EPHESIANS: ETERNALLY ENCLOSED IN GOD’S PLAN

Part V: Appreciating God’s Gracious Transformation Of Us

(Ephesians 2:1-10)

I. Introduction

A. Paul wrote Ephesians to encourage believers of God’s work to edify the Church regardless what happened to him in his imprisonment (Ryrie St. Bible, KJV, 1978, p. 1672: “Intro. to the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians”).

B. Ephesians 2:1-10 thus offers edifying insight on God’s gracious transformation of us believers:

II. Appreciating God’s Gracious Transformation Of Us, Ephesians 2:1-10.

A. Before we were saved through faith in Christ, we were helplessly doomed to suffer God’s wrath, Eph. 2:1-3:

1. The Ephesians 2:1 KJV words “hath he quickened” are italicized because they do not appear in the Greek text, so Ephesians 2:1-3 presents our terrible spiritual state before God prior to our salvation.

2. Specifically, we were spiritually dead in our transgressions and sins, and both words “suggest deliberate acts against God and His righteousness and . . . (t)he plural of these two nouns signifies people’s repetitious involvement in sin and hence their state of unregeneration” (Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 622; Eph. 2:1).

3. Ephesians 2:2-3 describes how we once lived in our unregenerate state (as follows):

a. First, we conducted our lives in the ways of this lost world, yielding to its peer pressure, Eph. 2:2a; Ibid.

b. Second, we followed the ways of Satan, the ruler of the kingdom of the air who controls the world system (1 John 5:19) and who is the god of this Age (2 Corinthians 4:4), Ephesians 2:2b; Ibid. Satan is also the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient to God (Ephesians 2:2c with John 8:44), so before we were saved, Satan was at work in us to influence us to do evil works!

c. Third, not only being under the influence of a godless world and Satan, before salvation, we lived among the unsaved, indulging in the cravings of the sinful nature and the mind, and were by nature objects of God’s wrath, Ephesians 2:3. The phrase “children of wrath” implies “a close relationship to one’s parents . . . Unbelievers have a close relationship, not with God, but with His wrath!” (op. cit., p. 623)

B. However, when we trusted in Christ for salvation, God in great grace made us alive in Christ, Ephesians 2:4-5:

1. The word rendered “but” in the Greek text is de, and it is a postpositive conjunction, meaning it normally stands second in its clause unless it is emphatic (J. Gresham Machan, N. T. Grk. For Beginners, 1951, p. 44). In Ephesians 2:4 it appears before “God,” meaning that it is emphatic, and it reads, “But God . . .”

2. So, in sharp contrast to our pre-salvation sin and vulnerability to God’s wrath, God Himself, Who is rich in mercy, due to His great love for us, made us positionally alive together with Christ when we believed in the Gospel of Christ, Ephesians 2:4a-5a! This salvation was due to God’s unmerited favor, Eph. 2:5b.

3. God also then positionally raised us up with Christ from the dead, Ephesians 2:6a. One day this positional truth will be applied to our experience at the Rapture, and we will either be raise from the dead if we die before the Rapture or we will be translated into glorious bodies that will never die, 1 Cor. 15:51-57!

4. God the Father then positionally caused us to sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, Eph. 2:6b. One day we will be with our Lord in heaven, but positionally we are already enthroned in Jesus Christ at the Father’s right hand, objects of His gracious love and honor in our Lord!

5. Consequently, in the ages of eternity to come, God will demonstrate to all creation “the incomparable riches of His grace expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus,” Ephesians 2:7 NIV. In other words, we will forever be God’s trophies that demonstrate His infinite unmerited favor toward us!

C. Paul then explained the theological significance of this gracious salvation that we possess, Ephesians 2:8-10:

1. We were saved by grace through faith, and “that” not of ourselves – it is the gift of God, Eph. 2:8. Some claim that the demonstrative pronoun “that” refers to “grace” or “faith,” that God gave us the gift of faith so we might believe in Christ like Calvinists teach. However, “that” is neuter in gender, not feminine in gender as are “grace” and “faith,” so “that” refers to the idea of salvation (B. K. C., N. T., op. cit., p. 624).

2. Salvation is not of meritorious human works, lest anyone might unrighteously boast in his salvation, v. 9.

3. Paul explained that we believers in Christ are God’s workmanship of salvation created in Christ Jesus unto good works in the Christian life, and God has preordained us believers to walk in those works, Eph. 2:10.

Lesson: God graciously transformed us believers in Christ from a helplessly, humanly hopeless state as objects of God’s wrath unto eternal life and a lofty position in Christ that we should walk in godly works in Jesus Christ.

Application: May we rejoice in God’s gracious conversion of us in Christ and do the works He ordained for us.