Bite 44: Access to the Father in Ephesians 2:11-22

Choosing What I Will Study Next

At this point in our study, we could easily move to how to find implications and how I might apply this passage. However, as I looked over our list, I put myself in the sandals of the original audience again. These were people who either didn’t know there was a One True God before the but now in Christ Jesus, or they were people who thought they had the ear of the One True God, but had to sacrifice animals, have ceremonial washings, and go through a priest, in order to have proper access.

What would it have been like to hear the words in Ephesians 2:18? For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. How did the original audience hear Paul’s words?

My First Steps

If you’ve been following along in this study of Ephesians, what would you think would be a first step? How about reading the passage? Or maybe translation comparison? I think either of those for first steps would be a great idea. Let’s go ahead and read our passage first.

Context

¹¹ Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— ¹² remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 

¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵ by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, ¹⁶ and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 

¹⁷ And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸ For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. ¹⁹ So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, ²⁰ built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, ²¹ in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. ²² In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Ephesians 2:11–22 (ESV)

Multiple Translations

What would I look at next? Yep, ESV and NET and NASB95 and LEB. When I compared them, they all used the same English word access in verse 17. That is interesting since usually one of the translations decides to use a different word.

Where Else is the Word Used?

Since it is translated using the same English word in every translation I looked, my next step was a Logos Word Study.

Cross References

Ephesians 3:12

In Ephesians, Paul used the Greek word behind the English word access twice. Obviously once in our passage, and once in Ephesians 3:12.

The context for these verses is that Paul tells his audience that he was given grace to preach the gospel to the Gentiles and tell everyone that God has had a plan to reveal his wisdom through the church to rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. From there he says,

¹¹ This was according to the eternal purpose

that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 

¹² in whom we have boldness and access with confidence

through our faith in him.

Ephesians 3:11–12 (ESV)

Our focus is on verse 12, but the referent for in whom we have boldness and access is Jesus as stated in verse 11. You know me by now, I like to be aware of what is happening in the verses surrounding cross references.

From Ephesians 3:12, how does Paul and the recipients have this access? In Jesus. Through faith. Let’s look at Romans next.

Romans 5:2

In Bite 43 which you can read here, when we were discussing Paul’s meaning in the Greek word behind abolished, I gave a little of the context from Romans 3-4. The gist, if you will.

What I see from this exercise is that it isn’t the law that is the issue when it comes to being justified. It’s faith. Faith in Christ is what God uses as the deciding factor in salvation according to this section of scripture.

Me in Bite 43

And then Paul tells his audience a result.

¹ Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,

we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

² Through him we have also obtained access

by faith into this grace in which we stand,

and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Romans 5:1–2 (ESV)

From these two verses, being justified by faith allows the believers to whom Paul is writing to have peace with God and access to God. Through Jesus. By faith.

More About My Process

In my ongoing efforts to bring you, fellow student of the Word, along in my process of how to study the Bible, here are my raw notes I took as I studied. If you can see how someone does it, it might give you courage to attempt such things on your own. Also, as you can see, my process is not glamorous. Rugged and coarse. And yet we can still learn.

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Continuing to Think About Access

If you are able to zoom in on the first 2 stickies up there, you are able to see that my trail of cross references meandered through the NT, reflecting my meandering mind.

Cross References, Briefly

In John 14:6, Jesus tells his audience that no one comes to the Father except through himself. That sounds like access from our Ephesians and Romans cross references, doesn’t it?

Twice in Hebrews (Hebrews 4:16, 10:19) the author tells his audience that they can with confidence draw near to the places that represent his presence: the throne of grace and the holy places by the blood of Jesus. Again there is an approach toward God through Jesus.

Romans, Less Briefly

Because there was a distinct correlation between what we have been studying in Ephesians, I decided to skim further in Romans. Getting to Romans 10:21, I noticed that Paul quotes Isaiah who was speaking for God.

²⁰ Then Isaiah is so bold as to say,

“I have been found by those who did not seek me;

I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.” 

²¹ But of Israel he says,

“All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.”

Romans 10:20–21 (ESV)

Wait. Let me understand this.

God has allowed himself to be found by people who weren’t looking for him?

But of those who knew he existed, God reached out to them and they rejected him?

God approaches pre-believers. All pre-believers.

This calls for cross referencing to Paul’s cross reference. We will look at Isaiah 65.

¹ I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;

I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.

I said, “Here I am, here I am,”

to a nation that was not called by my name. 

² I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people,

who walk in a way that is not good,

following their own devices…

Isaiah 65:1–2 (ESV)

Hermeneutical Side Note

I actually have a couple of side notes, but I will limit my comments here and put the bulk of one in a Basics.

1. Please notice that there is an example of synonymous parallelism in Isaiah 65:1. Hold that thought and anticipate an article that talks of the genre of literature that is poetry. This is a nibble that will help us to interpret poetry. I’m getting to it; hang on.
2. Paul interprets the OT for us in Romans. Do you see any identifiers of Israel in Isaiah 65:2? Isaiah clearly identifies a nation not called by God’s name (all the not-Israel). NET translates it that the nation does not invoke God’s name. However Isaiah, as far as I can see, does not clearly identify a different nation in Isaiah 65:2. In Romans, Paul does. We can know in Isaiah 65:2 that he speaks of Israel because Paul said so in Romans 10:21.

End side note.

Make a List

We’ve covered a lot of ground. In my study, I like to take a moment and collect my thoughts. Where have I been? Are there conclusions to be drawn or do I need to continue investigating? In order to organize my thoughts, I find the list to be a useful tool.

Next Step

Now that I can look at my data in one place, it seems like I have some clues about how to have access. But I don’t yet have data that lets me experience what it would have been like to hear this for the first time as I heard it among the original audience.

What did Paul mean? How would his audience have heard it?

Dictionaries

Starting with the Louw Nida which I have linked in my interlinear, here is a definition.

Louw Nida

33.72 προσαγωγή, ῆς f: the right or opportunity to address someone, implying higher status of the person addressed—‘approach, access.’ ἐν ᾧ ἔχομεν τὴν παρρησίαν καὶ προσαγωγὴν ἐν πεποιθήσει‘because of him we have boldness to address him with confidence’ Eph 3:12.¹

Hm. This definition perhaps gives us a little insight into the filter with which the original audience may have heard this word. There is a flavor of approaching royalty, or at least someone with higher rank. Comparing with other scholarly dictionaries will keep us off the neat-o-gesis track. (Yes, of course that is a real word. A real word Jeremy and I made up. You can read about it about midway through this Bite.)

BDAG

Eph 3:12. εἴς τι to someth. Ro 5:2. πρός τινα to someone Eph 2:18. A status factor is implied (compare X., Cyr. 7, 5, 45 of access to Cyrus for an audience).²

In this entry, there is another mention that there is status differential implied. The comparison the authors here ask us to consider is a secular text written in Greek (Education of Cyrus) and uses this word. Often scholars look to contemporary texts (relatively contemporary) in order to understand how the word was used in that time period.

TDNTA

prosagōgḗ. Found three times (Rom. 5:2; Eph. 2:18; 3:12), this word has the same range as proságein, but some take it transitively as “introduction,” others intransitively as “approach.” In Christ, however, this is immaterial, since we “move toward” God as we are “led.” “access” is perhaps the best rendering so long as we recall that Christ himself is our access (the door, Jn. 10).³

My English grammar is not so finely honed that I can carry on a conversation about transitive and intransitive, however the definition including information about moving toward God as we are led is picturesque. While I was originally taking notes in my study, I jotted this on a sticky as I poked around after reading that last entry:

After my exploration of John 10, when I returned to our passage, I also looked at the link to the unabridged version of the Theological Dictionary of the NT that I just quoted above. Normally I do just fine hanging out in the abridged volume. Some of the concepts in the full version are loftier than I can always use.

TDNT(with no A)

Clicking on the link, I was taken to a much lengthier article. I took a screen shot of the paragraph that uses more detail to describe what we read about in brief above.

Mounce

Noun: προσαγωγή (prosagōgē), GK 4643 (S 4318), 3×. prosagōgē means “access.” All three uses occur in Paul’s letters and refer to Jesus. Through Jesus we gain “access” into God’s forgiving grace (Rom 5:2). Furthermore, through Jesus all human beings, whether Jew or Gentile, can gain “access to the Father by one Spirit” (Eph 2:18), “approaching God with freedom and confidence” (3:12).*⁵

Mounce doesn’t clarify any definition components we have thus far, but he does confirm what some of the others have emphasized. Christ himself is the means by which anyone accesses the Father.

Let’s add to our list.

Access

• Through ✝︎ everyone can have access (Eph 1:18)
• Through faith in ✝︎, boldness and access (Eph 3:12)
• By the blood can have confidence to enter holy places (Heb 10:19)
• God approaches all the pre-believers (Rom 10:20-21)
• The right or opportunity to address someone (LN)
• Implies higher status (LN)
• Christ himself is the access or the door to the Father (TDNTA)
• Movement toward the Father accomplished in Christ (TDNT)
• (Jesus) is the door, if anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. (John 10:9)

Ooh! In that last verse, do you see a potential merism (you can read about merism here)? The NET says that also might be an idiom for living or conducting oneself in relationship to some community.⁶ In either case, the phrase is talking about life. Going in and out would also be opposite ends of a spectrum and thereby describe all of a person’s life.

Who Was in Paul’s Audience?

As we’ve discussed before in previous Bites (like here, and here to name a couple), there were both Jews and Gentiles in Paul’s audience. Additionally, we’ve discussed what it would be like to be a Gentile and go from an alien, stranger, outsider to belonging to a people group. In other words, to have access.

But what about the Jews? They had the opinion they were already “in” by virtue of their heritage. What was it like to hear the truth that they were now reconciled and had access with the Gentiles in the form of one new man? In order to understand this, we have to be able to put ourselves in their place.

A Little History

You know how Jesus says he came to fulfill the law? It was a lot of law. There were washings, sacrifices, special days of the week, sacrifices, food restrictions, more sacrifices. We aren’t going to go into all the regulations that were part of the OT Jewish religion. But suffice to say, there were a lot of regulations and a lot of blood in order to be close to God. In the book of Hebrews, we get a glimpse in this verse.

²⁷ He (Jesus) has no need, like those high priests,

to offer sacrifices daily,

first for his own sins and then for those of the people,

since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

Hebrews 7:27 (ESV)

The priests needed to offer sacrifices for themselves and then they would be able to sacrifice for the people. It was complicated and it was bloody. Also not going to discuss why it needed to be that way right now since it isn’t our point, but it did.

Requirements for “Access” Before Jesus

Fast forward from temple worship to post resurrection. In an abbreviated description, temple worship required the people to travel at least once a year (an expense and occasionally dangerous) to Jerusalem and sacrifice animals (another expense) in order to gain access to God. That access was not even really access to God but access to God through the priest who had access to God.

The people in Paul’s audience that were of the circumcision were these traveling worshipers who heard this good news and believed. Can you imagine going from performing all of these religious regulations to all of a sudden the law has been abolished (remember what that means here) and now you are one man with these unclean people?

For those who came from Jewish heritage, theirs were the promises and “access” to God. Now they were told “Hey guys! You get to be friends with God without any ceremony. No rules for access except acknowledging you are not worthy.” What would that be like?

And then what about the pagans that were the of the uncircumcision? In reality, every worshiper in the Roman world, Jewish or otherwise, had the cost of traveling to the temple of their god. If you bring to mind images of that corner of the world that is to this day dotted with ruins of temples to various gods. There was an entire pantheon of gods to please, placate, and try to access.

None of it was required any longer in Christ Jesus.

Reflection

The audience was comprised of circumcision and uncircumcision. The circumcision would have all the rules, regulations, and sacrifices fulfilled for them in Christ. Seems like a burden lifted in some ways. At the same time, we humans often like the boxes to check. All of their boxes were checked for them. They had nothing left to do but say “I believe in Jesus.” So some of their ability to “reach” God would have been removed. Do think this is still a problem for us today? More importantly, do I think this is a problem for me today? These kinds of questions are irrelevant when asked in a general sense. We are only responsible for our own hearts.

The uncircumcision would belong as we discussed here. No longer separated from Christ, no longer foreigners but were brought near. All they needed to do was say “I believe in Jesus.” What a sense of comfort and relief. Do I recognize that I have the same opportunity for rest in the comfort of God’s hearthside of the heart like the uncircumcision in the congregation?

Access to the Father happens the same way for those who started out far away and those who started out near.

Faith.

Faith in Jesus. In his flesh, by his blood, through the cross. That’s it. Access to the Father is accomplished.

Wrap Up

We will touch this topic again in the future, but briefly I want to mention the idea I brought up in the hermeneutic side note #2 up above. Our Bible Study Bite is that we need to understand the NT writers will occasionally interpret the OT for their readers. As progressive and scientific modern scholars, we can tend to think that in order for something to be “quoted” in the NT, it has to be verbatim. Word-for-word is required for accuracy to our Western minds.

No, no. That is not the Hebrew way. Paul was a Hebrew, remember? Yes, he wrote in Greek, but he was a self-proclaimed Hebrew of Hebrews. Precise language was not emphasized in his culture or in many cultures, even to this day, for that matter. When any NT writer interprets OT text, we need to read it not as a science textbook but remember our duty as students of the Word is to figure out what the author intended when he wrote the text.

The quote in Romans from Isaiah is not “word-for-word,” but it is clear what Paul is quoting. He clarifies information in the Isaiah text through his interpretation in the Romans text. Which then makes our job of interpretation easier since he has done some of it for us!

1. Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, pp. 396–397). New York: United Bible Societies.
2. Arndt, W., Danker, F. W., & Bauer, W. (2000). A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature (3rd ed., p. 876). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
3. Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (p. 20). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
4. Schmidt, K. L. (1964–). ἀγωγή, παράγω, προάγω, προσάγω, προσαγωγή. G. Kittel, G. W. Bromiley, & G. Friedrich (Eds.), Theological dictionary of the New Testament (electronic ed., Vol. 1, p. 134). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
5. Mounce, W. D. (2006). Mounce’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old & New Testament Words (p. 4). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
6. Biblical Studies Press. (2005). The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible. Biblical Studies Press.