#2 Let Us Press On to Maturity
Let Us Press On to Maturity (part 2): Consummation of Grace
Text: Eph. 1: 3 – 14, Titus 1: 2, 2 Tim. 1: 9, 1 Cor. 15: 24
Introduction: Last week we learned God’s Grace by looking at 2 covenants. The Abrahamic covenant taught us that God invoked on Himself a curse if He did not keep His promise. He went through the bloody animals which were cut into two to show the nature of the New Covenant which He would bring forth through Jesus Christ His Son. It is an Unilateral Covenant: God initiated and the Son fulfilled it. We have absolutely nothing to contribute to it. Then we learned from the Davidic covenant the preserving power of Grace that God established His Kingdom which will continue into eternity and Jesus is the King of this Kingdom. The Grace reached us by God’s initiative and God will consummate it in His time. This week I would like us to see this consummation of His Grace. I trust we have laid a good foundation last week to build a solid structure with this message. I also trust all what we heard will fall into a place this week and we would be able to answer the question, “Why did God save us?” And understand the immeasurable and insurmountable Grace of God. Now I don’t answer directly to the question, you have to draw your own, OK? Let’s Pray.
We learned “God’s Grace will accomplish what God has planned!”
Our Salvation was based on the precise plan of God and carried out precisely by the Son of God and the Spirit of God. It will consummate precisely how God planned. So let us look at the plan and consummation of God’s Grace. We will look at various Scriptures to see the marvelous grace of our God. The best way to do this is to begin with the Eph. 1. So please turn your Bible to Ephesians 1: 3 – 14. This passage is a grandiose of all the Scripture informing us the marvelous Grace of God. Verses 3 to 14 are in one long sentence in original so it is quite difficult to understand but richness of this passage transcends its difficulty. The heart of God resonates with those whose hearts are washed with the blood of Jesus, God’s Son.
So now, let us look at how the Grace of God converged on us.
I. Convergence of Grace Eph. 1: 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,
I do believe this is the key verse for this section. “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.” Then Paul continues in verse 4, with “just as” to describe this spiritual blessing. What is the “every spiritual blessing”? Verses, 4 to 14, are the lists of the blessings. Vs. 4: God chose us. Vs. 5: He predestined us to adoption. Vs. 6: He freely bestowed on us His grace. Vs. 7: He redeemed us through Jesus’ blood. Vs. 8: He lavished us with riches of His grace. Vs. 9: He made known to us the mystery of His will. Vs. 11: He gave us an inheritance. Vs. 13: He sealed us with the Holy Spirit of the promise. Vs. 14: He gave us the Holy Spirit as a pledge. What a glorious blessing! God has given all these spiritual blessings to us who are redeemed by the blood of His Son. What is taken place in heavenly realm is brought down by our Lord Jesus Christ. This blessing belongs to the kingdom of light. Notice all this has happened already, “who has blessed us.” So we do not have to ask anymore. We are to appropriate them and enjoy them.
When did this happen? Verse 4 says,
II. Chronology of Grace Eph. 1: 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
“Before the foundation of the world.” What does it mean by “Before the foundation of the world?” Let’s look at this little more in details. Please turn your Bible to Titus 1: 1 - 3
Paul, a bond-servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ,
for the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago [pro cronon aionion]. But at the proper time manifested, even His word, in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior (Emphasis added).
Paul describes the hope of eternal life, affirming his apostleship that he was called for the faith of those who are chosen. In vs. 2, he says, God promised this eternal life “long ages ago.” Literally means, “before times eternal” (pro chronon aionion), which means “before time began.” A Question comes to my minds is: To whom was this promise given? Was it to us, to Paul or to the Old Testament patriarchs or prophets? Now let’s go to II Tim. 1, verses 9.
These verses give us little more light on the subject.
Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity [pro cronon aionion], (emphasis added).
Here again, “from all eternity” literally means “before times eternal” (pro cronon aionion). This expression is exactly the same as in Titus 1:2.
We know that we are saved by His grace. Here Paul says, God saved us by His own purpose and grace. This salvation which God gave us was accomplished by His grace alone with certain purpose. In that this was done before the beginning of the time.
God has done this before time existed. Obviously, before the creation of the world, we did not exist. Therefore, Paul says, this was granted to us “in Christ” before the beginning of the time. Doesn’t it blow your mind? Can you understand timeless world?
Illustration: <Ant and a grain of sand move to moon>
But it will help us when we understand what “in Christ” mean.
This promise of eternal life was made long before we existed, in fact, before even time existed and only revealed through Jesus Christ at appointed time. The Abrahamic covenant and the Davidic covenant are the shadows. Now, the source of the shadow, the Light itself has appeared. A Bible scholar Lock explains “in Christ” this way, “The grace of God is embodied in Christ Jesus: we only gain it through union with Him, and it was given to Him by God long before we were born” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 11, p. 396, emphasis added).
This gift of eternal life was granted to us by becoming one with Christ. What does it mean? It means that this promise was made to Jesus Christ as the source and a giver of the eternal life.
Far fetched you might say! How can I say that so sure?
God “Promised” (epeggeilato) in Titus 1: 2, is a 3rd person, singular, Aorist, Middle voice, Indicative. In Greek there is so called “Middle Voice.” I was not sure of the function of the middle voice, so I went to the Greek Grammatical book and it says,
“The middle voice represents the subject as participating in the results of the action, as acting in relations to itself, as having personal interest in the action, as being intimately involved in the action. There is no equivalent in English.”
(Brooks and Winbery: Syntax of New Testament Greek, p. 111)
“middle — The grammatical voice that signifies that the subject of the verb is being affected by its own action or is acting upon itself.”[1]
So Titus 1: 2, could be translated to, “which God, who can not lie, promised upon Himself, before times began.”
So, God promised Himself or to Himself that He would bring the result of the work of His grace, the eternal life, to fulfillment.
A commentator, William Kelly says, “It was a promise within the Godhead when neither the world nor man yet existed”
(Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Vol. 11, p. 427, emphasis added).
Do you remember Heb. 6: 13?
“For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself,”
The same idea. In another word, God the Father made a promise, within the Trinity, to give eternal life to those who come to the Son by faith. Let’s look at 2 Tim. 1: 9 again, “Who has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity.” Since this promise was “in Christ” we can say, “This promise was made to Jesus Christ as the source and giver of eternal life.”
So then let’s look at this more in detail.
Please turn your Bible to John 6, verses 37 to 40.
All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me; and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down
from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.
And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that every one who beholds the Son, and believes in Him, may have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day (emphasis added).
God the Father gave you and me, who are recipient of eternal life, namely the redeemed souls, to His Son Jesus Christ and Jesus will raise us up at the last day that we will live with the Father in eternity. We are Father’s gift to His son. We can see this very clearly in the High Priestly prayer of Jesus in John 17,
Vs. 2
even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.
Vs. 6
I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
Vs. 9
I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours;
When we look at John 17: 20 – 24, we can see why God the Father made a promise like this to His Son.
verses 20 to 24 tell us the scope of gift and reason for it.
I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them; that they may be one,
just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send me,
and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me. Father, I desire that they also whom Thou hast given Me be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which thou hast given Me; for Thou did love Me before the foundation of the world
(emphasis added).
We appreciate the overflowing love of our Lord for us and it is based on the love which exits between the Father and the Son.
Father's love toward His Son John 3:35
"The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into His hand."
Jesus' love toward His Father John 14:31
"but that the world may know that I love the Father, and as the
Father gave Me commandment, even so I do."
See, because of the love relationship that exists within the Trinity; the Father gave His Son the redeemed souls. The Son cherishes this precious gift from His Father that He does everything to beautify them. He pours out His life for the gift the Father gave Him, the Community of God, the Church, and intercedes for it, sends His Spirit to guide it, so that we can experience the love relationship which exists between the each member of the Trinity.
This beautiful love relationship that exists within the Trinity is the basis of this promise. God wanted to extend this love relationship to us. The reality of God’s community (Trinity) was extended to us through Jesus Christ.
See we are the gifts from God the Father to His Son.
Now a-days, gifts are not so important. Christmas comes and goes and the gifts we received are forgotten and thrown away. But Jesus would not do that because He loves His Father.
Illustration: Some of you know my life story of how the Lord granted me His salvation. My father and I did not get along and when I was in high school, I resented him and hated him. But one day, I think when I was in grade 12; he brought 3 overcoats to home and gave me a choice to pick one that he would buy it for me. It was something I never forget and I cherished that overcoat and in fact, when I came to Canada, I brought it. It has been more than 40 years since then. But I still have it with reasonably in good condition. Isn’t that how Jesus cares about us? We are the gifts from the Father and He does everything to cherish and nourish. Because, the first and far most motivation of this is that Jesus loves His Father.
So what is the consumation of the Grace?
III. Consummation of Grace Eph. 1: 5, 6
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.
Grace converged on us but it was promised in Christ before time existed. God the Father gave redeemed souls to His Son. How then this grace would consummate.
I would like to invite you to I Cor. 15, verses 22 to 28.
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.
But each in his own order: Christ the first fruit, after that those
who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He
delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He
has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must
reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last
enemy that will be abolished is death. For He has put all things
in subjection under His feet. But when He says, “All things are
put in subjection,” it is evident that He is excepted who put all
things in subjection to Him.
And when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the one who subjected all things to Him, that God may be all in all (emphasis added).
Our God is an Indian Giver! => Thank you for the beggars!
Slangs and Idioms
Dr. Dyer and “Oyomeni natte kudasai”
But the end is coming and heaven is waiting for us!
I am glad we speak Japanese in Heaven!
Jesus, when He accomplishes the last thing of the atonement, the resurrection of the redeemed souls, He will offer the gift, the redeemed souls, the kingdom, back to His Father, so that God the Father becomes all in all. Remember Eph. 1:5 says, “He [God the Father] predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself...” (emphasis added)? We will be offered back to the Father.
The Triune God designed the redemption plan before the time began and carries out its plan and then gathers everything to Himself. What a glorious day that will be!!!
I didn’t have to return the overcoat my father gave me, but if I wanted to, I would have treated it even more with loving care. Wouldn’t you do the same? That’s how Jesus treats us that one day He will offer the gifts back to the Father as pure and precious souls, furnished with His character. We who are granted the likeness of Christ will be one with God in Christ. This is the consummation of grace that we will be to the praise of His Grace (Eph. 1: 6). Hallelujah?!!!
But we should not stop here, because we must press onto maturity in understanding of God’s Grace and the knowledge of God.
May I suggest a few things that help us to press on to maturity?
A. The Salvation is a demonstration of God’s Grace for His glory and not primary for us.
This statement might raise someone’s eyebrows!
Salvation is primary for God the Father Himself and for His Son. This is rather difficult pill to swallow because we are acclimatized with the fuzzy idea of God. This church is very blessed to have a pastor who preaches God as He really IS.
Remember we are looking at the Grace of God from God’s perspectives. As we saw, the motivation behind the salvation and, to the extent, the creation itself was because of love relationship exists within the Trinity. God, the three in One, determined to extend this love relationship to us for His glory. John Owen once said,
The pitiable Saviour and the pathetic God of modern pulpits are unknown to the old gospel. The old gospel tells men that they need God, but not that God needs them (a modern falsehood); it does not exhort them to pity Christ, but announces that Christ has pitied them, though pity was the last thing they deserved. It never loses sight of the divine majesty and sovereign power of the Christ whom it proclaims, but rejects flatly all representations of him which would obscure his free omnipotence.[2]
1616 – 1683 Congregational Church Minister. Nonconformist.
This idea of God, if we are not careful, gives us a cold, emotionless image of God who sits way up somewhere and looking down on us how we perform and ready to punish any mistake we make. We don’t feel loved and cared. So we reject this kind of god. But is that what John Owen saying?
John Piper summarizes this kind of philosophy this way in his book “Don’t Waste Your Life” in the context of love.
Does Being Loved Mean Being Made Much Of?
They do not feel loved when they are told that God created them for his glory. They feel used. This is understandable given the way love has been almost completely distorted in our world. For most people, to be loved is to be made much of. Almost everything in our Western culture serves this distortion of love. We are taught in a thousand ways that love means increasing someone’s self-esteem. Love is helping someone feel good about themselves. Love is giving someone a mirror and helping him like what he sees. P. 33
This idea of love, in our case Grace, is not the work of the Holy Spirit.
J. S. Stewart, "A Man in Christ" quotes Baron Von Hugel, "In the words of Baron von Hugel, 'the passion and hunger for God comes from God, and God answers it with Christ.' Man's intelligence and will and heart and conscience never initiate anything in religion; and over the best moral and spiritual triumphs of this life the saints can only cry, 'Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory' " (Psalm 115: 1).
Joseph Haydn: Oratorio “Creation” 1796 – 98. 1809 died.
“Not to me, not to me, but to Him!”
This is a mature faith only brought by the Holy Spirit.
John 7: 18 says,
He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
Jesus did not have His own agenda, but Father’s. So whatever He did it was for the Father. That’s how He loves us with pure motive.
Humanly speaking, more Jesus loves His Father, better it gets for us.
This way of understanding Grace will help us to face the reality of our earthly life: just like the life of Jesus, to seek the glory of His Father first. We can not reshape Grace of God to our own liking.
“Thy will be done!” is the expression of mature faith.
This can be illustrated by how the parents love their children. We love them and our motivation for discipline is we want them to have the God’s best. So again, the knowledge of God is important. Because the knowledge of God shapes the image of God in us.
A.W. Tozer said,
The gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like. We tend by a secret law of the soul to move toward our mental image of God. This is true not only of the individual Christian, but of the company of Christians that composes the Church. Always most revealing thing about the Church is her idea of God, just as her most significant message is what she says about Him or leave unsaid, for her silence is often more eloquent than her speech. She can never escape the self-disclosure of her witness concerning God.
(A. W. Tozer, Knowledge of the Holy, Harper and Row, 1961, emphasis added).
This leads to second point.
B. Our view of Grace must be aligned to this understanding of God.
Piper continues:
This is not what the Bible means by the love of God. Love is doing what is best for someone. But making self the object of our highest affections is not best for us. It is, in fact, a lethal distraction. We were made to see and savor God—and savoring him, to be supremely satisfied and thus spread in all the world the worth of his presence. Not to show people the all-satisfying God is not to love them. To make them feel good about themselves when they were made to feel good about seeing God is like taking someone to Alps and locking them in a room full of mirrors. P. 33
Illustration:
A couple guests from Japan. Suppose we wanted to show them the marvelous creation of God, the Canadian Rockies. But our Van is getting old, so decided to buy a new vehicle. A top of the line, Lexus. When they arrived, they were so intrigued by this beautiful car. I was proud of it too, telling them the nearly perfect ride, safety, all bells and whistles and relatively good gas mileage. They wanted to drive and feel the luxurious car and never paid any attention to the marvelous creation of God. Many churches do this to gain the numbers.
Again John Piper:
“Delighting in God was not a mere preference or option in life; it was our joyful duty and should be the single passion of our lives. Therefore to resolve to maximize his happiness in God was to resolve to show him more glorious than all other sources of happiness. Seeking happiness in God and glorifying God were the same.”
“Don’t Waste Your Life” p. 30 electronic version.
This happens only when we understand the Grace of God from God’s perspective. Summarizing this, Piper says,
“God created us to live for His glory, and that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him” (p. 48).
Finding satisfaction: Not in the bank account, not in the possessions, not even in the human relationship but in God alone. Then we can say, “I exist to glorify God in that God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him.” This is how Jesus lived in this sin filled world.
St. Augustine said,
“Lord, hast Thou declared that no man shall see Thy face and live?—then let me die, that I may see Thee.”[3]
Paul said, “I die daily” (1 Cor. 15: 31). This is against human nature, pride, greed, and self-centeredness. This we can do only through grace of God. Thirdly
C. Consummation of Grace is Collective.
The Trinity is the summation of all what we learned. Eph. 1: 3 – 14 describe the ministry of each Godhead.
Vss. 3 – 6: Work of God the Father and the purpose is
“to the praise of the glory of His grace.”
vss. 7 – 12: work of God the Son and the purpose is
“to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be
to the praise of His glory.”
Vss. 13, 14: the work of God the Spirit and the purpose is
who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
Three in One, Triune God worked together for the one purpose: To His Glory. He extended this beautiful relationship to His people, to experience God Himself. It is the community of God who collectively experience this grace and enjoy Him so that invisible God who is full of Grace will be visible in the community. Without the community or I might dare to say, without belonging to the community, there is no consummation of grace. God graced us so that what is happening within the Trinity will take shape in the body of Christ. This is the kingdom Jesus will offer back to the Father.
How immeasurable is the grace of God!
How insurmountable is the wisdom of God!
Now to the King eternal,
immortal,
invisible,
the only God,
be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen 1 Tim. 1: 17
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[1]Heiser, M. S. (2005; 2005). Glossary of Morpho-Syntactic Database Terminology (middle). Logos Bible Software.
[2]Owen, J. (.). E4's The Death of Death in the Death of Christ (electronic ed.) (17)
[3]Tan, P. L. (1996, c1979). Encyclopedia of 7700 illustrations : A treasury of illustrations, anecdotes, facts and quotations for pastors, teachers and Christian workers. Garland TX: Bible Communications.