Ephesians 2

CHAPTER 2THEME: The church is a temple; the material for temple construction; the method of construction; the meaning of the constructionThis chapter begins with the little conjuction and; so it is actually a continuation of the thought of the first chapter. Paul has been talking about that tremendous power that raised Jesus from the dead. We shall see that this power is the same power that made us, when we were dead in trespasses and sins, alive in Christ. That takes power! It takes resurrection power. It is this power that so many of God’s children want to experience. Frances Ridley Havergal expresses it in as lovely and fine a way as it could be, and I’m sure it is a prayer in the hearts of many Christians today. Oh, let me know The power of the resurrection; Oh, let me show Thy risen life in calm and clear reflection; Oh, let me give Out of the gifts thou freely gavest; Oh, let me live With life abundantly because thou livest. Frances Ridley Havergal Now it seems that God is rather reluctant about letting man have power. I think we can see why. God let centuries go by with man knowing nothing of atomic power. Then man discovered atomic power, and it changed the world. What did it do to the world? Did it make it a wonderful place in which to live? You know that it made the world a frightful place in which to live because it gave man the power to destroy the world. Man is dangerous today. We live like an ostrich with our head in the sand if we think to ourselves that no nation dares to release that atomic power. There are men in positions of power today who would turn it loose tomorrow, or even today, if they thought they could get by with it. Man is dangerous with the use of physical power. I think God is reluctant to give man power. However, the power of God which the epistle speaks of is the power that God will release in the life of one who will turn to Jesus Christ. He will lift that person out of spiritual death into spiritual life. This power will be exhibited by Christ in the world. The Lord Jesus expresses Himself in the world today through His church. In many ways the church as a temple corresponds to the temple of the Old Testament which was, in turn, preceded by the tabernacle of the wilderness. The comparison is self-evident. The contrasts are sharp and striking. The tabernacle and the temple, for instance, were made of living trees of acacia wood that were hewn into dead boards. In order to form the church, God takes dead material and makes it into a living temple. The temple and tabernacle were dwelling places for the glory of God.

The church is a dwelling place for the person of the Holy Spirit. The tabernacle and temple were for the performance of a ritual and the repetition of a sacrifice for sin. The church is built upon the one sacrifice of Christ in the historical past, a sacrifice which is not repeated. “Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself” (Heb_9:25-26). Nor does the church have a ritual. It is a functional organism in which the Holy Spirit moves through the living stones. Let me emphasize here that God has not given a ritual to the church as there was a ritual in the temple. Some folk think that they have had a church service by opening with the doxology, saying a prayer, singing hymns, and then sitting down to listen to the Scripture being expounded. Yet to them it was only a meaningless ritualand the church has not been given a ritual. Someone may ask, “Then we’re not to do that?” Well, the point is that just going through the exercise of mouthing words has become a meaningless ritual to a lot of folk today. These things should have meaning. They are proper, of course, when meaning is expressed. Now the church is not only minus a temple ritual; it is also not a temple “made with hands.” The impressive fact of the church age is that God is indwelling individual believers. Notice the following verses: “God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things” (Act_17:24-25). “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1Co_6:19-20). I want to emphasize here that Israel never did believe that God was confined to the temple. When Solomon was dedicating the temple, he prayed, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?” (1Ki_8:27). Every instructed Israelite understood that God did not live in a templea little box. The liberals try to give the impression that they had such a conception. I heard a Vanderbilt University professor say that the Israelites had a primitive viewpoint of God; they thought He could dwell in a little box. I’d like to say that the professor had a primitive view of the Bible.

If he had just read his Old Testament, he would have known that Israel did not believe that. God had told them that the temple was the place where He would meet with them. That is why they came to the temple with a sacrifice and a ritual. The church has none of that today. Another sharp contrast to the Old Testament temple is the position of the Gentiles. You will recall that the Gentiles had to come as proselytes and were confined to the court of the Gentiles. In Jerusalem today at the Holy City Hotel is a replica of the city of Jerusalem as it looked in the days of Herod, which were, of course, the days of Christ. The court of the Gentiles was way off to the left as you look into the temple. The Gentiles didn’t get very close. That is why Paul says in this chapter, “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (v. Eph_2:13). You see, we who are Gentiles have been brought in pretty close. In fact, we are seated in the heavenlies in Christ! You just can’t improve on that.

Ephesians 2:1

THE MATERIAL FOR TEMPLE CONSTRUCTIONNow let me quote my own translation of these verses. (My translation is published only in my book, Exploring Through Ephesians. I have made no attempt to produce a polished translation. I simply pull the original Greek words over into English so that you might be able to get a little different viewpoint. I have done this for yearsin Southern California it is known as The McGee-icus Ad Absurdum Translation.) Now here is a literal translation of the verse: And you being dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to age (spirit of the age, secularism, course, principle) of this world (cosmos, society, civilization), according to the prince of the power (authority) of the air (haze, smog), of the spirit that now worketh (energizes) in the sons (children) of disobedience. “And you being dead in your trespasses and sins.” Perhaps you notice that I left out “hath he quickened,” which in your Bible is printed in italics. This means it was not in the original text but was inserted to smooth out the translation. I am perfectly willing to admit that something belongs there to give explanation, and “hath he quickened” is all right, but I am trying to pull out the original and give you the meaning without smoothing out the translation. “You being dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the age"the spirit of the age. That is, according to secularism, according to the way of the world, or according to the principle of this world. The “world” does not mean the physical universe. It means the cosmos, society, civilization, life-pattern, or life-style of the world today. “According to the prince of the power [authority] of the air, the spirit that now worketh (that is, energizes) in the children [sons] of disobedience.” The devil takes this dead material (we are dead in trespasses and sins) and he energizes us. That is the reason the cults are as busy as termites, and with the same results. False religionists put us to shame in their zeal. Satan is energizing them. People ask me whether I am aware that miracles are being performed in the cults. I won’t argue that.

Maybe they are. I know some things are exaggerated in our day, but maybe some of them are true. Then who is doing the miracles? Satan is able to duplicate a great many of the miracles that are scriptural miracles. After all, weren’t the magicians of Egypt able to duplicate the first miracles performed by Moses? Of course the later miracles they could not duplicate.

When man gets into the realm of the new birth and closeness to God, Satan is powerless against him, but he is potent today to delude and to deceive and to lead people astray. He is potent today in the cults and false “isms” of the world.

Ephesians 2:3

To better understand verses Eph_2:1-7, we need to recognize that they comprise a single periodic sentence in the Greek language. Classical Greek is filled with periodic sentences, all kinds of genitive absolutes, phrases, and tensesit is difficult to read. Koine Greek is generally easy to read, but here is a periodic sentence which reveals that Paul was capable of writing better Greek than the Koine of his day. The Authorized Version, by the way, breaks this into a sentence that ends at verse three. That is permissible and entirely right because verse four is a contrasting statement joined by the conjunction but. We have already noted that the chapter begins with and, which connects it to the preceding chapter. In chapter 1 Paul had been talking about salvation and picked up the theme of the mighty greatness of His power in verse Eph_1:19. This is the power that quickens dead sinners. Now here in chapter 2, verse Eph_2:1, he says that we were dead in trespasses and sins. That speaks to the death of Adam which is imputed to us. “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom_5:12). Adam’s sin made us the sons of a fallen man, and we all have the same nature that Adam had. It is a fallen nature with no capacity or inclination to God. When I look back upon my own conversion, I really think it was a miracle. How in the world could God save a boy who had been brought up as I had been? My father had high moral principles and was known as an honest man, but he was not a Christian and was antagonistic to the church. He never darkened the door of a church, but he made me go to Sunday school as a boyand I always protested against going. Then my dad died when I was fourteen, and I found myself adrift in the world. I ran all the way to Detroit, Michigan, to get away from every authority.

I turned down work for Ford Motor Company and took a job with Cadillac. There I got into awful sin. I associated with a group of men, particularly a man from Hungary who thought I looked like his son who had died. He took me under his wing. But he was a sinful man and took me places where a sixteen-year-old boy ought not to go. I got homesick and went back home, and when I think back to it now, I realize that it was God who made me homesick.

If I hadn’t gone back home, the devil would have won the day. I was dead to God and to the things of God. Then a man told me I could have peace with God through Jesus Christ. How wonderful that was! I say it was a miracle. I wasn’t looking for God.

I was running from Him as fast as I could because I was dead in trespasses and sins. Adam died spiritually the day he disbelieved and disobeyed God. He ran away from God and tried to hide. He wasn’t looking for God. That is the position of natural man today. This idea that men have a little spark of the divine and are looking for God is as false as can be. On the day Adam disobeyed, he died to God and to the things of God, although he didn’t die physically until nine hundred years after he had eaten the fruit.

But he had lost his capacity and longing for God. He was separated from God. After all, death is separation. All death is a separation. Physical death is separation of the spirit and the soul from the body. When someone dies, we don’t see the separation of the spirit and the soul; we see only the dead body.

Spiritual death is a separation from God. After man sinned, he could go on living physically and mentally, but he was spiritually dead, separated from God. He passed that same dead nature on to all his offspring. It is only the convicting work of the Holy Spirit that can prick the conscience of any man in this world today. You can’t do it and I can’t do it. Only the Spirit of God can do it. I had the privilege of being pastor of a great church in downtown Los Angeles. I followed great preachers including the first pastor of that church, Dr. R. A. Torrey. I wanted to do a creditable job, and I wanted to bring glory to God.

I would always pray as I left the radio room to go to the pulpit platform to preach, “Lord God, I recognize that I am helpless and hopeless. I will be speaking into a graveyardmany sitting out here are dead in trespasses and sins. Oh God, I can be powerful if the Spirit of God will move.” Only the Spirit of God can speak so that dead men will hear. Thank God, the Spirit of God did move and continues to move so that dead men are able to hear! The Lord Jesus told His disciples that He would send the Comforter to them, “And when he is come, he will reprove [convict] the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” (Joh_16:8). Do you know that you and I who live in this world are living in a cemetery?

Men are dead. A famous judge traveled around this country years ago giving a lecture entitled: “Millions Now Living Will Never Die.” A great preacher followed him on his speaking circuit with this message. “Millions Now Living Are Already Dead.” He was more accurate than the judge had been. Millions, actually billions, are dead in trespasses and sins. An old Irishman was asked to define a cemetery. He said, “A cemetery is a place where the dead live.” That describes our world. A trespass is what Adam did. He stepped over God’s bounds. Sin means to miss the mark. We just don’t come up to God’s standard at all. That is our condition: dead in trespasses and sins and energized by Satan. That is the description of us before we are saved, and every unsaved man is walking around in this world like a spiritual zombie. The description of our past is not very pretty. We walked according to the spirit of the age. We conformed to the society and the civilization and the life-style of the world. We were walking according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that energizes the sons of disobedience. That is Satan and he takes folks and leads them around. Today, when Christians talk about being separated from the world, they think of that which is fleshly or carnal or godless. The characteristic sins of the lost world are the mental and spiritual sins; and these are, actually, I think, in God’s sight, worse than the physical sins. Listen to Jas_4:1-4: “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” A great many folk come to church on Sunday, pious as a church mouse (however pious that may be), and think they are separated from the world. On Monday morning they start out in this rough, workaday world just as mean and hard and after the almighty dollar as everyone else. They want it to consume it on their own selves, for their own selfish desires. That is what James is talking about. The believer has been saved from that. John puts it in these words: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever” (1Jn_2:15-17). There are a great many people today who say they do not live in gross sin. They say, “No, I would not commit these sins. I wouldn’t live and act like certain people do.” Dr. G. Campbell Morgan used to ask the question, “Would you like to live as they do?” Do you like to watch people sinning on the TV screen because that way you do those same things vicariously? I’ve always felt that the reason the story of the prodigal son is so popular with some is because of the way it is sometimes preached.

You notice that the Lord Jesus never mentioned any of the sins that boy committed when he was in the far country, but I’ve heard sermons in which you were taken along with him from one night club to another, from one barroom to another, from one brothel to another. Some saints really enjoyed those sermons because they could enjoy the sin vicariously. That’s what John is talking about when he says love not the world. Do you really love it? How do you feel about it? I remember when Mrs. McGee and I first came to California. We were just fresh out of Texas. In fact, I had never seen a body of water that I couldn’t throw a stone across. We were amazed at the ocean. We drove from San Diego to San Francisco.

At that time Treasure Island was there with bright lights and colored walls and soft music. It was beautiful. We had a wonderful day. When my wife and I left that night, we boarded the ferry and we went up to the top deck. We were countrywe wanted to see the whole thing. As we watched, Treasure Island began to fade away into the fog, and the music died out.

I said to my wife, “I have had one of the most pleasant days of my life. I enjoyed every bit of it. But if right now Treasure Island disappeared and went down under into the bay, I wouldn’t shed a tear because I don’t love anything that is over there.” Then I added, “I hope I can always have that kind of an attitude toward the world.” Christian friend, do you really long for the coming of the Lord for the Rapture of the church? It is a wonderful thing to talk about, but I would like to ask you some questions: Will you weep when you leave this world because you are so wrapped up in it? Are you all wrapped up in a job or in a business, in a home or in some club, or in a worldly church? Would you be reluctant to go because everything will be changed? This is the way Simon Peter described the lost world: “Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; but was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet” (2Pe_2:15-16). This is a picture of the lost world. Do you as a child of God fit into this picture? Before we knew Christ we walked “according to the prince of the power of the air,” who is Satan. He was the energizer. We cannot serve both God and mammon. The one to whom we yield is our master. Even the Christian must choose whom he will serve. Some folk think that serving God means that you refrain from worldly dress and amusements and refuse associations with people who are liberal in their theology. That’s not separation, yet that’s what I hear today. It’s absurd to talk like that when your own life is filled with bitterness and hatred and selfishness, which are the gross sins, by the way. “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh.” Notice Paul now says “we.” He includes himself; it is the first person, plural pronoun that he adopts. He puts himself right with this crowd, and you and I need to do this also. This verse could be amplified to read: “Among whom also we all had our conversation (our activities, our life-style) in times past in the desires of the flesh (that is, our old nature), doing the desires of the flesh and of the thoughts (our old nature and our mind), and we were by nature children of wrath even as others.” Unfortunately, there are Christians who live for that old carnal nature. They live just like the man of the world is living today. Their life-style is prompted and motivated by a godless philosophy and is controlled by satanic principles. I visited the home of a man who is supposed to be an outstanding Christian businessman. He showed me his lovely home and told me about his children. Then he told me about his business and about the honors that had been conferred upon him. He never once referred to his relationship with Jesus Christ. You see, there is something wrong with a life-style that includes everything in the world but leaves Christ out of it. In this section of the second chapter of Ephesians Paul is giving a description of the past, present, and future of the church and of all believers. It is a common experience to see a sign up by a house that reads, “Your Future Told.” Generally they have it figured out that soon you will come into a great fortune. The thing that always amuses me is that those places are usually in the poor section of town. They are not able to make a good living for themselves; yet they tell others that they will have a fortune coming to them. The Christian does not need to turn to such persons. God has already revealed to us our future as well as our past and present.

Ephesians 2:4

This little conjunction but is so important. But God, being rich in mercy, on account of His great love with which He loved us made us alive together with Christ. God is rich in mercy. He had mercy on me. He has had mercy on you. This is such a radical change from the first three verses, which are as black and hopeless as anything can be. Man is a complete failure. He is incapable of saving himself. God comes on this scene of death with His mercy. He does not have too little, too late. He has a surplus, for He is an infinite God who is rich in infinite mercy. He has what man needs. He has what you need. The only requirement is that you believe Him. A poor woman from the slums of London was invited to go with a group of people for a holiday at the ocean. She had never seen the ocean before, and when she saw it, she burst into tears. Those around her thought it was strange that she should cry when such a lovely holiday had been given her. They asked her, “Why in the world are you crying?” Pointing to the ocean she answered, “This is the only thing I have ever seen that there was enough of.” My friend, God has oceans of mercy. There is enough of it. He saves us by His grace. What does it mean to be saved by the grace of God? We were dead in trespasses and sins and completely incapable of saving ourselves. God comes on the scene and by grace He reaches down to us. Why does He do it? He does not find the reason in us; He finds it in Himself. When God came down to deliver Israel, it wasn’t because they were good and beautiful and were serving Him. They were not. They were a stiff-necked people. And they were idolatorsthey worshiped a golden calf out there in the wilderness. But God says that He heard their cry. Why did that appeal to Him? Because He loved them. He loves you and He loves me. However, He doesn’t save us by His love. He saves us by His grace. For years I had a Bible class in San Diego County. During that period Christian groups of young folk had worked on the beaches down there and had led quite a few of those young people to Christ. Some of them belonged to what we called the hippie group, but I want to say that I found many of them to be genuine believers. I have come to the place that I do not judge a man by his dress any more than I would judge a book by its cover. They had listened to our radio program and to our tapes and had used our booksbut I didn’t know that at that time. When I went down there for my first class one year, sitting on the first two rows were a bunch of these young people.

I want to tell you, some of them were dressed in a very unusual manner! They had long hair and all that was associated with that culture. Very frankly, they shocked me at first, but I found out that they had their Bibles and notebooks, and some spiritual life, which you don’t always find in our churches today. These young people were actually showing real life. One young fellow who had been attending came up to me. He had on a funny hat with “Love, love, love” written all over it. He had on a funny coat with “Love, love, love” written all over it. He had “Love, love” on his trousers and even on his shoes. I asked, “Why in the world do you have “love” written all over you?” “Man,” he said, “God is love.” “Well,” I said, “I agree with you. Nothing could be truer than that.” Then he added, “God saves us by His love.” I answered. “I don’t agree with that.

God doesn’t save us by His love. Can you give me a verse that says He does?” He scratched his head and thought a while and then admitted he couldn’t think of one. “Well,” he said, “if God doesn’t save us by love, then how does He save us?” I answered, “Very frankly, I’m glad you asked me that question because the Bible says, ‘By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast.’ God saves us by His grace.” Then the boy wanted to know the difference. This is how I explained it to him: “God does love you. Don’t lose sight of that. God loves all of us. But God cannot, on the basis of His love, open the back door of heaven and slip us in under cover of darkness.

He can’t let down the bars of heaven at the front door and bring us in because of His love. God is also light. God is the moral ruler of this universe. God is righteousness. He is holy and He is good. That adds up to one thing: God cannot do things that are wrongthat is, wrong according to His own standard.

So God couldn’t save us by love. Love had God strappedwe could say it put Him in a bind. He could love without being able to save. I thought you would quote Joh_3:16 to me. Let’s look at what that verse says: ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ Does it say God so loved the world that He saved the world? No, that’s exactly what it doesn’t say.

God so loved this world that He gave His only begotten Son. You see, God couldn’t save the world by love because He goes on to say, ’that whosoever believeth in him should not perish.’ You and I are going to perish. We’re lost sinners, and God still loves us, but the love of God can’t bring us into heaven. God had to provide a salvation, and He paid the penalty for our sins. Now a God of love can reach out His hands to a lost world and say, ‘If you will believe in My Son, because He died for youif you will come on that basisI can save you.’ God doesn’t save us by His love. God saves us by His grace.” Frankly, it is more wonderful this way. When I was a boy, I would get out of favor with my parents because of something I did wrong. But I can never get out of the favor of God. I can lose my fellowship with Him, because sin breaks fellowship, but I can never get out of His favor. I can grieve the Spirit of God, but I can always come back to Him. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1Jn_1:9). If we walk in darkness and say that we have fellowship with Him, we are lying. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1Jn_1:7).

If I walk in the light of the Word of God and I see that I have come short, the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, just keeps on cleansing me from all sin. Why? God does it by His grace. He is rich in mercy and grace. God has His arms outstretched to a lost world and He says, “You may come if you will come My way.” Let me remind you that this is God’s universe, and He is doing things His way. You may think you have a better way, but you don’t have a universe to rule. He makes the rules in His universe and you’re going to have to come His way. He loves you; you can’t keep Him from loving you. Neither can you keep the sun from shining, but you can get out of the sunshine. Sin, being out of the will of God, turning your back on Him, all these will keep you from experiencing the love of God. If you will come to Him through Christ, He will save you and you will experience His love. God is rich in mercy. God has lifted us out of a spiritual graveyard. Our present position is that He has “raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” What is our future?

Ephesians 2:7

I translate it this way: “In order that He might show forth in the ages which are coming the exceeding (overflowing, intense) riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ.” Someday I am going to be on exhibit. Angels will go by and say, “See that fellow McGee. He was lost and wasn’t worth saving, but he’s here in heaven today. It is only through the grace and kindness of God that he was saved and brought here.” That is going to be for the praise of God throughout eternity. I am not going to get any credit at all, but I’m going to be there, and that’s good enough for me. I’m going to join that angelic host in singing praises to God because He saved me.

This is the most wonderful expectation that we haveas far as I know. It is through grace. It is the “amazing grace,” as the hymn writer John Newton put it, “that saved a wretch like me.”

Ephesians 2:8

These are the great verses that consummate this section on the believer’s past, present, and future. We were dead in trespasses and sin, God saved us by His grace, raising us now to heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and we will someday be in heaven displaying the grace of God. None of this depends on our own works or merit, “for by grace ye have been saved.” Notice I have changed it to the literal phrase “the grace.” The article points out that it is something special. The great emphasis is upon the grace of God. It is favor bestowed on the unworthy and undeserving. Now don’t come along and say, “I hope to be saved.” If you have put your trust in Christ, you can say, “I am saved.” Someone may say, “Oh, I wouldn’t dare make a statement like that because I don’t know what the future holds.” Friend, your salvation rests upon the grace of Godnot upon your faithfulness. You can be confident of this very thing, “…that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Php_1:6). If you are a child of God, you may wander from Him, but He will always make a way back for you because it is by His grace and that alone that you are saved. You have a finished salvation. On the basis of what Christ has done for you and on the fact that the Holy Spirit has inclined you toward Christ and you have believed the Word of God and have trusted Him, you can say, “I am saved.” It’s not an “I hope so” salvation or an “I’ll try” salvation. It is a salvation that is by the grace of God, by means of faith, and it is not of yourself. It is a gift of God. The grace of God has been defined theologically as “unmerited favor.” I like to speak of it as “love in action.” Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer, the man who taught me theology, made this important statement about God’s grace and God’s love in his book, The Ephesian Letter Doctrinally Considered. A sharp distinction is properly drawn between the compassionate love of God for sinners, and His grace which is now offered to them in Jesus Christ. Divine love and divine grace are not one and the same. God might love sinners with an unutterable compassion and yet, because of the demands of outraged divine justice and holiness, be unable to rescue them from a righteous doom. However, as has been before stated, if love shall graciously provide for the sinner all that outraged justice and holiness could ever demand, the love of God would then be free to act without restraint in behalf of those for whom the perfect substitutionary sacrifice was made. This is Christ’s achievement on the cross. On the other hand, divine grace in salvation is the unrestrained compassion of God acting toward the sinner on the basis of that freedom already secured through the righteous judgment against sinsecured by Christ in His sacrificial death.

Divine love might desire to save, yet be unable righteously to do so; but divine grace is free to act since Christ has died. It is to be observed, then, that the eternal purpose of God is not the manifestation of His love alone, though His love and His mercy are, like His grace, mentioned in this context and expressed in Christ’s death; but it is rather the manifestation of His grace. Out of God’s infinite treasure chest He lavishes His grace upon sinners without restraint or hindrance. Now faith is the instrumental cause of salvation. It is the only element that the sinner brings to the great transaction of salvation. Yet it too is the gift of God. I know someone will say to me, “Since faith is the gift of God and God hasn’t given it to me, then I guess I’m not to blame if I don’t believe.” The answer is this: God has made it very clear that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. If you want to trust Christ, you will have to listen to the Word of God. God will give faith to all who give heed to the message of the gospel. We find this taught in 2 Corinthians. Moses had a veil over his face, not because he was blinding everybody like a headlight, but so that the people could not view the glory that was fading away. It was the glory that belonged to the Mosaic system and that belonged to the Law. “But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which veil is done away in Christ” (2Co_3:14). There is no need for a veil today because He is the unveiled Christ; the gospel is freely declared. But we are told, “But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away” (2Co_3:15-16).

What is “it”? It is the heart. When the heart shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Anytime that you are ready to turn to Christ, you can turn to Christ. Someone else objects, “Maybe I’m not given the gift of faith.” That’s not your problem. Your problem is that you don’t want to give up your sins which the Bible condemns. Whenever you get sick of your sins, when you want to turn from yourself, from the things of the world, from religion, from everything the Bible condemns, and turn to Christ, then you will be given faith. You can trust Him. I am weary of hearing folk say they don’t believe because they have intellectual problems. Actually they have moral rather than intellectual problems if only they would face up to them. Sin is the real problem in the hearts of a great many folk today. Even many of the saints don’t enjoy their salvation for that very reason. Psychologists at Duke University made a study and found that the second most frequent reason people are emotionally disturbed and mentally unstable is because they live in the past. They are preoccupied with past mistakes and failures, and they look to themselves instead of looking to Christ and trusting Him. Faith is that instrument of salvation. Spurgeon says, “It is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee; it is Christ. It is not thy hope in Christ that saves thee; it is Christ. It is not even thy faith in Christ, though that be the instrument; it is Christ’s blood and merit.” That is where the power is, and that is where the salvation is. Paul is not talking about faith when he says, “And that not of yourselves.” He is talking about salvation. Salvation is a gift that eliminates boasting. It is all of God and not of us. It is God’s gift.

Ephesians 2:10

“We are his workmanship.” The Greek word is poiema from which we get our word poem. The church is His poem and His new creation. Paul is not talking about the local church here, but rather about the body of believers from the day of Pentecost to the Rapture, the real believers (and most of them are members of local churches). That body of believers is His workmanship and His new creation in Christ Jesus. For what are we created? For good works. When we get to the last part of this epistle, we will be told how we are to walk in a way that is creditable and acceptable to God. While we are seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, we are to walk down here in a way that will bring glory to His name.

Ephesians 2:11

THE METHOD OF CONSTRUCTIONNow we come to the method of the construction of the church as a temple of God. The church in Ephesus was made up largely of Gentiles. There was just a small colony of Jews there. Gentiles are further identified as the “Uncircumcision.” This label was put on them by the so-called “Circumcision,” the Jews. God made a real distinction between Jew and Gentile, beginning with Abraham and advancing to the advent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Israel occupied a unique position among the nations. A Gentile could come in only as a proselyte. In time, this valid distinction caused friction because Israel became proud of her position. Israelites came to look down to Gentiles, and hatred crept into the hearts of both groups. In these verses there is a description of the sad lot and hopeless plight of the Gentile. It is also an accurate picture of any lost man. This is what it means to be lost:

1. “Without Christ.” That is the best definition of a lost man. It is the opposite of being in Christ.
2. “Aliens from the commonwealth of Israel” or, alienated from the citizenship of Israel. That is the accurate definition of a Gentile. The Gentile had no God-given religion as had Israel. They had no right to go back in the Old Testament and take the promises which God made to Israel and then appropriate them for themselves. We don’t have that right either. God didn’t make those promises to us.
3. “Strangers from the covenants of promise.” God had made certain promises to the nation Israel. The covenants which God made with Israel are still valid, but no Gentile has any right to appropriate them. God has promised the children of Israel the land of Israelall of it. They will get it someday, but it will be on God’s terms, not their terms. When I was in Israel, I didn’t attempt to homestead or stake out a claim on the basis that God had promised it in the Old Testament. I understood that He was talking to Israel and not to me. The promise He has given to me is, “…I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself: that where I am, there ye may be also” (Joh_14:2-3).
4. “Having no hope.” Look at the religions of the world. They have no hope. They cannot promise resurrection and are pretty hazy about what happens after death. The cults offer no hope at all. They put up a hurdle that no honest human being could get over. Having no hope was the tragic plight of the Gentiles. To the lost man the present life is all-important, and if he misses out on the fun here, then he is doubly hopeless. When Paul wrote this, my ancestors from one side of the family were walking through the forests of Germany, as heathen and pagan as they could be. The others were over in Scotland, and I am told their paganism and heathenism were even worse. That was our condition.
5. “And without God in the world.” This does not mean that God has removed Himself from man, but rather that man has removed himself from God. A man is godless because of choice. He is in the darkness, wandering about with the rest of lost humanity. Frankly, if I were in the position of the lost man today, I would crawl up on a bar stool and try to drink and forget it all. What else would a person do? I would have no hope. The only hope I could have here in this world would be to squeeze this life like an orange and get all the juice out of it that I could. There would be nothing to look forward to over there. That is what it would be like to be without hope and without God. This is a terrible, awful condition that Paul describes. But now notice that something has happened.

Ephesians 2:13

In the temple was the court of the Gentiles way off to the side. Gentiles were permitted to come, but they were away far off. But nowfor the Gentiles who are in Christall has changed. They were without Christ; now they are in Christ. The distance and barriers which separated them from God have been removed. They have been made nigh, not by their efforts or merits, but by the blood of Christ.

Ephesians 2:14

When you come to Jesus Christ, you are not only brought into a body, but you are also brought into a place where you stand before God on a par with anybody. I stand with you and you stand with me on equal footing. So today there should never be a point of separation for believers on any basis at all. We have been made one in Christ. If you are a believer in Christit makes no difference who you areyou and I are going to be together throughout eternity. It wouldn’t be a bad idea for us to speak to each other every now and then down here, would it? The contrast in the passage is really between the Jew and Gentile. The Lord Jesus Christ is the peace that has been made between them. The middle wall, the fence, or partition, the enmity between the two, has been broken down. He has made a new man. We have been put together in Christ, and He has made peace. It means that we now have peace with God, and we should also have peace with each other. God’s reconciliation is already complete. He is ready to receive you if you are ready to come. Therefore, the message that goes out is “…be ye reconciled to God” (2Co_5:20). If you will be reconciled, you will be brought into a new body, a body of believers, and it doesn’t make any difference whether you are Jew or Gentile. The color of your skin makes no difference. White, brown, red, blackall are one in Christ. We have been made one new man, and we should have peace. The emphasis in this passage is upon the glorious person of Christ. He not only made peace by the Cross, but those who trust Him are placed in Him and become new men. God had made a difference originally by separating the Jew from the nations. The Jew eventually developed a spiritual pride, and this led to the ultimate hatred between Jew and Gentile. When a Jew and a Gentile are placed in Christ, there is peace. There is peace not only because of the new position, but also because something new has come into existence. Paul identifies this as a new man. That is why Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God” (1Co_10:32). That “church” is the new man. It is not that the Gentile has been elevated to the status of the Jew. God has elevated both to a higher plane. Chrysostom has stated it this way: “He does not mean that He has elevated us to that high dignity of theirs, but He has raised both us and them to one still higher…. I will give you an illustration. Let us imagine that there are two statues, one of silver and the other of lead, and then that both shall be melted down, and the two shall come out gold. So thus He has made the two one.” This is a marvelous illustration of how we have been brought together in Christ. I do not believe in the universal brotherhood of man and the universal Fatherhood of God. To me that is a damnable heresy. I believe a true brotherhood is composed of those who are in Christ. A man may have skin as white as the driven snow, but if he is not a child of God, he is not my brother. A man may have skin as black as midnight, and if he is a child of God, he is my brother. We are something new. We are in Christa new man. This is the building, the temple, God is building today. Rather than say the Gentile was elevated to the status of the Jew, one might say the Jew was brought down to the level of the Gentile because both Jew and Gentile are in the same state of sin. Actually we are all brothers as sinners, all sons of Adam. “What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin” (Rom_3:9). That is the state we were all in. The peace referred to is between the Jew and the Gentile. When the Jew and Gentile come to the Cross as sinners, they are made into a new creation. They become a new man, the body of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament temple which succeeded the Mosaic tabernacle was marked by partitions. There were three entrances into the three departments: the outer court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. Then there were sections partitioned off for priests, Israel, women, and Gentiles. Christ, by His death, took out the veil, and He became the Way (the outer court), the Truth (the Holy Place), and the Life (the Holy of Holies). Now we come through Christ directly into the presence of God the Father. Those who come to Him are removed from their little departments and are placed in Christ, the new Temple where there are no departments.

The Cross dissolves the fences, and the gospel is preached to the Gentiles, those who were afar off, and to the Jews, those who were near. What a picture we have here!

Ephesians 2:18

I wonder whether you have noticed that this little verse is a big verse? It is like a little atom. It has in it the Trinity. “For through Him [Christ] we both have access in one Spirit [the Holy Spirit] unto the Father [God the Father].” Jew and Gentile are on the same footing as sinners at the foot of the cross. In addition, through Christ they both have equal access to God, which is a glorious privilege for any human being. Paul makes it clear in Romans 5 that justification by faith is a benefit available to all. We have access to God through Jesus Christ, and that is wonderful. Now I don’t think this means we can brazenly rush into the presence of God, but it does give us the real privilege to have access to the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. Any one believer has as much access to God as any other believer. People ask me why I didn’t have a select few pray for me when I had my bout with cancer. Why did I ask everybody to pray? I did it because I believe in the priesthood of believers, that is, all believers have access to Him.

Ephesians 2:19

THE MEANING OF THE CONSTRUCTIONPaul reminds the gentile believers that though they were strangers and alienated from God, their present position is infinitely bettered. They are no more strangers and sojourners (foreigners). They are now fellow citizens with the saints. “Saints” is not a reference to Old Testament saints. Gentile believers are fellow citizens with the New Testament Jewish saints, the other members of the body of Christ. They belong to a household, not as servants, but as relatives, as members of the family of God. They are His dear children. “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake” (1Jn_2:12). We are little children. This is a new relationship, a relationship foreign to the Old Testament. Even David, the man after God’s own heart, is called “my servant David” in 2Sa_7:8; and God’s term for Moses was also “my servant” in Num_12:7. Now this citizenship is not in Israel and the earthly Jerusalem, but it is in heaven. “For our conversation [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Php_3:20). We are now fellow citizens. We belong to heaven at the present time. The word conversation should rightly be changed to citizenship and is translated that way in the American Standard Version. Another has well translated it, “Our city home is in heaven.” We are “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” This is important. It does not mean that the apostles and prophets were the foundation but that they personally laid the foundation. The early church built its doctrine upon that of the apostles. “And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (Act_2:42). Much has been written about the identity of the prophets in verse twenty. Are they Old Testament prophets or New Testament prophets? The fact that the prophets are in the same classification as apostles without the article the would seem to designate them as New Testament prophets. I think you will find this confirmed when we get into the third chapter. “Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” reveals that Christ is the Rock on which the church is built. Paul makes this very clear: “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1Co_3:11). Peter states it like this: “Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, and a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed” (1Pe_2:6-8). The important thing to note here is that Peter says that the Lord Jesus is that chief cornerstone. Therefore Peter understood what the Lord meant when He said, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Mat_16:18).

Jesus is talking about Himself. He is the Rock on which the church is built. The apostles and prophets put down the foundation, and Christ is the chief cornerstone, the Rock.

Ephesians 2:21

The analogy to the temple of the Old Testament is obvious; yet there is a contrast revealed in the analogy. There were several buildings in the temple at Jerusalem. However, I don’t think Paul is referring to the different buildings. He means each individual believer is fitted into the total structure. Peter expressed it in the same way when he wrote that we are stones fitted in and built into a spiritual house (see 1Pe_2:5). Paul speaks of the church as a temple which is currently under construction. That is quite interesting because in Paul’s day Herod’s temple was unfinished. It had been forty years in the building already in our Lord’s day, and it was destroyed in A.D. 70. Even when it was destroyed, it had not yet been completely built. The church is under construction today, and it will be finished. “Groweth unto an holy temple"it is growing unto an holy temple in the Lord. This confirms the fact that it is still unfinished. The structure is also different. It is not one stone put on top of another in a cold way. This temple is growing. God is taking dead material, dead in trespasses and sins, and is giving it life. The living, born again, stones are growing into a living temple. As Solomon’s temple was built without the sound of hammer, so the Holy Spirit silently places each dead sinner into the living temple through regeneration and baptism. “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit” (1Co_12:13). It is called “an holy temple” or holy sanctuary. It is holy because the Holy Spirit indwells it. By the baptism of the Holy Spirit the saved sinner is placed “in the Lord.” The Holy Spirit indwells each believer. “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Rom_8:9). The church, the body of Christ, is “an habitation,” a permanent temple, of God in the Spirit. When believers come together in a building to worship, the Holy Spirit is present. In that sense God is in that building. But when every believer has left the building, God has left it also. God is not in any church building anymore than He is in any barroom. Today God indwells believers, not buildings. We have previously stated that God has never dwelt in any building made with hands, and it is a pagan philosophy which places God in a human-made structure. The purpose of the church as a temple is to reveal the presence and the glory of God on earth. When believers assemble together in a church, the impression should be made upon the world, even in this age, that God is in His holy temple. The world should feel that God can be found in a church service. My question is: Can He? Perhaps more people would be attracted to the church if they were sure that God was present.