Ephesians · Chapter 2

V. 1. And he hath quickened you-In the nineteenth and twentieth verses of the preceding chapter, St. Paul spoke of God's working in them by the same almighty power whereby he raised Christ from the dead. On the mention of this he, in the fulness of his heart, runs into a flow of thought concerning the glory of Christ's exaltation in the three following verses. He here resumes the thread of his discourse.

Who were dead-Not only diseased, but dead; absolutely void of all spiritual life; and as incapable of quickening yourselves, as persons literally dead.

In trespasses and sins-Sins seem to be spoken chiefly of the Gentiles, who knew not God; trespasses, of the Jews, who had his law, and yet regarded it not, Ephesians 2:5. The latter herein obeyed the flesh; the former, the prince of the power of the air.

Verse 1. And you hath he quickened] This chapter should not have been separated from the preceding, with which it is most intimately connected. As Christ fills the whole body of Christian believers with his fulness, (Ephesians 1:23,) so had he dealt with the converted Ephesians, who before were dead in trespasses, and dead in sins. DEATH is often used by all writers, and in all nations, to express a state of extreme misery. The Ephesians, by trespassing and sinning, had brought themselves into a state of deplorable wretchedness, as had all the heathen nations; and having thus sinned against God, they were condemned by him, and might be considered as dead in law-incapable of performing any legal act, and always liable to the punishment of death, which they had deserved, and which was ready to be inflicted upon them.

Trespasses, paraptwmasi, may signify the slightest deviation from the line and rule of moral equity, as well as any flagrant offence; for these are equally transgressions, as long as the sacred line that separates between vice and virtue is passed over.

Sins, amartiaiv, may probably mean here habitual transgression; sinning knowingly and daringly.

Verses 1, 2. And you, &c. — In the nineteenth and twentieth verses of the preceding chapter, the apostle had spoken of God’s working in the believers at Ephesus, in order to their conversion, and resurrection from spiritual death to spiritual life, by the same almighty power whereby he raised Christ from the dead. On the mention of this he runs on, in the fulness of his heart, into a flow of thought concerning the glory of Christ’s exaltation, in the three following verses. He here resumes the thread of his discourse. You hath he quickened — Or, (as these words are not in the original,) if we connect this verse with the last clause of the preceding chapter, we may read, you hath he filled, namely, with his gifts and graces, and thereby hath made you alive to himself; who were dead — Not only diseased, but dead; absolutely devoid of all spiritual life, and as incapable of quickening yourselves, as persons literally dead are of restoring their bodies to life. In this sense Locke paraphrases the words: “Ye were so entirely under the power of sin, that ye had no more power, nor hope, nor ability, to get out of it, than men dead and buried have to get out of their graves.” The truth is, unawakened, impenitent, and unbelieving sinners, are dead in three respects; 1st, They are under condemnation, on account of their past depravity and various transgressions, to the second death, or to future wrath and punishment, like criminals under sentence of death for their crimes. 2d, They are destitute of all union with God, and in a state of separation from him, and alienation from his life, chap. 4:18; Colossians 1:21. 3d, They are carnally minded; that is, their thoughts and affections are set upon visible and temporal things, which is spiritual death, (Romans 8:6,) implying deadness or aversion to spiritual and divine things. In trespasses and sins — Sins seem to be spoken chiefly of the Gentiles who knew not God; trespasses of the Jews, who had his law, and yet regarded it not. Or the expressions may be used indiscriminately, without any such distinction being intended; for all trespasses are sins, and all sins are trespasses, properly speaking. Wherein in time past ye walked — Periepathsate, ye walked about, or walked continually. For, as Grotius observes, the word significat consuetudinem, implies custom, or habit. According to the course of this world — Kata ton aiwna, according to the age, or the common usage of the age in which you lived, and to those corrupt principles and practices which prevailed around you. The word above mentioned, translated course, properly means along series of times, wherein one corrupt age follows another. The prince of the power of the air — “That wicked spirit, who commands the legions of fallen angels, that by divine permission range in the air, and fly from place to place, in pursuit of their pernicious purpose of corrupting and destroying mankind.” So Dr. Doddridge, who observes, “This refers to a Jewish tradition, that the air is inhabited by evil spirits, a notion which the apostle seems to approve.” Macknight’s interpretation of the passage is nearly the same, as follows: “Power, being here put for those who exercise power, (as it is likewise chap. 1:21, and Colossians 2:10,) signifies those powerful evil spirits, whose confinement [mentioned by Jude, verse 6] is not of such a nature as to hinder them from going to and fro on the earth. And therefore, being irreconcilable enemies of God and goodness, they use the liberty granted to them in opposing God, and in ruining men by their temptations, 1 Peter 5:8. And that they may do this the more effectually, they have ranged themselves under the direction of one chief, here called their prince; but in other passages Satan, and the devil. Perhaps also he is called their prince, because he instigated them to rebel against God, and was their leader in that rebellion. See 1 John 5:19.” To these quotations we may add, with Bengelius, “A power this the effect of which all may perceive, though all do not understand the cause of it; a power unspeakably penetrating and widely diffused, but yet, as to its baleful influences, beneath the orb of believers.” The spirit that now worketh — Energountov, worketh inwardly with energy. So he did, and so he doth work in all ages; in the children of disobedience — In all that disbelieve and disobey the gospel.

Verse 1. You hath he quickened. The word quickened is not in the Greek, but the old Latin version repeats it here from the fifth verse, presuming it to be implied. It reads well without it, thus: And you, when dead in trespasses and sins, wherein you once walked, &c.

Who were dead in trespasses and sins. In Colossians 2:13 the apostle uses a similar expression: “You being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh.” Sinners are also said to be “alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them — alienated and enemies in their minds by wicked works.” Ephesians 4:18. Sin is the death of the soul, it eats forbidden fruit, and dies. By seeking happiness in created good, it is drawn away from Christ, the fountain of life. Spiritual death consists in a deprivation of the image and likeness of God, which is restored by regeneration and vital union with Christ. When papists say therefore that man is only half dead, they either err, or we do not rightly apprehend their meaning. Man is morally and totally dead in Adam, and judicially dead in the eye of the law. This however we must concede, that man, born under the promise of the woman’s Seed, has much grace restored in the light of the gospel, as is noted in Genesis 3:15. Luke 19:24. John 1:9. 16:8. Titus 2:11.

1. Recapitulation of their original death and subsequent resurrection, 1-10.

In parallelism with Christ’s resurrection and exaltation in Ephesians 1:20-23, St. Paul pictures the conceptual death of the Ephesians by sin, and their resurrection and exaltation with Christ. Their state of death, vv. 1-3; their resurrection and exaltation with Christ, vv. 4-6. The reason of this, a showing to the ages of his grace, ver. 7. A present reminder to the Ephesians that they are saved solely by this grace, vv. 8-10.

1. And you—St. Paul now begins from Ephesians 1:20, in order to furnish, in Ephesians 2:1-10, the parallel of the Ephesian spiritual resurrection with Christ’s bodily resurrection. Meyer opposes this connecting with Ephesians 1:20, because of the change from the first person plural, us who believe, ver. 19, to the second person, and you. But the you is to the we as a part to a whole, and so subject to the same statement. Hath he quickened—As the italics indicate, these words are supplied by the translators to furnish a verb to govern the objective you. The words are in sense borrowed from verse 5, where the verb is introduced with the objective changed to us. Dead—Under the entire death which sin works—death temporal, spiritual, and eternal. Dr. Eadie and others in vain object that they were not in reality temporally dead. Nor were they, we reply, in reality raised with Christ and made to sit together in heavenly places. Yet both statements are conceptually true, and all parts of the redemption are taken as one whole. Note, 2 Corinthians 5:14. Redemption raises from the death that sin inflicts upon us. In— Rather, by. The more natural rendering of the Greek makes the death the effect of the trespasses and sins. The terms trespasses and sins run into each other in meaning, yet there is a general distinction. The trespass is the more secular, the sin the more religious term. The former is more uniformly a distinct act, sometimes an inadvertent one; the latter is often a habit, a moral state or condition. In the former more distinctly appears the idea of an offence against another; in the latter a guilt, or penalty, or depravation, contracted upon ourselves.

Ver. 1. And you: the Christians at Ephesus and elsewhere, in contrast to the Risen Saviour.

Being: as in Colossians 1:21.

Dead through trespasses: as in Colossians 2:13, where see note. Trespasses are moral falls: sins are moral failures. This twofold description of the same actions emphasizes the cause of spiritual death. Their former position was analogous to that of Christ in the grave. For they also were dead; and their death, like His, was caused by human sins. These sins had robbed them of the only true life; and had given them up, unless rescued by Him who raises the dead, to eternal corruption. Such was their awful state, utterly beyond reach of human help.

The words in italics (A.V. and R.V.) are an anticipation of Ephesians 2:5, inserted to complete the English sentence. The verb governing the accusative you in Ephesians 2:1 is pushed back to make way for the relative sentences in Ephesians 2:2, 3, which describe further the sad condition of the persons referred to, until in Ephesians 2:4 its place is supplied by a new sentence. All this is characteristic of Paul: a close parallel in Romans 5:12. Paul keeps us under the shadow of death that the darkness of the shadow may throw into greater prominence the splendour of the light of life.

V. 2. According to the course of this world-The word translated course properly means a long series of times, wherein one corrupt age follows another.

According to the prince of the power of the air-The effect of which power all may perceive, though all do not understand the cause of it: a power unspeakably penetrating and widely diffused; but yet, as to its baneful influences, beneath the orb of believers. The evil spirits are united under one head, the seat of whose dominion is in the air. Here he sometimes raises storms, sometimes makes visionary representations, and is continually roving to and fro.

The spirit that now worketh-With mighty power; and so he did, and doth in all ages.

In the sons of disobedience-In all who do not believe and obey the gospel.

Verse 2. Wherein in time past ye walked] There is much force in these expressions; the Ephesians had not sinned casually, or now and then, but continually; it was their continual employment; they walked in trespasses and sins: and this was not a solitary case, all the nations of the earth acted in the same way; it was the course of this world, kata ton aiwna tou kosmou toutou, according to the life, mode of living, or successive ages of this world. The word aiwn, the literal meaning of which is constant duration, is often applied to things which have a complete course, as the Jewish dispensation, a particular government, and the term of human life; so, here, the whole of life is a tissue of sin, from the cradle to the grave; every human soul, unsaved by Jesus Christ, continues to transgress. And the nominally Christian world is in the same state to the present day. Age after age passes on in this way and the living lay it not to heart! The prince of the power of the air] As the former clause may have particular respect to the Jewish people, who are frequently denominated hzh µlw[ olam hazzeh, this world, this latter clause may especially refer to the Gentiles, who were most manifestly under the power of the devil, as almost every object of their worship was a demon, to whom the worst of passions and practices were attributed, and whose conduct his votaries took care to copy.

Satan is termed prince of the power of the air, because the air is supposed to be a region in which malicious spirits dwell, all of whom are under the direction and influence of Satan, their chief.

The spirit that now worketh] tou nun energountov The operations of the prince of the ærial powers are not confined to that region; he has another sphere of action, viz. the wicked heart of man, and in this he works with energy. He seldom inspires indifference to religion; the subjects in whom he works are either determinate opposers of true religion, or they are systematic and energetic transgressors of God’s laws. Children of disobedience] Perhaps a Hebraism for disobedient children; but, taken as it stands here, it is a strong expression, in which disobedience, h apeiqeia, appears to be personified, and wicked men exhibited as her children; the prince of the power of the air being their father, while disobedience is their mother. Thus they are emphatically, what our Lord calls them, Matthew 13:38, children of the wicked one; for they show themselves to be of their father the devil, because they will do his works, John 8:44. Some think that by children of disobedience the apostle means particularly the disobedient, unbelieving, refractory, and persecuting Jews; but I rather think he speaks this generally, and refers to the Jews in the following verse.

Verses 1, 2. And you, &c. — In the nineteenth and twentieth verses of the preceding chapter, the apostle had spoken of God’s working in the believers at Ephesus, in order to their conversion, and resurrection from spiritual death to spiritual life, by the same almighty power whereby he raised Christ from the dead. On the mention of this he runs on, in the fulness of his heart, into a flow of thought concerning the glory of Christ’s exaltation, in the three following verses. He here resumes the thread of his discourse. You hath he quickened — Or, (as these words are not in the original,) if we connect this verse with the last clause of the preceding chapter, we may read, you hath he filled, namely, with his gifts and graces, and thereby hath made you alive to himself; who were dead — Not only diseased, but dead; absolutely devoid of all spiritual life, and as incapable of quickening yourselves, as persons literally dead are of restoring their bodies to life. In this sense Locke paraphrases the words: “Ye were so entirely under the power of sin, that ye had no more power, nor hope, nor ability, to get out of it, than men dead and buried have to get out of their graves.” The truth is, unawakened, impenitent, and unbelieving sinners, are dead in three respects; 1st, They are under condemnation, on account of their past depravity and various transgressions, to the second death, or to future wrath and punishment, like criminals under sentence of death for their crimes. 2d, They are destitute of all union with God, and in a state of separation from him, and alienation from his life, chap. 4:18; Colossians 1:21. 3d, They are carnally minded; that is, their thoughts and affections are set upon visible and temporal things, which is spiritual death, (Romans 8:6,) implying deadness or aversion to spiritual and divine things. In trespasses and sins — Sins seem to be spoken chiefly of the Gentiles who knew not God; trespasses of the Jews, who had his law, and yet regarded it not. Or the expressions may be used indiscriminately, without any such distinction being intended; for all trespasses are sins, and all sins are trespasses, properly speaking. Wherein in time past ye walked — Periepathsate, ye walked about, or walked continually. For, as Grotius observes, the word significat consuetudinem, implies custom, or habit. According to the course of this world — Kata ton aiwna, according to the age, or the common usage of the age in which you lived, and to those corrupt principles and practices which prevailed around you. The word above mentioned, translated course, properly means along series of times, wherein one corrupt age follows another. The prince of the power of the air — “That wicked spirit, who commands the legions of fallen angels, that by divine permission range in the air, and fly from place to place, in pursuit of their pernicious purpose of corrupting and destroying mankind.” So Dr. Doddridge, who observes, “This refers to a Jewish tradition, that the air is inhabited by evil spirits, a notion which the apostle seems to approve.” Macknight’s interpretation of the passage is nearly the same, as follows: “Power, being here put for those who exercise power, (as it is likewise chap. 1:21, and Colossians 2:10,) signifies those powerful evil spirits, whose confinement [mentioned by Jude, verse 6] is not of such a nature as to hinder them from going to and fro on the earth. And therefore, being irreconcilable enemies of God and goodness, they use the liberty granted to them in opposing God, and in ruining men by their temptations, 1 Peter 5:8. And that they may do this the more effectually, they have ranged themselves under the direction of one chief, here called their prince; but in other passages Satan, and the devil. Perhaps also he is called their prince, because he instigated them to rebel against God, and was their leader in that rebellion. See 1 John 5:19.” To these quotations we may add, with Bengelius, “A power this the effect of which all may perceive, though all do not understand the cause of it; a power unspeakably penetrating and widely diffused, but yet, as to its baleful influences, beneath the orb of believers.” The spirit that now worketh — Energountov, worketh inwardly with energy. So he did, and so he doth work in all ages; in the children of disobedience — In all that disbelieve and disobey the gospel.

Ver. 2. Ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. The apostle, following the language of our Saviour in John 12:31, 16:11, gives the enemy the title he assumes; and the children of this world form their own laws by custom, as rivers form their beds by currents. The “prince” allures men by their passions, “the lusts of the flesh, the desire of the eye, and the pride of life.” The young are attracted by pleasure, the world by riches, and the avaricious by gold.

2. Wherein, according to the Greek, properly refers to sins, implying an habitual course of trespasses. Walked, together with had conversation and fulfilling, in ver. 3, shows that Paul is not describing the congenital depravity of the Ephesians as a state, but their course of practical adult depraved conduct. This is specially important to note, in order to a true understanding of the last half of ver. 3. The course of this world—The aeon of this cosmos. Both aeon and cosmos are often translated world. But the latter more usually signifies the world-frame, the physical creation; the former the world-period, and the spirit of that period. This world is terrene in opposition to the heavenly. The aeon is the temper of the age. The prince of the power of the air—Dr. Eadie well says: “The prince of darkness is not only prince, but god of this world, (2 Corinthians 4:4,) and his power is mentioned, Acts 26:18. Again, he is styled prince of this world, John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11. His principality is spoiled, Colossians 2:15, and Jesus came to destroy his works, 1 John 3:8. Believers are freed from his power, 1 John 5:18; Colossians 1:13.” Power is used, as above in 1:21, to signify the body of powerful beings— the hierarchy, or rather demonarchy, collectively embodied. Of the air, signifies the place in which the demonarchy exist and hold empire. So when we speak of throwing a stone into the air, we refer not to the element, but to the space. So Acts 22:23: “They threw dust into the air.” And 1 Thessalonians 4:17: “To meet the Lord in the air.” In both places the reference is not to the aerial matter, but to the visible vicinity, the region over the earth’s surface. This is in entire accordance with the uniform view, both scriptural and popular, that spirits of both good and evil belong to our terrene sphere. A spirit region overlies the earth’s surface, like a stratum of atmosphere.

“Millions of spirits walk the earth unseen,

Both when we sleep and when we wake.”

—Milton.

So in Job 1:7, Satan describes himself as “going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it.” Our Lord beheld Satan as falling from heaven toward earth. Luke 10:18. So demons, as from the aerial space, possess demoniacs. These views were held by the Jewish doctors, and by the later Greek philosophers and theosophists. Plutarch says, The “air below the pure ether, and below the pure heaven, is full of gods and demons.” “Nay,” says Dr. Eadie, “Augustine held that the demons were penally confined to the air” as to a prison. If (see note on Ephesians 4:9) hades or the infernum is at the subterranean centre, it would seem by this to extend its domain into the atmospheric heaven. Or, reversely, the seat of the demonarchy may be in the aerial, extending to the earth’s centre. The spirit—This word is not, as the English reader would naturally suppose, in apposition with prince, but with power. This power, the collective body of the demonarchy, is in thought and words concentrated into a spirit, identified with a controlling influence in wicked men. From the spirit region over earth, where they dwell, they settle down like a malaria into the souls of the depraved. Worketh in—Operating like a poison in their hearts; deranging their intellects and inflaming their passions. Children of disobedience—Literal Greek, sons of disobedience; but in the next verse, not in the Greek sons, but children, of wrath. In accordance with a well-known Hebrew idiom the term son, or child, is often figuratively used to signify any quality for which a person is or was distinguished. The Greeks could say, “sons of the Greeks,” as we can say, “sons of America.” But the Hebrews could call the morning star “son of the morning.” They could call an unspiritual interpreter a “son of the letter.” So, Mark 3:17, “sons of thunder.” Luke 10:6, literal Greek, “a son of peace.” Similarly, according to the Greek, 1 Thessalonians 5:5, “sons of the day.” John 12:36, “sons of light.” Luke 16:8, “sons of this age.” Luke 20:36, “sons of the resurrection.” In such use of the words son and child, no idea of being born of the quality or circumstance is retained, as a survey of the instances will amply show. Disobedience—To the moral law, as shown in both heart and life.

Ver. 2. In which sins: as the surrounding element of their life and movement. Cp. 1 Corinthians 15:17.

Ye walked: see under Colossians 3:7.

Of this world: the whole realm of men and things around, looked upon as existing in space and as hostile to Christ.

The course, or age: the whole stream and tendency of things around, looked upon as moving forward in time.

According to the course etc.: carried along by the moving current of men and things around, all belonging to this world. The two words course and world represent the same idea in its reference to time and space respectively. And each word recalls the vast complexity of things and movements around. The combination presents this idea with a completeness not found elsewhere.

Ruler, or prince: same word in Romans 13:3; 1 Corinthians 2:6, 8, of earthly rulers; in Revelation 1:5, of Christ as the Ruler of the kingdoms of the earth; and in John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11, of Satan. According to the ruler etc.: parallel with according to the course etc., and another view of the same truth. Steps guided by the current of things around are guided by the unseen ruler of that current. For the visible stream is animated and directed by an unseen spirit.

Authority: a controlling influence, as in Colossians 1:13. A genitive after this word usually denotes either the person exercising authority or those under authority. But we cannot conceive the air, the imponderable element around and above us, as either ruling or being ruled over. It must therefore be the locality of this controlling influence. The authority which directs the course of those who float down the stream of things around must be that of evil spirits. That these were conceived, both by Jews and by others in the ancient world, as having their abode in the air, we have in Rabbinical literature and elsewhere, e.g. Diogenes Lærtius bk. viii. 32, abundant proof. And this agrees with their comparative power, greater than men and less than the powers of heaven. Apparently, Paul accepted and used this common conception as sufficiently embodying a truth he wished to teach. His Words remind us that all around are spiritual enemies, as near as the air we breathe. Over these reigns a tremendous potentate. Along a path marked out by him, led by unseen powers who do his bidding and by the current of things around, once walked the Christians to whom Paul now writes.

The spirit which now works etc.: parallel with the authority of the air, and further describing the agency which does the bidding of the prince of darkness, as an animating principle moving men from within in contrast to the course of this world which carries them along as an influence from without. With the spirit, contrast the Spirits in 1 John 4:1. This latter passage looks at the infinite variety, the former at the essential oneness, of these evil influences. A variety of spiritual foes is also portrayed in Ephesians 6:12.

Works, or inworks: as in Ephesians 1:11, 20; <503813> Philippians 2:13. This interior working is a characteristic of spirit. To the Christians at Ephesus this inward influence is past: to others it now works. Sons of disobedience: Ephesians 5:6. See note under Colossians 3:6. As a description of the unsaved, it prepares the way for the fuller description in Ephesians 2:3.

After asserting that his readers were once dead through their sins, Paul further describes their former state of death. The sins which had been the means of their destruction were also an element In which they moved. And their path was guided by the current around them, a current belonging to the present material world. It was guided, not by a blind force or unconscious influence, but by a personal ruler, under whose sway was a controlling power as pervasive as the air. This power Paul speaks of as an active animating principle, prompting disobedience to God and making those who yield to it personal embodiments of the principle of disobedience.

V. 3. Among whom we-Jews.

Also, formerly had our conversation: doing the will of the flesh-In gross, brutal sins.

And of the mind-By spiritual, diabolical wickedness. In the former clause, flesh denotes the whole evil nature; in the latter, the body opposed to the soul.

And were by nature-That is, in our natural state.

Children of wrath-Having the wrath of God abiding on us, even as the Gentiles. This expression, by nature, occurs also, Galatians 4:8; Romans 2:14; and thrice in the eleventh chapter. Romans 11:24 But in none of these places does it signify, by custom, or practice, or customary practice, as a late writer affirms. Nor can it mean so here For this would make the apostle guilty of gross tautology, their customary sinning having been expressed already, in the former part of the verse. But all these passages agree in expressing what belongs to the nature of the persons spoken of.

Verse 3. Among whom also we all had our conversation] We JEWS, as well as you Gentiles, have lived in transgressions and sins; anestrafhmen, this was the course of our life; we lived in sin, walked in sin, it was woven through our whole constitution, it tinged every temper, polluted every faculty, and perverted every transaction of life. The lusts-the evil, irregular, and corrupt affections of the heart, showed themselves in the perversion of the mind as well as in our general conduct. The mind was darkened by the lusts of the flesh, and both conjoined to produce acts of unrighteousness. It was not the will of God that was done by us, but the will of the flesh and of the mind.

And were by nature the children of wrath] For the import of the phrase, by nature, fusei, see Clarke’s note on “Galatians 2:15”, and see Clarke on “Romans 2:14”. To what is said on those passages, I may add, from Dr. Macknight:-“Nature often signifies one’s birth and education, Galatians 2:15: We, who are Jews BY NATURE. Also, men’s natural reason and conscience, Romans 2:14: The Gentiles who have not the law, do BY NATURE the things contained in the law, &c. Also, the general sense and practice of mankind, 1 Corinthians 11:14: Doth not even NATURE itself teach you, that if a man have long hair, &c. Also, the original constitution of any thing, Galatians 4:8: Who are not gods BY NATURE, Also, a disposition formed by custom and habit; thus Demetrius Phalereus said of the Lacedemonians: fusei ebraculogoun lakwnev. The Lacedemonians had naturally a concise mode of speaking. Hence our word laconic; a short speech, or much sense conveyed in a few words.” The words in the text have often been quoted to prove the doctrine of original sin, but, though that doctrine be an awful truth, it is not, in my opinion, intended here; it is rather found in the preceding words, the lusts of the flesh, and the desires of the flesh and of the mind. The apostle appears to speak of sinful habits; and as we say HABIT is a second nature, and as these persons acted from their originally corrupt nature-from the lusts of the flesh and of the mind, they thus became, by their vicious habits, or second nature, children of wrath-persons exposed to perdition, because of the impurity of their hearts and the wickedness of their lives. Here we see that the fallen, apostate nature produces the fruits of unrighteousness. The bad tree produces bad fruit.

Children of wrath is the same as son of perdition, son of death, &c.; i.e. persons exposed to God’s displeasure, because of their sins.

Verse 3. Among whom also we — Jews, as well as you Gentiles; had our conversation — That is, our course of life; in times past — At least in some degree, whatever our education or religious profession might have been. Here the apostle speaks in the name of the generality of the converted Jews, as his changing the expression from ye Ephesians to we, plainly declares; including himself and all other Christians, whose former character and state he affirms to have been the same with respect to sin and misery, with the character and state of the children of disobedience: and it is so professedly the design of the beginning of his epistle to the Romans, to prove that the Jews had not, in point of justification, any advantage above the Gentiles, (Romans 3:9,) that it is surprising any men of learning and knowledge should contend for the contrary. In the lusts of our flesh — To the base appetites of which we were enslaved, so as to forget the true dignity and happiness of rational and immortal spirits: fulfilling the desires of the flesh — Yielding to, and suffering ourselves to be governed by those corrupt appetites, inclinations, and passions, which had their seat in our fallen body, or in our evil nature; and of the mind — The earthly and devilish mind, that is, the desires, lusts, and passions, which were inherent in our still more corrupted souls. Observe, reader, the desires or lusts of the flesh, lead men to gluttony, drunkenness, fornication, adultery, and other gross, brutal sins: and the inclinations or desires of the mind, or imaginations, (as dianoiwn may be rendered,) prompt them to ambition, revenge, covetousness, and whatever other earthly and diabolical wickedness can have place in the fallen spirit of man. And were by nature — That is, in our natural state, or by reason of our natural inclination to all sorts of evil, and this even from our birth; children of wrath — Having the wrath of God abiding on us; even as others — As well as the Gentiles. This expression, by nature, occurs also Galatians 4:8; Romans 2:14; and thrice in chap. 11. But in none of those places does it signify by custom, or practice, or customary practice, as some affirm. Nor can it mean so here. For this would make the apostle guilty of gross tautology, their customary sinning having been expressed already in the former part of the verse. But all these passages agree in expressing what belongs to the nature of the persons spoken of.

Ver. 3. And were by nature the children of wrath, shapen in iniquity, and conceived in sin. Psalms 51:5Psalm 51:5. Fusei, nature, refers not to our original pure and perfect nature, but to the evil nature in which we are born. Our will was in Adam’s will, and our consent in his consent; and therefore we are begotten in his fallen state. The wrath on him for the fall, is on his children; and doubly so for our actual transgressions. In the imputation of original sin there is no unrighteousness with God; children naturally suffer for their fathers’ sin by disease, and morally by a tainted mind. Socinians, who talk of the innocence of human nature, and that our venalities (for they will not allow of sin) are by imitation, build on unfounded systems of philosophy. They err in not making the proper contrast between the native grandeur and moral baseness of man.

3. Among whom—Namely, the children of disobedience.

Conversation—Daily intercourse and conduct. Flesh—Animal appetites and mind governed by them. Desires—Wills or volitions. Flesh and… mind—The lower and the higher depraved tendencies. Were—This verb corresponds with had and walked. Contemporaneously with our evil courses, and underlying them, was a nature by which we were children of wrath. The divine wrath condemned not only our guilty persons, but it reached more deeply—to our very nature. On the phrase children of wrath, consult what we have said on the phrase children of disobedience, in verse 2. But the Greek in verse 2 is, properly, sons; here, children. Robinson’s New Testament Lexicon says: “By Hebrew genitive case, the child of any thing is one connected with, partaking of, or exposed to, any thing; often put instead of an adjective.” Matthew 11:19 and Luke 7:35, “Wisdom is justified of her children.” Ephesians 5:8, “Children of light,” that is, enlightened. 1 Peter 1:14, “Obedient children.” 2 Peter 2:14, “Cursed children.” So Septuagint, “Children of perdition.” A survey of these cases will show:—1. The absurdity of understanding that the expression children of wrath, has the least shadow of implying that men are born of the wrath of God. 2. A survey of such phrases as “child of hell,” “son of perdition,” shows that it will not do to affirm, with Eadie, that the phrase means more than exposed to the matter of which one is child. The “child of hell” was yet untouched by hell, though exposed to it. So the child of wrath may be not touched by the wrath of God, yet liable to become so.

A thing is said to be thus or so by nature when it is so by birth or origin, or by growth, in distinction from being made so. A free agent is so by nature when he grows so in regular and normal conditions. See our work on “The Will,” p. 249. Now the question here is, (overlooked by commentators like Eadie and Hodge,) Does the phrase by nature children of wrath mean that the wrath lies upon the child at birth, or not? We affirm the negative, and believe it can be overwhelmingly proved. It is essentially the question of “infant damnation.” Josephus says, that David was “just and pious by nature;” certainly not in his infancy, but as he developed into manhood. Herodian says, that “barbarians are property-loving by nature;” not, certainly, in infancy, but in their adult development. AElian says, “The Cean is silver-loving by nature;” that is, when he has grown old enough to contract that love. AElian says, “The Athenians were envious by nature;” not so at birth, certainly, but by the character into which they grew. So AElian again, “warlike by nature;” and Philo, “peaceful by nature.” All the examples (most of which we take from Wetstein) imply, to be sure, a natural tendency at birth to the condition or character into which they grow; but not the condition itself. That is, they prove that the infant possesses the tendency apart from grace, to come into a subjection to the wrath of God, and so prove innate depravity; but do not prove that it is born under the wrath of God. The words do not decide that the infant is responsible for its inborn tendency, and so deserving of damnation at birth. The doctrine that the child is born under damnation lies in the very centre of the standard predestinarian system. That system assumes that any and every infant might be sent to hell forever, justly, and without a Saviour. On that assumption it bases its views of the mercy of God in redemption. Arbitrary reprobation is claimed to be just because all might be justly so doomed for original sin alone, without the commission of a single sin.

We hold, on the contrary, that though sinward tendencies exist in germ in the infant, yet there is no responsibility, and no damnability, until these tendencies are deliberately and knowingly acted in real life, and by that action appropriated and sanctioned. Then the man is condemned both for the guilt of the act and the pravity of his nature, now responsibly assumed and ready to be acted out, as described in vv. 1, 2. See note, Romans 5:18.

But if the infant is irresponsible, how can Christ be to him a pardoner of sin and a Saviour? We might reply, that it does not make Christ any pardoner of sin to imagine a factitious sin, or a guilt which has no foundation in the nature of things. The pardon will remain just as factitious, just as merely verbal, as the guilt to be pardoned. But Christ still stands a Saviour to the infant, as we hold, in the following respects: 1. We have elsewhere shown that had Christ not been given the race would, in all probability, not have been permitted to be propagated after the fall. Notes on John 14:19, and Romans 11:32. So the grace of Christ underlies the very existence of every human being that is born. 2. Between the infant descendant of fallen Adam and God there is a contrariety of moral nature, by which the former is irresponsibly, and in undeveloped condition, averse to the latter, and so displacent to Him. By Christ, the Mediator, that averseness is regeneratively removed, and the divine complacency restored: so that the race is enabled to persist under the divine grace. 3. Christ, in case of infant death, entirely removes the sinward nature, so as to harmonize the being with the holiness of heaven. 4. Christ is the infants’ justifier against every accuser, (note on Romans 8:29,) whether devils, evil men, or mistaken theologians; asserting their claim through his merits, in spite of their fallen lineage, to redemption and heaven. Being thus purified, justified, and glorified by Christ, none are more truly qualified to join in the song of Moses and the Lamb.

If it be said, Yes, the infant sinned in Adam, we reply, (as in our note on Romans 5:12,) that the New Testament nowhere says that he “sinned in Adam.” It is contrary to fact that he did so thousands of years before he had any existence. Still, as there are in law what are called “legal fictions,” so in theology there may be “theological fictions.” Such fictions are modes of figurative idea by which surrounding or analogous truths may be more vividly realized; as, for instance, where it is said of man and wife, “they twain are one flesh.” But such fictions must be so applied as not to contradict axiomatic truth and good. If from the oneness of man and wife theologians literally infer that the wife must die when the husband does, and so burn her on the funeral pile, they transform the fiction into a direful lie. And yet this would not be a millionth part as bad as the theologians picture God to be, when they make him hold infants to be justly condemnable to hell forever because, forsooth, “they sinned in Adam!” If, however, we must say that infants “sinned in Adam,” let us be consistent, and add, but they also became justified in Christ. So Fletcher of Madeley beautifully puts it; as the entire race, infants and all, sinned, died, and went to hell before they were born, but only “seminally” and conceptually in Adam, so they are all redeemed and saved conceptually in Christ; and so are born into the world justified heirs of the atonement and heaven. Then fiction meets fiction; and beauty, truth, and reason are the outcome.

But if infants die, and death is the consequent of sin, why do sinless infants die? Because, we reply, in the fall the supernatural Spirit of holiness, by which man was raised above the natural law of death, was withdrawn from Adam and his posterity; and he and they were surrendered over to nature. See notes on Romans 5:12-19 and 11:32. And by nature, as an animal being, and by the law of material nature, he disintegrates and dies. So the justified and sanctified adult dies. For such are, under Christ, the laws of our probationary being, established after the fall, that death arising from nature is not repaired by immediate immortality of body, but by a bodily resurrection after the era of mere nature with us has past. Even as others—Literally, as also the rest. The rest of whom? All the commentators that we have consulted, Alford, Ellicott, Eadie, Meyer, etc., have, obviously, missed the true answer. Some, as Meyer, make it the Gentiles, as in addition to Jews; but nothing has been said of Jews or Gentiles thus far. Others, as Ellicott and Alford, make it signify the rest of mankind; but the words are too slight to cover so wide an extent. The true meaning is, the rest of the children of disobedience, in verse 2. Paul’s train of ideas is: The devil worketh in the children of disobedience; among whom we indulged the same lusts, and were by nature as depraved even as the rest.

Verse. 3b. The last detail in Paul’s description of the unsaved. In order to show its importance as in itself claiming attention, Paul adds it as an independent statement: and we were etc. He declares that in former days his readers were children, by nature, of anger, i.e. exposed to the anger of God. Cp. John 17:12, the son of destruction: close Hebrew parallels in Deuteronomy 25:2, a son of stripes; 1 Samuel 20:31; 26:16; 2 Samuel 12:5, a son of death, i.e. doomed to death. So terrible was the position of those about whom Paul writes that to his vivid thought they seemed to be an offspring of the anger of God. And they were this by-nature: i.e. their exposure to the anger of God was an outworking of forces born in them. Same word in Romans 2:14, where see note; Galatians 2:15; 4:8.

As also the rest: i.e. of men. Paul solemnly concludes his description of the former state of his readers and himself by saying that the description is or has been true of all men.

These last words must be read in the light of the statement in Ephesians 1:1 that the Ephesian Christians were formerly dead by reason of their own personal sins. All is explained if we assume that men are born in such position that, apart from the salvation wrought out for them in Christ, none can avoid committing actual sin, and that in Christ salvation is offered to all men. If so, the universality of actual sin is a result of the lost state into which we were born. But, to those who have heard the Gospel, present condemnation is a result of rejection of offered salvation, and of actual sins from which Christ would have saved us. This evil nature is easily explained by Paul’s teaching in Romans 5:12. By his first trespass Adam sold himself into bondage to sin and death. This double bondage his children inherit. No power of theirs can save them from actual sin and from the grave. But in Christ God offers to men deliverance now from the bondage of sin and ultimately from the grave. They who continue in sin do so because they reject the offered salvation. The word by-nature inserted at the close of Paul’s picture of lost humanity increases the darkness of the picture. For it tells us that not only are all men sinners but they are so in consequence of the position in which they were born. None can save them except one who can change their inborn nature. Notice that, without professing to do so, Paul has virtually in Ephesians 2:2, 3 explained and justified Ephesians 2:1, dead through your trespasses. For he has asserted that his readers went once with the mass of mankind along a path marked out by the prince of evil, and were animated by an evil influence under his direction. The lower side of human nature was the element in which they lived: all men are or were numbered among the sons of disobedience, and were under the anger of God. If so, all men are guilty of actual sin; and all are dead except those whom God has raised from the dead. For the anger of God involves exclusion from the only real life, and leads inevitably to eternal corruption. Consequently, they who thus live are dead through their own sins. This section is Paul’s fullest description of unsaved mankind. And it is a picture of utter and universal ruin. He assumes in Ephesians 2:1 that all men have committed trespasses and sins; and in Ephesians 2:3 that all were once numbered among the sons of disobedience and were under the anger of God. We have here universal sin and universal condemnation. This moral ruin Paul traces to a cause common to all men, viz. their flesh, the material and lower side of their nature, this being to the unsaved the encompassing and determining element of their life and activity. In harmony with this, the anger of God resting upon all men is traced to the constitution received at birth. This inherited evil is further traced to a personal source mightier than man, viz. to a ruler from beneath who leads men along from within by an animating principle under his direction. Naturally, this inward force of evil operates on man through the lower and material side of his being, giving to it power to control his entire activity. It thus impresses its will on man’s own nature, and forces him along a path on which God frowns.

A further analysis of sin is given in Ephesians 4:17-19.

V. 4. Mercy removes misery: love confers salvation.

Verse 4. But God, who is rich in mercy] As they were corrupt in their nature, and sinful in their practice, they could possess no merit, nor have any claim upon God; and it required much mercy to remove so much misery, and to pardon such transgressions.

His great love] God’s infinite love is the groundwork of our salvation; in reference to us that love assumes the form of mercy, and that mercy provides the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore the apostle adds, Ephesians 2:5: By grace ye are saved-it is by God’s free mercy in Christ that ye are brought into this state of salvation. See Clarke on “Ephesians 2:8”.

Verses 4-6. But God, who is rich in mercy — That is, in compassion for us, amidst our sins and miseries, and in his free, gratuitous goodness and readiness to pardon the guilty, and save the lost: for his great love — Of benevolence and bounty; wherewith he loved us — When there was nothing in us but sin and misery to move him to do it. Love in God was the cause why he resolved to show mercy to certain descriptions of persons, namely, to such as should obey the gospel call to repentance, faith, and new obedience. Love is a desire to communicate good to us, considered as creatures; but mercy respects us as fallen into sin and misery; even when we — Jews and Gentiles, and all men; were dead in sins — See on verse 1. Hath he quickened us — Brought us into spiritual life, by begetting in us repentance unto life, and living faith, and in consequence thereof by justifying us, or reversing the sentence of condemnation to eternal death under which we lay, taking us also into his favour, and uniting us to himself, by giving us his quickening and renewing Spirit, in consequence of which our affections are set on things above, and we become spiritually minded, which is life and peace. Together with Christ — In conformity to his resurrection from the dead, and by virtue of our relation to him and union with him. By grace ye are saved — By God’s mere mercy, or undeserved goodness, which is the original source and moving cause of our salvation; and by the enlightening, quickening, and renewing influences of the Holy Spirit, the efficient cause of it. The apostle speaks indifferently either in the first or second person, the Jews and Gentiles being in the same circumstances both by nature and by grace. This doctrine lays the axe to the very root of spiritual pride, and glorying in ourselves. Therefore St. Paul, foreseeing the backwardness of mankind to receive it, yet knowing the absolute necessity of its being received, again asserts the very same truth, (verse 8,) in the very same words. And hath raised us up together — Both Jews and Gentiles, already in spirit, having not only rained our souls from spiritual death to spiritual life, but having given us assurance of the resurrection of our bodies, and begotten us again, as his children and his heirs, to a lively hope of a heavenly inheritance, and enabled us to set our affections on the felicity and glory implied therein: and made us sit together in heavenly places in and through Christ Jesus — Our head and representative, who has already been admitted into heaven as our forerunner, to take possession of these glorious mansions for us. For by means of that relation between him and us, which divine grace hath established, we may look upon his resurrection and exaltation to the right hand of God, as the certain pledge and security of ours; and regarding him under the character of a public person, who is thus raised and exalted in our name, we may be said to share in those felicities and dignities which are conferred on him.

Ver. 4-6. God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us. The cause of our redemption is wholly with God, who so loved the world, totum genus humanum, the whole human kind, as Grotius says, that he gave his only-begotten Son. And here indeed is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son into the world, to be the propitiation for our sins. He hath raised us up by the life of regeneration, and quickened us together with Christ, by whose grace we are saved.

4. God—It is to be remembered, according to our introductory Plan, page 253, that Paul is giving the divine side of man’s salvation in the whole of these first two chapters. Here he emphasizes, God, mercy, and grace, with persistent force and earnestness.

EPHESIANS

SECTION 5. — GOD HAS MADE US SHARERS OF

THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF CHRIST. CH.

2:4-10.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His much love with which He loved us, and we being dead through our trespasses, has made us alive together with Christ-by grace ye are saved-and raised us with Him and made us sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that He may show in the ages coming on the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For by grace ye are saved, through faith and that not of yourselves; the gift is God’s; not of works, that no man may glory. For His workmanship we are, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God before prepared in order that we may walk in them.

Ver. 4.-5. But God: in conspicuous contrast to lost and sinful mankind. This new sentence supplies the place of the grammatical conclusion of the foregoing sentence, which was postponed to make way for the further delineation of those dead in sins, and not afterwards added. Similarly, the sentence broken off in Romans 5:12 has its virtual completion in Romans 5:18. This delineation is a dark background for the glory which suddenly and majestically now bursts upon us.

Mercy: compassion for the helpless. It recalls the helplessness of those under the anger of God, and thus completes the picture given in § 4. Rich in mercy: cp. Ephesians 1:7, 18.

Because of His much love; traces this mercy to its source in the central attribute of God. Upon this unique attribute Paul lingers: His much love with which He loved us. The past tense refers to the love manifested in the salvation of Paul and his readers.

And we being dead etc.: a repetition of Ephesians 2:1, for vivid contrast with the foregoing description of God and His love. A close parallel with Romans 3:23, where for a similar contrast we have a similar summary of foregoing teaching. This love of contrast, especially of contrast between past and present, is an almost certain mark of Pauline authorship.

Has-made alive-with-Christ: as in Colossians 2:13, where the same word is explained by having forgiven you all the trespasses. It reverses all that is implied in the words dead through trespasses. We were once, in consequence of our sins, a spiritual corpse given up to corruption utter and helpless, from which nothing could save us except the life-giving power of God. But God has pardoned our sins and given back to us the eternal life for which we were created. This eternal life is already our assured possession: and the witness of it is the Holy Spirit, the Breath of immortality, already moving our hearts with the pulse of divine life and prompting all Christian activities.

With Christ: as in Colossians 2:13. Our new immortal life is an outflow of the life breathed on the first Easter morning into His sacred corpse. For, had He not risen, there had been no saving faith, no Gospel, and no life eternal.

By grace (cp. Romans 3:24) ye-are saved: each word emphatic. Salvation is by the undeserved favour of God: it is already actual: and this is emphatically asserted. Contrast Romans 5:10; 13:11. We are already saved from the sinking wreck into a lifeboat which cannot sink: but we are not finally safe until the perilous voyage of life is past. Hence Paul can say as here we are saved; or as in 1 Corinthians 1:18 we are being saved; or as above we shall be saved.

V. 5. He hath quickened us together with Christ-In conformity to him, and by virtue of our union with him.

By grace ye are saved-Grace is both the beginning and end. The apostle speaks indifferently either in the first or second person; the Jews and Gentiles being in the same circumstance, both by nature and by grace. This text lays the axe to the very root of spiritual pride, and all glorying in ourselves. Therefore St. Paul, foreseeing the backwardness of mankind to receive it, yet knowing the absolute necessity of its being received, again asserts the very same truth, Ephesians 2:8, in the very same words.

Verse 5. Even when we were dead in sins] Dead in our souls; dead towards God; dead in law; and exposed to death eternal,

Hath quickened us together with Christ] God has given us as complete a resurrection from the death of sin to a life of righteousness, as the body of Christ has had from the grave. And as this quickening, or making alive, was most gratuitous on God’s part, the apostle, with great propriety, says; By grace ye are saved.

Verses 4-6. But God, who is rich in mercy — That is, in compassion for us, amidst our sins and miseries, and in his free, gratuitous goodness and readiness to pardon the guilty, and save the lost: for his great love — Of benevolence and bounty; wherewith he loved us — When there was nothing in us but sin and misery to move him to do it. Love in God was the cause why he resolved to show mercy to certain descriptions of persons, namely, to such as should obey the gospel call to repentance, faith, and new obedience. Love is a desire to communicate good to us, considered as creatures; but mercy respects us as fallen into sin and misery; even when we — Jews and Gentiles, and all men; were dead in sins — See on verse 1. Hath he quickened us — Brought us into spiritual life, by begetting in us repentance unto life, and living faith, and in consequence thereof by justifying us, or reversing the sentence of condemnation to eternal death under which we lay, taking us also into his favour, and uniting us to himself, by giving us his quickening and renewing Spirit, in consequence of which our affections are set on things above, and we become spiritually minded, which is life and peace. Together with Christ — In conformity to his resurrection from the dead, and by virtue of our relation to him and union with him. By grace ye are saved — By God’s mere mercy, or undeserved goodness, which is the original source and moving cause of our salvation; and by the enlightening, quickening, and renewing influences of the Holy Spirit, the efficient cause of it. The apostle speaks indifferently either in the first or second person, the Jews and Gentiles being in the same circumstances both by nature and by grace. This doctrine lays the axe to the very root of spiritual pride, and glorying in ourselves. Therefore St. Paul, foreseeing the backwardness of mankind to receive it, yet knowing the absolute necessity of its being received, again asserts the very same truth, (verse 8,) in the very same words. And hath raised us up together — Both Jews and Gentiles, already in spirit, having not only rained our souls from spiritual death to spiritual life, but having given us assurance of the resurrection of our bodies, and begotten us again, as his children and his heirs, to a lively hope of a heavenly inheritance, and enabled us to set our affections on the felicity and glory implied therein: and made us sit together in heavenly places in and through Christ Jesus — Our head and representative, who has already been admitted into heaven as our forerunner, to take possession of these glorious mansions for us. For by means of that relation between him and us, which divine grace hath established, we may look upon his resurrection and exaltation to the right hand of God, as the certain pledge and security of ours; and regarding him under the character of a public person, who is thus raised and exalted in our name, we may be said to share in those felicities and dignities which are conferred on him.

Ver. 4-6. God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us. The cause of our redemption is wholly with God, who so loved the world, totum genus humanum, the whole human kind, as Grotius says, that he gave his only-begotten Son. And here indeed is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son into the world, to be the propitiation for our sins. He hath raised us up by the life of regeneration, and quickened us together with Christ, by whose grace we are saved.

5. Even… dead—His mercy was alive when we were dead. He loved us even when we were most unlovely. Hence how truly is all by grace. And, here, at the commencement of the picture of the redemptive process, at the first mention of our life-dawn in Christ, Paul flings abruptly in this hint, by grace… saved, preparatory to his expanding the complete statement at the close of the process, verse 8. Mercy, goodness, grace, and all from nothing less than God, is what he is so impatient to bring out that he can hardly wait to state the process in which those glorious and melting attributes display themselves. This grace is understood best by emphasizing the even… dead—intensely. Dead; given over to darkness, depravity, the devil, and wrath; over that scene it is that the light of grace breaks with healing in its beams.

Quickened—Inspired with life; life for soul first, life for body next, life in eternity last. With Christ—Who was raised, as pictured in Ephesians 1:20.

EPHESIANS

SECTION 5. — GOD HAS MADE US SHARERS OF

THE RESURRECTION LIFE OF CHRIST. CH.

2:4-10.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His much love with which He loved us, and we being dead through our trespasses, has made us alive together with Christ-by grace ye are saved-and raised us with Him and made us sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that He may show in the ages coming on the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For by grace ye are saved, through faith and that not of yourselves; the gift is God’s; not of works, that no man may glory. For His workmanship we are, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God before prepared in order that we may walk in them.

Ver. 4.-5. But God: in conspicuous contrast to lost and sinful mankind. This new sentence supplies the place of the grammatical conclusion of the foregoing sentence, which was postponed to make way for the further delineation of those dead in sins, and not afterwards added. Similarly, the sentence broken off in Romans 5:12 has its virtual completion in Romans 5:18. This delineation is a dark background for the glory which suddenly and majestically now bursts upon us.

Mercy: compassion for the helpless. It recalls the helplessness of those under the anger of God, and thus completes the picture given in § 4. Rich in mercy: cp. Ephesians 1:7, 18.

Because of His much love; traces this mercy to its source in the central attribute of God. Upon this unique attribute Paul lingers: His much love with which He loved us. The past tense refers to the love manifested in the salvation of Paul and his readers.

And we being dead etc.: a repetition of Ephesians 2:1, for vivid contrast with the foregoing description of God and His love. A close parallel with Romans 3:23, where for a similar contrast we have a similar summary of foregoing teaching. This love of contrast, especially of contrast between past and present, is an almost certain mark of Pauline authorship.

Has-made alive-with-Christ: as in Colossians 2:13, where the same word is explained by having forgiven you all the trespasses. It reverses all that is implied in the words dead through trespasses. We were once, in consequence of our sins, a spiritual corpse given up to corruption utter and helpless, from which nothing could save us except the life-giving power of God. But God has pardoned our sins and given back to us the eternal life for which we were created. This eternal life is already our assured possession: and the witness of it is the Holy Spirit, the Breath of immortality, already moving our hearts with the pulse of divine life and prompting all Christian activities.

With Christ: as in Colossians 2:13. Our new immortal life is an outflow of the life breathed on the first Easter morning into His sacred corpse. For, had He not risen, there had been no saving faith, no Gospel, and no life eternal.

By grace (cp. Romans 3:24) ye-are saved: each word emphatic. Salvation is by the undeserved favour of God: it is already actual: and this is emphatically asserted. Contrast Romans 5:10; 13:11. We are already saved from the sinking wreck into a lifeboat which cannot sink: but we are not finally safe until the perilous voyage of life is past. Hence Paul can say as here we are saved; or as in 1 Corinthians 1:18 we are being saved; or as above we shall be saved.

V. 6. And hath raised us up together-Both Jews and Gentiles already in spirit; and ere long our bodies too will be raised.

And made us all sit together in heavenly places-This is spoken by way of anticipation. Believers are not yet possessed of their seats in heaven; but each of them has a place prepared for him.

Verse 6. And hath raised us up together in Christ] Or rather, by Christ; his resurrection being the proof that he had made the full atonement, and that we might be justified by his blood. Believing, therefore, the record which God gave of his Son, we received this atonement, and were raised from a death of sin to a life of righteousness; and now we sit in heavenly places-we have a right to the kingdom of God, anticipate this glory, and are indescribably happy in the possession of this salvation, and in our fellowship with Christ Jesus.

Verses 4-6. But God, who is rich in mercy — That is, in compassion for us, amidst our sins and miseries, and in his free, gratuitous goodness and readiness to pardon the guilty, and save the lost: for his great love — Of benevolence and bounty; wherewith he loved us — When there was nothing in us but sin and misery to move him to do it. Love in God was the cause why he resolved to show mercy to certain descriptions of persons, namely, to such as should obey the gospel call to repentance, faith, and new obedience. Love is a desire to communicate good to us, considered as creatures; but mercy respects us as fallen into sin and misery; even when we — Jews and Gentiles, and all men; were dead in sins — See on verse 1. Hath he quickened us — Brought us into spiritual life, by begetting in us repentance unto life, and living faith, and in consequence thereof by justifying us, or reversing the sentence of condemnation to eternal death under which we lay, taking us also into his favour, and uniting us to himself, by giving us his quickening and renewing Spirit, in consequence of which our affections are set on things above, and we become spiritually minded, which is life and peace. Together with Christ — In conformity to his resurrection from the dead, and by virtue of our relation to him and union with him. By grace ye are saved — By God’s mere mercy, or undeserved goodness, which is the original source and moving cause of our salvation; and by the enlightening, quickening, and renewing influences of the Holy Spirit, the efficient cause of it. The apostle speaks indifferently either in the first or second person, the Jews and Gentiles being in the same circumstances both by nature and by grace. This doctrine lays the axe to the very root of spiritual pride, and glorying in ourselves. Therefore St. Paul, foreseeing the backwardness of mankind to receive it, yet knowing the absolute necessity of its being received, again asserts the very same truth, (verse 8,) in the very same words. And hath raised us up together — Both Jews and Gentiles, already in spirit, having not only rained our souls from spiritual death to spiritual life, but having given us assurance of the resurrection of our bodies, and begotten us again, as his children and his heirs, to a lively hope of a heavenly inheritance, and enabled us to set our affections on the felicity and glory implied therein: and made us sit together in heavenly places in and through Christ Jesus — Our head and representative, who has already been admitted into heaven as our forerunner, to take possession of these glorious mansions for us. For by means of that relation between him and us, which divine grace hath established, we may look upon his resurrection and exaltation to the right hand of God, as the certain pledge and security of ours; and regarding him under the character of a public person, who is thus raised and exalted in our name, we may be said to share in those felicities and dignities which are conferred on him.

Ver. 4-6. God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us. The cause of our redemption is wholly with God, who so loved the world, totum genus humanum, the whole human kind, as Grotius says, that he gave his only-begotten Son. And here indeed is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son into the world, to be the propitiation for our sins. He hath raised us up by the life of regeneration, and quickened us together with Christ, by whose grace we are saved.

6. Raised… sit… in heavenly places—As Christ in Ephesians 1:20.

Ver. 6. Raised with Him: as in Colossians 2:12; 3:1. It further pictures the new life as a participation in the act of God which raised Christ from the grave and brought Him back to the land of the living. Made-to-sit-with Him: only here and Luke 22:55. A new feature of the Christian life. We are not only made alive, and raised from the surroundings of death, but are also sharers of the throne of Christ. Cp. Ephesians 1:20: raised Him from the dead and made Him sit. Notice the close connection between the Christian’s life on earth and the life of his risen and glorified Lord. See under Colossians 2:12. In the heavenly places: same words as in Ephesians 1:3, which they expound. They give further definiteness to the picture of Christ’s enthronement in heaven, and declare that already we share even its glorious environment. This resurrection and enthronement are with Christ and in Christ. For He will be both the companion and the encompassing element of our future glory. And whatever we shall be, to Paul’s faith, believers already are. Thus (Ephesians 1:3) has God blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

V. 7. The ages to come-That is, all succeeding ages.

Verse 7. That in the ages to come] God has produced us an example, and one which shall be on record through all generations, that he quickens dead souls; that he forgives the sins of the most sinful, when they repent and believe in Christ Jesus. So that what God has done for the sinners at Ephesus will serve as an encouragement to all ages of the world; and on this evidence every preacher of the Gospel may boldly proclaim that Christ saves unto the uttermost all that come unto God through him. And thus the exceeding riches of his grace will appear in the provision he has made for the salvation of both Jews and Gentiles.

This observation of the apostle is of great use and importance; because we are authorized to state, in all the successive ages of the world, that he who saved the sinners at Ephesus is ever ready to save all who, like them, repent of their sins, and believe in Christ Jesus.

Verses 7-9. That in the ages to come — As if he had said, His great design in doing all this for us is, that in all succeeding ages, under the dispensation of the gospel, he might show — Might demonstrate and display, (as the word endeixhtai implies,) for the instruction and encouragement of others; the exceeding riches of his grace — Manifested both to Jews and Gentiles; in his kindness — His benignity and bounty; toward us — In pardoning, adopting, regenerating, and finally saving us; through Christ Jesus — For we have received the whole blessing by him, and are partakers of it as connected with him, whom God hath appointed our head and Saviour, and taught us to regard as our great representative. For (to repeat the important truth before asserted) by grace are ye saved through faith — Grace, as signifying the free mercy, or unmerited goodness of God, without any respect to human worthiness, confers the glorious gift of salvation; and grace, in the other sense of the expression, namely, the influence of the Spirit, prepares us for the reception of the blessed gift, and conveys it to us; and faith in the Lord Jesus as our Redeemer and Saviour, our Governor and Judge, and in the truths and promises of his holy gospel, with an empty hand, and without any pretence to personal desert; faith, productive of unfeigned love and obedience, receives the heavenly blessing. And that not of yourselves — This refers to the whole preceding clause, and means, 1st, Your salvation is not of yourselves, is not of your own power, nor of your own merit; strictly speaking, you can neither save yourselves, nor deserve that God should save you; your salvation, in all its branches, present and eternal, is from God, to whom alone it belongs to enlighten, justify, sanctify, and glorify you, and it is from him as a free, undeserved gift. Just so, 2d, Your faith, whereby you receive salvation, is not of yourselves, not of your own power, nor of your own merit; you can neither believe of yourselves, without supernatural light from the word and Spirit of truth, wisdom, and revelation; and divine grace inclining and enabling you to apply to and rely on Christ for salvation, and on the truths and promises of God through him; nor can you, by works done while you are yourselves in unbelief and unrenewed, deserve that God should give you faith. But your faith, as well as your salvation, is the gift of God; is of his operation, Colossians 2:12; from his light shining into your hearts, 2 Corinthians 4:6; and is from him as a free gift, asked indeed of him, and obtained from him, in and by prayer, but utterly unmerited on your part. “God, by the gracious influence of his Spirit, fixes our attention to the great objects of faith, subdues our prejudices against it, awakens holy affections in our souls, and, on the whole, enables us to believe, and to persevere in believing, till we receive the great end of our faith in the complete salvation of our souls.” — Doddridge. Not of works — Neither this faith, nor this salvation, is merited by, or is owing to, any works you ever performed, will or can perform, whether in obedience to the law of Moses, ceremonial or moral, or any other law whatever; much less is it merited by, or owing to, any works done previous to your conversion. Lest any man should boast — As if he had, by his own works of righteousness, procured salvation, and so should ascribe the glory of it to himself, rather than to God.

Ver. 7. That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace. In the gospel ages, as described by the prophet. Isaiah 65:17,

25. In all the past dispensations, God has always been enlarging his promises to the church, and displaying his mercy in new and more enlivened forms. In our present oppression, Zion cannot fully enjoy the things that eye hath not seen. But on conversion we receive a name and a place in the church, a rank and dignity as the sons of God, and soon shall resemble the Saviour in glory.

7. Ages to come—The rolling cycles of eternity. So long as the immortality of the redeemed shall endure, the riches of his grace will be shown, shown to what new worlds we know not. This will commence at the blessed period of the glorious summing up in Christ of Ephesians 1:10, (where see note,) and is brought to its consummation by the wonderful display of omnipotent power described in Ephesians 1:19, (where see note,) to a vivid view of which the apostle offers his continued and glowing prayer that the Ephesian eyes may be opened.

Ver. 7. Aim of God in raising and enthroning us. Close harmony with Ephesians 1:6, 12, 14.

That He-may-show: more fully show something in Himself i.e. reveal His own inner nature. Same word in Romans 2:15; 9:17, 22; 1 Timothy 1:16.

The ages coming on: beginning with the coming of Christ. For only then will God’s kindness to men be worthily manifested. To the prophetic eye of Paul, successive ages of future glory are already approaching, like successive waves of blessing; an endless vista of splendour. That this manifestation is to take place during the ages of glory, suggests that it will be for angels as well as men: cp. Ephesians 3:10. The surpassing riches of His grace: a superlative term embracing and surpassing Ephesians 1:7, 19.

Kindness: so Romans 2:4, riches of His kindness; also Romans 11:22. It is mercy and grace represented as gentleness.

In Christ Jesus: objectively, through His death and resurrection, as in Ephesians 1:20; Romans 3:24; and subjectively through inward contact with Him, as in 2 Corinthians 5:17. This aim of God in raising us together with Christ proves the infinite greatness of the blessing thus conferred on men. For the means must be sufficient for the end in view. God resolved to manifest the surpassing abundance of His grace; and, to this end, loaded us with kindness. A similar, but further, purpose in Ephesians 3:10.

V. 8. By grace ye are saved through faith-Grace, without any respect to human worthiness, confers the glorious gift. Faith, with an empty hand, and without any pretence to personal desert, receives the heavenly blessing. And this is not of yourselves-This refers to the whole preceding clause, That ye are saved through faith, is the gift of God.

Verse 8. For by grace are ye saved, through faith] As ye are now brought into a state of salvation, your sins being all blotted out, and you made partakers of the Holy Spirit; and, having a hope full of immortality, you must not attribute this to any works or merit of yours; for when this Gospel reached you, you were all found dead in trespasses and dead in sins; therefore it was God’s free mercy to you, manifested through Christ, in whom ye were commanded to believe; and, having believed by the power of the Holy Spirit, ye received, and were sealed by, the Holy Spirit of promise; so that this salvation is in no sense of yourselves, but is the free gift of God; and not of any kind of works; so that no man can boast as having wrought out his own salvation, or even contributed any thing towards it. By grace are ye saved, through faith in Christ. This is a true doctrine, and continues to be essential to the salvation of man to the end of the world.

But whether are we to understand, faith or salvation as being the gift of God? This question is answered by the Greek text: th gar cariti este seswsmenoi dia thv pistewv. kai touto ouk ex umwn. qeou to dwron, ouk ex ergwn. ina mh tiv kauchshtai. “By this grace ye are saved through faith; and THIS (touto, this salvation) not of you; it is the gift of God, not of works: so that no one can boast.” “The relative touto, this, which is in the neuter gender, cannot stand for pistiv, faith, which is the feminine; but it has the whole sentence that goes before for its antecedent.” But it may be asked: Is not faith the gift of God? Yes, as to the grace by which it is produced; but the grace or power to believe, and the act of believing, are two different things. Without the grace or power to believe no man ever did or can believe; but with that power the act of faith is a man’s own. God never believes for any man, no more than he repents for him: the penitent, through this grace enabling him, believes for himself: nor does he believe necessarily, or impulsively when he has that power; the power to believe may be present long before it is exercised, else, why the solemn warnings with which we meet every where in the word of God, and threatenings against those who do not believe? Is not this a proof that such persons have the power but do not use it? They believe not, and therefore are not established. This, therefore, is the true state of the case: God gives the power, man uses the power thus given, and brings glory to God: without the power no man can believe; with it, any man may.

Verses 7-9. That in the ages to come — As if he had said, His great design in doing all this for us is, that in all succeeding ages, under the dispensation of the gospel, he might show — Might demonstrate and display, (as the word endeixhtai implies,) for the instruction and encouragement of others; the exceeding riches of his grace — Manifested both to Jews and Gentiles; in his kindness — His benignity and bounty; toward us — In pardoning, adopting, regenerating, and finally saving us; through Christ Jesus — For we have received the whole blessing by him, and are partakers of it as connected with him, whom God hath appointed our head and Saviour, and taught us to regard as our great representative. For (to repeat the important truth before asserted) by grace are ye saved through faith — Grace, as signifying the free mercy, or unmerited goodness of God, without any respect to human worthiness, confers the glorious gift of salvation; and grace, in the other sense of the expression, namely, the influence of the Spirit, prepares us for the reception of the blessed gift, and conveys it to us; and faith in the Lord Jesus as our Redeemer and Saviour, our Governor and Judge, and in the truths and promises of his holy gospel, with an empty hand, and without any pretence to personal desert; faith, productive of unfeigned love and obedience, receives the heavenly blessing. And that not of yourselves — This refers to the whole preceding clause, and means, 1st, Your salvation is not of yourselves, is not of your own power, nor of your own merit; strictly speaking, you can neither save yourselves, nor deserve that God should save you; your salvation, in all its branches, present and eternal, is from God, to whom alone it belongs to enlighten, justify, sanctify, and glorify you, and it is from him as a free, undeserved gift. Just so, 2d, Your faith, whereby you receive salvation, is not of yourselves, not of your own power, nor of your own merit; you can neither believe of yourselves, without supernatural light from the word and Spirit of truth, wisdom, and revelation; and divine grace inclining and enabling you to apply to and rely on Christ for salvation, and on the truths and promises of God through him; nor can you, by works done while you are yourselves in unbelief and unrenewed, deserve that God should give you faith. But your faith, as well as your salvation, is the gift of God; is of his operation, Colossians 2:12; from his light shining into your hearts, 2 Corinthians 4:6; and is from him as a free gift, asked indeed of him, and obtained from him, in and by prayer, but utterly unmerited on your part. “God, by the gracious influence of his Spirit, fixes our attention to the great objects of faith, subdues our prejudices against it, awakens holy affections in our souls, and, on the whole, enables us to believe, and to persevere in believing, till we receive the great end of our faith in the complete salvation of our souls.” — Doddridge. Not of works — Neither this faith, nor this salvation, is merited by, or is owing to, any works you ever performed, will or can perform, whether in obedience to the law of Moses, ceremonial or moral, or any other law whatever; much less is it merited by, or owing to, any works done previous to your conversion. Lest any man should boast — As if he had, by his own works of righteousness, procured salvation, and so should ascribe the glory of it to himself, rather than to God.

Ver. 8. By grace are ye saved through faith. Augustine has left us a treatise on grace, in which he argues fairly, that “grace is a gift, in which three things are implied: — He who gives — he to whom the favour is given — and the manner in which it is bestowed. First, he who gives in the perfection of a sovereign, ought to give of his own, and must be in power and situation to give what he confers. He ought to be supremely good, to give willingly; he ought to be supremely powerful, to give liberally; and to be supremely independent, to give without the hopes of return; otherwise it is a barter, and not a gift. Secondly, he to whom it is given ought to merit nothing of him that gives. If he deserved it, the withholding of it would be injustice. And the receiver ought to be in extreme poverty and indigence, otherwise he might refuse and reject the favour. Thirdly, with regard to the manner of conferring the grace, it ought to be freely given; for what is given of constraint is regarded as an extortion: a gift should supersede merit, lest the merit should require the recompense. It ought even to presede the desires, the hopes, and request of him who receives it, because in all those ways the recipient may assume a plea of merit. All those qualities associate in the word grace; and they all are found in the unspeakable gift of the Son of God, and in the redemption of mankind by Jesus Christ.”

8. For—In view of this divine organic process now completely stated. By grace—Gratis, for nothing in return. Are ye saved—Not merely converted, justified, and sanctified; but gloriously saved—saved from death, the devil, and hell; saved to resurrection, Christ, God, and glory, in the full sight of the endless aeons to come. Through faith—As the instrument in God’s hands; the handle by which he gets hold of us to snatch us from Satan and spring us into heaven. For the Greek preposition for through, here, is the preposition of instrumentality. Hence faith has three aspects. When, (1) it is said that God justifies us through faith, then faith is the instrument with which God rescues us from sin and hell. When

(2) it is said “The just shall live by faith,” then faith is to us the means by which we live. When (3) it is said, “Believe and thou shall be saved,” then faith is the condition upon which we are justified, regenerated, and elected to holiness here and heaven hereafter. That faith is indeed empowered in us by the grace underlying our probation: but that faith freely exercised by us, and seen by God, is the underlying condition of our election in time; and foreseen by God is the underlying condition in our eternal election before the foundation of the world, as described in Ephesians 1:4, 11, where see notes.

And be it especially noted that in St. Paul’s view there is no contradiction between the gratuity of our salvation and its conditionality. There is no contradiction between our being saved by grace and its being through faith; just because faith towards God, though a right thing in God’s creatures towards him, and an excellent thing in itself, is not a merit that pays God for any thing, or obligates him to any donation to us. It is his right to drop us into nothingness any moment he pleases, and no wrong is done us. Far less can our faith entitle us to pardon for past wickedness, to a blotting out of past books, and a conferring a glorious immortality at God’s right hand. Notwithstanding the free, rightful, excellent exercise in faith by us, every thing comes from God to us by grace. Surely the faith with which a beggar stretches forth his hand to receive the donation of thousands from a millionaire would not be a merit, a work, a compensation to the donor, neutralizing the graciousness of the gratuity. See note, Romans 3:24, 27.

And what a reasonable, beautiful, and delightful condition proffered is this—simple coming into obedience to and harmony with God by a pure act of free, submitting, and confiding faith. It is at once the due act of a yielding rebel to a rightful sovereign, and of a returning prodigal to a rightful and ever gracious parent. Gracious, indeed! for it was while dead to God and alive to and with the devil, that God loved us and laid the plan of our rescue.

That… it—Both, as well as not of works, in next verse, refer to being saved, and not to faith. Faith is, indeed, truly said to be the gift of God; but it is faith as a power, not as an act, that is God’s gift. So sight is either a power or an act. Sight, as a power, is the gift of God; but sight, as an act, is our own exertion of power. Not of yourselves—The whole structure of the apostle’s view of our rescue from the depths, and exaltation to the heights, and our consequent utter gratitude to God, is wholly overthrown if ours is a self-salvation. Our faith, as an act, natural and divinely empowered, is from ourselves: but not our salvation. The structure of that salvation requires all the power depicted in Ephesians 1:19. Gift— Donation; not pay or wages earned.

Ver. 8.-9. In order to justify and expound the riches of His grace, Paul now repeats and amplifies a few words which, in Ephesians 2:4, burst through the grammatical order of the sentence.

By-grace: by the grace of God; referring definitely to the grace mentioned in Ephesians 2:7.

Through faith: added in order to give a more complete account of salvation. It embodies a thought ever present to Paul, and ever ready to find expression: compare the casual mention of faith in Romans 3:25,

26. The favour of God is the divine source, and faith is the human channel, of salvation.

This or this thing; refers almost certainly to the salvation just mentioned. For it is neuter, whereas faith and grace are feminine. Moreover, not from works, which must refer to ye are saved, is evidently parallel to not from yourselves, and thus gives to these words the same reference. They are added as an emphatic exposition, negative and then positive, of the words by grace. ‘You are not the source of your own salvation: it is a gift: and the gift is God’s. It is not from human works.’

Not from works, that no one may glory: marked characteristics of Paul: Romans 4:2,6; 9:11; 11:6; 3:27; 1 Corinthians 1:29; Galatians 6:14 From every side, Paul shuts out, as his wont is, all self-salvation.

V. 9. Not by works-Neither this faith nor this salvation is owing to any works you ever did, will, or can do.

Verses 7-9. That in the ages to come — As if he had said, His great design in doing all this for us is, that in all succeeding ages, under the dispensation of the gospel, he might show — Might demonstrate and display, (as the word endeixhtai implies,) for the instruction and encouragement of others; the exceeding riches of his grace — Manifested both to Jews and Gentiles; in his kindness — His benignity and bounty; toward us — In pardoning, adopting, regenerating, and finally saving us; through Christ Jesus — For we have received the whole blessing by him, and are partakers of it as connected with him, whom God hath appointed our head and Saviour, and taught us to regard as our great representative. For (to repeat the important truth before asserted) by grace are ye saved through faith — Grace, as signifying the free mercy, or unmerited goodness of God, without any respect to human worthiness, confers the glorious gift of salvation; and grace, in the other sense of the expression, namely, the influence of the Spirit, prepares us for the reception of the blessed gift, and conveys it to us; and faith in the Lord Jesus as our Redeemer and Saviour, our Governor and Judge, and in the truths and promises of his holy gospel, with an empty hand, and without any pretence to personal desert; faith, productive of unfeigned love and obedience, receives the heavenly blessing. And that not of yourselves — This refers to the whole preceding clause, and means, 1st, Your salvation is not of yourselves, is not of your own power, nor of your own merit; strictly speaking, you can neither save yourselves, nor deserve that God should save you; your salvation, in all its branches, present and eternal, is from God, to whom alone it belongs to enlighten, justify, sanctify, and glorify you, and it is from him as a free, undeserved gift. Just so, 2d, Your faith, whereby you receive salvation, is not of yourselves, not of your own power, nor of your own merit; you can neither believe of yourselves, without supernatural light from the word and Spirit of truth, wisdom, and revelation; and divine grace inclining and enabling you to apply to and rely on Christ for salvation, and on the truths and promises of God through him; nor can you, by works done while you are yourselves in unbelief and unrenewed, deserve that God should give you faith. But your faith, as well as your salvation, is the gift of God; is of his operation, Colossians 2:12; from his light shining into your hearts, 2 Corinthians 4:6; and is from him as a free gift, asked indeed of him, and obtained from him, in and by prayer, but utterly unmerited on your part. “God, by the gracious influence of his Spirit, fixes our attention to the great objects of faith, subdues our prejudices against it, awakens holy affections in our souls, and, on the whole, enables us to believe, and to persevere in believing, till we receive the great end of our faith in the complete salvation of our souls.” — Doddridge. Not of works — Neither this faith, nor this salvation, is merited by, or is owing to, any works you ever performed, will or can perform, whether in obedience to the law of Moses, ceremonial or moral, or any other law whatever; much less is it merited by, or owing to, any works done previous to your conversion. Lest any man should boast — As if he had, by his own works of righteousness, procured salvation, and so should ascribe the glory of it to himself, rather than to God.

9. Not of works—Neither the works of the Jewish ritual, nor the works of the moral law by Gentiles. If either ritual Jew or moral Gentile were saved, it would not be because of the value of their doings, but for that deep spirit-seated faith, according to their dispensation. It is the heart inspiring the act, and not the act, that saves. And that spirit of faith in Jew or Gentile would, if Christ were truly presented and understood, heartily embrace him. Boast—A self-saviour needs no Christ-saviour. All Christ’s history in Ephesians 1:17-23, and all God’s mercy in 1-7, are to him null. He can boast, “I need no free pass; I pay my own way.”

Ver. 8.-9. In order to justify and expound the riches of His grace, Paul now repeats and amplifies a few words which, in Ephesians 2:4, burst through the grammatical order of the sentence.

By-grace: by the grace of God; referring definitely to the grace mentioned in Ephesians 2:7.

Through faith: added in order to give a more complete account of salvation. It embodies a thought ever present to Paul, and ever ready to find expression: compare the casual mention of faith in Romans 3:25,

26. The favour of God is the divine source, and faith is the human channel, of salvation.

This or this thing; refers almost certainly to the salvation just mentioned. For it is neuter, whereas faith and grace are feminine. Moreover, not from works, which must refer to ye are saved, is evidently parallel to not from yourselves, and thus gives to these words the same reference. They are added as an emphatic exposition, negative and then positive, of the words by grace. ‘You are not the source of your own salvation: it is a gift: and the gift is God’s. It is not from human works.’

Not from works, that no one may glory: marked characteristics of Paul: Romans 4:2,6; 9:11; 11:6; 3:27; 1 Corinthians 1:29; Galatians 6:14 From every side, Paul shuts out, as his wont is, all self-salvation.

V. 10. For we are his workmanship-Which proves both that salvation is by faith, and that faith is the gift of God.

Created unto good works-That afterwards we might give ourselves to them.

Which God had before preprepared-The occasions of them: so we must still ascribe the whole to God.

That we might walk in them-Though not be justified by them.

Verse 10. For we are his workmanship] So far is this salvation from being our own work, or granted for our own works’ sake, that we are ourselves not only the creatures of God, but our new creation was produced by his power; for we are created in Christ Jesus unto good works. He has saved us that we may show forth the virtues of Him who called us from darkness into his marvellous light. For though we are not saved for our good works, yet we are saved that we may perform good works, to the glory of God and the benefit of man.

Which God hath before ordained] oiv prohtoimasev. For which God before prepared us, that we might walk in them. For being saved from sin we are made partakers of the Spirit of holiness; and it is natural to that Spirit to lead to the practice of holiness; and he who is not holy in his life is not saved by the grace of Christ. The before ordaining, or rather preparing, must refer to the time when God began the new creation in their hearts; for from the first inspiration of God upon the soul it begins to love holiness; and obedience to the will of God is the very element in which a holy or regenerated soul lives.

Verse 10. For we are his workmanship — As if he had said, And it appears that it is not by any works or ability of our own that we are saved, or possess the faith whereby salvation is received, because all the ability we have in spiritual things is from God, and is the consequence of his creating us anew; for as all acts of acceptable obedience must proceed from faith, and this faith is wrought in our hearts by the gracious influence of the Divine Spirit, it is most certain that we must acknowledge ourselves to be his workmanship, so far as there is any thing in us agreeable to the nature and will of God; being created in and through Christ Jesus unto good works — In order that we may have inclination and power both to perform them, and to delight in so doing; and may give ourselves up to this, and be continually engaged therein, as far as we have ability and opportunity. This creation of believers through Christ Jesus unto good works, Dr. Taylor, in his Key to the Romans, understands of the formation of believers into one body or church, under the government of Christ, because in the Christian Church believers enjoy the greatest advantages for performing good works, and because this formation of the church is termed (verse 15) a creation of Jews and Gentiles into one new man under Christ. The same account he gives of the making men alive, mentioned verse 5. “Others, however, with more reason,” says Dr. Macknight, “think that a person’s enjoying, in the Christian Church, great advantages for becoming alive and for doing good works, is not the whole” (and is it any part?) “of what the apostle means” by these expressions, but that they “denote the operation of the Holy Spirit in making men alive, and enabling them to do good works by means of the advantages that they enjoy.” Which God hath before ordained — Or appointed in his eternal counsels, and in the declarations of his word; it being his will and pleasure, that they who have believed on him through his Son, and are thereby made new creatures, should be careful to maintain good works, Titus 3:8. But the apostle’s expression, oiv prohtoimasen o Qeov, rather signifies, which God hath before prepared; that is, hath prepared the occasions of good works, and the means and opportunities of doing them. Or, as some render the clause, for which God hath prepared us, namely, by the knowledge of the gospel, and the influences of his Spirit: that we should walk in them — Should live in the constant performance of them, though not be justified by them. In other words, He hath purified the fountain, that the streams may be pure; hath made the tree good, that the fruit may be good; hath made us new creatures, that we may live new lives; one grand and important end certainly of our regeneration. So that we must still ascribe the whole glory of all the good that is in us, or is done by us, to God.

Ver. 10. Created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Prohtoimasen should, in this place, be rendered “prepared,” as indeed it is in Calvin’s commentary: Que Dieu a preparees, afin que cheminions en icelles. This reading harmonizes nature and grace. In the vegetable kingdom, the foliage is prepared, and opens; the bloom follows, the fruit succeed, grow, and mature, in its season. In like manner, the new heart should ever be followed by renovation of life. So in fact all the versions read.

10. His workmanship—Instead of our being the workers, God is the worker and we are the workmanship—the fact accomplished. Created by a new and better creation. Unto good works—For we are not only elected from past faith, but we are elected unto good works. Note, Romans 9:13. Before ordained—Literally, hath pre-prepared. God has not only constructed us, but he has also constructed a whole set of works and ways in which we should walk. He has planned a whole suit of Christian graces, active and passive; heavenly tempers and beneficent doings which he has modelled for us in Christ, and set before us, to exemplify in our own character and future history. There are ignorance, guilt, and misery enough in the world to call all our new life into Christ-like action. We may, like him, go forth and cause the blind to see, the lame to walk, and even to raise the dead—dead as the Ephesians, in ver. 1. God has beforehand written a good biography for every man to live. And his life may thereby be like that of Jesus himself—a blessed gospel.

2. The unification of Jew and Gentile into this one elect Church, 11-22.

Thus far St. Paul has vividly imaged the elect Church as a unit. One God, one Christ, one faith, one glory. His picture is completed; and he has now time to remember (verse 11) that his real, present, flesh-and-blood Ephesian Church is ethnically—that is, by race—a dual Church. Both sections, indeed, belong to the great Caucasian family. But one has come down through Shem, and Heber, and Abraham to the present hour. They have been religiously proud of so divine a descent. For it has come along down a line of heroes, kings, saints, and prophets. The other, starting from the same Noah, has come down through Japhet and Elishah, (Genesis 10:4,) and has thence been called Hellenic, or Greek. And these are proud of their genius, civilization, arts, and philosophy. The apostle now comes in with his Christ to wipe out and abolish this distinction, and to fuse them into one blessed Christian Church. There is but one Christ, one Spirit, one holy building, which is one temple inhabited by the Spirit. This paragraph, like the preceding one, presents two contrasted pictures, a dark and a bright—the Ephesians of the past and the Ephesians of the present. Verses 11, 12 correspond to 1-3; and vv. 13-22 correspond to 4-10. As we have elsewhere remarked, (note on Romans 8:39,) it is the apostle’s style to begin in gloom and end in glory.

Ver. 10. Proof and amplification of the statement that our salvation is not from ourselves or from works, but from God; viz. that we are ourselves God’s workmanship.

Having-been-created etc.: proof of the foregoing. Paul refers evidently, in words taken from the old creation, to the new creation of the spiritual life. Cp. 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15. Another trace of the hand of Paul.

Created: a word predicated only of God, and thus denoting a putting forth of power possessed only by God. Even when creating out of existing materials, as in Genesis 1:21, God breathed into them new life; which man cannot do. The word here teaches that the Christian life is not only a workmanship of God but is a new putting forth of creative power. In Christ: as in Ephesians 2:6, 7. Notice the emphatic and characteristic repetition.

Good works: as in Romans 2:7; 13:3; 2 Corinthians 9:8: a phrase found only with Paul. The word good includes beneficence and intrinsic worth: another word, noting only excellence, in Matthew 5:16. Just as God created certain animals for certain activities which were a part of His creative purpose, so He designs the new life in Christ to reveal itself in good works. The words following lay further stress on this definite purpose of God.

Before-prepared: in eternity, when the new life was only a thought in the mind of God. He then designed that good works should be its environment and outward expression. Same word in Romans 9:23, ‘before-prepared’ for glory.

That we should walk in them: God’s purpose touching these good works. He designs them to be the surrounding element of our movements; in absolute contrast to in which sins ye walked.

It is now quite clear that salvation is in no way from ourselves or from works. For even our own good works are a part of God’s eternal purpose to give spiritual life to those who believe in Christ. And if they are an outworking of His purpose of mercy, they cannot be a ground of merit, or a source of salvation.

Notice here another reference to the eternal purpose of salvation already mentioned in Ephesians 1:4, 5, 9, 11; also in Ephesians 3:11. It is a conspicuous feature of this Epistle, and a fuller development of teaching already found in Romans 8:28, 29; 9:11, 23.

The chief significance of § 5 is derived from its relation to § 3. Paul there prayed that God would reveal to his readers the glory awaiting them and the great power of God which some day will realise their hopes and which already is at work in them. As a measure of that power and of that hope, he pointed to the power which raised Christ from the grave and set Him at the right hand of God. In order to make practical use of this comparison, Paul showed in § 4 that all the unsaved are in a position analogous to that of the body of Jesus as it lay dead in the grave. For, through their sins, they were separated from the only real life and were doomed to corruption. This state of ruin Paul further described. Although dead, they were capable of movement: but it was a mere floating down a stream, in a channel marked out by the great enemy, under influences directed by him; a mere surrender to the promptings of the lower side of their nature. That the prince of darkness and their own nature led them along the same path, proved that their nature is corrupt, and that they who follow it are under the anger of God. Now the anger of God is death in its worst form.

At the beginning of § 5 we see God looking down with compassion and infinite love upon the lost human race. Paul asserts that He who gave life to the lifeless body of Christ has made alive those who once were dead through their sins. This can only mean that He has rescued them from the corruption which was their inevitable doom and has given back to them spiritual activity and growth. This life is an outflow of that which entered into the silent body of Christ. And, as with Christ so with them, life has been accompanied by removal from the surroundings of death and by exaltation to heaven. All this God did in order to reveal His infinite favour to men. The same truth Paul repeats for emphasis in another form. Since his readers have been made alive, he can rightly say that they have been saved. And, since their resurrection with Christ is an outflow of the mercy and love of God, they are saved by grace. To make this the more conspicuous, Paul adds that salvation is not from themselves or their works, but is the gift of God; and that it has come in this way in order that no one may boast. And he cannot forbear to remind his readers that it is through faith. To complete his proof that salvation is altogether from God and not at all from man, he says that the new life is a work of the creative power of God and an accomplishment of an eternal purpose. Thus Paul, after raising his readers to the throne of God and setting them beside their risen Lord, leads their thoughts back to the eternal purpose of which the actual salvation of men is an historic realisation. This tracing of the phenomena of time to their source in the eternal thought of God is a conspicuous feature of Paul, a feature nowhere so conspicuous as in this Epistle.

V. 11. Wherefore remember-Such a remembrance strengthens faith, and increases gratitude.

That ye being formerly Gentiles in the flesh-Neither circumcised in body nor in spirit.

Who were accordingly called the uncircumcision-By way of reproach. By that which is called the circumcision-By those who call themselves the circumcised, and think this a proof that they are the people of God; and who indeed have that outward circumcision which is performed by hands in the flesh.

Verse 11. Wherefore remember] That ye may ever see and feel your obligations to live a pure and holy life, and be unfeignedly thankful to God for your salvation, remember that ye were once heathens in the flesh-without the pure doctrine, and under the influence of your corrupt nature; such as by the Jew’s (who gloried, in consequence of their circumcision, to be in covenant with God) were called uncircumcision; i.e. persons out of the Divine covenant, and having no right or title to any blessing of God.

Verses 11, 12. Wherefore — To increase your sense of God’s goodness in saving you, and of the obligation he hath thereby laid on you to do good works; remember that ye being in time past Gentiles — Ignorant, vicious, and idolatrous, neither circumcised in body nor in spirit; who were accordingly called Uncircumcision — By way of reproach, by that which is called the Circumcision — By those who call themselves the circumcised, and think this a proof that they are the people of God; and who, indeed, have that outward circumcision in the flesh made by hands — By this description of circumcision, the apostle puts his readers in mind of the inward circumcision, the circumcision of the heart, made by the Spirit of God, of which the outward circumcision was only an emblem, (Romans 2:29,) and intimated that the Jews had no reason to boast of the outward circumcision, unless it was accompanied with the circumcision of the heart. That ye were without Christ — Having no faith in him, or knowledge of him, and so were destitute of all those blessings which he bestows on his believing and obedient people; being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel — Both as to their temporal privileges and spiritual blessings; and strangers from the covenants of promise — Namely, that made with Abraham, and that made with the Israelites at Sinai, which promised and prefigured Christ’s coming to procure and bestow those blessings. As the promises contained in these covenants centred in the great promise of the Messiah, and of salvation through him, he therefore speaks of them in the singular number, as only one promise. Having no hope — No sure hope, either of present pardon or future felicity, because they had no promise whereon to build their hope. That the heathens had among them the doctrine of a future state,” says Dr. Doddridge, “and that it was popularly taught, and generally believed by the common people, must, I think, appear incontestable, to any who are at all acquainted with antiquity; but it is as apparent that they reasoned very weakly upon the subject, and that they had no well-grounded hope of future happiness, and that they were but very little impressed with it, so that they had no Deity to which they prayed for eternal life, as the fathers often demonstrate. And by far the greater part of their most learned philosophers either expressly denied, in private lectures to their pupils, the doctrine of future rewards and punishments, or taught principles quite inconsistent with it.” And without God — Being wholly ignorant of the true God, and so in effect atheists. Such in truth are, more or less, all men, in all ages, till they know God by the teaching of his own Spirit: in the world — The wide, vain world, wherein ye wander up and down, unholy and unhappy. “Both the Christians and heathens,” as Dr. Whitby observes, “called each other atheists, though both worshipped some deity, real or imaginary; because each supposed the other to reject that which was the true object of adoration. But it is not to be conceived that the apostle would have given to the heathens the character of atheists, if the worship of the one living and true God had really prevailed among them to that degree which some Christian divines have incautiously maintained that it did. The truth of the matter seems to have been, that, though several of them speak of their Jupiter in terms proper to the one self-existent and eternal Deity only, yet they taught and believed other things of him quite inconsistent with such perfections. And those who had some knowledge of the one Supreme Eternal Cause, yet practically disregarded him: and, however they might reconcile it with the dictates of their consciences, worshipped inferior deities; and many of them such as were represented under the most scandalous characters, to the neglect of the Supreme Being, and the destruction of all true religion.”

11. Wherefore—In view of the gracious history of vv. 4-10. Remember—Review your past heathen condition, in order to appreciate your present Christian blessedness. Gentiles in the flesh—As being not circumcised Hebrews. Uncircumcision—The reproachful epithet of the Jews upon all who possessed not the mark of the Abrahamic descent and covenant. Made by hands—In distinction from the circumcision of the heart, made by the Spirit.

EPHESIANS

SECTION 6. — THROUGH CHRIST, BOTH JEWS

AND GENTILES HAVE BEEN BROUGHT NEAR

TO GOD. CH. 2:11-22.

For this cause remember that formerly ye, the Gentiles in flesh, those called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision in flesh, made by hands- that ye were at that time separate from Christ alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who formerly were far off have become near in the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of partition, having made of no effect the enmity, in His flesh, even the law of commandments in dogmas; in order that He may create in Himself the two into one new man, making peace; and that He may reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. And He came and announced peace, as good news, to those far off and to those near; because through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. Therefore no longer are ye strangers and sojourners but fellow-citizens of the saints and members of the household of God, having been built up on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, the chief corner stone being Christ Jesus Himself in whom every building, being fitly framed together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom also ye are being built together for a dwelling-place of God in the Spirit. Like §§ 4 and 5, § 6 depicts the contrast of past and present. This is indicated by the word formerly in Ephesians 2:2, 3 and in Ephesians 2:11, 13. But the earlier contrast was that of men once dead through their sins but now reigning in life. The contrast here is of the same men once far off from the people of God but now united with them in the one rising temple. The first contrast was personal and spiritual: this one is social and in a sense ecclesiastical. Paul comes now to look at salvation in its bearing on the great distinction of Jew and Gentile, a distinction ever present to his thought and already faintly indicated by the change from we to you and you to we in Ephesians 1:13; 2:3. This distinction, and the equal importance here given to Jew and Gentile are indications both of early date and of Pauline authorship. For no such conspicuous distinction is found in sub-apostolic writings; nor can we conceive it coming from a writer of the second century: and even in the N.T. it is peculiar to Paul. As containing respectively the dark and bright sides of the contrast, Ephesians 2:11, 12 correspond to § 4, Ephesians 2:13-22 to § 5.

Ver. 11. For which cause: ‘because God has so wonderfully saved you, remember what you once were.’

Formerly: placed for emphasis at the beginning of the clause. It recalls the same word in Ephesians 2:2, and resumes conspicuously the contrast of past and present.

The Gentiles: the well-known class to which they belonged. Its distinguishing mark, viz. absence of circumcision, is in the perishing body: in flesh. These added words give definiteness to the distinction. Who are called; further depicts the readers as they were looked upon by those who with some right claimed to be the people of God. Cp. 1 Corinthians 8:5.

Uncircumcision… circumcision: abstract terms put for the persons in whom the abstract quality is found: close parallel in Romans 2:26, 27. They who, with evident contempt, called the Gentiles uncircumcision, called themselves circumcision. That the distinction is said to be, on both sides, a matter of a name, suggests that it was now practically only a name. In flesh, made by hands: not governed by the word called: for Jews would not so speak of circumcision. It is rather Paul’s own reflection, confirming the above suggestion. He remembers that circumcision was, in the case of those who spoke of the Gentiles as uncircumcised, a mere cutting of the flesh by the hand of man. Yet such was once his readers’ position that men who had nothing better than this could speak of them as lower than themselves: for the absence even of this external rite marked them out as destitute of the many advantages of the ancient people of God. The repetition of the words in flesh and the added word made-by-hands keep vividly before us that the vaunted rite was in the lower side of man’s nature and was only a work of man.

V. 12. Were at that time without Christ-Having no faith in, or knowledge of, him.

Being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel-Both as to their temporal privileges and spiritual blessings.

And strangers to the covenants of promise-The great promise in both the Jewish and Christian covenant was the Messiah.

Having no hope-Because they had no promise whereon to ground their hope.

And being without God-Wholly ignorant of the true God, and so in effect atheists. Such in truth are, more or less, all men, in all ages, till they know God by the teaching of his own Spirit.

In the world-The wide, vain world, wherein ye wandered up and down, unholy and unhappy.

Verse 12. That at that time ye were without Christ] Not only were not Christians, but had no knowledge of the Christ or Messiah, and no title to the blessings which were to proceed from him.

Aliens from the commonwealth of Israel] Ye were by your birth, idolatry, &c., alienated from the commonwealth of Israel-from the civil and religious privileges of the Jewish people.

Strangers from the covenants of promise] Having no part in the promise of the covenant made with Abraham, whether considered as relating to his natural or spiritual seed; and no part in that of the covenant made at Horeb with the Israelites, when a holy law was given them, and God condescended to dwell among them, and to lead them to the promised land.

Having no hope] Either of the pardon of sin or of the resurrection of the body, nor indeed of the immortality of the soul. Of all these things the Gentiles had no rational or well-grounded hope.

Without God in the world] They had gods many, and lords many; but in no Gentile nation was the true God known: nor indeed had they any correct notion of the Divine nature. Their idols were by nature no gods-they could neither do evil nor good, and therefore they were properly without God, having no true object of worship, and no source of comfort. He who has neither God nor Christ is in a most deplorable state; he has neither a God to worship, nor a Christ to justify him. And this is the state of every man who is living without the grace and Spirit of Christ. All such, whatever they may profess, are no better than practical atheists.

Verses 11, 12. Wherefore — To increase your sense of God’s goodness in saving you, and of the obligation he hath thereby laid on you to do good works; remember that ye being in time past Gentiles — Ignorant, vicious, and idolatrous, neither circumcised in body nor in spirit; who were accordingly called Uncircumcision — By way of reproach, by that which is called the Circumcision — By those who call themselves the circumcised, and think this a proof that they are the people of God; and who, indeed, have that outward circumcision in the flesh made by hands — By this description of circumcision, the apostle puts his readers in mind of the inward circumcision, the circumcision of the heart, made by the Spirit of God, of which the outward circumcision was only an emblem, (Romans 2:29,) and intimated that the Jews had no reason to boast of the outward circumcision, unless it was accompanied with the circumcision of the heart. That ye were without Christ — Having no faith in him, or knowledge of him, and so were destitute of all those blessings which he bestows on his believing and obedient people; being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel — Both as to their temporal privileges and spiritual blessings; and strangers from the covenants of promise — Namely, that made with Abraham, and that made with the Israelites at Sinai, which promised and prefigured Christ’s coming to procure and bestow those blessings. As the promises contained in these covenants centred in the great promise of the Messiah, and of salvation through him, he therefore speaks of them in the singular number, as only one promise. Having no hope — No sure hope, either of present pardon or future felicity, because they had no promise whereon to build their hope. That the heathens had among them the doctrine of a future state,” says Dr. Doddridge, “and that it was popularly taught, and generally believed by the common people, must, I think, appear incontestable, to any who are at all acquainted with antiquity; but it is as apparent that they reasoned very weakly upon the subject, and that they had no well-grounded hope of future happiness, and that they were but very little impressed with it, so that they had no Deity to which they prayed for eternal life, as the fathers often demonstrate. And by far the greater part of their most learned philosophers either expressly denied, in private lectures to their pupils, the doctrine of future rewards and punishments, or taught principles quite inconsistent with it.” And without God — Being wholly ignorant of the true God, and so in effect atheists. Such in truth are, more or less, all men, in all ages, till they know God by the teaching of his own Spirit: in the world — The wide, vain world, wherein ye wander up and down, unholy and unhappy. “Both the Christians and heathens,” as Dr. Whitby observes, “called each other atheists, though both worshipped some deity, real or imaginary; because each supposed the other to reject that which was the true object of adoration. But it is not to be conceived that the apostle would have given to the heathens the character of atheists, if the worship of the one living and true God had really prevailed among them to that degree which some Christian divines have incautiously maintained that it did. The truth of the matter seems to have been, that, though several of them speak of their Jupiter in terms proper to the one self-existent and eternal Deity only, yet they taught and believed other things of him quite inconsistent with such perfections. And those who had some knowledge of the one Supreme Eternal Cause, yet practically disregarded him: and, however they might reconcile it with the dictates of their consciences, worshipped inferior deities; and many of them such as were represented under the most scandalous characters, to the neglect of the Supreme Being, and the destruction of all true religion.”

Ver. 12, 13. At that time, in the miseries of a heathen state, ye were without Christ. Without a Mediator and Redeemer, having lost the covenant of the first fathers, being aliens also to Abraham’s covenant, and strangers from the covenants of promise, which Jehovah, the Angel, came repeatedly to Israel to renew, with great enlargements, as is noticed by the prophet. Isaiah 63:9. — Having no hope. Nothing more than traditions and inferential hopes, as in Cyrus’s speech to his sons, concerning a life to come. — Without God in the world. Without the knowledge and worship of the true God, and his Son Jesus Christ, as Jerome says on these words. — But now, ye who sometimes [formerly] were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Perhaps Paul had the promise in his eye, “Hearken unto me, ye stout hearted, that are far from righteousness. I bring near my righteousness, it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry.” Isaiah 46:12, 13. In ancient times, enemies were reconciled by covenants and sacrifices, as in the next words.

12. Without Christ—This description of their heathen condition differs from that in vv. 1-3, in that the latter details dark, active wickedness, exciting abhorrence; whilst this presents details of destitution and unhappiness, touching the heart with pity. Without Christ, they were without every other blessedness; without holy citizenship, without the covenants, without hope, and without God—only in the world. Aliens… Israel—Literally, Foreigners from the polity of Israel. They had no rights in the spiritual realm; no citizenship in the city of God, in the Jerusalem below, or the Jerusalem above. Strangers… promise—In those blessed covenants in the archives of the holy city they, as unnaturalized foreigners, had no share and no knowledge. The Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants, and including both, Christ’s covenant of promise, conditioned on faith, had no promise for them. No hope—There was in those covenants a blessed hope of pardon of sin, of immortality, and eternal life; but no hope therefrom for them. Dim hopes from nature there were, but nothing that Christianity could call a hope. Without God—There was a God in Israel, revealed in the covenants, incarnate in Christ; but no God for them. They had a great fancy goddess. Artemis, (Diana;) but she was nothing but a many-breasted pantheistic conception. Notes, Acts 19:22-28. They were without God in all the world. They were solitaires, orphans, godless, and wanderers in the world, that was full of a father God. But the precise meaning of the clause in the world, (which has been something of a puzzle to commentators,) may be best seen by reversing the order of the clauses: In the world, without God, without hope. Its emphasis may thus appear; without hope, without God, yet—in the world! In an existence rendered by sin worse than non-existence!

Such is the picture, drawn with deep pathos by a tender yet true hand, of unregenerate heathendom! Well may Meyer query whether such a picture makes any allowance for the salvable heathen. It supposes no Socrates, Plato, or Aristides. But doubtless, in fact, there were among the pagan converts from Artemis too few such relieving exceptions to suggest any brightening of the picture. See notes, Acts 18:19. Perhaps he would have drawn a milder portraiture of the barbarians of Melita. Acts 28:1-6. Notes, Romans 2:14, 15.

Ver. 12. The grammatical order is broken by a repetition of the word that, added for the sake of greater clearness after a rather long description of the Gentiles.

At that season; corresponds to formerly in Ephesians 2:11, referring to the readers’ heathen life. Contrast Romans 3:26; 11:5, ‘in the present season.’

Separate from Christ: destitute of all the spiritual blessings which flow from inward union with Him. This full sense is required by the very conspicuous contrast in Ephesians 2:13, but now in Christ Jesus; and by the contrast maintained throughout this chapter between the past and the present. But the words following show that this spiritual destitution is here looked upon in the light of the separation of the Gentiles from the nation to which the ancient promises were given. In those days they had not so much as heard the name of the promised Messiah.

Now follow four further descriptions of those Gentiles, arranged in two pairs. The relation of these items to the main assertion, ye were separate from Christ, is left to the readers.

Commonwealth: either a community of citizens looked upon as definitely constituted, or the rights of its members. Same word in this last sense in Acts 22:28. The former sense here, and, with a cognate word, in Philippians 3:20: but in these two passages the difference is not great. The commonwealth of Israel: the nation looked upon as a community in which each citizen had personal rights. The whole tone of the verse reminds us that Israel possessed the highest spiritual advantages on earth. Cp. Romans 3:1; 9:4.

Israel: a name of honour, as in Romans 9:4; 2 Corinthians 11:22, etc. Before Christ came there was a privileged community: but its members looked upon the Gentiles as aliens.

Alienated: same word and form in Ephesians 4:18; Colossians 1:21. [The perfect participle does not imply that they had once been citizens; but simply calls attention to the process of alienation, thus depicting more vividly the sad state of those alienated.] The Covenants: the mutual engagements into which God entered with Abraham, and through Moses with Israel. From these covenants came all the spiritual advantages of the Jews. Same word in same connection in Romans 9:4: a close coincidence of thought. A conspicuous feature common to these covenants, and the source of their value, was the promise. It is here spoken of as one because all the promises looked forward to one glorious consummation. Otherwise in Romans 9:9, which recalls the many promises. To these covenants and to this promise, the Gentile readers of this Epistle were once strangers: same word in Hebrews 11:13.

Now follows an awful result of the foregoing. The only hope on earth worthy of the name rests upon the great promise given in outline to Israel. Consequently, they who have not this hope have no hope. To them the roughness of the present life is not cheered by any reasonable and assured prospect of good things to come.

Without-God: literally atheists, i.e. destitute of all the help and peace and joy which comes through knowledge of God and faith in God. This subjective absence of God is quite consistent with the objective truth (Acts 17:28) that in Him we live and move and are. The lack of conscious intercourse with a personal God is a marked feature of the best classic writings as compared with the Old Testament. The heathen have no Father in heaven on whose bosom they can rest.

In the world: the locality of this destitution. In the seething mass of sinful humanity, dominated by the god of this world, away from the brightness of the smile of the God of heaven and from the joy of hope, these Gentiles were: for they had no part in the covenants which God made with Israel nor place in the sacred nation.

V. 13. Far off-From God and his people.

Nigh-Intimately united to both.

Verse 13. Ye who sometimes were far off] To be far off, and to be near, are sayings much in use among the Jews; and among them, to be near signifies, 1. To be in the approbation or favour of God; and to be far off signifies to be under his displeasure. So a wicked Jew might be said to be far off from God when he was exposed to his displeasure; and a holy man, or a genuine penitent, might be said to be nigh to God, because such persons are in his favour. 2. Every person who offered a sacrifice to God was considered as having access to him by the blood of that sacrifice: hence the priests, whose office it was to offer sacrifices, were considered as being nigh to God; and all who brought gifts to the altar were considered as approaching the Almighty. 3. Being far off, signified the state of the Gentiles as contradistinguished from the Jews, who were nigh. And these expressions were used in reference to the tabernacle, God’s dwelling-place among the Israelites, and the sacrifices there offered. All those who had access to this tabernacle, or were nigh to it or encamped about it, were said to be nigh to God; those who had no access to it were said to be far off. Hence the latter phrase is used to distinguish the Gentiles from the Jewish people; and this appears to be the meaning of the prophet, Isaiah 57:19: I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; i.e. I give cause of praise and rejoicing to the Gentile as well as to the Jew. And to this scripture, and to this thing, the apostle seems here to allude. You Gentiles, who were unacquainted with God, and were even without God in the world, are brought to an acquaintance with him; and are now, through Christ Jesus, brought into the favour and fellowship of God. And as the Jews of old approached God by the blood of their sacrifices, so you approach him by the blood of Christ.

Verses 13, 14. But now in Christ Jesus — In consequence of your union with him, and your interest in him by faith, ye, who formerly were far off — From God and his people, (as in verse 12,) are made nigh to both, by the blood of Christ — Whereby he hath atoned for your sins, and opened a free and honourable way for your approaching God, and becoming entitled to all the privileges of his people. For he is our peace — Not only as he purchased it, and confers it on such as truly believe in him, but as he is the very bond and centre of the union of believers with God and each other; who hath made both — Believing Jews and Gentiles, one church, one flock of Christ. This union of the Jews and the Gentiles, so as to make them one people, was foretold by our Lord, when he said, (John 10:16,) Other sheep I have which are not of this fold: are not Jews; and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold: Greek, mia poimnh, one flock, though in different folds, and one shepherd. The apostle here describes, 1st, The conjunction of the Gentiles with Israel, verses 14, 15; and, 2d, The conjunction of both with God, verses 16-18. And hath broken down the middle wall of partition — The ceremonial law, which the apostle here compares to that wall in the Jewish temple, which separated the court of Israel from the court of the Gentiles. For many of the rites of that law could be performed nowhere but in the temple of Jerusalem. But Christ, having now taken away that law, and prescribed, under the gospel, a spiritual form of worship, which may be performed everywhere, he hath thereby provided for joining Jews and Gentiles in one church, and making them all one people in God: a union which could not have taken place if the Mosaic law had been continued. For the worship of God, as to various branches of it, being confined by that law to the temple at Jerusalem, the greatest part of the Gentiles could certainly not have come thither to worship with the Jews.

Ver. 12, 13. At that time, in the miseries of a heathen state, ye were without Christ. Without a Mediator and Redeemer, having lost the covenant of the first fathers, being aliens also to Abraham’s covenant, and strangers from the covenants of promise, which Jehovah, the Angel, came repeatedly to Israel to renew, with great enlargements, as is noticed by the prophet. Isaiah 63:9. — Having no hope. Nothing more than traditions and inferential hopes, as in Cyrus’s speech to his sons, concerning a life to come. — Without God in the world. Without the knowledge and worship of the true God, and his Son Jesus Christ, as Jerome says on these words. — But now, ye who sometimes [formerly] were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Perhaps Paul had the promise in his eye, “Hearken unto me, ye stout hearted, that are far from righteousness. I bring near my righteousness, it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry.” Isaiah 46:12, 13. In ancient times, enemies were reconciled by covenants and sacrifices, as in the next words.

13. But now—O yes, now! What a glorious contrast between those times past and this now! With what pity from this now may these Christian Ephesians look back upon the heathen Ephesians they were in times past! And with what pity should all Christians look upon the hapless heathens who are still in those sad and hopeless times past! Being in Christ, these Ephesians have every point of contrast to their former miseries. They are not afar, but nigh, unified with the holy Israel, vv. 14-18. They are, with Israel, builded into one edifice, vv. 19, 20; nay, into a temple, where the Holy Spirit resides, vv. 21, 22. In Christ Jesus—As identified with him, (note, Romans 6:3,) and incorporated with his mystical person; reverse of without Christ above. Far off… nigh—In soul and nature. These were habitual terms with the Jews to designate those who were residents near the temple and the holy of holies, and those who resided at a distance from the temple and the grand altar, and especially pagans of foreign blood. And these terms were in accordance with Isaiah’s magnificent words: “Listen, O isles… from far,” Isaiah 49:1; and “Peace, peace, to him that is afar off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord,” Isaiah 57:19. By the blood of Christ, which had fulfilled, and so dismissed, the sacrificial rites of the Old Covenant.

Ver. 13. But now: a conspicuous and favourite phrase of Paul recalling the contrast, ever present to his mind, of the past and the present. Same words in same sense in Colossians 1:22, 26; 3:8; Romans 3:21; 6:22; 7:6; 11:30, etc. They are another note of authorship.

In Christ Jesus: objectively, in the actual and historic person born at Bethlehem, whom Paul acknowledges to be the hoped-for Messiah. Hence the fuller title. Same words and sense in Romans 3:24. They are more fully expounded at the end of the verse.

Ye who formerly were far off: sums up the description in Ephesians 2:12. This summing up of the lower side of a contrast is, as in Ephesians 2:5, an indisputable trace of the hand of Paul. Become near: to God and to the people of God. For distance from Israel and from God are the chief points of the description in Ephesians 2:12. And in Ephesians 2:14, 15 we have peace between Jews and Gentiles given as an explanation of this verse, and in Ephesians 2:16, 18 reconciliation and approach to God through Christ.

In the blood of Christ: more specific than in Christ. It suggests (cp. Ephesians 1:7) the continued validity of the violent death of Christ as the means of salvation.

V. 14. For he is our peace-Not only as he purchased it, but as he is the very bond and centre of union.

He who hath made both-Jews and Gentiles, one church. The apostle describes,

1. The conjunction of the Gentiles with Israel, Ephesians 2:14, 15. And, 2. The conjunction of both with God, Ephesians 2:15-18. Each description is subdivided into two parts. And the former part of the one, concerning abolishing the enmity, answers the former part of the other; the latter part of the one, concerning the evangelical decrees, the latter part of the other.

And hath broken down the middle wall of partition-Alluding to that wall of old, which separated the court of Israel from the court of the Gentiles. Such a wall was the ceremonial law, which Christ had now taken away.

Verse 14. For he is our peace] Jesus Christ has died for both Jews and Gentiles, and has become a peace-offering, שלום shalom, to reconcile both to God and to each other.

Who hath made both one] Formed one Church out of the believers of both people.

The middle wall of partition] By abolishing the law of Jewish ordinances, he has removed that which kept the two parties, not only in a state of separation, but also at variance.

This expression, the middle wall, can refer only to that most marked distinction which the Jewish laws and customs made between them and all other nations whatsoever.

Some think it refers to their ancient manner of living among the Gentiles, as they always endeavoured to live in some place by themselves, and to have a river or a wall between them and their heathen neighbours. Indeed, wherever they went, their own rites, ordinances, and customs were a sufficient separation between them and others; and as Jesus Christ abolished those customs, admitting all into his Church, both Jews and Gentiles, by repentance and faith, he may be said to have broken down the middle wall of partition. When, at the death of Christ, the veil of the temple was rent from the top to the bottom, it was an emblem that the way to the holiest was laid open, and that the people at large, both Jews and Gentiles, were to have access to the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Some think there is an allusion here to the wall called chel, which separated the court of Israel from the court of the Gentiles; but this was not broken down till the temple itself was destroyed: and to this transaction the apostle cannot be supposed to allude, as it did not take place till long after the writing of this epistle.

Verses 13, 14. But now in Christ Jesus — In consequence of your union with him, and your interest in him by faith, ye, who formerly were far off — From God and his people, (as in verse 12,) are made nigh to both, by the blood of Christ — Whereby he hath atoned for your sins, and opened a free and honourable way for your approaching God, and becoming entitled to all the privileges of his people. For he is our peace — Not only as he purchased it, and confers it on such as truly believe in him, but as he is the very bond and centre of the union of believers with God and each other; who hath made both — Believing Jews and Gentiles, one church, one flock of Christ. This union of the Jews and the Gentiles, so as to make them one people, was foretold by our Lord, when he said, (John 10:16,) Other sheep I have which are not of this fold: are not Jews; and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold: Greek, mia poimnh, one flock, though in different folds, and one shepherd. The apostle here describes, 1st, The conjunction of the Gentiles with Israel, verses 14, 15; and, 2d, The conjunction of both with God, verses 16-18. And hath broken down the middle wall of partition — The ceremonial law, which the apostle here compares to that wall in the Jewish temple, which separated the court of Israel from the court of the Gentiles. For many of the rites of that law could be performed nowhere but in the temple of Jerusalem. But Christ, having now taken away that law, and prescribed, under the gospel, a spiritual form of worship, which may be performed everywhere, he hath thereby provided for joining Jews and Gentiles in one church, and making them all one people in God: a union which could not have taken place if the Mosaic law had been continued. For the worship of God, as to various branches of it, being confined by that law to the temple at Jerusalem, the greatest part of the Gentiles could certainly not have come thither to worship with the Jews.

Ver. 14-22. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition. The apostle refers to the provoking wall in the temple, which separated the court of the gentiles from the courts of Israel. No uncircumcised person was allowed to pass the barrier. This wall in the second temple was three cubits high, so that a man, small in stature, could not look over it. Josephus adds, that a man stood at the gate with a massive sword, on which was written, “the stranger that comes near shall die.” In Acts 21:28, we find that the jews were about to stone Paul, because, they said, he had polluted that holy place by bringing a Greek into the temple. The fact however was, that Paul had only walked with Trophimus an Ephesian in the city. But now Christ, on the great theatre of the cross, having slain the enmity of the carnal commandment, gives with equal right both jew and gentile access by one Spirit to the Father. He gave the Holy Spirit in Cornelius’s house, with all his gifts and graces, as he had done to the jews. Acts 10:44, 45. Nay more, the believing gentiles were not only admitted, but made stones and pillars in the living temple, the body of Christ.

14. Our peace—A triangular peace between Jew and Gentile, and between both and God. One of the Hebrew names for the Messiah was Shalom, Peace. Made both one—Not by abolishing race distinctions in the physiological man, but by abolishing old antagonisms, and creating a new unity in Christian brotherhood. The middle wall—The words, if not an allusion to the wall described in our notes on John 2:14, and Acts 21:28, are well illustrated by it.

Ver. 14.-15. Explanation and justification of the triumphant assertion in Ephesians 2:13, and especially of its last words. He is: each word very emphatic, pointing conspicuously to Him in whose blood the Gentiles have been brought near.

Our peace; implies that the distance involves hostility. The words following prove that Paul’s first thought is peace between Jews and Gentiles. But the words reconciled to God in Ephesians 2:16 followed by access to the Father in Ephesians 2:18 prove that this involves peace between men and God. In both references, Christ is our peace. For where He is, and there only, is peace. Cp. John 11:25, I am the Resurrection and the Life.

The plain statement He is our peace, which explains and justifies Ephesians 2:13, is itself expounded and supported in Ephesians 2:14b-18. The result of the whole is stated triumphantly in Ephesians 2:19-22.

Made or has-made: simple statement of fact without reference to any definite time.

Both one: literally the both things into one thing. As in Colossians 1:16, etc., the neuter looks upon persons merely as objects of thought without reference to personality.

And has broken down etc.: additional detail explaining the general assertion.

Middle-wall: between houses or courts. Found elsewhere only once: but the meaning is clear. It is further defined by the addition, of the partition or fence. Same word in Matthew 21:33. It denotes something designed to keep away intruders. Here the fence is represented as a wall between the men to be kept apart. The whole phrase unites the ideas of separation and solidity. This barrier, Christ has broken down. He has thus made the two hostile divisions into one whole.

At the Temple of Jerusalem, between the court of the Gentiles and that of the women, the latter being a part of the sacred enclosure, was a dividing wall on which were inscriptions in different languages warning foreigners, on pain of death, not to pass: Josephus, Wars bk. v. 5. 2. This was a visible embodiment of the barrier which Paul here depicts in the metaphor of a wall; and helps us to realise the spiritual separation of Jews and Gentiles. But his words do not betray any direct reference to it.

Having-made-of-no-effect (as in Romans 3:3) the enmity: means by which Christ has broken down the barrier. Consequently, the enmity is that between Jew and Gentile; especially as the aim of its removal is to create the two into one new man.

In His flesh: evidently our Lord’s crucified flesh and blood: so Ephesians 2:16.

The law of commands in dogmas: in apposition to the enmity. By rendering invalid the Law, Christ brought to nothing the enmity. The commandments or commands: definite prescriptions of the Law. An example is quoted in Romans 7:8-13. These were a characteristic feature of the Law. And they took the form of dogmas, i.e. decrees by a superior authority: same word in Colossians 2:14, where see note. This Law can be no other than that of Moses. In what sense Christ has made it invalid, we learn from Galatians 3:25, 26. As first given, obedience to the prescriptions of the Law was a condition of the favour of God: Leviticus 18:5. This Condition made the favour of God impossible. For none can keep the Law, as it claims to be kept. By proclaiming righteousness through faith, Christ set aside, as a condition and means of the favour of God, the ancient Law. Paul says here that by doing so He removed also the hostility between Jew and Gentile. This we can understand. For the Law of Sinai, given only to a part of mankind, became a separation between those who had, and those who had not, received it. And this separation was followed by mutual hatred and hostility. This hatred and its occasion, Christ removed. In Him, both Jew and Gentile, the Law now powerless to condemn or to separate them, become brethren.

That He may create etc.: purpose for which Christ has set aside the Law and its decrees, viz. to unite by creative power into one new unity the two parts into which the Law divided mankind. In Ephesians 2:14 this unity is represented as already attained: who made both one. For it will infallibly result from what Christ has already done. It is here represented as a purpose: for its full realisation is still future, dependent on each one’s faith.

Create; recalls the same word in Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 1:16. It implies that this unity is wrought by the creative power of God, breathing new life and order into hitherto discordant elements. Creation always produces something new. Same thought in 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15: an important coincidence.

The two persons into one new man: the masculine form calling attention to the personality of the reconciled ones. So, but less conspicuously, in Galatians 3:28.

In Himself: Christ being the surrounding element in which the new creation takes place, and in which the resulting unity abides. While cherishing and working out this purpose, Christ is making peace. These words, which describe the entire process of salvation from its conception in the heart of God to its full accomplishment, link the new creation to the peace mentioned in Ephesians 2:14, thus keeping it before us.

V. 15. Having abolished by his suffering in the flesh the cause of enmity between the Jews and Gentiles, even the law of ceremonial commandments, through his decrees-Which offer mercy to all; see Colossians 2:14.

That he might form the two-Jew and Gentile.

Into one new man-one mystical body.

Verse 15. Having abolished in his flesh] By his incarnation and death he not only made an atonement for sin, but he appointed the doctrine of reconciliation to God, and of love to each other, to be preached in all nations; and thus glory was brought to God in the highest, and on earth, peace and good will were diffused among men.

The enmity of which the apostle speaks was reciprocal among the Jews and Gentiles. The former detested the Gentiles, and could hardly allow them the denomination of men; the latter had the Jews in the most sovereign contempt, because of the peculiarity of their religious rites and ceremonies, which were different from those of all the other nations of the earth. The law of commandments] Contained in, or rather concerning, ordinances; which law was made merely for the purpose of keeping the Jews a distinct people, and pointing out the Son of God till he should come. When, therefore, the end of its institution was answered, it was no longer necessary; and Christ by his death abolished it. To make in himself] To make one Church out of both people, which should be considered the body of which Jesus Christ is the head. Thus he makes one new man-one new Church; and thus he makes and establishes peace. I think the apostle still alludes to the peace-offering, שלום shalom, among the Jews. They have a saying, Sephra, fol. 121: Whosoever offers a peace-offering sacrifice, brings peace to the world. Such a peace-offering was the death of Christ, and by it peace is restored to the earth.

Verses 15-18. Having abolished in his flesh — By the sufferings and death endured therein; the cause of enmity between the Jews and Gentiles, even the law of ceremonial commandments, contained in ordinances — Consisting in many institutions and appointments concerning the outward worship of God; such as those of circumcision, sacrifices, clean and unclean meats, washings, and holy days; which, being founded in the mere pleasure of God, might be abolished when he saw fit. These ordinances Jesus abolished, that he might make in himself — That is, by uniting them to himself as their head; of twain — Of Jews and Gentiles, who were at such a distance before; one new man — One mystical body, one church, renewed by the Holy Ghost, and uniting in one new way of gospel worship: so making peace — Between the two kinds of people, and even laying a foundation for the most sincere mutual love and friendship: And, or moreover, to complete this blessed work of making peace, that he might reconcile both, as thus united in one body, and animated by one spirit, not merely to one another, but unto God, by his death on the cross — By which he expiated the guilt of sin, and rendered God reconcileable, and ready to pardon the penitent that should believe in Jesus; and by which he procured for mankind, whether Jews or Gentiles, the Holy Spirit to work repentance and faith in them, and destroy that carnal mind, which is enmity against God, (Romans 8:7,) and all those sinful passions which are connected therewith, and which render men odious in his sight, and hostile to one another. And came — After his resurrection; and preached peace — By his authorized ambassadors, (to whom he had committed the important trust of treating with sinners in his name and stead, 2 Corinthians 5:19, 20,) to you Gentiles, which were afar off — At the utmost distance from God; and to them that were nigh — To the Jews, who were comparatively nigh, being his visible church. For through him — Through his mediation, his sacrifice and intercession; we both — Believing Jews and Gentiles; have access — Have liberty of approach; by one Spirit — Inspiring us with faith, hope, and love, and rendering us sincere, spiritual, fervent, and constant, in our prayers, praises, and all acts of worship and service: unto the Father — That is, unto God as a Father reconciled in Christ, and beholding us with paternal eyes of love, complacency, and delight.

Ver. 14-22. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition. The apostle refers to the provoking wall in the temple, which separated the court of the gentiles from the courts of Israel. No uncircumcised person was allowed to pass the barrier. This wall in the second temple was three cubits high, so that a man, small in stature, could not look over it. Josephus adds, that a man stood at the gate with a massive sword, on which was written, “the stranger that comes near shall die.” In Acts 21:28, we find that the jews were about to stone Paul, because, they said, he had polluted that holy place by bringing a Greek into the temple. The fact however was, that Paul had only walked with Trophimus an Ephesian in the city. But now Christ, on the great theatre of the cross, having slain the enmity of the carnal commandment, gives with equal right both jew and gentile access by one Spirit to the Father. He gave the Holy Spirit in Cornelius’s house, with all his gifts and graces, as he had done to the jews. Acts 10:44, 45. Nay more, the believing gentiles were not only admitted, but made stones and pillars in the living temple, the body of Christ.

15. In his sacrificial flesh on the cross. The triangular enmity above named. The Mosaic ritual law, consisting of a system of commandments, and comprised in a body of ordinances or statutory regulations. In himself—As if embodying the twain into one new man—his own mystical person. Peace—Leading to the threefold peace by which Jew and Gentile, being one in Christ, are one with God, as next verse.

Ver. 14.-15. Explanation and justification of the triumphant assertion in Ephesians 2:13, and especially of its last words. He is: each word very emphatic, pointing conspicuously to Him in whose blood the Gentiles have been brought near.

Our peace; implies that the distance involves hostility. The words following prove that Paul’s first thought is peace between Jews and Gentiles. But the words reconciled to God in Ephesians 2:16 followed by access to the Father in Ephesians 2:18 prove that this involves peace between men and God. In both references, Christ is our peace. For where He is, and there only, is peace. Cp. John 11:25, I am the Resurrection and the Life.

The plain statement He is our peace, which explains and justifies Ephesians 2:13, is itself expounded and supported in Ephesians 2:14b-18. The result of the whole is stated triumphantly in Ephesians 2:19-22.

Made or has-made: simple statement of fact without reference to any definite time.

Both one: literally the both things into one thing. As in Colossians 1:16, etc., the neuter looks upon persons merely as objects of thought without reference to personality.

And has broken down etc.: additional detail explaining the general assertion.

Middle-wall: between houses or courts. Found elsewhere only once: but the meaning is clear. It is further defined by the addition, of the partition or fence. Same word in Matthew 21:33. It denotes something designed to keep away intruders. Here the fence is represented as a wall between the men to be kept apart. The whole phrase unites the ideas of separation and solidity. This barrier, Christ has broken down. He has thus made the two hostile divisions into one whole.

At the Temple of Jerusalem, between the court of the Gentiles and that of the women, the latter being a part of the sacred enclosure, was a dividing wall on which were inscriptions in different languages warning foreigners, on pain of death, not to pass: Josephus, Wars bk. v. 5. 2. This was a visible embodiment of the barrier which Paul here depicts in the metaphor of a wall; and helps us to realise the spiritual separation of Jews and Gentiles. But his words do not betray any direct reference to it.

Having-made-of-no-effect (as in Romans 3:3) the enmity: means by which Christ has broken down the barrier. Consequently, the enmity is that between Jew and Gentile; especially as the aim of its removal is to create the two into one new man.

In His flesh: evidently our Lord’s crucified flesh and blood: so Ephesians 2:16.

The law of commands in dogmas: in apposition to the enmity. By rendering invalid the Law, Christ brought to nothing the enmity. The commandments or commands: definite prescriptions of the Law. An example is quoted in Romans 7:8-13. These were a characteristic feature of the Law. And they took the form of dogmas, i.e. decrees by a superior authority: same word in Colossians 2:14, where see note. This Law can be no other than that of Moses. In what sense Christ has made it invalid, we learn from Galatians 3:25, 26. As first given, obedience to the prescriptions of the Law was a condition of the favour of God: Leviticus 18:5. This Condition made the favour of God impossible. For none can keep the Law, as it claims to be kept. By proclaiming righteousness through faith, Christ set aside, as a condition and means of the favour of God, the ancient Law. Paul says here that by doing so He removed also the hostility between Jew and Gentile. This we can understand. For the Law of Sinai, given only to a part of mankind, became a separation between those who had, and those who had not, received it. And this separation was followed by mutual hatred and hostility. This hatred and its occasion, Christ removed. In Him, both Jew and Gentile, the Law now powerless to condemn or to separate them, become brethren.

That He may create etc.: purpose for which Christ has set aside the Law and its decrees, viz. to unite by creative power into one new unity the two parts into which the Law divided mankind. In Ephesians 2:14 this unity is represented as already attained: who made both one. For it will infallibly result from what Christ has already done. It is here represented as a purpose: for its full realisation is still future, dependent on each one’s faith.

Create; recalls the same word in Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 1:16. It implies that this unity is wrought by the creative power of God, breathing new life and order into hitherto discordant elements. Creation always produces something new. Same thought in 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15: an important coincidence.

The two persons into one new man: the masculine form calling attention to the personality of the reconciled ones. So, but less conspicuously, in Galatians 3:28.

In Himself: Christ being the surrounding element in which the new creation takes place, and in which the resulting unity abides. While cherishing and working out this purpose, Christ is making peace. These words, which describe the entire process of salvation from its conception in the heart of God to its full accomplishment, link the new creation to the peace mentioned in Ephesians 2:14, thus keeping it before us.

V. 16. In one body-One church.

Having slain-By his own death on the cross. The enmity-Which had been between sinners and God.

Verse 16. That he might reconcile both-in one body] That the Jews and Gentiles, believing on the Lord Jesus, might lay aside all their causes of contention, and become one spiritual body, or society of men, influenced by the Spirit, and acting according to the precepts of the Gospel. Having slain the enmity thereby] Having, by his death upon the cross, made reconciliation between God and man, and by his Spirit in their hearts removed the enmity of their fallen, sinful nature. Dr. Macknight thinks that abolishing the enmity is spoken of the removal of the hatred which the Jews and Gentiles mutually bore to each other, because of the difference of their respective religious worship; and that slaying the enmity refers to the removal of evil lusts and affections from the heart of man, by the power of Divine grace. This is nearly the sense given above.

Verses 15-18. Having abolished in his flesh — By the sufferings and death endured therein; the cause of enmity between the Jews and Gentiles, even the law of ceremonial commandments, contained in ordinances — Consisting in many institutions and appointments concerning the outward worship of God; such as those of circumcision, sacrifices, clean and unclean meats, washings, and holy days; which, being founded in the mere pleasure of God, might be abolished when he saw fit. These ordinances Jesus abolished, that he might make in himself — That is, by uniting them to himself as their head; of twain — Of Jews and Gentiles, who were at such a distance before; one new man — One mystical body, one church, renewed by the Holy Ghost, and uniting in one new way of gospel worship: so making peace — Between the two kinds of people, and even laying a foundation for the most sincere mutual love and friendship: And, or moreover, to complete this blessed work of making peace, that he might reconcile both, as thus united in one body, and animated by one spirit, not merely to one another, but unto God, by his death on the cross — By which he expiated the guilt of sin, and rendered God reconcileable, and ready to pardon the penitent that should believe in Jesus; and by which he procured for mankind, whether Jews or Gentiles, the Holy Spirit to work repentance and faith in them, and destroy that carnal mind, which is enmity against God, (Romans 8:7,) and all those sinful passions which are connected therewith, and which render men odious in his sight, and hostile to one another. And came — After his resurrection; and preached peace — By his authorized ambassadors, (to whom he had committed the important trust of treating with sinners in his name and stead, 2 Corinthians 5:19, 20,) to you Gentiles, which were afar off — At the utmost distance from God; and to them that were nigh — To the Jews, who were comparatively nigh, being his visible church. For through him — Through his mediation, his sacrifice and intercession; we both — Believing Jews and Gentiles; have access — Have liberty of approach; by one Spirit — Inspiring us with faith, hope, and love, and rendering us sincere, spiritual, fervent, and constant, in our prayers, praises, and all acts of worship and service: unto the Father — That is, unto God as a Father reconciled in Christ, and beholding us with paternal eyes of love, complacency, and delight.

Ver. 14-22. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition. The apostle refers to the provoking wall in the temple, which separated the court of the gentiles from the courts of Israel. No uncircumcised person was allowed to pass the barrier. This wall in the second temple was three cubits high, so that a man, small in stature, could not look over it. Josephus adds, that a man stood at the gate with a massive sword, on which was written, “the stranger that comes near shall die.” In Acts 21:28, we find that the jews were about to stone Paul, because, they said, he had polluted that holy place by bringing a Greek into the temple. The fact however was, that Paul had only walked with Trophimus an Ephesian in the city. But now Christ, on the great theatre of the cross, having slain the enmity of the carnal commandment, gives with equal right both jew and gentile access by one Spirit to the Father. He gave the Holy Spirit in Cornelius’s house, with all his gifts and graces, as he had done to the jews. Acts 10:44, 45. Nay more, the believing gentiles were not only admitted, but made stones and pillars in the living temple, the body of Christ.

16. Reconcile—The anticipation and commencement of the final reconciliation, (Colossians 1:20,) which is identical with the gather together of Ephesians 1:10. In one body—Threefold of Jew and Gentile in Christ. Enmity—As above. Thereby—By the cross.

Ver. 16. And that He may reconcile etc.: a second purpose of Christ, parallel with that He may create etc. He designed not only to unite together the two hostile divisions of mankind but to reconcile the united race to God. This implies that. behind the hostility of man against man there was also hostility between man and God. Each kind of hostility Christ resolved to remove. The two reconciliations are so closely related that either may be placed before the other, according to the point of view chosen. In this section and Epistle Paul’s chief thought is unity of Jew and Gentile. He therefore mentions first peace between man and man. But he remembers that this can be only by peace between man and God. Hence these words.

Reconcile to God: cp. Colossians 1:22, where see note. Another mark of Pauline authorship: Romans 5:10; 2 Corinthians 5:18-20. Both persons, or the two persons: a mode of thought different from Ephesians 2:14 the two things into one thing, and keeping before us the personality of those to be reconciled.

In one body: viz. the Church, which is the body of Christ. It is thus parallel to one new man in Ephesians 2:15; and keeps up the dominant thought, viz. the unity of Jews and Gentiles. This exposition agrees better with the tenor of the context than to interpret the one body as that nailed to the cross. Moreover, nowhere in the N.T. is attention directed to the oneness of the human body of Christ.

Through the cross: as the instrument of reconciliation: so through His death in Colossians 1:22; Romans 5:10. Having-slain etc.: mode by which Christ purposed to reconcile men to God. It thus expounds through the cross.

The enmity: probably, of Jews and Gentiles. For this is at once suggested by the same word in Ephesians 2:15; and is the chief thought of this section. And the removal of this ancient enmity, itself a result of man’s sin, comes through the death of Christ. For, had He not died, its removal would have been impossible. While writing about Christ’s purpose to break down the barrier between Jew and Gentile, Paul remembers that this can be done only by breaking down another barrier, that between man and God. Now man can be reconciled to God (see my Galatians Diss. vii.) only through the death of Christ. Consequently, thereby or therein, i.e. in the cross on which He died, Christ slew not only the enmity between man and God but that between man and man, in order to bring in universal harmony. For had He not died, this unity would have been impossible: now it is certain.

V. 17. And he came-After his resurrection. And preached peace-By his ministers and his Spirit. To you-Gentiles.

That were afar off-At the utmost distance from God. And to them that were nigh-To the Jews, who were comparatively nigh, being his visible church.

Verse 17. And came and preached peace] Proclaimed the readiness of God to forgive and save both Jews and Gentiles. See Clarke’s note on “Ephesians 2:13”.

Verses 15-18. Having abolished in his flesh — By the sufferings and death endured therein; the cause of enmity between the Jews and Gentiles, even the law of ceremonial commandments, contained in ordinances — Consisting in many institutions and appointments concerning the outward worship of God; such as those of circumcision, sacrifices, clean and unclean meats, washings, and holy days; which, being founded in the mere pleasure of God, might be abolished when he saw fit. These ordinances Jesus abolished, that he might make in himself — That is, by uniting them to himself as their head; of twain — Of Jews and Gentiles, who were at such a distance before; one new man — One mystical body, one church, renewed by the Holy Ghost, and uniting in one new way of gospel worship: so making peace — Between the two kinds of people, and even laying a foundation for the most sincere mutual love and friendship: And, or moreover, to complete this blessed work of making peace, that he might reconcile both, as thus united in one body, and animated by one spirit, not merely to one another, but unto God, by his death on the cross — By which he expiated the guilt of sin, and rendered God reconcileable, and ready to pardon the penitent that should believe in Jesus; and by which he procured for mankind, whether Jews or Gentiles, the Holy Spirit to work repentance and faith in them, and destroy that carnal mind, which is enmity against God, (Romans 8:7,) and all those sinful passions which are connected therewith, and which render men odious in his sight, and hostile to one another. And came — After his resurrection; and preached peace — By his authorized ambassadors, (to whom he had committed the important trust of treating with sinners in his name and stead, 2 Corinthians 5:19, 20,) to you Gentiles, which were afar off — At the utmost distance from God; and to them that were nigh — To the Jews, who were comparatively nigh, being his visible church. For through him — Through his mediation, his sacrifice and intercession; we both — Believing Jews and Gentiles; have access — Have liberty of approach; by one Spirit — Inspiring us with faith, hope, and love, and rendering us sincere, spiritual, fervent, and constant, in our prayers, praises, and all acts of worship and service: unto the Father — That is, unto God as a Father reconciled in Christ, and beholding us with paternal eyes of love, complacency, and delight.

Ver. 14-22. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition. The apostle refers to the provoking wall in the temple, which separated the court of the gentiles from the courts of Israel. No uncircumcised person was allowed to pass the barrier. This wall in the second temple was three cubits high, so that a man, small in stature, could not look over it. Josephus adds, that a man stood at the gate with a massive sword, on which was written, “the stranger that comes near shall die.” In Acts 21:28, we find that the jews were about to stone Paul, because, they said, he had polluted that holy place by bringing a Greek into the temple. The fact however was, that Paul had only walked with Trophimus an Ephesian in the city. But now Christ, on the great theatre of the cross, having slain the enmity of the carnal commandment, gives with equal right both jew and gentile access by one Spirit to the Father. He gave the Holy Spirit in Cornelius’s house, with all his gifts and graces, as he had done to the jews. Acts 10:44, 45. Nay more, the believing gentiles were not only admitted, but made stones and pillars in the living temple, the body of Christ.

17. And came—From heaven to earth at his first advent, announced by angels with “on earth peace.” His personal preaching, though limited to Jews, announced peace to all and for all. And preached—He first made Palestine his school for teaching this peace; he performed the great work of slaying the enmity by the cross; and then through his apostles, inspired by the Spirit, he proclaimed peace to “all nations.”

Ver. 17. Another detail in this reconciliation, added as an independent assertion.

And He came: at His incarnation.

And announced-good-tidings-of-peace: on earth before His death. Cp. Luke 4:21. For the words then spoken were a proclamation of peace for all mankind, and, in view of their subsequent announcement throughout the world by the Apostles, may be said to have been spoken to all mankind. This is better than to understand these words as referring to the preaching of the Gospel on the Day of Pentecost under the influence of the Holy Spirit whose descent is in John 14:18 spoken of as a coming of Christ. For the preaching of the Apostles was but a re-echo of the words spoken by Christ on earth, who not only obtained for us peace through His death but announced through His own lips the good-tidings-of-peace. To this end He came from heaven to earth.

Good-tidings: see under Romans 1:1; cp. 1 Thessalonians 3:6. Peace: between man and man, as throughout the section. This implies peace with God. But to this last we have no need to assume any direct reference here.

Those far off: put first, although the Gospel came first to the Jews, because the entrance of the Gentiles into the one fold of Christ is the chief matter of this section. This order shows that Paul is thinking of Christ’s words, not as spoken to those who heard them on earth, but as spoken virtually to the whole world.

Far off: as in Ephesians 2:13.

Those near: the Jews who from childhood had beard of the coming Messiah and of the blessings He would bring. They were the sons of the Covenant: Acts 3:25.

V. 18. For through him, we both-Jews and Gentiles.

Have access-Liberty of approaching, by the guidance and aid of one Spirit to God as our Father. Christ, the Spirit, and the Father, the three-one God, stand frequently in the same order.

Verse 18. For through him] Christ Jesus, we both-Jews and Gentiles, have access by one Spirit-through the influence of the Holy Ghost, unto the Father-God Almighty. This text is a plain proof of the holy Trinity. Jews and Gentiles are to be presented unto God the FATHER; the SPIRIT of God works in their hearts, and prepares them for this presentation; and JESUS CHRIST himself introduces them. No soul can have access to God but by Jesus Christ, and he introduces none but such as receive his Holy Spirit. All who receive that Spirit are equally dear to him; and, whatever their names be among men, they are known in heaven as children of God, and heirs of eternal glory.

Verses 15-18. Having abolished in his flesh — By the sufferings and death endured therein; the cause of enmity between the Jews and Gentiles, even the law of ceremonial commandments, contained in ordinances — Consisting in many institutions and appointments concerning the outward worship of God; such as those of circumcision, sacrifices, clean and unclean meats, washings, and holy days; which, being founded in the mere pleasure of God, might be abolished when he saw fit. These ordinances Jesus abolished, that he might make in himself — That is, by uniting them to himself as their head; of twain — Of Jews and Gentiles, who were at such a distance before; one new man — One mystical body, one church, renewed by the Holy Ghost, and uniting in one new way of gospel worship: so making peace — Between the two kinds of people, and even laying a foundation for the most sincere mutual love and friendship: And, or moreover, to complete this blessed work of making peace, that he might reconcile both, as thus united in one body, and animated by one spirit, not merely to one another, but unto God, by his death on the cross — By which he expiated the guilt of sin, and rendered God reconcileable, and ready to pardon the penitent that should believe in Jesus; and by which he procured for mankind, whether Jews or Gentiles, the Holy Spirit to work repentance and faith in them, and destroy that carnal mind, which is enmity against God, (Romans 8:7,) and all those sinful passions which are connected therewith, and which render men odious in his sight, and hostile to one another. And came — After his resurrection; and preached peace — By his authorized ambassadors, (to whom he had committed the important trust of treating with sinners in his name and stead, 2 Corinthians 5:19, 20,) to you Gentiles, which were afar off — At the utmost distance from God; and to them that were nigh — To the Jews, who were comparatively nigh, being his visible church. For through him — Through his mediation, his sacrifice and intercession; we both — Believing Jews and Gentiles; have access — Have liberty of approach; by one Spirit — Inspiring us with faith, hope, and love, and rendering us sincere, spiritual, fervent, and constant, in our prayers, praises, and all acts of worship and service: unto the Father — That is, unto God as a Father reconciled in Christ, and beholding us with paternal eyes of love, complacency, and delight.

Ver. 14-22. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition. The apostle refers to the provoking wall in the temple, which separated the court of the gentiles from the courts of Israel. No uncircumcised person was allowed to pass the barrier. This wall in the second temple was three cubits high, so that a man, small in stature, could not look over it. Josephus adds, that a man stood at the gate with a massive sword, on which was written, “the stranger that comes near shall die.” In Acts 21:28, we find that the jews were about to stone Paul, because, they said, he had polluted that holy place by bringing a Greek into the temple. The fact however was, that Paul had only walked with Trophimus an Ephesian in the city. But now Christ, on the great theatre of the cross, having slain the enmity of the carnal commandment, gives with equal right both jew and gentile access by one Spirit to the Father. He gave the Holy Spirit in Cornelius’s house, with all his gifts and graces, as he had done to the jews. Acts 10:44, 45. Nay more, the believing gentiles were not only admitted, but made stones and pillars in the living temple, the body of Christ.

18. For—In order to show how this peace is accomplished. It is by having, through him, as mediator, an access or introduction to the common Father of both, thereby rendering them brothers.

Ver. 18. A fact, later in date, yet virtually underlying the assertion of Ephesians 2:17. It is practically a re-statement of Ephesians 2:13. Through Him: the emphatic words of the verse.

Access: same word and almost the same phrase in Romans 5:2, through whom we have obtained access; a very close parallel. A cognate verb in 1 Peter 3:18. Christ took us by the hand and led us to the Father. Similarly Ephesians 2:13: made near in the blood of Christ. It includes the whole work of salvation.

We both: Jews and Gentiles, whose union in Christ is the dominant thought of this section.

In one Spirit: the divine Agent of all abiding harmony of man with man. So Ephesians 4:4; Philippians 1:27; 1 Corinthians 12:13: important coincidences.

Notice here the relation of each Person of the Trinity to the work of salvation. Both Jews and Gentiles were far away from God; and consequently each far from the other. Through the agency of the Son, and in the Holy Spirit dwelling in the hearts of all His people, they have been led into the presence and smile of God, and into the harmony of spiritual brotherhood. And to this end the Son Himself came into the world and proclaimed peace to men. Notice also that of this salvation the death of Christ is conspicuously pointed to as the means. In His blood we have been made near. And Christ’s aim is to reconcile us to God through the cross, and in that cross to kill the previously-existing enmity.

V. 19. Therefore ye are no longer strangers, but citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem; no longer foreigners, but received into the very family of God.

Verse 19. Ye are no more strangers] In this chapter the Church of God is compared to a city, which, has a variety of privileges, rights, &c., founded on regular charters and grants. The Gentiles, having believed in Christ, are all incorporated with the believing Jews in this holy city. Formerly, when any of them came to Jerusalem, being xenoi, strangers, they had no kind of rights whatever; nor could they, as mere heathens, settle among them. Again, if any of them, convinced of the errors of the Gentiles, acknowledged the God of Israel, but did not receive circumcision, he might dwell in the land, but he had no right to the blessings of the covenant; such might be called paroikoi, sojourners-persons who have no property in the land, and may only rent a house for the time being. Fellow citizens with the saints] Called to the enjoyment of equal privileges with the Jews themselves, who, by profession, were a holy people; who were bound to be holy, and therefore are often called saints, or holy persons, when both their hearts and conduct were far from being right in the sight of God. But the saints spoken of here are the converted or Christianized Jews.

Of the household of God] The house of God is the temple; the temple was a type of the Christian Church; this is now become God’s house; all genuine believers are considered as being oikeioi, domestics, of this house, the children and servants of God Almighty, having all equal rights, privileges, and advantages; as all, through one Spirit, by the sacred head of the family, had equal access to God, and each might receive as much grace and as much glory as his soul could possibly contain.

Verses 19-22. Now, therefore — Being thus reconciled; ye — Believing Gentiles; are no more strangers and foreigners — If it be necessary to make any distinction as to the signification of these two words, in the former, (zenoi,) the apostle may refer to persons of a different country; and in the latter, (paroikoi,) to those of a different family. The following clause evidently leads to this sense. But fellow-citizens with the saints — The Church of God is here spoken of under the emblem of a city, as it is also Isaiah 26:1, 2; 60:1, &c.; 62:12; Philippians 3:20, (where the original expression signifies, our citizenship in heaven,) as also Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 21:10-27, and in many other places of the Old and New Testaments. Of this city, the believers at Ephesus are here represented as genuine citizens, entitled to all the glorious immunities and privileges of it; and of the household of God — Members of his family, his servants, yea, his sons and daughters. As if he had said, God not only stands related to you as a king to his people, or the chief magistrate of a city to the citizens; but as a father to his children, who are under his peculiar protection and care, have the nearest access to him, and most intimate communion with him. “Perhaps,” says Doddridge, “this latter clause, oikeioi tou Qeou, domestics of God, may have some relation to that peculiar nearness to God in which the Jewish priests were, and refer to that great intimacy of unrestrained converse with God, to which we, as Christians, are admitted; in which respect our privileges seem to resemble, not only those of the people praying in the common court of Israel, but those of the priests, worshipping in the house itself. Nay, it is elsewhere added, by a figure, which seems beautifully to rise even on this, that we have confidence to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” And are built — Here the apostle alludes to a building, particularly to the temple at Jerusalem, to which he compares God’s visible church, as is evident from the subsequent verse; and he represents the believers at Ephesus as constituent parts of this building; upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets — the fundamental doctrines declared by them, on which the faith and hope of all true believers are built. God laid the foundation of his church by them. Thus the city of the living God, the new Jerusalem, which is the church of God, in its most perfect state in the world to come, is said (Revelation 21:14) to be built on the foundation of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The Jewish prophets are also said, not improperly, to be the foundation of God’s church, because they bore testimony, though some of them in an obscure manner, to most of the doctrines of the gospel. Perhaps, however, as the prophets are here mentioned after the apostles, the Christian prophets may be meant; to whom, by a peculiar inspiration, the true meaning of the writings of Moses and the prophets was made known. Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone — Namely, of the foundation, holding the several parts of the building together, and supporting the chief weight of the edifice. It is true, this stone may be considered as placed either at the top or at the bottom of the building; but the latter seems here to be meant; because, in the following verse, the building is said to be fifty joined together by this stone, and to grow into a holy temple for the Lord. Elsewhere, Christ is termed the foundation itself, 1 Corinthians 3:11, where see the note. The Lord Jesus, however, is also the head of the corner — The top corner-stone; for so he terms himself Matthew 21:42. In — Or on; whom all the building — The whole fabric of the universal church, with all its members, and the doctrines which they believe, the precepts which they obey, and the promises which they embrace, and in which they confide; yea, with all the blessings enjoyed in time, and expected in eternity; fitly framed together — Harmoniously joined in its several parts, and compacted so as to add beauty, strength, and unity to the whole; groweth — Riseth up like a large pile of living materials, namely, by the continual accession of new converts, and the advancing graces of those already converted; unto a holy temple in the Lord — Fitly dedicated to the Lord Christ, as being raised and supported by him; a temple in which God displays his presence, yea, dwells, and is worshipped in spirit and in truth. What is the temple of Diana of the Ephesians, whom ye formerly worshipped, compared to this? See note on 1 Peter 2:4, 5. In whom ye also — At Ephesus, believing in Christ, and placing your confidence in him as the foundation and high- priest of this temple; are builded together — With other believers, whether Jews or Gentiles; for a habitation of God — That God may dwell among you, as a holy and harmonious society, and in you as individuals, your bodies and souls being also his temples, (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16,) through the Spirit — Of truth and grace, of power, purity, and consolation; of holiness and happiness, which God hath promised to all that believe in his Son, John 7:38, 39; Acts 2:39.

Ver. 14-22. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition. The apostle refers to the provoking wall in the temple, which separated the court of the gentiles from the courts of Israel. No uncircumcised person was allowed to pass the barrier. This wall in the second temple was three cubits high, so that a man, small in stature, could not look over it. Josephus adds, that a man stood at the gate with a massive sword, on which was written, “the stranger that comes near shall die.” In Acts 21:28, we find that the jews were about to stone Paul, because, they said, he had polluted that holy place by bringing a Greek into the temple. The fact however was, that Paul had only walked with Trophimus an Ephesian in the city. But now Christ, on the great theatre of the cross, having slain the enmity of the carnal commandment, gives with equal right both jew and gentile access by one Spirit to the Father. He gave the Holy Spirit in Cornelius’s house, with all his gifts and graces, as he had done to the jews. Acts 10:44, 45. Nay more, the believing gentiles were not only admitted, but made stones and pillars in the living temple, the body of Christ.

19. Fellow citizens—The bright reverse of the alienation and exile pictured in vv. 11, 12. Household—God is father of the family; the saints are its members; and both Jew and Gentile are a unit in this filial saintship.

Ver. 19. Argumentative summing up of § 6.

Therefore: two Greek words, a collocation favourite with, and peculiar to, Paul. It sums up the foregoing and draws from it an inference. A close parallel in Romans 5:18.

Strangers: as in Ephesians 2:12.

Sojourners: foreign residents without civic rights. Same word in Acts 7:6, 29; 1 Peter 2:11. Even in this summing up Paul states, as his wont is, the full contrast of past and present.

But ye are: solemn repetition of the verb, stating not only what they have ceased to be but what they actually are.

Fellow-citizens: sharing all municipal rights. It represents the Church as a city.

The saints, or holy ones: the sacred people of God. Israel at Sinai was called a holy nation: Exodus 19:6. The priests were specially holy: Numbers 16:3, 5. In the New Covenant, they who believe the Gospel become the peculiar people of God, and receive as their usual designation the name saints: see under Romans 1:7; cp. Acts 9:13, 32, 41. Of this sacred company, the earliest members were Jews. Then Samaritans were added to it; and now these far off Asiatic Greeks.

Members-of-the-household: same word in Galatians 6:10, where see note. In the great household of God, all are both sons and servants. And to this house and home belong now these far off Gentiles.

V. 20. And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets-As the foundation sustains the building, so the word of God, declared by the apostles and prophets, sustains the faith of all believers. God laid the foundation by them; but Christ himself is the chief corner-stone of the foundation. Elsewhere he is termed the foundation itself, 1 Corinthians 3:11.

Verse 20. And are built upon the foundation] Following the same metaphor, comparing the Church of Christ to a city, and to the temple, the believing Ephesians are represented as parts of that building; the living stones out of which it is principally formed, 1 Peter 2:4, 5, having for foundation-the ground plan, specification, and principle on which it was builded, the doctrine taught by the prophets in the Old Testament, and the apostles in the New. Jesus Christ being that corner stone, or akrogwniaiov, the chief angle or foundation corner stone, the connecting medium by which both Jews and Gentiles were united in the same building. Elsewhere Jesus Christ is termed the foundation stone. Behold I lay in Zion a foundation stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, Isaiah 28:16; but the meaning is the same in all the places where these terms, foundation and corner stone, occur; for in laying the foundation of a building, a large stone is generally placed at one of the angles or corners, which serves to form a part of the two walls which meet in that angle. When, therefore, the apostle says that Jesus Christ is the chief corner stone, it means such a foundation stone as that above mentioned.

Verses 19-22. Now, therefore — Being thus reconciled; ye — Believing Gentiles; are no more strangers and foreigners — If it be necessary to make any distinction as to the signification of these two words, in the former, (zenoi,) the apostle may refer to persons of a different country; and in the latter, (paroikoi,) to those of a different family. The following clause evidently leads to this sense. But fellow-citizens with the saints — The Church of God is here spoken of under the emblem of a city, as it is also Isaiah 26:1, 2; 60:1, &c.; 62:12; Philippians 3:20, (where the original expression signifies, our citizenship in heaven,) as also Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 21:10-27, and in many other places of the Old and New Testaments. Of this city, the believers at Ephesus are here represented as genuine citizens, entitled to all the glorious immunities and privileges of it; and of the household of God — Members of his family, his servants, yea, his sons and daughters. As if he had said, God not only stands related to you as a king to his people, or the chief magistrate of a city to the citizens; but as a father to his children, who are under his peculiar protection and care, have the nearest access to him, and most intimate communion with him. “Perhaps,” says Doddridge, “this latter clause, oikeioi tou Qeou, domestics of God, may have some relation to that peculiar nearness to God in which the Jewish priests were, and refer to that great intimacy of unrestrained converse with God, to which we, as Christians, are admitted; in which respect our privileges seem to resemble, not only those of the people praying in the common court of Israel, but those of the priests, worshipping in the house itself. Nay, it is elsewhere added, by a figure, which seems beautifully to rise even on this, that we have confidence to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” And are built — Here the apostle alludes to a building, particularly to the temple at Jerusalem, to which he compares God’s visible church, as is evident from the subsequent verse; and he represents the believers at Ephesus as constituent parts of this building; upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets — the fundamental doctrines declared by them, on which the faith and hope of all true believers are built. God laid the foundation of his church by them. Thus the city of the living God, the new Jerusalem, which is the church of God, in its most perfect state in the world to come, is said (Revelation 21:14) to be built on the foundation of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The Jewish prophets are also said, not improperly, to be the foundation of God’s church, because they bore testimony, though some of them in an obscure manner, to most of the doctrines of the gospel. Perhaps, however, as the prophets are here mentioned after the apostles, the Christian prophets may be meant; to whom, by a peculiar inspiration, the true meaning of the writings of Moses and the prophets was made known. Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone — Namely, of the foundation, holding the several parts of the building together, and supporting the chief weight of the edifice. It is true, this stone may be considered as placed either at the top or at the bottom of the building; but the latter seems here to be meant; because, in the following verse, the building is said to be fifty joined together by this stone, and to grow into a holy temple for the Lord. Elsewhere, Christ is termed the foundation itself, 1 Corinthians 3:11, where see the note. The Lord Jesus, however, is also the head of the corner — The top corner-stone; for so he terms himself Matthew 21:42. In — Or on; whom all the building — The whole fabric of the universal church, with all its members, and the doctrines which they believe, the precepts which they obey, and the promises which they embrace, and in which they confide; yea, with all the blessings enjoyed in time, and expected in eternity; fitly framed together — Harmoniously joined in its several parts, and compacted so as to add beauty, strength, and unity to the whole; groweth — Riseth up like a large pile of living materials, namely, by the continual accession of new converts, and the advancing graces of those already converted; unto a holy temple in the Lord — Fitly dedicated to the Lord Christ, as being raised and supported by him; a temple in which God displays his presence, yea, dwells, and is worshipped in spirit and in truth. What is the temple of Diana of the Ephesians, whom ye formerly worshipped, compared to this? See note on 1 Peter 2:4, 5. In whom ye also — At Ephesus, believing in Christ, and placing your confidence in him as the foundation and high- priest of this temple; are builded together — With other believers, whether Jews or Gentiles; for a habitation of God — That God may dwell among you, as a holy and harmonious society, and in you as individuals, your bodies and souls being also his temples, (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16,) through the Spirit — Of truth and grace, of power, purity, and consolation; of holiness and happiness, which God hath promised to all that believe in his Son, John 7:38, 39; Acts 2:39.

Ver. 14-22. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition. The apostle refers to the provoking wall in the temple, which separated the court of the gentiles from the courts of Israel. No uncircumcised person was allowed to pass the barrier. This wall in the second temple was three cubits high, so that a man, small in stature, could not look over it. Josephus adds, that a man stood at the gate with a massive sword, on which was written, “the stranger that comes near shall die.” In Acts 21:28, we find that the jews were about to stone Paul, because, they said, he had polluted that holy place by bringing a Greek into the temple. The fact however was, that Paul had only walked with Trophimus an Ephesian in the city. But now Christ, on the great theatre of the cross, having slain the enmity of the carnal commandment, gives with equal right both jew and gentile access by one Spirit to the Father. He gave the Holy Spirit in Cornelius’s house, with all his gifts and graces, as he had done to the jews. Acts 10:44, 45. Nay more, the believing gentiles were not only admitted, but made stones and pillars in the living temple, the body of Christ.

20. And are built—Here the figure changes. From the family, here begins the building, put up with a very rapid and finished architecture. Its foundations are apostles and prophets. Not indeed their persons, but as the embodiments of the gospel they preached. The prophets are not of the Old Testament, but of the New, as in Ephesians 3:5, and 4:11. Corner stone—The large stone laid by ancient builders at each corner to bind and hold the walls firmly together. See note Matthew 21:42. And this image beautifully expresses the unity of Jews and Gentiles by Christ.

Ver. 20. Process by which these aliens were received into the city and house of God. It further describes their present position. The household of God suggests easily a favourite metaphor, viz. the Church as a building, and more specifically as the temple of God. In this splendid metaphor culminates Paul’s teaching here about the union in Christ of Jews and Gentiles. Cp. Matthew 16:18 from the lips of Christ; 1 Corinthians 3:9-17; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Romans 15:20; 1 Peter 2:5. It underlies the word rendered edify or build. The composite word here used is found also in 1 Corinthians 3:10, 12, 14; Colossians 2:7; and denotes to carry up a building already begun. The foundation of the Apostles: that laid by them. So 1 Corinthians 3:10, where Paul stated his own relation to this foundation. And nothing more is suggested now. Another conception in Matthew 16:18. But of this there is no hint here. Upon Christ rests firmly, and rises, the Church. By preaching Christ and leading men to Him, the Apostles laid this foundation in actual human life. See under 1 Corinthians 3:11. Now the Apostles, in laying this foundation, were building the house and city of God. To it therefore belong those who were being built into the rising walls.

Prophets: conspicuously mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:28 as holding the second rank in the Church. And this is indisputably the meaning of the same word in Ephesians 3:5; 4:11. As in O.T., they were men who spoke under special inspiration: see note under 1 Corinthians 14:40. Had the reference here been to the O.T. prophets, the order would have been inverted, prophets and apostles.

Corner-stone: 1 Peter 2:6, quoted from Isaiah 28:16; but not found elsewhere. Same idea in <19B822>Psalm 118:22, quoted in Matthew 21:42. Christ is both the foundation underlying the entire building and a conspicuous corner stone uniting its walls and thus giving solidity to the whole. This word, which recalls an ancient prophecy touching the Church of Christ, is very appropriate here in a summary of Paul’s teaching that in Christ Jews and Gentiles are united into one whole.

Christ Jesus Himself: cp. Ephesians 2:14, He is our peace.

V. 21. On whom all the building fitly framed together-The whole fabric of the universal church rises up like a great pile of living materials. Into an holy temple in the Lord-Dedicated to Christ, and inhabited by him, in which he displays his presence, and is worshipped and glorified. What is the temple of Diana of the Ephesians, whom ye formerly worshipped, to this?

Verse 21. In whom] By which foundation corner stone, Christ Jesus, all the building, composed of converted Jews and Gentiles, fitly framed together, sunarmologoumenh, properly jointed and connected together, groweth unto a holy temple-is continually increasing, as new converts from Judaism or heathenism flock into it. It is not a finished building, but will continue to increase, and be more and more perfect, till the day of judgment.

Verses 19-22. Now, therefore — Being thus reconciled; ye — Believing Gentiles; are no more strangers and foreigners — If it be necessary to make any distinction as to the signification of these two words, in the former, (zenoi,) the apostle may refer to persons of a different country; and in the latter, (paroikoi,) to those of a different family. The following clause evidently leads to this sense. But fellow-citizens with the saints — The Church of God is here spoken of under the emblem of a city, as it is also Isaiah 26:1, 2; 60:1, &c.; 62:12; Philippians 3:20, (where the original expression signifies, our citizenship in heaven,) as also Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 21:10-27, and in many other places of the Old and New Testaments. Of this city, the believers at Ephesus are here represented as genuine citizens, entitled to all the glorious immunities and privileges of it; and of the household of God — Members of his family, his servants, yea, his sons and daughters. As if he had said, God not only stands related to you as a king to his people, or the chief magistrate of a city to the citizens; but as a father to his children, who are under his peculiar protection and care, have the nearest access to him, and most intimate communion with him. “Perhaps,” says Doddridge, “this latter clause, oikeioi tou Qeou, domestics of God, may have some relation to that peculiar nearness to God in which the Jewish priests were, and refer to that great intimacy of unrestrained converse with God, to which we, as Christians, are admitted; in which respect our privileges seem to resemble, not only those of the people praying in the common court of Israel, but those of the priests, worshipping in the house itself. Nay, it is elsewhere added, by a figure, which seems beautifully to rise even on this, that we have confidence to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” And are built — Here the apostle alludes to a building, particularly to the temple at Jerusalem, to which he compares God’s visible church, as is evident from the subsequent verse; and he represents the believers at Ephesus as constituent parts of this building; upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets — the fundamental doctrines declared by them, on which the faith and hope of all true believers are built. God laid the foundation of his church by them. Thus the city of the living God, the new Jerusalem, which is the church of God, in its most perfect state in the world to come, is said (Revelation 21:14) to be built on the foundation of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The Jewish prophets are also said, not improperly, to be the foundation of God’s church, because they bore testimony, though some of them in an obscure manner, to most of the doctrines of the gospel. Perhaps, however, as the prophets are here mentioned after the apostles, the Christian prophets may be meant; to whom, by a peculiar inspiration, the true meaning of the writings of Moses and the prophets was made known. Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone — Namely, of the foundation, holding the several parts of the building together, and supporting the chief weight of the edifice. It is true, this stone may be considered as placed either at the top or at the bottom of the building; but the latter seems here to be meant; because, in the following verse, the building is said to be fifty joined together by this stone, and to grow into a holy temple for the Lord. Elsewhere, Christ is termed the foundation itself, 1 Corinthians 3:11, where see the note. The Lord Jesus, however, is also the head of the corner — The top corner-stone; for so he terms himself Matthew 21:42. In — Or on; whom all the building — The whole fabric of the universal church, with all its members, and the doctrines which they believe, the precepts which they obey, and the promises which they embrace, and in which they confide; yea, with all the blessings enjoyed in time, and expected in eternity; fitly framed together — Harmoniously joined in its several parts, and compacted so as to add beauty, strength, and unity to the whole; groweth — Riseth up like a large pile of living materials, namely, by the continual accession of new converts, and the advancing graces of those already converted; unto a holy temple in the Lord — Fitly dedicated to the Lord Christ, as being raised and supported by him; a temple in which God displays his presence, yea, dwells, and is worshipped in spirit and in truth. What is the temple of Diana of the Ephesians, whom ye formerly worshipped, compared to this? See note on 1 Peter 2:4, 5. In whom ye also — At Ephesus, believing in Christ, and placing your confidence in him as the foundation and high- priest of this temple; are builded together — With other believers, whether Jews or Gentiles; for a habitation of God — That God may dwell among you, as a holy and harmonious society, and in you as individuals, your bodies and souls being also his temples, (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16,) through the Spirit — Of truth and grace, of power, purity, and consolation; of holiness and happiness, which God hath promised to all that believe in his Son, John 7:38, 39; Acts 2:39.

Ver. 14-22. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition. The apostle refers to the provoking wall in the temple, which separated the court of the gentiles from the courts of Israel. No uncircumcised person was allowed to pass the barrier. This wall in the second temple was three cubits high, so that a man, small in stature, could not look over it. Josephus adds, that a man stood at the gate with a massive sword, on which was written, “the stranger that comes near shall die.” In Acts 21:28, we find that the jews were about to stone Paul, because, they said, he had polluted that holy place by bringing a Greek into the temple. The fact however was, that Paul had only walked with Trophimus an Ephesian in the city. But now Christ, on the great theatre of the cross, having slain the enmity of the carnal commandment, gives with equal right both jew and gentile access by one Spirit to the Father. He gave the Holy Spirit in Cornelius’s house, with all his gifts and graces, as he had done to the jews. Acts 10:44, 45. Nay more, the believing gentiles were not only admitted, but made stones and pillars in the living temple, the body of Christ.

21. All the building—The four walls, fastened by the corner stone, as different races are firmly bound into the Church by one common Christ. Fitly framed together—Adjusted and united by one common gospel of peace. Groweth—It is an ever growing building, expanding in time and space over the earth. Holy temple—Not a temple of idolatry and sorcery, like the great fane of the Ephesian Artemis, but a spiritual temple more worthy than even the edifice on Moriah.

Ver. 21. Further account of this building and of its relation to Christ. Every building: various parts of the one great structure. Such were the various Churches, Jewish or Gentile. So Matthew 24:1, the buildings of the Temple: i.e. the various parts of the Temple at Jerusalem. Frequently a great building is begun at different points; and in the earlier stages its parts seem to be independent erections: but as it advances all are united into one whole. So there were in Paul’s day, as now, various Churches. But, to his eye, they were parts of, and were advancing towards, one great temple. The separation was apparent and passing: the unity was real and abiding.

Being-fitly-joined-together: as a living body is united by its joints. Same word in Ephesians 4:16. [The present participle describes the process of union as now going on. So does the next word.]

Is-growing: for the progress of the building is a development of its own inner life. This word supplements the metaphor of a building by that of a tree. Similar metaphor in 1 Corinthians 3:6, 9; Romans 11:16-24, John 15:1-8.

A holy temple: a conception familiar to Paul: see 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17, and my note. The various buildings, separate as they are during erection, are designed to become one great temple. And the temple is essentially holy: for it belongs to God. Consequently, they who are built upon the one foundation are numbered among (Ephesians 2:19) the citizen saints.

A holy temple in the Lord or a temple holy in the Lord: Christ Himself being the surrounding element of this holiness. It notes a closer relation than the O.T. phrase, holy to the Lord. In virtue of their inward union with the one Master, the Jewish and Gentile Churches are growing into one holy temple.

Verse 22. In whom ye also are builded] The apostle now applies the metaphor to the purpose for which he produced it, retaining however some of the figurative expressions. As the stones in a temple are all properly placed so as to form a complete house, and be a habitation for the Deity that is worshipped there, so ye are all, both believing Jews and Gentiles, prepared by the doctrine of the prophets and apostles, under the influence of the Spirit of Christ, to become a habitation of God, a Church in which God shall be worthily worshipped, and in which he can continually dwell.

1. MANY suppose that the apostle in the preceding chapter alludes to the splendour of the temple of Diana at Ephesus, which was reputed one of the wonders of the world. But to me this opinion does not seem sufficiently founded. I believe he has the Jewish temple continually in view; for that temple, above all in the universe, could alone be said to be a habitation of God. Both in the tabernacle and temple God dwelt between the cherubim; there was the symbol of his presence, and there was the worship performed which himself had prescribed. After the model of this was the spiritual temple, the Christian Church, constructed; and God was to dwell in the one, as he had dwelt in the other. This simile, drawn from the temple at Jerusalem, was alone worthy of the apostle’s design; to have alluded to the temple of Diana would have disgraced his subject. And as many at Ephesus were Jews, and well acquainted with the temple at Jerusalem, they would both feel and venerate the apostle’s simile, and be led to look for the indwelling of God; that which distinguished the Jewish temple from all others on the face of the earth.

2. The Church of God is very properly said to be a most noble and wonderful work, and truly worthy of GOD himself.

There is nothing, says one, so august as this Church, seeing it is the temple of GOD.

Nothing so worthy of reverence, seeing God dwells in it.

Nothing so ancient, since the patriarchs and prophets laboured in building it.

Nothing so solid, since Jesus Christ is the foundation of it. Nothing more closely united and indivisible, since he is the corner stone. Nothing so lofty, since it reaches as high as heaven, and to the bosom of God himself.

Nothing so regular and well proportioned, since the Holy Spirit is the architect.

Nothing more beautiful, or adorned with greater variety, since it consists of Jews and Gentiles, of every age, country, sex, and condition: the mightiest potentates, the most renowned lawgivers, the most profound philosophers, the most eminent scholars, besides all those of whom the world was not worthy, have formed a part of this building. Nothing more spacious, since it is spread over the whole earth, and takes in all who have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

Nothing so inviolable, since it is consecrated to Jehovah. Nothing so Divine, since it is a living building, animated and inhabited by the Holy Ghost.

Nothing so beneficent, seeing it gives shelter to the poor, the wretched, and distressed, of every nation, and kindred, and tongue. It is the place in which God does his marvellous works; the theatre of his justice, mercy, goodness, and truth; where he is to be sought, where he is to be found, and in which alone he is to he retained.

As we have one only GOD, and one only Saviour and Mediator between God and man, and one only inspiring Spirit; so there is but one Church, in which this ineffable Jehovah performs his work of salvation. That Church, however scattered and divided throughout the world, is but one building, founded on the Old and New Testaments; having but one sacrifice, the Lord Jesus, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

3. Of this glorious Church every Christian soul is an epitome; for as God dwells in the Church at large, so he dwells in every believer in particular: each is a habitation of God through the Spirit. In vain are all pretensions among sects and parties to the privileges of the Church of Christ, if they have not the doctrine and life of Christ. Traditions and legends are not apostolic doctrines, and showy ceremonies are not the life of God in the soul of man.

4. Religion has no need of human ornaments or trappings; it shines by its own light, and is refulgent with its own glory. Where it is not in life and power, men have endeavoured to produce a specious image, dressed and ornamented with their own hands. Into this God never breathed, therefore it can do no good to man, and only imposes on the ignorant and credulous by a vain show of lifeless pomp and splendour. This phantom, called true religion and the Church by its votaries, is in heaven denominated vain superstition; the speechless symbol of departed piety.

EPHESIANS

Verses 19-22. Now, therefore — Being thus reconciled; ye — Believing Gentiles; are no more strangers and foreigners — If it be necessary to make any distinction as to the signification of these two words, in the former, (zenoi,) the apostle may refer to persons of a different country; and in the latter, (paroikoi,) to those of a different family. The following clause evidently leads to this sense. But fellow-citizens with the saints — The Church of God is here spoken of under the emblem of a city, as it is also Isaiah 26:1, 2; 60:1, &c.; 62:12; Philippians 3:20, (where the original expression signifies, our citizenship in heaven,) as also Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 21:10-27, and in many other places of the Old and New Testaments. Of this city, the believers at Ephesus are here represented as genuine citizens, entitled to all the glorious immunities and privileges of it; and of the household of God — Members of his family, his servants, yea, his sons and daughters. As if he had said, God not only stands related to you as a king to his people, or the chief magistrate of a city to the citizens; but as a father to his children, who are under his peculiar protection and care, have the nearest access to him, and most intimate communion with him. “Perhaps,” says Doddridge, “this latter clause, oikeioi tou Qeou, domestics of God, may have some relation to that peculiar nearness to God in which the Jewish priests were, and refer to that great intimacy of unrestrained converse with God, to which we, as Christians, are admitted; in which respect our privileges seem to resemble, not only those of the people praying in the common court of Israel, but those of the priests, worshipping in the house itself. Nay, it is elsewhere added, by a figure, which seems beautifully to rise even on this, that we have confidence to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus.” And are built — Here the apostle alludes to a building, particularly to the temple at Jerusalem, to which he compares God’s visible church, as is evident from the subsequent verse; and he represents the believers at Ephesus as constituent parts of this building; upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets — the fundamental doctrines declared by them, on which the faith and hope of all true believers are built. God laid the foundation of his church by them. Thus the city of the living God, the new Jerusalem, which is the church of God, in its most perfect state in the world to come, is said (Revelation 21:14) to be built on the foundation of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. The Jewish prophets are also said, not improperly, to be the foundation of God’s church, because they bore testimony, though some of them in an obscure manner, to most of the doctrines of the gospel. Perhaps, however, as the prophets are here mentioned after the apostles, the Christian prophets may be meant; to whom, by a peculiar inspiration, the true meaning of the writings of Moses and the prophets was made known. Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone — Namely, of the foundation, holding the several parts of the building together, and supporting the chief weight of the edifice. It is true, this stone may be considered as placed either at the top or at the bottom of the building; but the latter seems here to be meant; because, in the following verse, the building is said to be fifty joined together by this stone, and to grow into a holy temple for the Lord. Elsewhere, Christ is termed the foundation itself, 1 Corinthians 3:11, where see the note. The Lord Jesus, however, is also the head of the corner — The top corner-stone; for so he terms himself Matthew 21:42. In — Or on; whom all the building — The whole fabric of the universal church, with all its members, and the doctrines which they believe, the precepts which they obey, and the promises which they embrace, and in which they confide; yea, with all the blessings enjoyed in time, and expected in eternity; fitly framed together — Harmoniously joined in its several parts, and compacted so as to add beauty, strength, and unity to the whole; groweth — Riseth up like a large pile of living materials, namely, by the continual accession of new converts, and the advancing graces of those already converted; unto a holy temple in the Lord — Fitly dedicated to the Lord Christ, as being raised and supported by him; a temple in which God displays his presence, yea, dwells, and is worshipped in spirit and in truth. What is the temple of Diana of the Ephesians, whom ye formerly worshipped, compared to this? See note on 1 Peter 2:4, 5. In whom ye also — At Ephesus, believing in Christ, and placing your confidence in him as the foundation and high- priest of this temple; are builded together — With other believers, whether Jews or Gentiles; for a habitation of God — That God may dwell among you, as a holy and harmonious society, and in you as individuals, your bodies and souls being also his temples, (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16,) through the Spirit — Of truth and grace, of power, purity, and consolation; of holiness and happiness, which God hath promised to all that believe in his Son, John 7:38, 39; Acts 2:39.

Ver. 14-22. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition. The apostle refers to the provoking wall in the temple, which separated the court of the gentiles from the courts of Israel. No uncircumcised person was allowed to pass the barrier. This wall in the second temple was three cubits high, so that a man, small in stature, could not look over it. Josephus adds, that a man stood at the gate with a massive sword, on which was written, “the stranger that comes near shall die.” In Acts 21:28, we find that the jews were about to stone Paul, because, they said, he had polluted that holy place by bringing a Greek into the temple. The fact however was, that Paul had only walked with Trophimus an Ephesian in the city. But now Christ, on the great theatre of the cross, having slain the enmity of the carnal commandment, gives with equal right both jew and gentile access by one Spirit to the Father. He gave the Holy Spirit in Cornelius’s house, with all his gifts and graces, as he had done to the jews. Acts 10:44, 45. Nay more, the believing gentiles were not only admitted, but made stones and pillars in the living temple, the body of Christ.

22. Ye—Ye Ephesians. Also—As well as other saints and household of God. Through the Spirit—As Jehovah dwelt in the holy of holies of the temple, having been visibly present at the dedication by Solomon.

Ver. 22. In whom: as in Ephesians 2:21. It keeps before us Christ as the element of growth.

Also ye: as in Ephesians 2:3; 1:13. It brings the Christians at Ephesus conspicuously under the foregoing general assertion; a thought present throughout the Epistle.

Are-being-built-together: as stones in a rising building. It is, under another metaphor, practically the same as fitly joined together, in Ephesians 2:21, which suggests the union of bones and members in a living body.

Dwelling-place (same word in Revelation 18:2) of God: parallel with holy temple in Ephesians 2:21. For this is the central idea of a temple: 1 Corinthians 3:16, where see note.

In the Spirit: the Agent of this indwelling of God in man. They in whom the Spirit dwells are also in the Spirit: Romans 8:9. For the Spirit within raises them into a new element of life. Thus these last words connect Paul’s teaching about the holy temple with His frequent teaching about the Holy Spirit. Cp. 1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19. They are also parallel to in one Spirit in Ephesians 2:18. For the Spirit is the surrounding element both of man’s approach to God and of God’s presence in man. Same words also in Ephesians 3:5. In view of the great work wrought in them by God, Paul reminds his readers of their former heathen state. Even before Christ came there was an organized community on earth in special covenant with God, holding special promises and cherishing glorious hopes. By its members, the readers of this Epistle were looked down upon as aliens. And, having no share in its hopes and in its covenant with God, they were without hope and without God. Through the death of Christ, all this is changed. The barrier between Jew and Gentile, which separated both Jews and Gentiles from God, Christ has through His own death broken down; in order that, by creative power, He may make out of two enemies one new man reconciled to God. Of this peace, He is not only the Author but the Herald. And of this approach to God the Holy Spirit is the Agent and Element. Then all is changed. The aliens have become members of the sacred commonwealth and of the family of God. That city and family are a temple whose foundations have been laid by men divinely sent and inspired, and whose conspicuous corner stone is Christ Himself. On this foundation day by day living stones are being laid and fitted together. And thus, in virtue of its own inherent life, the temple is growing. It seems to consist of various separate buildings. But, as it rises, these various parts are becoming, through the one indwelling Spirit, one holy temple of God. Very conspicuous in this section is the death of Christ as the means by which (Ephesians 2:13) the far off ones have been brought near, the barrier between Jew and Gentile broken down, and both Jew and Gentile reconciled to God. The barrier thus broken down is the Law with its prescriptions. Similarly in Ephesians 1:7 the violent death of Christ is the means of the forgiveness of sins. All this is in close harmony with Paul’s constant and varied teaching that salvation comes through the death of Christ upon the cross. It can be explained only on the principle asserted in Romans 3:26, viz. that God gave Christ to die in order to harmonize with His own justice the justification of believers, or in other words that the need for this costly means of salvation lay in man’s sin viewed in the light of the justice of God.

The union of Jews and Gentiles suggests the unity of the Church, a thought already implied in the universal purpose asserted in Ephesians 1:1ff. To and further developed in Ephesians 4:3-6. This unity is a conspicuous feature of the Epistle.