Glorious Grace (Ephesians 1:3-14)
Are you more of a head person? Or a heart person? If you asked family and friends, would they be more likely to describe you as a thinker or a feeler?
Now... how about when it comes to following Jesus? Is that mainly a head thing? Or mainly a heart thing?
Or... if we’re going to follow Jesus... do we need both?
Christian hip-hop artist Shai Linne has a song titled “Theology and Doxology.” He explains. that theology is the right knowledge of God — it is knowing Him for who He is, in truth. And doxology is the fitting response to knowing God. Right knowledge leads to right praise.
If you have theology without doxology, all you really have is cold, dead orthodoxy. It may be accurate, but it is not alive.
Now on the other hand, if you have doxology without theology, then all that is idolatry. It may look alive but it is dead.
Some of us lean head. Some lean heart. But God made us to know Him and love Him — and if we are going to follow Jesus, we gotta have both.
And oh, dear saints, there may not be a passage in the whole Bible where truth and praise — theology and doxology —come together more powerfully than right here.
Look at Ephesians 1:3 — “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ...”
These are the first words of the body of this letter — after the greeting — and Paul kicks it off with praise. This praise is high because its truths are deep. It springs with praise to the Triune God because salvation is all of grace and all for His glory.
Here is the big idea for this morning. It flows right into our outline: Praise the God of glorious grace, for in Christ we are
Praise the God of glorious grace, for in Christ we are chosen, redeemed and sealed.
Chosen
Redeemed
Sealed
Now, before we walk through each of those points, let us take a closer look at Ephesians 1:3 and see how it fits with the rest. In the original Greek, Ephesians 1:3-14 is one long sentence — you heard me right. In all 202 words.
Our English translations have been kind to us — to break it up a little bit — but this is what one Greek scholar called it. He said, quote: “This is the most monstrous sentence conglomeration that I have ever found in the Greek language.”
Now I will not lie, it was not easy for me to develop an outline for this passage — it is all so rich, and so dense. And when I read that, I felt relieved.
We almost had an 11-point outline this morning, but praise be to God, he spared us all from that. Can I show you something that helped me observe the structure—and work us toward an outline? Look back to Ephesians 1:3.
You will notice two halves. It is doxology — that is the first half. And it is grounded in theology — that is the second half. So we bless God — we praise Him — because He has blessed us in Christ.
Now, just to be clear, when we bless God, it’s fundamentally different from when God blesses us. God needs nothing—ever—and certainly not from us. When we bless God, we add nothing to Him. We simply declare who He is.
But for us it is different. We do not deserve anything from God — except His holy wrath. So we most certainly need Him. And when God blesses us, it is a gracious gift from His generous hand.
Ephesians 1:3 says these blessings are “spiritual”. They are given by the Spirit. And they belong not to the earthly realm — not to make us healthy, and wealthy, and have our best life now. But they belong to the spiritual realm. They belong to the “heavenly places.”
And notice how Paul connects these spiritual blessings to our union with Christ. He says these blessings are “in Christ.” And between saying “in Christ” or “in Him” or “in the Beloved”. Paul keeps beating this drum throughout the long sentence 11 times! He can’t talk about it enough!
All that God is for us, He is for us in Christ. He earned the blessings, and they are ours, if we are in Him.
So these blessings we have in the Spirit — come from the Father, and through the Son.
The doctrine of the Trinity is not just something for seminary students to geek out about. It is not just so we can get big books and big heads. The right knowledge of our Triune God — and how all three Persons are at work in our salvation — and fills Paul with heartfelt, passionate, humble praise.
So, going back to what helped me see the structure. We have the two halves of Ephesians 1:3. We have praise — grounded in truth. And then, as the sentence continues, three times, Paul goes from the truths of the spiritual blessings, back to praise in Ephesians 1:6, 12 and 14.
Three points — for three Persons.
Deep truth — for high praise.
Each section starts with theology — and leads to doxology. Mind — and heart. So yes, church, we got to have both.
Praise the God of glorious grace, for in Christ, we are chosen
Chosen (Eph 1:4-6)
In Ephesians 1:3, we saw the heading — that God has blessed us in Christ.
And in Ephesians 1:4, that little phrase “even as” starts to show us why. God has blessed us, “even as He chose us.” Church, we are chosen! This is one-sided. It is unilateral. It is for us, but it is entirely of God, and from God — which is why the praise belongs only to Him!
We are not chosen because of anything in us — or because of anything we might do. And how do we know? Well, look at the text. It says, “God chose us in him before the foundation of the world. (Eph 1:4)” Last time I checked, we did not have much to say back then, did we?
Now, I just want to acknowledge. If theology is a pool, we are jumping into the deep end right away here. I know this is not an easy topic. It might be difficult to understand. It might be difficult to accept. For some of you, perhaps you have been hurt by the way you have heard this talked about.
But we got to be clear — the Bible asserts that God chooses unto salvation. “Salvation is of the Lord.”
Some have suggested that statements like this in the Bible simply mean that God looked through the corridors of time to see who would believe — and then He chose those people.
But there is a big problem with that idea. That means God is learning. But God does not learn! God is omniscient — He knows all things — from eternity past, to eternity future. And God is sovereign — He has ordained all things “according to the purpose of His will” (Eph 1:5).
Our omniscient, sovereign God of electing grace has chosen a people — unto Himself — for His own possession.
And our omniscient, sovereign God of electing grace has chosen a people — unto Himself — for His own possession.
Sounds like the Old Testament, right? I mean, just think about it — who chose who? Did Abraham choose God? Did he say, “Hey God... I got an idea... I know I am old... but why don’t you choose me, and bless me, and make me a great nation?”
Or how about Moses? Did he go light that bush on fire? Was it his idea to go talk to Pharaoh? — the timid man with a stutter?
Or how about that shepherd boy, David? Was he out in those fields seeking a crown? Or was God seeking David?
And if you think, “Well, maybe that’s just an Old Testament thing — with Israel... But I don’t know about that now.” Well here it is, clear as day, straight from the mouth of Jesus. In John 15:16, Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.”
Throughout all of history, God has always chosen a people unto Himself, and it is no different today. Now, do not misunderstand me here. Do not misunderstand what God’s word is saying. No, we are not robots, Yes, we are responsible. We make real choices. We have real agency.
Yet apart from Christ, our wills — the choosing faculty of the soul — our wills are bound up in our sin. So apart from God’s initiating, electing, one-sided grace — we would never choose Him. Not one of us. God must act first. Praise be to God! And praise be to God that He seeks and He saves sinners — amen?
This is the God who chose us before the foundation of the world.
And you know what difference this makes? Think about how this affects our assurance.
If you are in Christ, then, before God made heaven — before Genesis 1:1 — God chose you.
Before you ever sinned against God, God set His love upon you. You can no more revoke God’s electing love, than Frodo can revoke Tolkien’s pen.
Be assured, dear brother. Be assured, dear sister. If you are in Christ, then no one can snatch you from your Father’s hand. He laid hold of you before you could ever lay hold of Him. And your assurance is in His grip — He will not let you go.
Ephesians 1:4 does not just tell us at what point we were chosen.
It also tells us to what end: “that we should be holy and blameless before him.”
This is not optional. This is not a spiritual blessing buffet.
You cannot say, “Yes” to being chosen. And then when it comes to being holy, say, “No thanks, I’ll pass on that one.” No, this is a set meal.
Holiness is not the grounds of our election — if that were the case, not one of us would even have a chance of being chosen. No holiness is not the grounds of our election, but it is the goal.
Think about Ephesians 5. Our Lord Jesus loves His bride! He laid down His life for her — “that he might present the church to himself in splendour — without spot or wrinkle or blemish or any such thing.”
Or how about 1 Peter? God’s people are “a chosen race, a kingdom of priests, — and — a holy nation!” Chosen people are holy people. That is how it works
So how is your holiness going, church? Or, to pick up on that next phrase in Ephesians 1:4. Is there anything in your life that would warrant blame?
Those might be some good questions to talk about with another church member this week. Let us confess our sins to one another, and pray for each other, that we might be healed — I need that too.
Well the good news keeps coming. One last thought for this section.
We were not just chosen by a cosmic dictator, and left as orphans. No, we were chosen by a loving Father, and adopted into His family.
Picking up at the end of Ephesians 1:4 there, “In love, He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.”
In the Roman World, sons were adopted to carry on a family name and family property. The adopted son would no longer be responsible to his old, natural father. No, he would have all the privileges and rights of his adopted father’s name.
Jesus says we used to belong to another father — our old, natural father — the devil. But not anymore. If you are in Christ, then you have received the Spirit. Not a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear — but you have received the Spirit of adoption.
So when you cry, “Abba, Father,” you carry the family name. Having all the rights and privileges of the Beloved Son (Eph 1:6). Because you are in Him, your Father looks at you and says, “This is my son, my daughter — and with you I am well pleased.”
So may we bless God for His glorious grace. Because we are chosen! In Christ, we are not orphans anymore.
But let us not forget. Our adoption came at a price.
Praise the God of glorious Grace, for in Christ, we are redeemed.
Redeemed (Eph 1:7-12)
Take a look at that keyword in Ephesians 1:7 — “In him we have redemption...”.
That might just sound like a religious, church-y kind of word to us. But in Ancient Rome, this was not a particularly religious term at all. It was an economic term. It meant to make a purchase, to acquire a possession.
It was a term that said, “I want that, even at the cost of this.”
In the Old Testament, do you remember when the language of redemption is most prominent? It is in the Exodus.
God redeemed His people from slavery in Egypt. He purchased them through mighty acts of power. But that was merely a shadow — a type — pointing forward to the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
At the coming of Christ, God’s people would again be slaves—not just to Pharaoh, but to sin. But this was a deeper slavery and redemption would come at a greater cost.
God purchased us — not with perishable things like silver or gold — but with the precious blood of Christ! In Ephesians 1:7. we see that and “through His blood”, our “trespasses” are “forgiven”! If you are in Christ, God does not hold a single sin against you. Not one! They have been washed away, by the blood of the Lamb.
And if you think... oh, that sounds great... but you don’t know me. You don’t know my sin. You don’t know what I’ve done. My debts are too great to be forgiven.
Oh friend. I may not know you. I may not know the cost of your sin.
But I do know this.
God has more grace than you have sin. He does not just have little vouchers of grace.
God has more grace than you have sin. He does not just have little vouchers of grace. Oh, in Ephesians 1:7 he says He has “riches” of it. His pockets are so deep with grace that He “lavishes” us in it (Eph 1:8).
Psalm 49:7 says, “Truly, no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life.” We could never afford it! So praise be to God that He ransomed us — even at the highest price we could ever imagine.
But notice what comes next in Ephesians 1:8-10. Specifically, how “in all wisdom and insight”, God has made “known to us the mystery of his will.”
The redemption we have in Christ Jesus does not just forgive our past — and stop there. No, it brings us into this grand story of what God is doing throughout all of history.
Redemption gives us pardon and purpose.
Now, as Eugene mentioned last week, this, in many ways, is the center of gravity in the book of Ephesians: God’s sovereign plan to unite all things in Christ.
This is a mystery — in the sense that it was hidden and has now been revealed. God has set forth this plan in Christ, who came in the fullness of time. And who, by His resurrection, inaugurated the New Creation.
So, in the end, all things will be united to Christ — brought under His Lordship. And now we get a preview of it now, in the church.
John Stott says it well – “In the fullness of time, God’s two creations, his whole universe and his whole church, will be unified under the cosmic Christ who is the supreme head of both.”
And, looking down to Ephesians 1:11, because God “works all things according to the counsel of his will”. This plan and our inheritance are secure!
So what is this inheritance? Does our room in our Father’s house come with a big-screen TV? Is that what this is saying? No we do not go to heaven to enjoy something other than God. God is the great reward of heaven. Eternal pleasures are at His right hand. So, our inheritance, we can say is our joy in God when all our spiritual blessings are fully realized.
We have a share in that now. And yet the full experience of it is yet to come.
And as 1 Peter 1 tells us — it is not like an earthly inheritance. Praise God! It is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.
Oh beloved, do not fall trap to the inheritances of the world — the fancy job title, the Ivy League diploma, the CPF account with lots of digits. Use them, sure... but do not rely on them. They are not like this inheritance. They could be here today and gone tomorrow. Rely on them, and you will find out the hard way, that they are like Jonah’s plant. They might give you some shade, for a little while. But at their root — is a worm. They will wither and die.
Praise be to God that Jesus gives us better hopes … amen?
The God who predestined us from eternity past has redeemed us in His Son and has secured our eternal inheritance in Him.
With ever-increasing joy, we will enjoy God as our great reward. And I can assure you — He is worm-free.
Now, that is some thick theology, isn’t it? But did it occur to you where Paul is when he writes this? At the end of the letter (Eph 6:20), he says he is in chains. He is a prisoner — and yet, he is praising God! Isn’t that amazing?
His wrists may be shackled, but his mind is set on things above — and that is why he can praise God in chains.
Oh, beloved, we do not need better circumstances to offer higher praise.
Set your mind on truth, and be patient. Pray that God would lift your heart above your circumstances. Pray for faith to trust Him no matter your chains.
“To the praise of his glory” isn’t just some cliché we should tack on to the end of a WhatsApp message. That should be the refrain of our lives.
After all, lip praise is good. But life praise is better.
And praise God. He does not leave us on our own.
Praise the God of sovereign grace, for in Christ we are sealed.
Sealed (Eph 1:13-14)
Did you notice the shift between Ephesians 1:12 and 13? In Ephesians 1:12, it says, “we who were the first to hope in Christ.” In Ephesians 1:13, it says “In him you also.” The “we” refers to Jews — Paul was a Jew. And the “you” refers to Gentiles.
In Christ, the same Spirit, the same salvation, and the same inheritance belong to both.
This means God’s saving plan includes people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. He is uniting all kinds of people to Christ. No ethnic background, or family heritage, or religious résumé could ever earn you grace — or keep you from it.
So prejudice has no place in Christ’s church. May we show no partiality here. The world unites around similarities. The church unites around Christ — and that is what makes the world marvel.
Notice how the Spirit applies what the Son has accomplished. “When you heard the word of truth, the gospel of our salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.”
I have heard Singaporeans like math... am I right? Here is an equation for you. Hear + believe = receive (repeat)
It is what Jesus said in John 5:24 — “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.”
And it is the same thing Paul says here. When we hear the gospel and believe in Christ, we receive the Spirit. Not later, but at that very moment.
If you are here today, and you have not believed in Jesus as your Lord and Saviour. What is keeping you from believing? We love you enough to be honest with you here and these blessings are not yours — if you do not believe. You were made for God, but you turned from God. And in your sin, you are under God’s wrath. You have heard that there’s redemption in Christ Jesus. You have heard that there’s forgiveness in His name. You have heard that He will reign over all things. You have heard, will you now believe?
Paul gives us a rich image of what receiving the Spirit means (Eph 1:13). He describes it as being “sealed”. A seal, in these times, was like this roller, with unique imprints on it. So you would dip it in some ink, and you would roll it over a parchment, and it was like putting your signature onto something.
It was a way of saying, “This is mine.”
We know God did this with the Jews. They were God’s holy people — His treasured possession — they belonged to Him.
And here, we see it is no different for Gentiles who believe. God rolls His signature onto us, saying, “You are mine!” This is what God promised He would do — back in Ezekiel 36 and Joel 2 — so Ephesians 1:13 calls the Spirit the “promised Holy Spirit.”
And like all God’s promises, the Spirit is a guarantee — a down payment, of what is to come. Christ has purchased our redemption, and God has ensured it will not bounce back. If you are in Christ, your inheritance is as sure as God’s own Word.
Now, in this long, run-on sentence, some of the Greek gets a bit jumbled. I is a bit tough to pinpoint — does the inheritance of Ephesians 1:14 refer to us having an inheritance in God? Or God having us as His inheritance? Your Bible may have a little footnote indicating it could be read either way.
Well, the context is helpful. The inheritance of Ephesians 1:11 seems to describe our inheritance in God. The inheritance of Ephesians 1:18 refers to God’s inheritance in us, in the saints. So here, I do not think we need to choose. The Spirit guarantees that we will enjoy our inheritance forever — and that God will enjoy us as His own.
We read Ephesians 1:3 at the beginning, but now, I pray it has a richer taste and a sweeter ring. If you are in Christ, you are chosen by the Father, redeemed by the Son, and sealed by the Spirit. O praise the Triune God of glorious grace!
None of this started with you.
None of this was earned by you.
None of this can fail because of you.
God’s grip will never let you go.
Church, we are in the Beloved. And in Him, we are blessed.
May our minds be full, and our hearts be warm. May our lives say, what our lips say. “To the praise of His glorious grace.”