“Amazing Grace” – Ephesians 1:3-10

As you know, Kim and I recently were blessed with a generous gift of a weekend in San Antonio. It was nice to get away by ourselves and we had a great time.

It’s nice when we get something we didn’t expect from an unexpected source. That’s what grace is. It is the giving of what we do not deserve, as mercy is the refusal to give what we deserve.

John Newton understood the magnitude and wonder of God’s glorious and amazing grace. His life was one that, on the surface, did not merit God’s grace or mercy. And yet, God used circumstances in his life to bring him to Jesus and to salvation.

While you and I may not have lived a life as Newton did, we nevertheless receive amazing grace when we turn to God for salvation and for life.

Background

Knowing something about the life of John Newton is to see a life that could have easily earned him the title of “chiefest sinner.” He lived a hard life and a varied life, most of it as a sailor on merchant ships and slave ships. He even served a time himself as a slave in Africa. His father hired a group of men to rescue his son. It was on the way home from the rescue effort that Newton and the crew sailed into a fierce storm off the Irish coast. The ship was taking on water, and things seemed hopeless. It was at this time that Newton either prayed to God to rescue him or that he told the captain of the ship that it would take God having mercy on them. Somehow, the impossible became possible and the ship made it safely to the Irish shore. It was through this that Newton traces his salvation experience. He spent several more years in the slaving industry, either as captain of a ship or an investor in the trade after he retired. He later became an ardent abolitionist and was instrumental in having slavery outlawed in the British Empire.

When he retired from sailing, Newton began to study theology and other subjects. He became friends with some of England’s leading religious leaders including John and Charles Wesley. They encouraged him to enter the ministry. Eventually, Newton became the pastor of a church in Olney, England.

One of Newton’s practices was to write hymns to go along with the sermons he preached. He wrote “Amazing Grace” to be used in a New Year’s sermon taken from 1 Chronicles 16:16-17. Newton’s message was on God’s faithfulness and the assurances of His promises.

Today’s text is taken from Ephesians. It’s a letter that is unlike other letters Paul wrote. For one thing, there is no personal references to the people of Ephesus, even though Paul had worked in that city and church for three years. For another thing, there is no specific problem that is troubling the Ephesian church. Instead, the letter reads like a sermon centering on God’s cosmic plan for His people in Christ. Unlike the other letters Paul writes, the first part of the letter, which we are looking at today, is not a personal word of encouragement for the church, but a hymn of praise to God and His wondrous gift of grace through Jesus Christ. This amazing grace was a part of God’s plan from before the creation of our world and of us. It is this amazing grace of God that we look at today. As we consider the text, let’s keep in mind the following truth:

Central Truth: God pours out His grace in bringing us into fellowship with Him.

We see God’s grace in:

1. How He has blessed us (3—6)

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will—to the praise of His glorious grace which has been freely given us in the One He loves.

When we think of God and His grace, we quite often fail to grasp the depth of God’s work in bringing us into fellowship with Him. Paul uses these verses to point out to us some of what God did in preparing the plan of salvation through Jesus Christ the Son. In light of what the apostle writes, it is no wonder that he begins this segment with the words, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The reason Paul states for praising the Father and the Son is because God has taken the opportunity to give us every spiritual blessing we can hope to have in Christ. While it is true that God blesses us while we are on earth and blesses us with the gifts and things we need to live on our world, the blessings Paul writes about here are the spiritual blessings that come our way through Jesus. We are given eternal life, which is to know the Father and the Son. He gives us the presence of the Father and the Son through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. He seats us with Him in the heavenly places at the right hand of the Father. And these are just three of the many blessings that come to us on the spiritual level.

Having told us that we are so enriched spiritually because of what God has done through Jesus, Paul now shows us what exactly God has done in making these blessings possible. How has God blessed us?

He chose us. Even before God began the creation of our world, He made the conscious decision to provide for the salvation of His people. There are those who interpret this verse to mean that God chose those who would be saved. I believe though that the “us” in this verse is humanity in general. I don’t mean that salvation is universal, but that salvation is available to all who will come to Christ. That was God’s plan from before the beginning of creation. God chose us.

God also predestined us. Again, while the verse can be interpreted to limit those who are adopted as God knowing before creation who He would save, I maintain that the plan was universal. Anyone who came to God through Jesus would be adopted into the family of God. The plan from the beginning was to make salvation and adoption available to everyone, but only those who came to Him in faith would be adopted.

Notice that God’s choosing us and predestinating us is a demonstration of God’s great love. It was with love—consistent with the characteristic of God, who is love—that God predestined us to be adopted. It wasn’t enough that we would be saved through Jesus. We became more, by God’s plan. God makes it possible for us to become the sons and daughters of the Great Creator. And it is a grace that is freely given through the One the Father loves, which is Jesus Christ.

The amazing grace of God is seen in His planning for our relationship with Him from before He ever made us. He knew we would need saving, and He planned on how to do it before He even made us. That’s amazing and that’s grace. That is amazing grace.

2. Our redemption through Christ’s blood (7-8)

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

Verse 7 focuses on what Christ did for us before returning to God’s activity in our salvation.

“In Him” means Jesus. Because Jesus gave up His rightful place and came into our world where He walked and taught and eventually took up His cross and died for, we have redemption and forgiveness. The redemption is seen in that Jesus paid our sin debt on the cross. We had died in our sin; Jesus gives us life in dying for us.

But not only do we find redemption and worth, we are forgiven and brought into right relationship with the Father through Jesus. Because Jesus died for us and was resurrected, we are reconciled with God and brought into His family. All of this because Jesus willingly took on the role of obedient Son. Jesus shows us what it means to walk in love with the Father, and that demonstration is showing us that love is expressed through obedience.

The redemption and forgiveness we receive through Jesus is a result of God’s grace, wisdom and understanding. Notice how Paul describes God’s grace. It is a rich grace. God spared no expense in bringing us into redemption and forgiveness. He paid the supreme sacrifice to make us His. And after He had purchased our redemption through the sacrifice of the Son, God poured out His grace—He “lavished on us” this gift. When I think of lavish, I picture someone serving me a plate of delicious food, and the plate is overflowing with the food heaped high and spilling onto the table cloth.

God’s gracious gift of redemption through Jesus is a demonstration of God’s wisdom and understanding. Before God made us, He knew we would need saving. This is a demonstration of God’s wisdom. The demonstration of God’s understanding is that we would never be able to be reconciled with Him on our own doing. God would have to take the step necessary to bring reconciliation and adoption to us by redeeming and forgiving us through Jesus.

All that Paul is writing about in these two verses is a demonstration once again of God’s amazing grace.

3. Making His will known to us (9-10)

And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the time was will have reached their fulfillment—to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.

When it comes to giving gifts, Jesus tells us that we shouldn’t let our left hand know what the right hand is doing (cf. Matthew 6:1-4). The purpose of this instruction is to make sure we don’t give as a demonstration of how wonderful we are and try to bring attention to ourselves. Sometimes, though, we need to let others know what we are doing as an example to them and as an inspiration to encourage others to do the same.

When God gave us redemption and forgiveness, when He chose us before creation to make salvation possible through Jesus Christ, God didn’t keep His plan under a hat. Instead, He made known the mystery of His will to us. What Paul is writing in these two verses is that God doesn’t just save us by redemption and forgiveness, but He also brings us into His plan and His thinking. By the work of the Holy Spirit, we are able to take part in knowing God’s plan.

Because we are made aware of God’s plans, we know that the fullness of His grace will be complete when Christ returns. You see, God’s ultimate plan which began before creation was to bring all creation under Christ’s rule. It has always been God’s plan that Jesus would be Lord of all, things in heaven and on earth. The Revelation tells us how God’s plan will be carried out, showing us that there will come a time when Jesus will return in His glory and the ultimate and final victory will be won over Satan and death.

Granted, God does not give us a detailed outline complete with timeline to know the what and when of Jesus’ return, but God does assure you and me that Jesus is coming again, and when He does we will be part of His glorious reign. When that terrible day comes—terrible because those who have rejected Jesus for whatever reason will face eternal judgment and condemnation—we will see Jesus face-to-face and we will know all we need to know. This is part of God’s plan which was developed before the creation of all things.

When we consider that God had a plan for creation before He even began the creation process, and to know that God had planned to involve us intimately in His plan, is a demonstration of a marvelous and glorious grace. It is an amazing grace.

Conclusion

When we think that God had developed a plan for our forgiveness even before we were created much less sinned, how can we help but be amazed at the wonder and awe of God’s grace and mercy? To know that we would sin and rebel against Him, and yet still God created us, tells us of His deep love for us and for all His creation. God demonstrated an amazing grace by creating a people that would turn against Him and made provision to allow us to be reconciled to Himself through His Son and to become His children.

And then to think that God’s grace isn’t a “one size fits all” grace, but is a grace that speaks to each of us as individuals, we can only marvel at the depth of God’s grace and love. He does not see you and me as one small group of humanity, but sees each of us as a unique individual worthy of His undivided love and grace.

If this isn’t amazing grace, what is?