The Spiritual Blessings of God’s Glorious Grace Towards His People: Part 3: Adoption
The Letter to the Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Intro:
Review:
the workmanship of God soveriegn grace
the design- Chosen, elect- church all true and genuine followers of Christ.
Not the wolves in sheep clothing, who deceive the sheep
Not the self-righteous sheep, who are deceived
the timing- before the foundation of the world
the goal of his grace-
finish up the idea of what God is striving to accomplish in this sovereign choosing of his people.
I. The Promise of our Purity
I. The Promise of our Purity
4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love
The promise of our purity is the first goal in the electing grace of God towards his people. It is this promise whereby uses two foundational terms woven throughout the bible to lead us to the transformational work that occurs in ever follower of Jesus Christ.
Holy- the word means to be set apart in its most root form. Something is distinguished from all else in excellence and purity. AW pink states that God’s holiness is…
“the sum of all moral excellency is found in Him. He is absolute Purity, unsullied even by the shadow of sin….As God’s power is the opposite of the native weakness of the creature, as His wisdom is in complete contrast from the least defect of understanding or folly, so His holiness is the very antithesis of all moral blemish or defilement”- Pink, Arthur W.. The Attributes of God . Kindle Edition.
In the great vision of Isaiah 6, the angels that flew near the presence of the Lord proclaimed,
3 And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.”
11 “Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?
The Lord is proclaimed throughout all of Scripture as the Holy God acting fully in perfection and holiness.
Similarly, the term, Blameless, is also used in v 4 of Ephesians. When we consider blamelessness, the bible also describes it as a moral purity as one who stands without guilt and judgment from others. 2 Samuel 22:31
31 “As for God, His way is blameless; The word of the Lord is tested; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.
30 As for God, His way is blameless; The word of the Lord is tried; He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him.
As we see these two attributes of God, his moral purity in his holiness and blamelessness, we must distinguish these from mankind. As the bible uses these terms for God, they are present and perfect displays of His purity. For mankind, they are actions and behaviors pursued by those who love God and who are empowered by God to achieve these characteristics.
For example, Job and Noah are both referenced in the Scriptures as blameless. The people of Israel are declared by Moses to be a Holy people set apart from the nations because they belong to God who is Holy
2 “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.
Therefore, the goal of God’s glory throughout history is to MAKE THEM HOLY and BLAMELESS. The law could not do these things because it only reveled for them God’s standard and their lack of ability to follow in that purity. It led the readers of the Scriptures to see that holy and blameless can only be achieved by re-creation by God’s power.
This is where the NT idea of regeneration comes together in the NT. First, we see that Jesus comes into the world, puts on human flesh, but is sinless. He is God in human flesh, and yet his deity is not stained or tainted by sin. He is sinless and therefore is the only viable substitute for sinful humanity.
When he dies upon the cross, then Paul tells us the transaction that is performed in 2 Cor. 5:21
21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Therefore, those chosen by God, before the foundation of the world, they were the ones whom Jesus effected a salvation in his death and resurrection. That transaction also imputed or applied for them a righteousness- the legal and moral transformation of their new lives. The legal act is their NEW FOUND guiltlessness before God. The moral act is the holy and blameless standing before God.
This is what Paul speaks of in v 4, “to be holy and blameless before Him. The Him there is looked at as God as Judge. You might ask people this question,
As a sinner, how is it possible for you to dwell eternally before a holy and sinless God?
Their answer will reveal much about their belief. The only answer is “I cannot live as a sinner before a holy God. His eyes are too pure to look upon my sin. but because of Jesus, I have been made holy and blameless because of the perfection of Christ. “
Paul relates this same idea to the Colossians
22 yet He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach—
Also, in this letter to the Ephesians, Paul gives us the first of two metaphors we will look at today that relates to this work of salvation. I am excited in less than a month to expound upon this idea at the wedding of John and Ellie. There we will focus on the metaphor of Jesus as the Groom and the elect church as the bride of Christ.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
Paul uses this same phrase “holy and blameless” to connect to chapter 1 and our election and predestination as the Bride of Christ. The church, as teh Bride is already gone through a positional transformation before God where we are made holy and blameless before God. Notice the timeline of Paul words in Eph 5, “having (already) cleansed her” so he might present her spotless. This is what Christ accomplished for the church and it will be realized fully when He comes again to gather the church “to present her to himself.”
John MacArthur states,
Ephesians: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Purifying Love
Divine love does not simply condemn wrong in those loved but seeks to cleanse them from it. Christ’s great love for His church does not allow Him to be content with any sin, any moral or spiritual impurity in it.
Therefore, the goal of God’s grace is that He would so transform the chosen of God that in his complete work, he transforms us into something which we cannot attain by ourselves. We must be given holiness and blameless by Christ who actively lived that perfectly in this world. He transfers that to the sinner so that before a holy God is pure.
Paul also teaches that our holiness is both positionally provided but also, until Christ comes again, personally practiced. Followers of Christ are already in a position or standing before as Holy but we still bear the sinful flesh while living in this corrupted earth. We still must practice personal holiness by putting to death that which is corrupt in our fleshly lives. As we battle daily sins, we are empowered by the Spirit to overcome that sin which offends our Lord.
16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
What Paul means is that what Christ already attained in his death or resurrection, he prays will be manifested in our personal holiness as believers in Jesus Christ in this life. As Christ made us holy and blameless, so we should walk daily representing that as Paul says in Eph. 5:8-9
8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth),
Promise encourages us in this walk of faith. Be encouraged church
II. The Affirmation of our Adoption
II. The Affirmation of our Adoption
Secondly, Paul affirms the adoption of the church as God’s children. This is the second metaphor in this section and the second spiritual blessing we recognize this in theologically rich section of Paul’s praise of God. Adoption is a metaphor that has deep roots in all of the Bible.
OT Sonship
The Old Testament does not recognize adoption as we know it today. Outside of some responsibilities that men had for the wives and children of their dead brothers, there is no mention of adoption. But where the theme adoption is lacking, the idea of Sonship is very clear in the OT writings.
When Moses went before Pharaoh on behalf of the Lord, he said to the king
22 “Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Israel is My son, My firstborn. 23 “So I said to you, ‘Let My son go that he may serve Me’; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.” ’ ”
Israel as a nation of people where referred to as the son of God while God represented their Father. Later in 2 Samuel 7:14, King David is referred to as the son to God
14 “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, 15 but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.” ’ ”
We know that as David was a son to God, this all pointed us forward to the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ who would sit on the throne of David and be the true Son of God.
Therefore, Paul carries forth the theme of adoption in our salvation in Christ. Just as Christ is the Son of God, so we are brought into the family of God through our union with Christ. Jesus was never the enemy of God, but we were. We were enemies of God and hostile to the kingdom of heaven. But in grace, adoption paints the picture of the love of God that invites us into the palace of the most high to become a son and daughter of God.
Paul says,
5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
Connected to our election is the predestination of our adoption. Predestination has the same idea as election. It is a pre-determined choosing of someone. Paul expounds on the idea that our election to the church is one that also includes being loved before the foundation of the world as God’s children. He set his love upon us before we were ever born and it resonates belonging to God.
As parents who went through the earthly adoption process, this verse has powerful meaning for us. When the Lord was pressing on our hearts the desire to adopt our daughter Molly, he made clear to us that she was the one we wanted to adopt as our daughter. All the while that we knew that about her, she did not know that about us. Our plan was a mystery to her. We were just a family that randomly talked to her while attending the same church as her.
Therefore, up until the day of our salvation, God’s plan to save us and adopt us into his family is a mystery to our minds and hearts. But when the gospel is shared, these truths are exposed to us and they resonate jubilation and celebration that God would unconditionally love us in such a way.
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Now “us” is the church in this verse, so it is acceptable to that by dying for us, even when we were sinners against his name, his death and resurrection brought about the sweet belonging to Him.
Paul’s use of this metaphor is rooted in the Roman practice of Adoption. To be adopted in the Roman culture, a father would have to sell his son to slavery in order for him to be adopted. This process had a few legal steps, but once the birth father forfeited his rights, the son no longer had any responsibility with that man. His adopted father could now bring him into the home, legally call him son and legally pass on his inheritance to him.
Harold Hoehner writes,
The purpose of this adoption was so that the adoptee could take the position of a natural son in order to continue the family line and maintain property ownership. This son became the patria postestas in the next generation.The saints chosen by God are predestined as adopted sons (and daughters) of God. This means that believers, formerly labeled as “sons of disobedience” and “children of wrath” (Eph 2:2–3), have absolutely no responsibility and/or obligation to their old father the devil (cf. John 8:38, 44), the ruler of the realm of the air. Rather, they are now God’s sons and daughters and he controls their lives and property.”
Harold W. Hoehner, Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2002), 196–197.
Friend, this is the ultimate belonging that will satisfy your soul in this world. In a tumultuous culture that seeks belonging, the world cannot offer such a satisfaction. You may seek to find a family at home, in the workplace, in your hobbies like sports teams, college friends, or political participation. But this is not the true family you seek. That family is rooted in Christ, your adoption as sons and daughters of God brought about by the work of Jesus on the cross.
3 So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. 4 But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, 5 so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. 8 However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods.
That belonging to Christ is played out in the church. We all belong to Christ if we truly trust in Him. We are united to him in fellowship and therefore, we are united to one another. You have heard the saying, “Blood is thicker than water” which signifies the loyalty to ones biological family. Well, I would say the Spirit is thicker than blood because our bloodlines lack spiritual substance and is bound by time. Our families are important to us, but the Spirit of God reveals that because we are adopted into Christ, we have a spiritual family that is eternal.
This belonging to God in Christ is our second spiritual blessing of God’s glorious grace because we are blessed in our adoption as belonging to our creator. This is our true value and worth and this is why we praise his glorious name.
III. The Prioritization of His Praise
III. The Prioritization of His Praise
Finally, we get to Paul’s words in v 5-6
5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
All of these truths that lead us to meditate on our election and the adoption into God’s family that follows should lead us to consider the end goal of this all. We need to know the why did God do all these things in Christ for us? I have already reminded us that unconditional grace teaches that it is nothing in us that brought out these blessings for us. “Not of works, let anyone should boast.” It is also nothing that God needs from us because He is a transcendent being that needs nothing from creation.
24 “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; 25 nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things;
Instead we see to aspects to these doctrines that we MUST come to understand about God. Why does he elect us to adoption as sons and daughters of God?
In love
Commentators debate where to place the phrase “in love” at the end of v 4. With the absence of verses and paragraphs in the GK manuscripts, translators have to wrestle with phrases like this. Does it go with preceding thought that we are being conformed to a holy and blamelessness in love? Some interpret “in love” then as an aspect of the transformation of Godly character in us which displays holiness, blamelessness, and love towards God and the world. Others view it connected with our adoption and God’s motive behind out adoption. It seems to fit better here as we can see from others passages of Scripture.
God is motivated by the display of his glory and love is that attrbute of God that we see focused on in regards to the salvation he provides. Love is the act of a father who gives good gifts to his children. Dads and moms imitate this love as they care and grace their children with good provision and good wisdom.
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
According to the intention of his Will
Secondly, we see that our adoption is according to the intention of his will. A beeter translation might be “the pleasure of or satisfaction of his will.” As a kid, I watched the A-team faithfully. If you watched that show, you remember Hannibel would quip “I love it when a plan comes together.” God literally is pleased or satisfied in seeing his plans carried out in love. It brings him joy to know that his work is being carried out in the world.
the the praise of the glory of His grace
Finally, as I stated in a previous sermon. All of these acts of electing and adopting love are done to the praise of God’s glory. His grace is a glorious grace that stands apart from all benevolent acts of man. His glory is the radiance of his majesty and honor in the world and nothing draws the creation and humanity to attention better than when see GOd’s acts of grace displayed in the world. The response of a humbled heart is praise and worship. The response of a hardened and dark heart is anger and scoffing.
22 What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.
Paul says in this passage in Romans that God making known his power by enduring “vessels of wrath” which are unbelievers so that those who are elect can understand the riches of his glory upon those vessels or recipients of his mercy in election. Underline in that passage in Romans that his power and his mercy make known his glory in his saving acts of grace in this world. It just like the power and salvation he provided the Israelites in Egypt. Both the Egyptians (in GOd’s wrath) and the Israelites ( in GOd’s mercy) witnessed the grand display of God’s great work.
These glorlious doctrine of election and adoption are not meant for the church to divide over. Instead, to come together as God’s people celebrate the goodness and love that God shows an evil and undeserving world.
Lords Supper