Bible Study
To the Praise of His Glory
The Praise Anthem
Ephesians 1:3-14 is remarkable. In the original Greek, it is one continuous sentence over 200 words long. How many of you remember literature class? If you submitted a 200-word sentence to your teacher, you’d be in trouble. Even for Paul, it’s a long sentence. But it seems like Paul entered a mode of exaltation where praise poured out of him. I imagine both Paul and his scribe ended up face down on the ground, in tears, overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration.
Let’s have a look at this passage together:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, whois the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
(Ephesians 1:3-14 NKJV).
There’s a lot going on this passage. If you’re sitting here thinking, “What does, ‘to the praise of His glory’ mean?” then you’re not alone. Theologians have referred to this passage as the pinnacle of Christian theology. It is a passage where the richness, depth and layers of God’s plan – from before time to the end of time – are put together in a passionate, beautiful monologue. Theologically, you can’t get any richer than this. At the same time, in terms of passion and emotion, it doesn’t get better than this. And that is completely fitting, because theology and worship ought to go together. What is theology except the study of God? And when you study God, the only appropriate response to getting a glimpse of Him is to fall on our faces in worship. True theology always leads to worship.
To the praise of His glory?
Notice the phrase repeated throughout the passage: "to the praise of His glory." Verse 6 says, "To the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved." Verse 12 echoes, "So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory." Again in verse 14: "To the praise of His glory."
What does this phrase mean, “to the praise of His glory”? This is not just some clever slogan Paul made up, some pretty words to fill space. Every word of this is deep and loaded with meaning.
Paul starts talking in verse 6 not only about “the praise of His glory”, but the “praise of His glorious grace.” Now, we hopefully know what grace is. We know that it is a gift of God, that we are saved by grace, that none of us can boast in it. That’s our understanding of grace as Christians. Paul takes that concept and gives us a very clear picture of how grace works, and he uses adoption as the picture.
Chosen and adopted
We all know what adoption is, but adoption today is very different to adoption in the first-century Greco-Roman world. In our time, we adopt a child who needs a home. But in Roman times, adoption was often more of a strategic, financial or political move. You might adopt an adult person to create a political alliance or join two powerful families. Someone adopted would then receive not only the same rights and privileges as the natural-born children, but in some cases even more. For example, Caesar Augustus was adopted as a grown man by Julius Caesar, thereby inheriting all the rights of sonship, which was the emperor’s intention.
What is the same then and now is that no-one gets adopted by accident. To be adopted, you must be chosen by your future parents. Now think of what this means for us. Paul tells us we were predestined for adoption. Long before you ever made the decision to follow Jesus, He chose you! He found you, he picked you. He chose you for adoption to Himself as sons and daughters according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace.
He found you. He picked you. He chose YOU!
Take a moment to imagine a scene before time existed, before the world was formed, before any human being had ever drawn a breath of air. Father God goes to the adoption agency of Eternity, and He looks down through the corridors of time and says, “I want this one.” He picks you out and He pulls you close to his heart and begins to dream of what He's going to make with you and what He's going to do with you. He says, “I'm going to set you apart. I have a purpose and a plan for you and it's beyond anything that you could hope or think or even imagine. I'm going to redeem you with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. And I'm not just going to save you, I’m giving you a whole destiny of purpose.”
It's not really about you
That's what God's grace is. It's not just grace to avoid hell, it's God's grace and favor to come into His family. What else does He promise in the richness of His endless grace? God says (and these are all promises straight out of Scripture), “I'm going to give you the desires of your heart because you delight in me. I'm going to clothe you with strength and dignity so you can laugh at the days to come. I'm going to make you more than a conqueror. I'm going to open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing that you cannot contain. I'm going to give you an inheritance that will never depreciate and a joy that will never dissipate. I'm going to give you a peace that will never waver, strength that will never deteriorate and love that will never terminate.”
That's grace! That's adoption. That's what it means to be brought near because of the blood of Jesus. Can you feel the praise beginning to erupt as you think about it?
Everything God has done in you and through you is not really about you.
The Bible says God is angry with the wicked every day. But when sinners flee to the feet of Jesus, the Father sees them as one with the Son. Through their connection with Christ, despite their former wickedness, they become the beneficiaries of Christ’s favor with the Father – all because of Jesus. That’s not to say that God has adopted us only because of His great favor. You might be tempted to read it that way, because this adoption is so wonderful for us. But what this scripture says next makes it very clear: we are adopted as sons “to the praise of His glorious grace.”
It means that everything God has done in you and through you is not really about you. It’s all been done to let praise resound, to the praise of His glory.
The End Revealed
Paul starts this passage by talking about how we were all chosen before the foundation of the world (to the praise of His glory) and then in verse 10, he talks about the ultimate purpose of creation. When all is said and done, at the end of the ages, we will see ourselves how it was all “to the praise of His glory.”
We have an artist at church who sometimes paints a picture during worship, and he uses an interesting technique. He paints the entire picture upside-down. At first, if you’ve never seen him do that before, you have to wonder what on earth he’s doing. The more he paints, the more confusing it gets. But at the end, at just the right point, he flips the canvas. There’s a moment of amazement when you think, “Wow! It’s better than I ever imagined!”
Every man and woman in every generation has gone through times when they cry out, “Why, God? What is this for? Why am I going through this? I don’t understand this.” But here’s the promise, the revelation that had Paul spontaneously erupting in praise at the thought of it… God’s work in us is a bit like that artist. He starts with the final vision in mind and works back from there, so every stroke of His brush is on purpose. He doesn’t do a single thing flippantly or unintentionally.
Every stroke of His brush is on purpose
You may not understand it yet, but there is a moment of revelation coming when everything is going to be turned right-way-up. When God flips the canvas, and you see everything He’s been doing in your life, you’re going to understand it all. At the end of the age, everything will be completed in Christ – everything’s going to make sense. And when we see it, I think we’re all going to break out in a million years of unceasing praise to the glory of His grace!
Evangelist Daniel Kolenda
