Momentous Grace
Timothy George unpacks Ephesians 1.3-14
Right in the middle of his letter to the Ephesians, Paul interrupted his discussion of salvation by grace to fall on his knees and pray to the Father.
He asked that the Christians to whom he was writing would be able to grasp the extravagant dimensions of his subject.
Who can experience its breadth, he asked? Or measure its length, or plumb its depths, or soar up to its heights? He wanted them to understand the full extent of God's grace, not just intellectually, but experientially.
One of the grandest statements of the overarching structure of divine grace comes at the very beginning of Ephesians. Ephesians 1.3-14 is just one sentence in the Greek New Testament, perhaps the longest sentence in the Bible!
This passage begins and ends with praise to God. In between the praise for God, Paul places our Christian calling and everything related to it in the context of God's eternal purpose - His long-range plan stretching from the very first nano-second of creation through the final cry of victory at the end of time. He does this by identifying four 'moments' in God's plan of salvation. We can depict Paul's theology of grace as a continuum with four distinct but interrelated moments which derive both their unity and their uniqueness from God's free and sovereign grace. If, for the sake of clarity, we call these moments metahistorical, historical, experiential, and eschatological, then the continuum may be illustrated as in the box:
Let's look briefly at each of these four ways of situating grace within the overall plan of salvation.
1 Meta-historical
This word means 'above history' or 'prior to history'. Paul said that God established his purpose of grace even before the creation of the world: 'Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love' (Ephesians 1.4-5, The Message). Admittedly, eternity remains a difficult topic for a finite mind to grasp, and we must be careful not to speculate beyond what God has revealed to us in His Word. Certainly there is much about the eternal decrees about which we do not know and may never learn.
But from time to time throughout the Bible, God Himself pulls back the curtain and gives us a glimpse into the inner sanctum of His divine life in eternity past. For example, Jesus spoke of the intimate relationship He enjoyed with the Father 'before the world began' (John 17.5). Jesus also declared that God had been preparing a kingdom for His elect children 'from the foundation of the world' (Matthew 25.34, NKJV). Peter tells us that Christ was foreordained 'before the creation of the world' to be a spotless sacrifice for sin (1 Peter 1.18-20). Together these verses tell us that God saves men and women not on the basis of their merits, good works, or anything else they have done. He saves humankind in accordance with His predetermined plan, His gracious election, the central focus of which is Jesus Christ. Believers are predestined only 'in Christ', never apart from Christ.
2 Historical
What God planned to do before the creation of the world, He has in fact actually accomplished in time and space. The drama of redemption unfolds throughout the Bible from the first messianic prophecy in Genesis all the way through the Old Testament to the anguished cry of Golgotha: 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' (Matthew 27.46, KJV). On the cross Jesus bore the unmitigated penalty and damnation of sin and, standing in our place, satisfied the righteous demands of God's justice. 'The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all' (Isaiah 53.6, KJV). The meaning of the cross, and its power too, were released by Jesus's resurrection from the dead, followed by His ascension back to heaven, and His pouring forth of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. All of this is the result of God's grace, 'his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son' (Ephesians 1.6, The Message).
Some people teach that God had devised a way of salvation for Old Testament saints based on law, and then came up with a different one for New Testament believers founded on grace. But this presents a serious misunderstanding of God's redemptive work. Throughout history, God has had one and only one plan of salvation for everybody everywhere - by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone! Old Testament saints saw only dimly and from afar what we now can look back upon and see clearly through the lenses of Calvary and Easter Sunday. But salvation was by grace (not law) for them no less than it is for us.
3 Experiential
This refers to the personal, existential appropriation of Christ's redeeming work in the life of the believer. John Calvin put it this way: 'As long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us.'1 The experiential aspect of the economy of grace includes what the New Testament calls our vocation or calling. This has both an outward and an inner dimension. These two are brought together in Ephesians 1.13. We are called externally through the faithful proclamation of the good news - 'and you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation'. Inwardly, we are called by the Holy Spirit who regenerates us (the new birth) as we repent of our sins and trust in Christ.
Having been justified and forgiven, Christians can live in the assurance that they are in a right standing with God, and that they will spend eternity with Him in heaven. Nicolaus von Zinzendorf captured this note of Christian assurance in his hymn:
'Bold shall I stand in thy great day, For who aught to my charge shall lay? Full absolved through these I am, From sin and fear, from guilt and shame.'2
4 Eschatological
In his majestic overview of the operations of grace from eternity to eternity in Ephesians 1.3-14, Paul does not stop at the point of death, when the believer is united with Christ in heaven, nor even with the second coming of Christ. No, he looks beyond all of these great events to the final consummation of all things, to the moment when God's intended purpose in eternity past shall have been completely fulfilled. In the final consummation, 'to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ' (Ephesians 1.10).
The Greek word for 'to bring all things together' is apokatastasis, the longest word in the Greek New Testament. It refers to the ultimate wrapping up of human history, to God's cosmic victory over all the forces of evil. When this occurs everyone in the universe, not only Christians but also unbelievers who have died rejecting the love of Christ, together with the angels in heaven and the demons in hell, will exclaim together that Jesus Christ is Lord of lords and King of kings! And all of this by grace too! What a great comfort to know that God's purpose will not be thwarted. In the meantime, all truly regenerated believers have been granted the gift of perseverance. We can celebrate our present and future security in the knowledge that, finally, every foe in heaven and on earth will be vanquished by the love of God. God will certainly complete the 'good work' that He has begun in those He has redeemed (Philippians 1.6; see also 2.5-11).
Grace in depth
In this sweeping overview we have seen something of the 'length and breadth' of God's dazzling grace as outlined in the Bible. This important perspective reminds us that grace is not an impersonal force or even a divine quality to be analysed and studied abstractly. No, grace means God Himself is operating in love to the praise of His glory. As Martin Luther once said, 'Grace is God's middle name!'
But at the heart of the gospel itself lies a 'depth' dimension to grace. God's sufficient grace radiates its adequacy to meet the deepest needs of the vilest sinner who ever lived.
* We experience grace as pardon: The psalmist claims that God's pardoning grace removes our guilt of sin 'as far as the east is from the west' (Psalm 103.12).
* We experience grace as acceptance: In Christ we who were distant from God, covered with shame, have been embraced and welcomed.
* We experience grace as joy: This delivers us from the frantic quest to be 'happy' by stuffing our lives with fleeting pleasures and 'joyrides' which leave us sadder and more depressed. Real joy comes from knowing and serving God.
* We experience grace as peace: God's shalom answers the anxieties and in-securities which threaten us.
* We experience grace as power: It transforms, energises, empowers.
* We experience grace as hope: In Titus 2.11-13, Paul connected the grace of God with the 'blessed hope' of Jesus's return in glory, a great motivation for confident Christian living.
* We experience grace as love: God's grace and love are so close that, at times, we cannot distinguish them. God's gracious love counters all our nagging fears and doubts.
* We experience grace as gratitude: The most basic response we can make to grace remains a life of 'thank you's' to God. As Smedes points out, true gratitude involves 'a sense of wonder and sometimes elation at the lavish generosity of God'3. First and foremost, grace is not something to be studied, analysed and argued about; rather it is something to be received and experienced, by which we are changed.
This article is an extract from Amazing Grace: God's Initiative, Our Response, published by LifeWay Christian Resources, USA, and used with permission.
The author, Timothy George, is Dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama (USA) and executive editor of Christianity Today.
References:
1 John T. McNeill, ed., Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion, vol. XX (Philadelphia, Penn.: The Westminster Press, 1960), p. 537.
2 Nicolaus von Zinzendorf, 'Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness', stanza 2.
3 Lewis B. Smedes, Shame and Grace (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993), p. 108.
Home
Archives
Subscriptions
Adverts
Find a church
About us
Contact us
Site Map
Printable