Category Archives: Christian Life

Ephesians 1:11

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In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,

In him we have obtained an inheritance. In other words, when we receive Christ, we enter into a relationship with God that makes us joint-heirs with Christ. That means we will receive the same inheritance that Christ receives. Ultimately we will rule and reign with Him. We are brothers and sisters to the Son of God.
Verse 11 repeats the fact that we have been predestined. God has planned and ordained the destiny of every one of his children. In verse 5 we are told that we have been predestined for adoption as his children. In this verse we learn that this predestination accords with God’s will. God never does anything outside of his own will. Everything he does aligns with His will. And remember, His will and plan have been the same forever. God never changes. So our predestination to be adopted as sons is in line with God’s eternal purposes.

Verse 11 goes on to tell us the character of God that this is all based on. God works all things according to the counsel of his will. Another way to put this is that God works everything according to the decisions that result from his will. We often will to do something, and then begin to put our will into effect. But many times, we fail to accomplish what we willed to do. God doesn’t have that problem. Everything He does is an out-working of His will.

And notice one other thing before we go on to the next verse. How many things does God work according to the counsel of his will? All things! There is not one thing going on in the universe that He has lost control of.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 2:47 PM September 24, 2020.

Ephesians 1:9-10

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Making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

I think it will work best if we put verses 9 and 10 together. God, in revealing his message of grace and salvation, is making known to us the mystery of His will. A mystery, the way Paul uses the term, is something that God has kept unrevealed until a particular time in history. When that time arrives, He makes known that mystery to His prophets and apostles, who then incorporated the truth in the Scriptures.


Paul writes in Colossians 1:25 “I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints.”
The God of the universe has a plan which He is gradually putting into play. And He, the God of the universe, has chosen to reveal that mystery to human beings. That is an amazing thing to contemplate.

Paul goes on to tell us in Ephesians 1:9 , that He is making this mystery known according to His purpose. So even the revealing is according to a purpose. And remember, God doesn’t change his plans. If He does something according to His purpose, it is a purpose He has always had in mind for the zillions of years of eternity past.

This purpose is set forth in Christ or displayed or revealed in Christ. Further, it is a plan for the fullness of time. When everything surges toward the conclusion, what is that plan, Paul? That purpose is to unite everything in heaven and on earth in Christ. Everything will be brought together in Christ. Remember that the word “Christ” means Messiah and that is none other than Jesus. And John told us that Jesus is the Word, the logos of God.
Logos means more than “word.” Logos, the way it was used in the Greek culture at Jesus time, meant the wisdom, logic, thought, and, yes, word, behind all of creation. John told us that this logos became a man and lived here on earth among us.

So in the end, everything will be brought together in Christ.
This is the mystery that had been hidden for thousands of years, but which God revealed to His apostles 2000 years ago.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:47 AM September 22, 2020.

Ephesians 1:8

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Which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight.

Last time we spoke of the forgiveness we have because of the riches of God’s grace. In this verse, we learn that God has lavished this grace upon us. The word has to do with the abundance and overflowing nature of God’s gift. God is not miserly when it comes to His grace. He pours it out lavishly.


And the verse goes on to tell us that He did this with wisdom and insight. God is all-wise. He knows everything and he knows all of the possible choices, and he knows all the possible consequences of potential decisions. Having considered all of what He knows, and with perfect wisdom, He lavished grace upon us — enough grace to provide pardon for every moral failure and to buy us back from the bondage to sin and Satan.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 11:31 AM September 21, 2020.

Ephesians 1:7

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In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,

Ephesians

Ephesians 1:7

“In Him” There we have it again. All that we have, we have in Christ. We have redemption. We have been bought back from bondage to sin and Satan, and we have our paperwork. Redemption isn’t something we need to seek. We have it when we have Christ.
Redemption came through Jesus’ blood. It was the shedding of His blood on the cross that paid the price for our freedom. We didn’t have enough money to buy our own freedom, even at the cost of our lives. But Christ the Messiah paid the price for us.


We have forgiveness of our trespasses. The Greek word behind trespasses is that of a general moral failure, rather than violation of a particular law. In Christ we have forgiveness of every conceivable moral failure, any fall from the position of perfection.
Forgiveness here means pardon, or the removal of an obligation or the ignoring of that obligation by someone with whom we have a relationship.

So, when we are in Christ, we received the complete removal of obligation to fulfill or live up to particular standards of obedience in order to maintain the relationship.
In Colossians 2:13-13, Paul writes, “having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”


It’s important that we get a grip on these truths and embrace them because this is the gospel we are to believe in order to be saved.
And all of this is according to the riches of his grace. God is full of grace. The reason God is doing what He is doing is so that all may see the multifaceted grandeur of His character, especially His grace.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 9:28 AM September 14, 2020.

Ephesians 1:6

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To the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

Ephesians

Ephesians 1:6

And what was the purpose of all of the actions of God described here? So that His glorious grace would be praised. The word “blessed” in this verse is very closely related to the word “grace.” So we could almost say, “To the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has graced us.” God’s grace is multi-faceted. God wants everyone to see how grand and glorious His grace is.


This grace has made us accepted! Think about that. Accepted. Some versions use the word “accepted” where the ESV uses blessed. Most of us try hard to be accepted. We do this both consciously and subconsciously, but we do it. Sometimes we wear ourselves out trying to become accepted. But we are accepted by God! And it is by grace. There is no effort involved. Because we are in Christ, God says, “I accept you. You belong to me.” There is no checklist or achievement program to maintain. We are accepted!


And all of this, as in the previous verses, is in the Beloved. In his beloved son. As I said in a previous comment, when God gave us Christ, he gave us everything. As Paul told the Corinthians, “And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 9:20 AM September 14, 2020.

Ephesians 1:5

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He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,

The phrase “in love” may belong to the previous sentence about being holy and blameless, or it may belong with verse 5. Either way, all of the things that God has accomplished on our behalf were carried out because of God’s great love for us, his creatures made in His image.
In verse 5 we are told by Christ’s emissary, that God predestined us for adoption. He designated, or appointed something to happen ahead of time. What did he predestine? That we would be adopted as sons of God through Jesus Christ and his saving work on our behalf. Don’t just read past this. God was determined to have adopted children, who, we learn in Romans 8:17, are co-heirs with Jesus Christ. If you’ve trusted Christ, you are one of those co-heirs!


The last part of the verse tells us that God did this according to the purpose of his will. In other words, because he wanted to. God can do what he wants, and this is something he wanted to do, to adopt a group of people to be his children along with his son, Jesus Christ. And, since God doesn’t change, if this is something He wants to do now, then it’s something He has always wanted to do.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 5:10 PM September 13, 2020.

Ephesians 1:4

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…even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love

Just as he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ, he chose us in Christ. Notice how the word “in” is repeated in this passage. This is a description of what we have “in Christ.”

He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. When you read the story of the creation event and Adam and Eve, before this took place, he chose us in Christ. And there was a goal in that choosing. His goal was that we would be holy and blameless before him. God doesn’t need a plan B. He knew Adam would fall and the whole world would be fallen and depraved from birth. And yet, before all of this happened, he chose us to be holy and blameless before him. He planned to rescue people from the lost condition they were in, and to pour out his grace on them in such a way that they would be holy. That means set apart, and blameless before God. God knows everything about us. He knows all of our faults and failures. And yet, when Christians come before God, they are blameless.

Remember that today when you come before God through His word and in prayer. If you’ve trusted Christ as your savior, He sees you blameless. What a blessing!

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 11:49 AM September 3, 2020.

Ephesians 1:3

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Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

Ephesians

Ephesians 1:3

What Paul is exclaiming here is that God is worthy of being praised. Blessed be God! Which God, Paul, are you talking about? Specifically, He is the God of the Bible, the God and Father of Jesus Christ.

Paul, who had been a persecutor of Christians and who denied that Jesus was Lord, now is blessing the God who is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And what has this God done? He has blessed us! He has blessed us in Christ. In giving Christ to us, God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. See for example 1 Corinthians 1:30-31. There are no additional blessings that we are missing. In other words, we don’t need anything other than Christ. If we have Him and are in Him, we have every blessing heaven has to offer!

Think about that the next time you are tempted to murmur or complain. Think about that the next time you feel like you’ve been short-changed and want to ask for additional blessings from God. We’ve been blessed with every spiritual blessing.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:53 AM August 29, 2020.

Ephesians 1:2

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Ephesians 1:2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace and peace. This is common in Paul’s salutations, and we usually read right over it. But think about what it is saying. Unmerited favor and the peace of God and peace with God are being offered both from God and from Jesus Christ our Lord. This is more than a salutation. It is a promise from God through the mouth of his apostle. It is a promise to all those whose faith and trust are in Jesus Christ.

God has promised us His grace. We are, after all, saved by grace and not through any merit we could achieve. He has promised that His mercies are new every single morning!

And He has given us peace. Jesus said, My peace I give to you, not like the peace the world gives. (John 14:27 paraphrase.) And note that it is His peace. God is at rest. Nothing disturbs Him. His peace He gives to us.

Grace and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:23 AM August 29, 2020.

Ephesians 1:1

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A while back I decided that in order to keep my focus on the study of the Bible and not just the reading, I would write my thoughts on the book of Ephesians verse by verse. It will be sort of a simplified commentary.

Ephesians 1:1

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus:

Paul declares himself to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. An apostle is one who is sent as an emissary to give out the message that the sender wants people to hear, in this case, to the holy, set apart people in Ephesus.

This is the same Paul who persecuted the church and threw people in jail and even approved of their murder. This is the person who Christ sent to be a messenger.
Paul told the Galatian Christians that God had set him apart for this responsibility while in his mother’s womb. (Galatians 1:15) But, when the time was right, God revealed Christ to him on the road to Damascus.

Paul calls the people in Ephesus saints and faithful. Perhaps he means people who are believers i.e. full of faith. But saints? Holy ones. These are just ordinary people that he addresses as saints. All of those who trust Christ and have faith in Him are saints. Have you trusted Christ? Then you, too, are a saint. Hard to believe, isn’t it? Finally, note here as well that they are in Christ Jesus. This theme is found throughout Ephesians. They are in Christ. That is the only safe place to be. How do we get “in Christ”? By the work of the Holy Spirit when we believe on Christ. He places us into the body of Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:13)

Exported from Logos Bible Software, 9:55 AM August 29, 2020.