Ephesians 2

Ephesians 2
A fragment showing Ephesians 4:16-29 on recto side of Papyrus 49 from the third century.
Book Epistle to the Ephesians
Bible part New Testament
Order in the Bible part 10
Category Pauline epistles

Ephesians 2 is the second chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It is authored by Paul the Apostle.[1][2] The 1599 Geneva Bible summarises the contents of this chapter:

The better to set out the grace of Christ, he (Paul) useth a comparison, calling them to mind, that they were altogether castaways and aliants, that they are saved by grace, and brought near, by reconciliation through Christ, published by the Gospel.[3]

This chapter contains the well-known verse For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith: and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.[4]

Text

Structure

The New King James Version organises this chapter as follows:

Verse 3

New King James Version

...among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. [5]

The verse describes that before being saved, converts were just as bad as those outside the faith - that they gave into their baser thoughts and impulses.

There is debate about the phrase "children of wrath". Some indicate it refers to Original Sin, in which God was angered by Adam and Eve for disobeying him. Others believe it refers to the descendants of Cain, who slew Abel in his anger and brought murder into the world.

Verse 8

New King James Version

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,[6]

Verse 9

New King James Version

not of works, lest anyone should boast.[7]

Verse 10

New King James Version

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.[8]
  • For we are his workmanship

Not as men only, but as Christians; not as creatures merely, but as new creatures; the work of grace upon the soul seems chiefly designed, which like a poem, as the word may be rendered, is a very curious work; the king's daughter is all glorious within, for this is an internal work, and is a good and excellent one; it is not indeed perfected at once, but is gradually carried on, till the finishing stroke is given to it by that hand which begun it; the author of it is God, it is not man's work; nor is it the work of ministers, no, nor of angels, but it is God's work: sometimes it is ascribed to the Spirit, who regenerates and sanctifies; and sometimes to the Son of God, who quickens whom he will; and sometimes to the Father, who reveals his Son, and draws men to him, and who seems to be meant here: the subjects of this divine operation, are the persons described in Ephesians 2:1-3 and include both Jews and Gentiles; and express the distinguishing grace of God, that they and not others, and who were by nature children of wrath as others, should be his workmanship: and this is mentioned to show, that salvation can not be by any works of men, since all their works are either wrought for them, or in them, by God; salvation is a work wrought for them without them; and sanctification is a work wrought in them by God, of his good pleasure; and all their good works are fruits of his grace, as follows:[9]

  • created in Christ Jesus unto good works;

the work of grace is a creation, or a creature, a new creature; not a new vamp of old Adam's principles, but; an infusion of new ones, and is a work of almighty power; and such who have it wrought in them, are said to be created in Christ; because as soon as a man becomes a new creature, he is openly and visibly in Christ; and by these new principles of grace which are created in him, he is fit and ready, and in a capacity to perform good works; the new man formed in him, is formed for righteousness and true holiness; the internal principle of grace both excites unto, and qualifies for, the performance of righteous and holy actions:[9]

  • which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them,

or has "before prepared"; for the preparation of good works to be performed by saints, and the preparation of them for the performance of them; are both from the Lord; God has appointed good works to be done by his people and in his word he has declared what they are he would have done; and it is his will not only that they should do them, but continue to do them; not only that they should do a single act or more, but walk in them; their conversation and course of life should be one continued series of good works; but the intention is not that they should be saved by them, but that they should walk in them; and this being the pre-ordination of God, as it shows that predestination is not according to good works, since good works are the fruits and effects of it, so likewise that it is no licentious doctrine; seeing it provides for the performance of good works, as well as secures grace and glory.[9]

Verse 13

You who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

The image of the gentiles as being far off and brought near is also used in the Acts of the Apostles, where Peter speaks to the Pentecost crowds in Jerusalem saying:

The promise is to you (Jews) and to your children, and to all who are afar off.[10]

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges notes that "nigh” and “far” were also familiar rabbinical terms in the sense of having or not having part in the covenant. "Johann Jakob Wettstein on this verse quotes, 'inter alia', the following from the Talmud:

“A woman came to Rabbi Eliezer, to be made a proselyte; saying to him, 'Rabbi, make me nigh'. He refused her, and she went to Rabbi Joshua, who received her. The scholars of Rabbi Joshua therefore said, 'Did R. Eliezer put her far off, and dost thou make her nigh?'”"[11]

Verse 15

[He has] created in Himself one new man from the two.

Lutheran theologian George Stoeckhardt argues that "the Christian Church is de facto the one new man formed from Jews and Gentiles in whom there is neither Jew nor Greek".[12]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Halley, Henry H. Halley's Bible Handbook: an Abbreviated Bible Commentary. 23rd edition. Zondervan Publishing House. 1962.
  2. ↑ Holman Illustrated Bible Handbook. Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. 2012.
  3. ↑ Geneva Bible: Ephesians 2
  4. ↑ http://biblehub.com/ephesians/2-8.htm
  5. ↑ Ephesians 2:3
  6. ↑ Ephesians 2:8
  7. ↑ Ephesians 2:9
  8. ↑ Ephesians 2:10
  9. 1 2 3 John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible, Ephesians 2:10
  10. ↑ Acts 2:39
  11. ↑ Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges on Ephesians 2, accessed 8 February 2018
  12. ↑ Quoted by Buls, H. H., Buls' Notes: Ephesians 2:13-22, adapted from Exegetical Notes Epistle Texts, Series B, Sundays after Pentecost, Concordia Theological Seminary Press: Ft Wayne IN, 1987, pp. 327-40, accessed 9 February 2018
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