Good Things about the God of Grace

This is an advance look at the pre-edited version of a passage in The Everyday Bible Study series on Ephesians and Colossians, which (needless perhaps to say) is forthcoming later in 2025.

Ephesians 1:1-10

1          Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

         To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:

2        Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3        Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴ For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption to sonship  through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. ⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace ⁸ that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, ⁹ he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, ¹⁰ to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.

         Paul has so many good things to say about God that he can’t help writing up a sentence in which one word after another tumble out of his mouth. What tumbles out are both God’s acts (italics) and supporting words (underlined) about God’s acts, which are all done out of God’s gracious love (bold). We learn in this passage that God, well before creation, loved us and, because of that love, directed his grace toward humans. Grace expresses love. Love is first. So, please read the passage pausing over each term marked in italics, underline, and bold. “The overarching message of this passage is God’s blessing of salvation, enacted in Christ and sealed with the Holy Spirit” (Cohick, Proclamation, 10 [this is pre-publication, too!). No passage in the Bible more densely narrates the story of God and our place in God’s story.

         To be sure, Paul opens the letter as he does other letters: naming himself and his calling (“apostle”) and his audience. A friend, A.J. Swoboda, a pastor and professor, mentioned in an email a fresh approach to understanding what Paul meant by apostle of Christ Jesus. Swoboda explained that “he had to say that at the beginning of his letters to remind himself of who he was. When you spend your life and ministry being beaten up, you have to have an internal sense of clarity as to the person you are—and the calling God has given to you. Many pastors need to be reminded of their calling. And in so doing, they can put up with the people throwing darts their way” (Swoboda, email, 6 August 2024). This surely resonates with the Paul I have come to love and know. He knew who and whose he was, and that gave him the courage to face whatever came his way.

Not one word in today’s central passage (vv. 3-10) describes what we need to do in order to experience this blessing. We wait for verse twelve for that, and at that point Paul says that we are those who “put our hope in Christ.” One verse later he adds believing to hope. Knowing what’s ahead permits us to detect an echo of this faith-based hope in verse one’s “the faithful in Christ Jesus.”

Paul’s first word, translated in the NIV with “Praise” comes from the Greek word eulogētos, from which we get our word eulogy. Lynn Cohick, in fact, calls this section a “eulogy” (Cohick, Ephesians, 83). The term means “to say good words,” and that’s exactly what Paul does in today’s (and tomorrow’s) reading. Though we use the term eulogy mostly about someone who has recently died, we can learn a lesson from Paul here – we can eulogize God, and others (living or in the hands of God), for their character, attributes, gifts, and actions. Actually, Paul learned this way of eulogizing God in his scriptures and synagogue (cf. 1 Kings 8:15, 56; Psalm 72:18-19; Luke 1:68-79). At the heart of Paul’s good words about God are (1) God’s redemptive work (2) in Christ (3) for all people. “Too often the majority culture church in America has treated itself as the center of God’s purposes,” but the witness of Paul’s gospel of grace is the elevation of all people into the people of God (McCaulley, “Ephesians,” 417). All of this occurs in Christ, so we can claim that to the degree we are not united with all others in Christ, to that degree we are not truly living “in” Christ. We may well discover we have one foot outside that in-Christ circle.

One of the privileges of my career is traveling to speak, and no place has been more enjoyable than Denmark. A few times I have spoken at their Sommer Oase event in Odder, not too far south from Aarhus. Kris and I are not up on the latest Christian songs so we were in for a real treat when the first evening at Oase a local worship team led us in worship, singing a song with the words “hosanna” and “in the highest.” It was magical, it drew us into the worship, we were lifted into the heavenlies. We knew enough German (yes) to see what the probable Danish words were. But, as we have all learned, good music takes good words to a higher level. We did not know they were singing an Australian song called “Hosanna in the Highest,” which everyone around us seemed to know in both Danish and English. Wherever they learned that song, we knew the Danes knew what it meant to join Paul in saying good things about God.

         Before we get started I call your attention to an oddity about this letter. Some of the earliest and most reliable manuscripts of this letter do not have “in Ephesus.” If the original did not have “in Ephesus,” it was because the letter, perhaps written from Ephesus, was intended to be sent to several churches. Thus, it would have been a circular letter. We cannot know for sure, but the unusual (for Paul) absence of personal details in the letter supports a circular letter.

God Loves with Grace

         The first foot in God’s love for humans is the gift called grace, but grace has been misunderstood because it has been removed from its world and located into another world. John Barclay has corrected the situation for better understanding what Paul means by grace. I begin with his six dimensions of grace, each of which, or some of which, come into play when Paul uses terms connected to the idea of grace. First, God’s grace is superabundant and magnificent and overflowing; second, God’s acts in grace toward us are prior to anything we say or do; third, God always acts in grace; fourth, God’s grace is effective in what it is designed to do; fifth, God’s grace is distributed without consideration of our worth or merit; and, sixth, God’s grace can be non-reciprocal, which means God can show grace even when we refuse to respond. Of course, grace is also inherently reciprocal, that is, God gives and we become agents of giving ourselves (Barclay, “Gift Perspective,” 221-223).  Barclay makes it clear that not only do we need to give our attention to the dimensions of grace, but we also need to become alert to the pervasive idea of gift or grace in everything Paul writes. The fifth dimension, which expresses the incongruity of God’s grace and our worth or merit, forms the heart of Paul’s understanding of grace. Through and through, God’s lavish grace to sinners is the platform on which Paul forms his message. It is why John Newton wrote his universally loved hymn, “Amazing Grace,” and his story – from a reckless, impulsive youth, to a hideous level of participation in slavery as a slave trader, to one who comprehended his sin, to a much-loved pastor, and to a passionate fighter against slavery – illustrates very well the priority, superabundance, incongruity, and reciprocity of God’s grace (see Hindmarsh, Borlase, Amazing Grace).

         God’s gracious love provides for us the forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 1:7). Notice, especially, that is “in love” that we are adopted in Christ, and this all (and more) results in “the praise of his glorious grace” (1:4-6). Love is the energy in God that first prompts God’s grace. But here is where we must begin: God first loves God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and God’s gracious love for us comes to us in Christ (1:6). I like how the First Nations Version translates “Christ”: with “The Chosen One.” The Hebrew and Greek terms behind “Christ” speak of someone being chosen and anointed for a special task. McCaulley intensifies that idea: In Christ is a “physical and existential reality” because the existential is about faith and the physical about baptism and community fellowship. To be “in Christ” describes our union with Christ, our participation in the life of Christ, our relationship to Christ, as well as our embodied life and our relationship to all others in Christ. So, we turn to the dimensions of grace we experience in Christ.

Sidebar: Grace Words in Ephesians

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (1:2).

… to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace (1:6-7).

… made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved (2:5).

… in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God … (2:7-8).

Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you (3:2).

I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ (3:7-8).

But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it (4:7).

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen (4:29).

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you (4:32).

Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love (6:24).

End sidebar

God Blesses in Christ

         We begin by blessing God along with Paul because God “has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (1:3). The NIV opens verse three with “Praise,” which is the adjective but same basic word as is found in both “blessed” and “blessing.” Which is why I prefer the translation “Blessed is the God and Father… who blessed us with every Spirit-prompted blessing” (Second Testament). God’s blessing of us in Christ through the Spirit prompts us to bless God right back. The Greek word here is eu (good) + logos (word), which suggests speaking good words about God because he has done good things for us – in Christ! Even more, God’s blessing does something in us, to us, and for us.

God’s blessing occurs “in the heavenly realms,” which is one of the favored expressions in Ephesians (1:3, 20-21; 2:6; 3:10; 6:12; cf. 4:9-10). This is Paul’s parallel world/universe, where God and angels, both good and bad, dwell. What occurs there occurs here, so the heavenly realm does not suggest something we get in eternity but something occurring there as it is occurring here. The “every spiritual blessing” indicates the expansiveness, and the superabundance of God’s loving grace. God gives us all we want and more than we even know we want. In Christ, God welcomes us into the divine family, grants forgiveness, empowers us to participate meaningfully in God’s family, and brings us into a unity with all God is doing in all creation.

God Redeems in Christ

         God’s love for us prompts God to act for us in grace. The blessings of verse three are named in the verses that follow: God chooses us to be “holy and blameless” in God’s own view of us; God predestines us to become, like Israel, God’s family members (“family-placement” in Second Testament);[1] God gives us grace “freely” outside of our own worth and merit (don’t we know it!); and God redeems us, or liberates us from the sin-prison, by the blood of Christ, which forgives us of our sins. Salvation words bleed from Paul’s pen onto the parchment and he has a hard time not blotting! And these are but a sampling of the richness of Paul’s salvation terms. The idea of election, which is very much in harmony with God’s election of Israel (covenant and release from captivity, or Genesis 12 and Exodus 11-12), but even more predestination, which is not so common, can be troubling. Some emphasize God’s selection of some to be saved, and therefore of others not to be saved, while others – correctly – emphasize that election occurs in Christ, the Elect One. Mark Roberts wisely writes that these themes “do not serve as an invitation to debate but to worship” (Roberts, Ephesians, 26). He adds that the expression “in accordance with his pleasure and will” leads to this thought: “To put it simply, God chose us because that's what he decided to do, and doing so gave him pleasure. The more we consider God's delight in us, the more we will be drawn to worship” (26).

         Redemption is from something into something else. We can reverse the “into” words to reveal the “from” ideas. We are chosen into “holy and blameless” from common, profane, and blameworthy conditions. We move into being predestined from (or out of) being those who otherwise would never experience God’s grace. We move into God’s family from being outside God’s family. McCaulley observes that Paul’s concerns are not “with what the Ephesians brought to the family” but what God makes of them in God’s family (McCaulley, “Ephesians,” 416). We move into God’s freely given grace in spite of our unworthiness from being those worthy only of God’s non-grace, God’s judgment. We move into a state of forgiveness from a state of remaining in our sin and death. Barclay’s term “incongruity” gets it exactly right. In Paul’s cultural context status and honor mattered. In Paul’s theology of grace neither status nor honor mattered. Correct that, both status and honor were flipped upside down so that those without status or honor before God, regardless of their status and honor in society, are given the highest of statuses and honors: “in the heavenly realms” (1:3).

         All of this is in Christ. All because God loves us. All because God’s love moves to us in grace. This grace is what forms unity among all believers.

God Unifies in Christ

         God’s design is to summon all humans and all creation and all the universe – heaven and earth – together. We call this unity but Paul’s term was bigger than that. We can translate his term with “recapitulating” or “to be absolutely complete” or “summing up all the plans God has for all creation.” Paul’s idea of God’s loving and gracious salvation in Christ reveals God’s “wisdom and understanding,” that is, God’s secret plan in Christ (“mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ”) to bring both Jews and gentiles into one body (2:11-22; 3:6). As Claire Powell writes, “Christianity is not a religion in which the highest mysteries or blessings are reserved for a few. All believers, young and old, male and female, Jew and Gentile, are blessed with every spiritual blessing that heaven affords, and this has been in the mind of God from all eternity” (Powell, “Ephesians,” 697).

From the moment of creation on God’s plan was to summon all things back together into a consummate unity. Sin divides; redemption unifies. Racism is sin; celebrating race in mutual affirmation is grace. Divisions emerge from people thinking they are superior; unity is formed when we realize we are equal. The Christian’s responsibility in the here and now is to live for and strive for that unity. Final redemption will be the unification of all things. When we reduce God’s redemption to our personal salvation and promise of going to heaven we substitute ourselves for Christ as the center of all creation. God’s loving grace redeems all things. Individualism works against unity; God-centeredness forms unity. Someday all creation will be under the umbrella of God’s loving grace.

Final note

         Ephesians 1:3-14 is one sentence of more than two hundred words. I have broken it up into two readings to keep our first reflection shorter. Anyway, 1:3-10 is already more expansive and superabundant than we can take in, so we will have to finish the fuller passage in our next reading.

John Barclay, “The Gift Perspective on Paul,” in S. McKnight, B.J. Oropeza, editors, Perspectives on Paul: Five Views (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2020), 219-236.

Bruce Hindmarsh, Craig Borlase, Amazing Grace: The Life of John Newton and the Amazing Story Behind His Song (Nashville: W/Thomas Nelson, 2023), a brief introduction to the book can be found at:

https://scotmcknight.substack.com/p/biographies-are-not-all-the-same

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[1] The NIV at Ephesians 1:5 has “adoption to sonship,” which in a note is clarified as the legal term for an “adopted male heir in Roman culture.” Claire Powell, however, calls out a problem with the translation: “the rights and privileges normally accorded to adopted sons in those days are likened to the closeness of relationship God is willing to bestow on all who follow him. Therefore it is much clearer to use children in modern culture. The privileged relationship of the beloved child to a committed parent is in mind” (Powell, “Ephesians,” 697). The Greek term is huiothesia, a combination of “son” and “placing/placement.” A simple translation is “adoption,” which the NIV has and which would have been adequate. The addition of “adoption to sonship” connects the term both to the Roman practice of adoption, to Israel as God’s “son,” and to inheritance rights for sons. Yet, Paul is not privileging men. See E. Heim, “Adoption,” Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, ed. S. McKnight, L. Cohick, N.J. Gupta; 2^nd edition (Downers Grove: IVP, 2023), 11-15.