Perhaps I cannot state too emphatically that the teachings of these passages in Ephesians are truly the lifeblood of the believer. For if we do not grasp what these passages are saying we will not be living according to all God has for us. If we don’t recognize the importance of these truths we will be living like Garbage Mary, if you remember the story from a couple of weeks ago, that though a millionaire she was scrounging through dumpsters for her sustenance. If we fail to understand all that God has given us we will be living like spiritual paupers, scrounging around for scraps of heaven when God has given it all to us and in abundant measure. Our wealthy heavenly Father has left us an amazing estate from which we can draw the richest spiritual treasures.
And in this passage today we will glimpse dimly at a few more riches that God has in store for us as believers. The key idea of this passage is that we are to praise God by meditating upon and extolling the work of the Triune Deity in accomplishing our redemption for us. Today we will look at what the Son and the Spirit have accomplished in our redemption.
II. What the Son Accomplishes in Our Redemption
Just what is it that the Son accomplishes in our redemption? Everything that Paul describes about the Son’s work in our redemption from this passage could be summed up in one word, “mediation.”
The Son is the one who mediates for the Father. He is the one who is the go-between for God and man. It is the God-man Christ Jesus who is able to be our advocate in behalf of the Father. Yes, the Father wills for this to take place but all these things are granted to us only through Christ. This is why, throughout this passage, Paul continues to use the words, “in Christ” or “through Christ.” These blessings will not be willed to us in any other way. Peter said in Acts 4:12, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” By participating in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the way for our reconciliation to the Father has been opened.
There are six ways described in this passage in which Christ mediates for us. However, we are going to cover only one of these in detail, because the others have been discussed in the Father’s work in our redemption or will be discussed in the material describing the Spirit’s work in redemption. The first way in which Christ is our mediator is that the spiritual blessing of heaven is found in Christ. Paul mentioned this in verse 3, “The Father has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Secondly, God’s choice of us is to be found in Christ. In verse 4, Paul says, “Just as He (the Father) chose us in Him (Christ) before the foundation of the world, so that we would be holy and blameless before Him.” Thirdly, there is sonship through Christ. Verse 5 plainly declares this, “He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.” Our sonship comes through Christ. Fourth, in verses 11 & 12, we note that we have our inheritance in Christ. Fifth, at the end of the passage in verses 13 & 14, we see that the Spirit is sent in Christ. We will look at that one later. But right now we are going to focus on the sixth mediatory work of Christ concerning our salvation.
F. There is redemption in Christ (v. 7-8)
And so sixthly, we find that there is redemption in Christ. And we will park here for a while because we have not looked into this yet and it is so rich. This redemption in Christ is found in verses 7-8. Here Paul notes, “In Him (that is in Christ) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us.” There are three questions that we need to ask that will help us to understand what Paul is saying through these verses.
1. What is redemption?
The first question that we need to discuss is “What is redemption?” Understanding this word redemption is foundational to the Christian. Without understanding it and its application to their lives, believers in Christ are left to wander aimlessly through the morass of their own changing feelings in their relationship to God. And wandering is what we will do if we are looking to our feelings for support in our relationship to God instead of looking to the work of Christ on the cross.
The word redemption initially came to mean the price paid to release or ransom someone. Redemption was what was paid to free someone from that which held them bound. In the New Testament usage, the word signifies the removal of sin and its penalty from the person to whom this redemption has been given. There is a price that needs to be paid for sin. Sin has kept people captive since the fall of mankind. We have been enslaved to sin. Jesus said, “Everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” And there is a penalty for sin. The Bible says that the penalty for sin is eternal death. Eternal death is torment in separation from God. And this death dealing sin is pandemic, for the Scripture says that all have sinned and come short of God’s glorious standard of perfection. There is a price that needs to be paid and we cannot afford to pay it. We need to be ransomed or redeemed from the condemning effects of sin.
In the seven times that Paul uses the word “redemption” in his letters we find that there are two aspects to this redemption. There is a future aspect that we will discuss later in the passage. But there is a current aspect in which Paul says that we have been declared not guilty for our offenses against God.
He says it most simply in verse 7. What is our redemption? It is the forgiveness of our trespasses (our transgressions, our sins). God has wiped away our transgressions. No longer do you have these sins accusing you before God. They have been wiped away.
In Colossians 2:13-14, Paul says, “When you were dead in your transgressions . . . He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us ALL our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt . . . against us.” The word translated, “having canceled out the certificate of debt” was used in New Testament times of shopkeepers who kept records of debts. They would record these debts on a wax tablet. When someone’s debt was paid off, the shopkeeper would scrape clean the entry for that person. Therefore, there was no longer any record of that debt. This is what God has done in canceling our debt. He has wiped “ALL” our sin off the books! He has scraped our sin debt clean.
I don’t know if you have ever had the joy of getting a window clean, but there is a special beauty to a window when you get the final streak out of it. You look through it a certain way and it almost appears that there is no window. This is what we look like before God when he has removed our transgressions. Every sin, yes every streak, has been removed and we are clean before Him.
This is redemption. This is what God has done for us through Christ. God has forgiven each spot and we are perfect in Christ. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:30, “Jesus became to us . . . righteousness and sanctification and redemption.” If you can understand what you are in Christ then you can really live. Our life in Christ consists in who we are not in what we do. Jesus said, “I have come that you might have life and you might have it to the full.” This fullness of life comes because we have been redeemed through Him. We are perfect before God and then, and only then, can we really live. Jesus didn’t say, “I have come that you may have activity and that your activity may be full,” but that your life may be full. Too often, in the emptiness of not fully comprehending our righteous standing before God we try to fill up the emptiness with activity. We can’t rest in Christ because but have to be doing something. And as a consequence our life isn’t full, it is merely full of activity.
If Jesus has redeemed your life from death and hell you should recognize that this is all your hope and peace. This is what God has for you to revel in. Jesus has become our redemption.
2. What is the instrument of this redemption?
The second question that we need to answer from this passage is, “What is the instrument of this redemption?” If redemption required a price to be paid, then what is the price that has been paid for our sin? Paul notes this payment right after the word “redemption” in verse 7. There he says, “In Him we have redemption, “through His blood.” How is it we have redemption from Christ? How is He able to confer to us a redemption from sin? What did it take to pay the price for our sins? It took His blood.
The Bible says that, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” The price, the penalty for sin is death. It was necessary for Jesus to have died and shed His blood in order to pay for your sin. Because the penalty for sin is death, Jesus freely took that death (your death) upon Himself and shed His blood for your sin that you might be redeemed. The Scripture says that it was the just for the unjust. Jesus the just died on behalf of us, the unjust.
Look at how understanding this truth about Christ’s redemption and the shedding of His blood turns our priorities upside down. In 1 Peter 1:18, Peter relates to us, “you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver and gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood.”
Gold and silver could not have redeemed you from your sin. Only the blood of Jesus could have done this. And so, necessarily, our values must change. What people normally call precious (gold and silver – precious metals) we now call perishable (You were not redeemed with perishable things like gold and silver). And what people normally call perishable (blood) we call precious. It is the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us from our sins. And if you do not get these priorities turned around so that His blood is precious to you and gold and silver are merely perishable then your spiritual growth will be stunted. If you have a hang up with material possessions and the things of this life, Jesus said that the “cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches” will choke out any spiritual fruit like weeds choke out good plants.
This redemption by the blood of Jesus Christ calls us to reverse our priorities. And if you have these other things that God calls perishable as your priorities in life you must repent. You must look to the priceless blood that ransomed you from death. And we can only have this reversal of our priorities if we see what is really lasting. This life on earth will soon be over but our eternal home will never fade. Where will you allow your heart to dwell? I have to regularly, consciously put off the desire to accumulate that, which is perishable. Do you also? Take an inventory of what you consider perishable and what you consider precious.
Jesus shed His blood for your redemption. He paid the price that you might be freed from the penalty and power of sin. Will you give His act of redemption on your behalf, the shedding of His blood, the worthy consideration that it is due?
3. Why is it available?
The third question that we need to answer from this passage is, “Why is it available?” Paul answers this at the end of verse 7. It is “according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.” God’s grace makes it available to us. Grace is that which God gives us that we do not deserve. It is a gift. We do not earn redemption. There isn’t anything that we can do to make us acceptable so that God would somehow place this blood upon us for our redemption. This price that He offers to us is simply by His grace which, as Paul says, “He has lavished upon us.” It is too costly for us to earn it. Which of us here would deem himself or herself worthy of that precious life of Jesus Christ. If we would seek to earn God’s favor we would be sorely mistaken.
Perhaps the best illustration I could offer to describe grace would be this. Suppose you go to a fancy restaurant to eat. And you eat big. I know some of you can do that when food is involved. But you’ve run up quite a bill. You’ve had Caviar from Russia and wine from France stored since the French Revolution. When you get the check you see that the bill is for $1,000,000. You are stunned, flabbergasted. And all that food you’ve eaten feels like it wants to come back up.
But the waitress says that there is an individual, who noticed you eating, and is willing to pay for your meal. Will you accept it? Now you have to do two things to have that meal paid for you.
First, you have to trust that this someone is willing to do that. That they are willing to wipe out this amazing debt that you have. Second, you have to humble yourself to admit that you can’t pay it. And when you do that, when you put your trust into the hands of the one who says he will pay your bill and humble yourself and ask him to pay it he will.
This is the Gospel message. We have racked up a debt that we cannot pay. Since perfection is required by God I hope you understand that all of us in our original condition before God (you, me, the murderer on death row) are all in the same position because none of us are perfect. But Jesus Christ, the only perfect individual to have ever lived paid the price for all of your sin by dying on the cross.
And just as you could never repay that individual for His generosity toward you so you could never repay God. Understand what God’s grace is. God’s grace is an offer to release you from the debt of your sin. You need never to live like a debtor again. Why is this redemption available? God in His grace wants to FREELY forgive you through the payment that Jesus made on the cross for your sin.
What does this mean for the believer? This becomes the provision to live a godly life. In Titus 2:14, Paul uses a related term to the word redemption used in this passage that describes the purpose of our redemption. There Paul says, “Christ Jesus gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
Our redemption in Christ is available so that we would be purified and THEN partake in good deeds. God’s forgiveness has never been available as a reward for those who do good deeds. This is the chasm that exists between evangelical Christianity and legalistic religions that bring damnation upon those who follow them. From the Scripture we see that works are always to be a result of our forgiveness not the cause of our forgiveness.
William Wilberforce, who fought to abolish slavery in England in the 18th and 19th centuries, was a strong Christian who stated this truth most clearly when he said, “The true Christian. . . knows therefore that this holiness is not to PRECEDE his reconciliation to God, and be its CAUSE; but to FOLLOW it, and be its EFFECT.” He concludes saying, “That, in short, it is by FAITH IN CHRIST only that he is to be justified in the sight of God.” This is what leads to freedom in being able to live righteously for God.
Because redemption is so important a concept for us to understand let me quickly sum up that at which we have looked. First, redemption is God paying the penalty to free us from the debt of sin. Second, the redemption that we have in Christ was paid for by the shedding of His lifeblood upon the cross. Third, we obtain this redemption as a free gift of God so that we might live a righteous life before God. We do not obtain it as a result of our works but because God offers it freely to all who come to His Son.
III. What the Spirit Accomplishes in Our Redemption
Finally, this morning we see what the Spirit accomplishes in our redemption. Paul notes there are two ways in which the Spirit works in the believer. Now verses 13 & 14 describe this work. These verses are probably some of the most important verses in the Bible concerning the work of the Holy Spirit. I am not exaggerating this. Unfortunately I think that many people overlook the importance of these verses because they are difficult to understand unless you take the time to stop and look at them. I am going to read them here and parts of them again as we look at the Spirit’s work. My hope is that you will gain an understanding of the wonder that these verses display about the work of the Holy Spirit in your life (if you are a believer in Christ). And I pray that if you haven’t understood these verses before they will revolutionize the way you think about the salvation you have been given and the Holy Spirit’s part in it. Let’s read these verses. “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation – having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.
1. He seals us in Christ
The first way in which the Spirit works in the believer is that He seals us in Christ. Verse 13 states this. “You also, after listening to the message of truth – having also believed, you were sealed in Him (in Christ) with the Holy Spirit of promise.”
What is taking place in this verse? When we heard the message of salvation and we placed our trust in it, the Holy Spirit then took that commitment and sealed us in Christ. We have been irrevocably put into Christ. There is no backing out of this. God has sealed us by our trust in Him. Notice that all these verbs are past verbs. You had heard, you had believed and therefore you were sealed. Sealing has a couple of ideas associated with it. First a seal was used in the ancient world in order to distinguish property. We have become the property of God. We are God’s possession. He now has blessed ownership over us. Our taskmaster used to be Satan. Now, as believers in Christ, we have His light yoke upon us instead. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 describes this. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body.” The Holy Spirit has sealed us in God’s ownership of us.
Secondly, a seal was often used to show protection. The seal that was placed upon the tomb of Christ carried the full weight and authority of Rome against any who would seek to tamper with it. And in Revelation 7 we see in that place that God seals His 144,000 missionaries from the nation of Israel. And in chapter 14, all 144,000 who had been sealed were with Christ. Not one of them had been lost. In the same way, God has set His seal of protection upon us through the Holy Spirit so that our salvation, received through having believed, would endure.
2. He guarantees our salvation
The second way in which the Spirit works in the believer is that He guarantees our salvation. This is what verse 14 says and it is desperately important. “[The Spirit] who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession.” Let me read just the first half of that verse again. “[The Spirit] who is given as a pledge of our inheritance.” Of what is Paul speaking when he says that the Spirit is a pledge of our inheritance? This word pledge was always used to describe the partial payment of something to be purchased. This pledge was the down payment for what you were going to buy. Perhaps you came upon a piece of property that was for sale. But because you didn’t have the money for it immediately you placed a deposit upon this property with the owner with the instruction to hold this property until you return with the full amount of the purchased possession.
In other words you were making a substantial and weighty promise of your guarantee to return and complete the transaction. In the same way the Holy Spirit, living in you, guarantees our salvation. You see when we put our trust in Christ as our Savior, the Father sends the Holy Spirit to indwell us with a down payment of heaven until the time that the full purchase price will be paid. This is what the second part of that verse means. Listen to it. It is “with a view (why does He give a down payment?) to the redemption of God’s own possession.” We are looking forward to the day that God will redeem us fully by taking us to heaven. We get a taste of heaven in having the Holy Spirit until the time that God redeems us completely by bringing us to heaven! This guarantee (or down payment) is merely the glimpse of these good things to come.
As a matter of fact, Paul makes this connection even more clear in 2 Corinthians 5. In verse 1, Paul says, “For we know that if our earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Paul says that God has given us clear assurance of this new home in heaven. How has He given this firm assurance of having a home in heaven to us? In verse 5 he tells us. “Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.” There is the word again. God has given us His Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our eternal life in heaven. O how blessed the thought that we should participate in such precious promises as these.
And so we rightly conclude exactly where we began this passage. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” We can praise God that He has done such wonderful works in bringing salvation to us (every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus). What an awesome God. I hope that you will again meditate on these truths. Take them home with you and think upon them as you rise up and lie down and as you walk in the way. Jesus Christ has given us redemption, the forgiveness of our sins, through His blood by God’s grace. He has done this so that we might be a people zealous for good works. And the Spirit of God has sealed us in Christ and given us the promise, the guarantee of eternal life until the day of the completion of His purchase that God has made. He has done this that we might be secure in Him as it is described in Luke 1, “[that we] might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness all our days.” Let us then live by this righteousness we possess in Christ through God’s grace, without fear, all our days.