To the Praise of His Glory

Ephesians 1:7-14
“To the Praise of His Glory”

If you were God, how would you show your glory? Would you, maybe, make it so that you always had the last word in an argument—the word of wisdom that puts everything right? No, we wouldn’t want to be that petty.

Would you provide a solution to homelessness, hunger, and disease—food, shelter, and wellness for everyone? That is certainly a pressing need not only here in the Chicagoland area but even more so around the world. Still, is that the best we could do? 

Perhaps we should satisfy all the Hollywood stars at the awards celebrations and bring about world peace! Now we’re getting somewhere! Jesus himself said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God” (Mat.5:9). 

If you were God, how would you show your glory?

The Psalmist (19:1) tells us that the heavens declare the glory of God—the moon and the stars and the galaxies, the mind-bending vastness and beauty of space. Is that how you would show your glory—the grandeur of all creation? Is that how you would overwhelm the hearts and loosen the tongues of your creatures to worship and praise your name? Of course there was one point in creation when he stamped his own image on a creature—actually on two. He assigned them to rule in his stead, and blessed them to multiply to his glory. But you know the story. They sinned and marred not just themselves but their whole race… and God’s whole creation. 

Now the whole shebang groans under the weight of that sin. Corrupted creatures living in a compromised creation, coexisting with God eternally separated from him because he is perfectly holy. It’s a pretty dark picture. Now, if you were God how would you show your glory? I think I’d wipe out the whole mess. If those creatures want to go their own way, let ’em. If they don’t recognize what they’ve got, forget ’em. I’d erase the whole board and start over—flip on the shredder; reboot the computer. If you were God, is that how you would show your glory?

You and I may do it that way, but that’s not the way the true God of the universe did it. Turn with me to Eph.1 and let’s remind ourselves what the true God actually did. And what he did was to bless us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in and through his son, Jesus Christ. There was blessing that originated from God the Father before time began. Those are the ones we looked at two weeks ago. He chose us in Christ from eternity past to be holy and blameless in his presence! He could do that because he had predestined us to be adopted into his family with full family rights—coheirs with Jesus Christ! …All to the praise of his glorious grace—with which he graced or highly favored us. 

Do you know what it means to be graced or highly favored by God—lavished with his blessing? Scripture only uses this word one other time—it means made acceptable or honored with blessing. And it only appears here and in Luk.1:28. There it was the salutation of the angel Gabriel to the virgin Mary. “Greetings, O favored one…. Mary was highly favored of God. Now, so are we, to the praise of God’s glorious grace! Ah, now this is the way the true God shows his glory. He showers it upon sinners to make them holy!

Let’s pick up with vs.7 now and see the blessings that come to us in the Son (vss.7-12), and then in the Holy Spirit (vss.13-14).

Blessing in the Son – 1:7-12

For those of you who were here for communion on Super Bowl evening—the truly spiritual ones at Grace Church—we looked through vss.7-10 that evening. I’m choosing to revisit these verses a bit, just as I did vss.3-6, not because I plan to review last week every Sunday, nor just in order to bring up to speed everyone who was not here—although both of these have their benefits. No, I’m doing it because vss.3-14 are one unbroken thought in the original and you really need all parts of the that thought to appreciate fully any individual one.

First, in the Son we have redemption from sin. – 7a “The Pauline concept of redemption has its antecedents in the Old Testament, where it describes the release of slaves (Exod. 21:8; cf. Lev. 25:48)…, “…and more particularly God’s mighty deliverance of his people from the bondage of Egypt (Deut. 7:8; 9:26; 13:5; 1 Chron. 17:21, etc.)” (O’Brien, 105-6). Thus, we were chosen in a similar way to Israel—the church is the new chosen people (1:4, cf. C ol.3:12) and we were also delivered in a similar way to Israel—our own exodus out of Egypt. Sometimes redemption involves payment, sometimes it does not. In this instance it certainly did. 

We have redemption through his blood. At communion we spent some time thinking about what it means that God has blood…. We must ever be grateful for the body of Christ. As God he was a sufficient sacrifice. But in order for him to be a suitable sacrifice Jesus had to take on flesh—and blood—he had to become human. “We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb.4:15). …and our high priest not only offered up our sacrifice; he also was our sacrifice. Jesus did all of this, and now, through his blood, we have redemption by God’s grace. Paul’s mention of forgiveness of our trespasses—our personal, daily sins—according to the riches of his grace (7b) is like recapitulation, restatement for re-emphasis. It is synonymous with redemption through his blood. Redemption equates with forgiveness, and Jesus blood equates with the riches of his grace.

In Hebrew poetry where thoughts rhyme more that words, there is a form called synonymous parallelism: An idea is stated, then stated again in slightly different words. Psa.21:1, for instance, says, “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.” It helps us ponder the thought. Eph.1 is nothing like Hebrew poetry, but Paul seems to have some synonymous parallelism here in vs.7. And I believe the purpose of his emphasis is to dwell on the riches of God’s grace multiplied to us in Christ. Our redemption, the forgiveness of our trespasses, was paid for by the blood of God himself—Jesus Christ in the flesh—and it was only such wealth from God that could have paid the debt in full. No other source of wealth in the universe—aside from God’s grace—would have been sufficient. 

His grace lavished upon us (8) resulted in our receiving wisdom and insight—for certainly it is no demonstration of God’s wisdom and insight that he chose to bless us! That wisdom and insight, then, facilitated our second blessing in Christ, namely (9), the making known to us of the mystery of his will. Later (17), Paul will pray that this wisdom and insight will continue to be developed even more fully within us. But the mystery itself receives central focus in this celebration of redemption. I understand the mystery to be the full purpose of God’s salvation plan once hidden but now revealed in Christ. On the most basic (although still impressive) level it is the reconciliation of Jew and Gentile through one means of salvation in Christ. On the grandest level it is the finished task of the gospel—that is to say, the reversal of the fall and uniting of all things in heaven and on earth (cf. Gen.1:1) in Christ and under his headship. Since the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ this has now begun, but it will not be complete until all opposition is finally handled and the kingdom is fully come. In other words, our full redemption has begun but there is more to come. 

Christ’s lordship, his kingdom, has been established but is not yet fully realized. This is like the difference between D-Day, 6 June 1944 when Normandy beach was invaded. That was the decisive day in WWII. But V(E)-Day, 8 May 1945 was when the war in Europe was finally over, finally won. Vs.10 is telling us the V-Day is coming precisely according to God’s plan. All things will eventually come under the lordship of Christ—not the worst news we’ve heard today—and our redemption is a big part of that. We have a place in God’s plan!

Now Vs.11 – In him we have obtained an inheritance. And here we get our first little translation glitch in the ESV. Let’s walk through the early part of this verse slowly. In him, that is in Christ—that is still the context. The original actually says in whom; ESV comes close; NASV omits those two words believing the meaning will carry over from the context of 7-10. Also comes next. ESV omits it. NASV includes it, retaining the clear link to 7-10. We have obtained an inheritance – ESV and NASV agree word for word; but neither translates the verb as well as they should. We’ll pick that up in a moment. First, though, look at the pronoun we. It is no longer referring to the same people as the first-person plural pronouns have been referring to up to this point. That is why many translations put a paragraph break here at vs.11 despite the fact that all agree that vss.3-14 is one Greek sentence. We, here, must be defined in contrast to you in vs.13. It identifies believing Jews. As opposed to the Gentiles who are the reference there. Now, the verb translated obtained is a past tense passive verb which means appoint by lot or allot or assign. It also carries the flavor of inheritance or heritage. It is the significance of this passive voice that ESV and NASV seem to have missed.

The passive voice suggests that we, the believing Jews, were made an allotment, an inheritance, not that they received an allotment. They themselves were made an inheritance to God. “In whom also we were made a heritage” is the best translation. They were made into God’s possession according to His purpose, just as was described in the Song of Moses (Deu.32:8-9). There God assigned nations to various angelic beings (Bruce, 263; O’Brien, 115) but he retained Israel as his personal possession. Here, too, that is being emphasized as integral to the working out of God’s purpose to the praise of his glory. Our blessing in Christ is deserving of praise, but it is just a continuation of the purpose God put into effect when he called Abram and made him and his offspring his inheritance—promising to bless all nations of the earth through him. And even before that, from eternity past, he purposed to show his glory in this way—putting into practice an elaborate plan of redemption that could make sinful people clean. That is our blessing in the Son, to the praise of God’s glory.

Blessing in the Holy Spirit – 1:13-14

The point of these two verses: we are sealed with the Holy Spirit based upon hearing and believing in Christ. It is in Christ, by virtue of our union with Him, that we receive the Holy Spirit. The Jews had the promise of the Messiah and the Gentiles heard the preaching, but both are made the inheritance of God by the same means; in Christ. Vs.18 makes it clear that the church is also God’s inheritance. The promised Holy Spirit is not anticipating supernatural gifts or the like. It’s referring to the fact that Jewish and Gentile believers will receive the same Holy Spirit that was prophesied in the OT as bringing newness of life. Isa.32:15; 44:3; Eze.36:26; 39:29; Zec.12:10. It is with this Holy Spirit that we were sealed as a guarantee of our full redemption. The word translated guarantee was the common word for down payment or first installment, thus guaranteeing full payment. The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance until we take possession of it—or, that is, until God takes full possession of us. Think about that!

Suppose I got a call from my bank this week—that had nothing to do with our balance or any fees. Rather, it turns out they have been watching closely what is happening with our family—receiving a call to pastor Grace Church of DuPage—and they anticipated our need to relocate in the near future. So they dispatched a high ranking bank officer to assess our needs, locate suitable housing in the area, and secure it on our behalf. From our many years as customers of Bank One they have become intimately aware of our family values both in life and ministry. They knew, in other words, that we would want to live close to the church. So they secured the home that is going up just across the parking lot—the one I mentioned to the Elders and just laughed at me! There were other potential buyers waiting in the wings, so Bank One had to promise top dollar for the house. And when we’re ready to move it will be fully furnished for us—all the way from silverware in the drawers to a second car in the garage. The cabinets and refrigerator will also be filled with food and, by special arrangement, they’ve assured us that they will never be empty as long as we live there. Bank One was also concerned that our hearts and minds should be completely at rest on this matter so they arranged an immediate transfer into our personal account of the earnest money for the purchase. They assured us that this was a show of good faith that was intended to confirm to us that the down payment would follow in due course, and then the full amount of the mortgage. 

Could you imagine such a thing? Well, that is exactly the kind of scenario described here in Eph.1God has guaranteed the inheritance and full redemption that we didn’t deserve in the first place, and he has guaranteed it by sealing us with his own Holy Spirit. We understand sealing. It’s like branding cattle or stamping a document. It involves being marked, for identification, certified, for origin, confirmed, for content, authenticated, for legitimacy, secured, for reliability, insured, for certainty. And we’re sealed by the Holy Spirit in this way for what final purpose? To the praise of his glory. God sought us and saved us and sealed us to bring praise to his glory.

Conclusion

If you were God how would you show your glory? He showed his by making sinful people holy, promising them heaven and earth, and then delivering on that promise.

He chose to show it in you and me. It is in our becoming holy and blameless before him, experiencing redemption, forgiveness, wisdom and insight, and the promise of a full inheritance in heaven, in addition to the Holy Spirit himself as a good faith deposit. So, I must ask one final question today, is there anything in your life that is obscuring a clear view of God’s glory to anyone who may be watching? Do you lack joy? Do you lack compassion? Are you unduly stubborn or argumentative? Are you selfish or preoccupied with other priorities? Do you consider them higher priorities? …higher than showing God’s glory? Does being late to work, for instances, hide the display of God’s glory in the way you drive? Does cold soup cloud your display of God’s glory to a restaurant waitress? Is there anything in your life that is obscuring the clear view of God’s glory to anyone who may be watching? 

Let’s finish this morning with a season of silent prayer in which we may identify and confess as sin anything that takes priority over living life to the praise of God’s glory. He intended the blessings he extended to us in Christ to put his glory on display, and I believe we bless him in return by making sure that it is our highest priority to display that glory clearly.