Ephesians 2:4 - Meaning and Application

Here the apostle begins to explain the glorious change brought about in them by converting grace. We should first notice who did this work and how it was done.

First, it was not from themselves, as Ephesians 2:8 says. Our faith, our conversion, and our eternal salvation are not the result of our own natural ability, nor do they come from any merit in us. Ephesians 2:9 says, “Not by works, so that no one can boast.” These blessings are not produced by anything we have done, so all boasting is shut out. Anyone who boasts must boast in the Lord, not in himself. No one has reason to brag about his own strength or to think he has earned such great favor from God.

But God, who is rich in mercy, is the one who brought about this great and happy change, as Ephesians 2:4 says. His great love is the source of it. Love is God’s good will toward his creatures in general. Mercy is his compassion toward us as fallen and miserable people. God’s eternal love is the fountain from which all his mercies come to us. That love is great love, and that mercy is rich mercy, beyond measure and never running out.

Then, by grace you are saved, as Ephesians 2:5 says, and “by grace you have been saved through faith,” as Ephesians 2:8 says. Every converted sinner is a saved sinner. Such people are delivered from sin and wrath, and they are brought into a state of salvation. By grace, they receive a right to eternal happiness. This saving grace is God’s free and undeserved goodness and favor. He saves them not by works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, so they may receive the great blessings of the gospel. Even that faith, and the salvation it brings, are God’s gift. God has arranged everything so the whole matter will clearly be seen as grace.

Now consider what this change involves, in several parts, matching the misery of our natural condition. Some of these parts are mentioned here, and others later.

We who were dead are made alive, as Ephesians 2:5 says. We are rescued from the death of sin and given spiritual life. Grace in the soul is a new life in the soul. As death shuts down the senses and puts all the powers of the body out of action, so sin does the same to anything good. Grace opens and enlarges the soul. A person who is born again becomes a living soul. He lives a holy life, because he has been born of God. He also lives in relation to God’s law, because pardoning and justifying grace, that is, grace that declares a sinner right with God, has freed him from guilt. “He made us alive with Christ.” Our spiritual life comes from our union with Christ. It is in him that we live. “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19).

We who were buried are raised up, as Ephesians 2:6 says. What is still to be completed is spoken of as if it had already happened, because it is true by virtue of our union with Christ, whom God raised from the dead. When God raised Christ, he in effect raised all believers with him, since Christ is their common head. When he seated Christ at his right hand in the heavenly places, he also advanced and glorified believers in and with him, their risen and exalted head and forerunner. “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

This can also be understood in another sense. Sinners drag themselves in the dust, but sanctified souls sit in heavenly places. They are raised above the world. Compared with what it once was to them, and compared with what the next world is, this world becomes as nothing. Saints are not only Christ’s free people, they also sit with him in honor. By the help of his grace, they have risen with him above this world to think on another world and to live in constant expectation of it. They are not only servants of the best Master in the best work, but are also lifted up to reign with him. They sit on the throne with Christ, as he has sat down with his Father on his throne.

Next, consider God’s great purpose in bringing about this change. With respect to others, he did this so that in the ages to come he might show, as Ephesians 2:7 says, the greatness of his goodness and mercy, and give a lasting example for the encouragement of sinners in future times. The way God has converted and saved sinners in the past should encourage others later to hope in his grace and mercy and to seek them. Since God planned this, poor sinners should take great courage from it. What may we not hope for from such grace and kindness, from the riches of grace that brought about this change, through Christ Jesus, by whom and through whom God gives all his favor and blessings to us?

With respect to the regenerated sinners themselves, “we are his workmanship,” as Ephesians 2:10 says, “created in Christ Jesus for good works.” This shows that everything is from grace, because all our spiritual blessings come from God. We are his workmanship in the sense of the new creation, not only as human beings but as saints. The new self is a new creature, and God is its Creator. It is a new birth, and we are born, or begotten, by his will.

This work is “in Christ Jesus,” that is, because of what Christ has done and suffered, and by the power and work of his blessed Spirit. It is “for good works.” The apostle had already said that this change comes from divine grace and not from works, so he now makes clear that this does not mean good works are unimportant. Even though the change itself is not caused by anything of that kind, because we are God’s workmanship, God has still designed and prepared us for good works. We are created for good works, with the purpose that we should be fruitful in them. Whenever God, by his grace, plants good principles in people, he means them for good works.

These good works are ones “God prepared in advance” by decree and appointment. Or the words can mean that God prepared us for them in advance, by blessing us with knowledge of his will, by giving us the help of his Holy Spirit, and by bringing about such a change in us. The goal is that we should walk in them, and so glorify God by a godly life and by continuing in holiness.