Ephesians 1:3-6
Supreme Standing before God
Last week we saw in verse 3 that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. And because He has blessed us He is to be praised. The key here is that phrase, “in Christ”. Everything for us is in Christ. All that God is doing is in Christ. Remember that to grasp this book by Paul we must look at it through the lens of what God is doing with Christ. And when we consider what God has done and is doing with us it is always in and through Christ. Today I want us to see two aspects of our supreme standing before God.
Through Christ, God gave us a Spotless Standing (v4)
First of all, through Christ God the Father has given us a Spotless Standing. Notice verse 4, “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.” Those last words are important, “in His sight”. What we are in God’s eyes is ultimately what matters. In other words, where we stand with God is the most important thing in our lives.
The Bible says that people have one of 2 standings with Him. They are either righteous or unrighteous. They are either justified or condemned. They are either safe before God, or they are in danger before Him. They are either in Christ or they are in their sins. All this is to say, people are either saved or lost in their standing before God. There is no other standing. It is that black and white.
Now we know that the Bible is clear when it says that men are condemned before God. They are unrighteous, in their sins, and for that they are in eternal danger from God’s wrath if they were called to give an account for their lives right now.
Paul says here that the Father chose us to be holy and blameless in our standing before Him. Holy is the same word as “saints” in verse 1. It means separate, or set apart. When God separates something it is for the purposes that He has in mind. Temples were set apart from other buildings. Priests were set apart from other men. Sacrificial animals were set apart from other animals. All these who were set apart are said to have been made holy. They were distinguished from the rest for the distinct purposes of God.
Blameless is a word that means spotless, or without blemish. This is a word associated with sacrifice. Before a lamb could be sacrificed in the OT it had to be examined and found spotless, without any defects. Only a perfect lamb could be offered, not a lame lamb. If it had any defects or spots or blemishes it was rejected as unworthy to be offered to God.
We are all spotted, lame, defective, and blemished lambs. Any notion we might have that we could offer a sacrifice to God for our sins should be rejected. Just as a lame lamb would be rejected as an unworthy sacrifice to God, so too are we if we offer our own works to God. There is only one Lamb that God has accepted. It’s the only Lamb He will ever accept. There is no other. Jesus was the Lamb of God (John 1:29) and He was the perfect, sinless sacrifice for sins. Jesus is the One who makes the Church holy and blameless. Paul, when speaking to husbands, says in Ephesians 5:25-27, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”
We get the idea here that holy and blameless is the only acceptable standing for anyone to have if they are going to be in His presence for eternity. And God made this possible through Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, the verse says that God the Father chose us [believers] in Him [Christ] before the creation of the world. You might say that our standing before God at the end of the world was secured before the beginning of the world.
An important part of this verse that causes a lot of controversy in the Church is the statement: “He chose us..” Does God choose us? This verse and many others say He does. But what does it mean that God chose us? That’s a good question.
What we’re talking about here is God’s sovereignty and man’s free will. When we say that God is sovereign it means that He is absolutely free to do whatever He desires to do. By man’s free will I would say most define it something like this, “man has the ability to choose and to do what he wants.”
This is an especially difficult issue when it comes to salvation. Many whom I admire have admitted this.
Questions come into our minds when we begin to think about it. God choose men, or, do men choose God? Or is it both? Is one the cause of the other? In other words, does God choose men because they choose Him first? Or, do men choose God because He chose them first? If God chooses who will be saved, how can He hold men responsible? On the other hand, if men are able to choose God then how do we make sense of all the passages that speak of man’s condition? How do we make sense of what we see in every day life where 2 people can hear the same message and one responds in faith and the other doesn’t?
The word translated as “chose” is the Greek verb “eklego”. It means “to select out”, or “to choose out”, or “to pick out”. The word here is in what is called the aortist tense and the middle voice. This simply means that God when God made His choice, or when He selected out, or picked out, it was entirely by Himself and for Himself. In other words, His decision was totally independent; He considered no one and was counseled by no one. Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but, I chose you.” And, His decision was for Himself, or, for His own set purposes (v9-11).
What does this mean for us today? It means this: First, God chose us before we chose Him. You can say, “I chose Christ” and you would be right. But, before you chose Jesus Christ, the Father chose you before the creation of the world. He had you in mind long before you ever had Him in mind.
What’s more, He chose you for Himself. You belong to Him. His choosing wasn’t pointless, but very purposeful. You were chosen to be holy and blameless in His presence.
In Christ, He gave us Sonship (v5)
Through His Son Jesus, He gave us sonship. Verse 5 says, “In love, He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will”.
Paul is the only one in Scripture who uses the term “adoption”. And things related to our adoption show up throughout Ephesians. Paul mentions our inheritance in verse 14. He mentions our family name in 3:15. And in 4:6 Paul mentions that we have one God and Father.
Now the concept of adoption would be significant to both Jews and Romans. Remember now that Paul was a full-blooded Jew born with Roman citizenship and grew up in Roman city of Tarsus. Adoption was very common in Roman life and Paul would have been familiar with Rome’s laws regarding adoption. And considering he is writing to Ephesus, the most prominent Roman city outside of Rome, Roman adoption would certainly be a great illustration for them to understand what God has done for them.
In Roman adoption, an entire stranger could become a full member of the family and house. There was a unique ritual that was done in the courts to make the adoption legal. There had to be 7 witnesses. A symbolic sale was performed with the use of copper and scales. The biological father would sell his son twice, and then twice buy him back. After the 3rd time he sold his son he did not buy him back. Then the adopting father would go to the Roman magistrate and plead for the adoption. Then the final vindication and the claim from the adopting father would be declared, “I claim this man as my son”.
Barclay describes this point: “Once the process was completed, the adoption was indeed complete. The person who had been adopted would have all the rights of a legitimate son in his new family and he would lose absolutely all his rights he had with his old family. In the eyes of the law he was a new person. So new was he that even all debts and obligations connected with his old family were abolished as if they never existed.” He becomes in the eyes of the law a new person, Unger says he is seen as born into a new family. He assumes the name of the family, and begins to participate in the family as a full member.
The Ephesians would have understood this right away. This is what God had done for them. Through Jesus Christ God had adopted them as sons and they were now full members of God’s household. They were born brand new into His family. Their past would be erased and they would be made brand new. They would have the full rights, privileges, position, inheritance, and standing as fully legitimate sons and daughters.
The Bible says that there is also a future aspect to our adoption. In Romans 8:23 Paul says, “…we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” Paul says that the completion of our adoption will be when we are in our resurrected bodies. The whole goal of salvation is to bring us to Christ-likeness. We grow and mature now in Christ’s character as we have His Spirit inside of us. But the finishing of that likeness is coming with the new physical bodies we will get. Paul said in Philippians 3:20-21, “We eagerly await a Savior from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.”
Supreme Standing before God
Last week we saw in verse 3 that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. And because He has blessed us He is to be praised. The key here is that phrase, “in Christ”. Everything for us is in Christ. All that God is doing is in Christ. Remember that to grasp this book by Paul we must look at it through the lens of what God is doing with Christ. And when we consider what God has done and is doing with us it is always in and through Christ. Today I want us to see two aspects of our supreme standing before God.
Through Christ, God gave us a Spotless Standing (v4)
First of all, through Christ God the Father has given us a Spotless Standing. Notice verse 4, “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.” Those last words are important, “in His sight”. What we are in God’s eyes is ultimately what matters. In other words, where we stand with God is the most important thing in our lives.
The Bible says that people have one of 2 standings with Him. They are either righteous or unrighteous. They are either justified or condemned. They are either safe before God, or they are in danger before Him. They are either in Christ or they are in their sins. All this is to say, people are either saved or lost in their standing before God. There is no other standing. It is that black and white.
Now we know that the Bible is clear when it says that men are condemned before God. They are unrighteous, in their sins, and for that they are in eternal danger from God’s wrath if they were called to give an account for their lives right now.
Paul says here that the Father chose us to be holy and blameless in our standing before Him. Holy is the same word as “saints” in verse 1. It means separate, or set apart. When God separates something it is for the purposes that He has in mind. Temples were set apart from other buildings. Priests were set apart from other men. Sacrificial animals were set apart from other animals. All these who were set apart are said to have been made holy. They were distinguished from the rest for the distinct purposes of God.
Blameless is a word that means spotless, or without blemish. This is a word associated with sacrifice. Before a lamb could be sacrificed in the OT it had to be examined and found spotless, without any defects. Only a perfect lamb could be offered, not a lame lamb. If it had any defects or spots or blemishes it was rejected as unworthy to be offered to God.
We are all spotted, lame, defective, and blemished lambs. Any notion we might have that we could offer a sacrifice to God for our sins should be rejected. Just as a lame lamb would be rejected as an unworthy sacrifice to God, so too are we if we offer our own works to God. There is only one Lamb that God has accepted. It’s the only Lamb He will ever accept. There is no other. Jesus was the Lamb of God (John 1:29) and He was the perfect, sinless sacrifice for sins. Jesus is the One who makes the Church holy and blameless. Paul, when speaking to husbands, says in Ephesians 5:25-27, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”
We get the idea here that holy and blameless is the only acceptable standing for anyone to have if they are going to be in His presence for eternity. And God made this possible through Jesus Christ. As a matter of fact, the verse says that God the Father chose us [believers] in Him [Christ] before the creation of the world. You might say that our standing before God at the end of the world was secured before the beginning of the world.
An important part of this verse that causes a lot of controversy in the Church is the statement: “He chose us..” Does God choose us? This verse and many others say He does. But what does it mean that God chose us? That’s a good question.
What we’re talking about here is God’s sovereignty and man’s free will. When we say that God is sovereign it means that He is absolutely free to do whatever He desires to do. By man’s free will I would say most define it something like this, “man has the ability to choose and to do what he wants.”
This is an especially difficult issue when it comes to salvation. Many whom I admire have admitted this.
Questions come into our minds when we begin to think about it. God choose men, or, do men choose God? Or is it both? Is one the cause of the other? In other words, does God choose men because they choose Him first? Or, do men choose God because He chose them first? If God chooses who will be saved, how can He hold men responsible? On the other hand, if men are able to choose God then how do we make sense of all the passages that speak of man’s condition? How do we make sense of what we see in every day life where 2 people can hear the same message and one responds in faith and the other doesn’t?
The word translated as “chose” is the Greek verb “eklego”. It means “to select out”, or “to choose out”, or “to pick out”. The word here is in what is called the aortist tense and the middle voice. This simply means that God when God made His choice, or when He selected out, or picked out, it was entirely by Himself and for Himself. In other words, His decision was totally independent; He considered no one and was counseled by no one. Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but, I chose you.” And, His decision was for Himself, or, for His own set purposes (v9-11).
What does this mean for us today? It means this: First, God chose us before we chose Him. You can say, “I chose Christ” and you would be right. But, before you chose Jesus Christ, the Father chose you before the creation of the world. He had you in mind long before you ever had Him in mind.
What’s more, He chose you for Himself. You belong to Him. His choosing wasn’t pointless, but very purposeful. You were chosen to be holy and blameless in His presence.
In Christ, He gave us Sonship (v5)
Through His Son Jesus, He gave us sonship. Verse 5 says, “In love, He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will”.
Paul is the only one in Scripture who uses the term “adoption”. And things related to our adoption show up throughout Ephesians. Paul mentions our inheritance in verse 14. He mentions our family name in 3:15. And in 4:6 Paul mentions that we have one God and Father.
Now the concept of adoption would be significant to both Jews and Romans. Remember now that Paul was a full-blooded Jew born with Roman citizenship and grew up in Roman city of Tarsus. Adoption was very common in Roman life and Paul would have been familiar with Rome’s laws regarding adoption. And considering he is writing to Ephesus, the most prominent Roman city outside of Rome, Roman adoption would certainly be a great illustration for them to understand what God has done for them.
In Roman adoption, an entire stranger could become a full member of the family and house. There was a unique ritual that was done in the courts to make the adoption legal. There had to be 7 witnesses. A symbolic sale was performed with the use of copper and scales. The biological father would sell his son twice, and then twice buy him back. After the 3rd time he sold his son he did not buy him back. Then the adopting father would go to the Roman magistrate and plead for the adoption. Then the final vindication and the claim from the adopting father would be declared, “I claim this man as my son”.
Barclay describes this point: “Once the process was completed, the adoption was indeed complete. The person who had been adopted would have all the rights of a legitimate son in his new family and he would lose absolutely all his rights he had with his old family. In the eyes of the law he was a new person. So new was he that even all debts and obligations connected with his old family were abolished as if they never existed.” He becomes in the eyes of the law a new person, Unger says he is seen as born into a new family. He assumes the name of the family, and begins to participate in the family as a full member.
The Ephesians would have understood this right away. This is what God had done for them. Through Jesus Christ God had adopted them as sons and they were now full members of God’s household. They were born brand new into His family. Their past would be erased and they would be made brand new. They would have the full rights, privileges, position, inheritance, and standing as fully legitimate sons and daughters.
The Bible says that there is also a future aspect to our adoption. In Romans 8:23 Paul says, “…we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” Paul says that the completion of our adoption will be when we are in our resurrected bodies. The whole goal of salvation is to bring us to Christ-likeness. We grow and mature now in Christ’s character as we have His Spirit inside of us. But the finishing of that likeness is coming with the new physical bodies we will get. Paul said in Philippians 3:20-21, “We eagerly await a Savior from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables Him to bring everything under His control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body.”
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