Ephesians - Lesson 6

When Ephesians chapter 1 verses 11 down to verse 14, Paul is, he continues to praise God for these spiritual blessings that we have in Jesus Christ. So now we move into verse 11, where he, he makes the point about receiving this inheritance. But I want to say a further word here about something I've mentioned and stated about verse 10.

I want to make sure this is crystallized in our minds that in verse 10, this mystery that's revealed relating to the unification of all things or the summing up of all things in Christ in the heavens and upon the earth. I want to flip ahead to chapter 2 of Ephesians and 3 and highlight this truth once again there to show you how he's anticipating in chapter 1 verse 9 and 10 what's coming later in chapter 2 and 3. So 2, 1 to 10, as I've already suggested earlier in the study, Paul emphasizes that we were dead in trespasses and sins. God made us alive together with Christ to 11 through 22.

He emphasizes that that these Gentiles, we were the Gentiles that we must remember that we didn't have natural access, natural ethnic connection to God's messianic promises to Jews. But in Christ Jesus, we now have access to these promises and that God has created Jews and Gentiles to 11 through 22 into one new man. And then in chapter three, verse one, Paul will begin a prayer for the Ephesians, and he breaks off that prayer in verses two down to verse verse 13, and he picks up that prayer in verse 14.

In between the prayer and verses one and verse 14, he gives us this this chunk of text where he talks about, again, the administration or the stewardship of this grace. And he talks about this language of mystery once again, and he describes this this mystery. If you look at chapter three, verse four and verse five as the mystery, which was not made known.

Verse five in previous generations or in other generations to the sons of men. So the question, what is Paul? What does Paul mean when he talks about the mystery? It is something that was previously hidden and is now revealed. It was not made known in the previous generations.

I think the previous generations are the Old Testament generations. So if you think about them, the mystery that we know going back to chapter one, verse nine and verse 10, Paul says it's the unification of all things in Christ. And he basically says that here more explicitly and more in more detail.

It is made known now to the holy apostles or revealed now. It's a different word. Same concept is revealed now to the holy apostle, his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit.

Ah, key piece here to this mystery. There was a day promised in the book of Joel, the book of Ezekiel, other places where God would pour out his spirit. The Messianic age is going to usher in the outpouring of the spirit.

This day where men and women will prophesy and dream dreams. And it's Joel chapter two. And anyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

It's that day when God's going to write the law, put his spirit within the hearts of his people. Jeremiah 31, the day when God is going to write the law on the hearts of his people. That day when the spirit comes and he says the spirit helps manifest, reveal this mystery.

Now, now notice in verse six, he's going to elaborate further what the mystery is. So the mystery is revealed. And here's the mystery.

Picking up with verses nine and 10, really, in chapter one, that the Gentiles would be fellow heirs, members of the same body, partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Now, we'll talk more about what each of these statements means. But a point that I want us to grasp here is that this mystery is linked to God's redemptive plan in Christ.

The reason why I reiterate that point is because it's also going to be linked in chapter one to this idea of inheritance. This inheritance language that goes back to Abraham, goes back to Israel, that this inheritance is realized in Jesus Christ and inheritance regarding this. Yes, Jew, Gentile unity, but also regarding this what I would call vertical, horizontal and cosmic redemption.

You jump down further in verse eight of Ephesians, chapter three. He talks about that the gift was given to him to preach this good news to the Gentiles, the inexpressible wealth of Christ, and to make known to all the administration of this mystery, which is being revealed or rather, which was hidden from the ages in the past in God who created all things. But now, verse 10, made known, notice this, to the rulers, that language again, to the to all anti-God rulers, both earthly and demonic, and the powers in the heavenly places.

So the rulers are in the heavenly places. And remember that the realm of darkness, God is reigning over all. But the rulers are reigning in the darkness, over the darkness, beneath God's sovereign power.

And the mystery includes God manifesting this Jew, Gentile participation in this and this equal share of the the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. And this also speaks to God's manifold wisdom down in verse 10. So notice again, back up in verse six, you have this mystery linked to as revealed regarding Gentile inclusion.

Verse six, in Christ Jesus, through the good news or through the gospel. So go back to chapter one. This is important because we move into chapter one, verse 11.

Paul hasn't, I don't think, left this idea of mystery being revealed. But now he's going to talk about this inheritance in verse 11. So he talks about in Christ, verse 11, or in him referring to Christ, we have obtained an inheritance.

Now stop for a moment and think about that inheritance. Look at Deuteronomy chapter four, verse 20. Moses says the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt to be a people of his own inheritance.

You see also in other parts of the Old Testament that Deuteronomy 32, verse nine, for example, says, but the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob, his allotted heritage. But here, Paul says in him, we haven't obtained an inheritance. And the question is, is he identifying Israel as an inheritance or the people of God, in this case, Jews and Gentiles in Christ, as an inheritance? Or is he saying we have received inheritance? Is it we have become an inheritance or we were chosen to receive a portion of an inheritance? It's not easy to discern what exactly he's getting at, but in my reading is he's making the point that in Christ we have come to receive an inheritance because we have been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things, according to the counsel of his will.

So in other words, I don't think here I could be wrong, but I don't think here he's emphasizing that we in Christ are the inheritance, but rather we in Christ receive an inheritance. One reason why this might be a right way to think about what Paul is saying is if you look later in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 5, he is giving the Ephesians in this section a series of exhortations to be imitators of God as beloved children. He's already called them earlier in the letter people who have been predestined and chosen by God, predestined for adoption.

So as God's children, he wants them, verse 2, to walk in love in a certain way, just as Christ loved us and gave himself for us. And then he does what he often does is he lists a series of vices that he wants the people of God to avoid. Sexual sin, verse 3, all forms of impurity, covetousness, so on and so forth.

And he says, let not these things, verse 3, be named among you, as it is fitting for the holy ones or for the saints. And then he mentioned some other vices such as foolish speech and all sorts of reckless living and shameful ways of behaving. Don't let these sorts of patterns of living come out of your mouth, be part of your lives, but rather thanksgiving.

And then in verse 5, he emphasizes that they should know this, that not an immoral person or an impure person or a sexually impure person or a covetous person, which is idolatry, will have, here's the language, an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. And what's my point? My point here is that we think about this language of inheritance. Paul links it later with the inheritance that we receive as sons and daughters of the kingdom who are living in holy ways, that is, who are living as those who have been predestined to be holy and blameless.

So if you go back to chapter 1, verse 14, or verse 11, rather, that in Christ Jesus, we have received, we have been chosen to receive this inheritance, is how I would read the verb, because we were predestined. Notice it there again. Why do we receive an inheritance? Because we were predestined to that end.

We were predestined unto adoption, verse 5. We were predestined to be holy and chosen to be holy and blameless, verse 4. We were predestined to participate in this mystery, verse 11. We were predestined to receive this inheritance according to the purpose of the one who is working all things corresponding to the counsel of his will. So again, as Paul thinks about God's redemptive plan in Christ, he's making the point that God has sovereignly taken the initiative in order to bring about his redemptive plan.

And God's redemptive plan is in Christ Jesus. And Jews and Gentiles participate in that plan. And one piece of that redemptive plan, one piece of the spiritual inheritance is, we have obtained an inheritance from God because we have been predestined.

Now, the question is, we should be thinking, is what is that inheritance? Well, it seems to me, if chapter 5 is instructive, that that inheritance is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is already here and not yet realized. It is a kingdom that collides with the kingdom of man.

It is God's comprehensive rule over everything, which is happening right now. But it's not yet fully realized because God is reigning in heaven over the earth. But there will come a moment in history when Jesus will return and reign on earth over all things forever and usher in the full reality of that kingdom in the here and now to dethrone the devil and all the anti-God powers in real time as he renews creation and destroys evil once and for all.

This is one reason why Paul does say back in verse 10 that in Christ Jesus, the mystery is revealed to unite all things in him, things in the heavenly places, excuse me, and things upon the earth. In the New Testament, often there is an antithesis between the realm of the heavenlies and the realm upon the earth. In Revelation, for example, those who dwell upon the earth are those who are most often described as those who are not washed in the blood of the Lamb.

It's a spiritual designation versus a designation of one's physical location. Whereas those who are reigning with Christ on Mount Zion, who are sons and daughters of the kingdom, they're suffering on earth, as John unpacks it in Revelation, but they are reigning with God in Christ. Paul puts it really that way in Ephesians, that we are reigning with God in Christ right now as we live on earth because we've received every spiritual blessing from the heavenly places and we have been raised to reign with Christ as he's reigning with God at his right hand.

So then he says that all things in heaven and upon the earth are unified in him. And part of that unification of all things in Christ is the certainty of a future inheritance that we taste in part now, but we will receive in the eschaton when God brings about his kingdom from heaven to earth. And we experience this because God has predestined us according to the purpose of the one who works all things, which is God, in accordance with the counsel of his will.

And you get into verse 12, you have another important statement regarding this redemptive plan. He gives us a purpose statement in verse 12, and he says that God did this, gave us this inheritance, verse 11, so that we would be the first to hope in Christ for the praise of his glory. Verse 12 is interesting and very difficult.

I'll read it again to you from the ESV translation. Verse 12 says so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. Now, the question becomes, in verse 12, to whom is he referring when he calls this group of people, we to be the first to hope in Christ? Is he talking about Jews exclusively? Is he talking about the Christian community generally? Is he talking about Jew-Gentile inclusion? What exactly is he mentioning here? It's difficult to discern, but it could be the case, given the fact that he uses a verb here that's not a common verb to talk about the first to hope in Christ, that he might be prioritizing, as one commentator says, the Jewish chronology of salvation, by which I mean prioritizing Jewish priority in salvation.

So put it the way Paul puts it in Romans, for example, chapter 1, verse 17, 16 and 17. He says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes to the Jews first and then also to the Greeks. We see this played out in Paul's pattern of mission.

He goes to the Jews typically first in the synagogues, which was his pattern, and then he would go to the Gentiles. So here's a case where he might be emphasizing in this verse that God's redemptive plan although it certainly includes Gentiles from the very beginning, but it prioritized Jewish order of things in that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, in that the first Christians were Jews, not Gentiles technically, so that you have him working all things so that we would be the first to hope in Christ for the praise of his glory. Again, a point that I want to press here, so important, that in Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus, Jesus is the Jewish Messiah and the Gentile Messiah.

But there is and forever will be, in my understanding of Paul's theology, a mission to the Jews that must continue to be emphasized in Christian evangelism. Now I'll say more about that in a moment in terms of practical application, but let me support a bit here exegetically what I'm saying regarding how I'm reading chapter 1 verse 12 with the language of we being the first to hope in Christ. This seems to be right because you have this distinction later between Jews and Gentiles in Ephesians.

Notice down in chapter 1, for example, verse 18, where Paul begins to emphasize Gentile inclusion. So in verse 18, he talks about that he's praying for them, that the eyes of their hearts or your hearts would be illuminated so that you would know what is the hope of his calling, so that you would know what is the hope of his calling, what is the wealth of his glorious inheritance amongst the saints. So here he's praying for them and he's identifying that he wants them to understand this glorious inheritance.

It is a case where he seems to be focusing especially on these Gentiles as opposed to Jews and Gentiles. Further, later he in chapter 4 verse 4, if we jump ahead a bit, he is talking about the calling again in the context where he exhorts them, verse 1, to walk in a worthy manner in the Lord, a manner worthy of the calling which you were called. Of course, Paul was called too, but he seems to be changing his tone a bit to emphasize them as Gentile Christ followers, making sure that they behave in a way that's consistent with their calling.

In verse 2, that calling consists of a walk, which is focused on all humility and gentleness, patience, enduring one another in love, verse 3, hastening to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. And here's the verse to make my point. There's one body, one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling.

So once again, emphasizing this, you were called to a hope of your calling. So notice the word hope there. Here's my point that he wants these Gentiles to understand what is the hope of his calling, 118.

He wants them to walk in a manner worthy of his calling and that they would also walk in such a way where they demonstrate that they are pursuing the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace as they were called in one hope of your calling. So we go back to chapter 1 when he emphasizes so that we will be the first to hope in Christ. Perhaps this supports this idea that he's speaking about God working out his redemptive plan, second part of verse 11, in accordance with his will so that we would be the first, that is Jews, to hope in Christ for the praise of his glory.

And then he begins further below to speak about the Gentile inclusive nature of that calling. This is a powerful, if I'm right, display of God's mystery in the gospel of Jesus, that it is a vertical mystery that's been revealed that God in Christ has acted and has worked to provide forgiveness of our sins through Jesus's blood shed for us on the cross and by means of his resurrection. It's certainly a cosmic reality where God is uniting, summing up all things in heaven and upon the earth.

There's a kingdom that has broken into this present evil age and over which God reigns and that will once and for all triumph over all the anti-God powers, not only now, but eschatologically and eternally. But there's also this horizontal reality that he's talking about with respect to this mystery that Jews were the first to hope in Christ. The gospel went to Jews first, Paul says in Ephesians 2, he preached to those who were far off and he preached to those who were near and that Jews and Gentiles in Christ share in this same calling.

So going back to my application point earlier with respect to Paul, if I'm reading this verse correctly, prioritizing the order of Jews in the redemptive plan of God, that we should never abandon Jewish evangelism. Now this sounds offensive to some today, sounds hateful to some for Christians to say, to have the audacity to say that Jews need to trust in Jesus. I want to say I love the Jewish people.

I have friends who are non-Christians who are Jews, non-Christian Jews, and I love them, deeply love them. Jesus is a Jew. The apostles were Jews, so we should love the Jewish people.

We should never be anti-Semitic in our Christian theology in any way, shape or form. But it is important that we understand that God's redemptive plan is for the Jew first and also to the Gentile. And if we understand this, that Jews have a priority in the order of salvation in terms of God's redemptive plan, it helps us as Gentiles to avoid being arrogant and prideful.

I mean, Paul says this in Romans chapters 9 through 11, that we ought not to be arrogant because we've been grafted in and that for some temporary period of time, a large number of Jews are hardened, but there's going to be a fullness of the Gentiles coming in, which will serve as a provocation for Jews to turn to faith in Jesus Christ. But we ought not to be arrogant and think that we as Gentiles, because we know Jesus, are more pious or able to love God by our own strength than Jews or think that Jews are somehow inherently evil and we are good because we're Gentiles and they are Jews. Quite the contrary.

We must remind ourselves that God has chosen some Jews and some Gentiles to be in Christ. And the order of that salvation experience has been and is that the gospels to the Jew first and also to the Greek. We are, brothers and sisters, Gentiles grafted in.

We're unnatural branches grafted in, receiving the promises of the Jewish Messiah for Jewish people. And so that should move us not to hate Jews. It should move us to love Jews, to pray for Jews, to share the gospel with Jews.

One most loving thing we can do for the Jewish people is invite them to trust in their Jewish Messiah. And I think a verse like this helps us to be reminded of that. It helps us, frankly, as Gentiles, to know our place in God's economy of salvation.

And our place is one of receiving a gift from God by means of sovereign election along with Jews. And we equally share chapter three in this same inheritance of the kingdom of God. But we share in it not because we're Gentiles and they share in it not because they're Jews.

We share in it because of what God has done for us in Christ. And yet God has a plan through the Jewish Messiah, through Abraham and through his offspring and through the Jewish Messiah, Jesus, to bring about this redemptive plan for Jews and Gentiles in Christ. I don't know about you, but in church sometimes I feel strangely Jewish as we sing songs about the one and true God of Israel, as we celebrate the Lord's Supper and remind ourselves what Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, did for us and reinterpret that Passover meal in light of his broken body and his shed blood, and as we covenant with one another to worship the one and true living God in Jesus Christ.

We should never divorce the Christian faith from its Jewish heritage. When that has happened in history, sadly, it's resulted in devastating consequences to Jews. And often Christians sometimes say things that are not intentionally hurtful, but are about Jewish people, that we are worshiping not as Christians.

We don't worship an American Jesus. We worship a Jewish Jesus. We worship a Jewish Jesus who was a Torah observant Jew who went to synagogue and he ate kosher when it was appropriate to eat kosher.

And he did the kinds of things that Jews do. And we are Gentiles grafted into these Jewish promises. So may our hearts burn with love to make sure we share the Jewish gospel with the Jewish people and recognize that the priority, in terms of the chronology of redemptive history, is started with the Jewish people.

Remember, he told Jesus, that is, these Jews in Matthew 28, verses 16 and following, that they need to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. And in the book of Acts, chapter 1, verse 8, he tells them to take it to, yes, the ends of the earth, but to Jerusalem, Judea, and then Samaria and the ends of the earth. Now, verse 13, if you wrap up the doxology, he's continuing to talk about the praising God for these spiritual blessings that we have in Christ.

And notice now how he turns from talking about the privileges of election, predestination, and inheritance, to now talking about the hearing of the word of God. Verse 13, in whom, or in him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Now, let me just parse a few things out for you here.

So, in whom you also, the next thing, in terms of how the grammar's working, you should connect is, you also were sealed with the Holy Spirit, with the promised Holy Spirit. So, you also, you received this inheritance, previous verses, verse 13, in Christ, you were also sealed with the Holy Spirit. So, I'll talk about that in a moment.

What does that mean? In between the subject and the verb you were, you have some other, between the subject you and the verb were sealed, you have this statement regarding when you heard the word of truth. So, the sealing takes place, in Paul's view, the sealing takes place when they heard the word of truth, which he says, is the gospel of your salvation. And in him, and believed in him, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit.

So, what was the means by which they experienced the sealing of the Spirit? That's the question, really. The means by which was hearing the gospel, the word of truth, and responding to the gospel by faith, verse 13 says. So, notice, as I said earlier, I said that the Gentiles, or anybody for that matter, that were justified by faith were not justified by election, and that we must hear the gospel to experience justification.

Well, Paul basically, although he doesn't say justification here, he does mention salvation, which is part of the justification experience. Salvation is broader than justification, but salvation would include justification, even though the term salvation largely refers to deliverance from God's wrath. In Paul's soteriology, this idea of salvation includes with it, I think, this concept of being justified by faith

But that's not what he talks about here. He just simply mentions the concept of salvation. But the point I'm emphasizing is, is that the reason why we experience this salvation is because we hear the gospel, the word of truth, namely the gospel of our salvation.

Notice the pronouns here. You, you Gentiles, heard the word of truth. Now, we were the first to hope in the gospel, Jews, in terms of the prioritization of the salvation redemptive plan.

But you also, what is he doing? He's linking Jew and Gentile salvation together. We Jews believe, we hoped in Christ first, but you Gentiles also, you heard the word of truth. You heard the gospel.

What is the gospel? Massive debate today. There's so many people writing books and asking questions about what is the gospel. I have a book coming out on Romans and the gospel in Romans.

I wrote one that hopefully will be helpful in answering the question. But one thing we can say, I think, constantly about the gospel is, it is the announcement of good news wrapped up in Jesus, who is the King and the Lord who died on the cross for our sins and whom God raised from the dead. And he saves Jews and Gentiles from the wrath of God.

And he gives them all these supernatural, spiritual blessings in Christ that the good news is anchored in God's prophetic word to Isaiah that a day is coming when Jews and Gentiles will experience redemptive freedom that's beyond Israel's deliverance from physical captivity and exile. That moment, Paul says, is here and we receive that salvation. We hoped in it as Jews first and you also heard the gospel and you believed it.

Verse 13. Nobody receives salvation without hearing the gospel. That is so important that we hear that because there is an argument being made by readers today that suggests that Jews are OK as Jews who don't trust in Christ and Gentiles are the ones who need to trust in Christ.

So Torah observant Jews who are faithful to the covenant, they don't need to trust in Christ, but Gentiles do. That's not Paul's theology. His theology is that Jews were the first to hope in Christ in terms of the order of salvation within redemptive history and that Gentiles likewise trust in Christ and experience this salvation.

The word salvation, as I've already suggested, is typically a term that speaks to God's salvation or deliverance from wrath. So when I use the word soteriology, I use that word to mean the different aspects of Paul's teaching of salvation that will occur in his letters. So Paul's soteriology, excuse me, in my view, would include things like justification by faith, deliverance from God's wrath and other aspects.

New creation would all be a part of soteriology. But justification by faith, not explicitly mentioned in this text, is likewise a part of his understanding of salvation, but it's different from the understanding of new creation. New creation is a part of Paul's soteriology.

Christ is reigning over everything. God does new creation because of Christ. And new creation includes the liberation of the current creation and a kingdom that's coming to triumph over all the principalities of power of the air.

But here he basically means by the word salvation, I think, deliverance from God's wrath. One reason why I think that is right is because when you jump ahead once again to chapter 2, he says what? Let's read it again. We were dead in trespasses and sins, 2-1.

We walked in trespasses and sins, 2-2. 2-3. We were walking as sons of disobedience, 2-3.

And we were, 2-3, children of wrath by nature, just as also the rest. To be a child of wrath means before God worked in us through the hearing and receiving of the gospel, we were headed toward destruction, eternal destruction. We were headed for hell.

We were headed for the wrath of God. The wrath of God in Paul's theology is already here, but not yet fully realized. Romans 1, 18-32.

The wrath of God is poured out right now in the real world when God gives people over to commit the sins of their heart because they refuse to worship him as God. Three times in that text, in Romans 1, 18-32, Paul emphasizes God gave them over. That is a manifestation of the wrath of God.

But there is also in Paul's theology a future day of wrath reserved at the end of history when Jesus returns from heaven to earth to judge the world, to judge all of the anti-God powers, to judge everybody who failed or refused to trust in Jesus Christ by faith. And everybody who did not in the Old Testament era trust in the one and true living God. He is going to pour out eternal conscience, judgment, wrath.

Think about it. People will suffer forever in a real hell, in eternal judgment forever lest they repent and be saved. When Paul talks about salvation, he's talking about deliverance from the future wrath of God, which is coming when Jesus returns.

Promise in the prophets. Joel, for example, and talked about throughout many places in Paul's writings, including here in chapter 2 and other places as well, such as chapter 5. So we see in verse 13, you heard the gospel, Gentiles. We believe first, and then you heard it, and then you believed it, verse 13.

And when you believed it, you were sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. That word there for sealing is important. The seal is an important piece of the argument Paul is making.

When we think about the sealing of the Spirit, the Spirit is, verse 14, the down payment, the guarantee, the confirmation, the security, the certainty that their eternal destiny is secure. The Spirit is, in part, part of the inheritance that God is promising to give to Jews and Gentiles. That Messianic age is bringing about the fulfillment of all of these redemptive plans, all of these redemptive promises that God gave to Jews and Gentiles.

And one of those promises was the indwelling presence and power of the Spirit who seals people when they believe the good news of the gospel and confirms and guarantees and protects, in fact, their destiny until the end. When you think about this sealing, you see the idea of a seal in the ancient world where the seal protected a document, confirmed the document that was sealed. We see in Revelation where you have a scroll that is sealed and the only person who has the authority to snap the seal is the one who is given this power to do so in the case of the seals in Revelation.

It's the Lord Jesus, Jesus Christ. So you have the idea also of the sealing concept popping up in places according to one commentator. Abraham was sealed with circumcision.

Romans chapter four, verse 11, Pontius Pilate sealed Jesus's tomb to keep out robbers. Matthew chapter 27, verse 66. So this seal comes with authority.

One reason why these Gentiles are not inferior participants in God's redemptive plan is because they as Gentiles with Jews in Christ experience the supernatural power of the Spirit who is their seal for this day of redemption. It's important that we think about this a bit more because the question becomes, for what are they sealed? They're sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise, which again supports the premise that the Spirit was promised and was promised in different places in the prophets and was promised to be part of the Messianic age. And so the Spirit is sealing, is sealing these believers.

Sealing for what? If you look at chapter four, jump ahead with me again to chapter four, chapter four, verse 30. Paul in this section again of ethical exhortation is exhorting these Ephesians to live a certain way. And he says, do not grieve for 30, the Holy Spirit of God, by means of whom that is the Spirit, by means of the Spirit, you were sealed for the day of redemption.

So this sealing of the Gentiles in Christ is the, verse 14, the guarantee that they're going to receive the inheritance.