God’s Will (Ephesians 1)
Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will (Ephesians 1:5).
When I was a child I used to go to the Hull Fair every October. It was there I saw for the first time a pomegranate. This fruit always seems to be about to burst, as it is packed so tightly with its seeds. I am reminded how much the Holy Spirit fills the pages of the Bible with the blessings of God. This is certainly true in the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, where we discover the manifold blessings of the will of God.
We often think of the will of God in terms of God’s authority and power. But in the first chapter of Ephesians Paul brings before us the glory of God’s will in terms of all the blessings His love and grace have determined. It was His will to bless us in the most astonishing ways. Paul was chosen as an apostle by the will of God and he lived in the reality of God’s grace in his life, and the peace it had brought to his heart. God acted in grace towards us, producing peace in our hearts. It was this he wanted the saints at Ephesus, and us, to constantly experience (v. 2). He also wanted them to understand the immense spiritual blessings they had been brought into. These blessings are centred in Christ in glory. They are to be enjoyed now and we shall ultimately enjoy them in all their fulness in a future day. Paul explains how the will of God purposed us for blessing before the world began (v. 4) and how we have been accepted in the Beloved, that is, in Christ (vv. 5-6). God sees us through Christ and always acts towards us in the light of our position in our Saviour. Because of our failures we can confuse our spiritual state with our spiritual standing. God is never confused. He sees us in Christ. That doesn’t mean He ignores our frailties, but addresses them in grace.
Towards the end of his life Paul describes himself as the chief of sinners. He never ceased to wonder at the fact that he was redeemed and forgiven (v. 7). God used him to teach us how we can be so far away from God, but by His love, His will and His grace we can be brought into all the nearness of sonship.
It is as God’s children that we are made to understand the mystery of His will (v. 9) and the counsel of His will (v. 11). His purposes in Christ are unfolded to us and direct our lives. The Lord Jesus promised in John 10 that there would be one flock and one Shepherd. In verses 12 and 13 Paul states it was the Jews who first trusted in Christ and then Gentiles, like the Ephesians, also trusted. They were sealed with the Holy Spirit and formed into the Church. In Acts 20 Paul reminds the Ephesian elders to “take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28). He speaks of this purchased possession in verse 14.
Then he turns to God with thankfulness and joy for the work of God in the lives of the Ephesian Christians, and he prays for their spiritual blessing (v. 16 ff.). It is a prayer that teaches us so much about spiritual growth and the power to live in the enjoyment of the blessings God has showered upon us.
