Bible Commentaries

B. The extent and mission of the church

Ephesians 2:1-22

1. Reminder of the previous condition of death and the glorious new creation

( Ephesians 2:1-10.)

1And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins [You also who were dead in your¹ trespasses and your sins]; 2Wherein in time past ye [Wherein ye once] walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power [or powers]² of the air, [of] the spirit that [which] now worketh in the children [sons] of disobedience: 3Among whom also [even] we all had our conversation [way of life] in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires [doing the wishes] of the flesh and of the mind [thoughts]; and [we] were by nature³ the children of wrath, even as others [the rest:—]. 4But God, who is [being] rich in mercy, for [because of] his great love wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were dead in sins [our trespasses], hath [omit hath]⁴ quickened us together with Christ, 6(by grace ye are [have been] saved;) And hath [omit hath] raised us up together [with Him],⁵ and made us sit together [with Him] in [the] heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7That in the ages to come he might shew [That he might shew forth in the ages which are to come]⁶ the exceeding riches⁷ of his grace, in his [omit his] kindness toward us, through [toward us in]⁸ Christ Jesus 8 For by grace are ye9[have ye been] saved through faith⁹ it is the gift of God [the gift is God’s]. Not; of works, lest any [that no] man should boast 10 For we are his workmanship [his handiwork are we]¹⁰, created in Christ Jesus unto [for] good works, which God hath before ordained [God before prepared] we should walk in them.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Connection and Summary.—After the Apostle has been led, by his petition for enlightenment respecting the glory purposed from eternity and already begun, to the carrying out of this purpose in the Church of Christ, the Body of which He is the Head, and in such a manner too, that Ephesians 1:23, “so grand and solemn in matter and in manner,” is adapted to form “a full-toned conclusion” (Meyer), his look is again turned to his readers to notice the “mighty working of the Father, through the resurrection and ascension of the Song of Solomon, done once for all, and yet taking place in every one called into the Church” (Stier). First of all he is moved by “a glance at the similar condition of death in the case of the Gentiles ( Ephesians 2:1-2) and of the Jews ( Ephesians 2:3)” (Stier) and then by the thought of God, who out of mercy has quickened and blessed the wretched in, with and through Christ ( Ephesians 2:4-7): of grace through faith ( Ephesians 2:8-9), new-creating in Christ ( Ephesians 2:10)!

[Braune, as will be seen below, arranges this section into paragraphs: Ephesians 2:1-3, the condition of death out of Christ; Ephesians 2:4, the Deliverer; Ephesians 2:5-6, the deliverance; Ephesians 2:7, the purpose; Ephesians 2:8-10, the means of bringing about the deliverance.—Hodge, who is always clear in his analysis, finds three principal topics treated of in this section:—(1) The spiritual state of the Ephesians before their conversion, Ephesians 2:1-3. (2) The change which God had wrought in them, Ephesians 2:4-6. (3) The design for which that change had been effected, Ephesians 2:7-10. He then enters into details.—Alford: “The power of the Father in quickening us, both Gentiles and Jews, in and with Christ (1–6); His purpose in manifesting this power (7); inference respecting the method of our salvation.” This follows Stier’s view, who refers the preceding clause to God.—R.]

Hence the connection of the beginning of this chapter (καὶ ὑμᾶς συνεζωποίησε, Ephesians 2:5) with “wrought” ( Ephesians 1:20, Bengel) or “gave” ( Ephesians 1:22, Harless) is inadmissible. Nor is καὶ ὄντας ὑμᾶς to be joined with εἰς ἡμᾶς τοὺς πιστεύοντας ( Ephesians 1:19, Knatchbull and others) or with πληρουμένου ( Ephesians 1:23, Calovius, Koppe and others); nor is it necessary to complain here again, that a well-continued thread of discourse can scarcely be found in this Epistle (Rueckert). Although these grammatical connections are to be rejected, there is still an internal relation: as the petition ( Ephesians 1:15-19) passed over into the typical and consolatory view of the exaltation of Christ, this section by applying this to the readers in effect continues the subject.

The condition of death out of Christ ( Ephesians 2:1-3) The construction is not easy at first sight, but otherwise regular: καὶ ὑμας ὄντας ( Ephesians 2:1)—ὁ θεός ( Ephesians 2:4)—συςεζωοποίνσεν ( Ephesians 2:5). The expansion of the object ( Ephesians 2:1-3), alone occasions the beginning of a new sentence ( Ephesians 2:4), as ὁ δὲθεός shows, indicating as do autem, inquam the epanalepsis (Winer, p412); in consequence the object already described ( Ephesians 2:1-3) is again repeated in briefer statement ( Ephesians 2:5). So Theophylact and most ancient and modern expositors. [Ellicott thus states the same view: “ Ephesians 2:1, after having its structure interrupted by the two relatival sentences, Ephesians 2:2-3, is renewed in Ephesians 2:4 (not Ephesians 2:5, Schott) by means of δέ resumptive (Herm. Viger, No544), and there further elucidated by the interpolated nominative Θεός, expanded in application by the more comprehensive ἡμᾶς, and concluded in Ephesians 2:5.”—Hodge (more popularly, but less exactly): “He dwells so long, in Ephesians 2:2-4, on the natural state of the Ephesians, that he is obliged, in Ephesians 2:5, to repeat substantially the beginning of Ephesians 2:1, in order to complete the sentence there commenced.” The objection to the E. V.: hath he quickened, aside from the wrong tense, is that “he” has no antecedent, if Ephesians 2:23 refers to Christ, within reasonable distance.—R.]

Ephesians 2:1. You also, καὶ ὑμᾶς, applies the discourse to the readers, without opposing ὑμᾶς to any others, than the genus, the whole church, as members of which they here come into special consideration, since they also have experienced, what has been experienced by the whole, and are a proof of the truth before uttered. [In rendering καὶ ὑμᾶς, “you also,” it is not implied that they are contrasted with other Christians; it is chosen rather to avoid the simple connection with what precedes which is expressed by “and you,” and to give prominence to the word “you;” not thus introducing “a special exemplification of the general act of grace in Ephesians 2:23,” but implying a parallelism between the physical death in the case of Christ and the spiritual death in their case, as indeed the governing verb συνεζωοποίησεν ( Ephesians 2:5) suggests.—R.]

Who were dead in your trespasses and your sins, [ὄντας νεκροὺς τοῖς παραπτώμασι καὶ ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις ὑμῶν. See Textual Note1].—Ὄντας, depending on συνεζωοποίησε, in view of the ποτέ occurring in the subsequent relative clause, is evidently=cumeratis (Bengel), the condition in which God found them, when He quickened them (Meyer). They were dead through sins; the dative is ablatival, marking the causa efficiens (Grotius, Meyer). Hence it is not equivalent to νεκροὶ τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ ( Romans 6:11), ye are dead for sin (Cajetan), nor with Grotius=ἐν τοῖς παραπτώμασι ( Colossians 2:13, the parallel passage, in which the status, the element is emphasized).¹¹

That Paul makes a distinction between παράπτωμα and ἁμαρτία, and what it is, is shown in Romans 5:12-19. There the sin of Adam is termed τὸ τοῦ ἑνὸς παράπτωμα ( Ephesians 2:15; Ephesians 2:17-18) or παρακοή ( Ephesians 2:19), and through one man ἡ ἁμαρτία has come into the world ( Ephesians 2:12). Comp. Romans 5:20 with Romans 7:10-13. Παράπτωμα is applicable to the first sin of the seduced first man; the idea of misdeed is contained in it, of a deed not considered, temere commissum, i.e, a nolente facere injuriam, while ἁμαρτία, with its manifestations αἱ αμαρτίαι reaches further and deeper (Tittmann, Syn. I, p45 ff.).¹² There is here an ascent from desertio boni to perpetratio mali (Augustine). To this view approximate Harless [Hodge] (actual sins and manifestations of sin in word, deed or otherwise), Olshausen (actions of sin and the more internal sinful motions of the soul in desires and words), Jerome (delicta cogitatione inchoata and actual sins).¹³ The distinction: the mental errors and obscurations, the moral sins and vices (Matthies), is unfounded; neither should we apply the former to the Jews and the latter to the Gentiles (Bengel), nor with Stier first think of the law of the State, of the conscience, well-known to the heathen also, and then of the outbreaks of corruption itself. We may not, however, take the two as purely synonymous (Koppe), or deny a real distinction by affirming merely a two-fold representation, fall and transgression (Meyer).—The article points to the sins committed by the readers, Romans 5:12 : ἐφʼ ᾦ πάντες ἥμαρτον. Hence ὑμῶν is an unnecessary explanatory gloss. [It is to be retained on diplomatic and critical grounds, but does not affect the sense.—R.]

Under νεκροί we should understand the dead, made dead; it recalls ἐκ νεκρῶν ( Ephesians 1:20); Christians are no longer dead. But the natural sinful condition, according to the Scripture from Genesis 2:17 on, is really a death, because it is without life from and in God ( Ephesians 4:18). It is therefore not=miserable (Koppe and others), nor does it refer to physical death, as though it were equivalent to certo morituri (Meyer), which does not spare them now. Spiritual death alone is spoken of, since God is the source of life ( Psalm 36:10) and without Him men are in the shadow of-death ( Matthew 4:16; Luke 1:79; Matthew 8:22; Luke 15:24; Luke 15:32; Romans 7:9-10). So nearly all expositors. [No weakening of the sense is admissible; comp. Doctr. Note 3, d.—R.]

Ephesians 2:2. Wherein ye once walked [ἐν αἶς ποτὲ περιεπατήσατε].—Ἐν αῖ̓ς, which connects with ἁμαρτίαις, the word just preceding and forming a climax, denotes the causa of the condition of death as a developed condition, as a desired element. Ποτὲ περιεπατήσατε joined with νεκρούς is an oxymoron, like 1 Timothy 5:6 : ζῶσα τέθνηκεν ΙΙεριπατεῖν ( Ephesians 4:17; Ephesians 5:2; Romans 6:4; 2 Corinthians 4:2; Colossians 3:7) has been transferred from the Hebrew (חלך) and designates walking as to the mode of life (Winer, p32); in English it designates the being at home, having entrance and exit, having one’s doings and movements, having one’s residence ( Matthew 17:22 : they abode in Galilee”). [Eadie: “The ἐν marks out the sphere or walk which they usually and continually trod, for in this sleep of death there is a strange somnambulism. Colossians 3:7.”—R.]

According to the course of this world [κατὰ τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ κόσμου τούτου].—Κατά now defines a relation of those walking to a power. This relation qualifies the walk more closely as one directed thereby, dependent thereon, determined thereby; “according to,” ‘ ‘by virtue of” are the two significations required here (Stier), which are combined in: corresponding to. This power is designated by τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ κόσμου τούτου, “the course of this world.” This combination is peculiar, the words themselves are frequent, seeming to be used indiscriminately: 1 Corinthians 2:6 (σοφία τοῦ αἰωνος τούτου); Ephesians 3:18 (σοφὸς ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ); Ephesians 2:19 (σοφία τοῦ κόσμου τούτου); Ephesians 1:20 (σοφία τοῦ κόσμου); John 12:31 (ὁ ἄρχων τοῦ κόσμου τούτου); 1 Corinthians 2:6 (τῶν ἀρχόντων τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου); 2 Corinthians 4:4 (ὁ θεὸς τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου). But the distinction is clearly obvious. Αἰών (Passow sub voce, Harless in loco), from αΐω=ἄημι, ἄω, to breathe, is related to ψυχή, with which Homer joins it, referring to life and time (ævum); hence also ἀπʼ αἰῶνος, ἀπʼ αἰώνων. In the New Testament the notion of time predominates, of periods of time, and the tendencies controlling them, their character, view and mode of life, their spirit. Κόσμος is the created, but fallen, apostate world, more definitely: humanity. The former may occur in the plural, the latter not. Hence Bengel is very correct: Ille hunc regit, el quasi informat; κόσμος est quiddam exterius: αἰών subtilius. “Tempus dicitur non solum physice, sed etiam moraliter, connotata qualitate hominum in eo viventium; el sic αἰών dicit longam temporum seriem, ubi ætas mala malam ætatem excipit.” Acts 14:16; 1 Peter 1:18. In αἰών here the notion of the tendency of time predominates, and means more what we call the course of the world than lapse (Verlauf); the course includes both the time and its character, as does αἰών also. Hence: according to, corresponding to the course of this world. The αἰών is in itself ethically indefinite, hence αἰὼν πονηρός ( Galatians 1:4) and the demonstrative οὖτος or a genitive as here τοῦ κόσ μουτούτου. Κόσμος is the external appearance, the external continuance of the world of men, αἰών its course, current, impulse (Stier); the latter may change, vary, in different periods, the former remains, and as the latter is estranged from God, so is this.¹⁴

It is incorrect to take the two words as purely synonymous, as though it were τὸν κόσμον τοῦτον (Koppe). We regard as arbitrary the view that they are=τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦτον τοῦ κόσμου (Rueckert), or: τὸν κόσμον τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου (Bretschneider). It is impossible to explain this designation from the gnostic doctrine of Æons, and to understand the devil thereby (Semler). Luther’s rendering: Lauf [so E.V.: “course”] is more apt than: spirit of the age (Matthies), tendency of the age (Olshausen), life (Harless), duration of time (Meyer), course of time (Schenkel).

According to the prince of the powers of the air [κατὰ τὸν ἄρχοντα τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ αέρος].—Here Paul evidently passes to what stands behind the course of this world, influencing it, working through it. Κατά places this clause as parallel to the preceding, and τὸνἄρχοντα refers to the master, the prince.¹⁵ The genitive τῆς ἐξουσίας denotes the power belonging to and at the command of this prince ( Matthew 9:34; Matthew 12:24; Mark 3:22; Luke 11:15). This power, which is to be considered as collective, is further defined by the genitive τοῦ ἀέρος, “of the air,” most closely connected with it. Ἀήρ, which in its etymology reminds us of αἰών and in its nature of πνεῦμα, is the air, the atmosphere, surrounding the earth, breathed by all, acting upon the κόσμος, the world of men, standing in many relations to and exerting great power and influence upon their life; hence the power which the prince controls, is brought into connection with “the air,” is described by “of the air,” because in this are found the place and character of the power, its medium, element, region and domain, its means and mode; the figurative and literal meanings coalesce, the air as a cosmical and pneumatic reality (Stier); we too say: it lies in the air, in the time, thus denoting a quiet, profound and powerful operation. Thus Satan with his kingdom is sharply characterized, his nature spreading widely miasmata of corrupting power, from which even those truly living can scarcely withdraw or defend themselves, miasmata from diabolical choke-damp (as in the French Revolution) even to the most refined ethereal poisons of classical, æsthetic literature ( Ephesians 6:11-12; Colossians 1:13). So Œcumenius has described the devil’s power as ὑπὸ τὸν οὐρανόν, οὐχ ὑπὲρ τὸν οὐρανόν, concluding thus: φύσις γὰρτοῖς πνεύμασιν ἡ ἐναέριος διατριβή.

We reject therefore those explanations, which take ὁ ἄρχων τῆς ἐξουσίας as princeps potentissimus (Clarius), or the genitive as appositional=ὅς ἐστιν ἐξουσία (Flatt), or cui est potestas (Erasmus and others), or as the object=imperium (Greek and Latin Fathers and others); those taking τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ ἀέρος as potestatis aëriæ (Syriac, Bucer and others); or those taking τοῦἀέρος only figuratively (Calvin, Beza), or=τοῦ σκότους (although we find: εσκοτίσθη ὁ ἀήρ, Revelation 9:2), either tropically pro obnubilatione mentis (Cocceius, Storr, and others), or pro concreto as darkened spirits, men and bad angels (Flatt), or by metonyme, continens pro contento, the earth surrounded by the atmosphere (Hilary, Bullinger and others), or merely as the region=ἐν τῷ ἀέρι (Baumgarten, not-Crusius), or only as a designation of quality=ἀέριος (A-Lapide, Calixtus and others), or referring it to the “prison,” 2 Peter 2:4 (Augustine); nor can we suppose here a remnant of rabbinical tradition (Meyer), or echoes of a Pythagorean view of the world (Meyer, Schenkel), or the influence of Alexandrian gnosis (Elsner and others). Out of such “muddy pools” or untenable speculations Paul would not have drawn his doctrine. Comp. Doctr. Note 3.

[Harless and Stier are very full on this clause. The most extended comments easily accessible to the English reader will be found in Eadie, whose opinion approaches very nearly to that of Braune. The simplest explanation is that of Alford, who thinks the phrase “of the air “is drawn from “the persuasion and common parlance of mankind,” without conveying any teaching respecting demonology. In any case the genitive ἀέρος is to be regarded as a genitive, not of quality, but of place, either literal or figurative, or both, as Braune holds. Hodge, while not definitely deciding, seems to favor the untenable view, that “of the air” is=“of darkness.” Eadie: “The κόσμος of the New Testament is opposed to God, for it hates Christianity: the believer does not belong to it, for it is crucified to him and he to it. That same world may be an ideal sphere, comprehending all that is sinful in thought and pursuit—a region on the actual physical globe, but without geographical boundary—all that out-field which lies beyond the living church of Christ. And, like the material globe, this world of death-walkers has its own atmosphere, corresponding to it in character—an atmosphere in which it breathes and moves. All that animates it, gives it community of sentiment, contributes to sustain its life in death, and enables it to breathe and be, may be termed its atmosphere. Such an atmosphere belting a death-world, whose inhabitants are νεκροὶ τοῖς παραπτώμασι καὶ ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις, is really Satan’s seat. His chosen abode is the dark nebulous zone which canopies such a region of spiritual mortality, close upon its inhabitants, ever near and ever active, unseen and yet real, unfelt and yet mighty, giving to the κόσμος that ‘form and pressure’—that αἰών—which the Apostle here describes as its characteristic element.”—Comp. Stuart, Biblioth. Sacra, 1843, p140; Hagenbach, Stud. u. Krit. I. p. Ephesians 479: Cudworth, Intel. System, II. p664.—R.]

Of the spirit, τοῦ πνεύματος, is in apposition to τῆς ἐξουσίας τοῦ ἀέρος, “of the power of the air.” While the last phrase sets forth his external dominion, the parallel phrase denotes his internal efficiency. Bengel is excellent: principium illud internum, ex quo fluunt actiones in-fidelium, oppositum spiritui fidelium filiorum Dei. It is therefore not a personality, but an influence which has become a ruling mode of thought, disposition, a πνεῦμα ἐνεργοῦν (Rueckert, Stier). Comp. Winer, p589. Hence it is not to be joined in apposition to τὸν ἄρχοντα and a hypallage accepted as in Ephesians 3:2; 2 Corinthians 3:7; Luke 8:32; Luke 22:20. So Calovius, Koppe, Rueckert; similarly Flatt. But τοῦ πνεύματος is also not dependent, on το ῦ ἀέρος, as Hofmann (Schriftbeweis I. p455) thinks, taking ἐξουσία in accordance with Luke 23:7 as the region of dominion, so that the air of the spirit working in the disobedient is the atmosphere formed by his nature. Nor is it to be taken collectively, just as ἐξουσία τοῦ ἀέρος is the complex of demons (Grotius and others). It is the spirit, which through its ruler, the devil, exists outside of individuals, defines them, works in them, the Spirit of the age [Zeitgeist].

[The apposition with ἐξουσίας is at all events to be accepted, with the majority of modern commentators. But here the two views present themselves: (1) the reference to the evil principle, which must be taken objectively as the article requires (Meyer, Ellicott), as Braune holds, or (2) to the aggregate character of the individual πνεύματα (Eadie, Alford). The former is open to the objection, that it represents Satan as the prince of a principle, and the latter assumes a collective sense which is quite unusual. If we accept a tacit antithesis to the Spirit of God, and remember that this spirit is here conceived of as distinct from its influence on men, (1) will be the safer view.—R.]

Which now worketh, τοῦ νῦν ἐνεργοῦντοσς.—This spirit is to be regarded as efficient, not as effected, affectus mundanus (Schmidt); νῦν being put in advance and “in the children of disobedience” appended for emphasis. “Now” expresses the fact that it has not ceased to work, after no longer working in them, the readers (ποτέ); it now works in the children of disobedience, subjects of its activity are not wanting; it might be explained with Olshausen by ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ. From this danger always springs for the believers. Hence it is not: now still, ad huc (Meyer and others), nor: nunc maxime (Bengel: qui evangelium per incredulitatem spernunt, manent mancipia spiritus illius et amplius capiuntur; Stier: “more now, since accomplished redemption proffers itself”). Rueckert also, with Flatt, refers to the extraordinary, specially dangerous power of the Satanic kingdom in the age of Redemption ( 2 Thessalonians 2:2 ff.; 2 Corinthians 4:4). [So De Wette].

In the sons of disobedience, ἐν τοῖς υἱοῖς τῆς ἀπειθίας.—Thus are those designated who are οἱ ἐξ ἀπειθείας (comp. Romans 2:8 : οἱ ἐξ ἀριθείας), who are dependent on, springing from, nourished by disobedience, as Ephesians 5:6; Colossians 3:6. It is a Hebraistic expression. [It marks “the essential and innate disobedience of the subjects, a disobedience to which they belong as children to a parent” (Ellicott).—R.] “Disobedience” emphasizes the immoral nature of unbelief, which is precisely disobedience, contumacy, among the heathen also, who resist the secret voice of God in their conscience ( Romans 2:14-15) as well as among the Jews who resist the revealed will of God in the word of the prophets, and among both, in resisting the apostolic announcement. Meyer should not be willing to refute the explanation: unbelief (Luther, Bengel, Harless, Stier.)¹⁶—The preposition ἐν, “in,” marks the internality of this Satanic working: in their souls (Meyer). They are the “fulness” of the devil, on whose part there is a “spirit,” efficient unto destruction, which the disobedient and unbelieving mood already present in man comes to meet.

Ephesians 2:3. Among whom even we all had our way of life in times past [ἐν οἶς καὶ ἡμεῖς πάντες ἀνεστράφημεν ποτέ].—The emphasis rests on καὶ ἡμεῖς “even we;” in antithesis to “you” ( Ephesians 2:1), the readers, whom he describes as previously heathen, he places himself and the Jewish Christians,¹⁷ and that too without exception (“all”). ‘Ἑνοἶς, according to grammatical rules, refers to “the children of disobedience” ( Ephesians 2:2); thus declaring that those who were formerly Jews belonged also to the children of disobedience; ἐνοἶς is=ὦν καὶ ἡμεῖς ὄντες, in order to lay down the ethical category for the Jews (Meyer). So the same corruption and its universality are predicated of the Jews, over against the Gentiles. Comp. Doctr. Note 3. We should not then render it inter quos, or explain that although the Jews were actually locally among the Gentiles, they did not live there as children of disobedience. The reference to παραπτώμασιν, “trespasses,” Ephesians 2:1 (Syriac, Jerome, Bengel, Stier and others), is at once impossible, if ὑμῶν be retained there, and in any case inadmissible on account of “in the lusts of our flesh,” which denotes the element or sphere of the verb, so that this cannot be found in ἐνοἶς. The grammatical connection cannot be decided by the parallel passage, Colossians 3:7 : ἐν οἶς—περιεπατήσατε, since parallelism will not contravene the requirements of grammar.

In the lusts of our flesh [ἐν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις τῆς σαρκὸς ἡμῶν].—The repetition of ἐν in the same clause occurs also in 2 Corinthians 1:12 : ἐν ἁγιότητε καὶ εἰλικρινείᾳ—ἐν σοφίᾳ—ἐν χάριτι ἁνεστράφημεν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ, where the first phrase answers to the last in our verse, and the last to our first. Bengel remarks on the verb: hoc quiddam speciosius quam ambulare. Stier finds it sharper and stronger than περιεπατήσατε, used of the Gentiles. Luther: “ye have walked”—“we have had our walk.” [So substantially the E. V.] This ἀναστρέφεσθαι refers more to an unquiet, refractory, quarrelsome course of conduct, περιπατεῖν is rather an indolent letting one’s self go according to habit. The qualifying phrase; “in the lusts of our flesh,” also sharpens the affirmative here, in comparison with that respecting the Gentiles. Among the latter the power of the evil spirit works, as respects the Jews prominence is given to their own disposition and will. Israel had already the proper ἄρχων in the theocracy, in its discipline another ἐξουσία, the moderating and helping air of a better spirit, being by no means given over in the same degree to the course of this world (Stier).—Harless sets forth very well the order of the significations of σάρξ; 1) what is material, 2) external, not mental, 3) what is ruled by matter, and in so far sinful, 4) what is sinful, opposed directly to the Spirit of God, 5) Humanity in all these aspects. [Comp. the Excursus in Romans, pp235 ff. The word is here used in its ethical sense: the whole human nature turned away from God, in the supreme interest of self, devoted to the creature.—R.]

Doing the wishes of the flesh and of the thoughts [ποιοῦντες τὰ θελήματα τῆς σαρκὸς καὶ τῶν διανοιῶν].—Ποιοῦντες, placed first for emphasis, defines more closely the preceding verb. [A participle of manner.—R.] The children of disobedience to whom they belonged, do the wills, to τὰ θελήμ̊ατα,¹⁸ not merely single ones, which the flesh has, and those τῶνδιανοιῶν, as real servants, slaves in fact. The plural denotes the confused, opposing multiplicity; a united, self-contained will is not spoken of. But these are not mere ebullitions of the flesh. “The διανοιεῖσθαι is the internal self-activity of man, conscious of his nature as self-determinable, and the διάνοιαι are the manifold productions of this” (Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, I. p563). He appears as the slave of his inborn nature and of his selfish thought; the two are turned to various objects, and in his desires create a diversity. The understanding or the reason stands in the service of the flesh, falls into subtleties, seeking reasons, excuses, ways and means for the “lusts of the flesh,” helping the desire to strengthen into determinations and activities of the will. Διάνοιαι are “opinions of the will representing themselves as prudent, deceitful grounds of volition.” Cogitationes callidius peccandi studium inferunt, caro cœco ruit impetu (Bengel). The plural marks the sundering, the confusion of the διάνοια into the unhappy and treacherous diversity (Harless, Stier); the flesh makes a heap of: reasonings (Berlenburger Bible). The context determines this view, as Meyer correctly remarks, but the form chosen subserves the context, corresponding well to its purpose; but it should be noted, that διάνοιαι is used by Paul only here, and θελήματα only in his speech, Acts 13:22, there too of God’s will. It is incorrect to regard διάνοιαι as loose fancies (Matthies), sensuous thoughts without the basis of sensuous desire (Olshausen), or corrupt imaginations (Hase).

[The distinction between the two classes of θε λ ήματα is thus expressed by Eadie: “The ‘desires of the flesh’ are those grosser gratifications of appetite which are palpable and easily recognized; and the ‘desires of the thoughts,’ those mental trespasses which may or may not be connected with sensuous indulgences.” Ellicott: “The worldly sensual tendency of our life on the one hand, and the spiritual sins of our thoughts and intentions on the other.” Both Eadie and Hodge restrict σάρξ (in the second clause, not in the first) to the animal part of our nature, but this scarcely seems justifiable, especially as the wider meaning gives so good a sense. Nor is the latter exact in taking διανοία as including “the whole thinking and sentient principle, so far as distinguished from the animal principle,” still less in referring it here “more to the affections.” Meyer says διάνοιαι bears to σάρξ in this case the relation of the special to the general.—The article before σαρκός and before διανοιῶν would justify the rendering “our flesh,” “our thoughts,’ but the literal translation is sufficiently explicit, “thoughts” being the nearest equivalent to διάνοια.—R.]

And we were by nature the children of wrath [καὶ ἦμεν τέκνα φύσει ὀργῆς].—Καὶἦμεν is most naturally taken as Ephesians 1:19-22 : ἐγείρας—καὶ καθίσας—καὶ ὑπέταξεν, or ἐγείρας—καὶ ἐκάθισεν—and joined with ποιοῦντες, as a participle resolved into the finite verb. Since ἦμεν comes first, it is emphatic. [The change of construction gives emphasis to this verb also, marking that they “were,” not that they “are,” and further, as Eadie suggests, indicating unmistakably, that what they “were by nature” was not the result of what they had been doing.—The insertion of “we” in the English text will serve to indicate this emphasis.—R.] The Apostle has noted the action in the preceding clause, he now notices the state of the Jews, which is perceptible and perceived from the action, and hence put in the second place, this like the other being more sharply expressed than in the case of the heathen. This is parallel to “the children of disobedience,” among whom he has already reckoned them (ἐν οἶς) but among whom they are now characterized as “by nature children of wrath.” The phrases: “son of perdition” ( 2 Thessalonians 2:3), “child of hell” ( Matthew 23:15), “Son of peace” ( Luke 10:6) are similar. Paul says τέκνα, not υἱοί, not to weaken it into “little children,” but to indicate the relation to birth.

The genitive ὀργῆς without the article must be connected as closely as possible with τέκνα, “children of wrath.” [Not mere liable to wrath, but under it, as the figure implies.—R.] The Hebrew phrase בָּנִים־לַיהוָֹה ( 2 Samuel 12:5; υἱὸς θανάτου in the LXX, comp. Psalm 79:11; Psalm 102:21) may have occasioned the expression, but does not modify the explanation in the N. Testament, nor justify a weakening of the meaning, only marking the dependence of ὀργή, which the context ( Ephesians 2:4) defines as that of God. Song of Solomon 5:6; Colossians 3:6; Romans 1:18; comp. Doctr. Note 1.

Φύσει is not so emphatic ῆ̓μεν, nor even as τέκνα, denoting only a closer qualification of the latter, as regards origin, by nature. Φύσις (from φύω, to become, to arise, as natura from nasci, ingenium from geno, gigno) refers to birth, origin, and is that which has grown as distinguished from what has been effected, has the ground of its being, as it is in its own development, not in the accessory influence of others (Harless, Stier). [So Eadie, Alford, Hodge, Ellicott and the vast body of commentators. The last named finds the exact meaning in Galatians 2:25; Romans 2:14; Galatians 4:8, to be respectively (a) transmitted inborn nature; (b) inherent nature; (c) essential nature. The first is the meaning here, see below.—R.] So in Galatians 4:8; Romans 2:24 (comp. Acts 17:28) φύσει points to the ground and origin of the present status. The meaning of these words necessarily is: we were from birth those who were forfeited to the Divine wrath, iræ Dei devoti atque obnoxii, quasi ad eam rem ab ipsa natura efficti (Beza). Indeed ἡ φύσις is something living, developing itself, but from its beginning, in accordance with the principle inherent in it, so that there is included here also the natural development, further determined by man in his unregenerate state.

Standing in contrast to this φύσει is the Divine θέσις of God’s work of revelation and of His covenant with the people of Israel, according to which they should not be “children of wrath,” and also might not have been. “As belonging to the people of God, the Jews were בָּנִים־לַיהוָֹה, but aside from this, consequently as belonging to the Adamite humanity, they were τέκνα ὀργῆς” (Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, I. p565), hence φύσει. It is aptly mentioned that Chemnitz remarks: Dicit, eramus et nos, Judæi scilicet. Dixerat enim Romans 11:16 : si radix sancti, ergo rami. Ne ergo intelligatur, Judæos natura esse sanctos, dicit; eramus et nos Judæi filii iræ, sicut cæteri (Harless). The position of φύσει between τέκνα and ὀργῆς suggests too: we were children—that is, φύσει, not θέσει, ὀργῆς, and yet might and should have been διαθήκης (cum putaremus nos esse liberos liberos Dei. Bengel)! [The doctrine of original sin is here plainly implied (Eadie, Hodge, Alford, Ellicott, and others), the implication being an “even more convincing assertion of that profound truth.” The opposition of Barnes and Stuart, so far as it has an exegetical basis, finds some justification in the forcing of a direct theological statement on our passage. But the attitude here taken as respects this fearful fact of a universal natural state of condemnation, is precisely that which the Scriptures hold toward the question of the existence of God: it is not proved, but assumed. Comp. Doctr. Notes 1, 3, 4; Eadie in loco; Romans, Dr. Schaff’s exhaustive notes on Ephesians 5:12-21, especially pp178–180, 191–195; the last reference is to a resumè of the theories of original sin.—R.]

Accordingly “children of wrath” is not to be taken as merely a Hebraizing phrase for “worthy of wrath,” ira rei, digni (Theodoret, Rueckert and others), nor proprii iræ (Striegel), objects of wrath (Flacius). Nor is ὀργή=pœna (Greek Fathers). Quite as little is φύσει=ἀληθῶς, γνησίως (Œcumenius), or: natura, indole gentis (Clericus), still less: paternœ, traditionis consuetudine (Pelagius), since it is the very opposite of συνήθεια. Moreover we should not think of a relation produced by the development of a nativa indoles (Meyer), or of the customary actual life of sin, “a doing of the wills of the flesh and of the thoughts,” which had become habitual, making them “the children of wrath” (Schenkel). Bleek says more circumspectly: the reference here is not merely to the inborn character, but also to the natural development springing from the man himself. To explain it of the natural condition of man in ante-christian life (Erasmus and others) leaves undecided the main question, whether or not the φύσει designates an inborn relation. Holzhausen’s connection of φύσει with ὀργῆς (wrath springing from the ungodly natural life) is entirely too inverted.

Even as others, ὡς και οἱ λοιποί.—In 1 Thessalonians 4:13, this designates the Gentiles, who have not become Christians. Λοιποί are passed over, without any further characteristics; according to the context the word classes together here men with and men without Christ, who have not submitted themselves to the working of Christ, resist it; such can be among Christians even. We may easily suppose, however, that Paul means the yet unbelieving Jews, over against the “we all,” who have become believers in Christ; this would render prominent that while the Jewish Christians who have been rescued from the condition of death are no longer “children of wrath,” these are and remain Song of Solomon, like the heathen, the “children of disobedience.” So Stier, while nearly all expositors refer it either to the Gentiles (Meyer and others) or to all except those mentioned before (Harless and others); the latter is unquestionably more correct than the former, since just here the Gentiles are not in question, and to refer it to these alone, would be as if Ephesians 2:3 had been appended. The extension to other nations is, however, unnecessary, since all men are either Jews or Gentiles, and what has been said of the previous life of Christians from among the Gentiles or Jews, applies to the whole of the human race. It marks in a tender, sparing manner those Jews unconverted to Christ as “children of wrath,” as the Gentiles not converted to Christ are “children of disobedience,” in whom Satan works. [Those who refer ἡμεῖς πάντες to all Christians, of course take οἱ λοιποί as including all the rest of mankind, not Christians; but the universality of sin and guilt remains the indirect (and more convincing) assertion of the passage, whatever reference be adopted.—R.]

Ephesians 2:4. The Deliverer. But God, ὁ δὲ θεός.—This is not antithetical, but resumes the discourse, begun with the object and then lengthened out, in order to permit the subject to follow, as we would say in German: hat also Gott. [We have no word so strictly resumptive as the German also, or the Greek δέ, as used here, hence the E. V. supplies both subject and verb in Ephesians 2:1, and resumes here with “but,” which may bear a resumptive meaning.—R.] See on Ephesians 2:1. The δέ is required here by the antithesis in which the subject stands to the object; otherwise we have found οὐν here (Meyer and others). [Hodge makes the antithesis too strong: “notwithstanding our guilt and misery.”—R.]

Being rich in mercy [πλούσιος ὢν ἐν ἐλέει]—Πλούσιος stands first for emphasis; our Epistle frequently mentions the riches in God ( Ephesians 1:7; Romans 10:12 : πλουτῶν). [Ὤν does not seem to be causal here (Hodge: “because He is rich in mercy”), but rather to state (in the form of a secondary predicate of time) the general principle under which the Divine compassion was exhibited (Ellicott, Alford); “being rich in mercy.” The special ground follows.—R.]. The connection “rich in mercy” is like James 2:5 (“rich in faith”); 1 Corinthians 1:5; 2 Corinthians 9:11. So πλῆθος τῶν οἰκτιρμῶν σου, Psalm 51:1; Psalm 69:16. But ἔλεος is somewhat more than οἰκτιρμός (ὁ ἐλεῶν subvenire studet misero et si potest, vere subvenit, sed qui intra fines doloris se tenet, is tantum οἰκτείρει; Tittmann, Syn. I, p70).

Because of his great love wherewith he loved us [διὰ τὴν πολλὴν ἀγάπην αὐτοῦ ἥν ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς].—The preposition (διά) marks the ground of His doings ( Ephesians 2:5-6), on account of this, propter multum suum amorem. Luther is therefore incorrect: through His great love. Prominence is given, not so much to the greatness, as to the riches; the manifold character of the love of God. The construction, ῆν ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς, is like John 17:26; Mark 10:38. Winer, p210.—The great love of God (αὐτοῦ) is added by Paul, after the expression respecting the riches of His mercy, which he had placed first on account of the context over against the condition of death in the case of Gentiles and Jews alike, because there was to be found in men themselves no ground at all for their salvation, Mercy was in God the movement of His love, which belongs to His Being; that men should be helped, required the entire fulness of the love of God. Misericordia removet miseriam, amor confert salutem (Bengel). Calvin incorrectly joins διὰ τὴν πολλὴν ἀγάπην with πλούσιοςὤν [Hodge apparently]; the latter is an attribute of God, the former is an adverbial qualification of συνεζωοποίησεν. “Us” must be applied here to entire Christendom, after the necessary statements about “you” ( Ephesians 2:1-2) and “us” ( Ephesians 2:3). Aperta satis hæc verba sunt et cognitu facillima, si tantum et creditu facilia ea plerisque dominus redderet (Bucer)! Stier refers it to the Jews, on which view see next verse. [It is=ἡμεῖς πάντες, if that phrase be accepted in its wider reference.—R.]

The Deliverance; Ephesians 2:5-6.

Ephesians 2:5. Even when we were dead in our trespasses [καὶ ὄντας ἡμᾶς νεκροὺς τοῖς παραπτώμασιν].—After ἡμᾶς ( Ephesians 2:4) the object is again repeated, with a reference to what has been said in Ephesians 2:1-3, in admiration and wonder at the Divine grace, mercy and love. Now however we read καὶ ὄνταςἡμᾶς, while before we had καὶ ὑμᾶς ὄντας ( Ephesians 2:1), καὶ ἡμεῖς ( Ephesians 2:3); the emphasis therefore rests on ὄντας, and καί puts this state of death with another ὥν in a certain relation to πλούσιος ὤν ἐν ἐλέει. Accordingly the distinction between those dead, between “you” and “us” falls into the background behind the existence, the reality of this condition. [Against Meyer, who takes καί as the simple copula, and Rueckert, who deems it resumptive, we are fully justified in taking it as intensive, retaining even (E. V.) therefore; so Alford, Ellicott and most.—The dative is precisely as in Ephesians 2:1.—R.] What he has said in Ephesians 2:1 of the heathen: “dead in trespasses,” is true of both therefore: it is the briefest expression, and quite sufficient after the previous explication of the object, especially as he mentions παραπτώματα, in which the reality of the condition of death is perceptible. The article denotes that the sins are the sins of the “dead” themselves (Meyer). [Hence our trespasses.]

This statement cannot indeed be referred to entire humanity; though it be done for all men, yet it is only done in Christians; and that is what is spoken of here. But it is just as little to be limited to Jewish Christians (Stier); the interchange of ἡμεῖς and ὑμεῖς ( Ephesians 2:5; Ephesians 2:7-8) springs from the liveliness of the discourse, the interest in the readers and the purpose of the Apostle. Καί is of course not=καίπερ, quamvis (Calvin, Schenkel). [For a making alive could only be from a state of death, not in spite of it.—R.]

Quickened us together with Christ, συνεζωοποίησεν τῷ Χριστῷ.—The construction is clear; the dative is governed by the σύν in composition. A fact in the past is clearly denoted as having taken place upon Christ and upon us. The meaning is also indicated by the antithesis or object: the dead He has made alive; were these not physically, but spiritually dead, then a spiritual life is meant. The preposition σύν does not denote contemporaneousness, but only fellowship: in the fellowship with the Risen One God quickened us also: Him hath He raised from the dead, us from our death, but not without Him, the Risen One. The verb itself does not determine any thing more definite regarding the life; the tense marks only the act of God as having taken place. Nothing further is added. Accordingly this fact is to be taken altogether objectively, without a subjective reference, altogether generally, without further qualification, as Colossians 2:12-13; Colossians 2:20; Colossians 3:1; Colossians 3:3; Romans 6:4-6; it is simply: He quickened us together with Christ. Theodoret: κεφαλὴ ἡμῶν ὁ συνεδρεύων, ἀπαρχὴ ἡμῶν ὁ συμβασιλεύων· τὴν γὰρ ἡμετέραν ἐνδέδυται φύσιν. Comp. Ephesians 1:7; Ephesians 1:22-23. Though the life of Christ the Risen One is completed, and ours just begun, beginning in the Spirit, yet the two stand in an internal connection ( 2 Corinthians 5:15), the latter, like the former, is the Father’s Acts, in which the whole, the full life is implied and granted.

Accordingly it is first of all incorrect to apply συν to the Revelation -animation of the Jews and Gentiles together (Beza), or: sicut ad exemplum (Anselm, Grotius). Then the reference is not to physical death and the actual resurrection life (Meyer), or to the forgiveness of sins (Rueckert), or only to the first degree of life, from which the subsequent ones advance (Olshausen), or to justification and regeneration (Bodeus); nor are the aorists to be justified by recalling God’s prescience (Jerome), or by introduced hope (Augustine, Erasmus), or by a prophetic view, as if it had already taken place, were as good as certain (Meyer), nor is the fact of the actual accomplishment of this act of love in the readers, the Christians to be set aside by an emphasizing of the objective act in Christ (Harless).¹⁹

By grace ye have been saved [χάριτίἐστε σεσωσμένοι].—In lively discourse, with a direct application to the readers, this is joined parenthetically to the general, objective fact of new life in Christ. The emphasis rests on χάριτι, which comes first; it refers to “His great love,” is God’s grace, thus dismissing all thought of claim and merit on the part of man. The clause emphasizes the fact of the deliverance from death into life, from wrath into love. Ye are (ἐστε)! This means more than the simple ἐσώθετε. [“Ye have been and are saved,” the perfect of permanent state, implying that God’s grace abides.—R.] Videmus, ut nun quam sibi in prædicanda gratiæ amplitudine satisfaciat; ideoque identidem pluribus verbis inculcat, nihil esse in salute nostra, quod non sit Deo tribuendum certe qui ingratitudinem hominum rite expendet, non fastidiet hanc parenthesin quasi supervacaneam (Calvin).²⁰ It is not interpolated from what follows (Grotius), nor is the grace of Christ (Beza) referred to.

Ephesians 2:6. And raised us up with him and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus [καὶ συνήγειρεν καὶ συνεκάθισεν ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ].—After thus specializing, Paul expands what was expressed in συνεζωοποίησεν. Here the first verb gives prominence to the negative side, and the second, with “in heavenly places,” to the positive side of the quickening; the former marks the disappearance of the condition of death, the latter the permanent participation in what is heavenly. The liveliness of the discourse causes the introduction and repetition of καί, καί; they are not to be rendered: both—and. “In heavenly places” (comp. on Ephesians 1:3) sets forth the antithesis to “the power of the air;” “at His right hand” ( Ephesians 1:20) could be predicated only of Christ (Bengel: Christo sua manet exccllentia), but “in heavenly places” of Christians also. “In Christ Jesus,” following “with Christ” ( Ephesians 2:5), introduces the mediation in the fellowship with Him; with this Colossians 2:12-13 should be compared. [Eadie takes “in Christ Jesus” as qualifying “in the heavenly places,” but this is scarcely allowable.—R.]

Accordingly, “raised with him,” is not an advance from “quickened” toward “made us sit” (Olshausen) [Eadie], the first two expressions occur Colossians 2:12-13 in inverted order. We should not interpolate spe (Grotius) or jure et virtute spirituali (Bengel), nor are the aorists to be taken as futures from a prophetic view (A Lapide), nor should we refer them to summa et universa felicitas (Koppe), or to something spiritual, which is not yet objectively and really given. Comp. Colossians 3:1-3; Philippians 3:20; Romans 6:6-10. Though ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ is not=per et propter Christum, yet it cannot be denied that fellowship with Him is indicated (Harless), in accordance with the συν in the verbs.²¹ But it may not be affirmed that on account of this “wonderful union” of the redeemed with the Redeemer, all the occurrences, through which the Redeemer passed after His death until His glorification, are spiritually and morally, hence in this life, consummated in the converted (Schenkel). Comp. Doctr. Note 2.

[Eadie also takes the three aorists as referring to what takes place in this life, and as marking successive steps: “The dead, on being quickened, do not lie in their graves.” Ellicott is very cautious here: “As συνεζωοποίησεν, though primarily spiritual and present, may have a physical and future reference,—so here conversely, a present spiritual resurrection and enthronement may also be attended to,” the primary reference being, as he thinks, to what is future and objective. Alford seems most correct: “God vivified us together with Christ: in the one act and fact of His resurrection He raised all His people—to spiritual life, and in that to victory over death, both spiritual and therefore necessarily physical also. To dispute therefore whether such an expression as this is past (spiritual), or future (physical), is to forget that the whole includes its parts.—The three aorists are proleptical as regards the actualization in each man, but equally describe a past and accomplished act on God’s part.—The disputes as to whether these are to be taken as present or future, actual or potential, literal or spiritual, will be easily disposed of by those who have apprehended the truth of the believer’s union in and with Christ.” This last statement finds a striking confirmation in the fact, that many a commentator begins by limiting the sense, and ends by including the entire meaning.—R.]

Ephesians 2:7. The purpose.—That he might show forth, ἵνα ἐνδείξηται.—The verb stands emphatically first. Ἐνδείκνυσθαι ( Romans 2:15; Romans 9:17; Romans 9:22; 1 Timothy 1:16; 2 Timothy 4:14; Titus 2:10; Titus 3:2) has, like ἔνδειξος ( 2 Corinthians 8:24) the signification of an efficient, active showing, a making known through communicating, giving, causing to experience. It is not a mere φανεροῦν, γνωρίζειν, declarare (Olshausen, Meyer and others. [Eadie inclines to the singular meaning: give a specimen of, which is not in accordance with the emphasis resting on the word.—R.]

In the ages which are to come, ἐν τοῖς αἰῶσι τοῖς ἐπερχομένοις.—The plural marks a series, the word αἰῶνες, periods of time, stretching over “generations” ( Ephesians 3:21), standing over against “the course (αἰών) of this world ( Ephesians 2:2), not mere καιροί, occasions, moments of time ( Ephesians 1:10); ἐπερχόμενοι points to coming periods, i.e., according to the context, those periods (temporibus in stantibus) following each other with the fact of Redemption in the resurrection of Christ as the starting-point; lastly the preposition ἐν marks these as the spaces of time in which the showing takes place, in which there is really an advance. Bengel: Plurale, contra unum seculum malum, cui secula beata superveniunt potenter. Congruit hæc locutio menti Pauli de die novissimo non proxime in stante. Even in the earliest Epistles there is not wanting the thought of the long development of Christianity, whose blossoming in the Apostolic Church and in the first Christians as first fruits and representatives, lets us perceive the fulness of their Lord ( 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17; comp. Ephesians 5:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:7; comp. Ephesians 2:3 ff.). It is neither the age succeeding the resurrection, the age of the parousia (Grotius, Meyer), nor αἰὼν μέλλων (Harless). [These limitations are rejected by Eadie, Alford and Ellicott, Hodge who agree with Braune in referring the phrase to the successive periods of time between the resurrection and the Second Advent of Christ. The plural for bids the limitation to any one age, the present participle renders any remote future reference improbable. The Second Advent is rarely alluded to in this Epistle (Alford), though as usual Meyer finds it here also.—R.]

The exceeding riches of his grace, τὸ ὑπερβάλλον πλοῦτος τῆς χάριτος αῦτοῦ.—The neuter form to τὸπλοῦτος is well established here, as in Ephesians 3:16, and occurs several times ( Ephesians 3:8; Philippians 4:19; Colossians 2:2). On ὑπερ βάλλον, see notes on Ephesians 1:19. It denotes, over against the wrath of God ( Ephesians 2:3) and the power of Satan ( Ephesians 2:2) the triumphant superior power, hence it is not=περισσεύειν ( Ephesians 1:8). Comp. Romans 5:20. Evidently as in the case of those realities, so is the power of this grace efficient, already imparted. Romans 9:23.

In kindness toward us in Christ Jesus [ἐν χρηστότητι ἐφʼ ἡμᾶς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ].—“In kindness” designates the mode of showing the grace, “the friendly, condescending kindness” (Heubner), which expressed itself in Christ’s Incarnation and in Himself. Tittmann (Syn. I. p195): Est benignitas Dei ad benefaciendum hominibus potius parata, quam ad puniendum; differt a voce χάρις; in hac enim certe in N. T. imperat notio benevolentiæ et gratiæ, quæ. nihil merentibus bene facit. It is therefore not here (as Tittmann thinks, p142): ipsum beneficium in nos Dei benignitate per Jesum Christum; it is not χάρισμα, but χάρις is active “in kindness,” the condescending love scatters out of the fulness of its possessions; that is, its “kindness.” [Eadie says of the four terms here used respecting the source of salvation: ἔλεος, ἀγάπη, χάρις, χρηστότης, “the first respects our misery; the second defines the co-essential form of this—ἔλεος; the third characterizes its free outgoing, and the last points to its palpable and experienced embodiment.” He finds an evident alteration in χάρις, χρηστότης, Χριστός.—R.]

Ἐφʼ ἡμᾶς is connected with “in kindness,” as χαρὰ ἐν πνεύματι ἁγίῳ ( Romans 14:17) and similar cases. See Winer, p126. This occurs with anarthrous substantives, which receive further definition; ἐπὶ denotes the object of the kindness, as Luke 6:35. The phrase: ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ without τοὺς or ὄντας is therefore not to be referred to ἡμᾶς. Were it grammatically admissible, the thought would not be against it, since it corresponds with “to us-ward who believe” ( Ephesians 1:19). As, however, it stands here without any word to connect it with ἡμᾶς, it must be taken as qualifying the verb ἐνδείξηται.²² Notanda repetitio nominis Christi, quia nihil gratiæ neque amoris a Deo sperari vult, nisi ipso intercedente (Calvin). Comp. Doctr. Note 2.

The means of the deliverance. Ephesians 2:8-10.

Ephesians 2:8. For by grace have ye been saved through faith, τῇ γὰρ χάριτί ἐστε σεσωσμένοι διὰ πίστεως.—This is a completed, more closely defined, repetition of the parenthetical clause ( Ephesians 2:5). Γάρ is connective. Non igitor ait, sed enim, quia ab effectu ad causam concludit (Bengel): because He in the course of time brings into manifestation nothing else than the exceeding riches of His grace. Ye are saved by grace. Τῇ, χάριτι not merely χάριτι ( Ephesians 2:5), to denote the category; the article referring to the grace mentioned in Ephesians 2:7, the wealth of which is so exceeding, marking thus the grace in question (Meyer). The dative expresses, as Romans 3:24 (αὐτοῦ χάριτι διὰ τῆς ἀπολυτρώσεως), the motive, διά with the genitive here states the subjective means,²³ in the passage just referred to, the objective. Comp. Winer, p204 f. The emphasis rests on “by grace,” which is placed first, being the causa efficiens; the causa apprehendens follows, as a modal qualification. On the nature of “faith,” see Doctr. Note 5.

And that not of yourselves: the gift is God’s [καὶ τοῦτο οὐκ ἐξ ὑμῶν, θεοῦ τὸ δῶρον].—“And that” refers back to the idea of the preceding verb: “ye are saved,” in the sense of et quidem (Passow, sub οὖτος, 12); and this in addition I say, or and this, being saved through faith, comes not out of yourselves. Thus the value of διὰ πίστεως is put below that of τῇ χάριτι salvation has not its origin in faith or the believing one (οὐκἐξὑμῶν); he has indeed only to accept it. Hence there is at once added to the negative the positive (not parenthetical, Harless) expression: θεοῦ τὸ δῶρον, God’s is the gift, i.e., the salvation; the genitive being=ἐκ θεοῦ ( Philippians 3:9) or ἀπὸ θεοῦ ( Philippians 1:29), and τὸδῶρον=δωρεάν ( Romans 3:24; Romans 5:15; Romans 5:17), gratis, as a present of grace.

[The reference to salvation is adopted by Calvin, Rueckert, Harless, Olshausen, Meyer, De Wette, Stier, Eadie, Alford, Ellicott, and every commentator of note since the days of Bengel, except Hodge.²⁴ Of course on doctrinal grounds there is no objection to the reference to faith, for, as Ellicott remarks, “it may be said that the clause καὶ τοῦτο κ. τ. λ. was suggested by the mention of the subjective medium πίστις, which might be thought to imply some independent action on the part of the subject.” But since the next verse: “not of works,” cannot be referred to faith, and an unnecessary parenthesis, creating some confusion and destroying the obvious parallelism between ἐξ ὑμῶν and ἐξ ἔργων, is the result of this view, it seems far better to accept the other reference. The gender of τοῦτο is not decisive in favor of this; but when it stands so near to πίστεως, it does seem strange that it should not be feminine, were the latter its antecedent.—R.]

Ephesians 2:9 takes up the negative side again: not of works, οὐκἐξἔργων, used by Paul repeatedly ( Romans 3:20; Romans 4:2; Romans 11:6; Galatians 2:16; Galatians 3:2; Galatians 5:4; Titus 3:5). Without the article, because in this respect there are no saving, meritorious works; it is God who rescues, and He is determined thereto by no works or virtues of men. There is not here, nor should there be, any thought of the works of the Mosaic law (Bleek). Thus the phrase “not of yourselves” is more closely and sharply defined. Accordingly we should not accept a parenthesis from καὶ τοῦτο to ἐξ ἔργων (Griesbach) or καὶ τοῦτο—τὸ δῶρον (Beza), or θεοῦ τὸ δῶρον (Lachmann, Harless), nor refer καὶ τοῦτο to διὰ τῆς πίστεως and then to infer τὸ πιστεύειν on this account (Fathers, Erasmus and others).

That no man should boast, ἵναμήτις καυ χήσηται.—This is the manifest end (ἵνα) of this ordering of grace, established and desired by God Himself. Comp. 1 Corinthians 1:29 ff; 1 Corinthians 4:7; 2 Corinthians 10:17 f.; Romans 3:27; Romans 4:2. Ἵνα is not to be taken as=ὥστε or as imperative (Koppe). [Macknight objects that this is not a worthy end, therefore ἵνα is not telic. But it is only one end, and then it implies a great deal more than the mere stopping of man’s boasts. The implied antithesis is: that God should have the glory, as Ephesians 2:10 indicates.—R.]

Ephesians 2:10. For his handiwork are we, αὐτοῦ γάρ ἐσμεν ποίημα.—The genitive stands first with special emphasis; if there should be any boasting, He should be boasted of by us, His work.²⁵ Hence the connection by means of γάρ, for the reason is given why no one should boast. Gratia tollit naturam. What we are to understand by ποίημα, the Apostle sets forth in the following participial clause belonging to ἐσμέν:

Created in Christ Jesus for good works.—Κτισθέντες ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ, “created in Christ Jesus,” is like 2 Corinthians 5:17 : εἴ τις ἐν Χριστῷ, καινὴ κτίσις. Comp. Galatians 6:15. The fellowship with Christ is the mediation conditioning the creative efficiency of God. “God’s work” is a creation in Christ, by means of which there becomes a “new man” ( Ephesians 2:15). A double creation is therefore not spoken of, the physical, that of the protoplast, in “His handiwork” (Tertullian, Gregory Naz. and others), and the spiritual, that of the new birth in “created,” nor are both creations to be regarded as united here (Pelagius, Erasmus, Matthies, Rueckert), so that we both as Christians and as men are God’s work. Salvation alone is in question. Thus much only is true, that the expressions respecting the physical first creation are transferred to this ethical one, which is a new birth ( Titus 3:5), a real creation ( Ephesians 2:15; Ephesians 4:21-22).

The preposition ἐπί with the dative marks both the end and the result; Galatians 5:13 : ἐπʼ ἐλευθερίᾳ ἐκλήθητε; 1 Thessalonians 4:7; 2 Timothy 2:14; Winer, p368. It is not=εἰς ἔργα ἀγαθά, hence not merely the end and aim of salvation [Hodge], (Schenkel). [Alford: “Just as a tree may be said to be created for its fruit.”—R.] Ἐπὶ ἔργοις ἀγαθοῖς is in antithesis to ἐξ ἔργων, denoting that those created in Christ Jesus do perform good works, as “a peculiar people, zealous Of good works” ( Titus 2:14); such works are therefore not the cause but the consequence of being delivered.²⁶ Hence we read here not ἔργοις or ἔργοις νόμου, but, what is much more significant, ἔργοις ἀγαθοῖς: good works are performed only by the regenerate.

Which God before prepared that we should walk in them, οἶς προητοίμασεν ὁ θεός, ἵνα ἐν αὐτοῖς περιπατήσωμεν.—As regards the construction it should first be remarked that the difficulty lies in οἶς and in the meaning of the verb προητοί μασεν, which requires an object in the accusative, as well as in the reference of the preposition προ. The relative οἶς can belong only to ὲργοις ἀγαθοῖς, and since προετοιμάζειν cannot be taken as neuter (Bengel) and there is no ἡμᾶς added, it must be explained by attraction (Vulgate, Syriac, down to Bleek); ἐναὐτοῖς follows, as in [That is, the relative is the object of the verb, which would be in the accusative (ἅ) were it not attracted into the case of its antecedent ἔργοις ἀγαθοῖς; so E. V. and the vast majority of commentators.—R.] Προετοιμάζειν ( Romans 9:23) is to prepare beforehand, here of things, as προορίζειν of persons ( Ephesians 1:11). [See below however.] The προ totam rem Deo tribuit (Bengel), implying that they should be performed. It should be borne in mind that we do not find: ἐπὶ τοῖς ἔργοις ἀγαθοῖς, οἶς—; the individual good works are not regarded as prepared before, but only ἔργα ἀγαθά in general. Christians are new-created for these; they are performed by the Christians not according to arbitrary choice; they are determined, as by the law, so by the Holy Ghost (Grotius: quasi in mari aliquis et viam præsignaret et simul ventos daret ferentes); they are given, to them is the Christian directed, equipped therefor with strength and desire.

God Himself has thus prepared before “good works,” and that too with the design, to the end: “that we should walk in them,” as prepared beforehand by God, as in the element in which the Christians’ walk moves, in which the regenerate should prove themselves alive. This final clause is in antithesis to: “lest any man should boast” ( Ephesians 2:9). Hofmann, who (Schriftbeweis, II:1, p365) rejects rightly the explanations, ordained before, predisposed in God’s counsel, and accepts the proper conduct of humanity to God as once for all present in Christ, says excellently in further exposition (ibid. II:2, p294): Our walk in Him is a walk in them (good works), so that ἐν αὐτοῖς has the emphasis, and ἡμεῖς is not missed in the first clause.

Accordingly ἶς cannot be referred to κτισθέντες and explained as masculine: for whom, to whom He has before ordained (Erasmus, and necessarily Rueckert also). It is altogether impossible to accept a Hebraism and construct thus: ἐν οἶς ἵνα περιπατήσωμεν προητοίμασεν ὁ θεός (Bengel, Koppe); but προετοιμάζειν is not=velle, jubere. Nor should ἡμᾶς be supplied from the context and the clause rendered: to which, or: for which He has prepared us before (Luther, Rueckert but doubtfully, Schenkel). Nor should the verb be taken as neuter (Bengel): for which He has already prepared, so that nothing is wanting (Stier). Nor should we say that God has prepared the circumstances for them (bonos socios, præceptores, confessionarios, concionatores, sancta exempla aliaque incitamenta et occasiones), as do Michaelis and Olshausen, following Catholic expositors. Nor does προ stand related to “created unto good works,” as though the preparation of the works preceded the new creation of the man, and the men were redeemed for the works and for their sake, and the walk in good works were the final and supreme aim of the Divine revelation of grace and saving dealings with man (Meyer, Schenkel).

[The view of Braune is open to serious doubt in one point alone. The attraction from the accusative is by far the best solution of the grammatical question. The verb, which is not neuter, does not mean “predestinated,” but “prepared before.” Comp. Romans, p321. That notion is a fair inference, but does not necessarily belong to the word, as even Hodge admits. It may be allowed too that “good works” without the article does not of necessity refer to definite, particular actions, which God has appointed for the several believers. But the force of προ is not sufficiently taken into the account in the view advocated above, while Hofmann’s explanation seems to be an attempt to avoid a theological difficulty rather than a fair exegesis. Προορίζειν is distinguished from προετοιμάζειν, not by a difference of objects (as Braune holds, following Harless), but as follows: The end comes more into view in the former, the means more in the latter (so Fritzsche, Lange, Romans, p320, Eadie, Ellicott). As the temporal relation to “created” seems to be the only proper reference in the preposition προ, we should accept this explanation: God, before we were created in Christ, made ready for us a sphere of moral action, a road, with the intent that we should walk in it, and not leave it; this sphere, this road, was “good works” (Ellicott).—Or yet more definitely, with Alford: As trees are created for fruits which God before prepared that they should bear them: i.e., defined and assigned to each tree its own, in form, and flavor, and time of bearing. So in the course of God’s providence, our good works are marked out for and assigned to each one of us. This does not seem to be open to the objection that it makes the works the supreme end of God’s saving dealings.—Eadie: “These good works, though they do not secure salvation, are by God’s eternal purpose essentially connected with it, and are not a mere offshoot accidentally united to it.”—R.] Bengel says aptly: Ambularemus, non salvaremur aut viveremus.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Theologically: God’s nature is designated by: “who is rich in mercy, for His great love” ( Ephesians 2:4). Precisely as in 1 John 4:16 : “God is love” (comp. my notes, Biblework in loco, p146 f.). What He will ever more and more manifest and prove, is “the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness” ( Ephesians 2:7). All salvation is traced back to “grace” ( Ephesians 2:5-8), to “love” (ἀγάπη) now condescending in its entire fulness to the deepest misery, the lost condition of sinners (χάρις), in order to help (ἔλεος) as a master and to minister (χρηστότης). as a servant. How then can there be room for “wrath?” Ὀργή (from ὀρέγω, allied with reach, rack, stretch, and ὀργάω, to swell, to be full) designates first of all, appetite, emotion, then passion, anger. God is indeed holy love, hence precisely not an apathetic personality, not an epicurean natura divom semota ab rebus nostris sejunctaque longa, not a pagan or Turkish εἱμαρμένη, nor a modern moral order of the world, or mere “Providence,” “Heaven,” or the philosophical Absolute, or the common numb Deity. He loves, He must also be angry with what is unholy, evil; He has wrath, not as a man, active et initiative, but passive et consecutive. His wrath is the zeal of love against corrupting evil, the energy in the conduct of God against that relation to Him, established with the fall of the creature from Him; in the creature’s sin God’s wrath brings forth itself (Stier).—One thing besides should be especially considered. By “we,” described in Ephesians 2:3, the Israelites are meant: precisely these, though chosen, are called on account of the apostasy of the human race, “children of wrath.” Accordingly all, the entire fallen race, are the object of the wrath of God, even the elect, just as all are the object of His grace, as even these have been, who, because they will not let themselves be saved, are cast away. In mercy and anger is He the same God, and has before Him the human race in like manner undivided, in order to save it as the object of His love. Comp. Frank, Theologie der Form. Conc., IV. p 194 ff.

2. Christologically: The Mediator, in whom alone the fallen race, now a prey to the corruption of sin, is and can be an object of love to God, and through whom alone, yet certainly, the purpose of salvation conceived in Him, is consummated, is Jesus Christ, the Risen One, who, as the Sinless One, was not forfeit to death, but overcame it. The text only indicates this latter thought; but it distinctly asserts: only in Him is life, renewal, power, blessedness, without Him there is none of this ( Ephesians 2:10; Ephesians 2:5-7). In this entirely unique Person, including in Himself all that man needs for a renewal well-pleasing to God, presenting in His resurrection and exaltation, not merely a type, but the dynamic principle for the elevation of humanity to sonship with God—in this Person is set forth all that is specifically Christian in Christianity.

3. Hamartologically: a) The essence of sin is disobedience (“sons of disobedience”) to the will of God, and obedience to the flesh (“doing the wishes of the flesh and of the thoughts”).

b) The universality of sin. It extends itself over the whole human race without exception. Gentiles ( Ephesians 2:1-2) and Jews ( Ephesians 2:3), and among these (ἡμεῖς πάντες) to those also who like the Apostle were “taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and zealous toward God” ( Acts 22:3); for fleshly self-will and obstinacy mingles itself as a ruling power, even in the most refined forms, with human virtue and honorableness.

c) The variety of sin does not condition a variety in the extent of guilt. To the Apostle the heathen world was a wrestling place of demons: Satan ruled it; there all goes according to his will; and the Apostle calls the Gentiles “sons of disobedience.” The people of Israel, notwithstanding its theocracy, consists in his esteem of “children of wrath,” as he designates them much more sharply. The guilt increases with the less considerable sins, if the favors received, which have been despised or neglected, are greater: so there may be less guilt with greater sins, and a far greater guilt with sins less great externally, because there is a greater sinful corruption.

d) The corruption of sin. Although some may hold for truth in Ephesians 5:14 (“Awake thou that steepest and arise from the dead”), only “thou that sleepest,” together with Romans 5:6 : “when we were yet without strength,” the phrase “were dead” ( Ephesians 2:1; Ephesians 2:5) here may not be overlooked. The Romanists indeed say (Conc. Trid. Sess. VI. cap1): liberum arbitrium minime extinctum esse, viribus licet attenuatum et inclinatum, and Möhler speaks only of the sleep of sin (Symbolik, p100), but Paul says, in accordance with his Lord in the parable of him left “half-dead” (ἡμιθανῆ, Luke 10:30), that we are dead to what is good, robbed of the “life,” which includes strength and activity in connection with entire satisfaction, i.e. happiness, and hence are powerless, inactive, cramped in our life-movement, troubled, dissatisfied and unhappy; it is therefore not merely a feeling of unhappiness, not merely the corruption of the intellectual, but also of the moral, in fact of all the powers of life, so that physical death cannot fail, nor yet the ἀπώλεια, eternal destruction. Indeed the physical life is so affected, that sin is the heritage of every child of man from birth, it is forfeit to death as well as to sin.

[Eadie: “While admitting the scriptural account of the introduction of sin, many have shaped their views of it from the connection in which they place it in reference to Divine foreknowledge, and so have sprung up the Supralapsarian and Sub-lapsarian hypotheses. Attempts to form a perfect scheme of Theodicy, or a full vindication of the Divinity, have occupied many other minds than that of Leibnitz. The relation of the race to its Progenitor has been viewed in various lights, and analogies physical, political and metaphysical, with theories of Creationism and Traducianism, have been employed in illustration, from the days of Augustine and Pelagius to those of Erasmus and Luther, Calvin and Arminius, Taylor and President Edwards. Questions about the origin of evil, transmission of depravity, imputation of guilt, federal or representative position on the part of Adam, and physical and spiritual death as elements of the curse, have given rise to long and labored argumentation, because men have looked at them from very different stand-points, and have been influenced in their treatment of the problem by their philosophical conceptions of the Divine character, the nature of sin, and that moral freedom and power which belong to responsible humanity. The modus may be and is among the deep things of God; but the res is palpable: for experience confirms the Divine testimony that we are by nature ‘children of wrath,’ per generationem, not per imitationem.” Comp. the history of the Doctrine, Romans, pp 191 ff.—R.]

These walking dead ones ( Ephesians 2:2-3) stand in the relation of slaves in Satan’s kingdom, and so long as they are without help from above, they wallow ever deeper and deeper into misery and death. They have in Satan an ἄρχοντα, “prince,” who works and rules in opposition to Christ, the Head of the Church. He has his personal, wicked will as ruler, according to which (κατά) unconverted sinners walk; he has in the existing tendencies of the age in the world, urging themselves as a norm, an assistant of his power, which surrounds all men, penetrates all, unperceived and unregarded (ἐξουσία τοῦ ἀέρος), which works as a spirit in the sons of disobedience ( Ephesians 2:2). The lusts of the flesh also and its glory, of the “thoughts,” the selfish thought, are channels of his influence, of the flow of his spirit into the children of wrath, to which he is himself forfeit and to which all are exposed, who do not permit themselves to be converted and redeemed. This truth is as startling as it is humbling. In and with the world-historical progress under God’s gracious guidance Satan as the prince of darkness carries on his activity to the destruction of men.²⁷

4. Anthropologically: Man appears here:

a. As the creature of God (αὐτοῦ ποίημα), in which however there is but a side reference to the fact of man’s creation. Paul uses this ( Ephesians 2:10) only as a substratum for his remarks respecting man’s renewal and regeneration in Christ, holding this truth firmly however, just here, where man’s ruin in sin is spoken of. This must never be forgotten: Every man, not merely Adam and Eve, those too who are born, are God’s creatures. Even though the substance is given, out of which man is begotten and born, it exists only as the creative in working of God. And although man is to be regarded continually as the creature of God, this does not exclude the second causes by means of which God since the close of the Hexaëmeron continues the work of creation (see Frank, Theol., F. c, I. p52), so that the Apostle can say: “by nature children of wrath.” There is a two-fold nature, the original, created by God, the degenerated, corrupted by sin. So far as we are God’s work and creation, is the nature of the body and the soul in organism and powers, good; but intruded sin has corrupted their nature which was in itself good. This leads to the second point.

b. As a member of his race (φύσει) and that from the point of time when his “nature,” a production within humanity, begins, hence from his birth. As respects this he is “flesh,” doing the wishes of the flesh and of the thoughts, is “dead in trespasses and sins.” For humanity is a living whole and in it every individual partakes of the character of the whole. This permits no one to be a non-participant in the consequences of the first sin, and each individual has his natural share in the corruption thereof. There is however, notwithstanding, in him a capacity for being converted, redeemed, saved, which distinguishes him from the fallen angels, who do not possess this, and also from lapis or truncus, negatively, in that he holds himself not passively, but aggressively against God, and positively, in that he has been created by God for renewal in Christ, and has from the creation on such an aptitudo (see Frank, p140 ff.). To his doings and his character there belongs however no activity or relation to the salvation given in Christ, although he can and will have a consciousness of his unhappiness as a “child of wrath,” and has accordingly a certain knowledge (obscura scintillula ejus notitia quid sit Deus), or a memoriter knowledge of God and a longing for the removal of his need, and hence too will try in his conduct and plans many a way to help himself, without ever finding the right way and the effective means. He will rather be deceived by the lusts and be oftener and more powerfully moved by the wills of his flesh and of his selfish thought under the evil influences of his surroundings.

c. As a child of his age (“according to the course of this world”) and his nation, breathing in the atmosphere of his time and his tribe, determined and swept on by the stream of the present, to which he belongs.

d. As member of a world, in which outside the Divine power the power of the kingdom of darkness secretly, noiselessly exercises its force all about and in the individual men, who are unbelieving and unconverted. Man has an individual, moral, national position, but stands related also to the cosmical power of the evil one as well as to the eternal power of God working above and within the world.

5. Soteriologically: a) The essence of salvation (“ye have been and are saved”) out of the condition of death, wrought and strengthened by sin, is “life:” hence “quickened together” ( Ephesians 2:5). Life is a gift, a gratuity of grace (δῶρον, Ephesians 2:8), but not so complete at once, that it only needs to be offered and taken into possession; it is a new creation ( Ephesians 2:10), a creative renewal. Salvation is also conceived of as deliverance from the power and dominion of this world and its prince, as exaltation and redemption into the kingdom of God; hence “raised us up with Him, and made us sit with Him in heavenly places.”

b) The cause of salvation is God, who quickens, raises and exalts, and especially His grace ( Ephesians 2:5; Ephesians 2:8). Comp1. This salvation is so little a life developing itself out of the natural character, that it is called a “gift of God,” which is only to be received.

c) The Mediator is Christ. See2.

d) The condition is faith: “through faith.” The context shows that the object of faith is the Person of Christ ( Ephesians 2:5-7; Ephesians 2:10), in whom God and God’s grace are known and grasped, grasped and known. The nature of faith is evidently thus defined, that it is no work, since in this salvation works are denied as antecedent (“not of works,” Ephesians 2:9), and good works are designated only as subsequent thereto ( Ephesians 2:10), but also, that it does not spring of itself on the soil of our heart or spirit, since salvation comes “not of yourselves:” faith is not from the natural man. But since salvation is the impartation of life, and that too in creative manner, faith itself must be conceived of as an accepting activity, an ethical Acts, or an ethical course of action, having its corresponding development. Still nothing further is predicated on this point.

[“It is the uniform doctrine of the New Testament, that no man is saved against his will; and his desire to be saved is proved by his belief of the Divine testimony. Salvation by grace is not arbitrarily attached to faith by the mere sovereign dictate of the Most High, for man’s willing acceptance of salvation is essential to his possession of it, and the operation of faith is just the sinner’s appreciation of the Divine mercy, and his acquiescence in the goodness and wisdom of the plan of recovery, followed by a cordial appropriation of its needed and adapted blessings, or, as Augustine tersely and quaintly phrases it—Qui creavit te sine te, non salvabit te sine te. Justification by faith alone is simply pardon enjoyed on the condition of taking it.” Eadie.—R.]

e) The course of salvation, according to Ephesians 2:5-6 : “quickened us together with Christ,” “and raised us up with Him and made us sit with Him” “in Christ,” as well as Ephesians 2:10 : “created in Christ Jesus,” is to be thus understood: that the salvation, given personally and actually in Christ, begins in man with a reviving, which is a “dying to sin” ( Romans 6:1 f.), beginning first of all in the individual and having in him first its growth and development, but then extending itself over whole races and unfolding itself ever more gloriously in them, not indeed as a natural life left to itself, but as continually evoked and furthered by the supernatural grace in its riches ( Ephesians 2:7), always in Christ, out from Christ, never away from Christ, beyond Christ, but on toward and up to Him.

6. Ethically: a. The worth of morality transcends all intellectual power. If ever a people was great in the latter respect, it was the Greeks, and yet to them applies what is said in Ephesians 2:1-2 : despite all science and art, despite all progress in the department of human mental culture and the earthly life, so that they have been for centuries the masters of the leading civilized nations, they have fallen and persisted in moral corruption.

b. The nature of morality is “good works,” which God prepared before; they have been given since the beginning of the creation: in the written law the unwritten laws have been rendered, fixed and secured against alteration. The new creation in Christ has resumed and continued the first, not obsolete creation, not however as supplementing a defective one, but as renewing one disfigured and destroyed in man. God’s dealings ordered from the beginning by Him are alone spoken of.

c. The basis of morality, which is the proper bearing of man towards the will of God, rests in the proper relation of man to God, into which he is transferred as a new creature in Christ. Since this is brought to pass through faith, faith itself is the basis of true Christian morality. From what is said respecting the people of Israel, it is manifest that even the law of God and many other salutary institutions can be in force, without helping or furthering this, if faith be lacking. But works cannot and may not be lacking to faith, if it is genuine: they are essential in the life of faith; even though not necessary for the sake of justification and to the attainment of eternal life, they are still necessary proofs of faith, and necessary on account of the mandatum, ordinatio et voluntas Dei. Since good works are not created by God, but Christians created for them, and since Christians should perform them of their own free will under the impulse of the Spirit, faith must be the basis for these, the same faith by means of which the man becomes a new man. [The Gospel says “Live and do this,” not “Do this and live,” and the old maxim: bona opera non præcedunt justificandum, sed sequuntur justificatum, is here again proven Scriptural, as experience proves it the only possible order. The many battles on this point, the ever-recurring tendency in theology and in the heart of the Christian, to mix, confuse, contrast and oppose faith and works, find in the plain, pellucid statement of the Apostle their proper rebuke. Alas, such simple words have too often been tortured by expositors to support their theories.²⁸—R.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Despite the amiable qualities and social virtues in the character, lovely mental gifts in the life of those who are not born of God, not born of His Spirit; they are still walking dead men, dead in the living body, in which the outer man is nobly upheld while the inward man perishes day by day.—Through trespasses and sins, through many, but little sins, little meannesses, trifling impurities, petty jealousies, which creep in secretly, lightly, unnoticed, and work so successfully for the death of man’s soul,—it occurs that one otherwise honorable can be inwardly more corrupt, more thoroughly ruined, than one who has committed some great crime. Among the twelve disciples of Jesus, one was Judas the traitor!—Consider the experience of all Christians: only after conversion do they perceive the abomination of sin, its origin and its end, destruction. Here can man only reflect.—Most men appear well, but if they had at one time the thoughts and feelings which so often steal in upon them, in externally manifest and accomplished deeds before their eyes, their body would seem to them like a shroud, and their heart like a corpse, of a beloved one indeed, yet full of stench.—The spirit of the age of this world is never a good spirit. It does indeed occasionally appear to be so here and there, as in the time of the Reformation. This was born of God’s Spirit and Word, and yet it was furthered by carnal hostility to the Pope, evil desires after the ecclesiastical possessions, after the treasures of the monasteries; godless movements against godless oppression; if God the Lord had not helped it by special events and circumstances, it would have been repressed or polluted—by the spirit of the age!—In evil there is system, progress, growth, development; a prince too and rulers, spirit and law; evil, darkness is a kingdom also, and at its head is a prince, the chief of the devils; from frivolous, temperate sinners to premeditated villains, and from sinful men to fallen angels, and among these there is gradation and connection, a kingdom, without peace and happiness, it is true.

Selfishness is a destructive pervading disease of one’s own Ego, which dies of it. To live for self and only for self is a poor, pitiable life. What kind of a wife is that who will not live for her husband? what kind of a man is he who will not live for his calling? what kind of a human being is that who will not live for his God, but only for his lusts, capable of no sacrifice, except petty alms if he is rich; noble before men, before God a tatter, honored before men and yet the object of Divine wrath and of His sentence to perdition?—It is a sad contradiction among men, that they speak of the “dear God” [the common German phrase: der liebe Gott and say, He is love, while no one is to them more uncomfortable and obnoxious than the Church, which makes this a matter of earnest, preaching of the love of the Father in Christ the Crucified and Risen One; they are tolerant toward sins in themselves and others, aye, toward vile sins, fornication, suicide, if there is any respectability about it, but tolerant toward the living and active members of the church they are certainly not, that is impossible for them. What then do they think of the love of God?—You may as little undervalue faith as the rudder, however small it is in a large ship. All labor in the rigging, in the masts and sails, at stem or stern, helps nothing even in the best of weather, much less in swell and storm, if the rudder is not in order and rightly used; so without faith you toss about in life, aimless, helpless, hopeless.—God did not first make the members and then out of them the body; man was at once entire. So too man is not born piecemeal, though small and weak, he is yet an entire human being. It is so with the new birth also. Conversion affects the whole man, is however only the first step, not perfection, is a beginning pointing and impelling toward advance and completion.

Luther:—That for which each thing is created, it does without law and compulsion. The sun shines by nature, unbidden; the pear-tree bears of itself, voluntarily; three and seven ought not to be ten, they are ten already. There is no need that one should say to God, He should do good, for He does all the time willingly and gladly of Himself. So too one should not command the righteous man, that he should do good works, for he does it without this, without command and compulsion, because he is a new creature and a good tree.—He should not be driven thereto, if his faith be not fancied and feigned.

Starke:—He who does not walk in God’s way, following the guiding star of God’s will, gets other blind guides, and is induced to cut such capers, that he is plunged into extreme corruption.—The saints are free confessors of their sins, having no desire for hypocrisy to justify themselves.—All men are equally corrupted by original sin, although the corruption breaks out in various ways.—Evil lust is the root of all sins, even of sin itself.—Reason is a glorious gift of God, as the deprival of the same, madness, is a great misery and judgment. But it is much weakened and darkened through the fall, and hence inclined to many errors and prejudices, permitting itself to be abused.—Art thou poor in soul, here thou mayest find an inexhaustible treasure of God’s mercy, making us rich in Him.—Our salvation comes from God’s compassionate love alone.—We are really quickened in Christ, by Christ and with Christ. Therefore we have a real not a fancied life, and there is as great a difference between a natural and a regenerated man as between those physically dead and alive.—Believers not only become blessed in the future, but they are really blessed, although their blessedness is still imperfect.—Without grace no one can believe, and without believing no one can partake of grace.—We are God’s work as regards creation; but if we do not become so as regards sanctification and the application of redemption, we remain outside the fellowship with God.—Regeneration is a real creation and the source of all spiritual life.

Rieger:—Living men cannot exactly understand that they are to regard themselves as dead through trespasses and sins. Weak they prefer admitting as applicable to them; and indeed the word of God does occasionally describe us as weak, as sick. But the Spirit of God does not mean this, as men gladly explain it. They confess themselves weak with the persuasion that they can make themselves better and become strong by self-improvement. The word of God, however, means a weakness, in which self-help is no longer possible, where the hope of recovery rests solely on the presence and power of the physician. As certainly as the body without the soul is dead, so certainly is the soul without the Spirit dead.—The walk and the occupation with which man commonly conceals this death, do not make the harm less, but rather the more dangerous.—That the time, the existing course of the world, the principles, opinions and habits arising therein, can operate largely in man, bearing him into much which he would not reach by himself, making his exit and freedom very difficult, should a longing for something better actually arise within him; this is quite readily perceived. But that a prince, a ruler of darkness, an expert power, extending as far as the air and clouds, lurks therein, that we do not know of ourselves, nor do we want to believe it, though it is proven by the word of God. The devil himself has the best interest in the fact that so little of his business is suspected among the dealings of men.—At first flesh and Reason can be for a while in conflict. Reason accuses the lusts of the flesh of being vile and unbecoming to man; but there is no power to free itself from them; and the flesh reproaches the reason with this inability and the consequent falsity of its assumed virtues, and so the two prefer to make peace with each other. The reason is reconciled with the flesh, helps to justify and excuse its lusts, paints a better external appearance for them, while the flesh for the sake of the praise occasionally crawls into a form not too coarse.—What will God yet do in future ages, that the riches of the grace of Christ may be yet more confidently proven, more gladly believed, and more uninterruptedly enjoyed!

Passavant:—Our whole nature desires life, life is our thirst, we hate death! So often and so long as we trespass against the law of our conscience or God’s law, is all holiness and righteousness dead within us; there lives then no love of God, no Spirit of the Lord, no joy in Him, no heavenly peace, no Divine life in us, that is, no real life.—If God’s breath does not breathe afresh upon us with the power of the Divine nature, then education however careful, culture however refined, is mere patchwork and tinsel, no pure truth, no pure power from God, no new birth, no heavenly life.—We can learn from the reports of the gospel messengers, in what forms, in what follies and enormities the kingdom of superstition and unbelief has down to our days, multiplied and established itself. Every recollection of the holy and eternal, every trace, every presage of the unknown God in the human soul, has been degraded and distorted into the silliest and most infamous fictions and lies, into the most miserable and sinful abortions of idolatrous forms and worship.—Notice the language of Scripture. One and the same word in the text signifies unbelief and disobedience, for both these poisonous plants proceed from one and the same bitter root of the heart. You do not look with pleasure on Him, Whom you will not obey; you do not keep Him in mind, nor inquire after Him.—Is thy obedience poor, then thy faith is not earnest; is thy faith not vital and genuine, then there is no child-like, earnest obedience.

Heubner:—Those are dead, who have died to all that is good and godly, in whom the spirit is benumbed and the flesh alone is active. There are grades of death as well as of life. Spiritual death manifests itself in the entire lack of knowledge respecting spiritual things, of desire, love, power for good; all taste for the Divine, all longing for God is wanting. This death is the result of sin. Christianity found the world dead and reanimated it. To be without God, without Christ, is death. The first stirring of life is anxiety about ourselves, the consciousness of misery and sin.—Fearful is the power, which the course, the spirit of the world, maintains over man. It distorts all his ideas. We must agree with it, if we would have peace, honor, respect and power; those who oppose it, are regarded with wrath. The origin of this spirit is in the prince of darkness. He who stands outside of Christ, stands in fellowship with Satan; for he thinks and lives in accordance with the maxims of the evil spirit.—“Prince of the power of the air!” This description is apt, because the evil spirit is not a visible member of human society, and yet is about us, in our circle, in the sublunary world.—Satan was therefore the ruling power in heathenism, and accordingly this cannot be regarded as a healthful and normal development of religion. His influence still continues.—To deny this activity of Satan is to bring water to his mill.—The bodily resurrection of Christ has as a consequence a spiritual resurrection of men.—It is contrary to the proud consciousness of man, to live by the grace of God, and yet he cannot live by any thing else than grace. All is of grace: that we may hear the gospel, God opens our understanding, and makes our hearts willing to believe.—What would have occurred had Christ not come? Socrates, Plato, Pythagoras appeared4–500 years before Him—what had they helped the world? He who thinks that others would have come after them, who would have helped, will wait in vain forever. —On the one side Paul excludes works, on the other he requires them.

Stier:—God not only raised Him from the dead, but the dead in Him.—The air which exhales from earth the old villain who hides therein and uses it, thoroughly knows how to turn and pour in opposition to the gales from heaven.—Mercy removes misery and death, Love appears instead of wrath, blessing, delivering, saving.—First life, the new creature, then we may speak of walk and good works.—Life, as just begun, is not complete, does not stand still, but grows, develops, forms and employs itself. It proceeds from the Risen One continually as the Spirit of sanctification.

Spurgeon:—Spiritual quickening: Jairus’ daughter, the young man at Nain, Lazarus, 1) Illustrations of the different circumstances in which those who are really dead are to be found; 2) Illustrations of the various means of grace through which they are quickened by the power of the same Spirit; 3) Illustrations of experiences through which those who have been made alive pass after their quickening.

Langbein:—The glorification of Christ, the glorification of Redeemed ones: 1) God has quickened us together with Him, 2) raised us together with Him, 3) transferred us into heavenly places in Him.—Gesetz und Zeugniss: Bow thy knees and rejoice over the great gracious plan of God: 1) that we fully survey it in Christ, 2) that each of us has his place in it, 3) that it has become actual in many respects through the word and faith and in the Holy Ghost.

[Schenkel:—Sin a fountain of death in apparent life.—The kingdom of Satan in its dreadfulness and nothingness.—The blessedness of the Christian: 1) It has a firm basis, that of grace; 2) It leads them to a certain way, that of faith.—Our hope that in the course of ages God will manifest Himself yet more gloriously by means of the grace and truth made known in Christ. “Faith opens our eyes, ears, mind and heart; giving us (1) the heavenly desire, (2) the Divine knowledge, (3) the Divine taste, (4) the truth of life” (from Passavant).—R.]

[Eadie:

Ephesians 2:1. The epithet “dead” here implies: 1. Previous life; 2. Insensibility; 3. Inability. He cannot because he will not, and therefore he is justly responsible.

Ephesians 2:2. They did not pursue indulgences fashionable at a former epoch, but now obsolete and forgotten. Theirs were not the idolatries and impurities of other centuries. No; they lived as the age on all sides of them lived—in its popular and universal errors and delusions; they walked in entire conformity to the reigning sins of the times.

Ephesians 2:3. Si Deus non irascitur impiis et injustis, nec pios justosque diligit (Lactantius).

Ephesians 2:4. Though mercy has been expended by God for six milleniums, and myriads of myriads have been partakers of it, it is still an unexhausted mine of wealth.—The love is great—a great God is its possessor and great sinners are its objects.

Ephesians 2:5. Life may be feeble at first, but the sincere milk of the word is imbibed and the expected maturity is at length reached. Its first moment may not indeed be registered in the consciousness, as it may be awakened within us by a varying process.

Ephesians 2:6. The quickened soul is not merely made aware that in Christ, as containing it and all similar souls, it is enlivened, and raised, and elevated, but along with this it enjoys individually a conscious life, resurrection and session with Jesus.

Ephesians 2:7. All the grace in this kindness shown in the first century is a lesson even to the nineteenth century. What God did then, He can do now and will do now; and one reason why He did it then was, to teach the men of the present age His ability and desire to repeat in them the same blessed process of salvation and life.

Ephesians 2:8. Look at salvation in its origin—it is “by grace;” in its reception—it is “through faith;” in its manner of conferment—it is a “gift.”

Ephesians 2:9. If man be guilty, and being unable to win a pardon, simply receives it; if, being dead, he gets life only as a Divine endowment; if favor, and nothing but favor, has originated his safety, and the only possible act on his part be that of reception; if what he has be but a gift to him in his weak and meritless state—then surely nothing can be further from him than boasting, for he will glorify God for all.—R.]

Footnotes