[2:4-11] But Why?

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved– and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
— Ephesians 2:4-11

Thus far in the letter Paul has laid out the plan and the power of the redemptive history prepared by God. Here, Paul gives us the purpose for and our place in that plan. this is definitely going to be a two parter.

— Theological point: according to these verses, God clearly still loves “us” even while we are still in our unregenerate sinful state. That is clear. The only seemingly ambiguous thing here is who “us” is. All people? or only those that have been chosen to be saved by God (the Elect)? John 3:16 notwithstanding, I actually think these verses are probably talking about God’s love for His Elect. I think this because of that word “because.” It says that the particular kind of love in question is the love that was the cause (“because”) of his movement to save them. Thus, this particular love from God is only for those He saves. Could it be that the boundless God of all things seen and unseen could be capable of unlimited forms and expressions of love (ultimately expressed in the person, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ)? A love that saves? A love that sends people to Hell? A love that disciplines his children? A love that acts as Paul defines it in Romans 12:9 when he writes: “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good”? Could it be that God hating evil in man even to the point of the condemnation of that man is an expression of Love? I put forward it does.

— God has not just stopped at forgiving us of our sins. He has gone further by actually seating us with him in heaven in his eternally reigning and glorified Son. So we rule with Him in heaven, forever (Revelation 3:21).
— So why did God do all that he has done since prehistory and exerted his power in preparing, sending, killing, raising and exalting Christ and subsequently us in him? “so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
— Reading this gives me the image of heaven being like a playhouse where the curtain is pulled away and there is the glory of God being poured out into the theater for the rest of time so that all those sitting in the theater can enjoy it. Except from this verse it sounds like the audience will consist of one person: Jesus. Only those “in Christ” will enjoy this as well. We will enjoy a non-stop revelation of God from the perspective of God, the One who enjoys His Glory the most, thus we will!!

Sometimes we get the impression of stagnation in heaven: all of us standing around worshiping all the time. This tells us heaven will be a non-stop, ever increasing revelation and filling of the infinite glory of God into finite human beings. This means heaven is not eternal because that’s “how long it is.” Rather it is because it will take that long (ages and ages to come) for the storehouses of God’s Glory to be exhausted in His ever increasing eternal revelation of his Glory towards us in Christ Jesus.

I’ll end with Jonathan Edwards’ comment on this verse and how it relates to heaven. He says our eternal rising more and more into the Glory of God will be a “rising higher and higher through that infinite duration, and . . . not with constantly diminishing (but perhaps increasing) [velocity] . . . [to an] infinite height; though there never will be any particular time when it can be said already to have come to such a height.”

[2:1-3] The Mirror Held to Our Souls

“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience– among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.”
— Ephesians 2:1-3

Here we see a picture of human nature as God sees it. Let us allow the Bible to reveal to us who we really are, no matter how dark it may seem at first.

— We are not only sick, weak, and/or helpless. Rather, we are dead. The proper analogy of salvation is not that we are drowning in the water and Jesus comes by and throws a lifesaver at you and you have to reach out and grab it to be saved. Rather, it is the analogy that we are already dead at the bottom of the pool and Jesus must pick us up, breathe life into us and open our eyes before we could ever choose him. We are dead in our sins.
— “we all once lived.” I believe “all” here means “all.” ALL people begin their life with the default mode of their heart and nature being deserving of wrath, following the prince of sin.

— notice here that the sin that is the primary expression of our sinful nature is not our actions. It is the “passions of our flesh” and the “desires of the body and mind.” The condemning expression of our sin is our desires, not our actions. Christianity is not a behavior improvement program. We have such modest expectations for “religion” as we want it just to make our actions “better.” What God wants to do, rather, is change our very desires and our very nature, so they are in line with His. God wants to change the heart, man seeks to change the actions.

Let’s seek to change what God wants to change, not man. Typically, what man wants to change, if it is a good and holy thing to change, will indeed truly change if we first allow the changes God wants to change, and this is no different.

By the way, the answer to the question at the end of yesterday’s post? Sorry. It will be tomorrow. I didn’t want to make this too long.

[1:16-23] Making Known the "Knowledge of Him"

“I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”
— Ephesians 1:16-23 (Emphasis added)

From previous post:
— Once you have the Spirit of Wisdom and Insight in the knowledge of who Christ is, it means the eyes of your heart are enlightened, but according to His purposes to know the “mystery of his will.” But what is that will? Our “knowledge of him,” our “hope,” the riches of his glorious inheritance,” and the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us.” These are all his will that was a mystery to us but is now made known!!

— Knowing this, you then know the hope we are called to.
— What is it? His “inheritance [to] the saints.” What’s that? Ephesians 1:11-12 – the privilege (inheritance) to become the “praise of his glory.”
— The Holy Spirit is the seal of the “Already but Not Yet” phase of things (Ephesians 1:13-14).

— He’s accomplishing all this in and through his body (1:22-23)
— All this is also the “immeasurable greatness of his power.”
— The same “might” (which is our hope, knowledge of him, enlightening of our eyes, the mystery of his will) does all the following: raised Christ, put everything else down, exalted him, gave him authority and dominion over all things, manifested the church as His body, raised us from the dead, and will exalt us with him.

But why has he done all this?

Well, you’ll see next time.

[1:7-10] Making Known the "Mystery of His Will"

“In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
— Ephesians 1:7-10

— He first lavishes all Wisdom and Insight on us which incites knowledge of His will. God perhaps must then hinder this so that it is according to His purpose set forth in Christ.
— The point of all of this is to unite all things in him for the glory of his name.

Synthesis: He only allows His will to be known to us as a tool in His greater plan for His glory, so even personal revelation/conversion is primarily for God and secondarily for the receiver.

Another Bible Study?

I know, I know. I have enough blogs as it is. In fact, I have enough blogs for books of the Bible that I’m never going to finish, so why another?

Well, when I start a blog for a book of the Bible, it is generally because I already have something written down that I wish to post. The only problem is, I don’t have stuff written down for the entire book. For example, my 1 John blog; I have detailed commentary I did Junior year of high school, but I only got real serious about it at about Chapter 3, which meant that for me to successfully do that blog, I had to try and come up with commentary for the first bit. This became a very arduous task, so I sort of fell away from it (haha). Same here. I have a couple of sheets of paper that God wrote some stuff down while moving in a crazy way in my heart and mind about a year ago. In a frenzy, I ended up having to write down my thoughts on the logic and thought process behind all that Paul says in the first two chapters of this book.

Yes, that’s right: I only have stuff written for the first two chapters; but they are glorious, indeed. The truths pertaining to the glorious Gospel of God found within this book will never exhaust itself on me, and I hope to spread a bit of that passion here. So . . . without further ado, I present this brand new Burkhart blog that I probably won’t actually post on for another year: Dear Ephesus.

Until next time . . .