In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the saints and faithful in Ephesus there are three descriptions of the fallen condition of humanity. The first is in chapter 2:1–3 and describes the internal spiritual condition of those who are without Christ. The second, in 2:11–13, describes the external circumstances of the Gentiles prior to the revelation of the mystery of the gospel. The third, in chapter 4:17–19, describes the walk of “the rest of the Gentiles,” the unbelieving. Each of these paints a grim picture of our own fallen condition. It is, in fact, a picture unrelieved by any glimmers of light or hope.
2:1–3: The Spiritual Condition of All Men Apart from Christ
The key phrase in 2:1–3 is “dead in trespasses and sins.” The words “dead” and “alive” are important words in the letters of Paul. He talks about being dead to sin (Rom. 6:2, 11) and alive to God (v. 11). That’s redeemed man. But fallen man is dead to God and to righteousness and dead in sin. To be dead in sin is to be under the condemnation of Adam: “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen. 2:17). It is to have no spiritual life, to be without any righteousness, to be “wholly incapable of doing any good and inclined to all evil” (Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 8). “Good” here means what is of faith, according to God’s law and to his glory (Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 91). It is to be without knowledge of God, at enmity with him (Rom. 8:7), and a slave of sin (Rom. 6:6). It is to be a son of the Devil and in his image (Jn. 8:44).
The result of this spiritual deadness is walking according to the course of this world and according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience. Satan rules in the sons of disobedience, and they walk according to his ways along with the rest of the world.
Therefore, the sons of disobedience conduct themselves in the lusts of the flesh (which are all corrupt), fulfill the desires of the flesh and mind, and are children of wrath. They are subject to the wrath of God now and destined to die forever under that wrath in hell.
Notice that Paul says in verse 1 “you were dead in trespasses and sins,” but that in verse 3 he says, “we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of the flesh.” He includes himself, a Jew and a Pharisee of the Pharisees, among those who were once dead. What is true of the Gentiles is also true of the Jews. What was once true of Gentile believers was also once true of Jewish believers. All men are dead in trespasses and sins, unless redeemed by God who has “made us alive together with Christ” (2:5).
2:11–13: The Hopeless Circumstances of Gentiles
Chapter 2:11–13 focuses on the external circumstances of Gentiles prior to faith.
They were uncircumcised. Circumcision was a sign of the Abrahamic covenant, that God would be his God and the God of his children, that he would be exceedingly fruitful, be a father of many nations, have kings come from him and inherit the land in which he sojourned (Gen. 17:4–8). The Gentiles were not originally included in that covenant. God would not be their God.
They were without Christ. The Jews had Christ in the ceremonies of the law, but the Gentiles did not. They were altogether without a savior. The possibility of salvation did not really exist for them. The exceptions to this rule, like Rahab, Ruth, Uriah the Hittite and others, had to become Jews and submit to the ceremonial law to be saved. They were without Christ as Gentiles.
They were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. There God lived and had his throne represented by the line of David. There, and there only, he poured out spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Israel was God’s special people; the Gentiles had no place among them.
They were strangers from the covenants of promise. God made promises to Israel and excluded many even who were descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Ishmael, the sons of Keturah, Esau, and all their descendants received none of the promises that Abraham and his descendants received. Israel alone, out of all the nations of the earth, received the promise.
Therefore, the Gentiles in the Old Testament had no hope and were without God in the world. They were far off (v. 13), excluded by God’s election of Israel (Deut. 7:6–8) from all the great things God had promised and done for that one nation.
That’s what it meant to be a Gentile in the Old Testament. Yet, Paul does all in his power in the very verses we are considering to show these Gentile Christians that the distinction between Jew and Gentile no longer exists. He says, you were Gentiles in the flesh (not in the spirit), called uncircumcision by the prejudiced Jews whose circumcision was only in the flesh (not in the heart), and you have been brought near by the blood of Jesus. He broke down the middle wall of separation and made of Jew and Gentile one new man. His Spirit has given you access with Jewish believers to the Father. You are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.
Therefore, Gentiles were cut off from God, Christ, salvation and blessing in the Old Testament. Only the revelation of the mystery of the gospel has changed that (3:1–7). Most of us are Gentiles in the flesh, and these circumstances were ours by our birth.
4:17–19: The Walk of the Unbelieving Gentiles
In chapter 4:17f the apostle exhorts the Gentile saints in Ephesus that “you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk.” He goes on to describe how the rest of the Gentiles walk.
He says eight things about them, and we may divide these eight things into three groups. To the first group belong futility of mind, darkened understanding and alienation from the life of God. These describe the spiritual condition of soul from which the walk proceeds. The second group consists of ignorance, blindness and being past feeling. These are the underlying causes of the first group. The third group describes the walk itself: given over to lewdness and working all uncleanness with greediness.
Plato and Artistotle and many other unbelieving Gentiles have thought profoundly about many things. Who with any sense would deny it? Yet their thoughts are futile because they do not lead men to God or give them life, peace, security, happiness or, ultimately, any of the things they are looking for. They still perish in their sins and death feeds on them (Ps. 49:14).
Their thoughts are futile because their minds are darkened. They cannot receive the knowledge of God, and their inability is not a grief to them. They hate God and suppress even what God makes known in them. They change the glory of God into an image made like corruptible creatures (Rom. 1:18–23).
They are alienated from the life of God in the same way that they were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. They have no part in it. They choose death rather than life.
All this is because they are ignorant. Their ignorance is not due to lack of access to knowledge (Rom. 1:18f again), but to rejection of God’s revelation. It is a culpable ignorance. Even the wisest and most knowledgeable among them are ignorant in this respect, that they do not know God because they do not want to.
Their hearts are blind, incapable of seeing and unwilling to see.
They are past feeling. This is a somewhat difficult word to interpret, but the point seems to be that they cannot not feel sorrow for sin, the power of God’s condemnation, or even such fear of God as would cause them to do anything but curse him. Their consciences are seared and their hearts hardened against God and insensible to his word.
All this internal wickedness leads to a life of licentiousness, uncleanness and greed. According to Richard Trench in his Synonyms of the New Testament the word the NKJV translates as lewdness means wanton lawless insolence. It acknowledges no restraints. Trench prefers the translation wantonness, but not wantonness in a merely sexual sense. Rather wantonness in the pursuit of all sinful desires.
The word uncleanness also is not limited to sexual uncleanness but embraces every kind of immorality and impurity; love of money, malice, envy, apathy and laziness, theft and murder, idolatry and irreverence towards God.
Unbelieving men pursue uncleanness with greediness. I think that Paul does not have in mind here greediness for money. Instead, he means to say that they are greedy about the uncleanness they want to do. They have an insatiable appetite for the experience of wickedness, and they are never satisfied. Having fulfilled one lust, they find themselves hungry for more and worse things. The path of sin always leads downward.
Conclusion
In all these descriptions of the fallen state of mankind there is not one glimmer of light. There are no ifs, ands or buts, no relief from the darkness, no lightening of the burden of depravity. Man is dead, cut off from God, given over to wantonness and uncleanness. There is no good in him, nothing pleasing to God. He is abominable and filthy, drinking iniquity like water (Job 15:16). His only hope is Christ whom God has revealed in the gospel as the savior of Jew and Gentile alike.