Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ephesians 2:5

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

5. dead in sins ] Better, in respect of our trespasses. See on Eph 2:1 the construction is the same.

hath quickened ] Did quicken, i.e., bring from death to life; ideally, when our Lord and Head rose to life; actually, when we, by faith, were united to Him.

together with Christ ] As vitally and by covenant one with Him. For all His true “members,” His Death of propitiation is as if theirs; His Life of acceptance before the Father, and of spiritual triumph and power, is as if theirs also. As it is to Him the Divine pledge of the finished work of satisfaction, that pledge is theirs; as He appears in it “in the power of indissoluble life” (Heb 7:16), they, “because He lives, live also” (Joh 14:19). For the phrase cp. Col 2:13, which fixes the main reference to Acceptance. See accordingly Rom 4:25; “He was raised again by reason of our justification. ” Another reading, but not well supported, gives, “He quickened us together in Christ.”

( by grace ye are saved)] Lit. ye have been saved; and so Eph 2:8. The verb is perfect. More usually the present tense appears, “ye are being saved;” e.g. 1Co 15:2; 2Co 2:15 (“them that are being saved; them that are perishing”); the Christian being viewed as under the process of preservation which is to terminate in glory. See 1Pe 1:5. And again a frequent meaning of the noun “salvation” is that glory itself, as in the text just quoted and Rom 13:11. Here, where the whole context favours such a reference, the reference is to the completeness, in the Divine purpose and covenant, of the rescue of the members of the true Church. From the Divine point of view that is a fait accompli which from the human point of view is a thing in process, or in expectation. “ By grace: ” for commentary, see the Ep. to the Romans, esp. cch. 3, 4. and Rom 11:5-6. The emphatic statement here is due to the whole context, (so full of the thought of a salvation which the saved could not possibly have generated, dead as they were,) and, immediately, to the phrase “quickened with Christ,” which involves the thought of the entire dependence of their “life” on Him.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Even when we were dead in sins – notes, Eph 2:1; compare Rom 5:8. The construction here is, God, who is rich in mercy, on account of the great love which he bare unto us, even being dead in sin, hath quickened us, etc. It does not mean that he quickened us when we were dead in sin, but that he loved us then, and made provision for our salvation. It was love to the children of wrath; love to those who had no love to return to him; love to the alienated and the lost. That is true love – the sincerest and the purest benevolence – love, not like that of people, but such only as God bestows. Man loves his friend, his benefactor, his kindred – God loves his foes, and seeks to do them good.

Hath quickened us – Hath made us alive see Eph 2:1.

Together with Christ – In connection with him; or in virtue of his being raised up from the grave. The meaning is, that there was such a connection between Christ and those whom the Father hath given to him, that his resurrection from the grave involved their resurrection to spiritual life. It was like raising up the head and the members – the whole body together; compare the notes at Rom 6:5. Everywhere in the New Testament, the close connection of the believer with Christ is affirmed. We are crucified with him. We die with him. We rise with him. We live with him. We reign with him. We are joint heirs with him. We share his sufferings on earth 1Pe 4:13, and we share his glory with him on his throne; Rev 3:21.

By grace ye are saved – Margin, by whose; see the notes at Rom 3:24. Pauls mind was full of the subject of salvation by grace, and he throws it in here, even in an argument, as a point which he would never have them lose sight of. The subject before him was one eminently adapted to bring this truth to mind, and though, in the train of his arguments, he had no time now to dwell on it, yet he would not suffer any opportunity to pass without referring to it.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Eph 2:5-6

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.

Salvation for the lost

I. First, then, the text shows you the misery from which you must be rescued. Even when we were dead in sins. Every individual, descended from Adam, having a polluted nature, and living in this world, is dead in sins. This is an awfully emphatic expression–dead in sins. A more wretched state can scarcely be conceived, except that of the angels who kept not their first estate, and whom God has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. But I need not tell you that it is a metaphorical expression, because it declares that a living man is dead. Not dead naturally. He is not dead as to natural actions; he can eat, and drink, and sleep. Nor as to rational actions; he can reason, and judge, and consider. Nor as to civil actions; he can buy and sell and get gain. Nor as to moral actions; he can be kind, he can read and pray and hear the Word and meditate upon it; he can listen to the voice of Gods judgments; he can call his ways to remembrance; he can humble himself before the God of his mercies. So far went Ahab and Herod, yet continued spiritually dead. Let me try to describe this death. It consists of two parts.

1. The sinner living in enmity to God is condemned to death.

2. The symptoms of spiritual death are manifest upon him. Sin has separated the soul from God, so that man cannot commune with God, and God cannot commune with man; your iniquities, says the prophet, have separated between you and your God.

II. In the second place, the agent and the means of deliverance are here presented. God hath quickened us together with Christ. Your case, my brethren, is too desperate for the arm of man to reach. No expedients, which human might and human wisdom can afford, can remedy your misery. God hath quickened us together with Christ.

III. Thirdly, the felicity to which this deliverance will raise you, is also here presented. And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Here you see that a regenerate sinner is a living saint. Before, the man was dead; now, he lives. Before, as death locks up the senses and all the powers and faculties of the soul, so did a state of sin to the performance and enjoyment of anything that is really good; but now, when a change takes place, grace unlocks and opens all, and so enlarges the soul that it brings every faculty into operation as that of a living man. And do you ask me, what is this life? A life of justification; when no charge can be brought against the sinner. A life of sanctification; where holiness is the element of being. A life of dignity; where Christ is the companion forever.

IV. But, fourthly, you have here the source from whence you must expect this life. God who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us. Mark how language labours for expression: rich mercy and great love. Inexhaustibly rich mercy; inexpressibly great love.

V. But there is one more point to be noticed: the end to be secured by this wonderful manifestation of His mercy. That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness towards us through Jesus Christ. This expression, the ages to come, sometimes refers to any future period; but it has especial reference to two.

1. To the times of the gospel. Brethren, these are the ages which were to come. This is the acceptable year; this is the day of the Lord; this is the accepted time; this is the day of salvation. The days since Christ was born and suffered are the most blessed and happy days that ever shone upon our fallen world. No days have been like them.

2. The phrase refers also to the last great day. Then will be the full and wondrous exhibition of the scheme of mercy, at which the world may wonder. (James Sherman)

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Deliverance

I. The free love and undeserved grace of God, as the sole origin and moving cause of our deliverance.

II. See, then, how the purpose of Gods love has been effected. See the Divine precision–the exact adaptation of the means to the end–the finished perfection in the result.

III. But we are led on a step higher at verse 6–we are introduced into heavenly places. What, then, is the peculiar significance of the expression in that sixth verse–raised up together, and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Five times over in the course of the Epistle, you meet with the phrase heavenly places, or (literally) the heavenlies. Thus, in Eph 1:20, we are told that after God raised Jesus from the dead, He set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. It was not enough that He should rise out of the grave, however necessary might be His resurrection as one intermediate link in the process. So long as He remained on earth (as He did for forty days), He had not entered on the fulness of His joy. A crowning proof was awanting, and that was not furnished until the hour of His enthronement in the heavenly places. Then was Jesus in all the glory of His acceptance, in the fulness of His honour! Into the places of reward, and enjoyment, and unfading glory, He entered, and there lives an everlasting sign that the work for which He visited the earthly places has been perfectly fulfilled. But Jesus is not alone in these heavenly places. Every true believer is there in Him. Seated together with Christ, therefore, ought we not now to be made partakers with Him, in some measure, of heavenly blessings? to he sharers here, in some degree, of the joy that fills His heart? Let us see, then, what some of those things are which are now making glad the heart of Christ in heaven, and look at them, that we may ask of God to enter more fully into the power and experience of them.

1. One great joy of His heart in heaven must be in His own deliverance, and in the certainty of the deliverance of His people with Him from the curse of hell, in His having so satisfied the everlasting demands of Divine justice and truth, that the law has now no more any claims against Him, or those for whom He died! And ought not we to share with Him in that joy, by tasting something of the rest, the satisfaction, the quietness and assurance of knowing that in Him we are justified from all things, and freed from the curse?

2. Another joy of His heart in heaven must be, in seeing the guilt of countless multitudes of human beings (though the sins of each of them be more in number than the sand) daily met ,and taken away by an atonement, whose efficacy is inexhaustible to the close of time. And ought not we to rejoice before Him in that which is the cause of our cleansing in His sight, and continually to make use of it for bringing us and keeping us near to Himself, and for renewing in us the joy of our salvation?

3. Another cause of joy to Christ in heaven is the manifestation of the glory of all the attributes of God, and the vindication of the holiness of His name in a work which has magnified His law and made it honourable. And should not we who are in Him be enabled to sing at once of mercy and of judgment, to give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness, as the very bulwark of our safety; and even in the midst of all that is terrible in the execution of His righteous judgments, be preserved in holy calms, as those that are at home with God, dwelling in the secret place of the Most High, and under the shadow of the Almighty.

4. Another joy of His elevation to the heavenly places must be in the overthrow of Satans kingdom, and in the certain prospect of the everlasting fall of every foe. And should not we, who are yet in the midst of the conflict, be encouraged in Him to anticipate certain victory, and be assured that we too shall be made more than conquerors through Him that loved us? (J. S. Muir.)

The cause, means, and effects of salvation

I. The cause of salvation. Gods rich, free, sovereign grace. No other source of salvation to guilty man.

1. There is no power in man to save himself. A dead body cannot walk; nor can a dead soul move by its own will.

2. There is nothing to attract love in a dead, corrupting carcase, and there is nothing to attract Gods love in a dead, corrupting soul.

II. The means of salvation. Christs death. We must here dwell on the contrast, and at the same time the union, between Christ and the sinner, as mutually interchanging their condition each with the other; the sinner transferring through Gods grace, or rather God transferring through His grace, and the sinner embracing with gratitude by faith the blessed transfer, of all his guilt, misery and curse to Jesus; and Jesus transferring, God the Father imputing, and the sinner by faith with joyful gratitude receiving, all the riches of Christs righteousness, redemption, and salvation, put down to his account as a guilty sinner.

III. The effects of salvation. Hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Believers become the children of God, and sharers in His inheritance. Your children, you would say, are your heirs; they are to possess your property. Men make their eldest son the heir of their properties. The law which subverts that of primogeniture, which divides estates and necessitates that property be divided among all the members of a family, soon reduces the family to beggary, for our poor earthly properties are easily exhausted. But the children of the King of kings are all heirs of eternal glory. The rays of the sun are undiminished in their bright effulgence, the lustre of that luminary is not dimmed, although the beams of His glorious orb have been diffused throughout the world from the first moment of the morning when God set him in the firmament of the heavens to rule the day; he still pours forth from his redundant fountain floods of unexhausted and exhaustless light, and every creature that basks beneath his beams enjoys the fulness of their power too much to leave him room to grudge the world beside. But what is all the glory of the orb of day compared with that of Him whose fiat struck that orb but as a spark from solid darkness? and what is the inheritance of him who is an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ? (Joh 17:22.) Christs inheritance. Christs glory is their inheritance and their glory, and there is not one whose glory is diminished by the fulness of glory that all enjoy. (P. J. McGhee, M. A.)

Resurrection with Christ

I. Celebrate first a great solemnity, and descend into the charnel house of our poor humanity. According to the teaching of the sacred Scripture, men are dead, spiritually dead. Certain vain men would make it out that men are only a little disordered and bruised by the Fall, wounded in a few delicate members, but not mortally injured. However, the Word of God is very express upon the matter, and declares our race to be not wounded, not hurt merely, but slain outright, and left as dead in trespasses and sin. There are those who fancy that fallen human nature is only in a sort of syncope or fainting fit, and only needs a process of reviving to set it right. You have only, by education and by other manipulations, to set its life floods in motion, and to excite within it some degree of action, and then life will speedily be developed. There is much good in every man, they say, and you have only to bring it out by training and example. This fiction is exactly opposite to the teaching of sacred Scripture. Within these truthful pages we read of no fainting fit, no temporary paralysis, but death is the name for natures condition, and quickening is its great necessity. Man is not partly dead, like the half-drowned mariner, in whom some spark of life may yet remain, if it be but fondly tendered, and wisely nurtured. There is not a spark of spiritual life left in man–manhood is to all spiritual things an absolute corpse. Step with me, then, into the sepulchre house, and what do you observe of yonder bodies which are slumbering there? They are quite unconscious! Whatever goes on around them neither occasions them joy nor causes them grief. The dead in their graves may be marched over by triumphant armies, but they shout not with them that triumph. It is thus with men spiritually dead; they are unaffected by spiritual things. A dying Saviour, whose groans might move the very adamant, and make the rocks dissolve, they can hear of all unmoved. Even the all-present Spirit is undiscerned by them, and His power unrecognized. Angels, holy men, godly exercises, devout aspirations, all these are beyond and above their world. Observe that corpse; you may strike it, you may bruise it, but it will not cry out; you may pile burdens upon it, but it is not weary; you may shut it up in darkness, but it feels not the gloom. So the unconverted man is laden with the load of his sin, but he is not weary of it; he is shut up in the prison of Gods justice, but he pants not for liberty; he is under the curse of God, but that curse causes no commotion in his spirit, because he is dead.

II. We now change the subject for something more pleasant, and observe a miracle, or dead men made alive. The great object of the gospel of Christ is to create men anew in Christ Jesus. It aims at resurrection, and accomplishes it. The gospel did not come into this world merely to restrain the passions or educate the principles of men, but to infuse into them a new life which, as fallen men, they did not possess.

1. In this idea of quickening, there is a mystery. What is that invisible something which quickens a man? Who can track life to its hidden fountain? In the language of the text, you trace it to God, you believe your new life to be of Divine implantation. You are a believer in the supernatural; you believe that God has visited you as He has not visited other men, and has breathed into you life. You believe rightly, but you cannot explain it. He is the great worker, but how He works is not revealed to us.

2. It is a great mystery then, but while it is a mystery it is a great reality. We know and do testify, and we have a right to be believed, for we trust we have not forfeited our characters, we know and do testify that we are now possessors of a life which we knew nothing of some years ago, that we have come to exist in a new world, and that the appearance of all things outside of us is totally changed from what it used to be.

3. This life brings with it the exercise of renewed faculties. The man who begins to live unto God has powers now which he never had before: the power really to pray, the power heartily to praise, the power actually to commune with God, the power to see God, to talk with God, the power to receive tidings from the invisible world, and the power to send messages up through the veil which hides the unseen up to the very throne of God.

III. I must pass on very briefly to the third point. The text indicates a sympathy: He hath quickened us together with Christ. What does that mean? It means that the life which lives in a saved man is the same life which dwells in Christ. To put it simply–when Elisha had been buried for some years, we read that they threw a man who was dead into the tomb where the bones of Elisha were, and no sooner did the corpse touch the prophets bones than it lived at once. Yonder is the cross of Christ, and no sooner does the soul touch the crucified Saviour than it lives at once, for the Father hath given to Him to have life in Himself, and life to communicate to others. We are quickened together with Christ in three senses:

1. Representatively. Christ represents us before the eternal throne; He is the second Adam to His people. Christ is accepted, believers are accepted.

2. Next, we live by union with Christ. So long as the head is alive the members have life.

3. Then we also live together with Christ as to likeness. We are quickened together with Christ, that is, in the same manner. Now, Christs quickening was in this wise. He was dead through the law, but the law has no more dominion over Him now that He lives again. So you, Christian, you are cursed by the old law of Sinai, but it has no power to curse you now, for you are risen m Christ. You are not under the law; its terrors and threatenings have nought to do with you. Christs life is a life unto God. Such is yours. He does not quicken us with the inward life, and then leave us to perish; grace is a living, incorruptible seed, which liveth and abideth forever.

IV. And this brings us to the last word, which was a song. We have not time to sing it, we will just write the score before your eyes, and ask you to sing it at your leisure, your hearts making melody to God. Brethren and sisters, if you have indeed been thus made alive as others are not, you have first of all, in the language of the text, to praise the great love of God, great beyond all precedent. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Salvation in Christ

I. The progress of a sinners salvation.

1. God loves him, though dead in sins.

2. He quickens him.

3. He raises him up.

(1) Spiritually here (Col 3:1, etc.).

(2) Corporally hereafter (Rom 8:11).

4. He sets him in heavenly places.

(1) By faith now.

(2) In fact hereafter.

II. Why the blessings of Gods chosen are said to be in and with Christ. Because they are first in Him as Head, and from Him communicated to them as members, viz., their election, justification, sanctification, etc.

III. Why the Scripture speaks of what is yet to be done for Gods people as done already. From the certainty of their accomplishment. To encourage the faith and hope of His. God hath spoken in His holiness, etc. (Psa 55:6, etc.). Believers may look backward and forward, and see themselves surrounded with mercies. How different their end from what they deserve! Woe to them that think of going to heaven without Christ. (H. Foster, M. A.)

Mans misery and Gods mercy

1. Mans misery commends Gods mercy (Eze 16:8; Eze 16:4-5; 1Co 6:11; Tit 3:8; 1Jn 4:10; Rom 5:10).

(1) If we would see the love of God, we must get a true knowledge and sense of our natural condition. Dead men, in whom there is not by nature the least spark of spiritual and heavenly life: our natural life being but a shadow of life: it is but a goodly vizor drawn over a dead and rotten corpse. The consideration of this will work true humility.

(2) This also is a ground of hope that God will never leave us; for that mercy of God which when we were dead put life in us and quickened us, will now much more help us and comfort us in all our miseries (Isa 49:15; Rom 5:10).

2. Man has no power or disposition to save himself.

3. The believer is brought to partake of the life of God.

(1) The life of God is nothing but the created gift of grace which frames the whole man to live according to God, or supernatural grace giving life, and bringing forth motions according to God, as the natural life.

(2) The power of God alone, with the Word and Sacraments, give this life.

(3) The order in which this life is wrought.

(a) There is a taking away of sins, for while we live in them we are in death.

(b) There is a taking of life in our behalf.

(c) A holding out of these things, with the voice of God unto the soul (Joh 5:25). A receiving of Christ, a forgiving of our sins, and quickening with the Spirit.

(4) The property of this life is eternal; it has no ending. Christ being raised, dieth no more, nor a Christian.

(5) How may we know that we have this life?

(a) Every life seeks its own preservation; as natural life seeks that which is fit for that life, so does this spiritual life that which is fit for itself. As the life is immortal, so it seeks immortal food by which it lives to God; the life of grace is maintained by bread from heaven, from the living God.

(b) Every natural life, in the several kinds of it, seeks its preservation of him and by him who is the author of it; children of their parents, etc. So here they that are quickened with the life of God are ever and anon turning to Him as their Father, crying and calling upon Him for supply in all their wants.

(c) He who has this spiritual life in any measure is sensible, and ever complaining of spiritual death, and of corrupt nature, the sight of which is most noisome to his sense.

(d) Life is active and stirring. If I see an image still without motion, I know for all the eyes, nose, etc., that it has no life in it: so the want of spiritual motion in the soul toward God, and the practice of godliness, argues want of spiritual life.

(e) Love to the brethren (1Jn 3:14). (Paul Bayne.)

The dead quickened

I. The past estate of those to whom the apostle wrote.

1. Dead in point of law.

2. Dead as under the power of sin.

II. Their present state. Quickened. The mercy of God is exercised still in the same way.

1. He has delivered you from the sentence of condemnation.

2. You have experienced the production of spiritual life by the influences of the Holy Spirit.

III. The source of this quickening. Union with Christ.

IV. The light in which this subject places the love of God. (Thomas Young.)

By the grace of God

An officer during an engagement received a ball which struck him near his waistcoat pocket, where a piece of silver stopped the progress of the nearly spent ball. The coin was slightly marked at the words Dei gratia. This providential circumstance deeply impressed his mind, and led him to read a tract, which his beloved and pious sister gave him on leaving his native land, entitled The sin and danger of neglecting the Saviour. This text it pleased God to bless to his conversion.

Quickening the dead

When a man is dead it is hopeless for us to attempt to quicken him. But what we cannot do Christ does. Henry Varley says, A coachman in a family at the West End of London was taken seriously ill, and a few days afterwards saw him pass into the presence of God. I knew and had visited him before in order to bring to his mind and heart the Saviour of sinners. Again I called at the house, found the door open, and quietly ascended the staircase which led to the room where the sick man lay. There, bent over the prostrate, form of the man, was his eldest son, deeply affected and weeping bitterly. His face was close to that of the fathers, and I heard him, in an agony of earnest words, say, Father, This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Oh, my father, do trust Jesus! His precious blood cleanses from all sin. Only believe. My father I my father! O God, save my father! The hot tears and the intense anxiety of that young man I shall never forget. Poor fellow! he literally shouted into the ear that lay close to his lips. I had watched the scene for some minutes almost transfixed at the door. At length, approaching the bed, I observed that the father was dead. Tenderly I raised the young man, and quietly said, His spirit has passed away; he cannot hear; you cannot reach him now! Poor fellow! he had been speaking into the ear of a corpse; the father had been dead some minutes.

The grace of God

When a friend observed to him that we must run deeper and deeper in graces debt, he replied, Oh yes; and God is a good creditor; He never seeks back the principal sum, and, indeed, puts up with a poor annual rent (Life of Rev. John Brown, of Haddington.)

Salvation by grace

A physician who was anxious about his soul, asked a believing patient of his, how he should find peace. His patient replied, Doctor, I felt that I could do nothing, and I have put my case in your hand: I am trusting in you. This is exactly what every poor sinner must do, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He saw the simplicity of the way, and soon found peace in Christ.

Heavenly places

When Paul wrote of heavenly places as the lot of Christs people on earth, it was not to please the imagination or dazzle the fancy with mere spiritual visions–but to show us how near and how available is the source of spiritual and saving strength for daily life. To be with Christ, therefore, in the heavenlies, is–

I. To be living at the source of power for new obedience, and to draw from thence for support in that service which is true freedom, freedom from slavish fears, from corroding cares, from every inordinate affection which would hinder you in the doing of His will. Brought nigh to God–living in the fellowship of God, through Jesus–you have a well-spring of new motives of action opened for you in His service, and of strength for patient rest in His will. That well-spring is ever full and never failing. These Divine resources are ever near, and ever the same; though your experience of them, alas! may ebb, and flow, and fluctuate.

II. But we come now to notice another view of the position of those who are raised up to sit with Christ. It is to be armed for conflict. The spirits of evil have still power to tempt and molest. And if these evil influences are to be repelled and quenched, it can only be done from within the citadel of power which is provided in the fellowship of a risen Lord.

III. The heavenly places to which all believing ones are raised up on earth to sit with Christ, are (in a peculiar manner) places of thanksgiving. As the cleft of the Rock to which you have fled from the fury of the storm, what else should your place be but one fitted for thanksgiving,–a tabernacle to be filled with the voices of rejoicing and salvation and praise ever going forth in testimony to Him, whose almighty hand opened the refuge and averted the destruction!

IV. And now, in conclusion, the text points to the future–into the ages of eternity–to that great hereafter on whose brink we are ever walking, and which at any moment we may be called to enter. (J. S. Muir.)

Heaven won

Won by other arms than theirs, it presents the strongest contrast imaginable to the spectacle seen in Englands palace on that day when the king demanded of his assembled nobles by what title they held their lands. What title? At the rash question a hundred swords, leaped from their scabbards. Advancing on the alarmed monarch, By these we won, and by these we will keep them! they replied. How different the scene which heaven presents! All eyes are fixed on Jesus: every look is one of love and gratitude, which are glowing in every bosom, and swelling in every song. Now with golden harps they swell the Saviours praises; and now descending from their thrones to do Him homage, they cast their crowns in one glittering heap at the feet which were nailed to Calvarys shameful cross. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Religion raises men up

Ah! brethren, you will not mind my telling out some of the secrets, secrets that bring the tears to my eyes as I reflect upon them. When I speak of the thief, the harlot, the drunkard, the sabbath breaker, the swearer, I may say, Such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye rejoice in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. How many a man has been going by the door there, and has said, Ill go in and hear Old Spurgeon. He came in to make merriment of the preacher, and very little that troubles him. But the man has stood there until the Word goes home to him, and he who was wont to beat his wife, and to make his home a hell, has before long been to see me, and has given me a grip of the hand and said, God Almighty bless you, sir; there is something in true religion! Well, let us hear your tale. We have heard it, and delightful it has been in hundreds of instances, Very well, send your wife, and let us hear what she says about you. The woman has come, and we have said, Well, what think you of your husband now, maam? Oh, sir, such a change I never saw in my life! He is so kind to us; he is like an angel now, and he seemed like a fiend before; oh! that cursed drink, sir! everything went to the public house; and then if I went up to the house of God, he did nothing but abuse me! Oh! to think that now he comes with me on Sunday; and the shop is shut up, sir; and the children who used to be running about without a bit of shoe or stocking, he takes them on his knee, and prays with them so sweetly. Oh! there is such a change! (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Promotion by goodness

In old times it was the custom to crown a brave soldier with laurel before all the people. Zeno never went out to fight for his country, but spent his life in a better service, for he tried to teach a nation to be wise and good. At last the people felt that the only way to be great is to do good. They gave to Zeno the laurel crown; but he won for himself a far nobler prize–the respect and love of all who knew him. (Denton.)

Heavenly places

Dr. Preston, when he was dying, used these words, Blessed be God, though I change my place I shall not change my company; for I have walked with God while living, and now I go to rest with God. (Baxendale.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 5. Even when we were dead in sins] Dead in our souls; dead towards God; dead in law; and exposed to death eternal,

Hath quickened us together with Christ] God has given us as complete a resurrection from the death of sin to a life of righteousness, as the body of Christ has had from the grave. And as this quickening, or making alive, was most gratuitous on God’s part, the apostle, with great propriety, says; By grace ye are saved.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Hath quickened us; hath raised us up from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, not only in our justification, in which God frees us from our obnoxiousness to eternal death, and gives us a right to eternal life, who before were dead in law, (though this may be included), but especially in our regeneration, by the infusion of a vital principle.

Together with Christ; either:

1. God, in quickening Christ, hath also quickened us; Christs quickening, or receiving his life after death, being not only the type and exemplar of our spiritual enlivening or regeneration, but the cause of it, inasmuch as we are quickened, as meritoriously by his death, so effectively by his life: Christ, as having died and risen again, exerciseth that power the Father gave him of quickening whom he will, Joh 5:21. Or:

2. In Christ as our Head virtually, and by the power of his resurrection actually. Or:

3. By the same power whereby he raised up Christ from the dead, Eph 1:20. See the like expression, Col 2:13.

(By grace are ye saved); some read the words without a parenthesis, supplying by whose, and so refer them to Christ, quickened us together with Christ, by whose grace ye are saved; but if the parenthesis stand, yet here seems to be a connection with the foregoing words, at least a reason of the apostles bringing in these; for having mentioned Gods great love, Eph 2:4, as the cause of their spiritual enlivening here, which is the beginning of their salvation, he infers from thence that the whole of their salvation is of grace, i.e. alike free, and as much out of Gods great love, as the beginning of it, viz. their quickening, is.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

5. dead in sinsThe bestreading is in the Greek, “dead in our (literally,’the‘) trespasses.”

quickened“vivified”spiritually, and consequences hereafter, corporally. There must be aspiritual resurrection of the soul before there can be a comfortableresurrection of the body [PEARSON](Joh 11:25; Joh 11:26;Rom 8:11).

together with ChristTheHead being seated at God’s right hand, the body also sits there withHim [CHRYSOSTOM]. We arealready seated there INHim (“in Christ Jesus,” Eph2:6), and hereafter shall be seated by Him; INHim already as in our Head, which is the ground of our hope; byHim hereafter, as by the conferring cause, when hope shall beswallowed up in fruition [PEARSON].What God wrought in Christ, He wrought (by the very fact) in allunited to Christ, and one with Him.

by grace ye are savedGreek,“Ye are in a saved state.” Not merely “ye are beingsaved,” but ye “are passed from death unto life” (Joh5:24). Salvation is to the Christian not a thing to be waited forhereafter, but already realized (1Jo3:14). The parenthetic introduction of this clause here (compareEph 2:8) is a burst of Paul’sfeeling, and in order to make the Ephesians feel that gracefrom first to last is the sole source of salvation; hence, too, hesays “ye,” not “we.”

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Even when we were dead in sins,…. [See comments on Eph 2:1].

Hath quickened us together with Christ: which may be understood either of regeneration, when a soul that is dead in a moral or spiritual sense, is quickened and made alive; a principle of life is infused, and acts of life are put forth; such have their spiritual senses, and these in exercise; they can feel the load and weight of sin; see their lost state and condition, the odiousness of sin, and the beauty of a Saviour, the insufficiency of their own righteousness, and the fulness and suitableness of Christ’s; breathe after divine and spiritual things; speak in prayer to God, and the language of Canaan to fellow Christians; move towards Christ, exercise grace on him, act for him, and walk on in him: and this life they have not from themselves, for previous to it they are dead, and in this quickening work are entirely passive; nor can regenerate persons quicken themselves, when in dead and lifeless frames, and much less unregenerate sinners; but this is God’s act, the act of God the Father; though not exclusive of the Son, who quickens whom he will; nor of the Spirit, who is the Spirit of life from Christ; and it is an instance of the exceeding greatness, both of his power and love; and this may be said to be done with Christ, because he is the procuring and meritorious cause of it, by his death and resurrection from the dead; and is the author and efficient cause of it; and he is the matter of it, it is not so much the quickened persons that live, as Christ that lives in them, and it is the same life he himself lives; and because he lives, they shall live also; it is in him as in the fountain, and in them as in the stream: or else this may be understood of justification; men are dead in a legal sense, and on account of sin, are under the sentence of death; though they naturally think themselves alive, and in a good state; but when the Spirit of God comes, he strikes dead all their hopes of life by a covenant of works; not merely by letting in the terrors of the law upon the conscience, but by showing the spirituality of it, and the exceeding sinfulness of sin; and how incapable they are of satisfying the law, for the transgressions of it; and then he works faith in them, whereby they revive and live; they see pardon and righteousness in Christ, and pray for the one, and plead the other; and also lay hold and live upon the righteousness of Christ, when the Spirit seals up the pardon of their sins to them, and passes the sentence of justification on them, and so they reckon themselves alive unto God; and this is the justification of life, the Scripture speaks of; and this is in consequence of their being quickened with Christ, at the time of his resurrection; for when he rose from the dead, they rose with him; when he was justified, they were justified in him; and in this sense when he was quickened, they were quickened with him:

by grace ye are saved: the Claromontane copy and the Vulgate Latin version read, “by whose grace”; and the Arabic and Ethiopic versions, “by his grace”; either by the grace of him that quickens, or by the grace of Christ with whom they were quickened; the Syriac version renders it, “by his grace he hath redeemed us”; which seems to refer to the redeeming grace of Christ; and so the Ethiopic version, “and hath delivered us by his grace”; and there is a change of the person into “us”, which seems more agreeable to what goes before, and follows after; [See comments on Eph 2:8].

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Even when we were dead ( ). Repeats the beginning of verse 1, but he changes (you Gentiles) to (us Jews).

Quickened us together with Christ ( ). First aorist active indicative of the double compound verb as in Col 2:13 which see. Associative instrumental case in . Literal resurrection in the case of Jesus, spiritual in our case as pictured in baptism.

By grace have ye been saved ( ). Instrumental case of and perfect passive periphrastic indicative of . Parenthetical clause interjected in the sentence. All of grace because we were dead.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

1) “Even when we were dead in sins” (kai ontas hemas nekrous tois paraptomasin) “Even when we were dead (without spiritual life) in trespasses,” or in a state of impositions upon God’s love, mercy, and goodness. To be dead is used in the sense of barren, empty,” or unfruitful,” in holiness, truth, or right, destitute of spiritual life.

2) “Hath quickened us together with Christ” (sunexoopoiesen to christo) “Quickened or made us alive with Christ.” From a state of spiritual death, the state of every responsible natural or unregenerate person, alienated from the life of God, the Ephesians had been quickened or made alive in and with Christ, Eph 2:1; Eph 4:18-19; Joh 6:63.

3) “(By grace are ye saved)” (chariti este sesosmenoi) “By grace ye are (having been) saved,” a present state of being, originating from a once-for-all new birth experience, Eph 2:8-10; 2Co 5:17; Rom 11:16; Rom 4:4-5.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

5. Even when we were dead in sin. These words have the same emphasis as similar expressions in another Epistle.

“

For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died, for the ungodly. — But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:6.)

Whether the words, by grace ye are saved, have been inserted by another hand, I know not; but, as they are perfectly agreeable to the context, I am quite willing to receive them as written by Paul. They show us that he always feels as if he had not sufficiently proclaimed the riches of Divine grace, and accordingly expresses, by a variety of terms, the same truth, that everything connected with our salvation ought to be ascribed to God as its author. And certainly he who duly weighs the ingratitude of men will not complain that this parenthesis is superfluous.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(5) Even when we were dead in sins.These words should be connected, not with loved us, but with hath quickened, or rather, quickened. He brought life out of spiritual death.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

(5, 6) The thought in these verses follows exactly the same course as in Eph. 1:19-20. There the type and earnest of the working of Gods mighty power are placed in the resurrection, the ascension, the glorification of Christ Himself in His human nature. Here what is there implied is worked out(1) All Christians are declared to be quickened (or, risen again) to spiritual life with Christ, according to His promise, Because I live, ye shall live also (Joh. 14:19). (See the exact parallel in Col. 2:13.) But there is a promise even beyond this: I am the life: whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die (Joh. 11:25; comp. also Joh. 5:24; Joh. 17:2). Hence, even more emphatically, and in full accordance with this latter promise, we have in Col. 3:4, Christ who is our life; as in 2Co. 4:10-11, The life of Jesus is made manifest in us. What this life eternal is He Himself declares (Joh. 17:3)to know the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom He has sent. (2) Next, this partaking of the life of Christ is brought out in two striking formsas a partaking, not only of His resurrection (as in Rom. 6:5; 1Co. 15:20-22; Php. 3:11), but also (in a phase of thought peculiar to these Epistles) of His ascension to the heavenly places. This is in Christ Jesus, in virtue of a personal and individual union with Christ. It implies blessings, both present and future, or rather one blessing, of which we have the earnest now and the fulness hereafterfor the resurrection and ascension of Christ are even now the perfection and glorification of humanity in Him. (3) So far as we are really and vitally His members, such perfection and glorification are ours now, by His intercession (that is, His continued mediation for us in heaven) and by His indwelling in us by the Spirit on earth. The proof of partaking His resurrection is newness of life, death unto sin, and new birth unto righteousness (Rom. 6:5-11), which is in Col. 3:12 expressly connected with the entrance upon unity with Christ in baptism. The proof of having our life hid in Christ at the right hand of God, is the setting our affection on things above (Col. 3:1), by which in heart and mind we thither ascend, and with Him continually dwell. (4) These proofs are seen only in measure here. Through the change which we call death, we pass at once to a still higher stage of life, by fuller union with Christ (2Co. 5:6-8), and at the great day we shall have both in perfectionperfect newness of life in likeness to Him (1Jn. 3:2), and perfect glorification in Him in that communion with God which is heaven (Joh. 17:5; Joh. 17:10; Joh. 17:24). The one thing which St. Paul does not attribute to us is that which is His alonethe place at the right hand of the Father.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

5. Even dead His mercy was alive when we were dead. He loved us even when we were most unlovely. Hence how truly is all by grace.

And, here, at the commencement of the picture of the redemptive process, at the first mention of our life-dawn in Christ, Paul flings abruptly in this hint, by grace saved, preparatory to his expanding the complete statement at the close of the process, Eph 2:8. Mercy, goodness, grace, and all from nothing less than God, is what he is so impatient to bring out that he can hardly wait to state the process in which those glorious and melting attributes display themselves. This grace is understood best by emphasizing the even dead intensely. Dead; given over to darkness, depravity, the devil, and wrath; over that scene it is that the light of grace breaks with healing in its beams.

Quickened Inspired with life; life for soul first, life for body next, life in eternity last.

With Christ Who was raised, as pictured in Eph 1:20.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Eph 2:5. Even when we were dead, &c. “In this wonderful love, with which he of his own good pleasure has loved us, even when we Jews, as well as Gentiles, one as much as another, were in such forlorn, wretched, and desperate circumstances, as to be dead in sin, and so helpless, hopeless, and loathsome in our fallen state; he even then quickened us;”that is, by the Spirit given to those who by faith in Christ were united to him, became his members, and sons of God, partaking of the adoption: by which Spirit they were put into a state of life, (see Rom 8:9-15.) and made capable, if they would, to live to God, and not to obey sin in the lusts thereof, nor to yield their members instruments of sin unto iniquity; but to give up themselves to God, as men alive from the dead. See Rom 6:11-13 and, concerning the last clause of this verse, the Inferences and Reflections.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Eph 2:5 . The is not to be taken as in Eph 2:1 (“also us collectively,” Meier, Baumgarten-Crusius, and earlier expositors), which, apart from the universal reference of the , the order of the words forbids ( must have been written), according to which, also, the of Eph 2:1 can by no, means be here resumed (Rckert, Matthies, Holzhausen, and most of the older expositors); further, is not, with Koppe, to be taken as although , seeing that, in fact, a making alive cannot take place otherwise than from a state of death, and consequently cannot convey any climactic stress, on which account Harless explains incorrectly from a logical point of view: “even in the state of death, in which we were” (comp. Calvin and de Wette). Erasmus paraphrases as though stood before ., and even the shift to which Morus has recourse, that corresponds to the of Eph 2:6 ( non modo verum etiam ), would demand this position. Others give other explanations, and many are silent with regard to it. If were also , it would have to be referred to , [141] and would express the reality of the relation asserted in Eph 2:1 (Hartung, I. p. 132 f.). But there would be nothing to call for the assurance of this reality. It is rather the simple copula: and , annexing to the . . . . . a further element. [142] The two elements, side by side, place in the full light what God has done. God has, on account of His much love, and when we were dead in the sins , made us alive with Christ. The might also be omitted; but the keeping of the points thus apart strengthens the representation.

.] The article denotes the sins, which we had committed , with a retrospective glance at Eph 2:1 .

.] is by most expositors (including Flatt, Rckert, Meier, Matthies, Harless, Olshausen, de Wette, Baumgarten-Crusius, Schenkel, Hofmann, Bleek) understood of new spiritual quickening (“ justificationem et regenerationem nostram complectitur,” Boyd; Rckert would have us think mainly of the justification ). But how is this to be justified from the context? If the reader was reminded by . of the eternal death, to which he had been subjected by his pre-Christian life of sin (see on Eph 2:1 ), he would now have to think of the eternal life, which begins with the resurrection, and he could the less think of anything else than of this real resurrection-life, since afterwards there is further expressed the translation together into heaven, and then, in Eph 2:7 , the intention of God is referred to the times after the Parousia . And had not already Eph 1:18 f. pointed definitely to the future ? How, in this connection, could a reader light upon the merely ethical, spiritual quickening (Rom 6:4 f.; 2Co 5:15 ; Gal 2:19 f.)? No, God has made believers alive with Christ ; i.e. in Christ’s revivification, which God has wrought, theirs also is included. By virtue of the dynamic connection in which Christ stands with His believers, as the head with its body (Eph 1:23 ), their revivification is objectively comprehended in His, a relation, in fact, of which the Christian is conscious in faith; “quum autem fides suscipitur, ea omnia a Deo applicantur homini, et ab homine rata habentur,” Bengel. So the matter stands in the view of the apostle as accomplished , because the making alive of Christ is accomplished ; the future actual making alive, or, as the case may be, change at the Parousia (1Co 15:23 ), is then the subjective individual participation of that which is already objectively given on the part of God in the resurrection of Christ. Certainly Paul might, in accordance with another mode of looking at it, have expressed himself by the future , as at 1Co 15:22 ; cf. Rom 8:17 ; but who does not feel that by means of the aorist (“ponitur autem aoristus de re, quae, quamvis futura sit, tamen pro peracta recte censeatur, cum alia re jam facta contineatur,” Fritzsche, ad Rom. II. p. 206) the matter stands forth more forcibly and triumphantly out of the believing conviction of the apostle? , Rom 8:30 .

The in . is by Beza, erroneously referred to the coagmentatio gentium et Judaeorum , a reference which is forbidden by the ; and by Grotius, Koppe, Rosenmller, and others, it is explained ad exemplum (comp. Anselm: sicut ), by which the Pauline idea of fellowship with Christ, which also lay at the bottom of Eph 1:19 , is quite arbitrarily explained away.

Comp. on Col 2:13 ; Rom 8:17 ; 2Ti 2:12 .

.] by grace (not by merit) are ye partakers of the Messianic salvation! an impassioned (hence expressed in the second person), parenthetic reminding the readers of the divine basis of the salvation which had accrued to them, designated by ; a reminding, which was very natural for the apostle in general (for its tenor was the sum of his doctrine and the constant echo of his own experience, 1Co 15:10 ), and more especially here, where he represents the quickening of believers as accomplished with the making alive of Christ, which could not but repel even the most distant thought of personal merit. In connection with . . . the possession of the Messianic bliss is designated as an already accomplished fact, although it was before the Parousia (Col 3:3 f.) merely a possession in hope (Rom 8:24 ), and the final realization was yet future (Rom 5:10 ). That the emphatically placed at the beginning (for “ gratiam esse docet proram et puppim,” Bengel) means the grace of God , not of Christ (Beza; comp. the inserted in D * E F G, Vulg. It. Victorin. Aug. Ambrosiaster), is manifest from the context, in which God is constantly the subject .

[141] For, as to the fact that , also , always lays the stress upon that word, before which it stands, see Haupt, Obss. Crit . p. 55 ff. Klotz, ad Devar. p. 638.

[142] Bleek describes this view of mine as probably the correct one, and follows it.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

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

Ver. 5. Hath quickened, &c. ] The very first stirrings in the womb of grace are precious to God; he blesseth our very buds,Isa 44:3Isa 44:3 , according to the Geneva translation.

Even when we were dead ] This is again repeated, because hardly believed. We are apt to conceit better of ourselves than there is cause for, and can hardly be persuaded that we are dead in sins and trespasses, and lie rotting and stinking in the graves of corruption, much worse than Lazarus did after he had lain four days in his sepulchre. We would be sorry but our penny should be as good silver as another’s, and are ready, with the Pharisee, to set up our counter for a thousand pound. In fine, a dead woman we say must have four to carry her forth. A man shall have much ado to persuade the merry Greeks of this world, but that they have the only life of it, and that others are dead in comparison of them. Hence this iteration of the blow upon the natural man, to knock him down dead, as it were, to bring him to Paul’s pass, Rom 7:9 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Eph 2:5 . : even when we were dead by our trespasses . The condition of death in which we are by nature is now reaffirmed, and in a still more emphatic way than in Eph 2:1 . The is not the copula, simply attaching one statement to another (Mey.), nor a mere repetition of the of the opening verse, nor = “also,” “also us” collectively (which would require ), but the ascensive = even (Syr.-Phil., AV, RV, Ell., etc.). It qualifies the (while the is thrown emphatically forward), and heightens the sense of the greatness of the Divine power as a power operating on us when we were yet held fast in the state of inexorable death. The defines the trespasses as those already mentioned in connection with that state of death, and so has much the sense of “our”. : quickened us together with the Christ . Some authorities (including B 17, Arm.) insert before ; which is favoured so far by Lachm. and gets a place in the margin with WH and RV. But the mass of authorities omit it. The -, therefore, of the compound verb refers to the , and the idea expressed is that of fellowship with Him, not the fellowship or comprehension of Jew and Gentile alike in the Divine act of quickening (Beza). Here again the article probably designates Christ in His official relation to us. The quickening here in view is understood by some (including Meyer) to refer to the first act in the raising of the dead at the great day; the following verbs , being similarly understood in the literal sense, as referring proleptically to events that belong to the ultimate future. Thus the standing rather than the moral condition is supposed to be primarily in view, the idea being that when Christ was raised from the dead we also as members of His body were raised in principle with Him, so that the resurrection of the future which we await will be simply the application to the individual of what was accomplished once for all for the whole of His members then. It must be admitted that the analogous passage in Col 2:12-13 , which associates the quickening with the forgiveness of trespasses and the blotting out of the hand-writing of ordinances, on the whole favours that interpretation. Looking, however, to the express and particular description of the worldly walk and the conversation in the lusts of the flesh, which is given in Eph 2:2-3 , and which seems to explain what is said in Eph 2:1 of the state of being “dead by trespasses and sins”; and having regard also to the application to the moral life which is made in the second half of the Epistle, most interpreters understand the quickening here affirmed to be that of regeneration the communication of spiritual life. : by grace have ye been saved . So the RV, while the AV is content with “are ye saved”. The idea is that they were saved and continued to be so. The is put emphatically first “by grace it is that ye have been saved”. The parenthetical mention of grace is in place. Nothing else than grace could give life to the dead, but grace could indeed do even that.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

sins. As trespasses in Eph 2:1.

hath. Omit.

quickened . . . together = made . . . alive with. Greek. suzoopoieo. Only here and Co Eph 1:2, Eph 1:13.

Christ. App-98.

by No preposition. Dative case. grace. App-184.

are = were.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Eph 2:5. , even) This is connected with you, when you were, Eph 2:1.-, us) both, Jews and Gentiles.- , hath quickened together with Christ; by grace ye are saved) Quickening precedes the raising up [Eph 2:6], and ch. Eph 1:20; the raising up presupposes life. We were made alive at the time when Christ was made alive; comp. 2Co 5:15, concerning the death of Christ, and so of the other steps. But when faith is received, all those things are applied to man by God, and they are considered as ratified by man. The apostle, enumerating this very order of salvation, shows that grace is the beginning and the end [proram et puppim] in this and in the eighth verse, and sometimes he uses indiscriminately the first and second person, on account of the equal footing of the Jews and Gentiles.- , together with Christ) Hence He is the fountain-head, Eph 2:6-10.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Eph 2:5

Eph 2:5

even when we were dead through our trespasses,-This is a repetition for vivid contrast with the foregoing description of God and his love; a close parallel with Rom 3:23, where for a similar contrast we have a like summary of foregoing teaching.

made us alive together with Christ-As in Colossians where the same word is explained by having forgiven us all our trespasses (Col 2:13), it reverses all that is implied in the words dead through our trespasses. We were once in consequence of our sins a spiritual corpse, given up to corruption utter and helpless, from which nothing could save us except the life-giving power of God.

(by grace have ye been saved),-Paul adds this by way of explanation, lest they should think God partial in the love he showed for the Jews. By the favor or mercy of God provided through Jesus Christ, who is called the grace of God, he saved the Gentiles. [We are already saved from our past sins, but we must continue faithful till the end, for the Savior says: Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life. (Rev 2:10).]

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

dead

Death (spiritual), Summary: Spiritual death is the state of the natural or unregenerate man as still in his sins. Eph 2:1 alienated from the life of God Eph 4:18; Eph 4:19 and destitute of the Spirit. Prolonged beyond the death of the body, spiritual death is a state of eternal separation from God in conscious suffering. This is called “the second death.”; Rev 2:11; Rev 20:6; Rev 20:14; Rev 21:8.

saved (See Scofield “Rom 1:16”).

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

dead: Eph 2:1, Rom 5:6, Rom 5:8, Rom 5:10

quickened: Eph 2:1, Eph 5:14, Joh 5:21, Joh 6:63, Rom 8:2

grace ye: Gr. whose grace ye, Eph 2:8, Act 15:11, Rom 3:24, Rom 4:16, Rom 11:5, Rom 11:6, Rom 16:20, 2Co 13:14, Tit 2:11, Tit 3:5, Rev 22:21

Reciprocal: Gen 19:16 – the Lord Deu 7:8 – because Deu 9:4 – Speak not Deu 23:5 – because the Deu 33:3 – he loved Psa 47:4 – whom Psa 59:10 – The God Psa 104:30 – sendest Psa 119:17 – I may live Psa 119:40 – quicken Psa 143:11 – Quicken Isa 54:10 – that hath Jer 31:3 – with lovingkindness have I drawn Eze 16:6 – Live Eze 37:5 – I will Mic 7:18 – he delighteth Zec 9:17 – how great is his goodness Mat 7:11 – how Mat 8:22 – and Mat 20:15 – it Luk 1:78 – tender Luk 9:60 – Let Luk 15:17 – when Luk 15:24 – this Joh 1:16 – and grace Joh 5:19 – and Joh 5:25 – when Joh 17:26 – that Act 13:48 – and as Rom 6:4 – that Rom 6:5 – For Rom 6:13 – alive Rom 6:17 – that Rom 8:11 – he that raised Rom 9:16 – General 2Co 3:6 – giveth life 2Co 4:7 – that Gal 2:20 – nevertheless Eph 1:20 – he wrought Phi 2:13 – to will Col 2:13 – dead Col 3:1 – risen Col 3:12 – beloved 1Th 1:4 – your election 1Th 1:5 – but 2Th 2:16 – which 1Ti 5:6 – dead 2Ti 1:9 – hath Heb 6:1 – dead Heb 9:14 – offered Jam 1:18 – his own 1Jo 3:1 – what 1Jo 3:14 – we have 1Jo 4:10 – not Rev 3:1 – and art Rev 11:12 – And they

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

(Eph 2:5.) -Us being even dead in trespasses. The does more than mark the connection. It does not, however, signify also, as Meier supposes-us, too, along with you; nor, as Flatt, Rckert, Matthies, and Holzhausen think, does it merely show the connection of the of Eph 2:1 with this of Eph 2:5. Nor does it mean yet, although, as Koppe takes it. In this view, to give any good sense, it must be joined to the preceding verb-He loved us, even though we were dead in sins. But such a construction destroys the unity of meaning. With Meyer and Harless, we prefer joining the to the participle , and making it signify indeed, or when we were truly dead in sins. Hartung, vol. i. p. 132. See chap. Eph 1:11; Eph 1:15.

-quickened together with Christ. Some MSS. and texts have the preposition before , but for this there is no authority, as the dative is governed by the – in composition with the verb. The is repeated before the dative in Col 2:13. The entire passage, and the aorist form of the three verbs, show that this vivification is a past, and not a future blessing. It is a life enjoyed already, not one merely secured to us by our ideal resurrection with Christ. The remark of Jerome is foreign to the purpose, that the aorist is used with reference to the Divine prescience-id quod futurum est, quasi factum esse jam dixerit. We have already exhibited the validity of our objection under Eph 1:19. Theodoret’s interpretation is out of place,- , . Meyer’s view has been already rejected under the 1st verse of this chapter; for as the death there described is not a physical death to come upon us, but a death already experienced, so this is not a physical resurrection to be enjoyed at some distant epoch, but one in which, even now, we who were dead have participated. Therefore, with the majority of interpreters, we hold that it is spiritual life to which the apostle refers. The exegesis of Harless, found also in the old Scottish commentator Dickson, though it be cleverly maintained, is too refined, and is not in accordance with the literal and sincere appeal of the apostle to present Christian experience, for in his opinion, life, resurrection, and glorification are said to be ours, not because we actually enjoy them, but because Jesus has experienced them, and they are ours in Him, or ours because they are His. Olshausen advocates a similar view, though not so broadly. Slichtingius and Crellius suppose that the verb refers to the jus, not the ipsum factum; and it is of necessity the theory of all who, like Rollock and Bodius, maintain that the resurrection and enthronement described are specially connected with the body and its final ascension and blessedness. The interpretation of Chrysostom- , -if the first-fruits live, so do we, does not wholly bring out the meaning. Theophylact’s exposition, which is shared in by Augustine and Erasmus, is more acute. God raised up Christ, -Him in fact, but us -potentially now, but afterwards in fact also. Harless compares the language with that in Rom 8:30, which Meyer also quotes, where the verbs are all aorists, and where the last verb refers to future but certain glory. But the apostle in that verse describes, by the aorists, God’s normal method of procedure viewed as from the past-the call, justification, and glorification being contained in a past predestination, and regarded as coincident with it. The apostle is not appealing to the Roman Christians, and saying, God has called and glorified you; he is only describing God’s general and invariable method of procedure in man’s salvation. But here he speaks to the Ephesian converts, and tells them that God quickened them, raised them up, and gave them a seat with Jesus. He is not unfolding principles of divine government; but analyzing human experience, and verifying that analysis by an appeal to living consciousness. Were no more intended by the words than Harless imagines, then they would be quite as true of Christians still unborn as they were of Ephesian believers at that time in existence, since all who shall believe to the end of time were spiritually comprised in the risen Saviour. Nay more, the sentiment would be true of men in an unconverted state who were afterwards to believe. But here the apostle speaks of union with Jesus not only as a realized fact, but of its blessed and personal results. The death was a personal state, and the life corresponds in character. It is not a theoretic abstraction, but as really an individual blessing as the death was an individual curse. The life and resurrection spoken of are now possessed, and their connection with Christ seems to be of the following nature. When God quickened and raised Christ, this process, as we have seen, was the example and pledge of our spiritual vivification. When He was raised physically, all His people were ideally raised in Him; and in consequence of this connection with Him, they are, through faith, actually quickened and raised, Eph 1:19-20. The object of the apostle, however, is not merely to affirm that spiritual life and resurrection have been secured by such a connection with Jesus, but that, having been so provided, they are also really possessed. The writer tells the Ephesians that they had been dead, and he assures them that life in connection with Christ had been given them, and not merely through Christ potentially secured for them, and reserved for a full but future enjoyment. The verb , on which Olshausen and Harless lay stress as supporting their view, does not, as we shall see, at all support their exegesis. In a word, the apostle appears to intimate not only that the mediatorial person of Jesus had a peculiar and all-comprehending relation to His whole people, so that, as Olshausen says, Christ is the real type for every form of life among them, but that the Ephesian believers possessed really and now these blessings, which had their origin and symbol in Jesus, the Saviour and Representative. And therefore the notion of Beza and Bloomfield, that – in the verb glances at a union of Jew and Gentile, is as wide of the truth on the one side, as is on the other the opinion that it means after the example of-the opinion of Anselm, Marloratus, Koppe, Grotius, a-Lapide, and Rosenmller. See on in Eph 1:19. Calvin limits the possession too much to objective happiness and glory laid up for us in Christ. The language of Crocius is better-nos excitatos esse in Christo, ut in capite membra; idque non potentia, non spe, sed actu et re ipsa.

Now, the life given corresponds in nature to the death suffered. It is therefore spiritual life, such as is needed for man’s dead spirit. The soul restored to the divine favour lives again, and its new pulsations are vigorous and healthful. As every form of life is full of conscious enjoyment, this too has its higher gladness; truth, peace, thankfulness, and hope swelling the bosom, while it displays its vital powers in sanctified activity: for all its functions are the gift of the Vivifier, and they are dedicated to His service. That life may be feeble at first, but the sincere milk of the word is imbibed, and the expected maturity is at length reached. Its first moment may not indeed be registered in the consciousness, as it may be awakened within us by a varying process, in harmony with the quickness or the slowness of mental perception, and the dulness or the delicacy of the moral temperament. The sun rises in our latitude preceded by a long twilight, which gradually brightens into morning; but within the tropics he ascends at once above the horizon with sudden and exuberant glory. (For an illustration of God’s power in giving this life, the reader may consult under Eph 2:19-20 of the previous chapter.) Then follows the interjected thought-

-by grace have ye been saved. The or found in some MSS. is a clumsy addition, and , the genitive of the relative pronoun, occurring in D, E, F, G ( , or ), and plainly followed by the Vulgate and Ambrosiaster, is rejected alike by Lachmann and Tischendorf. The grace referred to is that of God, not of Christ-as Beza supposes. The thought is suddenly and briefly thrown in, as it rose to the apostle’s mind, for it is a natural suggestion; and so powerfully did it fill and move his soul, that he suddenly writes it, but continues the illustration, and then fondly returns to it in Eph 2:8. This mental association shows how closely Paul connected life with safety-how mercy and love, uniting us to Christ, and vivifying us with Him, are elements of this grace, and how this union with Jesus and the life springing from it are identical with salvation. But he proceeds-

Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians

Eph 2:5. The first part of this verse is explained at verse 1, and the reader is requested to see that place again. This verse adds the information that the quickening is done with Christ, which means that it is through Him that we are made free from sin (Rom 6:11). By grace are ye saved. This may be understood by the meaning of the second word. See the comments at 1Co 1:3.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Eph 2:5. Even when we were dead by (or, on account of) our trespasses. The word rendered even might mean and, but seems to have an intensive force here. We is to be taken in its widest sense, else the force of what follows is weakened. Dead on account of our trespasses is precisely as in Eph 2:1; the E. V. unfortunately rendering the same word trespasses there and sins here. The article before trespasses has the force of our.

Quickened us together with Christ. Spiritual quickening is meant, since the contrast is with those spiritually dead, but the prominence given to the fact of Christs resurrection leads us to include a reference to bodily quickening also. Together with Christ points to fellowship with Him. The tense in the original (both here and in Eph 2:6) indicates a single past act, and is properly explained thus: When He was raised physically, all His people were raised ideally in Him; and in consequence of this connection with Him, they are, through faith, actually quickened and raised (Eadie).

By grace ye are, or, have been, saved. A past act with permanent results is indicated. The emphasis rests on the word grace, love to the undeserving. This emphatic mention of grace (grace, not works) is to make the readers feel what their own hearts might otherwise have caused them to doubt,

the real and vital truth, that they have present and actual fellowship with Christ, yea and even in the resurrectionary and glorifying power of God (Ellicott).

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 5

Dead in sins; that is, utterly lost in sin,–without life or hope.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

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

Even in our completely dead state, He reached down and saved us. Made us completely alive. As I mentioned, “quicken” to some might indicate something of an improvement, but not the full range of what salvation is, however here we see that it is the full process of salvation.

We were quickened together with Christ. Quickened would relate to that washing away of the old and installation of the new, the regeneration that was needed to make us alive. We were reborn, or rebirthed anew. Our first birth by man was to death, but our rebirth by God is to life.

Some suggest that God washed away some of the stuff we have studied in this section – the death, but that He left the lust, the flesh, the rotten side that we were born with and poured in a new nature. The result of this is a new/old nature struggle that we are caught between.

I prefer the truth that God washed away all that stuff, completely and finally and left us with a completely new nature, one that is pure, one that can be maintained as pure, and one that ought to be maintained as pure. 1Jn 1:9 and the forgiveness it promises is that maintenance that is needed to be a pure living believer. We may choose to sin, we may choose to thumb our nose at God, and we may falter, but it is not because we are dead, it is not because the Devil made us do it and it is not because of any external or internal force that is working on us – it is simply that we decide to follow self and do what we want rather than what God wants.

Many label this sinless perfection – mostly because they don’t want to accept the implications of the teaching – that they should live a fairly pure and righteous life. It is not sinless perfection, that false teaching that once we attain a certain level of spirituality we stop sinning and become one without sin – what a farce that is and many there are that have fallen in their attempt to attain such an ethereal plateau.

I do not teach sinless perfection, I teach what I believe the Word of God teaches – God recreated us new, rather than this illogical view that our being can be made up of two natures at the same time. The word nature means the sum of the whole. What we are is our nature. We can’t have two natures, that would make our nature two natures, and that is illogical.

Webster suggests, among others, “…The essence, essential qualities or attributes of a thing, which constitute it….” I suppose you could have an old characteristic and a new characteristic or some such terminology, but nature has to do with the total makeup of a thing. We are a new creation – if we fall into sin, we are a new creation that has erred and which needs restoration, but we do not become a fallen being again, we don’t become dead again, and we certainly don’t need to be requickened or re-regenerated to correct our being. We need only forgiveness from the merciful and loving God and Father that has released us from our death unto life.

Paul adds “by grace ye are saved;” to clarify that leaving the works of the world for good works would not be enough. It is the quickening of God that saves us and nothing we can do – it is His grace that saves, not ours or someone else’s grace. This counters the false teaching of the Roman church which tells us that the “extra” grace that is collected from others overflow is given to those that are in need.

There is an interesting use of verbs in this verse. We were continuingly dead, but God at a point in time quickened us (regeneration) and grace saves and keeps on saving until we are complete in the heavenlies with Him. Saved is a perfect tense, showing something that has happened, and the results will extend into the future to some future end when all will be complete. The Net Bible says that “you have been saved” and “you are saved.”

Another of those many indicators that the believer is eternally secure in Christ, but easily rationalized away by those that don’t believe in the doctrine.

Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson

Unbelievers are spiritually dead in their sins (cf. Eph 2:1). However, God has given new life to believers. The only way a dead person can have any fellowship with the living God is for God to give him or her new life (cf. Rom 4:17). Regeneration is an act of God in grace. Regeneration results in the commencement and continuation of new life. "Have been saved" is in the perfect tense in Greek indicating an ongoing permanent condition.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)