In whom ye also are builded together— I take the sense of this allegory to be as follows, says Mr. Locke: It is plain from the attestation of the apostles and prophets, that the Gentiles who believe in Christ are thereby made members of his kingdom, united together under him their head into such a well-framed body, wherein each person has his proper place, rank, and function, to which he is fitted, that God will accept and delight in them as his people; and live among them as in a well-framed building dedicated to him, whereof the Gentiles make a part; and without any difference put between them, are framed in equality, and promiscuously with believing Jews, by the Spirit of God, to be one people, among whom he will dwell, and be their God.
Inferences on Ephesians 2:8; Ephesians 2:18.—St. Paul, in the beginning of this chapter, is speaking of the condition in which the Ephesians were before their conversion from a state of heathenism to the genuine belief of the gospel, and magnifying God's mercy and the exceeding riches of his grace towards them, from the first to the eighth verse; in which he goes on to make them sensible of their obligations to God, who had thus quickened them that were dead in sins: for by grace are ye saved; that is, "For it is very fit you should know and consider, that it is by the mere grace, or favour, or mercy of God, (as the word signifies) that ye are saved through faith; that ye are put into a method and state of salvation, by means of your receiving in sincerity the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is his own act, his mere mercy, that you have terms of acceptance offered you, upon your believing in Christ. The being saved, I say, in this method, is by the grace or mercy of God; not of yourselves, that is, by no contrivance or appointment of your own;—not owing to yourselves; but it is the gift, the free contrivance, and offer of God to you, that ye should be put into this happy state by the gospel:" this is the meaning of the expression,—and that not of yourselves; not, (as it may found in our translation) "and that faith, or believing, is not of yourselves, but entirely, the gift of God;" (for the word that, in the Greek, is of the neuter gender, and so cannot easily be supposed to relate to the word faith going before it:) but, "that or this whole matter,—this your being saved by faith, this being called into a state of salvation by the gospel, is not of yourselves, but the gift, the favour, the offer of God, previous to all design and thought of your own." Then follow those words, Ephesians 2:9. Not of works, lest any man should boast: that is, "And as the proposal of this gracious method of salvation was not owing to yourselves and your contrivance, so neither was such a favour merited at the hands of God by any past perfection, by any good behaviour of your own preceding it: for, as I have told you already, Ephesians 2:1; Ephesians 2:5, you were dead in trespasses and sins, when you were called to the knowledge of this merciful dispensation. And this I add, Lest any of you should boast, as if you had deserved at the hands of Almighty God, by your past behaviour, so merciful a dispensation, so gracious a proposal, as is made to you in the gospel." And then he goes on to assure them farther, that their happy condition is owing entirely to God, who had, without any contrivance or desert of theirs, so ordered affairs by his good providence, that they were now believers in Jesus Christ, and had the offers of salvation upon the terms of the gospel brought home to them.
This therefore is the manifest design of the Apostle in the text;—To raise the gratitude of the Ephesians to Almighty God, and to inspire them with all possible regard to him, by putting them in mind, that they were formerly in a helpless and miserable condition,—dead in sins, void of the true life of reasonable creatures; that they had no thought of themselves of such salvation as had been offered them by the Christian religion; that they had no merit to engage the Almighty to make them such an offer, and preach to them such a state of reconciliation and salvation; that it was of his grace, or favour, that they were saved from their former evil condition of sin and ignorance, by receiving and believing the gospel; for which they were obliged therefore to magnify the exceeding riches of God's mercy towards them in Christ, and not to attribute any thing to themselves, who were before this void of every thing that could be pleasing to Almighty God, or influence him to shew them so great and remarkable a kindness. "It is by grace that ye are delivered from your former miserable condition; it is an act of grace that ye are saved through faith, or put into a state of salvation by believing the gospel; and this being saved by this method, and by means of this believing, is not of yourselves, but wholly owing, in respect to the merit of it, and to the first moving causes of it, to the good will of God, whose free offer and gift it is." Having thus guarded against any erroneous or pernicious sense, in which Christians may be led to understand the passage in question, it may not be improper to consider briefly in what sense it is that Christians can be said to be saved through faith, or by believing in Jesus Christ.
And 1st, We may well be said to be saved through faith, because it is by believing in Christ that we come to know and embrace those terms which are offered by God for our salvation and happiness. He came to save us; and only by closing in with his proposals in full confidence, we can be saved: and this we cannot do without believing in him as the God-man, as the Mediator between God and man, and as our Prophet, Priest, and King, and receiving him as such. This, therefore, being absolutely necessary, we may well find salvation attributed to this, which is the first moving principle of the instrumental kind towards it; and without which we should not go one step forward in that way to salvation, which he came to point out to us. He is the way, and the truth, and the life; and without knowing him, and believing in him, how should we know the way, or the path to that eternal life which he came to unfold to us; who otherwise must have wandered every one after the peculiar imagination and humour of our own hearts?—As salvation, therefore, comes in the method proposed by Christ, so may it well be attributed to the believing in him, because that alone can put us into the method, proposed by him, and that is the only means of pardon and acceptance through the Beloved.—We are justified by faith alone, that Christ may have all the glory.
[I am here only speaking of those who are called to be members of the Christian dispensation. Every allowance which is consistent with infinite mercy and justice, will be made for inferior degrees of light: though all must be saved through faith. See the notes on the Epistle to the Romans.]
2nd, Christians are saved through faith, because it is the principle of their obedience, and of all their good actions. It is the tree which bears that good fruit, without which there is no salvation.
In these senses, therefore, and on these accounts, amongst others, great things might well be said of faith in the New Testament, and salvation attributed to it; but the great point in which we are concerned, is, not to be deceived in a matter of such importance; and to that end, not to interpret any one expression of the New Testament so as to contradict its plainest and most repeated declarations.
Let the conclusion, therefore, of this first head of our inferences be to this effect:—"Faith is an act of the mind most acceptable to God; faith in his Son saves us, as it puts us in the secure way to salvation, as it brings to us, by virtue of the Divine promises, justification and pardon, and as it is the principle of all our Christian graces, and of all our best and most godlike behaviour. This faith alone,—that is, the method proposed in the gospel, without the works of the ceremonial law of Moses, is sufficient to secure to us our future happiness: but faith alone, in another sense,—that is a belief in Christ, with out holiness and obedience to his laws, an empty unfruitful faith, accompanied with an impenitent life, will condemn us at last. We are not saved through faith, or by believing in Christ, unless we be influenced by it; For faith is requisite to holiness and practice; and without holiness no man can see the Lord. Faith is indispensably necessary in order to salvation; and so likewise is a holy and good life indispensably necessary in order to salvation: or, in other words, a faith working by love, and manifesting itself by good works, is that alone which will be of any account to us at the last; for as the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." See the Reflections.
The words in Ephesians 2:18 rightly understood, will give us a distinct conception of the nature of the Christian religion, as it stands distinguished from all others, whether natural, or pretending to revelation. All the false religions pretend to give access to God or the gods, by instructing men in what manner to approach him by prayer and supplication; how to please him, and obtain his favour and protection, by such works as each religion accounts to be holy and acceptable to God; and how to reconcile ourselves to him, after having offended him by our transgressions, through sorrow and repentance, or such other means as have been devised and instituted as effectual to this end. But the access to God which the gospel opens to us, is to be had only under the guidance and direction of his Holy Spirit, and in the name and through the mediation of God's own eternal Son. This access is the only one which the Christian religion knows any thing of; for we cannot come to God but by his Holy Spirit, and through his Son, and this is what no other religion does or can pretend to.
To give us a distinct conception of these words, and of the different offices of the Son and the Spirit, we must conceive the Spirit of God as always present with us, and the Son as always in the presence of the Father. The Spirit dwells with the faithful to guide and direct them, to begin, second, and encourage all their good desires, to help them in overcoming their infirmities, and to labour together with them in the work of their salvation, to make their calling and election sure. The Eternal Son of God is at the right hand of the Majesty on high; there he is our advocate; he intercedes for us; he receives and offers up our prayers; he obtains for us a remission of our sins, in virtue of the one oblation which he once made of himself upon the cross, the memorial of which is ever in the sight of God.
This will teach us what it is to have access by the Spirit through Christ; for the Spirit abideth with us, he is at our right hand, and by his happy influence it is that we draw near to Christ, and by him approach to the Father. The Son is our High-priest cloathed with majesty and power, and seated at the right hand of God, able to save all who will come to him; through whose powerful and always prevailing intercession, the way is open to pardon and reconciliation. The Spirit is our Comforter, given us to dwell and abide with us, to be a new principle of life within us, to quicken our mortal bodies, that, dying to sin, we may live unto God through holiness. To draw men to God is the work of the Spirit, who therefore resides and dwells with men: to reconcile God to man is the work of our High-priest, who lives in the glory of God, making continual intercession for us. Nay, both the Father and the Son, as well as the Spirit, make their abode with the faithful soul. See John 14:16; John 14:23.
And now, consider the calamitous condition of mankind under what view you please, you will always find a proper remedy provided by the mercy of God. If you reflect upon the holiness of God, and his hatred of sin, and begin to fear that he can never be reconciled to sinners; Take courage; the work is difficult,—but the Son of God has undertaken it; and how great soever the distance between God and you is, yet, through faith in the Eternal Son, you may have access unto him. If still you fear, that all may again be lost through your own weakness and inability; Even here help is at hand; the Spirit of God is your support, he is the pledge and earnest of the redemption of the faithful.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, Behold the miserable state of every man by nature.
1. We are dead in trespasses and sins,—spiritually dead, as criminals under the curse and condemnation of a broken law, and the life of God extinguished in our souls; and in this state of desperate misery we must for ever continue, till redeemed by the blood, and quickened by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus.
2. Though dead to God, we have been but too much alive to the practice of sin; wherein in time past we walked according to the course of this world; our spirit apostate; our ways perverse, conformed to the maxims, and copying the manners of a world that lieth in the wicked one; the consequence of which cannot but be condemnation with the world, unless we repent, and are converted.
3. We were at that time the bond-slaves of the god of this world; acting according to the instigation of the prince of the power of the air, the devil, who, with his legions, is permitted to exercise sometimes his power and agency in the aerial regions, and is the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, by himself, and those foul fiends his fellows, tempting, seducing, governing, hardening the unbelieving and disobedient. Among whom also we all, Jews as well as Gentiles, even apostles as well as others, had our conversation in times past, enslaved by sin, and led captive by the devil at his will; a state how fearful!
4. We then lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging every corrupt appetite, and fufilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, as the beasts which perish; devoted to the gratification of brutal passions, and in our souls filled with pride, envy, malice, hatred, revenge, and the whole train of spiritual wickednesses; disposed to every abomination, and only wanting temptation and opportunity to commit every iniquity in which body or soul can be engaged.
5. As the source of all our evil, we are by nature the children of wrath, obnoxious to the displeasure of that God who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, and born with every evil propensity. The more we are acquainted with this our natural state of desperate corruption, remediless guilt, and hopeless misery, the more we shall value the unsearchable riches of Christ, and be filled with admiration, love, and praise, in the view of an incarnate Redeemer.
2nd, With exultation and wonder should we contemplate the astonishing mystery of redeeming love. Here in its brighter glories we see it displayed; and God in that delightful attribute of mercy appears exalted in the highest.
1. The fontal cause of our redemption is God's infinite love and grace, who is rich in mercy, the source inexhaustible of all our blessings, for his great love wherewith he loved us; his very name and nature being Love, and only Love, to all who submit to be saved by his grace; which is the only way of salvation, because he will not, he cannot, give his glory to another.
2. What serves as a foil to set off in the most distinguished lustre this mercy of our God, is the state in which we lay, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins; and, instead of any thing to engage his love, had in us every thing to excite his loathing: even then, when we were foul, odious, and in a condition as desperate as that of the fallen angels, did the God of all grace regard us, and plucked us as brands from the burning. Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.
3. The inestimable blessings conferred upon such wretched sinners, coming to him in repentance and faith, and cleaving to him perseveringly in love, are, [1.] Life in Christ our living head. He hath quickened us together with Christ, by the same Spirit by which Christ was raised from the dead. By grace ye are saved; and thus, through the transcendently rich and unmerited love of God, restored to his favour here, and, if faithful, will be crowned with glory hereafter, through the same grace. [2.] He hath also raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: as God the Father raised up Christ to glory, and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places, so he has raised us up, all true believers, both Jews and Gentiles together, without distinction, and has made us to sit together with him in the heavenly mansions, by faith, hope, meditation, contemplation, and divine union and communion with him; and, if we be faithful, will seat us there with Christ for ever.
4. We have the principal end which God proposes in this great salvation. That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace, in his kindness towards us, through Christ Jesus; encouraging to the latest days of time poor and perishing sinners to come and trust in this boundless mercy revealed in the gospel; and that in the better world, when all the glory of his grace in brightest colours shall appear, he might be the object of ceaseless praise and adoration to saints and angels through all the countless ages of eternity.
5. The means appointed to convey all these blessings to us is faith. For by grace ye are saved, freely through faith, which is the way wherein we receive all the great and precious promises; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, and, like all other blessings, flows from his boundless love, and is the work of his Spirit in our hearts; that the glory of the divine grace might not suffer the least diminution.—Not of works, lest any man should boast: neither the salvation itself, nor the faith whereby you are made partakers of it, is owing to any good works done by you, as the meritorious or moving cause of it: as there was certainly nothing of that kind to be found among the Gentile part of you, to induce the great and holy God to shew such high favour to you, who, in violation of the light and law of nature (as it is generally called), or rather of that Divine light which was afforded you under your Heathen dispensation, practised all abominable iniquities; (See Romans 1:18-32.) so there was nothing to engage God's love and kindness among the Jewish part of you, who, in contradiction to the clearer light and higher obligations of revelation, had shamefully perverted and transgressed the law of Moses in numberless instances (See Romans 2; Romans 3.) But God has manifested his wondrous mercy to you in offering to you the grace of the gospel in these guilty and deplorable circumstances, that all pretences might be equally cut off from one and the other of you, as if it were owing to any works of righteousness performed by you; lest any one among you should be so vain-glorious as to take a share of that honour to himself, which belongs to God alone; or should vaunt and glory in himself, as if he had done something to render him worthy of mercy, which, indeed, in this wretched state of things, was absolutely impossible.
6. Though our salvation be purely of grace, God has taken care to engage to himself, by the strongest ties, the hearts of those who accept of his offers, yield to his grace, and submit to all the operations of his Holy Spirit, whilst all the glory is his own. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus; all that is excellent in us comes from his free grace through faith: (our souls, renewed by divine operation, now produce the genuine fruits of righteousness; he works all that is good in his faithful saints; and, though he excludes their glorying, he both requires and strengthens them unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them; for he will save none but those whose faith works by love, supreme love to himself, and pure disinterested love flowing therefrom to all mankind. Note; The doctrines of grace, far from loosening, as some vainly imagine, the obligations to morality, can alone effectually engage and enable the soul for the practice of righteousness and true holiness.
7. He reminds the Ephesians of what they should ever keep warm upon their memories, to awaken their gratitude, and bind their hearts to God. Wherefore, remember that ye being in time passed Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands; treated by the native Jews with contempt and disdain, and indeed excluded from all the peculiar privileges which they enjoyed: that at that time ye were without Christ, having neither knowlege of him, nor union with him; being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, out of the pale of God's visible church, and strangers from the covenants of promise, which were openly made manifest, by promise only, to Abraham's natural seed; having no hope, at least no well-grounded one, of God's favour, and life eternal; and without God in the world, even while you worshipped gods many, being without the least knowlege of the one true Jehovah. But now in Christ Jesus, since by faith ye have been united to him, and heard and embrace his gospel, ye who sometimes were far off from all good and all hope, are made nigh by the blood of Christ, received into a state of favour and reconciliation with God, and are heirs of the eternal blessedness which he has purchased for, and will bestow upon, all his faithful saints. Note; Sinners, in their natural state, are far removed from God, and must, but for the redemption which is in Jesus Christ, remain so for ever.
3rdly, All the blessings in time and eternity which sinners can ever hope for, flow down to them through the channel of a crucified Jesus. For he is our peace, having reconciled us to God by his own blood, who hath made both one, uniting the believing Jews and Gentiles together in one body under himself their common head, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, which, till now, excluded the nations from the blessings peculiar to the Jews; having abolished in his flesh the enmity, that which had been the cause of such enmity between Jews and Gentiles, even the ceremonial law, called the law of commandments contained in ordinances, which, as they pointed all to Christ, were now fulfilled by him, and abrogated, he designing for to make of twain, of believing Jews and Gentiles, one new man, cementing them together in one church, and forming his own blessed image alike in their hearts; so making peace between them, as members of one body, united by faith and love in him; and that he might reconcile both unto God, who, by nature and practice, were alike estranged from him, and must have perished together, but for the same atoning blood which he shed, in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby; the ceremonial law, the great cause of variance between Jews and Gentiles, being abolished; and came and preached peace, by his divinely-constituted ministers, to you, Gentiles, which were afar off, inviting you, who were at the greatest distance from his church, to come and find pardon and peace with God; and the like message he sent to them that were nigh to the Jewish people, who needed the same gracious salvation, and could only, through a Redeemer, be saved from the curses of a broken law; for through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father; the same Spirit of adoption being shed abroad in the hearts of both; the same Advocate standing to plead for us; the same gracious God appearing as the Father of mercies, and ready alike to hear and answer our petitions. Now therefore ye, believing Gentiles, are no more strangers and foreigners, as before, but fellow-citizens with the saints, partaking of the same privileges, and of the household of God, entitled, through faith in this Divine Saviour, to the same inheritance; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, who both concurred in the same testimony, leading the souls of sinners to Jesus Christ himself, as being the chief corner-stone, on whom alone they could safely build for eternity; in whom all the building fitly framed together, of Jews and Gentiles, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, daily accessions of converts being made to it; a temple infinitely more glorious than that of Solomon; a living temple, where the Lord peculiarly dwells, as in his own house; in whom ye also are builded together, and compose part of the glorious fabric, that ye might be for an habitation of God through the Spirit, who takes up his blest abode among you, and in your hearts, until, if ye be faithful unto death, ye shall come to the perfect enjoyment of him for ever in heaven. Note; There is but one safe foundation on which a sinful soul can build, and that is Jesus Christ.