us to see that trespasses and sins were not something that simply happened to us. We were willing participants. And, likewise, Paul wants us to understand that these trespasses and sins were in no way exceptional. This was something we walked in, this was our habitual way of living.

This is why the notion of walking is significant in Paul’s writing. For us to walk in a particular way or according to a particular principle is to actively live out that thing. This is why, as we shall see in three weeks time, Paul contrasts this way of walking with the calling Christ places on our lives,

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)

Similarly, Paul will later exhort believers,

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called (Ephesians 4:1)

And this exhortation is framed over and against their former way of life,

…you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. (Ephesians 4:17)

To walk in trespasses and sin is to live our entire lives in such a way as to pursue and indulge those things that God’s law prohibits and run contrary to his very nature.

When Paul later describes such people as ‘sons of disobedience’ (Ephesians 2:2) the implication is clear: such living is akin to rebellion against Almighty God.

ii. The Seriousness of Sin

The question which then follows is why does any of this matter? Why is it such a big deal to walk in trespasses and sins? Is Paul not over-reacting in equating this way of living with death?

Consider this, as Paul undoubtedly did, from God’s perspective:

At this very moment in time, millions of unbelievers are living their lives according to what seems right in their own eyes and in total disregard of the just and true commandments of a holy God. This is, in effect, the creature thumbing its nose at the Creator in its conviction that it does indeed know best.

At this very moment in time, millions of unbelievers are living ungrateful lives refusing to thank God for the food that he provides, the pleasure, company and health that he bestows, the oxygen that he replenishes and the sun that he makes shine on the righteous and unrighteous alike (Matthew 5:45). This is the ultimate act of ingratitude. God provides, not because he must, but because he chooses to do so and yet generation after generation of ingrates ignore him, belittle his good gifts and proceed to praise themselves for their own petty endeavours.

At this very moment in time, millions of unbelievers are engaging in elevating created things, grace gifts, above the Creator God. Attention, affection and praise is bestowed upon the creation and the creature and the Creator God is belittled, ignored and sidelined. This is idolatry (Romans 1:18f).

So it is and so it has always been since the Fall. In our day people continue with their lives in a way which is God-belittling and disobedient. Paul understands that this is rebellion and this trespass lies at the root of our deadness. Such was the depth of our depravity that we walk and live daily in our trespasses and sins. We were rebels by choice and we chose rebellion, wickedness, trespass and sin daily, hourly, each minute of the day.

Paul writes that we walked in our trespasses and sins, it was habitual and our very way of life. This is the cause of our deadness.

Paul unpacks what this walk in trespasses and sins looks like.

b. Following the course of this world

Paul writes,

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world [...] (Ephesians 2:1-2)

This sinful walk is perfectly in tune with the age of this world (the word, aiona, translated in the ESV as ‘course’ is taken from the root word aion which translated literally, means age).

Firstly consider the truth of this. Our attitudes, likes and dislikes, habits and even our moral values are intrinsically bound up with this present age: the culture and society in which we live. This is why, as we see generational shifts in behaviour, our culture’s moral compass is adjusted accordingly. If you do not believe this to be true, then compare today’s television with programmes broadcasted in the 1960s, 1970s or even 1980s. Consider the way in which behaviour which is considered to be acceptable (or even mainstream today) would have provoked horror and outrage just a few decades ago.

This is why the church finds itself (and should find itself) increasingly out of step with the culture and the world in which we live. This is why the values, standards and ethics of the believer should be out of sync with the world in which we live.

But, if you are a believer, there was a time when you ran with the crowd. If you are an unbeliever, in all likelihood, you are energetically living your life in conformity with the world around you. Believers were and unbelievers are engage in pursuing worldly pleasure, worldly recognition, worldly success, worldly comfort and worldly acceptance.

In all of this, we may feel normal and even moral, but our sense of normality and morality has been shaped by the world in which we live.

It is important we are alive to this and it is important that we see the danger in this.

c. Following the prince of the power of the air

But the course of this present age is neither driven by gradual social evolution nor by sheer happenstance. In following the course of this world we are not embarked upon pursuing some abstract ideology or value system. Paul understands, and Christians are called to understand, that there is a dangerous dynamic operating beneath the value systems and worldly morality we find all around us,

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air… (Ephesians 2:1-2)

The title ‘prince of the power of the air’ may sound a little strange to our ears, but the believers in Ephesus would have immediately understood what Paul was saying. According to the ancient world view the air formed the intermediate sphere between earth and heaven in which evil spirits dwelt.^[1] They believed that from this sphere, evil spirits would act and influence events in the world below.

Paul is not agreeing with the specifics of this particular world view, but is affirming (with the other New Testament writers) that there are demonic forces at work in the world and that these demonic forces have a ruler, Satan, the prince of the power of the air. Moreover, these demonic forces (and principally, Satan) have been permitted influence in this world.

Paul wants us to understand that any philosophy, world-view or moral system that runs contrary to Scripture is demonically inspired. The Zeitgeist of our age steeped in relativism and utterly opposed to the absolutes and truth claims of Scripture is demonically inspired.

Satan is at work distorting the truth and selling a lie in order to obscure the glory of God. Paul writes elsewhere,

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)

Believers once walked, and unbelievers still walk, in thrall to a Satanically inspired lie that makes us believe that our sin is not that serious, that there will be no reckoning and that ultimately there is no God. This blinds us to the truth of who Christ is and prevents us from seeing the glory of Christ and the truth of the gospel.

Furthermore, this lie corrupts everything. Our attitudes, our thinking, our very bodies.

Indeed, the Apostle John affirms that this world, its values and standards, is controlled by Satan. For believers, however, there is a great encouragement.

We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. (1 John 5:18-19)

In this present age Satan, the evil one, the prince of the power of the air, is active and has been permitted a prescribed degree of authority and control. Until Christ returns, God permits him to remain in his office as ‘prince of the power of the air’. John’s encouragement in this is that God protects those who are his from such attacks.

Paul, understands, however, that for the unbeliever it is open season.

d. Sons of disobedience

You see, the lie is not just ‘out there’. The lie takes hold within us. Paul develops this truth further,

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind… (Ephesians 2:1-3)

This spirit, the Satanically inspired spirit abroad in the world informing the Zeitgeist, is also at work in unbelievers.

Note also that Paul is not preaching a reverse form of works-righteousness (sinful acts produce sinful people). Rather, Paul understands that when we were unbelievers we were sons (and daughters) of disobedience. Later he will add that we were ‘by nature children of wrath’ (Ephesians 2:3). Paul’s thinking here is clear, before Christ rescued us and before we believed in him, we were children of Satan and the spirit of Satan was at working in us further polluting everything. We were like the rest of the crowd, sons of disobedience living among sons of disobedience giving full reign to the spirit of disobedience. Rather than pursuing righteousness and living to please and honour God, we instead lived according to our own pleasures and passions governed by whether it felt good, seemed good or would result in our own further good.

This helps us understand what Paul means when he writes that we were dead. What seems like freedom is actually slavery, we are in thrall to the course of the world, to the prince of the power of the air and to our very passions and desires. What seems like life is, in fact, death. We have a limited capacity to choose, we have a limited capacity to enjoy and we are blind to the things of Christ.

This truth should help us think clearly about what it means to be an unbeliever and what it means to be a believer. This is why the exhortations and promises of Christ are so astonishing,

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may     have life and have it abundantly. (John 10:10)

e. Children of Wrath

The false promises of this world are a Satanically inspired snare intended to trap us in our transgressions and sins and keep us from seeing the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. This road leads to death and judgement. Paul addresses directly,

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 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— 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. (Ephesians 2:1-3)

As sons of destruction, we were also children of wrath. This was our (and if you are an unbeliever, still is your) true nature. We do bad things because we are bad people. We choose to sin because we are sinful by nature. We choose to believe the lies of this world and the lies of Satan because we are rebels and God-haters by nature. As such, we fully deserve to receive the just and holy wrath of God.

We ‘were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind’.

Because Paul adds the clause, ‘by nature’, there is no opt out. We cannot chose to sit this out and hope that it will all work out in the end. Abstentions are not counted. And, lest we think the words of Paul to be disproportionately harsh, consider, if you will, the words of Jesus,

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but   whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (John 3:16-18)

And, later,

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. (John 3:36)

If you are an unbeliever here this morning, the truth is that you are under the wrath of God and, should you die without repenting and receiving Christ, you will experience the full wrath of God. I implore you this morning to turn from sin and to Christ Jesus who died for you and, in so doing, satisfied the just wrath of a holy God.

3. THE IMMEASURABLE RICHES OF HIS GRACE

Paul wants us to see and respond.

Specifically, Paul wants us to see three things:

i. The world as it is

He wants us to see the world as it is that we (both believer and unbeliever) might flee from it, that we might flee from temptation and that we might flee from the coming wrath.

ii. Ourselves as we truly are

He wants us to see ourselves as we truly are that we might cling to Christ.

I intentionally overlooked the ‘And’ of verse 1. Although this passage is a new flow of thought, it looks back to the end of chapter 1 and explains why it is necessary that we see ‘the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe’ (Ephesians 1:19). Paul wants us to see our utter helplessness without Christ that we might run to him, throw ourselves upon him and depend upon him daily for his resurrection life and power at work towards us and in us.

iii. The immeasurable riches of his grace

Paul wants us to see the depth of our own depravity so that the glory of Christ and the grace of God might be seen as most beautiful, most compelling and most glorious.

If we fail to see that we most certainly deserve wrath along with the paedophile, murderer and thief, we will miss the glory of God’s grace as presented in verse 4 of Chapter 2. If we fail to grasp the depth of our fall, our wretchedness and utter helplessness without Christ, we will fail to be astounded as, next week, we allow verses 4 and 5 to settle on our soul,

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (Ephesians 2:4-5)

But for the richness of God’s mercy……but for the greatness of his love…..but for his resurrection power….   In all of this we see the immeasurable riches of his grace.

Galatians 4:4-5

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

1. INTRODUCTION

a. Counterfeit Christmas

Christmas.

In 2008 the great British public spent some twenty billion pounds; with over one and a half billion pounds of this being spent on food and drink. The British public consumed ten million turkeys, twenty-five million Christmas puddings, two-hundred and fifty million pints of beer and thirty-five million bottles of wine.[1]

Research by Lloyds TSB in December 2007 indicated that ninety percent of parents questioned intended to spend five-hundred pounds on their children. Research from The Children’s Mutual found that 41% of toys and presents given to children at Christmas will be broken by March.[2]

This year the Dundee Christmas Lights switch-on has been renamed, ‘Dundee Winter Light Night’ and the traditional Nativity has been replaced with a contemporary circus, a winter market and seven-foot tall fairy on stilts. The Presbyterian Church has complained that references to the birth of Jesus Christ have all been but removed from the celebrations.[3]

A survey by a tabloid newspaper of some five-thousand five-hundred cards in High Street shops, found just sixty-seven card designs with pictures related to the Bible story.[4]

There is something wrong with the way in which we observe and celebrate Christmas. And this something is something more than simply an erasing of Christ from Christmas. Christmas has become a religion, in and of itself, with all the requisite characteristics, mysterious and powerful deities (the economy and Santa Claus), houses of worship (shopping centres), narratives (carols) and rituals (shopping, excess and decorating).

‘Santa, not Jesus, is the saviour of the season’.[5]

And this counterfeit Christmas produces fruit in keeping with its nature. Mind, a mental health charity, undertook an online survey in January 2008 and reported the following findings,

• 19 per cent of people felt less able to manage their mental health because of worries about paying off the cost of Christmas.
• 25 per cent were feeling depressed.
• 20 per cent will have problems meeting their rent or mortgage payments this month.
• Over 50 per cent admitted they had spent more than they could afford on Christmas.
• 39 per cent used credit cards to cover the cost of Christmas.
• 33 per cent estimated that it would take them more than six months to pay off their Christmas spending debt.[6]

Our generation, more than any other, has ripped Christ out of Christmas and in doing so created a false religion centred upon false gods and, as a society, we are paying the cost.

b. Christmas and the Glory of Christ

Christ is the antidote to this de-Christing of Christmas.

And this is our concern for the next four-weeks. It is our intention to find, to show and to celebrate the glory of the Son of God. It is our intention to help you exult over the appearance of Christ.

This emphasis is profoundly Biblical whereas the celebration of Christmas is not.

There is simply no Biblical foundation for the observance and celebration of Christmas. The New Testament writers do not command it and the New Testament Church did not celebrate it. It was not until 330 AD that the Roman Church fixed Christmas as the 25 December.

If Christmas, has then become a false religion centred around the false gods of money, consumption and pleasure, it seems that the solution is to redirect the focus from the event to Christ Jesus.

Our purpose, over the next four weeks, is to see Christ through the eyes of the New Testament writers. The intended outcome of this series is that this Christmas, every other false god, competing world view and philosophy would be eclipsed by the blinding glory of Christ.

2. CHRIST CAME…

a. God sent

The Apostle Paul reminds the church in Galatia about the centrality of the incarnation to the Gospel of Christ Jesus,

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)

Birth and death are two events over which you and I have no control. There is little achievement in hastening our death (and we may find that even this is more difficult than we might imagine, but, when all is said and done, we are powerless to prolong our lives by a single day (Matthew 6:27).

Jesus, however, was not merely born; he was sent. God ‘sent forth his Son’.

This sending is absolutely fundamental to our understanding of the identity of Jesus Christ. Jesus is not merely a man, he is the man sent forth by and from God. This sending (in Paul’s use of the Greek word, exapesteilen, from the root exapostello) involves a sending out from something or somewhere. Jesus was sent out from God and this, necessarily, implies pre-existence.

Jesus’ existence did not begin with his birth in a cave in the middle of nowhere. Before Jesus was born, he was. And this pre-existence implies something even more glorious.

There are other examples in Scripture of miraculous births. Consider the miraculous conceptions of Isaac, Samuel and, in the New Testament, John the Baptiser to women who were old and barren and, in the case of Hannah, the mother of Samuel, unable to conceive (Genesis 17:15-21, 1 Samuel 1:1-19 and Luke 1:18).

Furthermore, there are occasions in Scripture where God supernaturally commissions before birth; indeed, the Prophet Jeremiah is set apart and John the Baptiser is filled with the Holy Spirit even from their mothers wombs (Jeremiah 1:5 and Luke 1:15).

The birth of Jesus, however, is unique among all other births in human history. Jesus was sent forth from God. Before his birth, Jesus was. The Apostle John celebrates this glorious truth in the following terms,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

The Apostle Paul makes this very same connection, ‘God sent forth his Son’ (Galatians 4:4). The birth of Christ was unique and miraculous because Jesus was and is unique and altogether glorious. He is not merely a child of God (as you and I are children of God). He is the Son of God and his arrival on earth was not simply happenstance. God sent him forth.

This glorious truth lies at the heart of the Christmas account and the good news of the Gospel. God intervenes decisively in human history by sending forth his Son into human history.

At Christmas we remember and celebrate the sending of the Son of God and, as we gaze upon the baby laying in the manager, we behold the Son of God who was with God in the beginning now sent out to us.

Paul now moves to consider the nature of this sending.

b. Born of woman

Paul writes that,

God sent forth his Son, born of woman (Galatians 4:4)

Now, of course, we know that Jesus was born of a particular woman in the most miraculous of circumstances. In this sending, God chose to use an unmarried teenage virgin,

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy— the Son of God. (Luke 1:35)

Here, however, Paul is not interested in this specific woman. His point is not that Jesus was born of Mary. Paul’s point is that God chose to send his Son by woman. This is a common Jewish construct to indicate that Christ came as a human being (see also, Job 14:1).

Consider anew the glory of this truth. Christ, the pre-existent Son of God, was sent by God to become a human being. The eternal Word of God became flesh. This Son, very God, became a man. He lowered himself and became flesh. This Son is both God and man. He is the God-Man.

This is the heart of the Gospel and the Christmas account: God not only came to us, but became like one of us.

And Paul develops this truth further for he sees that there is a profound truth at work here to his glory and our benefit.

c. Born under the law

i. The Law of Moses

Here, the significance of the humanity of Christ is that, in becoming a man, Christ made himself subject to the law. Why, we might ask, does this matter? Consider Paul’s flow of thought throughout this passage.

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. (Galatians 4:1-3)

Paul’s analogy addresses both Jews and Gentiles. For the Jew, the reference point is the Law of the Patriarchs and Prophets as set down in the Old Testament. Paul’s point is that, although a good thing, the Law treated its adherents like children. With the Law there is a prescribed list of ‘dos and don’ts’; the Law is intended, like a guardian or manager, to regulate our behaviour.

But how does this good thing become slavery (as suggested by verse 3)? As Paul has already addressed in Chapter 3, sinners are incapable of perfectly fulfilling the demands of the Law. The good thing that God intends becomes our condemnation. Apart from Christ, we each stand accursed under the Law.

Moreover, Paul understands that the Law makes us like infants. This is the problem with defined prescriptive instructions. We follow (or at least try) to adhere to the letter of the Law, but miss the spirit of the Law. Paul writes elsewhere that the Old Testament Law was intended to cause us to feel the weight of sin (Romans 7:7). Jesus repeatedly claims that he is the end of the Law; the Old Testament points to him (e.g. Matthew 5:17 and John 5:39). God intends us, through the Law, to see and feel the depth of our own depravity that we might run to Christ and depend upon his grace. Instead we become like children with a list of rules scrambling around trying to please God like we might try to please Santa Claus. Paul understands that this way of living is the worst kind of slavery.

ii. The Elementary Principles

But how does this then apply to the Gentile? The Gentile in Galatia did not receive the Law and did not adhere to the Law. This is important as, most likely, you and I find ourselves in the same situation as the Galatian Christians (who were predominantly Gentile).

The clue to how all of this applies to the Gentile Christian and (unless you are a practicing Jew) ‘you and I’ is signalled by the phrase ‘elementary principles’. This word, stoikeia, is unusual and implies something like ‘the basics’ or the ‘ABCs of life’. We see how this might apply to the Law of Moses. The Law was given to regulate our behaviour (like a babysitter) until Christ came.

But how does this help us understand the situation of the Gentile? Paul unpacks this further later in the passage,

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years! (Galatians 4:8-10)

In the Gentile context, the ‘elementary principles’ are related to the worship of false gods. Consider this for a moment. Every belief system has its own rules and observances. In Galatia, Paul points to their observance of ‘days and months and seasons and years’ (which is ironic given my preamble regarding our generation’s appropriation of Christmas as a false religion).

In our context, these ‘elementary principles’ may be intended to regulate our behaviour. And so we might take something like our concern for the planet and turn it into an idol with all its religious demands. Recycling and the reduction of our carbon footprint become ‘the elementary principles’.

Similarly it might be that we have made a god of the economy or money and, in which case, ‘the elementary principles’ are seen in our need to budget, save and earn a high salary.

Or it may be that we have made an idol of ourselves, our own image and our own needs. The ‘elementary principles’ are clearly seen in the way in which we spend time, effort and money in maintaining our appearance and a particular image. It takes great effort and discipline to keep that particular mask in place, but Paul recognises that all of this effort is ultimately futile.

We might recycle ‘religiously, but we are still at heart selfish and driven by our own wants. We might save or boost our earning power ten-fold, but we remain greedy driven by our ravenous desire to acquire more stuff. It may be that we look pretty and maintain our popularity, but we are still the same on the inside and, when we are alone, we feel this intensely.

Paul understands that religion, an adherence to ‘the elementary principles’, fundamentally changes nothing (does not change anything – cannot change nothing). Moreover, this adherence is a kind of slavery in which our petty deity, be it safety, wealth or popularity, is never satisfied. We will forever be recycling, earning, spending and fixated on that mirror.

Paul understands that these no-gods will keep us enslaved with their weak and worthless elementary principles.

iii. We all fail

Moreover, whether we be a Jew or Gentile, this adherence to the elementary principles will result in our condemnation. Paul elsewhere addresses this emphatically,

For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. (Romans 2:12)

The reality check is this: we fall short of every standard we set ourselves. We might abhor injustice and yet we cheat on our friends and loved ones. We might hate greed and yet we take advantage and exploit others in thousands of ways both overt and hidden. We value truthfulness and yet we lie. We admire faithfulness and yet we are faithless. We value purity and yet we are totally depraved.

Whether we adhere to the elementary principles as embodied in the Law or whether we strive in the service of some fake, petty god, we fall short.

This is the glorious good news of the Gospel; God sent forth his Son to free us from this futile and ultimately damnable existence, Christ came,

to redeem those who were under the law (Galatians 4:5)

And he does this by becoming a man, born under the law, and yet, through his perfect and sinless life he demonstrates that he is infinitely superior to the law. He does this by subjecting himself to the condemnation of the law, a punishment he does not deserve.

Christmas is a time for us to remember that God sent forth his Son to be born of woman and it is a time to remember that the road from Bethlehem leads to Golgotha. Christ came that he might redeem us and this redemption is achieve by his death.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us… (Galatians 3:13)

d. That we might receive adoption

Christ came to redeem us, but this is not the end of his mission. All of this is purposed that those who believe might receive adoption,

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:4-7)

Before we Christ redeemed us, we were enslaved to the elementary principles. We were like a child under the authority of managers and guardians. Our infancy was akin to slavery.

And then God sends forth Christ who is born as a man, lives as a man, but commits no sin. In dying an unjust death, Christ redeems all those who were formally enslaved. But this redemption is immensely purposeful. Jesus redeems us ‘that we might receive adoption as sons’ (Galatians 4:5).

Formerly we were the son forever awaiting our inheritance. In Christ, however, we are now made sons.

But Paul goes further: we are redeemed, we receive adoption and we receive ‘the Spirit of his Son’ (Galatians 4:6). This also relates to the analogy above. The implication is this: formerly we were enslaved by the elementary principles; they ruled over us and kept us in bondage. They were our managers and guardians.

Now we are made sons, however, we receive our inheritance: the promised Holy Spirit, the Spirit of his Son. The implication here is that formerly we were managed by mere managers and guardians. Now, however, we have received his Spirit who keeps, strengthens and guides us.

Those of us who believe have received the greatest gift in the universe: rescue, freedom and sonship. All of this is grounded upon all Christ achieved and the grounding of this is in the incarnation. We remember Christmas because in it we see the beginnings of our rescue.

3. THE GLORY OF CHRIST IN CHRISTMAS

And the timing of all of this is hugely important. Paul writes that all of this took place in the ‘fullness of time’,

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)

Paul is not suggesting that God is some hapless observer waiting and watching until conditions are right before acting. Rather it is God who brings about the necessary conditions and then acts decisively. And all of this is executed according to his purpose and in accordance with his timescale. Again, this is illuminated in Paul’s analogy in verse 1 to 3,

he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father (Galatians 4:3)

The ‘fullness of time’ does not simply come about, God brings it about. It is the date set by the Father.

But there is a greater significance implied in the Greek phrase here translated, ‘the fullness of time’. This is a very unusual construct and only occurs in one other place in Scripture,

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (Ephesians 1:7-10)

Note the connection between the two events described here as occurring in ‘the fullness of time’. In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul has the second coming, the return of King Jesus in view. In Galatians it is the first advent, the incarnation.

God reigns over all things and is sovereign over history itself. God acts decisively and in accordance with his own timescale. And the incarnation, all we remember at Christmas, is one the two fulcra upon which all history turns.

God becomes flesh and steps into history, ‘in the fullness of time’. And this advent anticipates his return. We remember, but we look towards his return confident that God is in control and ready to act decisively and finally ‘in the fullness of time’.

In all of this we see the glory of King Jesus. God made flesh; God who redeems us from slavery and the curse. The God-Man who will return and establish his kingdom and reign victoriously and endlessly and, on that day every knee will bow and every tongue confess.

For He is Lord.

[2] www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-499545/Average-child-1-720-worth-toys-bedroom.html

[3] Lindsay McIntosh, ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas (But Not in Dundee)’ in www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article6915061.ece

[4] Ian Drury, ‘Christmas Cards Are Losing Their Religious Message’ in www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-421417/Christmas-cards-losing-religious-message.html

[5] This quote and observation is taken from Dell deChant, The Sacred Santa: The Religious Dimensions of Consumer Culture (Cleveland, Ohio: Pilgrim Press, 2002)

[6] Reported in Medical News Today 11th Jan. 2008, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/93715.php