Columbia Presbyterian Church, Columbia SC

Paul begins Ephesians 1 with a breathless paean of praise, as if the glory of God and the gospel has burst the banks. Paul answers the great fears that haunt the heart: Does God really love the Christian? Has God really forgiven every sin? Does life really matter? The text does not answer with a thin comfort or a little religious optimism. God opens the floodgates of heaven and blesses his people with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.

God loves the Christian with an endless, everlasting love. Paul roots that love before the foundation of the world, before time and space and matter, before everything that ever had a beginning. God chose his people in Christ, not because of goodness in them, but because of goodness in him. God has always looked at the Christian through “Christ colored spectacles.” He thinks of Christ and thinks of his people. He thinks of his people and thinks of Christ. God never began to love the Christian, and so God can never stop loving the Christian.

God has forgiven the Christian with limitless grace. Paul calls that forgiveness redemption, the language of the slave market, where a kinsman redeemer pays the price to set the captive free. Christ paid that price through his blood. Sin matters, and God cannot leave evil unanswered. The scale must be finished. Either the sinner must die for sin, or God must provide another. God gave his own Son, and Christ descended under the fury that sin deserved. The Christian is the wonky shopping cart, veering right and left, unable to stay straight in God’s commandments. But God did not throw the sinner away. God threw his Son into hell that he might gather sinners into heaven.

God measures forgiveness not by sorrow, not by promises to do better, not by the sinner’s strength, but by the riches of his grace. The frightened child building a sandcastle in the Sahara has sand as far as the eye can see, but God’s grace is vaster still. Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds.

God also plans life with boundless wisdom. Paul says God is summing up all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth. Every drop of history runs into that ocean. Every bright thread and every dark thread belongs to the tapestry. The Christian sees the underside, tangled and confusing, but God sees the upper side, and Christ will make the pattern plain.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. God never began loving Christians. God’s love is not a reaction to later improvement, later repentance, or later usefulness. Paul places that love before the foundation of the world, inside the eternal counsel of the unchanging God. The Christian’s security rests on a love that has no starting point, and therefore no ending point. [60:33]
• 2. Christ bled because sin matters. Forgiveness is not God pretending evil did not happen. The holy God cannot leave the scale unfinished or let sin hang unanswered in the universe. Redemption came through blood because Christ took responsibility for debts that were not his own. [66:07]
• 3. Grace is measured by God. God does not forgive according to the sinner’s emotional intensity, moral resolve, or ability to repair the damage. Paul says forgiveness comes according to the riches of grace, which means the measure is found in God’s own heart. The Sahara image makes the point: the anxious soul keeps staring at a little sandcastle, while grace stretches farther than sight can reach. [72:30]
• 4. Providence includes dark threads. God’s plan does not merely include pleasant days, visible victories, and clean-looking chapters. Joseph’s betrayal, slavery, prison, and delay all served a good design that only later became plain. The underside may look like a tangled mess, but the Weaver sees the upper side and works steadily. [80:07]
• 5. Jesus receives the coming sinner. Election is not meant to make the lost stare into heaven’s hidden book. Christ directs the sinner to himself and promises that the one who comes will not be cast out. The doorway is not speculation, but coming to Jesus, the sinner’s friend, for rest.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [43:52] - Greeting and Prayer
• [45:50] - Three Fears of the Heart
• [50:12] - Paul’s Breathless Praise
• [52:39] - Every Spiritual Blessing in Christ
• [55:42] - Chosen Before the Foundation
• [58:28] - Predestined to Adoption
• [60:33] - Christ Colored Spectacles
• [65:18] - Redemption Through His Blood
• [69:51] - The Wonky Cart of Trespass
• [72:30] - Grace Like the Sahara
• [74:43] - God’s Boundless Wisdom
• [77:08] - Joseph and God’s Good Purpose
• [80:07] - The Tapestry of Providence
• [81:56] - Come to Jesus for Rest

Bible Reading

Ephesians 1:3-11
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as 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 for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,” [51:19]

Romans 5:20
“Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,”

John 6:37
“All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” [01:22:14]

Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” [01:22:48]

Observation questions

1. In Ephesians 1:3-11, what repeated phrases show where God’s blessings are found and how often Paul ties them directly to Christ? [55:34]
2. What specific blessings does Paul name in this passage besides forgiveness? Look for words like “chose,” “predestined,” “adoption,” “inheritance,” and “works all things.” [51:32]
3. According to Ephesians 1:7, what is the price of redemption, and what two results are named in that verse? [01:05:18]
4. In Ephesians 1:10-11, what words show that God’s plan is bigger than one person’s story and includes all of history? [01:16:02]

Interpretation questions

1. If God chose his people in Christ before the foundation of the world, what does that say about the source of his love? How does that challenge the idea that God’s love is mainly a reaction to a person’s improvement or usefulness? [01:00:33]
2. Ephesians 1:7 says forgiveness comes through Christ’s blood and according to the riches of God’s grace. Why is it important that forgiveness is both costly and free? What goes wrong if either part is removed? [01:06:17]
3. Paul says God is summing up all things in Christ and works all things according to the counsel of his will. How should that shape the way a Christian thinks about painful chapters, delays, and confusing events that do not yet seem meaningful? [01:20:07]
4. Jesus says that whoever comes to him he will never cast out. How does that help a person who is troubled by questions about whether he or she may come to Christ at all? [01:22:14]

Application questions

1. Which of the three fears feels most familiar right now: “Does God really love me?”, “Has God really forgiven me?”, or “Does my life really matter?” What tends to stir that fear up in daily life? [45:50]
2. God’s love for his people did not begin when they started doing better. Where is there a temptation to measure God’s love by recent performance, mood, or usefulness? What would it look like this week to answer that fear with Ephesians 1? [59:24]
3. Forgiveness is measured by the riches of God’s grace, not by the intensity of sorrow or the strength of future promises. When guilt returns, what false measures are most tempting to trust? How can the heart be trained to look instead at Christ’s blood and God’s grace? [01:12:15]
4. The image of the wonky shopping cart describes how easily a sinner veers right and left. Where has that veering shown up recently—in speech, thought, habits, or relationships? How does it help to remember that God does not throw away those who are in Christ? [01:10:01]
5. God’s providence includes dark threads as well as bright ones. Is there a hard part of life right now that feels like a tangled underside? Without forcing easy answers, what would it mean to entrust that thread to the Weaver? [01:21:01]
6. Jesus receives the one who comes to him. For someone burdened by shame, weariness, or a long history of sin, what would coming to Jesus look like in plain, practical terms this week? [01:22:48]
7. If all things are being summed up in Christ, how might ordinary work, parenting, suffering, waiting, or repentance matter more than they appear to matter? Where would it help to remember that no faithful part of life is wasted? [01:14:43]