There is an unusual structure in this passage of scripture to which I'd like to call your attention. From Verse 3 through Verse 14 in the Greek text (not in the English) it is written in one complete, unbroken sentence filled with many descriptive phrases brought in to amplify and enrich it.
It's almost as though Paul is taking a walk through a treasure chamber, like those of the Pharaohs of Egypt, describing what he sees. He starts out with the most immediate and evident fact and tells us what that is. Then something else comes into view and he puts that in. And glory flashes upon glory here until he has this tremendously complicated sentence which includes vast and almost indescribable riches.
This is the way God builds truth. One truth leads into the next and all truth is interrelated somehow, and all truth is based or centered around God. There is a rather simplifying division of this passage, however, and that is, these blessings gather about the Persons of the Trinity. There is the work of the Father, the work of the Son, and the work of the Holy Spirit.
In Verses 3-6 you have the work of the Father: (Ephesians 1:3-6 )
Then, in Verses 7-12, you have that which relates to the Son: (Ephesians 1:7-12 )
Finally, in Verses 13 and 14, you have the work of the Holy Spirit: (Ephesians 1:13-14 )
These blessings that Paul gives us and which we will be looking more closely at, are ours in our inner experience, now, if we are in Jesus Christ…This is the “package” that it all comes in – “Christ.”
If you are not a Christian you cannot possibly claim these benefits. They are not yours, they don't belong to you. You cannot buy them, you cannot discover them, you cannot sign up for a course about them in a university. There is no way you can appropriate them unless you are in Christ. But, if you are "in Christ" there is nothing to keep you from having all of them, every moment of every day. That is why it is so important that we discover what they are.
You see, these are much more than mere doctrinal or mere theological ideas. They are facts, they are foundational truths. And, unless we understand those facts, we can't utilize them, we can't benefit from them. We hesitate to apply them to ourselves despite the fact that they are true. The reason we hesitate is that we have such distorted ideas of what these words mean. We think of words like “holy and blameless” and we think that holiness is all about being absolutely sinless and pure…and we don't want to claim that for ourselves. But it is not that at all.
Holiness means "wholeness," and wholeness means "to be restored to the originally intended function" to be put to the proper use, that's all. Physical wholeness prevails when the body works the way it was supposed to. And when your whole being functions the way it was intended to function, you could say you are holy.
(More to come...)
No comments:
Post a Comment