Ephesians
PART 2: EPHESIANS 1:7-14
PART 2: EPHESIANS 1:7-14
Two weeks ago, we started a new study in the book of Ephesians. I gave a brief introduction to the letter. It was written by Paul to the church at Ephesus. We noted at the beginning of this letter, that Paul is talking about something that is obviously very exciting to him. You can almost hear the tone in his voice as you read his words. He is excited. What is Paul so excited about? What is the topic that he is discussing? Our salvation. Paul says that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit – all three Persons of the Holy Trinity – they all play a part in the salvation process. Last time we looked at what God the Father does in v 3-6. The big thing that Paul mentions is that God the Father, He is the One that chose us before the foundation of the world, before the Genesis creation, way back He chose us. We talked about that some. We talked about the Doctrine of Election.
This morning in Part 2 of our study we are going to look at what God the Son does in procuring our salvation. Spoiler alert – it’s a lot! We are going to look at what the Holy Spirit does as well, the role that He plays. So, we are going to resume our study in Ephesians, Chapter 1 and v 7.
[But before we do] I want to spend some time answering a question that I left you with last time. It is a very interesting question and I think it relates to this whole topic of our salvation. The question I put forward last time was “Why did God choose to save us (the human race) and not fallen angels? You see, as far as we know, God has no plan in place to save the fallen angels. I am not going to go into detail because we could spend a whole lesson on this subject. But there are some basic things about fallen angels that we know from scripture. I am just going to go through a few scriptures here and there that talk about fallen angels, to give you a little background to answer this question. Isaiah 14:12 talks about Satan (his angelic name was Lucifer) being kicked out of heaven. This is what it says: “How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning!” [the KJV says “O Lucifer.” Lucifer in Latin means “morning star.” That was his angelic name]. Isaiah continues, “You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world.” Isaiah goes on to explain why Lucifer (Satan) was banished. It is because he tried to exalt himself, to become equal with God. In Luke 10:18 Jesus says something interesting to His disciples... “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning!” In other words, Jesus witnessed this happening. He was there.
But we know that Satan was not alone in his rebellion against God. He must have been very persuasive because in Revelation Chapter 12 – we all think about Revelation being future, but there are some things in Revelation that talk about the past as well – describes this rebellion in rather cryptic terms. It describes Satan as the dragon who swept away a third of the angels with him. So, in his rebellion way back whenever it happened, Lucifer (Satan) took with him a third of the angels. His actions led to a war in heaven between the rebellious angels led by the dragon (Satan, Lucifer) and the good angels led by Michael the archangel. The end result was that “the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven” (Revelation 12:8).
So, where did they all go? We know that Satan was banished to earth and, somehow, he has access to the underworld. And Jude tells us in his letter that “the angels who did not stay within the limits of authority God gave them but left the place where they belonged [speaking about the fallen angels that rebelled]. God has kept them securely chained in prisons of darkness, waiting for the great day of judgment” (Jude 1:6). Apparently, they have some ability to be released and do some work on earth, but they are doomed. Jude’s whole point is that these angels are doomed waiting for judgment. So, when we piece these passages together, we get some idea about what happened with Satan and the fallen angels. That takes us back to our question – why do they not get to experience salvation? They sinned. We sinned. They are “fallen” and we are “fallen” (to use a theological term). Both fallen angels and humans are doomed without God’s intervention. Both angels and humans apparently have some level of free will. Obviously, the angels had the ability to choose to follow Satan and rebel against God. They have the ability to make some moral choices. So then, why us and not them? Why are we humans extended God’s favor but the angels are not? Hebrews tells us that angels are a higher created order than humans. So, you would think that they also would be extended that (salvation) as well. But why us and not them?
The default answer, the simple answer is, “Well, God is sovereign and that is what He decided to do. He can do whatever He wants. Who are we to question God’s plan?” Now, while that IS true, for me personally that is not a very satisfying answer. I want to know WHY. “But why, God, why?” I am just that kind of a person. I am engineer. I want to know why. So, I began to dig deeper into this question and I came up with the following reasonable explanation. It involves the nature of the sin and the nature of the sinners involved.
First, the nature of sin. Even in our own system of justice, we attach greater guilt to a person who commits a crime with little or no external influence than we do to a person who commits a crime under duress or by coercion. In the original sin in the garden, Adam and Eve were under extreme coercion by the serpent, by Satan. Their temptation was presented to them in a pleasing and very persuasive form. It appealed to their sense of taste, to their love of beauty, and to their desire for knowledge. They yielded to this temptation and fell. We are not going to let them off the hook. God still held them accountable and cursed them for it. Read Genesis Chapter 3. Satan, on the other hand, was not tempted to do what he did, to rebel against God. There was no force outside himself tempting him to do what he did. Adam and Eve – I am going to come to their defense a little bit – they were brand new human beings. They were as innocent as children [Genesis 2:25 gives us some indication of this]. They were very naive. They were tempted to sin by a subtle, powerful being. On the other hand, the angels of heaven who rebelled were themselves powerful beings who knew God. We do not know how long they had existed before this happened, but they apparently had some really high level of knowledge of God (extensive knowledge), far greater than Adam and Eve had. So then, one could make the strong argument that Satan and the fallen angels had a greater degree of guilt than Adam and Eve. That is the nature of sin.
Now, as far as the nature of the sinners that are involved here – angels do not procreate, so their sin does not impact their offspring. Their sin only impacts themselves. All the fallen angels who are currently doomed were actual participants in the rebellion. Let that sink in. So, they were there. They actually were directly involved in that rebellion. We humans, on the other hand, were not there in the Garden to participate in original sin, right? Were any of us there? I was not. We possess a sin nature which was passed down to us through the all the generations ever since Adam and Eve. Thanks to them and to our direct ancestors, a bunch of sinners, we inherited a sin nature, an inclination, a bent toward sin. So, there is a big difference between the fallen angels and us in that regard.
Were it not for the grace of God, we would not be able to overcome that. If Jesus Christ had not come to rescue us, we would have been utterly ruined by reason of a transgression for which we could not possibly have been in any way responsible. Now, we ARE responsible for our own sins, but not that one. That is a very powerful reason why God provided a plan of redemption for us, for fallen mankind and not for the fallen angels.
Why am I going through all of this? Because knowing this gives us or should give us a greater appreciation for our salvation. Peter offers this commentary about salvation… He is talking in his first letter about the gospel being preached to us that lays out the way that we are saved. And then he says this: “these are things into which angels long to look” (1 Peter 1:12). They do not get to experience salvation like we do. Isn’t that interesting? So, I hope all of us can become as excited as Paul is about our salvation. It is something that we should not take for granted. What a gift it is!
[One class member pointed out that some commentaries interpret Genesis 6:2 as being fallen angels who procreated with humans in Noah’s day. This produced a race of giants known as “the Nephilim.” While this may have been true (I personally think it was), all of those human-angelic offspring were eventually destroyed in the Flood and ceased to exist.]
I wanted to give you that background because I really think it ties in to this whole subject of our salvation and why us and not them (the fallen angels). It gives us a greater appreciation for the gift that God has given us. Ephesians Chapter 1 and v 7…
READ Ephesians 1:7-10
“In Him [Jesus] we have redemption through His blood.” Whenever you hear that term “His blood” (we sing a lot of hymns that talk about the blood of Jesus) is a direct reference to His death on the cross. So, whenever you hear “His blood” it is talking about Jesus’s bloody death on the cross, His blood that He shed for us on the cross. First Corinthians 6:20 says “For you were bought with a price [that is what “redeemed” means]. So, glorify God in your body.” Jesus left the glory of heaven and came to earth on a mission of redemption. We did a whole study in the Gospel of Mark and the title of that study was the “Messiah’s Mysterious Mission.” In time Jesus reveals what that mission is and it is a mission of redemption.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…” (John 3:16). “But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners…” What did Christ do? What did He do for us? “…He died for us” (Romans 5:8). Hebrews tells us why this had to happen because people will say, “Why did Jesus have to die on the cross?” It says, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.” We have both redemption and forgiveness of sins because of what Jesus did on the cross. Praise the Lord!
V 7 says that we have “the forgiveness of our trespasses.” That word “trespasses” comes from a Greek word which means “a false step or a transgression” We did something wrong. We sinned. So, we are not completely off the hook just because we were not there in the Garden. We have our own sin, right? Now, which trespasses have we been forgiven of? All of them. All of our sins. Jesus, during His last meal with His disciples during the Passover evening, holds up His cup of wine and He says, “for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” It obviously was not literally His blood because He had not gone to the cross yet. So, it was not literally His blood then and it is not literally His blood now. It represented His blood. That was His point. The wine represented His blood. What Jesus was about to do, go the cross and shed His blood on a Roman cross, would provide all of us here today with the forgiveness of our sins. And He did this, in the last part of v 7 says, “according to the riches of His grace. There it is again. Like I said before, our salvation starts with God’s grace.
V 8, “which He [the Father] lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight…” This was part of God’s perfect sovereign plan. “Lavished” comes from the Greek meaning “over and above.” God’s grace poured out on us!
“In all wisdom and insight,” v 9 says, “making known to us the mystery of His will…” Whenever you hear “mystery” in the New Testament, it is something that was hidden from the Old Testament saints that is revealed in the New Testament. And so, what is this mystery that Paul is talking about? It is the church that Jesus established. And how do we know this? Because later in Ephesians Paul says, “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6). So, we get to join the Jews, God’s chosen people. They are not the only ones that have a promise of salvation. We (Gentiles) do too. We get to be part of this kingdom. Not just the Jews. A privilege extended to us as well. That is what the church is. The church is made up of people of all nations and tongues.
V 9 concludes with, “according to His purpose, which he set forth in Christ…” V 10, “as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth in Him.” God the Father’s had a purpose and a plan. Paul later in his letter to the Philippians says, “And being found in human form, He [Jesus, God the Son] humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:8). Jesus’s death was all part of God’s purpose and plan. It was His only plan. There was no Plan A or Plan B or Plan C. This was it. His plan all along was for Jesus to go to the cross and die. It was no accident. Yes, it was a travesty of justice from our human standpoint, but it was part of God’s sovereign plan. It was divinely orchestrated.
[A class member commented that it is hard for him to understand why the Jews in the Old Testament did not “get it.” Back then they sacrificed and their sacrifice had to be perfect, a perfect bull, a perfect lamb, etc. It was the blood that covered their sins. This all fits right in with how the blood of Christ covered our sins. I pointed out that the book of Hebrews makes all of this clear for us New Testament saints. I myself am amazed at how obtuse the Israelite nation was at times. They had been given some indication by their prophets that they, God’s covenant people, were to be a light to the nations (Gentiles). Remember, even the earliest Christians who came from a Jewish background had a hard time with this concept. The evangelistic effort on the part of the church (see the book of Acts) began only after the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. So, it is easy for us to be judgmental of the Old Testament Jews looking back on things from our perspective having received greater revelation].
But there is more. There is some more that Jesus did. So here we go, picking it up in v 11…
READ Ephesians 1:11-12
We are wealthy beyond our imagination! “In Him [Jesus] we have obtained an inheritance.” We are heirs with Christ! Romans 8:17 says, “And if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.” Galatians 3:29: “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” The promise goes way back to Abraham. God told him that all the world would be blessed through him and the nation that came from him. We are part of that blessing. Titus 3:7: “So that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” James 2:5: “Has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which He has promised to those who love Him?” The obvious answer is “Yes!”
We are the beneficiaries of what Jesus did. Paul ends this section about what God the Son did with that familiar refrain, “to the praise of His glory.” So, that is what Jesus did. He went to the cross. He paid the penalty for our sins – redemption and forgiveness of sins. And then through Him we have an inheritance. We are fellow heirs with Jesus. Like I said, it was a lot!
So, what does the Holy Spirit do? I am glad you asked because now we are going to see what He does. And it is only two verses. But it is still important.
READ Ephesians 1:13-14
In the very first part of v 13, we see that we ourselves played a part in our salvation, which was what? What did we do? We heard and then we believed, right? We believed in Him [in Jesus]. We heard the gospel message. Maybe it was in Sunday School. Maybe it was a Sunday School lesson when you were a child or a teenager. Maybe in the words of a song. Maybe it was a one-on-one conversation with somebody. That is the way it was for me. Maybe it was a youth group. Maybe you went to a retreat or a revival. Maybe a Christian concert. So, a number of ways that we can hear the gospel message, right? However we heard it, we responded to it. We believed -- in Jesus. We exercised faith. Paul is going to talk more about this later on in Chapter 2.
Well, that act of faith on our part was in large part due to the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. What was He doing as we heard the message? What was the Holy Spirit doing? He was convicting us. Now, Paul doesn’t mention that here in Ephesians. But I thought it was important to enough to look at the words of Jesus in this regard. One of the things Jesus says to His disciples in John 16:8 is this: “And when He comes [speaking of the Holy Spirit], He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment.” That is what the Holy Spirit does. That is His role. His role is to convict us of our sin and our need for a Savior. So, when we heard that (the gospel message) the Holy Spirit was there convicting us of sin, righteousness and judgment.
And then, what Paul focuses on, after we believe, the Holy Spirit does something else. And that is what he mentions in v 13. He says, “we were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” Ephesians 4:30 says the Holy Spirit of God was the One “by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” The Greek word “sealed” indicates security and permanency. This is one reason why we Baptists hold to the Doctrine of Eternal Security. One of the many reasons right here. We are sealed. It is a done deal. Paul’s focus here in Ephesians is on the role that the Holy Spirit plays in securing our salvation. You do not have to wonder if you are saved or not. The Holy Spirit will let you know.
V 14 adds that the Holy Spirit “is the guarantee of our inheritance...” “Guarantee” is from the Greek word that means a down payment. In financial terms, the word describes an amount put aside to secure a larger, long-term financial transaction. “Until we acquire possession of it.” You could think of it like this: the deposit of Holy Spirit in us is a little bit of heaven in our lives with a guarantee of much, much more yet to come.
So, the Holy Spirit plays a key role in the salvation process by convicting us of our sin (John 16) and then once we’re saved, He seals, secures us. This section ends with the refrain, “to the praise of His glory.” All three sections of Ephesians Chapter 1, the one talking about the Father, the one talking about the Son and the one talking about the Spirit, all end with that refrain. So, the Holy Spirit plays a key role in the salvation process just like the Father and the Son.
I don’t know if you have ever contemplated your salvation from God’s perspective, but it is truly an amazing thing! Just to think that the God of the universe thought of us, you and me, as being important enough to save. How many of you have ever flown in an airplane on a clear day? You get to cruising altitude and you can see down below. There are no clouds. You look down from whatever altitude you are at, to the world below. From up there you can see the topography. You can see towns, mountains, and bodies of water. But you cannot see any people. They are too small. You cannot see any people! And yet the God of the universe thought about us! That is an overwhelming thought! And He thought about us as being important enough to send His Son to die for us. At 30,000 feet you can’t even see us!
This whole thought about salvation and about how it is a gift of God and that He did what He did to save us overwhelmed Paul. Because of that, he breaks out into praise beginning in v 15. He says, “For this reason I do not cease to give thanksgiving for you.” And he talks all about his joy in those believers in Ephesus. So, we will look at that next time.