As of Sunday February 26, 2012, we will be holding our worship services at Laurel Elementary School in Brea, CA (See below for address and map). Until then we will continue to meet at Brea Olinda High School as has been our custom.

As a reminder, our Worship & Communion Service begins at 9:00am and Catechism at 10:45am.

Please make all necessary arrangements to meet us there to worship our Lord with a grateful attitude.

Laurel Elementary School

200 South Flower Avenue, Brea, California

Ephesians 1:19

Paul’s prayer for illumination for the Ephesians contains a very surprising and thrilling request as he prayed that the Ephesians would come to know God’s great power at work in them. Five different words are used to unpack the dimensions of God’s power operative in believers, while in verse 20 a case from history, Christ’s resurrection and heavenly exaltation, are cited as tangible examples of just what kind of enormous things this power can accomplish. Believers, armed with a sense of awareness about this power, will have consolation to know that not only will they arrive at the promised and hoped for heavenly inheritance but also that their earthly struggles against spiritual forces of darkness will not end in failure.

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Ephesians 1:15-18

Some people think that a mastery of the lexical, grammatical, and literary details of a passage always leads to a right understanding of Scripture. Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, that they might receive the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the clear knowledge of God, makes it clear that we cannot understand Scripture adequately without the illumination of the Holy Spirit. This prayer of Paul means that Christians cannot be assured of adequate understanding of Biblical truth apart from seeking the grace of spiritual illumination through prayer.

Ephesians 1:13-14

In view of hearing promises of participation in an eternal heavenly inheritance, the most natural question to ask is, “can I be sure that I will actually obtain it?” Paul’s answer to that question is that assurance is ours because the Holy Spirit has sealed us until the return of Jesus Christ. A moments reflection leads us to understand that the sealing of the Holy Spirit is a means of great consolation to the believer, assuring them that nothing will separate them from the reception of heavenly grace.

Ephesians 1:11-12

Paul hardly mentions the grace of eternal inheritance, before he passes on quickly to underscore its sovereign administration to us. Five different terms are used to highlight the sovereignty of God in his plans, purposes, operations, and distributions. Where one term by itself could have adequately conveyed divine sovereignty, Paul uses many terms to amplify God’s power and plans. The opening phrase of v12 accounts for this heaping up of terms as Paul discloses the purpose of God’s administration of the grace of inheritance when he declares that it was for the purpose of God’s glory. Paul’s basic message is that divine sovereignty is overwhelmingly exercised in administering grace in order order to secure the broader of aim of magnifying the glory of God.

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Ephesians 1:8-10

Dispensationalists have long contended that these verses support their novel interpretation of Scripture. Far from supporting their novel and esoteric concept of dispensationalism, these verses magnify the grace of God in revealing to the Church the objective work of God in Christ to unify all things in heaven and earth in Christ through the blood of his cross.

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Ephesians 1:7-8

At verse 7, Paul pivots from praising the Father for redemptive grace to praising the incarnate Son of God for securing redemptive grace for the elect. In turning to the praise of Christ, Paul begins with the grace of redemptive forgiveness. As one who experienced the joy of receiving a cleansed conscience through washing with Christ’s blood, Paul makes it a first item for praise to magnify the riches of grace in the administration of redemptive forgiveness and the removal of sin’s guilt.

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In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. – Ephesians 1:5-6

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…just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him in love. – Ephesians 1:4

“Just as” grammatically connects the thought of verse 4 to verse 3 and thereby traces the divine administration of spiritual grace, referred to in verse 3, to the fountain of the sovereign election of sinners by God the Father in eternity past. Paul makes it clear that election is of individuals, in Christ, in eternity past, unto holiness and blamelessness. It is clear that Paul’s construction of the doctrine of election cannot be construed as a corporate election of the church, apart from the election of specific individuals, unto salvation in Christ and it cannot be interpreted to refer to an election based upon the divine foreknowledge of some individuals who God knew in advance would believe, repent, and persevere in faith. According to the structure of Paul’s thought, the sovereign election of individuals in Christ secures the temporal administration of grace and entitles believers to full assurance of salvation as they contemplate their election in Christ.

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