2
Praise
For Spiritual Riches
Eph. 1:3
Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us
with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in
Christ.
Introduction To Verses
3-14
Before we deal in
depth with verse 3, we should first look at this
enthralling passage as a whole. To do so, let us notice
three amazing features about verses 3-14.
First, the
most amazing feature of this passage is that in the
Greek it is one sentence. How
marvelous this is! This passage is not so much a
“deliberate statement” as it is a “song of praise,” or
what is called a “doxology.” Many Epistles (such as
Philippians and I Corinthians) begin with thanksgiving.
This one, however, as well as II Corinthians and I
Peter, begin with a doxology, and this one is the
greatest of all.
It seems that Paul just
could not stop once he began praising God for all He has
given; he just goes on and on. One writer puts it this
way: this passage was written in “a state of controlled
ecstasy.”1 And rightly so!
After some thirty years of knowing and serving Christ,
Paul was truly carried away with these thoughts. Even
while under house arrest for the cause of Christ, he
just could not stop praising God. Paul pours out his
heart in true adoration of God. Commentator William
Hendrickson writes:
The sentence . . .
rolls on like a snowball tumbling down a hill, picking
up volume as it descends. Its . . . words, and the many
modifiers which they form, arranged like shingles on a
roof or like steps on a stairway, are like prancing
steeds pouring forward with impetuous
speed.2
To use an Old Testament title, we
might observe that if anything could be called “The
Psalm of Paul,” it is this
passage.
I think it important to
interject here that the NIV translation (like most
contemporary translations) tries to “fix” the Greek text
but succeeds only in butchering it. As we’ll see,
Ephesians 1:3-14 is one of the most beautiful
passages in the Word of God. I can seldom read it with a
dry eye. But frankly, the NIV kills the flow of the
passage. In one sentence and with a minimum of
words, Paul expresses several of the most profound
truths in the Scriptures. The NIV committee, however,
thought it would be better to use eight
sentences. Two modern translations actually use
eighteen sentences.3 In his very
important book, Accuracy of
Translation, Robert Martin
points out the significance of this by
writing:
Paul’s primary concern is
contained in the words, “Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ;” everything else in the
passage is subordinate to and supportive of this
affirmation . . .4
In other words, the
passage is purposefully one
sentence because the entire
sentence presents one main thought, which is first
stated in verse 3 and then supported in the rest of the
passage. The writer goes on to point out the results of
deviating from the Greek:
[But] to the degree
that translations move away from treating such complex
passages as single grammatical entities (i.e., by
breaking them up into separate sentences, thus rendering
as coordinate that which is subordinate in the
original), to that degree they misrepresent the original
and mislead the reader.5
In other words, no
longer are the words Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ the main point, which is then
supported by the rest of the passage. It is simply one
thought among many others and is equal to the others. As
we’ll see in our next installment, the point of verse 3
is worship, and everything
flows from that.
Even worse, the NIV
translators left out several words and added several
others. As one Greek authority points out, all you have
to do is compare the NIV to the Greek Text.6
When you do, you find that out that of the 205 Greek
words in this passage, 36 Greek words are ignored and
not translated at all. Additionally, 87 of the English
words have no true backing from the Greek, nor are they
warranted by the context for the sake of clarity. In
other words, they are just inserted
arbitrarily.7 Can we honestly conclude that
all these words are God-breathed? And this passage is
only one
example of hundreds in the NIV. I have been studying the
textual issue for many years, and contrary to its
incredible (and unbelievable) popularity, the NIV is
just a bad translation.8
We should appreciate these
words by R. C. H. Lenski:
Even in our far less
flexible English we are not compelled to break [Paul’s
sentence] up into several sentences. A spacious and
lofty palace is naturally larger than a common
dwelling.9
Indeed, there is no compelling
reason to break up this sentence. To do so, in fact, is
to diminish its point and power greatly. Again, in one
beautifully flowing sentence, Paul exalts God for what
He has done for man in Christ. As John Calvin
writes:
The lofty terms in which
he extols the grace of God toward the Ephesians, are
intended to rouse their hearts to gratitude, to set them
all on flame, to fill them even to overflowing with this
thought.10
Indeed, may this be the
case as we study this great passage. May it set our
hearts aflame with glory to God.
Second, this
“song of praise” divides itself into three distinct
parts. One writer
makes this comment about this
passage:
Paul’s mind goes on
and on, not because he is thinking in logical stages,
but because gift after gift and wonder after wonder from
God pass before his eyes.11
While that is true, it
should not imply that this passage is just a jumble of
words that has no plan. On the contrary, we see in this
great doxology three “stanzas:”
·
First
Stanza (vs. 4-6) – Focuses on God the Father and speaks of past
ELECTION.
·
Second Stanza (vs.
7-12) – Focuses on God the Son and
speaks of present
REDEMPTION.
·
Third Stanza (vs.
13-14)
- Focuses on
God the Holy Spirit and speaks of
future
INHERITANCE.
As we progress, we will
see that each of these stanzas can be separated into
specific statements that express Paul’s
thoughts.
Third, we
also see that each “stanza” demonstrates that specific
riches come from each specific member of the Godhead:
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It
is this truth that we shall examine in chapters that
follow.
This prepares us to
examine verse 3. This is truly the opening “doxology” of
Paul’s “song of praise,” Paul’s “psalm.” It is the first
few notes of praise to God for the riches He has given.
Let us examine five truths in this
verse.
I. The Source Of
Riches (“God
and Father”)
When we examine this
passage, we discover what real riches are, not the
pseudo-riches of the world, but the true spiritual
riches that God has given. We need to observe two
thoughts here.
We Are to
Praise God
This is first and
foremost. Paul’s opening words are, Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. As mentioned earlier, this is Paul’s primary
concern in this passage (vs. 3-14). Everything else in
the passage flows from that premise and supports it.
Paul just goes on and on of why God is to be blessed,
praised, and worshipped.
The first and most
important thought this should impress upon us is that
everything begins with God. As mentioned in the
“Introduction,” Ephesians presents doctrine for
doctrine’s sake; it expresses the basic doctrines of
Christianity in language unequalled anywhere else. So
where, then, does Paul start? He starts with
God.
We cannot emphasize
this strongly enough, for it is the very opposite of
what we see in the vast majority of the Church today,
where everything begins and ends with man. We are
totally man centered in our theology, worship, and
evangelism. We want to talk about our experience, and
our needs instead of who God is and what He alone has
done in Christ. But the only way we will ever
discover, view, and understand truth is to begin with
God. Why is truth relative in our day? Why can men
not find answers to life’s questions? Because men do
not begin with God. If you start
with a subjective premise, you can only arrive at a
subjective conclusion. We must start with the absolutes
of God and His Word.
To say this in another
way, while it’s quite true that Paul lists the riches
and blessings that God gives us in Christ, this is only
secondary to the fact that he first insists that we
begin with God.
We can easily illustrate
this by thinking what if we tried to barge into the oval
office at the White House insisting that the President
hear us and give us what we demand. “After all,” we
would argue, “I’m an American; I pay my taxes; I have a
right to talk to my president.” Well, assuming we made
it past the Secret Service, such an approach would be
utterly disrespectful and unconscionable. Yet, that is
exactly what we do with God. We barge into His Throne
Room and demand blessing. How blasphemous this is! Paul,
therefore, insists that we first approach in Him for Who
He is.
This leads us to a
second thought that should be impressed upon us, namely
the importance of doctrine.
As Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes:
The most foolish of
all Christians are those who dislike and decry the
importance of Theology and teaching. Does not that
explain why they fail in practice?
12
Why are many
Christians weak and shallow? Why do many fall to any new
trend that comes along? Why do many fail to discern
false teaching? Why do many fail to be consistent and
faithful? Why do many fall to temptation? Why do many
collapse when someone challenges their faith? Because they do not
know doctrine—they are not being taught doctrine by
their pastors; they are not being taught that God’s Word
alone is Truth. People are being taught that truth is
relative and can be found in many other places. And
that is why they
fail.
As we saw in the
“Introduction,” the first half of this Epistle (as most
of Paul’s Epistles) deals with doctrine and the second
half deals with practice. Why?—because without right
doctrine we will not have right practice. No matter what the issue, the question, or the
problem, there is a doctrinal principle in God’s Word to
answer it. This fact is at the very heart of the
doctrine of the Authority and Sufficiency of Scripture.
To deny it is to deny it is to deny Scripture
Itself.
So Paul begins his
doctrinal thesis by extolling God with the words,
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus
Christ.
He starts with God. There are two words commonly
translated blessed in the
Greek New Testament.
One such word is
makarios, which our Lord used in the
Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3-11). Many preachers and teachers
come to this word, say it means “happy,” and then just
move on, but the word means much more. First, it
also speaks of “contentedness.” The idea is an inward
contentedness that is not affected by circumstances.
This is indeed the kind of happiness and contentedness
that God desires for His children—a state of joy and
well–being that does not depend upon physical, temporary
circumstances (cf. Phil. 4:11–13). Second, it
goes still deeper, as Greek scholar Spiros Zodhiates
points out, to refer to “possessing the favor of God,
that state of being marked by fullness from God.”
Third, further still, one who is “blessed” is
“one who becomes partaker of God’s nature through faith
in Christ (II Pet. 1:4).” Zodhiates really cuts to the
heart of it when he writes: Makarios differs
from the word “happy” in that the person is happy who
has good luck . . . To be makarios,
blessed, is equivalent to having God’s Kingdom within
one’s heart.” Finally he writes, “Makarios is the
one who is in the world yet independent of the world.
His satisfaction comes from God and not from favorable
circumstances.”13 Understanding this
wonderful word will allow us to read the Beatitudes with
a whole new understanding. Oh, how all this transcends
mere happiness!
In contrast to makarios, however, the word used here is eulogetos, which literally means “to speak well of, worthy
of praise.” It is from this word that our English word
“eulogize” derives. This is, of course, the common
practice of speaking good words about a person at their
funeral (whether or not the words are true). But this
word, as it is used in the New Testament, is used
only of God (Lk. 1:68; Rom.
1:25; 2 Cor. 1:3; 11:31; Eph. 1:3; 1 Pet. 1:3). Why?
Because only God can be “spoken well of, worthy of
praise.” There is no reason to eulogize man, for he has
nothing good of which to speak. Yes, a man or woman may
have been a Christian, lived a holy life, and raised a
Godly family, but ultimately the glory, the “eulogy,”
belongs to God.
So, in view of
Paul’s words, we see that the first priority of the
believer is to worship. Oh,
may we see this! As the Book of Acts and other
references make crystal clear, it is vitally important
that we attend God’s house, the local church, but the
question arises, “Why do we go?”
In our day, most
people go to church for what they can get. This
is, in fact, what most so-called church ministry is
built on. The very idea of church programs is built on
the idea of “giving people a blessing,” “meeting their
needs,” and “keeping them entertained.” And the cardinal
“sin” in such an approach is preaching doctrine or
presenting absolutes. As mentioned in the
“Introduction,” many people go to church like they’re
looking for a movie—they check out the church page in
their newspaper to see what’s playing and go to the
church whose program appeals to them. The trend today is
to shop for a church to join based on what that church
can offer the churchgoer. But if you go to church for
what you can get out of the
music, or what you can get out of the sermon, or just to
“get blessed,”
you’ve missed the point. The primary reason for our
church attendance is to praise and adore our God. The
music and the sermon are not ends in themselves. They
are means of worshipping God.
Biblically, we are
to go to church to worship God, and that’s done by
giving, not getting. We go to offer
something to Him, not to receive from Him. Granted, if
we offer to Him the praise due His name, we will receive
at His hand. There is blessing in giving, for the Lord
is quoted as saying, “It is more blessed
to give than to receive” (Acts
20:35b). But our primary motive is to give, not
get.
It’s vitally important in
our day to reemphasize that Scripture is dominated by
the principle of worship, both in the Old Testament and
the New.
First, in the Old
Testament we see that the First Commandment commands us
to worship God and God alone (Ex. 20:2-6). The
establishment of the Tabernacle (Ex. 25) was for
worship. The encampment around the Tabernacle (Num.
1:52-2:2) was designed to facilitate worship. The
example of the Seraphim (Is. 6:1-2) is one of the most
beautiful and powerful pictures of worship in Scripture.
The many exhortations of the Psalmist make worship the
central function of God’s people. Just one example is
Ps. 95:6-7a: “Oh, come, let us worship and bow down; let
us kneel before the LORD our maker. For He is our God.”
This is not the attitude in most contemporary worship
services. With hands raised high, the catch phrase of
most “worship leaders” is, “I’m going to lead you into
God’s presence.” Such attitudes should frighten us, for
even if such words are said with the purest of motives,
the concept is still flawed. Many have the wrong method
of worship because they don’t know who God
is.
Second, the New Testament
is just as strong in its emphasis on worship. The Magi
came for the express purpose to worship (Matthew 2:2).
Satan’s ultimate attack on our Lord was a matter of the
object of worship, to whom our Lord answered, “Get thee
hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the
Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve” (Matthew
4:8-10). John 4:20-24 is perhaps the most important New
Testament passage on worship, where the word “worship”
is mentioned 10 times showing its priority and proper
manner. Additionally, there are many other challenges to
proper worship (Acts 17:23; Phil. 3:3; Heb. 1:6; I Peter
2:5; Rev. 4:10-11).
I am reminded often
of A. W. Tozer, who in his day, over 40 years
ago, wrote much about worship
and its demise. In words that could have been penned
today, he wrote, for example:
Within the last
quarter of a century we have actually seen a major shift
in the beliefs and practices of the evangelical wing of
the church so radical as to amount to a complete
sellout; and all this behind the cloak of fervent
orthodoxy. With Bibles under their arms and bundles of
tracts in their pockets, religious persons now meet to
carry on “services” so carnal, so pagan, that they can
hardly be distinguished from the old vaudeville shows of
earlier days. And for a preacher or a writer to
challenge this heresy is to invite ridicule and abuse
from every quarter.14
Indeed, with today’s emphasis on
drama, comedy, and other entertainment, “old vaudeville
shows” is an accurate summary. People today want
entertainment instead of truth. Elsewhere Tozer
writes:
I can safely say, on
the authority of all that is revealed in the Word of
God, that any man or woman on this earth
who is bored and turned off by worship is not ready for
heaven.15
You know, the church
started out with a Bible, then it got a hymnbook, and
for years that was it—a Bible and a hymnbook. The
average church now certainly wouldn’t be able to operate
on just a hymnbook and the Bible. Now we have to have
all kinds of truck. A lot of people couldn’t serve God
at all without at least a vanload of equipment to keep
them happy.16
Yes, today we need multimedia
presentations, slideshows, live bands, and much more to
“minister to people’s needs.” But may we ask ourselves,
What is heaven going to be like? Well, not one of the
Biblical descriptions implies that we are going to be
entertained throughout eternity. Heaven will be a place
of worship—and many today are not
preparing.
Each of us needs to ask
ourselves, Do I worship when I go to church? Is that
what’s in my mind? Do I prepare my heart for worship? Am
I eager to worship God?
God Is The
Source Of All We Possess
After stating how we
are to bless God, Paul then declares that God is He
who hath blessed us.
As we pointed out
earlier, God is the only one who is to be
blessed. The previous usage of the Greek word is
in the adjective form. Here, however, the same
basic word is used but in the verbal form; that
is, God is doing the action of blessing. The contrast is
this: Our blessing is in word; His blessing is in
deed. All we can do is say the words, but look at
the ways he has blessed us. As one expositor puts it:
“In word and thought we bless God because in deed and
positive effect He blesses us.”17 Not only do we praise God, but the reason we
praise Him is because He blesses us; He benefits us; He
heaps upon us spiritual blessing. This leads us to the
second truth of verse 3.
II. The Recipients
Of Riches (“Us”)
Who does Paul mean here by
saying us?
Does he mean the whole world? No, because not all the
world is spiritually blessed. Does he mean the nations
of the world? No, this can’t be for the same reason.
Does he mean the Gentiles, in contrast to the Jews? No,
because the word us
would also include him, who was a Jew.
The answer is
obvious by the context. Us
refers back to the true believers in verse 1, “the
saints . . . in Christ Jesus.” All true believers are,
indeed, the recipients of all God has given. Us
pictures all believers
everywhere: Paul himself, those in Ephesus, those
in all Asia Minor, and those in every corner of the
Earth.
Also notice that
Paul says that God hath
blessed
us. This is actually in the Aorist Tense
in the Greek, that is, a past action. Paul is not
speaking of something that is possible or
something that is future.
Rather he speaks of what has already happened. Harry
Ironside, who came out of the holiness movement with its
teaching about a so-called “second-blessing” and the
eradication of the sin nature, recounts
this:
People often ask me
if I have obtained the second blessing yet, and I
generally say, “Second blessing? Why, I am somewhere up
in the hundreds of thousands as far as that goes, if you
refer to experience; but actually I obtained every
blessing that God has for a redeemed sinner when I put
my trust in Jesus Christ.” He does not give us a little
now and a little later, but gives us everything in
Christ. It is all yours. Enter into it and enjoy
it.18
What a truth! We have all God’s
spiritual blessings right
now!
Meditate a moment on
that marvelous verse in James: “Every good gift and
every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from
the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning.” (1:17). Here again is the
truth that God is the source of all we possess. But
going deeper into that verse we find that the first
phrase literally reads “every good giving”, that is,
every act of giving. Therefore, not only is every
gift good, but the way God gives
it is equally good. Is it not
true that the value and meaning of a gift can be
increased or lessened by the way it is given? For
example, does it not mean more to you when someone gives
you a gift spontaneously than if they give you a gift
out of obligation?
This is exactly the
picture of God’s giving to us. God did not have to give
us anything; He was not under any obligation to
redeem us or show any mercy toward us. Think again of
the prevalence of “grace” in Ephesians. Not only are
God’s gifts good, but the way He gives them is equally
good for they are given through grace.
III. The Content Of
Riches (“Spiritual”)
Think a moment what
the world considers to be riches: oil wells, real
estate, diamonds, gold, silver, stocks, bonds, and the
like. Now, there is certainly nothing wrong with these
in themselves, but when they become our priority, our
source of riches, then we have a problem. Why? Because
these are not real riches; they are “artificial”
riches or substitute riches.
Man is in need of riches, but he rejects true riches and
substitutes these false riches.
How tragic it is
that many Christians today have gotten caught up in this
philosophy. Many have gotten caught up in all sorts of
“prosperity teaching,” the latest version of which is,
as one author calls it in the title of his book, “The
Cult of Jabez.” In very strong but no less true
words, that author exposes the popular book, The
Prayer of Jabez, as “the most mesmerizing deception
to be launched on American Christianity in the modern
era.”19 Why? Because, as the author of
another exposé writes, the basic, underlying error of
the book is “that the repetition of a prayer, any
prayer, even a Biblical prayer, unlocks the power of God
in our lives.”20 The
whole thrust of the book is that by repeating this
obscure Old Testament prayer (a clear violation of the
prohibition of “vain repletion” in Matt. 6:8), the
Christian can unlock blessing and miracles. All it boils
down to be is old prosperity teaching in a new wrapper,
and to be blunt once more, it’s heresy plain and simple.
This is, indeed, the philosophy of the day: God is at
our disposal, at our beckoning call, to give us whatever
we want.
On the contrary, in
all their efforts to “get blessed,” such people ignore
the declaration of our text that true riches are
spiritual. The word spiritual is pneumatikos,
which is the word used to
describe the work of the Holy Spirit. This word is
used in speaking of “spiritual gifts,” that is,
gifts which come from the Spirit (Rom. 1:11; I Cor.
12:1; etc.). This is also used in reference to
“spiritual men”, that is, men who are controlled by the
Spirit (I Cor. 2:13—literal translation of “comparing
spiritual things with spiritual” is “explaining
spiritual things to spiritual men”—and 15). Therefore,
since these blessings are connected with the Holy
Spirit, they are spiritual in nature and
content.
How many spiritual
blessings are there? When we look at verse 3, we might
be inclined to think that it merely introduces the
set number of blessings listed in verses 4-14. But it
goes far deeper than this. The word blessings is
actually singular in the Greek (“with every spiritual
blessing”). So, it’s not so much that God gives many
riches (though this is how it appears to us);
rather, He gives true wealth,
one continuous flow of blessing and wealth. We all know
the hymn that admonishes us to, ”Count your many
blessings; name them one by one.” While we certainly do
that, may we also see the greater picture; may we not
only see the individual blessings, but may we
recognize the one continuous flow of wealth that
comes from God.
As we look at the
individual riches in verses 4-14, may we think of them
as this continuous flow. While we will deal with them in
much more detail as we continue, it would be of value to
look at them now as a group. What is our spiritual
[wealth]? Let’s look briefly at
eight aspects our wealth in verses
4-14.
First, our
wealth is in God’s Election.
Verse 4 declares:
According as [God the
Father] hath chosen us in [Christ] before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame
before him in love.
Here is a doctrine
that causes all kinds of troubles, but that’s the last
thing it should do. It is actually one of the most
soothing doctrines of the Bible. The Greek for “chosen”
is a wonderful word, indeed; it is eklego, which means “to pick or choose out for one’s
self.” It is also in the Aorist (past) Tense, yielding
the idea “once for all.” The full meaning in this verse
is that we have been chosen once-for-all out
of the world to be God’s own as His special
treasure. And why has He chosen
us? So we can be holy. It is God’s election of us that
is the beginning of our salvation. As the prophet Jonah
declares, “Salvation is of the Lord” (Jonah 2:9). From
beginning to end, salvation is the work of God, and that
work begins with Him electing us in Christ before He
even created the building blocks of the
universe.
Second, our
wealth is in God’s Predestination. Flowing from verse 4, verses 5 declares:
“Having predestinated us.” This word has probably caused
more trouble than the word election. But the word is
actually a very simple one. The Greek proorizo, which simply means “to designate before.” The
real depth of it in the fact that it’s a compound word.
Pro, of
course, means “beforehand,” but horizo speaks of
a “boundary or limit,” and is actually where our English
word “horizon” comes from. So, just as the horizon marks
a limit between what we can and can’t see, God has
placed us within a certain limit, a certain “horizon.”
He has put us in a place where we can see and comprehend
many things but where many other things are hidden from
our sight and comprehension, many things that are beyond
our horizon. Further, even if we walk closer to the
horizon, discovering new things as we go, a new horizon
appears before us. This word graphically demonstrates
that God has
marked out something for each of His elect; He has
marked out a destiny. Much of
this destiny is hidden from us; it is beyond the
horizon. But, praise be to God, he reveals more of it
with each new step we take towards it, but the horizon
is still ahead. What a wonderful God we
worship!
This thought leads
directly to a third aspect of our wealth.
Third, our
wealth is in God’s Adoption.
Verses 5 and 6 declare:
Having predestinated us
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, To
the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath
made us accepted in the beloved.
What is one aspect
of our destiny? Adoption. Adoption in our Western
culture means that we take an orphaned child and make
him or her our own. In Eastern culture, however, it went
much deeper. It literally meant “son-placing.” There was
a public ceremony during the teenage years that declared
a child to be an official member of the family. After
this “son-placing,” he had full privileges and
responsibilities. With this ceremony came a change in position; he was
no longer a child, he was a
son. Therefore, as adopted children, all believers
have blessings, privileges, and responsibilities that
only come by sonship. As we’ll see, the philosophy today
that says, “All people are God’s children,” is a lie.
Only those who are “in Christ” are God’s adopted
children.
Fourth, our
wealth is in God’s Redemption. Verse 7 tells us: “In whom we have redemption
through his blood.” What a word this is! It is in this
word our salvation lies. The Greek here is apolutrosis. The root lutroo means “to
release on receipt of a ransom.” The prefix apo means
“from,” which intensifies lutroo. One
Greek authority tells us that this expresses the completeness of
our redemption and is one that keeps us from further
bondage in the future.21
In our day we don’t
readily understand the full force of the word redemption
as did Paul’s readers. When he uttered this word, they
knew exactly
what he was talking about, for this word was rooted in
Greek and Roman culture. In New Testament times, there
were approximately six million slaves. Slave-trading was
a major business and was an accepted part of society. It
was very common, in fact, for a person to have a
relative or friend that had been sold into slavery. A
slave could be freed only if someone paid the
purchase price and then declared them free. There was no way the
slave could redeem himself. In the watered down
“Gospel” of our day, we have blurred the idea of
redemption because we do not view sin properly. Sin is
slavery and we cannot redeem ourselves by works; God
must intervene and pay the ransom price. Our dear Savior
did not merely “rescue” us as liberal theology says,
that is, rescue us from ignorance, superstition, social
backwardness, or a low self-esteem. Rather He redeemed us. He bought us. We belong to
Him.
Fifth, our
wealth is in God’s Forgivenss. Verse 7 also tells us that we have “the
forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his
grace.” The Greek word Paul uses here (aphesis) literally means “release, pardon, or
cancellation.” While redemption means to be free from
sin’s power and dominion, forgiveness means that God has
pardoned us and wiped the slate clean. The past is now
of no consequence. “As far as the east is from the west,
so far hath He removed our transgressions from us” (Ps.
103:12). And all this He has done by grace alone. What
great wealth this is, indeed!
Sixth, our
wealth is in God’s Revelation. Verses 8-10 declare:
Wherein he hath abounded
toward us in all wisdom and prudence; Having made known
unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good
pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: That in the
dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather
together in one all things in Christ, both which are in
heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.
We
will fully develop these verses, but in short, part of
our wealth is in the fact that God will reveal to us
what He is doing in the world, what He will ultimately
do in history. How valuable that
is!
Seventh, our
wealth is in God’s Inheritance. Verses 11-12 proclaim:
In whom also we have
obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according
to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the
counsel of his own will: That we should be to the praise
of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
We on earth are
often so concerned about an earthly inheritance or
getting our share of an estate that we forget that our
real inheritance comes in Christ. As Romans 8:17 tells
us, we are “joint-heirs with Christ.” He is the heir of
the whole universe, and we
are predestined to be joint-heirs with Him, all by God’s
sovereign will and for His infinite
glory.
Eighth, and
finally, our wealth is in God’s
Sealing. Verses 13-14 close
Paul’s doxology:
In whom ye also trusted,
after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of
your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye
were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is
the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of
the purchased possession, unto the praise of his
glory.
As we will examine,
the imagery of the ancient custom of sealing, that is,
“marking with a seal,” as with a signet ring, for
example, pictured four things: Acquisition,
Absolute Ownership, Authenticity, and Assurance. The
significance is that Christ acquired us, He owns us, He
has put His unmistakable mark upon us, and we are safe
in Him.
Oh, what wealth we have in
Christ!
IV. The Location of
Riches (“In
the heavenlies”)
Here is the first of
five occurrences of the term in
the heavenlies (literal translation). We
discussed this in our “Introduction And Overview,” and
what a beautiful term it is. Harry Ironside was so
struck by it that he titled his exposition of Ephesians,
In the Heavenlies.
The meaning of this term
is obvious. Many Greek authorities agree that this term
here refers to “the abode of God.”22 So,
then, where are these spiritual blessings? They come
from heaven. Why? Because they come from God Who is the
source and Who dwells in heaven.
But what is the
significance of all this right now? There are at least
two present applications.
First, many
spiritual riches that are found in heaven, have been
given to us here and now.
One example is that
we have been adopted into God’s family (v. 6). God
is the Father, He is in heaven, and our family
membership is, therefore, in heaven. But also notice
2:6: “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together [in the heavenlies] in Christ Jesus.” So, the
truth is that even though we are physically
situated on earth, we are still spiritually
seated in heaven.
Another example is that we
presently have redemption through Christ’s blood (v. 7).
But where did that redemption originate? From the plan
of God in eternity past.
One other example is that
God predetermined our future inheritance, but much of
that has been given in the present: the peace of God
(Phil. 4:7); strength and power for successful
living (Phil. 4:13); daily provision for physical needs
(Phil. 4:19); and many others.
Second, we
are to live for that which is heavenly, not
earthly. Since God has heaped
upon us “spiritual blessings in the heavenlies,” we
should now live according to these. There is nothing
wrong with possessions, but we must not “live to have
things;” we must not be shackled by debt; we must not be
“married to a job.”
Peter exhorts in I Peter
2:11: “Dearly beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and
pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against
the soul.” Tragically, many Christians today act like
earth is their home. But Peter declares that we are
pilgrims who are just passing through this world on our
way to heaven. We see this vividly in the nation of
Israel. God promised them a land, and they, therefore,
were (and are today) strangers anywhere else. Likewise,
the believer belongs nowhere else but heaven. Our true
citizenship is in heaven. All that we do on earth is to
prepare us for heaven. May the words of Paul in
Colossians 3:2 ever ring in our ears: “Set your
affection on things above, not on things on the
earth.”
V. The Means Of
Bestowing Riches (“In
Christ”)
Up to this point we
have seen that God gives riches and wealth, which are
found in the heavenlies, to believers right now through
the Holy Spirit. But all this is still not enough, for
without Christ
as the means of bestowing, these riches
cannot possibly be ours. The riches of verses 4-14
are not to be found in the Old Testament. Why? Because
only in Christ can riches be
found. It’s true that all men enjoy God’s blessings to a
limited extent, what theologians call “common grace.”
For example, God “maketh his sun to rise on the evil and
on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the
unjust” (Matt. 5:45). But only to the believer does He
bestow His special grace and spiritual
riches.
Oh, how hard men try
to be rich, but the best they will ever do is produce
“counterfeit riches.” And, to take the analogy one step
further, as one who produces counterfeit currency
will get caught and go to jail, those who are not in
Christ will end up in hell;
their counterfeit riches will lead them to
destruction.
As I share this
truth, I am reminded of the terrorists who, on September
11, 2001, flew airplanes into The World Trade Center and
the Pentagon. They were told a lie that by doing so they
would receive 72 virgins and unimaginable spiritual
blessings. Without doubt they soon realized the error.
Many others in the world believe and teach that there
are “many ways to God” and many ways to “be spiritual.”
A common phrase is, “I’m not really religious, but I
feel like I’m spiritual.” What a tragic deception! The
Biblical truth is that that spiritual riches, and
spirituality itself, are found and bestowed only in
Christ.
As we close this
study, may we point out one other truth. No other book
in the Word of God is as permeated by the doctrine of
the Trinity as is Ephesians. As we mentioned earlier, we
see this clearly illustrated in verses 4-14. But the
Trinity of God is also clearly in view in verse 3 alone:
Riches are bestowed by the Father, through
the power of the Holy Spirit, on the merits of
Jesus Christ. Oh, what riches, what wealth, we
have in Christ!
NOTES
1 J. C. Kirby,
Ephesians, Baptism and Pentecost (London: SPCK, 1968), p. 128. Cited in Wood, p,
23.
2 Hendrickson, p.
72.
3 Tragically, only four
English translations retain the one sentence structure
of the Greek (American Standard Version [1901], Darby’s
translation, Wuest’s Expanded Translation, and Young’s
Literal Translation). The number of sentences in other
translations is as follows: King James Version and New
King James (3); New American Standard Bible (4); Revised
Standard Version and NRSV (6); Contemporary English
Version (14); J. B. Phillips Translation (9); Good News
Bible and New Living Translation (15); New Century
Version and God’s Word Translation (18).
4 Robert Martin,
Accuracy of Translation
(Carlisle: PA, Banner of Truth, 1989), p.
19.
5
Ibid.
6 Even the Nestle text,
which is based on the Critical Text, and which is the
foundation of almost all modern translations.
7 Unholy Hands on
the Bible, Vol. II (Lafayette:
IN, Sovereign Grace Trust Fund, 1992), p. 224. May we
also interject that the 205-word count is what appears
in Scrivener’s 1894 NT. 203 words appear in the
Byzantine Majority Text and 201 appear in the Westcott
and Hort Critical Text.
8 We are aware of
the controversy on Bible translations and the textual
issue, but any honest reviewer has no alternative
but to recognize that the NIV’s use of “dynamic
equivalency” is simply bad translation technique. The
reader is urged to consider Robert Martin’s excellent
book Accuracy of Translation (Carlisle: PA,
Banner of Truth, 1989). It’s very important to point out
that the author is not of the
so-called “King James Only” position; rather he does an
objective analysis of the inferior method used by the
NIV translators.
9 Lenski, p.
365.
10
Commentaries.
11 Barkley.
12 Lloyd-Jones, Vol.
VI, Life in the Spirit, pp.
142-143.
13 Word Study
Dictionary, p.
937
14 Of God and
Men, pp.
17-18.
15 Whatever Happened to
Worship?, p.
13.
16 The Tozer
Pulpit,
I.2.40.
17 Expositor’s
Greek New Testament.
18 Ironside, p.
20.
19 Steve Hopkins,
The Cult of Jabez (Bethal
Press, 2002).
20 Gary E. Gilley,
“I Just Wanted More Land” —Jabez (Xulon Press, 2001).
21 Richard Trench,
Synonymns of
Greek New Testament, p.
290.
22 Thayer (p. 247). See
also Vine (vol. II, p..209); Kittle (p. 743); Brown
(vol. II, p. 196); Wuest (p. 28); etc.
