Sermon for St Edward’s Church. Readings Ephesians 1: 1-14 & John 1:1-18
Today we start a mini-series in the Letter to the Ephesians, as we continue looking at Paul. Now I should say that there is some debate about whether Paul actually wrote this but it is likely it was him or an associate, writing to the church at Ephesus or to churches in this area. I will refer to him as Paul for ease.
In this letter we see some of the key themes of the Christian faith which we will unpack over the next 3 weeks. Paul again reminding those he is writing to, of who Christ is and who they are in Christ.
Today the theme I want to pick up on is that of adoption. In our John reading we heard:
..to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
Ephesians 1:12-13
We, as believers, get to be called children of God. Quite a staggering truth.
And this is how Paul opens his letter –
…just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.
Ephesians 1:4-8
There is so much to unpack just in those few lines:
- We were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world
- We are to be holy
- We are destined for adoption as God’s children, through Jesus
- And in that, through Christ we get: redemption & forgiveness, lavished on us
Firstly we read that we are chosen, in Christ, before the foundation of the world. Before God even created the world, before humanity existed, we were loved. That’s almost impossible to get one’s head around isn’t it!? it’s a bit like saying a child was a twinkle in our eye before they were born. We were the twinkles in God’s eyes.
God had this idea of what the world would be, of what was going to be created and we were/are a key part of it. It means we are a key part of creation and we are so loved. But Paul goes on:
… he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love
We were chosen to be holy and blameless. The word holy literally means to be ‘set apart’ – set apart to be devoted to God. Holiness is a word we shy away from. Personally I don’t like the negativity that can come with it, perhaps there’s an air of perfection about it, or an ‘I’m better than you’ focus – you know the ‘holier than thou’ approach?
But you know Pope Francis said:
Do not be afraid of holiness. It will take away none of your energy, vitality or joy. On the contrary, you will become what the Father had in mind when he created you, and you will be faithful to your deepest self.
Pope Francis
Being holy is about living our lives differently, for God, in all that God has made us to be. That’s what God has prepared for us since the beginning of time. And that comes from a place of love – we were chosen, in love we read.
And as Paul goes on –
He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.
God had it all planned out.
Sometimes people ask whether humanity falling into sin was God’s plan, did God know humans would rebel in the garden of Eden? I think what Paul says here shows that God did know. Paul is saying, look God made us, in love, that was always the plan, but God also knew we’d mess up and so made a way to make it right.
We read at the start of John’s gospel that Jesus – here referred to as The Word was:
…with God in the beginning. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.
John 1:1-2
Just as Christ was there at the start, so were we. God chose us, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, and made a plan so we could always know God’s love and get to be with God in eternity. It’s all laid out.
So God destined us for adoption through the son – Jesus Christ. And God did that freely, through the son God loved, because God loved all of us too. So we get to be redeemed through Jesus blood. (v7), we get to be forgiven in grace, to become blameless. And God’s grace is lavished on us, not just given or offered, but lavished (v8). Lavish, according to the dictionary means extreme generosity, expensive, impressive, excess. That’s how much we are loved – to extraordinary excess, expensive – it came at the cost of Christ’s suffering, and impressive in that it is beyond our comprehension.
Now something we know that Paul does well is to link his theology in with the culture of the day. And he uses adoption on a number of occasions, here, but also in Romans and Galatians. I think this is partly because in the culture of the day, for Romans & Greeks, adoption was a common practice – not as we think about it now, adopting usually babies or younger children. No in both Roman and Greek culture, adoption was used to further a family line, especially where there was no male heir. So sometimes men would adopt older boys and adult men (of course only men) who would then inherit their wealth, status and family name. That person would legally become the son of the Father, and have all the rights that came with it. Adoption like this was also irreversible, so a man could disown his biological son, but not an adopted one.
So when Paul says as believers we are adopted children of God it means we are children of our heavenly Father, we get to be called God’s children, we get to inherit God’s kingdom as rightful heirs and nothing can take that away.
And I think the other thing to note here is that being adopted means we become part of God’s family line. Genealogy was really important for many cultures of the day, knowing where you had come from, who was in your family line. We see in the Bible often family lines are mentioned, in Matthew 1 the genealogy of Jesus for example from Abraham down to Jesus – 42 generations! And so in a way we become part of that same family line. We get to stand alongside Jesus as children of the Father, with all those amazing people in our line too.
And finally as children of God we get an inheritance. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance (v11).
And our inheritance is: Redemption and forgiveness v7, and v 14
…were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance towards redemption as God’s own people,
Ephesians 1:13-14
This pledge, is the will if you like – legally laid out – a promise of what is to come – the seal of the HS. We are spiritually marked out for inheritance. But we’ve already seen the will, we know what is to come – forgiveness, redemption, being with God in eternity. And this is not just for us but for all creation – v.10 tells us:
His plan, through Christ is: a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. We will be gathered to God in the end. What an inheritance for the whole world!
We are reflecting on this in the 21st C. And some of you will know the process of adoption is not easy. There’s assessments and paperwork, and interviews and all sorts. It’s hard, it’s intrusive, it’s heart breaking. In the Greek and Roman era you were adopted if you were a good prospect for the family line, well thought of, wise, intelligent.
But in God’s kingdom adoption is easy, it’s there for all of us we don’t have to be a good prospect! We don’t have to go through assessment or interview. We just have to say yes to Jesus…
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