EPHESIANS: ETERNALLY ENCLOSED IN GOD’S PLAN

Part IV: Appreciating God’s Current Involvement With Us

(Ephesians 1:15-23)

I. Introduction

A. Paul wrote Ephesians to encourage believers of God’s work to edify the Church regardless what happened to him in his imprisonment (Ryrie St. Bible, KJV, 1978, p. 1672: “Intro. to the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians”).

B. Ephesians 1:15-23 thus offers edifying insight on God’s current massive involvement with every believer:

II. Appreciating God’s Current Involvement With Us, Ephesians 1:15-23.

A. After Paul clarified in Ephesians 1:4-14 the positional spiritual blessings we believers have in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit through our salvation in Christ, Paul expressed thanksgiving to the Lord for hearing of his readers’ faith in God and love for all the saints because this news meant that his readers were truly saved and participants in the Triune God’s positional truths, Ephesians 1:15-16.

B. Going beyond this thanksgiving, Paul stated that he asked God that his readers might be given the wisdom and revelation of really knowing the Lord in their current Christian lives, Ephesians 1:17-18a. Specifically, Paul asked God to reveal to them three marvelous things (as follows), Ephesians 1:18b-23:

1. Paul asked God to reveal what was the future hope of God’s calling of believers, Ephesians 1:18b:

a. When a believer is called of God to trust in Christ through the Gospel, the hope of eternal life presented in that Gospel (cf. John 3:16) involves not only immediate eternal life in the spiritual realm, but the hope of eventual physical eternal life in the rapture by the promise of the sealing of the Holy Spirit, Eph. 1:13-14.

b. Along with this hope of eventual physical eternal life is the hope of attaining a highly valuable heavenly inheritance that will not pass away, Ephesians 1:11 with 1 Peter 1:3-4.

2. Paul asked God to reveal what were the riches of the glory of God’s inheritance in believers, Eph. 1:18b:

a. When believers in Christ are raptured, “God will inherit those whom He has purchased at a great price according to the riches of His grace (v. 7)” (Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 620).

b. In God’s view, every believer in the Church is infinitely valuable to Him due to the infinite price of Christ’s death by which He purchased that believer, and He greatly anticipates obtaining that believer as His personal inheritance when that believer arrives in heaven!

3. Paul asked God to reveal what is the infinite greatness of God’s power toward believers, Eph. 1:19-23:

a. Along with God’s interest in and great value of every believer in Christ, God now extends His immeasurably great power toward each believer during his Christian life and walk, Ephesians 1:19 ESV.

b. This power is in accord with the power God has manifested in three realms, Eph. 1:20-23 (Ibid., p. 621):

i. First, God’s power for the believer is the same power that He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand, Eph. 1:20. It “is the same power available to believers in the present (Phil. 3:10)” as the “source of spiritual vitality, power and strength for living the Christian life!” (Ibid., p. 621) Christ’s heavenly enthronement following His Acts 1:9 ascension to heaven led to God the Father’s placing Him over “every order of authority (cf. Col. 1:16), human and superhuman (cf. Phil. 2:8-11), whether present (in the present Age) or future (the Age to come; cf. 1 Cor. 15:23-28),” Ibid.

ii. Second, God’s power for the believer was seen in His putting all things under Christ’s feet. Where Adam lost his headship over Creation by sinning, Christ was made Head over Creation (Eph. 1:10), to be fully realized in the future (Ps. 8:6; 1 Cor. 15:27; Heb. 2:6-8), Eph. 1:21-22a, Ibid.

iii. Third, God’s power for the believer was seen in His appointment of Christ as Head over the Church, Eph. 1:22b-23a. The Church (universal and local) is Christ’s spiritual body, and it is the fulness of Christ Who fills the whole body in every way with blessing, Ephesians 1:23b; Ibid. Christ gives gifted people to the Church to minister for its edification (cf. Eph. 4:7-12) and He equips those gifted people to minister with His resulting blessing for the body (2 Timothy 1:6-7).

Lesson: We believers in Christ need to appreciate so as to be edified in knowing (1) that our salvation involves not just our current eternal life, but our future physical eternal life along with a great inheritance, (2) that God infinitely values each of us to where He anticipates inheriting us at the rapture (3) and that He extends His infinite power to us for victory in living a godly life and serving Him with blessed productivity.

Application: May we so value God’s involvement with us that we trust Him to live and to serve Him with blessing.