Ephesians 1:11-14
More Praise to God
September 14, 2008
Introduction
We are drawing to the close of the first subsection of Ephesians.
Paul’s main emphasis is to bless or praise God for what He has done to
save our souls from eternal death. In the first part of his praise (v. 3-6) he
focuses on the Father’s role. In the second part (v. 7-12) he focuses on
the Son’s role. We last were studying at verse 10 so we will pick up
there. And finally, in the third part (v. 13-14) he focuses on the Spirit’s
role.
1. Praise to God for the Work of the Son, vv. 11-12
A. The Inheritance, v. 11a
The verb “obtain an inheritance” (NKJV) or “we were also chosen”
(NIV) is debated. Because of the related inheritance idea in v. 14, it
seems best accurate to maintain the idea of an inheritance instead of a
“choosing.” The passive voice of the verb must be retained—so it does
not say we got an inheritance, but that we were “gotten” as an inheritance. This may be surprising to you. We were obtained as an inheritance or “made as an inheritance” or “made a heritage” of God. This
notion accords well with the notion in the Scriptures that we are God’s
possession.
B. The Predestination, v. 11b
Gods’ plan was planned ahead of time, and set in motion way before
you and I were here. He planned it (his counsel and will), and His providence guides it (works) to its end (purpose). The plan has to do with
God’s decision or resolve to do something. The word “counsel” refers to
the deliberative stage of planning, and the “will” to the final decision.
This verse gives a sweeping statement as to the Lord’s plan and will.
It says he works all things according to the counsel/purpose of His will.
This includes all things, and obviously includes salvation, as it comes in
this context on salvation.
As I said earlier in this series on Ephesians, God has decreed everything that comes to pass. See Isaiah 46:9-10 which affirms that God will
do everything of His pleasure. I can say this without making God the
author of sin or evil, and without making human freedom a farce. But we
have to acknowledge that things don’t just “happen.”
We have to remember that God is not only omniscient, but He is also
omnipotent and sovereign. There is nothing outside of his control. If
something could operate outside of his control, then God would not be
omnipotent in that area. Eph. 1:11 says God “works all things according
to the counsel of His will.” He has an eternal purpose (Eph 3:11) that
comprehends eternity past to eternity future.
Now regarding free will, we need to reject the Arminian belief of absolute free will. Man is not absolutely free. Man is a moral agent that can
make decisions, but he is UNABLE to do certain things. Rom. 8:7-8, 1
Cor. 2:14, John 8:43 prove this beyond any doubt. In other words, man is
free to act in accord with his will, but his will is bent inevitably toward
sin until he gets saved. This is the idea of total depravity. Sinful man is
not as free as a saved man (John 8:36).
We also should reject the hard deterministic view of free will, which
basically seems to boil down to “men = robots.” Man’s choices are genuine. You should suspect that these two opposite views are so simplistic
that they totally miss the mark of the more sophisticated way in which
God has arranged his sovereignty to interact with human responsibility.
Indeed that is the case.
There is a view in the middle called “soft determinism” which explains the relationship of divine sovereignty to human freedom in this
way: Man is a moral agent, responsible for decisions he makes, and this
freedom is granted to him because the sovereign God decreed it so. Man
is free (in a limited sense) because God sovereignly made him that way.
God can bring all things in His will to come to pass without constraining
people to do them. People do them of their own choice. As for evil, He
permits it without being the author of it. Keep this in mind: The Bible’s
very high view of God does not allow us to think that man is more free
than God.
C. The Praise of God, v. 12
We are talking about the praise of God’s glory, that is, His essential
being. The text does not say that we might praise His glory—true we
should. The text actually says that we are made a heritage for Christ, so
that we might be to the praise of God’s glory. I might say it like this:
God’s work in providing salvation, the mammoth theme of Ephesians
1:3-14, works in us and then we become object lessons, reflecting mirrors, the show-and-tell of God’s grace. We become the proof of the glory
of God. He takes a totally dead and lost sinner, transforms him by grace,
and changes his character to make him fit for heaven. This is somewhat
like “Israel my glory” in Isaiah 46:13. The church is his glory as well.
Verse 12 “first to hope” is a perfect active participle. I might translate it “first to set our hope or trust” or preferably “who already set our
hope in Christ” with the “set” idea trying to convey the initial and ongoing nature of our hope. Christ means “the Messiah.” We set our trust in
Him and our hope remains there. We place our hope in Christ, not in
political figures or material possessions or money or power or ourselves.
Ephesians 1:13-14
Yet More Praise to God
September 21, 2008
Introduction
We are continuing our study of Paul’s letter to the church in the city
called Ephesus in Asia Minor (the west coast of modern Turkey). In the
last notes we examined the praise that Paul offers for the work of God
the Son. Now we look at the praise of God the Holy Spirit for His work
in a Christian’s salvation.
Verses 13-14 speak about the Applier of salvation—the Holy Spirit.
It does not talk so much about His work in getting us to believe, important as that is (John 3:5, 8; Titus 3:5), but rather focuses on his presence as a seal and guarantee of our inheritance upon belief. Consequently, we must remind ourselves from the Bible about the Holy Spirit and
about some of his gifts to believers.
1. Who is the Holy Spirit?
The Spirit of God is God—not a force or energy field but a personal
being with emotions, desires, a will, and intellect. We believe in the Triune God because the evidence in the Bible leads us to this conclusion.
We are not strictly monotheistic nor are we tri-theistic. The Bible presents a Trinitarian-Monotheistic God, a “Triune” God. He has one essence and three persons who share that same essence. Some Biblical evidence for this is as follows:
1. Deuteronomy 6:4: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the
LORD is one! [The unity and oneness of God.]
2. Matthew 4:10 ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him
only you shall serve.’ [Jesus speaking of worship of the Father.]
3. John 9:38 Then he said, “Lord, I believe!” And he worshiped
Him [Jesus].
4. Revelation 5:14 “Blessing and honor and glory and power Be to
Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, forever and ever!”
[Father and Lamb are worshipped equally.]
5. Psalm 139:7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I
flee from Your presence? [The Spirit is omnipresent.]
6. Matt 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit. [All three members of the Trinity mentioned
on equal footing.]
7. 2 Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the
love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you
all. Amen.
8. Genesis 1:2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness
was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering
over the face of the waters. [The Spirit was present before
creation.]
As God, the Spirit is intimately involved in a Christian’s spiritual
life not only at the new believer’s birth, but also throughout his spiritual
life. For instance, the Spirit teaches us, comforts us, helps in prayer, and
convicts us of sin.
2. The Application of the Seal, v. 13
The verse offers a three-step “process” to one becoming a Christian.
He hears and believes, and then is sealed.
A. Hearing and Believing
The verse says we “heard the word of truth.” We might think of this
as hearing the gospel message for the first time, or perhaps many times,
with salvation coming at some later point. It occurred to me that we need
to consider the possibility that this hearing is “hearing and listening,”
that is, doing something about it. When the Bible says that God “hears”
prayer, it means more than it reaches his ears. It means He hears and
does something.
Hearing the gospel is the hearing of faith. You may hear the gospel
many times in a superficial way, but this hearing is the real deal when
you obey the faith. You hear and do something about it.
The truth is reality, as opposed to falsehood. The content of the
Word is truth, namely the gospel which has salvation for its content.
These terms all describe the message of the Bible. All you philosophers
out there—don’t despair! There is truth!
But in addition to the fact of the existence of truth, there is the need
of the truth. You do not evangelize someone by meeting a physical need;
you do not make a disciple by befriending someone and showing kindness to him. In order to be saved, one must hear the content of the gospel
message and he or she must respond to it. No one is saved other than
through the Son of God (John 14:6), and that through hearing the Word
of God (Rom 10:14-17, James 1:18, 1 Peter 1:23).
B. Being Sealed
Sealing marks ownership and brings with it a connotation of security and genuineness. See Eph. 4:30 for another reference to this idea. The
Holy Spirit is the seal by virtue of his indwelling presence. Like indwelling, this cannot be “felt” directly. We say therefore that it is not experiential. All Christians have the seal; it is not something for the elite few.
One implication of this doctrine is that we can be assured of our salvation because God says the Spirit of God is the seal that “closes the
case” on our salvation. It’s “all wrapped up” at the point of salvation and
seal. The seal indicates eternal security. Once sealed, always sealed!
The coming of the Holy Spirit was promised by Christ. In John 16:7
Jesus told his disciples it was to their advantage that He [Jesus] would go
to the Father, because when He did, He would send the Holy Spirit. Acts
1:1-8 elaborates on this.
Verse 13 has a past tense participle “having believed” followed by
an aorist main verb “you were sealed.” The KJV mistranslates this as
“after you believed, you were sealed,” potentially giving the false impression that the Holy Spirit seals and provides a guarantee for us at
some point after belief. But the reality is that at belief the Spirit of God
indwells us and, by virtue of his indwelling, is a seal and guarantee.
It is interesting to note that we are never commanded to ask for or
receive the Spirit, precisely because this is a work of God in conjunction
with the gift of salvation. The Charismatic approach, we are told, requires one to speak in tongues or ask for the Spirit’s baptism to prove
one is saved or move on to the next level of Christianity. But these are
simply false. The Bible presents the indwelling and sealing work of the
Spirit as passive from our side. We just receive the gift that is given and
that is it.
3. The Duration of the Seal, v. 14a
The Spirit of God Himself is like earnest money. He is the down
payment that guarantees the payment of the rest at a later date. In human
affairs, the down payment is forfeited if the rest is not paid. Of course
God will keep His end of the bargain so this is not an issue, even though
in life, we experience failed promises and broken contracts far too often.
This earnest is part of the larger inheritance of which it is the guarantee
until that time comes.
The verse tells us that this guarantee or down payment is until the
redemption of the purchased possession. Redemption here is “stage 2” of
what we have “stage 1” of already. Christians are already “purchased
possessions” (1 Cor. 6:20), but there are some benefits of being a Christian that we have not yet experienced. So the duration of the seal and of
the guarantee is until we are finally redeemed. This happens when we
die or the Lord returns to take us to be with Him.
These benefits that we await are called our inheritance. The idea of
this is a very exciting thing. Part of our inheritance is to be with Christ
forever (1 Thess. 4:17). Part of it is to be free from the presence and
temptation of sin (Rev. 21:4). Part of it is to have our bodies transformed
to be fit for an eternal heavenly existence (1 John 3:2, Phil. 3:21). Part of
our inheritance is to reign with Christ – consider 1 Cor. 6:2-3, 2 Tim.
2:12, Rev. 5:10, 20:6, 22:3-5 and (for the apostles), Matthew 19:28 (and
Luke 22:30).
See 2 Cor. 1:22 and 5:5 for the other uses of this “guarantee” idea.
4. The Praise of God, v. 14b
For the third time (see v. 6, 12) we are told that all that pertains to
salvation is not done just for our improvement and benefit, but for the
praise of God. We saw in v. 12 that we ourselves would be exhibit #1 as
to the glory of God as it was reflected in the work He has done in us. But
it is not enough that we just “sit there” as if we are just what God needs!
We also should make effort to praise Him. The work of the Father, of the
Son, and here of the Spirit all reflect the glorious character and being of
God. We cannot reflect that character ourselves. We need God’s work in
us in order to do it.
Conclusion
We’ve come to the conclusion of what we call a doxology, that is, an
expression of praise to God in Ephesians 1:3-14. Paul is expressing
praise to God because of what God has done for us and ultimately for
Himself. How do we apply any doxology to ourselves? How do we apply this particular one?
We can start by being informed from the content of it. We have seen
a tremendous collection of gospel truths in this doxology that tell us
some of the “mechanics” of our salvation from eternity past until eternity
future. It gives us something of an order or list of the parts of salvation.
Consider the list: we are chosen, predestined to adoption and inheritance,
then redemption was accomplished, we hear the word of truth, we believe, we are sealed and guaranteed through the indwelling presence of
the Spirit, we are made accepted in the beloved, and we receive final
redemption and involvement in the future kingdom.
We can then offer our own thanks and praise to God for what he has
done for us as individuals, for the local church, for the entire true church,
and what he will do in the future. If we do not get to this stage in our
thinking, it cannot be said that we truly understand what is written here.
After all, Paul writes with such excitement that a weak or dry response to
it is hardly appropriate.
We can continue by living out the implications of the doxology.
 God has chosen us to be holy and without blame before
Him. How’s your life in this respect?
 God has made us His sons. Are you taking advantage of that
privileged position?
 God has revealed His will to us. Are you on top of it? There
is no excuse not to know basic Bible content in this day and
age—if you don’t, we know what that means—you are not
spending time in the Word.
 Christ is going to rule over all things in the future kingdom.
Are you ruled by him now?
 The gospel requires us to hear and believe in Jesus Christ.
Have you?
 God has given a seal and guarantee of the future part of our
redemption. Are you confident of that?
MAP