Ephesians 2.9a-The Church Age Believer's Salvation By No Means Originates from Their Meritorious Actions
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday October 24, 2023
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 2:9a-The Church Age Believer’s Salvation By No Means Originates From Their Meritorious Actions
Lesson # 94
Ephesians 2:9 It does not originate from meritorious actions as a source so that a person cannot for their own glory enter into the state of boasting. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 2:9 is composed of an elliptical epexegetical clause ouk ex ergōn (οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων), “it by no means originates from meritorious actions as a source” (Author’s translation).
It is followed by a hina (ἵνα) purpose-result clause hina mē tis kauchēsētai (ἵνα μή τις καυχήσηται), “so that a person cannot for their own glory enter into the state of boasting” (Author’s translation).
The apostle Paul is employing the figure of asyndeton in order to mark an emphatic contrast between the contents of Ephesians 2:8 and 9.
Specifically, it is marking an emphatic contrast between the last elliptical epexegetical statement theou to dōron (θεοῦ τὸ δῶρον), “It originates as the gift from God” in Ephesians 2:8.
Therefore, the figure of asyndeton in Ephesians 2:9 is marking an emphatic contrast between the salvation of the church age believer originating as a gift from God the Father and this salvation originating from meritorious actions performed by the church age believer.
The elliptical epexegetical statement ouk ex ergōn (οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων), “it by no means originates from meritorious actions as a source” in Ephesians 2:9 also defines specifically the previous elliptical epexegetical clause kai touto ouk ex hymōn (καὶ τοῦτο οὐκ ἐξ ὑμῶν), “In other words, this never originated from any one of you as a source” in Ephesians 2:8.
The latter explains from an emphatic negative perspective the previous assertion in this verse, which states that the church age believer is saved because of the Father’s grace policy through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.
These two elliptical epexegetical statements in Ephesians 2:8 assert that the church age believer’s salvation is emphatically not from themselves as a source but rather that it originates as a gift from God the Father.
Therefore, it is explaining in emphatic terms the idea that because the church age believer’s salvation originates as a gift from the Father, it by no means originates from meritorious actions on the part of the believer as a source of their salvation.
Also in Ephesians 2:9, Paul is using the figure of ellipsis which means that he is deliberately omitting, though it is implied from Ephesians 2:8, the third person plural present active indicative conjugation of the verb eimi (εἰμί), which means “to originate from a particular source.”
The referent of the third person singular form of this verb is the church age believer’s salvation, which is based upon grace and is received by means of their faith in Jesus Christ at the moment of justification.
The meaning of this verb eimi (εἰμί) we noted is emphatically negated by the emphatic negative adverb ouk (οὐκ), which means “never, by no means” since the word expresses an absolute, direct, full negation.
The present tense of the verb eimi (εἰμί) is important because it is a gnomic present, which would express the idea that the church age believer’s salvation “as a general timeless fact” or “an eternal spiritual truth” by no means originates from meritorious actions performed by the church age believer as a source.
The genitive neuter plural form of the noun ergon (ἒργον), “meritorious actions as a source” refers to a meritorious system of actions which would be considered by God as meriting His giving them eternal salvation and is the object of the preposition ek (ἐκ), which is functioning here as a marker of source.
Therefore, this prepositional phrase ex ergōn (οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων) is expressing the idea that the church age believer’s salvation, which is based upon grace and is received by means of their faith in Jesus Christ by no means “originates from” meritorious actions performed by the church age believer as a source.
Now, we have an interpretation issue, which we need to address with regards to this prepositional phrase, namely, is it used in relation to the Mosaic Law or does it simply refer to meritorious actions in general?
In both Romans and Galatians, Paul sets an emphatic contrast between salvation that is based upon “the works of the Law” and salvation based upon faith in Jesus Christ as Savior (Gal. 2:16; 3:2-5, 9, 10; Rom. 3:27-28; 4:2, 3, 5; 9:32).
In both Romans and Galatians, Paul was concerned about the teaching of the Judaizers who were Jewish Christians who were attempting to put Gentile Christians under the Mosaic Law by compelling them to receive circumcision.
In Acts 15, the first church council resolved this issue decisively by ruling in favor of Paul and not these Judaizers.
Therefore, the question arises, is Paul concerned about the same issue with the recipients of the Ephesian epistle who we noted were not only the Ephesian Christian community but also various Christian communities in the Roman province of Asia since as we noted in detail in our introduction, Ephesians is a circular letter.
Now, some expositors argue that the expression “the works of the Law,” which Paul employs in both Galatians and Romans, is not being referred to in Ephesians 2:9 because in this verse he omits any reference to the Law when using the term ergon (ἒργον), “works.”
We must keep in mind when answering this question that the recipients of Ephesians were Gentile Christians like the recipients of Galatians and Romans for that matter.
In both Romans and Galatians, Paul was addressing with Gentile Christians their relationship to the Mosaic Law as well as with their interaction with the Jewish Christian community (cf. Rom. 14).
Furthermore, Paul does make reference to the Law in Ephesians 2:15 with the expression “the law of commandments in decrees” (NET), which he asserts in Ephesians 2:14 was destroyed by the Lord Jesus Christ’s finished work on the cross.
In fact, in Ephesians 2:11-22, Paul instructing these Gentile Christians in the Roman province of Asia that they were united with the Jewish Christian community in order to promote and stimulate the unity among these two communities in an experiential sense.
As we noted in our introduction of this epistle, we noted that the purpose of Ephesians was to maintain unity between Jewish and Gentile believers by means of the practice of the command to love one another when interacting with each other (Ephesians 4:1-16).
Therefore, based on these reasons, this author believes that Paul is not making a distinction between the terms “works” in Ephesians and “the works of the Law” in Romans and Galatians and in fact, both refer to human effort to accomplish one’s salvation apart from faith in Jesus Christ.
This lack of distinction between the phrase “the works of the Law” in Romans and Galatians “works” in Ephesians is indicated by Paul statements in Romans 4:1-5 in which he illustrates his teaching in Romans 3:20-28 that a sinner is justified by faith in Christ rather than meritorious actions, which are in obedience to the Mosaic Law.
In Romans 4:1-5, Paul asserts that Abraham was not justified by “the works of the Law” because he lived and died before the Law was given to Moses on Mount Sinai.
Furthermore, the problem of sinners attempting to accomplish their salvation from Christ by performing actions, which they believe will merit their salvation or God declaring them righteous is found among both unregenerate Gentiles as well as unregenerate Jews.
So therefore, I believe that there is sufficient evidence that when Paul asserts in Ephesians 2:9 that salvation is by no means originating from meritorious actions, he is concerned that the Gentile Christian community in Asia have the conviction that they are not saved based upon meritorious actions, which are in obedience to the Mosaic Law.
Therefore, the elliptical epexegetical statement ouk ex ergōn (οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων), “it by no means originates from meritorious actions as a source” in Ephesians 2:9 is expressing the idea that the church age believer’s salvation, which is based upon grace and is received by means of their faith in Jesus Christ “by no means originated from meritorious actions performed by them as a source.”
In other words, salvation is a gift from God, which is based upon His grace policy by means of faith in His Son, Jesus Christ is mutually exclusive or antithetical from salvation that is accomplished by a person’s actions, which they believe will merit their salvation or acceptance by a holy God.
As we noted, this elliptical epexegetical statement ouk ex ergōn (οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων), “it by no means originates from meritorious actions as a source” in verse 9 also defines in emphatic terms the elliptical epexegetical clause elliptical epexegetical clause kai touto ouk ex hymōn (καὶ τοῦτο οὐκ ἐξ ὑμῶν), “In other words, this never originated from any one of you as a source” in Ephesians 2:8.
The latter explains from an emphatic negative perspective the previous assertion in this verse, which states that the church age believer is saved because of the Father’s grace policy through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.
These two elliptical epexegetical statements in Ephesians 2:8 assert that the church age believer’s salvation is emphatically not from themselves as a source but rather that it originates as a gift from God the Father.
Therefore, it is explaining in emphatic terms the idea that because the church age believer’s salvation is based upon the Father’s grace policy through faith in His Son or we could say that their salvation is emphatically not from themselves as a source but rather it originates as a gift from God the Father.
Now, this elliptical epexegetical statement ouk ex ergōn (οὐκ ἐξ ἔργων), “it by no means originates from meritorious actions as a source” in verse 9 is thus defining specifically what Paul means by this elliptical epexegetical clause kai touto ouk ex hymōn (καὶ τοῦτο οὐκ ἐξ ὑμῶν), “In other words, this never originated from any one of you as a source” in Ephesians 2:8.
Therefore, a comparison of these two statements indicates that when Paul asserts that the church age believer’s salvation is emphatically not from themselves as a source but rather that it originates as a gift from God the Father, he means that their salvation emphatically never originated from meritorious actions performed by the church age believer as a source.