We Have Been Adopted By His Good Pleasure
The Duck That Thought It Was a Dog
Scientists know that ducks tend to imprint soon after birth. To “imprint” means that they attach themselves to the first thing they see after they hatch, thinking they are “that” thing. This is supposed to work for the duck, since, when they hatch, the first thing they normally see is a mama duck.
This phenomenon backfires, occasionally. Once, for example, a duckling was hatched under the watchful eye of a motherly collie dog. The baby duck took one look at the collie and decided that the dog was its mother. It followed the collie around, ran to it for protection, and slept with it at night. It spent the hot part of the day under the front porch with the collie. When a car pulled into the driveway, along with the dog, the duck would run out from under the front porch quacking viciously, trying to peck the tires.
Some things could not be changed, however. The duck still quacked, enjoyed the water, and flapped its wings. Sometimes it acted like a duck, and sometimes it acted like a dog.
Christians often experience a similar confusion in identity. We have been born into and grown up in a fallen world, so we have learned the ways of the world. We have become like it. When we become a Christian, we are in Christ. We die to the world and are born again, so that, spiritually, we are no longer who we once were (2 Cor. 5:17). Too often, however, we don’t see ourselves correctly. We act like the thing we think we are, rather than what we really are. We believe and try to do the right things; but for the life of us, we cannot get it exactly right. When we least expect it, a car pulls into the driveway of our life; and we explode from underneath the front porch, quacking viciously and pecking at the tires.
Who are we? We aren’t supposed to do that. We’re supposed to be swimming around in clear blue lakes, bobbing for seaweed, preening our feathers, and laying eggs—not quacking at cars or harassing the cat.
Ephesians 1 helps us see who we truly are as Christians. Of course, more influences our inconsistent behavior than just negative imprinting. We are members of a fallen race, encumbered with the internal power of sin (Rom. 7). Still, if we could see ourselves more clearly and more consistently as who we really are in Christ, we would be able to live more consistently like him. That is why the Bible spends so much time telling us who we really are. If we understand and believe it, we will be better able to live it.
So Paul tells the Ephesians who they have become in Christ and then prays that they might have the spiritual enlightenment to grasp who they have become. To do so is to enjoy the Christian life more completely and to live like Christ more consistently.
II. COMMENTARY
The epistle to the Ephesians contains a clear summary of the entire gospel. It explains how God chose a people for himself from the beginning and how everything we are and have is the work of his grace. We have been predestined to serve him in his kingdom, and by teaching us this, Paul wants to strengthen us to fight against the efforts of false teachers who are trying to rob us of our assurance. He told the Ephesians that after his departure they would come to destroy the church, and he was determined to prevent this, evidently with some success. Today we face similar problems and need the message of this epistle as much as ever.
This epistle was the main reason why Peter said that Paul had written many things that are hard to understand. … It was because the Ephesians were sound in their faith that Paul encouraged them to go forward and reach maturity. He reminded them of their addiction to bad behavior and inclination to serve evil spirits but added that now they were united to Christ. He taught them that although the grace of the gospel was promised to the Jews, it was subsequently and rightly extended to the Gentiles by the eternal decree of God and that it was his commission to bring that message to them. For that reason, the Ephesians should not be troubled by his imprisonment but rejoice