The Work of Salvation
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
-It’s been a stressful week - having to cancel service last week, rain/storms/flooding through the week. This morning got up to a check engine light on one of our cars, and we are down to 1 car again.
This passage has been a bit stressful too, there’s a lot of controversy surrounding certain parts of it. and i want to have the weight of a passage on me, because I want to ensure I am being true to the text and true to what God really is saying in these words, but sometimes I can get so tied around the stress and technical side, I miss the point of the passage. I don’t want us to do that tonight. This passage should point our eyes to where they should be, and I don’t want us to miss that.
For alot of you, just getting here with kids in tow is a massive stress, so right now, let’s take a breath together, settle our hearts down and pray that God would speak to our hearts and minds.
Read Eph 1:3-7;
Background
Background
Paul writes this to church in Ephesus, but many of the problems faced were wide ranging.
Conflict had arisen in the Church between Jews and Gentiles
see similar problems in Romans and Galatians
for generations, centuries, God had set apart the Jews, now the Gentiles were being grafted in.
need to do xyz to be a part of this community
translates you can’t be saved unless you do xyz.
Purpose of this letter is to address that conflict, and to point forward to how we are to act as believers
David Powlison calls Ephesians the quintessential biblical counseling book
in counseling, first thing in counseling is knowing who you are as a believer in Christ. (If you aren’t, then the first thing is to change that)
first 3 chapters establish who we are in Christ. Starting with that first thing, the work of salvation and how to be saved.
Second part is to see what behaviors and attitudes need to change and what we need to put in their place.
last 3 chapters establish how we act.
Paul’s initial point is about how people are saved. The intriguing thing is, Paul doesn’t start out with a step by step process, or a big theological thesis, he starts out with praise.
opens letter with quick greeting, “Hello, I’m Paul!” and jumps straight into this single sentence that spans 12 verses praising God for the work of salvation (202 words)
kind of run on sentence that a teacher would never allow.
it gives a sense of excitement, that once he gets started talking about the incredible work of salvation, he just can’t stop
Mentions all the parties involved in salvation, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
notice who he doesn’t mention. Us.
Elected by the Father
Elected by the Father
-Praises the Father for what he has done. (3)
-for the blessings in Christ - every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
-doesn’t preclude physical blessings, but God will also bless those that do not belong to him with physical blessings.
-Spiritual blessings, from heavenly places puts Salvation above all else.
What follows is a list of these spiritual blessings.
From there, we get into the work of the Father.
-Salvation is a work of the Trinity
-the work reflects the trinity as well, in that there are three distinct persons, fully and eternally God (Father, Spirit, Son) and yet, they are one in essence. There are roles played in salvation, yet they are one in essence.
-This is the work of the Father, but there is overlap in the works of each.
Two statements (4 and 5) that have similar structure God chose/predestined something for us.
This troubles us in our hyper-individualistic society.
idea of election supposedly destroys individuals ability to choose.
Reality is we would never choose God first
James Montgomery Boice - “Instead of destroying the value of human choice, election gives us the capacity for choosing what we did not possess previously as unregenerate persons. Before we were made alive in Christ we had a human will. But it was directed against God, not toward him. We could choose, but we always chose wrongly. When we were made alive in Christ we received a new nature, according to which God, who before was undesirable to us, now became desirable, and we willingly submitted ourselves to him.”
So, election is an important part of the work of Salvation. It is the past work, done by the Father.
(4) Chose - to be holy and blameless
Not because we are holy and blameless or because we will be holy and blameless, but chose us to be holy and blameless
Connotation is that He chose it to make it so.
Paul makes it clear in other places that we are not worthy of this choice. Rom 3, Eph 2 .
I think if we look at our own lives, we can realize this as well. “Nobody’s perfect.” But that is the standard - holy and blameless.
Not because we are, not because we could be, but because He will make us that way, and that is where the joy of Paul comes from.
Reiterates the same idea in vs 5. Predestined - adoption as sons/daughters
In Love he adopts believers.
adoption (what does it mean)
New legal status, new family.
we who were enemies, are now made family.
inheritance - eternal life
God does this in love, according to His will and his good pleasure.
this isn’t just an act of the will that God has determined this will happen, but it is something He delights in.
Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?
Paul’s response to this incredible will and act of Love of the Father? Praise! The election is grace, and it is accomplished through the work of Christ. (Read 6 again)
Redemption by the Son
Redemption by the Son
-Praises the Son by calling Him the Beloved.
Moving from the work of the Father, to what the Son accomplished. One of the difficult things is that because of the unity of the trinity, and the intermingling of the roles, there isn’t as clear a distinction as you might think.
What has the Son done?
Redemption through his blood
redemption - greek word means to redeem by payment of ransom. The payment in this case is the blood of jesus.
He paid His life to ensure that we can be adopted into this family, that we can be holy and blameless before the Father. Why?
Sacrificial system
In Genesis, Adam and Eve were told, disobedience would be met with death. Gen 2:17.
Gen 3, blood was shed by God who prepared clothing for Adam and Eve by killing a lamb.
Penalty for sin is death Rom 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Sacrificial system created a substitutionary death. The blood of the animal was accepted in the place of the blood of the man.
But that could not truly cover sin.
Only the blood of the God-Man could completely cover sin.
Forgiveness of Trespasses
Justice was met out upon the cross. It was a substitutionary atonement, where Jesus took the penalty of death and rejection of the Father Mark 15:34, that belong to us, it is our sin that earned that, but that pouring out of Justice was laid on him. And he did it willingly.
And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
A substitutionary atonement that grants us forgiveness, but also a redemption that fulfills the Fathers plans.
We are redeemed by Christ, taken from slavery to sin, and given the ability to be holy and blameless.
Both by the righteousness of Christ being imparted to us and by the gift of the Holy Spirit which seals us and shapes us more and more into the image of God.
Paul continues saying this redemption, Christ’s death and resurrection, revealed the Will of God
There is overlap in the language between Son/Father here. (switch back to God the Father “his grace”)
the Will of God is revealed in Christ - story of redemption from Gen 3 to here.
Paul is clearly excited about this. Discovery of a well laid out plot twist in a story, where the signs are there, but you don’t recognize them till the end.
Paul is exclaiming that God has made clear what he was doing from the beginning. What was that purpose?
To Unite all things in Him! (10)
Unity in Christ - heaven and earth, we see this laid out in Revelation with the New Heavens and New Earth. That will be how the story ends.
So now we enter the already, not yet.
The Already
Redemption through the blood. We have been purchased for God, to be His.
Forgiveness - made clean before Him
Freedom - to live for the King.
Many of the promises of God for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that we saw as we walked through Genesis fulfilled here in Christ.
The Not Yet
The inheritance of a Kingdom
Full freedom from Sin
Full unity of all things in God.
Live in a challenging, sinful world. Once we are redeemed, how do we keep walking from the already to what will come in the not yet. That is where the third person of the trinity comes in.
Sealed by the Holy Spirit
Sealed by the Holy Spirit
vs 11 and 12 reiterate vs 4 and 5 and the work of the Father.
Read 13 - Process of becoming a believer is written out here.
First you must hear the Gospel. That Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty for your sins and then defeated death and rose again to assure our place alongside the Father.
When you hear this news, and respond, believing in the work of the Son, turning towards Him and away from our sins (repentance). Then...
Sealed with the promised Holy Spirit (13)
Promised by Jesus John 14:26
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
To be our help - assist us and to seal us for the coming day of Christ’s return.
He teaches us the meaning of the Word and reminds us of the salvation we have in Christ.
He is also the one who gives us the power in this life to say no to sin.
Read 14 - Holy Spirit is our guarantee of inheritance till we acquire possession of it.
concept known as perseverance of the Saints. This is how we walk in this already-not yet tension. We rest in the Holy Spirit, looking forward to that day when we, along with all heaven and earth, will be made whole.
When we will stand before the creator of all things and cry out “Holy, Holy, Holy”
So, we see the work of Salvation, laid out as the work of God, with each person of the Godhead having a role. But what about us? What do we do with this passage?
So What?
So What?
For those who believe
Celebrate and praise the King!
Paul writes this in a state of ecstatic joy.
Paul begins this sentence with Blessed be God, and 3 times calls to praise his glorious grace or praise his glory.
The response to the love, compassion, justice, and grace of God is praise, thankfulness and joy.
In Unity with other believers - will of God is to unite all things in Him.
Perhaps struggling with guilt, sin.
Remember you are sealed by the spirit, and the Holy Spirit gives you the power to say no to that sin.
Remind yourself of the Gospel as it is laid out here. Where is the work of man in this passage?
doesn’t absolve us of responsibility to fight against sin, but does give us hope and a path forward.
For those who have not
Maybe you have never put your trust in Christ, or maybe you are questioning whether or not you ever really did, asking yourself “am I saved?”
The answer for both is the same, you have heard the Gospel here, believe in the Son.
Turn away from your sin, stop striving to do it on your own. The work of salvation is done.
Trust in the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit.
One thing that helps us to remember this message is celebrating the Lord’s Supper
We do this every week - it is a weekly reminder pointing us back to the foundation of our faith. Remember all of this striving and building is not what saves us, that is the work The Father, Son and Spirit have already done and will continue to do.
Christ gave instructions for us to do this in remembrance of Him until he returns
1 Corinthians 11:24–26 “and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”
We remember both the work He has done on the cross and the work that will be done when He returns to make the world new.
Here we practice open communion - If you are a believer we invite you to come
if not, we want you to experience the real thing, not this symbol, so we ask you to abstain.
Take a moment to quiet are hearts, examine ourselves, repent of our sin and turn our eyes upon Jesus.
