Brian, yes, Ephesians was written to Christians. But, remember, Paul is writing to Christians who are being proselytized by the Judaizers.
"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God - not because of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. 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 - 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. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility, by
abolishing in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father."
Paul is taking task to explain to the Christians in Ephesus that the Gentiles were once "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".
Paul shows that the Gentiles need not become Israelites through the
ergon nomou in order to be joined to Christ because Christ has abolished "in his flesh the law of commandments and ordinances", making the Gentiles "no longer strangers and sojourners", but "fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God".
Fundamentally, Paul is addressing those
ergon (works), which pertain to the Mosaic Law or Torah (
nomou), which Jews in his day thought saved.
Paul, throughout the Pauline epistles, takes great effort to demonstrate that no longer are we under Law, but now we are under Grace. The Law brings with it a curse (because it is violated one way or another), and Jesus has taken that curse upon himself on the Cross.
Brian, it is essential that you read this article by James Akin:
http://www.cin.org/users/james/files/paul_law.htm
if we are to advance in our dialogue. I feel that "Jimmy" (as James now likes to be called) explains this very well.
Also, if you're really serious about studying Paul, I would suggest a short, yet incredibly helpful text. It is entitled
What Saint Paul Really Said: Was Paul of Tarsus the Real Founder of Christianity? by N.T. Wright. It's only 192 pages with generous margins.
Click Here.
With all of that said, it may seem like I am saying, "Brian, you see, Paul isn't speaking about moral works, but ceremonial precepts of the Mosaic Law when he says "not because of works" in Eph 2, therefore, I'm clearing the path to show that
our works of morality do save us."
I do not mean to affirm that. I repeat,
our works of morality, do not save us. What saves us is the purely gratuitous grace of Jesus Christ, which is freely given to us by faith.
However, when analyzing what this grace is and what it
does, Catholics are quick to recognize that the grace of Christ, received through faith, is not static. It is transformative. This means that God's life recreates us. And, in doing so, this means that when, in Christ, we do good works, it is not us. We are not doing the good works. We must assent to the grace through our own free will, yes, but ultimately, Christian morality is not accomplished by our own power. We are not sanctified through anything "we" do.
Catholics follow the Council of Trent, which defined our justification in very simple terms (yet elaborated upon this simplicity in great detail). It defined our justification as one thing:
Our sonship in Jesus Christ.
We are justified by becoming children of God.
And, since we recognize that becoming a child of God is a two-fold process of rebirth and sanctification - because we really do grow as children of God by the power of His Spirit, we recognize justification as entailing the entire life of the Christian, because we are continually being conformed to the image of the Son of God in this life.
I believe that fundamentally, there is a huge communications gap between us Brian. I see you seeing Catholics as perpetuating a Gospel that we aren't preaching.
Keep this in mind, Brian, constantly. Keep the Catholic teaching in mind. That is:
"
nothing that precedes justification, whether faith or works, merits the grace of justification" (Council of Trent,
Decree on Justification 8).
Also keep in mind that Catholics teach that sanctification and justification are inseparably bound up. Remember that Catholics see justification as the action attributed to the Son and sanctification as the action attributed to the Spirit. Catholics understand that we can't be sanctified without being justified and we can't be justified apart from being sanctified.
Since we grow in sonship as Christians in the Christian life, we grow in justification as we grow in sanctification and we grow in sanctification as we grow in justification. When Christ justifies us, the Spirit sanctifies us.
"For as by one man's disobedience many were
made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be
made righteous" (Romans 5:19).
Our being "made righteous" is our justification, and this entails the reverse of our being made sinners. Sin wasn't merely imputed to us. We were really made sinners. Righteousness isn't merely imputed to us. We are really made righteous by way of sanctification. And, if this is so, then it is proper and right to say that when we are being sanctified, we are being justified, because we are being made righteous.
Sanctification is our being recreated as children of God - that is, being made sons in the Son - which, according to Trent, is our justification.
[ May 20, 2003, 11:42 AM: Message edited by: Carson Weber ]
