Dan Herold | Ephesians 1:3-14 | January 3, 2015
(Sermon begins at)
Every year the Christmas story takes us back in time. I don’t know about you, but when I hear, “In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree…” images start playing in my head and I start imagining myself in the first century Palestine traveling with a group of people to Bethlehem to register for the census. When I hear about the manger and the shepherds I can’t help but try to imagine what it would have been like to be there at that place and in that time. But after looking at the Christmas story, and the details surrounding the birth of our Savior, during the last few weeks we’ve come to see that Jesus’ birth isn’t really a beginning or an end. It really is a mid-point in God’s plan of salvation. There’s a lot of story that comes after Jesus birth and we are living in it now. But, there’s even more story before his birth! God’s story is eternal—it doesn’t have a beginning, he’s just always been there. Not only has God always been there, but he has always known about each of us individually and personally as well. In our second lesson this morning Paul told us about how far back God’s relationship with us really goes and how each person of the trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—have a personal relationship with us.
In these first few verses from the book of Ephesians Paul explains that we have been chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and sealed by the Holy Spirit as God’s specially chosen children—all in a time before we ever took our first breath.
As Paul begins his letter to the church at Ephesus he starts at the very beginning–well, technically speaking, he starts before the beginning. Paul’s letter begins before our concept of time begins. We are told that God chose us even before he created of the world!
In verse three we are told that,
“The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”
Paul simply tells us that as God’s elect we receive every spiritual blessing. Hold on to that thought, because we are going to build on it…
Next Paul tells us why we are being blessed with every spiritual blessing. He writes,
“For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”
We are blessed because we are chosen, and we were chosen to be holy before creation. Even before God created light he knew each and every one of us and chose us to be with him in heaven. His choice was entirely made out of grace, not because he knew we would come to faith, but because he knew that we would be made holy through the blood of Christ.
The fact that God chose us because of what Jesus has done for us leads logically into the next point that,
“In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”
The word we translate as “predestined” really sums up what God did here. It is a word that means, “to put a boundary around.” God marked us off and put a fence around us. The fence, though, isn’t meant to keep us in, but to mark us as different and to keep our enemies out. The fence protects God’s chosen people and shields them from the devil’s attacks. That’s not to say that we don’t get tempted, but God promises to work for our good, and he patrols that fence line so that we will never be tempted beyond what we can handle.
The Father isn’t the only one at work here though. The Father chose you, but the Son has redeemed you.
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Verse 7 continues Paul’s very orderly and logical train of thought. There he writes,
“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.”
When God chose us to be holy and blameless, he wasn’t ignorant of the fact that we were sinful and he didn’t just ignore our sin either. Blood was still required as payment for our sin. So that we would not have to shed our own, Christ willingly shed his blood for us. The payment for our sins was provided for us, not by us. So now we have forgiveness–when God looks at us he sees us as his holy and blameless children whom he chose. Only God could come up with this plan for our salvation and he explains it to us in his Word.
He made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. That verse sums up what we call the doctrine of election, or the doctrine of God choosing us to be saved.
This doctrine is called a “mystery.” That doesn’t mean it has to leave you confused though. Every mystery story reaches some sort of conclusion, but usually the author has to spell it out. Likewise, this doctrine is a mystery in the sense that the answer needs to be told to us–it’s not something our minds will figure out on their own. Also, we are told that God makes this mystery known according to his good pleasure. There’s no rule that says God needs to tell us everything. However, he does tell us everything we need to to know for salvation and he tells it to us in his Word. We have all the answers we need right here in front of us!
So, the Father has chosen us and the Son has redeemed us, but how can we be sure? We can be certain of our salvation because the Holy Spirit also has a role as well– he has sealed us.
In verse 13 we read,
“You also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.”
The Holy Spirit, working through the means of grace, has marked us as God’s chosen ones. Your were included in Christ when the Holy Spirit worked faith in your heart as you heard the Word. Having heard that Word you were marked with a seal in baptism. Whether your parents brought you to be baptized as a child or whether your were brought to faith as an adult the Holy Spirit marked you as a redeemed child of God.
To illustrate how the Holy Spirit works, Paul uses this example. He says it is like,
“A deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession.”
Here on earth we don’t see the full benefits of being chosen, but we have a foretaste of the promised blessings of heaven. We don’t have the full peace of heaven here on earth, but we have a taste of the eternal peace we will receive.
It is a promise that God will not abandon us, but rather that he will continue to pay out according to his initial promise. He promises to keep coming back to us–and finally send Jesus to bring us home to heaven. That deposit is our guarantee that we are God’s chosen children who have been redeemed by the Son. It is the seal of our salvation placed in us by the Holy Spirit.
After taking a look at Paul’s step-by-step walk through this difficult doctrine of election you probably still have some questions. That’s OK! But, you can take comfort in knowing that it doesn’t depend on your understanding—all God asks is that you believe. God chose you before you existed to make it clear that no part of your salvation depends on you. Jesus died on a cross for us entirely because he loved us. The Holy Spirit lives and works in us as a seal reassuring us of our salvation. So having been given such wonderful gifts naturally we want to tell others. We want to tell everyone that the same gifts are theirs too, and we can do that! We can do that because through the Father’s choosing, the Son’s redeeming, and the Spirit’s sealing we have been qualified and equipped for service–for bringing the message of life and salvation to a dying world that desperately needs to know its Savior.
Amen.