The theme of the book of Ephesians is
adoption. The word adoption is used in
Ephesians 1:5. The word is also used in
the books of Romans and Galatians. Adoption in the Greek culture was different
than the western idea of adoption. When
a child was born into a family, he was an heir of the family. But the child was put under the guidance of a
tutor, sometimes a slave. The tutor
would teach and educate the child until the child reached an age of maturity. In the Greek culture, this was around age 13
or 14. At that time, the teen went
through the rite of passage known as adoption.
From that point on, the son was recognized as an adult with full rights
and responsibilities with the other adult members of the family. The son was then considered a
fellow-heir.
We will see the theme of adoption
throughout the book of Ephesians. In
chapter 1, Paul discussed our birth into the family of God. We are then put under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit, Who is our tutor. Paul describes
our birth and our inheritance as children of God in chapters 2 and 3. In Ephesians chapters 4 and 5, Paul taught us
about growing up and walking worthy of our calling in the family of God. In chapter 6, we are taught to take our
responsibility of winning others to Christ by sharing the Gospel of Jesus. That is walking in the power of His
might. The gospel is the power of God.
Ephesians 1:1-6 “Paul, an
apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus,
and 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 should be holy and
without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to
adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of
His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which
He made us accepted in the Beloved.”
Notice that Paul began the book of
Ephesians with the same greeting as he wrote in the other epistles: Grace to
you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. When we understand the grace of God in Jesus,
we will have a lasting peace. If we are
struggling with peace, it may mean that we don’t clearly understand grace. We may be mixing grace with our performance;
that will lead to confusion.
God has blessed us with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. That has already been given to us. That is our inheritance as being a part of
the family of God. God is infinitely
wealthy in all respects, and He has given us an incredible inheritance. It is ours now.
God chose us in Christ before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in
love. Before God formed the world and put
man and woman in it, He knew that we would need to be redeemed. When we accept Jesus into our hearts, we are
holy and without blame before Him in love.
This position is a gift; we do not earn our position of being holy and
without blame before Him. It is part of
our inheritance when we accept Christ.
Jesus gives us His free gift of righteousness or right-standing with
God. Since Jesus bore the penalty for
the sins of our entire lifetime, He makes us holy and without blame. Do we always act holy? No.
But it is a free gift in Jesus Christ.
God predestined us to adoption as
sons by Jesus Christ to Himself. This
does not mean that we are predestined to be saved or lost. It means that God’s plan for each of us is to
receive Christ and to grow up into the fullness of what God has for us. God did this according the good pleasure of
His will. His will for us is good. He did it solely because He is love and He
loves us. We should just praise Him for
the glory or wonder of His grace to us.
Purely by His grace, He has made us accepted in the Beloved, Who is
Jesus. Jesus bore our penalty for our
sins on the cross. When the full penalty
was paid, Jesus arose from the dead.
When we accept Jesus, we receive His free gift of righteousness or
right-standing with God. That is the
gospel.
Ephesians 1:7-10 “In Him we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His
grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and
prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will,
according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, 10 that
in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in
one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in
Him.”
Paul defined redemption as the
forgiveness of sins through His blood.
Paul did not qualify this as just our past sins; that is the way most
preachers interpret it. We are redeemed
from the sins of our entire lifetime through the shed blood of Jesus. We have this redemption through the riches of
His grace, not according to our works.
God made known the mystery of His will to us. Paul referred to the things which are in
heaven, which is God. He referred to the
things which are on earth, which are people.
God is joined or united to people in the person of Jesus Christ. When
we accept Jesus into our hearts, God comes to dwell within us through the Holy
Spirit. That is the new birth into the
family of God.
Ephesians 1:11-14 “In Him also we
have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him
who works all things according to the counsel of His will, 12 that
we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him you also trusted,
after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also,
having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who
is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased
possession, to the praise of His glory.”
Notice that Paul said that we have
obtained an inheritance. This is another
reference to adoption. God’s predestined
plan for us is that we accept Jesus Christ, be born into the family of God, and
grow up into maturity and receive our inheritance. When we hear the word of truth, the gospel of
our salvation in Jesus, we are to believe it.
We are then sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. In other words, God sends the Holy Spirit to
live within us. He sets His seal upon
us. This is a reference to the seal or
stamp of ownership that was used in the ancient world. God has purchased us back from the devil. The Holy Spirit within us is the guarantee or
down payment of our salvation until the redemption of our bodies.
When we are born again, our spirit
within us is made new. We are made to be
one with God in our spirit. Our minds
must be renewed to God’s ideas about us.
Our body has been purchased but is not yet redeemed. It will be redeemed in the future when Christ
returns. We will receive a body that is
not subject to disease or death.
Ephesians 1:15-23 “Therefore I also,
after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,
16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you
in my prayers: 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Him, 18 the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the
riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and
what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe,
according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked
in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right
hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all
principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all things
under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the
church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all
in all.”
Paul prayed for the church at
Ephesus after they had received Christ and were born into the family of
God. The same prayer applies to us
today. He prayed that God would give to
us a spirit or attitude to receive wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
Christ. This is a reference to our
tutor, the Holy Spirit, teaching us and educating us about our inheritance in
the family of God and helping us to grow and mature. Paul prayed that the eyes of their
understanding would be enlightened. This
is a reference to our mind being enlightened to the truth of God about us. What did Paul pray that we would understand?
We are to understand three things
mainly. We should understand what the
hope of our calling is. Paul will deal
with this in chapter 4 of the book of Ephesians. In Ephesians 4:1, Paul tells us to walk
worthy of the calling with which we are called.
In Ephesians 4:4, Paul said you were called in one hope of your
calling. God has called us to grow up
and allow the life and nature of God to be revealed in us. We are to imitate the Lord Jesus Christ and
be a fellow-heir with Him in the family of God.
This is our hope, our picture that we should seek to follow.
The second thing that Paul wanted us
to understand was the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. This is the inheritance that we have already
received when we are born into the family of God. Paul described our inheritance in Ephesians
chapter 3.
The third thing that Paul wanted us
to understand was the exceeding greatness of the power that took place in
Christ when God raised Him from the dead.
That same power was manifested in us when we accepted Jesus and were
born again. When Jesus was raised from
the dead, His spirit was made new.
Colossians said He was the first born from the dead. Other people had been raised from the dead
physically in the Old Testament. This is
saying that Jesus was the first person to be born again spiritually. On the cross, He became sin for us and became
separated from God and died spiritually.
Then He died physically. When He
arose from the dead, His spirit was made new and He also received His body
raised to life again. Jesus sat down at
the right hand of God, far above Satan and any demonic powers. He defeated them and put them under His feet. God gave Jesus to be the head of the
church. We are His body, the fullness of
Christ here on the earth. Jesus lives
and rules and reigns on the earth now through the church. Paul will describe all of this more
extensively in chapter 2 of Ephesians.
Keith Oliver
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