This measure of
eternal life that is enjoyed in the here and now, and of which we can be
assured that we are sharing, in the union with Christ that is the evidence of
the Spirit’s inward working to make it so that we truly believe and live as if
Jesus is Lord, is the guarantee of the eternal life to come. Maintaining
that consistency, we bear in mind that at least partially for Paul, the eternal
life to come is when the believer ultimately shares in Christ’s eternal life,
experiencing the power of God in the same way in which Christ experienced that
power, by being raised from the dead and given a new, physical, glorified body,
in this world, that cannot and will not see death. It is in this light that
we can truly understand Christ being the first-fruits of a new creation, as the
beginning of the final movement of God’s plans to redeem and restore His
creation.
Reaching what most
see as the pinnacle of this chapter, we then go on to read, “For by grace you
are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of
God” (Ephesians 2:8). Here, we actually find Paul repeating something
already written just a few lines ago, while adding a short but important
thought. He repeats that it is grace that brings about salvation, and
that this is by faith. Not only would there be the well-understood (in
that day) component of the social construct of the circle of grace, with the
appropriate, accepted, and expected response to the demonstration of grace by a
patron towards a client or potential client, but the grace for salvation, which
is the deliverance from exile owing to transgressions and sins (as we have been
thinking about them), into the eternal life of union with Christ in His already
established kingdom of heaven on earth, is the demonstration of God’s
faithfulness in fulfillment of His covenant.
As we continue to
remember the context of the kingdom of God that was the foundational premise
for this section of Paul’s letter, we hear Paul reminding at least some portion
of his readers that this was not something that they had brought about or would
bring about through their own endeavors (revolutionary overthrow) to usher in
God’s kingdom and the rule of His Messiah (remember this potential element of
Paul’s thinking about what constitutes transgressions and sin in the context
that he has created). We have to consistently remain cognizant of the
fact that “salvation” was not an ethereal term, denoting a spiritual experience
or a certain way of feeling, but that it meant forgiveness of sins.
Forgiveness of sins was also a very concrete term with a concrete and
definitive reference as established by Israel’s defining narrative (Scripture),
as it was connected with the return of God’s people from exile and their
placement in their land of promise.
When this land of
promise was ruled by God’s Messiah, with His people no longer subject to a
foreign power (foreigners, including death for our purposes) that was when it
was understood that the kingdom of God had been established. The Jews had
been expecting this in conjunction with the land of Israel---with the Messiah
ruling Israel, and Israel ruling the world. However, because Jesus is to be
understood as Lord of all the earth, then the kingdom of God encompasses the
entire world, and all peoples (Jew & Gentile) can experience forgiveness
from sins (exodus – deliverance from exile), as God’s faithfulness is now
demonstrated in the new covenant that has been set forth in Christ.
Because it is the
gift of God, with God establishing His kingdom in a way that was unheard of by
Gentiles (self-sacrificial love), and completely antithetical to the way in
which it was expected by the Jews (which we have to imagine was well explained
to their Gentile brethren), Paul can safely add that, “it is not from works, so
that no one can boast” (2:9). Of course, this mention of “works” is shorthand
for “works of the law,” which in that time had been reduced to the covenant
marks of circumcision, Sabbath-keeping, and food laws, which would be
maintained by Israel, and perhaps forced upon others, as a means to demonstrate
righteousness in the hope of forcing their God’s hand to expel their
subjugators. The “boasting” hearkens us
to the social construct of honor and shame, in which the ability to boast would
be a way of achieving honor in the court of public opinion. There would be no accrual of honor in the
keeping of the covenant markers, such that the Jews would be able to lord their
position over the Gentiles in the kingdom of God.
So along with that, it
could be said that in this kingdom no one is going to be superior to
another. No one is going to be able to claim special privilege or status.
Neither Jew, Gentile, slave, free, man, or woman would have a reason to boast
and accrue honor for themselves, because God, through Christ, did something
completely unexpected by His grace, as a gift, because He is faithful. That
grace, of course, demands a response, as it is the supreme patron (the Creator
God via His Christ) that gains honor as His people boast about Him and His kingdom. This people of God can then be said to be
“His workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God
prepared beforehand so we may do them” (2:10). Now this people of God, by
the power of Resurrection at work in them by the Spirit, can take up the task
of being God’s image-bearers, stewarding His creation and being a blessing to
all peoples, just as God had intended for the creatures made in His image
(Adam), and just as He promised to the first man that He called to Himself
(Abraham).
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