Chapter 2
From Death to Life
2 And you he made alive, …
Much like the Prodigal Son, we return to life when we return to the Father.
…when you were dead through the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, …
This death was due to sin.
…following the course of this world, …
Going the way of the world leads to death.
…following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.
Following Satan leads to death.
3 Among these we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, following the desires of body and mind, …
Following “the flesh” leads to death. This isn’t talking about matter and things that are physical, rather Paul is talking about our fallen human nature.
…and so we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
As a result of the world, the flesh and the devil, we are in a state of estrangement from God.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, …
It was out of love and mercy that God saved us…
… 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, …
Salvation is an act of God’s grace.
…made us alive together with Christ…
Although we were formally dead, life comes through Christ.
…(by grace you have been saved), …
Paul explicitly says what he implied earlier (“when we were dead…”), that the initiative of salvation began with God, not with us. Salvation is a gift of God, not something that we can earn on our own.
… 6 and raised us up with him, and made us sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,7 that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Paul speaks of our dignity with Christ and the promise of future reward.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God— 9 not because of works, lest any man should boast.
Again Paul reiterates that salvation is nothing that we earned, it was God’s gift to us.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
We were not saved for our own self-indulgence, but to be faithful sons and daughters.
One in Christ
11 Therefore…
What’s it “there for”? Paul will now go on to speak of the consequences of this salvation by grace.
…remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, …
Paul indicates that his audience is primarily Gentile.
…called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands…
The “uncircumcision” are the gentiles and the “circumcision” are the Jews. Paul speaks of the Jewish circumcision being “made in the flesh by hands”, this will contrast the kind of circumcision that we receive through Christ.
….—12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
This was the state of the Gentiles before.
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ.
Yet now with Christ they have been brought into the family of Israel thorugh Christ.
14 For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, …
The “dividing wall” probably refers to the divisions in the Temple which separated the areas in which Jews and Gentiles worshipped. If Gentiles trespassed into a forbidden area, they would be put to death.
… 15 by abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, …
The Law of Moses
…that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, …
Uniting Jew and Gentile
… 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end.
Uniting Man and God
17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; 18 for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
Both Jews and Gentiles have access to the Father in the Spirit.
19 So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, …
They have been welcomed into God’s family and the Kingdom of Heaven.
… 20 built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; 22 in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Paul describes the Church as a Temple, being built out of apostles and prophets, with Christ the cornerstone, an image He Himself used to describe Himself.
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