Ephesians
Learn how Ephesians reveals God’s eternal plan in Christ, unites Jews and Gentiles by the Spirit, transforms identity and relationships, and equips you to live faithfully and resist evil in the present age.
Number of lessons: 33
Total length: 20 hours 40 minutes
Format: Video and Audio
About This Class
Study Ephesians as Paul presents God’s saving plan fulfilled in Christ and applied by the Spirit. This course explains Jew–Gentile unity, the Messianic age, new creation identity, transformed relationships, spiritual warfare, prayer, and gospel-shaped living. You learn to read Ephesians in its Jewish, Greco-Roman, and theological context and apply its truth to the church and everyday life.
About the Professor
Jarvis Williams
Dr. Jarvis J. Williams is a Professor of New Testament Interpretation at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He joined the faculty in 2013 and is a four-time graduate of the institution, having earned his B.S. from Boyce College, and his M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from Southern Seminary. His research interests include the letters of Paul—especially Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians—and he is known for interpreting these texts within their historical and theological frameworks. Dr. Williams is primarily interested in supervising Ph.D. dissertations in the areas of Pauline Theology and Paul’s letters. He s actively involved in ministry in his local church. He also regularly preaches, teaches, and lectures across the country.
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Lessons
- Learn why Paul is presented as the author of Ephesians, how its themes (election, unity, church identity) fit his theology, and how Acts 19’s Artemis cult, imperial worship, and magic frame the letter’s call to live faithfully.0% Complete
- Ephesians 1:1–2 presents Paul’s conversion-to-apostle calling, Jesus as Messiah and Yahweh-titled Lord, believers as saints in Christ, and grace-and-peace as a salvation gift.0% Complete
- Ephesians 1 doxology: God blesses Jews and Gentiles in Christ from the heavenlies, rules over demonic powers, and chooses you in Christ before creation for holiness and Spirit-empowered godliness.0% Complete
- Ephesians 1:5 outlines predestination to adoption through Christ, how God’s sovereign plan uses the gospel and Spirit to awaken real faith, and how God’s electing love shapes perseverance in prayer for the lost.0% Complete
- Understand how election requires responsible obedience, redemption is forgiveness through Christ’s blood, and the “mystery” means God’s revealed plan to unite all things in Christ in the fullness of time.0% Complete
- Dr. Williams presents inheritance in Christ, Jew–Gentile salvation through hearing the gospel, and the Holy Spirit as the seal and guarantee of future redemption and God’s kingdom.0% Complete
- The Spirit guarantees a shared Jew–Gentile inheritance and future redemption, anchors hope in God’s kingdom and Old Testament promises fulfilled in Christ, and shapes assurance, perseverance, worship, and Paul’s Jewish context.0% Complete
- Paul prays for believers to understand their calling, hope, inheritance, and God’s resurrection power at work in them, showing that the same power that raised Christ now assures salvation and shapes faith and love.0% Complete
- God’s resurrection power saves and strengthens: Christ reigns above every power and his Spirit-filled body shares his fullness to fight sin, resist the devil, pursue unity, endure suffering, and live with steady hope.0% Complete
- Dr. Williams teaches that before Christ you are dead in sin and shaped by the present evil age under the devil’s rule, and that both Jews and Gentiles share the same plight and the same solution—explicit faith in Jesus.0% Complete
- Ephesians 2 contrasts the Holy Spirit’s work in believers with a demonic spirit working in unbelievers. Paul shows Jews and Gentiles share the same flesh-driven disobedience apart from God’s life-giving power in Christ.0% Complete
- Paul sees God’s wrath as both present and future, and teaches that only faith-union with Christ turns you from a child of wrath into a child of God. He also calls you to evangelistic urgency, Spirit-shaped learning, and a two-kingdom worldview.0% Complete
- Dr. Williams reveals God’s mercy and love reverse spiritual death by uniting you to Christ’s resurrection and reign, fulfilling Ezekiel and Jeremiah’s new-heart promises and displaying the riches of God’s grace and kindness forever.0% Complete
- Salvation is God’s gift by grace through faith, not works. God recreates you in Christ for Spirit-empowered good works, ongoing resistance to sin and the devil, and wise love for enemies.0% Complete
- Discover how Gentiles, once far off from Israel’s promises, near through his blood. Jesus unites Jews and Gentiles into one in him, breaking the dividing wall of hostility without erasing ethnic distinction.0% Complete
- Christ’s cross ends Torah’s boundary function, unites Jews and Gentiles in one new humanity, reconciles both to God, and gives both access in one Spirit, making the multi-ethnic people of God a household and living temple where God dwells.0% Complete
- Dr. Williams shows how the gospel transforms identity without erasing culture, expands the family of Christ across ethnic, social, political, and theological differences, and calls you to pursue Spirit-shaped unity with wisdom and love.0% Complete
- God reveals to Paul the once-hidden plan to unite Jews and Gentiles in Christ through the gospel, gives Paul this gift to share, and shows how the Bible’s promises lead to Jesus’ saving death and resurrection.0% Complete
- Dr. Williams teaches how God reveals his eternal plan through the church, gives Jews and Gentiles bold access to the Father, and strengthens you by the Spirit to know Christ’s love, live in God’s fullness, and trust God’s power.0% Complete
- Paul frames the gospel as a proclaimed message rooted in the Greek Old Testament, announces salvation amid coming judgment, centers on Jesus fulfilling Isaiah, and calls you to share Christ’s death and resurrection for repentance, faith, and growth.0% Complete
- Second Temple Judaism holds diverse views on law, grace, and human effort. Paul centers grace on Christ’s gospel gift, rejects law-based righteousness, and unites Jews and Gentiles without forcing customs while calling both to transformed living.0% Complete
- Ephesians 4–6 calls you to live out God’s saving work by walking in humility, patience, love, and Spirit-given unity, grounded in the one God, Lord, and Spirit.0% Complete
- Paul shows Psalm 68 fulfilled in Jesus, who descends in incarnation, ascends in victory, and gives church leaders to equip believers, guard against false teaching, and grow the church in truth, love, and Spirit-given unity until he returns.0% Complete
- See how Paul calls believers to abandon their former way of life, renew their minds by the Spirit, put on the new humanity in Christ, and live in holiness, truth, and love as members of one body.0% Complete
- Dr. Williams shares how sinful anger, greed, sexual immorality, and corrupt speech grieve the Spirit and give the devil room; while unity, thankful speech, kindness, and forgiveness mark true gospel obedience.0% Complete
- Learn to walk as a child of light by rejecting empty words and dark patterns, discerning what pleases the Lord, redeeming your time because the days are evil, and living Spirit-filled through worship, thanksgiving, and mutual submission.0% Complete
- Paul grounds husbands’ sacrificial love and wives’ submission in Christ and the church, sets marriage as “one flesh,” and calls children to obey and honor parents “in the Lord,” tying the commandment’s promise to inheritance and kingdom hope.0% Complete
- Learn how Paul calls fathers to raise children without harshness, urges slaves and masters to honor Christ within an unjust system, and shows how the gospel reshapes broken social structures into accountable, Christ-centered relationships.0% Complete
- Ephesians ties the Spirit to Christ’s kingdom work, tracks the Spirit’s role in sealing, unity, renewal, and prayer; links Acts 2 to Messiah’s enthronement and Babel’s reversal, and roots it in Isaiah and Ezekiel.0% Complete
- Dr. Williams teaches how Second Temple Jewish texts link Messiah and Spirit, why Jewish history shapes NT context, and how Christ fulfills Isaiah’s promises in a Spirit-filled kingdom, with judgment reserved for his return.0% Complete
- Jesus fulfills Isaiah 61 in Luke 4 as the Spirit-anointed Messiah, proves the kingdom’s arrival through preaching and miracles, and shows how the Spirit reshapes everyday relationships and vocation for redemptive, gospel-shaped living.0% Complete
- Learn to fight spiritual warfare by putting on the gospel as God’s armor, resisting the devil’s schemes the way Jesus does with Scripture, and standing firm through faith, prayer, church life, and consistent Bible intake.0% Complete
- Fight spiritual warfare by praying Scripture, relying on the Spirit, rejecting superstition and deliverance myths, renewing your mind, and standing firm through gospel-centered prayer, preaching, and life in the church.0% Complete
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