Ephesians 1

==Ephesians 1:1-2==
1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. 
Paul begins with his typical introduction affirming that he is an apostle by God's will not his own. He writes to the faithful Christians at Ephesus. Note here that they are referred to as saints (purified ones) and "in Christ Jesus". "In Christ" is a leading theme within this letter.
==Ephesians 1:3-5==
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Paul praises God the Father for the blessings Christians receieve in Christ. This proceeds from verse two which speaks of saints, of the faithful who are in Christ. One cannot be faithful and not be in Christ. One cannot be purified and not be in Christ. If all spiritual blessings are in Christ, there are none outside of Christ so being in Christ is of paramount importance. How one gets into Christ is covered in a number of places throughout the New Testament including thoroughly in Romans 6. Essentially it requires obedient faith and happens at the point of being immersed in water according to the scriptures.
The idea of "in heavenly places" is a single word in the Greek and it just means that these are things of a spiritual nature, not a physical one. This may seem a simple idea at first, but its an important one to make. Our blessings in Christ are primarily spiritual. We may end up physically poor, hurt, diseased, persecuted, or any number of things that try us. God never promised to make us physically wealthy or healthy or safe. He only promised to provide basic physical needs generally speaking (Matthew 6).
These spiritual blessings are given to us according to what God had planned before the Creation of the physical universe. This choosing, this predestination is not of individuals but of the collective body, the church, those in Christ. The church was designed to be made up of those who are hagios, purified, saints, of those who are not guilty of sin because Christ cleansed them. This is, of course, the nature of grace. This predestination was based on an adoptive relationship, not a natural or physical one. Even the Jews who were children of God under the Old Law by birth were branches broken off, separated from God by their sin (Romans 11) and needed to be adopted into the new family, the spiritual Israel.
==Ephesians 1:7-8==
7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; 8 Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and understanding; 
Paul continues with the "in Christ" theme by stating that in Christ we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. This is according to Grace. Paul speaks of grace, specifically the grace that causes salvation, so often in this book and it is imperative that one understands what God's grace is. It's not just unmerited favor, which is just the definition of the word. God's grace IS Jesus Christ, the Living Word, the New Testament.
It is within the pages of the New Testament that the wisdom and understanding of God imparted to us can be found. There is no other place. I hope others are able to see the interconnectedness of this idea of grace being Jesus and the New Testament. 
==Ephesians 1:9-11==
9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself: 10 That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him: 11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
The mystery has always been how the promise to Abraham that all the nations of the world would be blessed might be fulfilled. God's will is that no human should perish (2 Peter 3:9), but how this would be accomplished was unknown until the gospel was revealed to the church.
The "dispensation of the fulness of times" is akin to "the last days". It is a point in time where man kind had all that he would need to understand who Christ was, the importance of His sacrifice, that prophecy would be fulfilled, and that the church would be established. The Gentiles and Jews were both brought under the Kingship of Christ in the entity of the church. This is a reconciling of man (earth) with God (Heaven) through Christ.
Paul speaks here of the Christians of his day having obtained an inheritance already according to a predetermined purpose of God. This inheritance is not Heaven, not a location, not material wealth, or mansions, or any number of other silly things that will have no value in Heaven. This inheritance are these spiritual blessings, the access to God, the adoption by God into His family, the relationship Christians have with one another that transcends earthly blood, and many others. It is an inheritance they were already participating in to an extent, but which had still future fulfillment that was soon to happen when the Jewish system was gone and only the church remained. In other words, they were in the midst of receiving this inheritance which would be completed when the church was fully established around the end of the century. God's will needed to be completed and this included the fulfillment of all Old Testament prophecy and the complete revelation of the New Testament.
==Ephesians 1:12==
12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Paul here is directly referencing the first century church, those who were Christians at the beginning. They would be the martyrs, the overcomers, the ones who would be read about for all time in the pages of the New Testament as they endured the suffering at the hands of the Jews and took part in the establishment of Christ's glorious kingdom. No Christians today can make this claim. 
I bring this up to emphasize the importance of proper perspective when studying the scriptures. When reading today, we MUST read this in the context of who it was written to in that time FIRST, then draw general application to ourselves, not the other way around. If we don't, we run the risk of selfish interpretation and therefore an interpretation full of error, as we see throughout the world today.
==Ephesians 1:13-14==
13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
After hearing the gospel, the Christians at Ephesus put their trust in Christ. Once again, the ideas of grace and the gospel are intertwined here as the cause of salvation.
With regard to the sealing here with the holy spirit, this is a long and involved study in itself. I plan to do a stand alone article on it some time in the future to back the assertion I make here, but my focus right now is on the apocalyptic and so I will only assert my belief here.
I believe that the sealing with the holy spirit is not the third person of the Godhead. I believe the seal is the spirit of Christ that the Christians of the first century took on when they conformed themselves to the teachings of Christ. It is a seal, a stamp on them that is an anti-parallel to the mark of the beast in Revelation. With Christ in their minds and actions, they indicate they are Christ's during the time when the Jewish system is being taken out and the church established. An earnest is a down-payment, a portion of a full to be given. As I wrote above, the inheritance of those spiritual blessings had been received to an extent, but was still being delivered. The portion they had already received, the earnest, was in good faith by God to show that all the promises and prophecies would be fulfilled. It's like paying for a package online and then having to go to the store to pick it up (forgive my feeble human analogy). The church was paid for at the Cross, but needed to be "picked up". This was done when the church was fully established. The full inheritance was delivered when the last jot and tittle of the New Testament was written down (I believe this was the book of Jude) toward the end of the first century after the fall of Jerusalem.
Again, the seal is not the Holy Spirit, but a mindset that is Christlike. We will show this to some extent further down in verse 17 and through the rest of the letter.
==Ephesians 1:15-16==
15 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, 16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
The church at Ephesus is a faithful congregation at this point and Paul's letter to them is full of encouragement rather than correction as some of his letters are. They are a congregation that is great at evangelism and support many efforts to that effect as we see in the book of Acts. Unfortunately, by the time John writes Revelation a few years later, Ephesus has fallen away from this due to persecution. It is another testament, akin to Galatians 1:6, as to how fast apostasy can happen.
==Ephesians 1:17-21==
17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come:
God gives a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. From the knowledge, mankind comes to understand the mysteries of God and gains the ability to properly address any situation that arises (wisdom). This spirit is the same type of spirit from verse 13. It is a mindset, not a person.
Paul is saying that through the preaching of the gospel, of which his letter is part, they would grow, they would understand the things that mankind did not understand before including what the hope of God's calling is, what the riches of the inheritance for the saints from God were. This all comes through the "working of His mighty power", which Paul declared in Romans 1:16 is the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ and His resurrection (1 Cor. 15) which implies the resurrection of the Christian.
Christ is then set as King, ruler in the heavens (plural) meaning He was the King of New Jerusalem, Spiritual Israel. When the old Jewish system was taken out of the way (2 Pet. 3:10-12) then the new system would be unchallenged (2 Pet. 3:13). Christ, though, rules from Heaven in the throne of God, hence the plural heavens. His authority is above all earthly authorities, above anything that man or spirit other than His Father can devise or achieve. Note that this rule began while the Jewish age still lingered, but would continue in the new age, the one post-Judaism.
This authority extends to everything and that makes sense since God the Son was the person through which all created things were made (John 1:1-3; Heb. 1:1-2). What I believe is important to stress here, because there is confusion on this, is that Jesus's authority extends to ALL people, not just Christians. Everyone is amenable to the New Testament, whereas only Israelites/Jews were amenable to the Law of Moses.
A reminder on the term age (aionos). Aionos is a chronological term and therefore only references things within the Universe. It cannot reference Heaven because time does not and will not exist there. I believe that this new age did not start with the founding of Christianity at Pentecost, but with the fall of Judaism and Christianity's full establishment by the end of the first century. This is NOT the same as saying that the Kingdom of Christ did not exist prior to the fall of Jerusalem nor that one was only a "partial" Christian (whatever that means) before the fall of Jerusalem. A Christian is a Christian and one could have been a Christian the Sunday morning after Christ rose from the grave if they'd known what needed to be done and done it for the right reasons. So I don't think "Mosaical Age" and "Christian Age" are exactly precise as they are currently used since there is, in a sense, some overlap (40 years).
==Ephesians 1:22-23==
22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, 23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
Christ has authority over all things, and all people are amenable to His Law, the New Testament. However, Paul makes a special effort to show the relationship of Christ to the church, an effort that will continue throughout the letter. Christ is the Head of the church. The church is His body. Church = body. These are both singular in number and nature and cannot be overstressed. There cannot be multiple churches any more than there can be multiple bodies for a single head. There cannot be multiple heads for a single body. 
There is no way that denominationalism is justified according to the Law of Christ. If a congregation defends denominationalism and claims to be part of it, whatever else they practice and teach, they are not of the body of Christ but some mutant monster devised by man.
In Truth and Love.
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Ephesians 1
Ephesians 2
Ephesians 3
Ephesians 4
Ephesians 5
Ephesians 6