In Verses 1 and 2
Paul salutes the saints at Ephesus and the “faithful in Christ Jesus” with the familiar epistolary salutation—”grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”
These two words, “grace” and “peace,” are found in the opening verses of every one of Paul’s epistles. The order is always the same, grace, then peace; never peace and grace. There is no peace for the depraved human heart until first the grace of God is manifested through His Son Jesus Christ.
“We have peace with God” because we have been “justified by faith” through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1). And having been justified by faith, “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding” keeps our “hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). When the Lord returns to the earth “in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory,” He shall set up His kingdom over the whole earth and then there shall be peace on earth and “good will toward men” (Luke 2:14). But let us ever remember that our present “peace with God,” the “peace of God,” and the future world wide “peace on earth” are resting upon the grace of God which is made known through our Lord Jesus Christ. This is why the Holy Spirit always says, grace and peace and never, peace and grace.
We also call attention to the fact that this “grace” and “peace” flows out “from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” The Son had glory with the Father “before the world was” (John 17:5). He left the glory world and “took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:7-8). It was here that God “made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (II Corinthians 5:21). It was God’s eternal love and grace that brought the Son from heaven’s glory to the cross of Calvary where He bore “our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed” (I Peter 2:24).
This love and grace of God is set forth in the gospel hymn by William R. Newell—
O, the love that drew salvation’s plan,
O, the grace that brought it down to man,
O, the mighty gulf that God did span,
At Calvary.
Mercy there was great and grace was free,
Pardon there was multiplied to me,
There my burdened soul found liberty,
At Calvary.
In Verses 3 to 14
we get a glimpse of the eternal purpose and plan of God which is now being worked out through the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. At the time Paul penned these verses he was suffering untold cruelties of earth, but he was enjoying unlimited visions of heaven. Though he was lodged in a Roman prison, he launches forth into the message of this epistle with the triumphant word “blessed” (verse 3).
The clause, “blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” in verse 3, reminds us of this testimony in II Corinthians 1:3-5—”Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” Paul seems to never forget the blessing and praise that belongs to our God and Father and to our Lord and Savior. Perhaps our prayers would be more far-reaching if they were filled with more praise and gratitude to God for what He has already done, and less begging for things we think He ought to do.
We call your attention to four things about the blessings of verse 3. He “hath blessed us with all … blessings.” They are “spiritual blessings.” They are blessings which belong to the “heavenly places.” And they are blessings which are secured “in Christ.”
Seven of these blessings are dealt with in detail in these verses. They are as follows:
- We were “chosen” in Christ “before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (verse 4).
- God “predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself , according to the good pleasure of His will” (verse 5).
- “He hath made us accepted in the beloved” (verse 6). That is, He hath made us acceptable to Himself by robing us in the righteousness of His own Son.
- He has redeemed us through the blood of His Son by which we have “forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (verse 7).
- He has instructed us “having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself” (verse 9).
- “He has sealed us with the Holy Spirit of promise” until the day of the redemption of our bodies when the church is caught into glory (verse 13).
- Finally, He has enriched us with a specified “inheritance” which will be given unto us when we, “the body, the church” meet our Lord and Head in glory.
As members of the “church, which is the body of Christ,” we are God’s children, or sons (verse 5). This is true because we are in His Son. Our redemption and the forgiveness of our sins is “according to the riches of His grace” and the riches of His grace are “unsearchable” (Ephesians 3:8). Therefore the measure of forgiveness which we enjoy in Christ is the measure of the “unsearchable riches of Christ.” In Christ, we stand “holy and without blame” before God. God cannot see us as we were in Adam, fallen and condemned; but He sees us as we are in Christ, risen and accounted righteous. This reminds us of Colossians 1:21-22—”And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight:”
It is true that “we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:6). Yet, it is also true that we who are saved have been made clean through the blood of Christ and we are now robed in His infinite righteousness. Therefore, we are a new creation and we no longer belong to the fallen race of Adam. Our citizenship is in heaven and our standing before the Heavenly Father is just as perfect as that of His dear Son, because we stand in Him and in His righteousness.
In Verses 15-23
we find the recorded prayer of the apostle Paul to “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory” (verse 17) and for the “saints” of Ephesus and the “faithful in Christ Jesus” (verses 15 to 16 with verse 1). This prayer was prompted in the heart of the apostle by their “faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints” (verses 15 to 16). Therefore, we may expect it to be a prayer of thanksgiving and praise; and one that petitions the favor of God upon the saints.
The burden of all the prayers recorded in the Bible is for the saints and not for the unsaved. The Saviour came into the world “to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10); but when “one of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray,” He taught them to pray for that little Jewish remnant, which the Father had elected to obtain kingdom glory, and not for the blinded multitudes (Luke 11:1-4 and Matthew 6:9-15). When Christ, Himself prayed to the Father, He said, “I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine” (John 17:9).
If we present-day believers would study Paul’s prayers recorded in the text of this lesson, in Ephesians 3:13-21, Philippians 1:8-11, Colossians 1:9-17, I Thessalonians 3:9-13, and II Thessalonians 2:16-17, we would learn how to bring each other before the throne of grace scripturally and without so much form and repetition.
The burden of the apostle’s prayer, in the verses of our text, is that the saints might know four things. These four things are set forth as follows:
First, he prays that the “Father of glory” might give unto the saints “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” (verse 17). All saved people know Jesus Christ as their Saviour, but his petition for the saints is that they may gain precise, or further knowledge of Him. This further knowledge comes through acquaintance, fellowship and Bible study. It means growth “in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (II Peter 3:18).
Second, he prays that the saints might “know what is the hope of his calling” (verse 18). He wants us to know that we are called to sonship “in the beloved” and that we are not servants as under the Mosaic law (verses 4 to 6 with Galatians 3:4-7). Ours is a heavenly calling. Positionally, we are now seated “in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6). Although for the present we are living in vile bodies of flesh, and laboring under the constant pressure of Satan, we are “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,” and we “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:13 and Philippians 3:14).
Third, he prays that we as believers might know “the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” (verse 18). We not only have an inheritance in Christ Jesus (verse 11), but He also has an inheritance in us. He “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6-7). We are told again in Titus 2:14 that He “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.” In these verses the Holy Spirit gives us to understand that we are the inheritance of the Son and that our relationship to Him throughout eternity will bring forth glory to His name because of His grace, mercy, and love which were manifested at the cross of Calvary in our behalf.
As we compare Exodus 19:5 with Titus 2:14, we see that God has an inheritance (“peculiar treasure”) in His earthly people, Israel, and He has also an inheritance (“peculiar people”) in the members of the church which is His body, His heavenly people. We must be careful not to confuse the hope and calling of His earthly inheritance, “Israel,” with the hope and calling of His heavenly inheritance, the present-day believers, the body of Christ. We must also be careful not to confuse the earthly glory that awaits Israel with the heavenly glory that awaits the church which is Christ’s body. The “hope of Israel” is the coming of Christ in glory to set up His earthly kingdom, but our “hope of glory” is the coming of Christ to catch us up into heaven and change us from our “vile body” into the likeness of His “glorious body.” Such Scriptures as Isaiah 2:1-4, 11:1-9, 35:1-10, Ezekiel 36:22-38, Joel 3:15-20, Matthew 5:5, Matthew 24:27-31, Revelation 1:7, 11:15-18, 19:11-21, and many others have to do with His second coming to the earth to set up His kingdom and fulfill the promises made to Israel and the nations that are to be blessed with Israel (Romans 15:8-10 with Genesis 12:1-3). On the other hand, the following Scriptures will enlighten us concerning our position in Christ and Christ in us our “hope of glory”—Colossians 3:1-4, Philippians 3:20-21, I Thessalonians 4:16-18, I Corinthians 15:51-53, and II Timothy 4:8.
Fourth, he prays that we who have been raised from the mire of sin in Christ Jesus might know “what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come” (verses 19 to 21). He is praying that we might realize that the same power which raised Christ from the tomb and placed Him at the right hand of majesty on high has worked in our own hearts and raised us from the power of sin and from death in sin and hath made us to be citizens in glory in our risen Saviour. Notice the expression “exceeding greatness of His power” in verse, 19. This means surpassing power or power that is beyond all other powers. Therefore Satan is powerless to hold the one who wills to trust in Christ. He cannot keep the unsaved from being saved if they will to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. He cannot keep the saved from victory over sin if they will to yield themselves to Christ who is powerful to hold them. And best of all, he cannot keep the church on the earth one second after the risen and exalted Head calls us to be with Him in glory.
This chapter closes with the truth of “all truth” concerning Christ as the Head of His church, which is His body (verses 22-23). In this position Christ occupies a seven-fold headship. He is above (1) All principality, (2) power, (3) might, (4) dominion, (5) every name, (6) all things, and (7) the church.
The wonderful thing for us, as members of Christ’s body, is that we are given the position of power with Him. When we subject ourselves to Him as members of His church, and allow Him to work in and through us, according to His own good pleasure and will, there is no principality, power, might, dominion, name or thing that can triumph over us in our stand for the truth. This helps us to understand the meaning of I John 4:4—”Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
