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were thus Jews and Gentiles. Yet here in Eph. 2: 3 "those who were by nature children
of wrath even as others, or the rest", will not fit into this category. To discover, as some
have, an answer to the problem by saying the "ye" of verse two refers to the Gentiles and
the "we" of verse three to the Jews, does not alter the fact that the Jews as well as the
Gentiles were "by nature" children of wrath. Josephus in his Antiquities, says of David
"but David fell into a very grievous sin, though he was otherwise naturally a righteous
and religious man" (Ant. 7:7,1). The laboured comment of Barnes in his commentary, is
a testimony both to his extreme sensitiveness to the thorny points of the problem, his
great reluctance to admit what is known as the depravity of our nature, yet his conviction
at the close, seems worth repeating here:
"And were by nature." By birth, or before we were converted. By conversion and
adoption they became the children of God; before that, they were all the children of
wrath. This is, I think, the fair meaning of this important declaration. It does not affirm
when they became to be such, or that they were such as soon as they were born, or that
they were such before they became moral agents, or that they became such in virtue of
their connexion with Adam--whatever may be the truth on these points; but it affirms
that before they were renewed, they were the children of wrath. So far as this text is
concerned, this might have been true at their very birth; but it does not directly and
certainly prove that. It proves that at no time before their conversion were they the
children of God, but that their whole condition before that was one of exposure to wrath.
Comp. Rom.2:14,27; 1Cor.11:14; Gal.2:15. Some men are born Jews, and some
heathen; some free, and some slaves; some white, and some black; some are born to
poverty, and some to wealth; some are the children of kings, and some of beggars; but,
whatever their rank or condition, they are born exposed to wrath, or in a situation that
would render them liable to wrath. But why this is the Apostle does not say. Whether for
their own sins, or for the sins of another; whether by a corrupted soul, or by imputed
guilt; whether they act as moral agents as soon as born, or at a certain period of
childhood, Paul does not say. The children of wrath, exposed to wrath, or liable to wrath.
They did not by nature inherit holiness; they inherited that which would subject them to
wrath. The meaning has been well expressed by Doddridge, who refers it "to the original
apostasy and corruption, in consequence of which men do, according to the course of
nature, fall early into personal guilt, and so become obnoxious to the Divine displeasure.
Many modern expositors have supposed that this has no reference to any original
tendency of our fallen nature to sin, or to native corruption, but that it refers to the habit
of sin, or to the fact of their having been the slaves of appetite and passion. I admit that
the direct and immediate sense of the passage is, that they were, when without the gospel,
and before they were renewed, the children of wrath; but still the fair interpretation is,
that they were born to that state, and that that condition was the regular result of their
native depravity; and I do not know a more strong or positive declaration that can be
made to show that men are by nature destitute of holiness, and exposed to perdition.
The term "by nature" here, must therefore refer to what man had become. Sin and
death had so invaded his nature as to distort his reason, give the reins over to the flesh,
and make him a slave to his own desires, so that he became an easy prey to the great
deceiver. Any other explanation of "by nature" here has the appearance of special
pleading, and goes against the obvious meaning of the Apostle. All this however but
leads us to the great thought of this section, the fact that the believer is associated with
Christ in His high exaltation. To look back to the depths from which we have been
called, is salutary. We will walk humbly, for all here is of grace. The change is
introduced in Eph. 3: 4 with the words "But God", a triumphant interference of
Omnipotent Love. To this we must devote our attention in the articles that follow.