I’m sure we’ve all experienced how excitement can be contagious… well, I can’t read Ephesians 1 without catching some of Paul’s passion! Each phrase, each word, each description of our salvation more powerful and profound than the previous. Paul is overwhelmed at the goodness of God in Christ and we should be too!
Preaching through Ephesians has been a growing experience for me, both theologically and in terms of love for God. Paul describes the plan of salvation from a variety of angles and perspectives—it is as though he is turning the diamond from one angle to the next and we get to see the brilliant shine and glow all around it. But how do we respond?
Everything we have, we have in Christ. And, we have everything in Christ. We were chosen, loved, adopted, redeemed, and forgiven, in Christ. Grace has been lavished upon us, wisdom poured out, so now we have eyes to see the plan of the Gospel and how good it really is. This all in Christ by grace and planned before the foundation of the world. This planned by a loving Father, accomplished by a faithful Savior, and applied to us by the promised and powerful Holy Spirit.
The Triune God of the Bible, the eternal God in three Persons, is actively engaged in my salvation from beginning to end! Who can grasp the depth? Who can fathom the glory? To stop and ponder this is to experience the immensity of God and the smallness of humanity.
But how do we respond?
Then in verse 14 this line: to the praise of His glory.
There is only one response: fall to our knees worship. Fall to our knees joy and delight in a God who is so big and so good. Fall to our knees praise because no matter what happens to me in this life, what Paul has just explained is something that can never be taken away and something we will enjoy forever and ever and ever.
O Christian, may we never grow tired of hearing the Good News. May it always, ever turn our hearts back to that which is our greatest reality. May we have eyes enlightened to know the hope to which he has called us, to know what we mean to Him, and to know in Christ we are always safe.
