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Allow the truth of the gospel which is absolute truth shape your understanding of the truth. God’s truth and His saving hope in Christ is that truth.
Ephesians 1:11-14 - 11 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, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
What is truth? The most popular answer in our society today is that truth is relative. This means there is no absolute truth and everyone has their own truth. I remember a conversation in which a non-believer said, “Your truth does not have to be my truth.”
Now, that sounds very tolerant and open-minded, right? But what he meant was this: what you believe to be true is your truth but what I believe to be true is my truth. Therefore, there cannot be an absolute truth.
In Ephesians 1:11-14, the truth of the gospel is the absolute truth. Believers need to know this truth to understand what they believe in, and non-believers need to understand what they reject.
The problem with the truth being relative is that when everyone’s truth is true then there is no truth at all. People need to know that the gospel truth is the absolute truth.
In Ephesians 1:11-14, the final blessing that God chose to reveal to mankind through Paul was the truth of the gospel. All of this started in Ephesians 1:3 which said in Jesus, God has blessed us with all heavenly blessings, and out of that came the blessing of the doctrines of election, adoption, justification, redemption, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit outlined the essential doctrines of the truth of the gospel that originated with God, in the mind of God, and in the counsel of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit before the foundation of the earth; that is before us, before sin, and before creation.
The big idea for us today is that the truth of the Gospel is the only absolute truth because it is God’s truth. Since God never changes, His truth does not change either. It depends neither on circumstances, cultures, human beliefs, nor time. It is true for all people, everywhere, all the time.
The Truth of the Gospel is Saving Hope
The only way God could accomplish His plan to save the world is by saving believers in Jesus through gospel hope. Hope is the common denominator in all of us. We are hope-based and hope-oriented creatures. Even in the worst situations, we hope for good.
Therefore, this hope has caused all nations, tribes, and tongues throughout history to maintain the idea of a redeemer, a deliverer, a hero who would appear at the right time to fight evil, hold up justice, and set people free.
The problem is not hope but rather in whom we put our hope. If we put our hope in people, people will disappoint you, take advantage of you, and steal your hope. Whether these people are politicians, priests, or pastors, all will disappoint you, but God will not disappoint.
God created us with hope. Without hope, we are nothing but empty shells. God wants us to put our hope in Jesus and He expects us to trust Him and His timing, for He will never disappoint those who put their hope in Jesus. Romans 5:4-5 tells us, “4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
With this understanding of saving hope, Ephesians 1:11-12 reads, “11 In him [Jesus] 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. 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.”
This hope in Christ that Paul writes about is the gospel-saving hope. Paul says, “We who were the first to hope in Christ.”
The “we” here is the ethnic Jews, the nation of Israel. The Jews the first to receive hope in Christ when they were given the law. The law exposed their sins against the Holy God. The sacrificial system pointed them to the ultimate sacrifice that the Son of God, the Messiah Jesus, will make to redeem them, and through them, all nations.
Therefore, the gospel, which means good news, was preached to the saints of the Old Testament first. It is not what we do that makes us righteous before God but rather what has been done for us. Though Jesus had not gone to the cross at that point in time yet, the basis for salvation was no different than that of us. They put their faith in Jesus, looking forward to the complete redemptive work of Christ on the cross. We put our faith in Jesus by looking back to the complete redemptive work of Chris on the cross. Faith in Jesus was and is the basis of salvation.
In Ephesians 1:11, Paul says what the saints of the Old Testament hoped to inherit and died believing in is exactly what we already have obtained the possession of, namely the inheritance.
When we think of inheritance, we think of material things on earth or heavenly treasures, but that is not how it is used here. To understand what inheritance means here, we need to look at the Old Testament because that is how Paul qualifies inheritance.
The Old Testament uses inheritance in two ways:
Israel was God’s Inheritance. Deuteronomy 4:20 reads, “But the Lord has taken you [Israel] and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance.”
God was Israel’s Inheritance. Numbers 18:20 says, “And the Lord said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.”
So, not only God's people are God’s inheritance, but God is also their inheritance. In other words, inheritance is not a thing or things but a person or persons. This is exactly how Ephesians 1:11-12 uses inheritance.
In Greek, the phrase, “we have obtained an inheritance,” is one word and the root word there is klayros, which means “what is obtained by lot.” It is an allotted portion. The idea is that God looked at all the nations on the face of the earth and He chose Israel to be His portion, His inheritance. However, a portion was not enough. God’s ultimate plan was to have it all— all nations, tongues, and languages worshiping and praising God, and this, He accomplished by saving believers in Jesus through the gospel saving hope. The moment people put their hope in Jesus for this life and the life to come, they get possession of the inheritance, which is Jesus.
Therefore, the Greek form of Ephesians 1:11 has two meanings, also: “in Him [Jesus] we have obtained an inheritance” means Jesus is our inheritance and “in Him [Jesus] we were made an inheritance” means we are Jesus’s inheritance.
Both are simultaneously true because we abide in Him and He abides in us. All of this, Ephesians 1:11 says, was “predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will.”
The Greek word for will is thelema (see blog titled The Blessing of the Mystery of God's Will where three concepts of God’s Will are explained). Here is God’s sovereign and perfect Will for His good pleasure that counseled Him. The counsel was that God the Father in eternity past should predestine the elect as an inheritance for God the Son, Jesus, and Jesus an inheritance for the elects.
It is like God the Father, before the foundation of the earth, said to God’s Son— here is your gift: the church, your bride that you must die for to redeem, restore, and reconcile to be your inheritance. And in our historical reality about 2000 years ago, He said to the world— here is your gift: my Son, Emmanuel which means “God with Us” because God took on flesh to dwell among men.
In that sense, inheritance is the gift of God to Jesus and us in which both get each other as their possession. However, inheritance is not only the gift, but it is also the goal of the gospel hope and the ground on which the saving hope stands, all of that is Jesus. Jesus was the missing link in history for all nations that were hoping for a redeemer, savior, deliverer, and hero who could save them.
Ephesians 1:11-12 also give the reason why the revelation of the gospel hope in Jesus that could save nations and the world was first given to Jews. It was so that they could worship, exult, and live for the glory of God.
The end of verse 12 says, “so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.” We praise his glory by living out the gospel hope.
Last Thursday, my wife was sharing with our small group how I never lose an opportunity to witness to strangers. A witness reports what he or she sees. Now, my wife is the only person who has consistently observed my life for the last 17 years. So, she is the witness of what she has seen. Therefore, she reports. I have witnessed the power of the saving hope in Christ for me and many other people. So, I tell others about it. That’s all that Paul is doing in this letter he is sharing what he has witnessed and experienced: the saving hope of the gospel.
Application
The application is like Paul we must tell others that outside of Jesus, there was not, is not, and never will be the hope of salvation. Neither for this life nor for the life to come because…
…Christ is the source of saving hope. It is the hope of salvation. It originates with Jesus. He is the basis and foundation of it. Unlike the hope the world offers, which is temporary, uncertain, and wishful at best, the hope in Christ is rooted in the eternal plan of God and is based on God’s character.
…Christ is the substance of saving hope. That means He is our salvation. Not only is Jesus the source, but also the substance of hope. Therefore, rejecting the gospel, the saving hope is rejecting Jesus, the substance of our salvation.
…Christ is the scope of saving hope. In Christ, hope has three dimensions.
· It has a future orientation; that is, what we will inherit because of the saving hope of the gospel in Jesus.
· However, that future is grounded in the past, which is how our future inheritance was secured in Jesus in the first place, both first in the mind of God and the plan of God before the foundation of the earth and then, in actuality, 2000 years ago on the cross.
· How it is sustained in the present time by the power of the Spirit. Next time, in Ephesians 1:13-14, we will study how, through the agency of the Holy Spirit, God draws sinners to the savior Jesus to be saved, and then by the sealing of the Holy Spirit, He sanctifies them, preparing them for glorification where we become sinless.
Imagine my conversation with the man that I mentioned at the beginning. He was trying to be tolerant of my belief that Jesus is the only way to heaven. Would you choose tolerance over truth? How would you have handled his view that there might be many ways to heaven?
Action Step
If you never experienced the saving hope in Christ, please ask Jesus to come into your life so that you can experience that saving hope. If you are a believer, then your responsibility is to show through speech and action the living hope of Christ.
Appeal
Please do not ever give into relativism that there is no absolute truth. Allow the truth of the gospel which is absolute truth shape your understanding of the truth. God’s truth and His saving hope in Christ is that truth.
Study Questions
1. Ephesians 1:11 and 14 talk about inheritance. What is this inheritance and by what means is it obtained?
2. In Ephesians 1:11, what does it mean that God “accomplishes all things according to the counsel of His will?” Think in the context of Ephesians 1:3-14.
3. In Ephesians 1:12, to whom does Paul refer when he says “so that we who were first to hope in Christ?”
Deeper Study Questions
1. Share one application that you plan to put into practice.
2. Ephesians 1:14 says “sealed with the Holy Spirit.” How can one receive that seal? What must we do to receive this? Think in context of Ephesians 1:3-14.
3. How does this sealing relate to your inheritance and redemption? Make the answer personal as you think of Ephesians 1:13 and 4:30.
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