Ephesians 1:13-14

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.


There are some circles of Christianity that believe salvation is something that can be lost. Growing up in a Southern Baptist home I was taught the doctrine often called “once saved always saved.” Having studied the mater as an adult, I believe Scripture teaches that none who are truly saved will fall away from the faith. Jesus’ parable of the sower indicated that many will hear the word and not believe, others would seem to have faith but would wither away or have their faith choked by the worries and temptations of this life, and still others would maintain and grow in their faith until the end. Although true believers may fall into sin or even periods of doubt, they are sealed in Christ by the Holy Spirit. Something within us tugs at our hearts and souls until we are back in a right relationship with God. Although we should daily ask God to create in us a clean heart and renew a right spirit within us, neglecting to confess a sin without receiving forgiveness of penance before we die will in no way cause us to lose our salvation.

"Sealed in Him" or “marked with a seal” indicates our security and God’s authority over the matter. God has labeled and claimed us as His children, and no power seen or unseen can negate that claim. We are under his divine protection no matter what life may hold. This is a pledge of our inheritance, a guarantee that we are redeemed and will one day stand sinless and forgiven before God, to the praise of His mercy and glory.

John Piper wrote, “God's great desire for his people is that we feel secure in his love and in his power. Everything else in life may be unstable -- our health, our family, our job, our education, our society, our world. At any of these levels you may feel as if you are out on a ledge forty stories up in an unpredictable wind. You feel yourself losing balance and falling, and every brick you grab pulls out of its mortar. So let's make sure we understand this from the outset: when you swore allegiance to Jesus Christ you signed up for the most dangerous mission in the world. How did Paul describe it? Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword -- we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered (Rom. 8:35-36)… God's desire for his people is that we feel secure in his love and in his power even if everything else in the world is uncertain…

“So then, what is God saying to us when he gives us his Holy Spirit and calls him a guarantee or a downpayment? He is saying, ‘My great desire for those who believe in me is that you feel secure in my love. I have chosen you before the foundation of the world. I have predestined you to be my children for ever. I have redeemed you by the blood of my Son. And I have put my Spirit in you as a seal and a guarantee. Therefore, you will receive the inheritance and praise the glory of my grace for ever and ever. And I tell you this here in Ephesians chapter one because I want you to feel secure in my love and my power. I don't promise you an easy life. In fact, through many tribulations you must enter the Kingdom (Acts 14:22). I don't promise always to speak in soft tones of approval, but to warn you in love whenever you begin to seek security in anything but me’ says the Lord.

“‘Let me say it again: I have chosen you,’ says the Lord. ‘I have predestined you; I have redeemed you; I have sealed you by my Spirit. Your inheritance is sure, because I am passionately committed to magnify the glory of my grace in your salvation.’”

Ephesians 1:11-12

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.


Most scholars suppose the word “we” signifies either the Jewish nation, chosen initially by God, or the apostles and those initially converted as followers of Jesus, predestined to bring God glory by sharing the Good News. These verses contrast with the verses from yesterday which spoke of the mystery of God bringing Gentiles and Jews together into one body through the blood of Christ.

When the Hebrew nation entered the Promised Land God revealed each tribe’s land inheritance through the casting of lots, and that is the same verb used here. Events that may seem random to the human eye are actually predestined as a part of God’s plan.

At some point in your life you may have dreamed of receiving a letter that some wealthy unknown relative has died and left you a fortune. Imagine being able to pay all your bills (and maybe the bills of others) and live comfortably the rest of your life through no labor or merit of your own. But how much more amazing that God would work out the course of history, choose you through no merit of your own, and bring you into the same hope of an inheritance in Christ exhibited by Paul. Our transformed lives, like those of the early disciples, will be to the praise of his glory!

Ephesians 1:7-10

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. 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.

“He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins” (NLT). The Greek for "redemption" (ἀπολύτρωσις apolutrōsis) signifies deliverance from slavery to sin and its evil consequences. Through the blood of Christ we are redeemed from bondage to sin and freed from the consequences of our trespasses. The word insight (φρονήσις phronēsis insight) means understanding, thinking, or prudence. It is an understatement to say that God showed great intelligence in the design of the plan of salvation. No part of history has occurred without being part of God’s original plan. Nothing has caught him by surprise. He doesn’t have to “think on the fly.” God has never needed a “Plan B.”

The mystery of which Paul is writing is that through Christ God would bring the Gentiles into reconciliation with Himself apart from submission to circumcision and the laws of the Old Covenant. The word for mystery signifies something concealed, but once God’s plan was revealed it was available for any to understand. I can imagine Paul with his great knowledge of Hebrew Scripture thinking back on things once the mysteries were revealed to him at his conversion saying the Hebrew equivalent of, “Oh…. Now I get it!”

The things of God often seem a mystery or foolishness to those in the world. As Christians how can we share the truth of the gospel and let it permeate our lives to draw others to the truth? We have a limited time until all things are gathered under the submission of Christ at the end of the age and harmony is restored to the universe. Through no merit of our own we are free from the bonds of sin! From stay at home mom to corporate warrior we are all called to reveal this mystery through our daily walk. You can rest in His Spirit and the knowledge that God has intentionally placed you in the life you now live. How will you share the gospel in your life today?

Ephesians 1:5-6

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.

The seemingly conflicting ideas of predestination vs. free will can set off fiery debate in many sections of the Christian world. There are those who cite verses such as this to maintain that in His sovereignty God chooses those whom He will choose, and nothing can be done about it. There are those who quote verses such as 2 Pet. 3:9 (the Lord desires that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance) and argue that man has free will to choose whether or not to be a part of the family of God. Numerous verses exist to back up both arguments, and the New Testament seems to support both ideas without reservation.

This is one of many times of tension in Scripture when two ideas opposite from the human perspective are presented as truth. How should believers deal with such situations? God spoke in the book of Isaiah that His ways are greater than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts. Therefore we should not expect to be able to understand all the mysteries of the divine. If we could I would strongly suspect that Christianity was a manmade religion. So these two ideas presented in Scripture are true at the same time. God is absolutely sovereign. You were chosen by Him before the creation of the world as a part of His family. People have free will to make their own choices. Any man who desires to come to God will be saved. Let the paradox blow your mind, but never sacrifice one idea presented in Scripture in an attempt to preserve another.

How wonderful that before the world was even created and through no merit of our own God chose to adopt us into his family as his spiritual children – brothers and sisters of Christ who will one day stand before him as holy and blameless members of his family in eternity! Praise Him for allowing you to be a part of His eternal purpose!

Ephesians 1:1-4

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, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.


Paul notes that he is an apostle because of the will of God – not because he chose to be, not because he was seeking power and authority, but because God chose him for that purpose and he could do nothing but obey! He writes this letter to saints – this sense of the word encompasses all believers (saints = set apart for God).

Sometimes in our lives we may not feel spiritually blessed – we may even feel like we are in a spiritual drought. So to begin his letter Paul explains what our spiritual blessings are. The first is that God chose us from before time began, desiring to sanctify us into the holy and blameless beings we were originally created to be. It blows my mind to think that God chose me before the foundation of the world, even knowing my shortcomings and how I would fail Him. As chosen and adopted children God sees us as holy and blameless, not because of any “good work” or ritual we may perform, but because we are covered by the blood of his holy and blameless son, Jesus Christ. At the moment of our salvation the righteousness of Jesus is credited to us, and the day will come when we stand before God as holy and blameless – finally freed from the bondage of sin. God knew you and had a plan to redeem you even before the world fell into sin. His eternal plan will be accomplished, and what a blessing and privilege it is to be a part of it!

Ephesians overview

Eek! It's time for another GMG session, and it starts tomorrow! So here is a hastily thrown together concise overview of the book of Ephesians which we will be studying.

Author - Paul (although like everything some dispute it) who likely wrote it while imprisoned in Rome. Paul was a founder of the church in Ephesus, and if you read the book of Acts you can tell that he had great love for the Ephesian believers and the elders.

Audience - the church at Ephesus. Back in the day churches met in homes, so this letter probably circulated among the house churches in Ephesus and eventually to other churches as well. The church at Ephesus consisted of Jewish and Gentile believers worshipping together. Here are some facts about Ephesus:

• Busy commercial port with a steady flow of cosmopolitan people
• Worship of the fertility goddess Diana was a important part of the city's commerce. The temple was an ancient wonder of the world, and you may recall the anger of the silversmiths when Paul began converting people away from worship of Diana.
• People could participate in any sexual lifestyle or they chose without any cultural opposition.

Purpose - In a nutshell the first part of Ephesians focuses on Christians doctrine and our riches in Christ. The second section focuses on how Christians should live on a daily basis if they are truly allowing God to transform them into the image of Christ Jesus. It's a great book that has come up a lot lately for me in different situations, and I know it will bless you to read it!

1 John 5:20-21

And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

John wraps the book up with his conclusion. He has given much proof that Jesus is the Son of God whom true believers will know and exhibit changed lives because of it. There is only one true God, and any variation in belief will not lead to eternal life.

Few of us feel the temptation to bow down to carved wood or chiseled stone, but idolatry can pull us away nonetheless if we are not on our guard.  Some intentionally worship other gods in an attempt to find peace or eternal life, but many have their priorities out of order without realizing the idolatry. The worship and love of money abounds in our culture, and much of the financial crisis of today was brought about by individual and corporate greed. Many of us worship ourselves – focusing our lives on fashion, food, and maintaining the positive image others have of us. We worship our pursuits and pleasures, spending more time on Facebook than face to face with God. We make idols of our relatives and friends. (I personally spend most of my days focused on my children!) We worship the culture, modern philosophy, and intellectualism rather than being “in the world but not of it. We worship the rituals of faith rather than the Creator of all.

The NLT translates v. 21 “Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts.” How do you need to change your life to reflect the greatest commandment, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5)?