In Him – Part 2
Ephesians 1:3-14
March 25, 2018
As you know we have been talking about what it means to be “In Him”.
An essential reality of salvation is that we are no longer “in Adam”
But through baptism (death to self and new life in Christ)
We have been raised “In Christ”.
• So we are no longer clothed in our own works.
• We are now clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
• We are in Him.
And we started looking at this concept last time.
We saw two realities in this regard.
#1 BEING IN CHRIST IS ESSENTIAL
Matthew 22:1-14
We saw that parable of the wedding feast
• Where after the wedding hall was eventually filled,
• One man had the audacity to try and enter clothed in his own wedding clothes.
• The King kicked that man out where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth.
The point was that
Being clothed in Christ’s righteousness is not optional, it is essential.
As Isaiah said, “all of our righteous deeds are nothing but filthy garments” before God.
If we expect to be welcomed in His presence,
We must be clothed in the perfect and spotless righteous works of Christ.
We also saw:
#2 BEING IN CHRIST IS POSSIBLE
Galatians 3:23-29
Namely we learned how to be “in Christ”.
Paul said (27) “For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”
Very simply put we enter Christ through baptism.
• And as we discussed, this is not a reference to water baptism.
• This is what Peter called “an appeal to God for a good conscience”
• It is when we die to self, by turning our back on all our righteous efforts and attempts at pleasing God through our own works.
We totally trash all that we are and all that we have done
And instead trust in Christ.
In short, we take off our garments and put on Christ’s.
And all who do that, Paul said, “have clothed [themselves] with Christ.”
In short, being in Christ is possible.
And since it is essential, that’s good news.
Tonight we want to examine the third point in this regard.
#3 BEING IN CHRIST IS BENEFICIAL
Ephesians 1:3-14
In this, we merely want to examine (albeit briefly)
Some of the benefits of being “In Him”
And no place does that better than the book of Ephesians.
Now I will say that this first chapter of Ephesians is one of the most difficult to deal with grammatically.
• Your Bible may have periods and sentences and paragraphs, but the original Greek text does not.
• Chapter 1 in the Greek is in fact 1 long sentence.
• And I understand that. Paul’s excitement outruns his grammar here.
When writing papers in college, I’d have Carrie read them before I turned them in and often times she would tell me, “You can’t just put a comma in there and keep going. Sometimes you have to use a period.”
Well, had a I known that the apostle Paul did the same thing,
I would have told her to mind her own business.
What it reveals to us though is that Paul is excited.
• He is writing a mile a minute.
• His mind and His heart is full with a glorious theme that he can’t wait to get out on paper.
He can’t wait to expound to the Ephesians about the glorious realities
Of what they have “In Him”.
Because of that, this book has often been referred to as
“The Christian’s Bank Statement”
Paul is revealing what is yours when you are “In Him”.
Now, before we dive into these verses,
I actually want to begin a little later in the chapter.
LOOK DOWN TO VERSES 18-23
I want to go here first because these verses simply express to us
How badly Paul wants the Ephesians (and you) to grasp these truths.
(18-23) “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about 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 every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection 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.”
You notice here that Paul reveals his prayer request.
He is appealing to God on their behalf.
Namely that “the eyes of your heart may be enlightened”
• Today we view the heart as the seat of emotion, but not in Bible times.
• In Bible times the heart was the seat of reason and the gut was the seat of emotion.
Paul is praying that the Ephesians may have
An intellectual comprehension of these things.
“so that you will know”
He is dealing with the tragedy of a misinformed
Or an under-informed believer.
How tragic to have benefits in Christianity,
But to not even know what they are.
As John MacArthur put it:
“many Christians spend a great deal of time and effort vainly looking for blessings already available to them. They pray for God’s light, although He has already supplied light in abundance through His Word. Their need is to follow the light they already have. They pray for strength, although His Word tells them they can do all things through Christ who strengthens them (Phil. 4:13). They pray for more love, although Paul says that God’s own love is already poured out within their hearts through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). They pray for more grace, although the Lord says the grace He has already given is sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9). They pray for peace, although the Lord has given them His own peace, “which surpasses all comprehension” (Phil. 4:7). It is expected that we pray for such blessings if the tone of the prayer is one of seeking the grace to appropriate what is already given, rather than one of pleading for something we think is scarcely available or is reluctantly shared by God.
The Christian’s primary need is for wisdom and obedience to appropriate the abundance of blessings the Lord has already given.”
(MacArthur, John [The MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series: Ephesians; Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL, 1986] pg. 43)
Later in the chapter he would continue:
“Until we comprehend who we truly are in Jesus Christ, it is impossible to live an obedient and fulfilling life. Only when we know who we really are can we live like who we are. Only when we come to understand how our lives are anchored in eternity can we have the right perspective and motivation for living in time. Only when we come to understand our heavenly citizenship can we live obedient and productive lives as godly citizens on earth.”
(ibid. pg. 46)
This helps us understand why Paul so boldly prays
NOT that God will bless the Ephesians,
But that the Ephesians will have their eyes opened
To know just how blessed they really are.
And Paul even expresses 3 general areas in which he prays that their eyes will be open.
• “what is the hope of His calling”
• “what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance”
• “what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe”
What you should also quickly recognize is that
Paul spoke of those realities as being primarily “His”.
They are “His calling”
They are “His inheritance”
They are “His power”
And that is important because they are only available
To those who are “In Him”
But we look at those 3 things.
HIS CALLING – summed up by HOPE
Hope is certainly a noun there and not a verb.
It is the full realization and subsequent rest
Of understanding who you are in Christ.
There is no call for the believer to live a hopeless life.
• We are anchored in Christ and He is anchored inside the veil.
• God has called Him pleasing and Christ has called us to Himself.
Our hope rests on the fact that
The One who holds us is already acceptable to God.
As the hymn says:
“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.”
Paul’s prayer is that we would have an understanding of that hope.
He prayed that we would grasp
HIS INHERITANCE – summed up by RICHES
This is Christ’s reward for righteous living.
• It is the reward God would bestow on Him for the way He lived His life.
And Paul wants you to grasp that reward
Because when we’re in Him, we are treated the same way.
Remember imputation teaches that He was treated as though He lived our life and we are now treated as though we lived His.
The bride shares in the blessings of the groom.
Paul also wanted us to grasp
HIS POWER – summed up by GREATNESS
In fact, with this one Paul goes ahead
And DESCRIBES what kind of power he is talking about.
(19b-21) “These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about 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 every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.”
If you want to know what kind of power we are talking about,
• Paul says it’s the same power that raised Jesus from the dead
• And then seated Him above every other throne and every other name for all eternity.
It is very simply the power of CHRIST’S EXALTATION
In fact, Paul says:
(22-23) “And He put all things in subjection 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.”
We are talking about tremendous POWER.
We are talking about tremendous AUTHORITY.
And then Paul said that after putting all things under Him,
God “gave Him…to the church”
When we are “in Him” we share in that authority.
We share in that power.
And Paul just there says,
I PRAY THAT YOU WILL GRASP WHAT IS YOURS IN CHRIST.
I PRAY YOU WILL GET AN UNDERSTANDING OF THIS.
You are in Christ, and this is what you enjoy as a result.
And I really just want you first of all to see that prayer
So that you will understand Paul’s heart in this chapter.
He reveals that prayer after outlining the benefits of being in him,
But he wants you to get those benefits so bad, that after listing some of them he then says, “And I’m praying that God will allow you to grasp what I’m talking about.”
• These are huge concepts.
• These are important concepts.
• These are such lofty ideas that Paul didn’t even speak of them without begging God to grant you understanding of just how amazing they are.
Well, that being said, now LET’S GO BACK TO THE TOP
And talk about these benefits of being in him.
Start with verses 1-3
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
Now I really want you to zero in on what Paul said there
Because it is absolutely remarkable.
In verse 3 Paul says that God “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ”
• Notice the tense, “has blessed”
• Notice the object, “us”
• Notice the degree “every spiritual blessing”
• Notice the means “in Christ”
Paul just read to you your spiritual bank statement.
He just told you, “As I look at your ledger, I have to tell you, you are rich!”
It’s yours in Christ.
And honestly, that is an incomprehensible statement.
Who can fathom such things?
Even to the Corinthians Paul wrote:
1 Corinthians 2:9 “but just as it is written, “THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN AND EAR HAS NOT HEARD, AND which HAVE NOT ENTERED THE HEART OF MAN, ALL THAT GOD HAS PREPARED FOR THOSE WHO LOVE HIM.”
You just can’t grasp it all.
Now you understand why Paul is praying
That God would help you see just what all is yours in Christ.
However, to at least in part, help you understand
The magnitude of this statement
PAUL EMBARKS ON A COMPARISON.
Notice the first words of verse 4, “just as”
That is an indicator of an upcoming analogy.
Paul is going to talk about
Some of the blessings you already know about in Christ
That maybe they will help you fathom this one that is incomprehensible.
Paul just said God has blessed you with every spiritual blessing.
You ask, “Like what?”
And Paul says, “Like this…”
And then he lists 6 just in this first chapter.
Here is an indicator of some of the benefits
That you already enjoy as one who is “In Him”.
1) ELECTION (4)
“just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.”
Now we are aware of the doctrine of election.
It is the understanding that God chose us apart from any worth or merit that we possessed.
• He didn’t choose us because we were more righteous
• He didn’t choose us because we were more able
• He didn’t choose us because we were more fun
He chose us because He wanted to.
And everyone who understands the gracious reality of God’s election
Is ALREADY OVERCOME WITH GRATITUDE.
Well Paul here lets you in on a little secret.
Your election was actually “in Him”
“He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world”
God chose us in Him, as opposed to choosing us outside of Him.
Our election is a sovereign decree of God to unite us in Christ.
• He didn’t choose us to go to heaven
• He didn’t choose us to be forgiven
• He didn’t choose us to be blessed
• He chose us to be in Christ.
We were that selected bride, selected for a purpose.
We were a gift to the Son.
We were chosen “that we would be holy and blameless before Him.”
• This was the goal.
• This was the objective.
• To make us “holy”; to make us “blameless”; to allow us to stand before God in absolute perfection.
But as you know, this can’t happen by our own efforts.
We will never be holy or blameless in our own garments.
So we were chosen first and foremost to be “in Him”
There is no election outside of Him.
There is no being chosen apart from Christ.
But those who are in Him are the elect.
Jesus said:
John 6:37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”
Now that is obviously a good benefit.
• As those who are in Christ, we enjoy the sovereign election of God.
• We enjoy being a people for God’s own possession.
• We enjoy being those upon whom God’s favor rests.
One of the benefits is election.
2) ADOPTION (5-6)
“In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”
You have there that amazing reality known as adoption.
• That God took an unwanted orphan and made us His child.’
• This of course was done “through Jesus Christ to Himself” since it was Jesus who satisfied God’s wrath and paid our ransom.
And this was all done “according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.”
Which is to say the only reason God did this is because He is kind,
Not because we are worthy,
And the result should be that we praise His amazing grace.
But what you need to see is that last statement regarding God’s grace.
“which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”
People often refer to salvation as
• God loved us so much that He would rather go to hell than go to heaven without us.
• You are so special and important and loved by God that He just couldn’t stand the thought of not saving you.
• You are worthy, you are important, you are loved.
STOP!
No, Christ is “the Beloved”
• Christ is the One the Father couldn’t live without.
• Christ is the One who is the recipient of every good thing and all the Father’s good pleasure.
We get to partake in that love and grace and kindness and favor
Because we are “in Him”.
We can’t receive favor as God’s enemy.
We can’t receive blessing as God’s enemy.
So God chose to before the foundation of the world
To bring us into Christ so that in the One whom He loved
He would be able to show us that grace and kindness.
But the benefit of God’s adoption is only because we are in Christ.
He freely takes us in because we are clothed in His Son.
Election, Adoption
3) REDEMPTION (7-8)
“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.”
And this one we understand as well.
When we are united with Christ “we have redemption through His blood”
That is because on the cross He was treated as though He lived our life.
• He satisfied God’s wrath on our sin.
• He fulfilled God’s expectation for righteous living.
• He gave God everything God wanted and when we are “In Him” we then enjoy that benefit.
Paul spells out that benefit as “the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.”
And again you see how these all stack together.
• In Christ, we were chosen
• And because we were in Him we were loved and adopted
• And because we were in Him we were redeemed and purchased
It’s all because the Father loves the Son.
It’s all because the Father loves Christ.
We receive those blessings because we are in Him.
Election, Adoption, Redemption
4) REVELATION (9-10)
“In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.”
First we recognize the plan of God.
We recognize the purpose of God.
That is to bring about “an administration suitable to the fullness of the times.”
• This is a reference to the Millennial reign of Christ.
• When the Jesus Administration reigns supreme on the earth.
It will be a time of “the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.”
Which is to say that it will be the time when every knee will bow
And every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
It is absolutely God’s plan for Christ to reign supreme
And all things be in subjection to Him.
The FIRST BENEFIT we receive here is that as those who are in Christ,
God “made known to us the mystery of His will”
God has shown us that.
You have been shown by God the future plan,
Which the rest of the world does not know.
TURN TO: 1 CORINTHIANS 2:6-16
The world doesn’t grasp or know that Christ is Lord of all.
If they did, they wouldn’t have crucified Him.
The world doesn’t know where this world is headed.
Those truths are spiritually appraised,
But we know them because God has chosen to reveal them to us in Christ.
Remember what Jesus told Peter?
Matthew 16:15-17 “He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”
Peter named Jesus as God’s Christ, the future King of the world.
And Jesus said, “There’s no way you could have known that if God hadn’t shown it to you.”
This is another benefit of being in Christ.
We have revelation of the truth of what is coming.
• We know things about the end.
• We know things about the future reign.
• We have a hope made clear to us from God.
And really, that’s not the only benefit here.
We read it a moment ago, but look back down at verse 22-23.
“And He put all things in subjection 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.”
Did you catch there what the church is called?
“His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.”
We know that Christ is the One who “fills all in all”,
Which is to say the One who stands above everything and rules all.
But the church is called “the fullness of Him”.
That word there is PLEROMA which means “complement”.
It refers to “something that completes”
The church there is called that which completes Christ.
Some remember the famous movie love line from a movie a few years back in which the man looked at the woman and said, “You complete me”
It was his way of saying, “I’m not going forward without you, and without you none of this matters.”
That is what Christ says to the church.
“In Him” we don’t just get insight into His reign, we participate in it.
• He won’t do it without us.
• We are a part of Him.
It is our benefit to know He will reign and then to reign with Him.
Election, Adoption, Redemption, Revelation
5) INHERITANCE (11-12)
“In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.”
We are speaking here of Christ’s inheritance,
And because we are “In Him” it is also our inheritance.
Romans 8:16-17 “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”
God has made Christ the heir of the world,
And we share in His benefits when we are in Him.
Election, Adoption, Redemption, Revelation, Inheritance
6) SECURITY (13-14)
“In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation — having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”
This is of special comfort to us since we know that once we are in Him
WE CAN NEVER BE REMOVED FROM HIM.
Once we are in Him, we are “sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit”
Paul says that this Holy Spirit is the deposit
Guaranteeing the reality of our inheritance.
He is the first installment of the total redemption which we will enjoy.
His presence in our lives makes our being in Christ a permanent thing.
• A sacred promise.
• A solemn oath.
• God will never allow us to be severed.
• Once you’re in, you’re in.
NOW, I KNOW WE HIT THOSE QUICKLY,
And that’s ok because I don’t think those were things that are necessarily new to you. I think you probably understood those already.
What you have there are 6 pretty amazing benefits that we receive just because we are in Christ.
• Election,
• Adoption
• Redemption
• Revelation
• Inheritance
• Security.
But if you’ll remember those benefits weren’t the main point.
Those were just the benefits Paul listed here
As a way to help you understand his first statement.
Remember those where the “just as” benefits
Given to help you understand what he said first.
What he said first was that God “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”
Blessings like election and adoption and redemption and so on.
But those aren’t all, not by a long shot.
Those are just 6.
Paul said we have “every spiritual blessing” not just those 6.
Now you understand why he prayed that God
Would open our eyes to all that is ours in Christ.
The idea here is that the benefits of being in Christ
Are beyond comprehension.
There are certainly more than just these.
In fact, in chapter 2 Paul will list 2 more.
EXALTATION
Ephesians 2:5-7 “even when we were dead in our transgressions, 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 ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”
Or
FELLOWSHIP/RECONCILIATION
Ephesians 2:11-13 “Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands — remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”
And even that isn’t all.
The point is just that the benefits are beyond number of being in Christ.
And all of these benefits are only ours “in Him”
That is why we hold so dearly to SOLUS CHRISTUS
We have in Christ what we can have no where else.
These are the things that Christ has done for us.
And really the only thing we can do with that is fall to our knees
In worship and gratitude of the privilege of being in Christ.
We did nothing, He did it all.
And being in Him is the greatest benefit of our existence.
In Him we have it all.
We need nothing else.
It is all ours because it is all His.
In Christ Alone.
