Chapter Nine: Take off the Graveclothes! (Ephesians 4:17–32)
Key theme: The believer’s riches in Christ
I.DOCTRINE: OUR RICHES IN CHRIST—chapters 1–3
A.Our spiritual possessions in Christ—
First Prayer—for enlightenment—
B.Our spiritual position in Christ—
1.Raised and seated on the throne—
2.Reconciled and set into the temple—
II.DUTY: OUR RESPONSIBILITIES IN CHRIST—chapters 4–6
B.Walk in purity—4:17–5:17
C.Walk in harmony—5:18–6:9
She had gone down in history as “America’s Greatest Miser,” yet when she died in 1916, “Hetty” Green left an estate valued at over $100 million. She ate cold oatmeal because it cost to heat it. Her son had to suffer a leg amputation, because she delayed so long in looking for a free clinic that his case became incurable. She was wealthy, yet she chose to live like a pauper.
Eccentric? Certainly! Crazy? Perhaps—but nobody could prove it. She was so foolish that she hastened her own death by bringing on an attack of apoplexy while arguing about the value of drinking skimmed milk! But Hetty Green is an illustration of too many Christian believers today. They have limitless wealth at their disposal, and yet they live like paupers. It was to this kind of Christian that Paul wrote the Epistle to the Ephesians.
Some names in history we identify immediately, and “Paul” is one of them. His name was originally “Saul” (); and, since he was from the tribe of Benjamin (), it is likely he was named after the first king of Israel (1 Sam. 9). Unlike his namesake, however, Saul of Tarsus was obedient, and faithfully served God. As a devoted rabbi, Saul became the leader of the antichristian movement in Jerusalem (; ). But in the midst of this activity, Saul was “arrested” by Jesus Christ and was converted (; 26).
Saul of Tarsus became Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles (). While he was ministering in the church of Antioch, he was called by the Spirit to take the Gospel to the Gentiles, and he obeyed (). The Book of Acts records three missionary journeys that took Paul throughout the Roman Empire in one of the greatest evangelistic endeavors in church history. About the year 53, Paul first ministered in Ephesus but did not remain there (). Two years later, while on his third journey, Paul stayed in Ephesus for at least two years and saw that whole vast area evangelized (). During these years, he founded a strong church in the city that was dedicated to the worship of the goddess Diana. For a description of Paul’s ministry in Ephesus, read Acts 20, and for an explanation of the opposition to Paul’s ministry there, read .
It was nearly ten years later when Paul wrote to his beloved friends in Ephesus. Paul was a prisoner in Rome (; ; ), and he wanted to share with these believers the great truths the Lord had taught him about Christ and the church. Compare with and Philemon to get a better understanding of the historical background. Onesimus, a slave, ran away from Philemon, his master, who lived at Colosse. While in Rome, Onesimus met Paul and was converted. Tychicus, one of the pastors of the church at Colossae, which may have met in Philemon’s house, was also in Rome to discuss some problems with Paul. So Paul took advantage of the presence of these two men to send three letters to his friends: the Epistle to the Ephesians, the Epistle to the Colossians, and the Epistle to Philemon. At the same time, he sent Onesimus back to his master.
So, the letter was written from Rome about the year A.D. 62. Though Paul was on trial for his life, he was concerned about the spiritual needs of the churches he had founded. As an apostle, “one sent with a commission,” he had an obligation to teach them the Word of God and to seek to build them up in the faith ().
Are you surprised to find Paul addressing his letter to saints? After all, saints are dead people who have achieved such spiritual eminence that they have been given that special title, saints. Or are they?
No word in the New Testament has suffered more than this word saint. Even the dictionary defines a saint as a “person officially recognized for holiness of life.” Who makes this official recognition? Usually some religious body, and the process by which a person becomes a saint is technically known as canonization. The deceased person’s life is examined carefully to see whether he qualifies for sainthood. If the candidate’s character and conduct are found to be above reproach, if he has been responsible for working at least two miracles, then he is qualified to be made a saint.
As interesting as this procedure is, we do not find it authorized in the Bible. Nine times in this brief letter, Paul addresses his readers as saints (, , ; ; , ; ; ; ). These saints were alive, not dead, though once they had been “dead in trespasses and sins” (). And it is clear that they had never performed any miracles, though they had experienced a miracle by trusting Christ as Saviour (). The word saint is simply one of the many terms used in the New Testament to describe “one who has trusted Jesus Christ as Saviour.” The person is “alive,” not only physically, but also spiritually (). You will find Christians called disciples (, , , , , ), people of the Way () and saints (, , ).
The word saint means “one who has been set apart.” It is related to the word sanctified, which means “set apart.” When the sinner trusts Christ as his Saviour, he is taken out of “the world” and placed “in Christ.” The believer is in the world physically, but not of the world spiritually (). Like a scuba diver, he exists in an alien environment because he possesses special equipment—in this case, the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. Every true believer possesses the Holy Spirit (; ), and it is through the Spirit’s power that the Christian is able to function in the world.
Now for the important question: How did these people at Ephesus become saints? The answer is found in two words: “faithful” and “grace” (). When Paul addresses his letter to the “saints … and faithful in Christ Jesus” he is not addressing two different groups of people. The word faithful carries the meaning of “believers in Christ Jesus.” These people were not saved by living faithful lives; rather they put their faith in Christ and were saved. This is clear from , .
The word grace is used twelve times in Ephesians, and refers to “the kindness of God toward undeserving people.” Grace and mercy often are found together in the Bible, and they certainly belong together in the experience of salvation. Grace and faith go together, because the only way to experience grace and salvation is through faith ().
The phrase “in Christ Jesus” is used twenty-seven times in this letter! It describes the spiritual position of the believer: he is identified with Christ, he is in Christ, and therefore is able to draw on the wealth of Christ for his own daily living.
Each book in the Bible has its own special theme and message, even though it may deal with many different topics. Genesis is the book of beginnings; Matthew is the book of the kingdom; Galatians is the book of liberty. states its theme: the Christian’s riches in Christ.
The source of our blessings. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” God the Father has made us rich in Jesus Christ! When you were born again into God’s family, you were born rich. Through Christ, you share in the riches of God’s grace (; ), God’s glory (; ), God’s mercy (), and “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (). Our Heavenly Father is not poor; He is rich—and He has made us rich in His Son.
J. Paul Getty, one of the richest men in the world, was worth an estimated $1.3 billion. The weekly income of some of the “oil sheiks” runs into the millions. Yet all of this wealth is but “pennies” when compared with the spiritual wealth we have in Christ. In this letter, Paul explains to us what these riches are and how we may draw on them for effective Christian living.
The scope of our blessings. We have “all spiritual blessings.” This can be translated “all the blessings of the Spirit,” referring to the Holy Spirit of God. In the Old Testament, God promised His earthly people, Israel, material blessings as a reward for their obedience (). Today, He promises to supply all our needs “according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (), but He does not promise to shield us from either poverty or pain. The Father has given us every blessing of the Spirit, everything we need for a successful, satisfying Christian life. The spiritual is far more important than the material.
The Holy Spirit is mentioned many times in this letter, because He is the one who channels our riches to us from the Father, through the Son. Not to know and depend on the Holy Spirit’s provision is to live a life of spiritual poverty. No wonder Paul began his Ephesian ministry asking some professed Christians if they really knew the Holy Spirit (). We might ask professed Christians today, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? If the answer is no, then you are not saved.” “Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (). Unless you have the witness of the Spirit (), you cannot draw on the wealth of the Spirit.
The sphere of our blessings. Our blessings are “in heavenly places in Christ.” Perhaps a clearer translation would be “in the heavenlies in Christ.” The unsaved person is interested primarily in earthlies, because this is where he lives. Jesus called them “the children of this world” (). The Christian’s life is centered in heaven. His citizenship is in heaven (); his name is written in heaven (); his Father is in heaven; and his attention and affection ought to be centered on the things of heaven (). Evangelist D.L. Moody used to warn about people who were so “heavenly minded they were no earthly good,” but that is not what Paul is describing. “The heavenlies” (literal translation) describes that place where Jesus Christ is right now () and where the believer is seated with Him (). The battles we fight are not with flesh and blood on earth, but with satanic powers “in the heavenlies” ().
The Christian really operates in two spheres: the human and the divine, the visible and the invisible. Physically, he is on the earth in a human body, but spiritually he is seated with Christ in the heavenly sphere—and it is this heavenly sphere that provides the power and direction for the earthly walk. The President of the United States is not always seated at his desk in the White House, but that executive chair represents the sphere of his life and power. No matter where he is, he is the President, because only he has the privilege of sitting at that desk. Likewise with the Christian: no matter where he may be on this earth, he is seated in the heavenlies with Jesus Christ, and this is the basis of his life and power.
When she was young, Victoria was shielded from the fact that she would be the next ruling monarch of England lest this knowledge spoil her. When her teacher finally did let her discover for herself that she would one day be Queen of England, Victoria’s response was, “Then I will be good!” Her life would be controlled by her position. No matter where she was, Victoria was governed by the fact that she sat on the throne of England.
The fact that Paul is writing about wealth would be significant to his readers, because Ephesus was considered the bank of Asia. One of the seven wonders of the world, the great temple of Diana, was in Ephesus, and was not only a center for idolatrous worship, but also a depository for wealth. Some of the greatest art treasures of the ancient world were housed in this magnificent building. In this letter, Paul will compare the church of Jesus Christ to a temple and will explain the great wealth that Christ has in His church. Paul has already used the word riches; but you may want to check other “financial” words such as inheritance (, , ; ) and fullness, or filled (, ; ; , ; ). Paul is saying to us, “BE RICH!”
Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is as carefully structured as that great temple of Diana, and it contains greater beauty and wealth! We inherit the wealth by faith and invest the wealth by works. Without this balance, our spiritual riches do us no good.
One of the funniest cartoons I ever saw showed a pompous lawyer reading a client’s last will and testament to a group of greedy relatives. The caption read: “I, John Jones, being of sound mind and body, spent it all!”
When Jesus Christ wrote His last will and testament for His church, He made it possible for us to share His spiritual riches. Instead of spending it all, Jesus Christ paid it all. His death on the cross and His resurrection make possible our salvation.
He wrote us into His will, then He died so the will would be in force. Then He arose again that He might become the heavenly Advocate (lawyer) to make sure the terms of the will were correctly followed!
In this long sentence, Paul names just a few of the blessings that make up our spiritual wealth.
Blessings from God the Father ()
He has chosen us (v. ). This is the marvelous doctrine of election, a doctrine that has confused some and confounded others. A seminary professor once said to me, “Try to explain election and you may lose your mind. But try to explain it away and you may lose your soul!” That salvation begins with God, and not with man, all Christians will agree. “Ye have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you” (). The lost sinner, left to his own ways, does not seek God (); God in His love seeks the sinner ().
Note that God chose us even before He created the universe, so that our salvation is wholly of His grace and not on the basis of anything we ourselves have done. He chose us in Christ, not in ourselves. And He chose us for a purpose: to be holy and without blame. In the Bible, election is always unto something. It is a privilege that carries a great responsibility.
Does the sinner respond to God’s grace against his own will? No, he responds because God’s grace makes him willing to respond. The mystery of divine sovereignty and human responsibility will never be solved in this life. Both are taught in the Bible (). Both are true, and both are essential.
You will note that all three Persons in the Godhead are involved in our salvation (see also ). As far as God the Father is concerned, you were saved when He chose you in Christ in eternity past. But that alone did not save you. As far as God the Son is concerned, you were saved when He died for you on the cross. As far as God the Spirit is concerned, you were saved when you yielded to His conviction and received Christ as your Saviour. What began in eternity past was fulfilled in time present, and will continue for all eternity!
He has adopted us (v. ). Here we meet that misunderstood word predestination. This word, as it is used in the Bible, refers primarily to what God does for saved people. Nowhere in the Bible are we taught that people are predestined to hell, because this word refers only to God’s people. The word simply means “to ordain beforehand, to predetermine.” Election seems to refer to people, while predestination refers to purposes. The events connected with the crucifixion of Christ were predestined (). God has predestined our adoption (), and our conformity to Christ (), as well as our future inheritance ().
Adoption has a dual meaning, both present and future. You do not get into God’s family by adoption. You get into His family by regeneration, the new birth (; ). Adoption is the act of God by which He gives His “born ones” an adult standing in the family. Why does He do this? So that we might immediately begin to claim our inheritance and enjoy our spiritual wealth! A baby cannot legally use this inheritance (), but an adult son can—and should! This means that you do not have to wait until you are an old saint before you can claim your riches in Christ.
The future aspect of adoption is found in , the glorified body we will have when Jesus returns. We already have our adult standing before God, but the world cannot see this. When Christ returns, this “private adoption” will be made public for everyone to see!
He has accepted us (v. ). We cannot make ourselves acceptable to God; but He, by His grace, makes us accepted in Christ. This is our eternal position which will never change. Some translations read “which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (NASB). Or, “He has be-graced [literal translation] us in the Beloved.” The idea is the same. Because of God’s grace in Christ, we are accepted before Him. Paul wrote Philemon to encourage him to accept his runaway slave, Onesimus, using the same argument. “If he owes you anything, I will pay it. Receive him as you would receive me” (, paraphrased). The parallel is easy to see.
We should not think that each Person of the Godhead works independently, because they all worked together to make possible our salvation. But each Person has a special ministry to perform, a special “spiritual deposit” to make in our lives.
He has redeemed us (v. ). To redeem means “to purchase and set free by paying a price.” There were 60 million slaves in the Roman Empire, and often they were bought and sold like pieces of furniture. But a man could purchase a slave and set him free, and this is what Jesus did for us. The price was His own blood (). This means that we are free from the Law (), free from slavery to sin (Rom. 6), as well as free from the power of Satan and the world (; ). If we were slaves, we would be poor, but because we are sons, we are rich!
He has forgiven us (v. ). The word forgive means “to carry away.” This reminds us of the ritual on the Jewish Day of Atonement when the high priest sent the scapegoat into the wilderness (Lev. 16). First the priest killed one of the two goats and sprinkled its blood before God on the mercy seat. Then he confessed Israel’s sins over the live goat, and had the goat taken into the wilderness to be lost. Christ died to carry away our sins so they might never again be seen (; ). No written accusation stands against us because our sins have been taken away! Sin made us poor, but grace makes us rich.
He has revealed God’s will to us (vv. ). This letter has much to say about God’s plan for His people, a plan that was not fully understood even in Paul’s day. The word mystery has nothing to do with things eerie. It means a “sacred secret, once hidden but now revealed to God’s people.” We believers are a part of God’s “inner circle.” We are able to share in the secret that God will one day unite everything in Christ. Ever since sin came into the world, things have been falling apart. First, man was separated from God (Gen. 3). Then man was separated from man, as Cain killed Abel (Gen. 4). People tried to maintain a kind of unity by building the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11), but God judged them and scattered them across the world. God called Abraham and put a difference between the Jew and the Gentile, a difference that was maintained until Christ’s death on the cross. Sin is tearing everything apart, but in Christ, God will gather everything together in the culmination of the ages. We are a part of this great eternal program.
He has made us an inheritance (vv. ). The King James Version reads, “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance,” but “in whom also we were made an inheritance” is also a possible translation. Both are true and the one includes the other. In Christ we have a wonderful inheritance (), and in Christ we are an inheritance. We are valuable to Him. Think of the price God paid to purchase us and make us part of His inheritance! God the Son is the Father’s love gift to us; and we are the Father’s love gift to His Son. Read John 17 and note how many times Christ calls us “those whom Thou hast given Me.” The church is Christ’s body (), building (), and bride (); Christ’s future inheritance is wrapped up in His church. We are “joint-heirs with Christ” (), which means that He cannot claim His inheritance apart from us!
Blessings from God the Holy Spirit ()
We move now from eternity past (), and history past (), to the immediate experience of the Ephesian Christians. The Holy Spirit had worked in their lives, and they knew it.
He has sealed us (v. ). The entire process of salvation is given in this verse, so we had better examine it carefully. It tells how the sinner becomes a saint. First, he hears the Gospel of salvation. This is the good news that Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose again (). The Ephesians were Gentiles, and the Gospel came “to the Jew first” (). But Paul, a Jew, brought the Gospel to the Gentiles as he shared the Word of God with them.
The Ephesians “heard the Gospel” and discovered it was for them—“your salvation” (). Even though the Bible teaches election, it also announces, “Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature” (). A soul-winner does not discuss election with unsaved people, because it is a family secret that belongs to the saints. He simply announces the truth of the Gospel and invites men to trust Christ, and the Holy Spirit does the rest. D.L. Moody used to pray, “Lord, save the elect—and then elect some more!” The same God who ordains the end, the salvation of souls, also ordains the means to the end, the preaching of the Gospel in the power of the Spirit.
Having heard the Word, the Ephesians believed; and it is this faith that brought salvation (). This pattern follows what Paul writes in , so read that passage carefully. It is God’s plan for evangelism. When the Ephesians believed, they were “sealed with the Spirit.” “After that ye believed” should read “when ye believed.” You receive the Spirit immediately on trusting Christ. This is not an experience subsequent to conversion. (Read .)
What is the significance of this sealing of the Holy Spirit? For one thing, it speaks of a finished transaction. Even today, when important legal documents are processed, they are stamped with the official seal to signify the completion of the transaction. This sealing also implies ownership: God has put his seal on us because He has purchased us to be His own (). It also means security and protection. The Roman seal on the tomb of Jesus carried this meaning (). So, the believer belongs to God, and is safe and protected because he is a part of a finished transaction. According to , the Holy Spirit abides with the believer forever. It is possible for us to grieve the Spirit and thereby lose the blessings of His ministry (). But He doesn’t leave us.
Another use for the seal is as a mark of authenticity. Just as a signature on a letter attests to the genuineness of the document, so the presence of the Spirit proves the believer is genuine. “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His” (). It is not simply our lip profession, our religious activity, or our good works, but the witness of the Spirit that makes our profession authentic.
He has given us an earnest (v. ). Earnest is a fascinating word! In Paul’s day, it meant “the down payment to guarantee the final purchase of some commodity or piece of property.” Even today you will hear a real estate agent talk about earnest money. The Holy Spirit is God’s first installment to guarantee to His children that He will finish His work and eventually bring them to glory. The “redemption of the purchased possession” refers to the redemption of the body at the return of Christ (; ). “Redemption” is experienced in three stages:
•We have been redeemed through faith in Jesus Christ ().
•We are being redeemed as the Spirit works in our lives to make us more like Christ ().
•We shall be redeemed when Christ returns and we become like Him.
But the word translated earnest also means “engagement ring.” In Greece today you would find this word being used that way. But, after all, isn’t an engagement ring an assurance—a guarantee—that the promises made will be kept? Our relationship to God through Christ is not simply a commercial one, but also a personal experience of love. He is the Bridegroom and His church is the bride. We know that He will come and claim His bride because He has given us His promise and His Spirit as the “engagement ring.” What greater assurance could we want?
We have examined a number of basic Bible doctrines in this chapter, all on the theme of our riches in Christ. It would be profitable for us to review what these verses teach us.
1. True riches come from God. It is a source of great encouragement to know that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all working on my behalf to make me rich. God not only gives us “richly all things to enjoy” (), but He gives us eternal riches without which all other wealth is valueless.
A distraught wife sought out a Christian marriage counselor and told her sad story of a marriage about to dissolve. “But we have so much!” she kept saying. “Look at this diamond ring on my finger. Why, it’s worth thousands! We have an expensive mansion in an exclusive area. We have three cars, and even a cabin in the mountains. Why, we have everything money can buy!”
The counselor replied: “It’s good to have the things money can buy provided you don’t lose the things money can’t buy. What good is an expensive house if there’s no home? Or an expensive ring if there’s no love?”
In Christ, you and I have “what money can’t buy,” and these spiritual riches open up to us all the wealth of God’s vast creation. We enjoy the gifts because we know and love the Giver.
2. All of these riches come by God’s grace and for God’s glory. Did you notice that after each of the main sections in , Paul has added the purpose behind these gifts? Why has God the Father chosen us, adopted us, and accepted us? “To the praise of the glory of His grace” (). Why has the Son redeemed us, forgiven us, revealed God’s will to us, and made us part of God’s inheritance? “That we should be to the praise of His glory” (). Why has God the Spirit sealed us and become the guarantee of our future blessing? “Unto the praise of His glory” ().
We often have the idea that God saves sinners mainly because He pities them, or wants to rescue them from eternal judgment, but God’s main purpose is that He might be glorified. His creation reveals His wisdom and power, but His church reveals His love and grace. You cannot deserve or earn these spiritual riches; you can only receive them by grace, through faith.
3. These riches are only the beginning! There is always more spiritual wealth to claim from the Lord as we walk with Him. The Bible is our guidebook; the Holy Spirit is our Teacher. As we search the Word of God, we discover more and more of the riches we have in Christ. These riches were planned by the Father, purchased by the Son, and presented by the Spirit. There is really no need for us to live in poverty when all of God’s wealth is at our disposal!
My friend was discussing money matters with his wife and neither of them realized that their little son was listening. Finally the boy broke in with the suggestion, “Why don’t you just write one of those pieces of paper?” Junior did not understand that it was necessary to have money in the bank to back up “those pieces of paper.” But we never face that problem when it comes to our spiritual wealth.
A little devotional book by Charles Spurgeon is entitled A Checkbook on the Bank of Faith. A promise from the Bible was given for each day of the year, along with a short devotional message. The author described each promise as being as good as money in the bank to anyone who would claim it by faith, as a person would write a check against his bank account. By faith we can claim God’s promises and draw on His limitless wealth to meet every need we may face.
On January 6, 1822, the wife of a poor German pastor had a son, never dreaming that he would one day achieve world renown and great wealth. When Heinrich Schliemann was seven years old, a picture of ancient Troy in flames captured his imagination. Contrary to what many people believed, Heinrich argued that Homer’s great poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey, were based on historic facts and he set out to prove it. In 1873, he uncovered the ancient site of Troy, along with some fabulous treasure which he smuggled out of the country, much to the anger of the Turkish government. Schliemann became a famous, wealthy man because he dared to believe an ancient record and act on his faith.
We discovered that we were “born rich” when we trusted Christ. But this is not enough, for we must grow in our understanding of our riches if we are ever going to use them to the glory of God. Too many Christians have never “read the bank book” to find out the vast spiritual wealth that God has put to their account through Jesus Christ. They are like the late newspaper publisher, William Randolph Hearst, who invested a fortune collecting art treasures from around the world. One day Mr. Hearst found a description of some valuable items that he felt he must own, so he sent his agent abroad to find them. After months of searching, the agent reported that he had finally found the treasures. They were in Mr. Hearst’s warehouse. Hearst had been searching frantically for treasures he already owned! Had he read the catalog of his treasures, he would have saved himself a great deal of money and trouble.
Paul desired the Ephesian Christians to understand what great wealth they had in Christ. Paul knew of their faith and love, and in this he rejoiced. The Christian life has two dimensions: faith toward God and love toward men, and you cannot separate the two. But Paul knew that faith and love were just the beginning. The Ephesians needed to know much more. This is why he prayed for them, and for us.
In the prison prayers of Paul (; ; ; ), we discover the blessings he wanted his converts to enjoy. In none of these prayers does Paul request material things. His emphasis is on spiritual perception and real Christian character. He does not ask God to give them what they do not have, but rather prays that God will reveal to them what they already have.
Before we study Paul’s four requests in this “prayer for enlightenment,” we must notice two facts. First, enlightenment comes from the Holy Spirit. He is the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation” (; ; ). With his natural mind, man cannot understand the things of God. He needs the Spirit to enlighten him (). The Holy Spirit reveals truth to us from the Word, and then gives us the wisdom to understand and apply it. He also gives us the power—the enablement—to practice the truth ().
Second, this enlightenment comes to the heart of the believer (). Literally this verse reads, “The eyes of your heart being enlightened.” We think of the heart as the emotional part of man, but in the Bible, the heart means the inner man, and includes the emotions, the mind, and the will. The inner man, the heart, has spiritual faculties that parallel the physical senses. The inner man can see (; ), hear (; ), taste (; ), smell (; ), and touch (). This is what Jesus meant when He said of the people: “They seeing see not, and hearing they hear not” (). The inability to see and understand spiritual things is not the fault of the intelligence but of the heart. The eyes of the heart must be opened by the Spirit of God.
This, of course, is the highest knowledge possible. The atheist claims there is no God for us to know, and the agnostic states that if there is a God we cannot know Him. But Paul has met God in the person of Jesus Christ, and he knows that a man really cannot understand much of anything else without a knowledge of God.
This willful ignorance of God led mankind into corruption and condemnation. In , Paul describes the stages in man’s devolution: from willful ignorance of God to idolatry (substituting a lie for the truth) to immorality and indecency. Where does it begin? It begins with an unwillingness to know God as Creator, Sustainer, Governor, Saviour, and Judge.
The believer must grow in his knowledge of God. To know God personally is salvation (). To know Him increasingly is sanctification (). To know Him perfectly is glorification (). Since we are made in the image of God (), the better we know God, the better we know ourselves and each other. It is not enough to know God only as Saviour. We must get to know Him as Father, Friend, Guide, and the better we know Him, the more satisfying our spiritual lives will be.
A believer said to me one day after a Bible lesson, “I’m sure glad I came! You gave me two good verses to use on my wicked neighbor!” Surely there are times when we use God’s Word as a sword to defeat the enemy, but that is not the primary purpose behind the writing of the Bible. As the familiar hymn puts it: “Beyond the sacred page / I seek Thee, Lord. / My spirit pants for Thee / O living Word.”
That We Might Know God’s Calling ()
The word called is an important word in the Christian’s vocabulary. The word church is a combination of two Greek words that mean “called out.” Paul never tired of testifying that God called him “by His grace” (); and he reminded Timothy that the believer has a “holy calling” (). We have been “called out of darkness into His marvelous light” (), and have even been “called to glory” (). God calls us by His grace and not because of any merit that we may possess.
Paul wants us to understand the hope that is ours because of this calling (). Some callings offer no hope, but the calling we have in Christ assures us of a delightful future. Keep in mind that the word hope in the Bible does not mean “hope so,” like a child hoping for a doll or a bike at Christmas. The word carries with it “assurance for the future.” The believer’s hope is, of course, the return of Jesus Christ for His church (; ). When we were lost, we were “without hope” (); but in Jesus Christ, we have a “living hope” () that encourages us day by day.
Dr. Kenneth Chafin, a well-known Baptist author, tells about the pastor and deacon who were visiting prospective members and drove up to a beautiful suburban home surrounded by a velvet lawn and gorgeous landscaping. Two expensive cars stood in the driveway, and through the picture window, the men saw their prospect, lounging in an easy chair and watching color TV. The deacon turned to his pastor and said, “What kind of good news do we have for him?”
How prone we are to confuse prices and values. Ephesus was a wealthy city. It boasted the temple of Diana, one of the wonders of the ancient world. Today, Ephesus is an archeologist’s paradise, but all of its wealth and splendor are gone. But the Christians who once lived there are today in heaven, enjoying the glory of God!
The hope that belongs to our calling should be a dynamic force in our lives, encouraging us to be pure (1 John 2:28–3:3), obedient (), and faithful (). The fact that we shall one day see Christ and be like Him should motivate us to live like Christ today.
That We Might Know God’s Riches ()
This phrase does not refer to our inheritance in Christ (), but His inheritance in us. This is an amazing truth—that God should look on us as a part of His great wealth! Just as a man’s wealth brings glory to his name, so God will get glory from the church because of what He has invested in us. When Jesus Christ returns, we shall be “to the praise of the glory of His grace” ().
God deals with us on the basis of our future, not our past. He said to cowardly Gideon, “The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor” (). Jesus said to Andrew’s brother, “Thou art Simon … thou shalt be called Cephas [a stone]” ().
Gideon did become a mighty man of valor, and Simon did become Peter, a rock. We Christians live in the future tense, our lives controlled by what we shall be when Christ returns. Because we are God’s inheritance, we live to please and glorify Him.
This truth suggests to us that Christ will not enter into His promised glory until the church is there to share it with Him. He prayed for this before He died, and this prayer will be answered (). Christ will be glorified in us (), and we will be glorified in Him (). Knowing this should lead the believer into a life of dedication and devotion to the Lord.
That We Might Know God’s Power ()
By making us His inheritance, God has shown His love. By promising us a wonderful future, He has encouraged our hope. Paul offered something to challenge our faith: “the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe” (). So tremendous is this truth that Paul enlisted many different words from the Greek vocabulary to get his point across: dunamis—“power” as in dynamo and dynamite; energeia—“working” as in energy; kratos—“mighty”; ischus—“power.” can be translated, “What is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the operation of the might of His strength.” He is talking about divine dynamic, eternal energy, available to us!
After all, what good is it to have wealth if you are too weak to use it? Or if you are so afraid of robbers that you cannot really enjoy it? John D. Rockefeller was the world’s first billionaire. It is said that for many years, he lived on crackers and milk because of stomach troubles caused by worrying about his wealth. He rarely had a good night’s sleep, and guards stood constantly at his door. Wealthy—but miserable! When he began to share his wealth with others in great philanthropic endeavors, his health improved considerably and he lived to be an old man.
We Christians need power for several reasons. To begin with, by nature we are too weak to appreciate and appropriate this wealth, and to use it as it should be used. “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (). To turn this vast spiritual wealth over to a mere human being, living by human wisdom and strength, would be like handing an atomic bomb to a two-year-old. God’s power enables us to use God’s wealth.
But there is a second reason why we need God’s power. There are enemies who want to rob us of our wealth (; ). We could never defeat these spiritual foes in our own power, but we can through the Spirit’s power. Paul wants us to know the greatness of God’s power so that we will not fail to use our wealth, and so that the enemy will not deprive us of our wealth.
The power is seen in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the Old Testament, people measured God’s power by His creation () or by His miracle at the Exodus of Israel from Egypt (). But today, we measure God’s power by the miracle of Christ’s resurrection. Much more was involved than merely raising Him from the dead, for Christ also ascended to heaven and sat down in the place of authority at the right hand of God. He is not only Saviour; He is also Sovereign (). No authority or power, human or in the spirit world, is greater than that of Jesus Christ, the exalted Son of God. He is “far above all,” and no future enemy can overcome Him, because He has been exalted “far above all” powers.
But how does this apply to you and me today? In , Paul explains the practical application. Because we are believers, we are in the church, which is Christ’s body—and He is the Head. This means that there is a living connection between you and Christ. Physically speaking, the head controls the body and keeps the body functioning properly. Injure certain parts of the brain and you handicap or paralyze corresponding parts of the body. Christ is our spiritual Head. Through the Spirit, we are united to Him as the members of His body. This means that we share His resurrection, ascension, and exaltation. (Paul will amplify this later.) We too are seated, in the heavenlies (), and all things are under our feet.
No wonder Paul wants us to know “the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward”! Apart from this power, we cannot draw on our great wealth in Christ.
I recall going to the hospital with one of our church members to try to get her husband to sign a paper that would authorize her to draw on his private checking account so she could pay his bills. The man was so weak he could not sign the paper. She finally had to get witnesses to verify his “X” on the document. His weakness nearly deprived her of his wealth.
The power of the Holy Spirit, through the resurrected, ascended Christ, is available to all Christians—by faith. His power is to “us-ward who believe” (). It is grace that supplies the wealth, but it is faith that lays hold of the wealth. We are saved “by grace, through faith” (), and we live “by grace,” through faith ().
In the four Gospels, we see God’s power at work in the ministry of Jesus Christ, but in the Book of Acts, we see that same power at work in ordinary men and women, members of the body of Christ. What a transformation took place in Peter’s life between the end of the Gospels and the beginning of Acts. What made the difference? The resurrection power of Jesus Christ ().
The greatest power shortage today is not in our generators or our gas tanks. It is in our personal lives. Will Paul’s prayer be answered in your life? Will you, starting today, begin to know by experience God—God’s calling—God’s riches—and God’s power?
Having described our spiritual possessions in Christ, Paul turns to a complementary truth: our spiritual position in Christ. First he explains what God has done for all sinners in general; then he explains what God did for the Gentiles in particular. The sinner who trusts Christ has been raised and seated on the throne (), and believing Jews and Gentiles have been reconciled and set into the temple (). What a miracle of God’s grace! We are taken out of the great graveyard of sin and placed into the throne room of glory.
Perhaps the easiest way for us to approach this long paragraph is to see in it four specific works.
A publisher asked me for a full-length portrait that they could “blow up” and use as a life-size display at their convention booth to promote my tapes. A friend of mine took the picture, and it was a new experience for me. I had been accustomed to sitting for head-and-shoulder photographs, but standing for a full-length photo was something new. I had to watch my posture, the feet had to be placed just right, and the arms and hands—usually forgotten—had to be in just the right position. Fortunately, my photographer friend is an expert, and we managed to get a decent picture in a short time. In these three verses, Paul gives us a full-length picture of the terrible spiritual condition of the unsaved person. Note his characteristics:
He is dead (v. ). Of course, this means spiritually dead; that is, he is unable to understand and appreciate spiritual things. He possesses no spiritual life, and he can do nothing of himself to please God. Just as a person physically dead does not respond to physical stimuli, so a person spiritually dead is unable to respond to spiritual things. A corpse does not hear the conversation going on in the funeral parlor. He has no appetite for food or drink; he feels no pain; he is dead. Just so with the inner man of the unsaved person. His spiritual faculties are not functioning, and they cannot function until God gives him life. The cause of this spiritual death is “trespasses and sins” (). “The wages of sin is death” (). In the Bible, death basically means “separation,” not only physically, as the spirit separated from the body (), but also spiritually, as the spirit separated from God ().
The unbeliever is not sick; he is dead! He does not need resuscitation; he needs resurrection. All lost sinners are dead, and the only difference between one sinner and another is the state of decay. The lost derelict on skid row may be more decayed outwardly than the unsaved society leader, but both are dead in sin—and one corpse cannot be more dead than another! This means that our world is one vast graveyard, filled with people who are dead while they live ().
He is disobedient (vv. ). This was the beginning of man’s spiritual death—his disobedience to the will of God. God said, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (). Satan said, “Ye shall not surely die” (), and because they believed this lie, the first man and woman sinned and experienced immediate spiritual death and ultimate physical death. Since that time, mankind has lived in disobedience to God. There are three forces that encourage man in his disobedience—the world, the devil, and the flesh.
The world, or world-system, puts pressure on each person to try to get him to conform (). Jesus Christ was not “of this world” and neither are His people (; ). But the unsaved person, either consciously or unconsciously, is controlled by the values and attitudes of this world.
The devil is “the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” This does not mean that Satan is personally at work in the life of each unbeliever, since Satan as a created being is limited in space. Unlike God, who is omnipresent, Satan cannot be in all places at one time. But because of his demonic associates (), and his power over the world system (), Satan influences the lives of all unbelievers, and also seeks to influence believers. He wants to make people “children of disobedience” (; ). He himself was disobedient to God, so he wants others to disobey Him too.
One of Satan’s chief tools for getting people to disobey God is lies. He is a liar (), and it was his lie at the beginning of human history, “Ye shall not surely die,” that plunged the human race into sin. The unsaved multitudes in today’s world system disobey God because they believe the lies of Satan. When a person believes and practices a lie, he becomes a child of disobedience.
The flesh is the third force that encourages the unbeliever to disobey God. By the flesh Paul does not mean the body, because of itself, the body is not sinful. The flesh refers to that fallen nature that we were born with, that wants to control the body and the mind and make us disobey God. An evangelist friend of mine once announced as his topic, “Why Your Dog Does What It Does,” and, of course, many dog lovers came out to hear him. What he had to say was obvious, but too often overlooked: “A dog behaves like a dog because he has a dog’s nature.” If somehow you could transplant into the dog the nature of the cat, his behavior would change radically. Why does a sinner behave like a sinner? Because he has the nature of a sinner (; ). This sinful nature the Bible calls “the flesh.”
Is it any wonder that the unsaved person is disobedient to God? He is controlled by the world, the flesh, and the devil, the three great enemies of God! And he cannot change his own nature or, of himself, overcome the world and the devil. He needs outside help, and that help can come only from God.
He is depraved (v. ). The lost sinner lives to please the “desires of the flesh and the wishes of the mind” (literal translation). His actions are sinful because his appetites are sinful. When you apply the word depraved to the unsaved person, you are not saying that he only does evil, or that he is incapable of doing good. You are simply saying that he is incapable of doing anything to merit salvation or meet the high standards of God’s holiness. Jesus said that lost sinners do good to each other (), and to their children (), but they cannot do anything spiritually good to please God. The natives on Malta who kindly assisted Paul and his friends after the shipwreck certainly did good works, but they still needed to be saved ().
He is doomed (v. ). By nature, children of wrath! By deed, children of disobedience! The unsaved person is condemned already (). The sentence has been passed, but God in His mercy is staying the execution of the sentence (). Man cannot save himself, but God in His grace steps in to make salvation possible. “But God!”—what a difference those two words make! This leads to the second work.
The focus of attention now is on God, not on sinful man. “Salvation is of the Lord” (). We are reminded of four activities that God performed on behalf of sinners to save them from the consequences of their sins.
He loved us (v. ). By nature, “God is love” (). But God would love even if there were no sinners, because love is a part of His very being. Theologians call love one of God’s attributes. But God has two kinds of attributes: those that He possesses of Himself (intrinsic attributes, such as life, love, holiness), and those by which He relates to His creation, especially to man (relative attributes). For example, by nature God is truth; but when He relates to man, God’s truth becomes faithfulness. God is by nature holy; and when He relates that holiness to man, it becomes justice.
Love is one of God’s intrinsic attributes, but when this love is related to sinners, it becomes grace and mercy. God is “rich in mercy” () and in “grace” (), and these riches make it possible for sinners to be saved. It comes as a shock to some people when they discover that we are not saved “by God’s love,” but by God’s mercy and grace. In His mercy, He does not give us what we do deserve; and in His grace He gives us what we do not deserve. And all of this is made possible because of the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. It was at Calvary that God displayed His hatred for sin and His love for sinners (; ).
He quickened us (v. ). This means He made us alive, even when we were dead in sins. He accomplished this spiritual resurrection by the power of the Spirit, using the Word. In the four Gospels, it is recorded that Jesus raised three people from the dead: the widow’s son (), Jairus’ daughter (), and Lazarus (). In each case, He spoke the Word and this gave life. “The Word of God is quick [living] and powerful” (). These three physical resurrections are pictures of the spiritual resurrection that comes to the sinner when he hears the Word and believes ().
But our spiritual resurrection is much greater because it puts us in union with Christ: God “made us alive together with Christ.” As members of His body we are united to Him (), so that we share His resurrection life and power ().
He exalted us (v. ). We are not raised from the dead and left in the graveyard. Because we are united to Christ, we have been exalted with Him and we are sharing His throne in the heavenlies. Our physical position may be on earth, but our spiritual position is “in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Like Lazarus, we have been called from the grave to sit with Christ and enjoy His fellowship ().
He keeps us (vv. ). God’s purpose in our redemption is not simply to rescue us from hell, as great a work as that is. His ultimate purpose in our salvation is that for all eternity the church might glorify God’s grace (, , ). So, if God has an eternal purpose for us to fulfill, He will keep us for all eternity. Since we have not been saved by our good works, we cannot be lost by our bad works. Grace means salvation completely apart from any merit or works on our part. Grace means that God does it all for Jesus’ sake! Our salvation is the gift of God. (The word that in , in the Greek, is neuter; while faith is feminine. Therefore that cannot refer to faith. It refers to the whole experience of salvation, including faith.) Salvation is a gift, not a reward.
Salvation cannot be “of works” because the work of salvation has already been completed on the cross. This is the work that God does for us, and it is a finished work (; ). We can add nothing to it (); we dare take nothing from it. When Jesus died, the veil of the temple was torn in two, from the top to the bottom, signifying that the way to God was now open. There is no more need for earthly sacrifices. One sacrifice—the Lamb of God—has finished the great work of salvation. God did it all, and He did it by His grace.
Sin worked against us and God worked for us, but the great work of conversion is but the beginning.
“For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus.” The Greek word translated “workmanship” is poiema, from which we derive our English word “poem.” It means “that which is made, a manufactured product.” In other words, our conversion is not the end; it is the beginning. We are a part of God’s “new creation” (), and God continues to work in us to make us what He wants us to be. His purpose is to make us more like Christ ().
But how does God work in us? Through His Holy Spirit, “both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (). Christ finished His work of redemption on the cross, but He arose from the dead and returned to heaven. There He carries on His unfinished work of perfecting His church (; ). Christ is equipping us for our walk and our work here on earth. To do this, He uses three special tools: the Word of God (), prayer (), and suffering (). As we read God’s Word, understand it, meditate on it, and feed on it, the Word goes to work in our lives to cleanse us and nourish us. As we pray, God’s Spirit works in us to release power. And as we suffer, the Spirit of God ministers to us. Suffering drives us back to the Word and prayer, and the cycle is repeated.
Too many Christians think that conversion is the only important experience, and that nothing follows. But this is wrong. We can use the resurrection of Lazarus as an example. After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, He said, “Loose him, and let him go” (). In other words, “This man is now alive. Get him out of the graveclothes!” Paul has this concept in mind in when he writes, “That ye put off concerning the former conversation [behavior] the old man, which is corrupt … and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” has the same message: “[Since] ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.”
The same resurrection power that saved you and took you out of the graveyard of sin can daily help you live for Christ and glorify Him. At great expense to Himself, God worked for us on the cross. And today, on the basis of that price paid at Calvary, He is working in us to conform us to Christ. God cannot work in us unless He has first worked for us, and we have trusted His Son. Also, He cannot work through us unless He works in us. This is why it is important for you to spend time daily in the Word and prayer, and to yield to Christ during times of suffering. For it is through the Word, prayer, and suffering that God works in you.
The Bible shows many examples of this principle. God spent 40 years working in Moses before He could work through him. At the beginning of his ministry, Moses was impetuous and depended on his own strength. He killed an Egyptian and had to flee Egypt, hardly a successful way to start a ministry. But during those 40 years as a humble shepherd in the desert, Moses experienced God’s working in his life, a working that prepared him for forty more years of magnificent service.
There are other examples. Joseph suffered for thirteen years before God put him on the throne of Egypt, second to Pharaoh. David was anointed king when he was a youth, but he did not gain the throne until he had suffered many years as an exile. Even the Apostle Paul spent three years in Arabia after his conversion, no doubt experiencing God’s deeper work to prepare him for his ministry. God has to work in us before He can work through us; and this leads to the fourth work in our passage.
We are “created in Christ Jesus unto good works.” We are not saved by good works, but saved unto good works. The famous theologian John Calvin wrote, “It is faith alone that justifies, but faith that justifies can never be alone.” We are not saved by faith plus good works, but by a faith that works. The basic Scripture on this theme is James 2, where the writer points out that saving faith always results in a changed life. It is not enough to say that we have faith; we must demonstrate this faith by our works.
The Bible speaks of many different kinds of works. There are “the works of the Law” which cannot save (; ). There are also “the works of the flesh” which are listed in . Paul spoke of “works of darkness” (; ). The “dead works” in seem to be “works that lead to death,” since “the wages of sin is death” (). The “works of righteousness” in refer to religious works, or other good deeds, that sinners try to practice as a means of salvation. Isaiah declared that “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in His sight” (). If our righteousnesses are filthy, what must our sins look like!
The “works” Paul writes about, in , have two special characteristics. First, they are “good” works, in contrast to “works of darkness” and “wicked works.” If you contrast with you will see that the unbeliever has Satan working in him and therefore his works are not good. But the believer has God working in him, and therefore his works are good. His works are not good because he himself is good, but because he has a new nature from God, and because the Holy Spirit works in him and through him to produce these good works.
It is too bad that many believers minimize the place of good works in the Christian life. Because we are not saved by good works, they have the idea that good works are evil; and this is a mistake. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (). We do not perform good works to glorify ourselves, but to glorify God. Paul desired that Christ would be magnified in his body, even if it meant death (). We should “abound to every good work” (), and be “fruitful in every good work” (). One result of a knowledge of the Bible is that the believer is “thoroughly equipped for every good work” (, NASB). As believers, we are to be “zealous of good works” (). Our good works are actually “spiritual sacrifices” that we offer to God ().
It is important to note that we do not manufacture these good works. They are the results of the work of God in our hearts. “It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (). The secret of Paul’s good works was “the grace of God” (). Our good works are evidence that we have been born again. “Not everyone that saith unto Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven” (). Our good works are also testimonies to the lost (). They win us the right to be heard.
A pastor friend told about a Christian lady who often visited a retirement home near her house. One day she noticed a lonely man sitting, staring at his dinner tray. In a kindly manner she asked, “Is something wrong?”
“Is something wrong!” replied the man in a heavy accent. “Yes, something is wrong! I am a Jew, and I cannot eat this food!”
“What would you like to have?” she asked.
“I would like a bowl of hot soup!”
She went home and prepared the soup and, after getting permission from the office, took it to the man. In succeeding weeks, she often visited him and brought him the kind of food he enjoyed and eventually she led him to faith in Christ. Yes, preparing soup can be a spiritual sacrifice, a good work to the glory of God.
But these works are not only good; they are also “prepared.” “Good works which God hath before ordained [prepared] that we should walk in them” (). The only other time this word is used in the New Testament is in : “vessels of mercy, which He had afore prepared unto glory.” The unbeliever walks “according to the course of this world” (), but the believer walks in the good works God has prepared for him.
This is an amazing statement. It means that God has a plan for our lives and that we should walk in His will and fulfill His plan. Paul is not talking about “kismet”—an impersonal fate that controls your life no matter what you may do. He is talking about the gracious plan of a loving Heavenly Father, who wills the very best for us. The will of God comes from the heart of God. “The counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations” (). We discover God’s exciting will for our lives as the Spirit reveals it to us from the Word ().
It would be helpful to close this chapter with a personal inventory. Which of these four works are you experiencing? Is sin working against you because you have not yet trusted Christ? Then trust Him now! Have you experienced His work for you—in you—through you?
Are you wearing the “graveclothes” or the “grace-clothes”? Are you enjoying the liberty you have in Christ, or are you still bound by the habits of the old life in the graveyard of sin? As a Christian, you have been raised and seated on the throne. Practice your position in Christ! He has worked for you; now let Him work in you and through you, that He might give you an exciting, creative life to the glory of God.
Peace in our time! Peace with honor!”
Some of us still remember those words of British Prime Minister, Sir Neville Chamberlain, when he returned from conferences in Germany in September 1938. He was sure that he had stopped Adolf Hitler. Yet one year later, Hitler invaded Poland, and on September 3, 1939, Great Britain declared war on Germany. Chamberlain’s great peace mission had failed.
It seems that most peace missions fail. I read somewhere that from 1500 B.C. to A.D. 850 there were 7,500 “eternal covenants” agreed on among various nations with the hope of bringing peace, but that no covenant had lasted longer than two years. The only “eternal covenant” that has lasted—and that will last—is the one made by the eternal God, sealed by the blood of Jesus Christ. It is Christ’s peace mission that Paul explains in this section, and three very important words summarize this great work: separation, reconciliation, and unification.
Separation: What the Gentiles Were ()
In the first ten verses of Ephesians 2, Paul has discussed the salvation of sinners in general, but now he turns to the work of Christ for Gentiles in particular. Most of the converts in the Ephesian church were Gentiles, and they knew that much of God’s program in the Old Testament involved the Jews. For centuries, the “circumcision” (Jews) had looked down on the “uncircumcision” (Gentiles) with an attitude that God had never intended them to display. The fact that a Jew had received the physical mark of the covenant was no proof he was a man of faith (; ; ). Those who have trusted Christ have received a spiritual circumcision “made without hands” ().
But since the hour that God called Abraham, God made a difference between Jews and Gentiles. He made this difference, not that the Jews might boast, but that they might be a blessing and a help to the Gentiles. God set them apart that He might use them to be a channel of His revelation and goodness to the heathen nations. Sad to say, Israel kept this difference nationally and ritually, but not morally. Israel became like the lost nations around her. For this reason, God often had to discipline the Jews because they would not maintain their spiritual separation and minister to the nations in the name of the true God.
The one word that best describes the Gentiles is without. They were “outside” in several respects.
Without Christ. The Ephesians worshiped the goddess, Diana, and, before the coming of the Gospel, knew nothing about Christ. Those who claim that pagan religions are just as acceptable to God as the Christian faith will have a problem here, for Paul cites the Ephesians’ Christless state as a definite tragedy. But then, keep in mind that every unsaved person, Jew or Gentile, is “outside Christ” and that means condemnation.
Without citizenship. God called the Jews and built them into a nation. He gave them His laws and His blessings. A Gentile could enter the nation as a proselyte, but he was not born into that very special nation. Israel was God’s nation, in a way that was not true of any Gentile nation.
Without covenants. While the blessing of the Gentiles is included in God’s covenant with Abraham (), God did not make any covenants with the Gentile nations. The Gentiles were “aliens” and “strangers”—and the Jews never let them forget it. Many of the Pharisees would pray daily, “O God, I give thanks that I am a Jew, not a Gentile.”
Without hope. Historians tell us that a great cloud of hopelessness covered the ancient world. Philosophies were empty; traditions were disappearing; religions were powerless to help men face either life or death. People longed to pierce the veil and get some message of hope from the other side, but there was none ().
Without God. The heathen had gods aplenty, as Paul discovered in Athens (). Someone in that day said that it was easier to find a god than a man in Athens. “There be gods many and lords many,” wrote Paul (). But the pagan, no matter how religious or moral he might have been, did not know the true God. The writer of Psalm 115 contrasted the true God with the idols of the heathen.
It is worth noting that the spiritual plight of the Gentiles was caused not by God but by their own willful sin. Paul said the Gentiles knew the true God but deliberately refused to honor Him (). Religious history is not a record of man starting with many gods (idolatry) and gradually discovering the one true God.
Rather, it is the sad story of man knowing the truth about God and deliberately turning away from it! It is a story of devolution, not evolution! The first eleven chapters of Genesis give the story of the decline of the Gentiles; and from Genesis 12 on (the call of Abraham), it is the story of the Jews. God separated the Jews from the Gentiles that He might be able to save the Gentiles also. “Salvation is of the Jews” ().
God called the Jews, beginning with Abraham, that through them He might reveal Himself as the one true God. With the Jews He deposited His Word, and through the Jews He gave the world the Saviour (). Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles that they too might be saved. But sad to say, Israel became like the Gentiles, and the light burned but dimly. This fact is a warning to the church today. When the church is least like the world, it does the most for the world.
Reconciliation: What God Did for the Gentiles ()
The “but now” in parallels the “but God” in . Both speak of the gracious intervention of God on behalf of lost sinners. “Enmity” is the key word in this section (); and you will note that it is a twofold enmity: between Jews and Gentiles () and between sinners and God (). Paul describes here the greatest peace mission in history: Jesus Christ not only reconciled Jews and Gentiles, but He reconciled both to Himself in the one body, the church.
The word reconcile means “to bring together again.” A distraught husband wants to be reconciled to his wife who has left him; a worried mother longs to be reconciled to a wayward daughter; and the lost sinner needs to be reconciled to God. Sin is the great separator in this world. It has been dividing people since the very beginning of human history. When Adam and Eve sinned, they were separated from God. Before long, their sons were separated from each other and Cain killed Abel. The earth was filled with violence () and the only remedy seemed to be judgment. But even after the Flood, men sinned against God and each other, and even tried to build their own unity without God’s help. The result was another judgment that scattered the nations and confused the tongues. It was then that God called Abraham, and through the nation of Israel, Jesus Christ came to the world. It was His work on the cross that abolished the enmity between Jew and Gentile and between sinners and God.
The enmity between Jews and Gentiles (vv. ). God had put a difference between Jews and Gentiles so that His purposes in salvation might be accomplished. But once those purposes were accomplished, there was no more difference. In fact, it was His purpose that these differences be erased forever, and they are erased through the work of Christ in reconciliation.
It was this lesson that was so difficult for the early church to understand. For centuries, the Jews had been different from the Gentiles—in religion, dress, diet, and laws. Until Peter was sent to the Gentiles (Acts 10), the church had no problems. But with the salvation of the Gentiles on the same terms as the Jews, problems began to develop. The Jewish Christians reprimanded Peter for going to the Gentiles and eating with them (Acts 11), and representatives of the churches gathered for an important conference on the place of the Gentiles in the church (Acts 15). Must a Gentile become a Jew to become a Christian? Their conclusion was, “No! Jews and Gentiles are saved the same way—by faith in Jesus Christ.” The enmity was gone!
The cause of that enmity was the Law, because the Law made a definite distinction between Jews and Gentiles. The dietary laws reminded the Jews that God had put a difference between the clean and unclean (). But the Gentiles did not obey these laws; therefore they were unclean. Ezekiel the prophet reminded the priests that their task was to teach the Jews “the difference between the holy and the profane” (). The divine ordinances given by God to Israel stood as a wall between the Jews and the other nations. In fact, there was a wall in the Jewish temple, separating the court of the Gentiles from the rest of the temple areas. Archeologists have discovered the inscription from Herod’s temple, and it reads like this:
No foreigner may enter within the barricade which surrounds the sanctuary and enclosure. Anyone who is caught doing so will have himself to blame for his ensuing death.
It was this wall that the Jews thought Paul and his Gentile friends crossed when the Jews attacked him in the temple and threatened to kill him ().
In order for Jews and Gentiles to be reconciled, this wall had to be destroyed, and this Jesus did on the cross. The cost of destroying the enmity was the blood of Christ. When He died, the veil in the temple was literally torn in two, and the wall of separation (figuratively) was torn down. By fulfilling the demands of the Law in His righteous life, and by bearing the curse of the Law in His sacrificial death (), Jesus removed the legal barrier that separated Jew from Gentile. For centuries, there was a difference between them. But today, “there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” ().
In Jesus Christ, Jew and Gentile become one. “He is our peace” (). Through Christ, the far-off Gentile is made nigh (, ), and both Jew and Gentile are made one. The consequences of Christ’s work are, then, the destroying of the enmity by the abolishing of the Law, and the creating of a new man—the church, the body of Christ. The word abolish simply means “to nullify.” The Law no longer holds sway over either Jew or Gentile, since in Christ believers are not under Law but under grace. The righteousness of the Law, revealing God’s holiness, is still God’s standard. But this is fulfilled in the believer by the Holy Spirit (). It took the early church a long time to get accustomed to “there is no difference!” In fact, some religious groups have not learned the lesson yet, for they are trying to get Christians back under Law (; ; ).
Christ “is our peace” () and He made “peace” (). That verb to make in means “to create.” The church, the body of Christ, is God’s new creation (). Everything in the old creation is falling apart because of sin, but in the new creation there is unity because of righteousness. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (). You may contrast the old position of the Gentiles with their new position and see how wonderfully Christ worked on their behalf on the cross:
Old Position
New Position
“without Christ”
“aliens”
“strangers”
“no hope”
“The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” ()
The enmity between sinners and God (vv. ). Not only did the Gentiles need to be reconciled to the Jews, but both the Jews and the Gentiles needed to be reconciled to God! This was the conclusion the Apostles came to at the Jerusalem Conference recorded in Acts 15. Peter said that God “put no difference between us [Jews] and them [Gentiles], purifying their hearts by faith … But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they” (, ). It was not a question of the Gentile becoming a Jew to become a Christian, but the Jew admitting he was a sinner like the Gentile. “For there is no difference: for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (). The same Law that separated Gentile and Jew also separated men and God, and Christ bore the curse of the Law.
A man stopped in my office one day and said he wanted to get help. “My wife and I need a re-cancellation!” he blurted out. I knew he meant “reconciliation.” But in one sense, “re-cancellation” was the right word. They had sinned against each other (and the Lord), and there could be no harmony until those sins were cancelled. A God of love wants to reconcile the sinner to Himself, but a God of holiness must see to it that sin is judged. God solved the problem by sending His Son to be the sacrifice for our sins, thereby revealing His love and meeting the demands of His righteousness. It was truly a “re-cancellation” (see ).
Jesus Christ “is our peace” (). He “made peace” (), and He “preached peace” (). As the Judge, He could have come to declare war. But in His grace, He came with the message of peace (; ). Jew and Gentile are at peace with each other in Christ, and both have open access to God (). This reminds us of the rent veil at the time of Christ’s death (; ). Reconciliation is complete!
Unification: What Jews and Gentiles Are in Christ ()
Paul has repeated the word “one” to emphasize the unifying work of Christ: “made both one” (); “one new man” (); “one body” (); “one Spirit” (). All spiritual distance and division have been overcome by Christ. In the closing verses of this chapter, Paul gives three pictures that illustrate the unity of believing Jews and Gentiles in the church.
One nation (v. ). Israel was God’s chosen nation, but they rejected their Redeemer and suffered the consequences. The kingdom was taken from them and given to “a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (). This “new nation” is the church, “a chosen generation … a holy nation, a peculiar people” (; ). In the Old Testament, the nations were reckoned by their descent from Shem, Ham, or Japheth (Gen. 10). In the Book of Acts, we see these three families united in Christ. In Acts 8, a descendant of Ham is saved, the Ethiopian treasurer; in Acts 9, a descendant of Shem, Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the apostle; and in Acts 10, the descendants of Japheth, the Gentiles in the household of the Roman soldier, Cornelius. Sin has divided mankind, but Christ unites by His Spirit. All believers, regardless of national background, belong to that “holy nation” with citizenship in heaven ().
One family (v. ). Through faith in Christ, we enter into God’s family, and God becomes our Father. This wonderful family of God is found in two places, “in heaven and earth” (). Living believers are on earth; believers who have died are in heaven. None of God’s children are “under the earth” () or in any other place in the universe. We are all brothers and sisters in the one family, no matter what racial, national, or physical distinctions we may possess.
One temple (vv. ). In the Book of Genesis, God “walked” with His people (, ; ); but in Exodus, He decided to “dwell” with His people (). God dwelt in the tabernacle () until Israel’s sins caused “the glory to depart” (1 Sam. 4). Then God dwelt in the temple (); but, alas, again Israel sinned and the glory departed (). God’s next dwelling place was the body of Christ (), which men took and nailed to a cross. Today, through His Spirit, God dwells in the church, the temple of God. God does not dwell in man-made temples, including church buildings (). He dwells in the hearts of those who have trusted Christ (), and in the church collectively ().
The foundation for this church was laid by the Apostles and New Testament prophets. Jesus Christ is the Foundation () and the Chief Cornerstone (; ). The cornerstone binds the structure together; Jesus Christ has united Jews and Gentiles in the church. This reference to the temple would be meaningful to both the Jews and the Gentiles in the Ephesian church: the Jews would think of Herod’s temple in Jerusalem, and the Gentiles would think of the great temple of Diana. Both temples were destined to be destroyed, but the temple Christ is building will last forever. “I will build My church” (). The Holy Spirit builds this temple by taking dead stones out of the pit of sin (), giving them life, and setting them lovingly into the temple of God (). This temple is “fitly framed together” as the body of Christ (; ), so that every part accomplishes the purpose God has in mind.
As you look back over this chapter, you cannot help but praise God for what He, in His grace, has done for sinners. Through Christ, He has raised us from the dead and seated us on the throne. He has reconciled us and set us into His temple. Neither spiritual death nor spiritual distance can defeat the grace of God! But He has not only saved us individually, He has also made us a part of His church collectively. What a tremendous privilege it is to be a part of God’s eternal program!
This leads to two practical applications as we close this study.
First, have you personally experienced the grace of God? Are you spiritually dead? Are you distant from God? Or have you trusted Christ and received that eternal life that only He can give? If you are not sure of your spiritual position, I urge you to turn to Christ by faith and trust Him. Like the nation of Israel, you may have been given many spiritual privileges, only to reject the God who gave them. Or, like the Gentiles, you may have turned away from God and lived deliberately in sin and disobedience. In either case, “there is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (). Call on Christ—He will save you.
Second, if you are a true believer in Christ, are you helping others to trust Him? You have been raised from the dead—do you “walk in newness of life”? () Do you share this Good News of eternal life with others? You are no longer at enmity with God, but are you spreading the Good News of “peace with God” with those who are still fighting Him?
Jesus Christ died to make reconciliation possible. You and I must live to make the message of reconciliation personal. God has “given to us the ministry of reconciliation” (). We are His ambassadors of peace (). Our feet should be shod “with the preparation of the Gospel of peace” (). “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God” ().
A missionary was preaching in the village market, and some of the people were laughing at him because he was not a very handsome man. He took it for a time, and then he said to the crowd, “It is true that I do not have beautiful hair, for I am almost bald. Nor do I have beautiful teeth, for they are really not mine; they were made by the dentist. I do not have a beautiful face, nor can I afford to wear beautiful clothes. But this I know: I have beautiful feet!” And he quoted the verse from Isaiah: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace” (). Do you have beautiful feet?
I was once a character witness at a child-custody trial. I was grateful that the case was being tried at a small rural county seat rather than in a big city, because it was my first experience on the witness stand. I have since learned that the location of the court makes little difference. All trials can be difficult and it is no fun to be a witness at any.
The prosecutor’s first question caught me unawares, “Reverend, do you think that a man who has been in prison is fit to raise a child?”
I was supposed to answer “Yes” or “No,” so the reply I gave did not make the judge too happy. “Well,” I said slowly, stalling for time, “I guess it depends on the man. Some very famous people have been in jail and have made the world a better place because of their experiences—John Bunyan, for example, and the great Apostle Paul.” I could have given other examples from the Bible, but I detected that my answer was not acceptable to the court.
Twice in this letter, Paul reminds his readers that he is a prisoner (; ), and at the close he calls himself an “ambassador in bonds” (). No doubt the Ephesians were asking, “Why is Paul a prisoner in Rome? Why would God permit such a thing?” In this paragraph, Paul explains his situation and, in doing so, also explains one of the greatest truths in this letter, the “mystery” of the church. In the New Testament, a mystery is not something eerie or inscrutable, but rather “a truth that was hidden by God in times past and is now revealed to those who are in His family.” A mystery is a “sacred secret” that is unknown to unbelievers, but understood and treasured by the people of God.
Paul explains the mystery—the Gentile believers are now united to the Jewish believers in one body, the church (). He had mentioned this new work of God, so his readers were familiar with the concept (; , ). But now Paul explains the tremendous impact of this “sacred secret” that had so possessed his own life and ministry. Actually, this explanation is almost a parenthesis in the letter, for Paul begins this section with the intention of praying for his readers. Compare and . His use of the words “prisoner” and “Gentiles” leads him into this important explanation of the “mystery of the church,” and in this explanation, Paul shows us that the “mystery” is important to four different groups of persons.
The best way to grasp the importance of “the mystery” in Paul’s life is to focus on the two descriptions he gives of himself in this section. He begins by calling himself “a prisoner” (), and then he calls himself “a minister” (). Paul was a prisoner because he believed in God’s new program of uniting believing Jews and Gentiles into one body, the church. The orthodox Jews in Paul’s day considered the Gentiles “dogs,” but some of the Christian Jews did not have a much better attitude toward the Gentiles.
Paul was a leader in Jewish orthodoxy when Christ saved him (; ); yet in the providence of God, he began his early ministry in a local church in Antioch that was composed of both Jews and Gentiles (). When the council was held at Jerusalem to determine the status of believing Gentiles, Paul courageously defended the grace of God and the unity of the church (Acts 15; ).
Paul knew from the very beginning of his Christian life that God had called him to take the Gospel to the Gentiles (; ), and he was not disobedient to that call. Wherever Paul ministered, he founded local churches composed of believing Jews and Gentiles, all “one in Christ Jesus” ().
Because Paul was the “apostle to the Gentiles” (; ; ; ), he was accused of being prejudiced against the Jews, particularly the Jewish believers in Jerusalem and Judea. The special offering Paul collected for the needy believers in Judea should have shown the goodwill that existed between these churches and the churches Paul founded (). Paul delivered the offering in person (), and from all evidence, it was graciously received by the Judean Christians. Even though Paul took drastic steps to pacify the Jewish believers, there was a riot in the temple and Paul was arrested (). Paul defended himself by giving his personal testimony, and the crowd listened to him until he got to the word “Gentiles” and then they rioted again (). The rest of the Book of Acts explains how Paul got from Jerusalem to Rome, “a prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles” (). Had Paul compromised his message and encouraged the selfish prejudices of the Jews he probably would have been released.
Paul was not only a “prisoner” because of “the mystery,” but he was also a “minister.” God gave him a “dispensation” (stewardship) that he might go to the Gentiles, not only with the Good News of salvation through Christ, but also with the message that Jews and Gentiles are now one in Christ. The word dispensation comes from two Greek words: oikos, meaning “house” and nomos, meaning “law.” Our English word “economy” is derived directly from the Greek oikonomia, “the law of the house,” or “a stewardship, a management.” God has different ways of managing His program from age to age, and these different “stewardships” Bible students sometimes call “dispensations” (). God’s principles do not change, but His methods of dealing with mankind do change over the course of history. “Distinguish the ages,” wrote St. Augustine, “and the Scriptures harmonize.”
God made Paul a steward of “the mystery” with the responsibility of sharing it with the Gentiles. It was not enough simply to win them to Christ and form them into local assemblies. He was also to teach them their wonderful position in Christ as members of the body, sharing God’s grace equally with the Jews. This truth had not been revealed in the Old Testament Scriptures. It was revealed to the New Testament Apostles and prophets (see ) by the Holy Spirit. God revealed it personally to Paul, and it was his responsibility to share it with the Gentile Christians. This was the “dispensation”—or stewardship—that God had given him. And because Paul was a faithful steward, he was now a prisoner in Rome. Like Joseph in the Old Testament, his faithful stewardship resulted in false arrest and imprisonment. But, in the end, it brought great glory to God and salvation to Jews and Gentiles.
It Was Important to the Gentiles ()
In , we discovered that Christ’s work on the cross accomplished much more than the salvation of individual sinners. It reconciled Jews and Gentiles to each other and to God. It is this truth that Paul presents here, and you can imagine what exciting news it would be! The truth of “the mystery” reveals to believing Gentiles that they have a wonderful new relationship through Jesus Christ.
To begin with, they are fellow-heirs with the Jews and share in the spiritual riches God gave them because of His covenant with Abraham (). In Christ, being a Jew or a Gentile is neither an asset nor a liability, for together we share the riches of Christ. The Gentiles are also fellow-members of the body of Christ, the church. “There is one body” (). Our human birth determines our racial distinctions, but our spiritual birth unites us as members of the same body (). Christ is the Head of this body (), and each individual member shares in the ministry (). Finally, in their new relationship, the Gentiles are partakers of God’s promises. Once they were outside the covenant, with no claims on the promises of God (); but now, in Christ, they share the promises of God with the believing Jews. In , Paul explains that believing Gentiles share in the spiritual riches that God gave to Israel. But in , Paul explains that God has not, because of the church, negated His promises to Israel. The church today shares in the spiritual riches of Israel, but one day God will restore His people and fulfill His promises concerning their land and their kingdom.
“The mystery” not only gives believing Gentiles a new relationship, it also reveals that there is a new power available to them (). This power is illustrated in the life of Paul. God saved him by grace and gave him a stewardship, a special ministry to the Gentiles. But God also gave Paul the power to accomplish this ministry. The word “working” here is energeia from which we get our word “energy.” The word “power” is dunamis which gives us our words “dynamic” and “dynamite.” Paul has already told us about this mighty power in , and he will mention it again in and . The mighty resurrection power of Christ is available to us for daily life and service.
Finally, there is available to the Gentiles new riches: “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (). Paul called them “exceeding riches” () but here he describes them as “unfathomable.” The words can also be translated “untraceable,” which means that they are so vast you cannot discover their end. (Some students suggest that “untraceable” might also carry the idea that “the mystery” cannot be traced in the Old Testament since it was hidden by God.)
Are these riches available to every believer? Yes! In fact, Paul makes it clear that he himself had no special claim on God’s wealth, for he considered himself “less than the least of all saints” (). The name Paul (Paulus) means “little” in Latin, and perhaps Paul bore this name because he realized how insignificant he really was (). He calls himself “the least of the apostles” (), but at least he was an apostle, which is more than we can claim. Here he calls himself, not “the least of all saints,” but “less than the least of all saints” (), and he later calls himself the “chief of sinners” (). Understanding the deep truths of God’s Word does not give a man a big head; it gives him a broken and contrite heart.
It Is Important to the Angels ()
Perhaps at this point, you are asking yourself the question, “Why did God keep His secret about the church hidden for so many centuries?” Certainly the Old Testament clearly states that God will save the Gentiles through Israel, but nowhere are we told that both Jews and Gentiles will form a new creation, the church, the body of Christ. It was this mystery that the Spirit revealed to Paul and other leaders in the early church, and that was so difficult for the Jews to accept.
Paul tells us that “the principalities and powers” are also involved in this great secret. God is “educating” the angels by means of the church! By “the principalities and powers,” Paul means the angelic beings created by God, both good and evil (; ; ; ). Angels are created beings and are not omniscient. In fact, Peter indicates that during the Old Testament period, the angels were curious about God’s plan of salvation then being worked out on earth (). Certainly the angels rejoice at the repentance of a lost sinner (); and Paul suggests that the angels watch the activities of the local assembly (). “We are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels,” Paul writes ().
What, then, do the angels learn from the church? “The manifold wisdom of God” (). Certainly the angels know about the power of God as seen in His creation. But the wisdom of God as seen in His new creation, the church, is something new to them. Unsaved men, including wise philosophers, look at God’s plan of salvation and consider it “foolishness” (). But the angels watch the outworking of God’s salvation, and they praise His wisdom. Paul calls it manifold wisdom, and this word carries the idea of “variegated” or “many-colored.” This suggests the beauty and variety of God’s wisdom in His great plan of salvation.
But there is another facet to this truth that must be explored. What are the evil angels learning from God’s “mystery”? That their leader, Satan, does not have any wisdom! Satan knows the Bible, and he understood from the Old Testament Scriptures that the Saviour would come, when He would come, how He would come, and where He would come. Satan also understood why He would come, as far as redemption is concerned. But nowhere in the Old Testament would Satan find any prophecies concerning the church, “the mystery” of Jews and Gentiles united in one body! Satan could see unbelieving Jews rejecting their Messiah, and he could see Gentiles trusting the Messiah, but he could not see both believing Jews and Gentiles united in one body, seated with Christ in the heavenlies, and completely victorious over Satan! Had Satan known the far-reaching results of the Cross, no doubt he would have altered his plans accordingly.
God hid this great plan “from the beginning of the world,” but now He wants “the mystery” to be known by His church. And this is why He made Paul a “steward” of this great truth. should read, “And to make all men see what is the stewardship of the mystery.” Here is an amazing truth: Now all believers are to be faithful stewards of this great truth! This “sacred secret” that was so important to Paul, and to the Gentiles, and to angels, is now in our hands!
It Should Be Important to Christians Today ()
When God saved Paul, He deposited with him the precious treasures of Gospel truth (). Paul in turn committed these truths to others, exhorting them to commit the truths to faithful men who would guard them and share them (). “O Timothy! Keep that which is committed to thy trust!” () At the close of his life, Paul would say, to the glory of God, “I have kept the faith” (). During those apostolic days, the truths of the Gospel and “the mystery” were guarded, preached, and handed down to faithful men.
But a study of church history reveals that, one by one, many of the basic truths of the Word of God were lost during the centuries that followed. God had His faithful people—a minority—at all times, but many of the great truths of the Word were buried under man-made theology, tradition, and ritual. Then, God’s Spirit began to open the eyes of seeking souls, and these great truths were unveiled again. Martin Luther championed justification by faith. Other spiritual leaders rediscovered the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the glorious truth of the return of Jesus Christ, and the joy of the victorious Christian life. In recent years, the truth of “the mystery” has again excited the hearts of God’s people. We rejoice that we are “all one in Christ Jesus.”
Most of us identify Napoleon Bonaparte as the would-be conqueror of Europe. But not many would name him as a patron of arts and sciences. Yet he was. In July 1798, Napoleon began to occupy Egypt, but by September 1801, he was forced to get out. Those three years meant failure as far as his military and political plans were concerned, but they meant success in one area that greatly interested him—archeology. For in August 1799, a Frenchman named Boussand discovered the Rosetta Stone about thirty miles from Alexandria. This discovery gave to archeologists the key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphics. It opened the door to modern Egyptian studies.
“The mystery” is God’s “Rosetta Stone.” It is the key to what He promised in the Old Testament, what Christ did in the Gospels, what the early church did in the Book of Acts, what Paul and the other writers teach in the Epistles, and what God will do as recorded in the Book of Revelation. God’s program today is not “the headship of Israel” (), but the headship of Christ over His church. We today are under a different “stewardship” from that of Moses and the prophets, and we must be careful not to confuse what God has clarified.
The reason many churches are weak and ineffective is because they do not understand what they have in Christ. And the cause of this is often spiritual leaders who are not good “stewards of the mystery.” Because they do not “rightly divide the Word of truth” (), they confuse their people concerning their spiritual position in Christ, and they rob their people of the spiritual wealth in Christ.
This great truth concerning the church is not a divine afterthought. It is a part of God’s eternal purpose in Christ (). To ignore this truth is to sin against the Father who planned it, the Son whose death made it possible, and the Spirit who today seeks to work in our lives to accomplish what God has planned. When you understand this truth, it gives you great confidence and faith (). When you know what God is doing in the world, and you work with Him, you can be sure that He will work in you and for you. All of His divine resources are available to those who sincerely want to do His will and help Him accomplish His purposes on earth.
The early church thought that the Gospel belonged to the Jews because it had come through them and to them first. Until Peter, by divine direction, went to the Gentiles in Acts 10, the Jewish believers thought that a Gentile had to become a Jew before he could become a Christian! God’s Spirit gradually revealed to the churches that God was doing a new thing: He was calling out a people for His name from both the Jews and Gentiles (). There are no national, racial, political, physical, or social distinctions in the church! “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” ().
But an understanding of God’s program in this present age not only gives the believer confidence toward God. It also gives him courage in the difficult circumstances of life. Paul’s sufferings for the Gentiles would mean glory for the Gentiles. In the Old Testament age, when God’s people obeyed, God blessed them materially, nationally, and physically (Deut. 28); and if they disobeyed, He withdrew these blessings. This is not the way He deals with the church today. Our blessings are spiritual, not material (); they have all been given to us completely in Christ. We appropriate them by faith; but if we disobey God, He does not revoke them. We simply lose the enjoyment and the enrichment of them. Paul was certainly a dedicated, Spirit-filled man; yet he was suffering as a prisoner. Paul made it clear that physical, material blessings are not always the experience of the dedicated Christian (; 11:23–12:10).
I was driving to a preaching engagement, trying to follow a map I had found in the glove compartment of my car. (I am a very poor navigator, so my wife is usually the navigator in our family.) For some reason, I could not locate the interstate highway I needed, so I stopped to get directions at a filling station.
“You’ve got an ancient map there, Mister!” the attendant told me. “Here’s the latest map. Follow it and you’ll get where you are going.” He was right. I followed the new map and arrived in plenty of time to preach.
People who do not understand God’s “mystery” in His church are trying to make spiritual progress with the wrong map. Or, to change the figure, they are trying to build with the wrong blueprints. God’s churches on this earth—the local assemblies—are not supposed to be either Gentile culture cliques or Jewish culture cliques. For a German church to refuse fellowship to a Swede is just as unscriptural as for a Jewish congregation to refuse a Gentile. God’s church is not to be shackled by culture, class, or any other physical distinction. It is a spiritual entity that must submit to the headship of Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit.
Yes, God had a “secret”—but God does not want it to be a secret anymore! If you understand your wonderful position in Christ, then live up to it—and share the blessing with others. This “secret” was important to Paul, to the Gentiles, and to the angels—and it ought to be important to you and me today.
This passage is the second of two prayers recorded in Ephesians, the first one being . In the first prayer, the emphasis is on enlightenment; but in this prayer, the emphasis is on enablement. It is not so much a matter of knowing as being—laying our hands on what God has for us and by faith making it a vital part of our lives. Paul is saying, “I want you to get your hands on your wealth, realize how vast it is, and start to use it.”
It is worth noting that both of these prayers, as well as the other prison prayers (; ), deal with the spiritual condition of the inner man, and not the material needs of the body. Certainly it is not wrong to pray for physical and material needs, but the emphasis in these petitions is on the spiritual. Paul knew that if the inner man is what he ought to be, the outer man will be taken care of in due time. Too many of our prayers focus only on physical and material needs and fail to lay hold of the deeper inner needs of the heart. It would do us good to use these prison prayers as our own, and ask God to help us in our inner person. That is where the greatest needs are.
The first thing that strikes us is Paul’s posture: “I bow my knees.” (This must have been quite an experience for the Roman soldier chained to Paul!) The Bible nowhere commands any special posture for prayer. Abraham stood before the Lord when he prayed for Sodom (), and Solomon stood when he prayed to dedicate the temple (). David “sat before the Lord” () when he prayed about the future of his kingdom. And Jesus “fell on His face” when He prayed in Gethsemane ().
You have noticed, no doubt, the emphasis on spiritual posture in Ephesians. As lost sinners, we were buried in the graveyard (). But when we trusted Christ, He raised us from the dead and seated us with Christ in the heavenlies (). Because we are seated with Christ, we can walk so as to please Him (, ; , , ); and we can stand against the devil (). But the posture that links “sitting” with “walking” and “standing” is “bowing the knee.” It is through prayer that we lay hold of God’s riches that enable us to behave like Christians and battle like Christians. Whether we actually bow our knees is not the important thing; that we bow our hearts and wills to the Lord and ask Him for what we need is the vital matter.
Paul’s prayer was addressed to “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In the Bible, prayer is addressed to the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit. This is the usual pattern, though you do find petitions addressed to the Son, and possibly to the Spirit (). In , Paul calls the Father “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He was the “God … of our Lord Jesus Christ” when Jesus was here on earth, for as man, Jesus lived in total dependence on God. This title reminds us of Christ’s humanity. But God is the “Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” because Jesus Christ is eternal God; so this title reminds us of His deity.
There is a sense, however, in which all men in general, and Christians in particular, share in the fatherhood of God. Paul states that “the whole family in heaven and earth is named” after the divine Father. That word family can be translated “fatherhood.” Every fatherhood in heaven and on earth gets its origin and name from the Father. He is the great Original; every other fatherhood is but a copy. Adam is called “the son of God” (), referring to his creation. Believers are the “sons of God” by rebirth (; ). All men are not children of God by nature. Instead, they are children of disobedience and children of wrath (). As Creator, God is the Father of each man; but as Saviour, He is only the Father of those who believe. There is no such thing in Scripture as the universal fatherhood of God that saves all men. “Ye must be born again” ().
There are four requests in Paul’s prayer, but they must not be looked on as isolated, individual petitions. These four requests are more like four parts to a telescope. One request leads into the next one, and so on. He prays that the inner man might have spiritual strength, which will, in turn, lead to a deeper experience with Christ. This deeper experience will enable them to “apprehend” (get hold of) God’s great love, which will result in their being “filled unto all the fullness of God.” So, then, Paul is praying for strength, depth, apprehension, and fullness.
Strength (v. ). The presence of the Holy Spirit in the life is evidence of salvation (); but the power of the Spirit is enablement for Christian living, and it is this power that Paul desires for his readers. “Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you” (, literal translation). Jesus performed His ministry on earth in the power of the Spirit (, ; ), and this is the only resource we have for Christian living today. As you read the Book of Acts, you see the importance of the Holy Spirit in the life of the church, for there are some fifty-nine references to the Spirit in the book, or one fourth of the total references found in the New Testament. Someone has said, “If God took the Holy Spirit out of this world, most of what we Christians are doing would go right on—and nobody would know the difference!” Sad, but true.
The power of the Spirit is given to us “according to the riches of His glory” (). Christ returned to glory and sent the Spirit from heaven to indwell and empower His people. It is not necessary for us to “work something up.” The power has to be sent down. How marvelous that God does not give the Spirit’s power to us “out of His riches” but “according to”—which is a far greater thing. If I am a billionaire and I give you ten dollars, I have given you out of my riches; but if I give you a million dollars, I have given to you according to my riches. The first is a portion; the second is a proportion.
This power is available for “the inner man.” This means the spiritual part of man where God dwells and works. The inner man of the lost sinner is dead (), but it becomes alive when Christ is invited in. The inner man can see (), hear (), taste (), and feel (); and he must be “exercised” (). He also must be cleansed () and fed (). The outer man is perishing, but the inner man can be renewed spiritually in spite of outward physical decay (). It is this inner power that makes him succeed.
What does it mean to have the Holy Spirit empower the inner man? It means that our spiritual faculties are controlled by God, and we are exercising them and growing in the Word (). It is only when we yield to the Spirit and let Him control the inner man that we succeed in living to the glory of God. This means feeding the inner man the Word of God, praying and worshiping, keeping clean, and exercising the senses by loving obedience.
Depth (v. ). Paul uses three pictures here to convey this idea of spiritual depth, and the three pictures are hidden in the three verbs: “dwell,” “rooted,” and “grounded.” The verb dwell literally means (and here I follow Dr. Kenneth Wuest) “to settle down and feel at home.” Certainly Christ was already resident in the hearts of the Ephesians, or else Paul would not have addressed them as “saints” in . What Paul is praying for is a deeper experience between Christ and His people. He yearns for Christ to settle down and feel at home in their hearts—not a surface relationship, but an ever-deepening fellowship.
Abraham’s life is an illustration of this truth. God was going to bless Abraham with a son, so the Lord Himself came down and visited Abraham’s tent, and He brought two angels with Him. They came to the tent, they talked with Abraham, and they even ate a meal with him. They felt very much at home, because Abraham was a man of faith and obedience. But the three guests had another task. They had to investigate the sins of Sodom because God planned to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot, a believer, was living in Sodom, and God wanted to warn him to get out before the judgment could fall. But the Lord Himself did not go to Sodom. He sent the two angels (Gen. 18–19). The Lord did not feel at home in Lot’s house the way He felt at home in Abraham’s tent.
The verb rooted moves us into the plant world. The tree must get its roots deep into the soil if it is to have both nourishment and stability; and the Christian must have his spiritual roots deep into the love of God. is a perfect description of this word, and is a good commentary on it. One of the most important questions a Christian can ask himself is, “From what do I draw my nourishment and my stability?” If there is to be power in the Christian life, then there must be depth. The roots must go deeper and deeper into the love of Christ.
Grounded is an architectural term; it refers to the foundations on which we build. In the first two churches I pastored, we were privileged to construct new buildings, and in both projects it seemed we would never get out of the ground. In my second building program, we had to spend several thousand dollars taking soil tests because we were building over an old lake bed. For weeks, the men were laying out and pouring the footings. One day I complained to the architect, and he replied, “Pastor, the most important part of this building is the foundation. If you don’t go deep, you can’t go high.” That sentence has been a sermon to me ever since.
The trials of life test the depth of our experience. If two roommates in college have a falling out, they may seek new roommates, for after all, living with a roommate is a passing experience. But if a husband and wife, who love each other, have a disagreement, the trial only deepens their love as they seek to solve the problems. The storm that blows reveals the strength of the roots. Jesus told the story about the two builders, one of whom did not go deep enough for his foundation (). Paul prayed that the believers might have a deeper experience with Christ, because only a deep experience could sustain them during the severe trials of life.
Apprehension (vv. ). The English words “comprehend” and “apprehend” both stem from the Latin word prehendere which means “to grasp.” We say that a monkey has a “prehensile tail.” That is, its tail is able to grasp a tree limb and hold on. Our word comprehend carries the idea of mentally grasping something; while apprehend suggests laying hold of it for yourself. In other words, it is possible to understand something but not really make it your own. Paul’s concern is that we lay hold of the vast expanses of the love of God. He wants us to live in four dimensions. When God gave the land to Abraham, He told him to “walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it” (). Abraham had to step out by faith and claim his inheritance. But we today have an inheritance in four dimensions: breadth, length, depth, and height. God’s fourth dimension is love!
But there is a paradox here. Paul wants us to know personally the love of Christ “which passeth knowledge.” There are dimensions, but they cannot be measured. “The love of Christ which passeth knowledge” parallels “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (). We are so rich in Christ that our riches cannot be calculated even with the most sophisticated computer.
Perhaps you saw the cartoon that depicted a man chatting with a boat salesman. In the beautiful showroom were yachts and cabin cruisers that glittered with elegance. In the caption, the salesman is saying to the customer: “Sir, if you have to ask how much they are, they are too expensive for you!”
No Christian ever has to worry about having inadequate spiritual resources to meet the demands of life. If he prays for spiritual strength and spiritual depth, he will be able to apprehend—get his hands on—all the resources of God’s love and grace. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (). And what is the result of all of this?
Fullness (v. ). It is said that nature abhors a vacuum. This explains why air or water will automatically flow into an empty place. The divine nature abhors a vacuum. God wants us to experience His fullness. “Filled unto all the fullness of God” is the more accurate translation. The means of our fullness is the Holy Spirit (), and the measure of our fullness is God Himself (). It is tragic when Christians use the wrong measurements in examining their own spiritual lives. We like to measure ourselves by the weakest Christians that we know, and then boast, “Well, I’m better than they are.” Paul tells us that the measure is Christ, and that we cannot boast about anything (nor should we). When we have reached His fullness, then we have reached the limit.
In one sense, the Christian is already “made full in Christ” (, where “complete” means “filled full”). Positionally, we are complete in Him, but practically, we enjoy only the grace that we apprehend by faith. The resources are there. All we need do is accept them and enjoy them. Paul will have more to say about this fullness (), so we will reserve further comment until we reach that section.
After contemplating such a marvelous spiritual experience, it is no wonder Paul bursts forth in a doxology, a fitting benediction to such a prayer. Note again the trinitarian emphasis in this benediction: Paul prays to God the Father, concerning the indwelling power of God the Spirit, made available through God the Son.
Perhaps the best way for us to grasp some of the greatness of this doxology is to look at it in outhned form:
Now unto Him that is
able to do all
above all
abundantly above all
exceeding abundantly above all
Paul seems to want to use every word possible to convey to us the vastness of God’s power as found in Jesus Christ. He has ended each of the two previous chapters with praise to God for His great victory in Christ. He tells us that Christ’s power is so great He arose from the dead and ascended far above all (). He teaches us that His power is so great He has reconciled Jews and Gentiles to each other, and to God; and that He is now building a temple to the eternal glory of God (). But in the paragraph before us, Paul shares the exciting truth that this far above all power is available to us! It is even “above all that we ask or think.” In other words, the power of Christ, like the love of Christ, is beyond human understanding or measurement. And this is just the kind of power you and I need if we are to walk and war in victory.
The word “power” is again dunamis, which we met back in ; and “working” is energeia (energy) found in , ; ; ; and . Some power is dormant; it is available, but not being used, such as the power stored in a battery. But God’s energy is effectual power—power at work in our lives. This power works in us, in the inner man (). are parallel verses, so be sure to read them. It is the Holy Spirit who releases the resurrection power of Christ in our lives.
One winter day, I had an important engagement in Chicago, and the evening before the area was hit by a severe snowstorm. I did not have a garage, so my car was not only covered with snow, but heavy cakes of ice had formed under the fenders and bumpers. These ice cakes I simply kicked off, after I had swept off the car. I drove to the gas station to fill the tank. When I pushed the button on the dashboard to open the gas cap, it didn’t work. No matter how hard or often I pushed, the cap stayed shut. The station attendant looked under the fender and discovered the problem. In kicking off the ice, I had broken the wire that connected the gas cap with the battery.
Apparently this is what has happened to many Christians. They have been cut off from their source of power. Unbelief, unconfessed sin, careless living, worldliness in action or attitude—all of these can rob us of power. And a Christian robbed of power cannot be used of God. “Without Me, ye can do nothing” ().
Why does God share His power with us? So that we can build great churches for our own glory? So that we can boast of our own achievements? No! “To Him be glory in the church!” The Spirit of God was given to glorify the Son of God (). The church on earth is here to glorify the Son of God. If our motive is to glorify God by building His church, then God will share His power with us. The power of the Spirit is not a luxury; it is a necessity.
But the amazing thing is that what we do in His power today will glorify Christ “throughout all ages, world without end” (). The church’s greatest ministry is yet to come. What we do here and now is preparing us for the eternal ages, when we shall glorify Christ forever.
He is able to do all—above all—abundantly above all—exceeding abundantly above all!
Get your hands on your spiritual wealth by opening your heart to the Holy Spirit, and praying with Paul for strength for the inner man … for a new depth of love … for spiritual apprehension … and for spiritual fullness.
“Ye have not because ye ask not” ().
All of Paul’s letters contain a beautiful balance between doctrine and duty, and Ephesians is the perfect example. The first three chapters deal with doctrine, our riches in Christ, while the last three chapters explain duty, our responsibilities in Christ. The key word in this last half of the book is walk (, ; , , ), while the key idea in the first half is wealth. In these last three chapters, Paul admonishes us to walk in unity (), purity (Eph. 4:17–5:17), harmony (Eph. 5:18–6:9), and victory ().
These four “walks” perfectly parallel the basic doctrines Paul has taught us in the first three chapters.
Before we look at this section in detail, we must note two important words in : therefore and beseech. The word therefore indicates that Paul is basing his exhortations to duty on the doctrines taught in the first three chapters. ( are parallel verses.) The Christian life is not based on ignorance but knowledge, and the better we understand Bible doctrine, the easier it is to obey Bible duties. When people say, “Don’t talk to me about doctrine—just let me live my Christian life!” they are revealing their ignorance of the way the Holy Spirit works in the life of the believer. “It makes no difference what you believe, just as long as you live right” is a similar confession of ignorance. It does make a difference what you believe, because what you believe determines how you behave!
Our Wealth
Our Walk
Called by grace to belong to His body (chap. 1)
Walk worthy of your calling—the unity of the Body ()
Put off the grave clothes (4:17–5:17); walk in the purity
Walk in harmony (5:18–6:9)
Christ’s victory over Satan is the mystery (chap. 3)
The word beseech indicates that God, in love, urges us to live for His glory. He does not say, as He did to the Old Testament Jews, “If you obey Me, I will bless you.” Rather, He says, “I have already blessed you—now, in response to My love and grace, obey Me.” He has given us such a marvelous calling in Christ; now it is our responsibility to live up to that calling.
The main idea in these first sixteen verses is the unity of believers in Christ. This is simply the practical application of the doctrine taught in the first half of the letter: God is building a body, a temple. He has reconciled Jews and Gentiles to Himself in Christ. The oneness of believers in Christ is already a spiritual reality. Our responsibility is to guard, protect, and preserve that unity. To do this, we must understand four important facts.
Unity is not uniformity. Unity comes from within and is a spiritual grace, while uniformity is the result of pressure from without. Paul used the human body as a picture of Christian unity (1 Cor. 12), and he adapts the same illustration here in this section (). Each part of the body is different from the other parts, yet all make up one body and work together.
If we are going to preserve the “unity of the Spirit,” we must possess the necessary Christian graces, and there are seven of them listed here. The first is lowhness, or humility. Someone has said, “Humility is that grace that, when you know you have it, you have lost it.” Humility means putting Christ first, others second, and self last. It means knowing ourselves, accepting ourselves, and being ourselves to the glory of God. God does not condemn you when you accept yourself and your gifts (). He just does not want us to think more highly of ourselves than we ought to—or less highly than we ought to.
Meekness is not weakness. It is power under control. Moses was a meek man (), yet see the tremendous power he exercised. Jesus Christ was “meek and lowly in heart” (), yet He drove the money changers from the temple. In the Greek language, this word was used for a soothing medicine, a colt that had been broken, and a soft wind. In each case you have power, but that power is under control.
Allied with meekness is long-suffering, which literally means “long-tempered,” the ability to endure discomfort without fighting back. This leads to the mentioning of forbearance, a grace that cannot be experienced apart from love. “Love suffereth long and is kind” (). Actually, Paul is describing some of the “fruit of the Spirit” (); for the “unity of the Spirit” () is the result of the believer “walking in the Spirit” ().
The next grace that contributes to the unity of the Spirit is endeavor. Literally it reads “being eager to maintain, or guard, the unity of the Spirit.” “It’s great that you love each other,” I once heard a seasoned saint say to a newly wedded couple, “but if you’re going to be happy in marriage, you gotta work at it!” The verb used here is a present participle, which means we must constantly be endeavoring to maintain this unity. In fact, when we think the situation is the best, Satan will move in to wreck it. The spiritual unity of a home, a Sunday School class, or a church is the responsibility of each person involved, and the job never ends.
The final grace is peace—“the bond of peace.” Read James 3:13–4:10 for the most vivid treatment of war and peace in the New Testament. Note that the reason for war on the outside is war on the inside. If a believer cannot get along with God, he cannot get along with other believers. When “the peace of God” rules in our hearts, then we build unity ().
Many people today attempt to unite Christians in a way that is not biblical. For example, they will say: “We are not interested in doctrines, but in love. Now, let’s forget our doctrines and just love one another!” But Paul did not discuss spiritual unity in the first three chapters; he waited until he had laid the doctrinal foundation. While not all Christians agree on some minor matters of Christian doctrine, they all do agree on the foundation truths of the faith. Unity built on anything other than Bible truth is standing on a very shaky foundation. Paul names here the seven basic spiritual realities that unite all true Christians.
One body. This is, of course, the body of Christ in which each believer is a member, placed there at conversion by the Spirit of God (). The one body is the model for the many local bodies that God has established across the world. The fact that a person is a member of the one body does not excuse him from belonging to a local body, for it is there that he exercises his spiritual gifts and helps others to grow.
One Spirit. The same Holy Spirit indwells each believer, so that we belong to each other in the Lord. There are perhaps a dozen references to the Holy Spirit in Ephesians, because He is important to us in the living of the Christian life.
One hope of your calling. This refers to the return of the Lord to take His church to heaven. The Holy Spirit within is the assurance of this great promise (). Paul is suggesting here that the believer who realizes the existence of the one body, who walks in the Spirit, and who looks for the Lord’s return, is going to be a peacemaker and not a troublemaker.
One Lord. This is our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us, lives for us, and one day will come for us. It is difficult to believe that two believers can claim to obey the same Lord, and yet not be able to walk together in unity. Someone asked Ghandi, the spiritual leader of India, “What is the greatest hindrance to Christianity in India?” He replied, “Christians.” Acknowledging the lordship of Christ is a giant step toward spiritual unity among His people.
One faith. There is one settled body of truth deposited by Christ in His church, and this is “the faith.” Jude calls it “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (). The early Christians recognized a body of basic doctrine that they taught, guarded, and committed to others (). Christians may differ in some matters of interpretation and church practice; but all true Christians agree on “the faith”—and to depart from “the faith” is to bring about disunity within the body of Christ.
One baptism. Since Paul is here discussing the one body, this “one baptism” is probably the baptism of the Spirit, that act of the Spirit when He places the believing sinner into the body of Christ at conversion (). This is not an experience after conversion, nor is it an experience the believer should pray for or seek after. We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit (), but we are never commanded to be baptized with the Spirit, for we have already been baptized by the Spirit at conversion. As far as the one body is concerned, there is one baptism—the baptism of the Spirit. But as far as local bodies of believers are concerned, there are two baptisms: the baptism of the Spirit, and water baptism.
One God and Father. Paul likes to emphasize God as Father (, ; ; ; ). The marvelous oneness of believers in the family of God is evident here, for God is over all, and working through all, and in all. We are children in the same family, loving and serving the same Father, so we ought to be able to walk together in unity. Just as in an earthly family, the various members have to give and take in order to keep a loving unity in the home, so God’s heavenly family must do the same. The “Lord’s Prayer” opens with “Our Father”—not “My Father.”
Paul is quite concerned that Christians not break the unity of the Spirit by agreeing with false doctrine (), and the Apostle John echoes this warning (). The local church cannot believe in peace at any price, for God’s wisdom is “first pure, then peaceable” (). Purity of doctrine of itself does not produce spiritual unity, for there are churches that are sound in faith, but unsound when it comes to love. This is why Paul joins the two: “speaking the truth in love” ().
Paul moves now from what all Christians have in common to how Christians differ from each other. He is discussing variety and individuality within the unity of the Spirit. God has given each believer at least one spiritual gift (), and this gift is to be used for the unifying and edifying (building up) of the body of Christ. We must make a distinction between “spiritual gifts” and natural abilities. When you were born into this world God gave you certain natural abilities, perhaps in mechanics, art, athletics, or music. In this regard, all men are not created equal, because some are smarter, or stronger, or more talented than others. But in the spiritual realm, each believer has at least one spiritual gift no matter what natural abilities he may or may not possess. A spiritual gift is a God-given ability to serve God and other Christians in such a way that Christ is glorified and believers are edified.
How does the believer discover and develop his gifts? By fellowshipping with other Christians in the local assembly. Gifts are not toys to play with. They are tools to build with. And if they are not used in love, they become weapons to fight with, which is what happened in the Corinthian church (1 Cor. 12–14). Christians are not to live in isolation, for after all, they are members of the same body.
Paul taught that Christ is the Giver of these gifts, through the Holy Spirit (). He ascended to heaven as Victor forevermore. The picture here is of a military conqueror leading his captives and sharing the spoil with his followers. Only in this case, the “captives” are not His enemies, but His own. Sinners who once were held captives by sin and Satan have now been taken captive by Christ. Even death itself is a defeated foe! When He came to earth, Christ experienced the depths of humiliation (), but when He ascended to heaven, He experienced the very highest exaltation possible. Paul quotes , applying to Jesus Christ a victory song written by David ().
There are three lists of spiritual gifts given in the New Testament: , ; ; and . Since these lists are not identical, it may be that Paul has not named all the gifts that are available. Paul wrote that some gifts are more important than others, but that all believers are needed if the body is to function normally (, ). Paul named, not so much “gifts” as the gifted men God has placed in the church, and there are four of them.
Apostles (v. ). The word means “one who is sent with a commission.” Jesus had many disciples, but He selected 12 Apostles (). A disciple is a “follower” or a “learner,” but an apostle is a “divinely appointed representative.” The Apostles were to give witness of the Resurrection (), and therefore had to have seen the risen Christ personally (). There are no apostles today in the strictest New Testament sense. These men helped to lay the foundation of the church—“the foundation laid by the Apostles and prophets” (), and once the foundation was laid, they were no longer needed. God authenticated their ministry with special miracles (), so we should not demand these same miracles today. Of course, in a broad sense, all Christians have an apostolic ministry. “As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you” (). But we must not claim to be apostles.
Prophets (v. ). We commonly associate a prophet with predictions of future events, but this is not his primary function. A New Testament prophet is one who proclaims the Word of God (; ). Believers in the New Testament churches did not possess Bibles, nor was the New Testament written and completed. How, then, would these local assemblies discover God’s will? His Spirit would share God’s truth with those possessing the gift of prophecy. Paul suggests that the gift of prophecy had to do with understanding “all mysteries and all knowledge” (), meaning, of course, spiritual truths. The purpose of prophecy is “edification, encouragement, and consolation” (, literal translation). Christians today do not get their spiritual knowledge immediately from the Holy Spirit, but mediately through the Spirit teaching the Word. With the Apostles, the prophets had a foundational ministry in the early church and they are not needed today ().
Evangelists (v. ). “Bearers of the Good News.” These men traveled from place to place to preach the Gospel and win the lost (; ). All ministers should “do the work of an evangelist,” but this does not mean that all ministers are evangelists (). The Apostles and prophets laid the foundation of the church, and the evangelists built on it by winning the lost to Christ. Of course, in the early church, every believer was a witness (; ), and so should we be witnesses today. But there are people also today who have the gift of evangelism. The fact that a believer may not possess this gift does not excuse him from being burdened for lost souls or witnessing to them.
Pastors and teachers (v. ). The fact that the word “some” is not repeated indicates that we have here one office with two ministries. Pastor means “shepherd,” indicating that the local church is a flock of sheep (), and it is his responsibility to feed and lead the flock (, where “elder” is another name for “pastor”). He does this by means of the Word of God, the food that nourishes the sheep. The Word is the staff that guides and disciplines the sheep. The Word of God is the local church’s protection and provision, and no amount of entertainment, good fellowship, or other religious substitutes can take its place.
Paul was looking at the church on two levels in this section. He saw the body of Christ, made up of all true believers, growing gradually until it reaches spiritual maturity, “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” But he also saw the local body of believers ministering to each other, growing together, and thereby experiencing spiritual unity.
A free-lance missionary visited a pastor friend of mine asking for financial support. “What group are you associated with?” my friend asked.
The man replied, “I belong to the invisible church.”
My friend then asked, “Well, what church are you a member of!”
Again he got the answer, “I belong to the invisible church!”
Getting a bit suspicious, my friend asked, “When does this invisible church meet? Who pastors it?”
The missionary then became incensed and said, “Well, your church here isn’t the true church. I belong to the invisible church!”
My friend replied, “Well, here’s some invisible money to help you minister to the invisible church!”
Now, my pastor friend was not denying the existence of the one body. Rather, he was affirming the fact that the invisible church (not a biblical term, but I will use it) ministers through the visible church.
The gifted leaders are supposed to “equip the saints unto the work of the ministry, unto the building up of the body of Christ” (literal translation). The saints do not call a pastor and pay him to do the work. They call him and follow his leadership as he, through the Word, equips them to do the job (). The members of the church grow by feeding on the Word and ministering to each other. The first evidence of spiritual growth is Christhkeness.
The second evidence is stability. The maturing Christian is not tossed about by every religious novelty that comes along. There are religious quacks waiting to kidnap God’s children and get them into their false cults, but the maturing believer recognizes false doctrine and stays clear of it. The cultists do not try to win lost souls to Christ. They do not establish rescue missions in the slum areas of our cities, because they have no good news for the man on skid row. Instead, these false teachers try to capture immature Christians, and for this reason, most of the membership of the false cults comes from local churches, particularly churches that do not feed their people the Word of God.
The third evidence of maturity is truth joined with love: “Speaking the truth in love” (). It has well been said that truth without love is brutality, but love without truth is hypocrisy. Little children do not know how to blend truth and love. They think that if you love someone, you must shield him from the truth if knowing the truth will hurt him. It is a mark of maturity when we are able to share the truth with our fellow Christians, and do it in love. “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful” ().
One more evidence of maturity is cooperation (). We realize that, as members of the one body and a local body, we belong to each other, we affect each other, and we need each other. Each believer, no matter how insignificant he may appear, has a ministry to other believers. The body grows as the individual members grow, and they grow as they feed on the Word and minister to each other. Note once again the emphasis on love: “forbearing one another in love” (); “speaking the truth in love” (); “the edifying of itself in love” (). Love is the circulatory system of the body. It has been discovered that isolated, unloved babies do not grow properly and are especially susceptible to disease, while babies who are loved and handled grow normally and are stronger. So it is with the children of God. An isolated Christian cannot minister to others, nor can others minister to him, and it is impossible for the gifts to be ministered either way.
So, then, spiritual unity is not something we manufacture. It is something we already have in Christ, and we must protect and maintain it. Truth unites, but lies divide. Love unites, but selfishness divides. Therefore, “speaking the truth in love,” let us equip one another and edify one another, that all of us may grow up to be more like Christ.
The Bible was written to be obeyed, and not simply studied, and this is why the words “therefore” and “wherefore” are repeated so often in the second half of Ephesians (, , ; , , , , ). Paul was saying, “Here is what Christ has done for you. Now, in the light of this, here is what we ought to do for Christ.” We are to be doers of the Word, and not hearers only (). The fact that we have been called in Christ () ought to motivate us to walk in unity (). And the fact that we have been raised from the dead () should motivate us to walk in purity (Eph. 4:17–5:17), or, as Paul told the Romans, “walk in newness of life” (). We are alive in Christ, not dead in sins; therefore “put off the old man … and put on the new man (, ). Take off the graveclothes and put on the grace-clothes!
There are some negatives in the Christian life, and here is one of them: “Walk not as other Gentiles walk.” The Christian is not to imitate the life of the unsaved people around him. They are “dead in trespasses and sins” (), while he has been raised from the dead and been given eternal life in Christ. Paul explains the differences between the saved and the unsaved.
To begin with, Christians think differently from unsaved people. Note the emphasis here on thinking: mind (, ), understanding (), ignorance (), “learned Christ” (). Salvation begins with repentance, which is a change of mind. The whole outlook of a person changes when he trusts Christ, including his values, goals, and interpretation of life. What is wrong with the mind of the unsaved person? For one thing, his thinking is “vain” (futile). It leads to no substantial purpose. Since he does not know God, he cannot truly understand the world around him, nor can he understand himself. The sad story is told in . Our world today possesses a great deal of knowledge, but very little wisdom. Thoreau put it beautifully when he said that we have “improved means to unimproved ends.”
The unsaved man’s thinking is futile because it is darkened. He thinks he is enlightened because he rejects the Bible and believes the latest philosophies, when in reality he is in the dark. “Professing themselves to be wise, they become fools” (). But they think they are wise. Satan has blinded the minds of the unsaved () because he does not want them to see the truth in Jesus Christ. It is not simply that their eyes are blinded so they cannot see, but that their minds are darkened so that they cannot think straight about spiritual matters.
Of course, the unsaved man is dead because of this spiritual ignorance. The truth and the life go together. If you believe God’s truth, then you receive God’s life. But you would think that the unbeliever would do his utmost to get out of his terrible spiritual plight. Alas, the hardness of his heart enslaves him. He is “past feeling” because he has so given himself over to sin that sin controls him. Read for a vivid expansion of these three brief verses.
The Christian cannot pattern himself after the unsaved person, because the Christian has experienced a miracle of being raised from the dead. His life is not futile, but purposeful. His mind is filled with the light of God’s Word, and his heart with the fullness of God’s life. He gives his body to God as an instrument of righteousness (), and not to sin for the satisfaction of his own selfish lusts. In every way, the believer is different from the unbeliever, and therefore the admonition: “Walk not.”
Paul reinforced his admonition with an argument from the spiritual experience of his readers. Again the emphasis is on the mind, or the outlook, of the believer. “But ye have not so learned Christ” (). He did not say “learned about Christ,” because it is possible to learn about Christ and never be saved. To “learn Christ” means to have a personal relationship to Christ so that you get to know Him better each day. I can learn about Sir Winston Churchill because I own many of his books and can secure books about his life. But I can never learn him because he is dead. Jesus Christ is alive! Therefore, I can “learn Christ” through a personal fellowship with Him.
This fellowship is based on the Word of God. I can be taught “the truth” as it is in Jesus Christ. The better I understand the Word of God, the better I know the Son of God, for the whole Bible is a revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ (; ). The unsaved man is spiritually ignorant, while the Christian is intelligent in the things of the Word. And the unsaved man does not know Christ, while the believer grows in his personal knowledge of Christ day by day. We have believed the truth; we have received the life; therefore, we will walk “in the way” and not walk after the example of the unsaved world.
But this experience of salvation goes much deeper than this, for it has resulted in a whole new position before God. The old man (the former life) has been put away, and we can now walk in newness of life through Christ. is a summary of Romans 5–8, where Paul explained the believer’s identification with Christ in death, burial, and resurrection. He also dealt with this in , as well as in Colossians 3. As Christians, we have not simply changed our minds. We have totally changed our citizenship. We belong to God’s “new creation” in Christ (), and therefore, the ideas and desires of the old creation no longer should control our lives.
The simplest illustration of this great truth is given in John 11, the resurrection of Lazarus. Our Lord’s friend, Lazarus, had been in the grave four days when Jesus and His disciples arrived at Bethany, and even Martha admitted that, by now, the decaying body would smell (). But Jesus spoke the word and Lazarus came forth alive, an illustration of . Notice our Lord’s next words, “Loose him, and let him go” (). Take off the graveclothes! Lazarus no longer belonged to the old dominion of death, for he was now alive. Why go about wearing graveclothes? Take off the old and put on the new!
This was Paul’s argument—you no longer belong to the old corruption of sin; you belong to the new creation in Christ. Take off the graveclothes! How do we do this? “Be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (). Conversion is a crisis that leads to a process. Through Christ, once and for all, we have been given a new position in His new creation, but day by day, we must by faith appropriate what He has given us. The Word of God renews the mind as we surrender our all to Him (). “Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth” (). As the mind understands the truth of God’s Word, it is gradually transformed by the Spirit, and this renewal leads to a changed life. Physically, you are what you eat, but spiritually, you are what you think. “As he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (). This is why it is important for us as Christians to spend time daily meditating on the Word, praying, and fellowshipping with Christ.