EPHESIANS
CHAPTER
TWO
2:1-3
=
Past Condition
By Nature
2:4-10
= Present
Condition By Grace
2:11, 12
= Past Condition By Birth
2:13-22 =
Present Condition by Super Abounding Grace
Eph 2:1-3
(1) And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
(2) Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
(3) Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
KJV |
2:1
As for
you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins
(NIV)
| DEAD
|
 |
(nekros) |
| “A corpse
(literally or figuratively) dead”
[Strong’s #3498]
|
A Living Corpse
Without the gracious presence of God’s spirit in the
soul, and so unable to think, will, or do ought that is holy.
(Jamieson, Fausset & Brown)
Death
is often used … to express a state of extreme misery.
The Ephesians, by trespassing and sinning, had brought themselves into a
state of deplorable wretchedness … and having thus sinned against God, they
were condemned by Him … incapable of performing any legal act, and always
liable to the punishment of death, which they had deserved, and which was ready
to be inflicted upon them
(Clarke)
| TRESPASSES
|
 |
(paraptomasin)
|
| “A side-slip (lapse or deviation), (unintentional) error or (willful)
transgression”
[Strong’s #3900]
|
To
fall beside a person or thing, to slip aside, hence, to deviate from the right
path, to turn aside, to wander.
Sin is looked upon as a lapse or deviation from truth or uprightness, a
trespass, a misdeed.
(Wuest)
May
signify the slightest deviation from the line and rule of moral equity, as well
as any flagrant offense; for these are equally transgressions, as long as the
Sacred Line that separates between vice and virtue is passed over.
(Clarke)
| SINS |
 |
(hamartiais)
|
| To miss the mark |
It was used in the Greek classics of a spearman missing the target at
which he aimed the spear.
It was used in the ethical terminology of the Greeks to mean “to fail
of one’s purpose, to go wrong.”
In the New Testament it speaks of sin as the act of a person failing to
obey the Word of God, failing to measure up in his life to the will of God.
Its use is excellently illustrated in Romans 3:28, “All have sinned
(missed the mark), and at present come short of the glory of God.”
The mark or target is the glory of God.
Man was created to glorify God.
His attempt, where the attempt is made, to live a life pleasing to God,
falls short of the target, like a spear thrown by an athlete, falls short of the
target at which it is thrown.
(Wuest).
“… may probably mean here habitual transgression;
sinning knowingly and daringly.” (Clarke)
| 2.2 |
 |
In the first verse he
speaks of their internal state, in this of their outward conversation: Wherein,
in which trespasses and sins, in time past you walked, you lived and behaved
yourselves in such a manner as the men of the world are used to do.
(Matthew Henry)
| WALKED |
 |
(periepatesate)
To walk about
|
The
Circle of Sin
It came to mean “to make one’s
way, to make progress, to regulate one’s life, to conduct one’s self, order
one’s behavior.”
We have here the locative of sphere.
The unsaved order their behavior, regulate their lives within the sphere
of trespasses and sins.
All their thoughts, words, and deeds are enshpered by sin.
(Wuest) |
|
|
|
| COURSE |
 |
(aiona) aion |
| An age; by
extension, perpetuity;
by implication, perpetuity;
by implication, the
world. [Strong’s
#165] |
|
|
|
| WORLD |
 |
(kosmou)
kosmou |
|
Orderly
arrangement, by implication, the world (in a wide or narrow sense, including its inhabitants,
literally or figuratively [morally]
[Strong’s#2889] |
His act of ordering his behavior in
the sphere of trespasses and sins is dominated or controlled by “the course of
this world.” Trench defines as
“All that floating mass of thoughts, opinions, maxims, speculations, hopes,
impulses, aims, aspirations, at any time current in the world, which it may be
impossible to seize and accurately define, but which constitutes a most real and
effective power, being the moral, or immoral atmosphere which at every moment of
our lives we inhale, again inevitable to exhale.”
All this is included in the “aion”, which is, as Bengel has expressed
it, “the subtle informing spirit of the ‘kosmos’, or world of men who are
living alienated and apart from God.”
(Wuest)
To distinguish the words, one could
say that ‘kosmos’ gives the over-all picture of mankind alienated from God
during all history, and ‘aion’
represents any distinct age or period of human history as marked out from
another by particular characteristics.
(Wuest)
There is much force in these
expressions; the Ephesians had not sinned casually, or now and then, but
continually; it was their continual
employment; they walked in
trespasses and sins: and this was
not a solitary case, all the nations of the earth acted in the same way;
it was the “course of this world”,
according to the life, mode of living, or successive ages of this world.
The word ‘aion’, the literal meaning of which is constant duration,
is often applied to things which have a complete course, as the Jewish
dispensation, a particular government, and the term of human life; so, here, the
whole of life is a tissue of sin, from the cradle to the grave; every human
soul, unsaved by Jesus Christ, continues to transgress.
And the “nominally” Christian world is in the same state to the
present day. Age after age passes
on in this way and the living lay it not to heart!
(Clarke)
PRINCE
OF THE POWER OF THE AIR
The Kingdom of Satan
We
are by nature bond-slaves to sin and Satan. Those who walk in trespasses and
sins, and according to the course of this world, walk according to the prince of
the power of the air. The devil, or the prince of devils, is thus described. See
(Mt. 12:24,26). The legions of apostate angels are as one power united under one
chief; and therefore what is called the powers of darkness elsewhere is here
spoken of in the singular number. The air is represented as the seat of his
kingdom: and it was the opinion of both Jews and heathens that the air is full
of spirits, and that there they exercise and exert themselves. Wicked men are
slaves to Satan, for they walk according to him; they conform their lives and
actions to the will and pleasure of this great usurper. The course and tenor of
their lives are according to his suggestions, and in compliance with his
temptations; they are subject to him, and are led captive by him at his will,
whereupon he is called the god of this world, and the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience. The children of disobedience are such as choose to
disobey God, and to serve the devil; in these he works very powerfully and
effectually.
(Matthew Henry)
THE
SPIRIT THAT NOW
WORKETH
The
Operations of the prince of the aerial powers are not confined to that region;
he has another sphere of action, the wicked heart of man, and in this he
works with energy.
(Clarke)
2:3
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times … and were by
nature the
children of wrath (KJV)
We Jews, as well as you Gentiles, have lived in
transgressions and sins; this was
the course of our life; we lived in
sin, walked in sin, it was woven through our whole constitution, it tinged every
temper, polluted every faculty, and perverted every transaction of life.
(Clarke)
|
NATURE
|
 |
(phusis) |
| Growth
(by germination or expansion) figuratively,
native disposition [Strong’s
#5449] |
|
|
|
|
CHILDREN
|
 |
(tekna) |
| Connection
by birth, offspring - not just children by age |
|
|
|
|
WRATH
|
 |
(orge) |
| Violent
passion, by implication punishment
[Strong’s #3709] |
By
nature accords with children, implying what is innate.
The term “nature”, though it may occasionally be applied to what is
habitual or to character as developed, means properly what is innate, implanted
in one by nature, and this with different shades of meaning (compare Rom. 2:14;
Gal. 2:15;
Gal. 4:8).
The clause means, therefore, that in their pre-Christian life “we
all” were in the condition of subjection to the divine wrath; and that they
were so not by deed merely, nor by circumstance, nor by passing into it, but by
nature. Their
universal sin has already been affirmed.
This universal sin is now described as sin by nature.
(Wuest)
We
are by nature the children of wrath. The Jews were so, as well as the Gentiles;
and one man is as much so as another by nature, not only by custom and
imitation, but from the time when we began to exist, and by reason of our
natural inclinations and appetites. All men, being naturally children of
disobedience, are also by nature children of wrath. Our state and course are
such as deserve wrath, and would end in eternal wrath, if divine grace did not
interpose. (Matthew Henry)
Eph 2:4-7
(4) But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
(5) Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
(6) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
(7) That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
KJV |
2:4-6
BUT GOD …
Exhaustless Wealth
God
who is wroth with sin, is a God of grace.
His disposition towards those who are dead by trespasses and sins is
one of mercy, and this is no stinted mercy, but a mercy that is rich,
exhaustless. The
word “rich” is the translation
of ‘plousios’, “wealthy,
abounding in material resources, abounding, abundantly supplied.”
(Wuest)
Complete Resurrection - Spiritual & Physical
God
has given us as complete a resurrection from the death of sin to a life of
righteousness, as the body of Christ has had from the grave.
And as this quickening, or making alive, was most gratuitous on God’s
part, the apostle, with great propriety, says:
“By grace ye are saved.” (Clarke)
Persistent Grace
The
participle here is in the perfect tense, which tense speaks of an action that
took place in past time and was completed in past time, having results
existent in present time.
The translation reads, “By
grace have you been completely saved, with the present result that you are in
a saved state of being.”
The perfect tense speaks of the existence of finished results in
present time.
But Paul is not satisfied with showing the existence of finished
results in present time.
He wants to show the persistence of results through present time.
So he uses the verb “to be”
in the present tense which gives durative force to the finished
results. Thus,
the full translation is, “By grace you
have been saved in past time completely, with the result that you are in a
state of salvation which persists through present time.”
His
initial act of faith brought him salvation in its three aspects,
JUSTIFICATION,
the removal of the guilt and penalty of sin and the importation of a positive
righteousness, Jesus Christ Himself,
an act which occurs at the moment of believing, and a position that remains
static for time and eternity;
SANCTIFICATION,
(positional)
the act of the Holy Spirit taking the believing sinner out of the first
Adam with his
(Adam’s)
sin and death, and placing him in the Last Adam
(Jesus Christ)
with His righteousness and life, an act that occurs at the moment of
believing; (progressive)
the process by which the Holy Spirit eliminates sin from the experience
of the believer and produces His fruit, gradually conforming him into
the image of the Lord Jesus, a process that goes on all through the life of a
Christian; and
(GLORIFICATION)
the act of the Holy Spirit transforming the mortal bodies of believers
into glorified, perfect bodies at the Rapture
of the Church.
The believer has had his Justification, he is having his sanctification.
And he is yet to have his Glorification.
The earnest of the Spirit guarantees to him his glorification.
(Wuest)
·
For further discussion on the subject of Sanctification, refer to the
Appendix of this study.
IN
CHRIST JESUS
The qualifier = In Christ
Our
union with Him is the ground of our present spiritual, and future bodily,
resurrection and ascension.
“Christ Jesus”
is the phrase mostly used in this Epistle, in which the Office
of the Christ, the Anointed prophet, priest and king, is the prominent
thought; when
the Person is prominent,
“Jesus Christ” is
the phrase used**.
**
For further discussion on this subject, refer to the Appendix of this
study.
2:7
THAT IN THE AGES TO COME
Saved to the Uttermost
God has produced us an Example,
and one which shall be on record through all generations, that he quickens
dead souls; that he forgives the sins of the most sinful, when they repent
and believe in Christ Jesus.
So that what God has done for the sinners at Ephesus
will serve as an encouragement to all ages of the world;
and on this evidence every preacher of the Gospel may boldly proclaim
that Christ saves unto the uttermost all that come unto God through him.
And thus the exceeding riches of his grace will appear in the
provision he has made for the salvation of both Jews and Gentiles.
This
observation of the apostle is of great use and importance; because we are
authorized to state, in all the successive ages of the world, that he who
saved the sinners at Ephesus is ever ready to save all who, like them,
repent of their sins, and believe in Christ Jesus.
(Clarke)
2:8-10
Eph 2:8-10
(8) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
(9) Not of works, lest any man should boast.
(10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
KJV |
"OF" God - the Source of
our Faith
The words,
“through faith”
speak of the instrument or means whereby the sinner avails himself of
this salvation which God offers him in pure grace.
Expositors says:
“Paul never says
‘through the faith,’
as if the faith were the ground or procuring cause of the salvation.”
Alford says:
“It
(the salvation)
has been effected by grace and apprehended by faith.”
The word
“that” is ‘touto’,
this word is a demonstrative pronoun in the neuter gender. The Greek word
“faith” is feminine in gender and therefore
‘touto’ could not
refer to “faith.”
It refers to the general idea of salvation in the immediate context.
The translation reads,
“and this not out from you as
a source, of God
(it is)
the gift.”
That is, salvation is a gift of God.
It does not find its source in man.
Furthermore, this salvation is not
“out of a source of works.”
This explains salvation by grace.
It is not produced by man nor earned by him.
If
it is earned, it ceases to be a gift.
It is a gift from God with no strings tied to it.
A Sphere of Moral Action - The
"Atmosphere" in which we live
God prearranged a sphere of moral action for us to walk in.
Not only are works the necessary outcome of faith, but the character
and direction of the works are made ready by God.
These good works were prepared beforehand “ that
we should walk in them.”
The word
“walk”
is ‘peripateo’,
“to regulate one’s life, to conduct one’s self, to order
one’s behavior.”
| Expositors
comments:
“God’s purpose in
the place which He gave to good works in His decree was that they
should actually and habitually be done by us.
His final object was to make good works the very element of
our life, the domain in which our action should move.
That this should be the nature of our walk is implied in our
being His handiwork, made anew by Him in Christ; that the good works
which are the divine aim of our life shall be realized, is implied
in their being designed and made ready for us in God’s decree; and
that they are of God’s originating, and not our action and merit,
is implied in the fact that we had ourselves to be made a new
creation in Christ with a view to them.”
(Wuest) |
For
being saved from sin we are made partakers of the Spirit of holiness; and it
is natural to that Spirit to lead to the Practice of Holiness; and he
who is not holy in his life is not saved by the grace of Christ.
The
“before ordaining”,
or rather
“preparing”,
must refer to the time when God began the new creation in their
hearts; for from the first inspiration of God upon the soul it begins to
love holiness; and obedience to the will of God is the very element in
which a holy or regenerated soul lives.
(Clarke)
“Good
works”
cannot be performed until we are new
“created unto”
them.
We are not saved by, but created unto good works.
Works do not justify, but the justified man works.
(Jamieson, Fausset & Brown)
TRANSLATION
| “For
we are God’s own handiwork
(His workmanship) ,
recreated in Christ Jesus, born anew that we may do those good
works which God predestined
(planned beforehand)
for us,
(taking paths which He
prepared ahead of time)
that we should walk in them
-
living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us
to live.”
(Amplified) |
Eph 2:11-13
(11) Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
(12) That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
(13) But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
KJV |
2:11
WHEREFORE
REMEMBER
That
ye may ever see and feel your obligations to live a pure and holy life, and be
unfeignedly thankful to God for your salvation, remember that ye were once
heathens in the flesh - without the pure doctrine, and under the influence of
your corrupt nature; such as by the Jews (who gloried, in consequence of their
circumcision, to be in covenant with God)
were called uncircumcision; i.e. persons out of the Divine Covenant,
and having no right or title to any blessing of God.
(Clarke)
2:12
Now
Paul enumerates five things that were true of these uncircumcised Gentiles.
| First |
They
were
“without Christ.” |
No
Promise of the Messiah |
| Expositors
says:
“It describes their former condition as one in which they had
no connection with Christ; in which respect they were in a position
sadly inferior to that of the Jews whose attitude was one of hoping
and waiting for Christ, the Messiah.
Their apartness from Christ, their lack of all relation to Him
- this is the first stroke in the dark picture of their former heathen
life, and the four to which the eye is directed in the subsequent
clauses all follow from that.”
To understand the above most clearly, we should know that the
word
“Christ”
is the English spelling of the Greek word ‘christos’, which in turn is the translation of the Hebrew word for
Messiah.
The word
“Christ”
here is not to be taken in its Christian sense, but in its
Jewish one.
The point is not that the Ephesians were without Christ as
Savior, but as Gentiles, they had no covenant connection with Him as
the Jews had with Him as Messiah. |
|
|
| Second |
They
were “aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel.” |
Aliens |
| We
have a participle in the Greek,
“alienated from the
commonwealth of Israel.”
Expositors says:
“It does not necessarily imply a lapse from a former
condition of attachment or fellowship, but expresses generally the
idea of being a Stranger as contrasted with one who is At Home with a
person or an object.
The term
‘politeia’
(commonwealth)
has two main senses - a State or Commonwealth,
and citizenship or the rights of a citizen.
The first of these is most in harmony with the theocratic term
‘the Israel,’ and
so it is understood by most.
These Ephesians, therefore, had no part in the theocracy, the
OT constitution under which God made Himself known to the Jew and
entered into relation with him.” |
|
|
| Third |
They
were “strangers from the covenants of promise.” |
Strangers |
| The
definite article is in the Greek text.
It is, “strangers from the covenants of the
promise.”
Expositors comments:
“The word
‘xenos’
(strangers), which has the particular meaning of one who is not
a member of a state or city, is used here in a general sense of
Foreign to a thing, having no share in it.
The ‘diathekai’
(covenants) are the covenants with Abraham and the patriarchs.
It is obviously the covenants of Messianic significance that
are in view.
That the Mosaic Law or the Sinaitic Covenant is not in view
seems to follow from the mention of the promises; for that covenant
was not distinctively of the promise, but is described by Paul as
coming in after it and provisionally (Gal. 3:17-19).
The ‘promise’ is the one distinctively so-called, the great Messianic
promise given the Hebrew people.” |
|
|
| Fourth |
They
had “no hope.” |
Hopeless |
| Expositors
says:
It is not only that they had not the hope, the Messianic hope
which was one of the distinctions of the Israelite, but that they were
utterly without hope.
Ignorant of the divine salvation and of Christ in whom it was
found, they had nothing to hope for beyond this world.” |
|
|
| Fifth |
They
were
“without God in the
world.” |
Without
God |
| Again,
Expositors has a helpful comment:
“As they were without Christ, and without hope, so were they
without God - without the knowledge of the one true and living God and
thus destitute of any God.
So in Gal. 4:8, Paul speaks of Gentiles like these as knowing
not God and doing service unto them which by nature are no gods.”
As to the phrase: “in the world,”
the same authority says:
“The domain of their life was this present evil world, and in
it, alienated as it was from God, they had no God.”
(Wuest) |
COVENANTS
OF PROMISE
- rather,
“…..of THE promise,”
viz., “to thee and thy seed will I give this land”
(Rom. 9:4; Gal. 3:16).
The plural implies the several renewals of the covenant with Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and with the whole people at Sinai.
“The promise”
is singular, to signify that the covenant, in reality, and
substantially, is one and the same at all times, but only different in its
accidents and external circumstances
(cf. Hebrews
1:1, “at sundry times and in divers manners”).
(Jamieson, Fausset & Brown)
2:13
YE WHO
SOMETIMES WERE FAR OFF
To
be “far
off”, and to be
“near,”
are sayings much in use among the Jews; and among them, to be near
signifies,
| (1) |
To
be in the Approbation or Favor of God; and to be far off signifies to be
under his Displeasure.
So a Wicked Jew might be said to be “far
off”
from God when he was exposed to His displeasure; and a holy man,
or a genuine penitent, might be said to be “nigh
to God,” because such persons are in His favor. |
|
|
| (2) |
Every
person who offered a sacrifice to God was considered as having Access to
Him by the Blood of the sacrifice: hence the priests, who’s office it
was to offer sacrifices, were considered as being “nigh
to God”; and all who brought gifts to the altar were considered as
approaching the Almighty. |
|
|
| (3) |
Being
“far off””
signified the state of the Gentiles as contrary from the Jews,
who were
“nigh..”
And these expressions were used in reference to the tabernacle,
God’s dwelling-place among the Israelites, and the sacrifices there
offered.
All those who had access to this tabernacle, or were night to it
or encamped about it, were said to be nigh to God; Those who had no
access to it were said to be far off.
Hence the latter phrase is used to distinguish the Gentiles from
the Jewish people; and this appears to be the meaning of the prophet,
Isa. 57:19: I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is
far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; that is I give
cause of praise and rejoicing to the Gentile as well as to the Jew.
And to this scripture, and to this thing, the apostle seems here
to allude.
You Gentiles, who were unacquainted with God, and were even
without God in the world, are brought to a acquaintance with Him; and
are now, through Christ Jesus, brought into the favor approach Him by
the blood of Christ.
(Clarke) |
|
|
Eph 2:14-18
(14) For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
(15) Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
(16) And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
(17) And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
(18) For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
KJV |
2:14
The Wall
To
make peace means
“to join together that which is separated.”
Jew and Gentile, By God’s act of selecting the Jewish nation to be
the channel through which He will bring salvation to the lost, had been
separated. Now,
in the blood of Christ they in the Church have been joined.
This is the peace spoken of here.
Expositors comments:
“As most commentators notice, the emphasis is on the ‘autos’
(intensive pronoun) - ‘He and no other.’
But there is probably more in it than that.
The selection of the abstract
‘eirenen’
(peace maker), suggests that not only ‘He alone’ but
‘He in His own Person’
made peace. It
is not only that the peace was made By
Christ and
ranks as His achievement, but that it is so identified with Him that were He
away it would also fail, - so dependent on Him that apart from Him we cannot
have it.” The
word “our”
refers to Jew and Gentile.
In making peace, our Lord made the both (Jew and Gentile) one.
The words
“the both” are abstract neuter, showing that two parties or classes
are in the apostolic mind.
(Wuest)
To Make Peace with Each Other
This expression, the
“middle wall,”
can refer only to that most marked distinction which the Jewish laws
and customs made between them and all other nations whatsoever.
Some think it refers to their ancient manner of living among the
Gentiles, as they always endeavored to live in some place by themselves, and
to have a river or a wall between them and their heathen neighbors.
Indeed, wherever they went, their own rites, ordinances, and customs
were a sufficient separation between them and others; and as Jesus Christ
abolished those customs, admitting all into his Church, both Jews and
Gentiles, by repentance and faith, he may be said to have broken down the
middle wall of partition.
When, at the death of Christ, the veil of the temple was rent from the
top to the bottom, it was an emblem that the way to the holiest was laid open,
and that the people at large, both Jews and Gentiles, were to have access to
the holiest by the Blood of Jesus.
Some think there is an allusion here to the wall called
‘chel’,
which separated the court of Israel from the court of the Gentiles.
(Clarke)
To Make Peace with
God
Greek “……..of
the partition”
or “fence;”
The middle wall which parted Jew and Gentile.
There was a balustrade of stone which separated the court of the
Gentiles from the holy place, which it was death for a Gentile to pass.
But this, though incidentally alluded to, was but a symbol of the
partition itself,
viz.,
“the enmity”
between
“both”
and God (v. 15), the real cause of separation from God, and so the
mediate cause of their separation from one another.
Hence there was a twofold wall of partition, one the inner wall,
severing Jewish people from entrance to the Holy part of the temple where the
priests officiated, the other the outer wall, separating the Gentile
proselytes from access to the court of the Jews
(cf. Ezek. 44:7; Acts 21:28).
Thus this twofold wall represented the Sinaitic law, which both severed
all men, even the Jews, from access to God (through sin, which is the
violation of the law), and also separated the Gentiles from the Jews.
As the term
“wall”
implies the strength
of the partition;
so “fence”
implies that it was easily removed by God when the due time came.
(Jamieson,
Fausset
& Brown)
2:15 One New Man
As to the meaning of the words,
“to made in Himself of twain,
one new man,”
Expositors says:
“The new creation and the new union have their ground and principle In
Christ. What
was contemplated, too, was not simply the making of One Man were formerly
there were two, but the making of One New Man.
The result was not that, though, the separation between them was
removed, the Jew still remained Jew and the Gentile, still Gentile. It
was something new, the old distinctions between Jew and Gentile being lost in
a third order of
‘man’
- the Christian man.”
The word “make”
is not
‘poieo’,
“to make,”
but ‘ktizo,’
“to create.”
The word
“new”
is ‘kainon’,
not “new”
in time but new in quality.
The word
“man”
is not
‘aner,’
“a male individual,”
but ‘anthropos,’
the generic, racial term, speaking of an individual, here of the new
creation made up of male and female, the mystical body of Christ.
(Wuest)
2:16
Enmity (the Law) Slain
His object was to being the two long-sundered and antagonistic parties as one
whole, one great body, into right relation to God by His Cross.
As to the words
“having slain the enmity thereby.”
Alford says that the enmity here refers to that between the sinner and
God. The
“enmity”
of verse 15 is defined in its context as that between Jew and Gentile,
for the purpose of God was
to reconcile these two.
The “enmity”
of verse 16 is that between the sinner and God, for His purpose was
to reconcile both Jew and Gentile in one body to Himself.
(Wuest)
2:17,18
Access Gained
The
word “access”
is the translation of ‘prosago,’
“to open a way of access.”
It was used of those who secure for one the privilege of an interview
with a sovereign.
The French word ‘entree’
exactly translates it.
It is by means of the ministry of the Holy Spirit that the saints have
‘entree’
into the presence of God the Father.
TRANSLATION:
“And having come, He proclaimed glad tidings of peace to you who were
far off, and to you who were near, because through Him we have our entree, the
both of us, by one Spirit into the presence of the Father.”
(Wuest)
Eph 2:19-22
(19) Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
(20) And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
(21) In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
(22) In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
KJV |
2:19
The City
YE
ARE NO MORE STRANGERS:
In this chapter the Church of God is compared to a City, which has a
variety of privileges, rights, &c., founded on regular charters and
grants. The
Gentiles, having believed in Christ, are all incorporated with the believing
Jews in this holy city.
Formerly, when any of them came to Jerusalem, being
“strangers,”
they had no kind of rights whatever; nor could they, as mere heathens,
settle among them.
Again, if any of them, convinced of the errors of the Gentiles,
acknowledged the God of Israel, but did not receive circumcision, he might
dwell in the land, but he had no right to the blessings of the covenant; such
might be called
“sojourners”
- persons who have no property in the land, and may only rent a house
for the time being.
(Clarke)
TRANSLATION:
| “Therefore
you are no longer outsiders - exiles, migrants and aliens, excluded
from the rights of citizens; but you now share citizenship with the
saints - God’s own people, consecrated and set apart for Himself;
and you belong to God’s own household.”
(Amplified) |
2:20 Christ the Qualifier
AND
ARE BUILT UPON THE FOUNDATION:
Following the same metaphor, comparing the Church of Christ to a city,
and to the temple, the believing Ephesians are represented as parts of that
building; the living stones out of which it is principally formed,
I Pet. 2:4,5,
having for foundation the ground plan, specification, and principle on
which it was built, the doctrine taught by the prophets in the Old Testament,
and the apostles in the New.
Jesus Christ being that corner stone, or
‘akrogoniaios,’
the chief angle or foundation corner stone, the connecting medium by
which both Jews and Gentiles were united in the same building.
Elsewhere Jesus Christ is termed the Foundation Stone; “Behold
I lay in Zion a foundation stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone,”
Isaiah. 28:16; but the meaning is the same in all the places where these
terms, foundation and corner stone, occur; for in laying the foundation of a
building, a large stone is generally placed at one of the angles or corners,
which serves to form a part of the two walls which meet in that angle.
When, therefore, the apostle says that Jesus Christ is the Chief Corner
Stone, it means such a foundation stone as that above mentioned.
(Clarke)
The
costly foundation stones of the temple (I Kings 5:17) typified the same truth
(c.f. Jer. 51:26).
The same stone is at once the corner stone and the foundation, and in
part rising up at the extremities, so as to admit of the side walls meeting in
it, and being united in it as the corner stone.
As the corner stone, it is conspicuous, as was Christ (I Pet. 2:6), and
coming in men’s way may be stumbled over, as the Jews did at Christ (Mat.
21:42; I Peter 2:7)
(Jamieson,
Fausset
&
Brown)
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End of Chapter 2 |
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