EPHESIANS 2:
FOR BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED
THROUGH FAITH
EPHESIANS 2
FOR BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED
THROUGH
FAITH
JAN LILLEBY
Paul was very inspired as he ‘built’ this marvelous doctrine of faith. The headline is found in Eph. 2:8, 9,
“8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God;
9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”
The entire epistle is so inspirational and stuffed to the brim with vital knowledge on Christ….like, it feels as if you are ‘plugged in’ to a high voltage contact and the light and the power of the Gospel rushes through you on every possible level of senses and understanding.
In chapter 1 Paul just went straight to the issue: You are saved, you are saints and the redeemed ones because of Christ.
Here, in chapter 2, he goes on and tells us how it is that we really are saved: Christ abolished the Law of Moses on the cross, thus creating the ‘one new man’ – Jew and Gentile made into one by removing the wall of partition, the enmity, - which of course was the Law. By faith we are part of that new creation, the ‘one new man’ – which I shall deal with below. Jesus was aware of that ‘Wall of Partition’ – and He described it in one of His parables on the Kingdom, found in three of the Gospels, - Mat.21:33, Mark 12:1 and Luke 20:9. I will quote Matthew’s version,
“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT AND DUG A WINE PRESS IN IT, AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey”.
But at the falling away of Israel as a nation of God (the Landowner in Jesus’ parable) – the whole vineyard was blotted out…Israel was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. Thus there are no longer any need for a ‘Wall of Partition’ (the Law of Moses) – the wall is gone as well as the place itself. You see the very logic in this reasoning? Paul was right indeed, saying that Jesus abolished the Law. IMAGE: Jerusalem conquered and the temple burning, 70 CE.
We start at the beginning of the chapter,
Eph. 2:1-7, NASB,
“1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved ),
6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
Verses 1 to 3 describes the misery of being unsaved, and thus …dead in our transgression…and even by nature being children of WRATH. Then Paul turn 180 degrees, saying in verse 4 (oh! I love this):
BUT GOD:::####::: - God intervened into the misery of the world, displaying His graceful riches of mercy…His great LOVE with which He LOVED US; in spite of us being already lost (dead) in transgressions.
Verse 5, He MADE US ALIVE together with CHRIST…and He raised us up WITH HIM.
And…lo-and-behold! He SEATED US WITH HIM IN THE HEAVENLY PLACES IN CHRIST JESUS., verse 6.
This position shall continue forever and ever, ..in THE AGES TO COME…in that He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
There shall come and unending shifting of ‘ages’ (Greek, eons) – dispensations both on earth as well as in heaven on high. We cannot find in the Bible that God does away with the planet Earth. If it pleases God to have the earth here forever, then it will be here forever.
Compare this immense Biblical truth with the lunacy inside any ‘Save-the-Earth’ environmental movements. They all seem to think that one day in the future, we shall no longer find food enough, the water will be poisonous; or oil to run the industry and the machinery, - even oxygen may be emptying out of the system and we will choke to death. The protective ozone layer will disappear and so we will be fried to death by the sun. Not to mention that we (the military forces) might even destroy the world by banging off nuclear bombs and missiles and so forth and so on. Ending in a new ‘ice age’ due to the nuclear poisoning fallout.
But the Bible says otherwise.
In Rev. 21 we find God sending down the ‘New Jerusalem’ – after first having had the Millennial Kingdom of Christ on earth – and so the insane idea and paranoia of a destroyed earth is out of the question! (I wrote a substantial article series on that, but are no longer being published here).
It is not in God’s program at all to have the earth cancelled.
God will endlessly show us His overflowing divine glorious kindness, forever and ever…..both those on earth as well as those up in the heavens.
THE ABOLISHING OF THE LAW AT THE CROSS
Both Ephesians and Colossians have the doctrine of ‘Christ having abolished the Law’ – and in Eph. 2:13-16, NASB we find it,
“13 But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall,
15 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace,
16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.”
The funny thing is, that the Pentecostals and Charismatics…as well as other denominations quote these lines as if the Church, the ‘one new man’ was a known fact from the day of the crucifixion – and thus also they persist on that the Acts 2 and Pentecost was the ‘Birthday of the Church’.
This false idea is found inside 90% of Christendom at least.
The fact is coming clear to us by studying Ephesians and Colossians, for by that we observe a huge difference between ‘before and after’ the revelation of the mystery Paul refers to in Eph. 3 and Col. 1. I shall come to this in the next article in this series…
This Biblical truth of Christ,having abolished the Law of Moses, was a part of that mystery mentioned. It was kept hidden from the Acts-body of believers. How do we know this?
We get to know this as we read Acts and comparing this with Ephesians and Colossians. In Acts we find that the Messianic believers observed the Law, but in Ephesians and Colossians the Law is abolished and blotted out.
So we have to conclude: Christ willfully kept the truth hidden of what happened on the day of His crucifixion – the Law blotted out – to be able to test His Jewish nation whether they would repent and come to faith in Him as their Messiah!
In Acts 28 (60 CE) we learn that Israel, represented by the Sanhedrin counsel at Rome, they rejected Jesus, and from that moment God turned away from Israel, leaving them to destruction ten years later, 70 CE.
You cannot find this major Bible truth taught by any other apostle than Paul, and he alone.
And only found in Paul’s two church epistles, Ephesians and Colossians. None of the four Gospels has it. Neither is it found any place in Acts.
Acts 21:20, 21, NASB,
“20 And when they heard it they began glorifying God; and they said to him, "You see, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews of those who have believed, and they are all zealous for the Law;
21 and they have been told about you, that you are teaching all the Jews who are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children nor to walk according to the customs.”
The mother-church at Jerusalem, and the leadership, they all observed the Law. And this was in 58 CE, 30 years after the crucifixion.
Paul himself arrived at Jerusalem 58 CE, so he could observe what the Law commanded on Holy Feast Days: He wanted to obey by celebrating Pentecost, called ‘The Feast of the Weeks’ in Jewry.
But Post Acts we no longer find the Law observed. Because Paul had revealed to him by God that this was dealt with at the cross, back in 28 CE. The Law is now obsolete, - it is nullified and cast away entirely once and for all.
In the timespan of Acts, Paul explicitly taught that the Messianic believers were observing the Law – such as in Rom. 3:31 written in 56-57 CE at Ephesus,
“Do we then nullify the Law through faith? May it never be! On the contrary, we establish the Law.”
Paul knew nothing of the Law having been abolished at the cross, obviously. He wrote that they established, thus supported and obeyed the Law.
And as long as the Law was observed in the Acts-body of believers, we are not seeing the Church dispensation, are we?
For the church dispensation (Greek, oikonomia) did not emerge before Paul had been given the REVELATION OF THE MYSTERY.
PAUL SUMMING UP WHAT CHRIST DID IN MINISTRY,
AND NOW HAD CREATED A NEW KIND OF BODY
“17 AND HE CAME AND PREACHED PEACE TO YOU WHO WERE FAR AWAY, AND PEACE TO THOSE WHO WERE NEAR;
18 for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.
19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household,
20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone,
21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord,
22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”
Notice that Paul here goes back to the fact that the new church body, the ‘one new man’ consists of Christ having joined together Jew and Gentile by faith – verse 18: ..we BOTH have our access in one Spirit to the Father.
Paul goes on and points out that we, Gentiles, we are no longer aliens but we are FELLOW CITIZENS with the saints (those who had come to faith earlier, during Paul’s Kingdom-ministry there), and are of God’s HOUSEHOLD: Verse 19.
In past tense he points to the early apostles to Israel, Peter and the eleven, and the prophets – and Jesus as the corner stone – having once laid the foundation. This operation was a ‘One off’. Understood: these apostles are no longer in function as ministers of the Gospel. They are no longer laying any foundation. Neither are there any following apostles after the first century. God had only chosen 13 apostles, and that was it.
The Kingdom-gospel was cancelled due to the fall of Israel in Acts 28:28, 60 CE. Paul declared to the Sanhedrin at Rome that the salvation was now sent to the GENTILES, and they shall listen.
Verse 22, the church – in which Jew and Gentile is made to one body – we are BEING (present tense) built TOGETHER into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. This definitely tells us that it is no longer a project of the future earthly Kingdom of God in Israel, but it is the heavenly Kingdom up above in the heavens Paul wrote about. Our calling is heavenly. And it is an international calling, for the entire population on earth. For those who will believe on Jesus Christ for salvation.
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