But the relevant point is this: While Paul is indeed saying the Law has been set aside, he says it in the context of a "therefore" paragraph which repeatedly affirms that Gentiles have now been integrated into the family of God together with the Jew. Naturally, a "therefore" passage with such an emphasis will cause the reader to look earlier in the chapter for some statement which "sets up" this conclusion that the Gentile is now on equal footing with the Jew.
And, although this is exceedingly damaging to your position, the statement in question is this:
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast
If we are open to the possibility that "works" here denotes "works of the Law of Moses (and this is, a priori, just as a good a possibility as reading this as "good works"), then we can see the logic of Paul's argument: The Jew cannot boast in salvation through his ethnic privelege as marked out by the works of the Law of Moses, therefore God has brought together Jew and Gentile into one family marked out not by an ethic charter such as the Torah but instead by faith.
And, in this context, a statement about the abolition of the Law of Moses is precisely the kind of thing one would want to assert if one had just denied Jewish ethnic privilege. Why? Because the Law of Moses was seen by the Jew as marking them out as "God's people" to the exclusion of the Gentile.
Yet another piece of evidence that, in verses 8 and 9, the writer is denying salvation by the works of the Law of Moses, otherwise salvation would indeed be for Jews only.
Drew, I want to say two things. I am glad you look at the text. I recognize that you give the text an honest effort. I see so many that really do not bother to wrestle with the text much.
On the other hand, I think you are really way off base in Ephesians and seem totally clueless what any part of the text is saying. I am wondering if you have even one verse in Ephesians 2 right. Maybe the feelings are mutual in that respect, but let me go through the text and demonstrate how verses 1 to 10 are a unit that speaks of human inability.
Verses 1-3.....
1 And you did he make alive, when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins,
2 wherein ye once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience;
3 among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest:--
***Verse 1 begins with a presentation of the problem of all men. They are born dead in sins and trespasses. Verse 3 raises the problem to the level of human nature. Verse 3 tells us what this "dead in sins and trespasses is all about." Verse 3 says we are rebels by nature... "by nature children of wrath." We can no more stop our rebellion then grow jump to Saturn in one leap. Both our inability to jump into space in one leap and stopping our rebellion is an issue of human nature and its inability. We are by nature dead in sins and trespasses.
***First, you read man as not dead and in rebellion. You see man as still capable of pleasing God and doing good works. Verses 1-3 are clear that man does only works that displease God and bring wrath.
Of course the answer to this problem is found in Verses 4 to 5. Verse 4-5 tells us that God overcame this deficiency of human rebellion and the nature of sins and trespasses. He did this by the fact that he "made alive" while we "were dead through our trespasses."
4 but God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved),
**** Now the term "made alive" is not something we can do to ourselves by our own works. That is something your interpretation demands. So then, your reading of verse 8 contradicts verse 1 and 3, and not it also is not in accord with verse 5. The term "made alive" is in the passive voice in greek. We had absolutely no part in making ourselves alive. Verse 4 begins with the term "but God." He is the subject of the sentence and the one doing the work. In your view of verse 8, we make ourselves alive and God helps a little by his grace. Of course that is absurd. The whole context is against such an absurd reading.
I love verse 7...
7 that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus: While I love the verse, you are saying that God shows us a little bit of his grace but we do some of the work too. When God shows his his grace in the ages to come, I think we will see how small and little we really are. We will be on our knees, not standing and boasting about the works we were able to do that contribued to our own salvation.
After all this, Paul writes verse 8 which is so obviously connected to the first 7 vereses and not some wrong Pharisaical concept of the law. Paul tells these Gentile Ephesian Christians that salvation is by grace and not works. At this point the reader of Ephesians knows that he cannot make himself alive (verse 1 and 5), that he is dead in sins and trespasses so much that he is "by nature a child of wrath." How would the reader take verse 8? Obviously not with reference to merely the works of the law of Moses, but as total and complete inability to do anything at all that pleases God.
Drew, we should not only talk about the material before verse 11 and the therefore, but we should talk about the material after verse 11. You do not even get that part right. Even the part after verse 11 is not talking about the Pharisaical misuse of the Law. Paul is not even talking to Jews. Notice verse 11.
11 Wherefore remember, that once ye, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands
First, notice Paul is not talking to Jews. He is writing to Gentiles. They are gentiles who are not circumcised and have no interest in being circumcised. The text merely mentions circumcision in the sense that it is the Jews that used language like this. This has nothing to do with a Judiaser concept that Gentiles must be circumcised.
*** I think in you mind you make these leaps. You see terms and do not read sentences. You see the term "circumcise" and so you make this leap to Judiaser issues. There is no such concept of "the works of the law" found in this verse. Paul is merely speaking to Gentiles and telling them what Jews call them.
In verse 15.....
15 having abolished in the flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that he might create in himself of the two one new man, so making peace;
In this verse he is not talking about the Judiasers and their insistence that Gentiles keep the law. Far from it Paul is saying the opposite. He is not even talking about the keeping of the law here. He is talking about how Jews and Gentiles were made one people when God abolished the Law. That concept is a far distance from the Judiaser concept of "keeping the law for righteousness."
Drew, my point is that the concept of doing the "works of the law" is not found in Ephesians 2:8, but it is not found anywhere in the book of Ephesians. I am not saying that it is not merely absent from 2:8, I am saying it is absent from the entire book.
Good for you! 