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Introduction
Illustration: One of the big topics of discussion in the cafeteria at the small Bible college that I went to concerned “God’s will.”
God’s will vs.
Your will: How do you know God’s will as opposed to your will?
– Is it God’s will that I marry an ugly girl?
OR ugly man?
Steps to know God’s will: What steps do you have to take to know God’s will?
Sequence of activities?
Pray, read the Bible, pray with the Bible open, “really obey God” to discover His will.
God gives you the desires of your heart, so go do whatever you desire to do as long as you are loving God and loving your neighbor.
This is what John Calvin argued, but we couldn’t do that because it make us a Calvinist, who cares if it made sense.
Would it not be great to know God’s will?
This passage tells us an aspect of God’s will and the work He is doing to accomplish His will!
Historical Context: Paul writes to a group of believers who are first generation believers.
They did not have a culture of being churched.
• Paul writes a lengthy praise for God’s work.
• Verses 3-6 focus on God the Father and His work.
Paul identified God’s work as:
• Choosing the believers.
The choice involves knowing all the options, is not with ill intent towards those not chosen, the chosen have no legal right or demand on God’s choice, He was free to choose.
We are chosen in “love” (αγαπη) which is true that the word has an aspect of sacrificial love as in John 3:16.
But part of the idea of this word for love is the free choice to love.
There is not a legal demand to love: legally you cannot be apathetic towards you children because if you are you will go to prison and they will be put in foster care.
There is not a covenant demand like when people get married they promise love.
God has free choice to love, and He did not have to love.
• Adopting them as sons – we did not go into what type of legal challenges God had to go through to be able to do this transaction.
We mentioned it, but we will look at this aspect in more detail later on, because Paul develops this more.
But at least two things are important to note in the adoption of the believer:
1.
The person did not belong to God before the adoption.
While it is true that God is God over everyone and everything.
Yet, as an adopted children, there is a special relationship that those who are not adopted do not have.
2. Being adopted frees the adoptee from the previous relationship, and brings new responsibilities.
This will be explored in detail later on.
The first three chapters will deal with the change of relationship and the last three chapters will articulate the new responsibilities.
Proposition: Praise God because Christ redeemed us, and freed us at an immeasurable cost.
God gave us wisdom to understand His eschatological dispensation of Christ’s lordship.
I. Christ Redeemed Us Through His Death v. 7
Eph.
1:7 Paul has been writing in the past tense.
Paul told the Ephesians that:
God chose them
God predestined them – Sometimes people debate about this as if how you understand this word actually changes what God did in eternity past!
God freely bestowed grace on them.
Paul switches from the past tense to present tense.
“We have” (εχομεν Pres.
Act.
Indc.
1st Pl.) – “1.
act.
a. trans.
to have, possess” (The Brill Dictionary of Ancient Greek, s.v.
“εχω,” 886).
Paul addressed the believers in praise to God because they had or were in possession of something.
“redemption” (απολυτρωσιν Acc.
Fem.
Sg.) – “‘buying back’ a slave or captive, i.e. ‘making free’ by payment of a ransom” 2. release from a captive condition, release, redemption, deliverance (BDAG, s.v.
“ἀπολύτρωσις,” 117).
The believers have this redemption.
But to think about being bought it brings several questions that the church over the years have tried to answer:
1.
Who was bought?
The verb is a 1st plural – “we.”
This is the safest answer to give, but we might wonder who the “we” included” and there are three main groups that “we” can represent:
The ones chosen and predestinated – Those who have been purchased are only those that have been chosen and predestinated for adoption.
An argument in favor that usually appears is that God would not waste one drop of Christ’s blood on someone not chosen or predestinated.
The whole world – universalism.
The “we” would be all humanity, because again God would not waste Christ’s blood so therefore everyone gets saved.
Some of us know we are saved, while others do not realize they are saved.
The whole world – unlimited atonement.
The “we” contextually applies to a church of believers.
But the extent of the purchase was for the whole world.
Peter wrote about false teachers and he says that they denied the one who “bought” (αγοραζω Aor.
Act.
Part.) them (2 Pet.
2:1).
The extent of the purchase was “according to wealth of His grace” (κατα το πλουτος της χαριτος αυτου) (Eph.
1:7).
How much wealth of grace does God have?
While extent of the purchase includes everyone, we will see that not all are saved.
Paul purpose here is just to address those who are saved to remind them that they have been redeemed!
What about Christ’s blood misspelt?
It would only be misspelt if God’s ultimate purpose in Christ’s death were salvific.
But it isn’t!
Salvation is ultimately doxological (Eph.
1:6, 12, 13).
We could imagine a counter-factual where Christ died, and nobody accepted Christ as their Savior.
The original challenge to God was not if He could save, but was a question of His benevolence.
Adam and Eve thought that God was holding out something good for them.
2. What was the payment?
– redemption is “through” (δια) Jesus’ blood.
Paul is using a synecdoche (sinécdoque) to reference Christ’s death on the cross as the payment.
This causes some problems for some because they ask at least two questions:
Does this not make God as the divine child abuser?
– Jesus is not the helpless child under the tutelage of an abusive Father.
Rather, Christ is involved with the Father in the whole process of salvation before the foundation of the world.
Christ is co-equal with the Father.
The Son took on human form was obedient to the Father – Jesus chose this (Phil.
2:5-11).
How does Christ’s blood cleanse a person of their sins?
– God told Adam that the day he eat from the tree of good and evil, he would die.
Death can mean not have life, but it can also mean separation.
Adam was separated from God, and dying in that condition would send him all eternity separated from God. Christ took the place of the sinner, and took the punishment for sin, by dying.
In the OT, the blood of animals would cover the sins of the ofender.
But Christ’s blood washes all the sins away because He imputes His righteousness to the person who believes (Rom.
5:17, 19; 2 Cor.
5:21)
3. Who was paid?
We have some options:
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