Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

2:1-10 Salvation by Grace through Faith. This section, like 1:3-14 and 1:15-23, is a single sentence in the original Greek. The overarching theme is that God lavishes his grace on Christians through his saving initiative. There are two subsections: 2:1-3 and 2:4-10.

2:1-3 Hopelessness and Helplessness without Christ. "God helps those who help themselves" is not from the Bible but from the ancient Greeks. As Paul emphasizes in this section, the truth is the exact opposite: God helps the helpless! Even more, he helps his enemies who have transgressed his holy law.

2:1 you were dead. Human beings as sons and daughters of Adam enter the world spiritually dead. They have no inclination or responsiveness toward God and no ability to please God. Paul begins with this phrase then breaks off with other thoughts until he returns to it again in v. 5. trespasses. Violations of divine commandments. sins. Offenses against God in thought, word, or deed.

2:2 prince . . . spirit. This refers to Satan as he dominates his human subjects, here called sons of disobedience, a Hebrew-inspired phrase like "sons of this world" in contrast to "sons of light" (Luke 16:8). They belong to the family of those who rebel against the holy and true God.

2:3 by nature. To be sons and daughters of Adam is to be born into a fallen state (Ps. 51:5) and subject to God's condemnation as children of wrath. To escape this hopeless imprisonment requires nothing short of a new birth or a new creation (Eph. 2:10).

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