Ephesians 2:1-10

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Ephesians 2:1-10

The problem is that while the ignorant can learn, those with faulty beliefs can never be corrected, even until death.

The blind Pharisees, like Bartimaeus, could have simply asked to see, but because they claimed to see, they were guilty of a sin worthy of judgment (John 9).

Verse 1: "And you has he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins."

Chapter 1 records what God has done through Jesus Christ.

It is good to not neglect Ephesians 1 and to engrave it verse by verse.

Chapter 2 explains what happens to us.

"And you has he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." This verse applies Ephesians 1:20,  he raised him from the dead.

"Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead."

Only when we can distinguish between Jesus Christ's being raised from the grave and his resurrection in us, who died in Adam, can we truly understand the gospel.

Christianity today emphasizes Jesus' being raised, but it is vague about the resurrection of our own death in Adam.

Only when we have a foundation of faith in the resurrection from death can we believe that we have been seated at the right hand of God.

Verses 2-3 “Wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience: Among whom  also we  all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as the others.”

This is life in Adam, that is, outside of Christ.

Therefore, the boundaries of this faith must be clear.

Death and life, darkness and light, the devil and God, curse and blessing, yesterday and today, before and now must be clear.

If someone says they have never had any problems with their faith since they first began their religious life, they may not have experienced salvation.

If someone says that there are no problems in their marital relationship, it is the same as not being married.

Even now, God's wrath remains clearly upon those who reject the gospel of Christ while advocating far-fetched arguments (Romans 1:18, John 3:36b).

Repentance and baptism are about believing and following Christ as Lord and Christ after his death on the cross and being raised.

If you persist in this position, claiming to believe in Jesus and God, not only do you not have eternal life, you are also under God's wrath.

Why? Because that place is death, darkness, and the world of Satan.

It's laughable that some people teach them, point by point, to believe in God, yet claim that those words are the words of life.

Sometimes they mix in the words, “We who believe in Jesus,” but they avoid the words that Christ is in them and lie by talking about the words of life.

If I met someone like that, I would ask them if they knew they were under death.

If they died right now with death in their midst, they would be sent without mercy to the lake of fire.

Even today, the Lord is calling into him those who are outside of Christ and are suffering and afflicted under God's wrath, unaware that they are servants of death.

Verse 4: "But God, who is rich  in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us."

Our salvation is achieved through the great (abundant) love with which God, who is constantly rich in mercy, loved us.

So, in Romans 9, Paul says that the condition of God's plan is God's mercy.

Verse 5: "Even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;)

This repeats verse 1. It may be an inserted verse.

However, we must understand the biblical meaning of this important  faith of resurrection .

“Even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ”—we must confess this dozens, if not hundreds, of times a day.

We must immerse ourselves in this teaching and reminder in the Holy Spirit so that it becomes familiar to us.

1) has quickened us together with Christ, and this is what it means to be saved by grace. We have never done anything to accomplish this.

2) Raised us up together. being raised means that those who are born again in Christ is raised with him by the life of resurrection.

Verse 6: "And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:"

3) He has made us sit together in heavenly places. Heaven is in Jesus Christ. 

What is the principle behind this?

We become like this  when we are one with Christ by hearing, believing, and being baptized in Jesus Christ (Romans 6).

We must immerse ourselves in the Word for a long time.

This passage is the content of Peter's sermon on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:38).

While we may have thought that Pentecost meant the coming of the Holy Spirit, cloven tongues as of fire, speaking in tongues, and performing signs and wonders, we must now look closely at Peter's sermon.

Just as David always kept the Lord before him, we become one with Christ in the Holy Spirit and constantly look to  right hand of God's throne.

By the grace of his atonement, believers destinedly became one with Jesus Christ.

To be separated from Christ is to be like a branch cut off from the vine.

There is no room for controversy.

The book of Ephesians clearly explains this.

Therefore, we must not let our faith become emotional and cause us to act childishly toward God.

Verse 7: "That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus."

His purpose is to show the message of his exceeding riches of grace in the ages to come, through the abundant mercy he has shown in Christ Jesus.

If salvation were not God's grace but a reward for our own work, would his mercy and abundant grace be revealed through us?

Even some preachers say they have attended a good church since childhood, have a good religious life, and strive to pastor a good church, so they are now blessed, warm and full.

Yet, when you look at their gestures, facial expressions, and voice, you can see that they still carry death.

I once shocked those around me by telling a pastor who had spent his entire life in church ministry (he called it praise ministry) that if he died now, he would end up in the lake of fire.

God does not care about a person's appearance.

He doesn't acknowledge what they did or how they believed.

God sees whether he has the life of Christ, whether he has the image of his Son, and whether he is worthy to approach the throne of God's glory.

Verse 8: "For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."

(Gar) Why is this possible?

Because salvation is not earned through our own works, but is a gift from God.

A gift can only make the giver proud.

However, the poison of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, born in Adam, is never welcome if salvation is free.

Only by doing something and putting one's own share in it can salvation seem valuable.

That's why we see the church today producing model students, like the eldest son in a family.

No, salvation is a gift from God.

We have not paid even a tiny bit of effort to be raised from the place where we died in Adam and seated with Christ at God's right hand.

It is faith only by the gift of God.

The greater the gift, the more it honors the giver.

Verse 9: "Not of works, lest any man should boast."

Again, we have never borrowed the works of the flesh for this salvation, for which we have been raised in Jesus Christ and are seated with Him in heavenly places.

We don't owe the flesh even a hair's breadth.

Faith is the concept of faith, the opposite of works of the flesh.

This is especially true of the faith that leads to salvation in Romans.

Therefore, faith itself cannot be said to be a work.

We simply heard the Word and believed it.

That faith, too, is a gift from God.

Therefore, no flesh can boast.

If anyone talks about free will and says they have chosen to believe and have always believed well, this is a Jewish faith. They call themselves Jews, but in reality, they are a synagogue of Satan. (Revelation 2:9) However, many synagogues of Satan appear to be genuine on the outside.

Verse 10: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them."

We are God's workmanship.

He recreates us in Christ, shaping us directly.

And he says, Look, I created it.

His desire is for his children to become the best.

This is the gift of grace, and God's determination to bring it to an end (verses 8-9).

Good works refer to 1) good works in Christ Jesus, the life of the righteous in Matthew 25. 2) to act in good works.

That is, to live life if eternal life through faith according to the Word.

His purpose in creating us is to live a life that radiates the light of his life, as his life works within us.

The church must carry out this ministry.

So, while it's a very common statement, Steven Lawson says that God's question isn't what you've done, but who you are.

The good works Ephesians speaks of are never about performing tasks.

Devotion, such as service, ministry, and evangelism, are actions that follow those who, by God's mercy, become one with Christ, approach God, and continue to approach God, becoming God's house.

Written by Ptr. Yohan Kim.

Translated by  Nancy Chung

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