Ephesians 1:7-14

James Heffington

Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

Ephesians 1:7–14

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Introduction

In verses 3-6 Paul tells us that we have been given every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus. These blessings have been given to us by virtue of the fact God has chosen us, predestined and adopted us as His child.

This is a fantastic development for people who were totally depraved and dead in their sin. We had no capacity to save ourselves! We even lacked the capacity to recognize our depravity and spiritual condition!

God took the initiative and saved us and thank God for it! We were otherwise left hopeless and destined for an eternity separated from Him.

Today we are going to see something of what these spiritual blessings look like and how God brought our salvation and these blessings to pass.

The plan to save us was conceived and revealed in the Father. The plan was initiated and accomplished through the Son; Jesus Christ our Lord. The plan was revealed and sealed in the work of the Holy Spirit within us.

Redemption

Redemption — Is a release brought on by the payment of a price. It carries with it the idea of ransoming a slave or prisoner of war, the release of a man who had been under the penalty of death for some crime. It is the delivering or setting free of a man from a situation from which he himself was powerless to liberate himself, or from a penalty which he himself could have never paid.

In Christ we have been delivered from the shackles of sin, from enslavement to Satan, and from all the misery attendant on such enslavement. Vaughan, C. (2002). Ephesians (p. 24). Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press.

A little boy worked very hard, and, with a fine piece of wood and some tools, made himself a fine little yacht. He was very proud of it, and used to go to the lake with the other boys who had their yachts also, and sail it on the tranquil waters of the lake near his home. One day it drifted away out of sight, carried by a strong breeze and all the lad's efforts to reach it or even follow it with his eye, were unsuccessful. Some days later, as he was going through the busy street where most of the shops were, he saw the yacht in a shop window. He went in and claimed it as his lost yacht. But in spite of all his claims, and his repeated assertion that he had made it with his own hands, the shopkeeper said, 'If you want it, you must pay for it.' He returned home, counted up his little savings in his money box and found he had just sufficient to meet the cost of the yacht. So he went in and bought it back. 'You're twice mine!' he exclaimed, as he looked thankfully and proudly at his little yacht: 'I made you and I've purchased you.'

The means by which we have been redeemed is the blood of Christ. “What else could serve as a valid detergent? For the Most High is glorious in point of holiness. Only the holy Christ could satisfy the claims of holiness.

Even if the whole universe had been rendered for the sinner’s ransom it would not have been enough. It required heaven to come to our aid. “And the Lord’s forgiveness is as complete as its procurement was costly.”

Forgiveness of our sins — The greek word here translated sin carries with it the idea of falling away by means of an offense or trespass…and it is in the plural. The word translated “forgiveness” means a dismissal or sending away.

So the blood of Christ was the divine price of divine justice…and it was paid for our life.

We are set free from the condemnation due us…and…all of the offenses which led to such a sentence have been dismissed or sent away from our account.

The language spoken in heaven by the angels and the redeemed is the language of forgiveness. It will be the only language spoken there. No other language will be understood. It will be spoken by the cherubim and the seraphim and the whole angelic host as they praise God, the author of forgiveness and of eternal salvation. It will be spoken by all the redeemed as they greet one another on the banks of the River of Life and gather round the throne of the Lamb and sing their song unto him who loved them and washed them from their sins. But no one can learn that language after he gets to heaven. It must be learned here upon earth—in this world, and in this life. That is what Jesus taught us when he taught us to pray, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."

We are completely free in Christ from anything to do with our sin…the consequences of it have been completely satisfied and sent away from us in the blood of Jesus Christ.

Why would God do that for me??? It was grace

According to the riches of His grace — Grace is the reason God did this for us. I had nothing to do with the decision. God extended unmerited favor to me. Remember what we learned in the preceeding passage last Sunday…God found, in His perfect nature, motivation to save us…the process of that salvation comes to us by means of unmerited favor lavishly poured upon us through the sacrifice of Christ.

Redemption and forgiveness could never come to me on the measure of my merit. If it were to be on account of such, I would forever remain lost.

How do we respond to such an outpouring of grace and love?

Isaac Watts took on the challenge of such a question in the writing of his classic hymn “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” --“Were the whole realm of nature mine. That were a present far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”

Our response to the love of God demonstrated to us in the cross of Christ demands our soul, life and all.

Let’s review — God’s love and grace led Him to choose me, predestine me, adopt me, redeem me and forgive me...

Wisdom and Understanding

God didn’t stop there…the grace came to us in such a way that it overflowed to the tune of additional blessings…wisdom and understanding

Wisdom — “the knowledge that sees into the heart of things, which knows them as they really are” Vaughan, C. (2002). Ephesians (p. 25). Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press.

Understanding — Discernment, insight, practical wisdom…understanding which leads to right action.

These two gifts enable us as believers to have the capacity to know and understand something of the “mystery of God’s will.”

Mystery — “Divine truth that has now been made known in the gospel.” It is the thoughts and plans of God. Such things are hidden from human reason and must be divinely revealed if to be understood at all.

At times we wonder how people can reject God and His Gospel. How can they be so calloused to it? How can they not understand the gift, power and grace of God found in Christ? Until the Gospel is revealed, by grace, to a man, and He receive it…He will never see nor understand God’s plan for mankind.

We ask how can politicians run after such godless platforms. How can they run after power and control as if they had the capacity to shape the world into their own will? It is simple…they do not have Christ, His gospel nor the understanding of God’s purpose for the world and mankind.

Our understanding of God’s plan (the Gospel) is a grace given us. God gives us understanding and leads us to salvation…it is a work of grace alone. And then in that salvation He gives us understanding concerning His plans for mankind.

Apart from wisdom and understanding we would never have known or understood the work of Jesus on our behalf nor the mystery of His will for all of man.

The Mystery is not simply our salvation but the divine plan for how the Gospel works out to affect the entire universe...

What Paul means is that one day God’s universe, into which sin has brought disorder and confusion, will be restored to harmony and unity under the headship of Jesus Christ. Ultimately everything in existence will be made to serve the sovereign purpose of God (cf. neb). Vaughan, C. (2002). Ephesians (p. 26). Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press.

Let’s review — God’s love and grace led Him to choose me, predestine me, adopt me, redeem me and forgive me...poured out wisdom and understanding of the mystery of His will for the ages...

Inheritance

And now Paul now pivots to give us a word about our inheritance to come...

Paul transitions from “we” in verse 11 to “you” in verse 13 and this is significant. In verse 11 he is referencing the Jewish believers whose hope was fixed upon the Messiah before Jesus came and accepted Him when He appeared either immediately or soon thereafter.

These Jews were the first stage of the realization of God’s purpose to bring all those called to salvation into one body of believers. The second stage is the ingathering of Gentile Christians of which the Ephesians were part…this would include us today as well. Both groups have the promised blessings mentioned in verses 11-13.

“Obtained an inheritance” — Believers have been made an heir to the blessings. The ancient Israelites were heirs to the Promised Land in the Old Testament…

Believers in Christ, Jew and Gentile alike, are heirs of an inheritance secured by Christ on our behalf...

A young Christian, at the deathbed of an aged saint, said to him, "Shall I read to you the sweetest verse in the Bible?" "Yes," was the reply. The young man read the verse in John 14: "In My Father's House are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you." "No," said the dying saint, "that is not the sweetest verse. Read on." The young man read on: "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." "That is the sweetest," said the dying man. "It is not the mansions—it is Himself I want."

He is our inheritance!!!

The Jews in this first stage, just as we in the second, were predestined to be a part of the people…this was “decided beforehand and determined ahead of time.” God took the initiative to save, call and save. It had nothing to do with their goodness, merit or actions.

Let’s review — God’s love and grace led Him to choose me, predestine me, adopt me, redeem me and forgive me...poured out wisdom and understanding of the mystery of His will for the ages…given us an inheritance to come

God has a plan and works out everything in agreement with the purpose of His will

Proverbs 19:21

Proverbs 19:21 CSB

Many plans are in a person’s heart, but the Lord’s decree will prevail.

All that God has done for us has been accomplished according to his will and purpose...

God has a plan for all of the world, every person, in every place and at every time. His plans cannot be thwarted. Nothing can derail or altar what He has determined would be.

Our salvation and future inheritance are secure in Him…He has worked all things together to bring us to salvation and He will hold our salvation secure in His hand forever.

What is that plan for those He has saved???

That our life might be to the praise of His glory. God wants His glory to be seen and adored through the lives of believers.

What an indescribable gift from the Father that we might live lives to the praise of His glory. That we might make much of Him. That we might, by the very nature of who we are in Him, bring honor, praise and wonder to Him.

Gift of the Spirit

And all of these have been guaranteed to us by the infilling of the Holy Spirit...

We have first, been given the Holy Spirit. The Spirit indwells us. it is the downpayment which grantees this inheritance to come...

Sealed with the Holy Spirit — The commentaries list three uses of the seal: to authenticate as genuine (cf. Neh. 9:38), to render secure (cf. Matt. 27:66), and to denote ownership (cf. Rev. 7:3) Vaughan, C. (2002). Ephesians (p. 28). Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press.

The primary use here means “ownership.” We are owned by God and the Holy Spirit is the proof of it.

Down Payment — The Holy Spirit is the first installment or down payment of what is to be our inheritance. It is God’s pledge that we will one day enjoy all of the fullness of our inheritance to come. And there is so so much more to come...

Someday we will be fully released from the affects of sin and the curse of creation. We will stand before God without blemish. We will have a new body in a new heaven and in a new earth. We will see God with our eyes, hear Him with our ears. We will experience Him in the full measure of His glory…something mortal bodies can not see and live.

We will be in a world without sin…there will be no more death. There will no longer be around us any who blaspheme or hate our Lord. We will sing with the whole of the rest of creation…our brothers and sisters in Christ, the angelic realm…the praise of our God forever.

But that praise begins now. Our lives are for the praise of His glory…and we live in this physical realm the blessings we receive in the spiritual one. We, by our new nature and life, reveal God’s glory to the saved and the perishing alike.

We show God does exist, that He is powerful, beautiful, merciful, loving, full of grace…our life is a song of praise whose lyrics speak of his power and character.

Conclusions

God has done amazing things for us. He has given us far more than we could ever deserve. In fact, He has not given us what we deserve at all because we deserved hell. He has loved us, poured out grace lavishly upon us, taken us into His heart and revealed His will to us. God has made us His children and guaranteed us an inheritance to come.

Once we believe this and understand all of it to be the work of God on our behalf and having nothing to do with us, we are filled with awe, love, appreciation and wonder. We want to give God our soul, life and all. It is the natural thing to do isn’t it? For the one condemned to death, hell and eternal separation from God who has been redeemed, saved and guaranteed of heaven to come…to want to give Himself to the One who saved Him.

It is natural to praise and want to glorify the one who purchased us with His blood and made us right with Him…to love and cherish the one who woke us from spiritual death and gave us life in Himself.

Once we let go of all vestiges of control and rest in the infinite sea of grace, love and mercy extended to us by the choice of Almighty, sovereign God, we are forever changed…we desire to feast on Him and His glory.