Ephesians 2

Ephesians 2:1

D. God’s Power Manifest in the Salvation of Gentiles and Jews (2:1-10) 2:1 The chapter break should not obscure the vital connection between the latter part of chapter 1 and the verses that follow. There we watched the mighty power of God as it raised Christ from the grave and crowned Him with glory and honor. Now we see how that same power has worked in our own lives, raising us from spiritual death and seating us in Christ in the heavenlies. This passage resembles the first chapter of Genesis. In each we have: (1) a scene of desolation, chaos, and ruin (Gen_1:2 a; Eph_2:1-3); (2) the introduction of divine power (Gen_1:2 b; Eph_2:4); (3) the creation of new life (Gen_1:3-31; Eph_2:5-22). When Ephesians 2 opens, we are spiritual corpses in death valley. When it closes, we are not only seated in Christ in the heavenlies; we form a habitation of God through the Spirit. In between we have the mighty miracle that brought about this remarkable transformation. The first ten verses describe God’s power in the salvation of Gentiles and Jews. No Cinderella ever advanced from such rags to such riches! In verses 1 and 2 Paul reminds his Gentile readers that before their conversion they were dead, depraved, diabolical, and disobedient. They were spiritually dead as a result of their trespasses and sins. This means they were lifeless toward God. They had no vital contact with Him. They lived as if He did not exist. The cause of death was trespasses and sins. Sins are any form of wrongdoing, whether consciously committed or not, and thoughts, words, or deeds which fall short of God’s perfection. Trespasses are sins which are committed in open violation of a known law. In a wider sense they may also include any form of false steps or blunders. 2:2 The Ephesians had been depraved as well as dead. They walked according to the course of this world. They conformed to the spirit of this age. They indulged in the sins of the times. The world has a mold into which it pours its devotees. It is a mold of deceit, immorality, ungodliness, selfishness, violence, and rebellion. In a word, it is a mold of depravity. That is what the Ephesians had been like. Not only so, their behavior was diabolical. They followed the example of the devil, the prince of the power of the air. They were led around by the chief ruler of evil spirits, whose realm is the atmosphere. They were willingly obedient to the god of this age. This explains why the unconverted often stoop to vile forms of behavior lower than that of animals. Finally, they were disobedient, walking according to the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. All unsaved people are sons of disobedience in the sense that they are characterized by disobedience to God. They are energized by Satan and are therefore disposed to defy, dishonor, and disobey the Lord. 2:3 Paul’s switch of the personal pronoun from you to we indicates he is now speaking primarily of Jewish believers (although what he says is also true of everyone before conversion). Three words describe their status: carnal, corrupt, and condemned. Among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh. It was among the sons of disobedience that Paul and his fellow Christians also walked prior to their new birth. Their life was carnal, concerned only with the gratification of fleshly desires and appetites. Paul himself had lived an outwardly moral life on the whole, but now he realized how self-centered it was. And what he was in himself was a lot worse than anything he had ever done. The unconverted Jews were also corrupt, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. This indicates an abandonment to every natural desire. Desires of the flesh and of the mind may range all the way from legitimate appetites to various forms of immorality and perversion; here the emphasis is probably on the grosser sins. And notice, Paul refers to sins of thought as well as to sinful acts. F. B. Meyer warns: It is as ruinous to indulge the desires of the mind as those of the flesh. By the marvelous gift of imagination we may indulge unholy fancies, and throw the reins on the neck of the steeds of passionalways stopping short of the act. No human eye follows the soul when it goes forth to dance with satyrs or to thread the labyrinthine maze of the islands of desire. It goes and returns unsuspected by the nearest. Its credit for snow-white purity is not forfeited. It is still permitted to watch among the virgins for the Bridegroom’s advent. But if this practice is unjudged and unconfessed, it marks the offender a son of disobedience and a child of wrath. This is Paul’s final description of the unsaved Jews: they were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. This means they had a natural predisposition to anger, malice, bitterness, and hot temper. They shared this with the rest of mankind. Of course, it is also true that they are under the wrath of God. They are appointed to death and judgment. Notice that man’s three enemies are mentioned in verses 2 and 3: the world (v. 2), the devil (v. 2), and the flesh (v. 3). 2:4 The words, But God, form one of the most significant, eloquent, and inspiring transitions in all literature. They indicate that a stupendous change has taken place. It is a change from the doom and despair of the valley of death to the unspeakable delights of the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. The Author of the change is God Himself. No one else could have done it, and no one else would have done it. One characteristic of this blessed One is that He is rich in mercy. He shows mercy to us by not treating us the way we deserve to be treated (Psa_103:10). Though it has been expended by Him for six millennia, and myriads and myriads have been partakers of it, it is still an unexhausted mine of wealth, as Eadie remarks. The reason for His intervention is given in the words, because of His great love with which He loved us. His love is great because He is its source. Just as the greatness of a giver casts an aura of greatness on his gift, so the surpassing excellence of God adds superlative luster to His love. It is greater to be loved by the mighty Sovereign of the universe, for instance, than by a fellow human being. God’s love is great because of the price He paid. Love sent the Lord Jesus, God’s only begotten Son, to die for us in agony at Calvary. God’s love is great because of the unsearchable riches it showers on its objects. 2:5 And God’s love is great because of the extreme unworthiness and unloveliness of the persons loved. We were dead in trespasses. We were enemies of God. We were destitute and degraded. He loved us in spite of it all. As a result of God’s love for us, and as a result of the redeeming work of Christ, we have been: (1) made alive together with Christ; (2) raised up with Him; (3) seated in Him. These expressions describe our spiritual position as a result of our union with Him. He acted as our Representativenot only for us, but as us. Therefore when He died, we died. When He was buried, we were buried. When He was made alive, raised, and seated in the heavenlies, so were we. All the benefits of His sacrificial work are enjoyed by us because of our link with Him. To be made alive together with Him means that converted Jews and converted Gentiles are now associated with Him in newness of life. The same power that gave Him resurrection life has given it to us also. The marvel of this causes Paul to interrupt his train of thought and exclaim, By grace you have been saved. He is overwhelmed by the fathomless favor which God has shown to those who deserved the very opposite. That is grace! We have already mentioned that mercy means we do not get the punishment we deserve. Grace means we do get the salvation we do not deserve. We get it as a gift, not as something we earn. And it comes from One who was not compelled to give it. A. T. Pierson says: It is a voluntary exercise of love for which He is under no obligation. What constituted the glory of grace is that it is an utterly unfettered, unconstrained exercise of the love of God toward poor sinners. 2:6 Not only have we been made alive with Christ; we have also been raised up with Him. Just as death and judgment are behind Him, they are behind us also. We stand on the resurrection side of the tomb. This is our glorious position as a result of our union with Him. And because it is true of us positionally, we should live as those who are alive from the dead. Another aspect of our position is that we are seated in Him in the heavenly places in Christ. By our union with Him we are seen as already delivered from this present evil world and seated in Christ in glory. This is how God sees us. If we appropriate it by faith, it will change the character of our lives. We will no longer be earthbound, occupied with the trivial and the transient. We will seek those things which are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God (Col_3:1). The key to verses 5 and 6 is the phrase, in Christ Jesus. It is in Him that we have been made alive, raised, and seated. He is our Representative; therefore His triumphs and His position are ours. George Williams exclaims, Amazing thought! That a Mary Magdalene and a crucified thief should be the companions in glory of the Son of God.2:7 This miracle of transforming grace will be the subject of eternal revelation. Throughout the endless ages God will be unveiling to the heavenly throng what it cost Him to send His Son to this jungle of sin, and what it cost the Lord Jesus to bear our sins at the cross. It is a subject that will never be exhausted. Again Paul builds words upon words to suggest something of its immensity: His kindness toward us His grace in His kindness toward us The riches of His grace in His kindness toward us The exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us Now it follows that if God will be disclosing this throughout eternity, then we will be learning forever and ever. Heaven will be our school. God will be the Teacher. His grace will be the subject. We will be the students. And the school term will be eternity. This should deliver us from the idea that we will know everything when we get to heaven. Only God knows everything, and we will never be equal with Him. It also raises the interesting question: How much will we know when we get to heaven? And it suggests the possibility that we can prepare for the heavenly university by majoring in the Bible right now. 2:8 The next three verses present as clear a statement of the simple plan of salvation as we can find in the Bible. It all originates with the grace of God: He takes the initiative in providing it. Salvation is given to those who are utterly unworthy of it, on the basis of the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is given as a present possession. Those who are saved can know it. Writing to the Ephesians, Paul said, You have been saved. He knew it, and they knew it. The way we receive the gift of eternal life is through faith. Faith means that man takes his place as a lost, guilty sinner, and receives the Lord Jesus as his only hope of salvation. True saving faith is the commitment of a person to a Person. Any idea that man can earn or deserve salvation is forever exploded by the words, and that not of yourselves. Dead people can do nothing, and sinners deserve nothing but punishment. It is the gift of God. A gift, of course, is a free and unconditional present. That is the only basis on which God offers salvation. The gift of God is salvation by grace and through faith. It is offered to all people everywhere. 2:9 It is not of works, that is, it is not something a person can earn through supposedly meritorious deeds. It cannot be earned, for instance, by:

1. Confirmation
2. Baptism
3. Church membership
4. Church attendance
5. Holy Communion
6. Trying to keep the Ten Commandments
7. Living by the Sermon on the Mount
8. Giving to charity
9. Being a good neighbor
10. Living a moral, respectable life People are not saved by works. And they are not saved by faith plus works. They are saved through faith alone. The minute you add works of any kind or in any amount as a means of gaining eternal life, salvation is no longer by grace (Rom_11:6). One reason that works are positively excluded is to prevent human boasting. If anyone could be saved by his works, then he would have reason to boast before God. This is impossible (Rom_3:27). If anyone could be saved by his own good works, then the death of Christ was unnecessary (Gal_2:21). But we know that the reason He died was because there was no other way by which guilty sinners could be saved. If anyone could be saved by his own good works, then he would be his own savior, and could worship himself. But this would be idolatry, and God forbids it (Exo_20:3). Even if someone could be saved through faith in Christ plus his own good works, you would have the impossible situation of two saviorsJesus and the sinner. Christ would then have to share the glory of saviorhood with another, and this He will not do (Isa_42:8). Finally, if anyone could contribute to his salvation by works, then God would owe it to him. This, too, is impossible. God cannot be indebted to anyone (Rom_11:35). In contrast to works, faith excludes boasting (Rom_3:27), because it is non meritorious. A man has no reason to be proud that he has trusted the Lord. Faith in Him is the most sane, rational, sensible thing a person can do. To trust one’s Creator and Redeemer is only logical and reasonable. If we cannot trust Him, whom can we trust? 2:10 The result of salvation is that we are His workmanshipthe handiwork of God, not of ourselves. A born-again believer is a masterpiece of God. When we think of the raw materials He has to work with, His achievement is all the more remarkable. Indeed, this masterpiece is nothing less than a new creation through union with Christ, for if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (2Co_5:17). And the object of this new creation is found in the phrase, for good works. While it is true that we are not saved by good works, it is equally true that we are saved for good works. Good works are not the root but the fruit. We do not work in order to be saved, but because we are saved. This is the aspect of the truth that is emphasized in Jam_2:14-26. When James says that faith without works is dead, he does not mean we are saved by faith plus works, but by the kind of faith that results in a life of good works. Works prove the reality of our faith. Paul heartily agrees: we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. God’s order then is this: FaithSalvationGood WorksReward Faith leads to salvation. Salvation results in good works. Good works will be rewarded by Him. But the question arises: What kind of good works am I expected to do? Paul answers, Good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. In other words, God has a blueprint for every life. Before our conversion He mapped out a spiritual career for us. Our responsibility is to find His will for us and then obey it. We do not have to work out a plan for our lives, but only accept the plan which He has drawn up for us. This delivers us from fret and frenzy, and insures that our lives will be of maximum glory to Him, of most blessing to others, and of greatest reward to ourselves. In order to find out the good works He has planned for our individual lives, we should: (1) confess and forsake sin as soon as we are conscious of it in our lives; (2) be continually and unconditionally yielded to Him; (3) study the word of God to discern His will, and then do whatever He tells us to do; (4) spend time in prayer each day; (5) seize opportunities of service as they arise; (6) cultivate the fellowship and counsel of other Christians. God prepares us for good works. He prepares good works for us to perform. Then He rewards us when we perform them. Such is His grace!

Ephesians 2:11

E. The Union of Believing Jews and Gentiles in Christ (2:11-22) In the first half of chapter 2 Paul traced the salvation of individual Gentiles and Jews. Now he advances to the abolition of their former national differences, to their union in Christ, and to their formation into the church, a holy temple in the Lord. 2:11 In verses 11 and 12 the apostle reminds his readers that prior to their conversion they were Gentiles by birth and therefore outcasts as far as the Jews were concerned. First, they were despised. This is indicated by the fact that the Jews called them Uncircumcision. This meant the Gentiles did not have the surgical sign in their flesh that marked the Israelites as God’s covenant people. The name uncircumcised was an ethnic slur, similar to the names that people use today for despised nationalities. We can feel something of its sting when we hear David say concerning the Gentile Goliath, Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God? (1Sa_17:26). The Jews, by contrast, spoke of themselves as the Circumcision. This was a name of which they were proud. It identified them as God’s chosen earthly people, set apart from all the other nations of the earth. Paul seems to take exception to some of their boasting by saying their circumcision was only made in the flesh by hands. It was merely physical. Though they had the outward sign of God’s covenant people, they did not have the inward reality of true faith in the Lord. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God (Rom_2:28-29). But whether or not the Jews were circumcised in heart, the point in verse 11 is that in their own eyes they were the people and the Gentiles were despised. This enmity between Jews and Gentiles was the greatest racial and religious difference the world has ever known. The Jew enjoyed a position of great privilege before God (Rom_9:4-5). The Gentile was a foreigner. If he wanted to worship the true God in the appointed way, he actually had to become a Jewish convert (cf. Rahab and Ruth). The Jewish temple in Jerusalem was the only place on earth where God had placed His name and where men could approach Him. Gentiles were forbidden to enter the inner temple courts on pain of death. In His interview with a Gentile woman from the region of Tyre and Sidon, the Lord Jesus tested her faith by picturing the Jews as children in the house and the Gentiles as little dogs under the table. She acknowledged she was only a little dog, but asked for some crumbs the children might drop. Needless to say, her faith was rewarded (Mar_7:24-30). Here in Eph_2:11 the apostle is reminding his readers that they were formerly Gentiles and therefore despised. 2:12 The Gentiles were also without Christ: they had no Messiah. It was to the nation of Israel that He was promised. Although it was predicted that blessing would flow to the nations through the ministry of the Messiah (Isa_11:10; Isa_60:3), yet He was to be born a Jew and to minister primarily to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Mat_15:24). In addition to being without the Messiah, the Gentiles were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. An alien is one who does not belong. He is a stranger and foreigner, without the rights and privileges of citizenship.

As far as the community of Israel was concerned, the Gentiles were on the outside, looking in. And they were strangers from the covenants of promise. God had made covenants with the nation of Israel through such men as Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and Solomon. These covenants promised blessings to the Jews. For all practical purposes, the Gentiles were outside the pale. They were without hope, both nationally and individually.

Nationally, they had no assurance that their land, their government, or their people would survive. And individually their outlook was bleak: they had no hopebeyond the grave. Someone has said that their future was a night without a star. Finally, they were without God in the world. This does not mean they were atheists. They had their own gods of wood and stone, and worshiped them.

But they did not know the one and only true God. They were God-less in a godless, hostile world. 2:13 The words, But now, signal another abrupt transition (cf. Eph_2:4). The Ephesian Gentiles had been rescued from that place of distance and alienation, and had been elevated to a position of nearness to God. This was brought about at the time of their conversion. When they trusted the Savior, God placed them in Christ Jesus and accepted them in the beloved One. From then on they were as near to God as Christ is, because they were in Christ Jesus.

The cost of effecting this marvelous change was the blood of Christ. Before these Gentile sinners could enjoy the privilege of nearness to God, they had to be cleansed from their sins. Only the blood of Christ shed at Calvary could do this. When they received the Lord Jesus by a definite act of faith, all the cleansing value of His precious blood was credited to their account. Jesus not only brought them near; He also created a new society in which the ancient enmity between Jew and Gentile was forever abolished. Up to NT times, all the world was divided into two classesJew and Gentile. Our Savior has introduced a thirdthe church of God (1Co_10:32). In the verses that follow, we see how believing Jews and believing Gentiles are now made one in Christ, and are introduced into this new society, where there is neither Jew nor Gentile. 2:14 For He Himself is our peace. Notice it does not say, He made peace. That, of course, is true too, as we will see in the next verse. Here the fact is that He Himself is our peace. But how can a person be peace? This is how: When a Jew believes on the Lord Jesus, he loses his national identity; from then on he is in Christ. Likewise, when a Gentile receives the Savior, he is no longer a Gentile; henceforth he is in Christ. In other words, believing Jew and believing Gentile, once divided by enmity, are now both one in Christ. Their union with Christ necessarily unites them with one another. Therefore a Man is the peace, just as Micah predicted (Mic_5:5). The scope of His work as our peace is detailed in verses 14-18. First is the work of union which we have just described. He has made both onethat is, both believing Jews and Gentiles. They are no longer Jews or Gentiles, but Christians. Strictly speaking, it is not accurate even to speak of them as Jewish Christians or Gentile Christians. All fleshly distinctions, such as nationality, were nailed to the cross. The second phase of Christ’s work might be called demolition: He … has broken down the middle wall of separation. Not a literal wall, of course, but the invisible barrier set up by the Mosaic Law of commandments contained in ordinances which separated the people of Israel from the nations. This has often been illustrated by the wall which restricted non-Jews to the Court of the Gentiles in the temple area. On the wall were No Trespassing signs which read: Let no one of any other nation come within the fence and barrier around the Holy Place. Whoever is caught doing so will himself be responsible for the fact that his death will ensue.2:15 A third aspect of Christ’s work was abolition of the enmity that smoldered between Jew and Gentile and also between man and God. Paul identifies the law as the innocent cause of the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances.

The Law of Moses was a single legislative code; yet it was made up of separate, formal commandments; these in turn consisted of dogmas or decrees covering many, if not most, areas of life. The law itself was holy, just, and good (Rom_7:12), but man’s sinful nature used the law as an occasion for hatred. Because the law actually did set up Israel as God’s chosen earthly people, many Jews became arrogant and treated the Gentiles with contempt. The Gentiles struck back with deep hostility, which we have come to know all too well as anti-Semitism. But how did Christ remove the law as the cause of enmity? First, He died to pay the penalty of the law that had been broken.

He thus completely satisfied the righteous claims of God. Now the law has nothing more to say to those who are in Christ; the penalty has been paid for them in full. Believers are not under law but under grace. However, this does not mean they can live as they please; it means they are now enlawed to Christ, and should live as He pleases. As a result of abolishing the hostility stirred up by the law, the Lord has been able to usher in a new creation. He has made in Himself from the two, that is, from believing Jew and believing Gentile, one new manthe church. Through union with Him, the former combatants are united with one another in this new fellowship. The church is new in the sense that it is a kind of organism that never existed before. It is important to see this. The NT church is not a continuation of the Israel of the OT. It is something entirely distinct from anything that has preceded it or that will ever follow it. This should be apparent from the following:

1. It is new that a Gentile should have equal rights and privileges with a Jew.
2. It is new that both Jews and Gentiles should lose their national identities by becoming Christians.
3. It is new that Jews and Gentiles should be fellow members of the Body of Christ.
4. It is new that a Jew should have the hope of reigning with Christ instead of being a subject in His kingdom.
5. It is new that a Jew should no longer be under the law. The church is clearly a new creation, with a distinct calling and a distinct destiny, occupying a unique place in the purposes of God. But the scope of Christ’s work does not stop there. He has also made peace between Jew and Gentile. He did this by removing the cause of hostility, by imparting a new nature, and by creating a new union. The cross is God’s answer to racial discrimination, segregation, anti-Semitism, bigotry, and every form of strife between men. 2:16 In addition to reconciling Jew and Gentile to one another, Christ has reconciled them both to God. Though Israel and the nations were normally bitterly opposed to each other, there was one sense in which they were unitedin their hostility to God. The cause of this hostility was sin. By His death on the cross, the Lord Jesus removed the enmity by removing the cause. Those who receive Him are reckoned righteous, forgiven, redeemed, pardoned, and delivered from the power of sin. The enmity is gone; now they have peace with God. The Lord Jesus unites believing Jew and Gentile in one body, the church, and presents this Body to God with all trace of antagonism gone. God never needed to be reconciled to us; He never hated us. But we needed to be reconciled to Him. The work of our Lord on the cross provided a righteous basis on which we could be brought into His presence as friends, not as foes. 2:17 In verse 14 Christ is our peace. In verse 15 He made peace. Now we find that He came and preached peace. When and how did He come? First, He came personally in resurrection. Second, He came representatively by the Holy Spirit. He preached peace in resurrection; in fact, peace was one of the first words He spoke after rising from the dead (Luk_24:36; Joh_20:19, Joh_20:21, Joh_20:26). Then He sent out the apostles in the power of the Holy Spirit and preached peace through them (Act_10:36). The good news of peace was presented to you who were afar off (Gentiles) and to those who were near (Jews), a gracious fulfillment of God’s promise in Isa_57:19. 2:18 The practical proof that a state of peace now exists between members of the one Body and God is that they have access at any time into the presence of God. This is in sharp contrast to the OT economy, in which only the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies, the place of God’s presence. And he could enter there on only one day of the year. Eadie points up the contrast: But now the most distant Gentile who is in Christ really and continuously enjoys that august spiritual privilege, which the one man of the one tribe of the one nation on the one day of the year, only typically and periodically possessed. Through prayer any believer can enter the throne room of heaven, kneel before the Sovereign of the universe, and address Him as Father. The normal order to be followed in prayer is given here. First, it is through Him (the Lord Jesus). He is the one Mediator between God and man. His death, burial, and resurrection removed every legal obstacle to our admission to God’s presence. Now as Mediator he lives on high to maintain us in a condition of fellowship with the Father. We approach God in His name; we have no worthiness of our own, so we plead His worthiness. The participants in prayer are we bothbelieving Jews and believing Gentiles. The privilege is that we have access. Our Helper in prayer is the Holy Spiritby one Spirit. The Spirit helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered (Rom_8:26). The One we approach is the Father. No OT saint ever knew God as Father. Before the resurrection of Christ, men stood before God as creatures before the Creator. It was after He rose that He said, Go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God. (Joh_20:17). As a result of His redemptive work, believers were then able for the first time to address God as Father. In verse 18 all three Persons of the Trinity are directly involved in the prayers of the humblest believer: he prays to God the Father, approaching Him through the Lord Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit.2:19 In the last four verses of this chapter, the Apostle Paul lists some of the overwhelming new privileges of believing Gentiles.

They are no longer strangers and foreigners. Never again will they be aliens, dogs, uncircumcision, outsiders. Now they are fellow citizens with all the saints of the NT period. Believers of Jewish ancestry have no advantage over them. All Christians are first-class citizens of heaven (Phi_3:20-21). They are also members of the household of God.

Not only have they been super-naturalized into the divine kingdom; they have been adopted into the divine family. 2:20 Finally, they have been made members of the church, or as Paul pictures it here, they have become stones in the construction of a holy temple. With great detail the apostle describes this templeits foundation, its chief cornerstone, its cohesive agent, its unity and symmetry, its growth, and its other unique features. This temple is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. This refers to the apostles and prophets of the NT era; it could not possibly refer to OT prophets, because they knew nothing about the church. It does not mean that the apostles and prophets were the foundation of the church. Christ is the foundation (1Co_3:11). But they laid the foundation in what they taught about the Person and work of the Lord Jesus. The church is founded on Christ as He was revealed by the confession and teaching of the apostles and prophets.

When Peter confessed Him as the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus announced that His church would be built on that rock, namely, on the solid truth that He is the anointed of God and God’s unique Son (Mat_16:18). In Rev_21:14 the apostles are associated with the twelve foundations of the holy Jerusalem. They are not the foundation but are linked with it, because they first taught the great truth concerning Christ and the church. The foundation of a building needs to be laid only once. The apostles and prophets did this work once for all. The foundation they laid is preserved for us in the writings of the NT, though they themselves are with us no longer.

In a secondary sense, there are men in all ages whose ministry is apostolic or prophetic. Missionaries and church planters are apostles in a lower sense, and those who preach the word for edification are prophets. But they are not apostles and prophets in the primary sense. Jesus Christ is not only the foundation of the temple; He is its chief cornerstone as well. No one picture or type can adequately portray Him in His manifold glories or in His varied ministries. There are at least three possible explanations of the chief cornerstone, all of which point to the Lord Jesus Christ as the unique, preeminent, and indispensable Head of the church.

1. We generally think of the cornerstone as one that lies at a lower front corner of a building. Since the rest of the structure seems to be supported by it, it has come to signify something of fundamental importance. In that sense it is a true type of the Lord. Also, since it joins two walls together, there may be a suggestion of the union of believing Jews and Gentiles in the church through Him.
2. Some Bible scholars believe that the word translated the chief cornerstone refers to the keystone of an arch. This stone occupies the highest place in the arch and provides support for the other stones. So Christ is the preeminent One in the church. He is also the indispensable One: remove Him and the rest will collapse.
3. A third possible understanding of the term is that it is the capstone of a pyramid. This stone occupies the highest place in the structure. It is the only stone of that size and shape. And its angles and lines determine the shape of the whole pyramid. So Christ is the Head of the church. He is unique as to His Person and ministry. And He is the One who gives the church its unique features. First, its foundation: 2:21 The words, in whom, refer to Christ: He is the source of the church’s life and growth. Blaikie says: In him we are added to it; in him we grow in it; in him the whole temple grows towards the final consummation, when the topstone shall be brought out with shouts of Grace, grace unto it.The unity and symmetry of the temple are indicated by the expression, the whole building, being fitted together. It is a unity made up of many individual members. Each member has a specific place in the building for which he or she is exactly suited. Stones excavated from the valley of death by the grace of God are found to fit together perfectly. The unique feature of this building is that it grows. However, this feature is not the same as the growth of a building through the addition of bricks and cement.

Think of it rather as the growth of a living organism, such as the human body. After all, the church is not an inanimate building. Neither is it an organization. It is a living entity with Christ as its Head and all believers forming the Body. It was born on the day of Pentecost, has been growing ever since, and will continue to grow until the Rapture. This growing building of living materials is described as a holy temple in the Lord. The word Paul used for temple referred not to the outer courts but to the inner shrine (Greek, naos), not the suburbs but the sanctuary. He was thinking of the main building of the temple complex, which housed the Most Holy Place. There God dwelt and there He manifested Himself in a bright, shining cloud of glory. There are several lessons for us here: (1) God indwells the church. Saved Jews and Gentiles form a living sanctuary in which He dwells and where He reveals His glory. (2) This temple is holy. It is set apart from the world and dedicated to Him for sacred purposes. (3) As a holy temple, the church is a center from which praise, worship, and adoration ascend to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul further describes this holy temple as being in the Lord. In other words, the Lord Jesus is its source of holiness. Its members are holy positionally through union with Him, and they should be holy practically out of love for Him. 2:22 In this wonderful temple, believing Gentiles have an equal place with believing Jews. It should thrill us to read this, as it must have thrilled the Ephesians and others when they heard it for the first time. The tremendous dignity of the believers’ position is that they form a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. This is the purpose of the templeto provide a place where God can live in fellowship with His people. The church is that place. Compare this with the position of the Gentiles in the OT. At that time they could not get near God’s dwelling. Now they themselves form a good part of it! And notice the ministry of each of the Persons of the Godhead in connection with the church: (1) In whom, that is, in Christ. It is through union with Him that we are built into the temple. (2) A dwelling place of God. This temple is the home of God the Father on earth. (3) In the Spirit. It is in the Person of the Holy Spirit that God indwells the church (1Co_3:16). And so the chapter that began with a description of Gentiles who were dead, depraved, diabolical, and disobedient, closes with those same Gentiles cleansed from all guilt and defilement, and forming a dwelling place of God in the Spirit!