Ephesian Rhyme

Chris Roberts — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 20:57:39 +0000

Shared this one during my sermon this morning. The book of Ephesians summarized… in verse.

Ephesians chapter one, Paul’s only just begun.
 He shows us what God’s done through Jesus Christ his Son.
 Redemption! We’re set free! With God we’ve harmony!

Ephesians chapter two, by grace, through faith, it’s true!
 Dead in your sins were you, but God, he brought us through;
 Salvation full and free, Christ paid the price for me!

Ephesians chapter three, we’ve unity, you see! 
The cross joined you to me, to show eternally, 
The glory, the power, the love, of God Almighty above!

Ephesians chapter four, God’s opened up the door 
Given workers to the chore of making something more 
Of the people he has called till Christ is all in all!

Ephesians chapter five, to walk like Christ we’ll strive
 To put aside all drive of the flesh in our lives. 
With bride and groom we see that Christ has cherished me!

Ephesians chapter six, the devil’s evil tricks, 
Cannot begin to nix our Lord’s mighty fix! 
Put on his armor, saints! Your surety never faints!

Ephesians is God’s gift so we’re not left adrift 
But Christ will us uplift and bridge the terrible rift 
Thus, as you come and go, serve Christ and in him grow!

Ephesians 1:4-6: Chosen for holiness, adoption, and the glory of God.

Chris Roberts — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:56:00 +0000

I’ve just recently started preaching through Ephesians at my church and Sunday I’ll be tackling 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. (ESV)

', 0, 0, 'tippy_tip1328409828_9676', event);" onmouseout="Tippy.fadeTippyOut();">Ephesians 1:4-6. Due to the differing opinions over the interpretation of these verses, Sunday could be an interesting day. There will be more such days by the time we are through with Ephesians, though most of the landmines are past by the end of chapter two.

Below are my notes about the text itself. These are not sermon notes, just some thoughts about the verses. The sermon audio should be online sometime Monday. Please pray for all to go well with the service.

4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. (ESV)

', 0, 0, 'tippy_tip1328409828_414', event);" onmouseout="Tippy.fadeTippyOut();">Ephesians 1:4-6

4 just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before him in love, 5 having predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ into him, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace with which he blessed us in the beloved.

v4
he [the Father] chose us in him [Christ]. The Father did the choosing and gave us over to Christ. Paul matches exactly what John records Jesus saying in 44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. (ESV)

', 0, 0, 'tippy_tip1328409828_8486', event);" onmouseout="Tippy.fadeTippyOut();">John 6:44 (no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.), 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. (ESV)

', 0, 0, 'tippy_tip1328409828_7244', event);" onmouseout="Tippy.fadeTippyOut();">John 6:37 (all that the Father gives me will come to me…), 65 And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” (ESV)

', 0, 0, 'tippy_tip1328409828_4634', event);" onmouseout="Tippy.fadeTippyOut();">John 6:65 (no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father) and 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. (ESV)

', 0, 0, 'tippy_tip1328409828_620', event);" onmouseout="Tippy.fadeTippyOut();">John 17:24 (they also, whom you have given me…) etc. The possible challenge is 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (ESV)

', 0, 0, 'tippy_tip1328409828_8882', event);" onmouseout="Tippy.fadeTippyOut();">John 15:16 (You did not choose me, but I chose you). Jesus said he did the choosing. Two possible responses: 1, Jesus is speaking in the sense of the triune God. I, God, chose you. Or 2, Jesus is speaking to his disciples and the application might be limited to them so he is saying he chose these disciples whereas in salvation the Father chooses who will be saved. Either way the point is clear that individuals do not do the choosing.

He chose us before the foundation of the world. Various expressions like this seem to reinforce the point that our being chosen has nothing to do with us. God loved us before we ever could have done anything to merit his love. He chose us before we could have shown any reason to be chosen. The foreknowledge view seeks to get around this but in doing so it defeats the purpose of the text. What else would words like this mean if not that God chose us without anything in us being a consideration?

He chose us to be holy and blameless in love. This speaks highly of the need for a holy life. Verse 5 shows that adoption is one of the goals of our having been chosen but Paul first tells us that we were chosen to be holy and blameless. In 6 and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.” (ESV)

', 0, 0, 'tippy_tip1328409828_929', event);" onmouseout="Tippy.fadeTippyOut();">Exodus 19:6 God told the Israelites that they were to be a holy nation. In 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (ESV)

', 0, 0, 'tippy_tip1328409828_6571', event);" onmouseout="Tippy.fadeTippyOut();">1 Peter 2:9 this gets applied to the church. 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. (ESV)

', 0, 0, 'tippy_tip1328409828_1141', event);" onmouseout="Tippy.fadeTippyOut();">1 Peter 2:9 further shows that this way of being is so that we would glorify God – proclaiming his excellencies – a point also drawn out in 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. (ESV)

', 0, 0, 'tippy_tip1328409828_1494', event);" onmouseout="Tippy.fadeTippyOut();">Ephesians 1:6. Recognizing that God chose us for salvation and holds our salvation secure is not a license to sin. Those who are his are his and will fight sin. Sanctification is, as Charles Hodge puts it, “the only evidence of election.”

We are to be holy and blameless in love, reminding us that holiness does not mean being a Pharisee. We are to be loving people, showing the love of the Lord as we live a holy life for the glory of God.

God predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ. First he chooses the people then he predestines them. Choosing them singles them out. Predestining them for some action assures the action will take place. They are predestined for adoption, so all who are chosen will be adopted into God. Specifically, they are adopted into the Father through Jesus Christ. Thus Jesus says in 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (ESV)

', 0, 0, 'tippy_tip1328409828_766', event);" onmouseout="Tippy.fadeTippyOut();">John 14:6: “No one comes to the Father except through me.” There are several reasons why we can only access the Father through Christ. One reason is that the Father has chosen to extend adoption only through Jesus. Even if a person could live a perfectly holy life, always free from all sin, they would still need Jesus in order to be adopted into the Father. Only in Christ can we address God as Father.

God’s choice to predestine certain individuals is based on the purpose of his will. This reinforces what we saw in v4, that his choosing is not based on something within humans. Someone advocating the foreknowledge view might say, “Yes, according to the purpose of his will, and the purpose of his will is to choose all those he sees choosing him.” But that is not supported by the text and, again, would weaken the force of the text. Salvation is in God and from God and given to those God has chosen. According to the purpose of his will means given to those determined by God, not to those who have determined God for themselves. Boice says, “One problem is that an election like that [foreknowledge] is not really election. In such a reconstruction God does not preordain an individual to anything; the individual actually ordains himself.”

This verse reveals the third and highest purpose of God’s choosing: to the praise of his glorious grace. Why are we chosen for holiness and blamelessness? Why are we adopted? So that we might praise God and he be glorified. The particular attribute of his character that is uplifted is his glorious grace. God’s actions draw attention to different aspects of God’s character and nature. In 9:1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit— 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— 12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,

“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29 And as Isaiah predicted,

“If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
we would have been like Sodom
and become like Gomorrah.”

30 What shall we say, then? That Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have attained it, that is, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. They have stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 as it is written,

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” (ESV)

', 0, 0, 'tippy_tip1328409828_2346', event);" onmouseout="Tippy.fadeTippyOut();">Romans 9 we learn that those not saved by God are used by God to glorify his holiness and justice. Here we learn that those saved by God are used to glorify his grace and mercy. Salvation is not simply a matter of making my life better and keeping me from Hell. Salvation is a matter of glorifying the grace of God. Yes, God loves us. Yes, he desires that which is good for us. But we are not the center of God’s affections. We were created for God’s glory and told to worship and serve him and no other. We are to be God-centered. Likewise God is God-centered and not man-centered. We lift him up, he lifts up himself.

Finally, Paul says that this grace is given to us in the Beloved. This is certainly a reference to Jesus, he is the beloved through whom comes the gift of saving grace. Time and again in these three verses Paul stresses salvation as a gift entirely of God’s work and grace. This is not a response to those who would challenge his monergistic soteriology but is rather a reminder to the believer of how good and gracious God is and how great our debt is to him. These verses are praise and though they are deeply theological, Paul assumes his readers will be on the same page as him. Monergism is assumed, not argued for. And God is praised for giving us such great grace through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Seek the Holy » Ephesians

Ephesian Rhyme

Ephesians 1:4-6: Chosen for holiness, adoption, and the glory of God.