In the Introduction, the book of Ephesians has been noted to be “the most profound of them all” in comparison to all the epistles written by Apostle Paul. The epistle was John Calvinʼs favourite epistle and many readers have been brought to faith and stirred to good works by its message.
In the concluding remarks, it is in order to pause and consider afresh what is so special about the message in this epistle. Ephesians gives us a vision of a renewed human community and society created by God and this in turn gives a strong and steady stimulus to evangelisation and to the manifestation and display of the glory of God, not only in this earthly realm but also in the heavenly realm.
In Adam, we were members of a fallen race, under the bondage of Satan, under the negative influence of the world, under the bondage of our indwelling sin and the flesh, condemned to eternal perdition and destruction.
However, the God who created us is the God who sought us with an everlasting love and has drawn us to Himself with loving kindness. Even before the creation of the world, He has determined to ʻcreateʼ a people of His own by choosing us in His Son, to bring us back to the ʻfoldʼ and to form a new society and humanity in His Son. Perhaps, we can say that the most important issue in the doctrine of creation is not the origin of all things but their destiny, the goal and meaning of creaturely existence. We are created out of Godʼs love, for Godʼs loving purpose; the meaning of human existence, indeed of the existence of all things, lies hidden in the heart of the Creator until Godʼs loving heart is revealed in Jesus Christ. The secret purpose of creation has been unmasked in the incarnation of God.
God defines power in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The power of God is revealed in Christ as the irresistible force of Godʼs self-surrender, the strength, the almightiness of Godʼs self-emptying and other-centred love. To understand Godʼs love, we need to understand the fierce, burning power of that love against sin, evil and death; the wrath of God is nothing less than the burning passion of God turned against all those things which threaten to destroy Godʼs good creation. The God we worship then assumed the shape of our suffering humanity in order to deliver us from the darkness and danger that threaten to consume us. Jesus Christ, God incarnate, took on Himself our humanity and became sin for us. Christ, who is Himself without sin, identified so completely with us in our sin, in our alienation from God, put Himself in our place so utterly and profoundly that He was made sin for us, and now when God looks at us, God no longer sees us but Christ in our place. Jesus Christ is both the complete substitution and the full representative for humanity; He became what we are so that we might become what He is. Everything God intended for us to be was accomplished and is now given to us as Godʼs gift by faith in Jesus Christ. Indeed, “for by grace we are saved through faith” and those who believe are united with Christ, placed in Him, adopted as Godʼs children into His family, to be part of this new society and humanity ʻrecreatedʼ by God. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ came into the world and lived the divine life of unreserved love, and now He shares with us this same life through the same Spirit. The call to discipleship, the call to follow Christ, is the call to enjoy the life and love of Jesus Christ in our human reliance upon God the Father through the power of the Holy Spirit; this culminates in the perfect society and humanity in the new heaven and new earth when Jesus shall present Godʼs new people and society to the Father, and God shall be all in all.
Indeed, He has made us His heritage and appointed us to live for the praise of His glory, and that one day, in the fullness of time, He will finally and completely redeem His people who are His possession, to the praise of His glory!