Ephesians 1:3-14
God Has Filled YOU With Every Spiritual Blessing
1. He chose YOU to be blameless
2. He chose to make YOU blameless
3. He chose to reveal his plan to YOU
4. He chose to make YOU a believer
July 30, 2006
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. (NIV)
It’s a familiar scene at a baseball game. A huge group of kids gathers by the fence separating the playing field from the stands and called out for players to sign autographs for them. Some of the players completely ignore the kids and kept right on walking. A few may even laugh at the kids and keep on walking. Some look as they would liketo sign autographs, but then decided not to bother, because they didn't want to have to stand there and give an autograph to every last kid. But then one player comes over and gives an autograph to every...last...kid. By the time he was done, it probably seemed as if he had signed his name for the whole world.
And that was an exciting moment for those kids. Because when they walked away, they had an autograph of an actual major league baseball player.
And yet was it really a very personal experience? Think about what actually happened. The kid put a piece of paper in the player’s face, eventually the player grabbed it as just one of many pieces of paper, he scribbled his name on it--probably without even looking at the kid, and he went on to the next one. If a kid walked up to the player 2 minutes later, he wouldn't have had any idea whether he had signed an autograph for that kid or not. After all, there were so many kids, and who had time to pay attention to one individual face?
Now I don't say this for the purpose of criticizing the ballplayer who actually takes the time to sign autographs. The reason I say this, though, is that I think the devil can tempt us to feel that God treats us much the same way. The devil can do this to us when we read passages like, "For God so loved the world that he gave..." Or he can use a passage that says that God was reconciling the world unto himself.
And we kind of picture God to be like that ballplayer--furiously, carelessly signing slips of paper forgiving us, never looking up, then moving on to the next one. It's nice of him, but it's not very personal. All we seem to be is one of the billions of people who make up "the world." We feel like one of the nameless, faceless crowd. We wonder if we don't get lost in God's shuffle.
Our text today is a good reminder of just how specially God views each one of us and just how much of a personal interest he took in each one of us and our salvation. If you happen to have a copy of the sermon and you look at the theme and parts, you’ll notice that I emphasized the word "YOU." That's because I want you to be a little selfish for the next few minutes. I don't want you to think about how God saved you--and the rest of the people sitting in this building. I don't even want you to think about God saved you--and the person sitting right next to you. I want you to just think about yourself, your situation, and what God chose to do about YOU. (If you want, you can even think your own name whenever you hear me say "you"--and you'll hear it a lot.) If you do that, you will agree with Paul that God has filled you with every spiritual blessing. What you will see is that first, God chose YOU to be blameless. Second, he made YOU blameless. Third, he revealed his plan specifically to YOU. Finally, he made YOU believe that plan, he sent his Holy Spirit to YOU to make you a believer.
1. He chose YOU to be blameless
First, God chose you to be blameless. Paul says almost these exact words in verse 4, when he writes, "For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight." Before God even created the world, God decided that he wanted you to share eternity with him. God knew that he wanted you to be with him forever.
This is hard for us to understand how God could have done this even before the creation of the world--before the matter from which we would come even existed. But if God could "know us before he formed us in the womb"--as he told Jeremiah (1:5), then he could also know us before he formed the heavens and the earth.
God didn't one day look up like some baseball player and realize that he was surrounded by people--including you--who needed to be with him in heaven. God had a plan for you--God knew you--before you--or your parents--or anyone--was even born.
So God chose you to be "holy and blameless in his sight." Why did God choose you for this? Because God is a holy God, a God who cannot tolerate sin, a God who cannot have any connection with sin. For you to be with God for all eternity, you would have to be holy, blameless. Perfect.
2. He chose to make YOU blameless
But there soon was a problem, wasn't there? Soon after God created Adam and Eve to be holy and blameless in his sight, they went against God's plan, and they became full of unholiness and full of blame in God's sight. And every human being born since has repeated Adam and Eve's rebellion.
God's all-knowing eyes look at every human being, and they see sin. And a holy God and righteous God cannot tolerate that. God must remove sin from his presence. A holy and righteous God punishes sinners forever in hell.
And that's you. You broke God's law. You disobeyed God's commands. You made yourself unholy, sinful, and repugnant to God's eyes. You lost your temper, you broke God's laws because no one was around and no one would ever find out. But you didn't think about God's all-seeing eyes. You told jokes that involved God that you shouldn't have told, reasoning that no one would really be offended anyway. And kids, you broke God's law, too. You failed to honor your parents when they told you to clean up your room before you went outside. You failed to love your neighbor as yourself when you hit someone or gossiped about them at school.
You ruined God's plan for you to be holy and blameless and to share forever with him.
But not only did God choose you to be blameless, God also made you blameless. Paul writes that "In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ."
It’s no surprised to realize that we are not God’s sons and daughters on our own. After all, sons and daughters bear some resemblance to their parents, and our sinfulness meant that you bore no resemblance to God. To get into God’s family, you would need to be adopted.
But the cost of adoption was high. God chose you to be adopted "through Jesus Christ." (And be sure to note how often Paul refers to Jesus in this reading--about 10 times. Jesus is so central to all of this that Paul is hardly able to write even one verse without referring to Jesus' role in all of this.) God sent Jesus to live and even die in YOUR place. Paul writes that you have "redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins." And the word Paul uses here for forgiveness of sins has the idea of completely removing sins so that they no longer come into consideration. Or, as Micah says, your iniquities have been hurled into the depths of the sea (7:19). They are gone, never to return, never to be seen again. The only way the all-knowing eyes of God could look at you and see you as holy and blameless was if he saw Jesus' perfect life as yours. Only if he sent his one and only REAL son to suffer and die a horrible death could the sins of his ADOPTED sons and daughters be taken away, be forgiven.
Who would sacrifice their son in order to be able to adopt a son? God would. God loved YOU enough to do this. God sacrificed his one and only Son so you could be holy and blameless, so you could share heaven with him.
Is it any wonder that Paul says that God has "lavished" the riches of his grace, of his undeserved love upon us? The word Paul uses here for “lavished” really pictures you as a container. The contents have been stomped down to fit in even more grace, more riches. And still you're filled to the top. And still God is pouring his grace into you. The riches of God's grace spill out of, spill around you.
3. He chose to reveal his plan to YOU
But still God keeps on pouring. He pours “wisdom and understanding”upon you. God knows you don't have wisdom and understanding on your own. God knew that you wouldn't know how to become holy and blameless in his sight on your own. God knew that you would foolishly hope that God would look at you and decide that you were "holy enough." Or that you'd try to distract God's all-seeing eyes from your sins by doing some things that you thought were good. God knew that instead of "putting on the robe of Christ's righteousness" you would create some tattered rags of your own.
And so God gave you wisdom and understanding by revealing his plan of salvation to you, by showing you the "mystery of his will." Why is it a mystery? Because you could never have solved the mystery of holiness and blamelessness on your own. You could never have solved the mystery of how to get rid of your sin on your own. You never would have dared to think, "Maybe God will send his real Son to suffer and die in my place so that I can become his adopted son."
So God made it known to you. Not only did he give you the words of the Old Testament prophets about the coming Messiah--words that would have been enough, for if a promise of God is recorded, do we really need to have the fulfillment recorded? For God always keeps his promises--but not only did God preserve the words of the Old Testament prophets for you, but he also gave us the words of the gospels, a record of the words and acts of that Messiah. The mystery is no mystery at all to you. God has clearly laid out his plan of salvation for you so that even a preschooler can understand it--Jesus died for YOUR sins. Your sins are forgiven.
Not only did God make sure the solution to that mystery was out there in the world, not only did God reveal the mystery, but God actually brought that solution to you. He made sure YOU knew about it. Maybe he gave you parents who told you about it. Maybe he gave you a spouse who told you about it. Maybe he made you pick up a magazine that told you about it. Whatever the way you found out, it was one more example of how God lavishes his grace on you. It was one more example of how God made everything happen "in accordance with his pleasure and will."
4. He chose to make YOU a believer
But you are by nature a stubborn, stubborn person—especially when it comes to the things and the wisdom of God. And God knew that. So God not only chose you to be holy and blameless, God not only chose to MAKE you holy and blameless, God not only chose to reveal the mystery of how he accomplished this to you, but God also chose you to believe this.
God sent his Holy Spirit to work faith in your proud and stubborn heart.
By now it should have become clear to you that God did not take an impersonal role in your salvation. God does not have to look at his list and say, "Paul Rutschow? Huh, I guess I saved him, too. Well, who can remember? There were so many. I don't know. Sure, I suppose he must be saved, too. Next!"" God did not save you like a baseball player signs autographs, not even looking you in the eye. Instead, God looked you in the eye before YOU even knew he existed--before you even had eyes! God looked at YOU, and he chose you, he predestined you to receive every spiritual blessing
And God continues to take a personal interest in you and your faith today. Just as God worked everything out in conformity with the purpose of his will so that Jesus paid for your sins, you heard about this, and the Holy Spirit worked faith in your heart, so also will God continue to bless you spiritually. For his Holy Spirit has not worked faith in your heart and then moved on. Paul says that the promised Holy Spirit, a blessing from heaven, is there as a deposit guaranteeing that you will receive every blessing from heaven. The Holy Spirit is in you, as earnest money, guaranteeing your inheritance (as Jesus says in Matthew [25:34], "the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world"--God even prepared heaven for you since the beginning of time!), guaranteeing that as God's adopted son or daughter, you will soon receive what God has wanted and planned for you all along--eternity with him in heaven. Praise be to the God and Father of your Lord Jesus Christ! For he has blessed YOU with every spiritual blessing! Amen.