Dig Into Ephesians with Todd WagnerSample

To the Praise of His Glorious Grace

If you’ve ever received an inheritance, you likely enjoyed a close relationship with the person who named you in the will. Perhaps after, say, Grandpa’s funeral, the family gathered to read his will and to discover how he wanted his assets to be distributed. Grandpa’s signature confirmed the legality of the will. And the inheritance confirmed the love you already knew Grandpa had for you.

Rather than a signature, documents from the first century came with a seal, usually the image of the official’s ornate ring pressed into wax. If the document was a will, the words listed the inheritance details, and the seal proclaimed it legitimate.

The apostle Paul borrows legal language as he describes the vastness of God’s love for us. In his letter to the church at Ephesus, likely also meant for nearby churches to read as well, he opens on a celebratory note. 

“Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ.” This proclamation in verse 3 begins the longest sentence in the Bible, a grammatically chaotic run-on sentence that goes for eleven verses. Of course, in our English Bibles we’ve broken it up into shorter, easier-to-read sentences that convey the same message. 

Paul wants the Ephesians (and future readers) to know the extraordinary value that God places on us. We are chosen (v. 4), adopted (v. 5), lavished with grace (v. 6), redeemed and forgiven (v. 7), with all these blessings poured out to us because of God’s understanding and wisdom (v. 8). It was always God’s plan to send Christ to reconcile—bring back into relationship—himself with humanity (vv. 10–11).

Paul concludes his impressively lengthy sentence by marveling that we are God’s inheritance—God loves us so much that he has gone to great, sacrificial lengths to redeem us from our sin. Paul also points to the Holy Spirit as the seal—God’s signature, if you will—that God’s promises are true.

Paul then breaks out into a joyful prayer, asking God to help his readers see and understand the truth of God’s love for them. Why? Because we need the Spirit’s help to comprehend the hope we have in Jesus and the power of Christ in our lives. We need God to help us believe the truth.

We cannot read through Ephesians 1 without an overwhelming sense of God’s love for us—love that extends back to before the foundation of the world. How often do you reflect on what God has given you in Christ: that he has chosen you, redeemed you, and adopted you as his child? How does reflecting on God’s view of you change the way you view yourself? How does it encourage you?

What is your heart’s response when you think about God’s love for you?

This reading plan was written by the staff at RightNow Media, and the accompanying video teaching was produced in partnership between Todd Wagner and RightNow Media.