“Spiritual Blessings in Christ,” Ephesians 1:3-14
Outline
I. Prolegomena
II. Introduction
III. Transition
a. In the Greek, verses 3-14 comprise one sentence and encompass the past, present, and future of God’s eternal purpose for the church. It is Paul’s outline of God’s master plan for salvation.
IV. Exposition
a. In 3-6a we are shown the past aspect, election.
b. In 6b-11 we are shown the present aspect, redemption.
c. In 12-14 we are shown the future aspect, inheritance.
V. Conclusion
“Spiritual Blessings in Christ,” Ephesians 1:3-14
Prolegomena
For the next several weeks, we will be walking through the New Testament book of Ephesians. While there are grounds for dispute with regard to the authorship and the date of the writing of the Epistle to the Ephesians, the majority view in the Church has long been that the Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Ephesians during his imprisonment in Rome from about 59 – 62 A.D. Paul’s purpose in writing this letter was to exhort Christians everywhere toward unity. The entire letter is centered upon unity in the Body of Christ for a common purpose in Christ.
Introduction
A woman hearing a preacher speak on predestination said, “Ah, I have long settled that point; for if God had not chosen me before I was born, I am sure He would have seen nothing to have chosen me for afterwards!”
Transition
The message of Ephesians 1:3-14 is simply this: believers are chosen from the foundations of the earth, redeemed in Christ, possessing an inheritance of matchless worth. Glory to God for so great a salvation as this!
In the Greek, verses 3-14 comprise one sentence and encompass the past, present, and future of God’s eternal purpose for the church. It is Paul’s outline of God’s master plan for salvation.
In vv. 3-6a we are shown the past aspect, election. Our salvation is secure from before the foundations of the world.
In vv. 6b-11 we are shown the present aspect, redemption. God saved us in Jesus Christ, who has paid the ransom for our sin, broken the shackles of our enslavement to Satan, and covered us with His righteousness by His blood.
In vv. 12-14 we are shown the future aspect, inheritance. We are the sons and daughters of God in Christ; adopted and given access to the glory of Heaven. We are no longer slaves to sin. We are sons and daughters of the Most High!
Exposition
There is perhaps no more hotly contested, misunderstood, or maligned doctrine in all of modern Christendom than the doctrine of election. It is contested because the implications of its understanding speak right to the heart of the nature or even existence of human free will and the nature of God’s love for us.
It is misunderstood because in our limited understanding it is complex. Its biblical presentation falls outside of our normal logical ways of thinking. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.” (Isaiah 55:8 NIV84) How can it be that God calls us to repent and yet salvation solely the work of God? This seems contradictory in human thought.
Men most often simply reject what they struggle to comprehend. This is simple and we see it every day. We reject what is not immediately accessible to us.
It is maligned because it is said to make God the arbitrary guarantor of salvation to whom He chooses. To assume this position, though, is to become the judge of God and lose sight of the enormity of His reign over the Universe and every individual human life. To malign the doctrine of election is to complete misconstrue it and to ignore it within the scope of its overall biblical context.
God does indeed require faith and repentance for salvation. God does indeed require that we incline our will toward His will in order to receive the gift of salvation. However, having received the grace of God, the Apostle Paul, cries out from a place of having received the overwhelming experience of God’s grace in salvation and the Apostle rejoices in God who saved Him according to His grace!
Those who malign the doctrine of election, which is so prevalent in the Scriptures, misunderstand the heart of the Apostle, writing under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, who rejoices that it is God who saved Him; God who draws him to repentance; God who secures salvation from before the foundation of the earth!
At the end of the day we owe every aspect of our salvation to God. If we used our lips to repent it is because God put breath in our lungs to do it! When we sincerely repent and receive Christ we are only able to do so as we respond to the preaching of God’s Word which He gave us, through the preaching of His servant whom He created and called, as we drawn by the Holy Spirit to repent.
The doctrine of election is not about the abolition of human free will. It is the total recognition that God, not man, is proactive in salvation. Before the foundation of the world He saved us in Christ.
Our salvation is secure and cannot be lost because it is God who saves, not man.
If you are uncertain of your salvation take heart and rejoice for it is God who saves! The biblical doctrine of election runs like a thread throughout the Old and New Testaments. It is there in plain sight.
There are those who say, but if God chooses those who He will save then how do I know that I am one of the elect; chosen in Christ from the foundation of the earth? Friend, if it is God who saves according to His radical grace, then why not you? It isn’t about you. It isn’t about me. Salvation is the work of God.
He draws, He calls, He saves; rejoice in so great a salvation as this! There are others who malign the doctrine of election saying that it makes God out to be the creator of some, many, solely for the purpose of damnation. This is not the case.
God is active in salvation, saving the elect. We who are saved owe everything to God for our salvation. He is passive in reprobation. That is, those who choose to follow the prince of this world through active denial of Christ or simple love of this world apart from seeking God, are allowed to continue on a path that leads to their own destruction. “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9 NIV84)
It is biblical. We have to deal with it to be at all consistent with the foundations of our faith. The doctrine of election is a pastoral doctrine.
It is the source of eternal security and great comfort for those believers who embrace the reality that my salvation is secure because it is God who, before the foundations of the earth saved me in Christ.
The Lord draws us to repentance and requires faith and those who have received the gift of faith leading to eternal life, having had their dead spirits awakened by the power of the Holy Spirit, rightly rejoice in the God of their salvation!
The trouble is that “We are not humble enough. We have not been sufficiently disciplined by the righteousness of God… we forget that we are “adopted” orphans. By nature we are not sons of God at all. We think of God as servant and not Lord. Have we not all the right to demand that the universe serve us?”
What a prideful heart indeed, that having been awakened by the light of Christ says within itself, “What a wise choice I made. I saved me because of my own good choice for Jesus? I am wiser than those who do not choose Him.”
Dear believer, strike such boastful thoughts from our hearts and rejoice in the God of our salvation, who in spite of us, not because of us, saved us in Christ!
Perhaps our difficulty in comprehending God’s work in sovereign election, saving us and securing our salvation from before the very foundation of the world, is that we have not rightly considered God’s work of redemption in Christ.
I read the story of a certain “convict, dying of a loathsome disease in the Arizona State Prison at Florence, was given a New Testament one day by a visiting prison worker. He started to read it and became so convicted of sin that he hurled it the length of the cell. When the Book landed on the floor, it fell open to the First Epistle of John. A verse boldly outlined in red caught the angry convict’s eye. He stooped down to look at it, and this is what he read: “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” That message brought him to his knees, crying out to God for forgiveness, for cleansing, for healing. He became a new man in Christ Jesus. He started a Bible class for the convicts, and in time secured an unconditional pardon from the Governor of Arizona. The governor’s pardon freed him from prison, but the pardon the Lord gave brought him purity of spirit, soul, and body, and through him brought many others into the Kingdom.”
In ancient Ephesus the local populace would have been familiar with the idea of a slave being freed by the paying of a ransom. Similarly, the ransom paid for your freedom from bondage to Satan through sin was paid with the blood of Christ. “All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast – all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8 NIV84)
Conclusion
“Our Sunday school superintendent had two new boys in Sunday school. In order to register them she had to ask their ages and birthdays. The bolder of the two said, “We’re both seven. My birthday is April 8, 1976, and my brother’s is April 20, 1976.” “But that’s impossible!” answered the superintendent. “No, it’s not,” answered the quieter brother. “One of us is adopted.” “Which one?” asked the superintendent before she could curb her tongue. The boys looked at each other and smiled, and the bolder one said to the superintendent, “We asked Dad awhile ago, but he just said he loved us both, and he couldn’t remember any more which one was adopted.”
In Romans 8:17, Paul writes: “Now if we are [God’s] children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ…” (NIV) Paul’s comparison is to adoption. By our faith in Christ we become his adopted brothers and sisters—adopted sons and daughters of God. As fully adopted and accepted children, we share the same inheritance as the begotten Son, Jesus.”
We are elected in Christ from before the foundations of the earth. Our salvation is secure because it is the act of God not men! It cannot be lost for the genuinely repentant believer because we can never lose that which we could never earn!
We are redeemed in Jesus Christ, who has paid the ransom for our sin, broken the shackles of our enslavement to Satan, and covered us with His righteousness, by His blood. We are free in Christ! We are free to run without shackles!
We have an inheritance for which we are utterly unworthy yet for the worth of His Son and the love of His creation, we are the sons and daughters of God in Christ; adopted and given access to the glory of Heaven. We are no longer slaves to sin. We are sons and daughters of the Most High! Amen.
