Blessed Be the Triune God: Part 2 - Ephesians 1:7-10

Introduction

Two weeks ago, we began the body of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. We ascended to Mount Everest and contemplated the deep things of God. Christian, we considered how God the Father arranged your salvation. This divine arrangement took place in eternity within the Triune God. It was an arrangement between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the Covenant of Redemption. The Father arranged the salvation of a people in eternity, which the Son accomplished in history, and the Spirit applies personally to them. For the Father’s arranging of your salvation, I called you to bless God the Father. I called you to worship Him for His unconditional choosing of you as an object of His love and salvation. This morning we will descend from the mountain of eternity into the valley of history. We come to the accomplishment of our salvation by God the Son. How should we respond to God the Son, who accomplished our salvation? The answer is: Christian, bless God the Son for accomplishing your salvation. Praise His person and character. Praise His work. For it is in the sphere of Christ that sinners like you and me are redeemed. Let us consider more deeply the salvation accomplished by the Son under four headings.

Body

1. Christian, bless God the Son for accomplishing your salvation, which results in your redemption (7a).

Read the first two clauses of verse 7: “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.”

There are hardly words of deeper meaning than the words “in Him.” This phrase and its implications have filled the pages of many books and flowed from the voice of many preachers. It points to the domain and sphere in which one experiences salvation. It highlights the way and the truth of salvation. The Him, of course, is the one described as “the Beloved” in verse 6, who is earlier said to be “Christ” in verse 3. It is “in Christ” that a person is blessed with every spiritual blessing (3, 6). It is “in Christ” that a person is chosen before the foundation of the world (4). It is “in Christ” that one is redeemed (7). It is “in Christ” that God’s plan is set forth (9). It is “in Christ” that one obtains an inheritance (11). It is “in Christ” that one hears the word of truth (13). In summary, Christ is the sphere in which God the Father planned, accomplished, reveals, and shares salvation with sinners like you and me.

Verse seven, in particular, emphasizes that it is in God the Son incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ, that Christians have redemption. Redemption is a weighty concept in Scripture. Israel was redeemed from slavery in Egypt. In Christ, a greater exodus has taken place. In Christ, His people are freed from slavery to sin and Satan.

Christian, it is through Jesus’ blood that your debt is paid, and you are freed from slavery to sin. It is through His blood that you have forgiveness of your trespasses. Trespass is a synonym with sin. It conveys the idea of doing what God prohibits.

For example, God prohibits coveting, which is lusting after stuff that does not belong to you. If you do covet, then you have committed a trespass.

Christian, the trespasses you have committed, the trespasses you now are committing, and the trespasses you will commit in the future are forgiven in Christ. They are no longer counted against you. You are no longer in the court of God’s judgment with a guilty verdict hanging over you. You are an adopted child of God. Your trespasses will bring God’s Fatherly displeasure and rob you of experiencing the joys of communion with God. Still, they will never bring you back into condemnation.

Christian, bless God the Son for accomplishing your salvation, which results in your redemption.

2. Christian, bless God the Son for accomplishing your salvation, which flows from God’s abundant grace (7b).

Look at the rest of verse 7: “according to the riches of his grace.”

This little clause tells us the origin of this redemption. It answers the question: Where does this redemption come from? It comes from God’s gracious character. God needs nothing from us. We deserve nothing good from Him. God’s motivation to save comes from within Himself. It must. The ransom price for our sins was infinite, for our sins were against God, who is infinite. The only one who could pay the price was God, and He has done so in Christ, who is true God and true man. The riches of God’s grace abound more than all earthly riches. They are immeasurable, uncontainable, and incomprehensible. The riches of God’s grace make the wealth of Elon Musk and other billionaires seem like less than pocket lint.

Christian, it is by God’s grace that you have redemption. He doesn’t save you because of something good you did or thought. He redeems you from slavery to sin, a slavery that you willfully submit to in rebellion. God's grace is amazing because it is underserved and infinite. Praise God the Son because it is in Him that you experience this abundant grace.

Christian, bless God the Son for accomplishing your salvation, which results in your redemption and flows from God’s abundant grace.

3. Christian, bless God the Son for accomplishing your salvation, which produces true wisdom in you (8).

Now follow along in verse 8, “which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight.”

God, who is infinitely gracious, has caused the abundance of His grace to abound toward us. Again the “us” in this context are saints, believers, and Christians. The eternal grace of God the Father has been lavishly and abundantly poured out upon the people whom He chose in the person and work of Jesus Christ. However, this grace is not merely the pardon of sin, the giving of a clean slate. No, it is also a transformative grace that imparts gifts. In this particular instance, Paul highlights two interrelated gifts, namely true wisdom and prudence, translated by the ESV as insight.

Some suggest that these refer not to accompanying gifts of God’s gracious outpouring but instead they describe the manner in which God poured out His grace. That is, God poured out His grace to us in a way that is all wise and prudent. This concept, of course, is true. God is Wisdom and the very rule of wisdom. However, in this instance, Paul has transitioned from speaking of God’s gracious character in verse 7 to the outpouring of that grace on us in verses 8-10. Those who experience this lavish grace are made wise unto salvation and transformed to live in the likeness of the all wise God in prudence. Wisdom is a true knowledge of God and all things in relation to Him. Prudence or insight is this wisdom in action. In causing grace to overflow to us, God renews our minds to apprehend the truth and renews our wills to live according to the truth apprehended.

Christianity is a religion of both the intellect and will, of the mind and the heart, of doctrine and morals. You must know the one who is truth and live in light of that truth. I ask all of you who have professed faith in Christ: “Does your being a Christian in any way inform you r understanding of reality? Does your faith have content and truths that you hold dear? Moreover, does your Christianity lead you to live life differently? Do you hunger and thirst not only for happiness in heaven but also holiness before the God of heaven?”

What truths must you believe? You must believe what God has spoken in the Scriptures. Read and believe the first three chapters of this letter we look at today. How shall you live? Read and do as this letter commands in the last three chapters. That is a good place for you to start.

Members of this congregation, I encourage you to take up the Epistle of Ephesians and read it in its entirety every week. Read a chapter a day beginning tomorrow and finish by Saturday. Read it all this afternoon. Just read it all. Read it every week until we finish our series through it. It will aid you in understanding the truth and living in light of it.

Unbeliever, true wisdom and prudence come not from the latest self-help book or by giving to the right TV preacher. They do not come by osmoses, family relations, or mere grit and hard work. They come from God, and they are granted to all who are in Christ Jesus. They come to all who have been united to Him. The question is whether you have been united to Christ? If not, then the only wise thing to do is trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, who shed His blood for the redemption of sinners like you. Trust in the risen Christ who will come back and make all things new. In Him is the truth that leads to wisdom and prudence. Come to Jesus and find true happiness in God and holiness before God.

Christian, bless God the Son for accomplishing your salvation, which results in your redemption and flows from God’s abundant grace, and produces true wisdom

4. Christian, bless God the Son for accomplishing your salvation, which reveals God’s redemptive plan (9-10).

Take a look at verses 9-10: “making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

I prefer the way the King James Version starts verse nine as a new clause, describing the content of the wisdom God caused in the ones He chose in Christ. The salvation arranged in eternity which was at one point mysterious has now been revealed in Christ. God’s plan to save a people made up of Jew and Gentile under their Head and Savior Jesus has been revealed in the wake of Christ's coming. What was described in types, shadows, and semi-veiled promises in the Old Testament now shines in the glory of the one to whom the Old Testament points. What was lost in Adam is brought back in Christ. Adam was to rule as God’s representative of the created world. He failed by His sin. However, Christ the second Adam has come and entered glory, and He is bringing all things in heaven and on earth together. He is rolling back the cruses brought by sin as far as they are found.

The first signs of this great uniting of all things in Christ are seen in the Church of Jesus Christ, where people of various tribes, races, languages, economic statuses, social statuses are brought together in Christ, who stands alone as Prophet, Priest, and King, as Savior and Lord. The redemption accomplished by Christ was not only to save sinners but also to redeem all of creation that suffers from the corruption and curse of sin. We already see this redemption in the lives of Jesus’ people. This mystery is no longer a secret but has been announced all over the globe for centuries. But one day, all sin and its effects will be no more, and the whole world will be renewed. The people of Christ shall reign with Him upon it forever. For now though, we who are saints in Christ Jesus look to Christ the Redeemer, knowing that we have been reconciled to God and have eternal life in Christ, and we wait for the consummation of all things when Jesus returns.

Christian and Vista Baptist Church, we at this time proclaim the person and work of Christ for the salvation of sinners. We call everyone everywhere to repent from sin and believe on Christ for salvation. We know Christ is crowned King of kings and Lord of lords. He reigns, and He is subduing His people to Himself, and He will vanquish all His and our enemies. O church, bless God the Son for accomplishing your salvation.

Conclusion

This morning we have descended from the Mountain of God the Father arranging your salvation. We set foot upon the fertile plains of the valley of God the Son accomplishing your salvation. Salvation is a work of the Triune God, where the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit work inseparably to arrange, accomplish, and apply your salvation. We have beheld the arrangement and accomplishment of salvation. Next week we shall look at the application of salvation. What shall we do in the light of God the Father arranging your salvation and God the Son accomplishing it? We shall bless God the Father for arranging it. We shall bless God the Son for accomplishing it. We shall bless God the Holy Spirit, who as we shall see, for applying it. In summary, I call all of you to bless the Triune God. Let’s begin to do so no in prayer and then song.