Study Notes and Questions for May 4, 2008

Study Notes and Questions for May 4, 2008


Read Ephesians 1:3-1:14

What is your first reaction to these verses?



How would you summarize these verses?




Start with verse 3 – RE-read it aloud. What is this verse about? Name at least 4 points in this verse:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Christian faith and life have their center in God’s Son and the Epistle therefore opens with an expression of gratitude for all that is found in Him. It is cast in the form of a Jewish berakah, or blessing.

The “Praise be to” at the beginning is eugogetos and is used exclusively of God in the NT to indicate the One who alone is worthy of worship (remember the heresy in Colossians?).

In verse 4 – Where does Paul trace every spiritual blessing to? Explain the answer.




The word “chose” here is the usual one employed in connection with God’s choice of Israel. Specifically, it implied the taking of a smaller number out of a larger.
Why would it be important for God to have chosen us before time began?




The life of Christians DEPENDS on a love that never had a beginning and never has an end. Election in Christ has a moral aim in view. It is expressed both positively and negatively. To be “holy” (hagios) means to be set apart for God in order to reflect His purity (note the word REFLECT). “Blameless” (amomos) is “free from blemish,” like the sacrificial animals presented on the altar in the old dispensation. It applied to Christ Himself (Heb 9:14; 1 Peter 1:19), to the ideal church (Eph 5:17), and to Christians in the end of the age (2 Peter 3:14; Jude 24) and also now (Phil 2:15).

Read verse 5 –

What are the main points of this verse?




What does it mean to be a son/daughter of Christ? What does it mean to be adopted?



Why does He adopt us? For what purpose?




Note what ends verse 4 and really begins verse 5 (this is why you cannot pull verses out of context and expect good things). Any interpretation of this mysterious doctrine on predestination that detracts from the Love of God is suspect.

Under Roman law, an adopted son enjoyed the same status and privileges as a real son. Christ is God’s Son “by nature”. Believers are so only by adoption and grace, yet they are co-heirs with him (Romans 8:17). The ground of this gracious action is to be discovered in the character of God Himself. Behind the fulfillment of His perfect will there lies His pleasure (eudokia) – that which brings Him satisfaction because it represents the expression of His being.

Write out verse 6 –






What is the ultimate aim of the divine plan of redemption? What is to be our response to this plan?




Read verse 7 –

What blessings flow from the matchless grace of God?




Note that all the blessings are “in Christ”. They are sourced from Christ and part of His sphere (Col 1:14). They are also enjoyed by the believer in the present. The tense is continuous – “we have an are still having.”

Redemption (apolytrosis) has to do with the emancipation either of slaves or of prisoners. The NEB has “release”. The term also implies the payment of a being “through his blood” (Col 1:20). The price paid for man’s redemption from bondage to sin was constly beyond measure. It was the very lifeblood of Christ Himself, poured out in death.

Forgiveness (aphesis) is loosing someone from what binds them. It stems from a verb meaning to send away (John 20:23). What God deals with our sin, it is dispatched into the wilderness like the scapegoat (Lev 16:20-22). Here, however, the reference is not to sin (harmartia) as in Col 1:14, but to sins (paraptoma) or derivations from the right path. The first term denotes a sinful CONDITION, the second, sinful ACTS. Forgiveness deals with both.
Are you forgiven from your condition of sin?



Do you still commit sinful acts?



Are those sinful acts forgiven? How do you know?




Summarize verse 7 – 10 –





What do these verses me to YOU and YOUR life NOW



Why do you believe that predestination is called out?



Are there any practical applications around today’s study that God has revealed to you? What will you do now?



Who and what will you pray for this week?



NOTE: Don’t become discouraged around this lesson. If predestination and God’s choosing is difficult or concerning that is OK! Theologians have been debating this for centuries now just like they have been trying to explain the Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. We will cover the fundamentals around reasons for choice and forgiveness this Sunday. Have a great week!

Andy