JBTS 5.1 Introduction: Ephesians and the Powers by John Frederick

Introduction: Ephesians and the Powers

John Frederick

John Frederick (Ph.D) is Lecturer in New Testament and Greek at Trinity College Queensland in Australia. He is the author of Worship in the Way of the Cross (IVP, 2017) and The Ethics of the Enactment and Reception of Cruciform Love (Mohr Siebeck, 2019). John has planted and pastored churches in Phoenix and Boston, and he is a priest in the Anglican Church in North America

The Epistle to the Ephesians is a masterful work of inspired, canonical biblical literature that contains numerous famous scriptural passages and significant theological themes. Ephesians teaches us that, although we were “dead in our trespasses and sins “(2:1), God, in his mercy, has made us “alive together with Christ” by grace through faith apart from our own works (2:6–11). We learn, likewise, that in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God has made Jews and Gentiles “one new man” (2:15) by the “blood of Christ” (2:13), reconciling us to himself “ in one body through the cross” (2:16). Drawn together as one by the Spirit, states the author of Ephesians, God has made us into a temple and a dwelling place for himself (2:18–22)…