00:00:00:12 – 00:00:33:07
Clint Loveall
Hey friends. Welcome back. Thanks for joining us for another week as we continue through Ephesians. Grateful to have you. And, good to spend some time together looking into this letter. We find ourselves. We’re still in the first chapter. We are in the verse. Are we? Here I go. Verse seven. Verse seven. Picking up. Remember, I think it’s helpful to remember that in the Greek text, the original text, this is all one sentence.

00:00:33:12 – 00:01:10:30
Clint Loveall
So the English version has tried its best to make some sense out of that and to break it down. The verses can feel a little arbitrary, but this they had they had a tough job translating this part. So we’re going to jump in here at verse seven, and we’ll come back and have some discussion. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he has lavished on us with all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will.

00:01:10:35 – 00:01:44:28
Clint Loveall
According to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather things in him in heaven and things on earth. Go ahead and stop there for a minute. So, one of the, one of the helpful ways I think to read scripture, or one one helpful approach can be to survey a couple verses or a passage as we’re doing, and then look for the mountaintop words.

00:01:44:33 – 00:02:10:51
Clint Loveall
And we we get several here. And the first one is this idea of redemption, which is a a common Christian word that maybe we don’t always think about. So to be redeemed is to be purchased to be to be, bought, to be rescued, maybe would be a more comfortable way to think about that. So we have been redeemed.

00:02:10:51 – 00:02:41:20
Clint Loveall
We have been rescued through the blood of Christ, which then Paul goes on, which is the forgiveness of our sins, which happens according to the riches of his grace which he lavished on us. And it it’s really interesting, I think, Michael, to sort of treat this verse. It’s almost a theology map, that there’s a sense here in which this is a very good summary of theology 101.

00:02:41:20 – 00:02:47:40
Clint Loveall
There’s a lot of great stuff in here. And it it starts with this concept that we are redeemed.

00:02:47:45 – 00:03:14:34
Michael Gewecke
So I think one of the things that Christians maybe we struggle with is because so much of our vocabulary within the faith is related to these theological words that have theological meaning to us, but in their original context, they were unique because they were common words that were really being brought into the fold to be able to do this theological work.

00:03:14:34 – 00:03:27:34
Michael Gewecke
Redemption is one of those words. It’s a word that would mean that you, like, turned in a coupon, or that you redeemed a, a purchase price for a thing. It would have been a common word.

00:03:27:34 – 00:03:28:51
Clint Loveall
Had your debt paid.

00:03:28:51 – 00:03:58:10
Michael Gewecke
Yeah, right. And so the idea that now is used in our Christian context through the theological frame of Jesus Christ redeeming work for us, we associate it with the spiritual. It is for us theological. And that’s well and good, because that was how it was intended to be glossed. The early church and Christians were looking to things that were in their common experience, and they saw in those things deeper things.

00:03:58:10 – 00:04:20:02
Michael Gewecke
And so they lifted that out. Well, we’ve got to be careful. I think a little bit, because we need to not over spiritualize them and realize that these words are the mountaintop and not just the mountaintop, because they’re somehow theological, but they’re the mountaintop because they are reflective and descriptive of what God has done for us in the real world.

00:04:20:15 – 00:04:41:24
Michael Gewecke
And here I think that this, this way that the text begins is beautiful. If you will think of it as a roadmap, it’s the necessary starting point. We are redeemed. How are we being redeemed? It’s it’s not through a purchase price. It’s not through an economic exchange. It’s through the blood of Christ. For what purpose? The forgiveness of our trespasses.

00:04:41:24 – 00:05:02:40
Michael Gewecke
Here you have in mind all of these Israelite and Jewish worship traditions in the background. The idea of the sacrificing the lamb and the idea of making the holy place fit for worship. All of this has this blood language worked into it, and now we’re moving forward according to the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.

00:05:02:40 – 00:05:25:55
Michael Gewecke
Christians. Forget grace isn’t the word that start with us. Grace has always been a part of God’s gift to call people into fellowship in community with him, but yet in Jesus Christ. And we’re already seeing this worked out in Ephesians, Jesus Christ is the culminating person, God in flesh, doing this work supremely and perfectly and once and for all time.

00:05:25:58 – 00:05:50:27
Michael Gewecke
That’s the astonishing nature what you’re seeing happening in front of you. Not that these words individually are somehow beyond human comprehension, or though they are in the depth of them. But it’s not that the words themselves are unique. Is that what they’re pointing us to? Who is Christ that they are ultimately the roadmap that shows us how deep the gift of Christ actually is?

00:05:50:42 – 00:06:27:03
Clint Loveall
I think that’s really good insight, Michael, because certainly there is religious language in Paul’s day and in Paul’s past in Paul’s tradition. But to some extent, as people are discerning and coming to understand what becomes the doctrine of Christianity or the doctrines of Christianity, they are, I don’t want to say inventing language, but they are leaning in to, the limits of their language to try to capture and describe these new theological ideas.

00:06:27:03 – 00:07:06:32
Clint Loveall
And I don’t think anyone is doing that more. And and some I think many would argue better than Paul is. So when we have a word like forgiveness or even sin, for Paul, that’s going to mean a very different thing than many of the contexts around him. And so Paul is always doing this translation. And and I think you can see how carefully he does that as he walks through these ideas, redeemed through the blood by forgiveness of sins, and according to the riches of his grace that he has lavished.

00:07:06:32 – 00:07:34:26
Clint Loveall
She’s not just given it to us. He’s poured it upon us. He’s covered us with it. There is an abundance of that. And how then, as we move on, how has that happened? With all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure set forth in Christ. So in Christ we have access to the will of God.

00:07:34:39 – 00:08:05:01
Clint Loveall
Now will on one hand, Christians will and should always talk about the will of God as something mysterious, something beyond us, something that we can’t fathom, something that we can’t predict, something that we can’t understand. And yet, in another sense, Paul can say that through Christ we now know the will of God, because the will of God is the forgiveness of sins according to his grace.

00:08:05:06 – 00:08:37:51
Clint Loveall
He’s made known to this. He’s made known to us the redemption found in Jesus Christ. He’s made known the cross. He’s made known the promise of the Holy Spirit. These things, this language that as Christians we take for granted is in this first evolution of Christianity, groundbreaking. And Paul says that through Christ, this thing that has been impenetrable, impenetrable and able for us to understand, we now have access to that.

00:08:37:51 – 00:09:08:01
Clint Loveall
God has brought us inside an understanding of who he is and what his will is for people and the world. And that I think we keep running into this. Michael. That’s the kind of things that Christians say, and the kind of language with which we’re familiar, without always stopping to be awestruck by it, without without being overwhelmed by it, as I think is maybe more appropriate.

00:09:08:06 – 00:09:37:57
Michael Gewecke
So you began this study in some of our introductory conversations about how some commentators have talked about Ephesians being such a contemporary book that though it’s ancient, it has a lot to say. The modern people. I would point out, I think, that this is a really interesting intersection of that. I think that this represents that in some really interesting ways, because the ancient world, you have to understand the power and the allure of mysteries was ever present.

00:09:37:57 – 00:09:59:54
Michael Gewecke
There was, in fact, movements in early Christianity, which we’re not going to spend time going through together. But trust me, do some reading on Gnosticism. There’s movements in early Christianity that are really drawn to the mysterious, the idea especially that you could be given the key that unlocks this next mystery that leads to the next one. And I want to make something very clear that lives in our world.

00:09:59:54 – 00:10:09:09
Michael Gewecke
To Clint, there are people who live by the same mentality today that if I could just get access to this information, if I just knew this thing, you would unlock this experience.

00:10:09:09 – 00:10:26:24
Clint Loveall
Well, we’ve see it. We see it regularly. The the Bible code book, the numerology that’s within some Christian circles, the book of Revelation and the hundreds of thousands of attempts to sort of decode the puzzle. That’s not going away.

00:10:26:38 – 00:10:51:54
Michael Gewecke
It’s a part of our lives and experience and faith and exactly right. And your point there is a balance. And that is such an important word. We need to understand that there is mystery in the faith when you’re talking about the point of faith, being in a God who creates, redeems, sustains. There’s mystery there that’s in that is, at the end of the day, unresolvable.

00:10:52:03 – 00:11:32:52
Michael Gewecke
But, but, but we have to see the mystery is made known to us. How? By the revelation which is the incarnation of Jesus Christ made this abundantly clear that yes, God is mysterious because of who God is, but God is revealing to us in such a way that we truly can know something, and that is a uniquely Christian idea about God’s intention to go from this beyond our comprehension experience to a actually accessible realization of what God has done in the world.

00:11:32:52 – 00:11:36:58
Michael Gewecke
And this, and the name of that revelation is Jesus Christ.

00:11:37:03 – 00:12:04:40
Clint Loveall
It has been a long time since I sat in a John Calvin class, so I may be on thin ice. Michael, and push back if you feel like I’m getting off track. But I believe within Calvin’s writings he was comfortable talking about the revealed will of God and the secret will of God. In other words, there are things when we ask the question as humans, why would this happen?

00:12:04:40 – 00:12:41:07
Clint Loveall
Or why would that happen? We are coming up against questions that we can’t answer. We are coming face to face with mysteries that are beyond our understanding. However, when we say, what does God want for the world that has been revealed in Jesus Christ? We know that because of Jesus Christ, I may not know why everything in my life happens the way it does, but the outline of what God wants for my life and who God wants me to be.

00:12:41:20 – 00:13:17:31
Clint Loveall
I actually can know that that part of God’s will, I can access and understand through the revelation of Jesus Christ, including Scripture. And so I think very fascinating here that, this is where the conversation has gone, and I think helpfully, hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, that, we understand when Paul says we understand the mysteries of God. I think he has in mind the revelation of Jesus Christ.

00:13:17:31 – 00:13:41:02
Michael Gewecke
And by the way, let’s keep going just a little bit, because this is essential as a plan for the fullness of time. Make no mistake, you don’t know all of the things that God wants for you and all of the explanations of how things have. We don’t have the access to that. But you do know the end of the story.

00:13:41:04 – 00:14:07:37
Michael Gewecke
You know it. You can be confident in it. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. So be very clear when it comes to the matter of how does this thing end? The Christian has an answer for that. The Christian believes that Jesus Christ has not only been a moment of God’s in breaking, which the word we use for that is revelation that Jesus has been the in breaking of God into the world.

00:14:07:44 – 00:14:31:12
Michael Gewecke
But the Christians will say that that in breaking is pointing us towards an end that Jesus told us would exist, that new creation, that things would be restored, that we would discover all that was wrong being put right so that we can know, we can be confident. And you say, well, why can’t I know the explanation to why this bad thing has happened to me or to my loved one?

00:14:31:21 – 00:15:09:13
Michael Gewecke
Or why can’t I explain this world that I live in that seems so broken that the truth is we don’t have access to all information. God is a mystery and yet God is not mysterious in God’s intention. And that’s a really tough balance for us to walk sometimes, because truth is human spirit. Much like the Genesis chapter three, we would prefer to know all things like God, and we would like to claim that there’s no mystery and the moment that one does that, you found that you’ve flipped who’s on the throne and who is God.

00:15:09:18 – 00:15:25:03
Michael Gewecke
You might find yourself in that seat instead. And that is an incredibly important turn that we see resisted in a book like Ephesians. Why? Because Jesus Christ is the revelation of God, so therefore it can’t be flipped.

00:15:25:08 – 00:15:58:54
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And and what is the revelation? In other words, what is the will of God that we have redemption through Christ as a plan for the fullness of time? And I this is maybe my favorite verse in this, in this passage, Michael, to gather up all things in him, in heaven and things on earth, which is Paul’s way of saying everything, to gather all things in Christ so that nothing is outside of his will.

00:15:58:58 – 00:16:32:45
Clint Loveall
Nothing is outside of that redemptive, work that that hope, that invitation, that God’s plan is to work redemption for all things, that that is the will of God to do the work of redeeming through Jesus Christ. And it is not a small plan. It is a big vision. Things in heaven and earth, all things gathered up in him.

00:16:33:00 – 00:16:39:22
Clint Loveall
And that that’s a beautiful, beautiful imagery. It’s a beautiful idea.

00:16:39:27 – 00:17:06:34
Michael Gewecke
I love that image that you used earlier of the mountaintop. I just want to skip back really quickly. This is just my reading of it. This time. The mountaintops I see reaching back into verse three and yesterday study verse four, we were chosen in Christ. God chose us. And now today we have been redeemed by him. We were chosen by him.

00:17:06:34 – 00:17:34:46
Michael Gewecke
We were redeemed by him. So who’s the acting character so far? It is God that is very clearly the force of this text that we are recipients of God’s work on our behalf. We’ve been chosen and we’ve been redeemed. Yes, there’s mystery that is being revealed to us. Yes, we are adopted even as children. It changes our status.

00:17:34:46 – 00:18:14:47
Michael Gewecke
It changes how we think. It changes how we live in the world. But make no mistake about it, the opening of this letter is, a salvo of God’s action in the world and us being the recipients of it. It changes our life, no doubt. But it’s all God’s doing. And I think that it’s essential to remember that this is written to these Christians seeking to find unity amidst diversity and seeking to try to figure out how you do church when you’re surrounded by a world fraught with evil and sinfulness and all these things and and the answer is to not just reach right into people’s action.

00:18:14:47 – 00:18:24:04
Michael Gewecke
It’s not just moralism. It’s not you have been doing things wrong. It starts with God. And then from that, we’re going to see the letter growing and flourishing.

00:18:24:09 – 00:18:56:38
Clint Loveall
Yeah. I, I know that, sometimes we make glacial pace through some of these books, but I, I, I’m reminded today of what can happen when one slows down and really pays attention to the words, listens for meaning in them, and tries to get behind that the words themselves to what it is that Paul’s trying to say to the people of Jesus Christ.

00:18:56:38 – 00:19:04:41
Clint Loveall
And I think today is a good example, that there’s often far, far more than we think under the surface.

00:19:04:46 – 00:19:25:41
Michael Gewecke
No matter our progress, we will continue tomorrow. And, certainly I hope you will join us for that conversation. It’s a gift that you would spend this time with us today. Know that we appreciate it. If, this has been helpful for you, give this video a like helps others find it in their own study of Ephesians. Certainly subscribe helps you stay up to date with the studies as we go and friends, we look forward to seeing you tomorrow.

00:19:25:46 – 00:19:26:25
Clint Loveall
Thanks everybody.