Ephesians 1:7 “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;”

Ephesians 1:8 “Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;”

Ephesians 1:9 “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:”

Hello readers, hope you’ve had a great week, and thank you for reading. Today I will be continuing with some thoughts from the book of Ephesians. Last time we talked about the need for redemption. Recently I thought about how the Bible can really be summarized, if that is at all possible, but I believe I could summarize the Bible as “the story of the redemption of man by and through Jesus Christ”. All through the Bible from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, it is about exactly that.

The Bible clearly teaches that man needs to be redeemed, and must be redeemed, but can be redeemed, but only through Christ. Redemption is such a wonderful word and a powerful word. I feel like thought I get it, I barely begin to understand the scope of redemption. God has showed his wisdom in redemption to such a degree it is beyond my brain to really grasp. In God’s redemption of man God shows his wisdom and prudence… and it’s so far ahead of how I think and would do things.

But think of how we use the word “redeem”. Like when someone “redeems” themselves for wrong they have done by making it right by doing it right. Maybe in baseball for instance, a batter “redeems” himself for a bad season by coming up with a clutch home run in a post season game.  But there’s human redemption, but then there’s Biblical redemption. Which deals with the restoration of man from his lost state in sin. Let’s be clear that the Bible clearly teaches the inability of man to redeem himself, we must be redeemed by someone not just with the will, but the power to do so. And if you want to see a picture of redemption, look at Boaz in the book of Ruth… as Boaz redeemed Ruth, so our Boaz redeems us.

I hope you do look up the meaning of the word in Webster’s dictionary, because then you begin to understand the scope of this word and what the Bible is teaching us. God’s redemption of man is an incredible story, he bought back with his own blood that which was lost by man’s sin… and I really hope you have your part and place in that redemption story. Remember, redemption is in God and flows from God, Jesus Christ is the source of life and truth and light. He is the bread of heaven. Outside of him, there is no redemption. You cannot change yourself into God’s image on your own, only the Holy Spirit can do that. You cannot redeem yourself, no matter how hard you try. Stop trying and trust in Christ our Redeemer. It’s all IN HIM.

If I was to say what the theme of this book is, I’d say that the wonderful book of Ephesians is all about being “in Christ”. It’s to the faithful in Christ. It shows the need to believe in Christ. It teaches the necessity of being in Christ. But it shows the blessing and benefits and inheritance in Christ.  It shows the riches in Christ. And I come out of Ephesians if getting nothing else from the book that we must all be in Christ, because God placed everything on Christ and gave everything to Christ. The riches of being in Christ. And as the Bible says “For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;” you will have no fullness in your life if you are not in him, who in him all fulness dwells.

But let’s begin with the word “forgiveness” from the verses quoted above. Forgiveness is so powerful when we forgive others. Or when someone forgives us. And the greater the transgression the more powerful that forgiveness is. God’s forgiveness is central to our redemption, because it’s something that is beyond us. Forgiveness does not come naturally to us. We tend to want to “get that person back” or see that person “get what they deserve”. It shows how far we have fallen from God’s image. Our image is deeply corrupted by sin. And redemption of man I believe centres on changing who we fundamentally are. The sons of God are very different to the sons of men. Or so they should be. Notice how all these incredible virtues are all gloriously displayed in God in Christ? Remember how virtue went out of Christ, because all virtue is in him, any good virtue you have comes from him, his power to do so.

I think we tend to have this attitude of entitlement to God’s forgiveness, and we are through what Christ has done. We are forgiven for “his name’s sake” remember? But we take it for granted. Because God would have been within his rights not to forgive us our sins. He didn’t have to forgive us. We just kind of presume on all the good and gracious qualities of God. But we forget that we justly deserve punishment for what we have done. He doesn’t owe us forgiveness. He chose to forgive us. Big difference. Imagine if God was not ready and willing to forgive us. Imagine if he was not who he is. It’s unthinkable.

“Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence”. In the redemption of man through Christ, God shows how wise he is. The redemption of man is perfection, what a plan of salvation it is. I love how that salvation does not respect who you are are, but it also does not care who you are. You can be rich and famous, or you can be poor and nobody… it does not matter. It cuts the great down and lifts the lowly up. Salvation is not based on our intelligence or reasoning or prestige or rank or status or influence… it’s based on his Son Jesus Christ. And that’s incredible wisdom of God. He’s truly made it so that anybody can be saved. We are saved despite who we are, not because of who we are.

But what I really wanted to touch on today was “the mystery of his will”. Remember when Paul saw the altar “TO THE UNKNOWN GOD” in Acts 17? In my life, I’ve seen that many people are not overtly opposed to the idea of God, but they just think you can’t know God’s will. If there is a God, and they think there is, he’s this mystic entity, unknowable and mysterious to man. But he’s not. Jesus Christ was born fully man, and he suffered and endured what we did. He had real friends. He felt real pain. He felt the sting of real betrayal. He died a real death. And he “kept it real” with all those that knew him and heard him.

That God is too hard to find and unknowable is just a rank lie. I think in many cases people would prefer God to be mysterious than the known God of the Bible. Because a mystic God is a lot more palatable than a God who has made known his will which we don’t like. Many people prefer an unknown God to the known God. I believe some people I have met have chosen ignorance, because ignorance is comfortable to them. So it’s not so much you cannot know as it is I don’t want to know.

There are people who genuinely think God is too hard to find in it all, and that nobody can be sure… and yet here the Bible is saying you can be sure. If God’s will was a mystery… the Bible here says his will has been made known. And God’s will is that you repent and believe the gospel. God says believe in my Son, because he is your redemption. He is the person that can and will take you higher. Everyone is trying to get higher, but who could take you higher than Jesus Christ who we read a little later is “far above all?

So you being an agnostic is not good enough and won’t be good enough in your day of judgment. Because God has not just made himself known, but he’s made his will known. You don’t have to guess. You don’t have to be in darkness… if you are in the dark… it’s not a failure on God’s behalf, you are there by choice. Because the Bible completely unveils God to us. And in fact, what veils us is our rejection and unbelief toward him, not his inability or inadequacy in communicating to us. What an insult to blame God’s lack of social skills for your disobedient and ignorant life? Stop blaming God, blame yourself.

God is not a mystery, I mean even here in Ephesians 1, he’s revealing what he was purposing before the world even began. Because before the world started, redemption was already planned in Christ Jesus. We get an insight into his counsel room, the counsel of himself. And the entire Bible is God clearly speaking to man, clearly outlining what he requires of us. We are in no doubts as to who he is and what he would have us do. Just it’s a matter of will we believe and obey it or not.

So I thank you for your attention again in this blog, and I hope you get something out of it, but if nothing else, just believe on Jesus Christ, because he will make himself known to you as he promised, and that through his word, which he has clearly given here in one of his many books of the Bible. Don’t let God be a mystery to you, because he’s not, you can know him, you can be saved by him, and you can be sure of your inheritance that you have in Christ, and in him, you can bear the image of the heavenly, your life doesn’t have to be known and marked by the corruption of sin, you can walk in Christ’s righteousness, and enjoy the redemption of your soul and life that began for you personally when you believed.

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