[This year, the little Bible study group that meets around our kitchen table will be working  through The Wiersbe Bible Study Series, “EPHESIANS: Gaining The Things That Money Can’t Buy,” by Warren Wiersbe, published by David C. Cook, 2008.

I pray this new series of reflections will (again) be a blessing and encouragement that reaches far beyond our kitchen table.]

. . .

BACKGROUND (pp 7-8):

the author – – “Paul (originally Saul, Acts 7:58), served GOD as a faithful rabbi.  He was a strong-minded Jew, led an anti-Christian movement in Jerusalem, but was arrested by JESUS CHRIST and converted, receiving a new assignment from GOD to be an apostle to the Gentiles.”  In approximately AD 53, Paul ministered in Ephesus.  About two years later, he visited again, staying for two years to establish a strong local church.  At some point between AD 65 and AD 67, nearly ten years after his visit, he wrote this letter to the believers in Ephesus.

the saints in Ephesus – – “Saint” is simply one of the many terms used in the NT to describe “one who has trusted JESUS CHRIST as Savior, alive physically as well as spiritually.”  For those who believe in JESUS, “faith and grace go together, because the only way to experience grace is through faith.”

the purpose – – “Paul examines the source of our blessing, the scope of our blessings, and the sphere of our blessings, the Christian’s riches in CHRIST.  Paul’s writing about wealth would be significant to his readers, because Ephesus was considered the bank of Asia, center of idolatrous worship, but also a depository for wealth.”  Paul’s writings would have offered a very different perspective about wealth, shifting the believer’s focus to the riches we have in CHRIST.  “Paul compares the church of JESUS CHRIST to a temple and explains the great wealth that CHRIST has in His church.”

. . .

KEY TAKEAWAYS from LESSON ONE – Ephesians 1:1-14

ADOPTION: 

When we are adopted by GOD, we are claimed as His child, brought into His family, loved and provided for, given His Name, and granted siblings who are also His children (as well as spiritual ancestors).  

Unlike an earthly adoption when there is likely no prior connection or blood relation between the adoptive parent and child, we are all GOD’s creation.  We belonged to Him first, so the concept of redemption (purchasing back, restoring rightful ownership) is included.  It is also staggering to imagine that our inheritance as true sons and daughters was planned for us by GOD (alongside redemption) since before the foundation of the world.

Before we were adopted by GOD, we were fatherless, destitute, hopeless.  After being adopted into GOD’s family, we have a Father, riches, the inheritance intended for His Son that is now also reserved for us – though undeserved, CHRIST died to give us equal blessing.

As adopted children of GOD, we now enjoy: restoration, forgiveness, salvation, a renewed mind, the gift of the Holy Spirit, peace, and a change in our responses/reactions (He gives us a new nature; He puts His Spirit in us to convict, comfort, and guide us).

Along with fellow members of GOD’s family, we also look forward expectantly to all that has not yet been accomplished: resurrection, new glorified bodies, joy of no more suffering, no more broken world, future glory, stepping into the place prepared for us in our Father’s house, welcomed Home to stay, enjoying face-to-face interaction with GOD the Father and CHRIST our Brother, freedom from the wrestle with self (our divided hearts) and the enemy (relentlessly accusing/attacking us).

These realities of both the now and not yet should drive away any fear and fill us with gratefulness!!  He is the great I AM (almighty, sovereign GOD) and we are His children!  No one/nothing can pluck us from His hand!

ELECTION:

It was always GOD’s choice to create us, to provide redemption for us through His Son.  Knowing we would rebel against our Creator, that we would be incapable on our own of reaching for Him or of finding a path of reconciliation to the Father, He provided one.  His driving force from before time began has always been redemption, to be able to reclaim us as His own, to welcome us into His forever family, to give us His Name, to love and care for us like no other.  He chose us; praise GOD He gave us hearts to choose Him in return.

A very strict interpretation of “election” makes it sound like an act of GOD alone, that we have no impact on our fate, that it is His choosing alone and His prerogative (which is fully His right!).  But He longs for us to choose Him, to hunger to know Him, to reach for His salvation to be reconciled to Him.  He calls “whosoever will” to come to Him.  Those verses would not be in Scripture if we did not have the choice to accept or reject Him.  

It is important to wrestle out what we know of the heart and mind of GOD – based on the eternally unchanging, indisputable Word of GOD.  We need to acknowledge that He is GOD and we are not, acknowledge our need of the Savior, and appreciate the full depth of gratitude we owe Him for our redemption!

It was always His plan to redeem us.  We can confidently say He chose us!  He works to pursue hearts, to grant the ability for those hearts to hear and receive the truth.  But He has also granted us free will, so not all whom He has chosen will choose Him in return.  As it has been said, we enter through a doorway that says “whosover will” and look back from the other side to see “chosen before the foundation of the world” (William MacDonald).

D L Moody puts it this way: “the whosoever wills are elect; the whosoever won’ts are not.”

GOD is very patient, waiting (out of love) for hold-outs to choose Him.

A few Scriptures to read more:

John 3:18 – unbelief condemns the unsaved

John 3:16-17 – whosoever believes in Him will have everlasting life

John 10:23, 6:26 – He calls His sheep by name; they hear and come

Isaiah 49:6-7 – His people were to be a light to the Gentiles, chosen to take that light to others

Galatians 3:26, 4:6 – we are sons of GOD because of faith, the Spirit of His Son crying Abba Father

Mark 16:15 – GOD’s will: “go into all the world and preach the gospel” 

2 Peter 3:9 – He is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance

We may not fully understand all the ways of GOD (that’s mystery), but His Word tells us to spread the Good News, to make disciples.  He says ‘go’, we go (that’s obedience – immediate and complete, asking no questions), leaving the results up to Him (that’s acknowledging His sovereignty).

MYSTERY and GLORY:

Through CHRIST, GOD has revealed His plan to bring unity, to bring everything together under the authority of His Son, that all who believe in CHRIST will bring praise and glory to GOD (just like JESUS does).  His purpose is that we will know Him and make Him known, to tell others the Good News of salvation, to lead others to faith in CHRIST.  As we each come to know Him, our hearts will respond in due praise and glory to Him!

We don’t set the parameters for the “inner circle” – He does!  He welcomes all to come to Him: “whosoever will, may come”!  The only barrier is man’s insistence on his own way.

All of Israel and all of the Church receive the same blessings.  We are all one in CHRIST.

Our GOD is a jealous GOD – He can’t share His glory with anyone else.  We are His own special possession.  He is jealous for our hearts, not wanting us to place our confidence or affections on anyone or anything that will eventually fail us (He never will!).  His purpose for us is echoed through this passage (v 6, 12, 14): that our lives will be to the praise of His glory, just like His Son always honored the Father and gave glory to Him.

UNSPEAKABLE (and UNTOUCHABLE) RICHES:

Starting in verse 3 (and sprinkled through this whole passage), Paul reminds believers of the spiritual blessings we have in CHRIST: salvation, forgiveness, unconditional love, the seal of the Holy Spirit, adoption, an eternal inheritance, a place secured for us, seated with CHRIST in heavenly places.

Our place reserved “in heavenly places” is as good as accomplished in GOD’s eyes (He stands outside of time), but falls in the “not yet” for us in an earthly sense.  A cross-reference from one of Paul’s other letters helps us see how we can tap into an eternal perspective when facing earthly challenges:  

We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing great treasure.  This makes it clear that our great power is from GOD, not from ourselves.  We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed.  We are perplexed but not driven to despair.  We are hunted down, but never abandoned by GOD.  We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.  (2 Corinthians 4:7-9)

What we truly hold dear (every good and perfect gift from GOD) is never in jeopardy.

These are all things money can’t buy – freely available to all believers, materially poor or wealthy.  We can do nothing to earn them and nothing to lose them!

“He wrote us into His will, then died so the will would be in force.  He rose again that He might become the heavenly Advocate (lawyer) to make sure the terms of the will were correctly followed!” (W. Wiersbe, pp 13-14)

ONE BEAUTIFUL CLOSING THOUGHT:

The 3^rd step prayer from AA offers a wonderful example of a heart touched by the gospel and yielded to the GOD’s work in the life of a believer who understands that anything good is from Him, that the next right step is from Him, too:

“LORD, I offer myself to You – to build with me and to do with me at You will.  Relieve me of the bondage to self, that I may better do Your will.  Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help with Your Power, Your Love, and Your way of Life.  May I do Your will always!”