Jesus was the agent of resurrection

JESUS WAS THE AGENT OF RESURRECTION
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
Ephesians 2:4-5 4But because of his great love for us,
God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alivewith Christ
even when we were dead in transgressions-itis by
grace you have been saved.
Resurrection With Christ By Spurgeon
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because ofHis greatlove with which He
loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together
with Christ, (by Grace you are saved).”
Ephesians 2:4, 5
THERE have been conferencesoflate of all sorts of people upon all kinds of
subjects, but what a remarkable thing a conference wouldbe if it were
possible for persons who have been raised from the dead! If you could
somehow or other gettogetherthe daughter of the Shunammite, the daughter
of Jairus, the son of the widow at the gates ofNain, Lazarus, and Eutychus,
what strange communing they might have one with another! What singular
enquiries they might make, and what remarkable disclosures might they
present to us! The thing is not possible, and yet a better and more remarkable
assemblymay be readily gatheredon the same conditions, and more
important information may be obtained from the confessions ofits members.
This morning we have a conference of that very charactergatheredin this
house, for many of us were dead in trespasses andsins, even as others–but we
hope that through Divine energy we have been quickenedfrom that spiritual
death, and are now living to praise God! It will be wellfor us to talk together,
to review the past, to rejoice in the present, to look forward to the future.
“You has He quickened who were dead in trespassesand sins.” And as you sit
together, an assemblyof men and women possessedof resurrectionlife, you

are a more notable conclave than if merely your bodies and not your spirits
had been quickened!
The first part of this morning’s discourse will be occupiedwith a solemnity in
which we shall take you into the morgue. Secondly, we shall spend awhile in
reviewing a miracle, and we shall observe dead men living. We shall then turn
aside to observe a sympathy indicated in the text, and we shall close with a
song, for the text reads somewhatlike music–it is full of thankfulness, and
thankfulness is the essenceoftrue song. It is full of holy and adoring wonder!
It is evermore true poetry even though expressedin prose.
1. Celebrate, first, a greatSOLEMNITYand descendinto the morgue of
our poor humanity. According to the teaching of sacredScripture, men
are dead, spiritually dead. Certain vain men would make it out that men
are only a little disordered and bruised by the Fall–woundedin a few
delicate members but not mortally injured. However, the Word of God
is very explicit upon the matter and declares our race to be not
wounded, not merely hurt, but slain outright and left as dead in
trespassesandsin.
There are those who fancy that fallen human nature is only in a sort of swoon
or fainting fit–and only needs a process ofreviving to set it right. You have
only, by educationand by other manipulations, to setits life-floods in motion
and to excite within it some degree of action–andthen life will speedily be
developed. There is much goodin every man, they say, and you have only to
bring it out by training and example. This fiction is exactly opposite to the
teaching of sacredScripture! Within these truthful pages we read of no
fainting fit, no temporary paralysis–DEATHis the name for nature’s
condition–and quickening is its greatnecessity.
Man is not partly dead, like the half-drowned mariner in whom some spark of
life may yet remain if it be but fondly tendered, and wiselynurtured. There is
not a spark of spiritual life left in man–manhood is to all spiritual things an
absolute corpse. “In the day you eatthereof you shall surely die,” said God to
our first parents, and die they did–a spiritual death–andall their children
alike by nature lie in this spiritual death. It is not a sham death, or a
metaphoricalone, but a real, absolute, spiritual death. Yet it will be said, “Are
they not alive?” Truly so, but not spiritually. There are grades of life. You
come first upon the vegetable life–but the vegetable is a dead thing as to the
vitality of the animal. Above the animal life rises the mental life, a vastly
superior life. The creature, which is only an animal, is dead to either

Then, high above the mental, as much as the mental is above the animal, rises
what Scripture calls the spiritual life–the life in Christ Jesus. All men have
more or less of the mental life, and it is well that they should cultivate it–getas
much as they can of it. It is well that they should put it to the best uses, and
make it subserve the highest ends. Man, even lookedupon as merely living
mentally, is not to be despisedor trifled with. But still, the mental life cannot
of itself rise to the spiritual life–it cannot penetrate beyond that mystical wall
which separates foreverthe mere life of mind from the life of that new
principle, the Spirit, which is the offspring of God and is the living and
incorruptible seedwhich He casts into the soul.
If you could conceive a man in all respects like yourselves with this one
difference–thathis soulhad died out of him–that he only possessedhis animal
faculties and had no intellectual faculties, so that he could breathe and walk,
sleepand eat, and drink, and make a noise, but all mental power was gone–
you would then speak of him as being entirely dead to mental pursuits. He
might be a most vigorous and well-developedanimal, but his manhood would
be dead. It would be of no use explaining a proposition to him, or working out
a problem on the black board for his instruction, or offering him even the
simplest schoolbook–forif he had no mind to receive, how could you impart?
Now, spiritually, this is the condition of every unregenerate man. It is of no
use whatever, apart from the Spirit of God, to hope to make the man
understand spiritual things for they are spiritually discerned, says the
Apostle.
The carnalmind cannot understand the things which are of God–whenbest
trained it has no glimmering of the inward sense of spiritual things. It
stumbles over the letter and loses the real meaning, not from lack of mental
capacity, but from the absence ofspiritual life. O sons of men, if you would
know God, “You must be born again.” “Excepta man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God.” He cannotunderstand it, he cannot know it.
The carnalman cannot understand the things which are of God, which are
eternal and invisible, any more than an ox can understand astronomy, or a
fish canadmire the classics.Notin a moral sense, nor a mental sense, but in a
spiritual sense, poorhumanity is dead, and so the Word of Godagain and
againmost positively describes it.
Step with me, then, into the sepulcher, and what do you observe of yonder
bodies which are slumbering there? They are quite unconscious. Whatever
goes onaround them, neither occasionsthem joy nor causes them grief. The
dead in their graves may be marched over by triumphant armies, but they
shout not with them that triumph. Or, friends they have left behind may sit

there and waterthe grass upon the greenmound with their tears, but no
responsive sigh comes from the gloomycavern of the tomb.
It is thus with men spiritually dead–theyare unaffected by spiritual things. A
dying Savior, whose groans might move the very stones and make the rocks
dissolve–the spiritually dead can hear all–andbe unmoved. Even the
allpresent Spirit is undiscerned by them, and His powerunrecognized. Angels,
holy men, godly exercises, devoutaspirations–allthese are beyond and above
their world. The pangs of Hell do not alarm them and the joys of Heaven do
not entice them. They hear, after a sort, mentally, but the spirit-ear is fast
shut up and they do not hear. They are unconscious of all things which are of
a spiritual character– they have eyes but they see not, and ears, but they hear
not.
You can interestthem in the facts of geology, orthe discoveries ofart, but you
cannot win their hearts to spiritual emotions and pursuits because they are as
unaware of their meaning as an oyster or snail is unacquainted with the
disestablishmentof the Irish Church. Carnal men blunder over the first
words of spiritual knowledge as Nicodemus did who, when he was told that he
must be born again, beganto enquire, “How can a man be born againwhen
he is old?” or, like the woman of Samaria, who, when she was told of living
water, could not understand the spiritual Truth, and exclaimed in wonder,
“You have nothing to draw with, and the wellis deep–from where, then, have
You that living water?” Menare spiritually unconscious of spiritual Truth,
and so far dead to it.
Observe that corpse–youmay strike it, you may bruise it, but it will not cry
out. You may pile burdens upon it, but it is not weary. You may shut it up in
darkness, but it feels not the gloom. So the unconverted man is laden with the
load of his sin but he is not wearyof it. He is shut up in the prison of God’s
justice, but he pants not for liberty. He is under the curse of God, as it is
written, “Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things which are written
in the Book ofthe Law to do them,” but that curse causes no commotion in his
spirit because he is dead! Well may some of you be peaceful, because you are
not aware ofthe terrors which surround you.
A man totally deaf is not startled by thunder! If totally blind, he is not
alarmed by the flashes of lightning! He fears not the tempest which he does
not discern! Even thus is it with you who are at ease in your sins–you cannot
discern the danger of your sin, you do not perceive the terror that rises out of
it–else let me tell you there would be no sleepto those wanton eyes, no rest to
those giddy spirits! You would cry out in grief the very moment you received
life, nor would you rest till delivered from those evils which NOW ensure for

you a sure damnation. Oh, were you but alive, you would never be quiet till
you were savedfrom the wrath to come! Man remains unconscious of
spiritual things and unmoved by them because, in a spiritual sense, he is dead.
Invite yonder corpse to assistyou in the most necessaryworks of
philanthropy. The pestilence is abroad–askthe buried one to kneelwith you
and invoke the powerof Heavento recallthe direful messenger. Or, if he
prefers it, ask him to assistyou in purifying the air and attending to sanitary
arrangements. You ask in vain, howevernecessaryor simple the act, he
cannot help you in it. And in spiritual things, it is even so with the graceless.
The carnalman can put himself into the posture of prayer, but he cannot
pray. He can open his mouth and make sweetsounds in earth-born music, but
to true praise he is an utter stranger. Even repentance, that softand gentle
Grace which ought to be natural to the sinful is quite beyond his reach. How
shall he repent of a sin, the weightof which he cannot feel? How shall he pray
for a blessing, the value of which he has no powerto perceive? How shall he
praise a God in whom he feels no interest, and in whose existence he takes no
delight?
I say that to all spiritual things the man is quite as unable as the dead are
unable to the natural works and services of daily life. “And yet,” says one, “we
heard you last Lord’s Day tell these dead people to repent and be converted.”
I know you did and you shall hear me yet again do the like. But why do I
speak to the dead thus, and tell them to perform actions which they cannot
do? Becausemy Masterbids me, and as I obey my Master’s errand, a power
goes forth with the Word spokenand the dead awake in their sleep!They
wake through the quickening powerof the Holy Spirit–and they who
naturally cannot repent and believe–do repent and believe in Jesus and escape
from their former sins and live!
But, believe me, it is no powerof theirs which makes them thus awake from
their death-sleep, and no powerof mine which arrests the guilty, slumbering
conscience–itis a Divine power which God has yokedwith the Word which He
has given forth when it is fully and faithfully preached. Therefore have we
exercisedourselves in our daily calling of bidding dead men live–because life
comes at the Divine bidding. But dead they are, most thoroughly so, and the
longerwe live the more we feelit to be so! And the more closelywe review our
own condition before conversion, and the more studiously we look into our
own condition even now, the more fully do we know that man is dead in sin,
and life is a gift, a gift from Heaven–a gift of undeserved love and Sovereign
Grace–so thatthe living must every one of them praise God and not
themselves.

One of the saddestreflections aboutpoor dead human nature is what it will
be. Deathin itself, though a solemn matter, is not so dreadful as that which
comes of it. Many a time when that dear corpse has first been forsakenofthe
soul, those who have losta dear one have been glad to imprint that cold brow
with kisses.The countenance has lookedevenmore lovely than in life! And
when friends have takenthe lastglimpse, there has been nothing revolting,
but much that was attractive. Our dead ones have smiled like sleeping angels,
even when we were about to commit them to the grave. Ah, but we cannot
shake from us a wretchedsense ofwhat is sure to be revealedbefore long.
It is only a matter of time before corruption must set in, and it must bring
with it its daughter putridity, and by-andby, the whole must be so noxious
that if you had kept it above ground so long, you would vehemently cry with
Abraham, “Bury my dead out of my sight!” for the natural and inevitable
result of death is corruption. So it is with us all. Some are manifestly corrupt–
ah, how soon!While yet they are youths we see them plunging into infamous
vice. They are corrupt in the tongue with lying words and lascivious speaking.
They are corrupt in the eyes with wanton glances–corrupt, certainly at heart,
and then corrupt thoroughly in life.
There are many about us in the streets everyday, the stink of whose
corruption compels us to put them out of society, for we are very decent. Even
those who are dead, themselves, are very scrupulous not to associate with
those who are too far gone in corruption. The dead bury their dead and roll
the stone and put awaythe debauched and dissolute. We do not ask the rotten
sinners into our households because they might corrupt us too fast. And we
flatter ourselves that we are so much superior, whereas they are only a stage
or two aheadin a race which all unregenerate men are running.
This corruption, though not developedin all to the same extent visibly, will be
plain enough at the lastin another world. When God finds us dead, He will
castus out where the worm dies not, and the fire is not quenched. What will
be the development of an unregenerate characterin Hell, I cannot tell, but I
am certainit will be something which my imagination dares not now attempt
to depict, for all the restraints of this life which have kept men decent and
moral will be gone when they come into the next world of sin!
And as Heaven is to be the perfection of the saint’s holiness, so Hell will be the
perfection of the sinner’s loathsomeness–andthere will he discover, and
others will discover–whatsin is when it comes to its worst. “When lust has
conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.”
And this, dear Hearer, do we solemnly remind you will be your portion
forever and ever, unless God is pleasedto quicken you. Unless you are made

to live togetherwith Christ, you will be in this world dead, perhaps in this
world corrupt, but certainly so in the next world where all the dreadful
influences of sin will be developed and discoveredto the very fullest–and you
shall be castawayfrom the PresenceofGod and the glory of His power.
There can be no death in Heaven, neither cancorruption inherit incorruption.
And if you have not been renewedin the spirit of your mind–within those
pearly gates you can never have your portion. And where the light of Heaven
shines in perpetual noonday your lot cannever be cast. Weighthese thoughts,
I pray you. If they are not according to this Book, rejectthem! But as they
most certainly are, refuse them at your own peril. But rather, let them take
possessionofyour careful spirit and leadyou to seek and find eternal life in
Christ Jesus the Lord.
II. We now change the subjectfor something more pleasant, and observe A
MIRACLE, or dead men made alive! The greatobject of the Gospelof Christ
is to create men anew in Christ Jesus. It aims at resurrectionand
accomplishes it. The Gospeldid not come into this world merely to restrain
the passions oreducate the principles of men, but to infuse into them a new
life which, as fallen men, they did not possess. Isaw yesterdaywhat seemedto
me a picture of those preachers whose sole endand aim is the moralizing of
their hearers, but who have not learned the need of supernatural life.
Not very far from the shore were a dozen or more boats at sea dragging for
two dead bodies. They were using their lines and grappling irons, and what
with hard rowing and industrious sailing, were doing their best most
commendably to fish up the lostones from the pitiless sea. I do not know if
they were successful, but if so, what further could they do with them but
decently to commit them to their mother earth? The process ofeducationand
everything else, apartfrom the Holy Spirit, is a dragging for dead men–to lay
them out decently, side by side, in the order and decencyof death–but nothing
more can man do for man.
The Gospelof Jesus Christhas a far other and higher task. It does not deny
the value of the moralist’s efforts, or decry the results of education, but it asks
what more can you do–andthe response is, “Nothing.” There it bids the
bearers of the bier stand awayand make room for Jesus, atwhose voice the
dead arise. The preacherof the Gospelcannotbe satisfiedwith what is done in
drawing men out of the sea of outward sin–he longs to see the lost life
restored–he desires to have breathed into them a new and superior life to
what they have possessedbefore. Go your way, Education, do your best, you
are useful in your sphere! Go your way, teacherof morality, do your best,
you, too, are useful in your own manner. But if it comes to what man really

needs for eternity, you, all put together, are of little worth–the Gospel, and the
Gospelalone, answers men’s requirements–man must be regenerated,
quickened, made anew–have freshbreath from Heaven breathed into him or
the work of saving him is not begun.
The text tells us that Godhas done this for His people, for those who trust in
Him. Let us observe the dry bones as they stir and stand before the Lord. And
observing, let us praise the Lord that according to His greatlove with which
He loved us, He has quickenedus togetherwith Christ. In this idea of
quickening, there is a mystery. What is that invisible something which
quickens a man? Who canunveil the secret? Who can track life to its hidden
fountain? Brother, you are a living child of God–whatmade you live? You
know that it was by the powerof the Holy Spirit.
In the language ofthe text, you trace it to God. You believe your new life to be
of Divine implantation. You are a believer in the supernatural. You believe
that God has visited you as He has not visited other men, and has breathed
into you life. You believe rightly, but you cannot explain it. We know not of
the wind, from where it comes or where it goes. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit. He that should sit down deliberately and attempt to explain
regeneration, and the source of it, might sit there till he grew into a marble
statue before he would accomplishthe task. The Holy Spirit enters into us,
and we who were dead before to spiritual things, begin to live by His power
and indwelling.
He is the greatWorker, but how the Holy Spirit works is a secretthat must be
reservedfor God Himself. We need not wish to understand the mode–it is
enough for us if we partake of the result. It is a greatmystery, then, but while
it is a mystery it is a great reality. We know and do testify, and we have a
right to be believed, for we trust we have not forfeited our characters. We
know and testify that we are now possessorsofa life which we knew nothing
of some years ago–thatwe have come to exist in a new world–andthat the
appearance ofall things outside of us is totally changedfrom what it used to
be. “Old things have passedaway, behold all things are become new.”
I bear witness that I am this day the subject of sorrows whichwere no sorrows
to me before I knew the Lord, and that I am uplifted with joys which I should
have laughed at the very thought of if anyone had whispered the name of
them in my ears before the Divine life had quickenedme. This is the witness of
hundreds of us, and although others disbelieve us, they have no right to deny
our consciousness because theyhave not partakenof the same. If they have
never tried it, what should they know about it? If there should be an assembly
of blind men, and one of them should have his eyes opened and begin to talk of

what he saw, I canimagine the blind ones all saying, “Whata fool that man is!
There are no such things.”
“Here I have lived in this world 70 years,” says one, “and I never saw that
thing which he calls a color, and I do not believe in his absurd nonsense about
scarletand violet, and black and white! It is all foolery.” Another wiseacre
declares, “Ihave been up and down the world, and all over it for 40 years, and
I declare I never had the remotestconceptionof blue or green, nor had my
father before me. He was a right goodsoul and always stoodup for the grand
old darkness. Give me,” says he, “a goodstick and a sensible dog, and all your
nonsensicalnotions about stars, and suns, and moons, I leave to fools who like
them.” The blind man has not come into the world of light and color, and the
unregenerate man has not come into that world of spirit, and hence neither of
them is capable of judging correctly.
I satone day, at a public dinner, opposite a gentlemanof the gourmand
species who seemeda man of vast erudition as to wines, spirits and all the
viands of the table. He judged and criticized at such a rate that I thought he
ought to have been employed by our provision merchants as Tasterin
General!He had finely developedlips and he smackedthem frequently. His
palate was in a flue-critical condition. He was also as proficient in the quantity
as in the quality, and disposedof meats and drinks in a most wholesale
manner. His retreating forehead, empurpled nose and protruding lips made
him, while eating at least, more like an animal than a man.
At last, hearing a little conversationaround him upon religious matters, he
opened his small eyes and his greatmouth, and delivered himself of this sage
utterance, “I have lived 60 years in this world and I never felt or believed in
anything spiritual in all my life.” The speechwas a needless diversion of his
energies from the roastduck. We did not want him to tell us that. I, for one,
was quite clearabout it before he spoke. If the catunder the table had
suddenly jumped on a chair and saidthe same thing, I should have attached
as much importance to the utterance of the one as to the declarationof the
other. And so, by one sin in one man and another in another man, they betray
their spiritual death.
Until a man has receivedthe Divine life, his remarks thereon, even if he is an
archbishop, go for nothing. He knows nothing about it according to his own
testimony–then why should he go on to try to beat down with sneers and
sarcasms those who solemnly avow that they have such a life, and that this life
has become realto them–so realthat the mental life is made to sink into a
subordinate condition comparedwith the spiritual life which reigns within the
soul? This life brings with it the exercise ofrenewedfaculties. The man who

begins to live unto God has powers now which he never had before–the power
to really pray, the powerto heartily praise, the powerto actually commune
with God, the power to see God, to talk with God–the powerto receive tidings
from the invisible world and the power to send messages up through the veil
which hides the unseen up to the very Throne of God!
Now the man, instead of asking, “Is there a God?” feels that there is not a
place where Godis not! He sees Godin everything! He hears Him in the wind,
discerns Him in every creature that surrounds him. Now the man, insteadof
dreading God and betaking himself to some outward form, ceremony, or
other outward way of pushing God further off, puts awayhis ceremonies,
casts awaythe beggarlyelements which once might have pleasedhim and
draws near to his God in spirit, and speaks with him. “Father,” he says, and
God owns the kindred. I wish we all possessedthis life, and I pray if we have it
not that God may send it to us. If we have it not, the testimony of the Word of
God is that we are dead when most we seemto be alive.
I shall not, however, keepyou longerupon this quickening except to saythat
you may easilyimage to yourself the inward experience of a man who receives
new life from the dead. You may conceive it by the following picture. Suppose
a man to have been dead and to have been buried like others in some great
necropolis, some city of the dead, in the catacombs. An angel visits him and by
mercy’s touch he lives! Now, canyou conceive that man’s first emotion when
he begins to breathe? There he is in the coffin–he feels stifled, pent up. He had
been there 20 years, but he never felt inconvenienceduntil now. He was easy
enough, in his narrow cell, if ease canbe where life is not. The moment he
lives he feels a horrible sense of suffocation–life willnot endure to be so
hideously compressed–andhe begins to struggle for release.
He lifts with all his might that dreadful coffin lid! What a relief when the
decaying plank yields to his pressure!So the ungodly man is content enough
in his sin–his Sabbath-breaking, his covetousness, his worldliness–butthe
moment God quickens him his sin is as a sepulcher to the living! He feels
unutterably wretched. He is not in a congenialpositionand he struggles to
escape. Oftenat the first effort the greatblack lid of blasphemy flies off, never
to be replaced. Satanthought it was screweddown fastenough, and so it was
for a dead man, but life makes short work of it and many other iniquities
follow.
But to return to our resurrection in the vault–the man gasps a minute and
feels refreshedwith such air as the catacombaffords him. But soonhe has a
sense ofclammy damp about him and feels faint and ready to expire. So the
renewedman at first feels little but his inability and groans after power. He

cries, “I want to repent. I want to believe in Jesus. Iwant to be saved.” Poor
wretch! He never felt that before–ofcourse he did not–he was dead! Now he is
alive and therefore he longs for the tokens, signs, fruits, and refreshments of
life. Do you not see our poor friend who has newly risen? He has slipped down
from that niche in the wall where they laid him, and finding himself in a dark
vault, he rubs his eyes to know whether he really is alive, or whether it is all a
dream!
It is such a new thing, and as by the little glimmering of light that comes in he
detects hundreds of others lying in the lastsleep, and he says to himself,
“GreatGod! What a horrible place for a living man to be in! Can I be alive?”
He begins to wander about, searching for a door by which he may escape. He
loathes those winding-sheets in which they wrapped him. He begins stripping
them off. They are damp and mildewed–they do not suit a living man. Soonhe
cries out for help–perhaps there is some passerbywho may hear him and he
may be delivered from his confinement. So a man, who has been renewedby
Divine Grace, whenhe partly discovers where he is, cries out, “This is no
place for me!”
That giddy ballroom–why, it was well enoughfor one who knew no better.
That ale-bench was suitable for an unregenerate soul–but what can an heir of
Heaven do in such places? Lord, deliver me! Give me light and liberty! Bring
my soulout of prison that I may live and praise Your name. The man pines
for liberty, and if, at lasthe stumbles to the door of the vault and reaches the
open air, I think he drinks deep draughts of the blessedoxygen! How glad he
is to look upon the greenfields and the fresh flowers!You do not imagine that
he will wish to return to the vaults again, do you? He will utterly forsake those
gloomy abodes!He shudders at the remembrance of the past and would not,
for all the world, undergo againwhat he has once passedthrough.
He is tenderly affectedat every remembrance of the past and is especially
fearful lestthere should be others like himself, newly quickened, who may
need a Brother’s hand to setthem at liberty. He loathes the place where once
he slept so quietly. So the convertedman dreads the thought of going back to
the joys which once so thoroughly fascinatedhim. “No,” he says, “they are no
joys to me. They were joys well enough for my old state of existence, but now,
having enteredinto a new life, a new world, they are more joys to me than the
spade and shroud are joys to a living man, and I can only think of them with
grief, and of my deliverance with gratitude.
III. I must pass on very briefly to the third point. The text indicates a
SYMPATHY–“He has quickenedus togetherwith Christ.” What does that
mean? It means that the life which lives in a savedman is the same life which

dwells in Christ! To put it simply–when Elisha had been buried for some
years, we read that they threw a dead man into the tomb where the bones of
Elisha were, and no soonerdid the corpse touch the Prophet’s bones than it
lived at once!
Yonder is the Cross ofChrist, and no soonerdoes the soultouch the crucified
Savior than it lives at once, for the Fatherhas given to Him to have life in
Himself, and life to communicate to others. Whoevertrusts Christ has
touched Him, and by touching Him he has receivedthe virtue of eternal life!
To trust in the Savior of the world is to be quickenedthrough Him. We are
quickened togetherwith Christ in three senses–first,representatively. Christ
represents us before the Eternal Throne. He is the secondAdam to His people.
So long as the first Adam lived the race lived, and so long as the secondAdam
lives, the race representedby Him lives before God. Christ is accepted,
Believers are accepted. Christis justified, the saints are justified. Christ lives,
and the saints enjoy a life which is hid with Christ in God.
Next we live by union with Christ. So long as the head is alive the members
have life. Unless a member can be severedfrom the head and the body
maimed, it must live so long as there is life in the head. So long as Jesus lives,
every soul that is vitally united to Him, and is a member of His body, lives
according to our Lord’s own word, “BecauseI live you shall live also.” Poor
Martha was much surprised that Christ should raise her brother from the
dead, but He said, as if to surprise her still more, “Whoeverlives and believes
in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” This is one of the things we are to
believe–thatwhen we have receivedthe spiritual life it is in union with the life
of Christ–and consequently cannever die! Because Christ lives, our life must
abide in us forever.
Then we also live togetherwith Christ as to likeness. We are quickened
togetherwith Christ, that is, in the same manner. Now Christ’s quickening
was in this wise–He was deadthrough the Law, but the Law has no more
dominion over Him now that He lives again. So you, Christian, you are cursed
by the old Law of Sinai, but it has no power to curse you now, for you are
risen in Christ. You are not under the Law–its terrors and threats have
nothing to do with you. Of our Lord it is written, “In that e lives,” it is said,
“He lives unto God.” Christ’s life is a life unto God! Such is yours. You are
not, therefore, to live unto the flesh or to mind the things of it–but God, who
gave you life, is to be the greatObject of your life. In Him you live, and for
Him you live.
Moreover, it is said, “Christ, being raisedfrom the dead dies no more. Death
has no more dominion over Him.” In that same way the Christian lives. He

shall never go back to his spiritual death–having once receivedDivine life, he
shall never lose it. God plays not fastand loose with His chosen. He does not
save today, and damn tomorrow. He does not quicken us with the inward life
and then leave us to perish. Divine Grace is a living, incorruptible seedwhich
lives and abides forever. “The waterthat I shall give him,” says Jesus, “shall
be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life.” Glory be to God,
then, you who live by faith in Christ live an immortal life, a life dedicated to
God, a life of deliverance from the bondage of the Law! Rejoice in it, and give
your God all the praise!
IV. And this brings us to the last word, which was A SONG. We have not time
to sing it–we will just write the score before your eyes and ask you to sing it at
your leisure–yourhearts making melody to God. Brothers and Sisters, if you
have, indeed, been thus made alive as others are not, you have first of all, in
the language ofthe text, to praise the greatlove of God, greatbeyond all
precedent! It was love which made Him breathe into Adam the breath of life
and make poor clay to walk and speak.
But it is far greaterlove which makes Him now, after the Fall has defiled us,
renew us with a secondand yet higher life. He might have made new creatures
by millions out of nothing. He had but to speak and angels would have
thronged the air, or, beings like ourselves, only pure and unfallen, would have
been multiplied by myriads upon the greensward. If He had left us to sink to
Hell as fallen angels had done before us, who could have impugned His
justice? But His greatlove would not let Him leave His electto perish. He
loved His people and therefore He would cause them to be born again. His
greatlove with which He loved us defied death, and Hell, and sin!
Dwellon the theme, you who have partakenof this love! He loved us–the most
unworthy–who had no right to such love! There was nothing in us to love and
yet He loved us–lovedus when we were dead! Here His great love seems to
swelland rise to mountainous dimensions–love to miserable sinners, love to
loathsome sinners–love to the dead and to the corrupt! Oh, heights and depths
of SovereignGrace!Where are the notes which cansufficiently sound forth
your praise? Sing, O you redeemed, of His greatlove with which He loved us
even when we were dead in sins! And ceasenot to praise God as you think of
the riches of His mercy, for we are told that He is rich in mercy, rich in His
Nature as to mercy, rich in His Covenantas to treasuredmercy, rich in the
Personof His dearSon as to purchasedmercy, rich in Providential mercy–but
richest of all in the mercy which saves the soul.
Friends, explore the mines of Jehovah’s wealth if you can. Take the keyand
open the granaries ofyour God and see the stores of love which He has laid up

for you. Strike your sweetestnotes to the praise of God, who is rich in mercy,
for His greatlove with which He has loved us! And let the last note and the
highest and the loudest of your song be that with which the text concludes,
“By Grace are you saved.”
O never stammer there! Brothers and Sisters, whateveryou do–hold or do not
hold–never be slow to say this, “If savedat all, I am savedby Grace–Gracein
contradistinction to human merit, for I have no merit. Grace in
contradistinction to my own free will, for my own free will would have led me
further and further from God. Preventing Grace brought me near to Him.”
Do bless and magnify the Grace of God, and as you owe all to it, cry, “Perish
eachthought of pride!” Consecrateyourselfentirely to the God to whom you
owe everything! Desire to help to spreadthe savorof that Divine Grace which
has brought such goodthings to you. Vow, in the name of the quickening
Spirit, that He who has made you live by faith shall, from this day till you
enter into Heaven, have the best of your thoughts, and your words, and your
actions–foryou are not your own–youhave been quickened from the dead
and you must live in newness oflife.
The Lord bless you, dear Friends. If you have never spiritually lived, may He
give you Grace to believe in Jesus this morning, and then you are alive from
the dead. And if you are alive already, may He quicken you yet more and
more by His eternal Spirit till He brings you to the land of the living on the
other side of the Jordan. Amen.
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
The Believer's Union With Christ
Ephesians 2:5
T. Croskery
The apostle teaches that, in virtue of the union betweenChrist and his people,
his death was their death, his life their life, his exaltation their exaltation. It is
the familiar doctrine of Romans 6:4, "Therefore we are buried with him by
baptism into death: that like as Christ was raisedup from the dead by the
glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness oflife." These

words indicate a bond of connectionbetweenthe spiritual life of the believer
and the resurrection of Christ. The new life is, in fact, a participation in the
risen life of the Savior.
I. QUICKENED TOGETHERWITH CHRIST.
1. Considerthe nature of this quickening. It implies a previous identification
with Christ in his death. "We are buried with Christ by baptism into death."
We have, in fact, died unto sin exactly as Christ died unto sin; for "in that he
died, he died unto sin once" (Romans 6:10). Christ died unto sin when he
underwent death as the wages ofsin and exhaustedall the woe that sin entails
as its punishment. He died for sin that he might become dead to sin; the
parties having become dead to eachother, taking their own path henceforth,
never to meet or cross eachotherunto eternity again. And we are dead unto
sin in preciselythe same sense in which Christ is dead unto sin; for the apostle
says, "Likewisereckonye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin," because
we are exempted from all its curse on the ground of its curse being already
executed. How can this be, as we never suffered the curse of sin? Becausewe
have been baptized into Christ. Mere water-baptism cannot accomplishthis
blessedresult. It is the Holy Spirit who is the Baptist, for he engrafts us into
Christ and makes us one body with him (1 Corinthians 12:12, 13). We are
united to Christ by faith.
2. Considerthe effects ofthis quickening. This new position involves our
seeing what the dead can never see. When we are quickenedby the Spirit of
God:
(1) We see God: "Blessedare the pure in heart: for they shall see God." We
see him as a Father, because we have seenChrist, for "he that hath seenme
hath seenthe Father." We see a Father's power, love, and compassion.
(2) We see Christ in his personand in his work, as a sufficient Savior, as a
willing Savior, as a loving Savior, with a work accomplishedon the ground of
which we shall be acceptedand saved.
(3) We see the sin that is in ourselves and the sin that is in the world. The dead
see nothing. "They have no speculationin their eyes." Menof the world do
not see sin as sin, but often as a source of profit or amusement. "Fools make a
mock at sin." But the quickened sinner sees the sin of the world as he sees the
sin of his own heart, and mourns over it.
(4) He sees heavenand hell. The eye of man sees many stars in the sky on a
dark night, but there are many blank spaces in which no twinkling glories can
be seen. Men of the world see heavenand hell as blank spaces, or, at best, as
dim and shadowy. But the quickenedsee them as supreme and transcendent

realities. They see heavenas the home of Jesus and the saints;they see hell as
the place prepared for the devil and his angels.
(5) He sees the world in its true character. How different the view of the same
city from two opposite standpoints! Not more different is the view of the world
from the standpoint of eternity, for the saint sees it as a doomed world at
enmity with God, and is thus led to place his citizenship on high, "setting his
affections on things above, not on things on the earth" (Colossians 3:2).
II. RAISED TOGETHER WITHCHRIST. For as Christ was raisedfrom the
dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness oflife. The
connectionbetweenthe believer's life and the Redeemer's resurrectionis one
not merely of certainty and similarity, but of participation, and thus we come
to know the power of his resurrection(Philippians 3:10). There was a change
in Christ's own relation to God establishedby his resurrection;"for in that he
died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God" - in an
entirely new relation to God, which shall endure forever, for when he shall
appear the secondtime, it will be without sin unto salvation. Formerly he was
condemned, now is he justified in the Spirit; he liveth now to God with no
curse to bear, no sacrifice to offer, no suffering to endure, no service to
achieve;and therefore the God of peace, in tokenof the acceptanceofthe
Surety, brings againfrom the dead that greatShepherd of the sheep, through
the blood of the everlasting covenant. So likewise we are to count ourselves
"alive unto God through Jesus Christ," in that same relation of irreversible
acceptanceinto which Jesus has entered. The apostle here not only represents
believers as ideally raisedin Christ, but as actually raisedjust as Christ
actually came forth from his sepulcher, leaving his grave-clothes behind him.
Similarly we are not to be as "the living among the dead;" we are to castfrom
us our grave-clothes,which only impede the free movements of our spiritual
life.
III. THE SESSION WITHCHRIST IN THE HEAVENLY PLACES. We are
enthroned with Christ. Christ is already representedas "setat God's own
right hand in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 1:20). We sit there
representatively, because our Head is there, and therefore we are, though still
on earth as to our practicalcalling and life, citizens of heaven(Philippians
3:20). We are guided by the laws of heaven; our hearts are cheeredby the
hope which, as an anchor, is fastenedwithin the veil, and we now by faith
enter the holiestof all by the blood of Jesus. We are even now" kings and
priests"(Revelation1:6). We are justified in regarding our future glorification
as only a continuation of our present spiritual life. The guarantee of both is
alike in Christ. Meanwhile, though representativelyin heaven, we are

personally and actually here. Sin is here; we are to watch and fight againstit;
but "our life is hid with Christ in God," only hereafterto be manifested in full
glory. - T.C.
Biblical Illustrator
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickenedus togetherwith Christ (by
grace ye are saved) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:5, 6
Salvationfor the lost
James Sherman
I. First, then, the text shows YOU THE MISERYFROM WHICH YOU
MUST BE RESCUED. "Evenwhen we were dead in sins." Every individual,
descendedfrom Adam, having a polluted nature, and living in this world, is
"deadin sins." This is an awfully emphatic expression— "dead in sins." A
more wretchedstate can scarcelybe conceived, exceptthat of "the angels who
kept not their first estate," and whom God has "reservedin everlasting chains
under darkness unto the judgment of the great day." But I need not tell you
that it is a metaphorical expression, becauseit declares that a living man is
"dead." Notdead naturally. He is not dead as to natural actions;he can eat,
and drink, and sleep. Noras to rational actions;he canreason, and judge, and
consider. Nor as to civil actions;he can "buy and selland get gain." Noras to
moral actions;he canbe kind, he canread and pray and hear the Word and
meditate upon it; he can listen to the voice of God's judgments; he cancall his

ways to remembrance; he canhumble himself before the God of his mercies.
So far went Ahab and Herod, yet continued spiritually dead. Let me try to
describe this death. It consists oftwo parts.
1. The sinner living in enmity to God is condemned to death.
2. The symptoms of spiritual death are manifest upon him. Sin has separated
the soulfrom God, so that man cannot commune with God, and Godcannot
commune with man; "your iniquities," says the prophet, "have separated
betweenyou and your God."
II. In the secondplace, THE AGENT AND THE MEANS OF
DELIVERANCE are here presented. "God hath quickenedus togetherwith
Christ." Your case, my brethren, is too desperate for the arm of man to reach.
No expedients, which human might and human wisdom canafford, can
remedy your misery. "Godhath quickened us togetherwith Christ."
III. Thirdly, THE FELICITY TO WHICH THIS DELIVERANCE WILL
RAISE YOU, is also here presented. "And hath raisedus up together, and
made us sit togetherin heavenly places in Christ Jesus."Here you see that a
regenerate sinneris a living saint. Before, the man was dead; now, he lives.
Before, as death locks up the senses andall the powers and faculties of the
soul, so did a state of sin to the performance and enjoyment of anything that is
really good; but now, when a change takes place, graceunlocks and opens all,
and so enlarges the soul that it brings every faculty into operationas that of a
living man. And do you ask me, what is this life? A life of justification; when
no charge can be brought againstthe sinner. A life of sanctification;where
holiness is the element of being. A life of dignity; where Christ is the
companion forever.
IV. But, fourthly, you have here THE SOURCE FROM WHENCE YOU
MUST EXPECT THIS LIFE. "God who is rich in mercy, for His greatlove
wherewith He loved us." Mark how language labours for expression:"rich
mercy" and "greatlove." Inexhaustibly rich mercy; inexpressibly greatlove.
V. But there is one more point to be noticed: THE END TO BE SECURED by
this wonderful manifestation of His mercy. "Thatin the ages to come He
might show the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness towards us
through Jesus Christ." This expression, "the ages to come," sometimes refers
to any future period; but it has especialreferenceto two.
1. To the times of the gospel. Brethren, these are "the ages" whichwere "to
come." This is "the acceptable year;" this is "the day of the Lord;" this is
"the acceptedtime;" this is "the day of salvation." The days since Christ was

born and suffered are the most blessedand happy days that ever shone upon
our fallen world. No days have been like them.
2. The phrase refers also to the last greatday. Then will be the full and
wondrous exhibition of the scheme of mercy, at which the world may wonder.
(James Sherman).
Deliverance
J. S. Muir.
I. THE FREE LOVE AND UNDESERVED GRACE OF GOD, AS THE
SOLE ORIGIN AND MOVING CAUSE OF OUR DELIVERANCE.
II. SEE, THEN, HOW THE PURPOSE OF GOD'S LOVE HAS BEEN
EFFECTED.See the Divine precision — the exactadaptation of the means to
the end — the finished perfection in the result.
III. But we are led on a step higher at verse 6 — WE ARE INTRODUCED
INTO "HEAVENLY PLACES." What, then, is the peculiar significance of
the expressionin that sixth verse — "raisedup together, and made to sit
togetherin heavenly places in Christ Jesus."Five times over in the course of
the Epistle, you meet with the phrase "heavenlyplaces," or(literally) "the
heavenlies." Thus, in Ephesians 1:20, we are told .that after God raised Jesus
from the dead, He setHim at His own right hand in the "heavenly places."It
was not enough that He should rise out of the grave, howevernecessarymight
be His resurrectionas one intermediate link in the process. So long as He
remained on earth (as He did for forty days), He had not entered on the
fulness of His joy. A crowning proof was awanting, and that was not furnished
until the hour of His enthronement in the "heavenly places."Thenwas Jesus
in all the glory of His acceptance, in the fulness of His honour! Into "the
places" ofreward, and enjoyment, and unfading glory, He entered, and there
lives an "everlasting sign" that the work for which He visited the earthly
places has been perfectly fulfilled. But Jesus is not alone in these "heavenly
places." Everytrue believer is there in Him. "Seatedtogetherwith Christ,"
therefore, ought we not now to be made partakers with Him, in some
measure, of heavenly blessings? to he sharers here, in some degree, of the joy
that fills His heart? Let us see, then, what some of those things are which are
now making glad the heart of Christ in heaven, and look at them, that we may
ask of God to enter more fully into the powerand experience of them.
1. One greatjoy of His heart in heavenmust be in His owndeliverance, and in
the certainty of the deliverance of His people with Him from the curse of hell,

in His having so satisfiedthe everlasting demands of Divine justice and truth,
that the law has now no more any claims againstHim, or those for whom He
died! And ought not we to share with Him in that joy, by tasting something of
the rest, the satisfaction, the quietness and assurance ofknowing that in Him
we "are justified from all things," and freed from the curse?
2. Another joy of His heart in heavenmust be, in seeing the guilt of countless
multitudes of human beings (though the sins of eachof them be more in
number than the sand) daily met ,and takenaway by an atonement, whose
efficacyis inexhaustible to the close of time. And ought not we to rejoice
before Him in that which is the cause ofour cleansing in His sight, and
continually to make use of it for bringing us and keeping us near to Himself,
and for renewing in us the joy of our salvation?
3. Another cause ofjoy to Christ in heaven is the manifestation of the glory of
all the attributes of God, and the vindication of the holiness of His name in a
work which has "magnified His law and made it honourable." And should not
we who are in Him be enabled to "sing" atonce of "mercyand of judgment,"
to "give thanks at the remembrance of His holiness," as the very bulwark of
our safety;and even in the midst of all that is terrible in the execution of His
righteous judgments, be preserved in holy calms, as those that are at home
with God, dwelling "in the secretplace of the MostHigh," and "under the
shadow of the Almighty."
4. Another joy of His elevationto the heavenly places must be in the
overthrow of Satan's kingdom, and in the certain prospectof the everlasting
fall of every foe. And should not we, who are yet in the midst of the conflict, be
encouragedin Him to anticipate certain victory, and be assuredthat we too
shall be made more than conquerors through Him that loved us?
(J. S. Muir.)
The cause, means, and effects ofsalvation
P. J. McGhee, M. A.
I. THE CAUSE OF SALVATION. God's rich, free, sovereigngrace. No other
source of salvationto guilty man.
1. There is no powerin man to save himself. A dead body cannot walk;nor
can a dead soul move by its ownwill.
2. There is nothing to attract love in a dead, corrupting carcase,and there is
nothing to attract God's love in a dead, corrupting soul.

II. THE MEANS OF SALVATION. Christ's death. We must here dwell on
the contrast, and at the same time the union, betweenChrist and the sinner, as
mutually interchanging their condition eachwith the other; the sinner
transferring through God's grace, orrather God transferring through His
grace, and the sinner embracing with gratitude by faith the blessedtransfer,
of all his guilt, misery and curse to Jesus;and Jesus transferring, God the
Father imputing, and the sinner by faith with joyful gratitude receiving, all
the riches of Christ's righteousness, redemption, and salvation, put down to
his accountas a guilty sinner.
III. THE EFFECTSOF SALVATION. "Hath raised us up together, and
made us sit togetherin heavenly places in Christ Jesus."Believersbecome the
children of God, and sharers in His inheritance. Your children, you would
say, are your heirs; they are to possessyour property. Men make their eldest
son the heir of their properties. The law which subverts that of primogeniture,
which divides estates. andnecessitatesthat property be divided among all the
members of a family, soonreduces the family to beggary, for our poor earthly
properties are easilyexhausted. But the children of the King of kings are all
heirs of eternal glory. The rays of the sun are undiminished in their bright
effulgence, the lustre of that luminary is not dimmed, although the beams of
His glorious orb have been diffused throughout the world from the first
moment of the morning when God set him in the firmament of the heavens to
rule the day; he still pours forth from his redundant fountain floods of
unexhausted and exhaustless light, and every creature that basks beneathhis
beams enjoys the fulness of their powertoo much to leave him room to grudge
the world beside. But what is all the glory of the orb of day comparedwith
that of Him whose fiat struck that orb but as a spark from solid darkness?
and what is the inheritance of him who is an heir of God and a joint heir with
Christ? (John 17:22.)Christ's inheritance. Christ's glory is their inheritance
and their glory, and there is not one whose glory is diminished by the fulness
of glory that all enjoy.
(P. J. McGhee, M. A.)
Resurrectionwith Christ
C. H. Spurgeon.
I. Celebrate first a greatsolemnity, and descendinto the CHARNEL HOUSE
of our poor humanity. According to the teaching of the sacredScripture, men
are dead, spiritually dead. Certain vain men would make it out that men are
only a little disordered and bruised by the Fall, wounded in a few delicate

members, but not mortally injured. However, the Word of God is very express
upon the matter, and declares ourrace to be not wounded, not hurt merely,
but slain outright, and left as dead in trespassesand sin. There are those who
fancy that fallen human nature is only in a sort of syncope or fainting fit, and
only needs a process ofreviving to set it right. You have only, by education
and by other manipulations, to set its life floods in motion, and to excite within
it some degree of action, and then life will speedily be developed. There is
much goodin every man, they say, and you have only to bring it out by
training and example. This fiction is exactly opposite to the teaching of sacred
Scripture. Within these truthful pages we read of no fainting fit, no temporary
paralysis, but death is the name for nature's condition, and quickening is its
greatnecessity. Manis not partly dead, like the half-drowned mariner, in
whom some spark of life may yet remain, if it be but fondly tendered, and
wiselynurtured. There is not a spark of spiritual life left in man — manhood
is to all spiritual things an absolute corpse. Stepwith me, then, into the
sepulchre house, and what do you observe of yonder bodies which are
slumbering there? They are quite unconscious!Whatevergoes onaround
them neither occasions themjoy nor causesthem grief. The dead in their
graves may be marched over by triumphant armies, but they shout not with
them that triumph. It is thus with men spiritually dead; they are unaffected
by spiritual things. A dying Saviour, whose groans might move the very
adamant, and make the rocks dissolve, they can hear of all unmoved. Even the
all-present Spirit is undiscerned by them, and His powerunrecognized.
Angels, holy men, godly exercises,devout aspirations, allthese are beyond and
above their world. Observe that corpse;you may strike it, you may bruise it,
but it will not cry out; you may pile burdens upon it, but it is not weary; you
may shut it up in darkness, but it feels not the gloom. So the unconverted man
is laden with the load of his sin, but he is not weary of it; he is shut up in the
prison of God's justice, but he pants not for liberty; he is under the curse of
God, but that curse causes no commotion in his spirit, because he is dead.
II. We now change the subjectfor something more pleasant, and observe a
MIRACLE, or dead men made alive. The greatobjectof the gospelof Christ
is to create men anew in Christ Jesus. It aims at resurrection, and
accomplishes it. The gospeldid not come into this world merely to restrain the
passions oreducate the principles of men, but to infuse into them a new life
which, as fallen men, they did not possess.
1. In this idea of quickening, there is a mystery. What is that invisible
something which quickens a man? Who cantrack life to its hidden fountain?
In the language ofthe text, you trace it to God, you believe your new life to be

of Divine implantation. You are a believer in the supernatural; you believe
that God has visited you as He has not visited other men, and has breathed
into you life. You believe rightly, but you cannot explain it. He is the great
worker, but how He works is not revealed to us.
2. It is a greatmystery then, but while it is a mystery it is a greatreality. We
know and do testify, and we have a right to be believed, for we trust we have
not forfeited our characters, we know and do testify that we are now
possessors ofa life which we knew nothing of some years ago, that we have
come to exist in a new world, and that the appearance ofall things outside of
us is totally changedfrom what it used to be.
3. This life brings with it the exercise ofrenewed faculties. The man who
begins to live unto God has powers now which he never had before: the power
really to pray, the powerheartily to praise, the poweractually to commune
with God, the power to see God, to talk with God, the powerto receive tidings
from the invisible world, and the power to send messagesup through the veil
which hides the unseen up to the very throne of God.
III. I must pass on very briefly to the third point. The text indicates a
SYMPATHY: "He hath quickenedus togetherwith Christ." What does that
mean? It means that the life which lives in a savedman is the same life which
dwells in Christ. To put it simply — when Elisha had been buried for some
years, we read that they threw a man who was dead into the tomb where the
bones of Elisha were, and no soonerdid the corpse touch the prophet's bones
than it lived at once. Yonder is the cross ofChrist, and no soonerdoes the soul
touch the crucified Saviour than it lives at once, for the Father hath given to
Him to have life in Himself, and life to communicate to others. We are
quickened togetherwith Christ in three senses:
1. Representatively. Christrepresents us before the eternal throne; He is the
secondAdam to His people. Christ is accepted, believers are accepted.
2. Next, we live by union with Christ. So long as the head is alive the members
have life.
3. Then we also live togetherwith Christ as to likeness. We are quickened
togetherwith Christ, that is, in the same manner. Now, Christ's quickening
was in this wise. He was dead through the law, but the law has no more
dominion over Him now that He lives again. So you, Christian, you are cursed
by the old law of Sinai, but it has no power to curse you now, for you are risen
m Christ. You are not under the law; its terrors and threatenings have nought
to do with you. Christ's life is a life unto God. Such is yours. He does not

quicken us with the inward life, and then leave us to perish; grace is a living,
incorruptible seed, which liveth and abideth forever.
IV. And this brings us to the last word, which was A SONG. We have not time
to sing it, we will just write the score before your eyes, and ask you to sing it at
your leisure, your hearts making melody to God. Brethren and sisters, if you
have indeed been thus made alive as others are not, you have first of all, in the
language ofthe text, to praise the greatlove of God, great beyond all
precedent.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Salvationin Christ
H. Foster, M. A.
I. The progress of a sinner's salvation.
1. God loves him, though dead in sins.
2. He quickens him.
3. He raises him up.
(1)Spiritually here (Colossians 3:1, etc.).
(2)Corporally hereafter(Romans 8:11).
4. He sets him in heavenly places.
(1)By faith now.
(2)In fact hereafter.
II. Why the blessings ofGod's chosenare saidto be in and with Christ.
Becausethey are first in Him as Head, and from Him communicated to them
as members, viz., their election, justification, sanctification, etc.
III. Why the Scripture speaks ofwhat is yet to be done for God's people as
done already. From the certainty of their accomplishment. To encourage the
faith and hope of His. "God hath spokenin His holiness," etc. (Psalm55:6,
etc.). Believers may look backwardand forward, and see themselves
surrounded with mercies. How different their end from what they deserve!
Woe to them that think of going to heaven without Christ.
(H. Foster, M. A.)
Man's misery and God's mercy
Paul Bayne.

1. Man's misery commends God's mercy (Ezekiel16:8, 4, 5; 1 Corinthians
6:11; Titus 3:8; 1 John 4:10; Romans 5:10).(1) If we would see the love of God,
we must geta true knowledge andsense of our natural condition. Dead men,
in whom there is not by nature the leastspark of spiritual and heavenly life:
our natural life being but a shadow of life: it is but a goodlyvizor drawn over
a dead and rotten corpse. The considerationof this will work true humility.(2)
This also is a ground of hope that God will never leave us; for that mercy of
God which when we were dead put life in us and quickenedus, will now much
more help us and comfort us in all our miseries (Isaiah49:15; Romans 5:10).
2. Man has no poweror dispositionto save himself.
3. The believer is brought to partake of the life of God.(1) The life of God is
nothing but the createdgift of grace whichframes the whole man to live
according to God, or supernatural grace giving life, and bringing forth
motions according to God, as the natural life.(2) The powerof God alone, with
the Word and Sacraments, give this life.(3) The order in which this life is
wrought.(a) There is a taking awayof sins, for while we live in them we are in
death.(b) There is a taking of life in our behalf.(c)A holding out of these
things, with the voice of God unto the soul (John 5:25). A receiving of Christ,
a forgiving of our sins, and quickening with the Spirit.(4) The property of this
life is eternal; it has no ending. Christ being raised, dieth no more, nor a
Christian.(5) How may we know that we have this life?(a)Every life seeks its
own preservation;as natural life seeks thatwhich is fit for that life, so does
this spiritual life that which is fit for itself. As the life is immortal, so it seeks
immortal food by which it lives to God; the life of grace is maintained by
bread from heaven, from the living God.(b) Every natural life, in the several
kinds of it, seeks its preservationof him and by him who is the author of it;
children of their parents, etc. So here they that are quickenedwith the life of
God are everand anon turning to Him as their Father, crying and calling
upon Him for supply in all their wants.(c)He who has this spiritual life in any
measure is sensible, and evercomplaining of spiritual death, and of corrupt
nature, the sight of which is most noisome to his sense.(d)Life is active and
stirring. If I see an image still without motion, I know for all the eyes, nose,
etc., that it has no life in it: so the want of spiritual motion in the soul toward
God, and the practice of godliness, argues wantof spiritual life.(e) Love to the
brethren (1 John 3:14).
(Paul Bayne.)
The dead quickened

Thomas Young.
I. THE PAST ESTATE OF THOSE TO WHOM THE APOSTLE WROTE.
1. Deadin point of law.
2. Deadas under the power of sin.
II. THEIR PRESENT STATE."Quickened." The mercy of God is exercised
still in the same way.
1. He has delivered you from the sentence ofcondemnation.
2. You have experiencedthe production of spiritual life by the influences of
the Holy Spirit.
III. THE SOURCE OF THIS QUICKENING. Union with Christ.
IV. THE LIGHT IN WHICH THIS SUBJECT PLACES THE LOVE OF
GOD.
(Thomas Young.)
By the grace ofGod
An officerduring an engagementreceiveda ball which struck him near his
waistcoatpocket, where a piece of silver stopped the progress ofthe nearly
spent ball. The coin was slightly marked at the words "Deigratia. This
providential circumstance deeply impressed his mind, and led him to reada
tract, which his belovedand pious sistergave him on leaving his native land,
entitled The sin and danger of neglecting the Saviour." This text it pleased
God to bless to his conversion.
Quickening the dead
When a man is dead it is hopeless forus to attempt to quicken him. But what
we cannot do Christ does. Henry Varley says, "A coachmanin a family at the
WestEnd of London was takenseriouslyill, and a few days afterwards saw
him pass into the presence ofGod. I knew and had visited him before in order
to bring to his mind and heart the Saviour of sinners. Again I calledat the
house, found the door open, and quietly ascendedthe staircase whichled to
the room where the sick man lay. There, bent over the prostrate, form of the
man, was his eldestson, deeply affectedand weeping bitterly. His face was
close to that of the father's, and I heard him, in an agonyof earnestwords,
say, Father, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that
Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners." Oh, my father, do trust

Jesus!His precious blood cleansesfrom all sin. Only believe. My father I my
father! O God, save my father!' The hot tears and the intense anxiety of that
young man I shall never forget. Poorfellow!he literally shoutedinto the ear
that lay close to his lips. I had watchedthe scene for some minutes almost
transfixed at the door. At length, approaching the bed, I observedthat the
father was dead. Tenderly I raised the young man, and quietly said, 'His spirit
has passedaway;he cannot hear; you cannotreachhim now!' Poorfellow!he
had been speaking into the ear of a corpse;the father had been dead some
minutes."
The grace ofGod
Life of Rev. John Brown, of Haddington.
When a friend observedto him that we must run deeper and deeperin grace's
debt, he replied, "Oh yes; and God is a goodcreditor; He never seeksback the
principal sum, and, indeed, puts up with a poor annual rent"
(Life of Rev. John Brown, of Haddington.)
Salvationby grace
A physician who was anxious about his soul, askeda believing patient of his,
how he should find peace. His patient replied, "Doctor, I felt that I could do
nothing, and I have put my case in your hand: I am trusting in you." This is
exactly what every poor sinner must do, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He
saw the simplicity of the way, and soonfound peace in Christ.
Heavenly places
J. S. Muir.
When Paul wrote of "heavenly places" as the lot of Christ's people on earth, it
was not to please the imagination or dazzle the fancy with mere spiritual
visions — but to show us how near and how available is the source of spiritual
and saving strength for daily life. To be "with Christ," therefore, "in the
heavenlies," is —
I. TO BE LIVING AT THE SOURCE OF POWER FOR NEW OBEDIENCE,
and to draw from thence for support in that service which is true freedom,
freedom from slavish fears, from corroding cares, from every inordinate
affectionwhich would hinder you in the doing of His will. Brought nigh to
God — living in the fellowship of God, through Jesus — you have a well-

spring of new motives of actionopened for you in His service, and of strength
for patient rest in His will. That well-spring is ever full and never failing.
These Divine resources are evernear, and ever the same;though your
experience of them, alas!may ebb, and flow, and fluctuate.
II. But we come now to notice another view of the position of those who are
raisedup to sit with Christ. It is to be ARMED FOR CONFLICT. The spirits
of evil have still powerto tempt and molest. And if these evil influences are to
be repelled and quenched, it can only be done from within the citadel of power
which is provided in the fellowshipof a risen Lord.
III. The "heavenly places" to which all believing ones are raised up on earth
to sit with Christ, are (in a peculiar manner) PLACES OF THANKSGIVING.
As the cleft of the Rock to which you have fled from the fury of the storm,
what else should your place be but one fitted for thanksgiving, — a
"tabernacle" to be filled with the "voices ofrejoicing and salvation" and
praise ever going forth in testimony to Him, whose almighty hand opened the
refuge and averted the destruction!
IV. And now, in conclusion, the text POINTS TO THE FUTURE — into "the
ages" ofeternity — to that greathereafteron whose brink we are ever
walking, and which at any moment we may be calledto enter.
(J. S. Muir.)
Heaven won
T. Guthrie, D. D.
Won by other arms than theirs, it presents the strongestcontrast imaginable
to the spectacleseenin England's palace on that day when the king demanded
of his assemblednobles by what title they held their lands. "What title?" At
the rash question a hundred swords, leapedfrom their scabbards. Advancing
on the alarmed monarch, "By these we won, and by these we will keepthem!"
they replied. How different the scene which heavenpresents! All eyes are fixed
on Jesus:every look is one of love and gratitude, which are glowing in every
bosom, and swelling in every song. Now with golden harps they swellthe
Saviour's praises;and now descending from their thrones to do Him homage,
they casttheir crowns in one glittering heap at the feetwhich were nailed to
Calvary's shameful cross.
(T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Religionraises men up
C. H. Spurgeon.
Ah! brethren, you will not mind my telling out some of the secrets, secrets that
bring the tears to my eyes as I reflectupon them. When I speak ofthe thief,
the harlot, the drunkard, the sabbath breaker, the swearer, I may say, "Such
were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye rejoice in
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." How many a man has been going by. the
door there, and has said, "I'll go in and hear Old Spurgeon." He came in to
make merriment of the preacher, and very little that troubles him. But the
man has stoodthere until the Word goes home to him, and he who was wont
to beat his wife, and to make his home a hell, has before long been to see me,
and has given me a grip of the hand and said, "God Almighty bless you, sir;
there is something in true religion!" "Well, let us hear your tale." We have
heard it, and delightful it has been in hundreds of instances, "Verywell, send
your wife, and let us hear what she says about you." The woman has come,
and we have said, "Well, what think you of your husband now, ma'am?" "Oh,
sir, such a change I never saw in my life! He is so kind to us; he is like an angel
now, and he seemedlike a fiend before; oh! that cursed drink, sir! everything
went to the public house; and then if I went up to the house of God, he did
nothing but abuse me! Oh! to think that now he comes with me on Sunday;
and the shop is shut up, sir; and the children who used to be running about
without a bit of shoe or stocking, he takes them on his knee, and prays with
them so sweetly. Oh! there is such a change!"
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Promotion by goodness
Denton.
In old times it was the custom to crown a brave soldier with laurel before all
the people. Zeno never went out to fight for his country, but spent his life in a
better service, for he tried to teacha nation to be wise and good. At last the
people felt that the only way to be greatis to do good. They gave to Zeno the
laurel crown; but he won for himself a far nobler prize — the respectand love
of all who knew him.
(Denton.)
Heavenly places

Baxendale.
Dr. Preston, when he was dying, used these words, "Blessedbe God, though I
change my place I shall not change my company; for I have walkedwith God
while living, and now I go to rest with God."
(Baxendale.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
(5) Even when we were dead in sins.—These words shouldbe connected, not
with “lovedus,” but with “hath quickened,” or rather, quickened. He brought
life out of spiritual death.
(5, 6) The thought in these verses follows exactlythe same course as in
Ephesians 1:19-20. There the type and earnestof the working of God’s mighty
powerare placed in the resurrection, the ascension, the glorification of Christ
Himself in His human nature. Here what is there implied is workedout—(1)
All Christians are declaredto be quickened(or, risen again) to spiritual life
with Christ, according to His promise, “BecauseIlive, ye shall live also”
(John 14:19). (See the exactparallel in Colossians2:13.)But there is a promise
even beyond this: “I am the life: whosoeverliveth and believeth in Me shall
never die” (John 11:25; comp. also John 5:24; John 17:2). Hence, even more
emphatically, and in full accordancewith this latter promise, we have in
Colossians 3:4, “Christ who is our life;” as in 2Corinthians 4:10-11, “The life
of Jesus is made manifest in us.” What this “life eternal” is He Himself
declares (John17:3)—“to know the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom He
has sent.” (2) Next, this partaking of the life of Christ is brought out in two
striking forms—as a partaking, not only of His resurrection(as in Romans
6:5; 1Corinthians 15:20-22;Philippians 3:11), but also (in a phase of thought
peculiar to these Epistles) of His ascension“to the heavenly places.” This is
“in Christ Jesus,” in virtue of a personaland individual union with Christ. It
implies blessings, both presentand future, or rather one blessing, of which we
have the earnestnow and the fulness hereafter—forthe resurrectionand
ascensionof Christ are even now the perfection and glorification of humanity
in Him. (3) So far as we are really and vitally His members, such perfection
and glorificationare ours now, by His intercession(that is, His continued
mediation for us in heaven) and by His indwelling in us by the Spirit on earth.
The proof of partaking His resurrection is “newnessoflife,” “death unto sin,

and new birth unto righteousness”(Romans 6:5-11), which is in Colossians
3:12 expresslyconnectedwith the entrance upon unity with Christ in baptism.
The proof of having “our life hid in Christ at the right hand of God,” is “the
setting our affectionon things above” (Colossians3:1), by which “in heart and
mind we thither ascend, and with Him continually dwell.” (4) These proofs
are seenonly in measure here. Through the change which we calldeath, we
pass at once to a still higher stage oflife, by fuller union with Christ
(2Corinthians 5:6-8), and at the greatday we shall have both in perfection—
perfect newness oflife in “likenessto Him” (1John 3:2), and perfect
glorificationin Him in that communion with God which is heaven (John 17:5;
John 17:10; John 17:24). The one thing which St. Paul does not attribute to us
is that which is His alone—the place “at the right hand of the Father.”
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary
2:1-10 Sin is the death of the soul. A man dead in trespasses andsins has no
desire for spiritual pleasures. Whenwe look upon a corpse, it gives an awful
feeling. A never-dying spirit is now fled, and has left nothing but the ruins of a
man. But if we viewed things aright, we should be far more affectedby the
thought of a dead soul, a lost, fallen spirit. A state of sin is a state of
conformity to this world. Wickedmen are slaves to Satan. Satanis the author
of that proud, carnal disposition which there is in ungodly men; he rules in the
hearts of men. From Scripture it is clear, that whether men have been most
prone to sensualor to spiritual wickedness, allmen, being naturally children
of disobedience, are also by nature children of wrath. What reasonhave
sinners, then, to seek earnestlyfor that grace whichwill make them, of
children of wrath, children of God and heirs of glory! God's eternal love or
good-willtoward his creatures, is the fountain whence all his mercies flow to
us; and that love of God is greatlove, and that mercy is rich mercy. And every
convertedsinner is a savedsinner; delivered from sin and wrath. The grace
that saves is the free, undeserved goodness andfavour of God; and he saves,
not by the works ofthe law, but through faith in Christ Jesus. Gracein the
soul is a new life in the soul. A regeneratedsinnerbecomes a living soul; he
lives a life of holiness, being born of God: he lives, being delivered from the
guilt of sin, by pardoning and justifying grace. Sinners roll themselves in the
dust; sanctified souls sit in heavenly places, are raisedabove this world, by
Christ's grace. The goodnessofGod in converting and saving sinners
heretofore, encouragesothers in after-time, to hope in his grace and mercy.
Our faith, our conversion, and our eternal salvation, are not of works, lestany
man should boast. These things are not brought to pass by any thing done by

us, therefore all boasting is shut out. All is the free gift of God, and the effect
of being quickened by his power. It was his purpose, to which he prepared us,
by blessing us with the knowledge ofhis will, and his Holy Spirit producing
such a change in us, that we should glorify God by our goodconversation, and
perseverance in holiness. None canfrom Scripture abuse this doctrine, or
accuse it of any tendency to evil. All who do so, are without excuse.
Barnes'Notes on the Bible
Even when we were dead in sins - notes, Ephesians 2:1; compare Romans 5:8.
The constructionhere is, "God, who is rich in mercy, on accountof the great
love which he bare unto us, even being dead in sin, hath quickened us," etc. It
does not mean that he quickened us when we were dead in sin, but that he
loved us then, and made provision for our salvation. It was love to the
children of wrath; love to those who had no love to return to him; love to the
alienatedand the lost. That is true love - the sincerestand the purest
benevolence - love, not like that of people, but such only as God bestows. Man
loves his friend, his benefactor, his kindred - God loves his foes, and seeksto
do them good.
Hath quickened us - Hath made us alive see Ephesians 2:1.
Togetherwith Christ - In connectionwith him; or in virtue of his being raised
up from the grave. The meaning is, that there was sucha connectionbetween
Christ and those whom the Father hath given to him, that his resurrection
from the grave involved their resurrectionto spiritual life. It was like raising
up the head and the members - the whole body together;compare the notes at
Romans 6:5. Everywhere in the New Testament, the close connectionofthe
believer with Christ is affirmed. We are crucified with him. We die with him.
We rise with him. We live with him. We reign with him. We are joint heirs
with him. We share his sufferings on earth 1 Peter4:13, and we share his
glory with him on his throne; Revelation3:21.
By grace ye are saved- Margin, "by whose;" see the notes at Romans 3:24.
Paul's mind was full of the subject of salvationby grace, and he throws it in
here, even in an argument, as a point which he would never have them lose
sight of. The subjectbefore him was one eminently adapted to bring this truth
to mind, and though, in the train of his arguments, he had no time now to
dwell on it, yet he would not suffer any opportunity to pass without referring
to it.
Jamieson-Fausset-BrownBible Commentary
5. dead in sins—The bestreading is in the Greek, "deadin our (literally, 'the')
trespasses."

quickened—"vivified" spiritually, and consequenceshereafter, corporally.
There must be a spiritual resurrectionof the soul before there can be a
comfortable resurrectionof the body [Pearson](Joh 11:25, 26;Ro 8:11).
togetherwith Christ—The Head being seatedatGod's right hand, the body
also sits there with Him [Chrysostom]. We are already seatedthere IN Him
("in Christ Jesus," Eph2:6), and hereaftershall be seatedby Him; IN Him
already as in our Head, which is the ground of our hope; by Him hereafter, as
by the conferring cause, whenhope shall be swallowedup in fruition
[Pearson]. WhatGod wrought in Christ, He wrought (by the very fact)in all
united to Christ, and one with Him.
by grace ye are saved—Greek,"Ye are in a savedstate." Notmerely "ye are
being saved," but ye "are passedfrom death unto life" (Joh 5:24). Salvation is
to the Christian not a thing to be waitedfor hereafter, but already realized
(1Jo 3:14). The parenthetic introduction of this clause here (compare Eph 2:8)
is a burst of Paul's feeling, and in order to make the Ephesians feelthat grace
from first to last is the sole source ofsalvation; hence, too, he says "ye," not
"we."
Matthew Poole's Commentary
Hath quickened us; hath raised us up from the death of sin to the life of
righteousness, notonly in our justification, in which God frees us from our
obnoxiousness to eternal death, and gives us a right to eternal life, who before
were dead in law, (though this may be included), but especiallyin our
regeneration, by the infusion of a vital principle.
Togetherwith Christ; either:
1. God, in quickening Christ, hath also quickenedus; Christ’s quickening, or
receiving his life after death, being not only the type and exemplar of our
spiritual enlivening or regeneration, but the cause of it, inasmuch as we are
quickened, as meritoriously by his death, so effectively by his life: Christ, as
having died and risen again, exerciseththat powerthe Fathergave him of
quickening whom he will, John 5:21. Or:
2. In Christ as our Head virtually, and by the power of his resurrection
actually. Or:

3. By the same powerwhereby he raisedup Christ from the dead, Ephesians
1:20. See the like expression, Colossians 2:13.
(By grace are ye saved); some read the words without a parenthesis, supplying
by whose, and so refer them to Christ, quickened us togetherwith Christ, by
whose grace ye are saved;but if the parenthesis stand, yet here seems to be a
connectionwith the foregoing words, at leasta reasonof the apostle’s bringing
in these; for having mentioned God’s greatlove, Ephesians 2:4, as the cause of
their spiritual enlivening here, which is the beginning of their salvation, he
infers from thence that the whole of their salvationis of grace, i.e. alike free,
and as much out of God’s greatlove, as the beginning of it, viz. their
quickening, is.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible
Even when we were dead in sins,.... See Gill on Ephesians 2:1.
Hath quickened us togetherwith Christ: which may be understood either of
regeneration, whena soul that is dead in a moral or spiritual sense, is
quickened and made alive; a principle of life is infused, and acts of life are put
forth; such have their spiritual senses, andthese in exercise;they canfeel the
load and weightof sin; see their loststate and condition, the odiousness ofsin,
and the beauty of a Saviour, the insufficiency of their own righteousness,and
the fulness and suitableness ofChrist's; breathe after divine and spiritual
things; speak in prayer to God, and the language of Canaanto fellow
Christians; move towards Christ, exercise grace onhim, act for him, and walk
on in him: and this life they have not from themselves, for previous to it they
are dead, and in this quickening work are entirely passive;nor can regenerate
persons quicken themselves, when in dead and lifeless frames, and much less
unregenerate sinners;but this is God's act, the act of God the Father; though
not exclusive of the Son, who quickens whom he will; nor of the Spirit, who is
the Spirit of life from Christ; and it is an instance of the exceeding greatness,
both of his powerand love; and this may be said to be done with Christ,
because he is the procuring and meritorious cause of it, by his death and
resurrectionfrom the dead; and is the author and efficient cause ofit; and he
is the matter of it, it is not so much the quickened persons that live, as Christ
that lives in them, and it is the same life he himself lives; and because he lives,
they shall live also;it is in him as in the fountain, and in them as in the
stream: or else this may be understood of justification; men are dead in a legal
sense, and on accountof sin, are under the sentence ofdeath; though they
naturally think themselves alive, and in a goodstate;but when the Spirit of

God comes, he strikes dead all their hopes of life by a covenantof works;not
merely by letting in the terrors of the law upon the conscience, but by showing
the spirituality of it, and the exceeding sinfulness of sin; and how incapable
they are of satisfying the law, for the transgressionsofit; and then he works
faith in them, whereby they revive and live; they see pardon and righteousness
in Christ, and pray for the one, and plead the other; and also lay hold and live
upon the righteousness ofChrist, when the Spirit seals up the pardon of their
sins to them, and passesthe sentence ofjustification on them, and so they
reckonthemselves alive unto God; and this is the justification of life, the
Scripture speaks of;and this is in consequence oftheir being quickened with
Christ, at the time of his resurrection;for when he rose from the dead, they
rose with him; when he was justified, they were justified in him; and in this
sense whenhe was quickened, they were quickenedwith him:
by grace ye are saved: the Claromontane copyand the Vulgate Latin version
read, "by whose grace";and the Arabic and Ethiopic versions, "by his
grace";either by the grace of him that quickens, or by the grace of Christ
with whom they were quickened; the Syriac version renders it, "by his grace
he hath redeemed us"; which seems to refer to the redeeming grace of Christ;
and so the Ethiopic version, "and hath delivered us by his grace";and there is
a change of the person into "us", which seems more agreeable to what goes
before, and follows after; See Gill on Ephesians 2:8.
Geneva Study Bible
Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickenedus togetherwith Christ, (by
grace ye are saved;)
EXEGETICAL(ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT Commentary
Ephesians 2:5. The καί is not to be taken as in Ephesians 2:1 (“also us
collectively,” Meier, Baumgarten-Crusius, andearlier expositors), which,
apart from the universal reference of the ἡμᾶς, the order of the words forbids
(καὶ ἡμᾶς must have been written), according to which, also, the καί of
Ephesians 2:1 can by no, means be here resumed (Rückert, Matthies,
Holzhausen, and most of the older expositors);further, καί is not, with Koppe,
to be takenas although, seeing that, in fact, a making alive cannottake place
otherwise than from a state of death, and consequently καί cannot conveyany
climactic stress, on which accountHarless explains incorrectly from a logical
point of view: “evenin the state of death, in which we were” (comp. Calvin
and de Wette). Erasmus paraphrases as though καί stoodbefore συνεζωοπ.,
and even the shift to which Morus has recourse, that καί corresponds to the

καί of Ephesians 2:6 (non modo … verum etiam), would demand this position.
Others give other explanations, and many are silent with regard to it. If καί
were also, it would have to be referred to ὄντας,[141]and would express the
reality of the relation assertedin Ephesians 2:1 (Hartung, I. p. 132 f.). But
there would be nothing to call for the assurance ofthis reality. It is rather the
simple copula:and, annexing to the διὰ τ. πολλ. ἀγ. ἣν ἠγ. ἡμ. a further
element.[142]The two elements, side by side, place in the full light what God
has done. God has, on accountof His much love, and when we were dead in
the sins, made us alive with Christ. The καί might also be omitted; but the
keeping of the points thus apart strengthens the representation.
τοῖς παραπτ.] The article denotes the sins, which we had committed, with a
retrospective glance atEphesians 2:1.
συνεζωοποίησε τῷ Χρ.] is by most expositors (including Flatt, Rückert, Meier,
Matthies, Harless, Olshausen, de Wette, Baumgarten-Crusius, Schenkel,
Hofmann, Bleek)understood of new spiritual quickening (“justificationemet
regenerationemnostramcomplectitur,” Boyd; Rückertwould have us think
mainly of the justification). But how is this to be justified from the context? If
the readerwas reminded by νεκροὺς τοῖς παραπτ. of the eternal death, to
which he had been subjectedby his pre-Christian life of sin (see on Ephesians
2:1), he would now have to think of the eternal life, which begins with the
resurrection, and he could the less think of anything else than of this real
resurrection-life, since afterwards there is further expressedthe translation
togetherinto heaven, and then, in Ephesians 2:7, the intention of God is
referred to the times after the Parousia. And had not already Ephesians 1:18
f. pointed definitely to the future κληρονομία?How, in this connection, could
a reader light upon the merely ethical, spiritual quickening (Romans 6:4 f.; 2
Corinthians 5:15; Galatians 2:19 f.)? No, God has made believers alive with
Christ; i.e. in Christ’s revivification, which God has wrought, theirs also is
included. By virtue of the dynamic connectionin which Christ stands with His
believers, as the head with its body (Ephesians 1:23), their revivification is
objectively comprehended in His,—a relation, in fact, of which the Christian
is conscious in faith; “quum autem fides suscipitur, ea omnia a Deo
applicantur homini, et ab homine rata habentur,” Bengel. So the matter
stands in the view of the apostle as accomplished, because the making alive of
Christ is accomplished;the future actual making alive, or, as the case may be,
change at the Parousia (1 Corinthians 15:23), is then the subjective individual
participation of that which is already objectively given on the part of God in

the resurrectionof Christ. Certainly Paul might, in accordancewith another
mode of looking at it, have expressedhimself by the future, as at 1
Corinthians 15:22; cf. Romans 8:17; but who does not feelthat by means of
the aorist(“ponitur autem aoristus de re, quae, quamvis futura sit, tamen pro
peracta recte censeatur, cum … alia re jam facta contineatur,” Fritzsche, ad
Rom. II. p. 206)the matter stands forth more forcibly and triumphantly out
of the believing conviction of the apostle? οὓς ἐδικαίωσε τούτους καὶ ἐδόξασε,
Romans 8:30.
The ΣΎΝ in ΣΥΝΕΖΩΟΠ. is by Beza, erroneouslyreferredto the
coagmentatio gentium et Judaeorum, a reference which is forbidden by the τῷ
Χριστῷ; and by Grotius, Koppe, Rosenmüller, and others, it is explained ad
exemplum (comp. Anselm: sicut), by which the Pauline idea of fellowship with
Christ, which also lay at the bottom of Ephesians 1:19, is quite arbitrarily
explained away.
Comp. on Colossians 2:13;Romans 8:17; 2 Timothy 2:12.
χάριτί ἐστε σεσωσμ.] by grace (not by merit) are ye partakers ofthe Messianic
salvation!an impassioned(hence expressedin the secondperson), parenthetic
reminding the readers of the divine basis of the salvationwhich had accrued
to them, designatedby συνεζωοποίησε;a reminding, which was very natural
for the apostle in general(for its tenor was the sum of his doctrine and the
constantecho of his own experience, 1 Corinthians 15:10), and more especially
here, where he represents the quickening of believers as accomplishedwith
the making alive of Christ, which could not but repel even the most distant
thought of personalmerit. In connectionwith ΣΥΝΕΖΩΟΠ. Τ. ΧΡ. the
possessionofthe Messianic bliss is designatedas an already accomplished
fact, although it was before the Parousia (Colossians 3:3 f.) merely a
possessionin hope (Romans 8:24), and the final realization was yet future
(Romans 5:10). That the ΧΆΡΙΤΙ emphatically placed at the beginning (for
“gratiamesse docetproram et puppim,” Bengel)means the grace of God, not
of Christ (Beza;comp. the inserted οὗ in D* E F G, Vulg. It. Victorin. Aug.
Ambrosiaster), is manifest from the context, in which God is constantly the
subject.

[141]For, as to the factthat καί, also, always lays the stress upon that word,
before which it stands, see Haupt, Obss. Crit. p. 55 ff. Klotz, ad Devar. p. 638.
[142]Bleek describes this view of mine as probably the correctone, and
follows it.
Expositor's Greek Testament
Ephesians 2:5. καὶ ὄντας ἡμᾶς νεκροὺς τοῖς παραπτώμασιν:even when we
were dead by our trespasses. The condition of death in which we are by nature
is now reaffirmed, and in a still more emphatic waythan in Ephesians 2:1.
The καί is not the copula, simply attaching one statement to another (Mey.),
nor a mere repetition of the καί of the opening verse, nor = “also,”“alsous”
collectively(which would require καί ἡμᾶς), but the ascensive καί = even
(Syr.-Phil., AV, RV, Ell., etc.). It qualifies the ὄντας (while the νεκροὺς is
thrown emphatically forward), and heightens the sense ofthe greatnessofthe
Divine power—as a poweroperating on us when we were yet held fast in the
state of inexorable death. The τοῖς defines the trespassesas those already
mentioned in connectionwith that state of death, and so has much the sense of
“our”.—συνεζωοποίησεντῷ Χριστῷ: quickenedus togetherwith the Christ.
Some authorities (including B 17, Arm.) insert ἐν before τῷ Χριστῷ; which is
favoured so far by Lachm. and gets a place in the margin with WH and RV.
But the mass of authorities omit it. The συν-, therefore, of the compound verb
refers to the Χριστῷ, and the idea expressedis that of fellowship with Him,
not the fellowship or comprehensionof Jew and Gentile alike in the Divine act
of quickening (Beza). Here again the article probably designates Christin His
official relation to us. The quickening here in view is understood by some
(including Meyer)to refer to the first act in the raising of the dead at the great
day; the following verbs συνήγειρεν, συνεκάθισεν being similarly understood
in the literal sense, as referring proleptically to events that belong to the
ultimate future. Thus the standing rather than the moral condition is
supposedto be primarily in view, the idea being that when Christ was raised
from the dead we also as members of His body were raisedin principle with
Him, so that the resurrectionof the future which we awaitwill be simply the
application to the individual of what was accomplishedonce for all for the
whole of His members then. It must be admitted that the analogous passagein
Colossians 2:12-13, whichassociatesthe quickening with the forgiveness of
trespassesandthe blotting out of the hand-writing of ordinances, on the whole
favours that interpretation. Looking, however, to the express and particular
description of the worldly walk and the conversationin the lusts of the flesh,
which is given in Ephesians 2:2-3, and which seems to explain what is said in

Ephesians 2:1 of the state of being “dead by trespassesand sins”;and having
regard also to the application to the moral life which is made in the second
half of the Epistle, most interpreters understand the quickening here affirmed
to be that of regeneration—the communicationof spiritual life.—χάριτί ἐστε
σεσωσμένοι: by grace have ye been saved. So the RV, while the AV is content
with “are ye saved”. The idea is that they were savedand continued to be so.
The χάριτι is put emphatically first—“by grace it is that ye have been saved”.
The parentheticalmention of grace is in place. Nothing else than grace could
give life to the dead, but grace couldindeed do even that.
Cambridge Bible for Schools andColleges
5. dead in sins] Better, in respectof our trespasses.See onEphesians 2:1 the
constructionis the same.
hath quickened] Did quicken, i.e., bring from death to life; ideally, when our
Lord and Head rose to life; actually, when we, by faith, were united to Him.
togetherwith Christ] As vitally and by covenantone with Him. For all His
true “members,” His Death of propitiation is as if theirs; His Life of
acceptancebefore the Father, and of spiritual triumph and power, is as if
theirs also. As it is to Him the Divine pledge of the finished work of
satisfaction, thatpledge is theirs; as He appears in it “in the powerof
indissoluble life” (Hebrews 7:16), they, “becauseHe lives, live also” (John
14:19). For the phrase cp. Colossians 2:13, which fixes the main reference to
Acceptance. See accordinglyRomans 4:25; “He was raisedagain by reasonof
our justification.”—Anotherreading, but not well supported, gives, “He
quickened us togetherin Christ.”
(by grace ye are saved)]Lit. ye have been saved;and so Ephesians 2:8. The
verb is perfect. More usually the present tense appears, “ye are being saved;”
e.g. 1 Corinthians 15:2; 2 Corinthians 2:15 (“them that are being saved; them
that are perishing”); the Christian being viewedas under the process of
preservationwhich is to terminate in glory. See 1 Peter1:5. And againa
frequent meaning of the noun “salvation” is that glory itself, as in the text just
quoted and Romans 13:11. Here, where the whole context favours such a
reference, the reference is to the completeness,in the Divine purpose and
covenant, of the rescue ofthe members of the true Church. From the Divine
point of view that is a fait accompliwhich from the human point of view is a

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