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.