Last Sunday I felt kind of like a guy was about to propose to his girlfriend. I know that sounds a little strange, but follow me for just a second. When a guy knows that he’s about to pop the question, he has to muster every ounce of strength he can to not just blurt it out. Seemingly every sentence could begin with “Will you marry me.” You see, the anticipation of what he knows is coming (hopefully) is so much that it completely consumes him. Well, that’s what I was fighting last Sunday. I wanted so badly to get into the text that we have for today that I was mere seconds away from breaking into a second sermon. Sure pieces got out, but thankfully I was able to restrain myself somewhat. However, I did introduce our text for today and I want to remind you of that introduction, as well as a quote that I gave you last Sunday. The quote came from John Stott, and it talked about the epistle to the Ephesians being a “magnificent combination of Christian doctrine and Christian duty, Christian faith and Christian life, what God has done through Christ and what we must be and do in consequence.” Well, the first half of each of those three pairs (Christian doctrine, faith, and what God has done through Christ) is where Paul begins this letter. In other words, Paul begins his letter by stating the position of the Christian before moving on to the desired practice or behavior of the Christian. It’s the standard Pauline format of theology first, followed by the application of that theology.
The other thing that I mentioned last Sunday, and what I’m going to spend the rest of our time this morning focusing on, is the work of the Triune God as it’s laid out in vv. 3-14. I said last Sunday that 3-6 describe the work of the Father, 7-10 the work of the Son, and 11-14 the work of the Holy Spirit. Well, let me give a little bit more information to those sections in terms of the type of work that we see done. Vv. 3-6 describes the electing or choosing work of the Father. Vv. 7-10 describes the redeeming work of the Son. Vv. 11-14 describes the sealing work of the Holy Spirit. So, we’ve got chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and sealed by the Holy Spirit. That’s going to be our working outline for today. That’s going to be our framework for this passage.
Now, I know that as I read the first part of today’s text that there might have been some ears cringe as I read the words chose, predestined, and adopted. Amy and I had some friends who years ago wouldn’t come to church with us because they were convinced that all Presbyterians talked about was predestination and baptizing babies. You see, they couldn’t even hear the word predestination without getting upset. My response to them (and others who have made similar comments) is to not blame me, blame God. After all, God is the author of Scripture (2 Tim. 3:16), and He’s the one that inspired Paul to use those words, not me. You see, we have to have an understanding of what this word predestination means because it’s a biblical word. It isn’t something made up by Presbyterians, but a word specifically used here by Paul to describe our relationship with God. What does it mean to say that “God chose us in him before the foundation of the world” or that “in love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ”? What does that mean? Well, this is one of the main texts for the support of the biblical doctrine of election. Well, what is election, biblically speaking? Simply put (maybe even overly so), the doctrine of election teaches that God choses those whom He will call to saving faith. In John 6, we find Jesus telling his disciples that no one can come to him unless the Father who sent him draws that person to him first. He later says that no one can come to Jesus unless it is granted him by the Father. Now, for many this concept of election takes different forms. Some view it as a pre-knowing on God’s part about the choices that the person will make. Others, myself included, view it as the understanding that God choses whom He will save and bestows upon them the gift of eternal salvation. Now, I will admit that this is difficult to understand. Beyond that, many will call it unfair. How could God choose some and not all? However, for us to think that it is unfair is to only look at half of the story, and in reality less than half of the story.
If we start with the position of what is called the total depravity of man, then it seems not unfair, but completely generous and loving. When Adam ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, how far did we fall? Did we fall a little, a lot, or none at all? You see if we didn’t fall or didn’t fall that far, then we could earn our way back to salvation; we could earn our way back into heaven, into a right relationship with God. However, if we fell completely (which Scripture clearly teaches is the case), then it is impossible for us to get back to good; it’s impossible for us to earn our salvation. Also, without God choosing to bring us to saving faith, then there is no way for us to earn our salvation, thus no way for Him to foreknow salvation and acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior without Him placing that upon our hearts in the first place. If there is nothing good in us (from a Godly perspective), then we are incapable of complete obedience. It is impossible for us to transform ourselves from slaves to sin to worshipers of Jesus Christ without God doing that work in us. God’s choosing, electing, or whatever other word you want to use of those whom he will bring out of slavery and into the light is the work of the Father. It’s not an unjust work, but a loving work that He would choose to save any of us at all. Now, unfortunately I could talk about this topic for hours, but time doesn’t permit and there are still two other persons of the Trinity that are mentioned here as working in us. If you want to discuss this issue in greater depth just let me know.
The second person of the Trinity that is mentioned is the Son. Specifically it is the redeeming work of Jesus Christ that is given attention. While all three members of the Trinity were at work in Christ’s accomplishing this, the Son was central in this work. “We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.” In other words, we are delivered from a state of slavery to sin to a state of mercy in Christ through the shedding of the blood of Jesus upon the cross which atoned for our sins. Because of Christ’s death upon the tree at Calvary we are not only delivered from sin to freedom, but ultimately (much through the work of the Holy Spirit that we will get to in a moment), we are ultimately to be delivered into a state of glory. Paul wrote to Titus in Titus 2:14 that Jesus “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession.” Peter writes in his first epistle that Christ was ransomed on our behalf, that his precious blood takes away all blemishes, and that all of this was the plan of God before the foundations of the earth. To redeem something is to compensate for a fault. To be redeemed means that our faults, our shortcomings, our failures, have been compensated for by something or someone, and that someone is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The shedding of Christ’s blood is what redeems us, sets us right with God. It’s not our actions or our good deeds, but Christ’s atoning sacrifice that restores us.
I love the flow of Paul’s teaching here. Between Father and Son, as a transition, he says that “we are blessed in the Beloved” and then goes on to talk about the Beloved. In vv. 11-12 he talks about our inheritance, our being chosen in Christ by the Father who is the architect not only of the plan of salvation but all things, and talks about how glorious all of this is for us. Then, he gives us the guarantee, the Holy Spirit. What good does vv. 3-12 serve if it’s left up to us? Time and time again even the most Godly of biblical figures prove that we will mess things up if left to our own doing. Forgetting Adam and Eve for a second, look at Noah. Look at Isaac and Jacob. Look at Moses. Look at David. All of these men were very Godly, but all of them committed some type of sin that by definition should have placed them outside of God’s covenant promises and blessings. I mean, David was God’s anointed, and the most famous thing people know about him aside from his slaying for the giant Goliath is his adultery with Bathsheba. If the Lord’s anointed failed, that certainly doesn’t give a positive outlook for our chances. However, God doesn’t elect us, redeem us, and then send us on our way. Instead, He gives us His Holy Spirit in order to seal our election and redemption. To seal something means to make it secure, to guarantee it. When we seal something, we are promising that it is solidified for good. I’m not talking about some television infomercial lifetime guarantee that’s filled with all kinds of fine print and loopholes. I’m talking about God’s guarantee. You see, God’s sealing our salvation is His promising that salvation is a guarantee for those whom He has chosen to be found in Him. The “Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.” The Holy Spirit is not just a fulfillment of God’s promise to indwell His people, but is a guarantee that He will bring them to their final inheritance. The Holy Spirit is but a foretaste of the glory of the age to come. Paul writes about this in Romans 8 about how the frailty, brokenness, corruption, and futility that we experience in this lifetime is no more in the age to come. God doesn’t just tell us that He’s going to do something; He tells us that He is going to do something in us, to us, and through us, and then He does it. That is the work of the Holy Spirit.
So, why all of this? Why did Paul begin this letter to this church by getting into the work of the Trinity? Remember, there isn’t a problem here. Paul isn’t trying to correct some misguided theology or a misunderstanding of the Triune God. Also, remember that Paul is writing to the Ephesian church about the church, about the body of Christ. Why, if he’s writing about the church, does he talk about election, redemption, and sealing? No less than 10x in this one Greek sentence that makes up vv. 3-14 does Paul use the phrase “in Christ” or “in him”. Some particular translation decisions could give more, but 10 is a conservative number. Don’t you think that’s kind of a lot of times to use one phrase in a sentence? If I were to use one phrase 10x in an entire sermon y’all would think that that was all I wanted y’all to take away from it wouldn’t you? Well, if Paul’s writing about the church here, what role does Christ play in the church? Jesus Christ is the head of the Church. It’s a simple thing really, but it’s often forgotten. Jesus Christ is the head of the Church. I don’t care what your tradition may be; the pastor isn’t the head of the church, nor the elders, nor the deacons, nor the trustees, nor the priests, nor the bishops, nor the cardinals, nor the pope are the head of the Church. The one and only true head of the Church is Jesus Christ. The Church exists in and through Jesus Christ. Paul, at the time of his writing this epistle, had already written to the church is Colossi and given them these words, “And he [Jesus] is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.”
The work of the Triune God as displayed through Christ’s sacrifice is the foundation of the church. You see, the Church isn’t built on people or preachers or programs or buildings or anything else that we can rattle off. The Church is built on Jesus Christ and Christ alone, just as our lives should be. Last Sunday Amy and the kids talked about the story of the 2 houses in Sunday School. I don’t have time to recount the story, but I’ll just tell you that I asked the kids about it when we got home and Thomas simply told me, “If you’re house ain’t built on Jesus, then it’s gonna fall.” He’s going be a great preacher one day. Glory be to God; in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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