Christ’s Role in Our Salvation (part 1): Eph. 1:7-10
Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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If you have our Bibles with me this morning, I invite you to turn with me once again to the book of Ephesians, chapter 1, it’s here at the beginning of the letter that the apostle Paul calls us to worship. In the original Greek language, verses 3-14 comprise one long run-on sentence, in which we are invited to worship and praise all three members of the Trinity for their explicit work in our salvation.
Paul calls on all his readers to specifically bless God in verse 3, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and then in verses 6, 12, and 14 we are to categorically praise the Father, praise the Son, and praise the Holy Spirit to the glory of their grace, which they have lavishly poured out upon us. This prolonged sentence, which would cause every schoolteacher in this room to cringe, is a wonderful and humbling reminder that our salvation solely depends upon the gracious work and nature of each member out Triune, who is worthy to be praised!
With this opening call to worship, steeped in rich theology, Paul aims to humble us and to help us understand the great, good, and gracious nature of our God, who has united believers with Christ, and blessed them beyond measure. In this glorious passage, believers are repeatedly reminded that we are “in Him”, in Christ, in the Beloved. No less than twelve times in this one sentence, we are reminded of our new identity of being fully united with Christ through saving faith.
Listen church family, if you are born again, if you someone who has placed their faith and hope in Christ for salvation, then that specific detail about your life is the most defining truth about you. It is your primary, true, and eternal identity. It’s vastly more certain than your feelings, and more settled than any conclusions that you or others have ever made concerning your identity. If you really want to know who you are, who you were created to be, then you must know God, your Creator, and understand who He says you are, according to His Word.
Two weeks ago, when we last looked at this passage, we studied verses 3 through 6, and there we were reminded of God the Father’s work in our salvation, who before the foundation of the world, before time existed, He graciously chose and kindly predestined those whom He would adopt as His own children. What a humbling reminder that we are saved completely by His grace alone, before we were able to do anything to deserve it.
Its noteworthy that Paul started this theological discourse with God the Father; He is the only rightful starting place on any discussion that speaks of biblical salvation. But now in verse 7, the apostle turns our attention to the second member of the Trinity, the Beloved Son of God. That’s where we pick up today, so will you read with me in Ephesians 1, where I will read verses 3-10, but we will focus our attention today on verses 7-10…
As we continue to unpack this theologically rich call to worship, and consider the Christian’s true identity of being in Christ… I want you to see four spiritual realities, four divine blessings that all believers share by being united with Christ through faith.
1) In Christ believers are redeemed and forgiven through His blood (v. 7a).
As the apostle changes gears and begins to speak of Christ and His work relating to or salvation, Paul immediately ushers us to the cross and writes in verse 7, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses.” The pronoun “Him” is a clear reference to Christ, who was just entitled in the precious verse as “the Beloved.” If you remember at Jesus’ baptism, God’s voice was heard. Mark 1:11… “and a voice came out of the heavens: You are my beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.” Jesus, He is the beloved Son of God who offers us redemption and forgiveness.
The word redemption was commonly used in the ancient world to refer to paying a ransom in order to release a person from bondage, especially that of slavery. The Bible clearly and often reminds us that every human being born since the Fall of Adam has come into this world enslaved to sin. You see, we are all born under total bondage to a nature that is corrupt, radically selfish, evil to the core, and separated from its holy Creator. There is not one person who is spiritually free, free from sin, or free from its costly consequences. Ezekiel 18:4… “The soul who sins will die.” We must understand that death is the ultimate and right consequence of our sin. Because we have sinned against the holy One, who specifically created us in His image to live for Him, we all deserve to die and spend eternity separated from Him in hell. But the great news of the Gospel is that Jesus came to redeem and forgive us for our sin.
Paul expounds on this glorious blessing of the gospel throughout his letter to the Ephesians. In chapter 2, he reminds his readers of what they were like when God so graciously redeemed them. If your Bibles open, just flip through this letter with me… notice in 2:3… “Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath.” Implying that we deserve to experience God’s wrath because of our sinful selfish actions… Skip down to verse 12 of chapter 2, “remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenant of promise having no hope and without God in the world.”
In chapter 4, look at verses 17-19… “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness”.
Church family, if you without saving faith, you are enslaved to sin, enslaved to your selfish desires, you are without hope, your heart is hard, you are darkened without understanding, and to top it off, because of these things you will experience the wrath of a holy God in hell for eternity. But in Christ, through His shed blood, we are redeemed from that slavery and “forgiven of our trespasses.” That’s the wording Paul uses in Eph. 1:7.
The word trespass is interesting, it obviously is speaking of sin, but it literally implies crossing a boundary that God has clearly set for us to obey. It speaks of veering off the the path that He designed for your righteousness. To think of sin in this manner is rather condemning, is it not? Yet Paul says, every dimension of your sin– all of your individual and countless trespasses can be covered by the blood of the Savior. You can be forgiven and set free from that which enslaves you through His blood.
You see the price of your redemption could only be paid for with the blood of an innocent man. We are reminded in the book of Hebrews that the blood of the sacrificial animals was continually offered on the alters of both the Tabernacle and Temple. But that blood was never able, nor was it ever intended, to cleanse man from their sin. All those unblemished animals that were offered as sacrifices were only symbolic.
Hebrews 10:4 reads, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” But in the shedding of His blood, according to Hebrews 10:10… “we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” In other words, because Christ endured the just punishment for our sin on the cross, through faith we are accredited His perfect righteousness to our spiritual account. Therefore, we have been set apart for holiness, and we are completely forgiven, as our unimaginably high sin debt is eternally erased. His death redeems and forgives those who believe. You see, His blood shed on the cross of Calvary frees believers from sin and all its guilt, condemnation, bondage, power, penalty, and on one glorious day, they will be set from for sin’s presence forever. That’s what Paul means when he says we are redeemed and forgiven.
Its tragic when so many Christians are depressed about their shortcomings and act as if God still holds their sin against them. John Calvin, the great Reformer, said in preaching on this very text that “God puts our sins out of His remembrance and drowns them in the depths of the sea, and moreover, receives the payment that was offered him in the person of His only Son.” The Scriptures themselves sing in glorious harmony with Calvin’s thought.
Psalm 103:12… “As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.”
Isaiah 44:22… “I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud And your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.”
Jeremiah 31:34… “ for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
Micah 7:19… “He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities under foot. Yes, You will cast all their sins Into the depths of the sea.”
Only through faith in Christ are you redeemed and totally forgiven. 1 John 1:9 reads, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Settling this one truth in your heart is far beyond anything positive thinking, therapy, or modern psychology can ever offer you. It is complete, extending to the conscious and unconscious sins in your life. Every sin you have ever committed, and every command you have neglected to obey can be completely forgiven, because Christ Jesus bled and died in your place.
But apart from trusting in Christ as Lord and Savior, you simply stand condemned. Condemned by your sinful choices, your hardened heart, darkened in your understanding, without any hope, you are simply a child of wrath.
Maybe you are here this morning, and you’re sitting there thinking… that’s sounds a lot like me. Perhaps, you’ve never experienced such wonderful hope. In your heart, you know that you are a sinner, and your sin has caused you and others so much heartache over the years. Perhaps, your feeling exhausted this morning, being weighed down by the heavy chains of your enslavement to sin. If that’s you…. and you are longing to be set free, will just look to the cross and rest in knowing Christ died for you. Put your faith in Him, turn away from you sinful and selfish ways, and start walking in both joyful obedience to His commands!
Oh sinner, don’t delay for there truly is no promise of tomorrow. Today, can be the day you experience His redemption and forgiveness. The chains can be broken and you can be set free! Will you trust Him, will you believe in His Word and follow Christ’s perfect example? If you want to talk about, know that I am available after the service, just come find me and tell me that you would like to talk about it. For I would love to tell you more about how you can be redeemed and forgiven.
2) In Christ believers are lavished with the riches of God’s grace (vs. 7b-8a).
The beautiful language Paul uses at the end of verse 7 and the beginning of verse 8 demands our attention. Notice what Paul says that our redemption and forgiveness that have been purchased by the blood of the lamb are, “according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.” Surely, every true believer will desire to pause and marvel over these words. Certainly, as the apostle wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he expected his readers to meditate upon this truth, to pray over it, and think about this phrase until their hearts were gripped by His amazing grace.
Just think about how Paul got to this point: In just a few relatively short verses the apostle has reminded believers that they have been chosen by God, predestined to be adopted in His family as Sons. They also have been redeemed and forgiven of the their sin. But He can’t leave it there and move on to his next point without asking the question: What is it, what is it that makes all these wonderful things possible? The answer, as it always and forever must be, is “the riches of His grace.”
Over and over again, Paul routinely coming back to the theme of God’s grace. In verse 3, the apostle reminded us that we are graciously blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. In verse 6, as part of his whole statement of verses 3-6, where Paul was looking at man’s salvation from the Father’s role, he simply calls on us to praise God for the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” And now in verses 7 ad 8 he quickly returns to the unmeasurable riches of God’s grace.
This is obviously one of the apostle’s favorite topics. Look again to chapter 2. Eph 2:4-5… he wrote, “But God being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” And notice verse 7, “so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Now look at chapter 3:8… “To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ.” This theme obviously filled the apostle’s heart and mind and shaped his very life. Remember Paul is writing this letter from a lonely and dark jail cell. He’s literally imprisoned and yet he can’t help but constantly reflect and speak of the riches of God’s grace that have been lavished upon him.
Listen the riches of God’s grace are as large, and as great, and as profound as God Himself. They are unending and inexhaustible. So whatever trial, trouble, or test you are facing today, no matter how big it may seem, God has overly abundant grace to meet your need. Just meditate if you will on Romans 8:32… “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things.”
Sadly, we so often get overwhelmed with our hardships, temptations, sin, and suffering. These things can easily become so large that they literally eclipse God and His grace from our view. And when that happens, we can quickly grow discouraged, depressed, and defeated. All because we are unable to see the abundance of God’s grace around us. Oh how we need to remember Romans 5:20, what a great verse, “The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” Think about that… oh how great a sinner you are, you know your heart, you know your sinful thoughts, you know who you are when no one else is around, and God says as great as a sin problem that you face, my grace is greater still. Oh the unmeasurable limits of God’s love and grace towards His children that He has lavished on us.
Here is Eph. 1, Paul models for us the importance of reminding ourselves to keep our eyes on the cross, so that whatever we may face, our hearts will be warmed by the overwhelming love and grace of God. Paul experienced difficulties, suffering, and persecution that we may never endure… but he never allowed those hardships to keep him from marveling over the grace of God.
Brothers and sisters, the only way Paul could ever model such spiritual maturity is because he kept his eyes on the cross. You see Paul didn’t just add a little Jesus to is life when he became a Christian. He didn’t just go to church or attend a bible study. No, Jesus was his life. Christ literally became the centerpiece that everything in his life orbited around.
You see, the cross of Christ and Paul’s encounter with the resurrected Jesus radically transformed everything about the apostle’s life, to the degree that God’s love and the riches of His grace overwhelmed every challenge he faced. In fact, the afflictions Paul endured only made the grace of God more amazing and real. Martin Luther, who likewise endured trial after trial concluded this… “Affliction is the best book in my library.” In other words, those trials that we would rather avoid, are often the means in which God will most clearly reveal the riches of His grace, mercy, and love to us.
Oh, that the Holy Spirit would do such a work in our hearts! That He would graciously remind us that in Christ, we more than conquerors. But listen, the spirit always works in tandem with the Word of God. You see the Bible is the bank book of God’s grace. So, if you want to experience such confidence in the riches of God’s grace, we must do more than merely pray and hope that the Holy Spirit would do such a work. No, we must hide God’s Word in our heart, and keep our minds saturated with the word, and humbly and prayerfully beg the Spirit of God to keep us mindful of God’s Word and grace. In Christ, we are lavished with grace upon grace upon grace!
3) In Christ believers are blessed with the gift of spiritual discernment (v. 8b-9a).
Through our redemption, notice we are gifted spiritual discernment through “wisdom and insight.” Paul writes in verse 8-9… “In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will.” The English text here leads us to believe that in God’s own wisdom and insight, He made known His will. But that is not the idea expressed here at all. What is meant is that along with redemption, forgiveness, and grace, God has also given us the spiritual gifts of “wisdom and insight.”
The Greek word wisdom emphasizes understanding of the ultimate things of life such as life and death, God and man, righteousness and sin, and heaven and hell. It’s the knowledge which sees to the very heart of things, which knows them as they really are. Insight, on the other hand, emphasizes practical understanding, comprehension of true needs, problem solving, and principles for everyday living. As redeemed sinners living in a fallen world, oh how desperate we are for both, so that we can discern that which is true from that which is almost true or that which is ridiculously false. Oh, how we need both wisdom and insight so we can lovingly and boldly take a stand for truth in a world that rarely makes any sense.
Yet notice in our text, that God has made clear the mystery of His will. In the New Testament a mystery is not so much characterized by intrigue or complexity, as it is by timing. You see a mystery in the NT is simply a truth once hidden that is now revealed. It refers to something that could not be fully seen before but has now been revealed and made abundantly clear. Therefore, when the apostle Paul says that a mystery has been “made known,” he implies that what the prophets and people of the Old Testament had long anticipated has now been revealed in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus is the key to unlocking all the mysteries of God. All the sacrifices offered in the Old Testament pointed us to Him and His cross. All the high priests, judges, prophets, and kings of the Old Testament point us to Him and His ministry and mission to save man from both sin and hell. God’s will, you see, is to secure a people for Himself who will glorify Him with their lives and enjoy Him forever. A people who are redeemed, forgiven, and characterized by spiritual discernment, biblical wisdom and insight.
You know I grew up in a generation where very few of our grandparents and many of our parents never went off to college. And I remember going through middle school and high school how I was constantly encouraged to go to college. They did everything they could to scare us into continuing our education. And so, most of my generation seemingly went off to college, and I often wonder, are we as a nation better off? I’ll be honest, I’m not sure we are.
Because as we as a nation embraced higher education as our hope, we slowly walked away from our strong moral and biblical convictions that shaped and defined the generations that came before us. You see the influence and wisdom of the Bible was gradually replaced with the influence and wisdom of science, psychology, sociology, and justice. We essentially traded the wisdom of God, for the wisdom of man. And so, what we see dramatically play out on the news channels that we watch, is nothing but the fruit of that costly exchange.
In our text today, Paul reminds us that God not only redeems, and forgives by taking away the sin that corrupts and distorts our lives, but He also graciously gives us all the necessary equipment to understand God, to know Him, and please Him by living according to His will.
Oh, how God generously gives believers the ability to both understand His Word and obey it. This is a gift from God to those who He has called and chosen. 1 Corinthians 2:14 explains… “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (ESV).
Listen church family, we should not be surprised or shocked by the moral confusion and decay that is so prevalent in this world, for they greatly lack both wisdom and insight. But, we who are in Christ have been lavished with the grace of understanding. And it is our responsibility to grow in that wisdom and insight by reading the scriptures, hiding it in our heart, and teaching it to our families and friends.
But James also reminds us that wisdom is something we must ask God for. James 1:5… “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” True wisdom and insight, true spiritual discernment, are ultimately gifts that God blesses us with, but we must also understand that God’s Word is a gift of wisdom and insight that He has graced us with to read, study, meditate, and memorize. You want to be wise: pray for wisdom, read the Word, believe it, let it humble you, hang out with people who know it well, study it with them, learn to treasure it, and joyfully obey it.
4) In Christ believers have hope when the world seems out of control (v. 9b-10).
The last part of verse 9 through verse 10 explain why God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. It answers the massive why question to everything we have studied in this passage and will study for the upcoming weeks. Why has God done so much for us, who apart from His grace are dead in our sins and enemies to His kingdom?
Notice the answer given. God redeems men and women in order that Christ may gather everything to Himself. This is part of the mystery of His will, that according to the His good, and kind intention, He designed a plan before the foundation of the world, to have all believers throughout time united in Christ His Son. This is truly the crescendo moment of this run on sentence, this is the highest glorious point.
Notice, this phrase in verse 10 that speaks of the “administration suitable to the fullness of times,” this simply refers to the end of everything, the completion, and consummation of all redemptive history. This fullness of time will certainly come about for everything, no matter how chaotic it may seem, is going perfectly to God’s glorious plan. You see this set time for this glorious gathering of all the saints will be the millennial kingdom, where a new heaven and new earth will be established with a suitable and righteous administration. Though right now things may seem chaotic and completely out of control, we must remember that our God is sovereignly in control of every detail, bringing all things under the Lordship of Christ! That’s where history is heading!!! And oh, what hope that is for us here today!!!
Church, we are now living in a post-Christian America. We as believers are the remnant of what used to be accepted and celebrated in this country. That time has passed, and over the last ten to twenty years, we have gone from being tolerated in our society to becoming more and more hated. It is only a matter of time before the hatred turns to full out persecution.
Your faith, your children’s faith, and your grandchildren’s faith are going to be greatly tested by this world. We are going to be tempted to compromise our faith, our convictions, and our morals. We are already witnessing church after church embrace new ideologies to fit in to our ever-changing culture and make Christianity more accepting of what God has clearly defined as sin. The storms are just now stirring, the worst is surely to come, but now is the time to grip the wheel with both hands, now is the time to hold fast to the Word of God and cling to the hope that we have that our God is sovereignly in control of this age bringing all things to a glorious end in Christ Jesus.
I hope your Bibles are still open, turn with me over to Colossians 1. We began our study with the reading of this parallel passage and its fitting that we end there as well. (Give time for them to turn in their Bibles) Look again with me starting in verse 15 ... “He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation (In other words, He is the premiere one of all creation). For by Him (verse 16) all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities– all things have been created through Him and for Him.” So just so we are clear, Jesus is the beginning of everything, He created it all.
Verse 17, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together,” meaning Christ is the one who sustains everything. Keep reading, verse 18. “He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning , the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him.” Now verse 20, “And through Him to reconcile all things to Himself” Notice, that Paul does not say “all people,” or “all the elect,” but rather the apostle says, “all things” will be reconciled “having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.” Notice church family, how everything is going to come together in Christ. He created it all, He sustains everything, and all things will find its purpose in the Lord. That’s where our chaotic world is going. History is written and directed by its Creator, who will see it through to the fulfillment of His purpose of summing up all things in Christ.
Oh, what a hope we have in Christ. Though our world is radically divided and corrupted, one day believers will experience a sinless environment where we will be fully united in Christ. God will make all things new, and it will forever be good! Let that sink in for a second… For I would dare to say, that there are some people in this room that you don’t really like. They rub you the wrong way, and they frustrate you. But listen, a day is coming when all that will be gone. You won’t ever look around in heaven and so, oh my… what are they doing here… someone made a giant mistake… hey, where is the complaint line, that person doesn’t belong here! He cheated on me, she broke our marriage vows, they sued me. Such thoughts will be completely foreign because we will be completely forgiven and united with Christ.
I believe what many Christians are missing from their walk with God today, is the failure to maintain this vital eternal perspective. We live too much in the moment, and we neglect to reflect on the fact that before time began God set His love toward us, and we fail to look back on the cross to where Christ bled and died for our sin, and we forget to treasure the reality that one day all things in this broken world are going to be made right and new. Puritan John Flavel once wrote, “It is no small comfort to the saints that this world is the worst place that they shall ever be in.” Oh what a hope we have!
But this hope is only for those who are in Christ! This summing up of all things is not some universalistic theology, where God is just going to accept everyone into His kingdom and forgiven them of their sin. No, the hope of God, the hope of heaven, the hope of eternal joy and rest is solely reserved for those who have responded by faith to the gospel message that God has entrusted to the church. Therefore, we must make that message of salvation known to all men and seek to restore that which is broken by sin in the here and now. This is glorious hope to be shared with the lost, not a hope to be hoarded away from those who need it most.
Church family, you are called by God to be a spark light in a very dark world. And we will shine the brightest when we cling to our hope, share it with others, and seek to restore that which has been fractures and broken by our sin. Hard times are coming. We will be misunderstood, hated, and possibly attacked for our faith. But we are not without hope for our great and sovereign God is working all things together for our good. Bring us into perfect unity with Christ and with each other.
Our text today, continues to shed needed light on the believer’s true identity in Christ. The Bible has reminded us that in Christ we are redeemed, forgiven, lavished with grace upon grace, and we have been given spiritual discernment, and a glorious hope. If you are saved and born again, these amazing realties are more real of you than anything you feel or any conclusion that you or others have made of your identity. This is who you are in Christ… may we leave here encouraged to live in light these glorious realties!
Pray with me.
KSW