^{“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.”}

Last week we embarked on a study in Ephesians 1, which so clearly and powerfully shows us how God as a Trinity works out our salvation.

God the Father planned and predestined his redeemed for adoption as sons! What a grand and glorious truth that is! And his plan entailed sending his Son, Jesus to carry out the work of redemption.

In our section today from Ephesians 1:7-12, we are going to see precious truths about how Jesus the Son of God accomplished the Master plan of salvation. There are so many marvelous things to see here, and so my prayer is that God will open our hearts and minds to see the beauty and majesty of Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace…”

In order to understand who verse 7 is referring to, we need to read the verse before:

“to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”

The “Beloved” referred to here is Jesus Christ. We know this because from the very outset of his ministry, God the Father says about him,

“This is my Beloved Son with whom I am well pleased…”

Jesus is Beloved of his Father! John 3:35 says,

“The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in His hands.”

This makes the Redemption which Jesus provides all the more marvelous because of HOW that Redemption is accomplished!

In verse 7 of our passage, it says that in the Beloved Son of God “we have redemption through His blood!” What a staggering statement.

The Greek word for “Redemption” occurs more frequently in Ephesians than in any other book of the New Testament. The word is “apolytrosis,” and it was originally used to describe the buying back of a slave and making him free by the paying of a ransom. It referred to the freeing of prisoners of war, or slaves, or criminals condemned to death.

And so, this verse is especially potent coming from the Apostle Paul the former Pharisee. As you will remember the Jews in John 8:33 tell Jesus they have never been enslaved to anyone! See, they couldn’t perceive their own desperately enslaved condition. And Jesus answers them saying,

“Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin…”

Therefore, Paul’s statement in vs. 7 is also an implicit acknowledgement of his need of redemption! Did you see that? To say that he “HAS REDEMPTION” means that at one time he was enslaved and then was purchased out of that slavery!

There is a very important application here for us: No one can obtain the redemption provided in Christ unless they are shown and see their desperate need of it! Unless they have come to the end of themselves and see that they are utterly undone and are held captive by sin.

Unless a person perceives that they are not a good person. That they are really actually on death row, that their sin is infinitely heinous against the HOLY GOD, and that there is absolutely NOTHING they can do to save themselves, they will not ever seek the Redeemer.

Indeed, they will reject Him, because the very concept of a “Redeemer” insults their pride!– “I don’t need a Redeemer! How dare you imply I’m not a good person and that my sins deserve judgment and hell!”

Nevertheless, for all who, by God’s Grace, come to see that they have a great need for Christ, they find that there is a great Christ for their need, for “In HIM we have redemption through his blood!” This is an extraordinary statement! God the Father planned and predestined this Redemption or purchasing of sinners from their slavery to sin, and their captivity on death row, and God the Son came down and ACCOMPLISHED IT!

Only Jesus Christ has the resource necessary to make such a ransom! Galatians 4:4-5 says,

“But when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

And our text tells us what the price of this redemption was – It was the very blood of the Son of God!

But why was this the price?

In Leviticus 17:11 it is written,

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.”

The reason why, is because the wages of sin is death. Hebrews 9:14-15 tells us,

“how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.”

So, there is a “legal” transaction which occurred at the cross (Penal Substitutionary Atonement (exp.)), but this is MORE than just a legal transaction. Christ is redeeming something which is PRECIOUS to him, and precious to the Father. We KNOW that his redeemed are precious to him because he shed his own blood for the price of OUR redemption! Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends!

IN LOVE we were predestined for adoption, as we learned last week. In order to grasp this just a little bit I had to think about something terrible: God forbid, If my son was somehow taken and enslaved, I would give everything I had to set him free. I would search to the ends of the earth to find my son.

There would be no expense withheld. I would never rest until he was rescued. If that meant I would have to take his place, I would absolutely do it in a split second! If it meant that I would have to die, I would die for my boy, because my love for him is as deep as it can go as his daddy.

But even the highest height of human love pales in comparison with the love that the Lord has for His children. John 15:9 says,

“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you.”

Christ loves with a Divine love. Indeed, the same inter-Trinitarian love that Christ experienced, is lavished upon us! And even when we were at our worst – even as rebels against God. Romans 5:8 says,

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” 

The bloody death of Jesus on the Cross was the price of our redemption. Don’t ever forget it. It is the only way for us to obtain the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace.

 COULD WE WITH INK THE OCEAN FILL, AND WERE THE SKIES OF PARCHMENT MADE, WERE EVERY STALK ON EARTH A QUILL, AND EVERY MAN A SCRIBE BY TRADE, TO WRITE THE LOVE OF GOD ABOVE WOULD DRAIN THE OCEAN DRY. NOR COULD THE SCROLL CONTAIN THE WHOLE THOUGH STRETCHED FROM SKY TO SKY! O LOVE OF GOD HOW RICH AND PURE! HOW MEASURELESS AND STRONG! IT SHALL FOREVER MORE ENDURE THE SAINTS AND ANGELS SONG!

The Redemption of sinners was NOT accomplished reluctantly by Jesus, he says, “no one takes my life from me, but I lay it down of my own accord.” He tells the leper in Matthew 8, “I am willing, be clean.” And friends, he tells us something which should answer this question for all time, his very purpose in coming down from heaven was this:

“The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost!” –Luke 19:10

This is all according to the riches of his GRACE!!! It is not because we are naturally lovable but because HE is lovely! And in Christ the Father sees us as lovely as well! How fabulous is that!? In love he predestined us, and in the riches of his grace he redeems us! Look at the next verses in Ephesians 1:7-8:

^“In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight”

He LAVISHED his Grace on us!

Once again, we see His heart. This word means that he gave it in super-abundance. It is the same word used in John 6 when Jesus feeds the five thousand men with 5 loaves and 2 fish, and then he tells his disciples to gather what remained, and they had 12 whole baskets of bread left over – it was a super-abundance of bread.

In that miracle, the bread and fish were lavished on all the people. Not only did they have what they needed and were all satisfied, but they were given even MORE than what they needed. That is the picture here of the grace of Christ toward his redeemed!

Something greater than all the gold of Fort Knox is poured upon us! He lavishes his grace on us! Oh Christian, is that your experience? Perhaps you do not always feel it because of your circumstances, but that doesn’t make it any less true! Oh, that we would have eyes and a heart to acknowledge the super-abundant grace of Christ on us despite our circumstances!

The verse says that he lavished this grace upon us “in all wisdom and insight.” This means two things: 1) The wisdom of God’s Grace is the Cross. First Corinthians 1:23-25 says,

“but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

Christ and his work on the Cross is the marvelous display of the wisdom of God in the salvation of sinners. NO ONE could have imagined that this would be the means whereby God would save the world.

The Gospel is not a human invention or a human message! Indeed, human beings have been trying to discount it and discredit it to their own folly from the beginning.

But 2) The wisdom of God is displayed in WHO he saves! It is NO ACCIDENT that you are here today dear Christian. God made an infinitely WISE choice in choosing to redeem you! “BUT!” you say, “Who am I!? I am a failure a lot of the time. And you’re saying God was wise in choosing me? Sometimes I question that!” Yes friend! God does not make mistakes. (Read Story of Edward Kimball Chain Of Events).

And so, in Wisdom and Insight he chose us to reveal himself to!

Paul goes on saying,

“He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth…”

The Gospel is a mystery to the world. It is a mystery to those who are perishing because they see no value in it. They cannot comprehend how the death of a person 2000 years ago has any effect on people either then or now.

In another sense, the Gospel was mysterious even to the prophets who came before, for they could not fully understand or see who Christ would be. And it is a mystery in even another way, for even the angels themselves desire to grasp it all!

But this mystery has been made known to us! What a privilege we have! The Apostle Peter writes in his first epistle in 1Peter 1:10-12,

“Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.”

So, the mystery of the Gospel has been revealed to us by God’s grace, and a part of the overflowing lavished Grace of Christ is the “uniting of all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.” Now, this does not mean universalism, that all people are eventually saved, because the Bible categorically rejects that assertion.

But what it does mean is this, that the riches of God’s grace extend beyond the primary recipients of it (the Redeemed) to the very Creation itself. Romans 8:19-21 says,

“The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but because of the One who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time.”

But it shall not be so forever! Because of what Jesus Christ has accomplished death itself will be destroyed! The Second Law of Thermodynamics, or the Law of Increasing Entropy will be broken forever! Heaven and Earth will be renewed! And all creation will sing the praises of our Great God and Savior!

Paul finishes this section by writing in verses 11 and 12,

“In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will,  to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory.”

You see, the Redemption that Jesus Christ purchased for us included adoption into God’s family, and if we are sons and daughters, then we are heirs!

We have an eternal inheritance that cannot perish, spoil nor fade, kept in Heaven for us! That is God’s will for the believer. And everything in our lives as Christians works according to the counsel of his will for us.

And all of this is to the praise of his glory! So, that when we are there on the Mountain of the Lord at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, the following would be true of us:

Isaiah 25:6-9,  

“On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples

a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,

of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

And he will swallow up on this mountain

the covering that is cast over all peoples,

the veil that is spread over all nations.

He will swallow up death forever;

and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,

and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,

for the Lord has spoken.

It will be said on that day,

“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.

This is the Lord; we have waited for him;

let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

AMEN.