Jesus by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will to the praise of His glorious grace with which He has blessed us in the beloved.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In Him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory.

In Him you also—when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him—you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it—to the praise of His glory.

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you remembering you in my prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him having the eyes of your heart enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe according to the working of His great might that He—His great might—that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand. In the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come, and He put all things under His feet and gave Him His head over all things to the church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Let us pray. Father God we bless you and thank you now that you have granted us the privilege to hear the word. Now will you grant that your servant may faithfully and clearly proclaim that word so that your people may be built up in Christ strengthened, encouraged, illuminated, enlightened, and informed, Father.

We pray all this and we announce our total dependence upon the work of the Holy Spirit to take the mere words of human speech and make them alive with the power and life of God Himself. This we pray today in Jesus’ name. Amen.

So we have been on our journey, and this is the fourth week and the last week. Next week we’ll begin something else, and then September again we come back to our Revelation study.

In this journey through Ephesians 1 we have focused on how our salvation is secure. God is working. We’ve noted these points. God is working for His glory and never fails in accomplishing His eternal purposes.

The Holy Spirit is given as the first fruits or the guarantee of our salvation by transforming our hearts from any thought of walking away. God’s perfect foreknowledge precludes our loss over any unforeseen unforgivable sin.

Today I want to labor at further describing the fullness of this indescribable gift.

Note that this is the language that Paul uses in 2 Corinthians 9:15. Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift.

Indescribable gift. The word biblical commentary as you can see says this is a rare word for indescribable. It’s the only place in the entire Bible that word appears in the Greek. A gift whose depth cannot be expressed, a gift beyond measure. This is so big.

Again I failed to do this today though I had intended to do so. I wanted to bring a gift. I wanted to bring a package because our minds tend to go to that idea. This little package. This little gift. But the gift we’ve been given can’t be packaged. It can’t be put in a box or a bag. It is too big, too great, too incredible.

And this is what Paul has been doing throughout this. Now this idea of the inexpressible gift.

The indescribable gift is clearly the thought underlying. Slow down pastor. This is clearly the thought underlying our Ephesians text. Recall that in the Greek verses 3 to 14, 202 words in the Greek are one sentence.

Paul is just running. He’s just—he’s just overflowing with expressions of gratitude and joy and exuberance at what God has done. It’s one long sentence. He just keeps talking.

Well then I was in this week in the studying. It is interesting the second section is also one sentence from verse 15 to 22. It’s one sentence. It just keeps going on and on and on. 169 words without taking a breath so to speak. Paul is bubbling over with the majesty of God in this connotation of the gift that God has given us in Christ.

Now this is a well some of the things we’ve noted are the repeated themes. Predestination appears three times. His glory twice. His grace twice. The purpose of his will twice. The appropriateness of praise four times. And an inheritance three times, in verses 11, 14, and 18. In addition and I really like the way Jason mentioned this this morning.

Adoption. We are adopted as His children. And this is an incredible reference that I want to come back to in a bit.

When you and I speak of the gift of salvation we’re using an umbrella word to describe at least these four things. Forgiveness of our sins first and foremost. Then second freedom from the condemnation of sin. If our sins have been forgiven there can be no condemnation for those sins. They’ve been forgiven.

Cast as far east from the west. Grown into the sea of forgetfulness in the Psalms. Then we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And finally, adoption into God’s family. Adoption into God’s family.

Now historically, also by the way, as I emphasized again this morning in my reading, in Him, in Him, in Him. There are 11 references, 10 references in the 11 verses 3 to 14. 11 times Paul uses the phrase in Him. 10 of those, or I mean, 10 times in those 11 verses Paul uses the phrase in Him.

Nine of those are referring to us being in Him, not merely believing in Him. We are in Christ. Very important.

Now historically and doctrinally this is called union with Christ. Union with Christ. Charles Hodge, who was a Princeton professor that died in 1878, says this: To be in Christ is the common scriptural phrase to express the saving connection of union between God and His people.

They are in Him by covenant as everyone was in Adam. They are in Him as members of His body through the indwelling of His spirit. They are in Him by faith which lays hold of and appropriates Him as the life and inheritance of the soul.

This union is transforming, as we noted last week. It imparts a new life. It affects a new creation. This is the concept of union with Christ.

Now here, I want to pause to give you again a word of caution.

So I wanted to do a series on union with Christ. And as I typically do, I go out and buy books on that topic.

When I got ready to start Revelation, I already had three or four Revelation commentaries. I bought like five more so I can be comprehensive and give a broad concept of the teaching and the book.

So I did the same here. I had one book by Greg Beal called Union with the Resurrected Christ. And I bought three other books on union with Christ.

I’m not ready to do a series on it yet. I did make mention of the third book, which was delightful, just a delightful read that I would commend to anyone.

But all three of those books made this point, that this is something we don’t talk about today.

You don’t hear the phrase union with Christ. You don’t hear that term in the modern American church.

And they lamented that. They said this is a terrible thing.

Now the reason I want to bring that up, because in the process of my thoughts today, I might say something, you’re going to scratch your head and say, I’ve never heard about that. Well, it’s no wonder you’ve never heard about it if we don’t talk about union with Christ.

And I know that y’all think, I know that there are people who could think that I’m just really critical of the church. I am critical of the American church. It is in an absolute mess.

Part of it is because we’ve departed from scripture. We’re not engaging with the scripture. We throw out a verse here and a verse there, and we don’t see how they connect and the tapestry of scripture.

And so it’d be common, it would be very natural for you and I not to understand some of the terms.

Don’t dismiss them. Don’t throw them out because you haven’t heard them. We’re talking about a subject that is not well known in the Christian church.

Then secondly, I would call your attention again to this. We can’t get away from it in this text. Union with Christ. We are in Christ. And this union is undissolvable.

It does relate to our eternal security.

And thirdly, this is not something that, this is such a comprehensive subject that you can’t easily cover it in a typical Sunday morning message. So I’m not even going to say a lot about union with Christ, although it underlies everything I’m saying.

I want you to just be aware of that. I will not be able to do it justice, in other words.

Now the phrase, in Him, in Ephesians 1 here, in Him, in Him, in Him. This isn’t just in Ephesians chapter 1. It is also in the rest of his letter and throughout his other writings.

And John speaks of union with Christ, though he uses a different phrase.

For example, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, this is disunion with Christ.

Now it is very important. And so I’m going to do here what some people, and when I say some people, I mean some ministers think this is just really tedious.

And I don’t believe that. We need to know the Word. We need to hear the Word. It’s a statistical fact that half of Christians never open their Bible. And a third of those go to churches that never open the Bible, so Christians are not getting any of the Scripture in their lives.

And so when we come to church, though it may be tedious, it is also unnecessary.

And as an example of that, I’m not telling you you have to do this. But in America today, zillions of Christians go to church without a Bible.

It used to be, when I got saved, everybody coming through the door was carrying a Bible in their hand.

Now, almost nobody carries a Bible. And I know your pastor puts the Scripture on the wall. Why do I need a Bible, pastor, if you’re going to put it on the wall?

So I’m not telling you to bring a Bible. I’m simply saying, I’m illustrating how disconnected we are from the Word of life that we say is so super important to us.

So we need the Scripture, so be patient as I unload a whole ton of Scriptures on you this morning, okay?

Romans 8:3‑9 and Romans 6:3‑5. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus, when we were baptized, it wasn’t just a dunk in the water; something mystically spiritual happened.

We were baptized into Christ Jesus. All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death.

In order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with Him in a death like His, we shall certainly be united with Him in a resurrection like His.

Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Christ. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again.

Death no longer has dominion over Him.

What is the Prada? What causes death in the human being is sin. Christ conquered sin. He conquered death.

And because you and I are in Him, we also are victors over death and the grave.

This is part of the passage, part of the message, part of the gift that God has given us.

What about this passage? Very well known. Romans 6:23, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Children, we must get this message out. The world does not have eternal life apart from Christ.

So many people today who have no affiliation, no connection to Christ at all, talk about going to heaven.

And we’re guilty because we do the same thing everybody else does.

When somebody dies, we say, well, they’re in a better place. Even though we know that we’re living away from God and had nothing to do with God, we’ll say, well, they’re in a better place. Their suffering is over.

And that is a lie. If they are not in Christ, they are not in a better place when they die.

Eternal life is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And this is the message we must be careful to share.

Listen to this passage. Romans, wait a minute, I’ll come back to that. Romans 12:5. So we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. You need to hear that. That there is not only when we become Christians, is there a mystical connection between us and Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, there’s a mystical connection with other believers.

We are connected to, and by the way, that means we should not have a disregard for brothers and sisters in Christ.

And by the way, that means we shouldn’t have a disregard about gathering together for church and worship in the house of the Lord.

I saw an illustration this week, and I thought it was so appropriate and so challenging. Okay? Imagine the church. Imagine the church is a wheel, a wagon wheel. And the hub is God, the Father, God, the Son, and God, the Holy Spirit. And the spokes are individual Christians.

Okay? The closer the spoke gets to the hub, the closer it gets to the other spokes.

The closer you and I get to God, the deeper our esteem, our concern, our prayer, our passion for other believers should grow.

How do we believe that we can come close to God and have a disregard for God’s people? I said this was a challenging thought. Amen or oh me this morning. This is, we’re connected through this union with Christ. We’re not just these individual lone ranger Christians doing our own thing. We’re part of something God is doing in the earth.

Then I come back to Romans 8:1‑2.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. In Christ. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law… from the law of sin and death. We’re in Christ, and the law of sin and death no longer has authority or dominion over us. I would like to unpack that sometime.

Let me read these passages quickly.

Romans 16:7. He doesn’t merely say they were saved before me. They were part of the church, but they were in Christ before me—a relocation if you will of our spiritual being.

1 Corinthians 1:4. I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus. 1 Corinthians 1:30. Because of you, because of God you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

1 Corinthians 15:17‑19. If Christ has been raised, if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Notice this, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ. Not just I believe, but because of my belief, I’m posited in Christ. Now get this one. And this is one everybody knows. Very familiar passage of Scripture. Often quoted, though I must tell you we don’t do it justice a lot of times. Listen to it.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. This is where I need to unpack it and I can’t take time to do it today. But it’s not just that I am now a new creature, true, but it’s because I now reside in the new creation that God is doing through salvation. It is a new creation that has begun in the work and life of Christ.

The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. For our sake, God made Him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. We are in Christ. Christ. This is what has been accomplished. This is what salvation means.

Not just that I attend church. Not just that I’m a member somewhere. Not just that I’ve had a few religious experiences. I’m in Christ. Now notice this passage from Colossians. You have died spiritually. You’ve died individually when you become a Christian. You’re in Christ. You’re part of him, his body, and the body of his people.

You have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Now get it. When Christ, who is your life, appears. Let’s be honest about it. How many times is Christ merely a part of my life? He’s the person who I go to when I’m in trouble, when I need a solution. And there’s nothing wrong with crying out to God.

We should do that. Make your requests known, Paul says. But we do not live our lives as if Christ is our life. He’s part of it. And when I find time, I’ll squeeze him in somewhere. He is our life. Paul says, you, when Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

All of that, that appearance in glory, part of this thing about being in Christ. Listen, salvation is not merely the imparting of a gift of eternal life when we think of it as external to God or ourselves. I’m sorry I didn’t do that. And I’m leaving the…

I got to have something because I wanted it. I wanted something and I’ve got to get ready. So you’re going to need your imaginations. This is a wrapped, very beautifully wrapped present, okay? It’s not a bowl of… a Tupperware bowl of throat lozenges. It’s a gift.

This is what we think. This is the gift of eternal life. And I can leave it. I walk away from it. I can neglect it. I can abandon it. I won’t do it. I really want to, for illustrative effect, spill it all out, and say, I made a mess of it.

No, it’s not like… it’s not that kind of gift. It’s not external to us. It isn’t like that. It is us being brought into God, into Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in this mystical union in Christ. This is so powerful. It is not just a gift of eternal life when thought of as external to God or ourselves, but it is the act of God joining us to Himself through the work of Christ, thus allowing us to share in the divine nature, which is itself the epitome of eternal life.

We’re thinking, please, I’m trying… I don’t know that I can succeed. We think of eternal life as something God pulls off of Himself and gives to us. But God is eternal life.

And if we will have eternal life, we must be united to Him. It’s not Him giving us a peace and saying, go your way. It is Him bringing us into the eternal life, which is who and what He is in a real sense.

Listen to 2 Peter 1:3‑4. For His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.

Now I must stop. I understand there’s contextual considerations here. I understand there’s great debate about that, partakers of divine nature. Some have taken it too far to say we become godlike. That’s not what Peter is saying. He is saying that when you and I become believers, we’re no longer spectators on the outside looking in.

We have now been enveloped in Christ. And are in union with Him in God. It’s a whole other kind of experience.

Now, John, using those different terms, draws out this concept repeatedly that to have eternal life is to have God. Without God, there’s no eternal life. You must be in Him and without one we do not have the other. And so look at these passages from John. In Him was life.

John 5:26 says, The Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself, which is then dispersed to the people of God.

John 11:25, Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live.

John 14:6, Jesus said to him, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

I had a ton of grief this week about the sign. If God’s gift if God’s love is unconditional why repentance? And people in our culture say God loves you unconditionally then why does He command me to repent? Why does Jesus say no one comes to the Father except through Me?

Unconditional love would suggest the doors open for anybody at any time. And that’s simply not what the Scripture says. It is undeserved. It is unmerited.

We do not deserve it and by the way even that is being lost in our culture today where people think God loves me because I deserve to be loved. That is not scriptural.

We are wretched sinners without God. His love is a gift, but it is undeserved, not unconditional.

When the Philippian jailer says what must I do to be saved? Paul says believe in the Lord Jesus.

When the rich young ruler comes and says what must I do to inherit life? Jesus says you know the commandments. And then He says go sell all you have and give it to the poor.

Why is that necessary? If love is truly unconditional if there’s no conditions to it. And the answer is it’s not unconditional. It’s undeserved, it’s unmerited but it’s not unconditional.

He, God so loved the world he gave his only Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish. In Luke 13 Jesus says except you repent you will all likewise perish.

Why is that necessary? If love is truly unconditional. The answer is it’s not unconditional. It’s unmerited and it’s undeserved. But it is, it does have conditions. I might not be explaining it the best way possible but this verse Jesus says no one comes to me. No one comes to the Father except through me. That’s a condition. Amen?

And if it was truly unconditional, He wouldn’t say those kind of things. Now listen, we typically and rightly focus on Jesus as the way to the Father. But more precisely, Jesus is the way to the life of the Father. You have no life unless you come to Jesus, to God through Jesus Christ.

And as this echoes, it echoes what Jason said this morning in communion—John 17: when Jesus had spoken these words he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son so that the Son may glorify You, since You have given Him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom You have given Him.” And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.

Eternal life is to know Christ. And without Him there will be no life for us. Amen? This is what the Lord is saying. Now here, so we see this, in Him means much more than just “here’s a gift.” Be careful with it; it means much more than that. It means we have been enveloped into the family of God. And the family of God, before He saved anybody, was Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. We have been brought into this relationship, and this is the content of this phrase in Christ.

Now here I want to try to unpack quickly the aspects of adoption, which is one of the most fitting expressions of this, of being in Christ. This is also one of those terms we might not be familiar with because the English word “adoption” only appears four times in the New Testament regarding Christians. I want to show you one of them was in our text, and I want to show you three more—maybe two more—and I have to read one.

Romans 8:15 says, “You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons.” By whom we cry, “Abba, Father.” Jesus teaches us to refer to God as Father. The Old Testament refers to God as Father, but Jews would not do that. They would not refer to God as Father.

And Jesus comes along and he says what to his disciples? Here’s how you pray. Everybody together—“Our Father.” He says to the disciples, he says to Mary Magdalene in the garden: “I haven’t yet ascended to my Father and your Father.” We are now in the family of God, children, if you’re a saved person. He says we cry, “Abba, Father,” through this sealing, this guarantee, this firstfruits of our experience, which is the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:23 says, “Not only the creation, but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” Notice that because we’re already sons and daughters of God when we become Christians. We’re still waiting for one thing.

What is that one thing? The resurrection of the body that we talked about the other week. And then Galatians 4: When the fullness of time had come God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.

We are being adopted. We’re not just out there now on the fringe. We are in Christ. Joel Beeke says: The New Covenant applies the promise of adoption to those who trust in God’s Son and walk in his ways and links their adoption to promises in previous covenants. Although the New Testament emphasizes the doctrine of adoption much more than the old, the theme runs like a golden thread through all the historical covenants in which the Lord is the God of His people.

Now I want you to hear this because that phrase, “the God of His people,” is a metaphorical for father and child. I want you to see this. Beeke goes on to show that adoption is a covenantal act promised to David about Solomon who typifies Christ with one exception.

2 Samuel 7.
When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body and I will establish His kingdom. He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever. I will be to Him a father and He shall be to me a son. Father and son.

Now, when He commits iniquity, I will discipline Him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, but my steadfast love will not depart from Him as I took it from Saul whom I put away from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.

Please note several things. First, obviously, verse 13 when He commits iniquity cannot be a reference to Christ. He did no sin nor was iniquity found in Him, Peter said. So that needs to be understood. The rest of the text is largely speaking of Solomon, but verse 13 when He commits iniquity becomes not then a metaphor for Christ but a metaphor of those who come through Christ to God.

Now notice that, please. The Father‑Son concept, He will be to I will be to Him a father, He shall be to me a son corresponds to the text we looked at last week: Jeremiah 31, 33, I will be their God and they shall be My people; and Jeremiah 32, 38, they shall be My people and I will be their God. Now please note, He’s already their God. They’re already His people. So when He says they will be My people, I will be their God, He’s hinting at something deeper and more significant.

And what is that deeper, more significant thing? The father‑child relationship, which comes to us through adoption.

Now how do you know that, Pastor? We heard of Paul again. What agreement has the temple of God with idols? We are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will make My dwelling among them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be My people, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.

This thing about being in Christ has moved us from being simply servants to servants within the household of God. We are servants. We do serve Him but we’re on a different standing because we are the sons and daughters of God.

Now, in that phrase I have to pause quickly because many people take that phrase and say, okay, well praise God. We don’t have any difficulties or struggles. We’re children of the King. Everything’s going to be fantastic. No, no.

Because if you are truly in Christ, then you share His sufferings. And that means sometimes in life we suffer for Him as children of the King. It is not a contradiction because Christ suffered on our sake. Jesus comes to us and He refers to God as Father and teaches us to do so as well.

Salvation is more than an external gift that may be neglected or abandoned. God gives Himself to us and incorporates us into Christ in a mystical, spiritual sense forever precluding the possibility of our separation from Him. Now where would you think I would draw that from? I want to go back to Romans 13 and listen to what it says.

When He commits iniquity cannot be talking about Christ, I will discipline Him. What does God do when we go astray? He corrects us. He chastises us because of His love. I would discipline Him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the son of men, but my steadfast love, King James Version, mercy, will never depart from Him as I took it from Saul when I put Him away from before you.

In Christ God will never take His love, His pleasure, His affirmation of Christ away and because we are in Christ He will never take it from us. And this is the basis of our celebration and our rejoicing and why Paul says at the end of Romans what can separate us from the love of God? Who can separate us from the love of God? Why can’t any of that happen?

Because we are in Christ and because we are in Christ, because our life is hidden with Christ in God. There is no one in the universe that can cause us harm. I mean real enduring spiritual harm. Certainly there are all kinds of possibilities of harm in the fallen world, but we are in Christ and our eternal well‑being is secure. Amen? This is the rejoicing.

William Perkins says this and we’re done. God the Father has promised by His own Son to make the vassals of Satan to be His own dear children. God took rebels and brought them home to His family. Amen?

In Colossians Paul says He has transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his own dear Son. And he now sees us as he sees Christ when we put our faith in Jesus. Amen?