For the next few months my devotional time will be focusing on Paul's letter to the Church at Ephesus, which is also believed to be an encyclical for all the churches in Asia Minor since the designation "in Ephesus" was missing from the earliest manuscripts. Our fellowship groups at Four Oaks Community Church will all be studying this book of Scripture this semester, and since I lead one of these groups, and since my eldest daughter is scheduled to marry a week from today and one of this book's great themes is the mystery of Christ and the Church as His Bride, and since I've never done an in-depth study of Ephesians it seems like a good time to dig in! With that as a preface, this entry will just highlight a few verses of the introduction where Paul celebrates the riches of God's grace [1:1-14].
Paul's personal celebration is centered on the fact that he is "an apostle of Christ [Messiah] Jesus by the will of God" [v. 1a]. This certainly was not due to his own will. At the outset of Christianity [called The Way at the time], he had been a militant opponent of Christ, even acting as an accessory to the murders of believers [Acts 7]. But then on the Damascus off ramp he met the risen, living Christ and heard his call, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? ... I am Jesus whom you are persecuting" [Acts 9:4, 5]. The effect was a conversion so radical that within just a few days Saul "baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ" [Acts 9:22]. It was nothing short of a miracle and made him one with the Twelve!
It also reminds me on a much smaller scale of the Damascus Road experience I had with the Lord when He spoke to me audibly on the "Clearwater Road" that last Wednesday morning in July 1980 at 5:30 AM as I drove into work and totally redirected the trajectory of my life ... commanding me to change my career path from architectural engineering to medicine and my spiritual path from attending a secular university [Oklahoma State] to a Christian university [Oral Roberts] ... three weeks before I returned to Stillwater, OK to start my junior year! I both shudder and wonder at times how very different my life would have been had I not obeyed His call. Yet it was the surety of this calling that enabled me to "Press On" toward the high calling He had on my life during the stressful years of medical school [very long hours and mountains of material to learn] and residency with its 100+ hours of work per week ... both of which seemed Herculean tasks at the time I endured them. And I was the one who would NEVER major in biology if that was the last major on earth, the very thought of even touching let alone dissecting anything dead totally repulsed me. This was the very first time I learned to never say never to God!
As an apostolos, one sent, Paul's authority was not self-generated, but was ordained of God. He therefore could not help but preach Jesus ... "for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" [1 Cor. 9:16]. This was certainly something to celebrate, but it was not a cause for selfish vanity. Before he met Christ, he was named "Saul," named after the tallest and vainest of the Benjamites, King Saul, from whom he was descended. But now Christ had changed his named to "Paul" meaning small. He had been both cut down to size and humbled enough to say "we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us" [2 Cor. 4:7]. Paul's smallness became the medium for God's greatness to be manifest, and his weakness a channel for God's power to flow uninhibited! Such a model he is for all of us.
"To the saints ... the faithful in Christ Jesus" [v. 1b] ... Paul's celebration now moves from himself to all of us. This is a most remarkable designation for in the Old Testament the people of Israel and sometimes even the angels were given the honored title "saints." Therefore, as Marcus Barth explains, "By using the same designation ... the author of Ephesians bestows upon all his pagan-born hearers a privilege formerly reserved for Israel, for special [especially priestly] servants of God, or for angels. Applying this privileged word "saints" to pagan Greeks was mind-boggling to those with a Jewish background. "Saints" means "holy ones, those set apart and consecrated." It was a word descriptive of what had occurred in their hearts. Paul also added that they were "faithful" -- actively believing and trusting in God.
Then Paul gives what would become the most sublime of Christian greetings, "Grace and peace to you from our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ" [v. 2]. Kent Hughes notes that this greeting "bears the poetry of redemption, for the regular Greek greeting was 'Rejoice!' [chaire], and the regular Jewish greeting was 'Peace' [Hebrew shalom, Greek eiriene]. But here Paul combines the two, and replaces rejoice [chaire] with similar sounding but far richer charis -- 'grace.' He in effect combines the greetings of the Eastern and Western worlds, then modifies the Western one giving us 'Grace and peace.' This greeting celebrates how the gospel works. Grace comes first, and as it fills our lives through the Holy Spirit, it brings shalom -- peace, reconciliation, wholeness."
Now that Paul has celebrated his calling, his mission, his deliverance from self and has celebrated the saints, he moves on to celebrate our mutual blessings: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ" [v. 3]. This is a dramatic, introductory prelude to a song which extends to the end of v. 14, one long rhapsodic sentence! At the root of this celebration is the idea that both he and the Ephesians [as well we by extension] have been elevated to "the heavenly realms." That is, they occupy the place where Christ is now enthroned, seated at the Father's right hand [1:20]. This is also where all of us who are united to him through faith are now seated: "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus" [2:6]. J. Armitage Robinson states that "the heavenly realms are the immaterial reign, the 'unseen universe' which lies behind the world of sense" -- the place of Christ's throne, where we are enthroned with him! Temporally we live here on earth; but spiritually we live in the heavenly realms where Christ lives. Paul calls us to immerse ourselves in this truth and celebrate! But how closely do our lives mirror this reality? How often does this reality even enter our awareness? The mystery is great!
But there is more. We have been blessed "with every spiritual blessing in Christ." Under the Old Covenant, God's promised blessings were largely material, such as those promised to obedient Israel in Deuteronomy 28:1-14 -- fruitful wombs, flourishing crops, abundant flocks, bread in every basket, prosperity and worldly influence. Likewise, under the New Covenant, Jesus takes care of his own materially and charges them not to worry about their needs [Matt. 6:25-34]. It was Charles Spurgeon who once said "We shall have enough spending money on the road to glory; for he who has guaranteed to bring us there will not starve us along the way." But in addition to this, the overwhelming promises of the New Covenant are spiritual [Jer. 31:31-34]. Paul's song, the berakhah, in vv. 3-14 include these five dynamic spiritual element: 1) holiness, 2) adoption, 3) redemption and forgiveness, 4) the Holy Spirit, and 5) the hope of glory. Hughes asserts that we receive thousands of blessings under these headings all crowned with "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control" [Gal. 5:22].
William MacDonald states that "to be in Christ ... is to partake of all that Christ has done, all He is, and all He will ever be." Of course, it remains for us to grow and thus claim more and more of these blessings which are now already ours. But first we must believe it! Paul's statement in v. 20 that Christ is seated at the right hand of God in "the heavenly realms" is fairly easy for believing hearts to accept. But it is not so easy for the same believers to truly embrace the fact that they themselves are seated "in the heavenly realms" as 2:6 asserts. Some assert that Paul is speaking metaphorically here. But if he is, then it must be the same for Christ! The truth is: Christ is in the heavenly realms, and so are we! He is there literally, and we are there representatively, as members of his Body. He is there as our Head and brings our actual presence with him because we are in him! Believing this will greatly elevate our Christian living! We are seated in the heavenly realms. We do have every spiritual blessing. Belief is the beginning!
Secondly, we must focus on this truth. We must reject the deadly notion that this is mystical, incomprehensible, and beyond our ability to practice. Paul says, "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things" [Col. 3:1, 2]. What is our mind set on? Position? A new car? A new house? A promotion? A raise? Our wardrobe? Paul says, Stop! Rather, keep on seeking the things which are above. This is our divinely-given responsibility.
Third, we must ask for the blessings. Jesus says in Luke 11:13, "... how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" What does Jesus mean? Isn't the Holy Spirit already given to believers? The answer according to Hughes is explicit in the Greek grammar, which means the operation of the Holy Spirit. Prayer brings increased fullness and power of the Holy Spirit. We must ask! As we ask for more holiness -- a greater sense of adoption, more peace, more love, more patience, more power from the Spirit -- we will receive it all.
Well, there it is. A week's worth of meditation on a single [or perhaps two] pages(s). Our calling is most certainly high. Far too often we walk far below it. God's grace continues to rescue and restore us, but I feel His Spirit challenging me [us] that "in Him" [another huge theme of Ephesians and a term that Paul uses 169 times in his letters] we can do far more. It starts with realizing who and where we are with Christ and then truly believing it. Then we must truly understand that "apart from me, we can do nothing" [Jn. 15:5], die to self, and press in to Him. As we do that I believe our lives will be truly transformed. The mystery, indeed, is great.
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