True to my promise to Rey, I am blogging Ephesians 2 today. I have lately been taking shorter passages so I can delve deeper, but today I will use larger chunks of scripture to get the point across. For the record, you can check out Rey’s post on this same passage here. This post stems from a request for the both of us to understand each other a bit better, as we have differing theological viewpoints. Rather than fighting each other through our blogs, though, we have decided to use our blogs to understand each other a bit better. It is my desire that each of us see that the other’s viewpoint is not quite so different from our own. Of course, that will be impossible until I reveal my opinion, so I’ll begin now.

On Salvation:

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

This first passage really sums up Total Depravity for me. I remember when I was introduced to Calvinism. I rejected it wholly, with the Perseverance of the Saints being the only thing I could accept under the OSAS rule. It is in passages like this that I realized that my impression was incorrect.

My thoughts were that such people as Ghandi, who had done such good things for others, could not be depraved. It just simply couldn’t be! They had done so much for their fellow man, and seemed to have their motives in the right places. Motives, though, are what the Lord looks at, and what He expects of His creation is that we do all things to His glory. This explains why Cain’s sacrifice was not accepted while Abel’s was. This explains how my easy-believism was in all reality a ticket to, dare I say, Hell. I was expecting that I could remain unchanged, a goat-like sheep among other goats, and would one day be welcomed into Heaven, much to everyone’s surprise.

In essence, I wanted to remain dead in my trespasses and sins, as I followed the course of this world, living for the passions of the flesh. I wanted to continue to follow the desires of my depraved mind, and then despise God by looking to Him at the last day on account of something I had done. All I had done was respond to the universal RSVP, but that was more than my friends had done. I held what knowledge I had close to the vest, just as the nation of Israel had done for thousands of years. In essence, I wanted these first few verses to all be a lie.

The words “like the rest of mankind” are what hit me right between the eyes, though. Depravity is not limited to rapists, murderers and child molesters. All of mankind seeks the desires of the heart. According to Paul, we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath. That is a direct quote from the ESV. To deny your sinful nature is to call God a liar, thus the doctrine of Total Depravity must stand and must be recognized. If you want to be correct at the expense of Biblical integrity, your motives must be reevaluated. That is as gentle as I can make this! If the standard is the Bible, then your comfort in your sins can not also be that standard. What is sin? It is defined by the Bible, not by the courts or society or yourself. Again, you must appeal to the highest standard if you are to have truth in your life.

Total Depravity does not mean that all of humanity seeks only to kill, maim and destroy. As Tim Challies has pointed out recently, we are all depraved, but are not as depraved as we could be. God demands perfection of us, though, and any portion of sinfulness within us brings condemnation. If this were not so, we would have no reason to respect God’s rule. If there is no respect, there is no turning to Him for the forgiveness of sins. Why else would the world become the champion of moral relativism? We will push the ultimate problem out of our view for as long as we can. That is just a symptom of spiritual deadness. If you don’t like what I am saying here, take it up with the One who reveals this truth in His word.

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

It is only so God can display His mercy and love that He accomplishes a miracle in anyone. We who are dead in our trespasses and sins are made alive through the miracle of regeneration. This is not our doing, but His. He opens our eyes to see the sins that had condemned us, and shows us His love and mercy. When we see the two options, we continue to follow our heart’s desire, but that desire has been changed by the grace of God. We long to follow Him and do His bidding, where before we did everything we could to deny His rule over His creation. Work is also taken out of the equation, for we are doing that which now brings us joy.

It is interesting that we do nothing more than what our heart desires, and yet are rewarded for it. Isn’t this what was promised to us, though? Don’t all conversions come from the heart, as we turn in whichever direction our heart leads us? If we are to turn to God, then, could we expect to do so with a cold, hard, dead heart of stone?

The Calvinist would say no to that question. We can no more turn toward God before the miracle of regeneration than a dead man could reach for a life preserver in the middle of the sea. I have never attended a funeral where the deceased person raised themselves, determining that they were tired of being dead. As a matter of fact, I have never heard a corpse request that they be defibulated either. These ridiculous examples are shared here just to hold the mirror of scripture up to much of the preaching that one hears today. My theological stance is not a popular one as it once was. I am not interested in proclaiming a popular interpretation, though. I believe that every word that is recorded on this blog will one day be discussed before my creator, and I have no desire to be called to shame for declaring anything so unloving as the presentation of a lie to anyone who may be longing for answers to questions that society cannot offer.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

To understand my take on this matter, you have to understand what grace is. According to Merriam-Webster, grace is unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification. Unmerited means that nothing within me gives any reason for it to be offered. Divine means that it is from God, not myself or any other created being. Given is the opposite of taken. This description is mirrored in the above verses. I have been saved by grace through faith, and since it is a gift from God to an unworthy person like myself, I can’t boast in any of it. Yes, that means that I can’t even accept any credit for my faith. Do I get uncomfortable about this? Not at all! If I found comfort in something I could do, I would then be responsible for maintaining it, and held accountable if I later rejected it, despising the gift of God.

So why would God do something this wondrous for such a depraved sinner as I? This is all about the glory of God. Humans were created to honor God in our every word and deed. I shared earlier a verse from the book of Hebrews that shows that we cannot please God without faith. This same faith that is required to please God is given to those of His choosing, that we may show our gratitude by walking according to the heart of flesh that He has given us by His grace. This is the appropriate place for good works. They are used as worship for He who set us free from the bounds of sin, not as payment for our salvation. God created us for His pleasure and this pleasure is found in joyful obedience and delight in Him. Just as God created the Garden of Eden before He created Adam, God continues to prepare good works for those who are called to bring glory to His name. His glory is found in these works, as well as a motive to delight in Him as we accomplish His purposes.

On Israel and the Church:

Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands—remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

This will likely be the largest point of contention between Rey’s understanding of this chapter and my own. It is my belief that, through Christ, there is no longer a division between the nation of physical Israel and the church. Rather, I believe that the church has been grafted into Israel, ending the separation that most Gentiles endured apart from God’s covenant with Abraham. The sign of the covenant had been circumcision from Abraham, so referring to outsiders as “the uncircumcision” was the same thing as telling them that they were on the outside of the covenant looking in. Gentiles were separated from the promises of God through a sign made with human hands.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

This is no longer a factor of life for those who have been brought near by the blood of Christ. If the atonement of Christ was good only to allow God to make a separate people out of His bride, the church, and to still have His people, physical Israel, labeled as His people, then the precious blood of Christ is perceived to be weakened and (quite frankly) passages like this don’t make much sense. Without having read Rey’s post, I really can’t say much more about this “2 people of God” concept. It is the general understanding of the church I grew up in, but was not taught to me from a young age. Frankly, I don’t see enough scriptural evidence for me to believe this way.

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Since Jew and Gentile are brought close and the rift is healed in Christ (among other concerns), I do not support Dispensationalism. In this, Rey and I will continue to disagree. I do believe that God has dispensed His justice and His covenant throughout the ages in different ways, but the covenant has not been replaced as a person replaces one agreement for another that has expired. If God declares an everlasting covenant, an everlasting covenant it is! This covenant can be dispensed in different ways, but the dispensation is not the focus. The covenant that God dispenses to us by His grace is. Rey will disagree with portions of this, perhaps all of it, but this idea came about so we could understand each other just a bit better.

In Conclusion:

So there’s my comments about Ephesians 2. Was Rey dead in his sins at one time? Yes. The Bible teaches us that all are totally depraved apart from Christ. Grace demands that our favor be unmerited. Was Rey chosen by God to be His? I truly believe so. It is not my place to announce Rey’s eternal hope, but I consider him to be a dear brother in Christ. Did Jesus die for the sins of Rey? Yes. When Rey heard the gospel and was quickened by the spirit, would he have chosen to reject it? No. Will Rey persevere? Just like the matter of election, I truly believe that he will.

We don’t have to agree on every theological bullet point to fondly call on each other as brothers in Christ. To see the differences and the same points, you can read Rey’s post on his own site.