TUESDAY 17th
Ephesians 1:3-10
NIV (v7-8) – ‘In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding . . .’
ESV (v7-8) – ‘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 . . .’
Today I want to start by taking the first two words that commence v7 ‘In him’. This speaks of 1) our position once we have been saved, we are positioned ‘in him’ or to use another frequently used phrase ‘in Christ’ and 2) it speaks of our provision, Christ being the one in whom or from whom we receive our spiritual blessings.
In just verses 3-14 0f Ephesians 1, we have ‘in him’ six times v4, ‘chosen in him’, v7, ‘In him we have redemption’, v10, ‘to unite all things in him’, v11, ‘In him we have received an inheritance’, v13, ‘In him, you also . . . and believed in him’. We have ‘in Christ’ three times, v3, ‘blessed us in Christ’, v9, ‘set forth in Christ’, v12 ‘the first to hope in Christ’, and then in v5 we have ‘through Jesus Christ’.
In Acts 17, Paul while speaking to the ‘Men of Athens’ says to them, ‘In him we live and move and have our being’ (v28), this is a statement that Paul uses to declare that the source of all life (and in particular humanity) is God himself, we live physically because God has granted us the life we have and the breath we breathe, this is true for every living person regardless of whether or not they believe in God! (Genesis 1:26-27, 2:7, Psalm 139:13-16) But we who are born again by the Spirit of God can also say ‘IN HIM, we live and move and have our being spiritually’ for we who once were dead in trespasses and sin have been made spiritually alive again and it is all in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.
What a position to be found in, ‘in Christ’ Paul says in Colossians 3:3 ‘For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.’ It is only in truly dying, that is to sin, to self and to the desires of the flesh that we can truly be made alive, and once made alive we are hidden with Christ in God, what a glorious position. It speaks of salvation, security, safety and of satisfaction, for in Christ there is wonderful provision, and Paul speaks of so much of this in these verses, (1:3-14) spiritual blessings which include, forgiveness, redemption, reconciliation, adoption, inheritance and so much more.
Here in our text verses, Paul continues ‘In him we have redemption’ and he makes it clear where the source for the redemption is to be found, ‘through his blood’ The shed blood is the only means of redemption, there is no other way, to be saved, to be placed in Christ and to know the provision that is found in him, all must come to the Cross, to be washed, cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, through the blood of the eternal covenant. In Acts 20:28 we read ‘Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood’. This speaks of a third point, ‘In him’ we have become his purchased possession, his treasured possession, he has purchased us with his blood, This should have an impact upon who and what we are like living in this fallen world, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, ‘Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.’ This leads to my final point of our being ‘In Christ’ or ‘In him’, we need to be careful of how we portray ourselves in the world considering his glorious grace. Being in Christ means that we no longer live for ourselves, but we should be living to bring honour and glory to his name.