God Accepts You As Gentiles, In Christ (So Don't Become Jewish Christians; Ephesians 2:1-10) Series

Today's sermon is on Ephesians 2:1-10. But I want to start by reading all of chapter 2. We often make a mess of chapter 2, especially in verses 8-10, and the reason we make that mess is because we ignore Paul's larger argument. Paul is writing to Gentiles, explaining to them that they are made alive, and made part of God's family, through Jesus, and not through the Mosaic covenant.

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And (it was) you (plural)--

the ones being dead in your wrongdoing and sins,

in which you all formerly walked

according to the age of this world,

according to the ruler of the authority of the air-- the one now working in the sons of disobedience--

in which we also all lived formerly in the desires of our flesh,

doing the will of the flesh and of the mind,

and we were children by nature for wrath as also the rest of them --

Now, God,

being rich in mercy,

because of his great love

with which he loved us --and us being dead in our wrongdoing--

he made us alive together in/by Christ--by grace you (plural) all are saved--

and he seated us together in the heavenly places in/by Jesus Christ,

in order that he might show in the coming ages the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness upon us in/by Christ Jesus.

For by grace you are saved through allegiance,

and this not from yourselves,

of/from God (it is) the gift,

not from works,

in order that no one can boast.

For FOR HIM we are a made thing,

created in Christ Jesus for good works,

which God prepared before hand,

in order that in them we may/will walk.

Therefore , remember that formerly you (plural)--

the nations in/by the flesh,

the ones being called uncircumcision by the ones being called circumcision in the flesh made by hands--

that you were at that time apart from Christ,

having been alienated from the citizenship of Israel

and strangers to the covenants of the promise,

not having hope

and without God in the world.

Now, in Christ Jesus you, --the ones formerly being far away--

have become near by the blood of the King.

For he is our peace,

the one making both one,

and the dividing wall of the partition breaking-- the enmity by his flesh--

the law of the commandments in ordinances abolishing,

in order that:

the two he might create in/by himself into one new person,

making peace.

and he might reconcile both by one body to God through the cross,

killing the enmity in himself.

and coming, he proclaimed the good news of peace to y'all-- to the far -- (Gentiles)

and peace to the ones near. (Jews)

because through him we have access-- we both -- by/in one Spirit to the Father.

Therefore, consequently, no longer you are strangers and foreigners,

but you are fellow citizens of the holy ones and household members of God,

being built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets,

being the cornerstone of King Jesus himself,

in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the

Lord,

in whom also you are being built up together into a dwelling place for God in the

Spirit.

Verses 1-3

And (it was) you (plural) --

the ones being dead in your wrongdoing and sins,

in which you formerly walked

according to the age of this world,

according to the ruler of the authority of the air-- the one now working in the sons of disobedience--

in which also we all lived formerly in the desires of our flesh,

doing the will of the flesh and of the mind,

and we were children by nature for wrath as also the rest of them--

One of the things our English Bibles work very hard at, is making it so you can read any single verse on its own and have it make sense. This makes it easier to memorize, and easier to understand. The problem with this comes in passages like Ephesians 2, where verses 1-3 aren't supposed to make sense on their own. We don't actually get the main point-- the main verbs-- until verse 4. But before Paul can get to his main point, he needs the Ephesians to pictures themselves in a particular way. [From a discourse analysis perspective, this is massive overspecification; cf. Steven Runge, Discourse Analysis of the Greek New Testament].

Stop, for just a minute, and think about what your life looked like before you submitted to Jesus as King, before you repented from your sins and pledged allegiance to Jesus. If you held a mirror in front of your life back then, what did it look like?

Basically, when we read verses 1-3, imagine them answering this question: "Who were you?"