Redeemed By The Blood Series

Ephesians 1:1-14

Two old guys from a seniors home were sitting outside enjoying the sunshine when one turned to the other and said, "Hey Slim, I'm 83 years old and I'm just full of aches and pains. You’re about my age. How do you feel?" And Slim said, "I feel just like a newborn baby." "Really? Like a new-born baby?" "Yep. I’ve got no hair, no teeth, and I think I just wet my pants."

“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.

11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.”

There are three things we have in Christ or that we recieve when we become a believer.

7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 11 In Him also we have obtained an inheritance. 13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

Last week I focused on the concept of antinomies and you’ll remember that I said antinomies are seeming irreconcilable teachings that may not make sense to us but are perfectly sensible to God.

So, why did God put these antinomies in the Bible? Listen to this verse from Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

There are some things that God never tells anybody. We don’t understand them because they’re way above our comprehension and for whatever reason, God mentions the existence of these things but keeps their meaning to Himself. I know it’s hard to believe but there are certain things our puny little minds can’t handle. We are very limited in comparison to the mind of God and the most intelligent of the human race probably only knows a-zillionth of the knowlede in our universe. So, God choses to reveal some things and some things He simply keeps to Himself.

And then there are some things God has revealed just to believers. In Psalm 25:14 it says, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. And He will show them His covenant." Proverbs 3:32 says; "His secret is with the righteous." Amos 3:7; "He reveals His secrets unto His servants." So, the righteous are those who are right with God and they fear Him and know His truth. These are the believers, you and me.

So, there are some things that nobody knows, then there are some things that only believers know and then there are some things God has kept secret for a period of time butthen revealed them to the believers of the first century when they recieved the New Testament. The New Testament was the new truth that the scripture says the Old Testament saints longed to look into but God had reserved this truth for His church.

These things were a mystery to the people of the Old Testament but when we see the word mystery here; it simply means that something has been hidden but now it’s been revealed. And the mystery Paul is talking about is how the New Testament church would incorporate both Jew and Gentile or another way of saying this; is the Jewish people and everybody else is brought into one body, which is the church.