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Outline and comments on Chapter TwoI. Paul contrasts the present condition of the Gentiles
under the gospel of Christ with their past condition.
A. Their past condition:
1. Were dead in trespasses and sins. 2:1, 5
2. Walked according to the course of this world. 2:2
3. Walked according to the prince of the power of the
air. 2:2
4. Walked according to the Spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience. 2:3
5. Jews and Gentiles alike had lived in the lusts of
the flesh. 2:3
6. Jews and Gentiles alike had fulfilled the desires
of the flesh and mind. 2:3
7. Jews and Gentiles alike were by nature (doing that
which was natural or carnal, following the wisdom
of the world), the children of wrath. 2:3
8. The Gentiles had been without Christ. 2:11-12
9. The Gentiles had been aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel. 2:12
10. The Gentiles had been strangers from the
covenants of promise. 2:12
11. The Gentiles had been without hope. 2:12
12. The Gentiles had been without God in the world.
2:12
13. The Gentiles had been afar off. 2:17
B. Their present condition under the gospel of Christ.
1. They have been quickened (made alive, granted the
remission of sins) together with Christ. 2:1, 5
2. They have been saved by grace through faith. 2:5,8
a. Not by works of the law of Moses. Galatians
2:16
b. Not by works of heathen mysteries.
c. Not by works of their own righteousness or
devising. Titus 3:5
d. Saved by an obedient faith in Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:1-2; Galatians 5:6; James 2:21-24
3. Jew and Gentile alike had been raised up together
(cf. Romans 6:3-5) and made to sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. 2:6
a. Note again that this was not accomplished by
the works of the Law of Moses or the heathen
mysteries, but in Christ.
4. Jew and Gentile created in Christ Jesus unto good
works. 2:10
5. In Christ they were made nigh by the blood of
Christ. 2:13
6. Christ had made peace between the Jew and Gentile.
2:14
a. Christ had made both Jew and Gentile one. 2:14
b. Christ accomplished the making of peace by
breaking down the middle wall of partition
(that which served to divide or keep separate)
between the Jews and Gentiles. 2:14
(1) That which divided or kept apart the Jews
and Gentiles was the law of Moses.
(2) Christ broke down the law.
c. Christ accomplished the making of peace by
abolishing in his flesh the enmity. 2:15
(1) Paul states that the enmity or that which
stood between the Jew and Gentile to divide
them was the law of commandments contained
in ordinances. 2:15
(2) The law of commandments contained in
ordinances was the law of Moses. 2
Corinthians 3:7-11; Colossians 2:14
(3) Paul says that Christ abolished the law in
his flesh, that is, in his crucifixion or
the offering of his body upon the cross.
2:15 Cf. Colossians 2:14
d. Christ abolished the law so that he might make
of the Jew and Gentile one new man. 2:15
e. Christ abolished the law so that he might
reconcile both Jew and Gentile unto God in one
body or church. 2:16
f. Therefore Christ came and preached peace unto
both the Gentile and the Jew. 2:17
g. Now that the law has been abolished both Jew
and Gentile has access by one Spirit unto the
Father through Jesus Christ. 2:18
7. The Gentiles were now fellowcitizens with the
saints. 2:19
8. The Gentiles were now members of the household of
God. 2:19
9. The Gentiles were now built upon the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ the
chief corner stone. 2:20
a. Jesus Christ, not Peter, etc., was the chief
corner stone.
b. In Christ the whole building (church – both
Jews and Gentiles) fitly (aptly, properly)
framed together groweth unto an holy temple in
the Lord. 2:21
10. In Christ the Gentiles (as well as the Jews) are
builded together for an habitation of God through
the Spirit. 2:22
Howard I. See © 1970
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