The Father’s Role in Our Salvation (Eph 1:3-6)

Kevin Wright

Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted a year ago • Presented a year ago

Ephesians 1:3–6

God the Father

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Intro: Last week we began to study the book of Ephesians together. This wonderful epistle to the Ephesians is perhaps one of, if not the most relevant and timeless books of the Bible. In six short chapters, this God-breathed book speaks authoritatively into every situation you could possibly face or imagine. It offers holy and timeless counsel for every real-life problem or scenario that you will ever face.

As Paul so often does in his letters, he divides his message in two. The first half of his letter focuses on doctrine and theology, where the apostle unpacks gospel indicatives explaining who God is, what He has done, what He is doing, and who we are in light of His divine character. And after these indicative statements, Paul shares with his audience gospel imperatives, which instruct the Christian on how they are to live their lives to the glory of God alone. The first half is theology, the second half is the application. Therefore, for the next several weeks, if not months, we will be discussing some heavy theology together. And as we will see today, Paul starts in the very deep end of the pool. Perhaps the deepest, and so there are challenging things in the text that we must wrestle with this morning. You may feel in over your head at times because our frail human minds are simply not able to behold the full glory of who God is and how great a salvation that He has made available to us who believe in Him.

Last week, we ended our time together looking at the second half over verse 1 and verse 2, which reads “To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” This statement becomes somewhat of a thesis statement for the entire letter. For Paul is going to continually explain and expound on the glories of God’s grace and peace that He has granted to those who are faithful in Christ Jesus. That little phrase “In Christ,” is one of Paul’s favorite expressions. In the lengthy run-on sentence that Paul uses to begin this letter, Paul uses this phrase no less than twelve times. Over and over again, Paul wants to remind his readers that as Christians they are “in Christ.” This small two-word phrase speaks of the believer’s true identity before God, based on their saving relationship with Jesus. And in many ways, Paul spends the vast majority of the first two chapters of this six-chapter letter explaining the amazing implications of that relationship. Paul is stressing that in our faith we united with Christ in such a way that, what is true of Christ becomes true of us. And all His grace and all His resources become ours to experience and possess. His grace. His sufficiency, the unending riches of His mercies are all available to those who believe. You see Paul wants believers to understand who they are in Christ before God!

This is a vital topic for the evangelical church today, especially since we live in an age that struggles with identity confusion. Sadly, we are living in a world which no longer is able to define the word “woman.” Young people, I know you probably tune me out at times, but would you listen to me for a moment. Our identities must not be determined by our every changing feelings or experience. Our identity is simply what the Creator says it is. He created you in His image, for the express purpose of knowing Him and making Himself known. And Paul spends so much time explaining our identity because he knows how our feelings, emotions, and experience in a fallen world will deeply confuse us and make us question everything about who we are and why we are here. And listen, when you grow confused on your true identity it then becomes rather impossible for you to live as God has called you to live, and experience His grace and blessing. That’s why the Bible spends so much time repeating this very important theme, reminding us of who are in Christ. Giving us reminders that our easily confused and forgetful hearts need to hear over and over again. So with that in mind, let us look to God’s Word together, and be reminded of who we are in Christ. Notice with me three things from verses 3-6 that speak to our identity as believers in Christ…

1) Those who are in Christ worship God for they are supremely blessed (v. 3, cf vs 4-14).

After the introduction and salutation that we looked at last week, the apostle transitions to the body of his letter with a call to worship.

Read Verse 3

Those very words begin what is in the original Greek language an exhaustive run-on sentence, that runs from verse 3 all the way to verse 14. In one deep breath the apostle Paul gives us enough glorious theology to fill an entire library of books. Indeed, there is more rich doctrine in this one sentence than we can ever fully understand this side of eternity. This lengthy sentence is divided up in three parts: the first part (vs. 4-6) which we will study today, it looks to eternity past where we see God’s glorious role in our salvation. The second part (vs. 7-12) looks to the present and explains the role Christ, the work of His cross, and explains how we are saved by faith in Him, and then the last part (vs. 13-14) point us to the future and the role of the Holy Spirit in our salvation. So, Paul rightly calls us to worship God, the triune God, for both He and our salvation are better and far greater than anything we can ever imagine. Notice when speaking of salvation and our identity in Christ, that the starting point is God and not man. Listen we will never understand who we truly are apart from understanding who God is! If you want to understand your identity you must start with knowing your Creator.

In our text, Paul starts with the word, “Blessed.” It’s the Greek work “eulegetos,” from which we get the word “eulogy” from, which means to speak well or good of someone. It simply means to proclaim someone as good. This is what we do at funerals right, we share a eulogy and we speak about the apparent goodness of a person. But if you think about it in these terms, only God can truly be called blessed. Matthew 19:17proclaims, “There is none that is good but God.” Listen, when we gather to worship, we are essentially proclaiming God’s goodness to one another. Ever song that we sing, every prayer that we utter, every scripture that is read, and every sermon that is preached declares that God is good. Listen, God is good to you, and God is good to me! Oh how, we need to hear message over and over again, that our glorious God is a good God.

The entire Bible from beginning to end reminds us that God is to be blessed and worshiped for He is good. In Genesis 14:20, Melchizedek said, “Blessed be the Most High God.” And in Revelation 5:13, John wrote, “And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, ‘To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.’” Between those two inspired bookends are numerous examples of the same proclamation. God is to be blessed, worshiped for He is good. Listen, whether your heart is full of joy this morning or if you are feeling crushed by the weight of your world, God is good, and we are to praise Him in the valleys as well as when we are standing on the mountain top. Oh, church, let this text remind you this morning that your God is good and allow it to stir your heart to praise Him.

God is good, and out His nature, notice He blesses us with good things. In other words, God is not only the blessed, He is also the blesser who blesses us. James wrote, “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow” (James 1:17). Listen, every good thing in your life, is a gift from the hand of God. But don’t forget whom Paul is talking about in these verses. He speaking to the believer, to the ones who are found in Christ, those who have trusted Him for salvation and put their faith in Him. They are the ones who are not just blessed, but notice what the text says, “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.” If you are a believer in this room today, you are simply blessed beyond your imagination. Notice, the past tense verb in this statement. He has already blessed us with these things. They are ours to enjoy right here, right now, and forevermore. Some biblical scholars have called verses 4-14, the Christian’s great treasure house, where every spiritual blessing is secured and easily accessible.

From verse 4-14, the apostle carefully and articulately explains the phrase “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” But, here in this phrase, it is vital that we understand that our blessing is characteristically not physical in nature, but spiritual. These charlatans on tv, posing as prophets, bishops, and pastors, who promise financial gain and wonderful health to those who trust God and partner with their ministries are simply false teachers. The Bible promises neither, but God, God has already blessed those who follow Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, which is infinitely better, and far more valuable than excellent health and all the riches of the world combined.

Listen, you need to understand, that in Christ you have a spiritual bank account that will never run out of blessing. You literally possess secured blessings and goodness forever more. I love how Peter explains this same sentiment, he wrote, “His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3). In other words, everything you truly need in this world and in world to come, has lavishly already been supplied and credited to your account.

If you are here today, and you are convinced that you need to be loved. Perhaps you are feeling neglected, look to the Word, you are loved more than you can imagine. For God sent His one and only Son to die for you!

Do you feel weak, tired, defeated or exhausted, Jesus says come to me and I will give you true rest for your weary soul!

If you need peace this morning, maybe your wold is just chaotic. In Phil 4, God says, He can give you His peace which surpasses all comprehension.

You say, but I really upset and unhappy. Psalm 16:11… God says… “in my presence there is fullness of joy; at my right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Everything we truly need, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places is ours. The heavenly places is also a significant phrase to consider. Again, these are not worldly blessings, they are heavenly ones. Listen, we must understand something here… our life in Christ is supernatural. This realm where our blessings are secure is the heavenly realm to which Christ has been raised, where He ascended and was seated at the right hand of God. Now, this is a hard to understand truth, but we need to grow in understanding that just as Christ is in the heavenly realm, so are we… Eph 2:4-6… “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgression, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” We were seated in heaven, past tense, this has already occurred. So, just as Christ is there in the heavenly realm literally, we too are there representatively, as members of His body. He is there in glory as our Head, and our very presence is with Him there because we are in Him. You see in our union with Christ, we are already partakers of that spiritual reality, even though it is not fully realized until we are physically there in heaven. Now the implications of this are huge, because it means that we as believers are already experiencing aspects of heaven, although we are not yet there. It also means that our seat in heaven is securely reserved. It implies that this world is not our home and one day, we will enjoy the holy space that Christ has prepared for us. Lastly, and again, I think this reference to the heavenly places reminds us that the blessings we receive from being in Christ, are supremely better than any worldly blessing than you can ever imagine.

The apostle has already mentioned grace in peace in verse 2, those are certainly heavenly blessings that we are allowed to taste and experience to a certain degree here on earth. And from there, Paul will continue to unpack the glorious riches of our great salvation by expounding on the work of the triune God. I love the old hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing… The first line reads…. Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace; Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise.” The apostle Paul in verse 3, is simply drawing our attention to the Fount of Every blessing, and calling us to worship our God who blesses us supremely with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.

2) Those who are in Christ were chosen by God to be like Jesus (vs. 4-5).

Read vs 4-5

As I mentioned earlier, verses 4 through 6 emphasize God’s role in our salvation in eternity past. And significantly, this is listed as the first and primary reason why believers are to worship and praise their God. Notice Paul says in verse 4, that God chose us before the foundation of the world and in verse 5 that He predestined us. Before we ever breathed air, before we were conceived in the womb, before we were able to do anything to work for or work against our salvation, God chose and predestined those who would believe. That fact alone, should humble us as it stresses the biblical truth that salvation is by God’s grace alone. We are chosen and we are predestined. These two phrases are somewhat synonymous but they are different. The word chose, means that God selected for Himself by picking and choosing some over others. And the word predestined, on the other hand, means “to decide on beforehand,” or “to predetermine.”

Now let’s push the pause button for a second for I realize the doctrine of election is not an easy doctrine to uphold. For some reason, many Christians believe that if they accept the doctrine of election, then they inevitable deny the reality that man has a free will. That somehow this so called dangerous and monstrous doctrine of election reduces man to a robot who has no true freedom at all. Church family, that simply is not true. We know from both experience and from God’s Word that we have freedoms, that we make choices which have real life consequences, and that we have responsibilities that we must prioritize and accomplish.

Listen, here’s the problem that the modern church faces today… too many professing Christians allow their feelings to inform and shape their theology rather than allow their theology the ability to inform and shape their feelings. And I believe wholeheartedly that that is the reason why so many Christians reject the doctrine of election and predestination. You see, when your feelings are the ultimate source of authority in your life, then you will edit, alter, or overlook certain texts of Scripture to fit your emotions. Listen, as Christians we are to be a people who place ourselves under the authority of God’s Word and allow the doctrines of scripture, no matter how challenging they may be to both our feelings and logic, to shape our lives and beliefs. Folks, the reality is, God’s Word says all Christians were both collectively and individually chosen and predestined before the foundation of the world to be in Christ. The context of this passage and others like it suggest that God has selected specific individuals for inclusion in the church. That we are both chosen and predestined in Christ collectively as a church body in Christ individually as believers.

Now, before you say in your head, yeah, but… but.. but… look over at verse 13, remember this is part of the same sentence, the same breath of air, look what the apostle says there… “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation– having also believed.” BELIEVED!!! That’s man’s personal responsibility.You see within the immediate context, Paul is writing to individuals who believed, and who are chosen by God. Divine sovereignty (election, predestination) and man’s responsibility to respond to the Gospel message by faith somehow harmonize perfectly in the mind of God. Listen, you don’t have to harmonize them, you don’t have to make sense of them coexisting together.

Someone once asked Charles Spurgeon how he could reconcile these two seemingly opposing truths with each other. And famously responded by saying, “I wouldn’t try. I never reconcile friends.” Church, this is the point that we have to grasp. In the Bible, divine sovereignty and human responsibility are not enemies. They are not uneasy neighbors who are at war with one other. They are friends, and they work perfectly together. They are like two tracks that run parallel with each other that never come together this side of heaven… but they are faithfully going in the same direction. We must always remember that what is hard if not impossible for us to understand is trivial simplicity to God.

Oh church, how we must understand, God is far more glorious and far more wonderful that anything we can ever imagine. Isaiah 55:8-9 remind us… “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.’”Listen, if God is far greater than what or minds can ever fully explain, then its ok that our salvation is as well.

I’m always amazed how Christians can get so caught up on harmonizing election and free will, when we so easily accept other things that are impossible to harmonize together with our limited and weak minds, you know like the incarnation and the truth that Jesus is both 100% man and 100% God. Or the Trinity that God is one God but yet exist in three distinct and unique people. Election, predestination, and man’s responsibility are easily in this same camp of difficult things to uphold together, but that does imply that both are not equally true!

Now, I realize some of you still have questions… what about evangelism, if God has chosen some to believe, then why should I go out and proclaim the gospel to everyone? What about babies who die, do only the elect babies go to heaven? Or what about those who are not elect, do they even have a chance to respond in faith?

Notice Paul wastes no time nor ink on answering such questions. Instead, the apostle just calls believers to praise God and worship Him for long before they ever existed the Father set His love upon them and chose them to be His family. Understand that God did not give us the doctrine of election to frustrate or confuse us, He gave it us so that we will worship Him. But notice what the text does say, lets cast our eyes there where Paul discloses God’s purpose, motive, and result in His election.

First, we see the purpose in that God chose believers so that they might be holy and blameless. These adjectives have a rich background in the OT and describe God’s requirements for animals which were used in sacrifices. The word holy implies being separated to God for His purposes, and the word blameless conveys a sense of being whole, without defects, being innocent, and pure. You see God chose believers, so that they could be like His one and only Son, who Peter described in 1 Peter 1:19 as “a lamb unblemished and spotless.” He was the only acceptable sacrifice, who willingly died on the cross for your sin. And in faith, as we believe in Him for salvation, we are by His grace accredited His unblemished and spotless record. In Christ, we become like Him before God. According to Ephesians 5:27, this was part of Christ’s eternal and foreordained plan, “to present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she might be holy and blameless.”

Now, the context is clear that Paul is talking about our position in Christ rather than our practice. However, because God declares us holy and blameless before Him, we must strive in both the here and now to be that which we truly are in heaven. We must aim to live blameless lives that are set apart for His glory. That’s God’s purpose in election, and His desire for the way we are to live.

Second, notice God’s motive. We are told that God elects those who are saved because of His love. In love He predestined us, just as God chose Israel to be His special people. Deut. 7:7-8… “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.” You see God’s election is based in His love.

The word love in the Greek is agape. It’s not an emotion but it’s a disposition of the heart to seek the welfare and meet the needs of another, with no demand of reciprocation. Jesus said, John 15:13… “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his lives for his friends.” And that is exactly what Christ did on Calvary for those who have and will believe in Him. God loved us, and will continue to love us, according to the kind intention of His will.

Third, I want you to see the result which is sonship as we are adopted as into His family. Last week we saw that apart from being saved, we are all enemies with God. In our sin, we must understand that we stand diametrically opposed to everything God is and everything He does. But in His great love for us, God makes us more than citizens or servants, and even much more than friends. He makes us His own children by adopting us into His family. Those adopted in the ancient world enjoyed the same relationship with their adopted parents as natural children do. Thus, God gives us every right, privilege, and affection that His One and only Son enjoys.

Oh, how we must understand that in Christ, God chose us and sees us as being as holy as His own Son. Every sin is forgiven, the sin debt whipped completely clean, with all the riches of Christ’s righteousness fully applied to our own accounts. In Christ we are adopted into His family and blessed beyond measure.

Now, I know that some of you will leave here frustrated with this message, you’ll still have questions that have no easy answers. (see Brian and Bill)... But just let the text speak for itself, for when the Bible speaks of election it is always in a positive tone, never a negative one. Listen, when the believers in Ephesus were struggling in a dark and confusing world, God spoke to them and gave them a message that begins by saying, before the world was made, I loved you with an everlasting love and I called you my own. Church I pray, that the next time you are tempted to sin, the next time you are facing a great challenge, or you own failure, I pray you hear the voice of heaven that proclaims, “You have always been in my heart, no matter what happens, I have chosen to love you, you are mine, and have been before the world began.” God chose us to become like Christ, holy, blameless, loved, and accepted as a son of God. May we strive to live according to that glorious identity as the Father has blessed us with everything we need to do so.

3) Those who are in Christ were predestined so that God will be passionately praised (v. 6).

Why did God choose and predestine a people for Himself? Why did He want us to be His sons, verse 6 answers those questions… “to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” Far above all else, God elects and saves those who believe for His own glory. As I mentioned earlier in this sermon. This run-on sentence can be divided up into three parts, the work of God in salvation which is verses 4-6, the work of Christ in our salvation verses 7-12, and the work of the Holy Spirit in our salvation in verses 13-14, and if you just scan over the concluding words of each of those sections, you will discover a call to praise God for His glory!

The word glory is a common term in the New Testament and simply denotes splendor and radiance. But in the Old Testament the word glory spoke of heaviness or weight. And the idea behind that definition was that a man’s glory was discovered by the sum total of the combined weight of all that he owned. Therefore, biblically speaking the glory of God is the splendor and radiance of all of God’s holy perfections and attributes. You see God wants us to behold Him, to see Him, to understand Him and stand amazed by everything that we see. He longs for us to know everything our brains are capable of knowing about Him, and out of that knowledge He longs for us to praise Him and reflect that glory to the world around us.

And in His Grace, church family, God constantly places His glory before us. We are told in Psalm 19:1, that the heavens themselves declare the glory of God. In Isaiah 43:20 we read that God says, “the beasts of the field will glorify Me.” And in Numbers 14:21 God declares that the whole world will declare His glory. Listen, the only rebels in the universe, that cease to glorify Him are fallen angels and fallen man. Everything else rightfully glorifies its Creator. Now the fallen angels have already been eternally removed from God’s presence in heaven, and sadly those fallen men, who refuse to believe will not be saved by Christ, and they will join the fallen angels in that eternal separation.

Church listen, our text today emphasizes that man’s salvation is the greatest and highest manifestation of God’s glory. Yet shockingly, many of us are more prone to marvel over the sunrise, that we are to simply stand amazed at the glory of salvation. The Bible reminds us that the Father chose and preordained a family of God. A family chosen in a manner so that no human could ever boast or take glory for himself. You see all glory belongs to Him alone! Salvation is not partly God and partly man, but entirely of God. And to guarantee that, every provision and every detail of our salvation was planned before any human being was ever born or before the world was formed on which he could live.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, but the divine wisdom of God could have contrived such a wonderful plan of redemption. And every aspect of that plan to create a church, holy blameless before Him, was predetermined by God before time began. When Peter preached his first sermon in Acts 2, he spoke of Jesus and proclaimed… “this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power” (Acts 2:23-24).

There on the cross, according to predestined plan of God, Jesus bled and died for the sins of everyone one who believes in Him. The scriptures tell us that on calvary’s cross, Jesus became our sin and the very wrath of God toward our sinful thoughts, words, and actions was poured out upon His Son. He literally died in our place. The punishment that He embraced on the cross, was our punishment. It’s what we deserved because our rebellious heart and actions. The Bible tells us that the wages of our sin is death, and Jesus, the only sinless one who ever lived, the only holy and blameless one who could qualify as true sacrifice, He laid His life down so that we could be forgiven and Have His life. Listen, the only way we can stand before God in Christ, the only way we can be holy, spotless, and blameless is because He died for us, forgives us, and imparts His righteousness to us through faith. That is the highest manifestation of His glorious grace. We deserved none of it, so that He would receive all the glory! Oh let that stir your weak yet redeemed heart to praise Him this morning!

And to everyone in this room, and to everyone who is listening to my voice, God calls on you to praise Him with you whole heart, mind, and strength. He calls on you to live for Him and Him alone, by growing in Christlikeness. And everything you need to do, everything you need to follow His example has already been graciously provided. Will you step out in faith today?

You say, well I don’t know, how do I know if I am one of the elect? How do I know if God has chosen me? Jesus answered that question by saying you know a tree by its fruit. In other words, is there fruit of election budding in your heart: do you have a childlike fear of God, do you have a godly sorrow for your sin, or a hunger and thirst for righteousness? Does something in your heart long to be forgiven and experience the grace and peace of our Lord? If so then I would say that God in His grace is calling you to faith and repentance. He’s sovereignly drawing your heart to Him, but you must believe and live for Him. You have a responsibility, to live by faith that the text clearly affirms. Will you turn to Him today and rest in knowing that before the foundation of the world, He set His love upon you so that today you can become His child and join with all those who believe in praising Him for glorious grace!