WHAT GOD HAS DONE IN CHRIST

If Ephesians chapter one has any single theme running throughout, it is that God's saving acts on behalf of man took place in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, now the resurrected Christ and Lord.

In this chapter Paul speaks of what God did in Christ even before the world began, as He formulated His scheme of redemption. He tells of what God has done in Christ since then, and what He plans to do through the work of Christ even in the future in eternity.

This lesson will concern itself with this glorious theme: what God has done in Christ. It will center around Ephesians 1:3-8.

Body

I. HE CHOSE US IN CHRIST (1:4).

   A. Before the foundation of the world. God had planned for the redemption of man before man was even created. And even in the pre-creation eternity, God planned that man should be saved, in Christ.

   B. He chose us. The choosing of God means that He selected man. God did not have to save man. He owed no obligations to His creature. He chose to save man. The saving of mankind will always be because of the grace of God and His own choosing.

   C. That we should be holy and blameless before Him. God chose the individual who would submit to His guidance. He chose that those who did come to Him should be holy and blameless. The prime reason for man to be holy is that God is holy (see I Peter 1:15, 16). The believer can rejoice that God chose him; and that he is counted as holy and blameless before God because of His Divine choice.

   D. In love. God's love was the motivating factor in His choosing to save man. His love prompts ours in return, and our love is the prime reason for serving God.

II. HE PREDESTINED US IN CHRIST (1:5).

   A. Predestined that we should be adopted children by Jesus Christ.

        1. God predestinated that we should be adopted. He did not predestinate that an individual would be saved or lost, apart from his own will or choosing. He did predestinate that those who came to Him would become adopted children.

        2. By Jesus Christ. Our adoption as sons of God comes through our relationship with Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God.

        3. According to His good pleasure and will. God, again, did not consult man, angel or any other being when He purposed the salvation of mankind. He predetermined what He would do, according to His own pleasure and will.

        4. That his glorious grace should be praised. Again, the grace of God is emphasized. Man cannot be made too aware of the fact that he is saved by grace. The tendency is always to leave man with the impression that he can claim some of the credit for his salvation. Even when he obeys God (as he must to be saved) he can not say he earned salvation. It is God's grace, and we should praise His glorious grace.

III. HE ACCEPTED US IN CHRIST (1:6, 7).

   A. He made us acceptable. We are not fit to approach God on our own. We would not be accepted by Him through our own works. God has made us accepted (acceptable). It took an act of super-human proportions. Salvation is in a real sense a miracle.

   B. In the Beloved. It was through the work of Christ -- His perfect obedience, leading to His perfect sacrifice -- that man can be accepted by God. In the Beloved we are able to approach God.

   C. By redeeming us. The idea of redemption is to buy back. Man had sold himself into sin and slavery to Satan. God bought us back. This figure should not be pressed beyond the statement of it, however; Christ did not pay a price to Satan, for example. The point is that we were in a miserable condition and God got us out of it.

        1. Forgiving our sins. This is the real point of our redemption.

        2. In Christ's blood. Through His blood, representing His life of total dedication to the will of God, we are saved.

   D. According to the riches of His grace. We cannot get away from this thought. Every figure contains it. We should not want to get away from it even if we could. It is God's plan. And it is God's power. We can rest assured that if we do what He tells us that He will take care of the results.

Conclusion

God, in Christ, has chosen us, predetermined our character in the new life, and has accepted us by the blood of Christ. We can say with Paul, "Blessed be . . . God . . . who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings . . . in Christ."

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