What does it mean Life from Death?
Read Ephesians 2:1-10
What are the main points you see of these verses?
The second chapter of Ephesians is an extension and elaboration of the first. In chapter 1 verses 1 to 10 the theme of redemption (1:7) is developed in terms of God’s raising man from the death of sin to the new life in Christ. It condenses the distinctive doctrinal contents for us. From verse 11 on in Chapter 1 the theme of reconciliation of 1:10, 22, 23 applies to the relationships between Jews and Gentiles in the church. D.M. Stanley drew attention to the resemblances between Ephesians 2 and the parable of the two sons in Luke 15:11-32.
Verse 1 –
Do we know that we were going to die and were going to be dead forever when we were in our sins?
“As for you” resumes the second person of 1:13, 15-18. As verse 3 makes clear, the Jews are in no better condition than the Gentiles – for man’s sinful nature is shared by all alike. Redemption has made it possible for man to be brought from death to life. This is in regard to spiritual deadness that characterizes man without God (Col 2:13). We are utterly unable to meet the requirements of the divine law (Rom 7:9). The expression is not merely figurative. This is a real and present death as Calvin insisted. The most vital part of man’s personality – the spirit – is dead to the most important factor in life – God.
Verse 2 –
Do we no longer live in these ways? What is the difference in living in these ways now versus living in these ways then? Who did we follow then versus who do we follow now?
What has been changed inside of us when we are saved?
“Transgressions” (paraptomata) are lapses, while “sins” (harmatiai) are shortcomings.
Verse 3 –
What did it mean for us when we “lived among them?”
What are those things that are cravings of our sinful nature? What are sinful desires and thoughts? Give Examples
Verse 4 –
How were we able to get out of this? Who gave us the gift?
Verses 2-4 represent a typically Pauline digression. The mention of “transgressions and sins” in verse 1 leads the apostle to supply a fuller account of the Ephesians former way of life.
To “live” (peripateo) is literally to walk about. It is the customer work for manner of life, particularly in the Psalms. The usage is carried over into the NT and is prominent in Paul’s writings. It recurs in this letter in 2:10; 4:17; and 5:2. The Ephesians’ former walk-about, Paul adds, was in accordance with the age (aion) of this work (kosmos).
Satan is the unholy spirit (1 Cor 2:12) who apes the operations of his divine counterpart being constantly at work. The verb (energountos, “operating”; NIV “at work”) is deliberately chose to imply rivalry with the Holy Spirit (Eph 1:19,20). “Sons of disobedience” is a Hebrew turn of phrase disclosing the fact that rebellion against God and refusal to believe in Him is inherent in man (Eph 5:16; Col 3:6).
The past life of Jewish Christians, like that of the Gentiles, was dominated by the appeal of fallen nature. The flesh (sarx) is not merely the body but “the whole man oriented away from God and towards its own selfish concerns: (Houlden, p 282.). The word translated “cravings” (epithymiai) is here used in its “bad” sense; it can also stand for legitimate desire. The plural suggest the multiplicity of such urges in the unredeemed personality. “Following” is actually “doing” (poiountes), and “desires” (thelemata) are rather “dictates” or demands” (literally, “things willed”). “Thoughts refers not to the mind itself but to the projects it entertains with controlled abandon.
The natural man is altogether at the mercy of the tyrant self and its rash impulses.
Because of all this, the Jewish converts were just as much in danger of judgment as anyone else. The phrase “objects [literally, children] of wrath” is a Semitism to denote those who deserve God’s punishment. “By nature” (physei) contrasts with “by grace” in v 5, 8.
If we prefer to stand on our own and refuse to accept what God has done for us in Christ, we are self-condemned.
Over man’s rejection of God, Paul sets God’s gracious acceptance of man in Christ. Though He cannot approve of sin if He is to remain righteous, God is not hostile toward those He has created. He loves them and had made possible their reconciliation to Himself. Had He decided to destroy His refractory children, he would have been entirely justified, and nothing could have averted the catastrophe (Hos 13:9). Instead, love led to “mercy” (eleos). That is God’s compassion for the helpless, issuing in action for their relief.
Verses 5 - 6
Do you deserve to be saved from this sea of sin? Yes or No? Why?
What Paul wants to say in the opening paragraph of Ephesians 2 is that God “made us alive in Christ” (synezoopoiesen, Col 2:15). This is the first of three verbs prefixd by syn- (with) that describe what God has done in Christ for every Christian. The other two are in v 6. Here Paul declares that when we were spiritually dead in transgressions, God gave us new life together with Christ. This is not the language of mysticism but of fact. The life Christians now possess is an effect of which Christ’s resurrection was the cause.
Two more verbs prefixed by syn- suggest what else God has done in Christ. He has actually raised up with Him (synegeiren Col 2:12). Christ was not only raises, He actually left the tomb and appeared to His disciples. As Paul insisted in Eph 1:20, this was a work of omnipotence. God has also enthrough us with Christ (synekathisen) “in the heavenly realms” (en tois epouraniois). Forty days after the resurrection Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father (Eph 1:20, 21). Both of these events have their counterpart in the experience of believers. Not only do we anticipate and assure resurrection and glorification at the end of the age; we are matched by a present realization of the risen life in Christ and of participation with Him in His ascended majesty (Col 3:1-4).
Verse 7 -
Do you see what you have been given in Christ by being alive in Him? What practically have you been given? Romans 5:8 – When did God show us love?
Verse 8 –
The statement of the entire 1st chapter is summed up in verse 8 of chapter 2 – If we boast about our asking Christ into our hearts we are boasting that we did something for God rather than recognizing that it is His grace and His mercy. – Where does faith come from? Rom 10:17
Paul again reminde his readers (as in v 5) that they owe their salvation entirely to the underserved favor of God. Grace is at once that objective, operatives, and instrumental cause. He expands the previous statement in verse 8 by adding that the subjective medium of salvation is faith, which is also its necessary condition.
Faith, however, is NOT a quality, virtue, or a faculty.
It is NOT something man can produce.
It is simply a trustful response that is itself provoked by the Holy Spirit.
This is important because otherwise faith may be misinterpreted as man’s contribution to his own salvation. Paul immediately adds a rider to explain that nothing is from our own doing but everything is a gift of God.
What are works that you see people talking about in the church or elsewhere?
With typically Pauline firmness, he excludes every possibility of self-achieved salvation. As if it were insufficient that he should have insisted in verse 8 “and this is not from yourselves”, “he adds, “but not by works” (erga) as related to the law, since he is not thinking only of the Jewish Christians.
Any kind of human self-effort is comprehensively ruled out in verse 9. The reason for this Paul calls out clearly – to prevent the slightest self-congratulation. If salvation is by the sheer unmerited favor of God, boasting is altogether out of place.
Verse 10 –
Who is it that formed you? This is a big one – are you a product of your surroundings? Who created those surroundings? Do we believe this – really?
Before you knew or thought you would follow God he knew when and how you would and was prepared – not reacting to you to do so.
What are you to do? What comes to mind that you are to do now?
Verse 10 is by no means a subsidiary postscript to the paragraph. It is the outcome of the whole. It shows what salvation is for: it is intended to produce the good works that attest its reality. Works play not part at all in securing salvation. This is true specifically because the work for your salvation was completed before the work you may do was or is ever done.
Note James 2:14-26 – Paul and James are united…
The road for us is already built. What God has done for us we cannot do, we cannot justify, we cannot even boast that we accepted it. This is further reason why the Christian has nothing left to boast about. Even the good we now do has its source in God, who has made it possible.
Are there any practical applications around this study that God has revealed to you? What will you do now?
Who and what will you pray for this week?
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