Grace and Peace to You (Ephesians 1:1-14)

This is a devotional that I had written about Ephesians Chapter 1:1-14. I wanted to post it here because, similar to my last post, it shows how, despite our circumstances, we have a lot of reasons for joy and hope when we consider all that was done for our salvation. These are wondrous truths to reflect upon as we look to what it meant for Christ to step into the world with the cross in view…

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: [2] Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” (Ephesians 1:1-2)

So the passage starts off with Paul’s greeting: He introduces himself and then says that he is an apostle. At this time, when no Bible had been written, he is one of the eyewitnesses of Christ who is to write down the words of the Lord (similar to the prophets in the Old Testament) until all of the words have been written that are to be written. These words will then be brought together into the Bible that we have today and it is these words that we are to read and are changed by hearing and meditating upon. No other words need to be written and a person must only look to these words and the Holy Spirit can guide them into the truth of what they say and teach - we have had our eyes opened to understand what was once a mystery to us when we were unbelievers.

Paul is writing these words to the believers who are in Ephesus - the “saints” or set apart and chosen ones - those who are faithful to Christianity. But notice, how does it say that they are faithful, or steadfast in their faith? Being in Christ. Christ died for our sins, He was our propitiation, He was our perfect sacrifice and, in His rising, it is proclaimed that all that was needed to be done was completed. All that He says will happen for His people because what God says comes to be. His plans do not go off track because of humans, He is not caught off guard, He is not taken by surprise, evil cannot shift things. Therefore, those who are His will grow and change and will remain His. We hold Him because He holds us fast.

What do these believers (and us) know? They know two things: Grace and peace. They have received grace as they had their eyes awakened to believe and see His glory, though they were deserving of condemnation AND they know peace - peace with God. They (and we) are no longer separated from Him as we are hid in Christ and the work that He did and, therefore, we know peace with God the Father.

“[3] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, [4] even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love [5] he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, [6] to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:3-6)

Alright, so now let’s look at the wondrous truths that are found in verses 3-14.

Paul starts by praising God the Father in worshipful delight. Why? Well, God the Father has blessed His people “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” How? He knew His people from before the foundation of the world and He sent His Son to step into the world that He should live a perfect life they could not live and die in their place that they might be saved and stand before Him as clean and positionally sanctified, found in union with Christ. When He looks at us He sees the work of Christ. The Groom came to save His Bride and it is an exclusive love - it is not an open marriage. He doesn’t love everyone, He loves His Bride - this is what makes this love so amazing. If it were an open marriage type of relationship, that lessens love - it makes it baseless, it loses its weight, it makes it hollow and devalues its preciousness. Because of what Christ has done, Christians know that the promises of God are certain and steadfast - we will be changed, we will be glorified.

What else does Paul say? Well, he says that Christians were predestined for adoption. He saw His people from before time began and ordained that they would become sons of God, they would be adopted TO Himself THROUGH Jesus Christ. We stand as sons and daughters of God only through the work of Jesus. But, more importantly, we can only be seen as sons and daughters of God because we are found in Christ, the true Son, the true Beloved. We cannot come into His presence on our own, by our own saving. That cannot happen. The only way that a believer can come before God is through the work of Jesus - His coming, His fulfilling the Law, His dying on the cross, His blood, His offering of this sacrifice before the Father as a propitiation for sin, His rising as a statement of completion. And, in so doing, we are found in Him. Under His royal robes we pass into the presence of God - that picture of Him having a long train and we can come into the presence of the Father as we are found under this. Another picture I sometimes look to in order to describe this is Jesus is like the umbrella and we are all found under this and when the Father sees us He sees the opened umbrella that we are standing under as set apart ones covered by Christ’s work.

The other amazing thing to mention is that it says that this adoption was according to the purpose of His will. When God acts, as Supreme Authority, what He says happens. His words do not come back to Him with something not having been completed. Think of the creation of the world. He spoke out the existence of the sun. He spoke it out and it was made. His will will be done. Which means we can have great hope. Those who Christ died for have received salvation that will not be thwarted and He will keep those who are His. Their sanctification, which will happen, will show the root of salvation occurred. Why was all of this done? To the praise of His glorious grace! All we are to do as His people is praise Him through our lives lived before Him in worshipful wonder. How are we able to praise His glorious grace? Because He has blessed us with the understanding of it, we are the receivers of it, as we now stand in the Beloved - as we are now found in Christ.

The next astounding thing to consider, another reason for our joy, is that in Christ we know “redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”

“[7] In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, [8] which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight [9] making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ [10] as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” (Ephesians 1:7-10)

So this is a bigger topic to discuss and we will get into it further in other posts, but sin entered the world. It wasn’t something that took God by surprise. It wasn’t Adam and Eve’s bad decision. Sin was already in the Garden of Eden, right? The serpent was there already. God knew it would be the case. He said “when” you eat of the fruit. The Godhead already ordained that Christ was going to come - look at how He talks to Adam and Eve and says that the Seed will come and bruise the serpent’s head. And as we move forward through the Old Testament we see how the symbols and signs point to Christ’s coming, what this would mean for His people, what He would come and do. You must look at the Old Testament to fully understand the work of Christ and salvation. The Law would point to how the people were in need of a Saviour - they couldn’t do it on their own. The Old Testament points to how the people didn’t have the Spirit within them to live as we do now, guided by the Holy Spirit into truth. The Spirit would fall on particular people for various reasons, one of which was to open the remnant’s eyes to understand that a Saviour would come, but He never stayed within the people. He couldn’t. How could He live within a being that was separated from God because of sin? Man and God were at odds because man loved sin and wanted to be god himself. All the way up until the end of the Gospels this was the case. The people did not have the Spirit living within them - the Law was external on tablets and not on flesh. But then Christ died upon the cross and His sacrifice covered backwards, throughout time, all of the remnant who believed by faith (which was not all of Israel - as Paul talks about in Romans, not all nation/physical Israel was spiritual Israel). And it covered all who would come to faith going forward. All of whom He knew. All of whom He died sufficiently for. And now we, as Christians after the cross, can know the Spirit living within us to guide us into truth and ensure we grow and change and convict us of wrongdoing so that we stop at the little things before the bigger things happen, and so that we come in repentance when we are convicted because it grieves our hearts to do these things before the One who died for us. Two things about that: 1) we cannot, with the Spirit living within us, continue on in sin consistently without caring or without grieving and 2) please do not use Old Testament individuals as people to pattern your life after - they did not have the Spirit living in them, but we do.

To get back to the text, though, we have received this redemption and forgiveness through Christ’s blood. It was a big deal. It wasn’t a little thing. It cost the precious blood of Christ to be spilled and only through that do we come into the presence of God. But we also know this redemption and forgiveness according to the riches of His grace (which is the most precious, valuable gift we could know), which it says He “lavished upon us,” and as He was opening our eyes, and continues to open our eyes, to the wondrousness of His grace each day, He makes known to us “the mystery of his will.” Once we were dead spiritually and had no sight to see His truth. It was confusion to us, we could not comprehend it. But, with eyes opened by the Spirit, and the Spirit at work in us to enable us to grasp the depths of His word, these truths are no longer a mystery. We are able to open our Bibles and understand what is written, by God’s help. We are able to read the words that the prophets and apostles wrote down, each one of us, and grasp more of its’ beauty. And we can go deeper and deeper and He will reveal more and more and the wonder will not end. But we are able to do this because Christ came at the “fullness of time,” right when He was supposed to, and united all of His people in Him through His work on the cross and He united us to Him and enabled the Holy Spirit to be left to dwell in us.

“[11] In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, [12] so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. [13] In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, [14] who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” (Ephesians 1:11-14)

The next four verses touch on this topic a little bit more. In Christ we have already “obtained an inheritance.” We have received the promises that have been given to us because we are now found in Christ, the true Son. We will be sanctified, we will be glorified, we will know life with Him in Heaven, ever before His presence and in awe of His glory. And in this understanding of this inheritance that will be received we have hope and as we live in that hope it brings Him praise. In some way our inheritance is already begun to be received because our glorification is so certain, as Paul writes in Romans. Thus, the importance of sanctification. He grows us to become as we are already seen as being and this process will happen in a Christian’s life to the praise of Him who brings about that transformation. Think about how surprised people were about how different Paul was after his road to Damascus experience. In some ways, this happens to us, too, since, as Christians, we will be changed from pursuing worldly endeavours and pleasures with worldly motivations and trying to be god and not wanting God to be God. We will delight that He is sovereign, which is something most humans don’t want to be the case. And in so doing, as we live in worship to Him, in awe of Him who saved us and is changing us, we will be as those who give a reason for the hope that we have - a very different hope.

Now the last paragraph continues this train of thought. Because of Christ, and our lives found in Him, when we heard the truth, “the gospel of your salvation,” and believed in Him, we were sealed with the Holy Spirit that Jesus had promised. This here is a great example of effectual calling. He opened our eyes and as He opened our eyes to see His glory, we believed and had faith and were sealed with the Spirit. It is like we were living in black and white for days and days on end and then He opened our eyes to see radiant, beautiful, brilliant colour - colour we had never seen before - and we said, “Woah! Amazing! This, this is what I desire, this is what is delightful!” We came to faith as He gave us sight. We were blind and He opened our eyes and removed the haziness and gave us 4D sight. And, because of what Christ did, because of the plan of the Godhead, His people can have the Spirit at work within them, “the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.” How much more of a guarantee is that? How much does that show that God’s people will persevere, they will hold fast to their faith, they will change, their sanctification will show their salvation, that Christ’s work was sufficient for His people if the guarantee of your inheritance is the Spirit? The Spirit who works within us, who convicts and guides and leads us into truth and deepens our hope and joy by bringing His word to remembrance.

Glorification is our inheritance, life lived with Him evermore is our inheritance, and until we receive the full possession of it, we have great hope and we have a huge reason for joy.