The End of Our Study of Ephesians
This is the thirty-first and final message in our study of Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus. We have spent most of this year studying what both Catholics and Protestants view as one of the most influential letters in the New Testament. The great French Reformer John Calvin said that Ephesians was his favorite letter. The great Scottish Reformer John Knox had his wife read him Calvin’s sermons on Ephesians while he lay on his deathbed. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great British preacher of the last century, said, “There is nothing more sublime (i.e. beautiful) in the whole range of Scripture than this Epistle to the Ephesians.”
What Has Ephesians Taught Us?
What have we learned in Ephesians? The overarching theme of the letter is that God created the church to display his glory. Specifically, Paul argues that God’s plan, which was hidden for ages, has now come to fruition in the uniting of Jews and Gentiles in one body, what we call the church (3:4-6, 8-10).
God’s glory in uniting Jew and Gentile in one body is lost on most of us because we’re likely all Gentiles, so we don’t understand the depth of ethnic division that exists between Jew and Gentile. But Paul did. The mostly Jewish early church did. They had to wrestle with the reality that their Jewish Messiah came to save not only them, but also the Gentiles, with the reality that Jesus didn’t intend to merely remove the hostility between them, but to create one new people made up of both Jew and Gentile. It’s one thing for a teacher to break up a fight on the school playground. It’s another thing for a teacher to break up the fight and then declare that the two people fighting are now brothers or sisters in the same family. God has done this between Jews and Gentiles. He’s removed the hostility and made them members of the same family (2:14, 19). This is one reason why hostility toward Jews is profoundly unchristian. Jesus died to kill the ethnic tension between Jews and Gentiles that has existed for millennia.
How Did God Unite Jew and Gentile?
The uniting of Jew and Gentile in one family was mind-boggling to the early Christians. In Ephesians, Paul teaches us how God did it, why he did it, and what the implications are for the church. He did it by electing both Jews and Gentiles to be in his family before the beginning of time (1:4-5). He did it by sending his only Son Jesus to die for the sins of Jews and Gentiles (1:7, 2:13-16). He did it by sealing Jews and Gentiles with his Holy Spirit (1:13-14). He did it by raising Jews and Gentiles from the spiritual grave (2:1-6).
Why Did God Unite Jew and Gentile?
This letter is also full of purpose statements that tell us why God did what he did to save Jews and Gentiles and bring them together in Christ. The reason above all the other reasons is for the praise of his glory (1:6, 12, 14). He also did it to reveal the mystery of his will and his purpose of making Jesus the center of all things in the universe (1:9-10).
I want to linger on this point for a moment because this reason helps us understand exactly how God aims to be glorified through the election, redemption, and sealing of Jews and Gentiles. Part of the mystery that God revealed is the inclusion of the Gentiles in the people of God (3:6). But in 1:9, the “mystery” is concerning God’s will, “the mystery of his will.” Paul is referring more broadly to a bigger mystery. Verse 10 tells us that it’s God’s intention to “unite all things” in heaven and on earth in Christ.
What does this mean? The word for “unite” means “to sum up” or “bring together.” It was often used to describe what a lawyer would do at the end of his presentation. He would “sum up” his case in a brief statement. He’d bring all the loose ends together, connect all the dots, and make a final statement summing up his case.
Paul is saying that God’s will is to draw all things together “in Christ.” Christ will bring order to “all things.” All the fragmented and alienated and estranged and divided parts of the universe will be brought together in Christ.
Paul explains this in more detail in 1:20-23. Christ will be the head of all things. He’ll reign as the Supreme Ruler of the new heavens and new earth. Every creature, both angelic and human, will pay homage to him. Every person will bend the knee and declare that he is Lord (Phil. 2:9-11). Every realm of existence will be united under him and for him.
This, of course, hasn’t happened yet. The world is fractured by sin. Our lives are fragmented and split apart because of sin done by us and to us. We’re broken people. But this won’t always be the case. God has begun the process of remaking the universe around Jesus. The uniting of Jew and Gentile is a glimpse of the larger uniting work that God has begun in Christ. Just as an architect’s plan for a building is submitted well in advance of the actual construction of the building, so God has revealed his perfect plan, and in Christ he’s taken decisive steps to bring it to completion.
Through Jesus, God has begun the process of making all things new, of bringing everything together in Christ. The shed blood of Jesus is bringing peace to a universe torn apart by sin. Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the sign that all things will be made new through him.
To summarize: God’s great goal, the mystery he kept secret for ages but has now made known, is that he’s in the process of reorganizing the entire universe around Jesus Christ.
Jesus Will Tie Up All Loose Ends, Now and Later
This is the great hope of the gospel. In Jesus, God is in the process of tying up all the loose ends of our broken and fractured world and lives. In Jesus, God will bring unity to things in heaven and things on earth. In Jesus, God will erase all divisions and banish all discord. In Jesus, God will bring to an abrupt end all political violence, gun violence, sexual violence, and ethnic violence. At the end of the age, Jesus will right all wrongs and usher in a reign of peace, righteousness, justice, and joy. His realm will be one of life and light, not death and darkness. In Jesus, God will restore creation to its original glory. In Jesus, God will finally be seen and worshipped as the one who “fills all in all” (1:23).
In a world full of brokenness, we can rest assured that God’s plan to bring all things together in Jesus will be accomplished. If your life is broken to pieces by sin, look to Jesus as your organizing principle. Let him remake you into the person you were made to be.
Jesus will be the center of all things in the next world. Is he the center of all things in your world? Does your life reveal the supremacy of Jesus? Are you praying and seeking to help the nations and your neighbors to know him as the Supreme Ruler of the universe? Do you do your work for the Lord or for men? Does your singleness reveal that Jesus is where you find your identity? Do our marriages declare that Jesus or self is Lord? What priorities do our finances reveal? What priorities does the way we use our time reveal? How we spend our money and our time are perhaps the most reliable indicators of what has supremacy in our lives.
Implications for the Church
The mystery that God kept secret for ages but has now made known is that he’s in the process of reorganizing the entire universe around Jesus Christ. For believers, this process is underway in our daily lives. This is why the last half of Ephesians is about how those called to Christ are supposed to live (4:1).
Jesus’ reign and rule has massive and many implications for our lives. We’re to walk in unity (4:3), to grow to look more like Christ (4:15), to use our gifts to build up the church (4:16), to not live like we used to live (4:22-24), to walk in love (5:2), to put to death sexual sin and dirty joking (5:3-4), to walk in the light and seek to please the Lord (5:8-10), to expose darkness (5:11), to walk in wisdom (5:15), to not drink too much (5:18), to sing songs to the Lord with other Christians (5:19), to always be thankful (5:20), to pursue a marriage that displays Jesus’ sacrificial love for his church and the church’s loving submission for Jesus (5:22-33), to obey and honor our parents (6:1-2), to raise our children in “the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (6:4), to work as if we’re working for Christ and treat our workers as those who’ll have to give an account to God (6:5-9), and to find our strength in the Lord when the powers of darkness come against us, putting on God’s armor through prayer (6:10-20).
Peace with God is a Gift from God
This brings us to the final four verses of the letter (6:21-24). Verses 21-22 is Paul’s commendation of Tychicus and his explanation of his role as an “apostolic emissary.” Verses 23-24 is Paul’s concluding benediction.
Notice in verse 23 that the peace, love, and faith that Paul wants the “brothers” (i.e. the church) to have is “from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Peace with God and with others is a gift from God. God removes the animosity between him and us because of our sin, “bringing us near by the blood of Christ” (2:13). God breaks down the “dividing wall of hostility” that exists between Jews and Gentiles (2:14). He gives us peace with him and peace with others. “Peace” isn’t so much an emotion or feeling as it is a reality. Peace is what happens when we’re reconciled with God. Romans 5:1, “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
We all want peace of mind and peace in our hearts. But peace in our hearts is the result of peace with God. Being made right with God through faith in Christ is what creates peace and sustains peace. If you’re struggling to find peace, remember what God has given you in Christ. Remember his grace. Remember his love. Remember his promises. Rest in his arms. He’ll never let you go. He’ll protect you from the onslaught of doubt and fear and anxiety and all the schemes of the evil one.
Love is a Gift from God
Love is a gift from God. We see this in Paul’s prayer in 3:14-19. Paul says that the result of Christ dwelling in the house of our hearts is love, “being rooted and grounded in love” (v. 17). Our experience of God’s love is the result of God’s Spirit and God’s Son working in our “inner person” to produce love within us, love for God and love for others. The love that God gives us is incomprehensible, but God’s Spirit gives us strength to comprehend its dimensions, its “breadth and length and height and depth” (v. 18).
Because of the immensity and infinity of God’s love, the only way we can know it is if God teaches it to us, or if God gives it to us. This is exactly what he does for the believer. Paul says it this way in Romans 5:5, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Through the Holy Spirit, when we believe the gospel, God tips the pitcher of his love over and fills the cup of our hearts with his sweet and satisfying love.
Conditional Grace?
God’s love for us is a gift, but our love for him is also a gift. Verse 24 shows us that love for God is a gift of grace. Notice that Paul doesn’t pray this grace on all. The grace is only for those “who love our Lord Jesus Christ” with a genuine and durable love. Paul says that there’s a grace that goes to those who love Jesus, but that doesn’t go to those who don’t.
This grace is a conditional grace. This doesn’t mean it’s not free. Conditional grace is still free grace. If someone offers to pay for your college education on the condition that you graduate from High School, you haven’t earned the gift when you meet the condition. The gift is still free. It’s possible to meet a condition without earning the reward.
How is conditional grace not earned grace? The answer is this: “When God’s grace is promised based on a condition, that condition is also a work of God’s grace. This guarantees the absolute freeness of grace.” If the person offering to pay for your college also becomes your personal tutor to make sure that you graduate from High School, then their grace is what enabled you to meet the condition required to receive the reward.
A biblical example is that repentance is the condition we must meet in order to be saved. Acts 3:19, “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out.” But repentance itself is a gift of God’s grace. Acts 11:18, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.” 2 Timothy 2:25, “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.”
God, in his grace, meets the conditions that he requires for us to be saved. Back to Ephesians 6:24. Grace goes to all those who love Jesus. But those who love Jesus only do so because God has worked in their “inner person” by his Holy Spirit to enable them to be “rooted and grounded in love” (3:16-17). Love for God is a gift of grace from God.
Faith in God is a Gift from God
Faith in God is a gift from God. Verse 24 also says, “May faith be to the brothers, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Back in 2:8-9, we learn that we’re saved “by grace” and “through faith.” The preposition “through” tells us that grace comes to us “through” faith. Faith is the appointed means through which God’s grace is appropriated. Faith is the channel through which the water of God’s grace flows. Faith is the human response that receives what has already been done in Christ. The grace of Christ comes to us through faith.
Because we’re saved by grace, we’re not saved by ourselves or by our works. Verse 8, “This is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.” What does “this” refer to? Everything that precedes it. “This” grace, “this” salvation, and “this” faith “is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
This is crucial for our understanding of salvation. The Bible says that our faith is not “our own doing,” but is “the gift of God.” God gives us faith to receive his grace. Everything we have we got from God, including the faith that channels his grace to us. Our faith is a gift of God’s grace.
Grace to Grace
Paul concludes this letter highlighting the sovereignty of God’s grace. This is where he started (1:4-6) and where he ends. In between, he says that God raises us from the spiritual grave by grace (2:5), that God made him a minister by grace (3:2, 7-8), that spiritual gifts of grace were given to every member of the church (4:7-8), and that we should use our words to “give grace” to those we speak to (4:29). Ephesians is about grace through and through.
Ephesians is about grace because Paul was about grace, and Paul was about grace because God is about grace. The Father graciously chooses, the Son graciously redeems, and the Spirit graciously calls people to faith in Christ. Grace isn’t a religious cliché or throw-away word for Paul. As one commentator says, “It is the gospel in one word.”
We’re born as rebels and traitors to the throne of Christ. We despise his authority and are unmoved by his love. We ignore his word and break his law. We deserve his wrath and judgment. But, in a move that left the demonic realm dumbstruck, God came to us in the person of Jesus, offering us a peace treaty in the gospel, offering to lay down his arms if we’ll lay down ours, promising to forgive and forget about all our rebellion, and wanting to adopt us as his sons and daughters and give us a glorious inheritance in his kingdom.
Ephesians teaches us that, in Christ, God has given us what we do not deserve. In Christ, God gives us peace, love, faith, and grace. May we in return love him “with love incorruptible” (6:24).