Ephesians 2:1–7 · WEB Classic
1 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience. 3 We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus;
Paul describes his readers as having been dead in trespasses and sins in which they once walked. The combination explains the kind of death he means. These people were active. They followed the course of the world, lived according to disobedience, and carried out the desires of flesh and mind. Their death was a condition of alienation from God expressed through a very busy life of sin.
We should therefore let Paul explain his own image. Physical corpses do not walk, desire, or obey rulers. The metaphor establishes the seriousness of their condition and their need for divine life; it does not authorize us to import every physical characteristic of a corpse into an explanation of human response to the gospel. We cannot decide what a metaphor must mean before noticing what the sentence says the dead people were doing.
That observation limits what the metaphor proves; it does not establish a complete account of human ability by itself. Paul’s subject is the terrible condition from which God rescues sinners and the mercy through which he makes them alive. We cannot raise ourselves into reconciliation, erase our guilt, or manufacture the new creation. None of those works becomes human achievement because the gospel calls for faith.
Paul gives actual information about response to the gospel elsewhere in this letter: the readers heard the word of truth and believed in Christ (1:13). Romans 10:14–17 traces the same relationship through a series of questions. How will people call on one they have not believed? How will they believe without hearing? How will they hear without someone proclaiming the message? The sending and preaching matter because faith comes through hearing the message about Christ. God’s gracious provision and the sinner’s responsibility to believe belong within that account. We should let those statements explain response rather than assigning every question to a metaphor of death.
Alienation also explains why the deadness is so serious even though the people remain active. A life can be energetic, disciplined, and socially impressive while remaining cut off from the life of God. The problem cannot be solved merely by adding more activity. The dead need life from the risen Christ, and their moral resources cannot substitute for the mercy that joins them to him.
Think of the way Jesus speaks at Lazarus’s tomb. Martha knows her brother has died, and she knows there will be a resurrection at the last day. Jesus directs that hope toward himself: he is the resurrection and the life, and the one who believes in him will live even though he dies (John 11:21–27). He then calls the dead Lazarus out of the tomb. Life comes through the Son, and death does not possess a power he must politely ask permission to overcome.
Lazarus’s physical resurrection and Paul’s description of salvation are not interchangeable accounts of every detail. Jesus’ words do, however, establish where life is found. Paul’s readers have not escaped their former condition by becoming more energetic versions of themselves. They have been made alive with the risen Christ. To tell them they need him is to identify the one able to supply the life their old way of living could never produce.
The prince of the power of the air identifies the spiritual opposition associated with this disobedient order. Human sin does not exist in a world free of spiritual influence. Yet Paul never treats that influence as an excuse. People pursue desires and carry out choices for which they are responsible. Recognizing the devil’s activity does not make every sinner an innocent bystander to his own behavior.
We all belonged in the description
Paul includes himself and those associated with him: we all once lived among them. The distinction between Jewish and Gentile history gives no one grounds to claim innocence before God. Those with covenant privileges needed mercy just as those without them did. The apostle refuses to stand safely outside the accusation and point at everyone else.
By nature they were children of wrath like the rest. Their old condition placed them under judgment. Sin is more than an unfortunate habit that keeps people from reaching their potential. It brings guilt before a holy God. A gospel that describes people as merely misunderstood removes the very problem the mercy of God addresses.
The mention of flesh and mind also refuses an easy division between respectable sinners and embarrassing sinners. Some desires present themselves through bodily appetite; others arrive dressed as careful reasoning. Pride can produce a very articulate explanation of why someone else deserves contempt. The ability to explain our conduct does not make the conduct righteous.
Mercy gives life
God, rich in mercy because of his great love, made us alive together with Christ even when we were dead in trespasses. The change begins with his generosity toward people who could not repair their own standing. Paul inserts the explanation that by grace they have been saved. Their former condition explains the need; God’s love and mercy explain the rescue.
Believers share Christ’s resurrection life and are described as raised and seated with him in the heavenly places. They have not physically relocated out of their homes. Their union with Christ gives them a standing and life defined by his exaltation. The people once governed by the old order now belong to the risen Lord who reigns above its powers.
This is a poor foundation for Christian arrogance. We cannot look at an unbeliever and congratulate ourselves for being the kind of people God naturally prefers. Paul has placed us in the same old condition and explained our present life through mercy. Our obedience matters profoundly, but it cannot rewrite the history of how we were rescued.
God intends to display the surpassing riches of his grace through his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus in the ages to come. The saved become a demonstration of his generosity. We will not spend eternity providing evidence that we were a sensible investment. We will bear witness to the kindness of the God who loved us when we were dead in our trespasses.