{"id":1941,"date":"2016-06-15T09:00:10","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T13:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danielgoepfrich.com\/?p=1941"},"modified":"2022-08-29T19:14:17","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T23:14:17","slug":"ephesians-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/ephesians-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Ephesians 2"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Chapter two<\/strong>, again, divides neatly into two sections; the first addresses salvation (Ephesians 2:1-10), the second adds new revelation about the Church (Ephesians 2:11-22). In Ephesians 2:1-3 Paul set out the natural state of unsaved humanity. Without Christ we are <em>\u201cdead in our transgressions and sins,\u201d<\/em> living <em>\u201caccording to this world\u2019s present path\u201d<\/em> which is determined by <em>\u201cthe ruler of the kingdom of the air\u201d<\/em> and characterized by <em>\u201cthe cravings of our flesh.\u201d<\/em> We are also <em>\u201cby nature children of wrath.\u201d<\/em><\/p><p>This is a horrible picture of the real state of unsaved humanity, so much so that Paul never actually finished that thought. The first two words of verse four, however, change everything: <em>\u201cBut God.\u201d<\/em> Salvation is available for one reason: God\u2019s character, demonstrated by his rich mercy and great love. Even in our sad state God accomplished two things: he <em>\u201cmade us alive\u201d<\/em> and <em>\u201cseated us with <\/em>[Christ]<em>&nbsp;in the heavenly realms.\u201d<\/em> This was done, partially, <em>\u201cto demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness.\u201d<\/em> Exactly what that means and how it will happen has yet to be revealed. However, the truth is that the entire <em>\u201cby grace through faith\u201d<\/em> package of salvation is available only through God, not through anything that we can do. <a id=\"return-note-1941-1\" class=\"simple-footnote\" title=\"There is a great debate over whether the \u201cgift of God\u201d refers to the grace, the faith, or salvation as a whole. Grammatically and theologically it makes the best sense to see all of salvation as the gift rather than just the individual parts of grace or faith. In fact, trying to limit the gift to either one of those creates major doctrinal issues with other parts of the New Testament.\" href=\"#note-1941-1\"><sup>1<\/sup><\/a> Although a gift, this salvation was also given for a purpose: that we would accomplish the spiritual works that God has prepared for us to do.<\/p><p>While the first half of the chapter displays the \u201cbefore and after\u201d picture of an individual believer, the second half displays the before and after of believing Gentiles as a whole. Before Christ Gentiles were just as bad off corporately as they were individually: <em>\u201cwithout the Messiah, alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promises, having no hope and without God in the world.\u201d<\/em> Because God was working through Israel, Gentiles with no association to Israel had no association to God. <em>\u201cBut now\u201d<\/em> (Ephesians 2:13) is the corporate parallel to <em>\u201cbut God\u201d<\/em> (Ephesians 2:4). Since Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection, Gentiles are no longer in that state. Believing Gentiles <em>\u201chave been brought near\u201d<\/em>; they have been reconciled with believing Jews <em>\u201cin one body to God through the cross.\u201d<\/em> They now <em>\u201chave access in one Spirit to the Father,\u201d<\/em> because they are <em>\u201cmembers of the God\u2019s household.\u201d<\/em> This new entity, the Church, is built on the New Testament apostles and the prophets \u2013 both Jewish and Gentile \u2013 and is a unique entity during this dispensation which serves as the <em>\u201cdwelling place of God in the Spirit.\u201d<\/em><\/p><div class=\"simple-footnotes\">\n<p class=\"notes\">Notes:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li id=\"note-1941-1\">There is a great debate over whether the <em>\u201cgift of God\u201d<\/em> refers to the grace, the faith, or salvation as a whole. Grammatically and theologically it makes the best sense to see all of salvation as the gift rather than just the individual parts of grace or faith. In fact, trying to limit the gift to either one of those creates major doctrinal issues with other parts of the New Testament.<a href=\"#return-note-1941-1\">\u21a9<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chapter two, again, divides neatly into two sections; the first addresses salvation (Ephesians 2:1-10), the second adds new revelation about the Church (Ephesians 2:11-22). In Ephesians 2:1-3 Paul set out the natural state of unsaved humanity. Without Christ we are \u201cdead in our transgressions and sins,\u201d living \u201caccording to this world\u2019s present path\u201d which is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-1941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-studies","tag-ephesians"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"gutentor_comment":0,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"widget-thumbnail":false,"rpwe-thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_thumbnail":false,"woocommerce_single":false,"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Daniel Goepfrich","author_link":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/author\/dgoepfrich\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Chapter two, again, divides neatly into two sections; the first addresses salvation (Ephesians 2:1-10), the second adds new revelation about the Church (Ephesians 2:11-22). In Ephesians 2:1-3 Paul set out the natural state of unsaved humanity. Without Christ we are \u201cdead in our transgressions and sins,\u201d living \u201caccording to this world\u2019s present path\u201d which is&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologyisforeveryone.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}