Ephesians 2:4 I. Note the three privileges which are here supposed to belong to believers. (1) They are quickened. There can be no doubt that this privilege, in some intelligible sense at least, is enjoyed by God's people on earth, or, in other words, that there is a change wrought upon them which i... [ Continue Reading ]
Ephesians 2:6 The Church a Home for the Lonely. The subject suggested by the text is the need which mankind lies under of some shelter, refuge, rest, home, or sanctuary from the outward world, and the shelter or secret place which God has provided for them in Christ. I. By the world I mean all tha... [ Continue Reading ]
Ephesians 1:18 ; EPHESIANS 2:7 Christ's Resurrection and Glory in Relation to the Hope of the Church. I. The descent of the Son of God from His eternal majesty to the infirmities and sorrows and temptations of this mortal condition is so transcendent a revelation both of the love of God and the pos... [ Continue Reading ]
Ephesians 2:8 Salvation by Grace. I. To Paul the doctrine of justification by faith was not a final statement of Christian truth. It was not a formula which could be used mechanically for constructing schemes of Christian doctrine, and which made it unnecessary for him to recur to the actual relati... [ Continue Reading ]
Ephesians 2:10 Christian Men God's Workmanship. I. The special infirmities of men vary. The fault of our nature assumes a thousand forms, but no one is free from it. I look back to the ancient moralists, to Plato, and to Seneca, and to Marcus Antoninus, and I find that they are my brethren in cala... [ Continue Reading ]
Ephesians 2:11 Judaism and Christianity. I. To Paul the moral confusion and the religious desolation of the Gentiles were appalling. He believed that they were enduring the just penalties of their own sins and the sins of their ancestors. The first chapter of Romans is a terrible commentary on what... [ Continue Reading ]
Ephesians 2:12 Practical Atheism. The text may be applied to us I. When the belief in God and its object do not maintain habitually the ascendant influence over us, over the whole system of our thoughts, feelings, purposes, and actions. Let us examine ourselves whether we live under a prevailing,... [ Continue Reading ]
Ephesians 2:13 Sin the Separator. I. Sin has broken the beautiful chain of the material universe. When man fell, nature fell; and the links were severed by the Fall. And worse than this, man is divided from man, every one from his fellow. The very Church is broken up, Christian from Christian. The... [ Continue Reading ]
Ephesians 2:15 St. Paul appears to regard the Jew as an incomplete or half-man till he found the Gentile, the Gentile as an incomplete or half-man till he found the Jew. He does not speak of opinions being adjusted or fitted into each other, of arrangements, mutual surrenders, compromises. He speak... [ Continue Reading ]
Ephesians 2:18 In this text we have a declaration of the Holy Trinity; there can be no doubt about that. Here are all Three Persons together: the Father, unto whom we have access or introduction; the Son, by or through whom we are introduced; the Holy Spirit, in whom, in whose communion, we enjoy t... [ Continue Reading ]