Homily 6 — Ephesians 2, verse 17, to 3, verse 7

“And he came and preached peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God, being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone. In whom each building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” [a]

He did not send someone else, the apostle says, and he did not announce this news to us through anyone else; he did it himself, in his own person. He did not send an angel or an archangel on this mission, because no one else had the power to repair so many and such great evils and to announce what had been done. It required his own coming. So the Lord took on himself the rank of a servant — or rather, almost that of an attendant. “And he came and preached peace to you,” he says, “who were far off, and to those who were near.” By those who were near he means the Jews, who were near compared with us. “For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.”

“Peace,” he says — that peace which is toward God. He has reconciled us. For the Lord himself also says, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (John 14, verse 27). And again, “Take courage; I have overcome the world” (John 16, verse 33). And again, “Whatever you ask in my name, that I will do” (John 14, verse 14). And again, “For the Father loves you” (John 16, verse 27). These are all so many proofs of peace. But how is it peace toward the Gentiles? “Because through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father” — not you less and they more, but all by one and the same grace. He calmed the wrath by his death, and through the Spirit he has made us fit for the Father’s love. Notice again: “in” here means “by” or “through.” By himself, that is, and by the Spirit, he has brought us to the Father. “So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints.” [b]

Do you see that it is not simply with the Jews, but with those holy and great men, such as Abraham, and Moses, and Elijah? We are enrolled in the very same city as they are, for that is the city we declare to be ours. “For those who say such things,” he says, “make it plain that they are seeking a homeland of their own” (Hebrews 11, verse 14). No longer are we strangers to the saints, nor foreigners. For it is those who will not attain the blessings of heaven who are the foreigners. “For the Son,” says Christ, “remains forever” (John 8, verse 35).

“And of the household,” he goes on, “of God.” The very thing that they had at the first, through so many toils and troubles, has been accomplished for you by the grace of God. See the hope of your calling! [c]

“Being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.” Notice how he blends everything together: the Gentiles, the Jews, the apostles, the prophets, and Christ. He illustrates the union sometimes from the body and sometimes from the building. “Built,” he says, “on the foundation of the apostles and prophets” — that is, the apostles and prophets are a foundation. And he puts the apostles first, though in order of time they come last. No doubt he does this to picture and express that both alike are a foundation, that the whole is one building, and that there is one root. Consider this: the Gentiles have the patriarchs as a foundation. He speaks more strongly of this point here than when he speaks of a “grafting in”; there he rather attaches them on. Then he adds that the one who binds the whole together is Christ. For the chief cornerstone binds together both the walls and the foundations.

“In whom each building.” Notice how he knits it all together. At one time he pictures Christ as holding the whole body fast from above and welding it together; at another, as supporting the building from below, being, as it were, a root or a base. He had used the expression, “He created in himself one new man out of the two” (Ephesians 2, verse 15). By this he clearly shows us that Christ by himself knits the two walls together, and again that it was created in him. And “he is the firstborn,” he says, “of all creation” — that is, he himself supports all things. [d]

“In whom each building, fitted together.” Whether you speak of the roof, or the walls, or any other part whatever, he is the one who supports the whole. That is why elsewhere he calls him a foundation: “For no one can lay any other foundation than the one that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (First Corinthians 3, verse 11). “In whom each building,” he says, “fitted together.” Here he shows how complete it is, and indicates that there is no other way to have a place in it except by living with great care. “It grows,” he says, “into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also,” he adds, “are built together.” He runs straight on: “into a holy temple, into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”

What, then, is the purpose of this building? That God may live in this temple. For each of you by yourself is a temple, and all of you together are a temple. And he lives in you as in the body of Christ, and as in a spiritual temple. He does not use the word that means our coming to God, but the one that means God bringing us to himself; for we did not come of ourselves, but were brought near by him. “No one,” says Christ, “comes to the Father except through me.” And again, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14, verse 6).

He joins them with the saints, and again returns to his former image, nowhere allowing them to be separated from Christ. No doubt, then, this is a building that will go on until his coming. No doubt it was for this reason that Paul said, “As a wise master builder, I laid a foundation” (First Corinthians 3, verses 10 and 11), and again that Christ is the foundation. What, then, does all this mean? You see that the comparisons have all been fitted to the subject at hand, and that we must not explain them to the very letter. The apostle speaks by analogy, as Christ does when he calls the Father a vinedresser (John 15, verse 1) and himself a root (Revelation 22, verse 16). [e]

Chapter 3, verse 1: “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles.”

He has spoken of Christ’s great and tender care; now he passes on to his own, small as it is, and a mere nothing compared with that — and yet it is enough to win them to himself. For this reason, he says, I too am in chains. For if my Lord was crucified for your sakes, all the more am I in chains. He was not only bound himself, but he also allows his servants to be bound — “for you Gentiles.” The phrase is full of emphasis. Not only do we no longer loathe you, he says, but we are even in chains for your sakes; and I have a share in this surpassing grace.

Verse 2: “If indeed you have heard of the arrangement of the grace of God that was given to me for you.” [f]

He is alluding to the prediction given to Ananias about him at Damascus, when the Lord said, “Go your way, for he is a chosen vessel of mine, to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings” (Acts 9, verse 15).

By “the arrangement of grace” he means the revelation made to him. It is as if he said: “I did not learn it from man (Galatians 1, verse 12). He saw fit to reveal it even to me, though I am only one man, for your sakes.” For he himself said to me, he says, “Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles” (Acts 22, verse 21). “If indeed you have heard” — for an arrangement it was, and a mighty one: to call a man directly from above, with nothing from any other quarter influencing him, and to say, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” and to strike him blind with that light beyond words! “If indeed you have heard,” he says, “of the arrangement of the grace of God that was given to me for you.”

Verse 3: “How the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote before in few words.” [g]

Perhaps he had told them of it through certain people, or had written to them not long before. Here he is pointing out that the whole thing is from God, and that we have contributed nothing. For what, I ask? Was not Paul himself — the wonderful Paul, so learned in the law, brought up at the feet of Gamaliel according to the strictest standard — was not even he saved by grace? And he has good reason to call this a mystery, for a mystery it is: that the Gentiles should be raised in a moment to a higher rank than the Jews. “As I wrote before,” he says, “in few words” — that is, briefly. Verse 4: “By which, when you read, you can perceive.”

Amazing! So he did not write the whole, nor as much as he should have written. But here it was the nature of the subject that prevented it; elsewhere, as with the Hebrews (Hebrews 5, verse 11) and the Corinthians (First Corinthians 3, verse 2), it was the hearers’ inability. “By which, when you read, you can perceive,” he says, “my understanding in the mystery of Christ” — that is, how I knew, how I understood, either the things God has spoken, or else that Christ sits at the right hand of God; and then too the high honor of it, in that God “has not dealt so with any nation” (Psalm 147, verse 20).

And then, to explain what nation it is that God has dealt with in this way, he adds — verse 5: “Which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit.” [h]

What, then, tell me? Did the prophets not know it? Then how does Christ say that Moses and the prophets wrote “these things about me”? And again, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me” (John 5, verse 46). And again, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me” (John 5, verse 39). His meaning is this. Either it was not revealed to all people — for he adds, “which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed” — or else it was not made known in this way, by the very facts and realities themselves, “as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit.” Just think.

Peter, had he not been taught by the Spirit, would never have gone to the Gentiles. For listen to what he says: “So God has given them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us” (Acts 10, verse 47). That is, it was by the Spirit that God chose for them to receive the grace. So the prophets spoke, yet they did not know it as perfectly as this — so far from it that not even the apostles did, after they had heard it. So far did it surpass all human reckoning and all common expectation.

Verse 6: “That the Gentiles are fellow heirs, and fellow members of the body, and fellow sharers.” [i]

What does this mean — “fellow heirs, and fellow sharers of the promise, and fellow members of the body”? This last is the great thing: that they should be one body — this surpassing closeness of relation to him. That they were to be called, they did indeed know; but that it would be so great a thing, they did not yet know. This, then, is what he calls the mystery. “Of the promise”: the Israelites were sharers, and the Gentiles too were fellow sharers of the promise of God.

“In Christ Jesus through the good news.” That is, by his being sent to them as well, and by their believing; for it does not say simply that they are fellow heirs, but “through the good news.” Yet this is nothing so great; it is in fact a small thing, and it opens up to us another and greater thing: that not only did men not know this, but neither did angels, nor archangels, nor any other created power. For it was a mystery, and had not been revealed. “So that you can perceive,” he says, “my understanding.” Perhaps this alludes to what he said to them in the Acts, that he had some knowledge that the Gentiles too were called. This, he says, is his own knowledge, “the knowledge of the mystery” he had mentioned, namely, “that Christ would make in himself one new man out of the two.” For by revelation he was taught, both he and Peter, that they must not spurn the Gentiles; and this he states in his own defense.

Verse 7: “Of which I was made a servant, according to the gift of the grace of God that was given to me according to the working of his power.” [j]

He had said, “I am a prisoner”; but now again he says that all is from God, as he says, “according to the gift of his grace.” For the honor of this privilege matches the power of the gift. But the gift would not have been enough if it had not also put power into him.

For it truly was a work of power, of mighty power, and such that no human effort was equal to it. He brought three qualities to the preaching of the word: a fervent and daring zeal; a soul ready to undergo any hardship whatever; and knowledge joined with wisdom. For his daring and his blameless life would have achieved nothing if he had not also received the power of the Spirit.

Look at these as they are seen first in him — or rather, listen to his own words. “So that our ministry may not be blamed” (Second Corinthians 6, verse 3). And again, “For our appeal does not come from error, or from uncleanness, or with deceit, nor as a cloak for greed” (First Thessalonians 2, verses 3 and 5). There you have seen his blamelessness. And again, “For we take care to do what is honorable, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men” (Second Corinthians 8, verse 21). Then again, beyond these: “I swear by the pride I take in you, which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die every day” (First Corinthians 15, verse 31). And again, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will distress, or anguish, or persecution?” (Romans 8, verse 35). And again, “In much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in sleepless nights” (Second Corinthians 6, verses 4 and 5).

Then again, his good sense and his skill in dealing with people: “To the Jews I became as a Jew, to those without the law as one without the law, to those under the law as one under the law” (First Corinthians 9, verse 20). He shaves his head too (Acts 21, verses 24 to 26), and does countless things of that sort. But the crown of all is the power of the Holy Spirit. “For I will not dare to speak,” he says, “of anything except what Christ has worked through me” (Romans 15, verse 18). And again, “For in what were you made inferior to the rest of the churches?” (Second Corinthians 12, verse 13). And again, “For in nothing was I behind the very greatest apostles, though I am nothing” (Second Corinthians 12, verse 11). Without these things the work would have been impossible.

So it was not by his miracles that people were made believers. No, it was not the miracles that did this, nor was it on them that he rested his high claim, but on those other grounds. For a man must be blameless in his conduct, prudent and careful in his dealings with others, fearless of danger, and able to teach. It was by these qualities that the greater part of his success was won. Where these were present, there was no need of miracles. At any rate, we see that he succeeded in countless such cases well before he made any use of miracles. But nowadays we, without any of these, would like to have everything at our command. Yet if one of them is separated from the others, it becomes useless from then on.

What good is it for a man to be ever so fearless of danger if his life is open to blame? “For if the light that is in you is darkness,” says Christ, “how great is that darkness!” (Matthew 6, verse 23). Again, what good is it for a man to live a blameless life if he is sluggish and lazy? “For whoever does not take his cross and follow after me,” he says, “is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10, verse 38); and so too, “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10, verse 11). Again, what good is it to have both of these unless a man is at the same time prudent and careful, “knowing how he ought to answer each one” (Colossians 4, verse 6)? Even if miracles are not in our power, both these qualities are. And yet, for all that Paul contributed so much of his own, he still credited everything to grace. This is what a grateful servant does. And we would never so much as have heard of his good deeds had he not been forced to declare them.

And are we, then, worthy even to mention the name of Paul?

He had grace to help him besides, and yet he was not satisfied, but brought ten thousand dangers to the work. We lack that source of confidence. How, tell me, do we expect either to keep those entrusted to our care or to win those who have not yet come into the fold — we, who have made a study of self-indulgence, who search the world over for ease, who cannot, or rather will not, endure even the shadow of danger, and who are as far from his wisdom as heaven is from earth?

That is also why those under our care fall so far behind the people of those days. The disciples of that time were better than the teachers of ours. They were isolated in the midst of the people and of tyrants, with everyone on every side their enemy, and yet they were not in the least dragged down or made to give way. Listen, at any rate, to what he says to the Philippians: “Because to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer on his behalf” (Philippians 1, verse 29). And again to the Thessalonians: “For you, brothers and sisters, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea” (First Thessalonians 2, verse 14). And again, writing to the Hebrews, he said, “And you joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions” (Hebrews 10, verse 34). And to the Colossians he bears witness, saying, “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3, verse 3). And indeed to these very Ephesians he bears witness of many perils and dangers. And again, writing to the Galatians, he says, “Did you suffer so many things in vain — if indeed it was in vain?” (Galatians 3, verse 4). And you see them too, all busy doing good.

That is why grace worked powerfully in those days, and that is why they lived in good works. Listen, too, to what he writes to the Corinthians. He brings countless charges against them; yet does he not bear witness even for them, where he says, “Yes, what zeal it produced in you, yes, what longing!” (Second Corinthians 7, verse 11)? And on how many other points does he bear witness for them on this subject? Nowadays you will not see these things, even in teachers. They are all gone and perished. And the cause is that love has grown cold; that sinners go unpunished — for listen to what he says, writing to Timothy: “Rebuke those who sin in the presence of all” (First Timothy 5, verse 20); and that those who preside are in a sickly state. For if the head is not sound, how can the rest of the body keep its strength? [l]

But see how great the present disorder is. Those who were living virtuously, and who in any circumstances could have had confidence, have taken possession of the mountaintops and have escaped out of the world, separating themselves as if from an enemy and a stranger, and not from a body to which they belonged.

Plagues too, full of untold harm, have fallen on the churches. The highest offices have become things to be bought and sold. From this countless evils are springing up, and there is no one to set them right, no one to rebuke them. More than that, the disorder has taken on a kind of system and settled order. Has a man done wrong, and been accused of it? His effort is not to prove himself innocent, but to find, if he can, accomplices in his crimes. What is to become of us, since hell is the portion threatened for us? Believe me, if God had not stored up punishment for us there, you would see tragedies every day deeper than the disasters of the Jews. [m]

What then? Let no one take offense, for I name no names. Suppose someone were to come into this church now, to you who are here at this moment, to those who are with me now, and were to question them closely. Or rather, not now; but suppose that on Easter day someone endowed with such a spirit that he knew thoroughly what they had been doing were to examine closely everyone who came forward to receive communion, and those who were being washed in baptism after taking part in the mysteries. Many things would be discovered more shocking than the horrors of the Jews. He would find people who practice soothsaying, who use charms and omens and incantations; people who have committed sexual immorality; adulterers, drunkards, and slanderers; and — I am unwilling to add it, in case I should hurt the feelings of any of those standing here — the greedy. What more? Suppose someone were to examine everyone who receives communion throughout the world: what kind of wrongdoing would he not uncover? And what if he examined those in authority? Would he not find them eagerly bent on gain, trading in high positions, envious, spiteful, hungry for empty glory, gluttonous, and slaves to money?

Where there is such ungodliness as this going on, what dreadful disaster must we not expect? And to be sure how severe a punishment those who commit such sins bring on themselves, consider the examples of old. One single man, a common soldier, stole the holy things, and all the people were struck down. You know, of course, the story I mean? I am speaking of Achan, the son of Carmi, the man who stole the spoil that had been devoted to God (Joshua 7, verses 1 to 26). And the time when the prophet spoke was a time when their country was full of soothsayers, like the land of the Philistines (Isaiah 2, verse 6). But now there are countless evils in full measure, and not one person is afraid. Oh, let us take alarm from now on! God is accustomed to punish the righteous along with the wicked. So it was with Daniel and with the three holy young men; so it has been with ten thousand others; so it is in the wars that are going on even at the present day. [p]

For the righteous, whatever burden of sins they have on them, lay down even that by this means; but not so the others.

Because of all these things, let us take heed to ourselves. Do you not see these wars? Do you not hear of these disasters? Do you learn no lesson from them? Nations and whole cities are swallowed up and destroyed, and as many tens of thousands again are carried off as slaves by the barbarians. [q]

If hell does not bring us to our senses, then let these things do it. What, are these too mere threats? Are they not facts that have already happened? Great is the punishment they have suffered; yet we will suffer a greater one still, we who are not brought to our senses even by their fate. Is this sermon wearisome? I know it is, myself. But if we pay attention to it, it has its benefit. For it does not have the quality of a speech meant to please — no, and it never will — but it always keeps to those subjects that can humble and discipline the soul. For these will be for us the groundwork of the blessings to come hereafter. May God grant that we all attain them, in Jesus Christ our Lord, with whom to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory and might and honor, now and from now on, and forever and ever. Amen.