Ephesians

25
Jul
2026

Rescuing Grace and Faith from Churchification

Grace and Faith

You’ve heard “for by grace you are saved through faith” from Ephesians 2:8 so many times it barely registers as a sentence anymore. It’s on coffee mugs. It’s cross-stitched and hanging on someone’s wall. If someone stopped you on the street and asked you to explain, in your own words, what grace and faith are and how they work together, could you? What does it mean that grace works through faith? Would you be able to explain that? A lot of Christians would struggle because these words have been repeated so frequently, we stop thinking about what they mean. They are now “churchy” words that are almost cliché.

But you have to look past the cliché to see what this passage teaches. Once you do, the picture is both simple and solid.

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in Ephesians, Faith, Grace
04
Jul
2026

What Baptism Has to Do with Ephesians 2:5-7

Baptism

Paul opened Ephesians 2 with a grim picture. We were dead. Not spiritual zombies who could not respond to God, but people walking a road that ended in judgment and death. We followed the flesh. Not a sinful physical body, and not an inherited corrupt nature, but a capacity for sin that every person carries and acts on by choice. We were “by nature children of wrath.” Not because we inherited guilt at birth, and not because we inherited a corrupt or sinful nature, but because a life spent chasing selfish desire naturally leads to wrath.

Then Paul writes two of the most important words in the whole letter: “But God” (v. 4). Mercy steps into our story and changes where it was headed. Verses 5 through 7 show us how.

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in Baptism, Ephesians
07
Mar
2026

Are We Born Sinners or Do We Become Sinners? What ‘By Nature’ Really Means in Ephesians 2:3

By Nature

Most people reading Ephesians 2:3 don’t slow down at the phrase “by nature.” They don’t need to because it seems obvious enough.

We are, the thinking goes, born corrupt and sinful. It’s in our DNA, inherited from Adam, baked into us before we take our first breath. The phrase “by nature children of wrath” gets read as Paul’s confirmation of what Augustine called original sin: a corrupted human nature passed down through the generations like a genetic defect.

There’s just one problem. That’s not what Paul meant.

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in Calvinism, Ephesians
06
Dec
2025

What Paul Really Means by “The Flesh”

When you hear the New Testament speak of “the flesh,” what comes to mind?

All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts… (Eph. 2:3 BEREAN)1

For many Christians, we might conclude it refers to our physical bodies. We think Paul is warning us against physical desires and bodily appetites. We assume the path to holiness means suppressing our physical nature. As it turns out, that’s not what Paul means at all! Because of our assumptions about what the flesh is, many of us may be fighting the wrong enemy.

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in Ephesians
29
Nov
2025

Spiritual Zombies? What Calvinism Gets Wrong in Ephesians 2:1

Zombies

Paul opens Ephesians 2 with a strong statement: “You were dead in your trespasses and sins.” Some readers jump straight to the idea of “spiritual death” (an unbiblical concept I explore in another article). Calvinists build an entire doctrine of total inability on this verse. By “total inability,” they mean that people are so corrupted by sin that they cannot believe in God, repent, or respond to the gospel unless God first gives them new spiritual life. So, they are totally unable to choose to follow God on their own; God must first give them the ability to turn to Him. 

Yet Paul was not talking about spiritual zombies who cannot respond to God. He was doing something far more grounded in the language and imagery of his world. Let’s slow down and follow Paul’s flow of thought.

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Posted by Eddie Lawrence in Calvinism, Ephesians, Original Sin