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    Ephesians MacArthur New Testament Commentary
    Ephesians MacArthur New Testament Commentary
    Ephesians MacArthur New Testament Commentary
    Ebook745 pages11 hours

    Ephesians MacArthur New Testament Commentary

    By John MacArthur

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    About this ebook

    These study guides, part of a set from noted Bible scholar, John MacArthur, take readers on a journey through biblical texts to discover what lies beneath the surface, focusing on meaning and context, and then reflecting on the explored passage or concept. With probing questions that guide the reader toward application, as well as ample space for journaling, The MacArthur Bible Studies are invaluable tools for Bible students of all ages. This work on Ephesians is part of a New Testament commentary series which has as its objective explaining and applying Scripture, focusing on the major doctrines and how they relate to the whole of the Bible.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMoody Publishers
    Release dateApr 8, 1986
    ISBN9781575676333
    Ephesians MacArthur New Testament Commentary
    Author

    John MacArthur

    John MacArthur is the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, where he has served since 1969. He is known around the world for his verse-by-verse expository preaching and his pulpit ministry via his daily radio program, Grace to You. He has also written or edited nearly four hundred books and study guides. MacArthur is chancellor emeritus of the Master’s Seminary and Master’s University. He and his wife, Patricia, live in Southern California and have four grown children.

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      Ephesians MacArthur New Testament Commentary - John MacArthur

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      Preface

      It continues to be a rewarding divine communion for me to preach expositionally through the New Testament. My goal is always to have deep fellowship with the Lord in the understanding of His Word, and out of that experience to explain to His people what a passage means. In the words of Nehemiah 8:8, I strive to give the sense of it so they may truly hear God speak and, in so doing, may respond to Him.

      Obviously, God’s people need to understand Him, which demands knowing His Word of truth (2 Tim. 2:15) and allowing that Word to dwell in us richly (Col. 3:16). The dominant thrust of my ministry, therefore, is to help make God’s living Word alive to His people. It is a refreshing adventure.

      This New Testament commentary series reflects this objective of explaining and applying Scripture. Some commentaries are primarily linguistic, others are mostly theological, and some are mainly homiletical. This one is basically explanatory, or expository. It is not linguistically technical, but deals with linguistics when this seems helpful to proper interpretation. It is not theologically expansive, but focuses on the major doctrines in each text and on how they relate to the whole of Scripture. It is not primarily homiletical, though each unit of thought is generally treated as one chapter, with a clear outline and logical flow of thought. Most truths are illustrated and applied with other Scripture. After establishing the context of a passage, I have tried to follow closely the writer’s development and reasoning.

      My prayer is that each reader will fully understand what the Holy Spirit is saying through this part of His Word, so that His revelation may lodge in the minds of believers and bring greater obedience and faithfulness—to the glory of our great God.

      Introduction

      Several years ago the Los Angeles Times reported the story of an elderly man and wife who were found dead in their apartment. Autopsies revealed that both had died of severe malnutrition, although investigators found a total of $40,000 stored in paper bags in a closet.

      For many years Hetty Green was called America’s greatest miser. When she died in 1916, she left an estate valued at $100 million, an especially vast fortune for that day. But she was so miserly that she ate cold oatmeal in order to save the expense of heating the water. When her son had a severe leg injury, she took so long trying to find a free clinic to treat him that his leg had to be amputated because of advanced infection. It has been said that she hastened her own death by bringing on a fit of apoplexy while arguing the merits of skim milk because it was cheaper than whole milk.

      The book of Ephesians is written to Christians who might be prone to treat their spiritual resources much like that miserly couple and Hetty Green treated their financial resources. Such believers are in danger of suffering from spiritual malnutrition, because they do not take advantage of the great storehouse of spiritual nourishment and resources that is at their disposal.

      Ephesians has been given such titles as the believer’s bank, the Christian’s checkbook, and the treasure house of the Bible. This beautiful letter tells Christians of their great riches, inheritances, and fullnesses in Jesus Christ and in His church. It tells them what they possess and how they can claim and enjoy their possessions.

      During the great depression of the 1930s, many banks would allow their customers to withdraw no more than 10 percent of their accounts during a given period of time, because the banks did not have enough reserves to cover all deposits.

      But God’s heavenly bank has no such limitations or restrictions. No Christian, therefore, has reason to be spiritually deprived, undernourished, or impoverished. In fact, he has no reason not to be completely healthy and immeasurably rich in the things of God. The Lord’s heavenly resources are more than adequate to cover all our past debts, all our present liabilities, and all our future needs—and still not reduce the heavenly assets. That is the marvel of God’s gracious provision for His children.

      In this epistle Paul speaks of the riches of His [God’s] grace (1:7), the unfathomable riches of Christ (3:8), and the riches of His glory (3:16). He calls the believer to attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ (4:13), to be filled with the Spirit (5:18), and to be filled up to all the fulness of God (3:19).

      In this book the word riches is used five times; grace fourteen times; glory eight times; fulness, filled up, or fills six times; and the key phrase in Christ (or in Him) fifteen times. Christ is the source, the sphere, and the guarantee of every spiritual blessing and of all spiritual riches, and those who are in Him have access to all that He is and has.

      In our union with Jesus Christ, God makes us fellow heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17) and to be of one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). When we are in Christ, He is not ashamed to call us brothers (Heb. 2:11) and will share with us all that He possesses, an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for us (1 Pet. 1:4).

      Our riches are based on Christ’s grace (1:2, 6-7; 2:7), His peace (1:2), His will (1:5), His kind intention (1:9), His purpose (1:9, 11), His glory (1:12, 14), His calling (1:18), His inheritance (1:18), His power (1:19), His love (2:4), His workmanship (2:10), His Spirit (3:16), His gifts (4:11), His sacrifice (5:2), His strength (6:10), and His armor (6:11, 13).

      THE MYSTERY OF THE CHURCH

      Also because we are in Christ, we are in His Body, the church. Ephesians focuses on the basic doctrine of the church—what it is and how believers function within it. This truth about the church was revealed to Paul by God as a mystery (3:3). As Paul explains, When you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit (vv. 4-5).

      This mystery, which had been hidden even from Israel, God’s chosen people, is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel (v. 6). In Christ, Jew and Gentile alike would henceforth be one in His Body, the church.

      God’s disclosure of His truth may be divided into three categories. In the first category are the truths He reveals to no one, the secret things [that] belong to the Lord our God (Deut. 29:29). His limitless truth is far beyond man’s finite mind to fathom or comprehend. In His wisdom and sovereignty God has chosen not to disclose certain truths to any man at any time.

      In the second category are those truths God has chosen to reveal to special people throughout history. All men can know something of God’s nature, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made (Rom. 1:19-20). But the deeper and fuller truths of His nature and will are unknown and incomprehensible to unbelievers.

      The special people to whom God reveals His will and plan are not an elite group of seers or prophets but are believers. The revelation He has given through His prophets and apostles is for all of His people, for every person who belongs to Him by faith. The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him, and He will make them know His covenant (Ps. 25:14). The Lord is intimate with the upright (Prov. 3:32). Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets (Amos 3:7). Those who received revelation directly from the Lord made it known to the people.

      In the third category are those truths that God kept secret for a period of time but finally disclosed to His people in the New Testament. Here God gives new truth for a new age, truth about which even the godliest of Old Testament saints were unaware. These new truths are the mysteries (mustēria), the once-hidden but now revealed truths God gives in His New Covenant.

      That is the category of truth Paul reveals to such a great extent in Ephesians—especially in the truth about the church of Jesus Christ, which God eternally designed to include both Jew and Gentile. Knowledge of that mystery is one of the great riches that only believers of this present age possess.

      Matthew told us that Jesus did not speak to the multitudes without a parable, so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, ‘I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world’ (Matt. 13:34-35). When Jesus’ disciples asked why He spoke in parables, He explained, To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted (Matt. 13:11; cf. 11:25). Paul echoes the same truth in 1 Corinthians: A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised (2:14). Believers and unbelievers can hear or read the same truths from God’s Word, yet be affected in completely different ways. What is clear and meaningful to the believer is incomprehensible nonsense to the unbeliever.

      The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven refer to the truths revealed in the present form of God’s kingdom. The Old Testament speaks much of God’s kingdom and of His rule over it. The coming Messiah was shown as a ruling Messiah, the great Anointed One whose eternal reign was prophesied even in the book of Genesis. As he pronounced blessings on his sons, Jacob said to Judah, The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples (Gen. 49:10).

      Both John the Baptist and Jesus began their ministries by proclaiming, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt. 3:2; 4:17). Jesus was born a King, acknowledged by the magi to be a King, feared by Herod as a rival King, and even questioned by Pilate about His kingship. Jesus offered His kingdom to Israel if she would accept Him as her King. But because Israel rejected Him, she forfeited the kingdom, and for Israel it was postponed. Because the Jews declared, We do not want this man to reign over us (Luke 19:14), that Man would not reign over them. Consequently, He has delayed establishing His earthly kingdom until Israel is saved and He comes again to reign on earth for a thousand years (Rev. 20:4).

      Meanwhile the King is absent from earth. Yet, from heaven Christ now rules His earthly kingdom. Whereas He will rule the entire world externally during the Millennium, He now rules internally, in the lives of those who belong to Him. The present form of the kingdom is the sphere of salvation by grace through faith. He is King over those who have confessed Him as sovereign Lord. The blessings that will be externally dispensed during the Millennium are now internally dispensed to believers. Just as Christ will be outwardly enthroned in Jerusalem during the Millennium, He now is inwardly enthroned in the hearts of His saints. As in the future kingdom He will dispense grace, so He does even now to those who trust in Him. As He then will bring external peace to the whole world, He now brings internal peace in the lives of believers. As He will then bestow joy and happiness externally, He now internally bestows those blessings upon His own people.

      Of this interim, internal kingdom the Old Testament saints knew nothing. It is a parenthesis in the divine outworking of redemption, which until the New Testament was a secret. The kingdom of which the Old Testament speaks, and which will be fully manifested in the Millennium, now exists in a kind of a preliminary and partial fulfillment. As Peter explained in his Pentecost sermon, the remarkable events that had just taken place in Jerusalem (Acts 2:1-13) were a preview of that which the prophet Joel prophesied of the millennial kingdom: ‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘that I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind’ (v. 17; cf. Joel 2:28).

      Within the central mystery of the kingdom are other revealed mysteries (see Matt. 13:11). One is the mystery of the indwelling Christ, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:26-27). Other mysteries are that of God in flesh, the incarnation of the Son of God, a truth not fully revealed in the Old Testament (Col. 2:2-3); the mystery of Israel’s unbelief and rejection of the Messiah (Rom. 11:25); the mystery of iniquity (2 Thess. 2:7); the mystery of Babylon—the terrible, vile, economic and religious system of the end times (Rev. 17); the mystery of the unity of believers (Eph. 3:3-6); the mystery of the church as Christ’s bride (Eph. 5:24-32); and the mystery of the rapture (1 Cor. 15:51-52). The mystery age will be completed when Christ returns in glory (Rev. 10:7).

      THE CHURCH AS CHRIST’S BODY

      The rich doctrine of the church as Christ’s Body is a metaphor that shows the church not as an organization but as a living organism made up of many interrelated and mutually dependent parts. Christ is the head of that Body, and the Holy Spirit is, as it were, its lifeblood.

      The New Testament uses many metaphors for the church that the Old Testament uses of Israel. They are both called a bride, or wife (Hos. 1:2; cf. Jer. 3:20; Rev. 21:2), a family household (Ps. 107:41; Jer. 31:1; Eph. 2); a flock (Isa. 40:11; cf. Ps. 23; Luke 12:32; Acts 20:28-29), and a vineyard or vine branches (Isa. 5:1-7; John 15:5). But the Old Testament never speaks of Israel as God’s body. That is a distinct and formerly unrevealed figure for God’s people in the New Covenant. Christ’s church is His present reincarnated Body on earth.

      It is only this outward incarnation of Christ that the world sees. Consequently, the church should be just as whole and full statured as Jesus was when He ministered on earth. Members of the Body of Christ are inextricably united in their Lord, and when one member malfunctions, the whole Body is weakened. When its members disobey the Head, the Body limps and stumbles. Yet when its members faithfully respond to the Head, the church manifests the Lord’s beauty, power, and glory.

      The Body functions through the use of spiritual gifts and through the responsibilities of fellowship and mutual ministry. When the church is faithful, Christ comes to full stature in His present earthly Body. When the church is not faithful, the world’s view of Christ is distorted, the church is weakened, and the Lord is dishonored.

      THE AUTHOR

      Paul, whose original name was Saul, was of the tribe of Benjamin and probably was named after Israel’s first king and her most prominent Benjamite. Saul was well educated in what today are called the humanities, but his most extensive training was in rabbinic studies under the famous Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). He became an outstanding rabbi in his own right and was a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling Jewish council at Jerusalem. He also became probably the most ardent anti-Christian leader in Judaism (Acts 22:4-5). He passionately hated the followers of Jesus Christ and was on his way to arrest some of them in Damascus when the Lord miraculously and dramatically stopped him in his tracks and brought him to Himself (Acts 9:1-8).

      After spending three years in the desert of Nabataean Arabia, Paul jointly pastored a church in Antioch of Syria with Barnabas, Simeon, Lucius, and Manaen (Acts 13:1). During this earlier ministry Saul came to be known as Paul (Acts 13:9). The new man took on a new name. From Antioch the Holy Spirit sent him out with Barnabas to begin the greatest missionary enterprise in the history of the church. At that point Paul began his work as God’s unique apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15; Rom. 11:13).

      DATE AND DESTINATION OF THE EPISTLE

      Sometime between 60 and 62, Paul wrote this letter from prison in Rome (see 3:1) to the believers whom he had pastored. Because the phrase who are at Ephesus is not in many early manuscripts, and because there is no mention of a local situation or individual believer, many scholars think this letter was an encyclical, intended to be circulated among all the churches in Asia Minor (including those in Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, and Sardis, as well as Ephesus). It may be that the letter was sent first to Ephesus and therefore became especially associated with that church.

      The first three chapters of Ephesians emphasize doctrine, and the last three chapters emphasize behavior. The first half is theological, and the second half is practical.

      1

      The Salutation

      (1:1-2)

      Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (1:1-2)

      In his salutation, Paul presents the dual source of his apostolic authority, a dual description of believers, a dual blessing for believers, and the dual source of those blessings.

      THE DUAL SOURCE OF AUTHORITY

      Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, (1:1a)

      Paul wrote with the authority of an apostle. Apostolos means sent one and in the New Testament is used as an official title of the men God uniquely chose to be the foundation layers of the church and the receivers, teachers, and writers of His final revelation—the New Testament. The apostolic duties were to preach the gospel (1 Cor. 1:17), teach and pray (Acts 6:4), work miracles (2 Cor. 12:12), build up other leaders of the church (Acts 14:23), and write the Word of God (Eph. 1:1; etc.).

      Besides the original twelve and Matthias (Acts 1:26), who replaced Judas, Paul was the only other apostle, as it were … one untimely born (1 Cor. 15:8). Yet he was not inferior to the other apostles, having met all the requirements for that office (1 Cor. 9:1).

      Paul’s credentials were not his academic training or his rabbinical leadership but his being an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. Paul did not teach and write by his own authority but by the dual yet totally unified authority of the Son (Christ Jesus) and of the Father (God). In stating that truth Paul was not boasting of personal merit or elevating himself above other believers. He well remembered that he had been a blasphemer, a violent persecutor of the church, and an unworthy and ignorant unbeliever; and he still considered himself the foremost of sinners (1 Tim. 1:13, 15). Like every Christian, he was first of all a bond-servant of Christ Jesus his Lord (Rom. 1:1). By mentioning his apostleship, Paul simply established his undeserved but divinely-bestowed authority to speak in God’s behalf—which he states at the beginning of each of his epistles except Philippians and 1 and 2 Thessalonians.

      THE DUAL DESIGNATION OF BELIEVERS

      to the saints who are at Ephesus, and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: (1:1b)

      From God’s side believers are those whom He has made holy, which is the meaning of saints. From man’s side believers are those who are faithful, those who have trusted in Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

      Every Christian is a saint, because every Christian has been set apart and made holy through the perfect righteousness of Christ that has been placed to his account (Rom. 3:21-22; 1 Cor. 1:30; Phil. 3:9; etc.). When a person acts in faith to receive Christ, God acts in grace to give that person Christ’s own righteousness. It is Christ’s perfect righteousness—not a person’s own character or accomplishments, no matter how great they may seem in men’s eyes—that establishes every believer as one of God’s saints through saving faith.

      THE DUAL BLESSINGS OF BELIEVERS

      Grace to you and peace (1:2a)

      This was a common greeting among Christians in the early church. Charis (grace) is God’s great kindness toward those who are undeserving of His favor but who have placed their faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. To greet a Christian brother or sister in this way is much more than a wish for their general well-being. It is also an acknowledgment of the divine grace in which we stand and which has made us mutual members of Christ’s Body and of God’s divine family.

      Grace is the fountain of which peace (eirēnē) is the stream. Because we have grace from God we have peace with God and the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension (Phil. 4:7). Peace is the equivalent of the Hebrew shālôm, which, in its highest connotation, signifies spiritual prosperity and completeness.

      THE DUAL SOURCE OF BLESSING

      from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (1:2b)

      The dual source of blessing is the same as the dual source of authority—God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Those are not separate and distinct sources but two manifestations of the same Source, as indicated by the connective kai (and), which can indicate equivalence, and here indicates that the Lord Jesus Christ is deity just like God our Father.

      Paul’s message throughout this epistle is that believers might understand and experience more fully all of the blessings granted by their heavenly Father and His Son and their Savior, Jesus Christ.

      2

      The Body Formed in Eternity Past

      (1:3-6a)

      Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace. (1:3-6a)

      In the Greek, verses 3-14 comprise one sentence and encompass the past, present, and future of God’s eternal purpose for the church. It is Paul’s outline of God’s master plan for salvation. In 3-6a we are shown the past aspect, election; in 6b-11 we are shown the present aspect, redemption; and in 12-14 we are shown the future aspect, inheritance. Within God’s master plan of salvation is every believer who has or will ever trust in God and be saved. As it is sometimes expressed, history is simply the outworking of His story, which has already been planned and prewritten in eternity.

      This passage can also be divided into three sections, each of which focuses on a different Person of the Trinity. Verses 3-6a center on the Father, verses 6b-12 center on the Son, and verses 13-14 center on the Holy Spirit. Paul takes us to the very throne room of the Godhead to show the greatness and the vastness of the blessings and treasures that belong to those who are in Jesus Christ.

      People today are greatly concerned about identity, life purpose, self-worth, and self-acceptance. Consequently there is a plethora of books, articles, seminars, and schemes that attempt to fulfill those longings. But because God and His Word are not considered in most such attempts, the only source for finding the truth is eliminated, and men inevitably are led back to themselves for the answers. In spite of many variations and sometimes complex formulas, the end result is to tell men they are really all right after all and that what identity, worth, and meaning they find in life they must find in and for themselves.

      We are told to think of ourselves first and are shown how to get on top by using and manipulating others, by intimidating before being intimidated. We are told how to be successful and how to be number one. We are counseled to find meaning in the heritage of our family and ethnic roots, with the expectation that finding out where we came from will help explain where we are and perhaps where we are headed. But such approaches give only a psychological gloss that helps cover, but does not help remove, the underlying problem of meaning in life.

      Others set about trying to establish their worth by works righteousness, some even becoming heavily involved in church work and other Christian activities. They look for praise and commendation, and before long they are entrapped in the same kind of hypocritical religious games that characterized the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day. As their self-satisfaction grows their spiritual lives shrivel, because such effort feeds the flesh and cripples the soul.

      But every human effort at self-improvement or self-satisfaction—no matter what its religious covering may be—is subject to the law of diminishing returns. Genuine and lasting satisfaction is never achieved, and increased achievement only brings increased desire. More importantly, the guilt and fear that cause the dissatisfaction are suppressed but not alleviated. The longer such superficial games are played, the deeper become the depression, anxiety, and feelings of guilt.

      The only way a person can achieve a true sense of self-worth, meaning, and significance is to have a right relationship to his Creator. A person without Christ has no spiritual value, no standing before God, no purpose or meaning in the world. He is like chaff which the wind drives away (Ps. 1:4).

      A Christian, however, is a child of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. If he has no comprehension of those blessings he needs to understand the position he already has in his Savior. To give such Christians the right understanding of their position and possessions is the foundational thrust of Paul’s Ephesian letter.

      If we belong to Christ, Paul says, we can be sure that God put our name down as part of His church even before the world began. Out of grace and in divine sovereignty, He chose each one of us to belong to Him. It was not because we were more worthy than anyone else or more deserving or meritorious—but simply because God willed to choose us.

      Though this is an incomprehensible truth to finite thinking, it is one of the most repeated in Scripture. The record of God’s redemptive history is that of His reaching down and drawing to Himself those whom He has chosen to save. In these opening verses of Ephesians Paul gives us a glimpse of eternity past. He lets us eavesdrop as God planned to save us—not only long before we were born but long before the earth was born.

      THE ASPECTS OF BLESSING

      Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, (1:3)

      Paul here presents six aspects of the divine blessing he is about to unfold: the blessed One, God; the Blesser, also God; the blessed ones, believers; the blessings, all things spiritual; the blessing location, the heavenly places; and the blessing Agent, Jesus Christ.

      THE BLESSED ONE—GOD

      Such gracious truth is introduced appropriately by praise to the One who has made such provision: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. From eulogeō (blessed) we get eulogy, a message of praise and commendation, the declaration of a person’s goodness. Because no one is truly good but God (Matt. 19:17), our supreme eulogy, our supreme praise, is for Him alone.

      Goodness is God’s nature. God the Father not only does good things, He is good in a way and to a degree that no human being except His own incarnate Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, can be. Consequently from Genesis to Revelation, godly men, recognizing the surpassing and humanly unattainable goodness of God, have proclaimed blessing upon Him. Melchizedek declared, Blessed be God Most High (Gen. 14:20). In the last days, every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them will be heard saying, ‘To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever’ (Rev. 5:13).

      Nothing is more appropriate for God’s people than to bless Him for His great goodness. In all things—whether pain, struggle, trials, frustration, opposition, or adversity—we are to praise God, because He is good in the midst of it all. For that we praise and bless Him.

      THE BLESSER—GOD

      Consistent with His perfection and praiseworthiness, the One who is to be supremely blessed for His goodness is Himself the supreme Blesser who bestows goodness. It is He who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift, James reminds us, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (James 1:17). Paul assures us that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28). God blesses because He is the source of all blessing, of every good thing. Goodness can only come from God because there is no source of goodness outside of God.

      THE BLESSED ONES—BELIEVERS

      The us whom God has blessed refers to believers, the saints … in Christ Jesus Paul addresses in verse 1. In His wonderful grace, marvelous providence, and sovereign plan God has chosen to bless us. God has eternally ordained that those who are of faith are blessed (Gal. 3:9).

      When we bless God we speak good of Him. When God blesses us, He communicates good to us. We bless Him with words; He blesses us with deeds. All we can do is to speak well of Him because in ourselves we have nothing good to give, and in Himself He lacks no goodness. But when He blesses us the situation is reversed. He cannot bless us for our goodness, because we have none. Rather, He blesses us with goodness. Our heavenly Father lavishes us with every goodness, every good gift, every blessing. That is His nature, and that is our need.

      THE BLESSINGS—EVERYTHING SPIRITUAL

      Our heavenly Father blesses us with every spiritual blessing. In the New Testament pneumatikos (spiritual) is always used in relation to the work of the Holy Spirit. Therefore it does not here refer to immaterial blessings as opposed to material ones but to the divine origin of the blessings—whether they help us in our spirits, our minds, our bodies, our daily living, or however else. Spiritual refers to the source, not the extent, of blessing.

      Many Christians continually ask God for what He has already given. They pray for Him to give them more love, although they should know that the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us (Rom. 5:5). They pray for peace, although Jesus said, Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you (John 14:27). They pray for happiness and joy, although Jesus said, These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full (John 15:11). They ask God for strength, although His Word tells them that they can do all things through Him who strengthens them (Phil. 4:13).

      God’s divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence (2 Pet. 1:3). It is not that God will give us but that He has already given us everything pertaining to life and godliness. He has blessed us already with every spiritual blessing. We are complete in Him (Col. 2:10).

      Our resources in God are not simply promised; they are possessed. Every Christian has what Paul calls the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19). God cannot give us more than He has already given us in His Son. There is nothing more to receive. The believer’s need, therefore, is not to receive something more but to do something more with what he has.

      Our heavenly position and possession are so certain and secure that Paul speaks of God’s having already raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus (Eph. 2:6).

      THE LOCATION OF BLESSING—THE HEAVENLY PLACES

      These abundant, unlimited blessings from God are in the heavenly places. More than heaven itself is included. The heavenly places (cf. 1:20; 2:6; 3:10) encompass the entire supernatural realm of God, His complete domain, the full extent of His divine operation.

      Christians have a paradoxical, two-level existence—a dual citizenship. While we remain on earth we are citizens of earth. But in Christ our primary and infinitely more important citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20). Christ is our Lord and King, and we are citizens of His realm, the heavenly places. That is why we are to pursue things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God (Col. 3:1).

      Because we are members of God’s dominion, unlike the sons of this age (Luke 16:8), we are able to understand the supernatural things of God, things which the natural man does not accept and cannot understand … because they are spiritually appraised (1 Cor. 2:14).

      When an American citizen travels to another country, he is every bit as much an American citizen as when he is in the United States. Whether he is in Africa, the Near East, Europe, Antarctica, or anywhere else outside his homeland, he is still completely an American citizen, with all the rights and privileges that such citizenship holds.

      As citizens of God’s heavenly dominion, Christians hold all the rights and privileges that citizenship grants, even while they are living in the foreign and sometimes hostile land of earth. Our true life is in the supernatural, the heavenly places. Our Father is there, our Savior is there, our family and loved ones are there, our name is there, and our eternal dwelling place and throne are there.

      But we are presently trapped in the tension between the earthly and the heavenly. Paul reflected that tension when he said, We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed … as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things (2 Cor. 4:8-9; 6:10).

      The key to living as a heavenly citizen while living in an unheavenly situation is walking by the Spirit. Walk by the Spirit, Paul says, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). When we walk in His power He produces His fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control (vv. 22-23). We receive our heavenly blessings by living in the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

      THE BLESSING AGENT—JESUS CHRIST

      Christians possess every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places because they are in Christ. When we trust in Him as Lord and Savior, we are placed in a marvelous union with Jesus Christ. The one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17). Our unity as Christians is more than simply that of common agreement; it is the unity of a commonness of life, the common eternal life of God that pulses through the soul of every believer (cf. Rom. 15:5-7).

      All that the Lord has, those in Christ have. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:16-17). Christ’s riches are our riches, His resources are our resources, His righteousness is our righteousness, and His power is our power. His position is our position: where He is, we are. His privilege is our privilege: what He is we are. His possession is our possession: what He has, we have. His practice is our practice: what He does, we do.

      We are those things and have those things and do those things by the grace of God, which never fails to work His will in those who trust Him (1 Cor. 15:10).

      THE ELEMENTS OF THE ETERNAL FORMING OF THE BODY

      just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace. (1:4-6a)

      These verses reveal the past part of God’s eternal plan in forming the church, the Body of Jesus Christ. His plan is shown in seven elements: the method, election; the object, the elect; the time, eternity past; the purpose, holiness; the motive, love; the result, sonship; and the goal, glory.

      THE METHOD—ELECTION

      The Bible speaks of three kinds of election. One is God’s theocratic election of Israel. You are a holy people to the Lord your God, Moses told Israel in the desert of Sinai; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth (Deut. 7:6).

      That election had no bearing on personal salvation. They are not all Israel who are descended from Israel, Paul explains; neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants (Rom. 9:6-7). Racial descent from Abraham as father of the Hebrew people did not mean spiritual descent from him as father of the faithful (Rom. 4:11).

      A second kind of election is vocational. The Lord called out the tribe of Levi to be His priests, but Levites were not thereby guaranteed salvation. Jesus called twelve men to be apostles but only eleven of them to salvation. After Paul came to Christ because of God’s election to salvation, God then chose him in another way to be His special apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15; Rom. 1:5).

      The third kind of election is salvational, the kind of which Paul is speaking in our present text. No one can come to Me, Jesus said, unless the Father who sent Me draws him (John 6:44). Helkuō (draws) carries the idea of an irresistible force and was used in ancient Greek literature of a desperately hungry man being drawn to food and of demonic forces being drawn to animals when they were not able to possess men.

      Salvage yards use giant electromagnets to lift and partially sort scrap metal. When the magnet is turned on, a tremendous magnetic force draws all the ferrous metals that are near it, but has no effect on other metals such as aluminum and brass.

      In a similar way, God’s elective will irresistibly draws to Himself those whom He has predetermined to love and forgive, while having no effect on those whom He has not.

      From all eternity, before the foundation of the world, and therefore completely apart from any merit or deserving that any person could have, God chose us in Him, in Christ (v. 3). By God’s sovereign election, those who are saved were placed in eternal union with Christ before creation even took place.

      Although man’s will is not free in the sense that many people suppose, he does have a will, a will that Scripture clearly recognizes. Apart from God, man’s will is captive to sin. But he is nevertheless able to choose God because God has made that choice possible. Jesus said that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16) and that everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die (11:26). The frequent commands to the unsaved to respond to the Lord (e. g., Josh. 24:15; Isa. 55:1; Matt. 3:1-2; 4:17; 11:28-30; John 5:40; 6:37; 7:37-39; Rev. 22:17) clearly indicate the responsibility of man to exercise his own will.

      Yet the Bible is just as clear that no person receives Jesus Christ as Savior who has not been chosen by God (cf. Rom. 8:29; 9:11; 1 Thess. 1:3-4; 1 Pet. 1:2). Jesus gives both truths in one verse in the gospel of John: All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out (John 6:37).

      God’s sovereign election and man’s exercise of responsibility in choosing Jesus Christ seem opposite and irreconcilable truths—and from our limited human perspective they are opposite and irreconcilable. That is why so many earnest, well-meaning Christians throughout the history of the church have floundered trying to reconcile them. Since the problem cannot be resolved by our finite minds, the result is always to compromise one truth in favor of the other or to weaken both by trying to take a position somewhere between them.

      We should let the antinomy remain, believing both truths completely and leaving the harmonizing of them to God.

      Eklegō (chose) is here in the aorist tense and the middle voice, indicating God’s totally independent choice. Because the verb is reflexive it signifies that God not only chose by Himself but for Himself. His primary purpose in electing the church was the praise of His own glory (vv. 6, 12, 14). Believers were chosen for the Lord’s glory before they were chosen for their own good. The very reason for calling out believers into the church was that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places (3:10).

      Israel was God’s elect, His chosen one (Isa. 45:4; cf. 65:9, 22). But she was told, The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you (Deut. 7:7-8). God chose the Jews simply out of His sovereign love.

      God’s heavenly angels also are elect (1 Tim. 5:21), chosen by Him to glorify His name and to be His messengers. Christ Himself was elect (1 Pet. 2:6, KJV), and the apostles were elect (John 15:16). By the same sovereign plan and will the church is elect. God has saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity (2 Tim. 1:9). In Acts we are told, And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed (13:48).

      Paul said, For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory (2 Tim. 2:10). His heart’s desire was to reach the elect, the ones who were already chosen, in order that they might take hold of the faith already granted them in God’s sovereign decree.

      Paul gave thanks for the church because it was God’s elect. We should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth (2 Thess. 2:13).

      In his book Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, J. I. Packer observes:

      All Christians believe in divine sovereignty, but some are not aware that they do, and mistakenly imagine and insist that they reject it. What causes this odd state of affairs? The root cause is the same as in most cases of error in the Church—the intruding of rationalistic speculations, the passion for systematic consistency, a reluctance to recognize the existence of mystery and to let God be wiser than men, and a consequent subjecting of Scripture to the supposed demands of human logic. People see the Bible teaches man’s responsibility for his actions; they do not see (man, indeed, cannot see) how this is consistent with the sovereign Lordship of God over those actions. They are not content to let the two truths live side by side, as they do in the Scriptures, but jump to the conclusion that, in order to uphold the biblical truth of human responsibility, they are bound to reject the equally biblical and equally true doctrine of divine sovereignty, and to explain away the great number of texts that teach it. The desire to over-simplify the Bible by cutting out the mysteries is natural to our perverse minds, and it is not surprising that even godly men should fall victim to it. Hence this persistent and troublesome dispute. The irony of the situation, however, is that when we ask how the two sides pray, it becomes apparent that those who profess to deny God’s sovereignty really believe in it just as strongly as those who affirm it. ([Chicago: Inter-Varsity, 1961], pp. 16-17)

      Because we cannot stand the tension of mystery, paradox, or antinomy, we are inclined to adjust what the Bible teaches so that it will fit our own systems of order and consistency. But that presumptuous approach is unfaithful to God’s Word and leads to confused doctrine and weakened living. It should be noted that other essential scriptural doctrines are also apparently paradoxical to our limited capacity. It is antinomous that Scripture itself is the work of human authors, yet the very words of God; that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man; that salvation is forever, yet saints must remain obedient and persevere to the end; that the Christian’s life is lived in total commitment and discipline of self, yet is all of Christ. Such inscrutable truths are an encouragement that the mind of God infinitely surpasses the mind of man and are a great proof of the divine authorship of Scripture. Humans writing a Bible on their own would have attempted to resolve such problems.

      It is not that God’s sovereign election, or predestination, eliminates man’s choice in faith. Divine sovereignty and human response are integral and inseparable parts of salvation—though exactly how they operate together only the infinite mind of God knows.

      Nor is it, as many believe and teach, that God simply looks into the future to see which people are going to believe and then elects them to salvation. Taken out of context, Romans 8:29 is often used to support that view. But verse 28 makes it clear that those whom God foresees and predestines to salvation are those whom He has already called according to His purpose. Any teaching that diminishes the sovereign, electing love of God by giving more credit to men also diminishes God’s glory, thus striking a blow at the very purpose of salvation.

      We should be satisfied simply to declare with John Chadwick,

      I sought the Lord,

      And afterwards I knew

      He moved my soul to seek Him,

      Seeking me!

      It was not that I found,

      O Saviour true;

      No, I was found by Thee.

      THE OBJECT—THE ELECT

      The object of election is us, not everyone, but only those whom God chose, the saints and faithful in Christ Jesus (v. 1). Those whom God elects are those whom He has declared holy before the foundation of the world and who have identified with His Son Jesus Christ by faith. Being a Christian is having been chosen by God to be His child and to inherit all things through and with Jesus Christ.

      THE TIME—ETERNITY PAST

      God elected us before the foundation of the world. Before the creation, the Fall, the covenants, or the law, we were sovereignly predestined by God to be His. He designed the church, the Body of His Son, before the world began.

      Because in God’s plan Christ was crucified for us before the foundation of the world (1 Pet. 1:20), we were designated for salvation by that same plan at that same time. It was then that our inheritance in God’s kingdom was determined (Matt. 25:34). We belonged to God before time began, and we will be His after time has long run its course. Our names as believers were written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain (Rev. 13:8; cf. 17:8).

      THE PURPOSE—HOLINESS

      God chose us in order that we might be holy and blameless. Amōmos (blameless) literally means without blemish, or spotless. Because we are chosen in Him we are holy and blameless before Him. Because Jesus Christ gave Himself for us as a lamb unblemished and spotless (1 Pet. 1:19), we have been given His own unblemished and spotless nature. The unworthy have been declared worthy, the unrighteous declared holy. It is Christ’s eternal and foreordained plan to present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless (Eph. 5:27).

      Obviously Paul is talking about our position and not our practice. We know that in our living we are far from the holy standard and far from being blameless. Yet in Him, Paul said in another place, we have been made complete (Col. 2:10). All that God is, we become in Jesus Christ. That is why salvation is secure. We have Christ’s perfect righteousness. Our practice can and does fall short, but our position can never fall short, because it is exactly the same holy and blameless position before God that Christ has. We are as secure as our Savior, because we are in Him, waiting for the full redemption and glorious holiness that awaits us in His presence.

      And because God declares us and leads us to be holy and blameless, we should strive to live lives now that reflect the holiness and blamelessness that are our destiny.

      THE MOTIVE—LOVE

      God elects those who are saved because of His love. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons. Just as He chose Israel to be His special people only because of His love (Deut. 7:8), so He also chose the church, the family of the redeemed.

      Biblical agapē love is not an emotion but a disposition of the heart to seek the welfare and meet the needs of others. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends, Jesus said (John 15:13). And that is exactly what Jesus Himself did on behalf of those God has chosen to be saved. In the ultimate divine act of love, God determined before the foundation of the earth that He would give His only Son to save us. God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (Eph. 2:4-5). He loved us, and will eternally continue to love us, according to the kind intention of His will.

      THE RESULT—SONSHIP

      The result of God’s election is our adoption as sons. In Christ we become subjects of His kingdom, and because He is our Lord we are His servants. He even calls us friends because, He says, All things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you (John 15:15). But in His great love He makes us more than citizens and servants, and even more than friends. He makes us children. God lovingly draws redeemed sinners into the intimacy of His own family.

      When we become Christians we become children of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear, Paul says, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’ (Rom. 8:15). Abba was an Aramaic word of endearment somewhat equivalent to Daddy or Papa.

      To be saved is to have the very life of God in our souls, His own Spirit enlivening our spirits. Human parents can adopt children and come to love them every bit as much as they love their natural children. They can give an adopted child complete equality in the family life, resources, and inheritance. But no human parent can impart his own distinct nature to an adopted child. Yet that is what God miraculously does to every person whom He has elected and who has trusted in Christ. He makes them sons just like His divine Son. Christians share not only the Son’s riches and blessings but also the Son’s nature.

      THE GOAL—GLORY

      Why did God do all of that for us? Why did He want us to be His sons? We are saved and made sons to the praise of the glory of His grace. Above all else, He elects and saves us for His own glory. When Jesus said, Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32), He was affirming the delight of God in putting His glory on display. As Paul further explained, God is at work in [us] … for His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13).

      The apostle Paul interceded for the Thessalonians, praying that our God may count you worthy of your calling … in order that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him (2 Thess. 1:11-12).

      Even the beasts of the field will glorify the Lord, Isaiah tells us (43:20), and the heavens tell of the glory of God (Ps. 19:1). The only rebels in the universe are fallen angels and fallen man. Everything else glorifies its Creator. The fallen angels have already been eternally removed from God’s presence, and those fallen men who will not be saved by Jesus Christ will join those angels in that eternal separation.

      God chose and preordained the Body before the foundation of the world in order that no human being could boast or take glory for himself, but that all the glory might be His. Salvation is not partly of God and partly of man, but entirely of God. To guarantee that, every provision and every detail of salvation was accomplished before any human being was ever born or before a planet was formed on which he could be born.

      The ultimate reason for everything that exists is the glory of His grace. That is why, as God’s children, Christians should do everything they do—even such mundane things as eating and drinking—to the glory of God (1 Cor. 10:31).

      3

      Redemption Through His Blood

      (1:6b-10)

      which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fulness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. (1:6b-10)

      Some years ago trading stamps were popular. For each dollar amount purchased a given number of trading stamps was given as a bonus. When sufficient stamps were saved up, they were taken to a redemption center and exchanged for merchandise.

      Redemption is one of the central themes of Scripture and of the book of Ephesians, but it carries much more than the idea simply of exchanging one thing for another of equal value.

      THE MEANING OF REDEMPTION

      Redemption comes from one of six terms taken from the field of law and used in the New Testament in relation to salvation. Dikaioō and related terms referred to legal acquittal of a charge and are used theologically to speak of a sinner’s being vindicated, justified, and declared righteous before God (see, for example, Rom. 3:4; 4:25; 5:18; 1 Tim. 3:16). Aphiēmi basically means to send away and was used to indicate the legal repayment or cancellation of a debt or the granting of a pardon. It is used in Scripture to refer to God’s forgiveness of sin (see Matt. 9:2; Rom. 4:7; Eph. 1:7; 4:32; etc.). Huiothesia referred to the legal process of adopting a child and is used by Paul to represent the believer’s adoption into God’s family (see Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:5; Eph. 1:5). Katallassō meant to legally reconcile two disputing parties in court and in the New Testament is used of a believer’s reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor. 5:18-20).

      Two Greek legal terms are related to redemption. Agorazō, and the related exagorazō, refer to buying or purchasing. The source of the terms is agora, which means marketplace, and the root idea of the derived verbs and nouns referred to buying and trading in the marketplace. In the New Testament they are used to denote spiritual purchase or redemption (see Gal. 3:13; Rev. 5:9; 14:3-4; etc.).

      The other term for redemption, lutroō (along with its related forms), meant to release from captivity. It carried an even stronger meaning

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