Christ is Everything | Ephesians 1:3-14
Introduction
Last week, Ryan introduced us to the idea that stepping into Ephesians 1 is like stepping up to the rim of the Grand Canyon. That’s helpful. I distinctly remember my first trip to the Grand Canyon. I was in college on a choir tour throughout Arizona, and as we drove up to the rim, I remember looking around at the surrounding landscape and being fairly unimpressed. It looked like all the Arizona desert we’d seen thus far. But then we got out of the bus, headed over to the visitor’s center, and I took a sharp right to walk up to the fence that marked the rim.
At that point, the scale of the Canyon has its intended effect: awe. The feeling of standing in front of something awesome is truly the feeling of having your breath taken away. And the thing I remember most, however, wasn’t necessarily the width of the canyon. I mean, the width is incredible. But it was when I looked down into the canyon that I was thrown.
When you’re up on the rim and looking down, it feels like you’re standing on top of a cliff looking down at the canyon floor. Which in itself can have an effect on you. But then your eyes scan the floor you think you’re looking at, and then you see a crack in it, and you realize that you’re not looking at the floor of the canyon, but just another top of a new cliff that leads to an even deeper floor. Rather than seeing the bottom, you’re just looking at a step, and the bottom is even further down. The depth of the floor and the height of where I was standing just sent me into a disorienting appreciation of why they call it the Grand Canyon.
And I’m sure you’ve had some similar experience somewhere in your life. Whether it’s at the Grand Canyon, or some other National Park—like the Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier, Yosemite—or maybe you’ve been to the Alps in Europe, or stood on the White Cliffs of Dover in England, or on some beach in Hawaii, or driven Big Sur in California, or simply stood in the Great Plains of our beautiful South Dakota. Majesty is scattered throughout this world.
I would go further and say that all majesty scattered throughout this world is meant to give you a taste of the majesty and glory of our God. All of it is meant to point you not to the mountains or oceans or canyons themselves, but up to the one who created all of those things and is right now upholding all those things by the word of his power. But not just his power and his authority and his might, but to his actions towards us—his saving and redemptive actions toward you and me through the person and work of Christ.
If your response to the majestic things of this earth like the Grand Canyon is “meh”, you are wrong and need to change your response. We do not live in a world of relative meaninglessness where beauty and moral value is completely subjective and up to each individual—no, there are things in this world that merit a response from us. There are things in this world that demand our affections and our praise. And if your response to the scale of the truth outlined here in Ephesians 1 is “meh”, you are wrong and need to change your response.
Now, it is impossible to capture the grandeur, the majesty and the scale of the beauty of Christ in words, but Ephesians 1 is meant to convey that feeling of awe and wonder and praise to you. It is one thing to know that a majestic and glorious God exists, but it is a whole other thing to know that the majestic and sovereign Lord loves you and has acted toward you with his loving kindness. And that mercy and and that kindness to you is not just some abstract theological idea, but is ultimately exhibited to you in a person—Christ!
John Calvin says it well when he comments on Ephesians 1…
The lofty terms in which [Paul] extols the grace of God toward the Ephesians are intended to rouse their hearts to gratitude, to set them all on flame, to fill them even to overflowing with this disposition.
—John Calvin
Today, we are circling back to Ephesians 1:3–14. Our aim is to mine it even deeper for all that the Lord has for us in this majestic text. I think Calvin is right—we need to understand Paul’s lofty terms in order to know and experience the grace of God not only to the Ephesians, but to us as well. We want our hearts roused to gratitude, to have our affections for our savior set on flame, and to overflow with that grace to us to others.
So to that end, we go further up, and further in. It’s as if, having stood on the rim of the canyon, we are going to pick a path to walk that will deliver the most stunning views possible. And the path we are going to walk this morning is to look at the majesty of Christ our Savior—who he is and what he has done for us.
So, please rise as you are able, as I read Ephesians 1:3–14. There is much to glean from this passage, but as I read, pay close attention to where Christ is in this passage, and what he is doing.
Paul begins this letter by outlining and describing a full-orbed trinitarian theology. But it is not so systemized that we simply can organize this passage into 3 sections: Father, Son, and Spirit. While it’s true that the focus of verses 3–6a (what Ryan preached through last week) is God the Father, and the closing section highlights the work of the Holy Spirit, it is not so clean cut with the Son. This is not a play with 3 acts—you finish one and then move to the other. Christ rather is the main character of the entire play, woven throughout the entire script. I hope you recognized as I read just how present Christ is in everything. In fact, Christ is mentioned by name or by another referent (him, Beloved) no less than 15 times in this passage. He is everywhere and in everything. Christ is inescapable.
This text addresses one of the most fundamental temptations for Christians—we tend to forget what it means that we are united to Christ by faith. We are so tempted to neglect our identity in Christ. Our modern individualism encroaches and demands that I am saved, but then I can move on. Just tell me what I need to know for the test so that I can pass and move on, but not actually be transformed by it. Or, as is often seen in our society, a view of Jesus that reduces him to nothing more than a really good friend. Comments like “Jesus is my best friend”, or even more cringy, “Jesus is my boyfriend” highlights a dangerously anemic Christology.
Paul in Ephesians 1 refuses to let us hold such a view. Paul’s point is straightforward: every benefit and every blessing we experience from the Father comes to us by virtue of our union with Christ the Son. Union with Christ—all that he is and all that he has done—is central to the Christian life, not just the start of the Christian life. Understanding and embracing our union with Christ keeps the gospel the main thing. It is truly where the gospel becomes functionally central in our lives, not just the entrance prayer that keeps us out of hell. It is when the person and work of Christ becomes such great news and hope that we treasure him and trust him more and more.
Christ is central to everything. Of all the ways the Heidelberg Catechism could have begun, the first Q&A begins with this…
Q: What is your only hope in life and in death?
A: That I belong, body and soul, to my faithful savior Jesus Christ.
—Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 1
Our only hope in this world—the hope we so desperately need as we walk through life with all the sufferings and anxieties that tempt us and plague us and pull our gaze away from Christ and to the chaotic waves around us—our only hope is that we belong to Christ. All of us; body and soul. This is a big deal. This is worth meditating on. In this passage, Paul, under the inspiration of the Spirit, answers deep questions…
How do we move from children of wrath to children of God (Eph 2)?
How do we move from citizen’s of the kingdom of man and of the world to the kingdom of God?
How do we go from the outside to the inside?
How do we go from dying of thirst to drinking from the fountain of living water?
The answer we are given is simple: Christ! That’s why a simple summary of this text can be summed up in just a few words… Union with Christ is everything.
That initially seems so simple. And yet, it also fails dramatically to capture all the height and depth and majesty of the Christ revealed. It’s like trying to describe the Grand Canyon and at the end of the day, all you have is, “Well…it’s a large ravine.” Technically true—laughably inadequate. The only way to truly convey the grandeur is to experience it for yourself. And because of the inspiring work of the Spirit, we get a taste of that here in Ephesians 1.
My aim today is to declare to you that Christ is everything. He is and remains everything you have, everything you need, and everything you could want. And because of our union with him, our deepest need is met, your greatest problem is solved, and your greatest hope is secured in Christ.
I hope not only to declare that to you, but to motivate you to cherish Him for the treasure that he is. Remember Ephesians 1:3…
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…
—Ephesians 1:3
Every single blessing that we receive from God the Father comes to us through Christ. He is the means, the conduit, through whom all blessings flow to you. In these 11 verses, the phrase “in Christ” or something similar is referenced 11 times. Our relationship with Christ, our union with Christ is what this text is all about, because for Paul, all of the Christian life is about our union with Christ.
But there is a danger in over-systematizing our union with Christ. There is a danger in organizing and puzzle-piecing the person and work of Jesus into such strict logical categories that we lose the experience and hope that is laden within, which is mysterious. We can not and will not be able to fully comprehend all that it means to be united to Christ by faith—it is by nature mysterious. So much so that for Paul, the closest analogy he can think of to describe this union between us and Christ he gives at the end of his letter to the Ephesians. After giving commands to both husbands and wives, he makes this simple statement…
This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.
—Ephesians 5:32
And we are going to unpack that union by looking at 3 specific blessings that you receive because of your union with Christ—in Christ you are chosen, you are cleansed, and you are claimed.
In Christ, you are CHOSEN.
Right away, we learn that our union with Christ did not come about by our own, natural selection. Rather, God the Father elected to unite us to his Son. Look again Ephesians 1, starting at verse 3…
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.
—Ephesians 1:3–7
The first spiritual blessing that Paul highlights which comes to you from the Father is that he chose you before the foundation of the world in and through Jesus Christ. That is staggering. That is a majestic peak that just feels way too insurmountable to climb.
Whenever this topic comes up, a million questions and objections arise. How does this work? How is it fair? Are we just robots? Don’t I do anything to contribute to my salvation? Didn’t I choose God? What about free will? Why me and why not my brother or my co-worker or my neighbor? But as Ryan asked last week, those are not the questions this text answers.
Part of understanding our Bibles rightly is to work hard, by the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit (which, by the way, we only have because of our union with Christ), to understand what this text is asking and answering. And Paul is not concerned with answering all the millions of questions we might have around the concept of election and predestination. God has not revealed to us everything that we think we need to know or everything we want to know. Rather, he has revealed to us according to his infinite wisdom exactly what we need to know in order to know him rightly and love him deeply.
As Moses said to the gathered nation of Israel in Deuteronomy 29:29…
“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
—Deuteronomy 29:29
There are of course questions we have about the doctrine of election. And for finite beings looking over the immense mountain range that is our election, we are not going to get our heads around it. But there are things we can know. And what Paul emphasizes here and throughout all his letters is that your election has nothing to do with you or me, and everything to do with Christ.
Notice when it is said that we were chosen—before the foundations of the world. This moves election out of the temporal, out of the world of human merit and achievement, and into a realm only our Creator God occupies, emphasizing that this choice is based solely on God’s sovereign purposes, and not in anything of us.
Notice too, that this predestination, this choosing took place in and through Christ. We are not chosen independently or isolated from one another. We are not chosen in and through the law of Moses or in and through our perfect obedience and holiness. Far from it! We are chosen in Christ and in Christ alone.
Finally, notice the motivation and goal of God’s sovereign choice—”in love he predestined us…” It is not some cold, unfeeling choice, but an action toward you in love. And for what purpose? “That we should be holy and blameless before him…according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace.” We are not chosen because we are holy and blameless, but rather we are chosen in order to make us holy and blameless. It is he and he alone who gets all the glory!
The supreme act of your election and calling in eternity past is so that you would be, by God’s indescribable grace, conformed into the image of the one who you are chosen in—Christ. And this, my friends, this brings God deep delight.
In the midst of all our questions about election, what the Lord would have you know with all assurance that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ loves you. And he has set that love on you in Christ before he made a single thing, not so that you would get the glory for choosing God, but that he would get all the glory for saving you. Do you thank him for loving you and choosing you? Rather than a haughty arrogance, this incredible truth ought to produce deep humility that the God of the universe would choose to set his affections and love on me for no other purpose than because he wanted to, because it was his will, and because it brings him great joy and much glory.
In Christ, before all time, you were chosen and loved. But wait…there’s more.
In Christ, you are CLEANSED.
In eternity past, the Father chose you to be united to Christ. But because of our rebellion, there is an obstacle. By nature, we are not holy and blameless and can not stand before God the Father. Our sin, our unholiness separates us from the perfect and holy God.
And this checks out with our experience. All sin separates. All sin has ripple effects. All sin throws shrapnel, affecting everyone around us. When I sin against my wife, when I sin against my children, when I sin against my friends or my parents, there is a consequence—we are out of fellowship, and a chasm opens up between us. But the incredible news of the gospel is that things do not need to stay that way. How is that possible? Because in the fullness of time, God sent forth his own Son to overcome this Grand Canyon of a problem.
Paul highlights this truth in 2 Corinthians 5 when he says...
For our sake he (the Father) made him (Christ) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him (in Christ) we (you and me) might become the righteousness of God.
—2 Corinthians 5:21
The one who actually was holy and blameless, the one who had no sin, God made to be sin—and not just some abstract evil in the world, but our sin, my sin. We sin in specifics, but God in Christ saves in specifics. He took on our sin and shame so that we, by being united to him, receive his righteousness. We do not receive any righteousness on our own. We are wholly unable to be redeemed or to be forgiven for our innumerable trespasses apart from the one who takes on that sin and shame, puts it in the grave, and pays for it through his blood.
To be redeemed is to be liberated from some imprisonment or captivity. Sin has an enslaving effect. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by your own sin, frustrated that, try as you might, you can not shake this sin. No matter how hard I try, I can’t stop being anxious. No matter how hard I run, lust seems to be right on my heels. No matter how much I do, the frustrations in my day boil over into full blown anger, usually to the ones who deserve it least and who I am supposed to love the most. Sin is a tyrannical master.
But, my friends, you can change. Not by your own might or might, but in and through Christ, you are free. Paul Tripp outlines this helpfully when he says…
The gospel is not a system of self-reformation. The gospel is about a union that rescues and transforms us. There is something more than a desire for change and a commitment to self-discipline that changes us. What changes us is the power of the risen Lord Jesus Christ that now resides inside of us. Because we are united to him, we are empowered by him to do what we could never have done before.
—Paul Tripp
And don’t move past just what it cost to redeem and forgive you—what it cost for you to change. Blood was required—the precious blood of the very Son of God incarnate. His death and resurrection is the means to which the staggering blessing of redemption and forgiveness comes to you.
And it not only comes to you, but in love, it is lavished on you. Behold the generosity of our God! He does not squint at you, see that you pass on a technicality, and allow you in on probation. No, because of the cross of Christ, you are welcomed as adopted sons and daughters of the king! You are brought to the king’s table, given the king’s robes, and belong to the king’s house. What is his, is now yours, but only in and through Christ.
And this redemption is not just about you individually. In fact, your salvation is a part of a much broader and cosmic purpose of God in all of creation. In Christ, the will and plan of God is made known to us. And that plan is not only to save you, to redeem and forgive you, but to unite all things, in heaven and on earth, in him. The cross of Christ is not just the central act in your history, but the central act in all of history. Christ is not only the means by which God will unite all the disparate elements of sinful creation; he is also the center and focal point through whom and for whom this will take place. In Christ, God is making all things new.
This gospel is the center of it all. And it is the gospel that will be our song forevermore.
John witnessed a taste of this in Revelation (5)…
And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”
—Revelation 5:8–12
The perfect, spotless Lamb of God has been given and slain for us, so that when God the Father looks on us, he doesn’t see your sinful rags, for he has dealt decisively with them. Rather, when he looks at you, he sees Christ. That is the mystery and glory of the good news we love so much. It is the old old story that will be our theme glory, of the Father’s love for us in Christ.
Lastly, you are not only chosen in eternity past, redeemed in the present, but you are also claimed, and will be claimed in the future.
In Christ, you are CLAIMED.
As we keep going on this majestic path in Ephesians 1, it is easy to get lost in the grandeur and majesty. But it is also equally easy to take a wrong turn or lose your footing on the rocks and tumble off course. All this just seems so good to be true, doesn’t it? This all might sound amazing, but how do I know that it is for me? I’ve sinned in some serious ways—how do I know that I am secure? How do I know that I belong?
Again, the answer to that question does not lie within us—our own merits, our own experience. The answer is in Christ. Again, Calvin is helpful as he underlines the importance of being in Christ…
We must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value to us. Therefore, to share with us what he has received from the Father, he had to become ours and dwell within us…the Holy Spirit is the bond by which Christ effectually unites us to himself.
—John Calvin
Christ, the Son of God, became a man. And not only that, but he died and rose again in your place, and ascended into the heavenly places where he sends forth to you his Spirit, to seal and unite you to himself, and to assure you that you belong to him: you were in him in eternity past, in the present, and will be into the glorious future when faith finally becomes sight. And all of it to the praise of his glory!
We are all so prone to doubt whether or not God will continue to do what he promised to do. We are so quick to question whether my sin has disqualified me from the incredible blessings Paul outlines in Ephesians 1. Endless circumstances arise and I am so hasty to doubt God’s goodness and his wisdom and his kindness.
But look again at v. 13–14…
In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
—Ephesians 1:13–14
When God the Father saved you in Christ, you received the gift of his Spirit. And that Spirit is not detached from the work of Christ. Paul calls him the “guarantee” of your inheritance. In the ancient world, a guarantee was a down payment for services. Once the down payment was accepted, it was like a contract, and the person providing the service had to fulfill their side of the agreement. By sending his Son to die for you, and by sending you the Holy Spirit, God has committed himself to fulfill all his promises to you, and for you to receive your inheritance.
And even though the inheritance you receive certainly includes the incredible blessing of eternal life and fellowship with God, we get to taste that inheritance even now. Because our God has claimed you and me in Christ, we get to experience that grace today.
So what are we to do with all of this? You’ll notice that in this entire passage, there is not a single command, not a single imperative from Paul telling you what you must do. Rather, this passage is a doxology and hymn declaring to you all that God has done for you in Christ, and all the blessings that now come to you. And with all gifts and blessings, the only thing we can do is receive it. So my friends, no matter where you are or what you’ve done, let today be the day that you rest in and receive, by faith, Christ and all his benefits, which are given to you by such amazing grace.