The Obedience of Faith in the First Word

I recently had a chance to plan a Sunday School lesson of “the first commandment”…

(I use quote marks because the term common at Mount Sinai is “word” or “matter.” Maybe “rule” would cover the nuances better. It is not wrong to call them commandments. Jesus (Matthew 19:17), Paul (Ephesians 6:2), and Luke (23:56) refer to them as “commandments,” for instance. But it is not the word used in the Pentateuch, even though they are emphatically commanded by God to keep the Ten Words.)

When I set about the task, it surprised me that it did not seem obvious how to go about it. What point do you make about the First Word if you are not 1. Refuting atheism and defending theism, or 2. teaching a series on “The Doctrine of God,” or 3. teaching about the Trinity or the incarnation, etc.? In other words how do you exhort Christians to live better, or to amend their lives, to conform better to the First Word in a practical way?

A Prelude to Ephesians

Daniel saw a vision of “one like a son of man” ascending to God’s throne (Daniel 7:13). We, who read this with the knowledge that Jesus referred to Himself as “the son of man” (Matthew 9:6), often assume that the vision was about Jesus. True, according what we know now, like all prophecy (1 Peter 1:12). But the angel told Daniel the vision was about “the saints,” not an individual. The figure like a son of man ascending to the throne and being given the kingdom in his vision was referring to the future time when “the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever and ever” (7:18). The term “saints” is used five times in the story of Daniel’s vision. The term is only used six times in the entire book of Daniel.

Is John Stott Right to Contrast the “Universal Human Condition” with Particular Corruption? (Ephesians 2:1)

Some more on John Stott and Ephesians…

1. Man by nature, or the human condition (verses 1-3)
Before we look in detail at this devastating description of the human condition apart from God, we need to be clear that it is a description of everybody. Paul is not giving us a portrait of some particularly decadent tribe or degraded segment of society, or even the extremely corrupt paganism of his own day. No, this is the biblical diagnosis of fallen man in fallen society everywhere. True, Paul begins with an emphatic you, indicating in the first place his Gentile readers in Asia Minor, but he quickly goes on to write (verse 3a) that we all once lived in the same way (thus adding himself and his fellow Jews), and he concludes with a reference to the rest of mankind (verse 3b). Here then is the apostle’s estimate of everyman without God, of the universal human condition. It is a condensation into three verses of the first three chapters of Romans, in which he argues his case for the sin and guilt first of pagans, then of Jews, and so of all mankind. Here he singles out three appalling truths about unredeemed human beings, which includes ourselves until God had mercy on us.
John Stott, The Message of Ephesians, The Bible Speaks Today (IVP) [Originally published as God’s New Society, 1979]

IF someone claimed that Ephesians 2:1ff had nothing to do with the universal human condition, of course, I would agree with John Stott over against such error.

But pointing out the degradation of a “particularly decadent tribe” or of a generation, is normally taken as a sign of the “human condition.” And it should be.

The Turning Point in Ephesians 1:14 & the War in Heaven

Few can read Ephesians “naively,” without already being basically aware of it’s content or that, in general, there is an ongoing future struggle in our lives and/or in human history. But if we try to think of what a naïve listening to the epistle being read might entail, Ephesians 1:14 opens up a whole new world.

What is the “Gospel”?

Consider this piece of political propaganda from the Greco-Roman world. Listen as I read from an inscription about the birthday of Augustus Caesar the emperor of Rome that was dates from 9BC.

The providence which has ordered the whole of our life, showing concern and zeal, has ordained the most perfect consummation for human life by giving to it Augustus, by filling him with virtue for doing the work of a benefactor among men, and by sending in him, as it were, a deliverer for us and those who come after us, to make war to cease, to create order everywhere. . . . ; the birthday of the god [Augustus] was the beginning for the world of the gospel that has come to men through him [found in What Saint Paul Really Said by N. T. Wright].

THE TERM GOSPEL IS a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon word godspell. It is used to translate the Greek word evangel which means “good news,” “glad tidings,” or “joyful message.” And it is a word with an important use in the pagan politics of the first century. It refers to a royal proclamation or an imperial announcement. It is used to describe a report of the birth, or the ascension to the throne, or the victory of a king. In some cases it can refer to more than one of these, since the victory of an aspiring prince can also count as his coronation. By defeating his enemy, he inherits the kingdom and thus becomes a king. Such a declaration is described as a gospel in the ancient world of the first-century Mediterranean region.

Did John Stott Understand What “a Figure of Speech” Is? Ephesians 2:1

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins…
The Apostle Paul (ESV)

The death to which Paul refers is not a figure of speech, as in the parable of the Prodigal Son, “This my son was dead”; it is a factual statement of everyone’s spiritual condition outside Christ.
John Stott, The Message of Ephesians, The Bible Speaks Today (IVP) [Originally published as God’s New Society, 1979]

On the contrary, when the Apostle Paul writes “you were dead” in Ephesians 2:1, he is definitely using a figure of speech. Of course, it is also a “factual statement” because people use figures of speech to make claims that are (or are purported to be) factual. The father of the Prodigal was stating a fact about his younger son’s status and/or condition by speaking figuratively. The proper alternative to a figure of speech is a literal statement, not a factual statement.

Paul’s Calling to “Saints”

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 1:1 ESV

Paul often addresses Christians as saints in all his letters, but the theology of Ephesians is especially relevant to why he does so. Saint means holy one. It is related to the verb “sanctify,” make holy.

Some Things I Would Like to See More Comment On in Ephesians (Part One?)

Ephesians 1:3 is about praising God for the resurrection/ ascension/ enthronement of Jesus. Jesus was raised to God’s right hand and given the promised Holy Spirit to share with the Church.
The election (1:4) and predestination (1:5) of Paul’s readers is not merely that which is true of all believers in all history before and after Jesus’ death and resurrection. Rather, it is the election and predestination of that generation to see God keep his promises in Christ.
The phrase in 1:6, “to the praise of his glorious grace,” is a mistranslation. Paul really writes “to the praise of his gracious glory” (i.e. graciously given). Paul himself abbreviates the phrase twice, and drops out grace, not glory (1:12, 14).
God’s raising up Jesus did not simply prove the greatness of His “power toward us” (1:19). Rather, God’s raising up Jesus was the definitive exercise of his power toward us. In other words, God raised up Jesus as an act to rescue us from death and bring us into new life, not as proof that he was capable of rescuing people.
Ephesians 2:1ff is not an account of what happened to anyone when he or she was converted. It is an account of the history of humanity, when Jesus was raised by God and brought up to Him in a new life.
Ephesians 2:11ff explicitly references “we” Jews and “you” Gentiles. Since, he discusses the union of Jew and Gentile in the second half of chapter 2, and the nature of the Gospel as the message of the union of Jew and Gentile in chapter 3, this seems to be an important topic to Paul. It looks like the conclusion of an argument or the climax that he has been working toward. So it seems probable (at least) that “the Gospel of your salvation” (1:13) is elaborated in 3:6 “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
One could easily assume from 2:1ff that Paul thinks no one before his generation was saved, or from 2:11ff that no Gentiles were saved. But since that cannot possibly be true, what does Paul mean?

Mind and Body?

Daniel Kunitz writes an interesting testimony (I can’t think of a better description for it) in the prologue of his book, Lift: Fitness Culture, from Naked Greeks and Acrobats to Jazzercise and Ninja Warriors (HarperWave, 2016). He describes his life as a magazine editor living in New York City:

At our worst, my cohorts and I at the magazine emulated the wasted waif aesthetic of the times, the nineties, and gave no thought to improving or maintaining ourselves physically. We thought of ourselves as living the life of the mind…
p. 4.

Ephesians 2 and the “new topic”

Lynn H. Cohick writes on Ephesians in the NICNT series (page 143) on Chapter 2, verses 1-3:

Paul begins a new topic in Eph 2, though one that is tightly related to his previous declaration of Christ’s complete sovereignty over all powers and authorities… Paul sets before the Ephesians two sharply contrasted visions: that of the victorious and risen Christ, head of his body, the church, (1:22-23), and themselves as morally bankrupt and spiritually dead…
The New International Commentary on the New Testament

This is not how I would express it.