Sin had been a dark, dominating force in the lives of Paul’s audience. Paul can describe them in their prior existence as the walking dead — “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1, NKJV) yet “walking” or living as Satan commanded them (Ephesians 2:1-3). Enslaved to sin and Satan, they had no ability to free themselves. They needed rescue. God has done so through His gracious actions in Christ, and Paul celebrates two new blessings of God’s grace in the lives of believers: redemption and forgiveness.

Read Ephesians 1:7-8. “Redemption” is an idea that is used frequently in the New Testament. Compare the uses of the idea in Colossians 1:13-14; Titus 2:13-14; and Hebrews 9:15. What themes do these passages share in common with Ephesians 1:7-8?

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The Greek word translated “redemption” in Ephesians 1:7-8 is apolutrosis, originally used for buying a slave’s freedom or paying to free a captive. One can hear echoed the voice of the slave trader auctioning his merchandise and the cold grinding of a slave’s manacles. When the New Testament discusses redemption, it highlights the costliness of setting the slaves free.

Our freedom comes at an extreme cost: “In him [Jesus] we have redemption through his blood” (). The idea of redemption also celebrates God’s gracious generosity in paying the high price of our liberty. God gives us our freedom and dignity. We are no longer enslaved!

“To be redeemed is to be treated as a person, not an object. It is to become a citizen of heaven, rather than a slave of the earth.” — Alister E. McGrath, What Was God Doing on the Cross? (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992), p. 78.

Note carefully that the idea that God pays the price of redemption to Satan is a medieval, not a biblical, one. God neither owes nor pays Satan anything.

The benefits of Calvary also include “the forgiveness of our trespasses” (Ephesians 1:7-8). On the cross, Christ takes upon Himself the price of our sin, both past and future, “canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands” (). In doing this work of redemption and forgiveness through Christ, God is acting as our generous Father, with the “riches of his grace” being “lavished upon us” (Ephesians 1:7-8, ESV).

<–Sunday Tuesday–>

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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/monday-costly-redemption-lavish-forgiveness/

A thank you note usually includes a description of the gift or gifts received. Paul includes a long gift list in Ephesians 1:3-14 as he thanks God for the blessings of the gospel.

Paul praises God for the fact that He has “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing” (Ephesians 1:3, ESV). That the blessings are spiritual (Greek, pneumatikos) suggests that they come through the Spirit (pneuma), pointing to the closing of Paul’s blessing, which celebrates the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers (Ephesians 1:13-14).

Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com

Ephesians 1:3-6 contains inspiring language about how God views us in Christ. Before the creation of the world, God chose us in Christ and determined that we should stand “holy and blameless” in His presence (Ephesians 1:4, ESV; compare Ephesians 5:27) as treasured sons and daughters by virtue of both Creation and Redemption in Christ (Ephesians 1:5). Since before the sun began to shine, it has been His strategy that we would be “accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6, NKJV). In short, it’s God’s intention for us to be saved. We lose salvation only by our own sinful choices.

What does the phrase “in the heavenly places” mean in Ephesians (the only place it is used in the New Testament)? Study the uses of the phrase. (See Ephesians 1:3, Ephesians 1:20; Ephesians 2:6; Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 6:12; compare the use of “in the heavens,” Ephesians 3:15, Ephesians 4:10, Ephesians 6:9.)

In Ephesians the phrases “in the heavenly places” and “in the heavens” or “in heaven” point to heaven as the dwelling place of God (Ephesians 1:3, Ephesians 6:9), to the location of spiritual powers (Ephesians 1:10, Ephesians 1:20-21; Ephesians 3:10, Ephesians 3:15; Ephesians 6:12), and to the location of Christ’s exaltation at the right hand of the Father (Ephesians 1:20). Believers have access to these “heavenly places” in the present as the sphere where spiritual blessings are offered through Christ (Ephesians 1:3, Ephesians 2:6). Though “the heavenly places” have become a place of blessing for believers, they are still the location of conflict from evil powers that contest the lordship of Christ (Ephesians 3:10, Ephesians 6:12).

<–Sabbath Monday–>

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