salvation by grace:
Ephesians 2:1-10
The gospel permeates Paul’s New Testament letters. In Romans he explains it. In Galatians he defends it. In his letters to Timothy he commands the faithful preaching of it. Paul is consumed with the gospel, and his epistle to the Ephesians does nothing to dissuade the argument. Paul, in one of his most recognizable passages, Ephesians 2:1-10, masterfully articulates the gospel, purporting that the salvation of God is by His grace and not by good works.[1]
Throughout Scripture, Paul undermines the idea that salvation is acquired through the application of the blood of Jesus in faith and also the merits of believers.[2] There appears to be constant confusion regarding the place of works in the life of a believer. What, if anything, do good works earn for a believer? Paul in his letter to the Romans claims that no one is justified by works of the Law but by faith in Jesus (Rom
The Text: Ephesians 2:1-10
In this section of Scripture, it is important to recall that Paul is writing to all the Christians in
The Problem Is Sin: Verses 1-3
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-- among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind (Eph 2:1-3).
If there is such a thing as salvation, then there must also be a danger from which one is saved. It is here in Ephesians that Paul succinctly explains the problem facing humanity from which the need for salvation is derived. In short, the problem with humanity is sin. John Macarthur explains that
Man’s basic trouble is not being out of harmony with his heritage or his environment but being out of harmony with his Creator. His principal problem is not that he cannot make meaningful relationships with other human beings but that he has no right relationship to God, from whom he is alienated by sin.[3]
This is Paul’s clear teaching in Ephesians. Thus, it is in these first three verses that Paul begins to build his case that salvation is by grace through faith and not by works, explaining that humans are dead in their sins, enemies of God, and children of wrath.
First, he tells the Ephesians that they were at one time “dead in their trespasses and sins.” Dead people are unable to change their condition. They cannot decide to change their status and cause themselves to become alive. It is not in their nature and it is not within their power. Dead people are dead. In the same way, man has transgressed God’s Law and is doomed for eternal destruction. There is nothing they can do to change their condition before God, and man is in desperate need of an external intervention.[4] No matter what a lost person does, they cannot be made alive unless God graciously grants that life to them (Acts
Second, Paul describes what it means to be spiritually dead.[5] He writes that someone who is dead in sin is “following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” The world, Paul explains, follows the prince of the power of the air, that is, Satan. He is the ruler of the present age and is in direct opposition to God and His Word. Paul explains that mankind by following the world, follows Satan, and is in turn an enemy of God. Yet again, there is nothing man can do to change his status. Unless God acts, man is doomed to eternal destruction as an enemy of God.
Third, all of mankind is “by nature children of wrath.” Paul begins this section by including himself in the equation. At the beginning of the section, Paul reminds the Ephesians in the plural second person: “You were dead . . .” In verse 3 however, Paul transitions to use the plural first person pronoun: “among whom we all once lived . . .” (emphasis added). In this way, Paul includes himself in the equation, demonstrating that there is no one who is excluded from the problem of sin.[6] Even the apostle who encountered the risen Lord face to face, who started churches across
Paul further describes the activities in which these people who are dead in sin participate. Everyone, even Christians before Christ, “lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.” The way to live according to the passions of the flesh is to carry out the desires of the body and of the mind. According to Macarthur, desires of the body include doing “whatever feels good” whereas desires of the mind connote a willful choice of disobedience.[7] Thus, people are spiritually dead because of willful disobedience.
Because of this, Paul calls mankind “children of wrath.” Simply put, to be a child of wrath means that we are condemned to eternal destruction.[8] Man is doomed to eternal destruction just like Satan (
In summary, Paul writes in these verses that the problem with mankind is sin. Down to the very root, man is in willful rebellion against God and is in no condition to correct the problem. Man desperately needs God to act graciously toward him.
The Solution Is Grace: Verses 4-9
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ-- by grace you have been saved-- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph 2:4-9).
Man is in no condition to change the course of his life, nor does he have any desire to do so. He is in willful rebellion against God. But this is not the end of the matter because God has the final word. The entire pericope turns on this simple conjunction: de....[10] Paul turns now from what man has done to what God has done in order to change the entire course of one’s life. God takes the initiative and turns man’s willful disobedience upside-down and into something glorious.
First, the Ephesians were dead in their trespasses and sins, but God has made them alive in Christ. If man is dead in sin and this involves following Satan and willfully choosing to disobey God, then life in Christ must involve following God and willfully choosing to obey Him. How is this transition brought about? Obviously, it is beyond the ability of man to reconcile the situation, as Paul reminds the Ephesians, “even when we were dead in our trespasses, He made us alive” (2:5). Being dead in trespasses indicates inability, and not only is man unable but he is also unwilling to reconcile the situation.[11] How then does God make a willful sinner alive?
A strikingly similar passage in Paul’s letter to the Colossians is instructive.[12] In Colossians, Paul explains that God made them alive with Christ. Paul then proceeds to explain how God makes them alive: “by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him” (
Further, the reason why God made them alive in Christ was because of “the great love with which he loved us.” It is God’s love that moved Him to perform such an action. The Apostle John is instructive: “In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10)[13] God’s action was not based on the works of man, but on the love of God. He loved man and sent His Son for him even when he was spiritually dead (cf. Rom 5:6, 8). This is why Paul includes the parenthetical statement: “by grace you have been saved” (2:5). He is reminding them that they were unable to reconcile the situation, and for that reason God graciously took the initiative.
Second, the Ephesians followed Satan as God’s enemy, but God has raised them and seated them in the heavenly places in Christ. God has canceled the transgression of His enemy and has seated this former enemy with His Son. It is not the case that the enemy has reconciled the situation and made God willing to forgive. Rather, God Himself has reconciled the situation and has bestowed on His chosen the titles of “son” and “heir” (Gal 4:7). The Father treats these former enemies the same way He treats His Son. The Father has already raised Jesus from the dead and “seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,” and now God is doing the same for those who are in Christ (
Third, the Ephesians were destined for destruction, but God has made them eternal billboards for His grace. Paul gives the Ephesians the reason God has made them alive, raised them, and seated them with Christ by including the causal statement in verse 6 “i[na” which is translated “so that or in order that.” The reason God has done these things is what follows the causal statement: “so that he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” The reason God has saved the Ephesian Christians is because He wanted to forever display His grace to the world. They have become walking billboards, displaying the incredible grace of God lavished upon them. The world will see how the Ephesian Christians used to “carry out the desires of the flesh and the mind,” and then they will see how God has canceled their sin by nailing it to the cross, not because of their own goodness, but because of His grace in kindness toward them in Christ. If salvation was merited by man, the Ephesian Christians would not be demonstrations of God’s grace but of man’s strength. But salvation, as Paul demonstrates, is by God’s grace and the redeemed are pictures of this truth.
Another important thing to notice is the distinct, active verbs in this section. God made us alive, raised us up, and seated us. God is the subject of these verbs. He is the one who has made us alive, raised us up, and seated us. Paul could have just as easily said, “We were made alive, we were raised up, and we were seated.” Instead, Paul chooses to explicitly make God the subject of these verbs because God is the one taking the initiative in the situation. Man is incapable of becoming alive and raising himself from his sinful state. Only God can be the subject of these verbs, and it is because of His grace that He has chosen to do so.
Finally, after describing what God has done in order to reconcile the situation, Paul gives a succinct thesis statement: “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (2:8-9). This is the culmination of what Paul has been saying. It is by God’s grace that the Ephesians are saved. It is not what they have done, because they were dead when God saved them. They were God’s enemies. They were children of wrath. He saved them from those things so that He could demonstrate His abundance of grace. At the root, verses 1 to 10 indicate that salvation by grace is a glory issue. If man were saved by works, then the glory belongs to man. But if God chooses to save His enemies by His own power and goodness, then the glory belongs to Him alone. Thus, salvation is by grace, not works, so that the only one who may boast is God.
What about faith? Is faith a work? Macarthur objects to the notion that grace is the gift and faith is the work, explaining that the word “this” (By grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing…) “does not refer precisely to the noun faith but to the act of believing.”[15] Macarthur continues by offering three texts that describe faith as God’s gift: 2 Peter 1:1, Philippians
In short, the solution to the problem of sin is God’s grace manifested in Christ Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross. Further, man’s good works have no salvific value because salvation is God’s gift of grace, and even the required faith is from God.
The Outcome is Works: Verse 10
Paul has clearly demonstrated that salvation comes by grace, but of what value are good works if they have no salvific value? Paul untangles the confusion in this final verse of the pericope: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph 2:10). Though they have no salvific worth, good works are not valueless. They are the outcome of Christ’s work on the cross. “The law says, ‘Do this and live;’ but the gospel says, ‘Live and do this.’”[16] Works are the result of a heart changed by the grace of God. Man’s boasting is still excluded since God “prepared [the works] beforehand” (Paul and his letters, 365).[17] God has predestined the salvation of the Ephesians as well as their fruit (Eph1:4-6;
Conclusion
Mankind has willfully disobeyed God, choosing instead to follow Satan. Because of this, their destination is eternal destruction. They are willfully disobedient, storing up wrath for themselves, and they have no desire to be reconciled to God. Only God is able to redeem man from his wickedness. For this reason, God’s grace is necessary, and He chooses to graciously kill His Son so that the elect will inherit eternal life. The entire act of salvation is from beginning to end by God’s grace. It is His prerogative to save, and He has graciously chosen to do so. Man cannot boast in his salvation because he has achieved none of it. Further, man’s good works are of no salvific value, since good works are also a gift. For this reason, God alone deserves the glory and praise for the kindness He has displayed. Because of man’s wickedness and because of God’s kindness, salvation is by grace for His glory.
[1]All Scripture references are from the English Standard Version, Crossway Bible, 2001.
[2]See Galatians, for example. Paul asserts that no one is justified by works of the law (Gal
[3]John Macarthur,Ephesians, The Macarthur New Testament Commentary (Chicago: Moody Bible Institute,1986), 52.
[4]Francis Foulkes.. Ephesians, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Grand Rapids: InterVarsity Press, 1983) 68-69.
[5]James Hamilton, “The Church Militant and Her Warfare: We Are Not Another Interest Group,” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, Winter 2007, 74.
[6]Ibid., 74.
[7]Macarthur, Ephesians, 57.
[8]John Piper, “But God . . .” Sermon delivered December 22, 1985 at Minneapolis, Minnesota, http://www.desiringgod.org, Desiring God Ministries.
[9]
[10]All Greek references are from Kurt Aland, Novum Testamentum Graece, ed. Nestle-Aland, 27th edition (Stuttgart: Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, 1993). These references are accessed via BibleWorks software, copyright 2007.
[11]John Calvin, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, I & II Thessalonians, I & II Timothy, Titus, Philemon, vol. XXI of Calvin’s Commentaries, translated by William Pringle (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2005), 225 .
[12]The similarities of the Epistle to the Colossians and the Epistle to the Ephesians are well-outlined and discussed in D. A. Carson and Douglas J. Moo, An Introduction to the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005), 480-86; 517.
[13]Calvin, Ephesians, 225.
[14]John B. Polhill, Paul and His Letters (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1999), 364).
[15]Macarthur, Ephesians, 61. Since he is using the New American Standard, Macarthur addresses the word “that.” In the ESV, the word is rendered “this.”
[16]John Eadie, Commentary of the Epistle to the Ephesians, A Zondervan Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1979), 156.
[17]Polhill, Paul and His Letters, 365.
[18]Eadie, Commentary of the Epistle to the Ephesians, 157.
