Sunday School | Ephesians

Introduction

Getting so good at getting quiet. You're like a very good class of kindergarteners. You know? Just a couple of well-placed rebukes, then you just tighten right up. It's great. All right. Good morning. We are in the middle of— I don't even know— are we in the middle yet? Are we halfway through the New Testament, do you think? I haven't counted how many we've done, but we're in the midst of a series doing one-week overviews of every book in the New Testament. And this week, we are on Ephesians. Bob's passing them out. If you don't have this, you're gonna need this. This is our list of—or not our list. It's our— it's a one-page, four-page summary of Ephesians, which is pretty impressive because I don't think Ephesians is four pages long, but it's all right here. And then we also have everyone that we've done in the past. They're all in here. So if you want to grab something from a previous week, they're all up here. And then one other thing you might want to grab is this. These yellow cards have the web address where you can find the audio recordings of these conversations as well as the PDF versions of these documents. So if you want to listen to these while you're walking or doing whatever you do, you can listen to them all here, and you can, you know, if you'd rather have them on your iPad or something, they got that.

The Context of the Passage

Erin? We also merged them back with the regular channel. Oh, okay. Yes. So here's the thing. Erin helps run all of our sound and AV and video and all this kind of stuff. And about, I don't know, a year ago, six months ago, a while ago, I had this brilliant idea to split Sundays. So we used to have one audio stream for Church of Holy Spirit sermons and Sunday school, and it just felt like a convoluted mess. And so we pulled out my Sunday school and put it on its own kind of SoundCloud track, and then no one could ever find it, and so no one ever listened to anything ever again. And so it turns out that my brilliant idea was not that brilliant, so I've asked Aaron to kind of merge them back in. So they're being merged back in for folks that used to listen to this and then lost it. So sorry for that, but Aaron is fixing my problems. Okay? So this week, we're going to be in Ephesians. Help yourself. Grab them if you need them. And so let's start off like this, like we often do. What do you know about the book of Ephesians? Give me your best stuff. Gail, what you got?

Key Themes and Background

Armor of God. Okay. Armor of God. Very good. So Ephesians has what probably would be the classic New Testament text on spiritual warfare. It's the thing, those of you that are old enough to remember— what's that guy's name, Kelly? Who wrote all the spiritual warfare books in the late eighties? No. Not Tim LaHaye. What is it? Frank Peretti. Yeah. The Frank Peretti books like This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness. Did you guys read those? Like early nineties, late eighties, when I was in college, those things were out. And so that's all based on this idea of like our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers, principalities in this dark world, all that. Okay? And then flowing out of that is this passage on spiritual armor that, you know, would come, you know, with a helmet of salvation and the belt of truth and all that. That's all in Ephesians. Very good. What else do you guys know about Ephesians? Yeah. Bob?

It's good. Yes. Okay. Very good. So Bob says there's all this stuff about walking, walking in the light, walking in the unity, walking in a manner worthy of the calling you have received. Bob, where's all that stuff gonna happen in Ephesians? Yes. Right. The second half. So Ephesians is—is some books divide very neatly. Romans does this. We saw in Romans the first eight chapters are unmistakable theology. Nine, ten, eleven is kind of this weird transitional passage and then twelve and following is all application. So there's generally a pattern of, hey, let me tell you— let me give you the indicatives and then we'll go to the imperatives. This is the stuff that's true. This is the stuff that you gotta do. This is doctrine. This is application. This is orthodoxy. This is ortho praxi, right? And Ephesus or the letter to the church in Ephesus has that very clear division. The first three chapters are all theology. It's all doctrine. And then bam, from four one and following, moves into what do I do about it? And as Bob is saying, there's like, you know, this metaphor of walking shows up. So if you're in Ephesians, that last half is gonna all be the stuff that you do. The first half is all the stuff that's been done. Okay? Eric?

So what Eric is saying is that Ephesus as a city, regardless of the church, was a significant military outpost for Rome. And therefore, it perhaps isn't surprising that Paul would use, in writing to that city, he would use language as meaningful in that cultural context. And that makes total sense to me, but I didn't happen to know that Ephesus had a significant military presence. That could be that could be absolutely true. Just didn't know that. Okay? But what I will say this, and then do you want to speak to the military thing, Kelly?

Significance of Ephesus and the Letter's Audience

There's no question that whatever significance Ephesus is to Rome's military structure, again, I just don't know that. A lot of things I don't know. It is absolutely a significant church for the church. This city, what's going on in this city and the things that happen out of this city are a big deal. What are some of— let's do this. What are some of the indicators? Do you have any, can you support that case that Ephesus is a particularly important place? You want to say something, Lily?

Maybe the maturity of the audience which he's writing because it's not— it's not particularly corrected and it's— it's, I mean, purely mystical for lack of a better term. Like, I think that the way that he's speaking to them implies that they actually have a certain level of maturity. I think it's true. It's— it's neat. Yeah. When we— when we go through the letters, remember, so the letters of the church— what— oh, let me say it— Lily was saying that that perhaps one of the reasons that Ephesus is important is because it tends to be populated by a more mature believer set of believers. Right? Did I miss— did I miss summarize you?

Theological Composition of Ephesians

Nature of what he's writing, like he— like he feels that they can handle—that's right. Deeper truth. Yeah. So if you read this letter most of the letters are what we would call or rather we call them occasional. Meaning they're written to a specific occasion. And usually that occasion is to clean up a mess. Right? The Corinthians are screwing this up and the Thessalonians don't want to go to work and the Galatians have fallen into this like, you know, circumcision heresy. There's also the problem— when he writes to the Ephesians, there is corrective language because there always is, Scripture is useful for teaching rebuke and correcting and training in righteousness. However, it's not a very messy mess. The things in Ephesus are— he's building on a higher level. And I think you can make the case therefore that perhaps this church is a little bit— is ready for maybe the 300 level class, not just the 200 level class. So it's— yes. But there's a couple other things that make us think that Ephesus is important. Go ahead.

Kelly Sue? Yes. It was such a— and the Silversmith's Sacrality. Yes. Well, and so Kelly is drawing not from things that are written in the book. So Kelly was just saying that like, our— our Ephesus is the headquarters, the great place where Artemis was worshiped. This major kinda Roman deity. And you're not gonna find that in the book of Ephesians, you're gonna find that in the book of Acts. And so when you read about Ephesus in Acts, there's a strange amount of content. When you next time you go— next time you read through Acts, just notice really chapters like eighteen, nineteen, twenty— there's a ton of stuff. Paul spends a lot of time in Ephesus. It's really—they throw this big scene where he's preaching there and all the Artemis worshipers get go crazy and they start yelling, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. And it says in Acts 19 for like hours, they keep this up, just chanting her name. Right? So it's a big deal. And—and you see Paul spends a great deal of time there. The elders in Ephesus are the ones that are all weeping and crying before Paul goes off to get arrested in Jerusalem. It's a really big deal, for sure. Okay? Anybody else? Why we think that Ephesus was really significant? Yeah. Michael?

What about the aspect of John? Historically, John the apostle was buried there after his exile. And then Jesus is—

I didn't know this. So Michael is saying that John the apostle was buried in Ephesus? Just outside near Ephesus. Nowadays, it's close— probably back then it was a fascinating. Okay. So I— and this—I didn't know. So maybe John was buried there. I know that he was exiled to Patmos, but they brought his body and buried him in Ephesus. I've never heard that, but that might be true as well. When you said John the apostle, what I thought you were gonna say is this, and then we'll move on from this, is if you go look at the seven letters to the churches in Revelation, you know, you got all—we got, you know, First Corinthians, Second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, all that. But then there's this other collection of letters to the early churches. These are the letters that Jesus wrote to these churches. And if you— if you just go get out a map or, you know, turn to the end of your Bible and you look at all the churches in Revelation, they form a semicircle around Ephesus. Well, include Ephesus and a semicircle around Ephesus. And the general, you know, supposition is that the church in Ephesus did the job. When Paul dies, there's a sense of like, man, everyone is deserting me. I don't know where this is gonna go. Timothy, it's up to you, buddy. And he passes the baton to Timothy. Well, it seems based on these late letters to the churches that open up Revelation, that Timothy did the job. That Ephesus continued to be the— the kind of the missionary outpost to that part of the world. All that to say, the people this letter was written to is very important in the whole framework of it all. Okay. Virgil, final word and then we're gonna move on.

It seems to me that Paul is more clear that this theology— Yes. Okay. This is incredibly important. So what Virgil is saying is that what you get developed in the letter to the church at Ephesus is probably Paul's most developed argument about the integration of the people of God. In particular, we're talking about integrating Jews and Gentiles. Now we saw a little bit of this last week with the Galatians where Paul is accusing Peter and others not just of a theological error of requiring ritual obedience of Gentiles, but also of racism that you're drawing back. When the Gentiles show up, you drew back and refused to eat with them. There's this relational breakdown. And that relational breakdown and the call to that relational integration absolutely permeates this letter. I would say it's probably the most important thing that I would want you to recognize about this letter because it's really unique to the message of Ephesians.

The Central Message of Ephesians

So when we take the letter and you split it in half, you can say, okay, we've got all this doctrine in the first three chapters and then we've got all the application in the last three chapters. That's a really good way to divide the letter. If you split it in half, we got doctrine, we got application. That's great. But there's another axis that you could divide it across, and that is that the letter to the church in Ephesus is talking about our vertical reconciliation with God, and it's talking about our horizontal reconciliation with each other, in particular between Jews and Gentiles. And it is a major theme. It's— it's one of those things kind of like in Galatia, you could read that and only see it theologically and not see it relationally if you have the, you know, the advantage of growing up in a majority culture where those issues aren't as— aren't as present to you.

In a similar way, when you read Ephesians, because most of us are Gentiles and we already are like we already nobody, no Gentile Christian today feels like they're on the outside, like because Gentile Christians just are the majority of the church. But to a Gentile at the time that has felt, been, has felt outside, this whole letter is to say, come on in, come on in, come on in. And the racial implications for that are significant. So take a look at this. I'll show you, I've kind of built that as the top piece of this. Paul calls it the mystery. Okay? Look at this. We're on the front main page. He says, that God made known to us the mystery of his will. You're like, what's the mystery? Okay. According to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times have reached their fulfillment. Here's the mystery, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

Now, it's a little bit veiled there, but when he talks about bringing all things under one head, he is talking about Jews and Gentiles in one unified body. That's what he's describing there. Same thing. He himself is our peace, who has made the two one. He's not talking about God and us in this moment, he's talking about Jew and Gentile. He has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose— this is crazy. We— we rarely think of the horizontal reconciliation. His purpose on the cross, according to this, was to create in himself one new man out of the two. This is one new body of the church out of Jews and Gentiles making peace through— making peace. And in this one body to reconcile both of them, Jews and Gentiles, to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility with each other.

He came and preached peace to you who are far away, that's the Gentiles, and peace to those who are near. That's the Jews. So that through him we both, Jew and Gentile, have access to the Father by one Spirit. Okay. It permeates this letter. He's deeply interested in this question. If you go through, he's gonna call it the mystery over and over again. Maybe his clearest statement where he tidies it up is the top of that second column in 3:2-6, where Paul says, this mystery is— hold on to your hat— that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body and sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus. And then he says the same thing like, you know, several more times. Right? Mystery, mystery, mystery. He's like, listen, nobody saw this coming. God works with the Jews. It's to Abraham and his descendants, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12. And then, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's fine. We'll be nice to those dirty Gentiles some of the time. And Paul says, no, no, no, hold on to your hats. All of those dirty Gentiles, they get to come into the party and they don't have to become like us to worship our God. God is building one new body out of the two. Again, this is not that controversial to you, but it was a huge, huge deal at the time. Making sense? So when you read it, we want to understand the gospel through the lens, not only a vertical reconciliation, but of horizontal reconciliation. Okay?

Application of the Gospel

Now here's— that's going to be even the way that I framed that as annoyingly as possible. Okay? Because here's what we do. We tend to say, the gospel is vertical reconciliation. Full stop. Now, having said that, there's some other stuff, it's a little icing on the cake. Right? There's other stuff going on, and that's lovely. And then we're gonna back this notion of horizontal reconciliation. I think Ephesians takes that opportunity away from us. Ephesians is putting this notion of horizontal reconciliation up here in the same chapter. It's a little bit like this. It's a little bit like when Jesus was asked, what's the greatest commandment? What's the single greatest commandment? And what is his answer? Love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is like it. There's two. Okay? We have a tendency to be like, the gospel is about one thing. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And Jesus— yeah, but before you— don't forget the second thing. Do— do you hear this? What's the single greatest commandment? There's two. That's the— the single greatest commandment is this doubleness. Love God, love your neighbor. What is the gospel? Reconciliation with God, reconciliation. It's— it's jamming it in a way that we're like, well, hang on a second. Okay? Now, we can— we can acknowledge that Jesus puts it second. Right? There are two, and the first one comes first, second one comes second. But you can't ignore the fact that he— he shoves it in the same box. That we have a tendency to not be thoughtful about the horizontal. But it just— it, I mean, when you read this letter, it's just— you guys, it's just everywhere. Notice it next time you go through it. Okay? Stewart. What's Jesus? Who is Jesus? Fully God, fully man. That's right. Yes. He is, so— yeah. So, you— you also see his nature is— there's this duality to it. He is God, but he became man to reconcile us to himself and us to one another, right? And we just— we don't hit that so much. I'll— I'll show you. I'll— I'll try to prove that to you. If you were to try to find the gospel message, a summary of the gospel message in Ephesians, what chapter would you use? Two. Chapter two. What part would you use? For by grace you have been saved and this is not of yourselves. So that nobody can boast.

The Gospel in Ephesians

So what Gary just quoted is from Ephesians. Here's what we do. We'll take Ephesians two and we'll say, okay, here's the heart of it all. It's Ephesians 2:8-9. Some of you may have had to memorize this. It shows up in lots of like gospel presentation summaries.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not a result of works that no one should boast.

Right? And that's fantastic. It's a great— and we're— and you have to stop somewhere. So Ephesians 2:8-9 is a great thing. But if we wanted to give that a little bit of a— a little bit of context, then we would probably scroll back to the beginning of the chapter. And some—has anybody— did anybody memorize Ephesians 2:1 and following? I wouldn't be shocked if Harrison had. Have you? No? Okay. I am shocked then. All right. So Ephesians 2, do you have it in your brain? I'll— I'll read this to you so we don't mangle it. You've got it down at the bottom of your page. It's gonna start, as for you, you are dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live and you followed the ways of this world, the ruler, the kingdom of the air, the spirit is now working those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature, following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. That is like the classic statement of life before Christ, right? Just selfish, following these things. It's very much like you get this very parallel passage in Titus 3. And then there's this wonderful but, right, in verse 4. It says,

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you've been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. In order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Then we get to Gary's passage.

It is by grace you've been saved through faith, not yourselves, it's the gift of God, not by works that no one can boast.

Okay. And we tend to stop right there. We tend to go Ephesians 2:1-9 is the before— what God does, what we get, and it's a really very tidy summary of the gospel message. Okay. Ephesians 2:1-9. But then, the more enlightened of us will tend to say, yeah, yeah, yeah, but you forgot verse 10. And if you look at verse 10, verse 10 it says, okay. So here's our natural situation and everything's a mess, but God and his mercy has intervened and now we're saved by grace. But let's not forget verse 10. When you get to verse 10, it says,

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.

And now, we can finally congratulate ourselves that we understand that the gospel is not merely that we who are sinners are saved by grace, but that we who are sinners and saved by grace are now transformed. He saved us and called us to holy life. It doesn't just stop this easy-believeism, but it flows out into an outworking of our lives and there's things that we do now. Now that he's— he's saved us not by our good works and not from our good works, but to our good works. And now we're happy and now we can stop and we can close the book because we got the good part out of Ephesians two. You with me? And I want to suggest to you that those of you that are smart enough not to stop at verse nine and go to verse 10, you still don't get to stop. Because the rest of the chapter is the second point. The rest of Ephesians two is not just the vertical horizontal reconciliation, but the rest of the chapter is the horizontal reconciliation that we tend to not be very mindful of. Okay? So look at what he does in the second half of the chapter. This is the central argument of the book, all that we— all that we have in Christ. And then he says immediately, therefore, k, don't lose this. He's like, he— I didn't stop. I'm not done. Stay in the room and keep listening to me. He says,

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision, which done in the body by the hands of men. Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

He lists five things.

You were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope, without God in the world.

But, but, just like you had a but in the first half, get a but in the second half.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have now been brought near through the blood of Christ.

He's saying that the horizontal thing that was shafted, that's that too is being repaired by the same thing that solved the vertical. It is the blood of Christ that solves the vertical. It is the blood of Christ that solves the horizontal. Look at it.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one. He's not talking about God and us in this moment, he's talking about Jew and Gentile. He has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose— this is crazy. We— we rarely think of the horizontal reconciliation. His purpose on the cross, according to this, was to create in himself one new man out of the two. This is one new body of the church out of Jews and Gentiles making peace through— making peace. And in this one body to reconcile both of them, Jews and Gentiles, to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility with each other.
He came and preached peace to you who are far away, that's the Gentiles, and peace to those who are near. That's the Jews. So that through him we both, Jew and Gentile, have access to the Father by one Spirit. Okay. It permeates this letter. He's deeply interested in this question. If you go through, he's gonna call it the mystery over and over again. Maybe his clearest statement where he tidies it up is the top of that second column in 3:2-6, where Paul says, this mystery is— hold on to your hat— that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body and sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus. And then he says the same thing like, you know, several more times. Right? Mystery, mystery, mystery. He's like, listen, nobody saw this coming. God works with the Jews. It's to Abraham and his descendants, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12. And then, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's fine. We'll be nice to those dirty Gentiles some of the time. And Paul says, no, no, no, hold on to your hats. All of those dirty Gentiles, they get to come into the party and they don't have to become like us to worship our God. God is building one new body out of the two. Again, this is not that controversial to you, but it was a huge, huge deal at the time. Making sense? So when you read it, we want to understand the gospel through the lens, not only a vertical reconciliation, but of horizontal reconciliation. Okay?

Application of the Horizontal Reconciliation

Now here's— that's going to be even the way that I framed that as annoyingly as possible. Okay? Because here's what we do. We tend to say, the gospel is vertical reconciliation. Full stop. Now, having said that, there's some other stuff, it's a little icing on the cake. Right? There's other stuff going on, and that's lovely. And then we're gonna back this notion of horizontal reconciliation. I think Ephesians takes that opportunity away from us. Ephesians is putting this notion of horizontal reconciliation up here in the same chapter. It's a little bit like this. It's a little bit like when Jesus was asked, what's the greatest commandment? What's the single greatest commandment? And what is his answer? Love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is like it. There's two. Okay? We have a tendency to be like, the gospel is about one thing. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And Jesus— yeah, but before you— don't forget the second thing. Do— do you hear this? What's the single greatest commandment? There's two. That's the— the single greatest commandment is this doubleness. Love God, love your neighbor. What is the gospel? Reconciliation with God, reconciliation. It's— it's jamming it in a way that we're like, well, hang on a second. Okay? Now, we can— we can acknowledge that Jesus puts it second. Right? There are two, and the first one comes first, second one comes second. But you can't ignore the fact that he— he shoves it in the same box. That we have a tendency to not be thoughtful about the horizontal. But it just— it, I mean, when you read this letter, it's just— you guys, it's just everywhere. Notice it next time you go through it. Okay? Stewart. What's Jesus? Who is Jesus? Fully God, fully man. That's right. Yes. He is, so— yeah. So, you— you also see his nature is— there's this duality to it. He is God, but he became man to reconcile us to himself and us to one another, right? And we just— we don't hit that so much. I'll— I'll show you. I'll— I'll try to prove that to you. If you were to try to find the gospel message, a summary of the gospel message in Ephesians, what chapter would you use? Two. Chapter two. What part would you use? For by grace you have been saved and this is not of yourselves. So that nobody can boast.

The Gospel in Ephesians

So what Gary just quoted is from Ephesians. Here's what we do. We'll take Ephesians two and we'll say, okay, here's the heart of it all. It's Ephesians 2:8-9. Some of you may have had to memorize this. It shows up in lots of like gospel presentation summaries.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not a result of works that no one should boast.

Right? And that's fantastic. It's a great— and we're— and you have to stop somewhere. So Ephesians 2:8-9 is a great thing. But if we wanted to give that a little bit of a— a little bit of a context, then we would probably scroll back to the beginning of the chapter. And some—has anybody— did anybody memorize Ephesians 2:1 and following? I wouldn't be shocked if Harrison had. Have you? No? Okay. I am shocked then. All right. So Ephesians 2, do you have it in your brain? I'll— I'll read this to you so we don't mangle it. You've got it down at the bottom of your page. It's gonna start, as for you, you are dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live and you followed the ways of this world, the ruler, the kingdom of the air, the spirit is now working those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature, following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. That is like the classic statement of life before Christ, right? Just selfish, following these things. It's very much like you get this very parallel passage in Titus 3. And then there's this wonderful but, right, in verse 4. It says,

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you've been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. In order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Then we get to Gary's passage.

It is by grace you've been saved through faith, not yourselves, it's the gift of God, not by works that no one can boast.

Okay. And we tend to stop right there. We tend to go Ephesians 2:1-9 is the before— what God does, what we get, and it's a really very tidy summary of the gospel message. Okay. Ephesians 2:1-9. But then, the more enlightened of us will tend to say, yeah, yeah, yeah, but you forgot verse 10. And if you look at verse 10, verse 10 it says, okay. So here's our natural situation and everything's a mess, but God and his mercy has intervened and now we're saved by grace. But let's not forget verse 10. When you get to verse 10, it says,

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.

And now, we can finally congratulate ourselves that we understand that the gospel is not merely that we who are sinners are saved by grace, but that we who are sinners and saved by grace are now transformed. He saved us and called us to holy life. It doesn't just stop this easy-believeism, but it flows out into an outworking of our lives and there's things that we do now. Now that he's— he's saved us not by our good works and not from our good works, but to our good works. And now we're happy and now we can stop and we can close the book because we got the good part out of Ephesians two. You with me? And I want to suggest to you that those of you that are smart enough not to stop at verse nine and go to verse 10, you still don't get to stop. Because the rest of the chapter is the second point. The rest of Ephesians two is not just the vertical horizontal reconciliation, but the rest of the chapter is the horizontal reconciliation that we tend to not be very mindful of. Okay? So look at what he does in the second half of the chapter. This is the central argument of the book, all that we— all that we have in Christ. And then he immediately says, therefore, k, don't lose this. He's like, he— I didn't stop. I'm not done. Stay in the room and keep listening to me. He says,

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision, which is done in the body by the hands of men. Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

He lists five things.

You were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope, without God in the world.

But, but, just like you had a but in the first half, get a but in the second half.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have now been brought near through the blood of Christ.

He's saying that the horizontal thing that was shafted, that's that too is being repaired by the same thing that solved the vertical. It is the blood of Christ that solves the vertical. It is the blood of Christ that solves the horizontal. Look at it.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one. He's not talking about God and us in this moment, he's talking about Jew and Gentile. He has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose— this is crazy. We— we rarely think of the horizontal reconciliation. His purpose on the cross, according to this, was to create in himself one new man out of the two. This is one new body of the church out of Jews and Gentiles making peace through— making peace. And in this one body to reconcile both of them, Jews and Gentiles, to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility with each other.
He came and preached peace to you who are far away, that's the Gentiles, and peace to those who are near. That's the Jews. So that through him we both, Jew and Gentile, have access to the Father by one Spirit. Okay. It permeates this letter. He's deeply interested in this question. If you go through, he's gonna call it the mystery over and over again. Maybe his clearest statement where he tidies it up is the top of that second column in 3:2-6, where Paul says, this mystery is— hold on to your hat— that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body and sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus. And then he says the same thing like, you know, several more times. Right? Mystery, mystery, mystery. He's like, listen, nobody saw this coming. God works with the Jews. It's to Abraham and his descendants, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12. And then, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's fine. We'll be nice to those dirty Gentiles some of the time. And Paul says, no, no, no, hold on to your hats. All of those dirty Gentiles, they get to come into the party and they don't have to become like us to worship our God. God is building one new body out of the two. Again, this is not that controversial to you, but it was a huge, huge deal at the time. Making sense? So when you read it, we want to understand the gospel through the lens, not only a vertical reconciliation, but of horizontal reconciliation. Okay?

Practical Implications

Now here's— that's going to be even the way that I framed that as annoyingly as possible. Okay? Because here's what we do. We tend to say, the gospel is vertical reconciliation. Full stop. Now, having said that, there's some other stuff, it's a little icing on the cake. Right? There's other stuff going on, and that's lovely. And then we're gonna back this notion of horizontal reconciliation. I think Ephesians takes that opportunity away from us. Ephesians is putting this notion of horizontal reconciliation up here in the same chapter. It's a little bit like this. It's a little bit like when Jesus was asked, what's the greatest commandment? What's the single greatest commandment? And what is his answer? Love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is like it. There's two. Okay? We have a tendency to be like, the gospel is about one thing. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And Jesus— yeah, but before you— don't forget the second thing. Do— do you hear this? What's the single greatest commandment? There's two. That's the— the single greatest commandment is this doubleness. Love God, love your neighbor. What is the gospel? Reconciliation with God, reconciliation. It's— it's jamming it in a way that we're like, well, hang on a second. Okay? Now, we can— we can acknowledge that Jesus puts it second. Right? There are two, and the first one comes first, second one comes second. But you can't ignore the fact that he— he shoves it in the same box. That we have a tendency to not be thoughtful about the horizontal. But it just— it, I mean, when you read this letter, it's just— you guys, it's just everywhere. Notice it next time you go through it. Okay?

Jesus and the Unity of the Gospel

Stewart. What's Jesus? Who is Jesus? Fully God, fully man. That's right. Yes. He is, so— yeah. So, you— you also see his nature is— there's this duality to it. He is God, but he became man to reconcile us to himself and us to one another, right? And we just— we don't hit that so much. I'll— I'll show you. I'll— I'll try to prove that to you. If you were to try to find the gospel message, a summary of the gospel message in Ephesians, what chapter would you use? Two. Chapter two. What part would you use?

For by grace you have been saved and this is not of yourselves. So that nobody can boast.

The Core Gospel Message

So what Gary just quoted is from Ephesians. Here's what we do. We'll take Ephesians two and we'll say, okay, here's the heart of it all. It's Ephesians 2:8-9. Some of you may have had to memorize this. It shows up in lots of like gospel presentation summaries.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not a result of works that no one should boast.

Right? And that's fantastic. It's a great— and we're— and you have to stop somewhere. So Ephesians 2:8-9 is a great thing. But if we wanted to give that a little bit of a— a little bit of a context, then we would probably scroll back to the beginning of the chapter. And some—has anybody— did anybody memorize Ephesians 2:1 and following? I wouldn't be shocked if Harrison had. Have you? No? Okay. I am shocked then. All right. So Ephesians 2, do you have it in your brain? I'll— I'll read this to you so we don't mangle it. You've got it down at the bottom of your page. It's gonna start, as for you, you are dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live and you followed the ways of this world, the ruler, the kingdom of the air, the spirit is now working those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature, following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. That is like the classic statement of life before Christ, right? Just selfish, following these things. It's very much like you get this very parallel passage in Titus 3. And then there's this wonderful but, right, in verse 4. It says,

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you've been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. In order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Then we get to Gary's passage.

It is by grace you've been saved through faith, not yourselves, it's the gift of God, not by works that no one can boast.

Okay. And we tend to stop right there. We tend to go Ephesians 2:1-9 is the before— what God does, what we get, and it's a really very tidy summary of the gospel message. Okay. Ephesians 2:1-9. But then, the more enlightened of us will tend to say, yeah, yeah, yeah, but you forgot verse 10. And if you look at verse 10, verse 10 it says, okay. So here's our natural situation and everything's a mess, but God and his mercy has intervened and now we're saved by grace. But let's not forget verse 10. When you get to verse 10, it says,

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.

And now, we can finally congratulate ourselves that we understand that the gospel is not merely that we who are sinners are saved by grace, but that we who are sinners and saved by grace are now transformed. He saved us and called us to holy life. It doesn't just stop this easy-believeism, but it flows out into an outworking of our lives and there's things that we do now. Now that he's— he's saved us not by our good works and not from our good works, but to our good works. And now we're happy and now we can stop and we can close the book because we got the good part out of Ephesians two. You with me? And I want to suggest to you that those of you that are smart enough not to stop at verse nine and go to verse 10, you still don't get to stop. Because the rest of the chapter is the second point. The rest of Ephesians two is not just the vertical horizontal reconciliation, but the rest of the chapter is the horizontal reconciliation that we tend to not be very mindful of. Okay? So look at what he does in the second half of the chapter. This is the central argument of the book, all that we— all that we have in Christ. And then he immediately says, therefore, k, don't lose this. He's like, he— I didn't stop. I'm not done. Stay in the room and keep listening to me. He says,

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision, which is done in the body by the hands of men. Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

He lists five things.

You were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope, without God in the world.

But, but, just like you had a but in the first half, get a but in the second half.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have now been brought near through the blood of Christ.

He's saying that the horizontal thing that was shafted, that's that too is being repaired by the same thing that solved the vertical. It is the blood of Christ that solves the vertical. It is the blood of Christ that solves the horizontal. Look at it.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one. He's not talking about God and us in this moment, he's talking about Jew and Gentile. He has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose— this is crazy. We— we rarely think of the horizontal reconciliation. His purpose on the cross, according to this, was to create in himself one new man out of the two. This is one new body of the church out of Jews and Gentiles making peace through— making peace. And in this one body to reconcile both of them, Jews and Gentiles, to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility with each other.
He came and preached peace to you who are far away, that's the Gentiles, and peace to those who are near. That's the Jews. So that through him we both, Jew and Gentile, have access to the Father by one Spirit. Okay. It permeates this letter. He's deeply interested in this question. If you go through, he's gonna call it the mystery over and over again. Maybe his clearest statement where he tidies it up is the top of that second column in 3:2-6, where Paul says, this mystery is— hold on to your hat— that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body and sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus. And then he says the same thing like, you know, several more times. Right? Mystery, mystery, mystery. He's like, listen, nobody saw this coming. God works with the Jews. It's to Abraham and his descendants, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12. And then, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's fine. We'll be nice to those dirty Gentiles some of the time. And Paul says, no, no, no, hold on to your hats. All of those dirty Gentiles, they get to come into the party and they don't have to become like us to worship our God. God is building one new body out of the two. Again, this is not that controversial to you, but it was a huge, huge deal at the time. Making sense? So when you read it, we want to understand the gospel through the lens, not only a vertical reconciliation, but of horizontal reconciliation. Okay?

The Role of Christ and the Unity in the Gospel

Now here's— that's going to be even the way that I framed that as annoyingly as possible. Okay? Because here's what we do. We tend to say, the gospel is vertical reconciliation. Full stop. Now, having said that, there's some other stuff, it's a little icing on the cake. Right? There's other stuff going on, and that's lovely. And then we're gonna back this notion of horizontal reconciliation. I think Ephesians takes that opportunity away from us. Ephesians is putting this notion of horizontal reconciliation up here in the same chapter. It's a little bit like this. It's a little bit like when Jesus was asked, what's the greatest commandment? What's the single greatest commandment? And what is his answer? Love. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is like it. There's two. Okay? We have a tendency to be like, the gospel is about one thing. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And Jesus— yeah, but before you— don't forget the second thing. Do— do you hear this? What's the single greatest commandment? There's two. That's the— the single greatest commandment is this doubleness. Love God, love your neighbor. What is the gospel? Reconciliation with God, reconciliation. It's— it's jamming it in a way that we're like, well, hang on a second. Okay? Now, we can— we can acknowledge that Jesus puts it second. Right? There are two, and the first one comes first, second one comes second. But you can't ignore the fact that he— he shoves it in the same box. That we have a tendency to not be thoughtful about the horizontal. But it just— it, I mean, when you read this letter, it's just— you guys, it's just everywhere. Notice it next time you go through it. Okay?

The Dual Nature of Christ and the Gospel

Stewart. What's Jesus? Who is Jesus? Fully God, fully man. That's right. Yes. He is, so— yeah. So, you— you also see his nature is— there's this duality to it. He is God, but he became man to reconcile us to himself and us to one another, right? And we just— we don't hit that so much. I'll— I'll show you. I'll— I'll try to prove that to you. If you were to try to find the gospel message, a summary of the gospel message in Ephesians, what chapter would you use? Two. Chapter two. What part would you use?

For by grace you have been saved and this is not of yourselves. So that nobody can boast.

Summary and Final Reflection

So what Gary just quoted is from Ephesians. Here's what we do. We'll take Ephesians two and we'll say, okay, here's the heart of it all. It's Ephesians 2:8-9. Some of you may have had to memorize this. It shows up in lots of like gospel presentation summaries.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not a result of works that no one should boast.

Right? And that's fantastic. It's a great— and we're— and you have to stop somewhere. So Ephesians 2:8-9 is a great thing. But if we wanted to give that a little bit of a— a little bit of a context, then we would probably scroll back to the beginning of the chapter. And some—has anybody— did anybody memorize Ephesians 2:1 and following? I wouldn't be shocked if Harrison had. Have you? No? Okay. I am shocked then. All right. So Ephesians 2, do you have it in your brain? I'll— I'll read this to you so we don't mangle it. You've got it down at the bottom of your page. It's gonna start, as for you, you are dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live and you followed the ways of this world, the ruler, the kingdom of the air, the spirit is now working those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature, following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. That is like the classic statement of life before Christ, right? Just selfish, following these things. It's very much like you get this very parallel passage in Titus 3. And then there's this wonderful but, right, in verse 4. It says,

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you've been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. In order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

Then we get to Gary's passage.

It is by grace you've been saved through faith, not yourselves, it's the gift of God, not by works that no one can boast.

Okay. And we tend to stop right there. We tend to go Ephesians 2:1-9 is the before— what God does, what we get, and it's a really very tidy summary of the gospel message. Okay. Ephesians 2:1-9. But then, the more enlightened of us will tend to say, yeah, yeah, yeah, but you forgot verse 10. And if you look at verse 10, verse 10 it says, okay. So here's our natural situation and everything's a mess, but God and his mercy has intervened and now we're saved by grace. But let's not forget verse 10. When you get to verse 10, it says,

For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do.

And now, we can finally congratulate ourselves that we understand that the gospel is not merely that we who are sinners are saved by grace, but that we who are sinners and saved by grace are now transformed. He saved us and called us to holy life. It doesn't just stop this easy-believeism, but it flows out into an outworking of our lives and there's things that we do now. Now that he's— he's saved us not by our good works and not from our good works, but to our good works. And now we're happy and now we can stop and we can close the book because we got the good part out of Ephesians two. You with me? And I want to suggest to you that those of you that are smart enough not to stop at verse nine and go to verse 10, you still don't get to stop. Because the rest of the chapter is the second point. The rest of Ephesians two is not just the vertical horizontal reconciliation, but the rest of the chapter is the horizontal reconciliation that we tend to not be very mindful of. Okay? So look at what he does in the second half of the chapter. This is the central argument of the book, all that we— all that we have in Christ. And then he immediately says, therefore, k, don't lose this. He's like, he— I didn't stop. I'm not done. Stay in the room and keep listening to me. He says,

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called uncircumcised by those who call themselves the circumcision, which is done in the body by the hands of men. Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

He lists five things.

You were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel, foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope, without God in the world.

But, but, just like you had a but in the first half, get a but in the second half.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far away have now been brought near through the blood of Christ.

He's saying that the horizontal thing that was shafted, that's that too is being repaired by the same thing that solved the vertical. It is the blood of Christ that solves the vertical. It is the blood of Christ that solves the horizontal. Look at it.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one. He's not talking about God and us in this moment, he's talking about Jew and Gentile. He has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose— this is crazy. We— we rarely think of the horizontal reconciliation. His purpose on the cross, according to this, was to create in himself one new man out of the two. This is one new body of the church out of Jews and Gentiles making peace through— making peace. And in this one body to reconcile both of them, Jews and Gentiles, to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility with each other.
He came and preached peace to you who are far away, that's the Gentiles, and peace to those who are near. That's the Jews. So that through him we both, Jew and Gentile, have access to the Father by one Spirit. Okay. It permeates this letter. He's deeply interested in this question. If you go through, he's gonna call it the mystery over and over again. Maybe his clearest statement where he tidies it up is the top of that second column in 3:2-6, where Paul says, this mystery is— hold on to your hat— that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body and sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus. And then he says the same thing like, you know, several more times. Right? Mystery, mystery, mystery. He's like, listen, nobody saw this coming. God works with the Jews. It's to Abraham and his descendants, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12. And then, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's fine. We'll be nice to those dirty Gentiles some of the time. And Paul says, no, no, no, hold on to your hats. All of those dirty Gentiles, they get to come into the party and they don't have to become like us to worship our God. God is building one new body out of the two. Again, this is not that controversial to you, but it was a huge, huge deal at the time. Making sense? So when you read it, we want to understand the gospel through the lens, not only a vertical reconciliation, but of horizontal reconciliation. Okay?