Purchased, Abounding, World-Changing Grace (Ephesians 1:7-10)
Introduction
I learned this week about the Japanese art of Kintsugi, which is the art of repairing broken ceramic pottery with gold. It is quite beautiful. The irony is the fact that the ceramic’s brokenness becomes the very display of its beauty. Like all profound art philosophy drives it. Some of that philosophy is pessimistic and unhelpful. Some of it is true but wrongly framed. But one aspect proves illuminating: the goal is not to hide the damage, but to highlight it. By emphasizing the repair, it increases the vessel’s beauty! Broken earthenware can not only retain its usefulness but be transformed from a common vessel to a work of art. As the artist takes the fragmented pieces of a clay pot and reunites them using precious gold, he displays his skill in this art while taking something that was useless and making it useful again.
This world is fragmented by sin. While it once thrived under the blessing of God, we plunged it into chaos by our transgressions. But God, before he laid the foundations of the world, planned that what would be broken would also be restored. And he purposed that its repair would be in such a way that would highlight the glory of his Son through the reuniting of what was once broken. And thus all of history is a prolonged unfolding of that plan, where God through Jesus Christ is gathering up all the fragmented pieces of the cosmos and reuniting them in Jesus Christ. This is God’s grace.
If Ephesians has any emphasis, it is the saving grace of God. From the very beginning of the letter, Paul wishes “grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph 1:2). All that God does he does to the praise of the glory of his grace (1:6), a grace with which he [literally] “graces” us in the Beloved one. He lavishes the riches of his “grace” on us in the forgiveness of our trespasses (1:7). Thus, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, he has made us alive, saved us, by “grace” (2:5), all so that he might display to us the “immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus” (2:7). Thus, the Apostleship of Paul is an expression of God’s grace (Ch. 3), as well as the gifts which he gives to his church (4:7). All ending in a fitting benediction in 6:24, “Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with incorruptible love.” Grace is God’s saving action. Grace is God in motion to save, God coming to the rescue. It is not God feeling but God acting to save.
And God acts to save in Jesus Christ. That is why, throughout this paragraph, there is the constant refrain “in him,” “in Christ.” He has blessed us in Christ (1:3), chosen us in Christ (1:4), he has adopted us “through” Christ (1:5), And, most apt to what our text is about this morning, he has (1:6, literally) “graced us in the Beloved.” Thus, redemption is in him (1:7), his saving purposes are set forth in him (1:9), all things will be united in him (1:10), our inheritance is in him (1:11), our hope is in him (1:12), we are sealed by the Holy Spirit in him (1:13). God pours out his saving grace, God acts to renew us and the world in Christ.
That is why he shifts from the planning of salvation in eternity past to the execution of his saving work in time through the redeeming work of Christ. God has chosen us before the foundation of the world, apart from any consideration of our works or faith, to be holy before him. He has destined us for sonship, determining to adopt us in his family, all so that we would praise the glory of his grace. And now, God actualizes these plans in history through his saving action in Christ Jesus. What God has planned in eternity past he has now accomplished in the life, death, resurrection, ascension, and promised return of his Son.
In other words, the work of Christ makes the purpose of God a reality in history. And what is that purpose? It is stated most concisely in 1:10, “Unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” Gather up all of creation again, no longer to be the fractured, chaotic, dissonant, broken place it is now, but to be a whole, healed, harmonious place of rest and blessing. In Christ God is pouring out his grace, through which he intends, one day, to gather up the fractured pieces of the cosmos and reunite them under Christ, repairing them through the infinitely valuable sacrifice of his blood, undoing the very thing which broke it in the first place. And this is the planned, purchased, abundant, world-changing grace of God.
And if we can grasp that, it will begin to change our view of the church. The church is not just a nice thing we do on Sunday. It’s not a consumer product that we buy if we like it well enough. It’s not a buffet where you take what you want and leave the rest. It’s not a social club or a psychologist or a conservationist society or a niche market for apple music. It is the beginning of the realization of God’s renewing work through Christ. Which means that, by being part of the church, by entering into fellowship with the people of God, by using our gifts to serve one another, by singing together, by being generous with our wealth, by admonishing one another, and all the rest, we get the amazing privilege of participating in some small way in God’s all-encompassing plan to restore. We get to be included in the wonderful work of God.
As Paul further unfolds these realities, he transitions from eternity past to history, from the plans and intentions of the Father to the accomplished work of the Son. And in so doing, Paul reveals three aspects of God’s grace poured out on us in Christ: The Purchase of Grace, The Profusion of Grace, The Purpose of Grace.
I. The Purchase of Grace (v7)
The first aspect of God’s grace poured out in Jesus Christ is that it is a redemption which has been purchased with Christ’s blood. We have been redeemed from sin by the shedding of his blood. The purchase price of our redemption is the lifeblood of Christ as a substitute for us.
We have redemption in him. What is redemption? It is the payment of a ransom for the purpose of setting free from slavery. The Bible never says to whom this ransom price is paid, because that is not the purpose of the metaphor. Rather, it places great emphasis on the price and on what we are freed from. And what are we freed from?
1. Lawlessness. Titus 2:14 says he “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.”
2. Sin. Romans 6:6, “We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.”
3. Futile ways of living. 1 Peter 1:18 says that “you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”
4. The present evil age. Galatians 1:4, Christ “gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” Also Col 1:13–14, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
The price of our redemption was his blood. That is to say, his bloody, substitutionary death. Blood in the OT was mostly linked to the sacrificial system and was often in the context of substitution. To say that our forgiveness is “through his blood” means that it was through his “sacrificial death.” As Acts 20:28 puts it, he “obtained [the church] with his own blood.” If God’s plan was to adopt us into his family and shower us with all his blessings so that we might bring glory to his name, then he first must free us from sin, from the tyranny of the devil, from this present evil age. And how does he do that? In Christ’s redeeming sacrifice.
That redemption price forgives our sins. Hebrews 9:22 says that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. The wages of sin is death, and thus to be free from sin, the wages must be paid. Thus Christ trades his life for ours and pays the wages of death by forgiving us of our sins. Thus, the forgiveness of our sins sets us free from their power.
It was paid according to the riches of his grace. Perhaps most astounding of all, is that this redemption price was paid “according to the riches of his grace.” God is infinitely wealthy, and infinitely generous. And notice Paul’s specific wording here: he doesn’t forgive us “out of” the riches of his grace, but “according to.” What is the difference? To give “out of” your riches is to give like the wealthy men who only put in a token offering in the temple. To give “according to” your riches is to give like the widow who gave all she had. God paid this price according to the wealth of his grace. That is to say, all that God had, he gave. Which is to say nothing more than he gave his Son. Christ’s life is the ransom price. If he paid this price according to his riches, then the riches of God are summed up in Christ himself.
What does this all have to do with the unifying of everything under Christ? It is through the forgiveness of sins that everything is restored. It’s not just about going to heaven one day. It’s about liberating Adam’s children from their slavery to sin. When Adam transgressed God’s commandment he brought about a curse. So, if you cut off the source of the curse by forgiving transgressions, blessing will return. In other words, the repo man only comes if you haven’t paid your bills. If someone comes and pays your bills for you, the repo man goes away. Paul often talks this way:
Romans 8:19–21: “The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself would be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” When we are freed, creation inherits our freedom.
How we should marvel at God’s grace! It is more than sufficient for our needs, for we have been forgiven “according to the riches of his grace.” What sin have you committed that cannot be paid for by such a wealth? What duty must you do for which you do not have enough grace when this wealth is at your disposal? What grace must you display that he has not freely given to you in the death of his Son?
And how thankful should we be! To see what he has done for us and to remain ungrateful would be either the depth of ignorance or the height of insolence. The height of our praise should correspond to the generosity of God’s gift. And if God has given us that much, surely he can give us all else beside.
II. The Profusion of Grace (vv8–9a)
The second aspect of God’s grace poured out on us in Jesus Christ is that he has caused this purchased grace to abound to us in our experience of salvation. Not only does Christ purchase our redemption in the past, but in the present he then causes this grace to abound to us. What Christ purchased in the past, he gives to us when he saves us.
How much does this reinforce the same point! It is not just that Christ has died for us to redeem us, and it is not just that his death forgives our sin, and not is it just that this corresponds to the infinite riches of his grace, but that he has then taken these blessings and lavished them on us.
Our God is truly a generous God! There is no generosity we can display which can outmatch him. He will always outgive us. The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it! He owns everything you can see, touch, smell, fell, enjoy, reject, and consume. Everything is his. He is infinitely wealthy, infinitely generous, and infinitely concerned with your wellbeing. Don’t you think he’ll give you whatever you need?
Moreover, this says something of the value that God places on us! When a man buys an expensive ring for a woman he wants to marry, he says something about both the value of the ring and his treasuring of the woman. It’s not just that God’s grace came at a high cost—the cost of his Son—but that he then lavished that gift on us, demonstrating that we are valuable to him!
Moreover he has lavished these things on us “in all wisdom and insight.” What does that mean? There are two ways to take that. 1) the wisdom and insight belong to God and are the manner in which he lavishes his grace on us. This is certainly possible, as the giving of his grace would demonstrate how wise and understanding he is. But the more likely understanding of these words is that 2) the wisdom and insight are gifts of his lavish grace to us. That is, not only does he redeem us through Christ’s blood and forgive us of our sins, but he then gives us all the wisdom and understanding we need to really grasp what that means for us. (1 Corinthians 2:10–13).
Redeeming grace doesn’t do you a whole lot of good if you don’t understand it, right? That’s why good evangelism seeks to educate with as much doctrine as possible! The terms overlap significantly but think of wisdom as the theory and insight as the practice. The gift of wisdom helps us to see how things really are, and the gift of insight helps us to know why it matters and what to do about it. And you really need both sides of that. If you know how things are but you don’t know what to do about it, then you’ll get all proud about your knowledge and become puffed up. But if you try to start doing things without understanding the way things are, you’re going to run off in totally irrelevant or unhelpful ways. Another way of saying it is that you need both doctrine and practice. There should be none of us who says, “I’m a doctrine guy, and I don’t really worry about how it intersects with real life.” And there should be none of us who says, “I’m a practice guy and I don’t really care about going deep.”
How did he give us that wisdom and understanding? V9, “by revealing to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure…” God has lavished the grace of redemption in Christ on us. With that redemption he has given us the wisdom and insight in order to understand it and act on it. And he has done all of this by revealing his plan to us.
His plan is also called the “Mystery of his will” is. He defines it in verse 10—literally, “for an administration of the fullness of the times to unite all things in him.” A mystery is very simply a secret counsel of God which he has kept hidden in the past and made known in the present. Paul talks about mystery quite a lot in this book, and we’ll piece it together as we go. But here, the mystery of his will is simply that: God had purposed in eternity past to unite all things in Christ, to restore the world.
And all this was “according to his good pleasure.” He did this because it seemed good to him to do it. Did you know that God never does anything he doesn’t want to do? Nobody can force God to do anything. If someone could, there would be someone else more powerful than God, which means that someone would be God, not God. But that’s not how it works! God always acts according to his good pleasure. In fact, he already mentioned God’s “good pleasure” in 1:5, where he “predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose [i.e., good pleasure] of his will.” It seemed good to him for reasons he hasn’t told us, nor ever will, nor do we need to know.
TRANSITION: So now we understand what it cost and what was purchased—Redemption in his blood—and we know that he has lavishly poured it out upon us with all the gifts and graces we need to properly understand and act on it. What then is the purpose of it all? Why does he pour out his grace? At what is he aiming?
III. The Purpose of Grace (vv9b–10)
The third aspect of God’s grace poured out in Christ is the purposing, or the resolving, of that grace in his plan of salvation. Not only has he purchased grace on our behalf and set us free from sin and liberated us from the curse, and not only has he poured out grace lavishly on us by giving us all the wisdom and insight we need to understand the revelation of the mystery of his will, but he has done this in accord with a great a glorious purpose.
“History is neither meaningless or purposeless” (Stott). It is easy to look at the seemingly random happenings of life and history and conclude that all is chaotic, that there is no unifying or directing force behind it all. Yet, as William Cowper once wrote, “God moves in a mysterious way / his wonders to perform / he guides his footsteps in the sea / and rides upon the storm.” Job struggled with the seemingly purposeless and chaotic suffering that assaulted him. David regularly cried out to the Lord, “How long!?” And so we, when the mysteries of providence break upon the bow of our lives, we are inclined to assume that there is no purpose.
But it is not true. God is at work in all things, purposefully directing all things according to a great and glorious purpose. And that purpose is this: bring all things together under Christ, who will be the head of all. God, according to his good pleasure, “set forth” or, better, “purposed” in Christ a plan which he would administer at the right time, the end of time, to bring all things into a great unity under Christ. In other words, God is directing all things to the great end that his Son would be exalted above all, and by exalting him to renew all that was broken by the fall. He repairs this earthen vessel with the gold of his grace.
Colossians 1:15–20 tell a similar tale: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.” You have the same thought! The one who created all things, the one who sustains all things, the one who is the head of the body, the one who has risen from the dead is preeminent in everything. And he intends to express that preeminence by reconciling all things to himself through his bloody death on a cross.
Deny universalism. What does the unification of all things under Christ mean?
· Perfect unity of believers to himself and to one another.
· The confirmation of holy angels who have not rebelled against him.
· The judgment of Satan and his angels and those who follow them in the lake of fire, righting the world by expelling evil from it.
· The renewal of the created cosmos through the elimination of the sin of redeemed humanity, who will be its renewed head under Christ.
Your life is part of something much bigger than just your life. The church is part of something much bigger than herself. Our salvation is not primarily about us. First, it is about the glory of God in Christ. But then, it is about the renewing of what was ruined by Adam. We spend so much time talking and thinking about “me and my salvation.” This is right and good, but the unintended side-effect of that kind of thinking is that dilution of the full force of God’s saving work. He’s not just saving you. He’s not just saving us. He’s making everything right.
This puts our problems and concerns into perspective. Remember, Paul wrote these words while chained to a Roman soldier and under house arrest. He was abused and beaten, scarred and weathered, bearing death daily in his own body. I would say that he was able to endure those sufferings in large part because his horizons were much boarder than ours. What is some inconvenience now if all things are being brought together under Christ? What is having less if God is a God of infinite generosity? Yet we so easily slip into inordinate preoccupation with our own petty affairs, believing that our own lives are the center of the universe. But they are not. Christ is.
And we know that because God purposed the goal for everything in Christ. He purposed his good pleasure in Christ. He has revealed to us what he kept hidden for ages, he revealed this to us according to his good pleasure, and he concocted his good pleasure in Christ before the foundation of the world. Christ is the center of the universe.
But it is not as though he simply wishes this to happen but then stewards the plan. He sets to work in history, setting all the fullness of the times in order, arranging things just right so that the purpose of his will would come about at the end of history His good pleasure follows a well-ordered plan which is unfolding in history. That’s what it means by “a plan for the fullness of time.” A better translation of verses 9 and 10 might be as follows: “revealing to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him in the administration of the fullness of the times, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
Brothers and sisters, everything is going according to plan. He is putting his purposes into effect. He stewards history. He shepherds all time and events. He watches over the grandest movements of galaxies and solar systems, the friction of international affairs, and the smallest aches and pains of our bodies and souls. As he will say in verse 11, he “works all things according to the counsel of his will.”
He is bringing about the “fullness of the times.” What does that mean? It refers to what all the times add up to, what happens when the bottom of the hourglass is full. It refers to a particular moment in time when all previous times are fulfilled and realize their purpose in this moment. In other words, it refers to Christ’s future earthly Messianic Kingdom. Whatever the fullness of times means, it does not mean right now because everything hasn’t been united under him yet. He has certainly earned that victory, but he has yet to subdue all the fragmented pieces of the world and restore them under him. Thus, it is referring to a future time when Christ is the head of all things and the world is brought into subjection to him and there is lasting peace and rest.
This, of course, was promised in the Old Testament. God promised to David that he would establish his throne forever. Isaish 2 talks about Jerusalem becoming the highest of the mountains, a place of international gathering where the Lord would decide disputes between nations and bring about a lasting international peace. Daniel 2 speaks of this kingdom as a rock not made with human hands which comes and smashes all the other kingdoms of the world. Hosea 3 speaks of a long period of time during which Israel would be without king or priest, after which they would seek David their king and return to the land. Amos 9 speaks of God raising up the fallen booth of David and calling a people out of the nations for his name, after which time, it says, “the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed; the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.”
Jesus discusses the same future coming kingdom in Matthew 24, maintaining the expectation. That expectation he maintained when his disciples asked him, “Lord will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” and he responded “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.” (Acts 1:6–7). And they never let go of that hope! The apostles preach to the people of Israel in Acts 3:19, saying “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, and that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.” So also, Paul, the latecomer, said the same thing. Romans 11:25: “ Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob; and this will be my covenant with them, when I take away their sins. As regards the gospel they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.”
Thus we find it laid down in prophecy in Revelation 20:4: “Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.” And as glorious as that is, it is only a preview of the glorious eternity which follows that kingdom, where we shall reign with him forever and ever. It is a plan for the fullness of the time. God’s greatly desires to submit all things to his Son that he might renew all things through him.
Conclusion
A few concluding thoughts in application of these things.
1. Repent and believe. You who are enslaved to sin may be freed from it by the blood of Jesus. Your sins may be forgiven. I have it on good authority: he will forgive your sins if you come to him and ask. Surely he has sufficient grace to forgive you thoroughly and completely. And surely your soul knows that you need to be forgiven.
2. We ought to be amazed at the scope of God’s work. We have an amazing God who is up to amazing things in the world. Remember, this entire sentence is framed as one long blessing to God. When you dwell on the works of God, what happens in your heart?
3. We ought to be humbled that we are included in this work! Humility is remembering who you really are. Which both means that we should remember who we once were before Christ, and then contrast that with who we now are in his plan.
4. Church is about much more than what we can get out of it. To come to church, to be involved in the work of ministry, is to participate in God’s saving plan of redemption for everything. Which brings great significance to our small acts of prayer, reading the Bible, singing, giving, preaching, fellowship, the Lord’s Supper, and Baptism. We need to stop thinking about church in terms of me and start thinking about it in terms of everything.
5. Thus, we should also have a very high, yet still balanced, sense of importance in relationship to our work for the church. Everyone’s looking to be significant. That’s what Youtube is. That’s what all this sexual revolution stuff is, all the transgender stuff, all the virtue signaling, all the boastful pride of life. We think that all these things will give us a sense of value, a sense of worth, but in reality they only degrade and distract for the only place where true worth and dignity can be found: being swept up in the work of God through Jesus Christ.