Ephesians 4.32b-The Father Forgave the Believer Through Faith in Christ at Justification
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday December 9, 2025
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 4:32b-The Believer Must Be Characterized by Kindness, Compassion and Forgiveness
Lesson # 303
Ephesians 4:32 Instead, each and every one of you as a corporate unit continue to make it your habit of being characterized by kindness, compassion and forgiveness when interacting with one another just as the one and only God in fact graciously forgave each and every one of you as a corporate unit because of your faith in Christ at justification. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 4:32 is composed of the following:
(1) command: ginesthe…eis allēlous chrēstoi, eusplanchnoi, charizomenoi heautois (γίνεσθε…εἰς ἀλλήλους χρηστοί,* εὔσπλαγχνοι, χαριζόμενοι ἑαυτοῖς), “Each and every one of you as a corporate unit continue to make it your habit of being characterized by kindness, compassion and forgiveness when interacting with one another” (Lecturer’s translation)
(2) comparative clause: kathōs kai ho theos en Christō echarisato hymin (καθὼς καὶ ὁ θεὸς ἐν Χριστῷ ἐχαρίσατο ὑμῖν), “Just as the one and only God in fact graciously forgave each and every one of you as a corporate unit because of your faith in Christ at justification.” (Lecturer’s translation)
Therefore, the solemn command in this verse required that the recipients of this epistle continue to make it their habit of being characterized by kindness, compassion and forgiveness when interacting with one another.
It is modified by a comparative clause, which asserts that the Father graciously forgave them because of their faith in His Son, Jesus Christ at justification.
It presents a comparison between the Lord forgiving the Christian community all their sins and this community forgiving each other.
The conjunction kai (καί) is emphatic meaning that it is serving to emphasize the assertion that God the Father graciously forgave every sin the members of the Christian community committed past-present and future based upon the merits of the object of their faith at justification, which is Jesus Christ.
The noun theos (θεός) refers to the Father which is indicated by the articular construction of the noun, which in the New Testament commonly signifies the Father unless otherwise indicated by the context.
The articular construction of the noun theos (θεός) also expresses the idea that there were many gods in the world, but the God Jewish and Gentile Christians worship was the one and only true God in contrast to unregenerate humanity, which worshipped the pantheon of Graeco-Roman gods.
As was the case in the previous command, Paul employs the verb charizomai (χαρίζομαι) in the comparative clause, which follows this command.
However, in this comparative clause, God the Father is used as the subject of this verb.
Therefore, this word speaks of the Father graciously forgiving every sin committed by the members of the Christian community committed, past-present and future based upon the merits of the object of their faith at justification, namely Jesus Christ.
The aorist tense of the verb charizomai (χαρίζομαι) is a consummative aorist which indicates the cession of the act of the Father graciously forgiving every sin committed by the Christian community, past-present and future, the moment He declared the sinner justified through faith in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
The middle voice of the verb charizomai (χαρίζομαι) is an indirect middle, which indicates that the Father “for His own benefit” and specifically “for His own glory” graciously forgiving every sin committed by the members of the Christian community committed, past-present and future the moment He declared them justified through faith in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
As has been the case throughout this epistle, the referent of the accusative second personal plural form of the personal pronoun su (σύ) is the recipients of this epistle who Paul describes here in Ephesians 2:11 as Gentile Christians.
The word means “each and every one of you as a corporate unit” or “all of you without exception” because it not only refers to these Gentile Christians as a corporate unit but is also used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions.
In other words, it not only refers to them as a corporate unit but also as individuals.
This personal pronoun su (σύ) functions as a dative direct object.
Therefore, this indicates that these Gentile Christians in the Roman province of Asia received the action of being forgiven at the moment of justification when the Father declared them justified through faith in His one and only Son, Jesus Christ.
The word is put in the dative rather than accusative case because Paul wants to emphasize the personal relationship between God the Father and the Christian community.
The proper name Christos (Χριστός) contains the figure of metonymy, which means that that the Christ is put for the church age believer’s faith in Him at justification.
The dative masculine singular form of the proper noun Iēsous (Ἰησοῦς), “Jesus” and refers to the human nature of the incarnate Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth.
The word functions as a dative of simple apposition meaning that simply clarifies who is Christ here, namely Jesus of Nazareth since there were many in the first century who made the claim.
The proper name Christos (Χριστός) is the object of the preposition en (ἐν), which functions here as a marker of cause or reason.
Therefore, this prepositional phrase indicates “because of” their faith in Jesus Christ at justification, the Father graciously forgiving every sin committed by the members of the Christian community committed, past-present and future.
Specifically, the Father graciously forgave them “because of” the merits of their object of their faith at justification, namely the merits of His person and work on the cross.
In other words, the merits of Jesus Christ’s person and work on the cross is “the reason why” the Father graciously forgiving every sin committed by the members of the Christian community committed, past-present and future.
The contents of Ephesians 4:32 are similar to the contents of Colossians 3:12-13.
Colossians 3:12 Therefore, because each and every one of you are elected by God the Father, holy as well as divinely loved, I solemnly charge the clothing of yourselves with compassion, which is the product of deep seated affections, kindness, humility gentleness, patience. 13 Simultaneously, continue making it your habit of tolerating one another, while also continuing to make it your habit of graciously forgiving each other. Whenever anyone possesses a complaint against anyone just as the Lord in fact graciously forgave each and every one of you for His own glory, so also in the same way, each and every one of you must continue to make it your habit of graciously forgiving each other. (Lecturer’s translation)
