The Text<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe passage is incredibly deep in its theological references and impossibly dense in its language. Older commentators observed that all of the verses 3-14 are a single sentence in Greek since the New Testament was originally written with no punctuation or even breaks in words. Consequently, such aids to reading as periods, commas, semicolons and the like have been supplied by later editors based on grammatical and syntactical features of the text to make the passage comprehensible. What we have is the valiant effort of modern English translations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The critical issue in this passage is the prepositional phrase that is repeated at the beginning of verse 7, 11, and 13, literally translated in the English as, \u201cin whom.\u201d It is these initial prepositional phrases that also suggest that this passage is one single sentence. The question, as always with pronouns, is: \u201cWhat is the antecedent of \u201cin whom,\u201d referring to? One possibility is that it refers back to \u201cGod\u201d in verse 3 for why God is deserving of praise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The problem with this proposal is that it does not appear to work for verse 7. Because the \u201cin whom\u201d in this verse most likely has the same antecedent as \u201chis\u201d in the next phrase, \u201cthrough his blood,\u201d it would seem to refer to Christ rather than the Father. If the \u201cwhom\u201d in verse 7 refers to Christ, could it be that it refers to Christ in verses 11 and 13 as well? That identification certainly works grammatically in both instances, and indeed the NRSV has made this interpretation explicit in its translation of the phrase at the beginning of verse 11 as, \u201cIn Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Message<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nThe status of the Christian believer \u201cin Christ\u201d is the dominant theme in Ephesians. The author maintains that, in what remains somewhat paradoxical \u201crevealed mystery\u201d (God \u201chas made known to us the mystery\u2026set forth in Christ,\u201d vs.9), that God has always (\u201cbefore the foundation of the world,\u201d vs. 4) and will ever (\u201ca plan for the fullness of time,\u201d vs. 10) deal with humanity \u201cin\u201d and \u201cthrough Jesus Christ\u201d (vs.5). God\u2019s determination to deal with us in this way is both our greatest blessing (vs. 3) and our greatest reason for \u201cthe praise of [God\u2019s] glory\u201d (vs.14).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reason God\u2019s determination to deal with humanity \u201cin Christ\u201d is so important emerges from the gap between God\u2019s plan for humanity and the reality of our condition. God had \u201cdestined us for adoption as [God\u2019s] children\u201d (vs. 5), but with the intention that we should \u201cbe holy and blameless before [God] in love\u201d (vs. 4). Because of our \u201ctrespasses,\u201d there was a need for our \u201credemption\u201d and \u201cforgiveness\u201d if God\u2019s plan was to be realized. It is \u201cthrough [Christ\u2019s] blood (vs. 7) that we have been once again gathered with \u201call things\u2026in heaven and things on earth\u201d (vs. 10) back to God. To assure that we are not again separated from God, we \u201cwere marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit\u201d (vs. 13) to maintain us \u201cin Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Discussion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nHow are you planning to live a life \u201cin Christ\u201d in the 2009 New Year? Will you be making lemonade?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(Notes are drawn heavily from Homiletics<\/em>, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp.10-12.)<\/p>\n\n\n\nDN, 12\/4\/2009<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sermon Talkback\u2014January 4, 2009 Let\u2019s Make Lemonade Ephesians 1:3-14 The Text The passage is incredibly deep in its theological references and impossibly dense in its language. Older commentators observed thatContinue readingLet\u2019s Make Lemonade Sermon Talkback<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-3110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donald-ng-sermon-talkbacks","tag-ephesians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3110"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3111,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110\/revisions\/3111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}