Ephesians: All Things in Christ - Week 1

And it is good to be with you all this morning as we began this new series on the book of Ephesians that we're calling all things in Christ.

Now, we just spent nine weeks walking through the book of Philippians, and interestingly enough, these two letters share quite a bit in common when uh when it comes to a historical context.

And we'll talk about that here in just a moment.

But I have to tell you, Ephesians, again, is one of my favorite books of the New Testament because it is incredibly rich in both doctrine and application.

It's incredibly rich in doctrine and application.

There is so much for us to learn about who God is and what he has done for us in Christ and how we, as his people, ought to live in response to those, to those truths.

And I think we're going to get a great deal out of this book if we slow down and take it line by line and squeeze as much truth out of the text as we possibly can.

Which, if you've been here for the past few months, you probably already know that that is exactly what we intend to do.

But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's stand together for the reading of the word.

Ephesians chapter 1, verses 1 through 6 is our text for today.

Ephesians 1:1–6

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

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

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ Jesus with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be blameless, holy and blameless before him.

In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the opportunity you gave us to come together as your people, to gather and listen to your word, to learn what you have said concerning us and concerning your will.

Lord, we are so humble that you have revealed yourself to us through your scripture that we may be saved.

Lord, I pray that through the preaching of your word, your name will be glorified and exalted, and that we may take everything that we hear today to heart and that we can just apply it to our lives and that we can live in light of it.

We pray all these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Okay, let me talk to you a little bit about the historical background of the letter, which, as I said, it shares a lot with the book of Philippians, but I want to give you that background.

Now, the letter of Ephesians identifies the apostle Paul as the author and is traditionally understood to have been written during his imprisonment in Rome, somewhere between AD 60 and AD 62.

And that makes Ephesians one of what we call the prison epistles, right?

Along with Philippians, Colossians, Colossians, and Philemon.

And if that sounds familiar, it should because we just finished studying Philippians, which was written during the same general period in Paul's ministry.

Now, Ephesus was located in what is modern day Turkey.

If you go look at the map, you can still find if you just type Ephesus and Google Map, it will take you to the ancient city of Ephesus along the western coast of Asia Minor.

And in the first century, Ephesus was a really big deal.

It was one of the most important cities in the Roman province of Asia, and it was the center of commerce, trade, politics, and religion.

People from all over the Roman world passed through Ephesus, and it was a place where cultures collided, where ideas were exchanged, and where all sorts of religious beliefs and practices existed alongside one another.

But perhaps what Ephesus was most famous for was the Temple of Artemis, also known by her Roman name, Diana.

This temple was considered to be one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

So it was it was huge.

It was beautiful, and it was very, very, very famous.

And as you can imagine, that made Ephesus a very popular destination.

People traveled there to worship, to conduct business, to participate in religious and cultural life.

And that's what made popular Ephesus such a destination.

Now, that also made Ephesus a wonderful location to spread the gospel.

Think about it.

At a place like that, it can potentially spread far beyond the city itself.

But at the same time, it made Ephesus incredibly hostile for the church.

Because Christianity wasn't just another religion option to add to the collection, the gospel proclaimed that Jesus Christ is Lord, not Artemis, not Caesar, not any of the countless gods they worship through the Roman world.

Jesus Christ alone was Lord.

And as you can imagine, that message wasn't well received.

In fact, if you go back and read Acts chapter 19, which, if you're a note taker, this is probably a spot for you to put a little note in there.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

Read Acts chapter 19, you will find that the spread of Christianity on Ephesus caused quite a commotion.

Acts 19 · chapter mention

People were abandoning their magical practices, turning away from false worship, and coming to faith in Christ.

And eventually the gospel began affecting even the local economy, particularly those who were making a living, producing silver shrines to Artemis, and ultimately leading to a riot.

So when we think about the church in Ephesus, we need to understand that these were believers living in a culture that was not particularly friendly to their church.

They were persona non grata, right?

So we live in a world filled with competing ideas about truth, identity, morality, and what it means to live a good life.

That's today, surprisingly, unsurprisingly, the proclamation that Christ is Lord is still hostile, maybe even more hostile today.

And just like the believers in Ephesus, we are called to remain faithful to Christ in the middle of it all.

Now, as far as the church itself is concerned, we encounter Paul's ministry in Ephesus, actually starting back in chapter 18 of Acts.

There we meet Priscilla and Aquila, a faithful husband and wife team who worked alongside Paul and played a very important part in the early Christian ministry there.

Paul would then later return to Ephesus and spend an extended amount of time there preaching and teaching and discipling believers.

And you can read about that in Acts chapter 20.

Acts 20 · chapter mention

And there, Paul reminds the Ephesians elders that for three years he had not ceased admonishing them night and day with tears.

Think about that for a moment.

This weren't strangers to Paul.

This wasn't something that Paul kind of heard through the grapevine, and he thought, maybe I should write a letter to these people.

Or I heard about this and they should probably send some correction.

He had spent years investing in these people, teaching them the word of God, warning them against false teaching, and helping establish the church.

And then later, Timothy would also serve in Ephesus, having been instructed by Paul to remain there and confront false teachers.

So this is what this was a church with a remarkable history of faithful teaching and pastoral care.

If you start just like diving through it line by line, going back to Acts, reading about it, you start seeing the traces of a remarkable history of faithful teaching and pastoral care.

And now Paul writes this letter and he's going to remind believers of the extraordinary riches that they possess in Jesus Christ.

One interesting detail here is worth mentioning is that some of the earliest manuscripts for the book of Ephesians don't actually say Ephesus in verse 1.

Because of that, many scholars have actually led to believe that this was a letter that was supposed to be circulated among the many churches located in Ephesus rather than being written exclusively to the congregation.

And that would explain why Ephesians, Ephesians reads a little bit different than Philippians.

If you remember Philippians, I have mentioned that Paul was very loving, he was very intentional about how he addressed the church in Philippi.

And he is not so much with Ephesians, but he is kind of casting a wider net and he's concerned with the identity of God's people, the unity of the church, the riches of salvation, and how Christians ought to live in light of what God, Christ has accomplished.

And that brings us to an important question: why Ephesians?

Why dive into the book of Ephesians now?

Well, when I first became the pastor of Watkins, I had three books of the Bible in mind that I wanted us to work through.

Not because these are the only books that we need, obviously not, but because I believe they would help us establish an important foundation as a church.

We began with the book of Titus, and there we learn about what a healthy, faithful church ought to look like.

We talked about sound doctrine, godly leadership, discipleship, and the importance of living lives that adorn the gospel we proclaim.

And then we moved into Philippians, and there we learn about Christian joy, humility, contentment, sacrificial love, and what it means to live a life that where Christ is the center of everything.

To live is Christ and to die is gain.

And now we come to the book of Ephesians.

And my hope is that through this letter we can develop an even deeper understanding of what God has done for us in Christ and how those truths ought to shape the way we live every single day.

Because Ephesians is wonderfully structured for that very purpose.

The letter can be divided in two major sections.

In chapter 1 through 3, it deals primarily with doctrine.

We're learning a lot about what God says he is, who God says he is and what he has done for us.

Paul explains the glorious realities of our salvation.

He talks about grace, redemption, reconciliation, the unity of the church, and the eternal purposes of God.

And then we shift into chapter four through six, where he focuses primarily on Christian living.

Paul begins to explain how these truths should affect our relationships, our conduct, our marriage, our families, our work, and even how we stand firm against spiritual opposition.

You might call these two sections doctrine and duty.

Doctrine and duty.

And church, that order is incredibly important because Christianity is not fundamentally about what we must do to earn God's favor, it's about what God has already done for sinners through Jesus Christ and how our lives are transformed in response to his grace.

Paul doesn't begin telling us to be better people.

He begins by telling us what God has done.

And only after establishing those truths, so then he begins to give us instructions about how we ought to live.

That's the pattern of the gospel.

Grace comes first, and obedience follows.

Some may even confront our assumptions or assumptions, assumptions that we have carried through years.

I can tell you that when I first studied this book, it changed so much of what I believed.

When I was able to examine it line by line, it challenged me deeply.

And that's what I desire for you guys.

Now there's quite a little bit, quite a bit more of historical context and background that we could cover, but rather than spending an entire morning in the introduction, I prepare a little context sheet for you guys that you can find on your way out there on that table.

You just grab it, you can stick it in your Bible there, and uh and you can have some of the background on the book of Ephesians that will be helpful for you through this series.

I encourage you to take one of those home and use it as a resource on your personal Bible study.

All right, now, with all that in mind, I want to ask you a question.

If I were to ask you this morning to introduce yourself to someone you've never met before, what would you say?

My wife over there is smiling.

She knows why.

Think about that for a moment.

Most of us would probably start with our names, then maybe we'll talk about what we do for a living.

We might mention where we're from or how long we lived in that area or whether we're married or how many children we have or what we enjoy doing in our spare time.

Or if you're my wife, you ask all those things all at once at any given moment.

Yeah, she does that.

She's super friendly.

And there's nothing wrong with any of those things.

Those are all perfectly normal ways to introduce yourself.

But I wonder how many of us, when asked who we are, would begin with what God says about us.

Because here's the thing: so much of the way that we understand ourselves is tied to the circumstances of our lives.

For some people, their identity is wrapped up in their career.

I'm a pastor, I'm an engineer, I work in John Deere Tractors.

I'm not, we're not all as cool as Joe.

But for others, it's their family, their accomplishment, accomplishments, their reputations, even their failures.

And sometimes, whether we realize it or not, we allow those things to define us.

But as we open the book of Ephesians this morning, Paul is going to remind us of something incredibly important.

For the Christian, our most fundamental identity is not found in what we do, what we've accomplished, where we come from, or even what we've done wrong.

Our identity is found in Jesus Christ.

And before we can properly understand how we're supposed to live as Christians, we need to understand who we are in Christ.

And that's exactly where Paul begins.

In this opening six verses, we're going to set three wonderful truths about the Christian life.

So here's the structure.

Point number one, the first truth is that in Christ we have a new identity.

In Christ, we have a new identity.

Number two, in Christ, we possess every spiritual blessing.

In Christ, we possess every spiritual blessing.

And number three, in Christ, we are chosen and adopted by grace.

We are chosen and adopted by grace.

And all three of these truths point us back to the same glorious reality.

Our salvation is the work of God.

Our salvation is the work of God and is accomplished through Christ for the praise of his glory.

For the praise of his glory.

So let's begin with our first point this morning.

In Christ, we have a new identity.

In Christ, we have a new identity.

Ephesians 1, 1 through 2.

Look at verses 1 with me.

Paul opens his letter with these words.

He says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

Now I know it's tempting to read through the opening reading of a New Testament letter like this rather quickly.

And after all, it's just Paul telling them who he is and who he is writing to, right?

But I want us to slow down here.

Because even in these opening words, Paul is already introducing some of the major themes that we will run through in this entire letter.

The first thing that I want you to notice is how Paul identifies himself.

He says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.

Notice that Paul doesn't start by talking about his accomplishments, his education, or even his years in ministry.

He identifies himself according to the calling that God has placed on his life.

He's an apostle of Jesus Christ.

And not because one day he decided that he wanted to be, uh wanted to make a career change.

No, Paul says that he's an apostle by the will, by the will of God.

His calling, his authority, and his ministry were not things he invented for himself.

They were given to him by God.

And that's going to be a recurring theme through the opening of this chapter.

God is the one who acts, God is the one who calls, God is the one who saves.

And everything Paul is about to tell us flows from that wonderful truth.

Paul says that Paul says here that he's an apostle by the will of God, and he's placing all authority over his life in the hands of God.

He's placing all authority that he may have over his life in the hands of God.

And we're talking about, we're not talking about the road that he chose or what message he delivered at church.

We're talking about everything about Paul and his identity.

And I think there's something important for us to understand here, church, because Paul knew exactly who he was before he knew, because he knew who he was.

Paul knew exactly who he was because he knew whose he was.

He was an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.

By the will of God.

Now, obviously, you and I are not apostles, not in the same way that Paul was, but the principle still applies to us.

Our identity as Christians is not something we establish for ourselves, it's something that we receive through Jesus Christ.

It's something we receive through Jesus Christ.

And notice how Paul immediately takes that same idea and applies it to the people that he's writing to.

If you look at the second half of verse one, he says, To the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus.

Now, Paul calls these believers saints.

And when we hear that word, we might think of someone who has lived an extraordinary holy life, someone who has somehow reached a level of spirituality that the rest of us only dream of.

But that's not what Paul means here.

The word saints comes from the Greek word hagios, which means holy or set apart.

Paul is address isn't addressing a special group of elite Christians, he's addressing ordinary believers who have been set apart for God through Jesus Christ.

And that's true for every believer.

If you are in Christ, you are among God's saints.

Not because you lived a perfect life, not because you belong to a per not don't belong to a certain group, but because you belong to a perfect savior.

Because you belong to a perfect savior.

You are a saint, not because you lived a perfect and holy life, but because you belong to a perfect and holy savior.

Now that doesn't mean that we're free to live however we please.

In fact, Paul is going to spend a considerable portion of his letter explaining how God's people ought to live.

But notice the order we don't live holy lives in order to become God's people.

We pursue holiness because we already belong to him.

We pursue holiness because we already belong to him.

And there's one more thing I want you to notice in verse 1 before we move on.

Paul says these believers are in Ephesus, but they are also in Christ Jesus.

You see, Ephesus was just where they lived, but Christ was where they are where they identity, their identity was found.

They lived in Ephesus, they belong to Christ.

And the same is true for us.

We live in Marysville, Ohio.

We have jobs, families, responsibilities, and all sorts of things that make up our daily lives, but none of those things ultimately define who we are.

Our careers change, our circumstances change, our health can change, even the roles that we play in our family can change, but our identity in Christ remains.

It never changes.

And I wonder how often we forget that.

I wonder how often we forget that.

Paul wants these believers to understand that the most important thing about them isn't that they live in Ephesus, it's that they belong to Christ.

And then in verse 2, Paul writes, Grace to you and peace from God our Father, the Lord, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a familiar greeting from Paul, but these aren't empty words.

We've been talking about this for a while.

Everything is intentional in this word.

Every word in here is profitable.

Don't just gloss over it because it's an introduction or a greeting.

Grace is the undeserved favor of God, and peace is what we receive through being reconciled to Him.

And notice the order grace comes first and then peace.

Because without great, be without the grace of God, we could never have peace with God.

And that is a terrifying thing.

But through Christ, we have peace with the creator of the universe who can snap his fingers and destroy you.

And we have peace with him.

So in just two verses, Paul has already reminded us that we belong to Christ, that we've been set apart as God's people, and that we are recipients of his grace and peace.

And he hasn't given us a single command yet.

He's simply reminding us who we are because of what God has done.

And that brings us to our second point this morning.

Look at verse 3.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Now, Paul here, before he tells the church what they ought to do for God, he begins by praising God and what he has done for them in church.

I think there is something incredibly important for us to learn from that because if we are not careful, we can begin to think that Christianity primarily in terms, I'm sorry, prime, if we're not careful, we can begin to think of Christianity primarily in terms of what we're supposed to do.

If you're a Christian, you're supposed to do these things.

We need to read our Bible, we need to pray more, we need to attend church, we need to serve others, we need to share the gospel, we need to live holy lives.

And listen, all those things are good things.

All those things are good things, they're great things.

In fact, Paul is going to address many of them later in this letter.

But Christianity doesn't begin with what we do for God.

It doesn't.

It begins with what God has already done for us.

And we respond in kindness to that.

Waul responds to that reality, he's worship.

He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now that's interesting because Paul says, God is blessed, and then immediately says that God has blessed us, but those two expressions carry different meanings.

When we say, bless God, we aren't giving him something he lacks.

God doesn't need anything from us.

We bless God by praising him, honoring him, and declaring his goodness.

When we say bless God, what we intend is giving him praise, giving him honor, and declaring his goodness.

But when God blesses us, he actually gives us something.

And look at what Paul says God has given us.

He says, every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.

Not some spiritual blessings, not a few, but every spiritual blessing.

Now I want us to be careful here because when we hear the word blessing, I think our minds tend to go in a particular direction.

We think about our families, our homes, our jobs, our health, our food on our table.

And certainly those things are wonderful things, wonderful gifts from God, and we should be thankful for them.

We live in a community where many of us work hard to provide for our families.

We have farmers, teachers, business owners, tradesmen, and people who serve in all sorts of professions.

And when things are going well, when the bills are paid, when the family is healthy, and when the business is doing well, we often say, God has really blessed us.

God has really blessed us.

And that's fine because it is true.

But let me ask you something.

What happens when those things aren't going so well?

Does that mean that God has stopped blessing you?

Of course not.

And that's why Paul says, what Paul says here is so important.

He doesn't say that God has blessed us with every material blessing.

He says that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing.

Now, that doesn't mean that these blessings are somehow less real or less valuable than the things we can see and touch.

Quite the opposite.

These are blessings that come through the saving work of Jesus Christ in the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

And unlike the material things that we possess, these things cannot be taken away by changing circumstances.

But if you belong to Jesus Christ, the spiritual blessings God has given you in Him remain secure.

And I want you to notice something else.

Paul says God has blessed us.

Past tense.

He doesn't say God might bless us if we work hard enough.

He doesn't say God will eventually bless us if we reach a certain level of spiritual maturity.

He says God has blessed us.

These are things that already belong to every Christian because of their union with Christ.

And now that raises an important question.

What exactly are these spiritual blessings?

Well, that's what Paul's about to spend the rest of this opening section explaining, right?

But he's going to be talking about it, about being chosen in Christ, adopted into God's family, redeemed through his blood, forgiven of our sins, and sealed with the Holy Spirit.

And we're going to take our time working through all those wonderful truths as we continue through this chapter.

There's one more phrase in verse 3.

Paul says, These blessings are ours in Christ.

In Christ.

There it is again.

That little phrase we talked about in the first in the first point, and we're going to keep seeing it through this letter because Paul wants us to understand that these blessings don't exist independently of Jesus.

These blessings don't exist independently of Jesus.

Through the book of Philippians, we work through this repeatedly in Christ, in Jesus, in the Lord.

And that should change the way that we think about our lives because sometimes we spend so much time focusing on what we don't have that we forget what we already have been given.

We look at somebody else's house, someone else's career, someone else's family, or someone else's circumstances, and we begin to think that somehow we've been shortchanged.

But comparison has a way of robbing us of our joy, doesn't it?

Paul reminds us that if we are in Christ, we possess riches that this world could never offer us.

If we belong to Christ, we possess riches that this world could never offer us.

You may not have everything you want in life.

You may be walking through a season of difficulty.

You may be sitting here this morning carrying burdens that nobody else in this room knows anything about.

But if you are in Christ, you have not been forgotten by God.

You have not been forgotten by God.

And this is importantly, incredibly important as we go on to point number three.

Because a father would never forget his son.

You have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and that ought to give us reason to rejoice, even when life is difficult.

Now, Paul uses the expression in the heavenly places, which we will see several more times through the book of Ephesians.

He's directing our attention to things beyond the things in this life.

He's turning our attention to spiritual and heavenly realities, things that matter in a place where Christ reigns supreme.

Not that he doesn't in this world, he does.

But he's turning our attention to what's to come.

Because they are rooted in what God has accomplished through his son.

The greatest blessing of the Christian life is not that God gives us everything we want, but that in Christ, He has given us everything we need for salvation.

You've heard me say this before.

If the only thing we got was the salvation of our souls, that would be more than we deserve.

More than we deserve.

And that's why Paul begins with praise.

Because when we truly understand what God has done for us, worship becomes the natural response.

Now we've seen that Christ, that in Christ we have a new identity, and we've seen that in Christ we possess every spiritual blessing.

And that leads us to another question.

Why?

Why has God blessed us this way?

What moved him to extend such extraordinary grace to people like us?

Well, Paul doesn't leave us wondering.

In fact, beginning in verse 4, he takes us all the way back before the foundation of the world to show us that our salvation is rooted in the gracious purpose of God.

And that brings us to our third point this morning.

In Christ, we are chosen and adopted by grace.

In Christ, we are chosen and adopted by grace.

Look with me at verse 4.

Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

Paul has just told us that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

And now he's going to explain what some of those blessings are.

And the very first one that he mentioned is that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.

That's the first one he mentions.

Now, I know that when we begin talking about election and predestination, people tend to have a lot of questions.

And these are really important doctrines.

It's really, really important doctrines.

Doctrines that it's important for us to get right.

And they deserve our attention and our careful study.

But I want you to notice how Paul introduces them.

He doesn't introduce election as a theological puzzle that we must solve.

He introduces it as the reason to praise God.

So don't be distracted by the terms.

The first thing Paul says it's like, hey, your spiritual blessings start with this.

Remember, this entire section began with the words, Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul is worshiping.

And as he considers the incredible blessings of salvation, he reminds us that God's of God's gracious purpose in Christ.

And he reaches back all the way before the foundation of the world, before there was Marysville, before there was Ephesus, before there was a Roman Empire, before there was even a world for us to live in.

God had already purpose to save a people for himself in Jesus Christ.

And church, that that ought to humble us.

Because it reminds us that our salvation is not something that we can take credit for.

It's not even that recent.

God had figured all that out a long time ago.

We can't take credit for it.

It's not something that we earn by being good, religious enough, or somehow deserving, more deserving than someone else.

Salvation is rooted in the grace and purpose of God.

And notice what Paul says in the purpose of choosing.

He says that we would that we should be holy and blameless before him.

That we should be holy and blameless before him.

And that's important because Paul doesn't say that God chose us because we are holy and blameless.

He says that God chose us so that we would be holy and blameless.

Do you see the difference there?

Holiness is not the reason we earn God's favor.

Holiness is one of the purposes for which God saved us.

Holiness is not the reason we earn God's favor.

Holiness is one of the purposes for which God saved us.

And that's something we need to understand as Christians because sometimes we fall into the two extremes, right?

In one hand, we might think that we need to make ourselves clean before we can come to God.

That somehow, if we can just get our lives in order, stop making mistakes and become better people, then God will finally accept us.

But that's not the gospel.

And then on the other hand, we might we might think that because salvation is by grace, it doesn't really matter how we live.

And that's not the gospel either.

God's grace doesn't simply forgive us of our sins, it also calls us out of sin and into a life of holiness.

And that's why the doctrine we're about to look at is so beautiful.

Because God doesn't just save us from something, he saves us for something.

He doesn't just save us from something, he saves us for something.

It's interesting that we as a Christian somewhat society, if you're if you speak Christianese, if you grew up in America in the 90s and early 2000s and you hear the messages of salvation, people are quite literally trying to save people from hell, and that's certainly a true thing.

But we're not just trying to share the gospel so that we can avoid eternal punishment.

We're sharing the gospel because we are called to be holy and blameless.

And he will fundamentally change our lives as a direct response from what the for from the work of God in our lives.

Look at verse 5.

He said he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will.

Again, according to the purpose of his will.

Now I want us to slow down here because I think this is one of the most beautiful truths in all of Scripture.

Paul says that God predestined us for adoption.

Not simply forgiveness, not simply freedom of judgment, but adoption.

And I think sometimes we move past that word uh without appreciating just how extraordinary it really is.

We can get hung up in the concepts of being chosen and being predestined and completely miss the mark.

Predestined and chosen for what?

Because think about what God could have done.

God could have forgiven our sins and left us at a distance.

He could have declared us righteous and simply allowed us to go on our own way, but that's not what he did.

He welcomed us into his family.

And there's an important distinction here between the two doctrines that we often talk about in the church: justification and adoption.

Justification is being made right in the sight of God.

It's a declaration that the sinner is righteous in his sight through faith in Jesus Christ.

Because Christ's saving work, our guilt is removed and we're counted righteous before God.

And that alone is an extraordinary gift.

And you hear about justification a whole lot, but adoption takes us even further.

This one is not talked about quite as much.

Adoption tells us that the God who has declared us righteous has also welcomed us as his children.

Think about it this way: imagine standing before a judge, guilty of a crime, and through the intervention of another, your debt is paid, your guilt is dealt, and you're the and you're declared free.

That would be an incredible mercy, and it is.

But now imagine the judge steps down from his bench, walks over to you, and says, Come with me.

From this day forward, you belong to my family, and I will keep you.

Church, that's the beauty of adoption.

God doesn't just merely forgive the sin, he welcomes the forgiven into his household.

And I want you to understand just how meaningful this language is because it would have been to the original readers of this letter.

If you recall through the book of Philippians, we talked about how intentional Paul is in addressing certain people and certain groups.

He talks about their identity in Christ.

He knows that the people of Philippi are very into who they are as a Roman colony.

Ephesus was a major city in the Roman Empire, and adoption was something people in Rome in the Roman world understood really well.

Now, Roman adoption wasn't identical to the way that we think about adoption today.

Today, when we hear the word adoption, we often picture a family welcoming a young child into their home.

And that's a beautiful picture.

But in Roman society, adoption also signified a legal, had had legal and social implications.

It was often used to establish a family heir, preserve the family name, and ensure the continuation of a household.

In fact, adults could be adopted under Roman law.

This is why it was incredibly important for Paul to address the situation like this, to paint this picture.

So when Paul uses the language of adoption, he's using an idea that would have been recognizable to the people living in the Roman world.

But he's pointing to something far greater than any earthly adoption could accomplish.

Because through Jesus Christ, God has brought us into his own family.

We are no longer strangers, we're no longer outsiders, we are no longer alienated from him because of our sins.

We are his children.

And church, that isn't just something, that isn't just a change in what we're called.

It's a change in our relationship with God.

So the moment that we become a Christian, our whole thought process of how we see ourselves should also change.

It's not just a label.

I'm a Christian.

My friend, you are a son of the most high God, brought into his family, forgiven of your sins and given a place at the table.

When we struggle, we aren't left wondering whether God has any concern for us.

We can rest in the knowledge that we belong to him.

And when we fail, as every one of us will, we don't have to imagine that every failure has somehow erased our place in his family.

Now, don't misunderstand me here.

God is a holy father and he disciplines his children.

And there's another part of adoption that I don't want us to miss.

Children are heirs.

And this is where the doctrine becomes even more extraordinary.

Because when God adopts us into his family, he doesn't just give us a place to belong, he gives us an inheritance.

Paul explains this beautifully in Romans 8:16 through 17.

Romans 8:16–17

He says, the Spirit Himself bear witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

And if children, then heirs.

Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Living a holy and blameless life.

We are part of that inheritance.

You catch that?

Fellow heirs with Christ.

Church, I don't know that we spend enough time thinking about what that means.

Through our union with Jesus Christ, we have been brought into God's family and given a shared inheritance that belongs to his Son.

Now, that doesn't mean that we become divine.

It doesn't in that somehow we become equals with Jesus.

Christ is the eternal Son of God.

We are children by grace through adoption.

Because we belong to him, we share in the blessing of his saving work, including the promise of eternal life and future glory.

Future glory.

There will be no pain, no suffering, no sadness.

All those aches you have in the morning when you wake up, gone.

It'll be wonderful.

But beyond that, we get to share the glorious grace of God.

And that should completely change the way we think about what it means to be blessed.

Because here in our community, just like everywhere else, people spend their lives trying to build something they can leave behind.

We work hard, we save money, we buy homes, we build businesses, we try to provide something for our children and grandchildren, and there's nothing wrong with that, but everything we accumulate in this life is temporary.

The house will eventually belong to someone else.

The business may change hands, the money will be spent, then, but the inheritance that God has promised his children is eternal.

So, church, if you're in Christ this morning, you may not have much by the world's standards, but you are a child of the living God.

And you have an inheritance that this world could never give you.

Now look at the end of verse 5.

Paul says, according to the purpose of his will.

According to the purpose of his will.

There it is again, the will of God.

We saw it in verse 1 when Paul introduced himself as the apostle by the will of God.

And now we see it again in connection to our adoption by the will of God.

But God didn't adopt us because we were somehow, because we somehow convinced him to love us.

God wanted to make us his children.

And that brings us to verse six.

Paul says, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

Now, church, I want you to notice how Paul brings all this together.

Why has God done these things?

Why has he chosen us in Christ?

Why has he predestined us for adoption?

Why has he poured out his grace upon us?

He says, to the praise of his glorious grace.

The ultimate purpose of our salvation is the glory of God.

It's not that we may go to heaven, it's not that we may avoid punishments in this world.

It's not like all those things, that's fine.

But the ultimate goal, the central figure is always God.

The ultimate purpose is of our salvation is the glory of God.

Because from the beginning to end, salvation is God's gracious work.

And there's one final expression here that I love.

Paul says that God has blessed us in the beloved.

That is Jesus Christ, the beloved Son of God.

And I think that is a fitting place for us to end this morning because everything we talked about today is only possible through Him.

Our new identity in Christ, our spiritual blessings are in Christ, our adoption is through Christ, and the grace of God has been freely given to us in the beloved, in Jesus.

Church, we don't stand before God on the basis of our own righteousness.

We stand before Him because we belong to Jesus Christ.

And that is why Paul begins his letter with worship.

Because when we truly understand what God has done for us, there's only one appropriate response.

And he gives it to us.

To the praise of his glorious grace.

Let's pray.

Father God, you are good and holy.

You are perfectly set apart.

And we are so thankful for your word this morning that reminds us that you are the initiator of our salvation for your glory, that we may be holy and blameless before you, Lord.

You give us a new heart that loves you, wants to serve you, wants to live a life that is worthy of your gospel.

Lord, I pray that this week, as we go about our days, that we would really consider, that we would really ponder in the truth and glorious truth, Lord, that we are part of your family, co-inheritors with Christ.

That we may set our eyes upon Jesus, whom sacrifice sacrifice made it possible for us to stand before you and through adoption made it possible that we are members of your family.

We pray all these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.