We Have Our Redemption
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
I don’t know if you’ve noticed this or not, but it seems like the world is coming apart at the seams. Globally, we have a war in Ukraine, hostages still being held by Hamas, a former terrorist took over Syria in place of a evil dictator, and the Democratic Republic of Congo seems to be slowly falling to a radical M23 group backed by Rwanda. On top of that, it seems like the US may be going into a financial recession, there are tariff wars between us and the rest of the world, and many average Joes can’t even afford to buy a house, or even rent, anymore. If that wasn’t enough, we’ve got our own personal battles going on. We’ve got personal financial situations we’re trying to figure out. We’ve got family concerns, perhaps school or job concerns, relationship concerns, health concerns. And with the world’s falling apart and our falling apart, someone will inevitably say something like, “God is in control,” and sometimes (if we were honest) it might just sound a bit too cliche—too trite. They mean well, and we know we should be comforted by those words, but deep down we have our doubts—or at least, we wonder if this is controlled, I wonder what chaos looks like.
This morning, I want to come at things from a different angle. Certainly, God is in control. But I want to show you what he’s up to. I’m not God, so I can’t go into great detail, but I do want to give you a little bit deeper look into what God is doing than maybe you’re used to looking. To do that, I’m going to start with the surface layer of what God is doing and then pull back more layers from there. So there are three layers that we’re going to look at, each one deeper than the previous.
The first layer is the layer of redemption. We’ll examine what that means and then peel it back to reveal the second layer—the layer of riches. After basking in all the wonder of that layer, we’ll open up that third layer—the layer of revelation.
The Layer of Redemption
The Layer of Riches
The Layer of Revelation
The Layer of Redemption
The Layer of Redemption
The first layer that we want to look at is the layer of redemption. Like I said, it’s on the surface. If we’ve been in church for a few years, we’ve definitely heard of this word redemption. We’ve sung about redemption. We know that we have been redeemed. But let’s take a look at what Paul has to say about this here in Ephesians.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses,
To truly understand what is going on here, we need to make sure that we link these words with the words that Paul mentioned beforehand. Last week, we saw that we we were adopted, not as an afterthought, but as part of God’s sovereign plan. He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. He did that by his own good pleasure. He was happy to do it. It pleased him to do it. It leads us to praise him for what he’s done as we remember the place—the very Beloved son in whom we have our identity. We are secured in him. The week before, we saw that God has given to us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. He has made it possible—even definitive—that we will stand before God as holy and blameless. And we love that he has done all of that for us. Stop again and think about what he has done.
God has given us all spiritual blessings. God has chosen us. God guarantees our holiness and blamelessness. God adopts us into his family. God enjoys having us in his family. God is praised for bringing us to his family. God places us securely in his Son so we cannot be snatched away. But how?! How does he turn enemies into sons and daughters? Through redemption.
The word redemption literally means “from a ransom.” In other words, as you may have heard before, redemption means to “buy back.” The question is from whom? Or maybe the better question: from what? The answer is from slavery. And what we need to realize, if we haven’t before, is that God has always been in the redemption business. For example, we find in telling the Israelites that he redeemed them from the Egyptians.
but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
And notice how Moses started that reminder of redemption. “Because the LORD loves you...” Don’t pass over those words so quickly. The primary reason for redemption is God’s love. I’m going to show you why this matters to Ephesians 1 in a moment. But we see this concept of redemption during the time of the prophets as well. The word isn’t explicitly used here, but the meaning is the same in Hosea 3:1-2
And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.”
So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.
Again, notice what God commands of Hosea. He calls him to continue on in his love for Gomer his adulterous wife. Why? Because it demonstrates the continuous love that God has for Israel even though they have committed spiritual adultery against him. And in that love, he buys back—redeems—Gomer even as God redeems Israel. Again important as we understand what Paul is saying in our text. God has always been in the business of redemption. And it’s no different here.
But I want us to notice also those first two words in Ephesians 1:7: “In him.” Technically, Paul wrote, “In whom.” Remember that in the Greek, verses 1-14 is one really long sentence. The translators broke it up a little so it would make more sense in English. Praise God they did! But in the Greek, the thought is continuously flowing from the previous thought. So, we find that our adoption—this great blessing of adoption—was accomplished in the Beloved. So when Paul states that it is “in him/whom,” he’s still referring not just to Jesus the Son of God, but Jesus the Beloved Son of God. He’s bringing about the same sense of love that Moses and Hosea spoke about in the redemption of Israel. In the Beloved we have redemption. The primary reason for our redemption is God’s love! Beyond that, our redemption cannot be lost because it is encased in the Beloved!
That’s why Paul doesn’t use past tense when he mentions our redemption. It isn’t simply that we gained redemption or that we had redemption. He uses the present tense, which in Greek gives off the connotation of continuous or continual action. We have redemption. It’s ours! That forgiveness of our sins is not outside of him, but in him. The implications of this are staggering! First, why can the accuser not get at us with all the sins we’ve committed? Because we are in the Beloved and all our forgiveness abide in the Beloved. If nothing is strong enough to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus then nothing can take away our redemption either because it too is in the Beloved Christ Jesus.
And it comes through his blood. God told Israel back in Leviticus that they were not to eat the blood when they ate meat because life is in the blood. Yet, it was that very blood—the life of the animal—that would be poured out on the the base of the altar and sprinkled all around in the atonement process. The animal’s life for their own. But all that was temporary. The people of Israel were not in the sacrifice, but we are! We are in Christ and are forgiven by his life’s blood. His life for ours!
This is why we can face this world with a new identity. We are not the person we were. We are not the sum of our mistakes. We are adopted in Christ, forgiven in Christ, loved in Christ, secured in Christ. Some people long to start over. Sometimes those people will pack a bag, move to another city, maybe even make up a new name because they are tired of the life they’ve lived and want a new identity. Yet even though they change their name, their style of dress, or even the language they use, they are still the same person inside. In our case, when we are in Christ, we may look the same, we may even dress the same, we may even use the same language, but we are brand new creatures. Our past is the past. We are no longer that person.
The Layer of Riches
The Layer of Riches
That first layer, even though it is surface, is a thick layer—chocked full of truths. But let’s look at that second layer—the Layer of Riches. If Paul told us in verse seven what we have, he is telling us at the end of verse seven and into verse eight how we have it.
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight
We say the words, but do we believe them truly? You know, the words, “God has forgiven you of all your past sins, present sins, and future sins.” In one sense, we believe them. In another sense, we doubt them. They sound great. They sound encouraging, but I mean come on! have you seen how much I can sin? Some say that a person can’t go a day without sinning. Others say an hour. I wish I was that holy. It seems like there are some days that I struggle to go a second without sinning. Am I right or am I right? But notice what Paul wrote. This redemption—this forgiveness of trespasses—is given to us according to the riches of his grace. How much grace does an infinite God have? An infinite amount! And notice the language that Paul used to describe his giving of grace. He lavished it upon us.
Imagine going to Baskin Robbins. There you are before 31 glorious flavors of ice cream. At any moment, you can ask the server and she will give you a taste of any flavor you want. That almost seems too good to be true. But it gets better! You can ask for another flavor and try that one too. Then another. And another. Pretty soon, you will be standing there with a handful of little pink spoons in your hand and a belly full of delectable goodness. You might be content with what you’ve received, but there’s a problem. This does not accurately reflect what God has given to us according to the riches of his grace. This might be accurate if Paul had said our redemption “comes out of the riches of his grace.” We get a tiny spoon of redemption. But that’s not what Paul wrote. He wrote that it is “according to the riches of his grace.” In other words, it is a direct reflection of his 31 glorious flavors of grace. So rather than giving a small pink spoonful of grace for our redemption, God scoops redemption for us that parallels the storehouse of his grace—generous, infinite, overwhelming redemption. We were not, are not, and will not only be slightly redeemed. We were, are, and forever will be gloriously redeemed according to his riches of grace which he has lavished upon us.
Paul says something similar in Romans 5,
Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
Do you see the link? The law causes us to trespass the boundaries that God has set in place because it appeals to our sinful desires. When Mom tells us to clean our rooms and we were about to do so on our own, even though we were in the mood to clean just a second before, because we have now been given an order from Mom, we don’t want to clean anymore. We’re told not to snack before dinner and suddenly we’re starving and need something to eat! How much worse with God’s laws? God says do not covet, as Paul would mention, and suddenly I see all these things that I want and am no longer content with what I have. God sets a boundary, the law makes us want to trespass and go beyond the limit. And yet, we have been forgiven of our trespasses, and Paul said in Ephesians 1:7 in the Beloved—according to the riches of his grace which he lavished on us. Or as we just saw, where sin increases (abounds), grace abounded all the more. The literal translation is hyper-abounded, or to use a more modern term super-abounded. In fact, the word Paul used in Ephesians 1:8 was epeperisseoo: to abound upon. It is an emphasized word that is rightly translated “lavished.” The word he used in Romans 5 was hyperperisseoo. It has the same root (perisseoo), but a slightly but similar prefix—hyper. Both epeperisseoo and hyperperisseoo are meant to help us readers get a feel for how much grace God has given to us! We can never ever ever ever out-sin God’s grace.
This doesn’t mean we’ve been given the green light to try. But it does mean that when we are sitting in our rooms distraught over the sin we just committed for the umpteenth time wondering if God will forgive us, we can look back to Ephesians 1:8 and see that the forgiveness of our trespass is in accordance with his infinite grace that has been lavished upon us. You can face your guilt and shame with the truth of God’s lavishing of grace upon us. It’s not a license to sin, but an assurance of forgiveness if and when we do.
The Layer of Revelation
The Layer of Revelation
We’ve seen two layers so far: The Layer of Redemption and the Layer of Riches. We now go to our third layer; we’re going a layer deeper—the Layer of Revelation. This is the layer that might be hardest for us to remember because as I alluded to at the beginning, it doesn’t seem like things are getting any better. It seems like they’re getting worse. The world is falling apart, it seems.
Now, before I go into any further details. I need some young volunteers—those around the ages of 8-12. I have a project that I would like for you to work on while I finish my point here, but you have to be very quiet. Every adult has a piece of a puzzle. I’m going to have them bring down their piece of the puzzle and put them down here on the pew in front. I’m going to have you come down and sit on the floor and put the puzzle together, but you have to do it quietly. Ladies and gentlemen, would you please bring down your pieces? You can come down the side aisles and go back up the middle aisle.
Now back to our regularly scheduled sermon already in progress. Let’s look at what Paul says about this layer of revelation:
making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ
as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
Back in Deuteronomy, Moses told the Israelites
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
God has his secrets. That probably doesn’t surprise any of us. But not everything is a secret. God will reveal much of his plans to those whom he loves. When he was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, he asked, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do?” When Jesus was nearing the time of his betrayal, he said to them,
No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
And now here, we find that Paul says that there was this secret—this mystery—that God had been holding onto, but now has made known to us because it pleased him to reveal it then. That’s the same word that Paul used about our adoption. He adopted us according to his good pleasure—because he wanted to; it gave him pleasure to do so. He is now revealing to us a secret that he’s been holding because he wants to. He held on to it for a purpose and he is now revealing it for a purpose. It’s a secret that has to do with the fullness of time—the end of the ages, when everything is complete.
The secret that God had been keeping for so long had to do with redemption. What we see at first is that Adam and Eve were redeemed from their sin by the blood of an animal. Noah and his family were redeemed by an ark. Abraham was redeemed out of the land of the Chaldeans, and eventually offspring were redeemed out of Egypt as we saw before. Even further down the line, we find that Judah came out of exile, having been redeemed by God again. And for most of human history up until now, we find the redemption from God had to do with one particular family. But by the time Paul wrote Ephesians, redemption was not only a Jewish thing; it was a Gentile thing as well. Many non-Jewish people were being saved out of sin and darkness. Their trespasses were being forgiven forever in Christ. Jesus was gaining brothers and sisters galore through the adoption that God had predestined ahead of time. And Paul says, God has made known a mystery that has to do with the fulness of time, when time reaches its completion.
And then he tells us what that revealed mystery is. It is this: redemption is not just about us as individuals. It isn’t even just about the Church as a whole. It is about the Universe being restored. The purpose is “to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” That word “all” is explained by the phrase, “things in heaven and things on earth,” which tells that we aren’t just talking about people. We’re talking about people, places, and things—things we see and things we don’t. Paul told the Colossians,
And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell,
and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.
Notice how closely this ties in with what Paul was saying to the Ephesians. Christ is before, preeminent above all things. All things. And those things are held together in him. He says in Ephesians that they are united together. Then note that he reconciles to himself all things and explains what he means by all things: whether on earth or in heaven. How does this happen? The same way our redemption happened: making peace by the blood of his cross.
Our world may look as if it is falling apart. It may look like it is tearing at the seams. It may even look like it has absolutely exploded into a million different pieces much like this puzzle did. But Paul says, “I’m telling you a secret; Jesus is actually bringing everything together under his own headship. By his own power and authority Christ is putting all those broken pieces together.
Everything is being brought together. Another way of saying it is that everything is being summed up in Christ. Just a moment ago, each of you adults held a piece of the puzzle. The puzzle was broken, torn apart, obliterated. Each of you were holding a piece of that brokenness in your hands, just as you hold a part of the brokenness of this universe in your hearts and minds. You brought them here each as a singular piece, but together a sum—a completed amount—brought together to be united as it was always intended to be. And like Christ, these kids have been working to make the universe whole once again. (show completed puzzle).
Brothers and sisters, you do realize that since we are in Christ—redeemed in him—that his mission is our mission. What he is doing, we are to do. Since he is about the restoration—the redemption—the reconciliation of all things, we too (just as we brought pieces of this puzzle to be restored) are to be about restoration. Christ is about uniting all things and so are we. We see this in chapters 2 and 3 that we are no longer Jews and Gentiles, but one man in Christ. We see in chapter four that we are to be eager to maintain the Spirit of unity. In chapters 5 and 6, we see Paul speaking about husband and wives and restoring the right relationships, parents and children being restored to right relationship, even people we don’t know being prayed for in unity. Being in Christ means that we are to be a part of healing this broken world. It is part of who we are because it is part of who he is. So if your brother has something against you, leave your gift at the alter and reconcile with him. If you and your sister have a disagreement over a matter, come back together in unity and find agreement. If your brother defrauds you, don’t take him to court to be judged by unbelievers. If need be, let him defraud you, or bring it to the church in adjudicate the issue so unity can be restored. Be ambassadors of Christ to your neighbors, coworkers, fellow-students. Perhaps you know people who had tornado damage from Friday night. Take time to help them clean up, help them with small repairs you can do, bring them a meal. Help heal the brokenness. Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.
Conclusion
Conclusion
We’ve gone deeper today than we usually do. We’ve uncovered layers beneath the surface and have seen what God is doing. It’s not just “God has a plan,” but we see what that plan is about and how we are called to be part of it. We’ve seen the layer that dealt with our redemption, but having unpacked that layer, we probed the layer of riches and what that means for us. But we had to go deeper because it’s not just about us. That third layer—the layer of revelation—helps us to see that God is about restoring all things and putting them under the control of Christ. Behold! He is making all things new!
If you are examining your own life and realize that you have not yet been redeemed—bought out of your slavery to sin, today can be the day you are set free. Jesus said that when the Son of God sets your free, you are free indeed. You need only ask and it will be given to you. Paul told the Romans in Romans 10:13
For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
I would love to talk more about this with you.
For we who have been redeemed, let us not get caught up in what things look like, but in what God is doing according to his plan. Remember, to the disciples, it looked as if God’s plan of redemption had failed when Christ was arrested and hung on a cross. They didn’t see that through all the evil, God’s plan was exactly on time and on task. The same is true for us. Keep the faith, church family. Go about in Christ and on mission to restore.
This world is one big puzzle that is broken apart, pieces scattered everywhere. Nations are divided. Families are divided. Sometimes our own hearts are divided against us. God has not called us to be passive about this division. Instead, he has chosen by his good pleasure to bring us together in Christ as adopted members of his family. Part of why is so that we can be about his business of restoring and redeeming this universe. It’s guaranteed to happen, so we can go out in confidence trusting that whatever mistakes we may make along the way, it’s still going to be restored. We cannot out-mistake or out-sin God’s grace. But we can help others to see and know and understand that grace in truth. It’s time to pick up the broken pieces of this world, this universe, this life, and bring them together under Christ, where they were always meant to be.
Prayer
Our heavenly Father,
Cause us to see your work of redemption and restoration in this world. Let us not get discouraged at the method you have chosen to use, but willingly and joyfully join you as those in Christ. Thank you for lavishing your grace upon us, and now may we whose cup overflows with your blessings of grace, pour that grace into the cups of those around us. In Jesus’s name we pray. Amen.
As always, we give you the opportunity to respond in three ways during this next song. You can respond by singing. You can respond by making your way down and giving an offering. And/Or you can respond by taking of the elements of the Lord’s Supper so that at the end of the song we can partake together as a family in Christ.
