Ephesians - Lesson 10

Ephesians chapter two, verses one through 22, began the part of Paul's letter that some scholars have called really the body proper, where he begins talking more specifically about some content related to the spiritual blessings in Christ. So I'm calling this section Spiritual Blessings in Christ Further Explained. So as we said, in the previous lectures, he begins by, of course, introducing himself to the Ephesians as Paul the Apostle, and they already know Paul, and he tells us to whom he's writing, and then he also prays upon them a blessing of peace and grace to them from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and then he praises God for these spiritual blessings that we've received in Christ in the heavenly places.

Jew and Gentile in Christ have experienced redemption and the forgiveness of sins, because God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world in love, he predestined us in Christ unto adoption, and in Christ Jesus, we've been sealed with the Holy Spirit, and we have an inheritance, which we said includes the kingdom of God and all the redemptive blessings that God has fulfilled for us in Christ, and that God has given us the privilege of hearing the gospel and receiving it by faith, and we also, as a result of that, we experience the same power when we believe that God displayed in Jesus' life when he raised Jesus Christ from the dead, who is filling up the body of Christ with his sovereign power, and in fact, he is helping us, as we saw in the earlier lectures, to grow up into maturity. Now, in Ephesians 2, one through 22, Paul is gonna further explain, I think, these spiritual blessings in Christ, and really what he does first is he focuses primarily on the plight or the problem, and the problem and the plight, it's very dark. It's not only dark for Gentiles, which he says in 2, one, you were dead in trespasses and sins, but it was also dark for Jews as well, because later in the text, he'll make reference to we were dead in verse five, in trespasses.

So here's the argument that Paul is gonna put forward here, is that Jews and Gentiles in Christ Jesus, they mutually experienced these redemptive promises that God talked about and revealed in part through images and symbols and prophecies and promises, and they received them in full in Jesus Christ, but prior to God's redemptive act in Jesus Christ, both Gentiles and Jews were dead in trespasses and sins and needed God to work in them to bring about the fulfillment of these redemptive promises. Now, I'm gonna get into the text verse by verse here in a moment, but I wanna introduce it again with a further word here. It's so important that we understand that there is no salvation for Jews or Gentiles apart from explicit faith in Jesus Christ.

One thing Paul is going to emphasize in 2, one to 22 is this glorious truth that one is not condemned based on one's ethnicity, and one is not saved based on one's ethnicity, but one experience salvation by faith in Jesus, regardless of whether that person's a Jew or Gentile, and one will experience condemnation based on a lack of faith in Jesus because Jesus is the only provision to the problem, and he has always been God's plan, the Jewish Messiah, the second person of the Trinity to come, Jesus of Nazareth, to bring about salvation for Jews and Gentiles through his bloody cross, which is superior to that Levitical sacrificial system, which simply illustrates for us that God will purify them by means of his grace and as they express repentance, but ultimately we know those sacrifices did not provide forgiveness of sins. Hence, as we said earlier, the Day of Atonement had to be celebrated every single year in Leviticus chapter 16, but Jesus Christ dies for Jews and Gentiles, and he provides redemption, liberation from sin's power, purity from sin's power, and he also provides, as Paul says, forgiveness of sins, that he wipes away our sins, and this is true for Jews and Gentiles, but here is the problem to one, and you, you were dead in trespasses and in your sins. Notice in verse one, Paul, again, these pronouns are very important.

He uses the pronoun you all, it's a plural in the Greek text, it's y'all. I'm from Kentucky and I like to say the word y'all when we're talking about plural you's because in English, as you know, we can't tell if it's a singular you or a plural you unless we are looking at the context, but in Greek, we can actually look at the form of the word and tell that he's talking about you all as Gentiles. This is very important.

When we think about the Gentiles, remember that from a Jewish perspective, that Gentiles, generally speaking, they were not the people of God. Yes, they were created in the image of God. Yes, they were uniquely created as human beings to represent God's image on earth.

That's true of everyone who's a human being. But if you look at numerous Jewish texts, both in the Old Testament as well as in extra biblical literature, for the most part, from a Jewish perspective, Gentiles were viewed as those who did not love God, who did not pursue God unless they conformed, we can even say converted to a Jewish way of life, entered into the covenant community if they were males by means of circumcision and if they were not males, of course, by means of other aspects of keeping the law. So interesting story, and a famous Jewish historian named Josephus in which he talks about this very fact.

He makes the point that this king, a Gentile king, he desires to conform to a Jewish way of life. And he wants to be circumcised because circumcision was the mark of the Abrahamic covenant. And as we said in earlier lectures, we see the mark of circumcision is folded within the Mosaic covenant in Leviticus chapter 12, verse three.

But here's the question that he faces. He faces this question. If he gets circumcised, will somehow his Gentile subjects over whom he rules as a Gentile think that he is showing special privileges to the Jewish people? So there's a debate that takes place between one Jew and another Jew as they are instructing him as to whether he should be circumcised.

And one Jew says to him, no, don't get circumcised. You can conform to a Jewish way of life apart from circumcision because if in fact you get circumcised, then you will have a difficult time leading your Gentile subjects. But then another Jew enters into the conversation and he says to this Gentile that you must get circumcised because the only way you can enter into a Jewish way of life is if you fundamentally receive the basic mark that shows you are identifying with the covenant God made with Abraham and then applied to Israel in Leviticus chapter 12, verse 3 when he gave the law to them, Sinai.

Well, to make a long story short, Josephus tells the story that this king as a grown man was taken and he was circumcised as he began his path toward entering into a Jewish way of life. Now, why would he do that? Because there was a perspective that suggested that Gentiles were ungodly people, did not know God. We see it further in other Jewish texts.

We see it in a Jewish text where this Jewish author makes the point that Gentiles do not worship God and they worship idols and they have no ability to see good. They only are evil, so on and so forth. Of course, there were exceptions to how Jews perceived of Gentiles.

But the basic point is, this is the general way Gentiles are perceived. We see it most importantly in the Old Testament where the nations are the ones that Israel ought not to imitate because they are idolaters, which is why God gives Israel the law of Moses in order to distinguish them from the other nations, which is one reason why he does not want to give them a king like the other nations because Yahweh himself is their king. And so when we see here in Ephesians 2, verse one, you all were dead in trespasses and sins.

This was the typical pattern in which Gentiles experienced life. They did not have God's law from Sinai. They had no clear guide by which to follow the one and true living God.

Now, of course, in Paul's day, and Paul knows this, there were what we could say virtuous Gentiles. It's not true historically to believe that every Gentile was ungodly or an idolater or pursued lewd, reckless, moral living. It's not true.

We have examples of Stoics, for example, who are Gentiles and other philosophers who were Gentiles who promoted a virtuous life. In fact, there's a famous Stoic philosopher named Seneca who wrote a treatise on virtue and he talked about how to live a virtuous life. But the basic point I'm making to you is when you compare a Gentile way of life, generally speaking, to a Jewish way of life, only Jews received a revelation from God.

Only Jews were given special revelation to help them understand how they should walk in the paths of righteousness, not these Gentiles. So Paul says to one, you all were dead in your trespasses and your sins. Now, that word trespass, we mentioned it earlier, the word trespass is, generally speaking, a particular kind of sin.

When we think about, as I've said before, Cain and Abel. When Cain murdered his brother Abel, he sinned because he murdered someone who was created in the image of God. And we see in the narrative how God responded to his behavior.

He made it plain by his response that this was sin. But technically, Cain did not violate the commandment, do not murder. That commandment came when God gave the law at Sinai.

So then when someone murders after God gives a command, do not murder, that person commits the sin of transgression. So when we think about sin, Paul talks about sin in different ways. He talks about it as original sin, Romans chapter five, that there's a sin nature that we have when we are conceived.

We do not become sinners when we commit sins. We commit sins in Paul's theology because we are sinners. We're conceived in sin.

So therefore, when we are born into the world, we commit particular acts of sin. So sin is original for Paul. Sin is transgression, as I've already described.

But sin is also described by Paul as a power, which I think he does some of that in Ephesians. But here, he seems to be using the word transgressions in verse one and the word sins in a synonymous way. There'll be two reasons why I think he's doing that

One reason is because in verse two, when he describes them walking in their sins, he uses this word, we call it a relative pronoun, in which, that word which there, you formally walk. Well, the word which links back to the word sins, technically, not the word transgressions. But here's the point.

I think Paul is making the argument here that he's not distinguishing between transgressions and sins. In fact, Gentiles committed both acts. They transgressed a law which they did not have.

And when they transgressed that law which they did not have, they likewise sin. So what he's doing is he's talking about transgressions and sins here as a collective package in which he makes the point that they walked in their sins. Now, the second reason why I think this is what Paul is doing is because down later in verse five, he makes the point that we all were dead, or we rather were dead in trespasses, where he is applying now the same point to Jews.

Notice the switch of the pronoun. You all were dead in trespasses and sins. And we, verse five, were dead, notice he says in trespasses, but he doesn't say in sins.

Well, he doesn't have to because all trespasses are sins. So here's my basic point that I'm making is that Paul is highlighting first Gentile sin and transgressions in order to emphasize later that Jews and Gentiles share both in the same plight and both they share in the same solution in Christ. But first he wants to highlight their depravity.

You all were dead in trespasses and sins. Now, what does it mean to be dead in their trespasses and sins? It means they had no spiritual life. He doesn't say that they were simply sick.

He describes them as dead. Perhaps an illustration can be when you think about the ministry of Jesus and Jesus shows up in Bethany, having delayed his entrance there for a while so that Lazarus would die. And when Jesus gets there, he's dead.

In fact, he's been dead for several days to the point that the sisters or the people at the tomb say that if we remove this stone away, the body is gonna smell because he's been dead for a few days. And then Jesus reminds them that he told them that they believed they'd see the glory of God. So Jesus speaks to a dead body.

He speaks to a body that had no life and he spoke life, physical life into that body. So when he talks about deadness here, he's talking about no spiritual life. And he explains here in verse two that they had no spiritual life and they did exactly what those with no spiritual life would do.

They lived a rebellious life against God. They had no desire to fulfill the law of Moses. It makes perfect sense because the law of Moses came to Israel, to Jews at Sinai.

And so Gentiles did not have a clear revelation from God by which to honor him. That's why Paul says in Romans 1, 18 to 32, that these Gentiles worship their creation rather than worshiping the creator. They committed idolatry and they participated in all sorts of vices because God gave them over due to their rebellion against his revelation.

So as a result, people who don't know God, people who are dead in trespasses and sins, these Gentiles, they walked in their sins. Now this verb for walk here, remember it. It's a verb that Paul loves to use in the letter.

He talks about, remember chapter four, as we said in previous lectures, verse one, you can go ahead and skip there again. He exhorts these Ephesians in chapter four, verse one, to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which they were called. And he says walk multiple times in the letter.

In fact, over in chapter four, verse 17, he exhorts them not to walk as the Gentiles walked. Now, how did the Gentiles walk? He tells you in two one and two, they walked as those who were enslaved to their sins. Let me give you a few of the sins, perhaps what they committed.

They slandered, they gossiped, practiced idolatry, homosexual behavior, all forms of sexual morality, lewd conduct, filthy speech, vulgarity, all the things he forbids them from doing later in the letter, they perhaps did. In essence, they lived a radical rebellious life against God and his revelation. They walked contrary to the gospel.

Why? Verse one, because they were dead in trespasses and sins. A practical word here, before we work through the rest of the verse, this is true of all of us. Remember that when we think about Paul, he maps the world in these two categories, Jews and Gentiles.

And everybody who is a Gentile is not a Jew. It doesn't matter our ethnic origin, our political status, it doesn't matter where we're from geographically, it doesn't matter our age, the color of our skin, that if we're not a Jew, we are a Gentile. And the cold fact is, is that Jews and Gentiles are totally depraved.

We are morally bankrupt in terms of not having the ability within us to live a life pleasing to God in order to receive eternal life. But the point Paul's making here, however, is a point regarding Gentile depravity. At least Jews received the law from Sinai.

At least Jews sought to honor Yahweh. At least Jews sought to live a righteous life. Have you noticed, by the way, when you read the Gospels, for example, Jesus does not critique the Pharisees for obeying the law.

He critiques them for disobeying the law, right? He talks, he makes the point that when they teach the things that Moses teaches, Matthew 23 here I'm thinking, that the Jews in their communities should listen to what the Pharisees say because they sit on the seat of Moses. But then he warns them and says, do not practice their behavior. Why? Because he calls them hypocrites.

Going back really to the earlier part in the Sermon on the Mount, where he makes the point that we ought not to pray like the hypocrites pray, who pray simply to be honored by men. So the point I'm making here is, is that the emphasis on obeying the law and impurity and seeking to live a pious life, generally speaking, we see at the very least, Jews are giving instructions by how to do that in Torah and pious Jews who are seeking to be blameless in accordance with the law. Even Jews in the Gospel of Luke at the birth of Jesus, seeking to honor him.

Joseph, for example, was a righteous man, Matthew tells us, because he was a Torah-observant Jew. But Gentiles, they walked in their deadness and their trespasses and their sins. What's true of Gentiles in Paul's day is true of everybody today.

We are all dead in trespasses and sins. We have no spiritual life. And we manifest that lack of spiritual life by rebelling against God.

So he continues and he says in verse two, in these sins, you formerly, you walked, you lived a pattern of life. And notice that they lived a pattern of life in accordance with the age of this world. Now, this is important here.

I've alluded to this already in previous remarks when I made reference to the present evil age. Here is Paul's way of talking about the present evil age when he says, according to the age of this world, the age of this world represents the age in which the principalities and powers of the air rule and reign in the heavenly places beneath the sovereign power of God who rules and reigns over all things. So in other words, when we think of the age of this world, it is the age of darkness.

Now, another important piece here, I'm gonna just support what I'm saying in a moment, but another important piece here, notice that word world there. It's the Greek term kosmos. In the New Testament, the word kosmos or world, it has a variety of different meanings.

Sometimes it might refer to the different ethnic groups of the world. I think this is what John means in John 3.16 when he says, God so loved the world. Sometimes the world refers to the physical universe that God created, that God created the world.

Sometimes the word world, however, refers to the darkness. It categorizes a realm, a spiritual realm of darkness. Another way of thinking about it is it categorizes the present evil age.

So one thing I think we need to understand, especially now because Paul is mentioning here explicit language, is that when Jesus was resurrected from the dead, running over all principalities and powers of the air, as he is seated right now at God's right hand, ruling over every earthly and demonic power, all the anti-God powers of this present evil age, those who fail to place their faith in Jesus are still enslaved to that age, to that darkness. That's why they're dead. When you think about this, this is a daunting reality that those who don't hear the gospel have no hope to be delivered from all the anti-God powers of the present evil age.

But what are those anti-God powers? Well, sin is an anti-God power. Every power that resists God, sin, death is an anti-God power. It's an enemy, 1 Corinthians 15.

And here he's going to define some specific ones, all the rulers, in Paul's context, the rulers that are linked with empire, which is linked with the veneration of the emperors, the powers that are linked with the worship of Artemis and these other Greco-Roman pantheon of God, those are anti-God, God powers. And guess who's lord over that world? He tells us in verse one, or two, rather, he says, you were walking in accordance with the age of this world, notice this next phrase, according to the ruler of the authority of the heir. Now, this is very important here that we define who this ruler is.

Notice it's a singular word here, the ruler, and I'll translate it this way, over the authority in the heir. So that word heir there, I think, links this statement back with what Paul says in previous verses about Jesus being raised over every authority, every power in the heavenly places. He is reigning, just hear this very carefully.

I'm going to keep emphasizing this point because it's important for Paul's message. Jesus is reigning comprehensively and sovereignly over everything with God triumphantly. He has conquered the present evil age.

He entered into the present evil age. He burst in by means of the incarnation and the fullness of time. And he conquered the power of sin and death and the devil and all the anti-God powers.

And he's reigning over them triumphantly as the Messiah who shares in Yahweh's divine identity. And he demonstrates his rule over them, but there are real rulers and real powers that are ruling over the present evil age underneath God's sovereignty. And there's a particular ruler that's exercising limited sovereign control over this age.

I say limited because the only control this ruler has is the one that God gives, the authority that God gives him. And I say limited is because it is, or sovereignty is because it is God-given authority over the air. Let's define more precisely who is this ruler? Well, let's jump ahead to chapter six here.

I think Paul unpacks for us who this ruler is. We'll get there in due season and walk through this passage a bit more carefully, but I want us to look at Ephesians 6, 10 and work our way down to a few of these verses to help us put in context what Paul is saying here in chapter two, verse two, about the ruler. Who is this ruler? Finally, 6, verse 10.

Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God. I think that is the gospel.

That you may be able to, notice it, to stand against the schemes of the devil. There it is right there. Who's the ruler over the authority of the air? Here's the question.

Who is the ruler over the darkness? Over the anti-God powers? Of course, God is sovereign over all of them. As I've said before, the devil is God's devil. He can only do what God lets him do.

Any evil that we see in this world, no, God did not create evil. He did not create evil, but God can use it for his glory. Like, for example, the crucifixion of Jesus.

That was evil. Wicked people nailed him to a cross. A crooked judicial system nailed him to a cross, but it was God's sovereign will for his son to die on the cross, to conquer the principalities and powers of the air and to absorb the wrath of God for our sin.

And it was God's will to raise him from the dead. It was God's will to redeem us in Christ. And he did that through wicked people who are guilty and will give an account for what they did.

He used those people to bring about salvation. So God is sovereign over all of this. But once again, he is giving the devil temporary sovereignty over the present evil age of darkness beneath God's sovereignty.

So the devil is the ringleader of this realm of darkness. The word devil here, that's the English translation. It's the Greek term that could also be translated as slanderer, adversary.

So this word devil is an adversary. He's an adversary working against the kingdom of God as he's seeking to rule over the kingdom of darkness. Well, Paul continues in this passage and he says, verse 12, 6-12, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but here's who we wrestle against.

We wrestle against the rulers. Same word he uses over in chapter two, verse two. The authorities, or a similar word rather, the authorities, that's the same word that we find over in verse two.

And he's gonna define the authorities and the rulers. Notice this language here, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness. Now that word translated cosmic powers, it's a different term from chapter two, verse two, when Paul talks about according to the age of the world, but it's the same concept.

I want you to feel the weight of what he's saying. There are real anti-God powers. There are cosmic powers, cosmic rulers, anti-God powers.

There are powers that are working against the kingdom of God. Now they're subject to God's sovereign power, but they're real power led by a real slanderous opponent known as the devil. And this devil, he says, has rulership over these cosmic powers, over this present darkness.

Against these, still in chapter six, verse 12, spiritual forces of evil, and look at that phrase, the heavenly places.