6 Feb 2021
We have looked at the source and origin of eternal life: it is the triune God who took the initiative even before the creation of the world to choose a people for Himself; it is not dependent on the work and achievement of man – in fact it is purely based on the mercy, grace and love of the triune God alone who implement it and will it according to His good pleasure.
The church is not an afterthought but very central in God’s eternal plan. She is a wondrous and lovely construction that has involved the dedicated and loving effort of each Person of the Godhead. In Ephesians, we discover the identity of the church as the body of Christ, as a temple under construction by the Holy Spirit and as the family of God. We see the marvels of God’s work of grace as He takes wretched twisted sinners and then creates from this raw adulterated material a “new man” and a new humanity. It is God’s cosmic role and purposes which are being fulfilled in the world today through Christ’s body, the church, here on earth, and we the believers are integral parts of this body and purpose.
It is stunning and mind-boggling that inferior, raw and ‘useless’ material is chosen by God in His construction of the church – God took beings who were spiritually ‘dead in transgressions and sins’, deserving of nothing but God’s wrath and made ‘us alive with Christ’ and then raised us up and ‘seated us with Him in the heavenly realms’. And none of this was in response to any good work we have done but simply because He loves us. Christ’s death on the cross destroyed the old barrier of Law and commandments by making peace for all humanity with God. All that counts is Christ, for in HIm all humankind is united in “one new man”.
Ephesians calls us to look beyond ourselves as individuals, and catch God’s vision of the church as Christ’s body; as a people united in Christ, called together to those good works that glorify the One who created us; called to be together a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.
The choice taken by God is described as having taken place before the creation, and that could hardly be dependent on anything the chosen had done.The choice is also described as having taken place “in Christ”.
John Calvin, in his commentary on Ephesians wrote:
“if we are chosen in Christ, it is outside ourselves. It is not from the sight of our deserving, but because our heavenly Father has engrafted us, through the blessing of adoption, into the body of Christ. In short, the name of Christ excludes all merit, and everything which men have of themselves, for when He says that we are chosen in Christ, it follows that in ourselves we are unworthy”.
The construction of the church and the gift of eternal life which involves the transformation of wretched sinners into the holy image and character of God would cause all (including those in the spiritual and heavenly realm) to marvel and to praise and glorify God for such an ‘impossible’ and ‘unbelievable’ accomplishment, Even those who steadfastly cling to the opinion that it cannot be done would be ‘bewildered’ and taken aback and they would have to sing praises to God and declare His glory.
It is no wonder that in Ephesians one, we read ‘might be to the praise of His glory’ and the phrase ‘to the praise of His glory’ is repeated in so many ways of expression. Paul prayed for the believers may have the spirit of wisdom and revelation in order to know God better, to know the hope to which we have been called, to know the riches of His glorious inheritance in His people and to know the incomparably great power for us who believe and to finally be led to truly praise Him and glorify Him for all eternity!