“In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence” (Ephesians 1:7-8).
In Ephesians 1:3-6, the Apostle Paul focuses our attention on God’s everlasting love, which is manifest in our adoption into his family as children, by grace through the work of Jesus Christ, something we didn’t earn or deserve. The apostle wants every believer to understand that before the foundation of the world, God chose all those who trust in Jesus Christ to be redeemed by Christ. In other words, if you’re trusting in Jesus Christ alone for the salvation of your body and soul, then God set his love upon you long before you trusted in Jesus Christ and long before Jesus even came into this world. God’s love was set on you before He created the universe. There has never been a time when your name was not on the heart of God as one of his beloved in Christ. He has loved you in Christ from eternity. And realizing this should cause your heart to swell with praise to God and it ought to humble you to the depths of your being. You see, the doctrine of predestination doesn’t promote pride, but rather praise and humility when we understand that God, by grace alone, predestined undeserving sinners like you and me to be in union with him through his Son, Jesus Christ. And so, when we come to Ephesians 1:7-8, we notice three things about the grace of God: 1. It’s costly, 2. It’s forgiving, and 3. It’s free. Costly grace: God redeemed us through the blood of his Son. Forgiving grace: God has forgiven all our trespasses. Free grace: God has done this in accordance with the good pleasure and purpose of his will. And understanding God’s grace will change the way you worship and serve the true and living God.
The first thing we learn from our text is that God’s grace is costly. “In Him we have redemption through His blood.” The Apostle Paul is drawing our attention to the Father who has redeemed us by the blood of his Son. The picture of redemption is one of purchasing someone out of slavery into freedom, which people would have understood in Paul’s day. There were slaves that could be purchased out of their slavery and brought into freedom. But there’s a greater picture of this in Old Testament. It’s the picture of God coming to his people Israel, who had been in slavery to Egypt for 430 years. And God in his mercy and grace redeems them out of slavery and bondage into freedom. And Israel being redeemed out of Egypt is a picture of God redeeming us out of our slavery to Satan and sin and bringing us into freedom in Christ. The Apostle Paul is saying that if you’re trusting in Jesus Christ for your redemption, then you need to understand that God has bought you with a price. He is the one who has bought you out of the slavery and bondage to Satan and sin and brought you into His marvelous light. He is the one who has paid the price, and what is the price of redemption? Notice how he says it, “In Him we have redemption.” The words “In Him” take us back to vs. 6, which is “in the Beloved.” In other words, it’s the Beloved Son of God, Jesus Christ, in whom we have redemption. The Father’s only begotten, beloved Son is the one by whom he has paid the price. Christ is the price that the Father has paid in order to redeem us out of the slavery and bondage to Satan and sin and bring us into fullness of freedom from sin’s guilt, power, condemnation, penalty, and one day, from sin’s presence.
According to Scripture, salvation has three aspects: we have been saved, we are being saved, and we shall be saved. Past: we have been saved from the penalty of sin–justification (Eph. 2:5). Present: we are being saved from the power of sin–sanctification (2 Cor. 2:15). Future: we shall be saved from the presence of sin–glorification (Rom. 8:23). And it’s the beloved Son by whom we have redemption. The Apostle Paul is drawing our attention to the costliness of this gift. For us to be redeemed, for us to enjoy communion with God, for us to enjoy everlasting life, for us to “dwell in the house of the Lord forever–the only way this could happen was through the shedding of the blood of God’s own beloved Son. Christ is the “indescribable gift” (2 Cor. 9:15) that the Father gave for the redemption of those whom he has elected unto salvation. Therefore, Christian, don’t ever doubt the greatness and the depth of God’s love for his people. He has given his Son, the greatest gift that could ever be given, for “a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Rev. 7:9-10). All the riches of this world rolled up together cannot equal the value of God’s only begotten Son. “In Him we have redemption through His blood” (Eph. 1:17).
And there is a principle here for us: since we have received such a costly love, God calls us as those redeemed to give a costly love. As God has extended to us a costly grace, he calls us to show a costly grace to others. Maybe you’re in a relationship right now that has been broken. It may be with a family member, a friend, or a fellow member of the church you attend, and there’s a lot of hurt because someone has been wronged. Bitterness is in your heart, and the bitterness continues to feed the broken relationship. Beloved, the only thing that will ever repair the relationship is if somebody steps out with costly love. And you can only do this if you realize that greater costly love and grace has been given to you that frees you from your bitterness and enables you to give the same kind of costly love and grace to others. The Apostle Paul is saying remember the costly grace of God in Jesus Christ. We have been purchased out of slavery by Christ and brought into union with the Father through the Son. We have been redeemed by his blood. Therefore, give the same love and grace to others.
Secondly, our text says that we have forgiveness of our sins. The Apostle Paul is reminding us that this costly grace of God has given us the gift of forgiveness of sins–and not just sin, in general. Paul often uses a word for sin which means missing the mark, which means our obedience and behavior has not measured up to the standard of God’s holy will. But in our text, Paul uses another word: trespasses. We have received forgiveness of our trespasses, and it’s a word very similar to the word transgressions, which indicates crossing the boundaries of God’s commands either by omission or commission. We have not done what God commands, and we have done things which God commands us not to do. And the Apostle Paul is reminding us of God’s forgiving grace, the forgiveness of our sins. Though we have broken God’s law, God in Jesus Christ has forgiven us. Now, all our righteous indignation wells up when we see someone breaking God’s commandments. But our Lord Jesus Christ said to us 2,000 years ago, “Take the log out of your own eye before you attempt to take the speck out of your brother’s.” All of us have transgressed the law of God (Rom. 3:23). All of us stand before the searching judgment of God, and that’s why this word is so precious: that we have the forgiveness of sins.
Hell is eternity in the presence of God, and heaven is eternity in the presence of God. The difference is in heaven we have a Mediator. You see the point. To be in the presence of God eternally without forgiveness of sins, without a Mediato–that’s hell. But to be in eternity in the presence of God with forgiveness of sins, with a Mediator–that’s heaven. To have a Mediator who bore our sins so that they are fully forgiven, in order that we might have communion with God and with all those who trust in him, that’s heaven! But to be before the throne of God without forgiveness, without the mercy of the Mediator, will be to receive the sentence of hell forever!
What about you? Do you know the forgiveness of God that’s found only in Jesus Christ? You need to know for sure that God has forgiven you all your sins because of Christ. Because life without forgiveness here and hereafter is the just judgment and condemnation of God against unforgiven sin. And that sin can only be dealt with in Jesus Christ, and that’s why it is only by trusting him as the Mediator that we find and experience the full and free forgiveness of sins.
The last thing we read in our text is found at the end of vs. 7 and the beginning of vs. 8. Paul says, “…according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us.” In other words, redemption and forgiveness is according to the riches of God’s grace, “which He made to abound toward us.” He’s not only drawing our attention to costly grace and forgiving grace, but Paul is calling our attention to God’s free grace. Redemption has been given to us through God’s rich and abounding grace. You know, one of the things that I find repeatedly amongst Christians, even the most mature, is that when God has brought home to them a sense of the greatness of their sin, it is sometimes difficult for them to believe that such wicked sins can really be fully and finally satisfied. Because when we realize how ugly sin is and how it has offended our loving Father and painfully affected our loved ones, sin becomes so near and so great to us that it becomes very difficult to believe that it’s fully and freely forgiven. But in our text, the Lord God is saying that his abounding grace of forgiveness is far more abounding than our sin.
We sing “Marvelous Grace of our loving Lord” many times during corporate worship. Do you mean it? Have you seen your sin? Have you been able to say, “I’m worse than I appear to be! I’m worse than I ever thought myself to be, but God’s grace exceeds all my sin and my guilt?” As the hymn declares, “Grace, grace, God’s grace, grace that is greater than all my sin.” You see, that’s what the Apostle Paul is saying. When you come into the throne room of the heavenly Father, and you come to worship and adore him, don’t forget to praise him for his costly grace, his forgiving grace, and his free, abounding, generous grace, which he has given to us in his Son. It’s a grace that’s greater than all our sin. Beloved, we’ve been redeemed by God’s grace, which he made abound toward us because of the redemption we have in Christ. And that’s life transforming because people who realize they have been redeemed not because they deserve it, not because of something that they have done, but because of God’s free and rich grace, they become tender-hearted, loving, merciful, and gracious people. Let us testify to the greatness of our God’s grace, not simply in our words, but in the quality of mercy that comes from our lives in reaching out to others. And we do this by remembering the words of our text, “In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace!”
Pastor Scott Henry
Hope Reformed Church
Sutton, NE