Ephesians 2:1
YOU WERE SPIRITUALLY DEAD. "In the past, even though you knew mysteries and secrets, you were spiritually dead in disobedience and sins.... [ Continue Reading ]
YOU WERE SPIRITUALLY DEAD. "In the past, even though you knew mysteries and secrets, you were spiritually dead in disobedience and sins.... [ Continue Reading ]
YOU FOLLOWED. "The evil powers who control this age and shape the lives of men separate man from God! The mysteries and secrets you knew came from this source." Both Jewish and pagan thought placed the evil spirits and angels in space and even the air itself.... [ Continue Reading ]
WERE LIKE THEM. "Even we Jews lived like this, slaves to our human natures, controlled by the Devil, doomed to suffer God's wrath!" Paul shows by this that the Law of Moses was not as effective as the _circumcision party_ claimed. Also, he shows the Jewish Christians that they were just as dead in d... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT GOD'S MERCY. This tragic and helpless situation of man, _sets the stage_ for God to reveal his mercy and his love to _both_ Jew and Gentile!!!... [ Continue Reading ]
HE BROUGHT US TO LIFE WITH CHRIST. "God acted in history at a time when the world was spiritually dead. God brought Jews and Gentiles to life with Christ by raising Him from the dead (Acts 13:32-33; 2 Corinthians 5:15-17), and we share in this life by acting out the events of the Cross (Colossians 2... [ Continue Reading ]
IN OUR UNION. "We became Christians by being united to Christ (Galatians 3:27), and in this union God raised us to life from our dead spiritual state (Colossians 2:12). But more than this, in our union with Christ Jesus we are now ruling with him in the heavenly world (Colossians 3:1-4; Revelation 5... [ Continue Reading ]
TO DEMONSTRATE FOR ALL TIME. See 1 Timothy 1:16 and note. "This shows, that in every age of time, all who believe and reach out through faith to seize Christ, may expect forgiveness and new life in Christ!!!... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IT IS. "Neither the works of The Law nor the secrets of the mystery religions could ever save you and set you free from ignorance and superstition. Only God's grace could make that available to you. Salvation is the gift of God through faith! You seize it, not achieve it!!!" [Note: in the Greek,... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE IS NOTHING. "Your salvation did not come through the rites of The Law nor through a knowledge of secrets and mysteries. It isn't the result of your own efforts, therefore there is nothing here to boast about!... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD IS OUR MAKER. "But though we cannot save ourselves by the good deeds we might do prior to our converting to Christ, yet in our union with Christ Jesus God has _created us_ for a lifetime of good works by which we praise and worship Him. He has _programed_ the world to demand the best from us, an... [ Continue Reading ]
YOU GENTILES. "To strengthen your sense of God's goodness in saving you, and to show you the obligation that this salvation places on you to live a life of good works, I ask you to remember what you were in the past. The Jews despised you and called you _the uncircumcised!_ But of course they were w... [ Continue Reading ]
AT THAT TIME. "At that time in the past, you had no promise of The Messiah, and you could not belong to God's chosen people!" COVENANTS. See Romans 9:4-5. WITHOUT. With neither hope nor God, they lived futile lives!!!... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT NOW. "But now through the bloody-death of Christ, the Jewish Messiah, you who were formerly _excluded_ from God's temple at Jerusalem are brought near to God by being built into Christ's church, the messianic community of the saved!... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR CHRIST HIMSELF. "Christ died for the Gentiles as well as the Jews! With his own body of flesh, he brought us peace by breaking down the wall of The Law, which like the _wall of separation_ in the Jewish temple, _included_ the Jews but _excluded_ all others!... [ Continue Reading ]
HE ABOLISHED THE JEWISH LAW. "By the bloody-death of his Cross, he abolished the Jewish Law with all its rites!!! He did this to create ONE NEW PEOPLE in union with himself." On the _wall_ between Jews and Gentiles, see Acts 10:28.... [ Continue Reading ]
BY HIS DEATH. _Christ-on-the-cross_ (see note on 1 Corinthians 1:23). The Cross destroys the enmity between Jew and Gentile, and the enmity of the sinner toward God; unites both races into _one body_ (Christ's church, see notes on Matthew 16:18) through the _new birth_ (Titus 3:5) and brings them ba... [ Continue Reading ]
SO CHRIST CAME AND PREACHED. See Hebrews 1:2 and note. Paul points back to the First Coming and God's finished work in Christ! The long awaited time has now come and the apostles and the _church_ announce the Good News of peace!!! Compare Isaiah 52:7; Isaiah 57:19; Zechariah 9:10; Romans 10:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT ALL OF US. To see the _king,_ you had to be introduced by someone close to him. Paul is using this symbolism to say that it is _only through_ Christ that any of us can _be introduced_ to God and come in/by the _one_ Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:13) into the presence of the Father.... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THEN. "Being formed into _one people_ (Christ's church) along with the Jews, you Gentiles are not foreigners or strangers any longer! You share the covenants of promise and are members of the family of God! House of God = household of God = family of God = Christ's church = messianic community of... [ Continue Reading ]
YOU TOO. "The Jews, and you Gentiles too, are built into the spiritual temple of God as _living stones_ (1 Peter 2:5)! You are built on the foundation which the apostles and prophets laid by proclaiming the Good News (Ephesians 3:5), and the cornerstone which unites the two sides of the building is... [ Continue Reading ]
HE IS THE ONE. "As the cornerstone, Christ is the one who holds the whole building together by destroying the hostility between Jews and Gentiles. He makes it grow into a sacred temple (1 Corinthians 3:16) by bringing new members (converts) into _the community_ (church). In this sacred temple, the L... [ Continue Reading ]
YOU TOO ARE BEING BUILT. You Gentile Christians (along with Jewish Christians) are being built [present continuous] into a house (made of living stones held together by love) where God lives (Acts 7:48; Acts 17:24) through his Spirit!" _Lipscomb_ says: "The New Testament clearly recognizes each sepa... [ Continue Reading ]