Ephesians 2:1-10. The first chapter, the greeting of this letter really made a big point of God using his great power to “save” people. All people are under a death sentence that started way back in the Garden of Eden when Adam disobeyed God. Jesus , whose name means Yaweah is salvation (Yahweh is the personal name of the creator God, sometimes translated Jehovah), died in our place to pay that penalty and allow us to have a new relationship with God (See “A Tale of Two Trees” and “Three or One?”).

Here in verse 1 Paul reminds the believers that they were dead because they had trespassed (gone where they shouldn’t have gone) and sinned (missed God’s mark for their lives (see “A Tale of Two Trees”). In verse two Paul points out that this “trespassing” was active on their part by using the word “walked”. He then describes the path they were following (course). These believers used to live their lives like everyone else in the world. Paul gets more specific, he is talking about a world following the Devil, here called the prince of the power of the air and the spirit working in the sons of disobedience. The word power here doesn’t mean physical power but authority, some translations use the word “realm” like a kingdom. In ancient Greek thinking the word used for “air” here (remember the New Testament was written mostly in Greek) was “full of gods and demons” (the quote is from an old Greek writer named Plutarch). The leader or prince of the realm or kingdom of these false gods and demons would of course be the chief demon, Satan or the Devil. If you have read “A Tale of Two Trees” you know that the Devil (who was an angel who rebelled against God, a spirit being) was the spirit who encourage Adam to rebel against God. Also if you have read that page you would know that, although we use our bodies to disobey God that it is mainly about our spirit. Experts aren’t really sure if Paul meant a person’s inner rebellious spirit in the end of verse 2 or if he meant an overall attitude of rebellion in the culture around these people, or if this is another reference to the Devil. Maybe it’s all three. Anyway Paul is reminding his readers, who are now followers of Jesus, that they used to follow a different leader, the Devil, whether it was directly or by following a society that was following him. And this was a choice that they had actively made.

The spirit working in the sons of disobedience may have been their own rebellious spirit though since in verse 3 Paul continues to point out the active choice they had made before they chose to follow Jesus. They wanted something, they were driven by the desires of their bodies and minds and the life they chose to live deserved punishment (wrath) from God (see “A Tale of Two Trees”). Paul reminds his reader that they had lived as a part of that society (among them) and that they were just like everybody else. It is interesting that we all stand on the same level with respect to our guilt before God. Paul told the believers in the Roman church that all of them had been disrespectful and disobedient to God (sinned) and failed to meet his perfect standard (Romans 3:23, see also “A Tale of Two Trees”, God’s standard, called His glory, in Romans 2:23 was for us to relate to him in love and respect). Some Christians like to believe that God chose certain people to be a part of his forever family arbitrarily; randomly. We talked about that in an earlier post on Ephesians. According to this verse no one person deserves to be with God, we all have failed, we have all rejected him to one degree or another.

In verses 4-5 we see that God is “rich in mercy”. Mercy is not giving someone something they deserve. We deserve to be out of his life forever, we all turned our backs on God. Withholding that punishment or wrath, being merciful, is because of God’s great love for us (See 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 for a description of God’s kind of love).   Notice in verse 5 that this was when we were all still disobedient, dead or separated from God. While we were all in that same slow boat to Hell (see “A Tale of Two Trees”) God offered us a renewed relationship with him (alive) through what Jesus had done for us. Jesus actions were enough for everyone (1 John 2:2), though not everyone will benefit (John 1:12; 3:16). God, as a being of love, will not force us, not a lot nor a little, to be with him. But he does want us back if we will turn around (repent) and come back. So being a part of God’s forever family isn’t based on being good enough, none of us are good enough and we cannot reverse that, it is something free that God is offering to us; it’s a free gift. In verse 5 Paul reminds the readers of this when he says they were saved by “grace”. That word “grace” means something that brings joy, a favor. The idea is of an undeserved gift. God is offering eternity with him as a gift to us. If we want to be a part of his existence, a part of his forever family, we do have to want the gift and take it. According to John 1:12 those who want that relationship with God back are the ones who get it back. But remember it’s a relationship and requires concern for the other person, in this case God.

Verse 6 continues the picture of this relationship with God. We are not only alive, back together with God, but we are invited to sit right next to Jesus. That is amazing. How often are we offended by someone, they apologize and we start being friends again but we still sort of have a grudge against them? Verse 7 tells us that this is permanent too. It says “in the ages to come”, that’s talking about from now and forever more. This “happily ever after” really is forever. This rich gift that he has given us will result in his kindness toward us forever.   Words used to describe what kindness means here include good, pleasant, and useful. God’s kindness is just what we need and we will like it.

In verse 8 Paul returns to his idea from verse 5. Here he again says that they were saved by a good and pleasurable thing from God. The verse specifically says it was a gift from God and the end of the verse 8 and the beginning of verse 9 says because it was an undeserved gift that we have no room to brag about the fact that are now part of God’s family. The fact that we do have a part in the whole process of having a relationship with God again is shown in the middle of the verse. We see in the middle that this gift doesn’t come through the mail to us but through faith. In Hebrews it says that “faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things we don’t see”. Living with God in eternity is something we haven’t seen. The fact that our broken relationship is now fixed is something we don’t really see. But when we heard all about Jesus, and believed the information enough to put our eternity on it, that is when faith happened and that channel or pipeline of faith allowed what Jesus did for us to flow into our lives. Verse 10 even contains the idea that God has done all of this. The end of verse 10 tell us that God made all the necessary preparations before hand so that we could live for him. He has saved us from the penalty of sin, he has made our relationship with him new again, and he is now helping us live for him. We are aid for and cleaned up by Jesus and filled up with God’s powerful presence helping us (the Holy Spirit, see “A Tale of Two Trees”). God will supply all we need to do the things that show how much we love and appreciate him. Before we lived influenced by our own selfish desires and by the Devil and by a world that followed those same influences (verses 2-3) not anymore.

God thank you for unselfishly giving yourself to help all mankind. Thank you for making your existence clear to each and every one of us. Thank you for making it clear that we have all failed to honor you. Thank you for making each and every one of us aware of the forever existence in front of us. Thank you for making us nervous about that eternity. Thank you for showing me the path to peace about my forever future, Jesus, the restorer of our relationship. Help me show other the path to peace for their forever future. Help me show them the richness of your mercy and the greatness of your love. Help them see how good and pleasant it is to be a part of your forever family. I hope and pray that many will turn back to you.