Ephesians Series: Ephesians 1:8b-The Father’s Absolute Wisdom and Insight

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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 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.”
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 God.
This relative pronoun clause hēs eperisseusen eis hēmas (ἧς ἐπερίσσευσεν εἰς ἡμᾶς) here in Ephesians 1:8 parallels the relative pronoun clause in Ephesians 1:6, 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.
The noun sophia(σοφία), “wisdom” refers to the function or the exercise of God the Father’s transcendent wisdom, which is based upon His omniscience and is His unique ability to devise a perfect plan to accomplish His goal to glorify Himself.
The word speaks of the function or exercise of God’s ability to perfectly execute His plan of salvation and as a result glorify Himself.
The Father’s wisdom is transcendent because it is beyond both angelic and human comprehension.
The wisdom of God was manifested in eternity through the crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session of Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father which provided eternal salvation for all of sinful humanity.
The wisdom of God is also expressed through the gospel of Jesus Christ, which presents God’s provision of eternal salvation for the entire human race through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
In 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, the apostle Paul condemns the wisdom of the cosmic system, teaching that the wisdom of God as revealed in the gospel of Jesus Christ is superior and has made foolish the wisdom of the cosmic system.
In 1 Corinthians 1:17-31, Paul attacks the self-confidence of the Greeks, who boast of their human wisdom, which is cosmic viewpoint (1 Co. 1:29; cf. 1 Co. 3:21).
He rejects human wisdom and boasts in the wisdom he received from the Lord through the Spirit.
In Colossians 2:3, Paul teaches that God’s wisdom resides in the mind and thinking of Christ, which appears in the written Word of God.
In Colossians 3:16, he teaches that the believer acquires the wisdom of God by letting the Word of Christ richly dwell in his soul, which gives him the capacity to glorify God in whatever circumstance or relationship in life.
James 3:17 describes wisdom as being pure, peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.
In Ephesians 3:1-12, the apostle Paul teaches that the multi-faceted wisdom of God is being made known through the church to the “rulers” and “authorities.”
In Ephesians 1:16-17, Paul informs the Ephesian believers that he prays that they would receive spiritual wisdom and revelation from the Holy Spirit regarding their union and identification with Christ, which is by means of an experiential knowledge of the Father.
The noun phronesis(φρόνησις), “insight” pertains to the Father’s power or act of seeing into a situation and the act or result of apprehending the inner nature of things or of seeing intuitively.
Therefore, this word speaks of the Father’s transcendent ability to see into a situation as the result of possessing transcendent wisdom and it refers to the act or result of apprehending the inner nature of things or of seeing intuitively as the result of possessing transcendent wisdom.
The conjunction kai (καί), “resulting in” is a marker of result indicating that the noun phronesis presents the result of the noun sophia, which indicates that the Father’s transcendent insight is the “result” of the function of His transcendent wisdom.
Both of these nouns are modified by the adjective pas which means “absolute” since it pertains to being free from imperfection and so therefore, this adjective is ascribing to the Father’s wisdom and insight perfection.
Both the noun phronesis and the noun sophia are qualitative in this prepositional phrase emphasizing the divine nature of this wisdom and insight.
Thus, the adjective pas and these two anarthrous nouns are emphasizing that this wisdom and insight are divine in nature and quality which is manifested by the fact that they are free from imperfection or in other words, they are perfect.
Furthermore, both words are also the object of the preposition en, which is a marker of cause.
Therefore, this indicates that the prepositional phrase en pasē sophia kai phronēsei (ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ φρονήσει) is presenting the reason why the Father provided in abundance His grace, i.e. unmerited blessings on behalf of Paul and each of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle.
Thus, it is expressing the idea that the Father provided in abundance His grace, i.e. unmerited blessings on behalf of Paul and each of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle “because of” the exercise of His absolute wisdom resulting in the manifestation of His absolute insight.
Therefore, this prepositional phrase emphasizes that God the Father provided in abundance His grace, i.e. unmerited blessings on behalf of Paul and each of the recipients of the Ephesian epistle because of the exercise of a wisdom, which is absolute and divine in nature resulting in the manifestation of an insight, which is also absolute and divine in nature.
We have two interpretative issues to address here in Ephesians 1:8.
The first issue is that the prepositional phrase en pasē sophia kai phronēsei (ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ φρονήσει) could be interpreted as modifying the preceding verb eperisseusen (ἐπερίσσευσεν).
This interpretation indicates that this prepositional phrase is describing the means by which God provides His infinite grace in abundance or the reason why God did this.
Or this prepositional phrase could be interpreted as modifying the participle gnōrisas (γνωρίσας), which appears in Ephesians 1:9.
Thus, this interpretation indicates that this prepositional phrase would be describing the means by which God makes known the mystery of His will to believers.
The second interpretative issue, which is connected to the first, is that this prepositional phrase could be ascribing qualities that are given by God to believers or it could be ascribing qualities to God.
I believe that the prepositional phrase en pasē sophia kai phronēsei (ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ φρονήσει) is modifying the preceding verb eperisseusen (ἐπερίσσευσεν).
Therefore, as we noted, this indicates that this prepositional phrase is describing the reason why God the Father provides His infinite grace in abundance.
This is indicated by the fact that the relative pronoun clause hēs eperisseusen eis hēmas (ἧς ἐπερίσσευσεν εἰς ἡμᾶς) 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.
Thus, in the same way that the prepositional phrase en tō ēgapēmenō (ἐν τῷ ἠγαπημένῳ), which appears at the end of Ephesians 1:6 presents the reason why the Father predestinated the church age believer to adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, so the prepositional phrase en pasē sophia kai phronēsei (ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ φρονήσει) presents the reason why God the Father provides His infinite grace in abundance on behalf of every church age believer.
Consequently, the prepositional phrase en pasē sophia kai phronēsei (ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ φρονήσει) is ascribing qualities to the Father.
It is because of the manifestation of His wisdom, which is free from imperfection, resulting in the manifestation in time of His absolute insight, which is also free from imperfection, that He provides His infinite grace in abundance on behalf of every church age believer.
Also, In addition, most of the prepositional phrases, which appear in Ephesians 1:3-14 appear after the verbs they qualify, rather than before them.
Thus, it is more likely that the prepositional phrase en pasē sophia kai phronēsei (ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ καὶ φρονήσει) is modifying ἐπερίσσευσεν rather than the verb γνωρίσας, which follows it.
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