Beginning his letter to the Christians of Ephesus, Paul immediately turns to one of the central themes of Christian life - the theme...
Beginning his letter to the Christians of Ephesus, Paul immediately turns to one of the central themes of Christian life - the theme of the Messiah and the people of God. Speaking of the Church and of Christians, the apostle, as we can see, proceeds from positions well known in the rabbinic tradition of that time, according to which the Messiah and the people of God were conceived by God before the creation of the world. Of course, this did not concern the fate of particular people, which God does not predetermine in advance, but the very fact of the existence of the people of God and the inevitability, with the coming of the Messiah, of the messianic Kingdom. For Paul, the history of the Church as the new people of God is inseparable from the person of the Savior Himself, and the apostle also considers this connection part of God's eternal plan (vv. 3-5).
But Paul understands something else as well: the new people of God is not simply a continuation of the former one, although historically it is connected with it just as the Church is connected with the Yahwist community and with the Synagogue. From the beginning, God conceived this new people as a community of the inhabitants of the Kingdom. But such life requires complete freedom from sin, impossible for fallen humanity. And so Jesus Himself frees those who will become part of His people. Paul speaks of this using the concept of redemption, the redemptive sacrifice, traditional in the Yahwist cultic tradition, which freed the one who had sinned from the consequences of a sin committed unintentionally, that is, under constraint or through ignorance. During the purification sacrifice, the "sin offering," the one who had sinned brought public repentance for the unintentional sin he had committed, being cleansed by the blood of the sacrifice he brought, with which the priest sprinkled him.
For Christians, however, Jesus Himself is the purifying sacrifice: by the price of His life, His "blood," He opens for His followers the path to freedom from the power of any sin, not only an unintentional one, but even one committed consciously (vv. 7-10). The analogy is obvious: in both cases God Himself cleanses the one who has sinned, joining the sinner to His life through the revelation of His presence in the world. But the measure of the fullness of this presence is different: earlier it was revealed to a person only in part; now, after Christ's coming into the world, it has been manifested in all fullness. Therefore the cleansing, previously incomplete and relative, now becomes complete and absolute, freeing the one being cleansed from sin and opening to him the path into the Kingdom.
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1:1 By the will of God - Not by any merit of my own. To the saints who are at Ephesus - And in all the adjacent places. For this epistle is not directed to the Ephesians only, but likewise to all the other churches of Asia.
1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us - God's blessing us is his bestowing all spiritual and heavenly blessings upon us. Our blessing God is the paying him our solemn and grateful acknowledgments, both on account of his own essential blessedness, and of the blessings which he bestows upon us. He is the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, as man and Mediator: he is his Father, primarily, with respect to his divine nature, as his only begotten Son; and, secondarily, with respect to his human nature, as that is personally united to the divine. With all spiritual blessings in heavenly things - With all manner of spiritual blessings, which are heavenly in their nature, original, and tendency, and shall be completed in heaven: far different from the external privileges of the Jews, and the earthly blessings they expected from the Messiah.
1:4 As he hath chosen us - Both Jews and gentiles, whom he foreknew as believing in Christ, Pe1 1:2.
1:5 Having predestinated us to the adoption of sons - Having foreordained that all who afterwards believed should enjoy the dignity of being sons of God, and joint - heirs with Christ. According to the good pleasure of his will - According to his free, fixed, unalterable purpose to confer this blessing on all those who should believe in Christ, and those only.
1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace - His glorious, free love without any desert on our part.
1:7 By whom we - Who believe. Have - From the moment we believe.Redemption - From the guilt and power of sin.Through his blood - Through what he hath done and suffered for us.According to the riches of his grace - According to the abundant overflowings of his free mercy and favour.
1:8 In all wisdom - Manifested by God in the whole scheme of our salvation. And prudence - Which be hath wrought in us, that we may know and do all his acceptable and perfect will.
1:9 Having made known to us - By his word and by his Spirit.The mystery of his will - The gracious scheme of salvation by faith, which depends on his own sovereign will alone. This was but darkly discovered under the law; is now totally hid from unbelievers; and has heights and depths which surpass all the knowledge even of true believers.
1:10 That in the dispensation of the fullness of the times - In this last administration of God's fullest grace, which took place when the time appointed was fully come. He might gather together into one in Christ - Might recapitulate, re - unite, and place in order again under Christ, their common Head. All things which are in heaven, and on earth - All angels and men, whether living or dead, in the Lord.
1:11 Through whom we - Jews. Also have obtained an inheritance - The glorious inheritance of the heavenly Canaan, to which, when believers, we were predestinated according to the purpose of him that worketh all things after the counsel of his own will - The unalterable decree, "He that believeth shall be delivered;" which will is not an arbitrary will, but flowing from the rectitude of his nature, else, what security would there be that it would be his will to keep his word even with the elect?
1:12 That we - Jews. Who first believed - Before the gentiles.So did some of them in every place. Here is another branch of the true gospel predestination: he that believes is not only elected to salvation, (if he endures to the end,) but is fore - appointed of God to walk inholiness, to the praise of his glory.
1:13 In whom ye - Gentiles. Likewise believed, after ye had heard the gospel - Which God made the means of your salvation; in whom after ye had believed - Probably some time after their first believing.Ye were sealed by that Holy Spirit of promise - Holy both in his nature and in his operations, and promised to all the children of God.The sealing seems to imply,
1:14 Who, thus sealing us, is an earnest - Both a pledge and a foretaste of our inheritance. Till the redemption of the purchased possession - Till the church, which he has purchased with his own blood, shall be fully delivered from all sin and sorrow, and advanced to everlasting glory. To the praise of his glory - Of his glorious wisdom, power, and mercy.