Ephesians 2:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Turning to the moral world, or more particularly to our human race, no one can fail to see God’s fatherly care for men. He endows man with His special gifts, with His image, so that man may become more and more like Him.

Afterward man was to live the heavenly life in communion with Him. But man’s freedom and self-will destroyed him. He fell. God’s love did not abandon him even here.

It hears man’s sighs, groans, and sufferings. It sees his powerlessness to set matters right. Seeing repentance in the fallen man, it joyfully offers to help him.

Man, bowed down and burdened by grief, is encouraged by promises and consoling prophecies. His whole life is surrounded by religious rites and guided by detailed rules given from above.

Man lives and walks like a child under the guidance and supervision of a nurse. Sin darkened his mind, weakened his will, and crushed the good impulses of his heart.

The Lord appointed special heralds of righteousness and repentance for men, the holy prophets. He sent special deliverers from public calamities and from enemy power, mighty men.

Yes, “in many and various ways” He “spoke of old to the fathers by the prophets” (Heb 1:1). But even with these special servants, men did not become better. They felt their incapacity to be corrected without wondrous supernatural help.

From the ancient world the prayer of the great prophet for men rises to God: Turn them Yourself, O Lord, and they shall be turned. O God our Savior, do not forget us. Bring my soul out of prison. Grant us more quickly and rightly to confess Your Name (Ps 141:8).

In the last days of Jewish political life, God showed His highest love by sending His Only-begotten Son, whom He appointed heir of all things (Heb 1:2).

Is it necessary to explain in detail to Christians what Christ did for mankind? Who, reading the holy Gospel with reverent attention, has not prayerfully sent up thanksgiving to the Lord?

We thank Him for the pure teaching that gladdens the spirit, and for the healing of the sick, the blind, the lame, and especially the demon-possessed.

Christ appeared, and Hades groaned. Satan understood the power of the King of heaven and earth. Christ appeared, and the sweet voice spread through the universe: “Come to Me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28).

“Him who comes to Me I will not cast out” (Jn 6:37). And whom among the weak and repentant did Christ not forgive?

“I did not come,” He says, “to judge the world, but to save it” (Jn 12:47). Yes, the word of all-forgiveness and the prayer of boundless love for the enemy first filled the air of the universe and the hearing of mankind, coming forth from the mouth of Christ.

And to whom is this love directed? To those who were deaf and hard-hearted toward the long years of signs of God’s good pleasure. To those who drove away, tormented, stoned, and crucified the heralds of righteousness.

It is directed to creatures who were always disobedient and ungrateful to their Creator. It is directed to servants who despised the will of their Lord, and more than this, repaid manna with gall and water with vinegar.

O Lord Jesus Christ, great is Your mercy! You came to do the will of God the Father. Your meekness and Your obedience are a rebuke to our pride and to our stubbornness in evil.

You stretched out Your divine hands on the Cross to crush the power of sin, and to embrace the whole world from east to west and from north to south. With Your hands lifted up, You pray for the forgiveness of men wicked toward You, Your Father, and the Holy Spirit.

And Your prayer has been heard. We Christians are forgiven. God’s wrath has been changed into mercy. We have become heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.

We are earth and ashes. We, insignificant and crushed by sins, receive the right and the power to sit in the light of God’s face, in His Kingdom.

More than this, even here, with unworthy lips and an unclean heart, we have close union with Christ by partaking of His most pure Body and Blood. He gave us Himself as a pledge of salvation, for the sanctification of our soul and body.

He gave Himself for deliverance from eternal torments and Hades. And by whom do we live in this world? Is not every breath of ours and every step of ours the work of God’s providence and fatherly love?

If the Lord turns His face away from us, then everything, everything is troubled. But with the Lord and in the Lord, even if we walk amid the shadow of death, we shall fear no evil.

This remains true amid plagues, such as smallpox and other terrible diseases. For if God is for us, who is against us and who can be against us? What worthy thing have we done? By what have we deserved such love from God? By nothing.

Eph 2:4-6. God is rich in mercies. According to His great love with which He loved us, He made us, who were dead through transgressions, and fit for nothing good, alive with Christ.

He raised us up with Him and seated us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, for the sake of His merits. Verse 8. Thus we Orthodox are saved, live, and shall be saved only by grace.

What, then, is grace? By the name of God’s grace is understood the saving power of God, communicated to us for the sake of the merits of our Redeemer and accomplishing our sanctification.

On the one hand, it cleanses us from sins, renews us, and justifies us before God. On the other hand, it establishes us in virtue for eternal life.

It acts upon man through external means, such as the word of God, the preaching of the Gospel, good conversation, miracles, and the holy mysteries. Or it acts directly within man during prayer, repentance, and the most ardent love for one’s neighbor.

God’s grace is ready to enter the soul of each person. It disposes the mind to good thoughts, the heart to good feelings, and the will to virtue.

It also helps man to be virtuous, sensible, mindful, and humble. It blesses his outward life as well, with family happiness, health, and the goods of peace.

Therefore let not the strong man boast in his strength. Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the rich man in his riches. “What do you have, brother, that you did not receive?

And if you received it, why do you boast as though you had not received” all this from above, from the Lord of hosts (1 Cor 4:7)?

People of the New Covenant feel the great love of God and find rest in it, though not always to their own benefit. “God is ineffably merciful,” says the repentant soul.

In this feeling of faith it approaches the throne of His grace. It tearfully asks God for mercy. As a loving, tender daughter opens herself before her mother, so the soul pours out its sorrows and transgressions.

Only in God’s mercy is there for it a pledge of forgiveness, comfort, and rest. It believes, struggles according to faith, and is not mistaken. Its faith is not vain before the Lord.

“God is immeasurably merciful,” says the sinner who remains stubborn in his passions, calming himself. “He is longsuffering and plenteous in mercy.” The unrepentant man thinks to himself: He will wait for my conversion.

I will still have time to amend myself and repent in old age. The time has not yet passed. For now, youth is green, life is cheerful and smiling, I have means, and health has not failed me.

With these comforting dreams he plunges into the whirlpool of life, eating, drinking, and making merry. But his soul, the image of God, must take care to become like God.

Days and years pass, while the sinner still consoles himself with the careless thought that God is merciful and longsuffering. But, friend, even God’s longsuffering has a measure.

Remember the judgments upon the ancient world, which also tempted God’s longsuffering. God’s mercy gave way to justice, and the waters of heaven, earth, and the abyss covered and swallowed up the world.

That world lived merrily in eating, drinking, and lawlessness. Therefore, Christian, do not abuse God’s goodness.

Fear God and keep His commandments. Do not delay turning to the Lord, and do not put off your conversion from day to day. God’s wrath will come suddenly, and in the time of vengeance you will perish (Sir 5:8-9).

“God is merciful” is often heard from the mouths of people who take risks, act with foolish enterprise, or are careless about preserving health during epidemic diseases.

By such frivolous faith they insult the majesty of the all-wise God. They cover their indifference to life, their foolish undertakings, and perhaps their excessive greed with God’s immeasurable mercy.

The Lord is the God of minds. He does not bless folly, and He condemns frivolous reliance on chance.

“God is merciful,” proclaims the holy Church as well, comforting those who suffer from injustice, those who are ill, those who grieve over the loss of loved ones, and orphaned children.

He Himself becomes their Father. He does not abandon them and arranges everything in their life for their good. God is the Defender of widows, orphans, and those persecuted for righteousness.

As the sun illumines with its rays the tops of mountains, narrow valleys, clean places, and foul places, so God’s grace does not turn away from the orphan and the poor. It embraces both the rich and the beggar.

“In God we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

But some will say: if God’s grace saves man, and if it inspires and accomplishes every good thing in us, then man has in himself no ground or boldness to think of any reward for his labors and sufferings in this life.

Is this so? Is man, in himself, unworthy of any just approval from God? Let not your heart be troubled. The Lord could create us without us, but He cannot save us without us.

No one will be brought into Paradise by force. This would be unworthy of both God and man. Therefore, with the powerful influence of God’s grace upon our soul, participation is also required from us.

Our will, our obedience, and our readiness to walk the path of God are required. Or else there is our disobedience and resistance to grace. Here lies the whole task of this present life, and the condition of our lot beyond the grave.

For this reason Christ appeals to the good will of men. “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross” (Mt 16:24).

“Son, give, give Me your heart,” the Lord exhorts. It depends on men whether they go to Him or do not go. Otherwise all men in general would be saved.

Otherwise pious people would not need to struggle against injustice. They would not need to accept shame, slander, persecutions, bonds, prison, and even death for their holy convictions.

Then people would say that it is all the same, for the merciful God will have mercy and save. No, Christians. The Lord says: I called you, and you did not listen to Me. I exhorted you, and you did not heed.

I was hungry and thirsty, and you did not feed Me or give Me drink. I was sick, and you did not visit Me. Therefore depart from Me, you cursed, into the eternal fire (Mt 25:42-43, 41).

So what is required of man in order to be saved by God’s grace? Faith is needed, manifested in truly good works.

How did He make them alive together? “And you, being dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all trespasses” (Col 2:13). This is how He made us alive: by forgiving all trespasses, that is, through the remission of sins.

Sin killed the soul. Jesus Christ destroyed sin, and therefore we were made alive. “For if by the trespass of the one death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ” (Rom 5:17).

He did not say simply, “He made alive,” but “He made alive together.” He shows that when Christ rose from the dead and lived, then we, having received the complete remission of our transgressions, were made alive with the risen Christ.

For this reason he also said, “He raised us together with Him,” to confirm that after Jesus Christ rose from the dead, we also rose with Him. He rose from the tomb, and we from the depth of sin. He received life, and we salvation.

Not only did He make us alive together and raise us together, but He also “seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” What is the meaning of these words? The whole human nature is contained both in the first Adam, who is of the earth, earthy, and in the second Lord, who is from heaven.

Since “as is the earthy, so also are those who are earthy; and as is the heavenly, so also are those who are heavenly” (1 Cor 15:48), and the heavenly One “sat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens” (Heb 8:1), it is clear from this that we too, considered in Christ, have sat together in the heavenly places, having become heirs of His Kingdom.

This, then, is the proof of God’s great love for us: He forgave our transgressions, made us alive together, raised us together, and seated us together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Notice how, by the words “by grace you have been saved,” the divine Apostle taught that we received both salvation and heavenly glory not by our works, but freely. He wrote this same thing to Titus: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us” (Tit 3:5).

The meaning of the present apostolic words will be clearer if expressed in this way: although because of our transgressions we were dead in our spiritual powers, God, having immeasurable mercy, made us alive with Jesus Christ according to His great love for us. By the grace of God, that is, by His mercy and love for mankind, you have been saved, O Ephesians. He also raised us together and seated us together in the heavenly places in Him, in Jesus Christ.

Why is the devil called the prince of the power of the air, or the ruling prince of the air (Eph 2:2)? Certainly not because the air is his native element. Popular imagination assigns the watery realm to some spirits, forests to others, and so forth. But the spiritual nature of devils, as such, has no commonality or essential bond with anything material.

The Holy Apostle takes the air, which surrounds and penetrates the earth inhabited by the human race, only as a vivid image. It shows the breadth and diffusion of the devil’s power. As there is no place on earth’s surface where air does not penetrate, so there is no place on earth where one can hide from diabolical influence. There is no place to which the devil’s power does not extend.

Thus the Apostle calls the devil’s realm “of the air” in the same sense, evidently, in which he later calls the devils themselves “the spirits of wickedness under heaven.” That is, they are scattered everywhere beneath heaven (Eph 6:12). Chrysostom says: “According to the prince of the power of the air: the Apostle says this to show that the devil dwells beneath heaven.”

In this brief but powerful depiction of the spiritual and moral transformation accomplished in Christians by Jesus Christ, the commentators especially note divine goodness. Thus St. John of Damascus writes: “You Gentiles, says the Apostle, were held in death because of sin, in which you lived under the evil devil, who ruled over you by evil thoughts. God deemed you worthy of mercy and grace, and changed your deadness in sin into life through communion with Christ.”

“What a dark end belongs to the condition of sin! The sinner is spiritually dead, under the tyranny of the devil, possessed by the spirit of the world, and dragged without restraint by the movements of the flesh. He is enslaved to passions of soul and tossed by sinful thoughts. For all this he is a son of sin and therefore liable to eternal punishment.

How can those delivered from such misery fail to glorify the sovereign might of the Deliverer? By His grace He raises the sinner from the death of sin and leads him into the bright life of pleasing God and holiness” (Bishop Theophan).

“All our deeds were worthy not of love, but of wrath and severe punishment. Therefore, if God loved us, it was solely according to His great mercy. Do you see the exceeding greatness of His power in us who believe? Do you see the hope of the calling: He raised us together with Him and seated us together? Do you see the glory of His inheritance?

Yes, you will say, it is clear that He raised us together. But by what does the Apostle prove that He seated us together in the heavens in Christ Jesus? By the same thing by which he proves that He raised us together. No one would ever have risen unless the Head had risen. And when our Head rose, we too were raised.

In exactly the same way He seated us together. When the Head sits, the body sits with Him. “If we endure with Him, we shall also reign with Him” (2 Tim 2:12). If we have died with Him for sin, we shall also live with Him. Truly, the gift of the Spirit and of revelation is needed to understand the depth of these mysteries.

“If we also wish to know how He seated us together, listen to what Christ Himself says to the disciples: ‘You shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel’ (Mt 19:28). To sit at the right hand is an honor higher than every honor, after which there is no further dignity.

To sit with Christ is truly ineffable wealth. It is truly the exceeding greatness of His glory. Consider with whom you will sit. But who are you? Dead, a child of wrath by nature. What right thing have you done? Nothing. Now it is truly fitting to cry out: ‘O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!’ (Rom 11:33)” (Chrysostom).

"But God, being rich in mercy." Such as we were, slaves of the world, of the devil, and of our own lustfulness, dead to God and under His wrath, what could we expect except chastisement, punishment, and execution? Yet what happened was not this. Not only were we not punished as we deserved, but, on the contrary, we were enriched with such graces as even the most self-loving good wish could not imagine for itself: He made us alive together, raised us together, and seated us together.

Whence came such generosity? From God's boundless tender compassion, and not only from this, but especially from the fact that God loves us men exceedingly.

Just as a merciful man helps everyone in need, but helps more gladly and generously the one whom he loves, so God would have spared us because He is rich in mercy, as merciful. Yet His love for us increased this generosity to overflowing.

Saint Chrysostom writes: "He does not simply say, 'being merciful,' but 'being rich in mercy.' In like manner it is said elsewhere: 'According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, look upon me' (Ps 68:17), and again: 'Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your great mercy' (Ps 50:3). Here the Apostle points to the source of God's love for us. All our deeds were worthy not of love, but of wrath and the severest punishment. Therefore, if He loved us, it was solely according to His great mercy."

"Because of the great love with which He loved us." God loves all His creatures, but He shows a special love for man. In creation He honored man with His own divine image and set him as lord over all creatures. When man fell, He did not abandon him, but moved everything, heaven and earth, in order to raise him up. He did raise him by the wondrous ordering of salvation, according to which man becomes greater than he was in creation.

Truly all this is the great love with which God loved us. He loved us from eternity. When, speaking in human terms, the plan of the universe was still being established, God then loved man especially. For man was placed there as the center in which God was pleased to concentrate all things, so that through him He might afterward act beneficently upon everything else.

From this come the unceasing and inexhaustible benefits and gifts of God toward man. Ambrosiaster writes: "God's love for us consists in this, that since He created us, He does not wish us to perish. For He loves the work of His hands. He created in order to love what He created."

One would expect the Apostle to mention here the greatness of God's power, since this is the subject of the whole section. Yet he points to mercy. But the course of the discourse already made it understood that great divine power was manifested in our restoration. In these words the Apostle goes further and points to the path by which this great power reached us, when our guilt was blocking its access to us.