to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved, in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
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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, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love, having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved, in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in him. We were also assigned an inheritance in him, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ. In him you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.
Parallel Translations
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to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved,
in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,
which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
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to the prayse of the glorie of his grace where with he hath made vs accepted in the beloved.
By whom we have redemption thorow his bloude euen the forgevenes of synnes accordynge to the riches of his grace
which grace he shed on vs aboundantly in all wisdome and perceavaunce.
Show all 3 translations
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To the prayse of the glory of his grace, wherewith he hath made vs freely accepted in his beloued,
By whom we haue redemption through his blood, euen the forgiuenes of sinnes, according to his rich grace:
Whereby he hath bene aboundant toward vs in all wisedome and vnderstanding,
Cross-references (116)
- 1 Peter 2:24 (v7) He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. You were healed by his wounds.
- Romans 3:24 (v7) being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;
- Colossians 1:14 (v7) in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.
- 1 John 1:7-9 (v7) But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses…
- 1 Peter 1:18-19 (v7) knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your…
Show all 100 cross-references
- Hebrews 9:22 (v7) According to the law, nearly everything is cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission.
- Hebrews 9:12-15 (v7) nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained…
- Romans 3:22-26 (v6) even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have…
- Matthew 26:28 (v7) for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the remission of sins.
- Colossians 1:13 (v6) who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love,
- Ephesians 1:12 (v6) to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ.
- Hebrews 10:4-12 (v7) For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, “You didn’t…
- Revelation 5:9 (v7) They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals: for you were killed, and bought us for God with your…
- Philippians 4:19 (vv6–7) My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
- 1 John 2:12 (v7) I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake.
- Psalms 130:7 (v7) Israel, hope in Yahweh, for there is loving kindness with Yahweh. Abundant redemption is with him.
- Matthew 3:17 (v6) Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
- 1 Corinthians 1:30 (v7) Because of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:
- Ephesians 1:7-8 (v6) in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to…
- Ephesians 2:7 (vv6–7) that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus;
- 2 Corinthians 8:9 (v7) For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty…
- Hebrews 10:17-18 (v7) “I will remember their sins and their iniquities no more.” Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
- Micah 7:18 (v7) Who is a God like you, who pardons iniquity, and passes over the disobedience of the remnant of his heritage? He doesn’t retain his anger…
- Romans 2:4 (v7) Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?
- Ephesians 3:16 (v7) that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner…
- 1 Peter 2:9 (v6) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of…
- Job 33:24 (v7) then God is gracious to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom.’
- Jeremiah 31:34 (v7) They will no longer each teach his neighbor, and every man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know Yahweh;’ for they will all know me, from their…
- Daniel 9:9 (v7) To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness; for we have rebelled against him.
- Matthew 20:28 (v7) even as the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
- Ephesians 1:14 (v6) who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.
- Philippians 1:11 (v6) being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
- Titus 2:14 (v7) who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for…
- 1 John 2:2 (v7) And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
- Psalms 86:5 (v7) For you, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, abundant in loving kindness to all those who call on you.
- Isaiah 55:6-7 (v7) Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let…
- Daniel 9:19 (v7) Lord, hear. Lord, forgive. Lord, listen and do. Don’t defer, for your own sake, my God, because your city and your people are called by…
- Daniel 9:24-26 (v7) “Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, and to make an end of sins, and to make…
- Zechariah 9:11 (v7) As for you also, because of the blood of your covenant, I have set free your prisoners from the pit in which is no water.
- Mark 14:24 (v7) He said to them, “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many.
- Luke 7:47-50 (v7) Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.” He…
- John 20:23 (v7) If you forgive anyone’s sins, they have been forgiven them. If you retain anyone’s sins, they have been retained.”
- Acts 2:38 (v7) Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will…
- Acts 10:43 (v7) All the prophets testify about him, that through his name everyone who believes in him will receive remission of sins.”
- Acts 13:38-39 (v7) Be it known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man is proclaimed to you remission of sins, and by him everyone who believes is…
- Acts 20:28 (v7) Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the…
- Romans 4:6-9 (v7) Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works, “Blessed are they whose iniquities are…
- Ephesians 1:18 (v6) having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his…
- Ephesians 3:10-11 (v6) to the intent that now through the assembly the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and the powers in the…
- 1 Peter 4:11 (v6) If anyone speaks, let it be as it were the very words of God. If anyone serves, let it be as of the strength which God supplies, that in…
- 1 John 4:10 (v7) In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
- Exodus 34:7 (v7) keeping loving kindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and disobedience and sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the…
- Psalms 32:1-2 (v7) Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom Yahweh doesn’t impute iniquity, in whose…
- Isaiah 43:21 (v6) the people which I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise.
- Isaiah 43:25 (v7) I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.
- Luke 1:77 (v7) to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins,
- Luke 24:47 (v7) and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
- Acts 3:19 (v7) “Repent therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out, so that there may come times of refreshing from the presence of the…
- Romans 9:23 (v7) and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory,
- Ephesians 2:4 (v7) But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
- Ephesians 3:8 (v7) To me, the very least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
- Colossians 1:27 (v7) to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope…
- Colossians 2:2 (v7) that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that…
- Colossians 2:13 (v7) You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our…
- 1 Timothy 2:6 (v7) who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony in its own times,
- 1 Peter 3:18 (v7) Because Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring you to God, being put to death in the…
- Revelation 5:12 (v8) saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who has been killed to receive the power, wealth, wisdom, strength, honor, glory, and…
- Psalms 130:4 (v7) But there is forgiveness with you, therefore you are feared.
- Isaiah 42:1 (v6) “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights: I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations.
- Jonah 4:2 (v7) He prayed to Yahweh, and said, “Please, Yahweh, wasn’t this what I said when I was still in my own country? Therefore I hurried to flee to…
- Zechariah 13:1 (v7) “In that day there will be a spring opened to David’s house and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.
- Romans 5:15-19 (v6) But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by…
- 2 Corinthians 5:21 (v6) For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
- Ephesians 1:6 (v7) to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved,
- Revelation 14:4 (v7) These are those who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are those who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These were…
- Proverbs 8:30-31 (v6) then I was the craftsman by his side. I was a delight day by day, always rejoicing before him, rejoicing in his whole world. My delight was…
- Romans 8:1 (v6) There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who don’t walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
- Romans 9:23-24 (v6) and that he might make known the riches of his glory on vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, us, whom he also called,…
- 2 Corinthians 4:15 (v6) For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound to the glory of…
- 1 Timothy 1:14-16 (v6) The grace of our Lord abounded exceedingly with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. The saying is faithful and worthy of all…
- Titus 3:6 (v7) whom he poured out on us richly, through Jesus Christ our Savior;
- 1 Peter 2:5 (v6) You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God…
- Zechariah 13:7 (vv6–7) “Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me,” says Yahweh of Armies. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep…
- Isaiah 45:24-25 (v6) They will say of me, ‘There is righteousness and strength only in Yahweh.’ ” Even to him will men come. All those who raged against him…
- Isaiah 49:1-3 (v6) Listen, islands, to me. Listen, you peoples, from afar: Yahweh has called me from the womb; from the inside of my mother, he has mentioned…
- Isaiah 61:11 (v6) For as the earth produces its bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring up, so the Lord Yahweh will cause…
- Jeremiah 23:6 (v6) In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely. This is his name by which he will be called: Yahweh our righteousness.
- Jeremiah 33:9 (v6) This city will be to me for a name of joy, for praise, and for glory, before all the nations of the earth, which will hear all the good…
- Matthew 17:5 (v6) While he was still speaking, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. Behold, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is my beloved…
- Luke 2:14 (v6) “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men.”
- Luke 7:40-42 (v7) Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” He said, “Teacher, say on.” “A certain lender had two debtors. The one owed five…
- John 3:35 (v6) The Father loves the Son, and has given all things into his hand.
- John 10:17 (v6) Therefore the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again.
- Romans 5:15 (v8) But the free gift isn’t like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by…
- Ephesians 3:10 (v8) to the intent that now through the assembly the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and the powers in the…
- Colossians 2:3 (v8) in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
- 2 Thessalonians 1:8-10 (v6) punishing those who don’t know God, and to those who don’t obey the Good News of our Lord Jesus, who will pay the penalty: eternal…
- Psalms 22:20 (v6) Deliver my soul from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dog.
- Psalms 60:5 (v6) So that your beloved may be delivered, save with your right hand, and answer us.
- Psalms 104:24 (v8) Yahweh, how many are your works! In wisdom, you have made them all. The earth is full of your riches.
100 distinct cross-references across this passage (116 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (24 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv7–8 7. In whom we have redemption. The apostle is…
7. In whom we have redemption. The apostle is still illustrating the material cause, — the manner in which we are reconciled to God through Christ. By his death he has restored us to favor with the Father; and therefore we ought always to direct our minds to the blood of Christ, as the means by which we obtain divine grace. After mentioning that, through the blood of Christ, we obtain redemption, he immediately styles it the forgiveness of sins, — to intimate that we are redeemed, because our sins are not imputed to us. Hence it follows, that we obtain by free grace that righteousness by which we are accepted of God, and freed from the chains of the devil and of death. The close connection which is here preserved, between our redemption itself and the manner in which it is obtained, deserves our notice; for, so long as we remain exposed to the judgment of God, we are bound by miserable chains, and therefore our exemption from guilt, becomes an invaluable freedom.
According to the riches of his grace. He now returns to the efficient cause, — the largeness of the divine kindness, which has given Christ to us as our Redeemer. Riches, and the corresponding word overflow, in the following verse, are intended to give us large views of divine grace. The apostle feels himself unable to celebrate, in a proper manner, the goodness of God, and desires that the contemplation of it would occupy the minds of men till they are entirely lost in admiration. How desirable is it that men were deeply impressed with “the riches of that grace” which is here commended! No place would any longer be found for pretended satisfactions, or for those trifles by which the world vainly imagines that it can redeem itself; as if the blood of Christ, when unsupported by additional aid, had lost all its efficacy.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv6–8 The uttermost and chiefest final cause is the glory…
The uttermost and chiefest final cause is the glory of God the Father, who saveth us freely in his Son.
That as his bountiful goodness deserveth all praise, so also it should be set forth and published.
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Another final cause more near, is our justification, while that he freely accounteth us for just in his Son.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv6–8 6 To the praise of the glory of his…
6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Ver. 6. To the praise of the glory] This is the end whereunto it is destined; and hence it is called predestination. Note here, that all the causes of predestination are merely without us. The efficient, God; the material, Christ; the formal, the good pleasure of his will; the final, the praise of God’s glorious grace.
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Wherein he hath made us accepted] Gr. εχαριτωσεν, He hath ingratiated us, he hath justified us, made us gracious in his beloved Son our Mediator, gratificavit. And although there be an inequality of expressions in duty, quoad nos, in us, yet there is a constancy of worth and intercession by Christ, propter nos, for us. Pareus rendereth these words thus, Nos sibi gratis effecit gratos, He hath freely made us well thought of.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv6–8 To the praise of the glory of his grace:…
To the praise of the glory of his grace: glory of his grace, by a usual Hebraism, for glorious grace, i.e. large, abundant, admirable. The praise of this grace the apostle makes the end of God’s choosing and predestinating us to the adoption of children. God hath chosen us, &c., and therein manifested his grace to us, that such as it is in itself, such it may be acknowledged to be; and therefore praised and adored by us.
Wherein; in, or through, or by the same grace out of which he chose us.
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He hath made us accepted in the beloved; having chosen us in Christ, he likewise favours us, is well pleased with us in Christ, to whom we are united, whose members we are, and in whom God looks upon us. We are hateful in ourselves as sinners, but accepted in Christ as sons.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv7–8 Our apostle having, in the foregoing verses, enumerated the…
Our apostle having, in the foregoing verses, enumerated the great and glorious privileges which the children of God were made partakers of before all time, comes next to discover what they are admitted to the participation of in time: and here in this verse he mentions two of them, namely, redemption and remission of sin. In whom we have redemption through his blood, &c.
Here note, The privilege itself, redemption; the Redeemer, Jesus Christ; the price of his redemption paid down, his blood: one fruit of this redemption instanced in for all the rest, the forgiveness of sin: and, lastly, the spring or source of all this, the riches of his grace.
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Learn, 1. The deplorable state into which the whole race of mankind was brought into by sin; namely, an estate of slavery and bondage, and spiritual captivity unto sin. Redemption supposses this; slaves and captives need a redeemer, none else; we are all by nature under slavery to sin, to Satan, and the curse of the law, and the wrath of God.
Learn 2. That there was no delivery to be had from this slavery but by a price paid down to the justice of God; redemption is a delivery by ransom and price.
Learn 3. That no other price did or could redeem us from our miserable captivity, but the blood of Christ: We have redemption through his blood.
Learn 4. That all belivers, and only they, have remission of their sins, through the redemption purchased for them by the blood of Christ.
Learn 5. That God’s free grace, and Christ’s full satisfaction, do stand well together in the work of redemption and remission of sin. True, God had a satisfaction from the hand of our surety Christ Jesus; but was it not free grace and rich mercy in God, to accept of a surety and a substitution, when the rigour of the law required none, and would admit of none, but demanded that the soul which sinned should die? Was it not free mercy, not only to accept a surety, but to provide a surety for us as God did, and this surety his own Son? And to deliver up this Son to a painful, shameful, and accursed death, that we might have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace?
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv6–8 To the praise of the glory of his grace,....…
To the praise of the glory of his grace,.... The grace of God manifestly appears in the predestination of men to adoption; in that God had no need of sons, he having a dear and well beloved one; in whom he is well pleased; and in that those he adopts are so unworthy of the relation; and in that men, and not angels, should be taken by him into his family; and that some, and not others of the same race; and that this should be before the world was; and in providing Christ as a Redeemer, to open the way for the reception of this grace and happiness; and in appointing the grace of faith to be the receiver of it: and the glory of the grace of God appears herein; the glory of God is the supreme end of all he does; and the glory of his grace, and not his power, or other perfections of his, and the manifestative glory of that is here intended; yea, the "praise" of that glory: and this end is answered, when the children of God ascribe their adoption to the free grace of God; and when they admire it, and are thankful for it, and walk worthy of the relation they are brought into:
wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved; the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions read, "his own beloved Son", and so the Claromontane exemplar; the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the beloved of God the Father; and was so from everlasting, and will be so to everlasting; which has appeared by his nearness to him, lying in his bosom; by his being privy to all his counsels, purposes, and designs; in putting all things into his hands, and in showing him all that he does; and by his giving him honour and glory, as man and Mediator: and he is the beloved of the saints, for the transcendent excellencies that are in him, and for his love to them, and for what he has done for them, and is unto them; and in him is their acceptance: which is to be understood of the acceptance of their persons, as founded in the blood and righteousness of Christ, and so of their services in him; of God's act of delight and complacency in them, as considered in Christ; who looks upon them, and is well pleased with them, and rests in his love towards them; which is an amazing instance of grace: it was grace that gave them a being in Christ, and which has provided in predestination everything to make them grateful to God; and the very act of acceptance is of mere grace; for internal grace, or grace infused, is not here meant, but the free favour of God: some read not "in which", but "which" "he freely gave us in the beloved"; so the Alexandrian copy, and some others, and the Syriac and Arabic versions.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv6–8 To the praise of the glory of his grace…
To the praise of the glory of his grace - His glorious, free love without any desert on our part.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Verse 6. To the praise of the glory of…
Verse 6. To the praise of the glory of his grace] Δοξης της χαριτος αὑτου· The glory of his grace, for χαρις ενδοξος, his glorious or illustrious grace, according to the Hebrew idiom. But the grace or mercy of God is peculiarly illustrated and glorified in the plan of redemption by Christ Jesus. By the giving of the LAW, God's justice and holiness were rendered most glorious; by the giving of the GOSPEL, his grace and mercy are made equally conspicuous.
Wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved] This translation of εν ᾑ εχαριτωσεν ἡμας εν τῳ Ηγαπημενῳ is not clear; with which he has graciously favoured us through the Beloved, is at once more literal and more intelligible. Whitby, Macknight, and Wakefield translate the passage in nearly the same way.
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In the Beloved must certainly mean in Christ, who is termed God's beloved Son, Mt 3:17; but several excellent MSS., such as D*EFG, the later Syriac, the AEthiopic, Vulgate, Itala, with several of the fathers, add, υιωαυτου, his beloved Son. This is the meaning, whether the reading be received or rejected.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v7 Eph 1:7-8. In, or by, whom we have redemption…
Eph 1:7-8. In, or by, whom we have redemption — By price and by power, are bought and delivered from the guilt and dominion of sin, the tyranny of Satan, and the final displeasure and wrath of God. Through his blood — Shed for these purposes; or through what he hath done and suffered; having undertaken the great and awful work of making an atonement for us by the sacrifice of himself, by which we obtain, what is an introduction to all the other blessings here mentioned, the forgiveness of sins — For, being pardoned, God’s wrath is removed from us; we are taken into his favour; adopted into his family; born of his Spirit; love him who hath thus first loved us; and, through this love, become holy, and without blame before him. And by these blessings in heavenly things, we are qualified to receive blessings in heavenly places; according to the riches of his grace — According to the abundant overflowings of his free, undeserved mercy and favour, to such sinful and guilty creatures; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom — Manifested by God in the whole scheme of our salvation; and prudence — Which he hath wrought in us, that we may know and do all his acceptable and perfect will.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv6–8 To the praise of the glory of his grace…
To the praise of the glory of his grace - This is a Hebraism, and means the same as “to his glorious grace.” The object was to excite thanksgiving for his glorious grace manifested in electing love. The real tendency of the doctrine in minds that are properly affected, is not to excite opposition to God, or to lead to the charge of partiality, tyranny, or severity; it is to excite thankfulness and praise. In accordance with this, Paul introduced the statement Eph 1:3 by saying that God was to be regarded as “blessed” for forming and executing this plan. The meaning is, that the doctrine of predestination and election lays the foundation of adoring gratitude and praise. This will appear plain by a few considerations.
(1) It is the only foundation of hope for man. If he were left to himself, all the race would reject, the offers of mercy and would perish. History, experience, and the Bible alike demonstrate this.
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(2) All the joys which any of the human race have, are to be traced to the purpose of God to bestow them. Man has no power of originating any of them, and if God had not intended to confer them, none of them would have been possessed.
(3) All these favors are conferred on those who had no claim on God. The Christian who is pardoned had no claim on God for pardon; he who is admitted to heaven could urge no claim for such a privilege and honor; he who enjoys comfort and peace in the hour of death, enjoys it only through the glorious grace of God.
(4) “all” that is done by election is suited to excite praise. Election is to life, and pardon, and holiness, and heaven. But why should not a man praise God for these things? God chooses people to be holy, not sinful; to be happy, not miserable; to be pure, not impure; to be saved, not to be lost. For these things he should be praised. He should be praised that he has not left the whole race to wander away and die. Had he chosen but one to eternal life, that one should praise him, and all the holy universe should join in the praise. Should he now see it to be consistent to choose but one of the fallen spirits, and to make him pure, and to readmit him to heaven, that one spirit would have occasion for eternal thanks, and all heaven might join in his praises. How much more is praise due to him, when the number chosen is not one, or a few, but when millions which no man can number, shall be found to be chosen to life; Rev 7:9.
(5) The doctrine of predestination to life has added no pang of sorrow to anyone of the human race. It has made millions happy who would not otherwise have been, but not one miserable. It is not a choice to sorrow, it is a choice to joy and peace.
(6) No one has a right to complain of it. Those who are chosen assuredly should not complain of the grace which has made them what they are, and which is the foundation of all their hopes. And they who are “not” chosen, have no right to complain; for,
(a)They have no claim to life;
(b)They are “in fact” unwilling to come.
They have no desire to be Christians and to be saved. Nothing can induce them to forsake their sins and come to the Saviour.
Why then should they complain if others are “in fact” willing to be saved? Why should a man complain for being left to take his own course, and to walk in his own way? Mysterious, therefore, as is the doctrine of predestination; and fearful and inscrutable as it is in some of its aspects, yet, in a just view of it, it is suited to excite the highest expressions of thanksgiving, and to exalt God in the apprehension of man. He who has been redeemed and saved by the love of God; who has been pardoned and made pure by mercy; on whom the eye of compassion has been tenderly fixed, and for whom the Son of God has died, has abundant cause for thanksgiving and praise.
Wherein he hath made us accepted - Has regarded us as the objects of favor and complacency.
In the Beloved - In the Lord Jesus Christ, the well-beloved Son of God; notes, Mat 3:17. He has chosen us in him, and it is through him that these mercies have been conferred on us.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv6, 8 To the praise of the glory of his grace;…
To the praise of the glory of his grace; i.e. unto the glorious praise or commendation of his grace. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv6–8 (Eph 1:7, Eph 1:17-18). The end aimed at (Psa…
(Eph 1:7, Eph 1:17-18). The end aimed at (Psa 50:23), that is, that the glory of His grace may be praised by all His creatures, men and angels.
wherein--Some of the oldest manuscripts read, "which." Then translate, "which He graciously bestowed on us." But English Version is supported by good manuscripts and the oldest versions.
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us accepted--a kindred Greek word to "grace": charitos, echaritosen: translate, "graciously accepted"; "made us subjects of His grace"; "embraced us in the arms of His grace" (Rom 3:24; Rom 5:15).
in the beloved--pre-eminently so called (Mat 3:17; Mat 17:5; Joh 3:35; Col 1:13). Greek, "Son of His love." It is only "IN HIS BELOVED" that He loves us (Eph 1:3; Jo1 4:9-10).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv6–8 6. Praise of the glory of his grace—The glory,…
6. Praise of the glory of his grace—The glory, is the quality of the grace; the praise, is the response of all God’s glorified ones in the contemplation of the glory of that grace. Perhaps praise of the gloriousness of his grace, gives the exact meaning.
The beloved—Perhaps an allusion to David, the type of the Messiah, whose name signifies beloved.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv6, 8 6. To the praise, &c.] I. e., that the…
6. To the praise, &c.] I. e., that the grace of Redemption might be adored and praised in respect of that glory of God which is the harmony of His attributes, His Character. See Rom_3:23 and note in this Series. Possibly, but far less probably, the meaning is “that praise may be rendered for the (coming) glory given by His grace.”
wherein he hath made us, &c.] The tense is aorist; so that if the A.V. is otherwise retained it should be modified wherein He made, &c. But the rendering of the Greek verb is a question. It is a very rare verb, and occurs elsewhere (in N. T.) only Luk_1:28 (A. V. “highly favoured”). Analogy of verb-forms suggests the meaning “to make gracious,” “to make (us) recipients of grace,” and as the “grace” specially in view here is that of adoption and acceptance in Christ, the A. V. would thus be very nearly in point, though rather as a paraphrase than as a translation.—R. V., “which He freely bestowed on us;” margin, “wherewith He endued us.”
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in the beloved] of the Father.—This designation of the Son (cp. Isa_42:1; Mat_3:17; Mat_17:5; Mar_12:6; Joh_1:18; Joh_17:24; Col_1:3, where lit. “the Son of His love;” &c.) is specially appropriate here, where the greatness and graciousness of salvation is in view. Cp. Rom_8:32.—“The Son, loveable in Himself, is essentially The Beloved; we, unloveable in ourselves, are accepted because of, and in, the Beloved; and if we are called beloved in our turn (ch. Eph_5:1, &c.), it is because God sees us in His Son” (Adolphe Monod[30]).
[30] Explication de l’ Épître aux Ephésiens (Paris, 1867); a book often referred to in these notes.
redemption] Lit., “the redemption.” The Greek article (often refusing transference into English idiom) is here probably to be represented by our redemption, as R. V.—“Redemption:”—this word and its Greek equivalent point by derivation to the idea of rescue by ransom, whatever the ransom may be. This meaning in usage often vanishes, or at least retires, as where in O. T. a deliverance by mere force is called a redemption (Exo_6:6, &c.). But it is always ready to assert itself as the native meaning, and certainly so here, close to the mention of the Redeemer’s blood. Cp. esp. Rom_8:24-25; and for illustration see Mat_20:28; Heb_9:15; 1Pe_1:18-19.
The order of thought at this point descends from the pre-mundane Covenant to the actual Work of Redemption; the accomplished deliverance of the saints through the Death of Christ.
through his blood] I. e. through, by means of, His Death, viewed as the ransom-price. Cp. for the supremely important thought, Mat_26:28; Act_20:28; Rom_3:25; Rom_5:9; Hebrews 9 passim; 1Pe_1:18-19; Rev_5:9, &c.
We are now (see last note) on the level of the actual state and needs of the persons contemplated in Eph_1:3, &c. They are found to need redemption, rescue by ransom, and the ransom must be death. In other words, their lives are forfeit, for they are sinners; and a sacrificial Death is needed, and is provided. On this great subject it is enough here to say that a careful review of N. T. passages under the word Blood will shew that the prevalent and leading ideas associated with it, in religious connexions, are expiation of guilt, ransom of person, and ratification of covenant. In all these can be traced the uniting idea of forfeiture of life as the due of sin. Cp. further the great range of passages, in both O. T. and N. T., where the Death of Christ (apart from the special phrase “His Blood”), is seen in prophecy, history, or doctrine, as not one great Incident of His redeeming Work, but its absolute Essential.
the forgiveness of sins] Lit., of the (our) trespasses. See last note but one. Observe this account of Redemption; it is Forgiveness, Remission. Not that it does not involve immensely more, both for soul (Tit_2:14) and body (Rom_8:3); but all else is so inseparably bound up with Forgiveness as its sine quâ non, (a fact which gives a colour of its own to all the rest,) that the whole is often practically identified with this great part. For illustration of this primary position of Forgiveness, cp. Mat_26:28; Luk_1:77; Luk_24:47; Act_2:38; Act_5:31; Act_10:43; Act_13:38; Act_26:18; Col_1:14.—“Sins:”—better, trespasses, as above. The original word, by derivation, means “a falling out”—of the way, or the like; and is occasionally used for sin or fault in its lighter aspects. But this cannot be pressed; and very often, as here, the reference is to all kinds and degrees of sins, which are all “fallings out” of the straight line of the will of God. For this deep and universal reference of the word cp. Rom_4:25; 2Co_5:19; Col_2:13. In Heb_6:6 the cognate verb is used to indicate very grievous sin, as apostasy. See further on Eph_2:1 below.
the riches of his grace] “Riches” is a frequent idea with St Paul, in reference to Divine grace and gifts. Cp. Eph_1:18, Eph_2:4; Eph_2:7, Eph_3:8; Eph_3:16; Rom_2:4; Rom_9:23; Rom_10:12; Rom_11:12; Rom_11:33; 1Co_1:5; 2Co_8:9; 2Co_9:11; Php_4:19; Col_1:27; Col_2:2.
Observe in this verse the contrasted but harmonious aspects of the gift of Redemption: it flows from a Divine wealth of love and goodness; it flows through, not any channel, but the Death of Christ.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv6–8 (6) To the praise of the glory of his…
(6) To the praise of the glory of his grace.—That is, for the acknowledgment by all God’s creatures of the gloriousness of His grace; or, in other words, for the acknowledgment that God’s essential glory is best manifested in His grace—that He “declares His almighty power most chiefly in showing mercy and pity.” So in Exo_33:18-19, to the request, “Show me Thy glory,” the answer is, “I will make my goodness to pass before thee . . . and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious.” (Comp. Exo_34:5-7.) He is pleased to consider His glory best realised in the spectacle of souls redeemed and regenerate by His grace, and to decree that it should be thus realised for our sakes. “Wherefore would He have us praise and glorify Him? It is that our love to Him may be kindled more fervently. He desires not our service, nor our praise, nor anything else except our salvation” (Chrysostom’s First Homily on the Ephesians).
Wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.—The verb here rendered “made us accepted,” is the same verb used in Luk_1:28 (and nowhere else in the New Testament), where we translate “highly favoured.” Etymologically it means to “bestow grace upon;” the tense here is the past tense, not the perfect Hence the meaning is (in connection with the previous clause), “His grace, which He bestowed upon us in the Beloved”—in virtue of our unity with “His beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased” (Mat_3:17). This special title is given to our Lord to mark a connection with the “love” declared in the last verse to be the source of God’s predestination. It is a love to all mankind, as in God’s foreknowledge already made one with His beloved Son. (See Joh_17:23; Joh_17:25, “Thou hast loved them, as Thou hast loved Me . . . for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.”)
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(2 b.) Eph_1:7-10 form the second section of this Introduction to the Epistle, linked to the former by the words, “in the Beloved.” From the declaration in the former section of the source of salvation in God’s love, it leads us on to the mystery of the Mediation of Jesus Christ, in Whom all Being is gathered up for redemption.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv6–8 To the praise of the glory of his grace;…
To the praise of the glory of his grace; with a view to praise being given to the glory of his grace. The purpose of grace quoad man, is to make him perfectly holy; quoad God, is to give to the universe a right conception of his grace, and draw forth corresponding tributes of praise. It is to show that Divine grace is not a limp, shallow attribute, but one of glorious riches, deserving infinite praise. The idea of the richness, fullness, abundance, of God"s grace is prominent throughout the Epistle. God desires to draw attention, not only to this attribute, but to the boundlessness of it thus to draw the love and confidence of his creatures to himself and inspire them with the desire to imitate him. (comp. Mat_18:21-35) Wherein he abounded toward us in the Beloved. Two slight difficulties are found here one in the text, the other in the interpretation. After caritov aujtou, some copies read ejn h, others hhv.
A.V. follows the former; R.V the latter. Caritow usually means to bestow grace; sometimes, to make gracious or beautiful. The former is more in accordance with New Testament usage (Alford) and with the tenor of the passage. The glory of the grace of which God desires to create a true impression is not an abstraction, not a glory hidden away in stone inaccessible region, but a revealed glory, a communicated glory; it is revealed in the grace wherein he abounded to us, or which he freely bestowed on us, in the Beloved. The grace bestowed on believers exemplifies the glorious quality of the attribute its glorious riches. The connection of God with Christ in the bestowal of this grace, and of believers in the reception of it, is again noted by the remarkable term, "in the Beloved." That the Father"s relation to Christ was one of infinite love is a fact never to be lost sight of. His having constituted the Beloved One the Kinsman and Mediator of sinners shows the riches of the glory of his grace. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he hot, with him also freely give us all things?" Our union to the Beloved, our participating in all the blessings of his purchase, our becoming heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, further illustrates the glorious riches of his grace. "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!"
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv6–8 To the praise of the glory of His grace.
Eph_1:6
To the praise of the glory of His grace.
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Gods glory in mans salvation
1. All that God did from eternity intend about man has no end but His own glory. The reason is plain. God, who is wisdom itself, cannot work without an end. A wise man will do nothing but to some purpose. Gods object in making all things must be better than all those things which are done to attain that object, for the end is better than that which serves for it, as the body is better than food, raiment, etc. But, except God Himself, there is nothing better than the works of God; nothing better than every creature, save the Creator Himself. If, then, He must needs have an end why He makes things, and this end must needs be better than the things made for it, and nothing is better than all the creatures save only their Creator, it follows that God must needs have Himself as His end in everything he does. Since this is so, let us in all things labour to yield Him glory; whatever we are, let us be that in Him, and through Him, and for Him.
2. God generally intends the praise of His grace in all who are predestinated by Him. Let this stir us up to glorify Him in regard of His grace to us. Even as waters come from the sea, and return again to it, so from this Divine Ocean comes every blessing, and every benefit should, by praising this grace, be duly acknowledged with thankfulness.
3. The attributes of God are His essential glory. This should make us endeavour to know the properties of God, and view as far as we may the reflection which we have in His word and works of such infinite glory.
4. The grace which now works all good things for us, is the same which before all time purposed them to us.
5. The grace of God brings us to receive favour and grace in and through His Beloved. Christ has satisfied justice, so that grace may be freely bestowed upon us. (Paul Bayne.)
The grace of God
I. In salvation as a whole we see the glory of Gods grace. The praise of the glory of His grace in rescuing man from the deep ruin into which he had fallen, in leading our captivity captive, in uplifting us into heaven, and giving us to be partakers of His glory through the merit of Jesus Christ our Lord--in all this grace is as glorious as was power at the Red Sea. No stinted thing then, no small matter, but something great and grand and glorious will that salvation be, which is to the praise of the glory of so great and favourite an attribute as the grace of God. I have tried if I could to think of what grace at its utmost must be; but who by searching can find out God? It is not possible for the human mind to conceive of power at its utmost. Pharaohs overthrow gives you but a guess at what the omnipotence of the Lord can accomplish, it can shake all worlds to dust, dissolve the universe, and annihilate creation. Power at its utmost, who shall compass it? And grace, my brethren, grace at its utmost! When all the chosen ones shall be gathered together, and the Church of God in heaven shall be perfect, not one living stone lacking of the entire fabric, then across that edifice shall this inscription be written in letters of light, To the praise of the glory of His grace. The work of salvation from first to last, as a whole, was devised and carried out, and shall be perfected to the praise of the glory of the grace of God.
II. This is true of each detail of salvation. I gather that from the position of my text. The fifth verse speaks of predestination and adoption, and the sixth verse speaks of acceptance in the Beloved, and the position of my text puts all three of these under the same mark, they are all to the praise of the glory of His grace. Brethren, the sea is salt as a whole, and every drop of it is salt in its degree: if the whole work of salvation be of grace, every detail of that work is equally of grace. The rays of the sun as a whole possess certain properties, analyse one single sunbeam and you shall find all those properties there. I have just now said that the whole of salvation might be resembled to a great temple, and that across its front would be written, To the praise of the glory of His grace; now, some of the ancient Eastern buildings were erected by certain monarchs, and were dedicated to them, and not only was the whole pile set up to their honour, but each separate brick was stamped with the royal cartouche or coat of arms; not only the whole structure but each separate brick bore the impress of the builder; so is it in the matter of salvation: the whole is of grace, and each particular portion of it equally manifests in its measure the free favour of God.
1. Election.
2. Redemption.
3. Effectual calling.
4. Pardon and justification.
5. Mark you well that the next series of steps, which we call sanctification, or perseverance, or, better still, gracious conservation, all of these must be of grace too.
No man has any claim upon God to keep him from going into sin. Thus, from foundation to pinnacle, the temple of our salvation is all of grace.
III. The peculiar glories of this grace ought to be pointed out.
1. It is sovereign. Given to man according to the absolute will of the Almighty.
2. Free. Man is not expected to do anything to earn or obtain the grace of God; he would not, if he were expected; he could not, if he were required.
3. Full. Grace to cover all the mans sins, whatever they may be.
4. Unfailing in continuance. The gifts of God are without repentance. Grace is no intermittent brook flowing today and dried up tomorrow, no fleeting meteor dazzling all beholders and then vanishing in thick darkness.
5. Unalloyed and unmingled. Gods grace in saving souls rules alone. Human merit does not intrude here and there to make a patchwork of the whole. Grace is Alpha, grace is Omega. It is graces glory that no mortal finger touches her work, and no human hammer is lifted up thereon.
6. Need I say that it is one glory of this grace that while it thus reveals itself so fully, it never interferes with any other attribute of God? On the contrary, it only tends to illustrate all the other glories of the Divine character.
IV. This grace ought to be the subject of praise.
1. Praise God while your mind surveys the whole plan of salvation.
2. Let all men see the result of grace in you.
3. Add to your holy living your own personal testimony.
V. The great ground of hope for sinners. My last word shall briefly indicate what is the privilege of each sinner who would rejoice in the sovereign grace of God. Often as we explain faith, yet still we need to explain it again. I met with an illustration taken from the American war. One had been trying to instruct a dying officer in what faith was. At last he caught the idea, and he said, I could not understand it before, but I see it now. It is just this--I surrender, I surrender to Jesus. That is it. You have been fighting against God, standing out against Him, trying to make terms more or less favourable to yourself; now here you stand in the presence of God, and you drop the sword of your rebellion and say, Lord, I surrender, I am Thy prisoner. I trust to Thy mercy to save me. I have done with self, I fall into Thy arms. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The glory of Jehovahs grace
I. The glory of grace is its freeness: it fixes upon objects that are most unworthy; bestows upon them the richest blessings; raises them to the highest honour; promises them the greatest happiness; and all for its own glory. Nothing can be freer than grace.
II. The glory of grace is its power: it conquers the stubbornest sinners; subdues the hardest hearts; tames the wildest wills; enlightens the darkest understandings; breaks off the strongest fetters; and invariably conquers its objects. Grace is omnipotent.
III. The glory of grace is its benevolence: it never injured one; it has delivered, supplied, conducted, supported, and glorified thousands; it brings the inexhaustible fulness of God to supply the creatures wants. Grace gives away all it has, reserving nothing for itself but the praise and glory of its acts. Jesus is grace personified; in Him it may be seen in all its beauty, excellence, and loveliness; by Him it is displayed in all its native dignity. O Jesus! glorify Thy free, powerful, and benevolent grace in me! (Essex Remembrancer.)
Grace is all
Payson, when dying, expressed himself with great earnestness respecting the grace of God as exercised in saving lost men, and seemed particularly affected that it should be bestowed on one so ill-deserving as himself. Oh, how sovereign! Oh, how sovereign! Grace is the only thing that can make us like God. I might be dragged through heaven, earth, and hell, and I should be still the same sinful, polluted wretch, unless God Himself should renew and cleanse me. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
We muse glorify Gods grace
Had I all the faith of the patriarchs, all the zeal of the prophets, all the good works of the apostles, the constancy of the martyrs, and all the flaming devotion of seraphs, I would disclaim them all in point of dependence, and rely only on free grace. I would count all but dung and dross when put in competition with the infinitely precious death and meritorious righteousness of my dear Saviour Jesus Christ; and, if ever a true and lasting reformation of manners is produced amongst us, it must (under the influence of the Eternal Spirit) be produced by the doctrines of free grace. Till these doctrines are generally inculcated, the most elegant harangues from the pulpit, or the most correct dissertations from the press, will be no better than a pointless arrow or a broken bow. (Hervey.)
Glorifying Gods grace
Dr. Kane, finding a flower under the Humboldt glacier, was more affected by it because it grew beneath the lip and cold bosom of the ice than he would have been by the most gorgeous garden bloom. So the most single, struggling grace in the heart of one far removed from Divine influence may be dearer to God than a whole catalogue of virtues in the life of one more favoured of heaven. (H. W. Beecher.)
Accepted in the Beloved.
Accepted of the great Father
Gods love of His dear Son covers all believers, as a canopy covers all who come beneath it. As a hen covereth her chickens with her wings, so Gods love to Christ covers all the children of promise. As the sun shining forth from the gates of the morning gilds all the earth with golden splendour, so this great love of God to the Well-beloved, streaming forth to Him, enlightens all who are in Him. God is so boundlessly pleased with Jesus that in Him He is altogether well pleased with us.
I. I will begin by treating the text by way of contrast. Brethren and sisters, the grace of God hath made us to be this day accepted in the Beloved; but it was not always so.
1. What a contrast is our present condition of acceptance to our position under the law through Adams fall. By actual sin we made ourselves to be the very reverse of accepted, for we were utterly refused. It might have been said of us, Reprobate silver shall men call them, because God hath rejected them. Mark, it is not said that we are acceptable, though that were a very great thing, but we are actually accepted; it has become not a thing possible that God might accept us, but He has accepted us in Christ. Lay this to your soul, and may it fill you with delight.
2. Think, again, of the contrast between what you are now, and what you would have been had not grace stepped in. Left out of Christ, we might at this time have been going on from sin to sin.
3. One more point I cannot quite pass over, and that is, the contrast between what we now are and all we ever could have been in the most favourable circumstances apart from the Beloved. If it had been possible for us out of Christ to have had desires after righteousness, yet those desires would all have run in a wrong direction; we should have had a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, and so, going about to establish our own righteousness, we should not have submitted ourselves to the righteousness of God. At this moment the prayers we offered would never have been received at the throne; the praises we presented would have been an ill savour unto God; all that we could have aimed to accomplish in the matter of good works, had we striven to our utmost, would have been done in wilfulness and pride, and so must necessarily have fallen short of acceptance. We should have heard the voice of the Eternal saying, Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto Me; for out of Christ our righteousness is as unacceptable as our unrighteousness, and all our attempts to merit acceptance increase our unworthiness.
II. Secondly, we will say a little by way of explanation, that the text may sink yet deeper into your hearts, and afford you richer enjoyment. He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Much went before this, but, oh, what a morning without clouds rose upon us when we knew our acceptance and were assured thereof. Acceptance was the watchword, and had troops of angels met us we should have rejoiced that we were as blest as they. Understand that this acceptance comes to us entirely as a work of God--He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. We never made ourselves acceptable, nor could we have done so, but He that hath made us first in creation, hath now new made us by His grace, and so hath made us accepted in the Beloved. That this was an act of pure grace there can be no doubt, for the verse runs thus, Wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, that is, in His grace. There was no reason in ourselves why we should have been put into Christ, and so accepted; the reason lay in the heart of the Eternal Father Himself.
III. Can we get a step farther? Will the Holy Spirit help us while I say a few words by way of enlargement?
1. If we are accepted in the Beloved, then, first, our persons are accepted: we ourselves are well pleasing to Him. God looks upon us now with pleasure.
2. Being ourselves accepted, the right of access to Him is given us. When a person is accepted with God he may come to God when he chooses. He is one of these courtiers who may come even to the royal throne and meet with no rebuff. No chamber of our great Fathers house is closed against us; no blessing of the covenant is withheld from us; no sweet smile of the Fathers face is refused us.
3. And, being accepted ourselves, our prayers are also accepted. Children of God, can you sincerely believe this? When God delights in men He gives them the desires of their hearts.
4. It follows, as a pleasant sequence, that our gifts are accepted, for those who are accepted with God find a great delight in giving of their substance to the glory of His name. Then let us try what we can do for Him. Here is a great lump of quartz, but if the Lord can see a grain of gold, He will save the quartz for the sake of it. He says, Destroy it not, for a blessing is in it. I do not mean that the Lord deals thus with all men. It is only for accepted men that He has this kind way of accepting their gifts. Had you seen me, when a young man, and an usher, walking through the streets with rolls of drawings from a boys school, you would have guessed that I considered them of no value and fit only to be consigned to the fire; but I always took a great interest in the drawings of my own boy, and I still think them rather remarkable. You smile, I dare say, but I do so think, and my judgment is as good as yours. I value them because they are his, and I think I see budding genius in every touch, but you do not see it because you are so blind. I see it since love has opened my eyes. God can see in His peoples gifts to Him and their works for Him a beauty which no eyes but His can perceive. Oh, if He so treats our poor service, what ought we not to do for Him? What zeal, what alacrity should stimulate us! If we are ourselves accepted our sacrifices shall be acceptable.
IV. We have thus pursued our train of thought in a contrast, an explanation, and an enlargement; let us now indulge in a few reflections. Accepted in the Beloved. May not each believer talk thus with himself--I have my sorrows and griefs, I have my aches and pains, and weaknesses, but I must not repine, for God accepts me. Ah me! How one can laugh at griefs when this sweet word comes in, accepted in the Beloved. I may be blind, but I am accepted in the Beloved: I may be lame, I may be poor, I may be despised, I may be persecuted, I may have much to put up with in many ways, but really these troubles of the flesh count for little or nothing to me since I am accepted in the Beloved. Is not this a word to die with? We will meet death and face his open jaws with this word, Accepted in the Beloved. Will not this be a word to rise with amidst the blaze of the great judgment day?
V. And now I wish to finish with this one practical use. If it be so that we are accepted in the Beloved, then let us go forth and tell poor sinners how they can be accepted too. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Accepted in the Beloved
There is implied here a twofold ground of acceptance--
1. On account of our relation to His person.
2. On account of His atonement for our sins. This word accepted only occurs twice in the New Testament. The Spirit of God applies it here to believers in Christ. The same expression is applied to the Virgin Mary, when He proclaims her highly favoured (Luk_1:28). He hath made us His Hephzibahs--made us dear to Him in the Beloved--made us His delights, a joy to Himself in the Beloved. Not the Righteous One, though that is true. Not the Holy One, though that is true; nor through His blood and merits, although He has so done. But there is a deeper truth still: accepted in His person before He became man. Accepted in Him who is the brightness of the Fathers glory, and the express image of His person. Accepted in the Beloved. It is not the whole truth that we are accepted for His merits and His atonement, though that is true. But here the record calls us back to a past eternity, and tells us of our being made accepted in the Beloved. And yet there are multitudes of professing Christians who do not trust, or know, or believe that they are accepted in Him, and who do not enjoy the blessedness and rest of looking up into their Fathers face and recognizing the love bestowed on them in the Fathers Beloved, and the security that that love has surrounded them with! They think they are only accepted according to the measure of their prayers, their merits, their good works, and their faith, instead of according to the measure of the Fathers everlasting love for His Son. Yes! we are here plainly taught that our acceptance in the first place was not even on account of Christs own merits, or prayers, or blood, or sacrifice, much less ours, but solely and only on account of our relation to His person as Gods Beloved One; and the subsequent interference of sin only brought out the resources of redemption, forgiveness, salvation, and adoption in Him in whom all fulness dwells. (M. Rainsford, B. A.)
Accepted in the Beloved
I. Positive union.
1. In the heart of Christ, and in His heart from all eternity. With prescient eye Christ beheld His people before they were yet formed. Hath He not said, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with the bands of My kindness have I drawn thee. As the Father hath loved me, even so have I loved you.
2. We are also in Christs book. Having loved us we were chosen in Him and elected by His Father. We were not chosen separately and distinctly, and as individuals alone and apart. We were chosen in Christ. Blessed fact! the same register which includes Christ as first born, includes all the brethren.
3. We are in Christs hand. All those whom the Father gave to Christ were bestowed upon Christ as a surety; and in the last great day, at the Redeemers hand will God require the souls of all that were given to Him. Just as the Apostle Paul argues concerning Levi, that Levi is inferior to Christ; for he says, Abraham was less than Melchisedec, for without doubt the less is blessed of the greater, so also Levi was less than Melchisedec, for he was in the loins of Abraham when Melchisedec met him. So, beloved, as Levi was in the loins of Abraham and paid tithes to Melchisedec, so we were in the loins of Christ and paid the debt due to Divine justice, gave to the law its fulfilment, and to wrath its satisfaction. In the loins of Christ we have passed through the tomb already, and have entered into that which is within the veil, and are made to sit down in heavenly places, even in Him. This day the chosen of God are one with Christ and in the loins of Christ.
5. As we are in the heart of Christ, in the book of Christ, in the hand of Christ, and in the loins of Christ, there is yet another thought dearer and sweeter still. We are in the person of Christ; for we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. By the mysterious operations of the quickening Spirit the sinner begins to live a spiritual life. Now, in the moment when the spiritual life was first given, there commenced in that soul a vital and personal union with the person of Christ Jesus. There had always been in that soul a secret mystical union in the Divine purpose; but now there comes to be a union in effect, and the soul is in Christ from that hour, in a sense in which it never was before.
II. Accepted in the Beloved. What does our acceptance include?
1. Justification before God. We stand on our own trial. When we stand in Christ we are acquitted; while standing in ourselves the only verdict must be condemnation.
2. Divine complacency.
3. Divine delight.
III. Divine operations; made accepted. All of God, not of man. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Jesus Christ the Beloved One, and sinners accented of God freely in Him
Jesus Christ is the Beloved, the eminently Beloved One. In discoursing from this doctrine, I shall--
I. Show in what respects Christ is the eminently Beloved One.
II. Make some improvement.
I. I am to show in what respects Christ is the eminently Beloved One.
1. He is the Beloved of the excellent ones of the earth. Who these are, ye may see (Psa_16:3). They are the saints. Him all the saints love with a love above all persons and all things (Luk_14:26). And--
(1) They meet altogether in Him in love, however they are scattered through the world; hence is He called, the desire of all nations (Hag_2:7). So that lovers of Christ and saints are of equal latitude (Eph_6:24); Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.
(2) Each one of them loves Him with a superlative and transcendent love (Psa_73:25).
(3) They love other persons and things for His sake (Rom_15:2-3; Tit_3:3-5).
(4) The liker anything is to Him, they love it the more.
2. Christ is the Beloved of the glorious ones in heaven. All eyes are upon Him there, for He is there the light of the pleasant land (Rev_21:23), as the sun is in this world. And He is there--
(1) The Beloved of the glorified saints, who now love Him in perfection (Rev_7:10).
(2) The Beloved of the holy angels (Rev_5:11-12). In the Temple the cherubims were posted, looking towards the ark or mercy seat, a type of Christ; which signified the angels looking to Jesus with love and admiration (1Pe_1:12). They behold His glory, and cannot but love Him.
(3) The Fathers Beloved (Mat_17:5).
(a) In respect of His Person.
(b) In respect of His office. I shall conclude this point with a word of application.
I. Hereby ye may try whether ye be saints or not, partakers of the Divine nature. If so, Christ will be your eminently Beloved One.
II. Of reproof to those who love Him not eminently, above all. It is an evidence, that--
1. Ye know Him not (Joh_4:10). None can be let into a discovery of Christ in His glory, but must love Him (Mat_13:44-46). It is to the blind world only there is no beauty in Him for which He is to be desired.
2. That ye are in love with your sins and a vain world. For who would loath the physician but he that loves his disease and cannot part with it?
III. Let him be your Beloved then, and give Him your heart.
1. He is best worth your love. None has done so much for sinners as Christ has, dying for them.
2. If ye love Him not, ye will be constructed haters of Him, and enemies to Him (1Co_16:22). Doctrine
II. The way how a sinner comes to be accepted of God is freely in Christ.
1. What is implied in this.
I. A state of non-acceptance, or unacceptableness with God, that sinners are in while they are not in Christ. And we may take up this in these following things:
1. They are offenders.
(1) Sinners in Adam (Rom_5:12). The root was corrupted, and all the branches withered and rotted in him.
(2) Sinners in their own persons, who are capable of actual sinning.
2. Unpardoned offenders.
3. God is not pleased with them; for His being pleased with any of mankind is in His Son Jesus Christ, and without Him He can be pleased with none of them (Mat_3:1-17, ult.; Heb_11:5-6).
4. He is highly displeased with them. There is a cloud of Divine displeasure ever upon them (Joh_3:1-36, ult.).
5. He cannot endure to have any communion or intercourse with them, farther than in the way of common providence (Psa_5:5). He and they are at enmity, He legally, they really; so there can be no communion (Amo_3:3). And they cannot have it till they come to Christ (Joh_14:6).
6. He loathes them, His soul abhors them, as abominable. They are abominable in their persons unto God, as wholly corrupt and defiled (Tit_1:15-16).
7. The wrath of God is upon them, and they lie under His curse.
II. A way provided how sinners may be accepted.
1. God is ready to accept of them now that will come to Him in His own way (2Co_5:19).
2. There is ready for sinners what may procure them acceptance with a holy God (Mat_22:4).
3. There is open proclamation made in the gospel, that all may have the benefit of that sacrifice, and be accepted of God.
III. The sinners bestirring himself for acceptance with God. There is a way to acceptance, but the sinner must take that way, else he will not get acceptance. He cannot sit still careless, and be accepted. The sinners bestirring himself in this matter, takes in these three things.
1. A conviction of unacceptableness to God (Joh_16:8). Men must be convinced of their being unacceptable to God, ere they will come to Christ. It is their not seeing their own loathsomeness, that makes them slight the sacrifices of sweet savour; and think to be accepted of God, while yet they are not in Christ.
2. A weighty concern and uneasiness about it.
3. Anxiety of heart for it (Act_2:37). There must be earnest longings to be accepted of Him, yea, the soul must be brought to esteem and so prize it, as to be content with it upon any terms (Act_9:6).
IV. The next general head is to consider the nature of a sinners acceptance with God.
1. I shall consider the nature of a sinners acceptance with God in itself. And in itself it is a great and unspeakable benefit, and implies these following things:--
(1) In general, it implies an acceptance of the sinner with God, as a righteous person. The Lord reputes, accounts, and accepts him into favour as a righteous person (2Co_5:21; Rom_4:6; Rom_5:19).
(2) More particularly it implies--
1. The ceasing of wrath against the soul (Hos_14:4).
2. The curse is removed (Gal_3:13).
3. He is fully pardoned (Isa_43:25).
4. He is reconciled to God (Rom_5:1).
5. God is pleased with him (Heb_11:5).
6. He is admitted to communion with God.
7. God has a delight and complacency in him.
He looks on him in His own Son, and takes pleasure in him, as covered with His righteousness.
V. Let us consider this acceptance in its effects and consequents. It is in these an unspeakable privilege. By means of it--
1. The springs of mercy are opened to the sinner, that rivers of compassion may flow towards him (Rom_5:1, etc.).
2. He is adjudged to eternal life (2Th_1:6-7; Act_26:18). Life was promised in the first covenant, upon the fulfilling of the law; now the believer being accepted of God as a righteous person, for whom the law is fulfilled, is accordingly adjudged to live forever.
3. The channel of sanctification is cleared for him, and the dominion of sin is broken in him (Rom_6:14).
4. He is privileged with peace of conscience.
5. Access to God with confidence.
6. His works accepted.
7. The sting removed from afflictions and death.
8. All things working for good (Rom_8:28).
VI. I proceed to show the way of a sinners acceptance with God.
First, It is freely. There is nothing in the sinner himself to procure it, or move God to it (Rom_3:24). It is done freely, in that--
1. It is without respect to any work done by the sinner (Tit_3:5). Grace and works are inconsistent in this matter.
2. It is without respect to any good qualification or disposition wrought in the sinner (Rom_4:5). For--
(1) The way of a sinners acceptance with God excludes all boasting (Rom_3:27).
(2) What good qualities can there be in the sinner before he be accepted in Christ? (Heb_11:6).
(3) When the man comes to be endued with gracious qualities, as he is by that time already accepted, so if his acceptance depended on them, he would come short; for still they are imperfect, having a great mixture of the contrary ill qualities, that need to be covered another way. And how can one expect acceptance on that, for which he needs a pardon?
Secondly, It is in Christ the sinner is accepted. It implies--
1. The cause of a sinners acceptance with God. It is for Christs sake (Rom_3:24-25).
2. The state of acceptableness of a sinner, wherein he may, and will be, and cannot but be accepted of God; it is being in Christ, united to Him by faith. One must not think to be accepted for Christs sake while out of Christ; no more than the branch of one tree can partake of the sap of another, while not ingrafted into it; or the slayer could be safe, while he was not yet got within the gates of the city of refuge. But in Christ the sinner is in a state of acceptableness to God.
We take up this in these five things following:--
1. In Christ the sinner may be accepted of God (2Co_5:19).
2. In Christ the sinner will be accepted. Any, even the worst of sinners shall certainly be accepted in Christ (Act_16:31). Whosoever shall make their escape into this city of refuge shall be safe. Christ will refuse none that come to Him; and God will reject none that are in Christ.
3. In Christ the sinner cannot but be accepted. It is impossible it should fail or miscarry (Heb_6:18).
4. That moment a sinner is in Christ, he is accepted (Rom_8:1, There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus)
I come now to the improvement of this subject.
1. Then the door of acceptance with God is open to all; none are excluded (Isa_55:1-2).
2. Seek then acceptance with God, that ye may find favour with Him. This should be your main aim (2Co_5:9). Here your happiness lies in time and eternity.
3. Seek it freely, without pretending to anything in yourselves to recommend you to His acceptance or favour.
4. Seek it through Jesus Christ only, that is, by faith in Him, laying the whole stress of your acceptance on His righteousness.
5. Therefore as ever ye would have acceptance or favour with God, seek to be in Christ; to be united to Him. For as there is no acceptance with God, but for His sake; so there is no acceptance for His sake, but to those that are in Him (Col_1:27). There is salvation in Christ, but none partake of it that are not in Him; a righteousness in Him, but it covers none but the members of His body. (T. Boston, D. D.)
The central doctrine--accepted in the Beloved
The doctrine of justification by faith, the central doctrine of Protestantism as it is sometimes called, is, as it is often presented, a hard, dry, formal statement of a most precious and inspiring truth. The truth is in its very nature so full of tenderness, of affection, of the most sacred and intimate experience, that it is quite impossible to put it into a formula. Let us imagine some doctor of the law going to the home of the prodigal after the feast was over, taking the father and the son aside, and questioning them, notebook in hand: A very remarkable and beautiful reconciliation has taken place here, he says: the rebel against parental authority is pardoned: the wanderer has returned to his home; favour and plenty and peace have been restored to one who has long been deprived of them; will you not have the goodness now to condense into a statement not more than five or six lines in length the real nature of this transaction? The crude and stupid absurdity of such a proposition would be evident enough to all who have read the touching story. As if all the regret, the gratitude, the hopes, the fears, the doubts, the confidences, the anguish, the dread, the thankfulness, the peace of that deep human experience could be reduced to a logical definition! And yet men undertake to put into concise theological propositions the whole truth concerning the return of the sinner to the favour of God. What is justification? asks the Shorter Catechism. Justification, answers the Shorter Catechism, is an act of Gods free grace, wherein He pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in His sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. That is the scientific definition of justification by faith, perhaps as good a definition as ever was framed. And it may help us a little toward a right understanding of what justification is, just as Weisbachs great books on hydraulics might help us a little toward understanding the ministry of water; just as Bishops two big volumes on marriage and divorce may throw some light on the nature of the family relation; but he who depends on such a formulary as this for his knowledge of the way in which the sinner is restored by faith in Christ to the favour of God, must remain in profound ignorance of the whole matter. In some way, it is clear, the New Testament represents God as accepting men through Christ. In some way Christ is regarded by the believer as his substitute. He is the Mediator between God and men. By faith in Him we are justified. These words meant something to the men who used them, and they ought to mean something to us. What is their meaning? They cannot, of course, describe any legal transfer of moral qualities. Moral qualities cannot be legally transferred from one person to another. My demerits cannot be lawfully transferred to another, nor can the merits of another be lawfully transferred to me. My guilt is my own, and can by no possibility be imputed to another being. Can anyone else in the universe be blamed for a sin of mine in which he had no part? On the other hand it is equally impossible that I should be regarded as entitled to praise for a good act performed by another person, of which I had no knowledge, and in which I had no part. Every one of you shall give an account for himself unto God. The entire and absolute personality of moral qualities, of guilt or innocence, of praise or blame, is the fundamental truth of morality. Any legal interference with this fundamental principle would be subversive of all righteousness. But it is said that though moral quality cannot be transferred, legal liability can be; that though Christ cannot be morally guilty on account of our sins, God regards Him as legally responsible for them; that though His merits cannot be legally transferred to us, God does consider us as blameless before the law on His account. We are justified because we claim Him as our substitute. Now there is under all these phrases a great truth. Take the following story as an illustration of it. John Goodman is a citizen of noble character and of large philanthropy. He has a son, whom he loved as the apple of his eye, and who is justifying his fathers affection by growing up into blameless manliness One night a young desperado, the offspring of criminals, whose life has been spent among the worst classes of our cities, breaks into John Goodmans house, with the intent of robbery, and nearly kills his son. The father comes to the rescue, captures the young burglar, binds him fast, and waits for the morning to deliver him up to justice. In the meantime the son revives, and, seeing the youth of the criminal, is touched with pity for him, a sentiment that has already begun to kindle the fathers heart. Before morning father and son have resolved to make a great venture to save this wretched boy from his life of crime and shame. They tell him that if he will turn from his evil ways, he may have a home with them, sharing their comfort and their plenty; that they will protect him, so far as they can, from the consequences of his past misdeeds; that they will guard him from bad influences, and open to him paths of integrity and honour; that he shall be recognized as an equal in the family, and shall be joint heir to the estate. All this is offered him by the father, and urged upon him, even with tears, by the son whose life he had attempted. Of course it is very difficult for the wretch to believe that these assurances are sincere. He thinks at first that they are mocking and taunting him, and his lips curl with scorn and resentment as he listens. But by and by he perceives that they are in earnest, and he is overwhelmed by their marvellous goodness. He casts himself down before them; he kisses their feet; he tells them in broken words the story of his gratitude. And he does honestly try to live the better life toward which they seek to lead him. It is the deepest purpose of his life to be upright and faithful and pure. But, as anyone might easily foretell, this is a purpose hard for such a boy to shape in act. He is indolent, and profane, and reckless by habit; his mind is full of gross and foul thoughts: his temper is untamed; his whole nature has been warped and corrupted by his early training. This ingrained evil finds expression in many ways. After a time the good man begins to despair of ever making anything of this unfortunate youth; he begins to regret that, instead of trying to reclaim him, he had not handed him over to the police. But while he is thus wavering in his purpose, he chances to enter the room of his protege, and there he finds upon the table a picture of his own son, soiled with much handling, evidently left in sight by accident--and on the back of it, in the rude handwriting and doubtful orthography of the waif, these words written: I want to be like him. I pray God to help me to be nearer like him. Im far enough from it now, God knows; but I watch him all the while, and try to live as good a life as he lives. God bless him for all his goodness to me! The fathers eyes fill with tears as he reads these simple words. He discerns in them the deep purpose of the poor boy whose faulty performance has so tried him. His heart cannot but be touched by the lads choice of a hero. He knows that the choice is a worthy one, and he knows that the lads love for his own son will have in it a regenerating power. He has no more misgivings concerning the wisdom of his attempt to save this lost one; and always after this he couples the lad in his thoughts with his own son; and feels toward him something of the tenderness with which he regards his own son. Since the poor lad cherishes for the other this passionate friendship, since he takes the fathers pride as his own ideal and pattern, how else can the father regard him? He is accepted in the belayed. (Washington Gladden, D. D.)
Provision for eternity
Accepted in the Beloved. The phrase is simple, but not, at a mere glance, immediately obvious. To feel its force, we must enter in and survey its interior, and see as far as our short-sighted faculties can reach, what it takes within its range. It is a summary and simple form for gathering up everything we need to have, in a provision for the world to come.
I. Where is the provision laid up? It is laid up in a living Person. It is with a living Person that we have to do from first to last. And the fulness and suitableness of that Person comes forth here in a vivid and peculiar manner--for you observe how He is named. By a name of holy endearment and of Divine tenderness He is called here, the Beloved. Lovely and Beloved He is in Himself, because from Him emanate whatever qualities of good are possible in a creature--because in Him, as the God-man mediator, all excellencies, both created and uncreated, are centred and combined. In the prospect, moreover, of what He was to fulfil on earth, as the Redeemer of mankind, beheld and set apart from all eternity as the object of the Fathers infinite complacency and delight--the name in the text belongs to Him in a peculiar manner. But further observe, He is the Beloved, because through Him alone could a holy God find the fitting channel for His love to man. He is the Beloved, moreover, specially because of the perfect fulfilment in Him of the relations in which He stands, at once to God and to man; for whatever is due to God, and everything requisite for the deliverance and happiness of man, are found in infinite fulness in Him. His person communicates to everything He did and still does, in our stead, a value, a worth, which never can be measured, and to which no limits can be set.
II. What provision has been laid up for us in the Beloved. The text proclaims it in terms so simple, that some may be apt to pass them by without much consideration. It is acceptance in the Beloved. To be accepted--to have our acceptance before God--what is this? It is first of all--
1. To be cleared and acquitted in the eye of the law--to be, in the judgment of a holy God, discharged and set free. It has its foundation broad and deep in the precious fact, which is immediately connected with it in the words following the text, at verse seven--it rests upon Redemption--Redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. You see how deep down it goes--as deep as the humiliation of the Son of God from heaven to earth, even to the utmost extremity of His abasement beneath the curse!
2. But there is something more in the acceptance wherewith we are accepted in Christ. It is also to be fitted for service. It is to be put into the position of those whose worship, whose free-will offerings of grateful obedience are well pleasing to God. It is to have liberty to serve Him all our days without fear, and from the blessed motives of love and thankfulness.
3. The holiness of character which has its beginning in the acceptance of our persons. To be accepted in the Beloved is to begin to be holy. To have your feet planted on the foundation of God, which standeth sure, is to depart from iniquity. (J. S. Muir.)
The acceptation of free grace
A ship was sailing in the southern waters of the Atlantic, when another was sighted which was making signals of distress. They bore towards the distressed ship, and hailed them. What is the matter? We are dying for want of water, was the response. Dip it up then, was the answer, you are in the mouth of the Amazon River. Those sailors were thirsting, and suffering, and fearing death, and longing intensly for water, and all the while they were supposing that there was nothing but the oceans brine around them; when, in fact, they had sailed unconsciously into the broad mouth of the mightest river on the globe, and did not know it: and though to them it seemed that they must perish with thirst, yet there was at least a hundred miles of fresh water all around them; and they had nothing to do but as they were bidden to dip it up.
The freeness of grace
If you say, I do not know why He should save me; I am not worthy to be saved, that is a fact; you are not. If you say, I do not think I have a right to look to Him for salvation; I have not done anything that should give me a claim on Him for so great a blessing, that is true; you have not. It is not because you deserve Divine mercies that you have a right to expect them. I take a dozen beggar boys out of the street, and they say, I do not know why you should like me; I am unlovely, and there is nothing attractive about me. That is so. And I take you that you may become lovely. But I am filthy and ragged. Yes, you are; and I take you that you may be washed and clothed. But I am stupid and ignorant. So you are; and I take you to educate you. But I am full of all manner of wickedness. I know that; and it is because you are so wicked that I am determined, with Gods help, to rescue you. Now, Christ does not take us because we are so pure and sweet, and virtuous and lovely. He takes us because He cannot bear to see a soul that is destined to immortality less than high and noble; and because He means to make us what He would have us to be, He sends us to school. They that are well, He tells us, need not a physician; but they that are sick. If you are sick, and will accept Him for your physician, He will cure you. (H. W. Beecher.)
Christ a propitiation
Plutarch tells us that when Themistocles in the hour of his exile wished to be reconciled with Admetus, King of the Molossians, whom he had previously offended, he took the kings son in his arms, and kneeled down before the household gods. The plea was successful, in fact it was the only one the Molossians looked upon as not to be refused, and so the philosopher found a refuge among them. And do not we come in this way when we approach the Majesty on High? We take hold of the Kings Son, and hope to find acceptance through Him alone--we hope to be accepted in the Beloved.
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v6 Chapter 3
Chapter 3
THE BESTOWMENT OF GRACE
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Eph_1:6-12
THE blessedness of men in Christ is not matter of purpose only, but of reality and experience. With the word grace in the middle of the sixth verse the apostles thought begins a new movement. We have seen Grace hidden in the depths of eternity in the form of sovereign and fatherly election, lodging its purpose in the foundation of the world. From those mysterious depths we turn to the living world in our own breast. There, too, Grace dwells and reigns: "which grace He imparted to us, in the Beloved, -in whom we have redemption through His blood." The leading word of this clause we can only paraphrase; it has no English equivalent. St. Paul perforce turns grace into a verb; this verb occurs in the New Testament but once besides, in Luk_1:28, the angels salutation to Mary: "Hail thou that art highly favoured (made-an-object-ofgrace)." If we could employ our Verb to grace in a sense corresponding to that of the noun grace in the apostles dialect and nearly the opposite of to disgrace, then graced would signify what he means here, viz., treated with grace, made its recipients.
God "showed us grace in the Beloved"-or, to render the phrase with full emphasis, "in that Beloved One"-even as He "chose us in Him before the worlds foundation" and "in love predestined us for adoption." The grace is conveyed upon the basis of our relationship to Christ: on that ground it was conceived in the counsels of eternity. The Voice from heaven which said at the baptism of Jesus and again at the transfiguration, "This is My Son, the Beloved," uttered Gods eternal thought regarding Christ. And that regard of God toward the Son of His love is the fountain of His love and grace to men.
Christ is the Beloved not of the Father alone, but of the created universe. All that know the Lord Jesus must needs love and adore Him-unless their hearts are eaten out by sin. Not to love Him is to be anathema. "If any man love Me," said Jesus, "My Father will love him." Nothing so much pleases God and brings us into fellowship with God so direct and joyous, as our love to Jesus Christ. About this at least heaven and earth may agree, that He is the altogether lovely and loveworthy. Agreement in this will bring about agreement in everything. The love of Christ will tune the jarring universe into harmony.
I. of grace bestowed, the first manifestation, in the experience of Paul and his readers, was "the forgiveness of their trespasses". {comp. Eph_2:13-18} This is "the redemption" that "we have." And it comes "through His blood." The epistles to the Galatians and Romans expound at length the apostles doctrine touching the remission of sin and the relation of Christs death to human transgression. To "redemption" we shall return in considering Eph_1:4, where the word is used, as again in Eph_4:30, in its further application.
Rom_3:22-26 "the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" is declared to be the means by which we are acquitted in the judgment of God from the guilt of past transgressions. And this redemption consists in the "propitiatory sacrifice" which Christ offered in shedding His blood-a sacrifice wherein we participate "through faith." The language of this verse contains by implication all that is affirmed there. In this connection, and according to the full intent of the word, redemption is "release by ransom." The life-blood of Jesus Christ was the "price" that He paid in order to secure our lawful release from the penalties entailed by our trespasses. This Jesus Christ implied beforehand, when He spoke of "giving His life a ransom for many"; and when He said, in handing to His disciples the cup of the Last Supper: "This is My blood, the blood of the covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins." Using another synonymous term, St. Paul tells us that "Christ bought us out of the curse of the law"; and he bases on this expression a strong practical appeal: "You are not your own, for ye were bought with a price." These sayings, and others like them, point unmistakably to the fact that our trespasses as men against Gods inflexible law, apart from Christs intervention, must have issued in our eternal ruin. By His death on the cross Christ has made such amends to the law, that the awful sentence is averted, and our complete release from the power of sin is rendered possible.
On rising from the dead our Saviour commissioned the apostles to "proclaim in His name repentance and remission of sins to all nations." {Luk_24:47} It was thus He proposed to save the world. This proclamation is the "good news" of the gospel. The announcement meets the first need of the serious and awakened human spirit. It answers the question which arises in the breast of every man who thinks earnestly about his personal relations to God and to the laws of his being. We cannot wonder that St. Paul sets the remission of sins first amongst the bestowments of Gods grace, and makes it the foundation of all the rest.
Does it occupy the like position in modern Christian teaching? Do we realise the criminality of sin, the fearfulness of Gods displeasure, the infinite worth of His forgiveness, and the obligations under which it places us, as St. Paul and his converts did? or even as our fathers did a few generations ago. "It is my impression," writes Dr. R. W. Dale, "that both religious people and those who do not profess to be religious must be conscious that Gods Forgiveness, if they ever think of it at all, does not create any deep and strong emotion The difference between the way in which we think of the Divine Forgiveness and the way in which it was thought of by David and Isaiah, by Christ Himself, by Peter, Paul, and John; by the saints of all Christian Churches in past times, both in the East and in the West; by the leaders of the Evangelical Revival in the last century-the difference, I say, between the way in which the Forgiveness of sins was thought of by them, and the way in which we think of it, is very startling. The difference is so great, it affects so seriously the whole system of the religious thought and life, that we may be said to have invented a new religion The difference between our religion and the religion of other times is this-that we do not believe that God has any strong resentment against sin or against those who are guilty of sin: And since His resentment has gone, His mercy has gone with it. We have not a God who is more merciful than the God of our fathers, but a God who is less righteous; and a God who is not righteous, a God who does not glow with fiery indignation against sin, is no God at all."
These are solemn words, to be deeply pondered. They come from one of the most sagacious observers and justly revered teachers of our time. We have made a real advance in breadth and human sympathy; and there has been throughout our Churches a genuine and much-needed awakening of philanthropic activity. But if we are "departing from the living God," what will this avail us? If "the redemption through Christs blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses," is no longer to us the momentous and glorious fact that it was to the apostles, then it is time to ask whether our God is in truth the same as theirs, whether He is still the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ-whether we are not, haply, fabricating for ourselves another gospel. Without a piercing sense of the shame and ruin involved in human sin, we shall not put its remission where St. Paul does, at the foundation of Gods benefits to men. Without this sentiment, we can only wonder at the passionate gratitude with which he receives the atonement and measures by its completeness the riches of Gods grace.
II. Along with this chief blessing of forgiveness, there came another to the apostolic Church. With the heart the mind, with the conscience the intellect, was quickened and endowed: "which (grace) He shed abundantly upon us in all wisdom and intelligence."
This sequel to Eph_1:7 is somewhat of a surprise. The reader is apt to slur over Eph_1:8, half sensible of some jar and incongruity between it and the context. It scarcely occurs to us to associate wisdom and good sense with the pardon of sin, as kindred bestowments of the gospel. Minds of the evangelical order are often supposed, indeed, to be wanting in intellectual excellences and indifferent to their value. Is it not true that "not many wise after the flesh were called"? Do we not glory above everything in preaching a "simple gospel"?
But there is another side to all this. "Christ was made of God unto us wisdom." This attribute the apostle even sets first when he writes to the wisdom-seeking Greeks, mocked by their worn-out and confused philosophies. {1Co_1:30} To a close observer of the primitive Christian societies few things must have been more noticeable than the powerful mental stimulus imparted by the new faith. These epistles are a witness to the fact. That such letters could be addressed to communities gathered mainly from the lower ranks of society-consisting of slaves, common artisans, poor women-shows that the moral regeneration effected in St. Pauls converts was accompanied by an extraordinary excitement and activity of thought. In this the apostle recognised the work of the Holy Spirit, a mark of Gods special favour and blessing. "I give thanks always for you," he writes to the Corinthians, "for the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in everything you were enriched by Him, in all word and all knowledge." The leaders of the apostolic Church were the profoundest thinkers of their day; though at the time the world held them for babblers, because their dialect was not in its schools. They drew from stores of wisdom and knowledge hidden in Christ, which none of the princes of this world knew. Of such wisdom our epistle is full, and God "has made it to abound" to the readers in these inspired pages. Pauls "understanding in the mystery of Christ" was always deepening. In his lonely prison musings the length and breadth of the Divine counsels are disclosed to him as never before. He sees the course of the ages and of the universe being illuminated by the light of the knowledge of Christ. And what he sees, all men are to see through him. {Eph_3:9} Blessed be God who has given to His Church through His apostles, and through the great Christian teachers of every age, His precious gifts of wisdom and prudence, and made His grace richly to overflow from the heart into the mind and understanding of men!
This intellectual gift is twofold: phronesis as well as sophia, -the bestowment not only of deep spiritual thought, but of moral sagacity, good sense, and thoughtfulness: This is a choice charism - a mercy of the Lord. For want of it how sadly is the fruit of other graces spoilt and wasted. How brightly it shines in St. Paul himself! What luminous and wholesome views of life, what a fund of practical sense, there is in the teaching of this letter.
St. Paul rejoices in these gifts of the understanding and claims them for the Church, having in his view the false knowledge, the "philosophy and vain deceit" that was making its appearance in the Asian Churches. {Col_2:4,Col_2:8, etc.} Our safeguard against intellectual perils lies not in ignorance, but in deeper heart-knowledge. When the grace that bestows redemption through Christs blood adds its concomitant blessing of enlightenment, when it elevates the mind as it cleanses the heart, and abounds to. us in all wisdom and prudence, the winds of doctrine and the waves of speculation blow and beat in vain; they can but bring health to a Church thus established in its faith.
Eph_1:9-10 describe the object of this. new knowledge. They state the doctrine which gave this powerful mental impulse to the apostolic Church, disclosing to it a vast field of view, and supplying the most fertile and vigorous principles of moral wisdom. This impulse lay in the revelation of Gods purpose to reconstitute the universe in Christ. The declaration of "the mystery of His will" comes in at this point episodically, and by the way; and we reserve it for consideration to the end of the present chapter.
But let us observe here that our wisdom and prudence lie in the knowledge of Gods will. Truth is not to be found in any system of logical notions, in schemes and syntheses of the laws of nature or of thought. The human mind can never rest for long in abstractions. It will not accept for its basis of thought that which is less real and positive than itself. By its rational instincts it is compelled to seek a Reason and a Conscience at the centre of things, -a living God. It craves to know "the mystery of His will."
III. Eph_1:2 fills up the measure of the bestowment of grace on sinful men. The present anticipates the future; faith and love are lifted to a glorious hope. "In whom also (i.e., in Christ) we received our heritage, predestinated to it, according to His purpose who works all things according to the counsel of His will."
Following Meyer and other great interpreters, we prefer in this passage the rendering of the English Authorised Version ("we obtained an inheritance") to that of the Revised ("we were made a heritage"). "Fore-ordained" carries us back to Eph_1:5 - to the phrase "foreordained to sonship." The believer cannot be predestinated to sonship without being predestinated to an inheritance. "If children, then heirs". {Rom_8:17} But while in the parallel passage we are designated heirs "with" Christ, we appear in this place, according to the tenor of the context, as heirs "in" Him. Christ is Himself the believers wealth, both in possession and hope: all his desire is to gain Christ. {Php_3:8} The apostle gives thanks here in the same strain as in Col_1:12-14, "to the Father who qualified us (by making us His sons) to partake of the inheritance of the saints in the light." In that thanksgiving we observe the same connection as in this between our "forgiveness" (Eph_1:7) and our "enfeoffment," or investment with the forfeited rights of sons of God (Eph_1:5, Eph_1:11).
The heritage of the saints in Christ is theirs already, by actual investiture. The liberty of sons of God, access to the Father, the treasures of Christs wisdom and knowledge, the sanctifying Spirit and the moral strength and joy that He imparts, these form a rich estate of which ancient saints had but foretastes and promises. In the all-controlling "counsel of His will," God wrought throughout the course of history to convey this heritage to us. We are children of "the fulness of the times," heirs of all the past. For us God has been working from eternity, on us the ends of the world have come. Thus from the summit of our exaltation in Christ the apostle looks backward to the beginning of Divine history.
From the same point his gaze sweeps onward to the end. Gods purpose embraces the ages to come with those of the past. His working will not cease till the whole counsel is fulfilled. What we have of our inheritance, though rich and real, holds in it the promise of infinitely more; and the Holy Spirit is the "earnest of our inheritance" (Eph_1:14). God intends "that we should be to the praise of His glory." As things are, His glory is but obscurely visible in His saints. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be," - and will not appear until the unveiling of the sons of God. {Rom_8:18-25} One day Gods glory in us will burst forth in its splendour. All beholders in heaven and earth will then sing "to the praise of His glory," when it is seen in His redeemed and godlike sons. Eph_1:9-10 ("which He purposed upon the earth") are, as we have said, a parenthesis or episode in the passage just reviewed. Neither in structure nor in sense would the paragraph be defective, had this clause been wanting. With the "in Him" repeated at the end of Eph_1:10, St. Paul resumes the main current of his thanksgiving, arrested for a moment while he dwells on "the mystery of Gods will."
This last expression (Eph_1:9), notwithstanding what he has said in Eph_1:4 and Eph_1:5, still needs elucidation. He will pause for an instant to set forth once more the eternal purpose, to the knowledge of which the Church is now admitted. The communication of this mystery is, he says, "according to Gods good pleasure which he purposed in Christ (comp. Eph_1:4), for a dispensation of the fulness of the times, intending to gather up again all things in the Christ-the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth."
God formed in Christ the purpose, by the dispensation of His grace, in due time to re-unite the universe under the headship of Christ. This mysterious design, hitherto kept secret, He has made known unto us. Its manifestation imparts a wisdom that surpasses all the wisdom of former ages. Such is the drift of this profound deliverance.
The first clause of Eph_1:10 supplies a datum for its interpretation. "The fulness of the times," in St. Pauls dialect, can only be the time of Christ. The dispensation which God designed of old is that in which the apostle himself is now engaged; it is the dispensation, or administration ("economy"), of the grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ, whether God be conceived as Himself the Dispenser, or through the stewards of His mysteries. The Messianic end was to Pauls Jewish thought the denouement of antecedent history. How long this age would continue, into what epochs it might unfold itself, he knew riot; but for him the fulness of the times had arrived. The Son of God was come; the kingdom of God was amongst men. It was the beginning of the end. It is a mistake to relegate this text to the dim and distant future, to some far-off consummation. We are in the midst of the Christian reconstruction of things, and are taking part in it. The decisive epoch fell when "God sent forth His Son." All that has followed, and will follow, is the result of this mission. Christ is all things, and in all; and we are already complete in Him.
What, then, signifies this "gathering-into-one" or "summing-up" of all things in Christ? Our "recapitulate" is the nearest equivalent of the Greek verb, in its etymological sense. In Rom_13:8-9 the same word is used, where the several commands of the second table of the Decalogue are said to be "comprehended in this word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." This summing up is not a generalisation or compendious statement of the commands of God; it signifies their reduction to a fundamental principle. They are unified by the discovery of a law that underlies them all. And while thus theoretically explained, they are made practically effective: "For love is the fulfilling of the law."
Similarly, St. Paul finds in Christ the fundamental principle of the creation. For those who think with him, God has by the Christian revelation already brought all things to their unity. This summing up-the Christian inventory and recapitulation of the universe-the apostle has formally stated in Col_1:15-20 : "Christ is Gods image and creations firstborn. In Him, through Him, for Him all things were made. He is before them all; and in Him they have their basis and uniting bond. He is equally the Head of the Church and the new creation, the firstborn out of the dead, that He might hold a universal presidence-charged with all the fulness, so that in Him is the ground of the reconciliation no less than of the creation of all things in heaven and earth." What can we desire more comprehensive than this? It is the theory and programme of the world revealed to Gods holy apostles and prophets.
The "gathering into one" of this text includes the "reconciliation" of Col_1:20, and more. It signifies, beside the removal of the enmities which are the effect of sin, {Eph_2:14-16} the subjection of all powers in heaven and earth to the rule of Christ (Eph_2:21-22), the enlightenment of the angelic magnates as to Gods dealings with men, {Eph_3:9-10} -in fine, the rectification and adjustment of the several parts of the great whole of things, bringing them into full accord with each other and with their Creators will. What St. Paul looks forward to is, in a word, the organisation of the universe upon a Christian basis. This reconstitution of things is provided for and is being effected "in the Christ." He is the rallying point of the forces of peace and blessing. The organic principle, the organising Head, the creative nucleus of the new creation is there. The potent germ of life eternal has been introduced into the worlds chaos; and its victory over the elements of disorder and death is assured.
Observe that the apostle says "in the Christ." He is not speaking of Christ in the abstract, considered in His own Person or as He dwells in heaven, but in His relations to men and to time. The Christ manifest in Jesus, {Eph_4:20-21} the Christ of prophets and apostles, the Messiah of the ages, the Husband of the Church, {Eph_5:23} is the author and finisher of this grand restoration.
Christs work is essentially a work of "restoration." We must insist, with Meyer, upon the significance of the Greek preposition in Pauls compound verb (ana-, equal to re-in "restore" or "resume"). The Christ is not simply the climax of the past-the Son of man and the recapitulation of humanity, as man is of the creatures below him, summing up human development and lifting it to a higher stage-though He is all that. Christ "rehabilitates" man and the world. He re-asserts the original ground of our being, as that exists in God. He carries us and the world forward out of sin and death, by carrying us back to Gods ideal. The new world is the old world repaired, and in its reparation infinitely enhanced-rich in the memories of redemption, in the fruit of penitence and the discipline of suffering, in the lessons of the cross. "All things" in heaven and earth it was Gods good pleasure in the Christ to gather again into one. Is this a general assertion concerning the universe as a whole, or may we apply it with distributive exactness to each particular thing? Is there to be, as we fain would hope, no single exception to the "all things"-no wanderer lost, no exile finally shut out from the Holy City and tree of life? Are all evil men and demons, willing or against their will, to be embraced somehow and at last-at last-in the universal peace of God?
It is impossible that the first readers should have so construed Pauls words. {Eph_5:5} He has not forgotten the "unquenchable fire," the "eternal punishment," nor dare we. "If any thing is certain about the teaching of Christ and His apostles, it is that they warned men not to reject the Divine mercy, and so to incur irrevocable exile from Gods presence and joy. They assumed that some men would be guilty of this supreme crime, and would be doomed to this supreme woe" (Dale). There is nothing in this text to warrant any man in presuming on the mercy or the sovereignty of God, nothing to justify us in supposing that, deliberately refusing to be reconciled to God in Christ, we shall yet be reconciled in the end despite ourselves.
St. Paul assures us that God and the world will be reunited, and that peace will reign through all realms and orders of existence. He does not, and he could not, say that none will exclude themselves from the eternal kingdom. Making men free, God has made it possible for them to contradict Him, so long as they have any being. The apostles words have their note of warning, along with their boundless promise. There is no place in the future order of things for aught that is out of Christ. There is no standing-ground anywhere for the unclean and the unjust, for the irreconcilable rebel against God. "The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend and them that do iniquity."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv6–8 6. To the praise of the glory of his…
6. To the praise of the glory of his grace. To the end that his grace in adopting us as children may redound to his praise and glory. In the beloved. In Christ. See Matt. 3:17; Col. 1:13.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v7
EPHESIANS
ACCORDING TO’-II.
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Eph 1:7.
We have seen, in a previous sermon, that a characteristic note of this letter is the frequent occurrence of that phrase ‘according to.’ I also then pointed out that it was employed in two different directions. One class of passages, with which I then tried to deal, used it to compare the divine purpose in our salvation with the historical process of the salvation. The type of that class of reference is found in a verse just before my text, ‘according to the good pleasure of His will.’ There is a second class of passages to which our text belongs, where the comparison is not between the purpose and its realisation, but between the stores of the divine riches and the experiences of the Christian life. The one set of passages suggests the ground of our salvation in the deep purpose of God; the other suggests the measure of the power which is working out that salvation.
The instances of this second use of the phrase, besides the one in my text, ‘according to the riches of His grace,’ are such as these: ‘According to the riches of His glory’; ‘According to the power that worketh in us’; ‘According to the measure of the gift of Christ’; ‘According to the energy of the might of His power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.’
Now it is clear that all these are varying forms of the same thing. They vary in form, they are identical in substance. What a Jew calls a ‘cubit’ an Englishman calls a ‘foot,’ but the result is pretty nearly the same. Shillings, marks, francs, are various standards; they all come to substantially the same result. These varying measures of the divine gift which is at work in man’s salvation, have this in common, that they all run out into God’s immeasurable, unlimited power, boundless wealth. And so, if we gather them together, and try to focus them in a few words, they may help to widen our conceptions of what we ought to expect from God, to bow us in contrition as to the small use that we have made of it, and to open our desires wide, that they may be filled.
I only aspire, then, to deal with these four forms which I have already suggested.
I. The measure of our possible attainments is the whole wealth of God.
‘According to the riches of His grace.’ Another angle at which the same thought is viewed appears in another part of the letter, where we have this variation in the expression, ‘According to the riches of His glory.’ ‘Grace’ and ‘Glory’ are generally opposed antithetically; in this epistle they are united, for in the verse before my text I:read: ‘To the praise of the glory of His grace.’ So the first thought is, the whole wealth of God is available for every Christian soul.
Now it seems to me that there are very few things that the popular Christianity of this day needs more than a furnishing up of the familiar old Christian terminology, which has largely lost the freshness and the power that it once had. They tell us that these incandescent burners, that we are using nowadays, are very much more bright when they are first fixed than after the mantle gets a little worn. So it is with the terminology of Christianity. It needs to be re-stated, not in such a way as to take the pith out of it, which is what a great deal of the modern craze for re-statement means, but in such a way as to brighten it up again, and to invest it with something of the ‘celestial light’ with which it was ‘apparelled’ when it first came. Now that word ‘grace,’ I have no doubt, sounds to you hard, theological, remote. But what does it mean? It gathers into one burning point the whole of the rays of that conception of God, with which it is the glory of Christianity to have flooded and drenched the world. It tells us that at the heart of the universe there is a heart; that God is Love, that that love is the motive-spring of His activity, that it comes and bends over the lowliest with a smile of amity on its lips, with healing and help in its hands, with forgiveness for all sins against itself, with boundless wealth for the poorest, and that the wealth of His self-communicating love is the measure of the wealth that each of us may possess.
God gives ‘according to the riches of His grace.’ You do not expect a millionaire to give half-a-crown to a subscription fund; and God gives royally, divinely, measuring His bestowments by the abundance of His treasures, and handing over with an open palm large gifts of coined money, because there are infinite chests of uncirculated bullion in the deep storehouses. ‘How great is Thy goodness which Thou hast manifested before the sons of men for them that fear Thee. How much greater is Thy goodness which Thou hast laid up in store.’ But whilst He gives all, the question comes to be: What do I receive? The measure of His gift is His measureless grace; the measure of my reception is my-alas! easily-measured faith. What about the unearned increment? What about the unrealised wealth? Too many of us are like some man who has a great estate in another land. He knows nothing about it, and is living in grimy poverty in a back street. For you have all God’s riches waiting for you, and ‘the potentiality of wealth beyond the dreams of avarice’ at your beck and call, and yet you are but poorly realising your possible riches. Alas, that when we might have so much we do have so little. ‘According to the riches of His grace’ He gives. But another ‘according to’ comes in. ‘According to thy faith be it unto thee.’ So we have to take these two measures together, and the working limit of our possession of God’s riches comes out of the combination of them both.
Let me remind you, before I pass on, of what I have already suggested is but another phase of this same thought, Paul says in this epistle that God gives not only ‘according to the riches of His grace,’ but ‘according to the riches of His glory,’ and that the latter expression is substantially identical with the former, is plain from the combination of the two in an earlier verse of this chapter: ‘To the praise of the glory of His grace.’ Thus we come to the blessed thought that the glory of God is essentially the revelation of that stooping, pitying, pardoning, enriching love. Not in the physical attributes, not in the characteristics of the divine nature which part Him off from men, and make Him remote, both from their conceptions and their affections, but in the love that bends to them is the true glory of God. All these other things are but the fringes; the centre of glory is the Love, which is the mightiest and the divinest thing in the Might Divine. The sunshine is far stronger than the lightning, and there is more force developed in the rain than in an earthquake. That truth is what Christianity has made the common possession of the world. It has thereby broken the chains of dread; it has bridged over the infinite distance. It has given us a God that can love and be loved, can stoop and can lift, can pardon and can purify. ‘According to the good pleasure of His goodness,’-there is the foundation of our salvation. ‘According to the riches of His grace,’-there is the measure of our salvation.
II. We have another form of the same measure in another set of verses which speak of the present working of God’s power.
The Apostle speaks in regard to his own apostolic commission of its being given ‘according to the working of His power’; and he speaks of all Christian men as receiving gifts ‘according to the power that worketh in us.’ So there we have a standard that comes, as it were, a little closer to ourselves. We do not need to travel up into the dim abysses above, or think of the sanctities and the secrecies of that divine heart in the light which is inaccessible, but we have the measure in ourselves.
The standards of length are kept at Greenwich, the standards of capacity are kept in the Tower; but there are local standards distributed throughout the land to which men may go and have their measures corrected. And so besides all these lofty thoughts about the grace and the glory which measures His gift, we can turn within, if we are Christian people, and say, ‘According to the power that worketh in us.’
Ah, brethren! there are few things that we want more than to revive and deepen the conviction that in every Christian man, by virtue of his faith, and in proportion to his faith, there is in operation an actual, superhuman, divine power moulding his nature, guiding, quickening, ennobling, lifting, confirming, and hallowing and shaping him into conformity with Jesus Christ. I would that we all believed not as a dogma, but realised as a personal experience, that irrefragable truth, ‘Know ye not that the Spirit of Christ dwelleth in you, except ye be reprobate?’ The life of self is evil; the life of Christ in self is good, and only good. And if you are Christian men, and in the proportion, as I have said, in which you are living by faith, you have working in your spirits the very Spirit of Christ Himself.
And that power is the measure of your possibilities. Obviously ‘the power that worketh in us’ is able to do a great deal more than it is doing in any of us. And so with deep significance the Apostle, side by side with his adducing of this power as being the measure of our possible attainments, speaks about God as being ‘able to do for us, exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think.’ ‘The power that works in us’ transcends in its possibilities our present experience, it transcends our conceptions, it transcends our desires. It is able to do everything; it actually does-well, you know what it does in you. And the responsibility of hampering and hindering that power from working out its only adequately corresponding results lies at our own doors. ‘A rushing, mighty wind’-yes; and in myself a scarcely perceptible breathing, and often a dead calm, stagnant as in the latitudes on either side of the Equator, where, for long, dreary days, no freshening motion in the atmosphere is perceptible. ‘A fire?’-yes; then why is my grate full of grey, cold ashes, and one little spark in the corner? ‘A fountain springing into everlasting life?’-yes; then why in my basin is there so much scum and ooze, mud and defilement, and so little of the flashing and brilliant water? ‘The power that works in us’ is sorely hindered by the weakness in which it works.
III. In the third place another form of this measure is stated by the Apostle, ‘According to the measure of the gift of Christ.’
That means, of course, the gift which Christ bestows. It is substantially the same idea as I have just been dealing with, only looked at from rather a different point of view. Therefore, I need not dwell upon its parallelism with what has just been occupying our attention, but rather ask you simply to consider one point in reference to it, and that is that, side by side with the reference to the gift of Christ as being the measure of our possible attainments, the Apostle enlarges on the Infinite variety of the shapes which that one gift takes in different people. ‘He gave some apostles, some prophets,’ etc.; one man receiving according to this fashion, and another according to that, and to each of us the distribution is made ‘according to the measure of the gift of Christ.’ That is to say, it takes us all, the collective goodness and beauty of the whole community of saints, to approximate to the fulness of that gift, and all are needed in their different types and forms of excellence, sanctity and beauty, in order to set forth, even imperfectly, the richness and the manifoldness of His great gift. And so ‘we all come’-there is a multiplicity-’unto the perfect man, the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ’-there is a unity in which the multiplicity inheres.
So try to get a little more of some different type of excellence than that to which you are naturally inclined. Seek, and consciously endeavour, to appropriate into your character uncongenial excellences, and be very charitable in your judgments of the different types of Christian conformity to Christ our Lord. The crystals that are set round a light do not quarrel with each other as to whether green, or yellow, or blue, or red, or violet is the true colour to reflect. We need all the seven prismatic tints to make the perfect white light. The gift of Christ is many-sided; try not to be one-sided in your reception of it.
IV. And now the last form of this measure is ‘according to the energy of the might of His power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead.’
When we gazed upon the riches of God’s grace, they were high above us, when we looked upon ‘the power that worketh in us,’ we saw it working amidst many hindrances and hamperings, but here there is presented to us in a concrete example, close beside us, of what God can make of a man when the man is wholly pliable to His will, and the recipient of His influences. And so there stands before us the guarantee and the pattern of immortal life, the Christ whose Manhood died and lives, who is clothed with a spiritual body, who wields royal authority in the Kingdom of the Most High. And that is the measure of what God can do with me, and wishes to do with me, if I will let Him. Christ is my pattern, and the measure of my own possibilities.
To be with Him, where and what He is, is the only adequate result of the power that works in us, and of the process that is already begun in us, if we are Christian people. You are sometimes-there is one eminent example of it in that great Medicean Chapel at Florence-a statue exquisitely finished in all its limbs, but one part left in the rough. That is the best that Christian people come to here. Shall it always be so? Do not the very imperfections prophesy completion, and is it not certain that the half-finished torso will be carried to the upper workshop, and be there disengaged from the dead marble and made to stand out in perfect beauty and fullest completeness? Christ is the object of our hopes, and no hopes of the Christian life are adequate to the power that works in us, or to the progress already made, which do not see in the ‘energy of the might of the power’ which wrought in Christ, the example and the guarantee of the exceeding greatness of ‘His power which is to usward.’
And now, one last word. Besides all these passages which have been occupying us, there is another use of this same phrase in this letter which presents a very solemn and grim contrast. I can do no better with it than simply read it: ‘Ye were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh’-mark the allusion to the other words that we have been referring to-’in the children of disobedience.’ So there you have the alternative, either ‘dead in trespasses and sins,’ whilst living the physical and the intellectual life, or partaking of the life of Him ‘who was dead, and is alive for ever more’; either ‘walking according to the course of this world,’ which is ‘disobedience’ and ‘wrath,’ or walking ‘according to the power that worketh in us’; either ‘putting on,’ or rather continuing to wear, ‘the old man which is corrupt according to the lusts which deceive,’ or ‘putting on the new man, which according to God is created in righteousness and holiness and truth.’ The choice is before us. May God help us to choose aright!
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v7 Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23").
sins
Sin. (See Scofield "Rom 3:23").
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grace Grace (in salvation). Eph 1:6; Eph 1:7; Eph 2:5; Eph 2:7; Eph 2:8; Rom 3:24. (See Scofield "Joh 1:17").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v6 The manifestation of God’s grace according to His counsel:
The manifestation of God’s grace according to His counsel:
v. 6. Wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved,
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v. 7. in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace;
v. 8. wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
v. 9. having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He hath purposed in Himself;
v. 10. that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in Him.
The apostle here resumes the thought of v. 3, concerning the blessings which have been given to us in Christ: With which He has graced us in the Beloved. That is the historic unfolding of the grace of God in time: He has freely bestowed upon us His grace. All merit and worthiness on our part is excluded: the bestowal of God’s grace and favor is a measure of His merciful goodness alone, in His Beloved, in and with Christ Himself, Col 1:13; Mat 3:17. Through the grace of God in Jesus, whose entire work is an expression of the love of God toward us, we become both the objects and the recipients of His love.
How the eternal decree was put into execution, Paul explains: in whom we have the redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. In Christ me have that redemption which had long been promised and expected. He paid the ransom for the sins of all men, and the believers have accepted His vicarious activity; they know that His blood paid the guilt of all men’s sins, that it has expiated the guilt, that it has borne the punishment. The result is a permanent possession of the Christians, the forgiveness of sins. In Christ, once and for always, there is complete redemption, perfect forgiveness of sins, for all men; in Him their trespasses are no longer charged to their account. In Christ all believers have forgiveness and therefore salvation, and that not in small measure, leaving a doubt as to the sufficiency of the substitute ransom, but according to the wealth of His grace. The entire fullness of His gracious riches has been poured down upon us. "Plenteous grace with Thee is found."
Lest anyone still have misgivings as to the limitless wealth of God’s loving favor, the apostle adds: Which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and discernment. When God dispenses spiritual gifts, He does not observe an anxious restriction, but furnishes them in such rich abundance that there is much more than enough. Upon us and into us His grace flows in a superabundant stream, teaching us the right wisdom and understanding, enabling us to find that path, to follow that course which is in accordance with the will of God. Such enlightened intelligence to know the will of God is found where the grace of God has been active in the heart of a man. The sequence of thought, therefore, is the following. The possession of the redemption through the blood of Christ is coincident with our adoption into the sonship of God. Our sins and trespasses, which separated between us and God, have been forgiven, the Lord will remember them no more. As children of God we cheerfully and confidently lift up our eyes to our heavenly Father and expect from Him all the spiritual gifts for a life according to His good pleasure. And the wisdom and discernment given to us by God make us ready and perfect for a holy, blameless conduct in love. All these gifts, everything that we are and possess in spiritual matters, we owe entirely and alone to the free grace of God, to the election of grace.
The apostle now takes up the thought of v. 5. thus adding a new moment to the entire preceding section: In that He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He determined in Himself for the dispensation of the fullness of the times, to place everything under one head in Christ that in the heavens and also that on the earth, in Him. God revealed to all Christians, all believers, the secret to show us why He bestowed on us the full riches of spiritual gifts. It is a secret concerning His will, His good pleasure, for in the matter of His choice God had in no manner been influenced by anything outside of Himself. God determined upon His course in and by Himself; His own free determination originated in His own gracious mind. And what He thus planned, His course of action, looked forward to the dispensation of the fullness of the times, all the periods of the earth’s existence and history being taken together in the figure of a vessel which is filled. When God sent His Son, born of a woman, then the last period had begun, the period which is to perfect and fulfill the times of the world. The eternal counsel of God, therefore, although ever present in prophecy and type, is brought out in its glorious beauty in God’s management in the time of the New Testament, the time in which we now live. It is now that the intention of God is being carried out to bring together under one heading, under one Head, all things in Christ, heavenly as well as earthly, to sum up the aggregate of heavenly and earthly things. The totality of the children of God, all those that have been chosen unto the adoption of sons, God brings together in Christ, to form His body, with all its members and organs. That was God’s eternal loving thought: a holy family of His children, united in Christ, the first-born Son, in whom He, the Father, might be well pleased—the one holy Christian Church, the communion of saints. See Col 1:18-20.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v7 riches of his grace
riches of his grace
Paul speaks of God's grace as if it were material wealth. AT: "greatness of God's grace" or "abundance of God's grace" (See: Metaphor)
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He lavished this grace upon us
"He gave us this great amount of grace" or "He was extremely kind to us"
with all wisdom and understanding
Possible meanings are 1) "because he has all wisdom and understanding" 2) "so that we might have great wisdom and understanding"
translationWords
redeem
blood
forgive
sin
grace
wise
understand
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv6–8 1:6 Believers praise God, who has richly blessed them…
1:6 Believers praise God, who has richly blessed them with his forgiving grace. • his dear Son: Literally the beloved, a Messianic title for Jesus; see Matt 3:17; 17:5; Col 1:13.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.