Articles
Ephesians the Glory of God in Christ through the church
Ephesians the Glory of God in Christ through the church.
21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:21)
“10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord,” (Eph. 3:10-11)
HOW is this glory of God be shown by the church? Ephesians 3:10–11
We are told that All spiritual blessings are to be realized IN Christ - for BOTH Jew and Gentile. NOTE the ‘we’ — ‘you also’. I understand the ‘you also’ to be identified by Paul in 2:11, thus I take the ‘we’ to be the Jewish believers. BUT, now in Christ, BOTH share ‘all spiritual blessings’. 1 — We are chosen (v. 4); 2— We are predestined to be adopted (v. 5); 3 — We are given grace (v. 6); 4 — We are redeemed (v. 7); 5 — We are told the secret of his will (v. 9); 6 — We are made a heritage (v. 11); and 7— We are sealed with the Spirit (vv. 13–14).
ALL of these are said to be ‘IN Christ’. This is stated at the beginning of this sentence (1:3) and is repeated throughout the next 14 verses. [Interestingly, in the Greek this is all one big long sentence!] Those who are NOT now in Christ have no part in these blessings - whether Jew or Greek. Those in Christ, whether Jew or Greek, all have the same share in the blessings. Hence we are ONE body of people in Christ. THUS - our salvation and reception of the promised inheritance is “to the praise of his glory’ (Eph. 1:14).
Paul’s prayer (1:15-19) gives thanks and prays for their spiritual enlightenment and knowledge. Notice each is begun with ‘what…’.
When Paul mentions knowing the greatness of His power towards us, he illustrates this with what the Father did with Jesus (Eph. 1:19-23). This is one of the great Christological passages in the NT.
Enjoy your reading of this great book. The chapters are so short, you might like to read the whole book each day, or, read the first 3 chapters together the first three days and then chapters 4- 6 together for the last three days.
Hugh DeLong
