Ephesians 2:3, commentary and pictures

The verse describes the former condition shared by all, a life lived in time past in the lusts of the flesh, carrying out the desires of both body and mind, and standing by nature under wrath like all others. To have that manner of life is to let bodily appetites and passions rule, with tongue and tastes running after the unbelieving world and self made the idol worshiped. To be by nature children of wrath is to be under God's wrath and the condemnation of the law through disobedience, spiritually dead and unworthy in self, which made redemption necessary. Against that past stands what God in His rich mercy and great love does for those dead in sins, quickening them together with Christ, raising them up together and seating them with Him in heavenly places, saving them by grace. That salvation is by grace through faith, not of self or of works, and it comes only in a radical inward new birth where the faculties are not replaced but thoroughly changed in use, with new thoughts, feelings and motives implanted.

Former Life in Lusts

The verse sets forth the former condition once shared by all, living in time past in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and being by nature children of wrath even as others. Before being made alive with Christ, all lived to satisfy bodily and mental desires and stood by nature exposed to divine wrath like the rest of disobedient humanity. That past describes humanity's sinful state before God's mercy and grace quicken the dead together with Christ, raise them up together, and make them sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Through the Son's coming in humanity fallen people may become children of God, saved by grace rather than left in that death.

Having conversation in the lusts is having the manner of life and conduct in them. It is living after the flesh by letting the appetites and passions of the flesh rule. It is letting tongue and tastes run in the same way as those of the unbelieving world, with self as the idol worshiped. Fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind is living under the control of both bodily nature and mental impulses, obeying the impulses, thoughts, and feelings of flesh and mind.

That former life stands among being dead in trespasses and sins. It is walking according to the course of this world and according to the prince of the power of the air working in the children of disobedience. All were once among those children of disobedience, living in fleshly lusts and carrying out the desires of flesh and mind. Being by nature children of wrath is being under God's wrath and under condemnation of the law through disobedience and transgression of God's commands. It is being spiritually dead, utterly unworthy and undeserving in self, a condition that made redemption necessary and makes return to allegiance possible only through Christ's sacrifice.

Death Under Dark Powers

Living in desire as described here is spiritual death, a state of following worldly desires while unaware of danger, unready to die, uninterested in eternal life, and unaware of the conflict against sin. Hearts in that condition are undisciplined and unsubdued and in harmony with the world, fulfilling the desires of flesh and mind while held by Satan's power in disobedience. To be under the spirit at work in the disobedient is to be subject to Satan, the fallen angel who rules the powers of darkness, directs evil spirits, and seeks control of human beings. All were once among the children of disobedience in this way, walking according to the course of this world and according to the prince of the power of the air.

The unbelieving and wicked remain under the control of the powers of darkness, subject to that spirit working in the children of disobedience. That former life ruled by sinful desires of flesh and mind is enslavement to sin and Satan, serving sinful lusts and passions as enemies of God, serving divers lusts and pleasures as slaves of debased appetites and passion and servants of sin and Satan. People who have not been made alive through Christ and changed by His power show this evil spirit, which must not be allowed to spread its influence in Christian institutions. In that bondage people follow the maxims of men and the footsteps of transgressors of God's law, living in the lusts of the flesh and fulfilling the desires of flesh and mind in bondage to self, not loving God supremely or neighbor as self. By nature utterly destitute of spiritual life and dead in trespasses and sins, they live in darkness in a world polluted and demoralized by sin, in a crooked and perverse generation, and their condition is hopeless apart from deliverance.

Disobedience to God lies at the foundation of all such sin. Centering the affections on minor objects shows that God is not supreme, while the flesh wars against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh in daily warfare over with whom a person walks. The character shown in daily practical life decides destiny for eternity.

Mercy That Makes Alive

Against that past stands what God, who is rich in mercy for His great love, does for those dead in sins: He quickens them together with Christ, raises them up together, and makes them sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, saving them by grace. That exchange of the past condition for life comes when the wicked forsake the way and the unrighteous forsake thoughts and return to the Lord for abundant pardon. Disobedience lay at the foundation of the former sin, yet even when people were dead in sins God quickened them together with Christ and raised them to sit together in heavenly places.

They are quickened together with Christ, not aside from Christ and not as independent atoms. Those once dead may be so identified with the Son of God as to be wholly one with Him as He was one with the Father. That oneness places great responsibility and gives the highest measure of character and the richest blessings possible for human beings to enjoy.

Sitting together in heavenly places means showing the world the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness through Christ Jesus, to be shown in the ages to come. That showing is done by bringing that kindness into dealings with one another.

Salvation is by grace through faith, not of self but the gift of God, not of works lest any boast. Thoughts of self-exaltation are therefore not to be cherished but to be subdued and cut away, for all good works are dependent on a power outside of self. Salvation is God's gift received through faith, not something people can achieve by themselves, and the sinner passes from death to life with a life marked by good works and new duties in Christ's service.

Repentance and conversion do not come from human goodness or worthiness. They result from God's goodness, mercy, and love, for goodness and mercy belong to His character, and God has quickened and renewed the dead by His own power, elevating and ennobling them not because they were worthy but because of the great love with which He loved them. God loved people while they were spiritually dead in sin, and that same love takes away sin and imputes Christ's righteousness when people permit Him. Accepting that love lifts believers into enjoyment of His love and grace, makes them channels of light for His blessings of love and mercy and glory, restores them to the moral image of God, glorifies the name of Jesus, and makes glad the heart of God.

This mercy came through the Son's coming in humanity, by which fallen people may become children of God. That love without parallel brought the Son of God from the courts of heaven to suffer and die so the dead might live through Him. Bearing on account of human sins the horror of darkness in Gethsemane forced great drops of blood from His pores.

Deliverance from that dead condition comes only through the Messiah's sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. That sacrifice brings in reconciliation for iniquity and everlasting righteousness and brings everlasting deliverance to all who walk after Him with positive evidence that they are separated from the world. All who endure to the end will be saved, and all who hold the beginning of their confidence firm unto the end will have eternal righteousness.

This fallen condition reveals the meaning of grace, for grace is God's favor shown to sinful human beings who hunger for it, not to sinless angels who obey all His commands, have never sinned, and have never needed it. By disobeying the commands of God all people fell under condemnation of the law as by nature children of wrath, utterly unworthy and undeserving. Sinners did not seek after grace, but grace was sent in search of them, and their need and utter unworthiness is the qualification that gives assurance they will receive it, not because they are worthy but because they are so utterly unworthy.

The passage presents God as weighing characters, actions, motives, purposes, and thoughts of the heart, reading every motive, purpose, and thought. What is needed is not more light but surrender of the soul to God so that by grace the light becomes a living principle of action. Self-confidence turns even enlightened men out of the way into crooked practices that lead thousands into false steps, and unfair dealing, misappropriation of the Lord's funds, and investing money in worldly projects that block the advancement of salvation will be weighed in the balances and found wanting.

From this state all must be born again, moved as they were by a spirit they did not know and utterly destitute of spiritual life. This being born again is the same formation of character as Ye must be born again, a great transformation of the divine image in which sinners are quickened together with Christ, infused with the Holy Spirit, delivered from bondage to self, saved and ennobled with widened thoughts of an altogether different character. The Spirit's power quickens the dead to hear the words of life.

Change of True Conversion

The change the verse calls for is inward and radical, invisible like leaven turning meal into bread yet revealed in the life. No new faculties are supplied, but the employment of the faculties is thoroughly changed, the natural inclinations softened and subdued, new thoughts and feelings and motives implanted, and every faculty regenerated without loss of identity. The natural heart cleansed from all impurity is thus fitted for service to God, raised from being dead in trespasses and sins.

Genuine conversion brings a real turn from former wrong habits, for faith working through love purifies the soul. Faith in Jesus takes away sin and imparts His righteousness, and the mind placed under Christ's control is refined and purified and elevated. Through belief on Christ it is privilege to be partakers of the divine nature and so escape the corruption in the world through lust, escaping all sin and all defects of character. Christ is the Sin-bearer who takes away the sin of the world, and not one sinful propensity need be retained by learning of Him and learning what He is to those He has ransomed.

That change is wrought through hearing the Word of God as the great agency of transformation, sanctifying through the truth. The true believer shows sanctification, and works testify of being born of God. By faith in the Son of God those once children of wrath pass from death to life and become children of God and heirs of heaven. Fallen people are transformed by His mercy and abundant grace and by His training to develop characters after the divine likeness as sons and daughters prepared for an important part in the occupations and pleasures of heaven.

That transformation is so amazing that Satan with all his boasting and all his confederacy of evil united against God and the laws of His government looks upon the transformed as a fortress impregnable to his sophistries and delusions, an incomprehensible mystery to him. Seraphim and cherubim and the powers commissioned to work with human agencies look on with astonishment and joy, with songs of rapturous praise to God and to the Lamb as they behold the transformation of character. Those made alive become doers of Christ's words, drawing nourishment from Him as branches from the living Vine to bear the same kind of fruit as the parent stock. Working in harmony with God as laborers together with Christ in drawing souls to God, they become peacemakers who shall be called the children of God, lights to shine amid the moral night of this wicked and perverse generation, prepared by a Christlike experience to suffer with their Lord and afterward to be partakers with Him in His glory in heaven above.

The sinner passes from death to life with pardon and new life, beginning new duties in Christ's service with a life marked by good works. Through Christ's transforming grace those who believe become new in character and show the fruits of the Spirit, with life and power reaching forth unto holiness. This salvation by the gospel of Jesus Christ is offered to Jews and Gentiles alike, delivering from hopelessness in the lusts of the flesh. All who endure to the end will be saved, and all who hold the beginning of confidence firm unto the end will have eternal righteousness and the crown of life. But those who depart from the principles which give character to the truth return to that past condition and need converting as verily as does the hardened sinner, for merely having begun the course with widened thoughts of an altogether different character does not secure salvation without enshrining truth in the heart, doing Christ's will, and persevering unto the end.

The natural condition is spiritual death, and revival is resurrection from that death under the ministration of the Holy Spirit, a renewal of spiritual life and a quickening of the powers of mind and heart. Reformation is different from revival, signifying reorganization and change in ideas and theories, habits and practices. It will not bring forth the good fruit of righteousness unless connected with revival of the Spirit, so revival and reformation must blend to do their appointed work.

Living and Sharing Grace

The former life in gratifying fleshly and mental cravings as by nature children of wrath like all others is a personal condition calling for spiritual change and training. That evil mindset belonging to those not made alive and transformed by Christ's power must be kept from spreading its influence inside Christian institutions. Leaving that past means submitting to the revealed word and being led by the divine Spirit to do God's works, relying wholly on the Lord as stronghold rather than on personal facilities, wisdom, strength, organizations, and institutions.

Those made alive are to take up the same work for others still dead in trespasses and sins, bearing the burden for souls together with Christ and making personal effort in Jesus' name to bring them to knowledge of the truth. Those others are poor souls in darkness of error who do not know the truth yet can be convicted and converted, even when sunk in degrading habits, and they need patient loving help and invitation to Christ because they cannot restore themselves. The truth of justification and righteousness by faith must be received in the heart, treasured as a heavenly gift, and appropriated by abiding faith until it becomes a living working principle that purifies mind and heart from sin, purifies character, elevates the mind, and appears outwardly in transformed life and character. Those who know its reality by experience must impart what they received, awakening sluggish sensibilities to practice and teach it to those ignorant of it, and in that work angels cooperate by communicating fresh and new light to Christlike workers as they share the light.

The passage stands before Christians as reason to put away pride, pettishness, envy, jealousy, evil surmising, strife, malice, and hatred, and to cherish love and unity so that all will recognize them as Christians. An impressive house of worship and even the most splendid temple is worthless if hearts are not right, so the greatest anxiety should concern spiritual condition. Children are to be taught that God meets with His people and to have their thoughts directed heavenward.

Presenting this grace and love together with the purity and holiness of Jesus' life has power to reform and transform character and uproot sin. That is the grace and love shown to people while dead in trespasses and sins, enemies in mind by wicked works, serving varied lusts and pleasures as slaves of debased appetites and passion and servants of sin and Satan, revealed in Christ becoming the propitiation for sins through whose work and the Holy Spirit's ministry souls find forgiveness. As believers accept that love they are lifted into enjoyment of His love and grace, made channels of light for His blessings of love and mercy and glory, and restored to the moral image of God, which glorifies Jesus and gladdens God's heart. True sorrow over that sinful and unworthy condition gives reason to mourn and draws the penitent near to plead effectually for pardon and obtain grace to conquer, where the darkened understanding is enlightened, the stony heart becomes a heart of flesh, the rebellious sinner is subdued, and the will is brought into conformity with God's will.