T U E S D A Y -T H U R S D A Y B IB LE ST U D IE S
EPHESIANS by Dr. Lloyd 7. Anderson*^
*Dr. Anderson, a member of the Biola Board of Directors, is pastor of the Bethany Baptist Church o f West Covina, California.
Y erse 4—“But God.” The great con trast between the dark picture in verses 1-3 and the bright one in the verses following is to be noted in the adversative “but”. God comes to the rescue. Dead because of trespasses and sins—BUT GOD; walking according to the age of this world—BUT GOD; walking according to the prince of the power of the air—BUT GOD; living in the lusts of the flesh—BUT GOD; do ing the desires of the flesh and of the mind—BUT GOD; were by nature children of wrath—BUT GOD. “Being rich in mercy.” He has wrath upon sin, but He is rich in mercy, or pity, com passion. The composition of the word “compassion” is to suffer with. The word used for “for” (dia with the accu sative) here means on account of. “His great love with which He loved us” is the cause of His riches of mercy. The word for “great” is translated “abun dant” in I Peter 1:3. He loved the people with an everlasting love (Deut. 33:3; Jer. 31: 3). The greatness of His love is shown by His loving men who are in the awful condition described in verses 1-3, and by giving His only begotten Son to die for the ungodly, sinners, enemies (John 3:16; I John 4:9, 10; Rom. 5:6-8, 10). “Us” refers to Christians, but the verb is in the past tense and shows why God provided sal vation for the sinner instead of leaving Him to suffer and perish. Verse 5—Spiritual Resurrection: the spiritually dead made alive (vs. 1, 5). “Even us, being dead by means of our trespasses, He made alive with Christ.” This connects with, and supplies the subject and predicate for verse 1. “He made alive” (the old English word
“quickened”) or “made alive with”. Deliverance from spiritual death also includes deliverance from the results of spiritual death, eternal and, ultimately, physical death. It is also an illustra tion of the “exceeding great power” mentioned in 1:19-21. Verse 6—“And He raised us up with Him and made us sit down with Him “in the heavenlies’ in Christ Jesus.” The object of the three verbs “made alive,” “raised up,” and “made to sit down,” is “us who were dead in tres passes,” repeated from verse 1 for the sake of emphasis and clearness. It also gives prominence to 'the fact that re generation is the subject under consid eration. The three verbs show three steps in the process of regeneration. They are in the past tense, the work having been actually accomplished for us when Jesus rose from the dead, and in us when by faith we claimed the results of His finished work. They are compounded with a preposition (sun) meaning with, together with, which shows identification and fellowship. 'The identification is discussed more fully, together with some practical re sults, in Rom. 6:4-11; also in Col. 2: 11-15. In the process of regeneration the Christian passes through the same steps spiritually that Jesus did physic ally. He is crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20), dead with Christ (Rom. 6:8; 2 Tim. 2:11), buried with Christ (Rom. 6:4; Col. 2:12), made alive with Christ (Eph. 2:5; Col. 2:13), raised up with Christ (Eph. 2:6; Col. 2:12; 3:1, and implied in Rom. 6:4, 5), lives with Christ (Rom. 6:8; 2 Tim. 2:11), seated with Christ in the heavenlies (Eph. 2: (continued on next page)
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