The Work of God the Father in Salvation

Transcript

GRM 93
11/02/1980
The Work of the Father in Salvation
Ephesians 1:3-6
Gil Rugh

We're going to look in Ephesians chapter 1, just briefly into this portion of the word, this evening. Four verses regarding the work of God the Father in regard to our salvation. Ephesians and the first chapter. The first two verses form the introduction to the book and then with verse 3 Paul launches in to the heart of this epistle and the body of the letter. When he starts, he really starts. The longest sentence in the New Testament, I don't know whether you keep track of those kind of records, is verses 3 through 14. In the Greek New Testament that's all one sentence. In the New American Standard version they've broken it down for us and made some new sentences for us in English which is helpful. But as Paul wrote it, it's all one thought and building an idea all linked together.

We want to just pick out verses 3 through 6 which in the New American Standard is marked off as a sentence and we'll break off the thought at that point. We’re going to focus on the Father. Something of His person, something of His work, and something of His purpose and what He has done in regard to our salvation in particular.

He begins in verse 3 by saying, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” And the first part of this verse is a revelation of the person of God the Father. The very statement “blessed be the God and Father”. That word blessed only used with God in the New Testament denotes something of intrinsic character of being worthy of praise, worthy of adoration, worthy of worship. He is the one who is blessed, who is worthy of our adoration, worthy of our worship. He is also identified as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now it's sometimes misunderstood when we talk about Him being the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. It can be misunderstood to imply that Jesus
Christ is less than God Himself. But we know that that is not the case from all the other passages that speak to this subject in the New Testament. Rather in His relationship to the Father through the incarnation when the Son of God, Jesus Christ, became man then in that relationship we could use the Father as His God. He had become a man and thus as a human being as true humanity there is a sense in which his Father could be referred to also as His God. Also, the statement He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is a title for the Father denoting the relationship that they have together. Here Father and Son does not imply generation as we think of as a father generates his children. Rather it just marks off the relationship that they have. He is the Father and Christ is the Son. That implies His deity as we have eluded to in our study of the gospel of John, particularly in chapter 5 verse 18. He was speaking with the Jews who were intent upon stoning Christ because He called God his own Father making himself equal with God. So here as He's called the God and Father both the aspect of His humanity and also His equality is being viewed in this case. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the full title of Christ.

He is the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the completeness of His title. Now where the bulk of attention is here is on the work that the Father has done beginning in the middle of verse 3. “Who has blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ.” And you have a pick up here of the word that was used in the beginning of verse 3, ‘blessed be the God and Father”. Now this One who Himself in His very nature is blessed, He has blessed us, bestowed blessings upon us. Done good things as we might say today for us. He has blessed us with spiritual blessings. Now note here, “He has blessed us” gives the idea of emphasis. This is something He has done for us. Not something that He will do primarily in the future or even in the present, but this is something that is already been done for us. He has blessed us, and the blessings are every spiritual blessing.

Every spiritual blessing. Now what He's basically saying is God has given us every spiritual blessing. He has bestowed upon us every spiritual blessing. So, there is nothing more, nothing additional. Now it's true that we grow in our Christian life and we grow in the enjoyment of that relationship that we have with God. We enter into a fuller realization of the blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus, but they are already our blessings. Perhaps an analogy of a child who is born to be a king. When he is born, he is in effect is born and enters into all those blessings potentially. They have all been given to him. He has the right to the throne, the right to the wealth of his family, and so on but with the passing of years there will gradually more and more. He will enter the fullness of those blessings and the realization of what he has. That is true of us as believers. God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Now that becomes significant when we talk about are the other things.

And there are additional things. You as a believer in Jesus Christ have everything that God wants to bestow upon you. Now it's a matter of us growing and entering in to the realization of that in our walk and development as believers. These blessings are said to be in heavenly places or literally in the heavenlies. Ah, the sphere in which these blessings take place, they take place in the realm of the heavenlies. Many of you studied the book of Ephesians and now that this is a key phrase used five times in this book, in the heavenlies. Just look at these places with me quickly, verse 20 of chapter 1. The heavenlies are seen to be the sphere to which Christ has been raised and now is exulted and seated, “which He brought about in Christ when he raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenlies. A focal point where Christ now is established in the presence of His Father, having been raised from the dead. Note verse 6 of chapter 2. We also have been exulted to this sphere with Him. He raised us up with Him, with Christ, and seated us with Him, in Him, in the heavenlies, in Christ. So, we too have been exulted to sit with Christ in the heavenlies, that sphere in which we now function.

Look at chapter 3 verse 10. You know in each of these cases we end up breaking into sentences. We’d be here all evening if we were going to take the whole sentence as Paul presents them often. Chapter 3 verse 10, “in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenlies.” God’s manifold wisdom has been demonstrated to rulers and authorities in the heavenlies seems to clearly bring into context the angelic realm is in view here. Angelic beings have been caused to realize something of the tremendous wisdom of God and what He has accomplished in us as believers. You must remember that angels never had opportunity to experience salvation so their knowledge of salvation comes from being observers to what God has done in redeeming us because for fallen angels he never provided redemption. So, no angels who sinned were ever saved. The angels have opportunity to observe the manifold wisdom of God in His work which has been accomplished in us in the heavenlies.

In chapter 6, verse 12 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the peers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies.” So, the battle we are undergoing as believers takes place in the sphere of the heavenlies. I take it this denotes the sphere in which we now live and have our existence as believers.

Now turn over to the book of Colossians. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, chapter 3. Here again he speaks to this subject. Chapter 3, verse 1. “If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is. seated at the right hand of God.” Remember Christ was seated in the heavenlies. “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” So, the sphere of the heavenlies has to do with things which are above where Christ is. It's the sphere in which we are now to live, where we are to have our mind and attentions focused. The sphere in which we now have our dwelling as God's children.

So back in Ephesians chapter 1 where he says He's “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies." In that sphere in which we now exist. It's the realm in which we live as the children of God. We, as the sons of God, now dwell in the heavenlies. We are not there as regards locality yet, but as far as the sphere of our existence in which we function that's where our mind is to be centered and that is where the motivation for our activity comes. That is where the battles take place in the realm of the spiritual and we see in the realm of the physical the outworking of the spiritual battle that is going on as we struggle with spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies. It has its manifestation in the realm of the physical, but the real battle is taking place in the realm of the spiritual. He has “blessed us,” in Ephesians 1:3, “with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.” It's my relationship with Jesus Christ which results in all of the heavenly blessings being poured out upon me. It's only those who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, who have come to believe in Him as the one who died for them, who have experienced redemption that are brought into the realm of the heavenlies. This is the same idea as in Colossians where it is written “He transfers us from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light”. A new sphere of life, of operation, of living as a result of being in Christ.

Now first thing that God has done for us, first work that is mentioned here is He has blessed us. Second thing that Paul mentions, He chose us. He chose us. This is not in the order that it happened. First, He blessed us, then He chose us but the blessing is a result of the choosing which he now elaborates in verse 4. He blessed us just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. He has chosen us, and He has selected for Himself. The word for election, is translated He elected us for Himself. He has chosen us for himself. Now note the development here. He chose us in Him. Those chosen are chosen in Christ. Now that's the sphere that it operates in because there's no salvation out of Christ. So, we must be chosen in Christ. There's no salvation in any other place, there's not two kinds of choosing going on, two kinds of electing. Those who are elected are elected in Christ. And when does it happen? Before the foundation of the world. This is probably the most mind-boggling part. That God chose us, He carried out this work, before He ever laid down, before the foundation of the world. The word here means to cast something down. It comes from laying the foundation, that's what you put down first. Before He ever put down the foundation of the world, before Genesis 1:1 God had chosen us. Interesting to do a section on us. We were the object of His choice in what we would call eternity past. Because once I go beyond Genesis 1:1 going back I don't have any way to relate to time. Back before that time, before things that I can tie time to, God had selected us in Christ. Why? In order that we should be holy and blameless before him. Chose us that we might be holy and blameless. Holy sanctified, sanctified, saint, holy, all the same basic word. To be set apart from sin to God. To be holy and blameless before Him carries on the idea that which is blameless, unblemished used in the Old Testament of animals. Animals that were to be sacrificed to God had to be unblemished and thus it comes over and it's used in the New Testament a couple of times of Christ.

In 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 19, we are told that “we were not redeemed with perishable things like silver and gold, the things that we received from our forefathers but with the precious blood.” What kind? Unblemished and spotless. That's the kind of lamb Christ was. Unblemished, spotless, that's the word here. Also, Hebrews chapter 9, I believe it is verse 14 uses it of Christ. And here it's used of us. His intention in choosing us that we would be a people set apart for himself, unblemished.

Now one more expression here before we tie that section together. Holy and unblemished before him, now that's the amazing thing. Here you have a God who is absolutely holy, absolutely perfect in every aspect of his being. His moral character is spotless and now He has sovereignly determined in eternity passed to select for Himself a people who will be in His eyes holy and spotless. And the amazing thing is those people are us's. You and me. Now you would be thinking that perhaps He made a mistake. If He wanted the people that are holy and unblemished He sure started out with a rotten group. You talk about defiled and sinful, through and through, right down to the core which is deceitful and desperately wicked. Yet His purpose in selecting us was that His redemptive purpose might be accomplished in us so that we would be this kind of people. Now that's important because you'll note where our salvation began.
It began with God, then God doing what would be necessary to provide for us the kind of position that we could stand before Him holy and blameless.

This points up the total fallacy of people who are going to do something to be acceptable to God. They've got the process totally reversed. They begin with themselves and move out in deciding what they do to be pleasing to God whereas the Scripture begins with God. God working to bring us into right relationship before Him, because He's already dealing with fallen defiled humanity. Yet He has so worked in His plan of redemption. You know it would be amazing if He said before one another we could be holy and unblemished that would be good, but it would be far from perfect. But before God, as God sees us, not only externally but internally I am perfect. There are no moral blemishes, there are no sinful defects, and that's no credit to me because He's the one who chose me in Christ that I might be this way. It's only those who are in Christ who can be this way before God, because God can take that which is defiled and sinful and so purify and cleanse it internally as well as externally that I might be acceptable before Him. We are then reminded that nothing that is not perfect is acceptable before Him.

Third thing God has done. He's blessed us, He's chosen us, and He's predestined us. In verse 5, “He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.” You know Paul's letters boggle my mind. He starts writing a letter to the Ephesians. He gives his introduction and greetings in verses 1 and 2, and by the time you get to verse 4 in our Bible he's talking about election. Then in verse 5 predestination. Now if I'm going to write a letter to someone I usually don't start out on the first page with election. If I'm going to bring it in, I bring it in at the end because I think boy you really got to lay the ground work.
Paul launches right in at the beginning of his letter. Now that I'm done saying hello to you isn't it wonderful that God's blessed you. You know why? Because He elected you. You think oh, what do you mean elected before the foundation of the world? They probably never read the rest of the letter right. They got stopped on verse 4 and if they didn't get stopped on verse 4, verse 5. But that's not the case. It's clearly presented, and I take it the Ephesians recognized it and accepted it as the truth of the Word. He predestined us means to determine beforehand. Again, I take it the emphasis would be here that it's something that is already been done. Something that He has done for us. He has predestined us. If you're going to make a distinction between predestination and election, often we use the term synonymously when we speak in theological terms, but I think biblically there is a difference. Election refers to God electing for salvation. Predestination refers to what God does with those that He elects. He chooses out for Himself a group of people then He predestines them. So, predestination operates on those who have been elected. He predestines us to adoption as sons. Adoption is the goal of our predestination. And I think the expression, I didn't pick it up, but at the end of verse 4 in the New American Standard it's punctuated that this predestination was in love. King James connects that in love with the end of verse 4, the New American Standard with the beginning of verse 5. I think that the New American Standard is probably better here although both would be true. The predestination occurred in love. God did it out of His love. I think that's consistent with other passages of Scripture as well.

He predestined us unto adoption as sons. Look at Galatians, that's just before Ephesians there. We'll just take this one passage on adoption. Galatians 4, verses 5 and 6. Verse 4, “but when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” So, God's purpose in sending his Son was to bring about redemption so that those who were redeemed might be adopted as sons might be placed as sons of God. Romans chapter 8, beginning with verse 15 developed the same kind of idea. Therefore, you're no longer a slave but a son. That's why we can call Him Abba Father. We have been destined beforehand to that relationship with Him to be placed by God as His own sons. You read Romans 8 sometimes later this evening or tomorrow and see what that intends. We've been joined together with Christ. Now I'm a co-heir with Jesus Christ. An heir of God Himself as His son.

Back to Ephesians 1. He predestined us as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself. So, it's through adoption as sons to Himself. That's where the adoption takes place, that we might be His sons, but it takes place through Jesus Christ. Could anybody else be predetermined to become a son of God not through Jesus Christ? No, because those who are destined to be the sons of God must experience the redemption of God. Could God have children who do not partake of His character? Could God have children who have not been redeemed, who are still defiled by their sin under condemnation? Obviously not. It's through Jesus Christ, who becomes the key person upon which this is all built, through whom this all occurs according to the kind intentions of His will. According to the good pleasure of His will. It seems you'd get the idea a little better, in other words what the basis is for what God has done.

Let's take it back why did God elect you? Why did God predestine you? Because it was His good pleasure to do it. Why did He elect me? Why did He predestine me? Because it pleased Him to do it. I take it that's as far back as you can take it. He did not elect me because He saw what a good person I would turn out to be. That would be alright for me but what about you? How come He elected you? Some of you are awake and some of you are not. That's alright. Obviously, that's not the reason. What is the reason? God says I decided I would do it. It pleased me to do it. I say well that's not good enough. Well that's not good enough when I ask my children why did you do that? Because it pleased me to do it. There could be trouble over that but, often goes the other way around doesn't it. If your children ask you why you did it, you may say because I wanted to do it. I am the parent and I can do it. Sometimes it depends on the case obviously. But basically, God says this, I created you then I determined your destiny. Why did you do that God, why did you do it that way? Because it pleased Me to do it that way. I know, but why did you do it that way? Because it pleased Me. I know, but why? Because I wanted to. But why? Because it was My good pleasure. And I take it that is as far back as the Scripture goes. Why did God elect us, then predestine us to adoption? It pleased Him to do it. Now when you think about it that's the best answer you could get. You have an eternal God, a sovereign God, the One who works all things according to His good pleasure. The one who always does the right thing because what He does is right. He Himself is the standard. I would expect that that might well be the reason.
It's what pleased Him. Could there be any better reason if this was God's good pleasure? Could there be any reason that would be more important than this pleased God to do it this way?
That's as high a reason as could be given. This is incidentally brought out several times through this section, as you read through it, as the foundation for God's action. It was according to His good pleasure. It comes out in verse 9, and perhaps again I don't have it marked here off hand.

Alright pick up in closing verse 6, “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” “The praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” He worked according to His good pleasure. Now, you can take it another step, “to the praise of the glory of His grace.” He did it for His good pleasure and the outworking of that, the result of that is He is glorified, for the purpose of exalting Himself. I did it because it was My good pleasure, because in doing it this way I would be exalted. You say well couldn't He have done it a different way? I don't know because I don't have an infinite mind to come up with all the alternatives. But God said He did it this way. Whether there were others or not I don't know. But this way for sure would result in the praise of the glory of His grace. And it does. The very fact that you're here this evening as a believer in Jesus Christ resounds for the praise of the glory of the grace of God. The very fact that I am here, one who has been redeemed, one who is a son of God is a result of the grace of God. And when you think about it what other explanation could there be but God's grace. And remember that excludes anything we would do. If it was my efforts plus God's efforts results in my salvation that doesn't result in praising of the glory of His grace, because anytime you add anything that I do to it that nullifies grace. As Paul develops it in Romans it's not grace any longer when I make my contribution. It's grace because God did it all. And it was undeserved by you and by me. So, our salvation, why did God do it? Because His grace will be exalted. He will be glorified in it. That's the ultimate final purpose. Again, this is reiterated several times, at the end of verse 12. To the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. The end of verse 14, to the praise of His glory. Why is God operating the way He does? To be glorified. He's done it all for Himself. Even my salvation as it's developed here is not for my good it's for God's good. He saved me not as an end in and of itself but as a means to glorifying Himself. So, we say the ultimate purpose in all that God does is the glory of God. The basic foundational difference between an Armenian and a Calvinist is what is God's ultimate purpose. The salvation of man or the glory of God? And here clearly, it's related. The salvation of man is just a step in God's glorifying Himself “which He freely bestowed upon us in the Beloved.” God’s grace was given freely in “the Beloved.” A unique way to express it here. Christ is called the beloved Son on other occasions. But here as a title “the Beloved.” And this grace was bestowed freely on us where? In Christ, in the one who is the beloved of the Father. You become the recipient of that grace in Him. So, you see this whole plan works toward the exultation, the exulting of the glory of Jesus Christ. I think we as believers need to be reminded of the greatness of our salvation. That we have everything.

I've shared before that one of the problems confronting many of the believers today is that they're looking for something else in addition to what they've received when they trusted Jesus Christ their Savior. And, the problem is they ought to realize they received everything when they trusted Jesus Christ their Savior. Every spiritual blessing. Why did God do it? For the praise of His for.

Let's pray together. Father how we praise you for this manifestation of your grace. Lord, in ways that go beyond human imagination that's back before time as we know it. You had sovereignly selected some from among mankind for yourself and determined that they would be placed as Your sons. Father even though we don't understand it all, Father that is gracious beyond comprehension, yet we're here this evening as testimony to the greatness of Your grace. Father we are privileged to thank you again for loving us, for bestowing upon us every spiritual blessing in the heavens, for pouring Your grace upon us freely in Christ Jesus. And Lord we pray that even in the week that lies before us we might be a people who live with the recognition that our lives are to be holy and unblemished. Because that's what we are. We are to be a people who magnify Your name. We praise you for it in Jesus name. Amen.