Ephesians



1:1 Simply put, "saints" are those who are faithful in Christ.


1:4 [paraphrase] God chose mankind , before creating us, to be innocent, which we were, until Adam and Eve disobeyed.


1:5 [paraphrase] Out of love, he planned for us to be adopted through Christ.


1:4-5 Verses 4 and 5, taken together, show the chronological plan of God, how he created us perfect, but we disobeyed. He then provided a second way throgh Christ. The use of the word blameless in verse4 is significant, for before manking gained knowledge of good and evil, we were not accountable, but blameless and innocent. Verse 13 would contradict 4 and 5 if it meant that we were handpicked, because that verse puts the burden on belief.

1:13, 14 At rebirth, the Holy Spirit becomes a seal upon our soul. As long as we do not quench or blaspheme the Spirit, He remains our guarantee of salvation. The Greek word used here is that which refers to a wax seal. It takes little imagination to invent a way to tear off a bit of wax. As such, this word can hardly mean that the Holy Spirit, our seal, protects against forfeiting one's salvation. Rather, a wax seal is an indicator that the package is unopened and uncompromised. A seal allows us to know that we're saved, but it certainly does not keep us that way.

2:3 The term "sinful nature" is also rendered simply as "our flesh" indicating that in some translations, the words sin and flesh/carnality are used interchangably, though this is somewhar inaccurate.

2:8 It is by grace that we are saved, but grace comes by faith, and as Galatians 3:2, 5, and 6 show, it is not a work as some theologies suggest.

3:3 Again, Paul speaks of a personal revelation.

3:7 The grace that Paul speaks of is the revelation he recieved.