Salvation By the Son

Transcript

GR 138
06/08/1975
Salvation By the Son
Ephesians 1:7-12
Gil Rugh

Ephesians in the Bible, again in the first chapter asking to look at verses 3 to 6 focusing upon the work of the Father in redemption and in the background really for our redemption and what the Father has done for us in Christ going all the way back to what we would call eternity past because verse 4 tells us he elected us or chose us in him before the foundation of the world. So our redemption had its foundation back before Genesis Chapter 1 verse 1, back in the realm we call eternity past because there is nothing upon which we can place a dating. We have to begin with this world and this system but before that God had chosen us.

He also predestined us in verse 5 to adoption as son being placed as his son in Christ with all the benefits and all the privileges that go with being a son of God. Verse 3, we were told that he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly in Christ. In the heavenlies referring to the new sphere now in which we function and live, and we as believers have been blessed with every spiritual blessing there is in Christ in the heavenly. So we noted last week that you either have everything or you have nothing because one who has believed in Jesus Christ has been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly, there is nothing else. And if you are not a believer in Christ you have nothing.

Now as we will come out in our study of the book later, of course the realization of these blessings is a matter of growth. As I mature in Jesus Christ, I begin to realize more and more, more fully what I’m and what I have in Christ. I begin to appropriate it in my daily life, but that does not change the fact that I have had it all along. I have not been living in light he put up, in the full realization of it, but I still have it. Every spiritual blessing that God has to provide is mine right now today. Now, today that I’m living for assured to that, but my realization is growing thing and that maturity does, it brings into a full, more full realization and utilization of the blessings that art in Christ.

Now verse 6 sums it all up, because it was all up to the praise of the glory at his grace. That is operated on this basis of blessing us, of electing us, of predestinating us in order that his grace might be exalted and glorified, that his grace might be manifested because what else that you are going to acquainted to, that happened back before the foundation of the world because no credit could accrue to the created creature because he wanted an existence check, now what can be magnified as we consider the salvation that has been provided of the work that has been accomplished for believers, only God’s grace and be credited and that is exalted.

Now verses 7 to 12, the verses we are going to look at this morning and both these up again, the emphasis would be on the Son and what he has accomplished in the plan of redemption. Of course we can’t make a firm line between the Father, the Son and the Spirit. Their works goes hand in hand and are mutually complimentary but the stress in verses 7 to 12 is particularly on the work that Jesus Christ has accomplished and as we noted lasted week verses 3 to 14 are all one sentence in the Greek. In verse 7 we pick it up as a new sentence in the New American Standard Bible. In him we have redemption that it is literally in whom we have redemption and the sentence continues with the in whom connecting to the beloved and the beloved one Jesus Christ, the one who loved the father is the one in whom our redemption is to be found.

Let us pray together. Father now again as we look into the word we pray for direction and insight and thank you for the privilege of handling the truth of the word with the presence of the Spirit to teach and instruct us, I’ll pray that each of us might be pliable in your hands which you might mold us and shape us in accord with the word and might be confirmed again for the glorious image of our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. We praise his name, Amen. In whom we have redemption through his blood, the first area that we consider is redemption, this would be accomplished faith in Christ.

The second thing that will be mentioned is in verse 11 where we have been made heritage, it has become God’s possession, God’s inheritance also in Christ. But in him in verse 7 we have redemption, the logical words of our Bible, a word inseparably connected to our salvation is redemption. And the word used here for redemption means the purchase by the payment of a price, a ransom by paying a price. And Paul does not begin by talking about our need and our sin. That of course would be implied in next statement, we talked about the forgiveness of our trespasses. And they develop more fully in Chapter 2, the fact that we were dead in our trespasses and sins, as Chapter 2 opens up. But here he moves right into the subject of redemption, lying behind redemption naturally is the need for being redeemed. Paul says in Christ we have redemption, who is we? We are the saints, the believers in Christ Jesus that he has talked about in Chapter 1.

Those who have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in verse 3, those who were elected in verse 4, those who were predestined in verse 5, these are the ones who are included in the we, We have redemption. We have been purchased by the payment of our price. It implies a bondage and a servitude here, if you and I were in a situation where freedom necessitated someone purchasing us, such as a slave who would be purchased out of the slave market, out of the bondage to his slavery, and the slavery in you here would be our slavery to sin. And that bondage and servitude withhold us, withholds every single person on the face of the earth, until they experience the redemption that is provided in Jesus, within.

So it is in him we have redemption, through his blood and we added through his blood here explains what the payment was. Redemption means the purchase by the payment of a price. So, what was the price that was paid, the blood of Jesus Christ was the price that had to be paid to redeem you and I from bondage and servitude to sin. The wages of sin is death that is the penalty that a righteous God demand of sin and for sin. The penalty for sin is death, without the shedding of blood there is no remission as the Hebrew says it. There is no remission for sin apart from the shedding of blood, so Jesus Christ redeemed us by paying the demanded price.

So we were redeemed through his blood and again make clear that there can be redemption in no other way and that is again where the point is missed so often today that people think that they can be acceptable before God because of their works or their deeds. I cannot experience redemption through my works, I must experience redemption through the shedding of blood because the penalty is death and the death that paid my penalty is the death of the Son of God, Jesus Christ and that is the penalty, that is the payment that was made for anyone who will every experience redemption, the one paid by Jesus Christ. So we have experienced redemption through his blood and the next statement tells us what is involved here, the forgiveness of our trespasses. Going hand in hand we are talking about redemption being forgiven, or out being redeemed is being forgiven because being purchased you have to be forgiven as well because I have been purchased by his blood.

That means I was forgiven, that meant I could be free, which is like a death which is painful. I had been forgiven the death, so I have been set free, someone paid the payment that enabled me to be forgiven, that provided my redemption. So, the forgiveness of our trespasses, have interesting the way the dictionary translated this word trespasses, it means any deviation from the truth. Deviation from the truth. And we often think that sin or trespasses against God is a major sin. But here we are told we were forgiven our deviation from the truth, that doesn’t mean murder, adultery and sins we would see as great sin but any deviation from the truth is a trespass. And we have been forgiven all our trespasses in Christ.

Now again you have to have the redemption in connection with the forgiveness. People today will like to talk about forgiveness without talking about redemption but a loving God will forgive us. A loving God must also be a just God because you cannot have a God if he is not just and a loving God has provided forgiveness by satisfying his justice with the death of his Son. The justice of God seen in redemption provided will manifest in that we have been forgiven but you cannot talk about forgiveness if we do not talk about redemption. We do not talk about redemption if we do not talk about the shedding of blood, so the issue is that Christ died for our sin.

If we don’t have trust in him then you will die for your sin, these are the only two alternatives, there is no third alternative that are working the good. Not one of the alternative, sorry, It’s hard and earnestness tried that is not one of the alternative, so we spend our lives in futility that the alternative is I accept that Christ is then for me, so I make the payment myself because with loving God it is totally just, we cannot set aside his justice, forgive us and then only forgive us inside. All right moving on here, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace and that word grace comes in again because you cannot talk about salvation for sinful men without talking about the grace of God. We talked a little about this last week; we talked about God being fair and God being just. God would be fair and God would be just if he sentenced every one of us to hell, he never forgave any of us any of our sins because he is not responsible to forgive our sins. He is not responsible to provide redemption for us.

We sin by choice and that makes us guilty, the very fact we can talk about redemption and forgiveness, we are talking about this having to be done in accord with his grace. Grace that which is undeserved or unmerited, so that means that you and I have nothing to do with it. I’m redeemed and I’m forgiven on the basis of his grace that which is unmerited of undeserved, now that means as soon as you add something that man can do, you no longer have grace, that includes good work, that includes going to church, that includes giving money, that includes being baptized and anything else. If you add works to grace, grace is no longer grace, let us forward to the Romans in Chapter 11.

All right, it’s according to the riches of his grace and not just as grace, but the riches of his grace, denoting the extent the God will to provide salvation for us that his son would die for me. That is talking about riches of grace that sinners would be forgiven their sins, that is something about rich grace, abundantly poured out. And that’s what verse 8 tells us, which will lavish upon us or abundantly poured upon us. So you see how Paul is building his words here, the riches of his grace which he pulled abundantly, he lavished it upon us, so the wealth of his grace is just dumped out upon us in super abundance in providing salvation for us.

Often we have been believers for a while, been his children that we begin I think settle down and accept it for a fact that we have been forgiven but Paul the mighty Apostle that he was, the great man of God that he was, he is still overwhelmed with the fact that God has poured out in abundance the riches of his grace upon us and our salvation ought to grow and in its magnificent sphere. That the longer I’m his child the more amazed I’m that he provided so complete a salvation for such a terrible sinner and the longer you are a child of God, the more you are in the world, the greater you become aware, the more aware you become of your sinfulness, and the more aware you become of the greatness of his salvation and that is Paul is emphasizing here.

Now in the New American Standard Bible we have a period and has put in all wisdom and insight as part of 7 into verse 9, I think the punctuation is better than it was in King James probably. He lavished it upon us in all wisdom and insight, either way it is for us possible grammatically and we will note that in a moment but taking it in all wisdom and insight he lavished it upon us in all wisdom and insight denoting that when he put his grace upon, put that upon, involved in that was the wisdom and the insight.

The wisdom, the intellectual understanding, the grasp of the facts that came to us, the knowledge, insight if we have wisdom first, insight the word we have here. Referring to the ability to anew the facts we have. So slightly different emphasis on the word, wisdom the general wisdom that we have now, understanding of the plan and purpose of God, the insight is the ability to use the fact that we have acquired in him. So when he put his grace upon us there was also came with it, the ability to know and understand the word, we will be talking about spirit ministry next week which is inseparable today.

So we now have insight and wisdom regarding the things of God, now why we can study Ephesians Chapter 1 and grasp something of it, be amazed by it is because of the wisdom and insight God has given to us in his grace, and nothing to do with the intellectual ability of this congregation at this stage. It has to do with the grace of God that provided with wisdom and insight, because the natural man, the man apart from God’s grace operating in his light cannot know or understand the things pertaining to God. Let’s turn to Chapter 2, as an unbeliever you can come and sit in this congregation and be relatively unmoved or unaffected, as an unbeliever you can come week after week and year after year and still not grasp and understand the truth of the Word. So is it not a God’s grace making them known to him to his children?

Verse 9, again we pick up the, this is all one sentence as we mentioned, he lavished upon us in our wisdom and insight making known to us, is the way the sentence would go on if you have it in the margin, making known to us the mystery of his world. And wisdom and insight could connect to make you known, who made known in wisdom and insight that would make sense as well that refer to the way you have taken it.

He made known to us the mystery of his world, we have to note here the unfolding, the development here, that he has forgiven us and redeemed but he is also educating us, making us aware or making known to us, you see this is a supernatural work of God not that we came to know as we diligently sought but discusses on what God has done. He is the one who has made known to us the mystery of his world, the knowledge of the things of God is the result of work of God in the light. I could preach and go blue in my face continue on, you could listen didn’t change a thing until God did work, until he chose to make known and to us as believers he has made known, the mystery of his world.

You see the unfolding and making known of what God has done. The emphasis being on what God has done and now he is making as aware as children, making known to us the mystery of his world. The word mystery you are going to come across several times in the Book of Ephesians, it means something that has not been fully made known or revealed previously. It is not that necessarily hard to understand, it is something impossible to understand apart from the work of the spirit of God in the life.

So if God does not provide the information and the knowledge you could not know or understand it. And God has made known to us the mystery of his will and that is quite a fantastic statement and here we are told that God’s will, God’s purposes, God’s intention now had been made known to us as his children and you could not know the will of God, the intentions of God, if God do not choose to make it known and that is what he has done, he has made known to us the mystery of his will – no, according to his current intention or good pleasure which he purposed in him.

Again this stress upon God doing it sovereignly, not quite arbitrarily that has a negative connotation but totally, sovereignly and we mentioned last week, this expression according to his kind intention were literally according to his good pleasure. Stressing the fact that God made it known because it was according to his pleasure to make it known. It suited his purposes to make known to believers what the mystery of his will is. Why has God done that because he chose to do it, I know what’s the real explanation behind it because he chose to do it and he gets boxed in there because he think now we have to go back a further step down and that is not fair, God is just saying it is my good pleasure so I did it.

We think that He had to give an account to us. That makes it satisfactory, right and a settled issue. God made known to us the mystery of His will because He wanted to do it. It pleased Him to do it so He did it, period. That is all the explanation there is and that is all that you and I to redeem could need. He made known the mystery of His will according to His kind intentions which He purposed in Him. The whole plan of God is carried out in Christ, He purposed in Him, as I didn’t want to use “take the word arbitrary” that we think is without a purpose. There is a real purpose in what God is doing. He didn’t get there arbitrarily, like He would just pick up something out of the hat with no rhyme or reason. Only acting according to His pleasure in line with His own purpose if He had purposed in Christ.

So in Christ God the Father has a plan and a purpose and he was playing that plan and purpose out. The development of this mystery is made more fully known in verse 10 I take it with a few to administration suitable to the fullness of the time. That is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heaven, things upon the earth. So we are all doing it all together in Christ here, the one who has provided our redemption, that God has made known the mystery of his will and it is the mystery of his will.

What is this which would not have been revealed before but now God is unfolding. Later on in Chapter 3 we are going to find out that the Church is a mystery revealed to Paul unfolded now to us. But here the mystery is identified in verse 10 as a dispensation, that is the same identification that is going to come incidentally with the church a dispensation and we talk about dispensationalism, that is where we get the word dispensationalism, we are dispensational at Indian Hill, the word simply means an administration or stewardship, oversight of a household to get the basic mean of the word originally it was. To administer or oversee a household, to be responsible for the oversight of a household, we talk about the dispensation, we are talking about the way that God is administering his household or the affairs of this world and here we are talking about one particular dispensation.

The dispensation that Paul identified as suitable to the fullness of the time or the dispensation of the fullness of the times. Particular dispensation, you have to be a dispensationalist, because here Paul goes to dispensation at the fullness of the time and as we move to Chapter 3 we will talk a little bit more about the about the different dispensation but here is a particular one which is not how many dispensations do you really have and the different ways you see God administering the affairs of this world from back to Adam and down and to our present times into the future.

In particular administration of the fullness of time and here we see the fullness of time, the full development of time. The summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heaven, things upon the earth. And what this mystery is the administration the bringing together of everything in Christ. I think it is the view of the particular dispensation if you hear would be what we call the millennium, the future time when everything will be brought together in Christ. That is when all things, things in heaven, things upon the earth will finally be under his administration and stewardship. Now there is a way when this mystery has been revealed now in the sense that Christ is demonstrated to be the one.

There is the unifying factor and you know it is not just of men, but things in heaven and things on earth, the same thing that Paul talked about I mean the Colossians in Chapter 1. He says things above earth and down the earth and under the earth all brought together in Christ. So all summed up in him and what God has done now, has revealed that his purposes and plan are inseparably unified in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the focal point of the unifying principle and this would include the angels and would include all the creation and this would be demonstrated at a future time. Turn over to First Corinthians 15, just a couple of books back in front of -- back to the front of your bible.

First Corinthians, Second Corinthians, Colossians Ephesians, so back up to Colossians, Second Corinthians, First Corinthian 15. Talking about the reign of Christ on earth verse 25 where he must reign, First Corinthian 15:25 until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy that will be abolished in death. Let us put all things in subjection under his feet. And when he said all things to put in subjection, it is evident that he has put all things in conjunction to him referring to the father and all things are subjected to him Christ, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who subjected all things to him, the God the Father may be all in all.

We are talking about the work of the son through the medium bring us to the point when everything culminates in a final subjection to the Father, I think that is the dispensation of the fullness of time when all things would be summed up in Christ in heaven and on earth and brought under his control and then after they are under his control then he places them at the Father’s feet and subjects himself willingly to the Father’s rule as well. So this is the mystery, you would not found it in his whole development in the Old Testament that God was going to provide a salvation to shed blood of his own Son, to enable man to be forgiven in order that his Son might rule and reign over all and he is the central figure in all, so that would not be known if God had not chosen to reveal it.

Let us talk about progressive revelation in the bible, he has got it progressively revealed his purposes and plan to man. It is not new, remember that God elected us, God predestined us in verses 4 and 5 before the foundation through 10. And our redemption is inseparably linked to the work of Christ, the forgiveness of sin is work of Christ in redeeming us, is all a part of God’s plan in pulling everything together under Christ, summing up everything in him.

Now in Christ also, this is further development here, we have obtained an inheritance, and that is true, we have obtained an inheritance that would be talked about down in verse 14. It is better translated in verse 11 as you have it in your margin, we were made a heritage, provided them the stress in verse 11 being on our getting an inheritance. We are the inheritance in verse 11 we were made in heritage, we are God’s inheritance, same idea that was developed in the Old Testament Deuteronomy Chapter 32 where Jacob is said to be God’s inheritance.

Now we find out that God is summing up everything in Christ and all things together under him, there is no Jew or Gentile but we have become part of the possession of God, his heritage or inheritance. If we become precious to him, you are no longer your own, you have been brought with a price, therefore glorify the God in your body according to the Corinthians, I have become his heritage and his inheritance. So interesting, the balance that we are seeing here when we get to verse 14 next week but not only do I have an inheritance to apologist but I’m an inheritor and I like this appealing of importance, pride in a good sense that God the Father would look upon me as so valuable that he would say that I’m his inheritance.

Looking at inheritance as something that is valuable and worthwhile, God says that I as his child and his inheritance, I belong to him. He has redeemed me and forgiven me in order that I could be his own special private possession and he will develop this aspect as well in his letter. We are a peculiar possession of God even as Israel was in the Old Testament. What a privileged position that we occupy as believers. If we look around things we are just normal people plodding along and here I’m the special heritage of God occupying that special position in relation to him.

Now it doesn’t cause pride in the wrong sense, Gregorian, because as he didn’t particularly choose me because I was so valuable even in myself and I don’t have this position because I you know is a little better than anyone else. Verse 11 puts it in perspective having been predestined read that word again, that the grace is on us, that we talked about last week, predestined destined beforehand, going all the way back before the foundation of the world how?.

According to His purpose He works all things after the council of His will. Now how will I become God’s heritage? I was predestined, I mentioned last week elections go back one step before predestination. God chose us for Himself, then those that God chose, He had a plan for them and He predestined those that He elected, that He conformed to the image of His son so where you were elected or chosen by God had been predestined according to His purpose who was all things after the council of His will. It is hard to put it any more strongly than we have in verse 11.

Things that Paul has been emphasizing again and again and again, how we got to be what we are as believers. There should be no pride at all in ourselves, that in exaltation of God and his grace according to his purpose who works all things after the council of his will with purpose and council related words have similar ideas lying behind them. God’s purpose is to turn it at will and his council, so who do God consult, himself and what was the basis of his choice, his own will. He works all things after the council of his will, nice few questions asked in the scripture, who has been the councilor of the Lord, and Paul uses in first page.

First Corinthians 3 he has been His counselor, what if all things are to the council of His own will. He didn’t need my advice, all I have to do is come to the word and find out what God did and make myself to it. I get all hung up and say wait that is not fair, that is not light, that is not the way it should have been, what about this. Aren’t you glad that God didn’t call you in the council?

He still be waiting for something that develop council there, but God did it according to his will and he is determinant council, he predestined us to be his heritage. I stand here now as God’s child, as his heritage working forward to eternity in his presence because he predestined me for that ultimate goal, the disposition. He predestined me because he had elected me, chosen me for himself if there you got to have lot pride talking about that position, no you missed that point. The basis of achieving, his own work, nothing in me, nothing in you but himself. He predestined us why, among all those that believed him he saw that there were some who deserved a better position. He predestined them to an exalted place. He predestined every one of us as believer to be his heritage. He did it on the basis of his own choosing in his own will.

With the ultimate goal of it all to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of his glory and we talked in verses 3 to 6 about the work of the Father, what was the purpose of, verse 6 to the praise of the glory of his grace. First of all we talked about the work of the son and our relationship to him in regard to redemption and being a heritage, what is the purpose of it? To the praise of his glory he knows that to the end and this is the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal is not my salvation, the ultimate goal is not my being placed as the Son. The ultimate goal is not me to be God’s heritage; the ultimate goal is not my redemption or my forgiveness. That was all part of the process, the steps towards the ultimate goal the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of his glory.

We who are the first to hope in Christ may refer here particularly to the Jews, since they are the first to hear and the first to respond, verse 13 and we have broadened it to include the Gentiles as well but the stress here is that those who were the first to hope in Christ and ultimately everyone who hopes in Christ, as verse 13 we will develop it in the next week, should be to the praise of his glory. We have viewed all of this and this is all the praise and all the exaltation for God why because he has done it all and he is exalted forth.

He has redeemed me in Christ, he paid the penalty for my sin. I have been set free, now there are two kinds of people in our auditorium this morning. There are those who have been redeemed and there are those who have not been redeemed. Those who have not been redeemed are still in bondage and slavery to their sin if you think they don’t want to become Christians because they wouldn’t want to leave their freedom. There is no such freedom apart from Jesus Christ, no such thing as freedom. He that sins is a slave of sin, you are dead in your trespasses and sin, which we talked about in Chapter 2.
There are two types of people here, those who have been set free in Christ and those who have not. Those who have been forgiven their sins and those who have not, all based upon our relationship with Jesus Christ and nothing to do with your good or someone else, sometimes get offended, so it is not right to say this about people. Only god had grown you either have been redeemed or you have not, you either have been forgiven or you have not. That ought to be an encouragement to you as a believer. You know what that means, that means if you have been set free you no longer have to serve sin.

I have been set free therefore I’m no longer required to serve sin. We recognize something of our position in our Christ when we get later on in the book when Paul beings to develop the implications of it. And he says I have been redeemed in Christ, set free in Christ, I no longer have to serve sin. But when I sin I realize that it is not because I have to because I want to. For the unbeliever he sins because he has to, he is under the control and domination of sin. As a believer I have been set free in the freedom of being forgiven and not only that I have been made inheritor.

So there are some in this auditorium who are God’s special possessions, his own peculiar treasure as the title is there in the Old Testament and there are some who are not. All look the same, all basically talk the same and yet there are those who have got special possessions over or not we say that is not fair. Why isn’t it, it is all based upon our relationship with Jesus Christ. Are you in Christ or are you not? If you are in Christ you’ve got # if you are not you are in the sin. You say I’m not because I wasn’t predestined. I don’t know if you will ask to find out that concept. You are not in Christ because you have not believed. If you are in Christ that is because you were elected.

So you see God gets the credit again but not the blind. If you haven’t believed it is because you have sinned and in a way you don’t want to believe. Why did you trust the Christ, Christ as a salvation is sufficient for you? The riches of his grace are rich enough for you, why hadn’t you believed? Because He is you were pleased to submit yourself to Him, if you have believed and much better than someone who is not. You have because of the works that God has done in your life enjoying with themselves. The credit for that and it is all for the praise of his glory and he should be exalted because anyone has experienced redemption and salvation and made his heritage is an indication that he has been the man in grace and his justice is satisfied.

Let us pray again. Father again we thank you for this salvation that is ours, work for the wholeness of it, that we have been redeemed purchase, that you have paid the price that we could not pray. Jesus Christ willingly died in our place and that with redemption came total forgiveness thus we now in your presence as those who are perfect without spot and without blemish.

Thank you for your salvation that only a great God could provide, those are the privilege that we can be your inheritor, from your heritage, we belong to you, if you treasure us for yourselves, and I pray that we might live our lives as those who are your particular treasure, those who are particularly your possession day by day and moment by moment, we might live our lives in light of what we are in Jesus Christ.

All of those who are here who are not yet your children, who have not yet been redeemed, forgiven in place as your heritage, after even now they might place their faith in Jesus Christ and that they might become part of your family and the joy of belonging to you, we pray in Christ’s name, Amen.