BOOK 49 OF 66 · PAULINE EPISTLES · KING JAMES BIBLE

Ephesians 2

Ephesians book home•Chapter 2 of 6•22 verses

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Ephesians 2 Overview

Paul describes believers’ former condition as dead in trespasses and sins, walking according to the world, flesh, and the prince of the power of the air. But God, rich in mercy, made them alive with Christ. Salvation is by grace through faith, God’s gift, not of works. The chapter then explains how Christ made Jewish and Gentile believers one new man and one household/temple.

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Before you read Ephesians 2

Coming from

Paul blesses God for every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ, including election, adoption, redemption through Christ’s blood, forgiveness, and the revealed mystery of God’s purpose. Believers who heard and believed the gospel are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, the earnest of their inheritance, and Paul prays that they will understand their hope and Christ’s exalted authority.

In this chapter

Leads into

Paul explains the mystery revealed by the Spirit: Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of God’s promise in Christ by the gospel. He describes his grace-given ministry to preach Christ’s unsearchable riches and show the fellowship of the mystery, then prays that believers will be strengthened within and know Christ’s surpassing love.

Key understandingExplore deeper

Ephesians 2:8–9 is explicit: salvation is by grace through faith, not works, so no one can boast.

Verse 10 places good works after salvation as the purpose for which believers are created, not the cause by which they become saved.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

God saves because of mercy and grace

The decisive turn is ‘But God,’ not human moral recovery.

Faith receives salvation apart from works

Boasting is excluded because salvation is God’s gift.

Christ creates one reconciled people

The cross breaks down the dividing wall and gives both Jew and Gentile access by one Spirit.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

Romans 3:24–28

Paul likewise teaches justification by grace through faith apart from deeds of the law.

Titus 3:5

Salvation is not by works of righteousness we have done, but according to God’s mercy.

1 Peter 2:4–10

Believers are also pictured as a spiritual house built around Christ.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not add baptism, prayer, turning from sins, or good works to verses 8–9 as conditions for eternal life

Paul explicitly excludes works from the basis of salvation.

Do not omit verse 10

Grace does not oppose good works as the believer’s calling; it opposes works as the cause of salvation.

Do not use one-new-man language to deny every continuing distinction in God’s broader purposes

The immediate point is equal access and reconciliation in Christ.

Read Ephesians 2 watching for…

The three former influences: world, flesh, devil.

The words mercy, love, grace, gift.

The explicit exclusion of works and boasting.

Verse 10’s place after salvation.

How Christ reconciles Jew and Gentile into one body.

Chapter outline3 sections

1-10God makes dead sinners alive with Christ and saves by grace through faith, not by works 11-18Gentiles once far off are brought near by Christ’s blood, and Christ makes Jew and Gentile one 19-22Believers are fellowcitizens and members of God’s household, built together as a holy temple

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Not of works, lest any man should boast.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;

That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;

Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;

And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:

And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

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Ephesians 2:3

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