Chapter 1 Ephesians 1

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

To The Saints

Paul often began his letters to the churches stating he was an apostle but only by the will of God. Paul was not in the least boastful and neither did he exercise human pride in his position. He had a deep recognition of the love and mercy of God, and of his own past, when in religious zealotry and ignorance he persecuted Christ’s followers and rejected the gospel.

The truthfulness of Paul’s calling by God to be a minister of the gospel was demonstrated by his concern for souls, his unflagging zeal and love for Christ in the face of hardship and difficulty. Further, he was faithful to the Word of God and the gospel, and never swerved from that fidelity to gain influence, popularity, money or even his freedom. Paul as he wrote Ephesians was under house arrest in Rome, bound for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ.

It would be well for us to examine those who minister to us or those who influence us in spiritual matters to see whether they are truly called of God. For all ministers, teachers, and evangelists if genuine will also be faithful to the Word of God and the gospel as Paul was, and will be living and ministering with integrity.

Paul’s letter was not only to the church at Ephesus, but was to all the faithful who love and followed Christ. This means this letter is God speaking to us as well. Whenever Paul addresses the saints, he is referring to those who profess faith in Christ and follow Him. There is no indication at all in the Bible that saints are those who had special ministries or extra ordinary or mystical experiences, or that after death they are in heaven and able to help the living and intercede with God and Christ in our behalf. And never in Scripture are we told to pray to, or petition any human being who has died and is supposedly now in heaven. All prayer and petition for help, mercy and grace is to be directed to Christ and Jehovah God.

The practice in the Roman church to designate men and women as saints who have passed away, and then to encourage veneration or prayer to them even designating certain saints as having special graces for particular needs or circumstances or classes of people is without any biblical foundation.

In each letter of Paul we will examine in this book, he greets believers with the reminder that grace and peace comes from God and Christ. While this may have been Paul’s customary opening to each of his letters to the churches, it was by no means merely a form. The revelation of God to man through the Scriptures in both the Old and New Testament is founded on the grace of God. Grace is God’s “unmerited love and favor, good will, kindness”¹ shown to man after we fell into sin.

As soon as there was sin there was a Savior and grace was extended. God intends that by grace and through the gospel or good news of a substitute and Savior from sin, the peace that mankind desires and that is only found in Him would be restored. This is possible, as grace is also life transforming in the heart of those who receive and cherish it. For grace is, “the merciful kindness by which God, exerting his holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, keeps, strengthens, increases them in Christian faith, knowledge, affection, and kindles them to the exercise of the Christian virtues.”²

Ephesians 1:3–6  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 without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

Chosen In Christ

To bless God is to praise Him, for we can give nothing to God, for as King David said, “all things come of Thee, and of thine own have we given Thee” (1 Chronicles 29:14 KJV). We can give nothing to God that is really totally our own, for our life, strength and all that we can obtain in possessions, abilities and position is through His gifts or by His allowance. Therefore we should bless or praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Every true spiritual blessing comes from God. In contrast, humanity’s many pathways to what we mistakenly call spiritual experience and enlightenment do not always come from God, and can actually lead away from Him. The spiritual blessings that matter and are eternal in nature are given to us through Christ. The help Christ has for us, is His grace and peace known and experienced, which sanctifies the life, giving us a new and growing appreciation and love for God.
 
One of the spiritual blessings that should rivet our attention and speak to the heart and the intellect, is that God chose us or knew us before the world was created. The significance of this has often lead me to weep as I read and contemplate the immensity of the meaning of the words, “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world.” God has known every person when first conceived in their mother’s womb. God said of Jeremiah and it is true of all, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jeremiah 1:5). God knew us from eternity past, and despite all our sinfulness and shortcomings He desires our salvation and is on our side.

“All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 KJV). Despite humanity’s condition, God in His eternal purpose and goodness “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). God does not want us to have merely a profession of belief in a god, gods or religion, mankind has this in abundance. God’s purpose is that we would respond to His grace and come to know His love and mercy, as we are accounted holy and right in His sight because of what Christ has done for us. We are also to be changed by faith and the power of God’s grace, made holy and without blame before Him.

God does not arbitrarily and for reasons best known to Himself, predestine some to be lost and some to be saved. He desires the adoption of all of humanity, His estranged sons and daughters who are following the ways of darkness and sin. Small children and infants are most often adopted through no choice of their own. However, for us to be adopted and made a child of God requires a decision of the will to respond to the invitation and drawing love of God. “But as many as received Him, [Jesus] to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name” (John 1:12 KJV).

God’s sovereignty is part of His character and nature as deity, but He is too good and wise to predestine any individual to eternal damnation or eternal life. This is why He created man with a free will and the power of choice; God’s love is unreservedly bestowed and must be freely responded to. He cannot accept love or service that is not genuine, but rather He desires the service that stems from a real love of who He is, leading us to obey and serve Him. The glory of God’s grace that will resound throughout eternity is that He can and will save you and me, if we will not resist His love by a stubborn and perverse will that chooses its own way.

Ephesians 1:7–10  In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him.

Redemption In Christ

Mankind is in need of redemption, for each of us individually were born with a bent toward sin. Further, every individual has grown up to a greater or lesser degree with a selfish nature and have broken God’s law in thought, word and action. Indeed it is true of humanity as it was of Israel whom God gave up to captivity because of their sin and rebellion, “you have sold yourselves for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money” (Isaiah 52:3). God redeemed Israel from captivity just as He redeems each of us individually from sin and the power of Satan, because of His goodness and our great need.

All of humanity has been taken captive by the devil, and the ransom to be paid to secure mankind’s freedom is the substitutionary death of Christ. His life given up in our behalf, as He became sin for us, who knew no sin, was that we might be made righteous in Him. (See 2 Corinthians 5:21.) The redemption price for our soul was not secured “with corruptible things, like silver or gold, … but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18–19).

Ransoms are paid to kidnappers throughout the world to secure the physical release of loved ones. In contrast, Christ’s redemption secures for those who accept it, eternal life and a mind and conscience renewed, as we come to understand the will and love of God in our life.

God, who can see the end from the beginning, anticipates in the redemption of individuals who have trusted and served Him, a time when all the created intelligences of heaven and the redeemed will be united as one. Then there will be no darkness and sin separating His family on earth and in heaven.

Ephesians 1:11–14  In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.

Our Inheritance In Christ

The death of Christ secured for all an inheritance of everlasting life. Sadly however, the vast majority of individuals through the millennia have chosen to go their own way. All such individuals by their own choice and unbelief have squandered their immortal inheritance secured for us by Christ’s death, and in doing so have really chosen eternal loss instead.

People today receive inheritances big and small and some are careless and wasteful in the use of these means. The purpose and concern of those who gave the inheritance is not at fault, but rather the recipient’s poor choices and shortsightedness. And it is much the same with humanity generally, God’s love is for all without respect of persons, but many will not receive His love.

The Bible describes heaven’s unbounded love to the human family this way, “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). If this is true and God has predestined or desires the salvation of all, why are so many not saved? “This is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed” (John 3:19–20).

Though God has predestined all to be saved, it is only those who believe the gospel and trust in Christ for salvation that shall make proper use of the inheritance secured for us at Calvary. Mankind has many religious ideas, and even among those who call themselves Christians “there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12). How then can we know what we believe is the correct way? All those who trust and obey, God has “sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:13–14).

When we are sealed with the Spirit which is the down payment of our eternal inheritance, this means, “the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, [and because of this] He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).

There are many spirits in the world, and many claim to be filled with the Spirit. But the evidence of the sealing and the promise of eternal life will be seen when both our profession and life is producing the “fruit of the Spirit [which] is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:22–24). Living such a life is to be increasingly “partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Peter 1:4). A life lived in the Spirit is a life lived to God’s glory, and the fullness of our redemption which is to be ransomed from the grave will also be to the eternal praise and glory of God.

Ephesians 1:15–20  Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.

Paul’s Prayer For Us

The apostle Paul gave all his heart, mind and strength to the proclamation of the gospel of Christ. He endured hardship, disappointment and at times betrayal in serving the risen Lord and bearing His message faithfully. He briefly describes his experience this way:

Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm. Then, besides all this, I have the daily burden of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak without my feeling that weakness? Who is led astray, and I do not burn with anger? If I must boast, I would rather boast about the things that show how weak I am. (2 Corinthians 11:24–30 NLT)

It was communicated to Paul that the church in Ephesus was growing in faith, sound in doctrine and experience, and this knowledge was to him a great encouragement. Paul said he had a “deep concern for all the churches” for many were raised up by God’s spirit of grace through his efforts. As we read Paul’s prayer for the church at Ephesus, we are also reading what God’s will and purpose is for you and I as well. Paul’s prayer is one we should pray individually for ourselves and for others.

Christ as a man submitted to the will and way of God, even as we are called to submit to the will and way of Christ. Jesus, as we are to do, looked to His Father in heaven for help and strength, and we are to look to God in love and trust as Jesus did. As God was faithful to sustain His Son so He will sustain us through the difficulties that life brings. In light of the fact that the God of glory is also our Father, we can pray in Jesus name and according to His will with hope and confidence.

As Paul prayed for the believers long ago, so we are also to pray that God would grant us wisdom that is heaven derived, an understanding and insight of God’s love, character and purpose for humanity and us individually. Paul was not praying that the church would experience so called signs and wonders. Rather, believers are to know and understand God through His word as found in the Scriptures. Further, we are to know God as His grace and love molds our life, and as His Spirit leads our “hearts into the love of God” “prompting us to call out, ‘Abba, Father’” (2 Thessalonians 3:5; Galatians 4:6 NLT). This is the wisdom and revelation we each need as believers but this is not all.

Our “eyes” representing the mind or the faculty of knowing and perceiving is to be enlightened with spiritual knowledge and saving truth. Many people in this world are seeking for, or may even believe they have found spiritual light and truth. But only Jesus and the gospel of salvation He has brought, is the “true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world” (John 1:9). Therefore it is only “the path of the just [that] is like the shining sun, that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day” (Proverbs 4:18).

As our minds become enlightened which is to be an ongoing and developing experience; we are to know with increasing splendor the hope of our calling in the gospel. We are to know as believers what our inheritance really entails. This is not only eternal life and all the glories that accompany it, but our inheritance begins now, as we become the children of God. For “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:32). The all things that we are entitled to as children of God by inheritance includes “His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1:3 KJV).

The greatness of God’s power is seen in a life that is transformed, a power that was also demonstrated in the resurrection of Christ. Each believer experiences the power of God in death and rebirth. This takes place as the Spirit of God leads us to accept our life as forfeited because of sin, while trusting in Christ for life. This revelation of God’s grace, understood and acted upon leads us to die to the old way of living, thinking and acting as we receive of God’s Spirit that we might live a new life. This is the working of God’s mighty power, and is the evidence of being born again and is the confirmation of the eternal life yet to come.

Ephesians 1:21–23  Far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Christ The Head

Our world is filled with strife and the quest for power among nations and individuals. In the realm of sports, entertainment, business and finance, politics and education and many other human endeavors, this striving for power and influence is seen. In the work place, school and even in our homes humanity influenced by fallen angels seek for power  and influence over others in ways obvious and subtle.

Jesus as the Son of man and the Son of God, stands above the angels of heaven, fallen angels and over man. Jesus power and might is not like that of armies, power politics, and selfish domination. Neither is His power found in the way of darkness, deceit or fear. The power of Jesus might is in the character of divinity and unselfish love.

The power of sin and the devil seems to be more predominate in this world and in the hearts of individuals, than that of Christ. However even in the midst of the darkness of this world Christ’ might and love triumphs in the hearts of those who follow Him. It is also by His grace the world is kept from utter chaos, as the power of divinity holds in check to some degree the destructive forces of nature, and human hearts that have been deranged by sin. The power of Jesus might also holds in check the forces of Satan’s dominion, and often the full results of our sin and rebellion. This is why the prophet Jeremiah when looking at the havoc and trouble sin and rebellion brought to ancient Israel could still testify, “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not” (Lamentations 3:22).

The Father has made Christ to be Savior, Lord, and judge, and all of creation is subject to Him. Even the apostles marveled as they saw this power in action for at one time as they traveled on the Sea of Galilee “A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that it was already filling.” And Jesus “rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace, be still!’ And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, ‘Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!’” (Mark 4:37, 39, 41).

When Jesus conquered the grave and had risen, He appeared to the disciples and “came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth’” (Matthew 28:18). Therefore with Jesus on our side “we may boldly say: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:6).

Jesus is not only over all principalities and powers; He is to be the head of the church. The church is to have no pope or president, elder or bishop to whom the people look to with spiritual deference or who exercises authority over the people of God. For the church and its people are to have no ruler but Jesus Christ. The Spirit gives gifts to the church including that of pastors, teachers, and administrators. These and others may be officers in Christ’s church, but He alone is head and to His word and counsel as found in Scripture all must humbly submit.

The church on earth includes those who merely make a profession of faith, as well as the true and faithful. However it is only those individuals who have received Christ’s blessings of a renewed and transformed life and therefore “hunger and thirst for righteousness, [who] … shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6). It is only “the pure in heart,” made pure by grace through faith who “shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).

Christ through His Spirit works through individual members of the church, filling them with the spirit and character of heaven. At other times Christ works in His people in more marked ways where it is seen that His divine providence and help has intervened. It is only the people of God who serve Him in love that can rightly represent Christ and His principles and character. And further it takes a church a body to most clearly represent Him in Whom “dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). Therefore any betrayal of the principles of the Word and law of God or the gospel has the effect of misrepresenting His character and glory before the world. It is this misrepresentation by the greater number who profess to be members of Christ’s church that is referred to in 2 Thessalonians as the great falling away. It is this apostasy which is now well under way, that prepares the world and the church for the antichrist and the mark of the beast. But even in the midst of apostasy Christ will have a people who constitute His church in which He is the head and in whom His Spirit will prevail.

Endnotes:

1. Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language. (San Francisco, California: Foundation for American Christian Education, 1967).

2. Greek Lexicon, in The Online Bible CD-Rom, Macintosh Version 2.5.3 (Niagara Falls, NY: Cross Country Software, www.online-bible.com, 1996).