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Good morning everyone. We will once again turn our Bibles to Ephesians 1 verses 1-14. I am reading it from the NASB version. Ephesians 1. “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 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.
“He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight. He made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his kind intention, which he purposed in him, with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.
“In him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession to the praise of his glory.” Let’s pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for this time that you have given us as we once again come, Lord, before your word.
Lord, to meditate upon your word, O God, we pray that you would Lord, edify all of us, O God. As we have been meditating, Lord, on the blessings that we have in our Lord Jesus Christ. O Lord, we pray that we might be really gripped, Lord, by these wonderful, marvelous blessings that we have, O Father, in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. Give us grace, God, that we all, Lord, will be really be gripped by these wonderful blessings. We pray for the ministry of your Spirit in our midst. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray. Amen.
The title of the sermon is the same, the blessings of God’s grace. And we are looking at this part two. In the previous sermon, we have seen two blessings. Number one is the election, right? And then the predestination. And today we are going to see the remaining blessings that we have in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, God, if you read this portion, we see that God is blessed. Blessed means he is worthy of our praises. And our words are not enough to elaborate on all the good that God has done on behalf of his people. Nevertheless, words and a life of gratitude are the medium to express our gratefulness and thankfulness to our living God. So we see here that from his imprisonment, Paul exploded in praises to God for the redemptive blessings that he bestowed upon his people. And as a redeemed people of God, we must also be enthralled by these blessings. And God, we know that God saved us by his grace.
God saved us so that he would be praised for his marvelous grace. And his attribute of grace would be glorified. And especially when the hell deserving sinners are saved, the glorious grace of God is magnified and glorified. And whatever God has done and whatever God will do for his people is always out of his grace.
And we know that grace is something that we don’t deserve, right? So if you are truly a saved person, if you are truly saved, we should realize that our salvation or our saved lives or our life after salvation is not about us. It is all about God’s grace. It’s all about what God’s grace is doing in our lives.
Our life should magnify and exalt the glorious grace of God. And as I mentioned last time, I want to repeat it again that we will never ever come to a position here on this earth where we will not need God’s grace. Our entire life on this earth is wholly dependent on God’s grace.
Without God’s grace, we cannot be saved. Without God’s grace, we cannot be sanctified. And without God’s grace, we wouldn’t be glorified either. It’s all about God’s grace and what God is doing in our lives. If our entire life, our redemptive lives, you know, are dependent on God’s grace, shouldn’t we be pleading for His grace daily?
Shouldn't we be depending on His grace daily? You know, the fight is harder with sin, with wealth, with ourselves. There are evils within and without. And shouldn't we be pleading for God's grace daily? And the reason, as I mentioned earlier as well, the reason that we continue in all kinds, all different kinds of sins, that we are losing the sight of that marvelous grace of God, which is freely available for all redeemed people of God.
And do you know what makes that grace effective in the lives of His people? Do you know what that makes? It's the next blessing that we have in Christ Jesus. And we see that in verse 7 and verse 8, the first part. And that blessing is redemption.
Verses 7 and 8, it says here that, “In Him we have redemption through His blood.” You know, what is redemption? It probably means a release effected by the payment of a ransom. A release effected by the payment of a ransom. And this picture of payment, you know, of ransom is familiar in Paul’s time.
in that Greek or Roman society, especially in the redemption of slaves. You know, the wealthy citizens of Rome purchased as many slaves they needed by paying a ransom to the slave traders or to the Roman officials, you know, if they were the prisoners of war.
And they would buy the slaves by paying a ransom. And by paying a ransom, they would own these slaves. Right? And the same picture is used here. Christ paid the ransom to purchase us. The question that here is to whom did he pay the ransom? There is a wrong ideology or theology which says that it's called as ransom theory. Now some teach that we were in the grip of Satan and Jesus paid a ransom to Satan and we are set free from the enemy's grip. I may say that this theory, whatever this theory is, this theory is from the pit of hell.
There is no truth in it. Jesus did not pay a ransom to Satan. If you understand our fall, the nature of our fall, you should understand that after Adam and Eve sinned against God, all of humanity in Adam was cursed. We all inherited the sin of Adam. When Adam and Eve fell, all humanity fell.
And we all became sinners and came under the influence of the enemy. But who cursed us? Who cursed us? How did we come under that curse? It's because of our rebellion. It's because of the rebellion of the first parents. And in Genesis chapter 3, we see that it was God who cursed humanity.
Satan did not take us into bondage. Because man sinned, the curse came upon humanity. God cursed us for disobedience. And being under sin or Satan is a curse. And who can redeem us from that curse? Only God. And if God should release us from the curse which he has placed upon us, then who should the ransom be paid?
To God. Right? The second person of the Trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ who became man for us, who came as man, paid the ransom through His blood, through His redemptive work on the cross. Our redemption came through the blood of Jesus Christ. That was the price he paid through his death.
And nothing we can do, we could ever do to buy our redemption. Only the blood of Jesus Christ was sufficient. There's another theory called moral influence theory. And this was one of the early theories in the church history. And this theory teaches that Jesus Christ came and died to bring about a positive change in the human society.
And it says that the death of Christ is understood as a catalyst to reform the society. It is the life and the death of Jesus Christ. It inspires men to follow the good example of Christ Jesus. So that by following his good example, we too can live good moral lives.
The life and the suffering of Jesus Christ influences people to live good moral lives. So that the society would be reformed by the good moral lives of the people. You know, this theory emphasizes free will of the humans. It takes precedence in following Jesus’ example. What does this theory miss out on?
Ephesians 2:1, the Bible teaches us that all humans are dead in trespasses and sins. This theory refuses to acknowledge that man is utterly incapable of anything, of doing any moral good that pleases God. No matter how much good example that is there before our eyes, man is incapable to follow that example in order to please God. So God is finally satisfied by the morals of humanity.
Have you forgotten what the prophet Isaiah said? In Isaiah chapter 64, he said that, “All our good deeds are like filthy rags before God.” Bible shows us that the wages of sin is death. We are separated from God. Bible also shows us that we naturally do not have any capacity to do those things which are pleasing in the sight of God.
And there was an early church theologian by the name of Pelagius. He was a British monk and he taught all kinds of things and because of his teachings, he later fled to North Africa, where he encountered this huge stalwart called Augustine. And Augustine challenged Pelagius’ views. The views of Pelagius are more or less than this moral influence theory.
Pelagius taught that men are born neutral. They have the capacity to do good and evil and are neither holy or sinful. He rejected Paul’s theology, most of Paul’s theology on sin and sinful nature. He rejected the view of original sin. You know what is original sin? That in Adam we inherited his sin. When Adam fell, the entire humanity fell. We also fell in Adam and we inherited that sin nature.
And he rejected that Paul’s view of original sin and propagated that Adam’s sin did not affect the humanity, the entire human race. But Adam’s sin only set a bad example for us. And Augustine challenged these views and later another theologian by the name Jacob Arminius was influenced by. From him we get the Arminian theology. There are many similarities.
But eventually we see that Pelagius was condemned as a heretic. In one of the church councils. In the church council of Ephesus in 431. Do you realize? Do you see the error here? Do you see the purpose of redemption? We can recognize this purpose only when we come to an end of ourselves.
Only when we see that there is no good in us which pleases God. The purpose here is seen in verse 6. You see there, “to the praise of his glorious grace,” and in verse 11 you see there that we would be “for the praise of his glory.” You know, in our very nature we do not have anything left, anything left to bring glory to God. Whatever we do is only an abomination to God.
By nature, we live for ourselves. By nature, we magnify our pleasures. By nature, we love ourselves. We live for our glory. We live to, we will live to fulfill our wills. Our nature is fallen and sinful. Even as believers, you know, we struggle with this nature. We grieve God very often. You see that? You see that? Why am I not getting over all these struggles of with sin which have which I face daily? Why? Because there is a nature within me which is in opposition to God’s nature.
Do you see that? Why am I not getting over my bitterness? I know I shouldn't be bitter against my people, but why am I not getting over it? Week after week, days pass by, and I still avoid that person. Why? Why? How about those lustful habits?
There is a similar pattern of thoughts and habits. Why? How about selfishness? I only think about myself, my comforts, my pleasures, my conveniences. Why? Why is this self still so important? Why do I serve myself so well? Not only these, but any deviation from the scriptural standard is also a sin.
And God's grace in Christ alone is sufficient to deal with all sin. No matter how big that sin may be in our sight, only God's grace is sufficient and enough to deal with our sin. Nothing else, nor the tactics, nor the techniques, nor the strategies will work. It's only the God's grace.
It alone is powerful. And as we read this scripture portion, and as we are reminded of these glorious blessings that we have in Christ Jesus, we should also explode in praise to our living God. Praise be unto our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and for his redemptive work on the cross. He redeemed us from that worthless, useless state as Paul mentioned in Romans chapter 3. He said that we all have become useless and worthless to God.
And by his grace, by his redemptive work, we are redeemed from that state of uselessness to God to usefulness to God. And the purpose of redemption is only one thing. That is to bring glory to our living God. Not that we would hold on to our sinful vices and continue to live as we like. No. My dear brother, my sister, if you have tasted the goodness of God, the grace of God, may I tell you, may I remind you, and the reminder is this, that we are redeemed so that we would be changed, we would be changed eventually into the likeness, conformed into the likeness of our Lord
Christ. It's not that we hold on to those vices that we struggle with. We need to get rid of those things. And nothing is capable enough to deal with those vices. Yes, those vices are stronger. But what is capable to deal with those vices is the grace of God.
and grace of God alone. And the purpose is that we are redeemed from sin and to be conformed into the image of God's Son and therefore bring God the glory. And that is the reason God sent our Lord Jesus Christ. And if you claim to be a recipient of this redemptive work, my brother, my sister, if you claim to be a believer or a saved person, may I ask you this question? Where is the change?
Where is the change? How are your affections changing? Do not magnify your sin. Do not tell yourself that your sin is too strong, too big enough to overcome. You know, when you're saying that, you are not gripped by the glorious, the mighty, omnipotent grace of God, which alone is sufficient to deal with our sins. Don't ever say that my struggle with lust is stronger.
Don't ever say that my anxieties are stronger. Don't ever say that my anger is stronger. Don't ever say that my self is stronger. I cannot overcome them. The reason that we are not able to overcome our sin is because we are not fully grasped by the grace of God.
Where is the change? How are your affections changing? How are you being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ if you are a recipient of the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ? Don't deceive yourself if you don't see the change. Don't deceive yourself if you're not seeing the change in your life and in your affections.
If you're not daily growing in the grace, if you're not daily drawing closer to God, are not growing stronger for God, don't deceive yourself that you are in a good and safe place. Maybe it's time for you to truly repent and truly believe the gospel and experience His grace.
If you believe the gospel, you will change, because the gospel is the power of God unto those who believe. It is the power of God, it is the omnipotent power of God is at work in the lives of His people. We cannot be enslaved, we cannot keep on magnifying our sinful vices. No. If you are a recipient of God's grace, you have encountered the powerful grace of God which can transform our lives.
And when we have encountered the powerful grace of God, every time we struggle with sin, we go there. We run there. We run to the throne of grace because we know there it's only the grace of God which can deal with our sins. Nothing else. Nothing else. No strategy. We will not run to strategies. We will not run to the techniques. Because we know that all those are powerless.
It's time that we truly repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and His work on our behalf. You know, the biblical view of redemption or atonement is called as penal substitution theory. Jesus Christ died to satisfy God's wrath against human sin. Jesus is punished — that is penal — in place of sinners — that is substitution — to fulfill God's justice and legal demands of God to punish sin.
In the light of Jesus' death, because of what Christ has accomplished on the cross, God can now forgive the sinner because Jesus Christ has been punished in the place of the sinners, and in this way He met all the retributive requirements of God's justice. He finished the work once for all.
He dealt with all the powers of sin and the enemy. And for whom that price was paid, they can avail of this grace available in that person and that person of Jesus Christ alone. And according to verse 7 you see there, from what were we redeemed? No, we were redeemed and forgiven from our trespasses, which means we are redeemed and forgiven from the penalty of our trespasses. The word trespass means deviation from this, from a standard, and we all by nature deviated from God's holy standards.
And we will never be able to measure up to that standards of God ever again by our good deeds or religious deeds whatever. We will never be able to measure up to that standard of God. And only in Christ, in Christ that righteousness is imputed into our lives, and that righteousness of Christ alone can give us a right standing before God. Sin begets guilt and bondage, and to sin against God properly means to bring ourselves under the tyranny of another master.
Every time we give ourselves to sin, it means that we are giving ourselves to its control. We are declaring that, “Yes, sin, you are the master.” Every time you give yourself to lust, you're saying, “Lust, you're the master. Bitterness, you're the master. Anger, you're the master. You control my life. You control my emotions. You control my decisions.”
Every time we sin, we are giving ourselves to sin's control. And Christ Jesus purchased us by His blood from that sin's tyranny. You know, the classical picture of redemption is seen in the book of Exodus, when the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. And in that slavery you see there a picture of crying to God, and God came to them as the savior, and they were liberated from the captivity under Pharaoh and from God's judgment upon their sin, you know, by the blood of sacrifice, past sacrifice, Passover lambs. And this is the
background that in Him, in Him we have redemption through His blood. Now we are ransomed from all sin and his penalty and our redemption, we are forgiven, we are redeemed from the — Sin is no longer the master. Sin need not have dominion over our lives. We are redeemed from that.
And the word forgiven probably means to be released from captivity or have an obligation cancelled. And this redemption is based upon God’s rich grace which he lavished upon us. Because we are so powerless, God has lavished his grace upon us. Redeeming us through the blood of Jesus. And as believers, we should always be grateful to God. We need not be condemned for our sins.
We need not live with guilt. We need not hold on to our sin. No matter how the big our backsliding is, as our past sins may haunt us, we may not live on all that. We can bring everything to Jesus. We can come and approach only the throne of grace, because there will find grace upon grace.
And that grace is powerful to deal with all our sins. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous so that He will forgive us our sins and cleanses from all unrighteousness.” All unrighteousness. Not one unrighteousness. All, all kinds of unrighteousness.
Whether big or small in our mind, everything. He cleanses us from all unrighteousness. You know, when Charles Wesley and his hymn. He was testifying about what redeeming grace has done in his life. And this is how he sees it. “Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature’s night.”
“Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke, the dungeon flamed with light, my chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.” This is what redemption looks like. The redemption that Jesus brings is powerful to break the power of sin.
No sin is powerful enough to keep you enslaved when we have such marvelous, omnipotent redemption available to us. How can we remain slaves to something that is not powerful when something omnipotent has come to rule our lives? And what is the goal of the redemption here?
What is the goal of redemption? You see that in verses 8 till 10. In the last part of 8, verse 8 and verse 10, till verse 10. It says that “in all wisdom and insight, He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heaven and things on the earth.” You know, in a nutshell, the purpose of redemption is the cosmic unity. This is the future. There is a future dimension to our redemption. And what is that dimension here?
Firstly, Paul talks here about the mystery. Paul also talks about the mystery in chapter 3. But mystery here is God’s plan of redemption, all his redemptive purposes. Which were purposed in the eternity past in Christ. Were kept secret. Until God revealed to his people.
And he had revealed it progressively. And fully. Finally. In Christ Jesus. And he has fully revealed it. Through his apostles. And now. And now that revelation is there. Now that purpose. Of that mystery is made clear. And we now have insight into this revelation. And his redemptive purposes. And we can say. We can know now the purpose of that redemption. We cannot be ignorant of this redemptive purposes. We now know by whom we are saved. We now know how we are saved.
to what we are saved. And the wisdom of God is demonstrated in this mystery. The revealed secret is also the uniting of all things in Christ Jesus. Things in heaven and things on the earth. This means that God’s just order will be fully restored everywhere under the rule of Christ.
Everything will be united. There will be only one family of God. This is the future perspective of redemption. And what is this cosmic unity that Paul is talking here? On earth, it means all the families on earth. It talks about all humans, all redemptive, all redeemed humans. And Paul speaks about the unity of both the Jews and Gentiles in chapter 2. They are there be here on earth. The people from different tribes, different cultures, different background, they will become one family. They are united as one family under Christ.
And Paul also says that every family in heaven. In chapter 3. And God has silenced all the hostile powers in Christ. So cosmic unity is the summing up of all things. And what is the summing up of all things? The fullness of the times, when God, when all of God’s redemptive plans and purposes are finally fulfilled. You know, when they finally come to fulfill, fulfillment, all has been accomplished. It has one cosmic goal. And what is that one called cosmic goal? And all things will be consummated into a new creation.
All things in heaven and on earth will come under the rule of Christ, a new creation. The purpose of God redeeming us spiritually now and one day bodily with all creation, as we see in Romans chapter eight, is the summing up of all things under Christ.
It will be a new creation under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, where even the presence of sin will be eradicated. We have full redemption, not just in the form of doctrine, not just in the form of doctrine in which we believe, but this redemption is in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, we fully, richly can experience this redemption. This redemption is a reality in the person of Christ Jesus. And in Christ alone, we have this redemption.
And the next blessing that we see here is that we are possessed by God. Verses 11 till 14. We are possessed by God. It says verse 11, “Also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according who works all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be, to the praise of his glory. In him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you are sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of inheritance, inheritance with the view to the redemption with the redemption of God’s own possession with a view
to the redemption of God’s own possession.” This is the another blessing. You know, first we see that God works all things according to the counsel of his will. This is a very important truth. This is a very important truth. God works everything according to the counsel of his will. The counsel of God’s will are the decrees of God.
which he had decreed, which he had purposed in the eternity past, before anything began, before even the creation existed. When there were only the three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in the eternity past, they had decreed, they had purposed, and all God has purposed, He has purposed in the eternity past.
He has purposed nothing in time. Everything that He does in time, from the beginning of creation till the end, everything he does in this interval of time, he does everything on the basis of his purposes which he has made in the eternity past. God is not like us who changes plans. Okay, I made this plans, okay, let, okay, this fail, I will make next one. No, there are no plan A and plan B in God. Everything that God does are according to his plan. They are perfect. They’re perfect. And God works everything according to his purposes. He decreed everything before time. And whatever he has decreed in before time, he executes
them in time. No, that’s the reason you see that in Galatians chapter 4, you see that when the right time had come, Jesus came into this world. When the right time had come. What’s the right time? That talks about God’s decreed time. Which he has decreed in the eternity past.
And whatever God does in time. He does according to his counsel. And all the counsel of God. Are the counsel of the triune God. And any covenant, any decree is based upon the three foundations of God. What are the three foundations of that God or the Trinity? The God is one, there are three different persons and they are co-equal and co-eternal persons.
God is one and in that one God there are three eternal persons and they are co-equal and co-eternal. And all the works of the Trinity should be understood within this framework of the triune persons of God. And one of the eternal counsels of God is redemption.
And this is theologically called as the covenant of redemption. And it is a covenantal agreement that was made in the eternity past among the three persons of the Trinity to redeem his people. This is an agreement that has been made between the three persons of the Trinity. And this is an agreement between the three equals — the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They are the three equals. The will of the Father, which is often seen in the New Testament passages, is the divine will. There are no three wills of God. There is no the will of the Father, the will of the Son and the will of the Holy Spirit. There is only one divine will. And in the New Testament passages, that is represented by the Father.
You remember John 10:30 where Jesus said that “I and my Father are one”? He said that in the context of salvation. He said that in the context of salvation. He talks about the sheep and he talks about the shepherd. “The sheep hear my voice,” and who would hear his voice. All this is mutually agreed upon and decreed in the eternity past.
Salvation of people is the purpose of the Triune God. And what God does in time are the eternal decrees. And the eternal decrees God, and only in the context of redemption Christ submitted to the Father and that was mutually agreed upon. You read that in Philippians chapter 2. The second person of the Trinity became at one point of time a human. He took upon himself a human nature, and in that function of humanity and in that function of Christ is submitted to the Father according to the eternal decree of God, and it was voluntary and mutual and it was mutually agreed upon. So the redemption was according to the eternal counsel of God. It
was, it was mutually agreed. And what was all agreed in that counsel? That Son would be the sacrifice, the Father would say, would send the Son, the Son would take upon himself a human nature, the all sin would be laid upon the Son and he would suffer in our place, he would die for our sins, and the, and the Holy Spirit would apply that work of redemption in our lives. He would sanctify the church and make it beautiful, glorious. And this is a brief explanation of the, of the this uh sentence, “God who works all things according to the counsel of his will.”
Our salvation is according to the counsel of triune God’s will. And that will is carried out by the three persons of the Trinity accordingly by each one with respect to their roles in the grand scale of redemption. You know, your redemption and my redemption, our redemption was decided by the greatest counsel ever planned, by the biggest counsel ever, the most powerful counsel ever, and it was carried out by the most powerful being in the entire
universe. Do you doubt that redemption? Do you doubt that salvation? Do you doubt the love of God? The care of God? The grace which is enough to deal with our incapabilities? When we hear that our salvation is decreed by God, is a kind of the counsel of God, that should give us comfort.
This is not mere human decision or human plan. No. This is a plan made by the triune God. And it is carried out not by mere humans but it is carried out by the divine persons of the Trinity. And will he fail to accomplish his purpose? No, he will accomplish it fully, powerfully. And he will accomplish it for his glory. He will be glorified, he will be magnified. And at the end, you see that everything will be beautiful. Everything will be marvelous.
And we live with that hope of that beautiful future. And we also see here that God has decreed an inheritance. In verse 11. And what is this inheritance here? The word inheritance is rightly translated as something apportioned or something properly a share. And what is the share that they obtained? They obtained an inheritance.
And there is a concept of, you know, before addressing this, I want to say that there is a concept of God possessing a people throughout the biblical narrative. God possesses a people as an inheritance. Now, for example, can someone read Deuteronomy chapter 4, verse 20?
Someone, please. Right. God has brought people out of Egypt as his own inheritance. When God redeemed his people, he redeemed them for himself, right? And in the context of redemption also we see that we are God’s portion. God redeemed us so that we can become his people, his children, his family. You know, you see that in verse 5 in Ephesians 1, He adopted us for Himself.
So He redeemed a people for Himself. He has acquired an inheritance. You know, verse 12 begins with, “to this end,” to this end which speaks of the extent or the goal of that redemption or that inheritance. The first to hope, he says, the first to hope is the Jews who believe in Christ. It was apportioned to them to be the praise of his glory. And this glory was advanced as they fulfilled their appointed task of extending the gospel to the Gentiles. So that now, since the gospel has come to the Gentiles and they believe the gospel, now both the Jews and Gentiles might be to the praise of God’s glory. And God apportions all his people to be his portion, to be his inheritance. You know, both Jews and Gentiles, they share in the same
Christ for the praise of God’s glory. And Paul celebrates the inclusion of Gentile readers in God’s cosmic reconciliation plan after they heard the message of truth, the gospel of their salvation. Verse 13. And those in Christ, this means that those in Christ are secure.
that how does god show that god owns us what is the proof that is left with us that gives us an assurance that we are owned by god no he says there in verse 13 we are sealed with the holy spirit of promise we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise in the wet ceiling mean a seal was a mark of ownership and protection God has pledged our salvation by sealing us with this Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit is the guarantee
And he loves us dearly. He will not let your mere, our mere sins to take away, take us away from him. He will deal with our sins. If we are not taking our sins seriously, he will deal with us. He will discipline us.
He will destroy our flesh. But he will not let us go. Because he loves us passionately. And for that purpose he has sent his son to lay down his life for us. Such a costly price that he has paid. Will he let us go simply? No. He will not. Lord.
If you and I are not taking our sins seriously, may I remind you that God owns us. We are His property. And every time that we are sinning, we are defiling His property. He will come with rod to discipline us. But He will not let us go.
The Holy Spirit in verse 14 is a pledge for our inheritance. It's a guarantee for our inheritance. This means that we can be fully assured that we will be safe in the hands of the triune God, in the work of the triune God. The Father purpose, the Son saved, accomplished the redemption and the Spirit applies that redemption. He secures our salvation. The Triune God is at work.
So we can be secure. We can be hopeful. And this is the hope that we have in Him. Therefore all believers of time are not saved randomly or purposelessly, but we are saved purposefully by the Triune God. We are saved in Christ. All of our Christian life is only possible by the grace of Christ. Our life should exist, therefore, for the praise of God's glory and grace.
God should be praised. Therefore, we praise God. Our entire life should be lived out of thankfulness and gratefulness to God. And Paul's main point here is this. He praises God for the work of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. There is a divine decree. The plan to unite the cosmos, the world, the entire universe in the Son. Both the families in heaven and here on earth.
He begins with the Father's work of electing. God chooses his people. He chose us for a new vocation. And what is that new vocation? That we are called to be a holy people. We are set apart for himself. And we are called to be his family. We are called to live like his children. Not like his children. We are called to be his children.
And we are called to be holy people. We are holy and set apart for him. We are part of his household. Therefore we have a new heritage and a new birthright. And this all comes through the son, the beloved. And the son's gift is redemption. We see that in verses 6 to 8. And by his blood, we receive forgiveness of our sins. The enemy is defeated. And this redemption displays that God's plan is to sum up all things in Christ.
Things in heaven and things on earth. You know, if the Father plans, the Son redeems, then the Spirit's gift is his presence as a seal. The Spirit is the down payment of the inheritance. But Jews and Gentiles have the same inheritance through the work of the Spirit. So therefore, these are the blessings in Christ. We are chosen by God.
We are predestined by God and that destination is that we are adopted as His children. And Romans chapter 8 is so beautiful, it says that, no, there is an adoption, there is a legal adoption in the work of salvation, but there is also a public adoption where He will declare His sons to the creation. There will come a time that God will grandly declare His sons, His children, and that is our destiny. And the third blessing is redemption. And the redemption, the goal of redemption, is the cosmic unity in Christ. And the fourth blessing, we are owned by God. We are possessed by God.
And we also now possess God as our Father. And all these blessings are guaranteed by the Holy Spirit who indwells the church and its people. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for these marvelous blessings. O Lord, many times we lose sight of these glorious blessings.
Forgive us for the times that we have magnified ourselves, magnified our sins. O Lord, help us understand how rich your grace is, how powerful your grace is, and help us see what your grace in Christ Jesus can accomplish, Father. And that grace in Christ Jesus is richly and freely available to us, and we are really grateful and thankful to you, Father. And we thank you, Lord, for all these blessings are available in Christ.
Our election, our adoption, our redemption, our possession. Oh Father, we thank you. And these blessings are ours in Christ Jesus. Oh God, we pray that you would open our eyes to see this marvelous blessings and be enthralled, O Father. May you work powerfully in our souls. O Lord, we thank you. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray. Amen.