Ch. 1 – Looks at salvation from God’s point of view
Shows how He blessed us with all blessing in Christ and how one day all things shall be subjected to Christ.
Ch. 2 – Talks about salvation from the individual Christian’s perspective
Shows what God did for us in Christ, and what we are now to become and do as the result of that working
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This beginning part of Ephesians chapter 2 paints one of the most pessimistic pictures of human nature found anywhere.
John R.W. Stott says, “Paul first plumbs the depths of pessimism about man.” But after He, “rises to the heights of optimism about God” and how His grace saves sinners.
Boice outlines what he believes to be the 3 basic answers to the question of “How we assess human nature”
1 – People are “well, healthy”
Not as healthy as one day will be
We are evolving as a people and have survived war, starvation, disease, economic troubles and are, along with the world, getting better
Not quite perfect
1(b) – Argument against this view
Little flaws should have been eliminate by now, at this point we should be perfect
Still have wars, starvation, disease, and economic turmoil
2 – People are “sick, maybe even mortally sick”
Something is wrong, but all is not hopeless
“Where there is life, there is hope”
No need to call the mortician yet
3 – People are dead (Biblical viewpoint)
Dead in his relationship with God
“dead in…transgressions and sins” (v.1) as warned in the Garden of Eden
They (people) are not dead because of their sinful acts, but because of their sinful nature.
“Unable to make a single move toward God, think a single thought about God, or even correctly respond to God – unless God is first present to bring the spiritually dead person to life, which is what Paul says he does do”
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How do we view human will?
Are we free to choose God in this fallen state?
Or are we unable to choose God because we are bound by sin?
Luther, Augustine, Calvin, and Jonathan Edwards all agree that apart from the utterly unexpected grace of God in quickening the human mind and soul, no one ever willingly turns to God or ebraces the offer of salvation.
Sin enslaves us.
We run from God.
No other viewpoint shows the radical nature of sin and the absolute grace in salvation
“Edwards declared that the will is always free; we always choose what we judge best in a given situation. But as sinners we always judge wrongly. We think God undesirable. Hence we always resist him and reject the gospel.“
v.1-3
Describe that we are dead toward God but alive to all wickedness.
Following the course of the world and the devil
Carrying out the passions of the flesh
John H. Gerstner compares this described condition as a zombie. Someone who is dead but walking around, decaying and putrifying. The living dead.
Gerstner said, “They are an offense to God’s nostrils. These decaying spiritual corpses stink”.
Paul speaks here of the flesh, the world, and the devil, not to show our victory over them, but to show our enslavement to them apart from the power of God in Christ.
This is not just referring to the temptation of these three things, but the “captivity by these forces so that the person involved constantly moves and operations only within their influence.
Romans 12:2 – “2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Without being transformed, we are enslaved to the world.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, “They think as the world thinks. They take their opinions ready-made from their favourite newspaper. Their very appearance is controlled by the world and its changing fashions, They all conform; it must be done; they dare not disobey; they are afraid of the consequences”
The World:
Our transgressions, sins, and disobedience we all “followed the ways of this world”
2 Cor. 10:4-5 – the world order, humanity’s values and standards apart from God and Christ are like a fortress in which people are imprisoned and need to be set free.
The Devil:
v.2 – spirit is not a synonym for devil meaning “evil spirit” but rather this section is translated, “the ruler of the kingdom of the air, [who is also the ruler of] the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient”
The devil enslaves men and women although not personally present (only can be in one place at a time) but through the evil spirit present in the world that he rules
The Flesh:
v.3 – Flesh – our fallen sinful nature, which embraces our fleshly desires and our wicked thoughts
Examples: gluttony, laziness, lust, greed, pride, sinful ambition, hostility towards God’s truth, malice, & envy
We are trapped by our flesh unable to turn from sin and seek God
v.3 – by nature objects of [God’s] wrath
People want to focus on God’s love, mercy, and justice but the wrath of God written about here shows more than anything the bondage unbelievers are in (we were in)
The world doesn’t take God’s wrath seriously because it doesn’t take sin seriously.
“Yet if sin is as bad as the Bible declares it to be, nothing is more just or reasonable than that the wrath of a holy God should rise against it.”
The OT uses more than 20 words to express God’s wrath
More than 600 passages deal with it
The NT uses the terms:
Thumos – to rush along fiercely – be in a heat of violence
Orge (used most often)– to grow ripe for something – gradually building and intensifying opposition to sin
God’s wrath is consistent and judicial. Not like our wrath which flares up from time to time but rather it is inevitable and grows in its opposition to all that is opposed to his righteousness
Romans 1:18-32 – Present dimension of God’s wrath
Hebrews 10:28-31 – Future dimension of God’s wrath
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We cannot ourselves and the saved cannot save the unsaved.
What is impossible for man is possible for God.
As dark as these passages finish, Paul contrasts this with Ephesians 2:4-5
4But[a] God, being(A) rich in mercy,(B) because of the great love with which he loved us, 5even(C) when we were dead in our trespasses,(D) made us alive together with Christ—(E) by grace you have been saved—
God performs resurrections (remember Lazarus?) – brings us to spiritual life again, and causes us to run to what we shunned and feared before.
Read George Whitefield quote page 50
See the raising of Lazarus - John 11
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