Salvation, Vocation, and Body Building: The Big Picture of Ephesians

What is salvation for?

It is not hard to lose the forest for the trees in Paul's letter to the Ephesians. The letter opens with some very complex themes that, because they meet us first, tend to occupy most of our attention and interest as we come to the letter for guidance and edification: election (1.4), predestination (1.5), adoption (1.5),  redemption (1.5), inheritance (1.11), salvation (1.13), the role of the Spirit, to name a few. 

As important as all of those themes are (and they are indeed foundational), its seems to me that part of what Paul is doing in his letter to the Ephesians is trying to get his readers to ask the question, What is this (election, adoption, redemption, salvation)  all for? 

What are we chosen for? What are we predestined for? What are we adopted for? Why have we been redeemed? And how does this all reveal God's glory and grace?

Those who have been shaped by the Reformed tradition will likely respond that all of this--election, predestination, adoption, redemption, and salvation--is for the purpose of glorifying God and enjoying him forever. Paul would no doubt say "amen" to that. But he might want to put more flesh on it; he might want to give more detail for how it is that we glorify God and enjoy him forever. 

We get a clue of what "this" is all for in the opening section of the letter, when Paul reminds us that the mystery of God's will has been revealed to us, the mystery that reveals the means by which we are redeemed and by which our trespasses have been forgiven, is for the purpose of uniting all things in the Christ (1.10). The verb that Paul uses here, anakephalaioo, means to 'gather together' or 'unite to its head.' The point is that election, redemption, forgiveness, and salvation are the means by which God brings about what God is ultimately interested in--uniting all things to His life through Jesus; sharing His life with the world through the Son; having the world share in communion with one another and with God (compare with Jesus' own prayer in John 17.24-26). 

Paul highlights what theologians call "the economy of God", which points us to God's unique triune identity. The Father is the architect who plans and executes His will (1.3-5); Jesus, the Son, is the gift of God that enables redemption and forgiveness (though Jesus is not limited to this, as we will see; 1:5-9); and this work of Jesus is made possible by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who enables us to receive Jesus and the gift of His life, and who seals us, marks us off, as belonging to God and to His people (1.11-14). Those who have had the opportunity to study the significance of the Trinity know that God's unique identity reveals that His nature is to share His life of love with others. God doesn't become love when the conditions are right; rather, God in His very being is love--from eternity; God is an eternal fellowship of loving delight; God is koinonia (Gk. for fellowship). So it comes as no surprise that bringing all things together, uniting all things (including peoples) that they may enjoy fellowship with God would be the telos, or goal of all that God is doing in the world. 

Body Building as Our Vocation

But Paul has more he wants to say about this goal. At the end of chapter one, Paul notes that Jesus, in his vindication as a result of the resurrection and ascension, has been placed above all things, and that He (Jesus) has been given as a gift to the church (1.22). The apostle then describes the church as the body of Jesus, and further details that this body is 'that which is being filled up completely' (1.22; my translation of this final clause). The church is being built, filled up. Ephesians 2.1-9 explains how this building project is accomplished. God moves towards those who are dead, those who have been cut off from His life, those who have been agitated and distorted by the prince of the power of the air (2.2), those who have been committed to the passions of their flesh (2.3), and has reached out towards them with mercy. Like the Good Samaritan (Luke 10.25-37), God is the one who has become our neighbor, who has seen our dire condition,  who has had compassion on us, and who has moved towards us and done mercy (Luke 10.37) for our sake. 

It is here that Paul then begins to develop in more detail what this is all for: we are His "workmanship", created (read built) in Christ Jesus for good works, which God, the architect and master planner, has prepared for us to walk in. It is important to note that the word translated "workmanship" in English is poiema, a word that in first century inscriptions often referred to a building project. Given the proliferation of building imagery in Ephesians, it is likely that Paul here wishes his readers to regard this word in this sense. We are God's building project. And it is a project in which chosen, adopted, redeemed, and saved ones are called to join in His project of building up Christ's body. 

Ephesians 2.11-22 gives further details about this building project. Paul, being a Jew shaped by the social imaginary of the Scriptures, assumes that the world is divided into two kinds of people: those to whom the one true God has revealed Himself, namely Jews; and those, because they do not know the one true God, have been alienated form His life and His people. As this revelation was worked out in history, the Law and its concomitant practices, which were ultimately designed to form a people that were intended to be a light to the world and a blessing for all people, instead became hostility and a dividing wall. Jesus,  by his blood, which is to say by his sacrificial death,  has broken down the hostility between these two categories of people. His death atoned for sin--both for those who were near (Israel) and those who were far off (gentiles). In so doing, God has made a new humanity (2.15), making a way for peace between the two. Echoing the overarching narrative of the Book of Acts, Paul affirms that through Christ and by the Spirit, both groups now have access to the Father (2.18). As a result, gentiles have been welcomed to sit at the table with Israel. Paul describes his joining in fellowship in terms of a building: you (gentiles) are now members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ himself being the cornerstone (2.20). Drawing on this building imagery, Paul declares that the whole structure is joined together into a holy temple, a dwelling place for God, made possible by the Spirit (2.22).

Election is for edification; adoption is for access into this shared life of building; salvation is for the sake of joining God in His mission of "gathering together" all things in Christ. In chapter four, Paul further explains how this building project works. Christ gives gifts to the church, people, who are given gifts and empowered as apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers to equip every member of the body to do the work of ministry, which he characterizes as "the building up of the body of Christ" (4.12). He underscores the importance of every member of this body in two ways. First, at the beginning of chapter four he notes that each one in this body that has received this one baptism into the one Lord by means of the one Spirit (4.3) has been given a gift to be used in service of edification (4.7). Second, he highlights that this body grows, becomes what it is made to be (a dwelling place for God) as each part works (see Eph 2.10) to build itself (the body) up in love, love that is received in the gift of Jesus by the Spirit (4.15-16). 

This is the foundation of our calling or vocation: "I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of your calling to which you have been called" (4.1). The English word vocation originally comes from the latin translation of this word "calling" in Ephesians 4.1. For there to be a "calling" there must be a Caller; one who has a voice and a will to which we are summoned. Paul affirms in Ephesians 4.1 that our foundational calling or vocation, is to be builders of the body of Christ, the church. Whatever else we do in this life cannot, must not, should not distract us from this foundational "good work" that God has prepared for us. We are made to be body builders. For Paul, this body building happens in particular, local assemblies that he calls the church. 

Resources for Body Building

It is helpful to see that one of the things that Paul does in Ephesians is remind us of a number of resources that God has given us in order to participate in this work of body building:

1. As we have already seen, the most foundational resource for our vocation is the very life of God. This is sometimes easily overlooked. But Paul insists that the only way in which we can walk in a manner worthy of our calling is to be brought into God's life of love and edification. We who were once alienated from God's life, we who were dead in our trespasses and sins, who have been deformed by the prince of the power of the air, have been made alive with Christ and by the Spirit (2.1-9). We are empowered to "walk in love" as beloved children (5.1). That is to say that our belovedness, our being loved by God and sharing in the Father's love of the Son, enable us to love as Christ loved us (4.32-5.2). To be a body builder, to live out our vocation, we must first receive--God's love and forgiveness. We don't build in order to hopefully one day earn God's love and acceptance. We receive God's love freely given to us in Jesus and by the Spirit, and that love equips us to be and do what we were made to be and do as chosen and adopted children of God. 

2. Paul also reminds us of a number of dispositions or attitudes that serve as resources for body building. These attitudes have been made possible by the work of God in our lives: humility, patience, gentleness, bearing with one another--all the dispositions that God has shown to us (Eph 4.1-2; Phil 2.5-8). Perhaps the chief disposition is that of gratitude, a fitting sign that we have indeed received God's gift of life in Christ and by the Spirit (Eph 5.20). Gratitude reminds us that we are what we are not by right or by might, but by grace through the faithfulness of Jesus (Eph 2.5, 9). This too must be practiced, especially in our age in which we are encouraged to assert our rights, where we are encouraged to think about all that we have as entitlements, and in which are conformed to think that all that we have is because of our own doing. 

3. These dispositions turn into practices such as forgiveness (4.32),  mutual submission (5.21-6.9), using our mouths and our communication to speak the truth and to build up others (4.17-4.31; 5.19-20). As practices, we must work at them, practice them if you will, incorporate them into our daily patterns and habits. Perhaps the point is that these practices do not come naturally; they are not yet second nature. 

4.  But the practice that makes all of these possible, and the practice for which all of these other practices exist is that of joining--coming together, sharing life and fellowship together. Perhaps one of the most surprising lessons of Ephesians (in our world that emphasizes individuality and self-sufficiency) is that we cannot do what we are called to do, we cannot walk in a manner worthy of our calling (4.1), by ourselves, alone, apart from the church. In Christ alone, does not mean in Christ, alone. It is in the local, particular, gathered assembly that we build the body of Christ. 

That which Destroys the Body

This leads us to a brief discussion of those things that destroy our calling to join and build up the body of Christ. To faithfully be the body of Christ, even in its local, particular expression, is to be a network of kinship in which we learn to recognize and then relinquish all other identities that seek to have priority in shaping and forming us as a people. We must learn to see each other in the body of Christ not as the world has taught us to understanding joining and belonging. That is to say that membership, fellowship in the body of Christ is not determined by race, socio-economic background, political affiliation, or any other worldly form of culture from which we tend to get our identities and sense of belonging. To be the body of Christ is to denounce belonging as a binary of adherence or betrayal of nationhood, "culture", or any other form of social construction that is not built on Jesus Christ and the Spirit. For as Paul reminds us, we have a new citizenship that supersedes all others--we are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the multi-racial, transnational household of God (Eph 2.19), where our foundational pledge of allegiance is to the petitions and vision of the Lord's Prayer, the empire of God and its king, Jesus. To try an unite around anything other than the blood of Jesus or the access given us by the Spirit is not only idolatrous, it is to build some other body. In short, we must learn to no longer see our belonging, our joining, our togetherness in the terms that are given us by the cultures that we inhabit. 

The Big Picture of Ephesians

In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, we learn that God sees. He sees in the dark; he sees the death, corruption, division, strife, hostility, and rebellion within us and surrounding us. He sees how we are both victims and victimizers. And when He sees, He has compassion. And in compassion he does mercy (compare Luke 10.37) by using His resources to save, heal, and, bless those who have been cut off from His life. As those who have been loved, chosen, adopted, redeemed, and saved, we are called to imitate the love we have received in and through the Christ. This love has as its goal the joining of people to share in His life, together. And when we do this, we both enjoy and glorify God. It is in the togetherness, in the joining, in the assembling together in local, particular bodies that we display God's glory,  which is His love. And as Paul reminds us, we display this not only to all other polities in this world, all other peoples or forms of gathering in this world; we also display this to the cosmos. For as Paul writes, the church, in its variegated beauty, in its multi-colored splendor, manifests the wisdom of God to the powers and principalities in the heavenly places, the cosmic powers of this present darkness, who seek to destroy the new humanity that God is building in and through Christ by His Spirit (3.10; 6.11-12). So when we join together in worship, we are not only bearing witness to one another, and we are not only saying something to God; we are also saying something to God's enemies. We are saying, "Behold, our God of love and life, whom sin and death cannot defeat or cut off!" We are saying that death and division are not the last words. Survival is not of the fittest; it is a free gift from the one who gives life to all and invites us to join him in his project of reconciliation, the uniting or joining of all things in the Christ.