Hello All,
(Just a general disclaimer that I must insert here at the beginning. I am but a lay person, like most of you. And these weekly “thoughts” are but my own. Not the definitive word on this or any topic. Just my own conclusions derived from my own study and faith in God. The greatest hope I have for these weekly “thoughts” is to have them be a springboard for further study on your part. Not to be a weekly treatise to be blindly accepted. So, please read them with this intent, this motive in mind).
This week’s lesson from the “Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guide”, is titled “Ephesians in the Heart”. A good last lesson. An overview of our study for the entire quarter. For a closing “thought”, I would like to look at a question posited by others. The question is… who is the “us” Paul references in this Ephesian letter?
Ephesians is a most pivotal letter by Paul, written to…??? Who is the letter written to? Some scholars state that this letter was not originally addressed to one church in Asia Minor, but was a general letter for all churches everywhere. And you can see why this is possible. The letter is not in Paul’s usual format. It doesn’t have Paul’s usual personal greeting. Paul wrote it while imprisoned in Rome and would likely want to send such a unifying message to everyone. But is this unifying message for Christians only? Or is it for everyone everywhere for all time? Who are the “us” Paul references in Ephesians 1:3? Who are the “us” who are so blessed?
Of course, the believers in Christ are blessed (or “happy”). But there is a real sense in which the “us” means the entire human race, because Jesus is “the Savior of the world” (John 4:42) … “the Savior of all men, especially those who believe” (1 Timothy 4:10). He is the second Adam. As in the first Adam, “as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act (the second Adam) the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life” (Romans 5:17). Christ is the Savior (or Healer) of the world, of ALL. He alone reveals the Father to all mankind so that we all can come home to be healed. So, in one sense, He is the Healer of all whether we worship Him or not. And in another sense, He is the Healer of those who respond to the Great Physician and do come home. The first is His objective healing offered to all. The second is His subjective healing actually experienced by those who respond to Him. When the repenting sinner believes in the Father as revealed in the Son and comes Home, the objective becomes subjective. The offer is now experienced in the heart and mind of the penitent. Christ has given us all “every spiritual blessing” (verse 3) to make us all “happy”. Paul meant that everyone, everywhere for all time were free to read his letter, believe it, and rejoice forever more.
What Christ did for us, he did long ago. He revealed the truth about God.
“The Father was revealed in Christ as altogether a different being from that which Satan had represented him to be… God was represented as severe, exacting, revengeful, and arbitrary… The very attributes that belonged to the character of Satan, the evil one represented as belonging to the character of God. (But) Christ exalted the character of God, attributing to him the praise, and giving to him the credit, of the whole purpose of his own mission on earth,--to set men right through the revelation of God” (Signs of the Times 1/20/1890).
This revelation is what sets us right (justify) and what keeps us right (sanctify), because it reveals to us the truth about God. It is this truth that sets us free. Free to love; free to hold no value to distinctions of race, creed, color, or sex; free to be truly unified; free to be what we were created to be. And this revelation of the truth about our God and our relation to Him is for all… everyone. Accomplished by Christ… especially at the cross. The cross, the supreme revelation of the Father and of all who worship Him.
The first chapters of “Ephesians” focuses on this objective truth. The last chapters of “Ephesians” focuses on our subjective truth, our experiential truth… the truth we experience. The first chapters proclaim a God who heals the wounds and divisions. A God who accepts us and longs to heal all the damage. Let us always remember this. All us sinners are the “us” that are “accepted in the beloved” (Ephesians 1:6). Oh that all would embrace this instead of casting it aside and despising it!
With brotherly love, Jim.