The apostle has said that salvation is not of works but of grace, that none should boast; but in ver. 10 he shows that works hold an important place in Christianity. “Dead works” are as valueless, if not as outwardly offensive, as “wicked works “; but believers are “created in Christ Jesus, unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” It answers to justification before men, as James speaks, which is in no way a contradiction of the doctrine of Paul in Romans, but its supplement. How else is reality proved? Believers may speak of faith in Christ's name, and of association with Him on high; yet the “good works” convince of truth more than mere words. But how are such works produced? Not by following the law as a rule of life (the Galatians, who followed it, fell to biting and devouring each other), but by learning Christ in the power of the Holy Ghost. Believers have been created anew; and in the new creation law has no place.
How striking that the apostle should bid the saints to look down in ver. 11! We are carried very high in ver. 7, and shown our place as sitting in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus; we are now told to remember what we were. It is important to distinguish between self-occupation, and the remembrance of our ruined state. The former leads to doubt and fear; the latter to humility and deeper appreciation of grace.
The Ephesians, in their Gentile state, were called uncircumcision—a term of great reproach. (1 Sam. 14:6; 31:4). Circumcision was the sign of relationship with God (and more also): to be uncircumcised was to be altogether outside the circle of relationship and privilege. Consequently, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, they were apart from the Christ, having no hope, and without God in the world. All this is true of the Gentile: the Jew was outwardly nigh, had the promises, hoped in Christ Who should come, and had God's sanctuary and oracles. In the earlier part of the chapter the apostle lays down what is true of Jew and Gentile alike; here he emphasizes what was particularly true of the Gentiles.
But where has Christ's work brought the believer? Into the Jew's old place of nearness to God? Nay, but into a place incomparably nearer than the Jew ever conceived. Moreover, He has brought the believing Jew into the same place, having abolished all distinctions after the flesh. This is an immense advance on all Old Testament teaching. The prophets spoke much of blessing for Gentiles, but always in a subordinate way to the Jew (all of which will be realized in the millennial reign). But meanwhile God has brought out His better thing; and Jew and Gentile, believing in Christ, are brought into the same blessed place of nearness to God: humbling to Jewish prejudice doubtless, but none the less the will of God. There are thus in this period three classes in the world: the Jews, the Gentiles, and the church of God (1 Cor. 10:34 The Jew, believing in Jesus, is brought out of his old Jewish standing; and the Gentile from his place of distance: both are reconciled unto God in one body, and both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
It is to be observed that God has “broken down” the wall which He Himself reared (it would have been sin for anyone else to have done so) of old. Jehovah said to His people, “I Jehovah am holy, and have severed you from other people that ye should be mine” (Lev. 20:26). The godly gloried in this, and could say, “He sheweth His word unto Jacob, His statutes and His judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation: and as for His judgments, they have not known them” (Psa. 147:19, 20). So that Peter was warranted in telling Cornelius that it was an unlawful thing for a Jew to come unto, or keep company with, one of another nation. But such distinctions belong to the past. God's present work is the formation of the one body. Christ has abolished in His flesh the enmity (ver. 15). Peace is now proclaimed to the distant and to the nigh: and both draw near to the Father.
Therefore are we Gentiles no more strangers and foreigners but fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God: and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner-stone. Here we have a new thought: not merely one body, but a building. Formerly God sanctioned a material house and dwelt in it in the midst of the people whom He had redeemed; but here we read of a temple of a very different order. The building on Moriah was disowned and empty (“your house is left unto you desolate” Matt. 23:38), and God was framing “a spiritual house,” composed of living stones. Mark here it is God's building; not the work of man. We have to distinguish between the house as built by God, and as committed to human workmen. The first thought is to be found here, as well as in Matt. 16, and 1 Peter 2.
Viewed from this standpoint, all is perfect, as God's work ever is, and must be. The church against which the gates of hell cannot prevail is composed of living members, called and built by Christ Himself: no rubbish enters there. But how different when man's part is contemplated! In 1 Cor. 3 Paul and His associates are viewed as builders in the house. Paul had laid a foundation at Corinth: others had followed, and built upon it. There the warning is found; for some may build wood, hay, and stubble (instead of gold, silver, and precious stones), and lose their reward in the coming day—all their work being consumed, while yet others may defile the temple of God, and be destroyed. The latter class are not Christians at all. God deals with men according to their profession; and all who take the ground of being His servants, whether possessing life or not, will be dealt with on that ground. (Compare Matt. 24:8-11; 25:30). Men build with doctrines: the faithful servant teaches the truth as revealed, and gathers true souls; the careless laborer, whose teaching is indifferent, gathers those who too often prove to be unreal; while the false servant corrupts the spring, and poisons and ruins all who fall under his baneful influence.
In Eph. 2:21 the temple is viewed as progressing; “it groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord.” This would include every saint of this dispensation; and in this sense the temple is not completed until the Lord comes. “All the building” is the correct idea, not “each several building” as in RV. The latter rendering militates against the whole teaching of the epistle, which is the unity of the blessed in Christ.
In ver. 22, we get a further thought “in whom also ye are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.” Here we have, not the progressive thing, but the local thing—the gathered saints at Ephesus were God's habitation. Very similarly does the apostle speak to the Corinthians, “Know ye not that ye are God's temple, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you” (1 Cor. 3:16)? Note the difference in the language in (1 Cor. 6:9), where the saints are viewed individually. Precious, yet solemn, truth for saints to remember, that, as gathered, the Spirit of God is present, making them His habitation. How widely and long this has been overlooked in Christendom, one scarcely need say, but it remains on the page of Scripture as the truth of God. Where believed, what room for human officers in worship, to say nothing of priests for us? Ministry or rule is another question.