Ephesians 2:6Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Or, if one considers it from another side, He raised us through the laver of Baptism. How, then, did He afterward seat us? “If we endure,” says the Apostle, “we shall also reign with Him” (2 Tim 2:12). If we died together, we shall also live together. Truly, the gift of the Spirit and of revelation is needed to understand the depth of these mysteries.

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.

Another interpreter, understanding the resurrection and Kingdom of Christ in a spiritual sense, will not hesitate to affirm that the saints already sit in heaven and reign with Christ. For a saint is not in the flesh, although he lives in the flesh, but abides in the heavenly world.

Although he walks on earth, he ceases to be flesh and is wholly turned into spirit. So he also sits in heaven with Christ, because “the Kingdom of God is within us” (Lk 17:21).

How great the benefit is, and how manifold the grace by which the Lord granted us to sit and reign with Christ after being freed from the turmoil of this world, is especially shown by this: in the ages to come He will reveal His glory not to one, but to all rational creatures.

Perhaps, however, the diligent reader will examine this question and say: What then? Is man higher than the angels and all powers in heaven? Since it is dangerous to answer this affirmatively, let him refer “principalities and authorities and powers and dominions, and every name named under heaven, not only in this age but also in that which is to come” (Eph 1:21), especially because all things will be subjected under Christ’s feet, not to the good side but to the hostile one.

Let him say, namely, that these powers are apostate angels. In the end, the saints will sit above them with Christ. But another applies the Apostle’s words to this: we are saved not by our own merit, but by His grace. The proof of His great goodness is that He died more for sinners than for the righteous.

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).

"Since He rose, we too have risen in hope. Since He sits together with the Father, we too share in this honor. Our Head sits together with Him; our Firstfruits reigns together with Him. He clothed Himself in our nature" (Theodoret).

Earlier the Apostle showed that God manifested the greatness of His power by raising Christ and seating Him at His right hand (Eph 1:20). Now he intensifies this manifestation of God's power. He shows that in Christ Jesus all of us also have been raised together and seated together in the heavenly places.

If someone lifted a heavy piece of magnet, he would show his strength. But if he also lifted all the pieces of iron clinging to it, he would show still greater strength. So it is here. Great power was manifested in the Resurrection of Christ the Lord and His being seated at the right hand. But still greater power was manifested in this, that together with Christ, and in Christ, all who have cleaved and will cleave to Christ by faith have been raised together and seated together in the heavenly places.

He raised us together and made us sit together. These words show both the closest union of believers with Christ, as members with the Head, and especially the destiny of humanity glorified in Christ. Everything that took place in Him took place not for His sake, but for the human race.

Therefore, when He rose for man's sake, one may say that in Him our race rose. When He sat at the right hand of the Father, one may say that in Him our race was seated in the heavenly places.

Christ is the possibility, the source, and the power. What happens with believers is the realization of this possibility, the drinking from this source, and the fullness of this power. Saved humanity, the Church, is the development or unfolding of Christ, His fullness.

The Apostle does not say that God will raise us together through Christ and seat us together in the heavenly places. He says that He has already raised us and seated us. Everything that will happen in its own time to the redeemed human race the Apostle beholds as already accomplished once for all in Christ.

Christ, as the progenitor of redeemed humanity, is the archetype fulfilled in the life of the saints and destined to be fulfilled until the end of the world. The grace-filled life of the saved is the many-sided application of all that is in Christ Jesus, as the fullness of all things.

What was accomplished in Him was accomplished for all. It is realized in deed in all who follow Him by faith. In the first Adam we all sinned and died. The sin and death of Adam only unfolded in time and found application through the sins and deaths of his descendants.

In the same way, in the second Adam we have been raised and seated in heaven. In believers, what is contained in Christ later finds its application. His Resurrection and Ascension as Head reveal their action in us, His members.

This begins spiritually even here, in regeneration or Christ's vivification. It will be completed at the end of the ages by the universal Resurrection and glorification, after judgment, of all who will prove worthy of it.

What the Christian will receive in power and perfection at the restoration of all things, he already possesses now, though in firstfruits, as in seed or in foundations. By virtue of communion with the risen and glorified Lord, he lives His life even on earth.

Though he is under the cross, even here he fore-tastes the blessedness of future glorification. Already from here he is a citizen of the heavenly kingdom. There he is enrolled.

Faith gives him a firm foundation of hope when it teaches him: Christ, my Head, has risen; I too, His member, shall rise. Christ, my Head, has ascended into the heavens and sits at the right hand of the Father in glory. I too shall ascend there, partake of the glory of my Head, and rest with Him and in Him. His word is not false: "Where I am, there shall My servant be also" (Jn 12:26).

Saint Chrysostom says in conclusion: "Do you see the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe? He made alive those who were dead, who were by nature children of wrath. Do you see the hope of the calling? God raised us with Him and seated us with Him. Do you see the glory of His inheritance?

"Yes, you will say, that He raised us together is clear. But how does the Apostle prove that He seated us in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus? By the same thing by which he proves that He raised us together.

"No one would ever have risen if the Head had not risen. But when our Head rose, we too were raised. In precisely the same way He also seated us together. When the Head sits, the body sits with Him. For this reason the Apostle added: in Christ Jesus.

"How, then, did He seat us together? 'If we suffer with Him,' says the Apostle, 'we shall also reign with Him' (2 Tim 2:12). If we died together, we shall also live together. Truly, the gift of the Spirit and of revelation is needed to understand the depth of these mysteries."