Thank God for His Gracious Choice

Ephesians 1:4

It is Thanksgiving week, one of my favorite times of the year. A time of feasting. There is something wonderful about taking two or three days to eat every kind of glorious dish imaginable (which is better- the turkey leg on Thursday or a thick slice of turkey meat on mayo-enriched Wonder bread on Friday?). A day focusing on giving thanks is fundamentally biblical and distinctively Christian. Thanksgiving as a holiday remains relatively unscathed by the mind-numbing commercialization and secularization of our culture. Christmas is no longer truly Christmas in America, but has become some strange pagan snow festival following the rituals of Halloween in the financial calendar. Thanksgiving is so innately centered upon such a core Christian virtue, that our eucharistic celebration almost defies all attempts at overt commercial defilement.

Yet, there is a silent tension around most tables in the moments before the bird is carved. What are we truly thankful for? Food? Clothing? A three bedroom split plan with two cars and matching kids? To whom is all this thanks given? Do we thank each other? Do we thank ourselves? Our secular commitments thunder forth in that silence, however hard we try to sacramentalize our actions and words around the table. In such secular silence, we must sing forth with all the blessings of the gospel presented to us by Paul in Ephesians 1:3-14. Volumes could be written, and have been, on the wonderful truths strung together by Paul in this incredible 12 verse run on sentence. I will focus on a cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith which is seen by the Apostle as a fountain of blessings to the believer.

We should praise God for his sovereign election. Paul says that we have been ‘chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world’ (verse 4). If you are a Christian, your salvation is not because of ‘works done by us in righteousness, but according to God’s mercy’ (Titus 3:5). We would thank ourselves, if salvation was obtained by our own wisdom or power. But, no thanks to us, it was while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us. In Ephesians 2: 1-3 Paul describes our position outside of the gracious election of God: dead in trespasses and sins, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, living in the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the mind, by nature children of wrath. But it isn’t the voice of a just judge that we hear through the gospel, but rather the calling of a merciful Father. Yes, the doctrine of divine election has rankled many who seek to preserve some degree of human responsibility in the work of salvation. And it should not surprise us that a doctrine that so elevates God and so minimizes human effort should cause chagrin. Nonetheless, praise and thanksgiving should echo through our hearts at the realization of our profound need and God’s wonderful grace in election.

Paul begins here, with God’s gracious sovereign choice, because this is where it all begins for us. It does not begin with us, it begins with God. The Apostle John said it simply and powerfully, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). All of the blessings piled up by Paul in these opening verses flow from the sovereign grace of God: adoption, redemption, forgiveness, revelation, inheritance, the seal and deposit of the Holy Spirit. And what is the basis for his choosing? Is the election of God simply some capricious and arbitrary design? No, says Paul, it is according to the “kind intention of his will” (1:5). This doesn’t solve the mystery of God’s design, and mysterious it certainly is from our very limited and human perspective. But, however mysterious and confounding the doctrine of election might be, Paul assures us that it is anchored in goodness and love, which he calls God’s eudokia (good will, good pleasure, or kind intention in the New American Standard).

This thanksgiving I will give thanks to God for his mysterious, and gracious choice of a sinner like me. I will give thanks to God for all the blessings that flow from this fundamental grace. And in all the questions, the struggles, and the trials that face me and the people of God, I will rest in God’s eudokia. I will never fully understand the design of God in all these things, because his thoughts are not my thoughts nor are his ways my ways (Isaiah 55: 8). But, he promises that all things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose, he promises that all things will be to the ‘praise of his glorious grace’, and he promises that all things will find their place in the merciful and kind intention of the sovereign plan.

A Song of Praise for Ungrateful Worry Warts

Ephesians 1:3-14

I am an ungrateful so and so. I readily confess it. I am also a worry wart. I am easily spun into fear and anxiety at the prospect of want, or the threat of worldly insecurity. In my ingratitude I am like a little child who eats his fill at dinner only to cry for dessert. Ingratitude is selfishness. Ingratitude is greed. Ingratitude is impatience. To state the obvious, it is a failure to be thankful for what we have and what we have been given. Ingratitude tends to highlight in bold relief the ugliness of the sinful heart. It is not just improper desire, but improper desire in the presence of plenty, blessing and grace. Fear and anxiety for the believer is not just natural concern stemming from a frail human condition; it is the failure to consider the abundant wealth of God’s care and faithfulness in the past and his promise for the future. For the one redeemed from sin and death by the free gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ (Romans 5:16), ingratitude and anxious doubt become woeful sins indeed. They are a failure to recognize the greatest treasure of all that is his: namely, the righteousness and life of the Son of God himself.

In Ephesians 1:3-14, Paul offers up a hymn of praise to God as he thinks upon “every spiritual blessing” that is ours as saints through Christ. Paul piles up blessing after blessing that is secured for his people by the work of Christ: election, adoption, redemption, forgiveness, revelation, inheritance, and the down payment of the Holy Spirit. This passage is dense with theological meaning, yet it is primarily doxology before it is theology; it is praise before all else. It goes beyond thanksgiving that flows from the rich blessings offered to us; it is a whole life, a whole being, of praise. The greatest blessing in this hymn is found in the line, repeated three times, “to the praise of his glorious grace” (1:6,12,14). In verse 12, Paul states rather succinctly that the purpose of all of these blessings is that “we might be to the praise of his glory.” This great purpose should transcend all of our worries and anxious concerns. You are a child of God and exist for His glory! What earthly concern can overshadow this incredible truth? The great wonder of our salvation is this: that we become vessels that embody and reflect the greatest thing that exists in the universe – God and his glorious grace. All of the blessings set forth by the Apostle are wonderful, but they are not wonderful because of us and our enjoyment of them. They are blessings that result in the greatest blessing of all- a recognition and vision of God’s character, his person, his power, his glory.

Ephesians is broken into two sections: the first dealing with the doctrinal and theological foundation of our identity in Christ (1:3 – 3:21); the second dealing with our walk and behavior as new creatures and a new community in Christ (4:1 - 6:20). The order of this discussion is important: the indicative of who we are in Christ through the grace of God precedes the imperatives of how we are to walk and live. We find the undergirding truth of both the indicative and the imperative in Ephesians in this three-fold expression of praise. We are elected, adopted, redeemed, forgiven and recipients of every spiritual blessing by the glorious grace of God. We are to be thankful, obedient imitators of God for the “praise of his glorious grace.” Verses 6, 12, and 14 present us with the theme of Ephesians, the theme of Paul’s theology, indeed the very heart of biblical theology: God is the source of all grace, every good gift, and all glory in the universe; by his gracious will we have been made recipients and agents of his grace and goodness in the universe.

As we consider these things, how can we not lift our voices in harmony with our Apostle? How can we not burst forth with thanksgiving? How can we not live a life of joyful hope and blessed contentment? How is it that we so readily give way to anxieties and fears? How can we despise trials and tribulations that become to us, by God’s sovereign hand, a source of transformation and grace? How can we weep at worldly lack when we have every eternal, spiritual blessing through our Savior?

Calvin and Spurgeon say it best, so I’ll leave the conclusion to them:

“Paul tells us that the benefits which are bought us by our Lord Jesus Christ and of which we are made partakers by means of his gospel are so excellent that we must surely be extremely unthankful if we scurry to and fro like people who are never at rest or contented. And then he shows us also what we have in Christ in order that we should so cleave to him as not to presume to seek help anywhere else, but assure ourselves that he has procured everything for us.” John Calvin, Sermons on Ephesians

“O unbelief, how strange a marvel thou art! We know not which most to wonder at, the faithfulness of God or the unbelief of His people. He keeps his promise a thousand times, and yet the next trial makes us doubt Him. He never faileth; He is never a dry well; he is never as a setting sun, a passing meteor, or a melting vapour; and yet we are as continually vexed with anxieties, molested with suspicions, and disturbed with fears, as if our God were the mirage of the desert… ‘I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands’ (Isaiah 49:16). See the fullness of this! I have graven thy person, thine image, thy case, thy circumstances, thy sins, thy temptations, thy weaknesses, thy wants, thy works; I have graven thee, everything about thee, all that concerns thee; I have put thee altogether there. Wilt thou ever say again that thy God hath forsaken thee when He has graven thee upon His own palms?”
C.H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening (on Isaiah 49:16)

Truth and How To Live It

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

While I was in college I began to realize that I really loved two things: theology and the church. I was growing in my faith, a young man out on my own, and I began to realize there was an especially strong desire within me to understand and also to teach and describe theological and biblical truths. During this time I began to serve God in the local church in a variety of ways, from teaching fourth grade Sunday school on Sunday mornings, to serving as a ‘ranger’ in Boys Brigade (a Christian version of Boy Scouts) on Sunday nights, as well as working with our college ministry through the week. Through my growing understanding of God’s Word and my growing love for God’s people, God called me to ‘full-time’ service of the local church. As a pastor I get to do the two things I love: think deeply about God and His Word and help God’s people believe and live out all these wonderful truths.

In Paul’s salutation to his Christian brothers in Ephesus he describes them in two ways: they are “saints who are in Ephesus” and they are “faithful in Christ Jesus.” Paul is introducing the two great themes of his letter in these two clauses. Ephesians is about what it means to be a ‘saint,’ one who has been blessed “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” (1:3) It is also about what it means to be “faithful,” one who lives according to these blessings. Ephesians is immensely theological and immensely practical. John Stott makes this helpful summary statement about Ephesians, “the letter focuses on what God did through the historical work of Jesus Christ and does through his Spirit today in order to build his new society in the midst of the old.”

Paul was addressing people who lived in a specific place and at a specific time: they are in Ephesus. They lived in Ephesus just as you and I live in Tallahassee. Living in the world brings a host of struggles, opportunities, challenges, and even crises and trials. Amidst all of this we must remember we have been set apart by the work of God. Though we are in the world, we are not to be of it. Likewise, though we are not of the world, we are called to live in it. Paul spends the first three chapters of Ephesians describing and encouraging believers with the glorious truths of who we are and what God has done through Christ for us. He lays out at length the deep theological realities that are to anchor our lives as Christians.

Paul commends the Christians in Ephesus in verse one by calling them “faithful in Christ Jesus.” What does it mean to be a faithful Christian? Paul commits the second half of his letter describing what this faithfulness looks like. In 4:1 he says, “Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” We have a wonderful calling; we have wonderful blessings in Christ; we are anchored in such deep rich truths of God’s Word. Now, how are we to live ‘worthy’ of such things? How are these truths to shine forth in our language, in our behavior, in our relationships, in our priorities, and in every corner of our lives? We are called to be faithful in all of these things, because we are saints of God. And as we pursue faithfulness, we must remember that we are faithful only in Christ Jesus- by His work, and through his power, according to his grace.

Many people make a false dichotomy between the theological and the practical. I hear people say things like, “I am not a very theological person; I just want simple, practical truths.” I also know many who live in the world of theological minutia, yet seem to have a very little grasp on the application of these truths in everyday life. The Apostle Paul calls us to be people who think and believe deeply about God, about who he is and what he has done for us in Christ. Paul calls us as well to be people who act on these truths each day. The heavenly blessings of Christ are to shine out in every part of our lives. For us as Christians, what is theologically profound becomes practically true as we walk in a manner worthy of our calling. One of the great parts of my job as a pastor is to help Christians to be theologians, and remind theologians that they are to be Christians! As we walk through his letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul will hopefully make better theologians and Christians out of us all.