Ephesians Series: Ephesians 1:8a-The Father Provided His Infinite Grace in Abundance on Behalf of Every Church Age Believer

Ephesians 1:3 The God, namely the Father of the Lord ruling over us, who is Jesus Christ, is worthy of praise. Namely, because He is the one who has blessed each and every one of us by means of each and every kind of Spirit appropriated blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. 4 For He chose each and every one of us for His own purpose because of Him alone before creation in order that each and every one of us would be holy as well as uncensurable in His judgment. 5 He did this by predestinating each and every one of us for the purpose of adoption as sons because of His love through Jesus Christ for Himself according to the pleasure of His will. 6 This was for the purpose of praising His glorious grace, which He freely bestowed on each and every one of us because of the one who is divinely loved. 7 Because of whom, each one of us are experiencing that which is the redemption through His blood, namely the forgiveness of our transgressions according to His infinite grace. 8 This He provided in abundance for the benefit of each and every one of us because of the exercise of a wisdom, which is absolute and divine in nature resulting in the manifestation of an insight, which is absolute and divine in nature. (Lecturer’s translation)

Ephesians 1:8 is composed of the relative pronoun clause hēs eperisseusen eis hēmas (ἧς ἐπερίσσευσεν εἰς ἡμᾶς), “this He provided in abundance for the benefit of each and every one of us,” which is modified by the prepositional phrase en pasē sophia kai phronēsei (ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ φρονήσει), “because of the exercise of a wisdom, which is absolute and divine in nature resulting in the manifestation of an insight, which is absolute and divine in nature.”

The genitive feminine singular form of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) pertains to a relative reference to any entity, event, or state, either occurring overtly in the immediate context or clearly implied in the discourse setting.

Here it refers to the unmerited blessings, which flow from God the Father’s grace policy with regards to sinful humanity, and which grace policy flows from His attribute of love since it agrees with the noun charis (χάρις), “grace” in number (singular) and gender (feminine), which appears in Ephesians 1:7.

Therefore, the relative pronoun clause relative pronoun clause hēs eperisseusen eis hēmas (ἧς ἐπερίσσευσεν εἰς ἡμᾶς), “this He provided in abundance for the benefit of each and every one of us” is making the assertion about the Father’s “infinite grace,” which we noted appears at the end of Ephesians 1:7.

This relative pronoun clause asserts that the Father provided in abundance this grace for the benefit of the apostle Paul and each one of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle.

The prepositional phrase asserts that the Father provided in abundance His infinite grace by means of the exercise of His absolute wisdom resulting in the manifestation of His insight.

This grace refers to the unmerited blessings, which flow from God the Father’s grace policy with regards to sinful humanity, and which grace policy flows from His attribute of love.

The verb perisseuō (περισσεύω) means “to provide abundantly, to provide in abundance” since the word pertains to causing something to exist in an abundance.

The referent of the third person singular form of this verb is of course God the Father.

The genitive feminine singular form of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) is functioning as a genitive direct object which means that it is receiving the action of this verb

This would indicate that God the Father’s grace policy is receiving the action of being lavished upon the apostle Paul and each of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle.

The word is not put in the accusative case but rather the genitive case in order to emphasize the personal relationship between God the Father and His grace policy and Paul and the recipients of the Ephesian epistle.

Therefore, the verb perisseuō indicates that God the Father “provided in abundance” His grace, i.e., unmerited blessings for the benefit of the apostle Paul and each of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle.

The accusative first person plural form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ) means “each and every one of us” since the word not only refers to Paul and the recipients of the Ephesian epistle as a corporate unit but is also used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions.

This word functions as the object of the preposition eis (εἰς), which functions as a marker of benefaction or advantage expressing the idea that the Father lavished His grace “for benefit of” of the apostle Paul and the recipients of the Ephesian epistle.

This relative pronoun clause hēs eperisseusen eis hēmas (ἧς ἐπερίσσευσεν εἰς ἡμᾶς) here in Ephesians 1:8 parallels the relative pronoun clause hēs echaritōsen hēmas (ἧς ἐχαρίτωσεν ἡμᾶς), “which He freely bestowed on each and every one of us” which appears in Ephesians 1:6.

This is indicated by the fact that the antecedent of both is the grace of God and thus both are making assertions about the grace of God.