Introduction
“Arrogant”
is defined as: Having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance
or abilities. Some of its synonyms are interesting to note: Conceited,
self-important, full of oneself, superior, overbearing, pompous, proud, high
and mighty, too big for one’s britches, big-headed, etc. Have you ever
encountered someone so arrogant that you actually have a tough time being
around them? We get this from athletes sometimes when they are interviewed in
the immediate aftermath of a sporting event. Athletes can sometimes say things
in the heat of the moment that they might not say sitting around the breakfast
table having a cup of coffee. Sometimes we encounter people like this in our
daily lives who have nothing to do with the competition of athletics. I once
worked for someone like this. Unfortunately, he was my immediate boss and I had
to meet with him at least once a day—he was so pompous that he made my skin
crawl sometimes. I was much younger then, very idealistic, and far less patient
with people and their never-ending pursuit of self-worth. At this point in my
life, I’ve witnessed some of the most arrogant behavior by people we hold in
the highest regard. In fact, over the last few years, our own President
repeatedly told one particular lie to the American people so blatant that last
year it was given the dubious honor of being the “Lie of the Year” by
PolitiFact, an independent fact checking organization for US politics (Their
rating system is hilarious—they gave the President’s lie a “pants-on-fire”
rating! Hahahahaha! “Pants-on-fire” as in the childhood chant—Liar, liar pants on fire!). As bad as
the lie may have been, it was his arrogance that was so difficult to stomach
when he responded to being exposed by claiming he didn’t lie but instead the
American people misunderstood the intent of his words. In other words, he
intended to tell the truth but a lie came out of his mouth instead and it was
our fault for not recognizing that he intended to be truthful even as he was
lying. I dare you to try and figure that out! Nothing can be more arrogant and loathsome
than to have someone lie to your face and then try to somehow blame you for the
fallout caused by the lie. I’ve witness my share of political garbage and I
generally let that kind of stuff just slide off my back knowing that
politicians have been lying to their constituents and then arrogantly rationalizing
their inexcusable behavior since the beginning of organized politics. If you
can’t learn to laugh at the arrogance, you’ll drive yourself crazy. However,
when it comes to arrogance toward God, I haven’t matured enough to not care
about that. Let me try and explain by giving you an example. A couple of weeks
ago, the former mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, gave an interview to
the New York Times in which he said, “I am telling you if there is a God, when
I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I
have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.” Why don’t you just let
that soak in for a minute? If you need to read it again you can do that now but
I’ll save you the time—you read it right the first time. That, my friends, is
the quintessential illustration of arrogance! But let’s try and dig through
that steaming pile of arrogance, if possible, and take a look at the substance
of what he said. Setting aside his obvious unbelief by questioning the
existence of God in the first place, believing he has earned his place in
heaven is nothing new. This has been an issue for thousands of years. Jesus
constantly battled with the religious leaders because they believed that their
heritage; the fact that they were the chosen people among the chosen people,
and their meticulous religious practices earned them their salvation. I grew up
in the Catholic Church where there are many things one must “do” in order to be
saved—go to mass, take communion, be baptized and I’m pretty sure there are a
few more that I’ve long forgotten. So this unwillingness to trust that there is
nothing we can do to earn our salvation is nothing new. However, this is such
an important issue that I want to look at exactly what the Bible says about
works, grace, faith, and salvation so that we won’t ever be tempted to say—I Earned It!
Subject Text
Ephesians 2:1-10
1As for
you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2in
which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the
spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3All
of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings
of our sinful nature and following its desires and
thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4But
because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made
us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it
is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us
up with Christ and seated us with him in the
heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7in order that in
the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace,
expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8For
it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—9not
by works, so that no one can boast. 10For
we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Context
Unlike some
of Paul’s other letters, this letter to the church in Ephesus was not written
for the purpose of correcting some kind of heresy. Instead, the letter was
written for the purpose of encouraging the church he established around 53 A.D.
However, Paul doesn’t deliver the letter personally but instead gives it to his
friend, Tychicus, who is visiting him from Ephesus. And where is Paul? Paul is
writing this letter to the Ephesians while imprisoned in Rome. This is
particularly poignant in light of our Subject
Text since Paul was not in a
position to “do” anything with respect to his salvation as he sat in prison.
Paul was writing to remind his readers that their sin once separated them from
God, as is the case for all humanity, but that they and by extension, we, are
now in right standing with God because of what Jesus did for us and this is
specifically the point of our Subject
Text.
Text Analysis
At first it
appears that Paul is admonishing the Ephesian believers in vv. 1-2 but he’s
actually making the distinction between our Subject Text and the verses leading up to our Subject Text where Paul describes the ruling position in heaven
that Jesus was elevated to after His resurrection, as compared to the dire
spiritual condition of the Ephesians, and by extension all of us, prior to
becoming believers in the truth and power of that resurrection to reverse that
dire spiritual condition. Paul reveals something very important about humanity
in v. 2 that we don’t like to admit and like even less to discuss. We are quick
to confess that as believers in Jesus Christ, we are controlled and guided in
life by the Holy Spirit. What we are less likely to dwell on is the condition
of those who are not controlled and guided by the Spirit. You see, humanity
does not exist in a vacuum. Humanity cannot be guided and controlled by nothing.
Instead, if humanity is not under the control of the Spirit who seeks to guide
us to conform to the truths of Scripture, it is under control of the one who
Paul calls “the ruler of the kingdom of the air” who guides those under his
rule to conform to the ways of the world. The Ephesians rightly understood “the
ruler of the kingdom of the air” to be a reference to Satan. They believed
Satan and his demons inhabited the region between the earth and the sky. Jesus
is the Ruler over all creation but until His second coming, God has granted
Satan the power to rule those who are not believers in Jesus Christ. “A yet
darker colour is now given to the description of the former heathen walk of
those addressed. Their life was determined and shaped by the master of all
evil, the supreme ruler of all the powers of wickedness. The terms obviously
designate Satan…Once that spirit [the
spirit of disobedience under the rule of Satan] worked in all those addressed; now it works not in them indeed, but in
those given over to disobedience to God’s will. So the lordship belonging to
the Prince of evil extends not only over all those malign powers whose seat is
in the air, but also and more particularly over that [s]pirit who operates as
an energy of wickedness in the hearts of men opposed to God.”[1]
Paul goes
on to add detail to his description of the believer’s life before becoming a
follower of Christ in v. 3. Paul makes it clear that no one, not even Paul who
was zealously faithful in all Jewish religious practices, were exempt from
gratifying the desires of their sinful nature (you can read more about the
“sinful nature” in a previous lesson titled, How’s Your Fruit Tree, at: http://seredinski.blogspot.com/2014/03/hows-your-fruit-tree.html).
Controlled by the sinful nature, humanity is consumed by following the cravings
and satisfying the desires of that sinful nature. And as a result we became
enemies of God. Paul calls those enemies of God “objects of wrath” meaning that
the enemies of God are subject to His wrath—and no one is exempt from God’s
wrath. God’s wrath must be appeased because God is perfectly holy and righteous
and he cannot allow sin and evil to go unpunished. The sense of God’s wrath as
used by Paul is understood as existing from the beginning of humanity’s sin and
extending until that wrath was appeased by Christ’s sacrifice. However, that
appeasement is only efficacious in those who acknowledge and accept that
sacrifice. For those who reject Christ’s sacrifice to appease God’s wrath, the
ominous storm cloud of God’s wrath still looms over them. “While attention is
thus forcibly drawn on the awful wrath of God in the future, it is viewed in
Pauline theology on the horizon of an eschatology which is already being
realized in the course of history from the time of the coming of Jesus Christ.
The decisive significance of Jesus Christ for men in the face of the orgē theou [Gk. “wrath of God”] is
described clearly and impressively. By nature, as a child of this world-age,
man stands under the wrath of God. It does not merely await him on the day of
judgment (cf. Jn 3:36), although Paul can also speak of it as a future event.
The wrath of God is directed against unrighteousness, transgression of the law,
irreverence, and disdain of the Creator. Secondly, however, the anger of God is
also aroused by the attitude of the so-called pious man, who through his
observance of the Law allows himself to be driven into a feeling of his own
self-esteem which finds expression in an unfitting boasting. But no man is able
to satisfy the Law. Therefore the Law brings wrath. For it is man’s
transgression of the Law—which becomes clear when the Law is radically
understood—that is the ground of the righteous anger of God. The lost situation
of man, both Jew and pagan, who is a prisoner of sin and therefore stands under
the anger of God, has now been revealed by God through the sending of Jesus
Christ.”[2]
I’d like to
describe the first three verses of our Subject
Text as a journey; a journey down
the road of doing life according to our own desires led by the one who wants to
destroy us—Satan. The road has led us to the edge of an abyss that leads to
destruction with God on the other side of the abyss. We can’t go backwards only
forwards. The journey appears to be over. With no way across the abyss, our
destiny appears to be a plunge into hopelessness. At just such a time, Scripture
reaches out with a “but” that gives us hope. That’s what happens in vv. 4-5. Unless
we realize that we are the ones standing on the edge of the abyss without hope,
we will fail to recognize the monumental significance of the “but” of v. 4. We
deserve condemnation; we deserve death, but,
God loves us so much that he gives us another option besides plunging into the
abyss. Because God loves us desperately, he builds a bridge across the abyss
that will allow us to be with Him. But this is no ordinary bridge. This bridge
to God is Jesus Christ Himself. Our belief in Jesus Christ brings us safely
into the presence of God. But why build a bridge? Why not just let us all
plunge into the abyss? Mercy! Yes, God is holy; Yes, God is perfect; Yes, God
is love. However, we must always remember that God is merciful. God saved us
because He loves us. It was God’s love that drove Him to have mercy on us.
Nevertheless, God did not have to save us—He did just fine without us for
eternity prior to the creation of humanity. And considering how Paul described
our grotesque, sinful condition we certainly did nothing to deserve God’s love
or mercy. That’s what makes God’s saving act so amazing—we did nothing to
deserve it but God made a way for us to be saved anyway. It is only because God
is gracious that we have a way across the abyss to be saved. And that’s exactly
what Paul means when he says that we have been saved by grace. “There is now in
existence a whole new situation because of God’s initiative. This initiative is
launched because God is a God not only of righteous wrath but also of mercy…For
no other reason than his mercy, God has rescued men and women from death and
given them life…God’s mercy is his overflowing active compassion and is freely
exercised, excluding all ideas of merit on the part of its object…The idea that
believers’ experience of salvation is totally unmerited on their part and due
solely to God’s generosity will be expressed again in the mention of his love,
and particularly through the term ‘grace,’ which is synonymous with ‘mercy.’”[3]
Paul
identifies our new standing as believers in v. 6 when he says that we have been
raised up with Christ. Paul is saying we have been raised to a life of eternal
blessing in the presence of God and saved from a life of eternal torment
separated from Him. “God gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. That
we have been given life means that we are ‘saved.’ When Christ rose from the
dead, so did all the members of his body by virtue of God’s uniting them with
Christ. The only way spiritually dead people can have a relationship with God
is to be made alive. And God is the only person who can accomplish that, which
he did through his Son, Jesus Christ. Christ defeated sin and death through his
death and resurrection, thus offering spiritual life to those dead in sins.”[4]
Paul
continues in v. 7 to describe the perpetual consequences to God’s overt display
of mercy and grace. Future generations will recognize God’s salvation work in
the lives of those who came before them. This is why I tell you it is so
important for you to share your story of salvation with others regardless of how
ashamed you may be of your life before you were saved. It is important for
people to know in order for them to recognize what Paul says is God’s
“incomparable riches of his grace.” Let me demonstrate with a story about
Rosaria Champagne Butterfield. Rosaria was a self-described, leftist, lesbian
professor who hated Christians and Christianity. She hated them because they
refused to accept that her lifestyle was appropriate. She believed Christians
were merely ignorant rubes while she was erudite and enlightened—yet they had
the audacity to challenge her life and worldview. And because she hated
Christians she had no use for God. However, that changed when she met Ken the
pastor of Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church and his wife Floy. Rosaria
developed a relationship with Ken and his wife over a few years where they
discussed many things that included culture, politics, and religion. Eventually,
Ken convinced Rosaria to question her long held beliefs to see if they could hold
up to objective criticism. Ken wasn’t questioning Rosaria, he challenged her to
question herself. Ken did what I have so often asked all of you to do—know why
you believe what you believe! Eventually, Ken convinced Rosaria to read the
Bible which she read in a number of different translations to make sure one
particular translation wasn’t biased. I’ll let Rosaria tell the rest of her
story:
“I continued
reading the Bible, all the while fighting the idea that it was inspired. But
the Bible got to be bigger inside me than I. It overflowed into my world. I
fought against it with all my might. Then, one Sunday morning, I rose from the
bed of my lesbian lover, and an hour later sat in a pew at the Syracuse
Reformed Presbyterian Church. Conspicuous with my butch haircut, I reminded
myself that I came to meet God, not fit in. The image that came in like waves,
of me and everyone I loved suffering in hell, vomited into my consciousness and
gripped me in its teeth.
I fought with everything I had.
I did not want this.
I did not ask for this.
I counted the costs. And I did not like the math on the other
side of the equal sign.
But God’s promises rolled in like sets of
waves into my world. One Lord’s Day, Ken preached on John 7:17: ‘If anyone
wills to do [God’s] will, he shall know concerning the doctrine [whether it be
of God, or whether I speak of myself].’ (NKJV). This verse exposed the
quicksand in which my feet were stuck. I was a thinker. I was paid to read
books and write about them. I expected that in all areas of life, understanding
came before obedience. And I wanted God to show me, on my terms, why
homosexuality was a sin. I wanted to be the judge, not one being judged.
But the verse promised understanding after
obedience. I wrestled with the question: Did I really want to understand
homosexuality from God’s point of view, or did I just want to argue with him? I
prayed that night that God would give me the willingness to obey before I
understood. I prayed long into the unfolding of day. When I looked in the
mirror, I looked the same. But when I looked into my heart through the lens of
the Bible, I wondered, am I a lesbian, or has this all been a case of mistaken
identity? If Jesus could split the world asunder, divide marrow from soul,
could he make my true identity prevail? Who am I? Who will God have me to be?
Then, one ordinary day, I came to Jesus,
openhanded and naked. In this war of worldviews, Ken was there. Floy was there.
The church that had been praying for me for years was there. Jesus triumphed.
And I was a broken mess. Conversion was a train wreck. I did not want to lose
everything that I loved. But the voice of God sang a sanguine love song in the
rubble of my world. I weakly believed that if Jesus could conquer death, he
could make right my world. I drank, tentatively at first, then passionately, of
the solace of the Holy Spirit. I rested in private peace, then community, and
today in the shelter of a covenant family, where one calls me ‘wife’ and many
call me ‘mother.’
I have not forgotten the blood Jesus surrendered for this
life.”[5]
God
saved Rosaria not because she somehow deserved it but because of the
“incomparable riches of his grace” and every time Rosaria tells her story it is
like a signpost pointing the way to God’s grace for all those who know or hear
her story.
We
know that the means of our salvation is the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ. But the basis of our salvation; the reason God provided the means for
our salvation is summarized in vv. 8-9 when Paul says we are saved by grace
through faith is the means of that salvation; faith in Jesus Christ. We did
nothing nor can we do anything to merit that salvation. It is God’s gift to
those who will accept it like Rosaria—open-handed. Why? So that no one can say I Earned It! If you get nothing else
out of this lesson, I want you to get this: There is nothing, nothing, nothing
you can do to earn your salvation! What happens when we begin to think that we
could somehow help God or cajole God or leverage God to save us by something we
do? I want you to go back to the lesson I posted for Easter titled “Man Of
Sorrows” at: http://seredinski.blogspot.com/2014/04/man-of-sorrows.html).
When you’re done looking through the images of that lesson, if you still think
there is something you can do to earn your salvation then what you are saying
is that all that Jesus endured and accomplished was not enough. Let that sink
in for just a minute. He was arrested under false pretense, beaten nearly to
death, nailed to the cross like a common criminal, died on the cross after the
Father turned His face from Him because of humanity’s sin, He was buried in a
tomb for three days and then He rose from the dead and ascended to heaven but
somehow that’s not enough? Is that really the message we want to send
God—thanks for sending your Son to die for us but we don’t think that was
enough so we’re going to add a few other things. It sounds kind of silly
doesn’t it? Well we should remember that when we fall into the trap of thinking
we can somehow help God save us. “If salvation is a gift of grace, then human
beings can do nothing to achieve it. It is God’s work, a gift extended to
everyone. Its cause is purely in God’s character, not in the character or
conduct of any person. No act or virtue can be presented to God to gain
acceptance. But for many grace is so hard to believe or accept. Virtually all
our experience tells us that we have to earn acceptance, love, and respect. We
spend our lives seeking self-actualization, some act or fact that will give us
significance and standing. If we have self-confidence, we see no need to be
stripped of all our hard-earned value. Other people are worse than we are, so
why shouldn’t God accept us? If we lack self-confidence, we find it hard to think
God will accept us under any circumstance. Either way, grace is hard to take.
But remember that grace is God’s giving us [of] himself. He accepts us without
precondition or complaint. We are given significance and standing by our
relation to God. We are valued by grace, but the attention is not placed on us,
but on God who loves so deeply. Grace moves us to worship and true humility. If
all initiative comes from God and all the praise belongs to him, no room is
left for either pride or self-depreciation. But if grace is taken seriously,
the focus is moved off ourselves, and pride does not have a leg to stand on.
Dealing with grace and pride is, of course, a daily task and part of the
ongoing identification with the death of Christ.”[6]
Paul just
finished telling us that our salvation is a gift of God and not by any work
performed by us but then tells us in v. 10 that we have been created to do good
works that God has actually prepared in advance for us to do. This is the place
where people can get confused. Are we supposed to do good works or not? Let me
see if I can explain the purpose of v. 10 in relation to the pervious verses in
our Subject Text. Very simply, vv.
1-9 say here is God’s gift to you; the gift of salvation and v. 10 says “Thank
you.” God has prepared good works for us to do in response to receiving the
free gift He offers us. Nothing Paul is saying in our Subject Text says we
don’t have a duty to live our lives in obedience to the Scriptures. Paul is not
saying that we shouldn’t attend church; that we shouldn’t pray; that we
shouldn’t take communion; that we shouldn’t be baptized; that we shouldn’t be
self-controlled; that we shouldn’t refrain from sexual immorality; that we
shouldn’t be gluttons; that we shouldn’t be liars; that we shouldn’t be greedy;
that we shouldn’t be gossips; that we shouldn’t seek to live lives holy and
pleasing to God. What Paul is saying is that we shouldn’t pursue or attempt to
perfect these things in an effort to get God to accept us; to love us; to save
us. How can we keep these verses in their proper perspective? The answer, as
always, finds its basis in relationship
as opposed to religion. Religion is
an important institution but relationship gives religion its purpose. Without
relationship, religion is meaningless and even destructive. Let me put it this
way—Marriage is an important institution but without relationship, marriage is
meaningless and very painful—relationship always comes first. I don’t love my
wife, Laura, because I’m married to her, I’m married to her because I love her.
I serve her and care for her because I love her. I don’t do those things so she
will love me, I do them because I love her. If I do those things for her to get
her to love me then we don’t have a relationship we’re just married. Similarly,
if I purposely neglect to do those things for her then we don’t have a
relationship either. However, because we have a relationship of love, serving
my wife is just something I do as a natural result of our love relationship. Paul
describes a God that is madly in love with us, His “workmanship;” His work of
art. And He has created us in such a way so that the work He wants to
accomplish, He will accomplish in us and through us as believers. In a love
relationship with God, we are not working for God so that He will love us—He
already loves us. Instead, God is working in and through us to bless us, to
accomplish His will, and to reach those who still don’t recognize how much He
loves them. “God has prepared beforehand good works for believers that he will
perform in and through them as they walk by faith in his power. It is not doing
a work for God but God doing a work in and through the believer. Hence, the good works, also, cannot be a
cause for boasting, as is the case in our salvation, because both are elements
accomplished by God’s grace by means of faith. If no good works are evident, it
may indicate that that one is not a believer, because what God has purposed in
the believer is not being accomplished. Works are not the means of
salvation—only faith is. But works are an evidence of salvation—God’s working
in the believer his prepared works…Our salvation is not only a one time act of
conversion, but also includes the activity of his workmanship in whom and
through whom he performs the good works he has already prepared in advance.”[7]
Application
At the
beginning of this lesson I told you about the arrogant comments made by Michael
Bloomberg and we can easily dismiss them as the ravings of a self-inflated
narcissist. However, I have to admit that something inside of me felt sorry of
him, first that he isn’t convinced of God’s existence but second that he thinks
he could possibly do something to merit God’s favor when God already loves him.
It made me a little sad for Bloomberg. You see, Jesus only had harsh words for the
religious leaders who refused to believe in Him because they should have known
better. They studied the Scriptures daily that spoke of Him yet they refused to
believe in Him (Jn 5:39). However, for the other Jews in Jerusalem, those who
were trapped by the false teachings of the religious leaders, Jesus shed tears
like a parent would shed tears for a lost child (Lk 19:41-44). The foolishness
of Bloomberg may not mean anything to you because it seems harmless. However,
the belief that we must strive to earn God’s acceptance; God’s love; God’s
forgiveness; God’s salvation, can have devastating consequences. Just how
devastating can the consequences be? So devastating that it could lead a group
of men to hijack planes filled with innocent people and fly them into buildings
filled with innocent people in order to demonstrate their devotion to God and
hopefully do enough to gain His favor. The basis of Islam’s fanaticism is the
belief that only those who “do”
enough for God have a chance at going to heaven (with no guarantees still).
Driven to its logical extreme, martyrdom is the only thing that remains for a
Muslim to do to try and earn their way into God’s good graces. Islam’s logic
goes something like this: What more can a Muslim do to prove their devotion and
commitment then to die in the cause of protecting God’s honor and destroying
those who don’t believe the way they do. At that point, Muslims are hoping that
God would be compelled to accept them because they earned it through their own
death. You could call it the Muslim trump card—their martyrdom trumps God’s
ability to condemn them for their sins. Can you imagine what it would be like
wondering everyday if you have done enough to appease God’s wrath? It could
drive a person to the point of desperation and a desperate person can do the
unthinkable—like strap a bomb to themselves and blow themselves up in a crowd
of innocent people. It just doesn’t make sense does it when the answer is so obvious?
Can you see how adding Jesus to the equation would solve everything for Muslims?
God’s wrath is appeased and true devotion is not demonstrated by dying for God
but by living for him. Desperation and hopelessness gives way to peace, hope,
and the assurance that Jesus did what a Muslim could never do no matter how
many people he or she killed to try and prove their worthiness to God. If you
want to see an end to the senseless and brutal atrocities at the hands of
Islam, pray that the truth of Jesus would invade their hearts and minds.
There are
other, silent, and more personal consequences of feeling like you have to earn
God’s favor. I know these very well because I live with them every day. You
see, I have a very distorted view of God the Father because of a very painful
relationship with my earthly father. Whatever love that may have been available
from my father was conditional and those conditions changed depending on his
mood or how much he’d had to drink. Love became synonymous with not getting
yelled at or beat on. The trick was figuring out what I had to do for those
things not to happen. For many years, I understood God the Father the same way.
A Father filled with wrath who expected perfect obedience and devotion. It took
many years before I learned to recognize the Father who loved me
unconditionally. The Father who loved me so much that He made it possible for
me to spend eternity with Him and I didn’t have to do anything, He did
everything for me. The Father sent the Son to do for me what I could never do
for myself. I know this and I have accepted this but I still struggle with it
every day—not because I don’t think He can do it or would do it but because I
don’t believe I deserve it. So I still fall into the trap of trying to earn
what God has already freely given me. I know it sounds ridiculous to some
people but old habits die hard and this one isn’t quite dead yet in me. Nevertheless,
I hold on to the truth that God has saved me because He loves me and He is
gracious and merciful. I will always confess and take comfort in the assurance that
I have been saved by grace through faith so I will never be able to say I Earned It!
[1] W.
Robertson Nicoll, The Expositor’s Greek
Testament, Vol. 3, (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.,
1983), pp. 284-285.
[2]
Colin Brown, gen. ed., New International
Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Vol. 1, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan
Publishing House, 1986), pp. 111-112.
[3]
Andrew T. Lincoln, Ephesians—Word
Biblical Commentary, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1990), p. 100.
[4]
Bruce Barton, Philip Comfort, Grant Osborne, Linda K. Taylor, Dave Veerman, Life Application New Testament Commentary,
(Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2001), p. 810.
[5]
Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, “My Train Wreck Conversion,” Christianity Today, 7 February 2013, p.
112.
[6]
Klyne Snodgrass, Ephesians—The NIV
Application Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), pp. 120-121.
[7]
Howard W. Hoehner, Ephesians—An
Exegetical Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002), pp 349-350.
