The epistle to the Ephesians is a wondrous treasury of certainties. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places [or in the heavenlies] in Christ.” There is no effort here or attainment of our own. It is all of God, who hath thus blessed us. This is, true of all the holy ones at Ephesus, and of all the faithful in Christ Jesus. Do you really believe that this is true of you? that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has thus, blest you? that in Christ you are forever blest? We may not know it, we may not enjoy this rich sovereign grace; but it is true. It is of God, and what is of God cannot fail—cannot cease or change, for He changeth not.
“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” This is very strong consolation, that God, as God, hath thus blest us in Christ according to His eternal purpose. It is not as we have chosen Him, but according as He hath chosen us; and that not after we believed, but before the foundation of the world. Geologists may talk about a. few millions of years of this world’s history as seen in the crust of the earth; but long before anything they know about (for it is little they know about that eternity in which God created the heavens and the earth), before the foundations of the earth, however far back in eternity that may be, oh think, holy believer, thou wast chosen in Christ.
And what was God’s purpose in this choice? “That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” He said, as it were, I see that family of fallen Adam, dead in trespasses and sins, children of wrath; but I will have them before me in Christ, holy and unblameable in love. And He hath thus blest us. This is one of the certainties before God in Christ.
Still more so as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, “having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will”—not only before Him as God, but to Himself as children, in all the affection of eternal love to Himself. He would have a family so near Himself—nearer than any created beings, however mighty in power and wisdom. Yes, the Father predestined a family nearer to Himself than angelic hosts. Such is His eternal love to us.
“To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved,” or “brought us into favor in the beloved.” Yes. He hath done it. It is all of His free favor, that He hath brought us into favor in the beloved. Nothing can go beyond this, in the same unchanging, unclouded favor as the beloved Son. Let us not read this as a something to be reached, to be attained by experience, for the Father hath brought us into this favor. Boundless, unchanging favor! Well may we, with the Spirit, say, “To the praise of the glory of his grace.”
But what of our sins, and the wrath justly due to us? Has God really made a provision according to His own righteous demands, so that we may with certainty know that all is settled, and every barrier removed, so that we really are in this boundless favor? Yes, all is of God, all in Christ. “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.” Yes, fearful as have been our sins, overwhelming the sense of sin and guilt, enemies by wicked works, children, of wrath as others, dead in trespasses and sins, utterly guilty, subject to the righteous judgment of a holy God—all true and all known to God. Yet in the riches of His grace He has abounded over all. How has He abounded in free favor to sinners so guilty, so vile? “In whom,” in Christ, “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.”
Mark it is in Christ, not in ourselves or anything we have done, or can do. It is in whom we have redemption through His blood. Through His infinite atonement we have eternal redemption and forgiveness of sins according to the value of that precious blood in the sight of God. Sins are all forgiven; we are brought to God. Jesus took our place and guilt on the cross, and we are now in Him, in His place in the glory. And God ever must own the righteous claims of Christ for us there. Let us not forget that God provided the Lamb, the ransom Lamb. In that Lamb God has abounded in grace to us over all our sins, and we have this wondrous redemption with all its eternal results.
But you say, I cannot feel all this? It is not what we feel, but what God says. Does not God say all this? Is not this the word of God our Father to us His children? Do you say, “I cannot believe in such free, unmerited favor to me. I am afraid it cannot be true to me?” Take care what you say. We read, when, this short parenthesis of time is passed and eternity rolls on again: “But the fearful and unbelieving.... shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” (Rev. 21:88But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (Revelation 21:8).) In that same eternity, when the first heaven and the first earth were passed away, “I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” Do you believe God? Then every word we have read to you is a divine certainty to your soul. Are you fearful and unbelieving? Then here is the end of your journey across time. In either case the certainty is the same, based on the word of God. We may deceive ourselves. God will not deceive us. Do you say, “I have never deserved such blessings, such certainties as we read in Eph. 1. “What have I done to merit, or to attain to such certainties?” What had the poor heathens at Ephesus done to merit these amazing blessings? or, indeed, what had the religious Jews done who murdered the Son of God? Oh, it was “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins..... For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.” Yes, it is what God has done, not what we have done. Even works are all of God. “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” God hath not ordained works now by which we may be saved, but He hath ordained works for those who are saved, that we should walk in them.
Perhaps you say, “I should like to know how these Ephesians were brought into these wondrous blessings?” You will notice that all these high blessings are in Christ. Now read: “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.” (Chap. 1:13.) Have you heard the gospel, the glad tidings of your salvation, free forgiveness of sins through the atoning death of Christ; of justification from all things in Him risen from the dead: of full and eternal salvation from the guilt and power of sin? Have you believed these glad tidings; not assenting to them as general truths, but as God speaking to you, your very salvation? Now, if you have believed them, after believing ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Yes, sealing follows believing. If you through grace have believed God, then God hath sealed you as His, until the redemption of the purchased possession. Then all is yours: let us look over your certainties.
It is a present thing. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ hath blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ. All is yours that the God of all grace gives you. He hath chosen you in Him before the foundation of the world, that you should be holy and without blame before Him in love. He hath brought you to Himself as a child, having predestined you unto this very place of unspeakable blessing. He hath brought you into favor in the beloved—into the same unclouded favor as His beloved Son. Is not this to the praise of the., glory of His grace? You have redemption in Him through His blood—not a temporal redemption, like Israel from, Egypt, but eternal. The forgiveness of sins is not merely the forgiveness of past sins, great as is that blessing—so vast is the riches of His grace, so truly infinite the value of the redemption price, the blood of Jesus—so really were all our sins reckoned to Him on the cross, that God will not, cannot in righteousness, impute sin to us. The whole question of sin, and sins, and guilt is settled forever. And you have this blessedness on the certainty of the word of God. Mark, “in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace.” It is all of God, and we have it.
If you hope to have it, then plainly you have not got it. As I said to an old man of eighty just now, “If you hope for a hat to cover your head in the cold, then you have not got it. If it is on your head you cannot hope for it.” Blessed be God, His righteousness is not only unto all, but upon all that believe. Thank God for the certainties of His word. C. S.