NOTES for Eph 2:1-10
Speaking of God's new people, Paul draws attention to what actually makes them a new people living in the Kingdom: salvation (vv. 8–9). For the apostle, however, salvation is not a momentary act but a process which begins at conversion and will be completed when the Kingdom is revealed to the world in all its fullness (vv. 4–7). Evidently, in Paul's view, salvation entails not only conversion but also the new life that begins for converts immediately afterward. Conversion itself means a transition from living by the laws of a world not yet transfigured, under the dominion of forces opposing God (vv. 1–3), to the life of the Kingdom, where different laws operate (vv. 4–6). But this transition is only the beginning. A new stage follows, involving not simply the converts' presence in the Kingdom, but also their participation in the process through which the Kingdom unfolds in all its fullness—a process whose completion is expected only at the end of time, with the Savior's return (v. 7).
Paul pays particular attention to the fact that human beings cannot influence this process by human effort alone. He specifically stresses that salvation in all its aspects is God's gift, possible only by grace, that is, through God's direct action (vv. 8–10). In speaking of “works,” the apostle evidently means what he sometimes calls “works of the Torah,” or “works of the Law,” in his other letters. In Paul's time, this was the name for what we would today call religious duties. For a religious person, fulfilling those duties is always a matter of primary importance. This is unsurprising, since such a person connects their destiny, in life or after death, with fulfilling them. Paul, however, explicitly emphasizes that salvation from sin and attainment of the Kingdom are impossible within the traditional religious paradigm, as philosophers sometimes call it.
Fulfilling religious duties brings no one closer to the Kingdom and takes no one farther from it. Religious duties do not obstruct salvation, but they are useless for attaining it. Thus anyone who decides to rely on religion, hoping it will help them attain the Kingdom and salvation, may ultimately find themselves empty-handed. The apostle therefore considers it necessary to warn religious people against an error that may cost them their salvation.