(1) “And you did He make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins, (2) wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience; (3) among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing 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, for His great love wherewith He loved us, (5) even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved), (6) and raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus: (7) that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus: (8) for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: (9) not of works, that no man should glory. (10) For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them.”
NOTE.—It is suggested that the whole book be studied in connection with the lesson. This epistle was written at Rome, addressed primarily to the church at Ephesus. Paul had visited this place on his second and third missionary journeys, the last time remaining nearly three years.
Golden Text.—“By grace are ye saved through faith.”Eph. 2: 8.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
(1) What does Paul say had been done for those to whom he wrote this epistle? What had been their condition? What had brought them into this condition? Verse 1. Note 1. (2) What is said of their former course? In doing this, what prince had they been serving? In whom does that spirit, or prince, work? To what spirit then does Paul refer? Verse 2. Note 2. (3) How many have taken part in that kind of service? In what is such service manifest? What does such a course of life do for one? Verse 3. (4) But what has God done for us? What moved Him to do this? In what is God rich? By what, then, have we been saved? Verses 4 and 5. Note 3. (5) How has the Christian been raised up? What has God, through Christ, enabled human beings to do? Verse 6. Note 4. (6) What will God do through the salvation of men? Through whom did He make manifest that kindness toward us? Verse 7. (7) By what and through what does man receive salvation? Whose deeds are not reckoned in the accomplishment of this work? What, then, is our salvation? Verse 8. (8) In what does it not consist? Why? Verse 9. Note 5. (9) What are we ourselves? In whom are we created? For what purpose? What has always been God's purpose concerning our course here? Verse 10.
NOTES.
1. “You did He quicken.”—“Sin is the transgression of the law”—of God's law. The fact, then, that God still recognizes the existence of sin proves that He has not abrogated or changed His law, as the world is being taught to-day; but He is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” The transgression of that law brings upon the transgressor the sentence of death. As “all have sinned” (Rom. 3:23), so all have passed under that death sentence. But in Christ all who will may escape the execution of that sentence. That is how the repentant sinner is quickened, made alive. Christ has paid that penalty for such; and because He has, eternal life is theirs.
2. “The prince of the power of the air.”—Who is he? We are told in this same verse. The spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience is the father of disobedience himself, the one who began his disobedience by opposing the government of God in heaven and is now seeking to do that same work in the earth. It is Satan, the personal spirit of evil. “Satan exists, and is to be feared; but the humblest Christian may conquer him in Christ's strength.”—Peloubet.
3. “God, being rich in mercy.”—It is because of that richness of God that man is alive to-day with the hope and possibility held out before him of everlasting life. He has an infinite love that will cover and blot out all our sins if we will but yield ourselves to Him. “There's a wideness in God's mercy like the wideness of the sea.”
4. “Raised us up with Him.”—Here is the crowning proof of God's love to man, in that after our sins had slain His Son, He raised us with Christ from the dead (spiritually now, and bodily hereafter), and has given us the privilege of sitting with Him in heaven itself, giving us the companionship of Christ in place of the companionship of Satan which we, previously, had chosen.
5. “Not of works.”—“Salvation is not to be obtained in the Pharisee's way; by prayers in the market place, ostentatious gifts to the poor, and similar parade of good deeds. The good deeds are to be done, but with humility; and our hope of heaven must rest, not on them, but on Christ.”—Peloubet.
