Ephesians 1 Part 5 (4-17-05)

Ephesians 1 Part 5
(Bible Study Time 4-17-05)

Ephesians, Chapter 1, is a chapter which enumerates one blessing after another, and these are blessings which the faithful in Christ Jesus were all predestined to enjoy in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have already seen that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame in the sight of God. We were predestined to become sons of God because of the complete and total redemption that is ours through the blood of Jesus Christ.

All of this has been provided for us according to the riches of God’s grace, which Paul says has abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. God’s plan for man’s redemption was not a plan which God just put together on the spur of the moment.

God put this plan of redemption together before the foundation of the world with much forethought and after diligently considering all of the various ramifications of the plan. God would not simply forgive sin without the penalty for sin being paid. This would lower His own standard of righteousness. Romans 3 says that we are:

Rom 3:24-26 (NKJ)
24 . . . justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, (Why?) to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

God would not simply forgive sin and neither would He just stand by and watch as all human beings suffer the devastating consequences of sin. To do that would be inconsistent with the character of His great love. God’s plan took this into account, as we read in Ephesians 2:

Eph 2:4-5 (NKJ)
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,
5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

If God had allowed all humans to be destroyed in hell because of sin, Satan and his fallen angels would have gained a great victory. God would never allow that to happen. According to Ephesians 3, God’s plan for redemption was meticulously analyzed and formulated with:

Eph 3:10 (NKJ)
10 . . . the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places,

This plan had to be thorough and exact in order to accomplish all of the various purposes which God had in mind, but at the same time it had to be simple for man to understand it. Man’s intellectual and emotional capabilities are so limited that God had to keep it simple. By nature, man is limited by the futility of his mind, the darkness of his understanding, and the ignorance that is in him. Furthermore, man is in no condition to respond to God emotionally because his lewd and greedy behavior has rendered him past feeling. John 3:16 says:

John 3:16 (KJV)
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

What could be more simple? God, in His wisdom and prudence, made the plan of salvation so simple that even a small child could receive it, and yet at the same time, it met every single requirement of God’s overall plan and purpose.

Some people see the simplicity of God’s plan of salvation, and they reject it because it seems too simple. They say, "How could simple faith counterbalance all of my sin or all of the sin of others? How could the Son of God be born of a virgin? Why would God require the shedding of blood?" Paul addressed this very issue in I Corinthians, Chapter 1, where it says:

1 Cor 1:18-21 (NKJ)
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
19 For it is written: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."
20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

Another reason that people reject the gospel is that Satan has put a veil over their eyes. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4:

2 Cor 4:3-4 (NKJ)
3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,
4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

In the previous chapter, Paul had been comparing the glory of the Old Covenant to the greater glory of the New Covenant. He said that the Old Covenant was so glorious that Moses had to put a veil over his face because his face was shining so brightly. This symbolized that the Old Covenant Jews were separated from the glory of the Old Covenant by their sin. Paul went on the say that the veil is taken away in the New Covenant by the shed blood of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit living within the believer.

Then he said that if the gospel is hidden or veiled today, it is hidden only to those who are perishing, because Satan, as the god of this world, has blinded their eyes. Oh how much Satan hates God’s plan of salvation. God has devised a wonderfully simple plan to remedy a very complex problem, and Satan works effectively in those who are perishing to obscure the simple truth of the gospel.

But in Ephesians 1, Paul says that God’s plan for the redemption of mankind was a plan that revealed the riches of God’s grace and that the revelation of this plan only now shows God’s wisdom and prudence. Verse 9 says:

Eph 1:9 (NKJ)
9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,

We are the ones who have been predestined to be the "Sons of God," and it gives God pleasure to reveal the details of His plan to us. God has chosen to fully reveal His will to His Sons, and it gives Him great pleasure to be able to do so in an open forum such as the Bible. In the past God could not openly reveal the details of His will. Paul says in 1 Corinthians, Chapter 2:

1 Cor 2:7-8 (NKJ)
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,
8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Obviously, for God to accomplish His plan, God could not fully reveal the details of His plan in an open forum such as the Old Testament scriptures. Accordingly, the rulers of this world did not know about God’s plan concerning the cross because this mystery was hidden in the scriptures.

David spoke of one whose hands and feet were pierced and for whose clothing they cast lots. He also spoke of the Holy One whose body would never see corruption. Isaiah spoke of one who would be wounded for our transgressions. Daniel spoke of the time when the Messiah would be cut off.

Even so, the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day had no explanation for these verses, and they had no idea that the death of the Lord Jesus was part of the perfect plan of God to provide redemption for mankind. If they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Mysteries such as this were hidden in the Old Testament scriptures, and one could only understand them by direct revelation from the Holy Spirit. Paul continues in I Corinthians 2:

1 Cor 2:9-10 (NKJ)
9 . . . "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."
10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.

1 Cor 2:12 (NKJ)
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

1 Cor 2:14 (NKJ)
14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

However, in Ephesians 1, Paul says that according to God’s wisdom and prudence, He has chosen to make known to His sons the mystery of His will. Now this is not a mystery which is hidden in the Old Testament scriptures such as the death of the Messiah. This is a mystery which was never even hinted at in the Old Testament scriptures. Let’s read verse 10:

Eph 1:10 (NKJ)
10 that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth - in Him.

The mystery revealed in Ephesians is a mystery concerning the dispensation of the fullness of the times. In Galatians 4, Paul said that God sent forth His Son when the fulness of the time was come, and that meant that God sent His Son at just the right time. But here in Ephesians, we are dealing with the dispensation of the fullness of the times.

A dispensation is literally an economy or an administration. It is a program which has been set forth. According to Jamison, Fawcett and Brown, the fullness of the times is an expression which literally means, "the moment which fills up or completes the appointed seasons." Therefore, the mystery here in Ephesians 1 is the mystery concerning the program which brings to completion the many different programs in God’s plan and purpose. It is a dispensation which brings to completion all of the appointed seasons of God, so to speak.

God has had many different programs since the time of the creation. We can see the dispensation of innocence in the Garden, before sin. There was the dispensation of human government which was given after the flood. The dispensation of promise began with God’s promise to Abraham, and the dispensation of Old Covenant Law was given through Moses at Mt. Sinai. The Lord Jesus shed His blood to bring in the dispensation of the New Covenant which was to be the foundation of the dispensation of the kingdom.

However, when the nation of Israel rejected Jesus Christ as her Messiah, God revealed to us this great mystery concerning the dispensation which is the culmination of all dispensations. It is the dispensation of the fulness of times in which all things in heaven and earth are brought together in Christ.

Today, we are in the very beginning stages of this dispensation. Paul put it this way in Colossians, Chapter 1:

Col 1:18-22 (NKJ)
18 (Jesus Christ) is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. (Notice that Christ already has the preeminence over all things.)
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,
20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. (God is already in the process of gathering all things together in Christ through the blood of His cross.)
21 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled
22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight–

We who believe today are just the beginning of the process which will ultimately bring all things together in Christ, whether in heaven or on earth, and God has chosen according to His good pleasure to openly reveal to His Sons this mystery of His will.

Well, I see our time is gone this morning. Thank you again for listening, and be sure to tune in again next week at this same time for Bible Study Time.

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