Ours In Christ
Ephesians Book Series • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Last week, we began our study in the book of Ephesians. We had begun by looking at the beginnings of this congregation in the very Roman city of Ephesus:
Acts 19
Paul enters the city
Taught in synagogues, moved on to school of Tyrannus for two years
Miracles were done through the Apostles
Failed exorcism causes fear among the city, Jesus’ name is magnified “in all the city”
50k pieces of silver worth of magic books burned
Riots incited by Demetrius the idol maker
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 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, 5 by predestining us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He graciously bestowed on us in the Beloved.
We have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ
The Church was always predestined to be God’s people in Christ
We are chosen so that we will live as holy and blameless before Him
We are adopted as sons of God in Christ
What is “in Christ”?
What is “in Christ”?
The phrase “in Christ” is used, depending on your translation, somewhere in the neighborhood of about 80 times in the New Testament. See here a handful of the great spiritual promises Paul promises us we find “in Christ”:
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;
11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another,
2 To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called as saints, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:
22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive.
14 in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our transgressions, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He caused to abound to us in all wisdom and insight, 9 making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Him 10 for an administration of the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth in Him. 11 In Him, we also have been made an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who first have hoped in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him, you also, after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
My purpose for the next several minutes is to help us see from this text the great magnitude of what is found only in Christ, to the end that we would remember our cause for always rejoicing in our salvation! 3 Blessings ‘in Christ’ we find in this section:
Redemption, forgiveness of sins
Eph. 1.7-10
Redemption (apolutrōsis) means ‘deliverance by payment of a price’; it was specially applied to the ransoming of slaves. Here it is equated with forgiveness, for the deliverance in question is a rescue from the just judgment of God upon our sins, and the price paid was the shedding of Christ’s blood when he died for our sins on the cross. (John Stott commentary, Ephesisans)
Though, one may ask as did the Pharisees to Jesus, “What bondage have we to be freed from? We were never slaves to anyone!” And also, just as the Lord told them, “The one who sins is a slave to sin!”
We are always either slaves of sin leading to death, or slaves of God leading to righteousness! When we were without God in the World, we were dead in our sins and enslaved to them to do the will of our flesh. Now, we are set free in Christ Jesus! Through the blood of Christ, by the grace of God lavished on us in Him, we are set free from the bondage to our sins; we have been bought and delivered to a new Master by the precious blood of the innocent Savior on the Cross! How can we do anything but adore Him!
Christ has come, and all of us who find ourselves united with Christ, that is in Christ, find ourselves in the grace of God to have redemption from our sins by His blood.
This comes to us according to the riches of God’s grace, having been “lavished on us in all wisdom and insight” — this is to say that God’s wisdom and prudence was the foreknowledge and working out of all His Providential plan to ensure that “at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Rom. 5.6).
From the Garden of Eden til the Cross at Golgotha, the Father always knew what He was going to do and what He had set in motion — in His wisdom and insight, He made it all happen at the proper time.
God has now made known to us what His plan was in Christ, and was pleased to do so in Christ.
So you see, firstly, that in Christ we have been freed from the bondage of sins by His grace!
An inheritance
Eph. 1.11-12
This the same inheritance as in 1 Peter
1 Peter 1:4–5 “4 to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, having been kept in heaven for you, 5 who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”
In Christ alone is our hope of eternity! As the old, theology rich hymn says: “In Christ alone my hope is found!” And what greater hope have we than that we should live in the presence of our God and Master for all eternity?
We who put on Christ, we who are predestined to this inheritance in Christ, have thus been so predestined according to God’s purpose who “works all things to the counsel of His will,” — that is, I understand, to say that God has made all things throughout history work out to His plan in Christ to bring redemption and reconciliation to the world! Nothing was ever going to stop Him, even when it looked like the Devil might have won God was always ahead of Him! And for all human history God has worked all things to His purpose which culminates in Christ Jesus!
We were thus predestined so that we who are saved would praised His glory! He desires that we bring His honor and praise in our salvation, not because He is some narcissist as some blaspheme, but because it is right that we should be gratefully and humbly worshipful in holiness, since He has done all to save us from sin!
We see then, secondly, that God has blessed us in Christ richly with an inheritance to which all the Church was always predestined to as being “in Christ,” and this should cause us to bring glory and praise to God!
Sealed with the Spirit
Eph. 1.13-14
Only in Christ will one be filled with the Spirit of God, a “first installment of God’s promises,” as one translation says.
To be sealed means that God has marked us as His, we belong to Him and His promises are guaranteed to us, evidenced by the giving of His Spirit to live within us.
Paul would later tell the Corinthian church that this giving of the Spirit also meant more than simply this, but also as follows
1 Corinthians 6:19–20 “19 Or do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you were bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.”
We see then, finally, that only in Christ we receive the great gift of the Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of all God’s promises, and also a reminder that we are not our own possession. Eph. 1.14 says the Spirit was given, “unto the redemption of God’s own possession,” and that is you! You are God’s own in Christ Jesus when you have been given the Spirit! If you have the Spirit in you, you are Christ’s but whoever does not have His Spirit does not know Him (Rom. 8.9).
Notice, also, Eph. 1.13 clarifies those to whom all of this is given: “… after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation — having also believed.”
Now, does this mean that all one must do to receive the Spirit is believe only? No! James 2 makes that painfully clear! Rather, to believe the Gospel unto salvation is to believe Christ at His word, promise and command and to participate in the deat hof Christ. How does on do this?
Romans 6:1–6 “1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;”
Galatians 3:27 “27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
In baptism, one is thus united through faith with Christ and thus put into Christ! Tell me then, if one who is baptized into Christ is then in Christ, to what unbaptized person will any of these blessings in Christ be bestowed?
The answer is: None.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Therefore, if one is here who wishes to truly serve the Lord Jesus and be sure of His promises, know that if you believe the gospel of Christ, you must repent and be baptized into Christ having faith in God toward your salvation. The longer one waits, the longer one is outside of these promises and blessings of Jesus.
For those of us who are in Christ, may we remember our joy and gratitude! We are saved in Christ so that we may praise the glory of God in Christ! Yet, I wonder if many Christians do not think that what they have already done is enough? Church, may this attitude be far from us! Church, let us live lives that are defined by praise to God for the grace He has lavished on us in Christ the Beloved, and always be known for our gratitude to God in all things!
