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Ephesians 2:5-10 reveals that Christ is the sphere and element of the creation of God’s masterpiece, the believers as a corporate entity. This portion of the Word reveals that by the dispensing of His life into the believers, God in the Son has enlivened them together with Christ, raised them up together with Christ, and seated them together with Christ in the heavenlies, thereby creating them in Christ as His masterpiece in order that He might display in the ages to come the surpassing riches of His grace of life. Christ is the means by which, the sphere in which, and the element with which God has enlivened us, raised us up, and seated us in the heavenlies. Without Christ and outside of Christ, God has no way to enliven us, raise us up, and seat us in the heavenlies. God carried out these three matters through Christ as His channel.
God has made us alive together with Christ for our salvation by grace. In Ephesians 2:5 Paul says, “Even when we were dead in offenses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” The salvation by grace here is not merely the salvation from God’s judgment, condemnation, and the lake of fire; it is the salvation that saves us to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25), the salvation that saves us from anything that suppresses, oppresses, enslaves, or holds us back.
As sinners, we need God’s forgiveness and justification, but as those who are dead in offenses and sins (Eph. 2:1), we need to be made alive. Forgiveness and justification bring us back to God’s presence to enjoy His grace and participate in His life, whereas being made alive causes us, the living members of the Body of Christ, to express Him. God made us alive by imparting His eternal life, which is Christ Himself (Col. 3:4), into our dead spirit through His Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2). God enlivened us together when He enlivened the crucified Jesus. Therefore, He made us alive together with Christ.
In Ephesians 2:5 Paul says, “By grace you have been saved.” Grace is free; here it denotes not only God freely dispensed into us for our enjoyment but also God’s action in freely saving us. By such grace we have been saved out of our wretched position of death into the marvelous realm of life.
We were saved not only as sinners but also as dead persons, and not only by Christ’s death with its redemption but also by His resurrection with its resurrection life, and even by His ascension with its transcendency. This is the transcending salvation given to the dead sinners by the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ, the very embodiment of the processed Triune God. Such a salvation produces the church as the issue of the processed Divine Trinity for His expression.
In Ephesians 2:6-8 we see that God has raised us up together with Christ and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies for our salvation by grace through faith. Verse 6 tells us that God “raised us up together with Him and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” To make us alive is the initial step of God’s salvation in life. After this, God raised us up from the position of death. The salvation spoken of in verse 5 is the resurrection in power. By this salvation God not only made us alive together with Christ but also raised us up together with Christ and seated us together with Him.
It is noteworthy that according to verses 5 and 6 we were made alive together and raised up together. From our standpoint we have been raised up from our position of death one by one. Since there is no time element with God, in His eyes we were all raised up together at the same time that the apostles Peter, John, and Paul were raised up. In God’s view we were all raised up together, just as all the Israelites were raised up together from the death waters of the Red Sea (Exo. 14). According to the book of Exodus, the entire congregation of the children of Israel was saved at the same time, for they passed through the Red Sea together. In other words, the children of Israel came out of Egypt, crossing the Red Sea not one by one at different times but as a congregation at the same time. This is a clear type showing that we were all saved together; we were all made alive and raised up at the same time.
The initial step of God’s salvation in life is to make us alive together with Christ (Eph. 2:5), the second step is to raise us up from the position of death (v. 6a), and the third step is to seat us together in the heavenlies. God not only raised us up from the position of death, but He also seated us in the highest place in the universe.
The heavenlies are the highest position, into which we have been saved in Christ. In the book of Romans, Christ as our righteousness brought us into a state in which we are acceptable to God. In the book of Ephesians, Christ as our life has saved us into a position in which we are above all God’s enemies. Here in the heavenly atmosphere, with a heavenly nature and a heavenly characteristic, we are a heavenly people. God’s salvation has transferred us into such a realm and atmosphere.
Although we are persons living and moving on the earth, we should see ourselves seated together with Christ in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Since we are in the heavenlies in Christ, we are not under any person or problem; rather, we are far above all persons and problems. We soar above earthly things that bother the unbelievers. The earthly things cannot touch us, because we are transcendent. We are transcendent because we are people in the heavenlies in the organic union with Christ through His resurrection and ascension.
It was in Christ that God seated us all together, once for all, in the heavenlies. This was accomplished when Christ ascended to the heavens, and it has been applied to us by the Spirit of Christ ever since we believed in Him. Today we realize and experience this reality in our spirit through faith in the accomplished fact.
Both Romans and Ephesians indicate that we are in Christ. In Romans, our transfer from Adam into Christ is primarily a matter of being placed into a justified position; in Ephesians, our being in Christ is not only a matter of a heavenly position but, even more importantly, a matter of life. Because we are in Christ, we have the vitality of life. In Romans, Christ is the righteousness of God, but in Ephesians, Christ is life. Therefore, according to Romans, to be in Christ means to be in a justified position; according to Ephesians, to be in Christ means to have the vitality of life.
In verse 7 Paul goes on to say, “That He might display in the ages to come the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” The church is produced in the present age; the ages which are coming are the ages of the millennium and eternity future. To display the riches of God’s grace is to exhibit them to the whole universe publicly. The riches of God’s grace surpass every limit. These are the riches of God Himself for our enjoyment. They will be publicly displayed for eternity.
Verse 7 says that the surpassing riches of God’s grace are in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Kindness is a benevolent goodness which issues out of mercy and love. It is in such kindness that the grace of God is given to us.
In verse 8 Paul continues, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” The word for here introduces the reason that God displays His grace (v. 7). Because we have been saved by His grace, God can display it.
Grace is God dispensed into us. Therefore, to be saved by grace means to be saved by having the processed Triune God dispensed into us. Ephesians reveals that the saving grace is God Himself in Christ wrought into our being. According to this Epistle, salvation is the transmission of the incarnated, crucified, resurrected, and ascended Christ into us. When this person comes into us as grace, we are saved. Once we receive such a divine transmission, we are made alive, raised up, and seated with Christ in the heavenlies. God processed in Christ and transmitted into our being is the saving grace and the abounding grace.
This grace has surpassing riches. It has many aspects, virtues, and attributes, such as life, light, and power. Apart from life, light, and power, God cannot save us. In order to save us, God needed love and wisdom. These are some of the surpassing riches of God’s saving grace. In His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus, God has saved us by His grace. In the ages to come — in the millennium and eternity future — God will display this grace publicly to the whole universe.
In verse 8 Paul says that by grace we have been saved through faith. Faith is the substantiation of invisible things (Heb. 11:1). It is by faith that we substantiate all the things Christ has accomplished for us. Through such a substantiating ability, we have been saved by grace. The free action of God’s grace saved us through our substantiating faith. This faith of ours is the faith by which we believe in Christ, and it is Christ in us as our faith. Our faith in Christ does not come out of us; rather, it comes out of Him. When we see Christ, faith is imparted into us. In ourselves, we do not have any faith. Before we were saved, we were utterly unable to believe, but on the day we were saved, faith, the believing ability, was imparted to us, and we believed. This faith is not of ourselves; it is part of grace transmitted into us.
In Ephesians 2:10 Paul goes on to say, “We are His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus.” Here the Greek word for masterpiece is poiema, which means “something that has been made, a handiwork,” or “something that has been written or composed as a poem.” Not only a poetic writing may be considered a poem, but also any work of art that expresses the maker’s wisdom and design. We, the church, the masterpiece of God’s work, are a poem expressing God’s infinite wisdom and divine design. In the universe nothing is more meaningful than the church, a poem written by God.
In the eyes of the angels and even in the eyes of Satan, we are a sweet, beautiful, and wise poem written by God. In Christ we are a poem that is so pleasant to God, though we may not feel this way. If we look at the believers from a human point of view, we may lament their deficiencies and shortcomings, feeling that they are pitiful persons. On the contrary, if we look at the believers from God’s perspective, we will realize that they are the most pleasant persons and even much superior to the angels. Today we must believe the fact that in Christ Jesus we are the masterpiece of God. In eternity when we all are in the new creation, the New Jerusalem, we will realize that we are indeed God’s masterpiece, His poem, as His new creation.
Writers, composers, and artists often attempt to achieve a masterpiece, an outstanding work. God has made many things, but none of them is as dear, precious, valuable, and desirable as the church. The heavens, the earth, and man, created by God, are not God’s masterpiece, but the church, the Body of Christ, the fullness of the One who fills all in all (1:23), the corporate and universal new man (2:15), is a masterpiece. As God’s masterpiece, we are a matchless display of God’s divine wisdom and a supreme handiwork of God, whose magnificent design cannot be improved upon.
Verse 10 says that we are God’s masterpiece “created in Christ Jesus.” We, the church, the masterpiece of God’s work, are an absolutely new item in the universe, a new invention of God. We were created by God in Christ through regeneration to be His new creation (2 Cor. 5:17). God’s masterpiece is absolutely new because it is the mingling of God and man. God’s masterpiece, His greatest workmanship, is the working of Himself into man and the constituting of man into oneness with Himself to produce a marvelous poem.
We are God’s masterpiece, His workmanship. This means that we should not think that we are able to work for God or do God’s work. God does not expect us to work for Him. On the contrary, He is seeking the opportunity to work upon us. If we consider our situation, we will realize how much work remains to be done on us. God does not need us to work for Him. Rather, He will work on us until we become His masterpiece. The reason we are God’s masterpiece is that Christ is being wrought into us. We can boast to God’s creation that we have Christ in us. The more Christ is wrought into us, the more we become part of God’s workmanship, God’s masterpiece.
According to Ephesians 3:10, God’s multifarious wisdom will be made known through the church. Hymns express the wisdom of the hymn writers. In the ages to come, in the millennium and in eternity, there will be a unique hymn, the New Jerusalem as the ultimate consummation of the church, which expresses the wisdom and design of God. When we see the New Jerusalem, we may extol God for the beauty, wisdom, and design manifested in this marvelous production. The New Jerusalem will be God’s poem, His masterpiece.
In Ephesians 2:10 Paul goes on to say, “For good works, which God prepared beforehand in order that we would walk in them.” The good works for which God created us are not the good things that are according to our general concept but the definite good doings that God preplanned and preordained for us to walk in. These good things must be the doing of His will that we may live the church life and bear the testimony of Jesus, as revealed in the succeeding chapters of Ephesians. We should not do things according to our will or intention; rather, we should do the things God prepared before the foundation of the world so that we would walk in them. Therefore, in Christ we have been saved by grace to be God’s masterpiece that we may walk in the good works prepared beforehand by God.
Once we were not only sinners but also dead in offenses. However, through His great mercy God came to us in His grace, and by His divine life He enlivened us together with Christ, raised us up together with Him, and seated us together with Him in the heavenlies. Therefore, we have passed out of death into life and have been transferred from earth to heaven. In this position of resurrection and ascension, we no longer live in sin; rather, we walk in the good works which God has prepared beforehand for us. In this way God in His grace has worked on us to make us the divine, heavenly, and universal poem, God’s masterpiece created in Christ Jesus.
