Ephesians Chapter 2
Originally posted Friday August 22, 2008
General Comment: Reading the
salutation and thanksgiving gives the impression that the audiences in the
churches are Gentiles. Church history shows that it is more than
an impression, it is reality. By the last decade of the first century the
acrimony between Synagogue and Church was at a high level often punctuated by
violence. In the years following the destruction of the Temple and much of
Jerusalem, Judaism had come together under Pharisaic leadership. The task was
to define what Judaism would be in a post Temple era. A much greater
emphasis was placed on ritual and racial purity, part of which was to cleanse
the communities of Jewish Christians. The choice became either to reject Christ
or be expelled. One could no longer be part of what was seen as a threat
to Jewish self identity. We already notice this shift in Matthew and more so in
John where the anti-Judaism rhetoric is the highest of all the Gospels. Once we
understand the Gentile nature of the Church we can read Ephesians as a document
of encouragement to unify the churches under a common understanding of how
it is that God has brought them out of their past bondage to sin into a new
life in Christ.
Ephesians Chapter 2:1-10
From Death to Life
The
writer begins by reminding the hearers of this letter of their former state as
pagans worshipping idols. In this state of sin they were spiritually dead,
following the "ruler (a lesser, pagan god?) of the power of the
air" (occupied by demons) and guided by the spirit working in "the
sons of disobedience." Everyone including the writer walked in this spirit
controlled by the "passions of [their] flesh" and so all were by
nature "children of wrath" (condemned by God). However, even
though they were spiritually dead the grace of a merciful and loving God
brought them from spiritual death to spiritual life "with Christ."
Using the present tense, the writer adds that having been brought from
death to life in Christ they have already been raised up (exalted)
with Christ and have been "seated... with him in the heavenly
places." Thus the believer has been "made alive with Christ" (vs.5), has been "raised up with
him" (vs. 6a) and has been
"seated with him in the heavenly places" (vs. 6b). The image is similar to Paul's use of the
mystical phrase "being inChrist."
The distance between the believer's earthly existence and exalted state with
Christ disappears. The believer is already exalted with Christ to the heavenly places while living in the
temporal places of this world. All of this is a demonstration of God's
"immeasurable riches of...grace" poured out upon those who, by faith,
are in Christ. And even that faith is not the ultimate determiner of their
salvation. It is God's gift and not some work the believer has done. To say
that "by faith we are saved" is to misunderstand the dynamic of
salvation. If it were true that their faith per se had saved them it
would have been by their own effort - a work they had accomplished. The writer
makes it clear that faith is a response to an offer of the gift. The gift is
given by God as an act of God's grace. Faith is everything as a human response.
It is nothing without a divine validation. Faith and Grace paradoxically occupy
the same moment in time but are separated by two worlds, one that is present
and one that has yet to come.
So
there is no room for boasting. We are what God has made us to be. Lest we
become too oriented to the lofty language of exaltation to the "heavenly
places," we are reminded that as a Christian we are a new creation,
a special creation. The gift of grace creates a new person who, while
already exalted with Christ in the heavenly places, is meant for earthly
work. This is the Biblical idea of perfection, to be doing that for which
one has been created. The purpose that drives the Christian
life as a new, spiritual creation is not preparation for heaven
as some would have it, but "for good works." These good works
are already placed before us. In prophetic terms we know them as doing justice,
loving kindness, generosity, loving our neighbor and showing substantive
compassion.
Ephesians Chapter 2:11-22
One in Christ
The
passage expresses the unity of Gentile and Jew being forged by the
work of Christ on the cross. It is a work of inclusion, including the
previously alienated Gentiles within the "commonwealth" of Israel.
The writer mentions Gentiles being called the uncircumcised by the circumcised
but removes the significance of circumcision as anything important for it is
"by human hands." Because they were strangers to and separated from
the prophets and "covenants of promise," their only hope was
God. Now with Christ's appearing this has all changed and the Gentiles
have been "brought near" to God by Christ's work on the cross.
Through his death Christ has unified both groups, Jew and Gentile, into one and
has put away the mutual hostility, broken down the wall of separation (the
law) and created a new humanity. In Christ the two have become one.
He has abolished the law (commandments and ordinances) in order to create a new
humanity, reconciled to God and joined as one body (by abolishing the
law). With Christ's death on the cross the hostility between Jew and Gentile
has died; peace is extended to both. Through faith in Christ both have access
to God through the same Spirit.
Therefore,
the Gentiles "are no longer strangers and aliens" to God having
also become members of God's household which stands upon the foundation of
apostles and prophets with "Christ...himself as the cornerstone." In
Christ the unified structure of Jew and Gentile Christians becomes a holy
temple and each member of it a dwelling place for God.
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