EXHORDIUM
We are making our way
slowly through Ephesians without any apology. There is so much here that
although we are going slowly, it feels like we are going much too quickly.
I often
feel this way as I drive through parts of Virginia, especially when it involves
going up and over the Blue Ridge Mountains. There is always a nice path where
you can cruise right on up and over the mountain. On the way up and the way
down, there are beautiful vistas. At times, you get a glimpse as you zoom past
an viewing site. But it seems that we are almost always in a hurry to get
somewhere and almost never stop and really look. Even the times that we do stop
and look, it is always just a minute or two and off you go. Pile up and move
em’ out!
I feel
this way in Ephesians. There is so much here to see and know and yet we do have
to keep moving. Maybe we won’t stop but let’s be content with slowing down.
What
is our destination anyway? To know God and to make Him known. So, it is worth
it sometimes to simply sit at His feet and get to know Him before we get on to
making Him known. This way of thinking fits perfectly well with the way
Ephesians is laid out for us. Some slow driving time getting to know God and
then some slow training time in learning to obey Him. To know God and to make
Him known, go slow.
EXEGESIS
REVIEW
1.
Able to sin, able to not
sin.
2.
Unable not to sin.
3.
Able to not sin.
4. Unable to Sin- The Resurrected state.
We will be perfected and protected from falling into sin.
2 Wherein in time past
ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in
times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Your times past- This spirit still alive
in the sons of disobedience. But we should not be drawn to it as in times past
because we are ‘in Christ.’
The world- course of
this world
The flesh- lusts of the
flesh
The devil- prince of the
power of the air
Lusts- desire for the
forbidden. This is part of the transformation of the Christian mind to change
us from desiring that which is forbidden to desiring that which is given.
By
nature- ordinary generation, born into sin and God’s wrath.
Wrath- can mean desire. The context seems to encourage the thought that we
were born into lustful desires. That is we were born wanting what is prohibited
and thus an object of God’s wrath, like Adam.
Prince
of the power of the air- the devil. He now works in the
children of disobedience. But he does not govern the lives of the faithful.
This letter is to make it clear to us that the principalities, that is the
prince of the power of the air and his cohorts, have been overthrown.
Among
Whom- the children of disobedience. We are no longer
among them but have been transferred unto the children of God.
Eph.
2:4 But God, who is rich in
mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
A proper view of God,
the Father, for saints.
God, the Father
1. Rich in mercy. He has loads and loads
of mercy. If we were counting all of His treasures, a great heap would be
mercy.
2. God loved us with a
great love. God
loves us because God is love. The Father’s great love. The Reformed tradition
should understand this as well as we do His Holiness and hatred towards sin.
He
hates sin because sin brings death. Death is the enemy of God’s people and is
the reason that God sent His Son to deliver us from darkness to light, death to
life.
3. His love was towards
us even when we were dead in sins. This makes perfect sense. He is the life giver.
He saw us dead in sins, loved us, showered us with mercy and love and made us
alive together with Christ.
Hath quickened us
together with- suzwopoie÷w suzoopoieo, sood-zo-op-oy-eh´-o- The idea here is that God made us alive
in and with Christ. This was done by grace. This refers back to Christ being
raised from the dead and seated at the right hand of God the Father. God made
us alive with Jesus.
By grace ye are saved- God did it. He quickened us together in
Christ. He saved us
from sin, from death, from the realm of the prince of the power
of the air, from the life among the disobedient
to righteousness, to life, to the
realm of the kingdom of God, to the kingdom and submission of the Lord Jesus
Christ, to the life of the saints in Christ’s Church.
6 And hath raised us
up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus:
He
has not only quickened us together with Jesus, he has connected us in such a
way that what happens to Jesus happens to us. Where the living saint is, there
is Jesus. Wherever Jesus is, the living saint is with Him, for the two have
been made alive together.
We
have discussed this verse in some detail concerning the fact that Jesus is
raised and seated. This means that He is alive and it also means that Jesus is
in the seat of authority. He is seated as a King over all the Heavens and over
all the Earth. This has far reaching implications. There is no place in Heaven
or on Earth where Jesus Christ does not lay claim to absolute ownership and
full authority.
Jesus
could immediately demand all His enemies be executed or submit to Him. If it
were not foreign to His character, He has the power and the authority to act
like ISIS, now calling themselves the Islamic State. He could be like the
Islamic State but He is not like that. This should help us understand how the
Church is to act, for we are also seated with Jesus ruling Heaven and Earth.
7 That in the ages to
come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus.
Exceeding- huper ballo, throw over the top.
Hyperbolic riches of his grace in kindness. God went over the top on this one.
So
His over the top kind. This reveals his extraordinary grace. This is revealed
in Jesus Christ.
Keep
in mind those things I said last week. God is extraordinarily kind to us in
Christ Jesus. The depths of His grace and kindness cannot be plumbed. We cannot
even imagine how far His kindness and grace go. We can have some idea. Monsters
like the Apostle Paul can be saved from sin and death.
But
even amidst God’s extraordinary kindness, there is still judgment for sin. He
gives us the way out in Jesus but like Lot’s wife, we are not to turn back,
like a dog to its own vomit, but rather to press on to our high calling in
Christ Jesus. Were sin abounds, grace doth much more abound. But there is a
reality of apostacy. Keep looking to Jesus and be filled with the grace of God
in Christ Jesus.
But
let us now look to God’s grace and respond in thankfulness. Our blessings are
overflowing. Do we see that and respond in thanksgiving?
8 For by grace are ye
saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of
God:
How
are we saved? By grace through faith. The main point here is that we are saved
by grace. Our faith does not save us. This is an important point. If we think
our faith saves us, then we might wonder how much faith we need to be saved?
Synechdoce- A part for the whole.
Faith saves you is a great example of synechdoce.
Christ
saves us through the grace of God. This grace is apprehended by us when we
believe God, that is, when we have faith.
But
we cannot even claim to be doing anything when we have faith. Sure, we do
something, we believe. That belief is active. But we are not giving God
anything but ourselves. And the saving value of ourselves is zero.
And
our faith is simply taking God at His Word that we need a savior, that we fall
short, that we have nothing to give God, that we are dead in our sins.
Not of Yourselves- The phrase, and that
not of yourselves, is not totally clear in what it belongs to. The three words
preceding it are all feminine in the Greek but the amplifier is neuter. It
could amplify the entire phrase by grace are ye saved through faith, meaning
that none of this is your own, it is all given. Or it could refer to grace, or
salvation, or faith. But in the end it is all one and the same. This grace,
this salvation, this faith is all gift. It did not derive from your dead heart.
That would be impossible. God gave you life. God gave you the desire to seek
Him. God gave you the ability to believe. So, it is all gift.
9 Not of works, lest
any man should boast.
We
did not work our way up to this belief, this salvation, this grace. If we were
smarter than other people, we might have something to boast of. If we were more
holy than other people, we might have something to boast of. No, we are just as
lost outside of Christ, as everyone else. We are no smarter. We are no more
holy. We are not prone to right decisions or wisdom. Our wisdom is in Christ. Thus,
there is no room for boasting.
Incidentally,
this is true of all the subsequent blessings that have come to us in Christ.
These include some of what we call the distinctives of our church or
denomination. Things like big families, Christian education, Covenant Renewal
Worship, raising and disciplining children, a Covenantal view of Scripture.
These are all areas where we tend to boast or look sidelong at our neighbor.
But these are gifts to us, not reasons for boasting. So, act like they are a
gift. Be thankful and do not boast.
10 For we are his
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them.
It
is not we who worked this all out. God worked it out. He worked us. Get his
point here? If we worked, we could boast. But we did not work. God worked. Now,
God is not a braggart. He is not saying that God is the one who gets to boast.
But we should look at the One doing the work and marvel and give thanks.
What
kind of work did God do? He called us to Himself gracefully and then changed
the direction of our lives towards Him. This means that we have a new
orientation away from self and towards our Savior. Thus, we now work, not a
work to earn God’s favor but a work of thankfulness for the One who did all the
hard work. Thus, he worked, got everything all set up and then we just walk in
and marvel at it all and work in the midst of His work. Okimoto labs.
This
is not a cooperation in salvation. This is simply working out of us what God
has worked into us.
EXHORTATION
Verse 12, having no hope
and without God in the world.
No hope but in Christ.
Not in my family, my upbringing, my testimony, my prayer card, my baptism, my
catechism. No, there is no hope without Christ. And Christ is a gift to us who
believe. There is no reason for boasting of any kind, only thanksgiving.
You
were dead but you are now alive.
You
used to live after the flesh but now you live after the Spirit.
You
were without God but now God is in you.
You
were without hope but now you have assurance in Jesus Christ.
You
were far away from God but now have been brought near.
Eph. 2:11
Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in
the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the
Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
12 That
at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and
without God in the world: 13 But now in Christ Jesus
ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Exhortation-
It has
been said that one of the jobs of the preacher is to move people from this
place to that one. Through good preaching, a man should feel compelled to do
something, to change, to repent, to make some new commitment.
But this passage helps us realize that there is
almost nothing that we can do. It is clear from this passage that it is almost
completely about what God has done.
Of course, God calls us to a new way of living
in Jesus. A man who was dead but is now alive has to breathe. But the life is
from Jesus, the breath is from Jesus. It is all God’s work from first to last.
So, what is our response? What should this cause
us to do? The only thing I can think of that is eminently appropriate is gratitude.
God truly is awesome and when we consider all that He has done in us through
Jesus Christ, we simply gape in awe stuck wonder. And then we wake up and are
filled up with gratitude. No place for pride in gratitude. Just humble
reflection on God’s glory.
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