Ephesians: Session 4 – The Mystery of the Church

Notes:

The Mystery Of The Church – Ephesians 2:1-16

  • Eph. 1:9-10. We live in a divided world, a fragmented universe.
  • This is typified by the incredible gulf between Jews and Gentiles.
  • The mystery is that God will gather together in one all things under the headship of Christ.
  • The phrase “gather together” literally means to re-unite. Not just gather together, but gather together again. Originally all things were under Him in creation, Col. 1:15-19.
  • Eph. 2:1-3. The reason there has been no lasting peace among people and nations is that there is a spiritual history underlying all world history – the fall. First the vertical has to be fixed, before the horizontal. It begins with reconciliation to God. We were dead. Not sick, but dead. We didn’t need counselling, but life.
  • Death and life can only be understood in terms of relationship with God. Death is disconnectedness from God, (Gen. 2:17). True life is to be in relationship with Him, (Jn.17:3).
  • We walked according to the course of this world. We joined in the rebellion against God.
  • “Children of wrath.” We can never understand the love of God, or grace, or the cross, until we understand His wrath, (Jn.3:18,36;  2Thessalonians.1:8-9;  Eph.5:6).
  • Eph. 2:4-6. “But God…” Jesus came to fix the vertical by taking the just punishment for sin, i.e. death. And in so doing He smashed all horizontal barriers to unite all things in Himself.
  • When Jesus died He was as dead as any man in a casket has been. Then He was raised again.
  • He didn’t return to life to continue as before. He came back as the Head of a new creation.
  • He made a way out of Adam and created a new man. Through identification, death and resurrection we are joined to Him. We are now seated with Him in the heavenly places (Eph.1:22-23).

Eph. 2:8-10. By grace we are saved. Grace is the unmerited favour of God. “Not of works…” It is always in connection with works that we boast, (Rom.3:27;  Phil.3:3-9; Lk.18:9).

  • We receive God’s grace through faith.
  • We are His workmanship, Greek poiema = a work of art. Salvation is not the end but the beginning. We are a work in progress, (2 Cor.3:18; Rom.8:29). The Church is His redemptive poem. If we are His workmanship then God is the workman. This is grace!
  • Eph. 2:11-16. This prepares us to understand how God will reunite all things in Christ. As Jesus removed the vertical barrier, so in the same way He removes the horizontal barriers – by grace. Any opportunity for works-based boasting has to be eliminated.
  • The grace of God that split the veil also demolishes the walls of separation. The differences that became walls and caused enmity have been abolished. E.g. Cornelius. Acts 15:9,11. The distinctions contained in the law are destroyed and there is now one way for all, (Gal.3:28).
  • He “…made both one…” (Eph. 2:14-15, 16, 18-19). The Church is a new creation. Not a coalition of two existing parties but the creation of something altogether new. The old is done away with, (Gal. 6:15). The Gentile doesn’t have to become a Jew, and the Jew doesn’t have to become a Gentile. Both enter the new man.
  • Compare Eph. 2:7 with Eph. 3:9-10. The mystery was hidden; yet it was always there. It was not an afterthought. History was not out of God’s control. God never had to revise His plan.
  • It was hidden in the old covenant era, and even amongst angels, (1 Tim.3:16;  1 Pet.1:12; Luke 15:10.  1 Cor.4:9; 11:10).
  • There is nothing beyond the Church. She is the supreme manifestation of God’s wisdom. He saved the best until last. He will present us as an exhibit of His glory throughout eternity.


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