ACC ~ Ephesians 2 v4 - 10

OVERVIEW:

Through the resurrection of Christ we are mercifully saved despite our unworthiness (AMBROSIASTER). Without exception all who are saved are saved by grace (JEROME). The faithful are already in a sense raised to heaven through the resurrection of Christ (THEODORET, JEROME) and hence are called to live accordingly (ORIGEN). Christians are not arrogant when they celebrate this salvation (AMBROSE), for their faith is not a work (FULGENTIUS) but an act of divine grace (JEROME). We can claim no credit for our conversion (CHRYSOSTOM) or subsequent good works (MARIUS VICTORINUS). We can and must do works but have no right to glory in ourselves (CHRYSOSTOM, AMBROSIASTER). God, who created us from nothing (JEROME), also wills our re-creation in Christ (THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA). Although we now fail to do good works (CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA), God prepares both present and future works for us in which we must persevere (CHRYSOSTOM, MARIUS VICTORINUS).

2:4 | God, Rich in Mercy

GOD DID NOT ORIGINALLY DESIRE THAT ANY SHOULD PERISH. AMBROSIASTER: These are the true riches of God’s mercy, that even when we did not seek it mercy was made known through his own initiative. … This is God’s love to us, that having made us he did not want us to perish. His reason for making us was that he might love what he had made, seeing that no one hates his own workmanship. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 2.4.

2:5a | Made Alive with Christ

HE FORMED US ANEW AS HIS MEMBERS. AMBROSIASTER: God made us in Christ. So it is through Christ once again that he has formed us anew. We are his members; he our Head. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 2.5.

2:5b | Saved by Grace

HOW GRACE SAVES. THEODORET: Since he rose, we hope that we too shall rise. He himself [by his rising] has paid our debt. Then Paul explains more plainly how great the gift is: “You are saved by grace.” For it is not because of the excellence of our lives that we have been called but because of the love of our Savior. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 2.4.5.

WHAT WE GIVE FOR WHAT HE BESTOWED. JEROME: The sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory that will be revealed in us. If so, we are saved by grace rather than works, for we can give God nothing in return for what he has bestowed on us. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.2.1.

2:6a | Raised with Christ

BELIEVE YOU HAVE RISEN WITH CHRIST. ORIGEN: What Paul is saying then is: If you believe that Christ is risen from the dead, believe also that you too have risen with him. If you believe that he sits at the Father’s right hand in heaven, believe that your place too is amid not earthly but heavenly things. COMMENTARY ON ROMANS 5.8.

ALREADY EXALTED. JEROME: Above he said that God raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand. … Some may ask how God who has saved us and raised us with him has also made us sit with Christ. A simple response would be indeed that, in the light of God’s foreknowledge, Paul is speaking of what is to come as though it had already been done. … One who understands the resurrection and the kingdom of Christ spiritually does not scruple to say that the saints already sit and reign with Christ! Just as a person may become truly holy even in the flesh, when he lives in the flesh and has his conversation in heaven, when he walks on earth and, ceasing to be flesh, is wholly converted into spirit, so he also is seated in heaven with Christ. For indeed “the kingdom of God is within us.” EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.2.1 SEQ.

CHRIST SHARED OUR BODILY NATURE. THEODORET: IF Christ the Lord did not share our human nature, he would have been falsely called our firstfruits. If so, his bodily nature was not raised from the dead and did not receive its seat at the right hand in heaven. And if none of this occurred how can it be said that God has raised us and seated us with Christ, that is, if we have nothing by nature that belongs to him? ERANISTES 1.

2:6b | Sitting in Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus

NOT BY OUR OWN DESERVING. MARIUS VICTORINUS: He did not make us deserving, since we did not receive these things by our own merit but by the grace and goodness of God. … But all this, as he often asserts and I insist, is in Christ. For in him is the whole mystery of the resurrection, both ours and of all others. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.2.7.

OUR DESTINY IS TO SIT WITH HIM. JEROME: How abundant is his grace and how multi-faceted is the glory in which God has caused us to be seated and reign with Christ, after freeing us from the tribulations of the age! This is shown above all by the fact that in the ages to come he will shed his glory upon us in the sight not of some but of all rational creatures. … But an attentive reader might inquire: “Are you saying then that the human arena is greater than the angels and all the heavenly powers?” No. … Some might conceivably argue that “he made us sit with him in heavenly places” refers not to the good angels but to the bad angels, the banished angels and the prince of this world, and Lucifer who rises in the morning, over whom the saints will be enthroned with Christ. … But a better argument will translate [the reference to Christ’s grace] as meaning that we are saved not by our own merit but by his grace and that it is a proof of greater goodness to die for sinners rather than for the just. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.2.7.

2:7 | Showing the Immeasurable Riches of Grace

IN THE COMING AGES IT WILL BE CLEAR. CHRYSOSTOM: Do not be disbelieving. You have received a proof from former events, from the head and from his desire to manifest his goodness. For how otherwise could there be a revelation to us if this does not happen? This will be demonstrated in the ages to come. What now seems nonsense to unbelievers then will appear as fully sensible to everyone. … We will sit with him. Nothing is more trustworthy and worthy of praise than this revelation. HOMILY ON EPHESIANS 4.2.7.

2:8a | By Grace Saved Through Faith

DARE WE CLAIM THIS PROMISE? AMBROSE: Do not rely on your own efforts but on the grace of Christ. “You are,” says the apostle, “saved by grace. Therefore it is not a matter of arrogance here but faith when we celebrate: We are accepted! This is not pride but devotion.” ON THE SACRAMENTS 5.4.19.

WHETHER FAITH IS ITSELF FINALLY OUR WORK. JEROME: Paul says this in case the secret thought should steal upon us that “if we are not saved by our own works, at least we are saved by our own faith, and so in another way our salvation is of ourselves.” Thus he added the statement that faith too is not in our own will but in God’s gift. Not that he means to take away free choice from humanity … but that even this very freedom of choice has God as its author, and all things are to be referred to his generosity, in that he has even allowed us to will the good. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.2.8-9.

THE ONLY WAY TO SALVATION: BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH. FULGENTIUS: The blessed Paul argues that we are saved by faith, which he declares to be not from us but a gift from God. Thus there cannot possibly be true salvation where there is no true faith, and, since this faith is divinely enabled, it is without doubt bestowed by his free generosity. Where there is true belief through true faith, true salvation certainly accompanies it. Anyone who departs from true faith will not possess the grace of true salvation. ON THE INCARNATION 1.

2:8b | Not Our Doing but the Gift of God

OUR OWN DOING? CHRYSOSTOM: So that you may not be elated by the magnitude of these benefits, see how Paul puts you in your place. For “by grace you are saved,” he says, “through faith.” Then, so as to do no injury to free will, he allots a role to us, then takes it away again, saying “and this not of ourselves.” Even faith, he says, is not from us. For if the Lord had not come, if he had not called us, how should we have been able to believe? “For how,” he says, “shall they believe if they have not heard?” So even the act of faith is not self-initiated. It is, he says, “the gift of God.” OMILY ON EPHESIANS 4.2.8.

2:9a | Not Because of Works

NOT WORKS. MARIUS VICTORINUS: The fact that you Ephesians are saved is not something that comes from yourselves. It is the gift of God. It is not from your works, but it is God’s grace as God’s gift, not from anything you have deserved. Our works are one thing, what we deserve another. Hence he distinguishes the two phrases “not from yourselves” and “not from works.” Remember that there are faithful works that ought to be displayed daily in services to the poor and other good deeds. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.2.9.

WHETHER GOD HAS FORBIDDEN WORKS. CHRYSOSTOM: God’s mission was not to save people in order that they may remain barren or inert. For Scripture says that faith has saved us. Put better: Since God willed it, faith has saved us. Now in what case, tell me, does faith save without itself doing anything at all? Faith’s workings themselves are a gift of God, lest anyone should boast. What then is Paul saying? Not that God has forbidden works but that he has forbidden us to be justified by works. No one, Paul says, is justified by works, precisely in order that the grace and benevolence of God may become apparent! HOMILY ON EPHESIANS 4.2.9.

2:9b | Lest Anyone Should Boast

ALL THANKS TO GOD. AMBROSIASTER: All thanksgiving for our salvation is to be given only to God. He extends his mercy to us so as to recall us to life precisely while we are straying, without looking for the right road. And thus we are not to glory in ourselves but in God, who has regenerated us by a heavenly birth through faith in Christ. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 2.10.

2:10a | We Are God’s Workmanship

WHAT WE OWE OUR MAKER. JEROME: We are his creation. This means that it is from him that we live, breathe, understand and are able to believe, because he is the One who made us. And note carefully that he did not say “we are his fashioning and molding” but “we are his creation.” Molding starts with the mud of the earth, but creation from the outset is “according to the image and likeness of God.” EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.2.10.

2:10b | Created in Christ Jesus for Good Works

THE SECOND CREATION IN CHRIST. THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: Here he is speaking not of the first but of the second creation, wherein we are re-created by the resurrection. Completely unable as we are to mend our ways by our own decision on account of the natural weakness that opposes us, we are made able to come newly alive without pain and with great ease by the grace of the One who re-creates us for this purpose. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 2.10.

CREATED FOR GOOD WORKS. CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Human beings choose their own way of life and are entrusted with the reins of their own intelligence, so as to follow whatever course they wish, either toward the good or toward the contrary. But our [original, created] nature has implanted in it a zealous desire for whatever is good and the will to concern itself with goodness and righteousness. For this is what we mean by saying that humanity is “in the image and likeness of God,” that the creature is naturally disposed to what is good and right. DOCTRINAL QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 2.

2:10c | Works Prepared by God

PREPARED BEFOREHAND? MARIUS VICTORINUS: Does Paul mean “good works” in the future tense or those which we now perform? Taken either way they are good for us to walk in. They are witnesses to Christ’s working in us. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.2.10.

THAT WE SHOULD WALK IN THEM. CHRYSOSTOM: He does not say “so that we might begin” but “so that we should walk”—all the way. For walking is a metaphor that suggests continuance, extending to the end of our lives. Suppose we had to walk a road that leads to a royal city, but after having gone almost all the way we grow faint almost at the end and stop. We would then have no profit. Instead Paul says we are created “for good works.” HOMILY ON EPHESIANS 4.2.9.