Chosen in Christ, saved by grace: Ephesians 1 and 2

Ephesians presents itself as a letter from 'Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God' (1:1), written while he was a prisoner (3:1; 4:1; 6:20). The traditional view is that Paul wrote it from Rome about AD 60 to 62, together with Colossians and Philemon. Some scholars propose Caesarea or Ephesus as the place of imprisonment. A number of critical scholars regard Ephesians as written by a close follower of Paul after his death, pointing to its long sentences, its vocabulary, its view of the church, and its close resemblance to Colossians. Defenders of Pauline authorship answer that a different subject, a secretary and a mature stage of thought can explain these features. The class reads the letter as Paul's, as the early church did, and notes that its teaching does not depend on that decision.

The destination is also uncertain. Several of the oldest manuscripts lack the words 'in Ephesus' in 1:1, and the letter contains no personal greetings, though Paul had spent about three years in Ephesus (Acts 19; 20:31). Many scholars therefore think it was a circular letter meant for several churches in the province of Asia, with Ephesus as the main centre. Ephesus was the leading city of Roman Asia, home to the great temple of Artemis, a crowded port, and a mixed population of Greeks and Jews. Most readers were Gentile believers (2:11; 3:1).

There is no specific crisis or correction in the letter. It has a different aim: to lift readers' eyes to the whole sweep of what God has done in Christ and to show them where they now belong. Chapters 1 to 3 describe what God has done; chapters 4 to 6 describe the life that fits it. This class covers the first two chapters.

Ephesians is a letter, but it reads more like a sustained meditation or sermon in letter form. Its opening (1:3-14) is a single sentence in Greek, built as a Jewish berakah, a blessing of God in the pattern of the Psalms ('Blessed be the LORD'). Praise comes first, and doctrine follows inside the praise. This is a reason to take the letter's teaching as something to be adored as well as understood.

The key phrases are 'in Christ' and its variants, used repeatedly in the letter. Paul does not speak of blessings that float free of Christ; they are given in him, and his people share them because they are united to him. The letter's other repeated pattern is a contrast of 'once' and 'now' (2:2-3, 11-13), which moves from the old condition to the new. Readers should follow these contrasts as the structure of the argument.

The chapters also touch disputed topics: election, grace and faith, the nature of the church. Two principles help.

• First, read each statement as pastoral assurance: salvation rests on God's choice and gift, not on human work.
• Second, note what Paul leaves unsaid. He does not here discuss how election relates to human responsibility, and traditions that disagree on that have drawn their positions from Ephesians together with other passages.

Chapter 1:3–14

Paul blesses 'the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ' who has blessed believers with every spiritual blessing 'in the heavenly places'. The blessing is organised around the three persons. The Father chose his people 'in Him before the foundation of the world', to be holy and blameless, and in love 'predestined' them for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ (1:4-5). The language is of purpose and family, and it all rests on 'the good pleasure of His will' and the praise of his grace. The Son is the sphere of the work: 'in Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins' (1:7), a word that recalls the exodus, when God bought his people out of slavery. God has made known the 'mystery of His will': to sum up (anakephalaioo) all things in Christ, things in heaven and on earth (1:9-10). The Spirit is the 'seal' of the promise and the 'pledge' (arrabon) of the inheritance (1:13-14), the down payment of what is to come. The refrain 'to the praise of His glory' (1:6, 12, 14) marks each stage.

Chapter 1:15–23

Paul thanks God for the readers' faith and love and prays that they will be given a spirit of wisdom and revelation to know God. He names three things to be known: the hope of his calling, the riches of his inheritance among the saints, and the greatness of his power. That power was displayed in raising Christ from the dead and seating him at God's right hand, far above every ruler and authority, and every name that is named. The language echoes Psalm 110:1 and Psalm 8:6. God gave him as head over all things to the church, 'which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all'. The church is not an extra; it is the place where the exalted Christ's rule is already visible.

Chapter 2:1–3

Paul now describes where believers came from. They 'were dead' in trespasses and sins, following the course of this world, the ruler of the power of the air (a reference to the devil), and the desires of the flesh. This is a verdict on Jew and Gentile together ('we all'): by nature they deserved wrath.

Chapter 2:4–10

The turn comes with two words, 'But God'. Because of his rich mercy and great love, God made the dead alive together with Christ, raised them up with him and seated them with him in the heavenly places (2:5-6). The verbs made alive, raised and seated repeat what 1:20 says of Christ: what happened to the head is shared by the body. Paul gives the reason twice: 'by grace you have been saved' (2:5, 8). He then adds that salvation is 'through faith', that it is 'not from yourselves', and that it is God's gift and 'not by works', so that no one can boast (2:8-9). Many interpreters take 'this' as referring to the whole of salvation by grace through faith; others see faith itself as the gift. Either way, Paul rules out self-salvation. Verse 10 gives the purpose: believers are God's 'workmanship' (poiema), created in Christ for good works 'which God prepared beforehand', that they should walk in them. Good works are the result of salvation and its purpose, not the means of earning it.

Chapter 2:11–13

Paul turns from individuals to the Gentile readers as a group. They were once separated from Christ, shut out from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, with no hope and 'without God in the world'. Now in Christ Jesus, far off as they were, they have been 'brought near by the blood of Christ'.

Chapter 2:14–18

'He Himself is our peace.' Christ has made the two groups one and broken down the 'dividing wall' of hostility by setting aside in his flesh the law of commandments and regulations. The image may recall the stone barrier in the Jerusalem temple that warned Gentiles not to enter on pain of death; warning inscriptions from it have been found, and Acts 21:28-29 records a riot over the claim that Trophimus, an Ephesian, had been brought inside. More broadly it names the law as the barrier between Jew and Gentile. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, and to reconcile both to God in one body through the cross. Verse 17 draws on Isaiah 57:19 and 52:7: he came and preached peace 'to you who were far away and peace to those who were near'. Through him both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

Chapter 2:19–22

The Gentiles are therefore 'no longer foreigners and strangers' but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household. The household is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone, and it grows into a holy temple in the Lord, a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. The people once kept out of the temple have become the temple.

Ephesians 1 and 2 hold some of the Bible's clearest statements about God's purpose before time. The doctrine of election, that God chose his people in Christ before creation, is rooted in the Old Testament's account of God choosing Israel (Deuteronomy 7:6-8) and is widened here to all who are in Christ. Paul uses it to praise and to assure, and not to speculate. Romans 8:29-30 and 9 to 11 also speak of predestination, and 2 Timothy 1:9 says grace was given before time began.

The passage also states the grace of salvation as plainly as any in the New Testament. People are dead in sin, made alive by God's mercy, and saved through faith, so that no one can boast. Romans 3:21-28 and Galatians 2:16 agree. Yet the same passage says that believers are created for good works, so faith and works are not placed against each other: works follow faith as its fruit (compare James 2:14-26). The doctrine of the Trinity is present without being argued: Father, Son and Spirit each act in salvation (1:3-14).

The church is also central: the body of Christ (1:22-23), the one new humanity (2:15), a household and a holy temple. This fulfils the promise to Abraham that all nations would be blessed (Genesis 12:3) and the hope that God would dwell with his people (Exodus 25:8; Ezekiel 37:27).

Ephesians 1 and 2 describe Christ at every point of the story of salvation. He is the one in whom the Father chose his people before creation (1:4), who redeems by his blood (1:7), who is raised and seated at God's right hand above all rule and authority (1:20-21), who is head of the church (1:22), and who is 'our peace' (2:14). He is also the cornerstone of the temple (2:20).

The New Testament here presents the exaltation of Christ as the fulfilment of Old Testament texts about the king. Psalm 110:1 (the Lord says to my Lord, 'sit at my right hand') and Psalm 8:6 (all things under his feet) are echoed in 1:20-22, and the New Testament applies both to Jesus elsewhere (Mark 12:36; 1 Corinthians 15:25-27; Hebrews 2:6-9). The peace of 2:17 takes up Isaiah 57:19 and 52:7, where God announces peace to those far and near, and Paul says that Christ himself brought this announcement. The cornerstone imagery recalls Psalm 118:22 and Isaiah 28:16, both used of Christ elsewhere (Acts 4:11; 1 Peter 2:4-8). In the death of Christ, the barrier that the law set up between Israel and the nations is removed, and the temple that once kept Gentiles out is replaced by a people in whom God dwells.

The letter thus presents Christ as the head of a new humanity, formed in himself (2:15), as Adam was head of the first (compare Romans 5:12-21).