Ephesians 1:3-14 God's Glorious Grace
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Paul starts his letter with an amazing blessing, and my prayer today is that this blessing will especially apply to Billy and Georgie Munce. Let’s read Eph. 1:3-14
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Messiah. He chose us in the Messiah before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before Him in love. He predestined us for adoption as sons through Messiah Yeshua, in keeping with the good pleasure of His will— to the glorious praise of His grace, with which He favored us through the One He loves! In Him we have redemption through His blood—the removal of trespasses—in keeping with the richness of His grace that He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight, He made known to us the mystery of His will, in keeping with His good pleasure that He planned in Messiah. The plan of the fullness of times is to bring all things together in the Messiah—both things in heaven and things on earth, all in Him. In Him we also were chosen, predestined according to His plan. He keeps working out all things according to the purpose of His will— so that we, who were first to put our hope in Messiah, might be for His glorious praise. After you heard the message of truth—the Good News of your salvation—and when you put your trust in Him, you were sealed with the promised Ruach ha-Kodesh. He is the guarantee of our inheritance, until the redemption of His possession—to His glorious praise!
As a whole it is a declaration of the praise to Adonai for what He has accomplished through Messiah Yeshua. We are going to break this down and look at multiple phrases and words that bring this praise and blessing to life. Paul starts this section in the same way as so many other Jewish blessing by saying “Baruch atah ha-elohim ve Av” “Blessed are you O God and Father.” This goes to show that although Paul is writing in Greek, his thoughts go back to all the prayers he learned as a child and all the Psalms of praise to Adonai.
This exalted praise of Adonai gives the reasons for why Adonai deserves to be worshiped, and also shows how Adonai is one in nature and yet three in person.
In Heavenly Places
In Heavenly Places
The first phrase that I would like to look at is “in heavenly places”. Paul uses this 5 times throughout this letter (1:3,20; 2:6; 3:10; 6:12), 3 in a positive way and 2 in a negative. We see from verse 3 that we are blessed with every spiritual blessing “in heavenly places”. Is this simply a metaphor or is it speaking of the literal future? Well later on it talks about how the demonic entities dwell in these spiritual places, which seems like a present reality, however for us, we are obviously, currently, physically living on Earth. So how does this apply to us?
Well while we are not currently, literally resurrected, nor are we physically in heavenly places, we know that Messiah Yeshua is. Not only is Yeshua in heavenly places, we know that all of our blessings come from Him, and through Him. Our salvation and the sanctification (making us holy) has already been paid for by Yeshua on the Cross, and so the final realities of these blessings will occur by being in covenant with Yeshua. This leads us to the next phrase I want to look at:
In Messiah
In Messiah
Since every spiritual blessing from Adonai is found “In Messiah”, it is important to know what Paul meant when he wrote that. William W. Klein points out that although the preposition “in” can have an instrumental sense, meaning that the blessings come through Yeshua, which is true:
The rest of the letter will show, however, that the locative sense of inclusion in [Messiah] is the dominant sense. [Andrew] Lincoln puts it succinctly: “Believers experience the blessings of the heavenly realms not only through [Messiah’s] agency but also because they are incorporated into the exalted [Messiah] as their representative, who is himself in the heavenly realms.”
Yeshua is our representative in the heavenly realms, and the heavenly blessings that we receive are completely and entirely based upon the covenantal relationship that we have with Yeshua.
What we will see later on in this letter, is that Paul shows that the relationship we have with Yeshua is similar to what a marriage covenant is supposed to be. “Everything I am and have, in exchange for everything you are and have.” So when we are in relationship with Yeshua, he inherits all of our debts including our debt due to sin, which is why he is able to pay for our sin. We, in turn, inherit all of the spiritual blessings that are Yeshua’s. Personally I think that we get the better end of the bargain, don’t you?
In verse 5 we see that part of this divine bargain, is that we are adopted into the family of Adonai! No matter who your birth parents were, Adonai invites you to be a part of His family and through that relationship you get to inherit every spiritual blessing! This is Great News!
Before the Foundation of the World
Before the Foundation of the World
The Prophet Isaiah speaks about the concept of being chosen in Isa. 41:1-4
“Be silent before Me, O islands! Let peoples renew their strength. Let them draw near, then let them speak. Let us come together for judgment. Who has stirred up one from the east? He calls justice to His feet. He gives nations over to him and subdues kings. He makes them like dust with his sword, as driven stubble with his bow. He pursues them, passing on safely, by a path his feet had not traveled. Who has performed and done it? Calling forth the generations from the beginning, I, Adonai, am the first and the last, I am He!”
Who is the one who calls forth the generations from the beginning? It is Adonai who is eternal. Adonai then goes on and says a few verses later in Isa. 41:8-9
“But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, descendant of Abraham, My friend— I took hold of you from the ends of the earth, and called from its uttermost parts, and said to you, ‘You are My servant— I have chosen you, not rejected you.
So, just as Adonai has chosen Israel, so also those who are “In Messiah” both Jews and Gentiles are also chosen. And since Adonai is eternal, all his choices are not after-thoughts, but rather were pre-planned, “before the foundation of the world”.
But sometimes it is easier to explain something by showing what it is not.
Paul does not teach that our “souls” preexisted in the heavens with [Messiah] (a Platonic idea), nor that we as individuals were present physically in some mythological sense prior to creation (as in later Gnostic teaching, Rather, as Schnackenburg puts it, “If God made his plan of salvation in (the preexistent) [Messiah], he also included us ‘in [Messiah]’ in his plan.”
So it is not that we were created at the foundation of the world, but rather that Adonai planned to choose Israel, and all those in covenant with Israel’s Messiah Yeshua, in His plan, which was planned before the foundation of the world.
Predestined
Predestined
This flows directly into the next word, “Predestined”. The verb “predestine” means “to decide on beforehand” or “to predetermine”. So not only did Adonai’s plan include the choosing of Israel, but Adonai decided beforehand that He would adopt us as children.
I remember David Pawson once saying, “God already had One Son, and He liked that so much, that he wanted a bigger family.”
The plan of Yeshua coming and making a way back to Adonai was not an after-thought. It has always been the plan of Adonai to make a way of salvation and restoration. This is why he says to Abraham in Gen. 12:1-3
Then Adonai said to Abram, “Get going out from your land, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you. My heart’s desire is to make you into a great nation, to bless you, to make your name great so that you may be a blessing. My desire is to bless those who bless you, but whoever curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.
The plan was already in place, Adonai was looking for someone who would partner with Him and fulfill His plan, and Abram said “Yes”.
I know that many people have argued throughout time between Predestination and Free Choice. In some ways, this argument misses a crucial point. Predestination, or as we saw before, the decision of God beforehand, actually points to the free choice of Adonai. Adonai had a plan before the foundation of the world, and He chooses to interact with people throughout history to ensure that His plan is accomplished.
In Atheistic materialism actual only believes that people are random atoms in motion, and therefore there is no real freedom of choice. Where as when Adonai created the world, his free choice, He planted in the Garden of Eden a choice. A choice to trust in Him and obey, or a choice to disobey and reject him.
From another perspective, if there is no freedom of choice, then there is no such thing as love. Because a love that is not freely chosen, is not truly love.
So what do we see in verse 6 of Ephesians 1? We find that we receive all of this favor and all these blessings through the One who Adonai loves. Did you catch that? We get the blessings because of the love that the Father has for the Son! Why is that? That goes back to what we previously said about being “in Messiah”.
One final note about predestination. William Klein points out that:
I must observe that Paul never uses this verb [predestine] to assert that God has determined the specific individuals to save, nor has he predetermined the means for a specific individual’s salvation. In other words, God does not predestine that some have faith. From Paul’s uses we see that predestination concerns God’s predetermination of certain goals for his people, here that they become members of his family through adoption.
Richness of His Grace
Richness of His Grace
Adonai does not do things half-way. He has provided all that we need for life and Godliness. Yeshua
said it this way in John 10:10-11
The thief comes only to steal, slaughter, and destroy. I have come that they might have life, and have it abundantly! “I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.
Yeshua not only laid his life down for us, but he also gives us abundant life. This was the plan by Adonai all along. Yeshua not only choose to lay his life down for us, but also brought us into covenant with him. In so doing we now inherit the richness of God’s mercy that He lavishes on us!
Hear the Truth and Trust in Yeshua
Hear the Truth and Trust in Yeshua
When the Jewish people witnessed the Disciples being filled with the Ruach HaKodesh, they cried out in Acts 2:37
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the emissaries, “Fellow brethren, what shall we do?”
Verse 13 provides one of the most concise answers to this question: Eph. 1:13
After you heard the message of truth—the Good News of your salvation—and when you put your trust in Him, you were sealed with the promised Ruach ha-Kodesh.
There are several parts to Salvation and William Klein puts it this way:
Thus Paul clarifies the means by which a person secures salvation, namely, hearing and believing. It matters what is heard and believed, for truth is at stake. … For Paul, belief was not mere assent to a proposition or even to an acknowledgement that Jesus was Messiah or Lord. Belief entailed accepting not only that the gospel of [Messiah] is true but that it is true for me. That is, saved ones live out in their experience the reality that [Messiah] is Lord.
After we have heard the truth of the Good News about Messiah Yeshua, and after we have put our trust in Him, then we are sealed with the promised Ruach HaKodesh. This is exactly what Peter said on the day of Shavuot Acts 2:16-17
But this is what was spoken about through the prophet Joel: ‘And it shall be in the last days,’ says God, ‘that I will pour out My Ruach on all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.
Peter in quoting from Joel the prophet, points out that Adonai had promised to give the Ruach HaKodesh to all who believed, Acts 2:38-39
Peter said to them, “Repent, and let each of you be immersed in the name of Messiah Yeshua for the removal of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Ruach ha-Kodesh. For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far away—as many as Adonai our God calls to Himself.”
Paul is pointing out to the Gentiles in Ephesus exactly what Peter was pointing out to the Jews in Jerusalem, that Adonai promised to indwell His people. What Paul is also pointing out, is that not only was this promise for Israel and Judah, but that Gentiles could also be grafted into Israel and receive the same infilling of the Ruach HaKodesh.
Mystery
Mystery
This leads us to the final word for today, Mystery. The word “mystery” had a variety of meanings in Paul’s day, and so we need to see how he is using it.
In essence “mystery” refers to “secrets that must be disclosed or revealed in order to be know.” “Mystery speaks not of an enigma or of what is “mysterious” but of what was formally hidden and undiscoverable through human insight or ingenuity and which God is now revealing through the gospel or in [Messiah].”
So , in this case what is the mystery that Paul is referring to? Well fortunately we only have to read the very next verse 10. Adonai planned to bring all things together in the Messiah. In this verse it speaks of things in heaven and on earth, later on in the letter Paul refers to breaking down the middle wall of separation between Jews and Gentiles. Both Jews and Gentiles need to hear the truth about the Good News of Yeshua the Messiah, and both Jews and Gentiles need to believe and trust in Yeshua as Messiah.
The Mystery is, that originally the covenants, the promises, the prophesies were all written to the Children of Israel, but now Adonai has revealed that the way is open to all who believe.
Summary
Summary
So what is the take home from this passage? We we saw that by being in covenant with Messiah Yeshua, we are blessed with every spiritual blessing, and in the future we will be with Adonai.
We also saw that Adonai’s eternal plan predetermined to make room for all who believe, and that we will be made holy and blameless before Him.
We see that redemption, forgiveness, wisdom, insight are all poured on us because of our new status of being “In Messiah”.
The mystery is that Adonai has revealed that the way is opened up to both Jews and Gentiles to Trust in Yeshua. And finally we all need to hear the truth and trust the truth.
I want to close with one of the final statements of Yeshua to his Talmidim in John 14:6-21
Yeshua said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life! No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you have come to know Me, you will know My Father also. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.” Philip said to Him, “Master, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” Yeshua said to him, “Have I been with you for so long a time, and you haven’t come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on My own; but the Father dwelling in Me does His works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me—or at least believe because of the works themselves. “Amen, amen I tell you, he who puts his trust in Me, the works that I do he will do; and greater than these he will do, because I am going to the Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper so He may be with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not behold Him or know Him. You know Him, because He abides with you and will be in you. I will not abandon you as orphans; I will come to you. In a little while, the world will no longer behold Me, but you will behold Me. Because I live, you also will live! “In that day, you will know that I am in My Father, you are in Me, and I am in you. He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me. He who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.”