Ephesians 7-10; A Devotional

Because verses 7-10 are all one sentence in the Greek, I wanted to go back and treat it the way it deserves: as one thought. Therefore, consider this a bit of a review from the past two weeks.

[It is in the Beloved that] we have redemption through His blood: the excusing of sins according to the abundance of His grace which He teemed into us in all wisdom and understanding having revealed to us the secret of His will, according to His good judgment, which, through Christ, was preplanned for managing the fulfillment of times in order to coalesce all things in Christ throughout the heavens and the earth.

What is the central theme of this whole passage? What concept or idea represents the crux, the center, of the thoughts? I would say it was this: God's mind. There are several key words in this sentence that point directly to how God thinks: 'wisdom', 'understanding', 'secret of His will', 'good judgment', and 'preplanned'. All of these words point to one central truth: the redemption that we have through Christ's blood was not an accident; it was a plan set forth by God to accomplish what He truly wants.

What is it that He truly wants? That secret that He has kept hidden for so long: the unification of the whole world under Christ. That both Jew and Gentile, indeed all the descendants of Adam, shall be one people, one nation, ruled by God and by His Son, Jesus the Messiah! This is God's goal, according to His wisdom, understanding, and good judgment.

And if we think about it, this makes sense. When God created Adam, He didn't create Him to bring about the people of Israel. He created Adam because He wanted humanity, and this has not changed. It is a return to the created order of things that is the center of God's heart and it is our sin that stands in the way of that.

This brings us to the cross: the ultimate means of salvation by which God accomplishes His perfect will. In order to accomplish this unification, He has teemed us was grace, all of us, not a select few, to bring about redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ.

This is also important, because it is not God's preplanning, nor His election that accomplishes redemption. It is the blood of Christ. Redemption is by and through Christ. He is the plan, not merely a means to it.

Therefore, let us turn our hearts to Him: the author and worker of our salvation, and give this day to Him completely, that we may be fully committed to His deep love and commitment to us!