Ephesians 2:9 Themes and Topics

but when the time had fully expired, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to ransom those who were under the Law, that we might get our sonship.

for mine eyes have seen thy saving power which thou hast prepared before the face of all the peoples,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who in Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly sphere! He chose us in him ere the world was founded, to be consecrated and unblemished in his sight, destining us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ. Such was the purpose of his will, read more.
redounding to the praise of his glorious grace bestowed on us in the Beloved, in whom we enjoy our redemption, the forgiveness of our trespasses, by the blood he shed. So richly has God lavished his grace upon us! He has granted us complete insight and understanding of the open secret of his will, showing us how it was the purpose of his design so to order it in the fulness of the ages that all things in heaven and earth alike should be gathered up in Christ ??11 in the Christ in whom we have had our heritage allotted us (as was decreed in the design of him who carries out everything according to the counsel of his will), to make us redound to the praise of his glory by being the first to put our hope in Christ.

May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, grant you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation for the knowledge of himself, illuminating the eyes of your heart so that you can understand the hope to which He calls us, the wealth of his glorious heritage in the saints, and the surpassing greatness of his power over us believers ??a power which operates with the strength of the might read more.
which he exerted in raising Christ from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavenly sphere, above all the angelic Rulers, Authorities, Powers, and Lords, above every Name that is to be named not only in this age but in the age to come ??22 he has put everything under his feet and set him as head over everything for the church,

But, dead in trespasses as we were, God was so rich in mercy that for his great love to us he made us live together with Christ (it is by grace you have been saved); together with Christ he raised and seated us within the heavenly sphere in Christ Jesus, read more.
to display throughout ages to come his surpassing wealth of grace and goodness toward us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, as you had faith; it is not your doing but God's gift, not the outcome of what you have done ??lest anyone should pride himself on that; God has made us what we are, creating us in Christ Jesus for the good deeds which are prepared beforehand by God as our sphere of action.

For it was in him that the divine Fulness willed to settle without limit, and by him it willed to reconcile in his own person all on earth and in heaven alike, in a peace made by the blood of his cross.

He was predestined before the foundation of the world and has appeared at the end of the ages for your sake; Verse Concepts

and all the dwellers on earth will be his worshippers, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of Life. Verse Concepts

Verse Concepts

Supposing some of the branches have been broken off, while you have been grafted in like a shoot of wild olive to share the rich growth of the olive-stem, do not pride yourself at the expense of these branches. Remember, in your pride, the stem supports you, not you the stem. You will say, "But branches were broken off to let me be grafted in!" read more.
Granted. They were broken off ??for their lack of faith. And you owe your position to your faith. You should feel awed instead of being uplifted. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel. And to preach it with no fine rhetoric, lest the cross of Christ should lose its power! Those who are doomed to perish find the story of the cross 'sheer folly,' but it means the power of God for those whom he saves. It is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the sages, I will confound the insight of the wise. read more.
Sage, scribe, critic of this world, where are they all? Has not God stultified the wisdom of the world? For when the world with all its wisdom failed to know God in his wisdom, God resolved to save believers by the 'sheer folly' of the Christian message. Jews demand miracles and Greeks want wisdom, but our message is Christ the crucified ??a stumbling-block to the Jews, 'sheer folly' to the Gentiles, but for those who are called, whether Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the 'foolishness' of God is wiser than men, and the 'weakness' of God is stronger than men. Why, look at your own ranks, my brothers; not many wise men (that is, judged by human standards), not many leading men, not many of good birth, have been called! No, God has chosen what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame what is strong; God has chosen what is mean and despised in the world ??things which are not, to put down things that are; that no person may boast in the sight of God. This is the God to whom you owe your being in Christ Jesus, whom God has made our 'Wisdom,' that is, our righteousness and consecration and redemption; so that, as it is written, let him who boasts boast of the Lord.

Now I have applied what has been said above to myself and Apollos, to teach you ... that you are not to be puffed up with rivalry over one teacher as against another. Who singles you out, my brother? What do you possess that has not been given you? And if it was given you, why do you boast as if it had been gained, not given?

I do not venture to class myself or to compare myself with certain exalted individuals! They belong to the class of self-praisers; while I limit myself to my own sphere, I compare myself with my own standard, and so my boasting never goes beyond the limit ??it is determined by the limits of the sphere marked out for me by God. That sphere stretches to include yourselves; I am not overstepping the limit, as if you lay beyond my sphere; I was the very first to reach you with the gospel of Christ. read more.
I do not boast beyond my limits in a sphere where other men have done the work; my hope rather is that the growth of your faith will allow me to enlarge the range of my appointed sphere and preach the gospel in the lands that lie beyond you, instead of boasting within another's province over work that is already done. However, let him who boasts boast of the Lord; for it is not the self-praiser with his own recommendations who is accepted, it is the man whom the Lord recommends.

For it is by grace you have been saved, as you had faith; it is not your doing but God's gift, not the outcome of what you have done ??lest anyone should pride himself on that;

As he clung to Peter and John, all the people rushed awestruck to them in what was called Solomon's portico. But when Peter saw this, he said to the people, "Men of Israel, why are you surprised at this? Why do you stare at us, as if we had made him walk by any power or piety of ours? The God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified Jesus his servant, whom you delivered up and repudiated before Pilate. Pilate had decided to release him, read more.
but you repudiated the Holy and Just One; the boon you asked was a murderer, and you killed the pioneer of Life. But God raised him from the dead, as we can bear witness. (He it is who has given strength to this man whom you see and know, by faith in His name; it is the faith He inspires which has made the man thus hale and whole before you all.)

We hold a man is justified by faith apart from deeds of the Law altogether. Or is God only the God of Jews? Is he not the God of the Gentiles as well? Surely he is. Well then, there is one God, a God who will justify the circumcised as they believe and the uncircumcised on the score of faith. read more.
Then 'by this faith' we 'cancel the Law'? Not for one moment! We uphold the Law.

What are we to conclude, then? That Gentiles who never aimed at righteousness have attained righteousness, that is, righteousness by faith; Verse Concepts

Besides, Scripture anticipated God's justification of the Gentiles by faith when it announced the gospel beforehand to Abraham in these terms: All nations shall be blessed in thee. So that those who rely on faith are blessed along with believing Abraham. Whereas a curse rests on all who rely upon obedience to the Law; for it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not hold by all that is written in the book of the law, to perform it. read more.
And because no one is justified on the score of the Law before God (plainly, the just shall live by faith, ??12 and the Law is not based on faith: no, he who performs these things shall live by them), Christ ransomed us from the curse of the Law by becoming accursed for us (for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a gibbet), that the blessing of Abraham might reach the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promised Spirit.

For it is by grace you have been saved, as you had faith; it is not your doing but God's gift, not the outcome of what you have done ??lest anyone should pride himself on that; God has made us what we are, creating us in Christ Jesus for the good deeds which are prepared beforehand by God as our sphere of action.

Now faith means we are confident of what we hope for, convinced of what we do not see. It was for this that the men of old won their record. It is by faith we understand that the world was fashioned by the word of God, and thus the visible was made out of the invisible. read more.
It was by faith that Abel offered God a richer sacrifice than Cain did, and thus won from God the record of being 'just,' on the score of what he gave; he died, but by his faith he is speaking to us still. It was by faith that Enoch was taken to heaven, so that he never died (he was not overtaken by death, for God had taken him away). For before he was taken to heaven, his record was that he had satisfied God; and apart from faith it is impossible to satisfy him, for the man who draws near to God must believe that he exists and that he does reward those who seek him. It was by faith that Noah, after being told by God what was still unseen, reverently constructed an ark to save his household; thus he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that follows faith. It was by faith that Abraham obeyed his call to go forth to a place which he would receive as an inheritance; he went forth, although he did not know where he was to go. It was by faith that he sojourned in the promised land, as in a foreign country, residing in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob who were co-heirs with him of the same promise; he was waiting for the City with its fixed foundations, whose builder and maker is God. It was by faith that even Sara got strength to conceive, bearing a son when she was past the age for it ??because she considered she could rely on Him who gave the promise.

For God never goes back upon his gifts and call. Verse Concepts

But each one of us is granted his own grace, as determined by the full measure of Christ's gift. Verse Concepts

Sin's wage is death, but God's gift is life eternal in Christ Jesus our Lord. Verse Concepts

For it is by grace you have been saved, as you had faith; it is not your doing but God's gift, not the outcome of what you have done ??lest anyone should pride himself on that; God has made us what we are, creating us in Christ Jesus for the good deeds which are prepared beforehand by God as our sphere of action.

Hence I would remind you to rekindle the divine gift which you received when my hands were laid upon you; Verse Concepts

Verse Concepts

Peter said to him, "Death to you and your money, for dreaming you could buy the gift of God! Verse Concepts

Nevertheless, from Adam to Moses death reigned even over those whose sins were not like Adam's transgression. Adam prefigured Him who was to come, but the gift is very different from the trespass. For while the rest of men died by the trespass of one man, the grace of God and the free gift which comes by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed far more richly upon the rest of men. Nor is the free gift like the effect of the one man's sin; for while the sentence ensuing on a single sin resulted in doom, the free gift ensuing on many trespasses issues in acquittal. read more.
For if the trespass of one man allowed death to reign through that one man, much more shall those who receive the overflowing grace and free gift of righteousness reign in life through One, through Jesus Christ. Well then, as one man's trespass issued in doom for all, so one man's act of redress issues in acquittal and life for all.

For it is by grace you have been saved, as you had faith; it is not your doing but God's gift, not the outcome of what you have done ??lest anyone should pride himself on that;

who has saved us and called us to a life of consecration ??not for anything we have done but because he chose to do it himself, by the grace which he gave us ages ago in Christ Jesus Verse Concepts

And why? Simply because Israel has relied not on faith but on what they could do. They have stumbled over the stone that makes men stumble ??33 as it is written, Here I lay a stone in Sion that will make men stumble, even a rock to trip them up; but he who believes in Him will never be disappointed. Verse Concepts

but since we know a man is justified simply by faith in Jesus Christ and not by doing what the Law commands, we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus so as to get justified by faith in Christ and not by doing what the Law commands ??for by doing what the Law commands no person shall be justified. Verse Concepts

Many will say to me at that Day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? did we not cast out daemons in your name? did we not perform many miracles in your name?' Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from my presence, you workers of iniquity.'

for no person will be acquitted in his sight on the score of obedience to law. What the Law imparts is the consciousness of sin. Verse Concepts

Selected by grace, and therefore not for anything they have done; otherwise grace would cease to be grace. Verse Concepts

But "the goodness and affection of God our Saviour appeared; and he saved us, not for anything we had done but from his own pity for us, by the water that means regeneration and renewal under the holy Spirit

There is a new creation whenever a man comes to be in Christ; what is old is gone, the new has come. Verse Concepts

Surely you know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into his death! Our baptism in his death made us share his burial, so that, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live and move in the new sphere of Life. For if we have grown into him by a death like his, we shall grow into him by a resurrection like his, read more.
knowing as we do that our old self has been crucified with him in order to crush the sinful body and free us from any further slavery to sin (for once dead, a man is absolved from the claims of sin).

he made us live together with Christ (it is by grace you have been saved); together with Christ he raised and seated us within the heavenly sphere in Christ Jesus, to display throughout ages to come his surpassing wealth of grace and goodness toward us in Christ Jesus. read more.
For it is by grace you have been saved, as you had faith; it is not your doing but God's gift, not the outcome of what you have done ??lest anyone should pride himself on that; God has made us what we are, creating us in Christ Jesus for the good deeds which are prepared beforehand by God as our sphere of action.

it is the mysterious Wisdom of God that we discuss, that hidden wisdom which God decreed from all eternity for our glory. Verse Concepts

Do you not know that as men who perform temple-rites get their food from the temple, and as attendants at the altar get their share of the sacrifices, so the Lord's instructions were that those who proclaim the gospel are to get their living by the gospel?

For it is by grace you have been saved, as you had faith; it is not your doing but God's gift, not the outcome of what you have done ??lest anyone should pride himself on that; God has made us what we are, creating us in Christ Jesus for the good deeds which are prepared beforehand by God as our sphere of action.

the command that meant life proved death for me. Verse Concepts

Every subject must obey the government-authorities, for no authority exists apart from God; the existing authorities have been constituted by God. Hence anyone who resists authority is opposing the divine order, and the opposition will bring judgment on themselves.

Then what about the Law? Well, it was interpolated for the purpose of producing transgressions till such time as the Offspring arrived to whom the Promise was made; also, it was transmitted by means of angels through the agency of an intermediary (an intermediary implies more than one party, but God is one).

and he saved us, not for anything we had done but from his own pity for us, by the water that means regeneration and renewal under the holy Spirit Verse Concepts

For it is by grace you have been saved, as you had faith; it is not your doing but God's gift, not the outcome of what you have done ??lest anyone should pride himself on that;

who has saved us and called us to a life of consecration ??not for anything we have done but because he chose to do it himself, by the grace which he gave us ages ago in Christ Jesus Verse Concepts

and he saved us, not for anything we had done but from his own pity for us, by the water that means regeneration and renewal under the holy Spirit Verse Concepts

who has saved us and called us to a life of consecration ??not for anything we have done but because he chose to do it himself, by the grace which he gave us ages ago in Christ Jesus Verse Concepts

Selected by grace, and therefore not for anything they have done; otherwise grace would cease to be grace. Verse Concepts

not the outcome of what you have done ??lest anyone should pride himself on that; Verse Concepts