Ephesians 1 – The Nature of Our Calling
This is a continuation of my summary on Ephesians Chapter 1. To read the first part of this summary, please click here.
Apostle Paul, in just one verse, essentially summarised the nature of our calling! In verse 5, he states that God “predestined us to be adopted as His own children through Christ…” It is vital to mention at this point that the adoption mentioned has a lot of in depth meaning directly linked to the Roman culture at the time. When an individual was adopted from one family into another, the head of the old family loses all privileges and rights over said individual. Once adopted into the new family, the head of the family gains all the rights and privileges. In other words, there is a clean break from the old family. The Roman adoption law was so strong that any debt owed by the individual whilst in the old family is transferred to the new family. Such is the power of what Apostle Paul is helping us understand. He is therefore saying that God “predestined us to adoption” from a family of sin and transgression into His own family. Therefore when we come into His family, there is a clean and complete separation from sin and the devil. Satan no longer has any rights and privileges over us, and God has all rights and privileges! Hence “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, old things are passed away, all things have become new” – 2 Corinthians 5v17. Since we have been adopted by God, the devil has no right whatsoever to bully us! All of this is “according to the good pleasure” of God’s will. This gives us total confidence of being adopted into God’s family, that is, we know for a fact that God will NEVER change His mind about this!
The redemption and forgiveness of our sins though freely given came at a price – the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ. The concept of redemption enforces gratitude, when we truly understand redemption, what Christ did for us on the cross, we cannot but be grateful forever, we cannot but have deep sincere gratitude. A true appreciation of redemption and salvation helps us to forgive those who offend us regardless of the offence. When we truly understand what we have been given through Christ’s death, we are compelled and moved to be totally transformed. Our redemption and forgiveness is in accordance with the riches of His grace and favour lavished on us, along with wisdom and understanding, that is, practical insight and prudence in day to day living. Our purpose in life can only be fulfilled when we’re in line with the Divine. That is when this life would really begin to make sense and we begin to see ourselves really and truly heading somewhere. In hindsight, we must make use of whatever talents God has given us to bring glory unto His name.
In verse 9, Apostle Paul mentions that God’s secret plan has been revealed to us according to His good pleasure; hence it pleases Him to reveal to us His plan which He purposed in Himself. The plan, as mentioned in verse 10 is that “at the appointed time, everything (both in heaven and earth) would be brought together under the authority of Jesus Christ”. For example, division in churches, i.e. denominations and so on would be broken and we would all be one under the authority of Christ. In the latter part of verse 13 and the beginning of verse 14, Apostle Paul points to the fact that after the Gentiles had believed, they “were seated with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance…”. The seal of the Holy Spirit is our guarantee that heaven is real, that we are part of God’s people and that we are to live for God’s glory.
Concluding part for the summary on Ephesians 1 coming soon…
Word of the day…
Roman 3v23-26 – For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented Him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice, because in His forbearance He had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished He did it to demonstrate His justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
