Category Archives: Blogs

Ephesians 2:13

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But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

But now. It had been the case that Gentiles were excluded from the life of God. But now things are different. Those who trust Christ, who were once far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross brought Jews and Gentiles together, and, as Paul will say in verse 16, God is making one new man in place of the two.

Make this personal. It’s more than just factual information. If you are a Gentile, and most of you are, you personally have been brought near by the blood of Christ. You now have access to God through the gospel.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 9:26 PM November 10, 2020.

Ephesians 2:11-12

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Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Since God has prepared for the works that we should do, we are to remember something. Verse 11 begins with “therefore.”

Therefore remember. We should remember that at one time in history, before the good news came to the Gentiles, we were called uncircumcision by the Jews. In other words, we were excluded from the promises of God as he explains in verse 12. Look at the words he uses here: separated from Christ, Alienated from the people of God, strangers (excluded) from the covenants, having no hope and without God.

That is the dire situation Gentiles were in up until the time Christ came and His apostles announced that the mystery was being revealed that Gentiles were to be included in the covenants God was making with His people.

This had been an entirely hopeless situation. Without hope and without God! And remember, we are talking about the way things actually work in God’s plan. Before Christ, Gentiles all over the world were excluded, not just from attending some event. They were excluded from participating in the life of God’s people and enjoying the benefits of God’s promises, and without God. A few Gentiles became part of God’s people, but very few.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 9:42 AM November 9, 2020.

Ephesians 2:10

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For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Verse 10 begins with another “for.” He has just told us that our salvation is not of works, otherwise we would boast. Why is it not of works, Paul? Because we are His workmanship. The emphasis, I think, is on the word “His.” God is the master craftsman and we are His workmanship.

What is the goal of His creative working? We were created in Christ Jesus for good works. Salvation comes ahead of the works. God prepared these good works ahead of time for us to walk in them. When we walk in faithful obedience to God, we know that any good works we do, He prepared before hand for us. He has gifted each believer to fit into the body where He wants us to function. He prepares the works that we should do in that part of the body. There is no need to be looking around at what other people do and what gifts they have. God has prepared our works for us personally that we would walk in them. And, by walking in them, or, in other words, living them out, we are helping to build up the body of Christ.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 8:48 PM November 4, 2020.

Ephesians 2:8-9

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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.

Now that we have gone through the previous verses, you can see the context for verse 8 which many of us have memorized. The verse starts with “For.” It’s connected to what has gone before. We memorize it as a stand-alone or with verse 9, but it belongs with the previous verses. He is explaining the grace part of the previous several verses related to God’s purpose in demonstrating the glory of God.

It is by grace we have been rescued. God’s rescue of us and lifting us up out of the miry pit and placing us on the solid ground of salvation is totally and completely by grace.

God has extended favor toward us, and that favor and kindness are not related in any way to any good we think we may have done. It is not a reward or a benefit, or a response to our goodness. It is a totally unmerited blessing given from the generous hand of God by grace.

We receive this gift by faith. That means by believing. God has announced the good news of the gospel that Jesus came to pay the penalty for all of our sins when He died on the cross. Believing this and trusting God with His promise to save and forgive, is the way this grace is received. Salvation is not a reward for believing. It is freely offered, and the way we take advantage of it is by believing it.

And all of this is not of ourselves. It is not of our own doing. Our new birth is not by the will of man, but by the will of God (John 1:12-13). It is a gift. And you don’t work for a gift.

Verse 9 goes on to tell us it is not of works. Works give us an opportunity to boast: I was smarter than you in taking God’s offer of salvation; I was more faithful in obeying God; I went to church more; I paid more attention to my BIble reading than you; etc.

But salvation has nothing to do with any of that. It is a gift of God, period.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 8:43 PM November 4, 2020.

Ephesians 2:7

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so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Verse 7 gives us the reason for all of what has been said. God because of His mercy and love, saved us, made us alive, and seated us in heaven with Christ.

What is that reason? So that in the coming ages, God might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

He has done all that He has done to demonstrate the glory of His grace. He wants all the world to see what kind of God He is in His eagerness to pay for sin and forgive those who are in rebellion against Him. When we get to Ephesians 3:10 we find that this display will be made by the church. The recipients of this display of God’s grace will be not only to people, but to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. And this has been His plan for all eternity. It is basically the reason He created the world in the first place.

To put it simply, God’s plan was to display the glory of His grace, by forgiving and adopting people into His family as sons of God and joint-heirs with Christ. And don’t forget, grace means His doing this was totally unrelated to anything good we may have done, and indeed, in spite of our rebellion.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 3:19 PM October 28, 2020.

Ephesians 2:6

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and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Verse 6 continues the sentence and the thought from verse 5. By grace, God made us alive with Christ. What else did He do? He raised us up with Him. You see, because we as believers are in Christ, His history becomes our history. Our identity is in Him. So, when He died, we died. And when He was raised, we were raised.

Paul says in Colossians 3:1, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.”

In Romans 6:10-11 Paul describes how Christ died to sin, but is alive to God. In verse 11 he tells us that we also must reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God IN Christ Jesus. There you have the same truth. IN Christ Jesus. We are in Him and thus we are on the resurrection side of things.

Back to Ephesians 2:6. We are also seated with him in the heavenly places. Christ is seated in heaven at the right hand of God the Father. And we also have been raised with Christ and are seated with Him in heaven. It’s as good as done as far as God is concerned. The church is the body of Christ, and believers are members of His body. Our identity is in Christ.

Look at Colossians 3:1-4 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Do you see how closely connected your life is with His? When He appears, you appear. If you are a believer, you are one with Christ.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 3:15 PM October 28, 2020.

Ephesians 2:4-5

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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—

But God! We were by nature the children of wrath. We once lived in the passions of our flesh. But God!

In the next couple of verses, Paul is going to describe what God has done for us in spite of our natural rebellion. But what will be the motive for what He does? First, He is rich in mercy. Mercy is the willingness to forgo the punishment that would normally be required. He pities us and has mercy on us. And, God is rich in mercy. There is no slack in God’s use of His mercy. It is bountiful and abundant.

And second, because He has loved us. He sent His only Son to pay the penalty that we should have been required to pay. Because of this tremendous, unmerited love, what did He do?

We’ll include verse 5 here.

He made us alive together with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. Verse 1 told us that we were dead. Even though we were dead and had no spiritual life in us, God made us alive together with Christ. Then he emphasizes the motive: By grace you have been saved.

We were dead sinners, hating God, having no life in us, not seeking after God, all our righteousness being as filthy rags. In that condition, God made us alive when He made Christ alive. We were given life together with Him. Let that sink in.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 3:10 PM October 28, 2020.

Ephesians 2:3

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Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

Ephesians

Ephesians 2:3

We used to live as one of those sons of disobedience. he says in verse 3 that we all once lived among them. We were just like them.

What was our character? It was to live according to the passions of our flesh. Passions are lusts or strong desires that drive us to do things. Lusts of the flesh are strong desires that come from our physical bodies. John writes that the things of this world involve the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life.

In verse 3 here Paul explains that living in the passions of our flesh involves the carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. We do what we want. Whatever comes naturally based on the desires of the body, that is what we do. There’s not much thinking and virtually no self-control. If it feels good, do it! That’s the philosophy of the age we live in, but it has been the philosophy of the human race since the fall, and we were just like that.

Paul goes on to say that we were by nature children of wrath just like everyone else. Our nature is evil. It is in-born. The wrath of God rests upon all human beings because of their natural rebellion against God and because of the strong desire to do what we want to do without considering God or others.

Everyone is like that from birth onward. Just like they, we also were by nature children of wrath. We are no better.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 2:00 PM October 26, 2020.

Ephesians 2:2

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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—

Paul says that we once walked in this way. Again he’s speaking about the past. When we trust in Christ and believe on Him, this life pattern becomes our past pattern. But it’s important to realize what that condition was like, because for those of us who were saved early in our lives, we tend to become smug and judgmental toward those we consider to be worse sinners than we are.

So, what was our walk like? It was according to the course of this world. The word for course is age or eon. We lived the way the world has always lived. There is a course or pattern to the way human beings have lived since the fall, and we ourselves also were like that.

We followed the prince of the power of the air. Who is that? The spirit that now is at work in the sons of disobedience. He, of course, is referring to Satan or the devil. We followed his leadership in the way we ordered our lives.

This spirit is even now at work in the sons of disobedience. That is who we used to follow, but no more! Having been saved and rescued out of Satan’s grasp, we no longer follow him.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:43 AM October 22, 2020.

Ephesians 2:1

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And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.

Now Paul turns his attention to us. He says, “And you.” Who is he talking to? He says you who were dead in the trespasses and sins. That includes all of us, doesn’t it?

He uses the past tense of dead, which means we were dead, but are no longer dead. According to the Bible, we are born dead, spiritually dead.

Trespasses have to do with moral failures great or small. We are sinners. We fail to live up to the holy standards of our creator and so we are dead in them.

Sins has to do with our offenses against God and the resulting guilt. To what degree were we involved in trespasses and sins? How bad were are moral failures and offenses against a holy, righteous, and loving God? For that, we need to go on to verse 2 next time.

But in the middle of this verse is the phrase “He made alive.” Some translations don’t include this phrase but the meaning is still there when we get to verse 5. We’ll deal more with it when we get there, but for now the truth is stated that even though we were dead, God made us alive. He is the life-giving God.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 5:03 PM October 18, 2020.