Participating in the New Creation in Ephesians

Abstract

This article explores Ephesians, asking how the theme of the new creation is developed in Ephesians. Rather than specifying matters like authorship, date, and recipients, it takes a broad view of the situation of the letter so that the focus can be on exploring the theme. It argues that the new creation idea is developed in three main ways. First, while Ephesians has a decidedly realized eschatology, there are hints throughout the letter of the consummation when the whole Earth is freed from corruption and reconciled under one head, Jesus Christ. Second, particularly in chapters 1–3, the writer of Ephesians focuses on realized aspects of eschatology to strengthen the readers’ understanding of their identity in Christ and their status as people of the new creation. The writer does this to strengthen the readers to assume the posture of the new creation while living in a fallen world beset with sin and under spiritual powers. In Ephesians 4–6, the writer describes this new creation virtues the readers are to embody as they contend for God in the world. Finally, the article explores the missional appeal of the letter. The writer challenges the readers to embody the new creation ethic and join God’s mission that calls all humankind to believe in the gospel and become people of the new creation.

1. Introduction

On the face of it, Ephesians says little about the resurrection, eternal life, and the experience of the future new creation. However, there are futuristic hints that will be discussed in this article. Still, the overwhelming emphasis of the letter is life in the present. This realized eschatology has led many to believe Paul did not write Ephesians. Instead, it’s theology suggests its author was a later Christian steeped in Pauline tradition. Moreover, due to the present eschatological focus, little has been written on the new creation in Ephesians. As such, there is much to discuss concerning this theme as I will now seek to do.

After some brief comments on the background and setting of Ephesians, this article will seek to fill the lacuna by considering how the author explores the threads of the new creation in Ephesians. It will question how the writer imagines this new reality breaking into the present. It argues that by using a pronounced realized eschatology, the writer exhorts his readers to join God’s mission to bring the future into the present in Christ while embodying God’s character. These purposes will be achieved in three sections. First, it considers how the author imagines the new future creation. Second, it examines how the author draws on this new creation vision to deepen the readers’ understanding of their identity, status, and the ethic they are to embody in the present. Third, it assesses the vision for missional life in the interim between the breaking in of the kingdom of God in Christ (5:5) and “the coming age” (2:7).

2. Background Matters

Much ink has been spilled over the authorship, date, recipients, and setting of Ephesians. Such things must be mentioned due to the need to establish the setting when interpreting an ancient letter. However, rather than use up space considering these thoroughly canvassed things in this short article, I will maximize my focus on the letter’s content to ensure background matters do not obscure its rich eschatology. Still, it is crucial to establish a frame of reference for Ephesians. As such, I will work from these assumptions.

The letter was written either by Paul between 52–55 CE from Ephesus (Deissmann and Strachan 1910, pp. 229–30), 58–59 CE from Caesarea Maritima (Ellis 2009, pp. 266–75), or in 60–62 CE from Rome (Barth 2008a, pp. 1–3). Alternatively, it was authored by a theologically astute Christian steeped in Paul’s thought after his death between the mid-60s and 100 CE (Schnackenburg 1991, pp. 24–291). The recipients are specifically the Christians of Ephesus (Hoehner 2002, pp. 78–79), or it is a general letter to be circulated in Asia Minor (Lincoln 1990, pp. 1–4) or throughout the churches existing at the time (Goodspeed 1933). The emphasis on Gentiles in the letter suggests that most readers were Gentiles (Merkle 2016, p. 4). As the letter does not have firm evidence of one background issue, it is likely a general letter set against a range of matters the Church faced in the first century CE in Ephesus, Asia Minor, or the Roman Empire (similarly, Lincoln 1990, p. lxxxi). It encourages believers to understand their identity and status in Christ fully, to maintain unity despite cultural diversity, to understand the mission of God, to know Christ and God’s love more deeply, to live in a manner that pleases God, and to give them the confidence of God’s power (Arnold 2010, p. 45). I will use the cipher “Paul” throughout, aware that there are diverse understandings of the identity of the “Paul” of Ephesians.

3. Imagining the Future of the Coming Age

While Ephesians does not have a strong futuristic eschatology, there is still much to discuss concerning the future from the letter. Most of the material is inferential, although there are hints and indicators of the life to come.

The first indicator of the new creation is the long blessing prayer that launches the body of the letter. In the prayer, Paul blesses God because of the blessings Christians experience in Christ (1:3). These blessings are “in the heavenly places”, suggesting that they are sourced in “‘the spiritual dimension’ or ‘the unseen world of spiritual reality’” (Arnold 2010). These new creation blessings from Heaven have broken into the present experienced in union with Christ.

A rich array of present blessings follows from the inbreaking of God’s reign into the readers’ lives, including election, holiness, predestination, adoption, redemption, and forgiveness. These consequences are all due to God’s love and grace (1:4, 6–7) experienced in Christ. God has also made known to believers in the present the mystery of God’s will that accords with his good pleasure, which he planned in Christ (1:9).

In v. 10, we have a clear hint at the future. The prepositional phrase is launched by εἰς, which likely expresses purpose, “so that …” (Merkle 2016, p. 28).1 The term οἰκονομία has various possibilities related to administration (Lincoln 1990, p. 31),2 but here, “certainly refers to the plan of salvation which God is bringing to reality through Christ, in the fullness (πλἠρωμα) of the times” (Arndt et al. 2000, p. 698). While Paul uses τὸ πλήρωμα for the time Jesus was sent to be born under a woman and law in Gal 4:4, here it speaks of the culmination of his purposes in this age (cf. 2:7, the “coming age”) (Cohick 2020, p. 106).3

What will happen at the culmination of the times is ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι τὰ πάντα ἐν τῷ Χριστῷ, τὰ ἐπὶ τοῖς οὐρανοῖς καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἐν αὐτῷ. While the “idiosyncrasies of the oracular sentence are spectacular” (Barth 2008a, p. 89), the overall thrust is clear; God’s plan is “to bring together all things (Arndt et al. 2000, p. 541)4—things in the heavens and on the earth—in Christ”. In 1:22, using a fully realized eschatology despite ongoing resistance to Christ’s leadership, Paul states that all things are already under his feet. Ephesians 1:10 points to the culmination of the age, when all resistance to Christ’s headship is gone, and Heaven and Earth are united in and under Christ.

Having hinted at the future consummation, in 1:11, Paul returns to the present. The readers are elect, predestined according to God’s purpose and counsel because they believed and received the seal of the Spirit (1:11–13). The Spirit is also a ἀρραβὼν τῆς κληρονομίας ἡμῶν, “a deposit of our inheritance” (Arndt et al. 2000, p. 109.)5 As a deposit or first installment given by God, the Spirit is not the entire inheritance but a foretaste of the age to come (cf. 4:30). As such, the receipt of the Spirit anticipates the fullness of participation in God’s Pneuma that awaits the faithful in the eschaton. Paul’s prayer that “the glorious Father may give the Spirit of wisdom (Fee 2011, pp. 674–76) and revelation in the knowledge of him” in 1:17 implies that there is more to be experienced of the Spirit in the present. An aspect of such an encounter is that the readers will know “the hope of his calling” (Barth 2008a, p. 150).6 Hope here “refers to the consummation of their salvation” (Talbert 2007, p. 56). “The riches of the glory of his inheritance among the saints” includes the present experience of these blessings and the fullness of the new creation in the future (1:18). The power encountered is the divine might that raised Jesus and seated him beside God. What is experienced in the present is a taste of the power that will be fully experienced in the new creation (vv. 20–22).

The transformation of the readers in Ephesians 2:1–9 is couched in the present. Like all fallen humankind, the readers were formerly spiritually dead people who lived according to a fallen world, the spiritual powers of darkness, and the desires of the flesh. Therefore, they are subject to wrath (vv. 1–3). This “wrath” is “present and revealing itself” (Schnackenburg 1991, p. 93). Still, it culminates in eternal judgment (Arnold 2010, p. 134; Lincoln 1990, pp. 98–99).7

But now, God’s mercy and love have saved the believing readers, raised them from the dead,8 and seated them with Christ in the heavenly places—they are people of the new creation living in a fallen world (2:1–6). Verse 7 explains God’s purpose (Thielman 2010, p. 138; Campbell 2023, pp. 94–95)9. The purpose is that God may show “in the coming ages” (ἐν τοῖς αἰῶσιν τοῖς ἐπερχομένοις) “the all-surpassing riches of his grace in kindness upon us in Christ Jesus” (LEB). While some have challenged this view, preferring a realized interpretation, Campbell rightly asserts of “the coming ages”.

The expression here, however, is unambiguous since “ages” is qualified as “coming”, clearly pointing to the eschatological era that is yet to come. This means that the ultimate purpose of God saving believers through participation with Christ—that they would marvel at his grace and kindness—will be realized in the future, even though believers have already been given new life in him.

(Campbell 2023, p. 95)

As throughout Ephesians, Paul does not develop a futuristic eschatology further but immediately returns to the present, where his emphasis lies. The readers have no grounds to boast, for they have been saved through faith and not their works as a gift of God (v. 9). Verse 10 explicitly links this salvation to creation—believers are his creation, created in Christ Jesus to walk in the good works God has prepared for them (see further Section 5).

The unity of Jewish and Gentile believers in 2:11–22 is all couched in the present. God has brought together the hostile parties in Christ, forming a temple bound by the Spirit where the Lord now dwells. Paul’s life-calling is to proclaim the mystery of the gospel to bring about this renewed humankind in Jesus (3:1–8). Now, the many-sided wisdom of God, “hidden from the ages”, is known to the spiritual powers through this new humanity that was brought into existence “according to the purpose of the ages” in Christ Jesus (3:9–10). Paul does not take the next step to discuss “the coming age” (cf. 2:7) but focuses on the present age in which believers can approach God boldly and need not be discouraged by Paul’s afflictions (3:11–12).

The prayer of 3:14–21 is also present-focused, as Paul prays for the readers to be strengthened by the power of the Spirit and grasp the fullness of Christ (Keown 2024, pp. 189–91), as well as the love of God. The paraenetic section Ephesians 4:1–6:18 calls the readers to the life God wants for them. It is almost entirely present-focused but has spasmodic but important future notes. The appeal to live in unity in 4:1–6 is almost exclusively present in focus but touches on the future with the phrase “one hope of your calling”. Campbell notes that while Paul does not give the content of this one hope, there are many present aspects to it, including the blessings of God in Christ (1:3–14), the supremacy of Christ over his enemies and his headship for the Church (1:20–23), salvation by grace through faith (2:8–9), and the revelation of the mystery of Christ to the Gentiles (3:1–13).

He rightly concludes,

“God has been working his purposes out through history, and the ultimate reconciliation of all things in Christ (1:10) is an enduring hope that binds all believers”.

(Campbell 2023, p. 166)

The discussion of gifts and the Church’s growth in Ephesians 4:7–16 is again almost entirely realized in orientation. Nevertheless, it also speaks of the point at which Jesus “might fill all things” (v. 10b). This phrase recalls 1:10, where, in the administration of the fullness (πλήρωμα) of the times, all things are brought together in Christ. It is the point at which Christ’s body, his Church, fills all things in every way (1:23). Here, the consummation and new creation are portrayed as Christ filling “heaven and earth, principalities and powers, also the church, the body of Christ” (Barth 2008b, p. 434); just as God is “over all, and through all, and in all” (4:6). While the point of complete unity, maturity, and growth into Christ hints at the consummation, the emphasis is again present (4:11–16).

There are two new-creational moments in Ephesians 4:17–32. First, Paul speaks of the new person in Christ who has left behind the old as one “created (κτίζω) in righteousness and holiness and truth” (Eph 4:24). The new person is a creation of God. As Baugh puts it, “Therefore the new man is the new existence in the inaugurated new creation, which was pioneered by the resurrected Mediator as first fruits” (Baugh 2015, p. 375). Second, Paul urges readers not to “grieve the Holy Spirit of God (cf. Isa 63:10), by whom you were sealed (cf. 1:14) for the day of redemption” (4:30), “the final consummation of believers’ salvation (cf. 1:10, 14)” (Klein 2006, p. 132). Still, besides these two new-creational notes, Paul does not dwell on them, continuing to exhort the readers to live Christ-like lives in the present.

The appeal to imitate God and Christ’s sacrificial love and renounce false living in Ephesians 5:1–6 adds two futuristic eschatological notes. Recalling 2:3, Paul speaks of those who live in disobedience (“sons of disobedience”) being excluded from the reign of Christ and God and experiencing wrath. First, the person who is sexually immoral, impure, and greedy (an idolator) “does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (5:5). The sinful and unbelieving person has no future inheritance in the eschaton, nor do they have the deposit of the Spirit guaranteeing this inheritance.

Second, because of these things, “the wrath of God is powerfully coming on the children of disobedience” (5:6) (Burton 1898, pp. 15–16.).10 These children are those who participate in the sins above. Paul does not dwell on the specifics of this wrath here, nor in 2:3. Here, in 5:6, “wrath” stands in antithesis to “an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ”, and so here it also has a future aspect that contrasts with eternal life (Lincoln 1990, p. 327). If the writer is Paul or in agreement with his broader theology, the wrath discussed in Romans 2:5, 8 that culminates in destruction is likely in view (Rom 9:22). The specifics of the wrath are undefined in other similar Pauline texts (Col 3:6; 1 Thess 1:10; 2:16; 5:16). It undoubtedly involves judgment. The usual options discussed in theological scholarship apply, including eternal torment in fire, eternal torment in separation from God, and being destroyed for all eternity (annihilation and conditional immortality) (Burk et al. 2016).11

The focus in Ephesians 5:7–6:24 is present living. The only hint at the age to come is Ephesians 6:8, where each person, whether a slave or free, will receive back (κομίζω) from the Lord. Paul, elsewhere, uses κομίζω, the judgment where each person receives back for what they have done in the body (2 Cor 5:10). In Colossians 3:25, the term is used similarly as here of all people receiving back for doing wrong, without partiality.12 In Ephesians, because God will reward their good behavior, slaves should serve their masters. As God does not show favoritism, masters should also do good to their slaves (6:9).

4. Reinforcing Their Shared Eschatological Status and Identity

As mentioned, Ephesians has a muted futuristic eschatology. The emphasis is on life in the present based on the promise and power of the future. Paul writes imagining that the readers are already raised from the dead and seated in Christ Jesus in the heavens (2:7).

What is Paul doing in this letter by stressing the present eschatological dimensions of the Christian life? My thesis is that Paul emphasizes the present aspects of eschatology for three main reasons. First, he does so to strengthen his mainly Gentile readers in their status and identity as God’s people and for the challenges of living in first-century Asia Minor (similarly Lincoln 1990, p. lvi; Neufeld 2001, p. 184; Gombis 2010). Second, he writes to urge these new creation citizens to embody the ethics of the eschaton as they live in a world corrupted by spiritual forces and sin. The following section will explore a third reason: to engage in a mission to bring the people of the world into the new creation by grace through faith. This section focuses on the first two reasons.

By reinforcing their astonishing status and identity in Christ, the Ephesians are empowered to live the life God has for them. Paul achieves this not through flattery or praise of the Ephesians but by locating them in relation to God in his supreme Son Jesus—they are in him. The first three chapters, in particular, function as a long captatio benevolentiae13 or encomium14 leading into the paraenesis in chapters 4–6.

4.1. The Prescript (Eph 1:1–2)

Paul begins the letter in the prescript by telling them that they are “holy people” or “saints” (ἁγίοις). This designation assures them that they are sanctified now, and so they must be holy (1:4; 2:21; 4:24; 5:27). They are also “faithful” (πιστοῖς), emphasizing their fidelity to Christ. Right from the start, he stresses their identity as holy and believing people. They have this status ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ (in Christ Jesus). This phrase introduces a concept that dominates the letter, found thirty-three times in different forms.15 Twenty-five “in Christ” statements are in Eph 1–3, while only two use “in the Lord”. The “in Christ” statements emphasize their status in Christ Jesus. The other eight descriptors are in Eph 4–6, of which five are “in the Lord”, summoning them to obedience to Jesus as the risen Lord.

The Blessings of the New Creation in the Present (Eph 1:3–14)

The blessing prayer of 1:3–14 begins by praising God the Father of Jesus. Then it shifts to asserting their status as recipients of his spiritual blessings in Christ (1:3). In accordance with God’s love, will, predestined purpose, and work in Christ, they are chosen, holy and blameless before him, adopted as children, blessed in Jesus, redeemed, forgiven, and aware of God’s purposes to bring all of creation under Christ’s headship. As those who heard the gospel, believed and hoped in Jesus, and sealed by the Spirit, they are heirs (vv. 13–14).

4.2. Prayer to the Lord of the New Creation (Eph 1:15–23)

The prayer of vv. 15–23 again affirms their status and identity. Paul shows his optimistic view of them by first thanking God for their faith and love. He then petitions God the Father to deepen their knowledge and insight into Christ, their hope, and their shared glorious inheritance. He wants them to know who God is more and more. As they do, they will know more firmly who they are in Christ.

Supremely, in vv. 19–23, the apostle prays that they may know the immeasurable greatness of God’s power toward all believers (us, v. 19). This power is the new creation might that raised Christ from the dead, exalted him to God’s right hand, and placed him in total supremacy over all things, and over his body, the Church of God. Paul, here, affirms their status as God’s gathered people under Christ and recipients of his immense power. They are comforted and encouraged, knowing that although evil people and spirits invade the world, all powers in the universe are also subject to him (Arnold 2010, pp. 43–44).

4.3. Individual New Creations (Eph 2:1–10)

In Ephesians 2:1–10, again using an over-realized eschatology to assure them, Paul contrasts their identity and status before they believed the gospel and were sealed with the Spirit (vv. 1–3; cf. 1:13–14) with their present situation (vv. 4–10). Before their conversions, they were dead due to their sins. They walked in the ways of this worldly age, were followers of the prince of the power of the air (Satan) who worked in them as he does in all disobedient children, and lived to satiate their fleshly passions—the desires of their bodies and minds. So, like all fallen humankind, they were children of wrath destined for destruction.

In 2:4–10, Paul asserts their present status. Because of the richness of mercy, great love, and grace that flows from God, and due to their response of faith (not works), they are no longer dead in trespasses (vv. 4–5, 9). Instead, they are alive with Christ (v. 5), have been gifted salvation (vv. 5, 8), are resurrected with Christ, and are seated in Christ Jesus in the heavenly places. They are then resurrected and exalted in Christ. Two things flow from this. First, as discussed in the previous section, there is a future outcome: they are placed by God so that he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness in the coming ages (v. 7). Second, there is a present outcome (discussed further in the next section)—as his creation in Christ Jesus, they are to walk in the good works God has prepared for them (v. 10).

4.4. The New Creation Community (Eph 2:11–22)

Whereas 2:1–10 focuses on individual status, Ephesians 2:11–22 emphasizes their collective and ethnic identity in the present (similarly, Arnold 2010, p. 147). As in 2:1–10, Paul uses a “before and after” approach. He begins with the before in vv. 11–12. Indicating that most of his Church are Gentiles, he urges them, the uncircumcision, to remember how they were viewed by the Jewish people, the circumcision (v. 11a). He stresses five aspects of their former plight: they were separated from Christ, not citizens of the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, without hope, and without God (v. 12). As the writer shifts to their present status, he states this alienation in other ways—“far away” (vv. 13, 17), separated by a dividing wall of partition, in enmity (vv. 14, 16), one of two people groups (v. 15), and strangers and foreigners (v. 19).

Signaled by the powerful νυνὶ δὲ,16 and set against the backdrop of this former status, Paul asserts a fresh layer of their present identity and status “in Christ Jesus” in vv. 13–22. The redemptive death of Jesus has dealt with the sin that distanced them from God and his people so that, in his blood, they have been brought near to God and his people (v. 13). Jesus, who is “our peace”, has broken down through his death (his flesh) the dividing wall of hostility between Jews and Gentiles, making them one people (v. 14). The law of Israel is now destroyed. Now, the future has broken into the present in a new creation that has come to pass—one multi-ethnic community in Christ. Through and in Christ, God is creating one new multi-ethnic people at peace (v. 15). Through the cross, Christ has reconciled the two groups to God in his one body, putting to death the hostility (v. 16).

Verse 17 speaks of the proclamation of Christ to the world through his apostles and prophets, like Paul (2:20; 3:1–13, Klein 2006, p. 83). The word of Christ is going out to Jews and Gentiles, bringing into being the mystery of this one new creation people hidden for ages by God (3:9). Through Christ, Jews and Gentiles have access in and by one Spirit to the Father (v. 18).

Verse 19 asserts their new identity. They are fellow citizens with other believers (the saints) and members of God’s household. With the Church members being either Roman citizens or not, the declaration of shared citizenship for the whole Church would have had a substantial impact.

Paul imagines the Ephesians as part of a massive growing temple made of these citizens. Christ is the head of the corner of this temple (Bratcher and Nida 1993, p. 62), and he holds it together. It is built on the foundation of apostles and prophets through whom peace is proclaimed near and far (vv. 20–21). In Christ, this new creation is being built together into a dwelling place of God by the Spirit (v. 22).

4.5. Mission to Realize the New Creation (Eph 3:1–12)

The focus of Ephesians 3:1–12 is Paul’s role in God’s mission to bring this new creational people, inclusive of Gentiles and Jews, into existence. Still, he again asserts the present identity and status of the readers. They are “fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (v. 6, ESV). Their existence as “the Church” declares to spiritual forces (O’Brien 1984) the many-sided wisdom of God (v. 10). In the prayer of 3:14–21, Paul prays that they may be strengthened in their knowledge and experience of Christ and God’s love that underlies their identity and status as his people.

4.6. Living in the New Creation Now (Eph 4:1–6:20)

Having powerfully affirmed the readers in their status as God’s people, in Ephesians 4:1–6:20, Paul describes the realized eschatological life they are to live. The inferential conjunction οὖν, “therefore, so then” (Arndt et al. 2000, p. 736) signals this shift in v. 1. With the prominently placed παρακαλέω (Runge 2008, pp. 13–15), Paul strongly urges them to live (walk) in a manner worthy of the calling to which they have been called (4:1). The call they have received is their identity as God’s people that Paul has expounded in the letter thus far. He has variously described them as saints or holy people (1:1), faithful (1:1), those who are in Christ,17 the blessed (1:3, 6), the elect (1:4), the loved (1:5), children of God (1:5), the adopted (1:6), the predestined (1:6, 11), the redeemed and forgiven (1:7), those sealed with the Spirit (1:13), heirs (1:14), the resurrected and alive (2:5, 6), the saved (2:5, 8), the exalted—those seated with Christ in Heaven (2:6), new creations (2:10), those who are near to God by the Spirit (2:13, 18), one people with Israelite believers (2:13–16), those reconciled to God (2:16), fellow citizens in one realm (2:19), members of God’s household—his temple (2:19–21), and with access to God (3:12). As these people, they are to live in a particular way—in the eternal ethic of the new creation.

4.7. Core Virtues of the New Creation (Eph 4:1–6)

Ephesians 4:1–6 stresses the core virtues they are to express as called people of God in the world. Virtues include love, humility, gentleness, patience, and, above all, unity. They are one people who must maintain “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (ESV). Paul stresses this unity with a sequence of seven points: one body (Christ and his Church), one (Holy) Spirit, one hope (of new creation life with God, experienced now partially, and entirely in the future), one Lord (Christ, Thielman 2010, pp. 257–58), one faith, one baptism (water, Thielman 2010, p. 258), and one God who permeates all things.

4.8. Gifts Given to Grow the New Creation Community (Eph 4:7–16)

In Ephesians 4:7–16, Paul stresses how each member of the body in Christ has received different gifts from Christ. These gifts, including the core leadership charisms in v. 11, are to be used to grow the body of Christ—the people of the new creation. The leaders’ core task is to equip the members for works of service to that end (Campbell 2023, pp. 180–82), and the members must seek to be equipped to serve God in the world. As they are equipped and fortified to resist false teaching, the body will grow inwardly in unity and maturity and outwardly (O’Brien 1999, p. 299; Neufeld 2001, p. 198) as new people believe the gospel and are fused into Christ’s body.

4.9. The New Creation Has Come, the Old Has Gone (Eph 4:17–5:20)

Ephesians 4:17–6:20 is a sustained appeal to live the life of the eschaton that is realized in Christ and by the deposit of the Spirit in the present. Throughout Ephesians 4:17–5:20, Paul contrasts two ways of present living—that of the Gentiles and children of darkness and that of citizens of Heaven, new creations and children of God, set against the backdrop of the old creation. Central to this section is an appeal for these beloved children to imitate their Father God and his Son Jesus (5:1–2). Leading into the command, recalling 2:1–3, Paul contrasts their former ways of living with what is required now as new creations.

Formerly, as people of the old creation that is now passing away (cf. 1 Cor 7:31), they lived (walked) in the futility, darkness, alienation, ignorance, calloused hard-heartedness, sensuality, greed, and impurity of the Gentiles. Now, having learned about Christ through what they have been taught and heard, formed to be like Jesus (cf. Rom 8:29), they are to shed their corrupted and lust-filled former lives. They are to be renewed by the Spirit (Fee 2011, pp. 709–12) in their minds and put on their new self, “created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (v. 24). Formerly corrupted image bearers, they are now renewed people in the new Adam (cf. Rom 5:12–21; 8:29; 1 Cor 15:45–49; Col 1:15). Using their gifts (4:11–16), they are to transform the corrupted world into a garden through lives overflowing with the virtue of God.

Through verses 25–32, Paul contrasts the vices of the old age, which shaped them in their former lives as fallen image bearers, with the virtues of the new creation. Such attitudes must shape God’s people as they engage with the corrupted world. Falsehood is replaced by truth, anger must not lead to sin, the devil must not be given space, and theft is substituted by hard work and helping others in need. Rotten speech (λόγος σαπρὸς, O’Brien 1999, p. 344) must become appropriate, edifying, and gracious conversation, and the Spirit must not be grieved for it is the foretaste of redemption. Bitterness, fury, anger, raised voices (κραυγή, lit. “shouting”, Arndt et al. 2000, p. 565), slander, and malice are superseded by kindness, compassion, and the same forgiveness that they have received in Christ.

Ephesians 5:1–14 focuses on living out their status as God’s children and renewed image bearers. It begins with another consequential (οὖν, “therefore or so then”) appeal to be imitators of God as his loved children. Unlike Adam, they are to image their Father in the world. Just as they are to forgive because they are forgiven (4:32), they are to live (walk) in love as they are loved. The supreme example of this love is the image bearer par excellence, Jesus, who embodied love in his redemptive sacrificial death. Transformed into his image, readers are to emulate his life, giving themselves as living sacrifices to God (cf. Rom 12:1).

Verses 3–14 explain what this life looks like in the present with another set of contrasts between this fallen age and the one to come. The children of God are also saints or holy people (v. 3b). They must put away all forms of unholiness, such as sexual immorality, impurity, idolatry (greed), shameful behavior, foolish talk, crude joking, and replace it with gratitude (vv. 3–4). Paul warns the children of God and saints: those who live in these ways will have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God (v. 5). Admonishing them to ignore words that contradict what he has just said, he warns them that God’s wrath is coming on the children of disobedience who have given themselves over to such vices (v. 6). The clear implication is that while they are presently seated with Christ in Heaven, any radical failure to live up to the ethic of the new creation in the present could see them similarly disqualified.

Not only are they not to even name and give place to such vile behaviors (vv. 3–4), but they also must not partner with those who do these things (cf. 2 Cor 6:14–18). While they were once children of disobedience who dwelt in darkness and did its unfruitful works, now they are light in the Lord and must live (walk) as children of light. They are to produce its fruit, all that is good, right, and true, and seek to discern what pleases God. Instead of living in a vice-full way, they are to expose what is evil with the light of goodness without speaking of such falsities.

Verse 14 is likely an early Christian hymn sung at baptism (Barth 2008b, p. 574) as the initiate was immersed in water and quickly brought up out of it into new creation life. It reminds readers of the transition from death to life they have experienced in Christ. As new creations, like the sun and moon that supply light in the creation narrative (Gen 1:4–5, 14–19), the light of Christ shines on them, giving life. As such, they are to live in that new creational light—wisely and not foolishly, redeeming the time and seeking to discern Christ’s will (v. 15).

The final contrast in v. 16 is between inebriation and being Spirit-filled. The readers are to leave behind them the alcoholic debauched culture of the Gentiles (cf. 4:19; Lincoln 1990, pp. 343–44) and overflow in the Spirit. Such a life is one of worship as “they make music to the Lord” in their hearts (Lincoln 1990, p. 346) and constantly give thanks to God through Christ.

4.10. Family Life in the New Creation (Eph 5:21–6:9)

In Ephesians 5:21–6:9, Paul flows on instructing the Ephesians how to live as new creations in the present. The emphasis subtly continues the contrast between life in the fallen world and the new life of the eschaton, focusing on the family. Ephesians 5:21 hinges on the sub-sections culminating in Paul’s injunctions on worship and transitioning into the household code. As they join in grateful worship, all members of the Church who live in awe (Best 1998, p. 518)18 of Christ are to live in mutual submission. This injunction is astonishing, considering the strictly stratified world of the Romans. However, it expresses the fundamental ethic of the kingdom of God and Christ expressed at other points in Paul’s letters—mutual servanthood.

In what follows, Paul unpacks this injunction for relationships in the Christian home. He does so with three sub-sections—wives and husbands, children and parents, and slaves and masters. In each sub-section, he moves from the commonly agreed socially “inferior” partner in the relationship to the “superior”. In the first half of each, he reinforces the cultural norm—wives submit to husbands, children obey parents, and slaves obey their masters. In each, as I have previously argued, Paul subversively addresses the same person, the paterfamilias, redefining masculinity in terms of love, child-raising, and submission to slaves. The “man of the house”, then, should respond to the submission of wives and the obedience of children and slaves by loving his wife with the same sacrificial love Christ shows in his death for his Church (5:25–33), raise his children in the Lord without anger and provocation (6:4), and serve his slaves (6:9). His injunction replaces the stratification of the Roman household with mutual submission (5:21) and servanthood (Keown 2016).

4.11. Soldiers of the New Creation (Eph 5:21–6:9)

Having equalized the family members in 5:21–6:9, Paul introduces another way of describing their mutual identity—they are soldiers of God. There is no limitation to the audience in this passage; all the readers are included. Having just addressed the family, wives, the paterfamilias, children, and slaves are all conscripted to be soldiers. As he did in the previous passage, as he upturned the power structures of family life, Paul is daring in his choice of metaphor. Indeed, the image is dangerous as it is militaristic and could lead to Christian triumphalism and even violence if misunderstood. Still, Paul does not hold back. The children of God, the citizens of Heaven, and the saints of the new creation living in the present are to expect resistance and attack. They are to stand together and engage in the war. The weapons clarify that Paul is not advocating actual militarism but spiritual engagement. The passage is discussed more in the final section; suffice it to say that it again calls the readers to the same ethical life as previous passages. They are to be strong and united (cf. 4:1–6) and clothed in the armor of God (cf. 4:17–24). They are not to take up real weapons against human foes, but those of the new creation against spiritual powers that have been mentioned on and off through the letter (2:2; 4:27). Their armor consists of living righteously, calling people to reconciliation (Thielman 2010, p. 426), perseverance in faith, confidence in salvation, living by the word of God, and prayer in the Spirit.

5. Missional Living in the Already Not Yet

Throughout the letter, Paul deepens the readers’ understanding of their identity (Arnold 2010, pp. 45–46) and calls them to live by the ethics of the new creation in the present world (Osborne 2017, p. 146). They are to be radically different in the way they think and behave. As saints, they are to be holy and blameless (1:4). Loved by God and recipients of his kindness and mercy, they are to continue to love others in the same way (1:4b, 15; 2:4–7; 3:17–18; 4:2, 15–16, 32; 5:1–2, 25–33). Their lives are to be radically different from what they once were, shaped by humility, gentleness, patience, and peace. As God’s adopted children with full inheritance rights (1:5), they are to be children of light; living lives full of goodness, righteousness, and truth (5:9). Having been forgiven of sin, they are to forgive those who harm them (1:7; 4:31).

Despite their God-given diversity, as one body, citizenship, and temple, they must be unified in Christ by the Spirit (2:11–22; 3:6; 4:3–16). As saints and God’s children, their old selves and lives full of false attitudes from darkened hearts and minds are to be reclothed with the heart truth, righteousness, and holiness (4:17–5:15). Their homes and the whole Church community are to be Spirit-filled as they live in worship God with gratitude and serve one another (5:16–6:9). They are to stand together in the prayer and the ethic of the gospel refusing to yield to alternative value systems (6:10–20). Together, they give witness to the world by living in such a way.

Still, Ephesians is not just about loving interpersonal relationships among believers in the Christian community and giving ethical witness to broader society. While upholding this ethic resolutely and consistently, the letter calls for readers to join God in his mission to change the world by actively bringing the new creation into the present. Indeed, Ephesians is missional to its core, seen in a range of ways.

5.1. Praying for Paul’s Mission

First, the work of Paul the Apostle is featured at the beginning of the letter, its center, and its end. Throughout, he prays for the readers. In 1:1, he begins the letter with a straightforward description—he is an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. This description legitimizes the letter (Arnold 2010, p. 168). By describing himself as an apostle, Paul claims God’s authorization as a “sent one” because of Christ’s self-revelation on the Damascus Road and his commission to evangelize the Gentiles.

At the center of Ephesians, he devotes a substantial section to his role in God’s mission. He emphasizes his imprisonment by Jesus to spread the gospel of oneness in Christ to the Gentile world (3:1). Through the gospel he proclaims, with Jewish believers, that believing Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promises of God in Christ Jesus (3:6). Despite his previous life as “the least of all the saints”, he is gifted by God to preach God’s plan of salvation in Christ to the Gentiles (3:9).

He ends the letter by requesting their prayer that he would boldly continue this ministry of preaching (6:19–20). The Church is to be involved in Paul’s mission by praying for Christ’s ambassador that he would speak appropriately and boldly. This prayer request is consistent with other appeals in his letters, indicating that Paul envisaged the Church’s people partnering with God’s missionaries in prayer.19

5.2. The Evangelistic Work of Missional Leaders Local and Beyond

The first mention of these figures is the apostles and prophets in Ephesians 2:20. These unnamed and unidentified people form the foundation of the multi-ethnic people of God formed into a household or temple in Christ by the Spirit. At first blanch, these people would include the OT prophets and the Twelve commissioned by Jesus (minus Judas plus Matthias [Acts 1:26]). However, the second mention in Ephesians 3:5 indicates that both groups were present-day (at the time of Ephesians) ministers of the gospel (Fee 2011).

Ephesians 4:11 strengthens and adds to this impression. Paul names five leadership charisms (Wallace 1996, p. 284)20 that function in the churches, including apostles and prophets. While some limit the apostles to Paul and the Twelve, the apostles include other local Church missionaries (Dickson 2003). Their focus was likely the foundational role of planting churches (Stott 1979, p. 161; Keown 2008, pp. 177–84). The prophets were those like Agabus, Silas, Judas, and Philip’s daughters and those Paul speaks of in 1 Corinthians 14, who brought a dynamic word of God in the early Church (Westcott and Schulhof 1909, p. 40). The evangelists are perhaps those who did not plant churches but continued preaching the gospel in a given context. The final two may be one group (“pastors that teach”), indicating those whose primary task is to shepherd and instruct the people of the churches (Hodge 1858, pp. 226–27). More likely, there are two groups, including shepherds and those who are gifted teachers in the churches (Hoehner 2002, pp. 543–47). The existence of these leaders indicates Paul wanted his churches to continue the work of ministry in the world through these leaders—planting churches, bringing God’s Spirit-given word, preaching the gospel to the lost, pastoring churches, and teaching Christians. Each church planted will be formed on those five charisms with Christ as the cornerstone. As apostles moved on, the apostles of the local Church would plant new ones in the same way so that the new creation would invade the old.

Ephesians ends in 6:21–22 with a direct mention of one of these key local figures in the work of the gospel, Tychicus. He is essential to Paul as he is described as “beloved” and “faithful”. As a brother (ἀδελφός) and minister (διάκονος), he is a coworker of Paul, actively using his gifts in church planting, evangelism, and discipleship. His work is Christ-endorsed, as he is a minister in the Lord. He is clearly the letter bearer, indicating he has been with Paul at his point of imprisonment.21 He has been tasked with telling the readers everything and encouraging their hearts—itself a missional task.

5.3. Indications of the Church’s Active Engagement in Mission

The letter does not include any direct imperatives to preach the gospel to the world. This absence can lead to the conclusion that besides the gospel workers he mentioned (apostles and evangelists), Paul did not want his readers to engage in active evangelism in the broader community (Bowers 1991; Dickson 2003). However, there is also no prohibition to engage in congregants sharing the gospel in the letter, meaning we should not assume the silence implies Paul did not want them to preach the gospel (cf. O’Brien 1995; Plummer 2006; Keown 2008). Moreover, as I will show, some themes and texts point to the active engagement of others in the mission of God. In fact, the letter has an implicit missional appeal. Readers are challenged to join God, Paul, and other gospel workers to bring the new creation they are now a part of into existence through prayer, the ethical life of the unified community, and doing good works and evangelism.

5.3.1. Imitation of Paul

Unlike other letters,22 Ephesians does not include any injunction to imitate Paul. However, arguably, the imitation of Paul is implicit in his description of his commitment to the gospel in the letter. As he is an ambassador in chains (6:20), the Ephesians readers, as fellow citizens (2:20) in the household of God, who wish to be equipped by its leaders (4:12), and as soldiers with feet shod with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace and wielding the sword of the Spirit (6:17), are challenged rhetorically to promote the gospel in their context.

5.3.2. The Cosmic Theology of the Letter

The cosmic theology of the letter subtly challenges readers to participate in God’s mission to the world. The purpose of God is to “bring all things together under one head”, Christ (1:10). Jesus reigns over the world, and God fills all things (1:21–23). The scope of the mission is the world of the Gentiles, including all those in Ephesus and beyond (2:11). The message of Christ must go to all of them if they are to believe, be included in Christ, and be sealed with the Spirit (1:13–14). While Paul is a capable man called to preach the gospel to these nations (3:1–9), he is in prison (6:19). Even if he is released, there is only so much one man can do (see below). Ephesians, then, presupposes many others rising to emulate him, even if Paul does not directly appeal for all Christians to do so.

In 3:10, the Church becomes a conduit through which God’s many-sided wisdom is made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. While one can argue this occurred merely through the existence of the multi-ethnic Church and that the principalities and powers are heavenly, not earthly, the verse opens the possibility that this making known is through the preaching of the gospel in the world by believers other than Paul and other specialists.

Similarly, the prayer beginning in 3:14 speaks of the Father, God of every family in Heaven and Earth, referring to the families (cf. 5:21–6:9) and nations that need to hear of this Christ and his inestimable love. The preface to Paul’s spiritual gift list includes a mention that God is over, through, and in all things (4:6), followed by a reference to Christ’s ascension “that he might fill all things” (4:10; similarly, Arnold 2010). These two texts suggest the need to proclaim Christ throughout the cosmos so that this God may be known through the permeation of the knowledge of his Son.

Noting this cosmic vision and Paul’s incarceration, it is crucial to locate Ephesians in the mission of God at the time the letter was written (60–100 CE). By the end of the first century, the Christian Church had been established in Rome, the Balkans, Anatolia, the Levant, and northern Africa. According to some estimates, and if we consider Ephesians was written at the end of the first century, there were around 7500 Christians by that time. If Ephesians was written in the 60s, it may have been as few as 1960 (Stark 1996, pp. 192–93; Hopkins 1998). The empire’s population was around sixty million (Stark 1996, pp. 192–93; Hopkins 1998) or around 250 million (United States Census Bureau 2024),23 meaning Christians comprised 0.003% of the world population. If Ephesians was written to churches in western Asia Minor, including Ephesus, the population of Ephesus alone was 200,000 to 250,000 (Hoehner 2002, p. 88; Trebilco 2004, p. 17). The population of Western Asia Minor would have been well over a million.24 As some have shown, the known world included a massive swath of area and people in Europe and the Russian Steppes to the north, east to India and China, south to Ethiopia, and west to Spain (Schnabel 2004, pp. 469–78; Keown 2018, pp. 261–62). As such, the task before the early Christians was monumental. With Paul in prison, Ephesians was indeed written to inspire people to join the evangelistic mission of God, and it would have been read as such.

5.3.3. The Soteriology of Ephesians

The soteriology of Ephesians describes the need for sharing the gospel and implicitly calls readers to take up the challenge. In 1:13, Paul recalls the conversion of his readers: “You were also included (NIV; O’Brien 1999, pp. 118–19)25 in [Christ] (ἐν ᾧ) when you heard (ἀκούσαντες) the word of truth (λόγον τῆς ἀληθείας), the gospel (τὸ εὐαγγέλιον) of your salvation (τῆς σωτηρίας ὑμῶν), and believing in him (ἐν ᾧ καὶ πιστεύσαντες) you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit”. The readers believed in Christ due to hearing the gospel about Christ.

Paul describes the process by which salvation occurs (Keown 2021, p. 197). The gospel is preached and heard, the hearer believes, the believer is saved, and is sealed by the Spirit for salvation (cf. Rom 10:14–17; 2 Cor 1:18–22; Gal 3:2, 5; 1 Thess 1:5–6). Awareness of the process alerts readers to the imperative that someone preaches the gospel to others who are yet unsaved, captive to external and internal powers and forces, alienated from God and his people, and locked into the false lifestyles of their age (2:1–3, 11–12; 4:17–19; 5:3–14; 6:11–12). The awareness of the necessity of evangelism would inspire readers to create opportunities for their contacts to hear the gospel through their efforts or those of others (e.g., apostles and evangelists).

5.3.4. Good Works Prepared in Advance

Ephesians 2:8–9 neatly summarizes what is required for salvation: “For it is by grace you are being saved through faith, and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; not from works, lest anyone boast” (translation mine). Believers are saved from the state of lostness in 2:1–3 by grace through faith (vv. 8–9). Verse 10 then speaks of the status of those saved by grace through faith, and v. 10c speaks of what they are saved for: “for we are his creation, created in Christ Jesus (κτισθέντες ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ) for good works (ἔργοις ἀγαθοῖς) which God prepared beforehand (προητοίμασεν ὁ θεός) so that we might walk in them”. Christians (we) who believe in Jesus are saved, and in terms of their identity and status, have risen from death and are seated together in Heaven with Christ. They are God’s new creations living in the new creation. However, they live in the present to do good works God has previously prepared for them. These good works will include doing good to other Christians and those who are yet to be saved. These deeds will be performed with the godly attitudes Paul will outline in Eph 4–6. They will include all socially transformative good and involve godly speech, including sharing the gospel (cf. 4:12).26

5.3.5. The Example of Jesus

Jesus’ preaching ministry is mentioned in Ephesians 2:17: “And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near”. Using Isaiah 57:19, this text cleverly encompasses Christian preaching, including that of Jesus in Israel and those he sent in the Gentile world. Even though others have extended his work into the world, “Christ himself is the preacher (acting by his Spirit in his messengers)” (Bruce 1984, pp. 300–1).27

In the lead-in to the section on spiritual gifts (4:8–9), Christ’s missional movement is also mentioned as he descends into the earthly regions in his incarnation and crucifixion (Barth 2008b, pp. 431–34) and ascended to Heaven after having defeated the principalities, powers, and authorities (Arnold 2010, p. 251). From there, as the triumphant Divine Warrior, by way of the Spirit, he distributes gifts to his people (Gombis 2005, p. 373).28 These are to be used to establish the new creation on Earth now.

Later in Ephesians, Paul calls for the Ephesians to be imitators of God as his beloved children and do this by walking in love, “just as Christ loved us and gave himself for us as an offering and sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma” (5:1–2, translation mine). The call to emulate Christ is usually limited to ethical imitation—cruciformity. However, several things suggest that the scope of imitation would include the whole mindset of Christ, including a commitment to missional engagement.

First, as 2:17 indicates, Christ’s self-giving was in the service of his mission to preach peace to the world. Second, aroma language is used in 2 Cor 2:15–16 of evangelism. Those who preach the gospel are the aroma of God for both the saved and the unsaved. To the saved, they are the aroma of life; to the perishing, the stench of death. As such, the scope of this appeal for imitation should call the Ephesians not merely to be cruciform but also to share the gospel of the one who died to save the world. In their own time and place, Christians are to engage with the world as Jesus did by his descent to become human, give himself in service to God for the mission, and receive their heavenly reward. Paul’s understanding of service is missio-cruciformity.

5.3.6. Missional Engagement Among the Gentiles

It is true that Ephesians 4:1–5:15 focuses on living the life of the new creation in the present in marked contrast to the lifestyle of the Gentiles among whom they dwell. However, there is no hint that the readers should retreat from the world into holy enclaves. They are to live counterculturally but are to do so while being the new creation, living in unity, and embodying God’s ethics in the world they inhabit. As such, the paraenetic section is implicitly missional and transformational.

In Ephesians 4:11, Paul lists five leadership charisms for the Church that I mentioned earlier. Two of these, in particular, are outreach-orientated—apostles and evangelists. While prophets in Paul’s letters and other NT writings speak mainly in church contexts, Paul also sees a role for them in evangelizing outsiders and non-believers who attend church (1 Cor 14:20–25). Pastors and teachers (or pastors who teach) are focused on strengthening the Church internally toward edification, unity, and maturity.

In v. 11, Paul explains their role: πρὸς τὸν καταρτισμὸν τῶν ἁγίων εἰς ἔργον διακονίας, εἰς οἰκοδομὴν τοῦ σώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ. This text is understood in two ways. First, it gives three aspects of the leaders’ work: (1) the equipping of the saints, (2) the work of ministry, and (3) the upbuilding of the body of Christ. Second, it speaks of two elements of their work: (1) the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry and (2) together with the saints they equip, building up the body of Christ. In the first view, the leaders are the agents of all three clauses, whereas, in the second, the saints are equipped to participate in the work.

Barth has shown in his discussion that the latter view is preferred (Barth 2008b, pp. 439–40). The work of these leaders is to equip the Church for the ministry of the gospel in the world today. This work of ministry includes all things involved in church planting (apostles), bringing fresh messages from God in line with God’s revelation in Christ (prophets), evangelism (evangelists), and pastoring and teaching the Church (pastors and teachers). As such, the whole Church will grow in unity and maturity, intensively and extensively, as its people work in the Church and world. In this way, the new creation “invades” (see below) the old, renewing all things and bringing them together under Christ. In this way, he who reigns over the cosmos fills its every part.

5.3.7. Soldiers Engaging in Evangelistic Mission

The final passage in the body of the letter envisages all people in the Church, including the husbands/fathers/masters, wives, children, and slaves (5:21–6:9), Jews, and Gentiles (2:13–22), as an army. This army of the new creation, in Christ, is commissioned to “invade” the present broken creation. They are to do so clothed with the virtues of God and his Son and not those of the world, as explicated so powerfully in 4:1–6:9.

The passage calls readers to be strengthened in God’s power (v. 10). The language of putting on the whole armor of God in vv. 11 and 13 recalls 4:17–24, and therefore, what follows is a summative way of urging them to be clothed entirely in the entire ethic of God. Clad in the fullness of Christ, the Ephesians will be equipped to stand against the stratagems of the prince of the air they once followed toward destruction and who must not now be given a foothold, Satan (2:2; 4:27). Verse 12 reminds them that the war is not like that of the world (cf. 2 Cor 10:3–4), involving taking up arms in the service of a national or imperial political cause and slaying opponents with actual weapons (as Rome has carried out to seize control of the region). Instead, their combat is with the heavenly spiritual forces of evil (O’Brien 1984).

Verses 14–17 expound aspects of their armor, aligning them with appropriate pieces of the ancient warriors’ equipment. Cal in the armor, every Church member is to unite to defend and advance the gospel in the world. The weapons in view are huge concepts that encompass whole aspects of the gospel: truth, righteousness, and justice; a readiness to live, defend, and advance the gospel as they go about their daily lives; faith and faithfulness that protects them from Satan’s attacks; salvation; and the Scriptures and apostolic gospel of God. The final element of the armor is described as “the sword of the Spirit”, imagining the sharing of the gospel as wielding a sword to fend off Satan’s attacks and thrusting the sword into the hearts of opponents to spiritually kill them so that the Spirit can raise them to new creation life. They will then join the army and advance God’s reign through spiritual warfare. Finally, the readers must unite in prayer at all times and in all ways, including praying for the ambassador of God in chains—Paul.

6. Conclusions

Ephesians is a new creational document. Where the future is concerned, it is strangely quiet, making no explicit mention of a future resurrection of the dead, judgment, and eternal life in the new Heavens and Earth. However, without abandoning the future new creation, the author adopts a different approach, focusing on breaking the new creation into the present in Christ. Those who believe are in him and participants in the new creation individually and as a community. Whatever their culture, social status, and sex, they must be bound together by the power that raised Jesus, the Spirit. As such, Christians are to be people of worship intimately connected by love. Still, they should not withdraw from the broken world subject to sin and spiritual forces. Instead, they are to engage in the world, embodying the life of the new creation in the present. Through them, the new creation continues to “invade” the old, bringing life, salvation, and wholeness into the world through their unified life, ethical goodness, and gospel proclamation.