Eph 1:8-9 | KingComments | STEP | . In these verses we see the following steps that God made to realize His purpose. We have already seen that God has ‘made us accepted in the Beloved’. Now we are reading what more we have received in that Beloved. In Him we also have “redemption” and “the forgiveness”. You could say that these are the means by which the will of God could be accomplished, regarding us. Redemption as well as forgiveness have been accomplished through the work of Christ and were necessary because sin has come into the world. ‘Redemption’ was necessary because we were totally imprisoned by the power of sin. We could not deliver ourselves, but by the blood of Christ redemption has been achieved. This is beautifully illustrated in Exodus 12. The people of Israel are in bondage in Egypt and God is going to redeem them. The basis for this redemption is the blood of a lamb that had to be slaughtered. In Exodus 12 you can read what the Israelite had to do with that blood and what that meant to God ( ). On the basis of the blood the judgment passes by the Israelite and their redemption from the power of Egypt takes place. It must be clear to you that the lamb in Egypt is a picture of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus. What you have deserved He underwent in your place. In Him you are redeemed, you have received redemption. Apart from redemption also ‘forgiveness’ of your trespasses was necessary. You were not only under the power of sin, you also lived accordingly. Your deeds made that clear. Whatever you were doing, it was in every way a trespassing of what God had said. Trespasses always ask for punishment. But how amazing it is that God did not punish you for that, but punished His own Son in your stead. In Him you have received forgiveness. Although redemption and forgiveness brought what was necessary for you, your need is not the main thing here. No, it is the purpose of the Holy Spirit to emphasize in the redemption and the forgiveness “the riches of His [i.e. God’s] grace”. In this way God’s heart and mind are being exposed. In this verse, where we are involved with our sins, “ the riches of His grace” is being exposed. In , where God is centered, it is “ the glory of His grace”. The riches of His grace is in contrast with the poverty of our sins in which we found ourselves. Actually, it is not only grace that provides in our needs. God doesn’t measure His grace to our needs, but to a lot more than that. He provides to His riches. . Those riches are expressed in the . There you see a dead, impotent sinner (you!) being exalted to such a great height that he (you!) obtains insight in the mysteries of God’s heart so that he (you!) can share them with Him. This is also about the eternal counsels in God’s heart that are yet to be achieved. So this is quite different to what you have seen until now, namely, what God’s purpose was for you and what He has also realized. You share in it: you are blessed with all spiritual blessings; you are chosen; you are holy and without blame before God; He has adopted you as a son; you are made accepted in the Beloved; He has redeemed and forgiven you. That is all said in . All really and totally true. But, as if there is no end, besides that He has still more blessings ready for you to which we will give attention now. Also in those blessings He wants you to partake so that you already now may enjoy what is to come. In order to enable you to share with you what is in His heart, He has, in the abundance of the riches of His grace, made available to you “all wisdom and understanding”. How would we be able to understand anything from God’s purposes and deeds if He Himself doesn’t help and enable us to do that? Also here you find abundance: God doesn’t give a little bit of wisdom and understanding, but “all”. He knows exactly what is necessary to lead us into the purposes of His heart. That’s why He first made us sons. As you will remember, He did that in order to share His thoughts with us. As sons He has ‘exalted’ us to a position where He can speak to us at His level. Besides He supplied us with ‘all wisdom and understanding’. You may want to proclaim something, but if your ‘target group’ doesn’t understand anything of what you are talking about, it’s no use. That is not what God did. . He gave us wisdom and understanding because “He made known to us the mystery of His will”. This is what God wanted to share with us. It is about things that He has never told anyone, not even anyone of His people in the Old Testament. What this mystery involves is dealt with in . It is about the reign of the Lord Jesus over all things. Now you might say: ‘But that was no mystery at all; that was also known in the Old Testament.’ And you could for example refer to Psalm 8 ( ). That is true, but that is not the mystery at issue here. The mystery is about the reign of the Lord Jesus over all things together with the church . That has not been made known in the Old Testament. The apostle Paul is the one to whom this particular ministry was given to unfold this mystery. In chapter 3 he will clarify this. The mystery of the unity between the Lord Jesus and the church is still a mystery to the world. In 1 John 3 you read the same thought: “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is” ( ). John means that the world doesn’t see a thing of the fact that we are children of God. The world will see that only when the Lord Jesus returns and we with Him ( ; ). The mystery has been only made known to them who belong to the church. Unfortunately, even to many members of the church this unity is still a mystery. All who think that the church is a continuation of Israel, do not realize that the origin and the purpose of the church are in heaven. Because their focus is on the earth, these Christians ignore the ‘pleasure’ of God. God finds His pleasure in these things in this time to share with all His own. Just take a look at again where you have read about the kind intention or the pleasure of God. There it is His joy to have sons before Him, even now already. Here it is His joy to make known to those sons what He will do with Christ and the church. God was not obligated at all to share this secret “which He purposed in Him” ( ) with us, but He wanted that very much. Again the emphasis here is on the fact that all His purposes find their origin in Him. He had no obligation to anyone whosoever to make them known. He could have kept them to Himself as well. Nevertheless He came out with His purposes and made them known to a group of people selected by Himself. Isn’t it a great wonder that you and I may belong to that group? Now read Ephesians 1:7-9 again. Reflection: Consider once again the steps God has taken to achieve His plans and thank Him for every step.

‏ Ephesians 1:8-9

The Mystery of God’s Will

Eph 1:7. In these verses we see the following steps that God made to realize His purpose. We have already seen that God has ‘made us accepted in the Beloved’. Now we are reading what more we have received in that Beloved. In Him we also have “redemption” and “the forgiveness”. You could say that these are the means by which the will of God could be accomplished, regarding us. Redemption as well as forgiveness have been accomplished through the work of Christ and were necessary because sin has come into the world.

‘Redemption’ was necessary because we were totally imprisoned by the power of sin. We could not deliver ourselves, but by the blood of Christ redemption has been achieved. This is beautifully illustrated in Exodus 12. The people of Israel are in bondage in Egypt and God is going to redeem them. The basis for this redemption is the blood of a lamb that had to be slaughtered. In Exodus 12 you can read what the Israelite had to do with that blood and what that meant to God (Exo 12:2-13). On the basis of the blood the judgment passes by the Israelite and their redemption from the power of Egypt takes place.

It must be clear to you that the lamb in Egypt is a picture of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus. What you have deserved He underwent in your place. In Him you are redeemed, you have received redemption.

Apart from redemption also ‘forgiveness’ of your trespasses was necessary. You were not only under the power of sin, you also lived accordingly. Your deeds made that clear. Whatever you were doing, it was in every way a trespassing of what God had said. Trespasses always ask for punishment. But how amazing it is that God did not punish you for that, but punished His own Son in your stead. In Him you have received forgiveness.

Although redemption and forgiveness brought what was necessary for you, your need is not the main thing here. No, it is the purpose of the Holy Spirit to emphasize in the redemption and the forgiveness “the riches of His [i.e. God’s] grace”. In this way God’s heart and mind are being exposed.

In this verse, where we are involved with our sins, “the riches of His grace” is being exposed. In Eph 1:6, where God is centered, it is “the glory of His grace”. The riches of His grace is in contrast with the poverty of our sins in which we found ourselves. Actually, it is not only grace that provides in our needs. God doesn’t measure His grace to our needs, but to a lot more than that. He provides to His riches.

Eph 1:8. Those riches are expressed in the Eph 1:8-9. There you see a dead, impotent sinner (you!) being exalted to such a great height that he (you!) obtains insight in the mysteries of God’s heart so that he (you!) can share them with Him. This is also about the eternal counsels in God’s heart that are yet to be achieved.

So this is quite different to what you have seen until now, namely, what God’s purpose was for you and what He has also realized. You share in it: you are blessed with all spiritual blessings; you are chosen; you are holy and without blame before God; He has adopted you as a son; you are made accepted in the Beloved; He has redeemed and forgiven you. That is all said in Eph 1:3-7. All really and totally true.

But, as if there is no end, besides that He has still more blessings ready for you to which we will give attention now. Also in those blessings He wants you to partake so that you already now may enjoy what is to come. In order to enable you to share with you what is in His heart, He has, in the abundance of the riches of His grace, made available to you “all wisdom and understanding”. How would we be able to understand anything from God’s purposes and deeds if He Himself doesn’t help and enable us to do that? Also here you find abundance: God doesn’t give a little bit of wisdom and understanding, but “all”.

He knows exactly what is necessary to lead us into the purposes of His heart. That’s why He first made us sons. As you will remember, He did that in order to share His thoughts with us. As sons He has ‘exalted’ us to a position where He can speak to us at His level. Besides He supplied us with ‘all wisdom and understanding’. You may want to proclaim something, but if your ‘target group’ doesn’t understand anything of what you are talking about, it’s no use. That is not what God did.

Eph 1:9. He gave us wisdom and understanding because “He made known to us the mystery of His will”. This is what God wanted to share with us. It is about things that He has never told anyone, not even anyone of His people in the Old Testament. What this mystery involves is dealt with in Eph 1:10-11. It is about the reign of the Lord Jesus over all things.

Now you might say: ‘But that was no mystery at all; that was also known in the Old Testament.’ And you could for example refer to Psalm 8 (Psa 8:4-7). That is true, but that is not the mystery at issue here. The mystery is about the reign of the Lord Jesus over all things together with the church. That has not been made known in the Old Testament. The apostle Paul is the one to whom this particular ministry was given to unfold this mystery. In chapter 3 he will clarify this.

The mystery of the unity between the Lord Jesus and the church is still a mystery to the world. In 1 John 3 you read the same thought: “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is” (1Jn 3:2). John means that the world doesn’t see a thing of the fact that we are children of God. The world will see that only when the Lord Jesus returns and we with Him (Col 3:4; 2Thes 1:7-10).

The mystery has been only made known to them who belong to the church. Unfortunately, even to many members of the church this unity is still a mystery. All who think that the church is a continuation of Israel, do not realize that the origin and the purpose of the church are in heaven. Because their focus is on the earth, these Christians ignore the ‘pleasure’ of God.

God finds His pleasure in these things in this time to share with all His own. Just take a look at Eph 1:5 again where you have read about the kind intention or the pleasure of God. There it is His joy to have sons before Him, even now already. Here it is His joy to make known to those sons what He will do with Christ and the church.

God was not obligated at all to share this secret “which He purposed in Him” (Eph 1:9) with us, but He wanted that very much. Again the emphasis here is on the fact that all His purposes find their origin in Him. He had no obligation to anyone whosoever to make them known. He could have kept them to Himself as well. Nevertheless He came out with His purposes and made them known to a group of people selected by Himself. Isn’t it a great wonder that you and I may belong to that group?

Now read Ephesians 1:7-9 again.

Reflection: Consider once again the steps God has taken to achieve His plans and thank Him for every step.