Home -- English -- Ephesians -- 009 (The Jewish-Christian Confession of the Apostle Paul)
Previous Lesson -- Next Lesson
The Jewish-Christian Confession of the Apostle Paul (Ephesians 1:11-12)
Ephesians 1:11
1:11 “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory” (Eph. 1:11-12).
After the apostle, through a special revelation, had expounded the unity of Messianic Jews and Gentile believers from among the nations, he went on to testify to the unique characteristic of Jewish Christians. In Passau, in Southern Germany, the Danube River can be seen in three colors: the white glacier water of the Inns River, the greenish-grey water of the Danube from Regensburg, and the dark-brown, almost black water of the river´s rain water from the Bavarian Forest. These three different water sources flow several kilometres side-by-side in the Danube, until they finally mix into a greyish-green color. So it was, too, in the newly founded church in Ephesus. The pronounced Jewish believers could in no way conceal their origin - be it by word or life. The liberal, Hellenistic natives still dominated the assembly, and the experienced missionaries from the team of the apostle had yet another tradition. It took many years until these character moulds from dogma and ethics finally mixed together in the churches.
Paul first emphasized the common denominator – one which even Jewish Christians submitted themselves to –that they lived and existed “in Him, in Christ”. Seven times we read of this relationship to and dependence upon the Messiah in the previous verses (Eph. 1:3-10). Their security in the Messiah was, for both Jewish and Gentile Christians, the protective fortress, the spiritual kingdom, the spiritual realm, the invisible power sphere of the risen Christ, His spiritual body into which they had become embodied, as well as the temple of the Holy Spirit.
Both groups found “in Him” the legal basis for their being called to a holy life beyond reproach. “In Him” they were predestined to be children of God through grace. “In Him” they were redeemed and justified by the blood of Christ. “In Him” they were joined together to become a unity “in Christ”, along with all of His born-again followers. The Lord Jesus remained the beginning, the center and the goal of their spiritual existence.
Beyond that, they possessed still some promises of God from the Old Covenant, which were their pride, joy and hope. Straight away Paul testified that they had been placed “in the Messiah” as heirs of their Lord. That was the predetermination of the Almighty, who decides and controls all things in accordance with His own pleasure. He judicially documented this act of His will and its purpose, assuring Abraham: I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward…and Abraham believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:1, 6). Among the believers of the Old Testament, the recognition and understanding that Israel was the heir of the Lord came to prevail more and more (Lev. 20:26; Deut. 9:26, 29; 32:9; 1 Kings 8:51, 53; Ps. 28:9).
Yet in reality the Lord Jesus is the true Heir of God. In His high-priestly prayer He could say to His Father: “And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine” (John 17:10). In His parable of the wicked vinedressers, He described Himself as the Heir of the LORD (Mark 12:7; Luke 20:14). The writer of Hebrews described Him as the heir of all things (Heb. 1:2).
Today, whoever is embodied “in Christ” has also received a portion of His inheritance. No man is worthy to be described as an heir of God except Christ. Whoever lives “in Him”, however, receives a portion of His 250 names and attributes delineated in the Bible. The Jewish Christians in Ephesus had come to understand this mystery and Paul further confirmed it to them, since the right of inheritance from Abraham had first fallen on them. Paul went on to lay the privilege of this “being in Christ” upon Jesus´ followers from the Gentile nations:
“The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Rom. 8:16-18).
Where, then, is our thanksgiving and worship for these pledges, privileges and promises of the Triune God? We need to memorize these Bible words and discuss them with our friends so that their truths might become deeply seated in us.
Paul continued with his exposition of the privileges of Jewish Christians. He emphasized their goal and their purpose - that they might become the praise of His glory in Jesus Christ. Paul himself had the right to speak of the glory of the Father and of the Son, for he had encountered the majestic splendour of the Lord Jesus before the gates of Damascus. He spoke of no fictitious event, but was an eye-witness of the grandeur and glory of the Messiah. His thinking and his life had been stamped and turned upside-down by this vision.
In the Old Testament glory symbolized the entirety of all attributes and titles of the Glorious One. The Seraphim called out to each other: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” (Is. 6:3). The Cherubim at the throne of God, overwhelmed by the grandeur of the Lord, confess in similar fashion: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!” (Rev. 4:8).
The Pietist fathers described the holiness of God as the protective mantle of His glory. Beyond that we add that His love is the core of His glory. Paul, the “small one”, along with all other Jewish Christians, wanted to live in praise of the glorious Christ. Their words, thoughts and deeds were, thereby, to be nothing other than an offering of thanksgiving for His glorious grace.
This inner prayer and longing reflected the heart of the apostle, for all of the Scriptures of the New Testament, apart from the two books of the Greek doctor Luke, are nothing other than the witness of Jewish Christians. In the early days of Christianity they were a living example of the reality, power and love of the Spirit of Christ. Without them we would know little of Jesus and His salvation. They were the light of the world, like their Lord had previously described them (Matt. 5:14). The hidden desire in Paul was that he and all other Jewish Christians would live to the praise of the glory of their Messiah. What would desire and life goal look like in our subconscious mind?
Prayer: Father in heaven, we worship You and thank You that the apostles of Jesus Christ, in the early church, faithfully testified to the life of Jesus. They witnessed to His resurrection and His redemption in word and in deed. Help us also, so that we might live to the praise of Your glorious grace. Amen.
Questions:
- How can a person be described as an heir of God?
- What does living to the praise of the glorious grace of God look like practically?