Sermon Series: Ephesians

Sermon Title:  “Blessings”

Pastor Chris O’Brien

Redemption, Grace, and God’s Plan in Ephesians 1

We’ve spent the past two weeks on the most precious doctrine of God’s sovereign election: that before the foundation of the world, before you were a twinkle in your mama’s eye, your grandma’s eye, before Adam was created, before the world was created, God had planned all things. The sovereign Triune God is the great planner, and he’s planned all things. And part of that plan was through Christ and his death: the Father chose for himself a people.

Now Paul doesn’t stop there. That’s just verses four and five. What Paul does in this passage, this hymn of praise, he thinks about the past, eternity past. He thinks of the blessings we have in eternity. Then he thinks of the blessings we have presently in Christ, which is what we’re looking at today. And then next week, Lord willing, the future blessings we have.

So now what Paul focuses on: he’s told us that God is sovereignly determined to save us, and it’s in Christ. Now he describes that. Look at what he says. In him, clearly he’s referencing Christ, in Christ we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.

I’m not one for alliteration just for the sake of it, but it seemed like it worked this time. We’ve got three things to highlight from our text: redemption through Jesus’s blood, the riches of the Father’s grace, and the revealing of the Father’s will. These things really just flow naturally one from another.

Redemption Through Jesus’ Blood

Well, this is the old, old story, isn’t it? Here it is, Ephesians 1 verse 7. Here’s the old, old gospel story. We’re redeemed by the blood of the lamb. We have redemption through Christ.

Redemption is just one of those great Bible words. And not just a Bible word, but you might say bigger than just a word. It’s a Bible concept. It’s something that flows throughout the Bible purposely, because God used that concept, that way of operating with his people, way back, thousands of years before Christ would come. So that when we get to the time when Christ comes, you might say we could see it more clearly.

What is that great Old Testament redemption? Well, if we were going to give a Bible quiz, I’m guessing most of y’all would say something about Egypt. Say something about the Red Sea. Say something about God redeemed his people. He powerfully, sovereignly brought them out of Egypt. Not just that they were happy to be hanging out in Egypt. No, God had brought Abraham and company into Egypt, through one of his great-grandsons, Joseph. They were brought into Egypt and God said, you’re going to be there 400 years, but then I’m going to bring you out of slavery. I’m going to deliver you. This was the great Old Testament work of salvation. God redeems his people. He delivers them. He frees them from slavery in Egypt.

And then God brings them to Mount Sinai and gives them his law, the Ten Commandments. And you remember how that law starts, don’t you? God says something like this: work really hard, try really hard, do your best, keep my commandments as best you can, and if you get 94% right, I might let you into heaven. Of course, it doesn’t say anything like that, does it? God reminds his people after he gives them his law: hey, do you remember? I brought you out of Egypt. I saved you. I rescued you. Now follow me and obey me.

Here’s one of the great Bible themes that runs throughout the Old Testament. God’s people will go into sin in the times of the judges. God will allow another Canaanite group to in a short-term way enslave them or at least harass them, and God frees them. He’ll do that time and time again. And then of course the Northern kingdom will be carted off to Assyria and the Southern kingdom to Babylon. What does God do in all those situations? He rescues them. Think of what Isaiah the prophet says in Isaiah 43: Fear not, for I have redeemed you. You are mine.

So when we see a word like this, in Christ we have redemption, these kinds of things should come to mind. Paul is using theological shorthand. He just uses this one word, but it’s full of meaning. And he’s very clear: we’re in Christ, we’re redeemed through his blood.

In the Old Testament, blood was seen in the sacrificial system, pointing to Christ. In the Passover sacrifice, pointing to Christ. But here, it’s Christ’s blood himself that redeems us. What does Paul mean? He means by the blood of Christ, by the death of Christ. Christ dies on the cross to pay for sin. It’s completely paid for. All of our sin and all of the sin of God’s people from all of the ages was paid for on the cross 2,000 years ago. And then when we put faith in Christ, whether that was when we were four or 14 or 44 or 74, the redemption of Christ was applied to us.

And then Paul just says, simply: the forgiveness of our trespasses. Now, I’ll sometimes fault other preachers and other traditions that exclusively focus on the forgiveness of sins and don’t necessarily pay attention to how the redemption of Christ deals with the enslaving power of sin over our lives, how it leads to us being justified and adopted so that we’re sons and daughters of the living God. Those that don’t see and emphasize those things are missing out. But there is a sense in which you can say, if you want to just get to the heart of the matter: what’s your problem and what’s mine outside of Christ? Our sins. And what does Christ do about it? He dies on the cross and they’re forgiven.

And yet here I am at least halfway through the sermon, and you’re probably thinking: oh, ho hum. Boy, the preacher must have really taken vacation this week. He’s just going back to straight gospel. He’s not really offering anything new. He rehashed the last two weeks and now he just rehearsed the gospel. Oh, ho hum, can he tell us anything more exciting than that?

I think that’s a danger for us, isn’t it, as God’s people? To sort of get so accustomed to the gospel. It’s like, yeah, okay, I’m saved from my sins from eternity. I’m no longer condemned. I won’t spend eternity in hell suffering for my sins. I’ll be in heaven forever with all my brothers and sisters in Christ, continually worshiping and serving the triune God. Oh yeah, that’s true. Can we get like that? Familiarity breeds contempt. It’s a trite saying, but there’s some truth in it.

But Paul won’t allow it in this text. He won’t allow us to go, oh, ho hum. Look at what follows immediately after Paul just rehearses in the most simple, basic terms the gospel story that Christ died for our sins and we’re forgiven.

The Riches of the Father’s Grace

All of this wonderful forgiveness of sins through Christ’s death was according to the riches of the Father’s grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight.

The riches of the Father’s grace. Paul’s not going to let us get away with just going through the motions. He’s already mentioned grace. He started out the letter saying grace and peace, and then he talks about all the blessings we have through Christ and so forth. But Paul can’t stop there. You just can’t get enough of this.

Why highlight again here that it’s the Father’s grace? Well, we were sovereignly chosen, and now Christ has died and we put faith in him and we’re forgiven. But what’s our sinful tendency? Our sinful tendency is to think, well, you know, I did figure it out. My dumb neighbor down the street is still trying to do this or that, trying to go this religion or that religion, this philosophy of life, that one. But I kind of figured it out and I’m trusting in Christ now.

Paul says no. It was all the Father’s grace. That is, it was all because of the Father’s undeserved love upon you and upon me. There is nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing from our perspective, from us, that could provoke God to save sinners like you and me. In Paul’s letter to the Philippian church, he tells them: I had the greatest credentials you could have. I was a Jew among Jews. I was so righteous, outwardly. And then he says in effect — all those things that seem to give me good standing with God, my Jewish upbringing, my supposed righteousness, in terms of assisting me in being right with God, it is all just garbage, only Christ’s righteousness that matter, and receiving it by faith.

Do you look at yourself as one that has had God’s grace poured all over you? Or do you think, ah, God just gave me a little. He just gave me just enough to get by. No, no, no. Paul’s describing all of us. We’ve all had the grace of God poured out on us if we’re in Christ and trusted in him.

You were a dead sinner. I was a dead sinner. I was hostile to God. I was hostile to God’s law. But now I’m a son of the living God through faith in Christ. And I’m trying to follow him and serve him. And it’s all because of his grace.

Now, Paul says he lavished it on us. You know what that’s like. They have a tradition at our general assembly meeting each year, the annual meeting, about 1,000 to 1,500 pastors and elders. Not just any typical person can lead that big meeting and do it the right way. What do they generally want to do? They want to get somebody important, somebody with good credentials. And so some guy will stand up and talk about pastor so-and-so or professor at seminary so-and-so. And they will just pour on profusely, all these things about this guy. And as you’re hearing this, you’re thinking, I didn’t know we had some angels that were actually PCA pastors. I had no idea. This guy, he must hover and have a little halo on his head. I mean, it’s sort of disgusting.

I would rather you just say: this man has led his presbytery, moderated some meetings, did a pretty good job. I think we should make him the Moderator of GA that year, and then be done with it. You see, lavishing all these commendations on people, that’s kind of gross. I’m not saying some people haven’t done some really good things and should be honored, warriors in the time of war, people that do great things for society. I’m not saying that. But when you see somebody just having it all poured out and you’re thinking, that’s overdone.

But God can never do that. God can never, it seems, lavish too much grace on us. He just pours it out profusely. And it’s not because we deserve it at all. He just keeps doing it, pouring out his grace upon us.

The Revealing of the Father’s Will

Then Paul says all this is according to his wisdom and insight. And I think that’s almost a transitional phrase into what he’s going to say next, because it sort of catches us off guard. How is it that God is being wise in saving you or me? What Paul’s doing here is setting up the rest of what he says in this section.

The wisdom of God in saving you and me and all of those who name the name of Christ all over the world, regardless of their denomination or anything like that, those that are truly in Christ: God has a design, he has a purpose, and it’s much bigger than you, it’s much bigger than me, it’s bigger than Fairfield Church, it’s bigger than all the churches in America.

Making known the mystery of the Father’s will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth.

Paul says your salvation and my salvation and the salvation of everybody from all the ages, from the Old Testament era after Adam and Eve fell into sin to the last people that Jesus will glorify and raise from the dead, it’s all a part of God’s great plan. It’s about the mystery of the Father’s will.

What is this mystery? Well, it’s not a mystery like a mystery cult. It’s not mysterious in the sense of something unknown. A mystery, the way Paul uses it here, is a truth about God and his ways that you can’t know and I can’t know unless God tells us. And what is that truth? That the people of God in the Old Testament era, known as the Jews, the Israelites, the Hebrews, was never God’s ultimate purpose. Rather, his ultimate purpose was to have a people from every tongue, tribe, and nation, every color, ethnicity, and social standing. There’d be one people of God. Paul says it explicitly in chapter three. And it was in the fullness of time, that is, at just the right time, the appropriate time, when Christ came and died on the cross for our sins.

Now, there are people out there, some claim to be Christian, they are not, but they would teach an absolute universal salvation. They would say that in the end, Christ’s salvation is so powerful it’s going to save everyone. There won’t be anyone in hell. Hell will be empty. And they’ll turn to passages like this. But if hell’s going to be empty, then Jesus was just making it all up. He talked about hell more than anybody else, and it was all a farce. And where Paul says the way of salvation is faith in Christ, well, that’s a lie too. That kind of absolute universalism is contrary to biblical teaching.

So sometimes the first thing you have to do when you look at a difficult text and a phrase like this, that Christ unites all things in heaven and earth, you have to just say what it doesn’t mean. And it doesn’t mean absolute universal salvation for all of mankind. It can’t mean that. That’d be contrary to everything the Bible teaches.

What it’s emphasizing, and we cheat and look ahead to Ephesians chapter three, is uniting God’s people, Jew and Gentile, which is symbolic not just for those particular people groups but for everyone who comes to Christ, under the head of Christ. He will unify all things in heaven and on earth, so that those already in heaven who came to Christ even before Christ had come, because they were looking in faith to Christ, like Abraham, and David, and all those like him, and all the elect in heaven now, and all those who come to Christ today: all of them have been unified in Christ.

So What?

Miss Eileen and I were talking about Sunday school the other day. I was talking about the challenges of teaching young people. And she was reminiscing about when she and Gus taught Sunday school to the kids. And she said something like this. It’s not an exact quote, but something like: So what? So what? In other words, we’re studying this lesson. What does it mean?

So I’ve summarized the teaching of this text, the emphasis on salvation in Christ, his great redemption. I’ve emphasized that Paul wants you and me to be overwhelmed with the Father’s grace that he lavished on us. But anything else?

Paul already said it in verse 6: to the praise of his glorious grace. He’ll repeat it again in verse 12, that all this work of salvation might be to the praise of his glorious grace. And then he says it again in verse 14.

Ultimately, your salvation by grace is the reason, or one of the most important reasons, that we come here on the Lord’s Day to worship our God, to give him praise.

Redemption, Grace, and God’s Plan in Ephesians 1

Fairfield Church, PCA