Spiritual Nuggets from Ephesians 1 and 2

Ephesians 1

Ephesians 1:3, With every spiritual blessing. Our best and ultimate blessings are reserved for us in heaven time, and are not necessarily ours to experience on this earth at this time.

Ephesians 1:4, Without blame. The saint is without blame before YHVH, not without sin.

Ephesians 1:10, All things in the Messiah. Heaven and earth unit in the Messiah who died suspended between the two to reconcile both while using his life as a bridge between heaven and earth. He is the ladder that Jacob dreamed about—the stairway to heaven to which he referred in John 1:51 that all most climb to be reconciled to his Father in heaven.

Ephesians 1:11, An inheritance. Our inheritance is to be adopted as sons into the family of Elohim as Paul states in verse 5.

Ephesians 1:13–14, Sealed…guarantee. YHVH’s depositing his Spirit in the saints at the time of their conversion is his investment in his set-apart people. Whether such a person proves to be a good investment or not is up to that person based on their obedience and faithfulness to YHVH until the end of their life. If they victoriously overcome the world, the flesh and the devil, then YHVH will make a return on his investment and will have gained an immortal addition to his family.

Ephesians 1:15, Faith in…love for. This is a restatement of the shema, which involves loving Yeshua and the saints.

Ephesians 1:18, Inheritance. The saints’ inheritance is eternal life and membership in the family of Elohim for eternity. This is his return on his investment he made in the saint’s life when he gave them his Spirit.

Ephesians 1:19, Inheritance. Explore dunamis versus kratos power, since both words are used in this verse. The same power is at work in us that raised Yeshua from the dead and gave him heavenly dominion (see Eph 2:5). The same process that happened to him is occurring in our lives if we follow in his footsteps.

Ephesians 2

Ephesians 2:2, Sons of disobedience. In reality, sons of Torahlessness.

Ephesians 2:3, Lusts of our flesh. Anti-Torah inclinations.

Children of wrath. This refers to all unrepented and unforgiven sinners who will experience YHVH’s wrathful judgment at the end of days (see Rom 1:18, 32).

Ephesians 2:4–5, He love us…when we were dead. This is the unconditional love Elohim has for lost sinners. (See Rom 5:8).

Ephesians 2:7, Ages to come. Referring to Elohim granting eternal life to his saints at the resurrection and adoption into his spiritual family (Eph 1:11).

Ephesians 2:8, 10, Saved … good works. Are we saved by faith through grace or by our good works? This verse clearly answers this question.One is saved by the free gift of YHVH’s grace through faith (in Yeshua). Salvation isn’t based on good works (Torah obedience), or else prideful man would boast about how good his is, and that YHVH must have saved him on the merits of his good works. However, once one is saved, and a result of his salvation one will produce the fruits good works, which is Torah-obedience. This is the definition of biblical righteousness (Ps 119:172) and shows us how to walk in the Spirit by loving YHVH with our all and our neighbor as ourself. When we live out this pattern, we become Elohim’s workmanship through Yeshua.

Grace… good works. Grace is a free gift, but it demands a response that we might become the workmanship of Elohim and perform good works through our relationship with Yeshua.

Good works…prepared. Elohim prepared good works or a ministry for us to do before we were born. That’s the outworking and divine enablement of his grace through us and the purpose of our salvation—our spiritual destiny!

Covenants of promise. There are three covenants to which Paul is referring here: they are the Abrahamic, Mosaic and Renewed Covenants. Paul mentions “covenants of promise” (plural) in Eph 2:12 of which the ex-Genitles are now a part when they come to Messiah and become the one new man (v. 15), the seed or offspring of Abraham (Gal 3:29), part of the olive tree of Israel (Rom 11:11–32) and the Israel of Elohim (Gal 6:16). The mainstream church focuses only on “the New Covenant,” while omitting and rejecting the first two covenants. Obviously, the exclusion of the first two covenants wasn’t in Paul’s thinking or else he would have said “covenant” not “covenants.” This is because the Word of Elohim never changes; his laws and standards are immutable. Therefore, each succeeding covenant is built upon the foundational truth of the previous covenant and is an expansion of the previous one (e.g. Isa 42:21).

Those who are walking in accordance with Elohim’s entire word including all three of his covenant are those that John describes as keeping the law and having the testimony or faith of Yeshua (i.e. they walk in accordance with the OT and NT covenants; Rev 12:17; 14:12).

It follows, therefore, that these saints are those who haven’t bent the knee to Baal (i.e. they’re not following the downward, gravitational pull of the carnal or evil inclination by following the world, the flesh and devil as does the world around them, and, for the those in churchianity, this includes all forms of Torahlessness, following Christo-pagan traditions, and whitewashed church doctrines of men by which the word of Elohim has been made of none effect). To wit, the number 7,000, as in the righteous saints who hadn’t bowed the knee to Baal in the time of Elijah to which Elohim makes reference in 1 Kgs 18:18, has the following metaphorical or drash-level biblical meaning: seven is the biblical number of perfection, and the three zeros are the three covenants YHVH Elohim made with Israel to bring them into a relationship with them potentially ultimately leading to them becoming his glorified sons and daughters in his everlasting heavenly kingdom.

Ephesians 2:12, Without God. The Greek word here is atheos meaning “without God.” It can also mean “denying, failing to worship Elohim or God, ungodly or godless. The Gentiles in their unsaved state were essentially atheists. For this and other reasons, I refuse to refer to myself as a Gentile.

 

2 thoughts on “Spiritual Nuggets from Ephesians 1 and 2

  1. This notion of the ‘free’ gift of salvation can be very confusing for some people because it makes them believe that as long as they have faith that Jesus died for their sins, they will inherit eternal life. But that is not all there is to it. We not only need to have faith in Yeshua’s deeds but also in His words and He teaches that we need to repent and stop sinning (Matthew 5:20). Therefore, we need to QUALIFY in order to receive this gift of eternal life.
    Shalom, Sonja

  2. Without Faith, Hope and Love 000 there is no Salvation.
    Faith is Avraham; Hope is Moshe; Love is Yeshua.
    Blessings, John

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