Chapter 1 ends by speaking of the church as Christ's body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all; chap. ii. shows us the materials of which the church is composed. Chap. 2 differs greatly from chap. 1 in its general bearing; for chapter 1 brings God forward, and shows us what He counseled before the world was, scarcely touching upon the condition in which He found His elect; while chap. 2 gives prominence to what we were, and details our low estate. Here we are bidden to look down; in the preceding chapter we are called to look up.
In speaking of our former condition the Spirit impresses a line of truth different from that in Romans There the sinner is viewed as living in his sins—here as dead, “dead in trespasses and in sins.” In Rom. 1 needed to be put to death, and I am shown my death with Christ; in Eph. 1 am viewed as dead, and now quickened together with Him. What more striking picture could the Spirit draw of our former state of corruption and helplessness? What can come forth from the dead but corruption? and where can the dead find help but in God Himself? Yet was it an active kind of death; for we “walked according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” The devil rules all in the world; his influence is all-pervading, and we were once under his power as all others. Another Spirit works in us now through grace. The enemy is called “the prince of the power of the air” here only; and this is quite in accord with the general character of this Epistle, which is occupied with the heavenlies. In 1 Peter he is spoken of as “a roaring lion,” and characteristically; for saints are there viewed as strangers and pilgrims passing through the wilderness, and it is in the wilderness we find the lion.
Up to this point the apostle had said “ye,” meaning the Gentiles to whom he was writing; but were the Jews better as to their former state? “Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath even as others” (ver. 3). The Jew, with all his privileges and favors, was not one whit better than the outside Gentile. There may be outward differences, but before God the ruin is complete. The desires of the flesh may be distinct from those of the mind; but both spring from the one evil source. The former would comprehend all that is base and foul; the latter, man's search after wisdom, which invariably leads him from God, and lands him in self-complacency, vanity, and infidelity. Solemn thought we ever should have delighted in and performed the will of God; but we loved not His way, preferring our own and indulging our “desires” (or “wills”) to the full. The opposite should be true now; His will, not our own, should be our unceasing delight. Christ as Man below never did His own will, but the will of His Father; and we are called to follow His steps. All this was our state by nature; we were then “children of wrath even as others.”
Where is hope to be found for the ruined? In God alone, and He is instantly brought in. His counsels were formed long before, irrespective of our nature and actings; but the Spirit is careful to tell us what we were when grace wrought in us to give us a part in and with the Christ of God. Note the largeness of the expressions: “rich in mercy"— “great love” — “the exceeding riches of His grace” is the language too strong? Not for the magnificent portion which is ours, through grace, in Christ above. He loved us too “when we were dead in sins” —the first movement came from above and not from below— “and hath quickened us together with Christ.” Christ came down in grace to where we were; He found us in a state of death with sins upon us; He Himself went down into death bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. What else would have availed? But, having accomplished all, God has raised Him from among the dead, and He has gone up in the power of resurrection-life into the presence of His Father and God as the risen Man, Head of the new creation, where all is of God. And we have been quickened with the Christ—not merely quickened, but with Him. Quickening has always been true from the beginning; for man—irrespective of dispensational differences—needs to be born again to enter into the kingdom of God; but association in life with Christ was not thus developed until He died and rose. Is not this what He alluded to in John 10? “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” For we are not only “born anew,” which is true of saints in all dispensations, but we are associated in life with the risen Christ. He is the accepted and beloved One in the presence of God; we are the same through grace. He lives evermore; and because He lives, we live also. We are brought right into the heavenlies—already across Jordan—and made to sit together in Him: not with Him yet, but in Him. To this wondrous display of grace, in bringing us into such an exalted position, God will point in the ages to come; the exceeding riches of His grace will be everlastingly told out in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
It is noticeable that we are reminded here again and again that all is of grace, “faith” being the means, and this not of ourselves: it is the gift of God. Can God sanction boasting in His presence? Nay; he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. And so will it be forever.
Salvation is looked upon in Ephesians as an accomplished and present thing. In Phil. 2:12, 1312Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12‑13), and Rom. 8:22-2522For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. 24For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 25But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. (Romans 8:22‑25), the believer is regarded as a pilgrim here below (as also in 1 Peter), beset with difficulties and dangers, and looking for salvation at the coming of the Lord Jesus. But this would not suit Ephesians, where we are viewed as blessed in the heavenlies. We have been and are saved. All is of God; it is His work alone. We were created in Christ Jesus for special good works (which God before prepared that we should walk in them).