[in] which he wrought in the Christ [in] raising him from among [the] dead, and he set him down at his right hand in the heavenlies,
Paul prays that believers would know how great God's power is toward them. To show it, he points not to the stars but to a tomb and a throne. The verse answers two questions: how great is that power, and where is the risen Man now seated?
Paul could have measured God's strength by the making of the world. He chose a different scene.
In Ephesians we have what the power of God is. The Apostle prays that we may know it. To see a sample, we look not at creation but at the grave of Christ. At creation the Word of God made everything out of nothing, and no enemy appeared. But at the grave of Christ, death, the great enemy, had swept the scene. Even Christ, in grace, gave way to it and died for sins. The power of God raised that blessed Man from the dead and put Him in the highest place at God's right hand. So God displayed a power that no enemy could withstand.
People often gauge God's power toward them by their own faith or feelings. This verse sets the standard somewhere else.
The exceeding greatness of God's power toward us who believe has its measure in the working of His own mighty power. He put that power to work in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. The measure of the might is divine. If we try to gauge this work by our faith, or feeling, or intelligence, we never lay hold of it. The measure is outside ourselves.
God did more than bring Him back to life. He gave the risen Man a place above every other power and name.
God raised Him from the dead. He set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, according to His merits and the dignity of His Person. There He is far above every rule, authority, might and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. So God has raised Man, in the Person of Christ, above everything except the throne that raised Him. And is He alone? No. The same power raised Christ and set Him at the right hand of God. That surpassing greatness of power, which raised the Man who was dead to the right hand of God, works with the same might in everyone who believes.
The phrase runs through this letter. It also sets Ephesians apart from Romans and Colossians.
The 'heavenlies' mark out this letter: compare Eph. 1:3, 20; Eph. 2:6; Eph. 3:10; Eph. 6:12. Romans takes up man as alive in his sins, and grace meets his need. Ephesians shows God's life-giving power for those dead in sins, seen in His raising Christ up from among the dead. Colossians views believers as risen with Christ, but still on earth with their hope in heaven. Ephesians seats believers in Christ in the heavenly places.
So where did God put this power to work? Not first inside the believer.
All of us alike, Jews and Gentiles, were dead in trespasses and sins... What takes place? God gives them life. Is it by a work inside their souls? No, but in a completely different way — "together with Christ."... What is in view here is not a work done in certain people at particular times. It is the work of God, according to the might of His strength. Where and when? "In Christ, when He raised Him from the dead." The power is "toward" us, but the operation itself took place in Christ.
So what does that seat mean for the believer now?
Christ has received a higher dignity, and He holds that place in present association with us while we are here. It is One who not only owns us and is kind to us, and uses the greatness of His glory for our good, but far more. The head of a vast empire can turn his throne to the good of his subjects and to the honour of those he wants to honour. But there is no real, direct, personal association with him. This is what the Christian has with Christ. Nothing less than to be one with Christ is what we have here.
- The sample — God shows His power not at creation, where nothing opposed Him, but at a grave, where the great enemy had done its worst.
- The measure — the standard of this power lies outside us. Our faith and feelings cannot gauge it.
- The Man — God set the risen Man above every rank and title, higher than all except the throne that raised Him.
- The place — "the heavenly places" runs through this letter. It is where Christ sits, and where believers sit in Him.
- The reach — the act happened in Christ, the power flows toward us, and the end is not distant kindness but being one with Him.
above every principality, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name named, not only in this age, but also in that to come;
God's power did not stop at raising Jesus from the dead. It carried Him past every rank of authority in the universe and seated Him at God's right hand. Two questions follow: who are the powers He now towers over, and what does His place there mean for us?
Verse 21 stacks title on title. One writer weighs whether "far above" claims more than the Greek does:
The meaning is clear. Whatever the rank or dignity of any of the heavenly orders or beings, God has set Christ as the glorified Man above them all. Among the vast number of heavenly beings He is absolutely supreme. The rendering "far above" may not be exactly justified by the word used. But we cannot doubt that our translators seized its spirit. They sought to express that there was no second to the glorified Christ, and that His exaltation is so far beyond words that all the highest ranks of angelic beings are far beneath His feet.
Rule, authority, power and dominion are not human offices. They name ranks in the unseen world, and the sweep takes in all of them:
Chapter 6:12 shows that principalities and powers (or authorities) belong to the spiritual realm — angelic beings, evil in nature in that case. But chapter 1:21 includes all spirit beings, good or evil.
Heaven is not man's native place. That is what makes this seat so startling:
Nothing declares the majesty of God's power and the sovereign supremacy of His will to the whole intelligent creation so strongly as this: the Man Christ Jesus lifted to the throne of heaven. For the natural place of man is earth. The first man was not heavenly. He was of the earth, made of dust... He stood on a level essentially different from, as well as lower than, the heavenly beings. Angels are greater in power and might than man. But Jesus is now made higher than the heavens. God gives Him not only supremacy of place, but supremacy of name as well. The name of Jesus is now named in heaven as well as in the church below, with the worship due to God alone.
Why is the language so strong? One writer points to what had to be beaten first:
Scripture uses no such strong expressions when it is a question of raising the millions who will share the bliss of the first resurrection. The reason, no doubt, is that raising them is a simple matter. It is not complicated by all those tremendous questions of sin, death and Satan's power that were at work in the case of Jesus. Then the real battle was fought. Then every opposing power, whether human or satanic, rose to its highest expression and combined in one last effort to hold the Saviour in the dominion of death. Then the might of God's power rose up. It flung back every assault, confounded the full power of the enemy, and raised Him from the dead, and up until, seated at His own right hand, He is above — and not only above, but "far above all principality and power."
What does "not only in this age but also in the one to come" cover?
The distinction this verse draws between the present age and the age to come is very marked. It is not a comparison of time with eternity, but of one limited period with another. The subject here is the appointed supremacy of Christ, and this relates in a special sense to the present age and the age that follows it at once. This description of Christ's position at the right hand of the Father presses one truth on our minds. God has given Him a name and place of such universal pre-eminence that every claim to independent power or action takes on the definite character of rebellious enmity against God. Whether He is confessed or denied, He is "the Head of all principality and power."
The passage does not stop with Christ's own glory:
In that place of conferred glory, the church is associated with Him. He is not only "head over all things" but "head over all things to the church." The very same power that worked in Christ to set Him on high works in us to set us along with Him there.
- Power — the strength that broke death's hold also carried Him past every rank above.
- Place — "far above" leaves no second; the highest created beings are beneath His feet, not beside Him.
- Person — a Man sits there, with a place earth's first man never had and a name honoured in heaven itself.
- Period — His supremacy covers this age and the age to come. So every claim to independent power now is open rebellion.
- Partners — He is head over all things to the church, and the power that seated Him is at work to set His people with Him there.
and has put all things under his feet, and gave him [to be] head over all things to the assembly,
Paul has just prayed that believers would grasp the power that raised Christ and seated Him above every rank of authority. Verse 22 finishes the picture and raises two questions: how is everything already under His feet when the world shows otherwise, and why is this rule over all things given to the church?
Paul is not coining a new phrase here. He is quoting an older Scripture.
The truth that matches the lifting up of Jesus is the subjection of all created things to Him as Lord of all. This is now stated by a quotation from Psalm 8, a passage mentioned elsewhere in the New Testament for a similar purpose (1 Cor. 15:27; Heb. 2:8). The subjection spoken of here is by the same hand that raised up Jesus from the dead.
Hebrews says that we do not yet see everything under Him. One writer answers this by separating what God has settled from what we can see.
So the writer of the letter to the Hebrews explains the eighth Psalm to his readers and says, We see now that this has not yet been fulfilled. This is not a contradiction of Ephesians, where the same Psalm is quoted. In Ephesians we have the counsel of God. That counsel is that all things are to be put under the feet of the glorified Christ, and when God takes a counsel it is as good as accomplished. But here in Hebrews 2 the writer speaks about the time aspect. So he says that at present the Lord Jesus is at the right hand, as in Ephesians, but we do not yet see all things put under His feet in a visible, practical way.
The verse holds two different relationships together. He is Head of a body, and He is Head over a universe.
Notice here two headships of a very different character. That He is the Head of the Church is obvious, because the Church is spoken of as His body. But besides this, God presents Him to the Church as "Head over all." God has already exalted Him and set Him in the highest place at His own right hand. God will make Him Heir of all things, the acknowledged and undisputed Head of the whole universe. In this character, as Head over all things, He has joined the Church to Himself. She is not part of the realm over which He reigns, but part, so to speak, of Himself — "the Church, which is His body."
If His rule is absolute, the phrase cannot be narrowing it.
But the apostle says, "Head over all things to the Church": why and how "to the Church"? That cannot mean to limit what is absolute. No, this headship over all shows the fulness of His resources for that to which He is Head in such a way that it is His Body. The Head over all is Head to a people so united to Him by the Spirit that they are one with Him as a body is with its head.
Asked whether the verse should read that God gave Him to the church, one writer refused to separate the giving from the relationship:
It does not make much difference. He gave Him to the church, that is, gave Him as Head to the body. That, at any rate, is the sense of it. It is the character in which He has been given.
The church is not counted among the things placed under His feet. The picture reaches back to Adam.
The church is not to be a glorious people only, over which Christ is to reign. We are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ — not just heirs under Christ, but heirs with Him. This matches the picture given at the very beginning of man's history. Adam had the glory of being head over this lower world, and his wife shares the dominion because of her union with him. The church is the spiritual Eve of the Lord Jesus, the bride of the last Adam.
This has an effect on the church today.
The church exists today, and her Head is the One who — though "over all, God blessed forever" — is over all things, the ascended and glorified Man. So the church does not have to wait to receive gifts. They are hers today, and have been hers since she came into being. They have reached her from her exalted Head. Every one of them exists to maintain His interests and to do His work in the world, and this world is the scene of the enemy's power. Every one of them is a witness to the triumph of our Head.
- Exalted — The words about all things under His feet come from Psalm 8. The hand that raised Jesus is the hand that puts everything under Him.
- Titled — In Ephesians the subjection is God's settled purpose. Hebrews adds that we do not yet see it carried out. The title is certain before the sight is.
- Given — God gave Him as Head over all things to a body. The phrase does not shrink His rule. It opens His resources to those joined to Him.
- Joined — The church is not part of the realm He rules. She is part of Himself: joint-heir with Christ, as Eve shared Adam's dominion because of her union with him.
- Supplied — Because the Head already holds that place, His gifts already reach the church. Each gift is a witness to His triumph.
which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all
Ephesians 1 ends by naming what the church is to the exalted Christ: His body, and His fullness. Two words carry the weight: "body" speaks of union, and "fullness" says the glorified Man is not complete without her.
Christ's authority over all things is not held apart from His people. God gives it with them in view.
It does not say head over the church, but head over all things to the church. Nothing could show the riches of God's grace more fully than this: it pleased God to join the church with Christ. The church here means all saints from Pentecost until the Lord comes. And Christ is the Man of His purpose, His own blessed Son, the One in whom is all His pleasure. Every believer indwelt by the Spirit is united to Christ, the living Head, as a member of His body, and the Lord regards him as a part of Himself.
"Body" is a figure, and it says more than obedience. A ruler commands from a distance. You cannot separate a head from its own limbs.
The figure of the body shows how close the church's connection with Christ is — "the church which is His body." This is not the relationship of subjects to a ruler, though it is also true that the church is subject to Christ. But this striking picture carries a wonderful truth. God's eternal purpose is not fulfilled unless the church is joined to the Risen Man in the place of glory where He is exalted.
"Fullness" here means that which fills up or completes. Commentators are careful about the sense in which Christ could lack anything.
The Church is "His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." It is the complement — that which fills up Christ, seen as man risen from the dead. As Son of God He needs nothing, of course, to complete His glory. But as man He does. Without the Church He would be no more complete in His resurrection-glory than Adam would have been without Eve.
The same writer adds a caution about whose fullness this is.
"The fullness of Him who fills all in all" — this is not the fullness of God the Father, which the Church is not and cannot be. It is the fullness, or complement, of Christ, seen as the glorified heavenly man, whose body we are.
The answer reaches back to the garden, where God formed Eve out of Adam's own body.
The Church is His fullness. According to Lightfoot, this word means "the filled condition of a thing, whether a tear to be mended, an idea to be realized, a prophetic plan to be fulfilled". How can we accept the idea that so glorious a Being needs anything to complete Him? Part of the answer, at least, is that Christ is here a Man. The quotation from Psalm 8 confirms this: "all things under His feet." It brings us close to this thought: in God's counsel it was not good that man should be alone, and God took Eve out of his body. In becoming man, Christ accepted this too — that He needs the Church to be His body, and later His bride.
The last clause describes Christ, not the church. The church's dignity is that she belongs to the One who fills everything.
The body is complement to the Head; it is in this sense its fullness. Christ fills all in all: this is His glory. It is He who divinely fills the whole universe — the church is the body of Him who does it.
The "church" here is not a building or a denomination. It has a definite beginning and a definite end.
The church is His body and so His fullness — the body in which He is properly expressed. This passage clearly views the church in its largest and widest sense. It is the sum total of the saints of this present age: those called out between the coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost and the coming again of the Lord Jesus.
That body is not only a future arrangement. One Spirit forms it now.
Baptised by one Spirit into one body, we have the Head and the body joined together. The Head is at the right hand of God in heaven, joined to the members. The power of the Holy Spirit forms them into a body down here on earth. Scripture calls that "the church."
- Head — Christ is not just head over the church. He is head over all things to the church, and God's grace joins her with Christ Himself.
- Body — the link is living union with the risen Man in glory, not the distance between subjects and a ruler.
- Fullness — the word means complement. As Son of God He needs nothing. As the glorified Man, He would be no more complete without the church than Adam without Eve.
- Formed — this body exists now. One Spirit's baptism joins the Head in heaven to members on earth, from Pentecost until the Lord comes.
- Filled — the church belongs to the One who fills the whole universe. She is the body in which He is expressed.
and *you*, being dead in your offences and sins --
The letter has just described the power that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him above everything. Now that same power turns toward the reader. The first thing it says about him is that he was dead. Everything that follows in the chapter rests on that one word.
The word does not mean inactive. The very next verse describes these same people walking.
Ephesians 2:1 describes our state as "dead in trespasses and sins." Remarkably, the next verse goes on to speak of walking in those trespasses and sins. That is because the death spoken of here is death toward God. Those who are dead Godward are very much alive to "the course of this world," and to "the prince of the power of the air," who works in the "children of disobedience." Being dead toward God fits perfectly well with being alive toward the world and the devil. In fact the one springs out of the other… Man is not right. He does not understand that he is not right. He has no desire after God, who is right. In one word, he is dead toward God.
Chapter 2 does not start a new subject. It carries on what chapter 1 said about God's power.
So chapter 2 simply opens with, "And you, who were dead in trespasses and sins." God's power has worked "in Christ … and you." It worked in Christ when He was dead because of our trespasses and sins. It worked in us when we were dead in our own trespasses and sins. His life-giving power in us matches that supreme display which took place in regard to Christ.
One writer sets this letter beside Romans. The two start from different views of the sinner.
In two ways the starting point of Ephesians is completely different from Romans. The starting point in Romans is man's responsibility: he is guilty, all the world is guilty. There are proofs of sin in both Jew and Gentile; Romans looks at man as alive in sins. In Ephesians he is dead in them; a different thought altogether. He is alive in sin in Romans. For that very reason he is dead toward God — not a movement in his heart toward God. After a man is dead he neither speaks, nor moves, nor feels.
This diagnosis also rules out a popular hope about human nature.
See how serious spiritual death is. Many speak without knowing of a divine spark in every man that only needs fanning into a flame. But the Bible calls the sinner "DEAD in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1), and speaks of "being alienated from the life of God" (Eph. 4:18). It presses the need of the new birth even on a religious man like Nicodemus… A man can no more produce his second and spiritual birth than his first and natural birth. No man can give himself life. The power of producing life belongs to God alone.
Nicodemus was a respected religious teacher, and Jesus told him he must be born again.
The verdict is not reserved for the obviously wicked. It covers the person everyone admires.
As dead in sins, we are totally away from God. Do we not know it, dear friends? Take the most respectable, decent man in the world — the things of Christ have no interest for him. He is dead toward God. He may be intelligent, honest and so on, but you never find Christ in his heart. It was just the same with ourselves. It is not a question of hardened criminals; we were dead.
Because the condition is death, the answer cannot come from inside us.
Such were we, whether Jew or Gentile. At one and the same moment we were dead in trespasses and sins and yet active in every kind of evil. Very much alive to everything wrong, yet wholly dead to God. Being dead toward God, we had no point of recovery in ourselves: our only hope lay in Him. So we come to the great words that open verse 4, "But God —"
And what God gives goes past the bare need.
Being "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1), nothing short of being made alive would meet our case. Being made alive was therefore a necessity. But there was no necessity that we should be made alive together with Christ. That is the fruit of God's own purposes in grace.
- Dead — Godward. The death is toward God, not toward sin. A man in this state can be busy, clever and honest, yet make no move toward God.
- Dead — universally. The word covers Jew and Gentile, the criminal and the most decent man alive. No one is merely weak.
- Dead — helplessly. There is no spark to fan; no one can produce his own new birth any more than his first birth.
- Dead — then made alive. Because the case is death, the remedy is life given from outside, by the same power that raised Christ.
- Dead — but God. Verse 1 prepares the way for verse 4; the darker the state, the bigger those two words become.
in which ye once walked according to the age of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience
The apostle has just said his readers were dead in trespasses and sins . Now he describes how those dead people spent their days. In one sentence he names a world with a settled direction, an unseen ruler behind the air, and a spirit still at work in people today.
The verse opens with a puzzle: dead people do not walk. The death of verse 1 points in one direction only.
Ephesians 2:1 sets out our state as "dead in trespasses and sins." Strikingly, the next verse speaks of walking in those trespasses and sins. That is because the death spoken of there is death towards God. Those who are dead toward God are very much alive to "the course of this world," and "the prince of the power of the air," who operates in the sons of disobedience. Being dead towards God fits perfectly with being alive towards the world and the devil. In fact, the one springs out of the other.
"Course" here is not aimless drift. It is the ordinary flow of human life, and Scripture sets another way against it.
"The course of this world" stands in Scripture against "the way of life." To faith it plainly means the ordinary flow of natural human life. It stands in contrast to the way of those who share in the risen Christ. They have ceased to be of the world, though they are still in it as strangers and pilgrims… This verse shows us the true character of the present world by revealing the powers that govern its course.
Walking with it took no effort at all — that was the trouble.
There they were walking according to the course of this world. They floated with the stream, under the powerful and universal influence of Satan. He penetrates everywhere and reigns over everything, like the air, which is his seat.
The title given to this ruler is a picture, and it has a point.
The title, "Prince of the power of the air," was meant to show how his influence spreads through everything. As the air surrounds and penetrates everything, so the devil spreads through the realm of nature… They showed that they were under his power in this way — by their disobedience.
The same picture reaches further — to the very air people breathe.
The expression "prince of the power of the air" shows that giving in to Satan has polluted the very air people live in, as Adam and Eve did. Satan's evil influence has corrupted every area of human life.
If a spirit is at work in people, no one acts alone.
In the light of the Gospel, man is not an independent agent. Whatever is done here below is prompted either by the Spirit of God or by some spirit which is not of God… And Christians do well to remember this. The Holy Spirit testifies to the existence and power of Satan, the ruler of this present world, as clearly and positively as He testifies to the Anointed Captain of Salvation.
Yet Satan's puppets are willing ones.
He is the subtle schemer and they are only his puppets. Men are willing to carry out his schemes, because their hearts are hostile to God.
The phrase names character by family likeness.
Sons are those who reproduce the typical or distinctive traits of their fathers. This sense of representing a parent is often used in moral matters. So the "sons of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2) are those whose conduct displays disobedience as clearly as a son resembles a father.
Verse 2 describes one group; verse 3 widens it to another.
In verses 2 and 3 we again meet the distinction between the Gentile "you" and the Jewish "we." Yet both were active in what was wholly evil. The walk of the Gentile was marked above all by the world and the devil, since they followed false gods, and behind those gods lay the power of demons. The walk of the Jew was marked more by the lusts of the flesh.
For the believer, all of this belongs to the past. So what breaks Satan's hold?
Satan gained his power over men through disobedience. He holds that power over them today because they are still in a state of disobedience. Once obedience to God appears in any one of us, his power over us is broken.
- Dead — the death of verse 1 is toward God only. The same person is alive to the world and the devil, and one state grows out of the other.
- Driven — the world's "course" is its ordinary flow. Behind that flow stands a ruler whose influence spreads like air, into every area of life.
- Dependent — no one acts alone. Either the Spirit of God prompts what a person does, or a spirit that is not of God does — and men go along willingly.
- Displayed — "sons of disobedience" names a family likeness. Disobedience shows in conduct as clearly as a son resembles a father.
- Delivered — Satan gained his hold through disobedience and keeps it the same way. Where obedience to God appears, his power breaks, and the whole description becomes "once."
among whom *we* also all once had our conversation in the lusts of our flesh, doing what the flesh and the thoughts willed to do, and were children, by nature, of wrath, even as the rest
Paul has just described the Gentile world as dead in sin; now he turns and puts himself and his own nation in the same place. Two phrases carry the weight: "the desires of the body and the mind," and "by nature children of wrath."
The pronoun changes in this verse. Up to now the apostle wrote "you," meaning his Gentile readers. Now he says "we," and puts his own nation on the same level:
The Jew, with all his privileges and favours, was not one bit better than the outside Gentile. There may be outward differences, but before God the ruin is complete. … Solemn thought! We should always have delighted in the will of God and done it. But we did not love His way. We preferred our own, indulging our "desires" (or "wills") to the full.
The verse names two sources of desire: the body and the mind. The second is easy to miss, because it looks respectable:
Yet he distinguishes between "the desires (or wills) of the flesh" and "the thoughts." By this he means the cruder tendencies on one side, and the more refined, intellectual workings on the other. Suppose a man devotes himself to science and makes it his object — is this doing the will of God? No. It is the indulgence of the desires of the mind. It is just as much self as in others who give themselves over to the coarser appetites of nature.
The verse puts the mind's desires under the same heading as the body's. One writer explains why you cannot split them into a lower self and a higher one:
Here the desires of the flesh, as distinct from the mind, mean natural interests. The desires of the mind mean his mental powers, which set him apart from the animals. It takes in everything the natural man craves — his desires, tastes as well as lusts. … For the mind is not independent of the flesh; as the mind excites the flesh, so the flesh gives tone to the mind. That is, the higher and the lower qualities of nature influence each other, and both are "the flesh."
Everything before this phrase describes conduct. The phrase itself points somewhere else:
They were children of wrath, even as others, for that is the condition of men. In their nature they are the children of wrath. In their outward privileges the Israelites were the people of God. By nature they were men like others. And notice these words, "by nature." The Spirit is not speaking here of a judgment pronounced by God. He is not speaking of sins committed, or of Israel failing in their relationship to God by falling into idolatry and rebellion. He is not even speaking of their rejecting the Messiah and so cutting themselves off from every resource — though Israel had done all of this.
"Children of wrath" is a family word. It describes what a person inherits, and it points to something in God as well as in man:
The apostle tells us, "we also," Jews — we were walking in the same lusts; and therefore, according to the moral truth of our nature, we were, he says, children of wrath — heirs by nature of the wrath of that God who could not mix Himself up with sin. All were children of wrath. It was what they deserved, according to their nature, which was opposed to God.
Some argue that those God chose were never in this condition. The verse's "like the rest of mankind" rules that out:
Until they believe, all alike are sons of disobedience and children of wrath. That is certain. So the apostle groups himself with the most privileged of mankind, yet declares that "we all once lived in the passions of our flesh … and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." All were alike dead in their offences and their sins. … It is contradictory, unsound, and evil to claim that God's chosen were not dead but alive compared with the rest of men. It is just as wrong to say that faith only showed a life they already had.
The verse is the bottom of the descent. What comes next turns everything:
Notice how this takes in the whole race, both Gentile and Jew — all alike guilty and spiritually dead, all children of wrath. But at this very point divine love declares itself! When we were dead in sins, that is when mercy and love act. God's power makes the soul alive and blesses it beyond all measure.
- Nature, not record. The verse does not stop at sins committed; "by nature" reaches behind conduct to what a person is from birth.
- Nature shows in two ways. The body's cravings and the mind's refined pursuits both count as desires of the flesh. Each one feeds the other.
- Nature levels everyone. Paul sets the religious "we" beside the Gentile "you." Outward privilege changes nothing before God.
- Nature has an heir's portion. Children of wrath means wrath inherited and deserved, from a God who cannot mix Himself with sin.
- Nature meets mercy. Right where the verdict is total, divine love declares itself — acting toward the dead, not the deserving.
but God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love wherewith he loved us,
Verse 4 comes after a dark picture: people dead in sins, with nothing good in them. Then the sentence turns, and everything rests on what God is in Himself.
Two words break the description of ruin. One writer holds them up as the moment hope enters a hopeless case:
We were dead. There was no movement, no pulse of life towards God, no response to His claims or His pleading. And we were not dead only, but dead in sins. Chains bound us, darkness surrounded us. We were not only unresponsive in death; there was the added enmity of sin. Our case was hopeless to all "BUT GOD." How those two words "But God" break into the gloom! And being "rich in mercy," the great love with which He loves us is not a baffled and hopeless love. He has triumphed over death.
One writer defines the word, then points to a familiar roadside scene:
The riches of His mercy come first, and that mercy is the outcome of His great love. Mercy is that compassion that comes down to meet one in his circumstances of need, sorrow or misery. The Samaritan in Luke 10:33 did this. He "came where he was" — a man robbers had attacked and left half dead — and he cared for his needs. What great love has made our Saviour stoop so low to meet us at the very bottom of our hopeless misery.
The verse says mercy, not grace, and one writer refuses to treat the two as the same:
He is "rich in mercy." There is a difference between mercy and grace. Grace is a free gift, but mercy is much more; it speaks of demerit and brings our souls right to the heart of God Himself who has mercy. "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy." No claim. Many young Christians have never taken their stand on the ground of mercy. So when something they trusted in breaks down, they are completely lost.
Mercy has a source: the "great love" named in the verse. That love decides how far the blessing goes:
Love is the nature of God, the spring of all His actions, and the source of all our blessings. If God acts according to the love of His heart, only His love can measure the blessing that results. So the question is not what amount of blessing will meet our needs. The question is how high a blessing will satisfy the love of God… God acts, then, "because of His great love", not because of anything that we are.
The love reached us when we were dead in sins. One writer draws out what that says about God:
The source of all our blessing is the heart of God. So it is only in redemption that we can see Him fully revealed. God came on the scene because of what He was as God. And notice the contrast: "even when we were dead in sins." He would have us remember that there was nothing but evil in us, and nothing but good in Him.
One writer draws out why the dark description of man comes first:
We have seen man and his natural condition. Now we are called to consider the One who made him… The fact of man's moral ruin becomes the occasion for displaying the perfection of the Divine character. Helpless sin is the opportunity for rich and saving mercy… What is the great proof here that He is rich in mercy? He loved His people in their natural condition, when they were dead in trespasses and sins. And because He loved them, He did not leave them as they were. He made them alive and gave them everlasting life.
Mercy this free still needs a foundation, and one writer names it:
But God! God now comes in and makes known the riches of His mercy. Yet a righteous, holy God cannot be rich in mercy unless His righteousness is fully met and maintained. His mercy must have His righteousness as its foundation. And this is blessedly the case. He is rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us. He gave His only begotten Son. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us. He made full atonement on the cross, and now God can be rich in mercy.
- Ruin — our case was hopeless: nothing but evil in us, nothing but good in Him.
- But God — two words break into the gloom. The dead could not move, so God moved first.
- Mercy — compassion that comes down to where the person is. It weighs demerit, not merit, so no one has a claim.
- Love — mercy's source. Love sets the measure, so the question is not what meets our need but what satisfies His heart.
- Righteousness — mercy this rich still rests on the cross, where God gave His Son and made full atonement.
(we too being dead in offences,) has quickened us with the Christ, (ye are saved by grace,)
Ephesians 2 does not picture us as sick people needing help. It pictures us as dead — so verse 5 says what only God could do: He made us alive together with Christ, and grace is the reason.
Ephesians does not stop to prove that we are guilty. It treats the case as already closed:
In Ephesians the proof of guilt is needless. Man is viewed as so completely dead that it is only the removal of the cloth from off the corpse. So the apostle says, "You He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins." It is not simply, How is a sinner to be forgiven, justified? but "You He made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins."
(Older translations read "quickened" where newer ones read "made alive.")
Death is final because the dead cannot answer. That was our state toward God when His love reached us:
Human love can do great things to serve and save the one it loves, as long as life lasts. But when death has done its work, love has reached its end and can do no more. And what is the most tragic, the most oppressive, the most heartbreaking thing in death? It is the unresponsiveness of the dead. Love may plead and agonize for one word from the silent lips — even for one flicker from the still eyelids in answer to its longing. It is all in vain. The silence is absolute, the breach is complete, love is beaten and death is the victor. But it is not so with God's love. His love is GREAT LOVE — greater than death. Our case was hopeless to all "BUT GOD." How wonderfully those two words break into the darkness!
If we were dead, then nothing in the verse can have started with us. Every verb belongs to God:
We were dead, says the apostle — dead in our trespasses and sins. God comes, in His love, to deliver us by His power. There was no good working in us: we were dead in our trespasses and sins. The movement came from Him, praised be His name! He has made us alive; and not only that, He has made us alive together with Christ.
The same act puts Jew and non-Jew in one place:
Jews and Gentiles are found together in the same new position in Christ. Resurrection has put an end to all those distinctions; they have no place in a risen Christ. God has made the one and the other alive with Christ.
The verse does not stop at "made alive." It adds "together with Christ" — and that phrase decides where our life starts:
It is not simply that we are made alive. We are made alive "together with Christ." When it is only the giving of life, as in John 5, Christ is the One who gives it. But Ephesians shows Christ in death, where He had in grace put Himself for us. We were there through sin and disobedience. He came there in grace and obedience. And now, as made alive together with Him, we are, so to speak, raised by God out of His grave.
Our case demanded life. It never demanded this much:
Being "dead in trespasses and sins" (Eph. 2:1), nothing less than being made alive would meet our case. So being made alive was a necessity. Being made alive together with Christ was not. That is the fruit of God's own purpose in grace.
Paul cannot finish his sentence without saying where all this came from. He throws the words in as an aside, and the tense of the verb matters:
His heart seems to overflow as he speaks of God's "rich mercy," His "great love," "the exceeding riches of His grace," and "His kindness towards us in Christ Jesus." In verse 5 he cannot hold back from adding, as a parenthesis, "by grace you have been saved." He writes as if to stress that we owe everything to the precious Saviour by whom "grace came." What happy assurance fills our souls as we consider the greatness of the salvation grace has worked! The verb is in the perfect tense — our salvation is secure and it lasts.
So this letter does not push salvation into the future. It speaks of it as done:
"By grace you have been saved." Salvation, according to this letter, is a present reality. We are as truly saved now as we ever can be. Some of the other letters speak of salvation as future. It is no less certain there. In those letters it comes at the end of our journey, when we shall stand before Christ in glory.
- Dead — Ephesians does not argue guilt; it uncovers a corpse. No response, no movement, no ability to change anything.
- But God — those two words break into the darkness. His love is greater than death, and it moved first, while we could not answer.
- Made alive — nothing less than new life could meet our case, so God gave it.
- With Christ — being made alive was necessary; being made alive with Him, out of His grave, was not. That is God's own purpose in grace.
- By grace — the aside names the source. The perfect tense names the security: already saved, and saved still.
and has raised [us] up together, and has made [us] sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus,
God did not stop at making dead people alive. He lifted them to where Christ Himself is. That raises two questions. How can people still on earth already be seated in heaven? And why does Paul write "in Christ Jesus" and not "with Christ"?
Our place in heaven rests on what God's power already did in Christ. That same power reached us.
If our acceptance in the Beloved means we receive the same privileges and possessions that He receives, it comes about through our being made alive by the same power by which He was made alive. We are not only one with Him in our blessing and prospects, but also in our life. God used the same power in the same way to make us alive as He used to make Him alive.
The verse changes its wording halfway through, and the change is deliberate. We are made alive together with Christ, but raised and seated in Him.
Everything God has done, He has done in connection with Christ. If we have been made alive, it has been together with Christ. If raised up and seated in heavenly places, it has been in Christ. Two prepositions are used, with and in. We have already actually been made alive... though we wait for our mortal bodies to be made alive. As made alive we live in association with Christ, because we live by His life. We have not yet actually been raised up and seated in the heavens, but Christ has, and He is our exalted Head. We are in Him, and so raised up and seated in Him. Soon we shall actually be raised up and seated with Him.
If our seat is in Christ, then our standing is not somewhere lower down, waiting to be improved.
We are brought not simply through death into resurrection, but we are seated (not with, but) in Christ in heavenly places. What then is my standing? It is there in Christ where He is. Nothing short of it. It is not simply that I am raised together with Christ down here where I am. No, I am carried further; I am seated in Christ, where He is in the glory. That is my place.
The repeated word "together" is not simply about believers and Christ. It is about two groups of people who had been kept apart.
The "together" here refers to Gentiles and Jews... Here again, the word "raised" means more than resurrection when used of our Lord. He has been raised to the highest point in glory, following His resurrection from the dead.
Commentators differ on how present this seat is. Hole says we are not yet actually raised and seated. Davison holds that the place is already ours, though not physically:
We are not yet there physically, but in the apprehension of our souls by the Spirit. "Sitting" carries the thought that we are now in possession of the place and privilege, and have the present enjoyment of it in our souls.
God had a further reason for lifting sinners that high. It reaches into the ages to come.
Poor sinners from among the Gentiles, and from among the disobedient and contradicting Jews, are brought into the position where Christ is by the power that raised Him from the dead and set Him at God's right hand, to show forth in the ages to come the immense riches of the grace that accomplished it. A Mary Magdalene, a crucified thief, companions in glory with the Son of God, will bear witness to it.
Later in the same letter, the heavenly places are also the place of conflict.
The church is seated "in heavenly places in Christ" — blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. So too we are said to contend with spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. We are carried into conflict in the very place of strength; for the nearer we are to God, the more we need strength to walk there.
- Power — The strength that raised Christ and seated Him at God's right hand is the strength that reached us. Nothing less would do.
- Position — We were made alive with Christ, but raised and seated in Him; His seat is our standing, and nothing short of it.
- Partnership — "Together" means Jew and Gentile share one seat in Christ.
- Present — The seat is ours now, known by the soul through the Spirit. The body is still on earth and follows later.
- Purpose — God set former sinners beside His Son. The coming ages will see the immense riches of the grace that put them there.