Over the past couple of weeks we’ve looked closely at the content of these opening verses of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, and I can say here that we haven’t done more than scratch the surface of the volumes that could be said and written about them.
But as much as we have discussed them, we cannot stop and take this one phrase, and talk about it entirely separated from the words around it.
Let’s reach back to verse 2 for just a moment; one that we have not covered in our study, but pertinent to the things we’re going to talk about today, nonetheless.
This is Paul’s salutation. His greeting. But his choice of wording is very significant to the rest of this chapter, yes, the rest of this letter, because he greets his readers
“...from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”.
This is significant, infinitely significant, because he says, “OUR” Father.
All through His earthly ministry, Jesus referred to God the Father as My Father, yet after His resurrection He says this to Mary in front of the empty tomb:
“...go to My brethren, and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’”
This, He only could have said after the cross, because it was His work on Calvary’s cross that brought all who will believe into relationship with God. It was through Christ’s atoning blood that the Father adopted us into His eternal family; as we saw in verse 5 of our text:
“In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself...”
As we move through this epistle we’ll see in chapter 2 that Paul reminds us, as Gentiles (non-Jews), that we were once strangers to the covenant of promise, separated from Christ and without God in the world.
But now He calls us brethren, and says, ‘Grace and peace to you from OUR Father, who has blessed us, chosen us, predestined us and adopted us, and so much more’.
You may remember that last week I asked you to lay aside all of your impressions of what fatherhood is, based on your own history, if you have one, with an earthly father; and think only of God as a Father. Difficult as that may be to do, if you then look only at the scriptures for a portrait of a father, and see who God really is; how He talks about Himself, all that He has done for His creation, all that He has in store for us (as far as it is revealed to us), then you must raise your voice in praise and your heart in spiritual worship, as you begin to understand that in His role as Heavenly Father, He has loved you and will love you forever.
With that fresh in mind, I want to talk to you about why He chose us, in Christ, even before the foundation of the world.
God’s desire for us has always been that we be holy and blameless. He created Adam that way, of course, and it is interesting to note that God’s very first action following Adam’s fall from that position of holiness and blamelessness, was to provide a way to be reestablished in it, ~ and that ‘way’, was Christ.
In God’s curse of the serpent in Genesis 3:15, is the promise of One who would come and crush the serpent’s power and become the Redeemer of mankind through sufferings.
But I want to be careful to point out to you here, that God’s plan of salvation was not just a way to escape Hell; not just a way to gain access to Heaven.
That is often how we think of it, and indeed, it is usually the primary reason a person comes to Christ in the first place.
But we must not continue to think of salvation in that way. Escaping Hell and gaining Heaven are not the only, or even the primary reason for salvation.
Salvation means, primarily, being in right relationship with God. Nothing less than that!
As the new believer begins to learn and grow and establish a personal relationship with their new Lord, it is important for them to come to the realization that God wants fellowship; and His desire for us is to be holy and blameless, (are you listening?) before Him!
In Genesis 17 the Lord appeared to Abram at the age of 99, and gave him the grandest invitation of all: “I am God Almighty, walk before Me, and be blameless”.
And that invitation is extended to all mankind, through Christ.
Ok, long introduction: let’s get to it and talk about:
What is “holy”?
Well, being technical for just a moment, the Greek word for this is ‘hagios’. Vine’s dictionary of New Testament words says that “...fundamentally (hagios) signifies separated, (among the Greeks, dedicated to the gods), and hence, in Scripture in its moral and spiritual significance, separated from sin and therefore consecrated to God, sacred.”
What we’re talking about here is one of the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith; called ‘sanctification’.
The word ‘sanctification’ comes from the same root word as ‘saint’, ‘sanitize’, ‘sanctuary’, and others with the same prefix.
It means to be set apart, ~ not set aside as though useless, but set apart to something or someone for a specific reason and purpose.
It also has to do with purity. Cleanness. That’s where the word ‘sanitize’ comes from.
So when we say ‘holy’, we mean ‘set apart to God and made clean and pure, for His purpose and His use’.
Now there is a sense in which the Scriptures exhort us to ‘be’ holy.
In I Peter 1, the Apostle Peter speaks of our responsibility to put into practice in our lives, the kind of behavior that demonstrates godliness. Starting at verse 13 he says:
“Therefore, gird your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’”
In saying, “because it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’”, Peter is quoting from Leviticus, where the law was being given and the ordinances for worship laid out.
Interestingly, that command from our Lord is found three times in Leviticus; the Lord calling for the people to consecrate themselves to Him, and by their obedience demonstrate holiness, for He is holy.
He wanted them...He wants us, to be like Him.
Now the time will come when we will be perfectly holy; perfectly pure in every respect, because we will be glorified and in His presence forever.
Not so now. While there remains the call to follow holy examples and live holy (that is, separated) lives to the Lord, we are still in the flesh, and will continue to struggle against the flesh until we leave this life.
But here is what Paul is saying to us in Ephesians 1.
God, our Father, chose us before the foundation of the world, and made us holy ~ pure ~ set apart to Himself in Christ.
This is sanctification. God, wanting fellowship with us, knowing from eternity past who would respond to His call and believe in His gospel, chose us and through the blood of His Son, purified us, set us apart, and began the work of conforming us to the image of His Son...making us more like Jesus.
That is holiness. Sanctification. We are sanctified positionally, in that He set us apart once, for all time, to Himself. We are being sanctified progressively, as He teaches us to sow to the spirit and not the flesh, and through testings and trials and Spiritual communion with us, cleanses us daily and continues to make us more like Jesus.
The second term used by Paul here has to do with another of the fundamental doctrines of our faith; Justification.
What is justification?
My Romans students should be able to answer this question very eloquently by now; some of them can.
The definition I’ve taught them for this doctrine, word for word, is:
“Having been declared right with God through faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ and His resurrection, alone”.
Now I don’t know if some Bible scholars would disagree with me, that this doctrine is specifically stated in Ephesians 1:4 None that I read said as much. But to me the doctrine of justification by faith and the doctrine of sanctification are both clearly present and un-extractable from the context of this verse.
God wanted us to be right before Him...blameless, through the atoning work of His Son; and to be pure and fit for His Kingdom, being made like Himself; positionally and progressively.
“He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.”
Now I’ve said this many times before, and I will say it many times again.
The only correct teaching of the doctrine of salvation, which includes these doctrines I’ve mentioned today; Justification (having been declared right with God) and Sanctification (being cleansed and set apart unto God for His use and purpose), is that it is ALL of God, and by His grace alone.
No act or work of ours, no attitude or intrinsic worth of ours, no matter how religious we can be or obedient to religious traditions we can be, salvation is a work wrought by God, and we have absolutely no part in it whatsoever.
To interject anything, anything of ours as being somehow a part of our being saved, is to do harm to the message of the gospel, and is as much as declaring Christ’s sacrifice for us as insufficient.
There is plenty of scripture to substantiate these statements, as a very large part of each of Paul’s epistles is dedicated to setting these truths forth, and defending them against false doctrines.
Paul calls death the wages (or earnings) of sin. But eternal life is a free gift, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
He says that no flesh shall be justified by works of the Law, but that on the contrary, justification comes through faith in Jesus Christ.
He asserts that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory, but that we are justified as a gift by God’s grace, THROUGH THE REDEMPTION WHICH IS IN CHRIST JESUS.
The first 8 chapters of his letter to the Romans are devoted to setting forth this truth.
We are saved by God’s grace alone, through faith in the shed blood and resurrection of His Son.
Why did God decree that it must be this way? Because He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, so that we should be holy and blameless before Him...and we never, never in all of eternity, could have made ourselves that!
If each of us could have maintained physical life, laboring and serving and striving to make up for our sin for eternity,...
or even if after we physically died we could have gone on in some spiritual realm, working and striving and even suffering in some way,...
not in all of eternity could we have paid the price on our own, for our sin.
When I was in my High School years, for reasons I can’t remember now, I spent a lot of my time memorizing junk that would never benefit me in life, except maybe to get a chuckle at parties...IF all the people at the party were nerds.
I memorized a nonsense poem called “George’s Balloon”. Remind me sometime and I’ll recite it for you.
I also, being virtually ignorant of true Biblical theology, memorized a poem by Robert Service, the title of which I cannot remember now.
It was about a man who had led a dark, bloody, evil life, being justly hung for his crimes, and standing before the judgment seat of God. After the records keeper reads from the book all the evils that this man has wantonly committed, he looks up and petitions the Lord to damn him to eternal Hell.
Now remember...I already implied this thing was theologically odiferous.....
The last part of the poem goes like this:
“THE GOLDEN TRUMPETS BLEW A BLAST
THAT ECHOED IN THE CRYPTS OF HELL
FOR THERE WAS JUDGMENT TO BE PASSED;
AND LIPS WERE HUSHED AND SILENCE FELL.
THE MAN WAS MUTE, HE MADE NO STIR,
ERECT BEFORE THE JUDGMENT SEAT,
WHEN ALL AT ONCE A MONGREL CUR
CREPT OUT AND COWERED AND LICKED HIS FEET.
IT LICKED HIS FEET WITH WHINING CRY,
COME HEAVEN, COME HELL, WHAT DID IT CARE?
IT LEAPT! IT TRIED TO CATCH HIS EYE!
IT’S MASTER, YEA, IT’S GOD WAS THERE.
THEN, AS A THRILL OF WONDER SPREAD
THROUGH SHINING THRONGS OF SERAPHIM,
THE JUDGE OF ALL LOOKED DOWN AND SAID,
‘LO, HERE IS ONE WHO PLEADS FOR HIM’
AND THOUGH HIS SINS BE BLACK AS NIGHT,
AND THOUGH HE STAND, MID MEN, ALONE,
HE SHALL BE SOFTENED IN MY SIGHT
AND FIND A PLEADER BY MY THRONE.
Ok, here comes the real garbage... ya ready?
SO LET THIS MAN TO GLORY WIN,
FROM LIFE TO LIFE SALVATION GLEAN,
IN PAIN AND SACRIFICE AND SIN
UNTIL HE STAND BEFORE ME CLEAN..
FOR HE WHO LOVES THE LEAST OF THESE,
AND HERE I SAY, AND HERE REPEAT;
SHALL FIND HIMSELF AN ANGEL’S PLEAS
FOR MERCY AT MY JUDGMENT SEAT.
I gotta confess to you that in my youth I thought that was just deep and profound and wonderful. Obviously...I memorized it.
But it could not be farther from the truth. It speaks of reincarnation, when the Bible says that it is appointed for men to die once and then comes the judgment. (I’ve never believed in reincarnation, but I didn’t realize at the time what that line was referring to.)
It speaks of ‘gleaning’ salvation through a process that somehow, in the poet’s mind involves pain and sacrifice and more sin. (I guess that’s sort of like a fire break, where firefighters build a controlled fire, burning off grass and other debris so when the big fire gets to it there’s nothing left for it to feed on so it goes out. Maybe that’s what he meant...a sin break....I dunno...)
It speaks of the man deserving a second chance with God because he was apparently kind to a mangy dog... forget all about the fact that he was a murderer of innocent women and babies, which got him hung in the first place!
My friend, if you are here today and you’ve never come to a place of what the Bible refers to as ’repentance’, which is recognizing that you are guilty of sinning against God, and turning from that sin to Him, appropriating to yourself His free gift of eternal life through the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ,...
...let me assure you that ideas like the ones expressed in this poem; any idea that adds to the message of absolute free salvation through faith in Christ, or takes away from the truth of the all-sufficiency of His sacrifice in paying for our sins and offering eternal life to us, cannot get you any closer to Heaven than you can get by standing up and jumping.
Jesus paid it all, and His sacrifice appeased God’s wrath against you, if only you will accept His invitation to believe and enter into grace. Once you do, you will discover that before the foundation of the world, He chose you in order that you might be holy and blameless before Him.
And that is a position that, once you are placed there, is secure and forever.
The Christian’s claim to Heaven is unchallengeable, because God for reasons far beyond our ability to comprehend, chose him/her, and raised him/her up from the dead and freed him/her from sin, and made him/her a new creation in Christ; gave that believer a new heart; and made him/her a son/daughter forever. It is all of God’s grace.
Now having said all of that, I want to round this message out today by finishing this way.
Though our text deals solely with what God has done; that HE has made us holy and blameless before Him, we must remind ourselves that with eternal security comes eternal accountability.
A great biblical teacher and commentator of the past, D. Martin Lloyd-Jones, said,
“...because we have been chosen to holiness, we must and will become holy.”
This is a true statement.
“According to Paul (Lloyd-Jones continues), we are not chosen with the possibility of holiness, but to the realization of holiness.”
The point he was getting to is that since we are chosen for this, and indeed, in God’s eyes are now holy, we must show our appreciation for this by showing some signs of holiness in our lives!
Now folks, this should be the easiest thing in the world for us to do, yet we make it the hardest!
Why should it be easy? Because the Bible tells us that God has made us holy. We, by His own declaration, stand before Him blameless, because the blood of Jesus has washed all our sins away.
Why is it so hard? Because, fellow believers, my family, those whom I love in Christ, we continue in so many ways, hour after hour, day after day, month after month and year after year, to sow to the flesh.
To seek to satisfy the pleasures of the flesh.
To store up our treasures here on earth where moth and rust corrupt and thieves break in and steal.
Holiness is not something we have to struggle to do. Like purging ourselves of sin and closing ourselves off from the world so that its grime won’t sully our sanctified lives.
Holiness is simply walking in the light that we have. Sowing to the spirit instead of the flesh.
Realizing who we are in Christ....who God has made us...and saying, “God has made me holy and blameless before Him. In love, He has predestined me, even before the foundation of the world, to adoption into His eternal family, so that He might make me like Jesus.
In return love then, I’m going to order my life accordingly, and walk in the light He has given me...the knowledge of holiness that’s available to me through the scriptures and the witness of His Holy Spirit, and let Him continue His work of making me holy practically, as well as ideally.
When a child obeys an evil father out of fear, there can be no love there.
But when he knows his father loves him and wants the best for him, and will do anything and everything possible or necessary to raise him up into the man he ought to be, then in love and appreciation he will strive to be obedient and pleasing to that loving father, whether in his presence or not.
God is a good Father. A perfect Father. If you are his, know that He has chosen you and called you holy, and will therefore continue that work of making you holy, whatever the cost. Obviously...He’s already paid the highest price imaginable to adopt you as His own. There is no other price, to Him or to yourself, that He would hold back in order to finish the work.
“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” I John 3:3
God said, “Be holy, for I am holy”. And then He made us holy. Walk then, in it.
Be really what you are ideally. Love Him back.
“...holy and blameless before Him.”
