Ephesians 1:7-10

Making something is hard but restoring it when it breaksis harder.

As a teenager,I enjoyed building 1:24 scale model cars, esp. vintage Ford Mustangs. Once Ibuilt a vintage Fordpickup, a Skill 3 kit.  I usuallybuilt Skill 2 kits, so this was a bigger challenge. After spending lots oftime, money, and effort, I finally finished. I put it in a display case for myfamily to admire, but not long after, someone accidentally knocked it over (I don’tremember who) and it fell to the ground in pieces. As difficult and costly as makingthe truck had been, the thought of re-making it seemed more daunting andexpensive. Since I didn’t have the determination to rebuild it, I threw itaway.

In August 2005,Hurricane Katrina,a Cat 4 storm, struck land. It was one of the deadliest hurricanes on record inthe U.S., killing 1,833 people. It was also the most expensive U.S. hurricane,costing anywhere from $125 to $180 billion to rebuild. New Orleans, which isthe economic and commercial hub for the Gulf Coast region, was especiallydevasted by this storm. It flooded more than 80% of the city and caused so muchdamage that the population of the city declined by 50%. Nearly 15 years later,the city continues to rebuild.

Model trucksand hurricane-ravaged cities aside, I think you’ll agree that:

Relationships are very hard to build, but they’re even harderto rebuild once they’re broken.

Yet if youthink rebuilding a few relationships in your life is hard, think again. Howhard would it be to restore God’s relationship to all of his creation? This, myfriends, is the greatest restoration project of all time, and Paul speaks aboutit in Eph 1:7-10.

In thebeginning, God made everything, and everything was very good (Gen 1:31), butnot for long. We soon turned away from God’s will to pursue our own selfishdesires. We became his enemies. “Through one man, sin entered into the world,and death through sin” (Rom5:12). As a result, “death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Rom5:12).

God could havedone what I did with my broken model truck – throw it away. He could have discardedthe world as a failed project and abandoned us because we had failed in ourrelationship with him.

We do thisoften. We scrap projects that fail. We abandon people who let us down. But Godis not this way. He finishes what he starts and he fixes what’s broken.

Redemption is the way that God restores his brokencreation.

The Bible uses theword redemption to describe how he does this. Both the Old and NewTestaments speak about redemption more than we can explore here. So to graspwhat it means, let’s consider one example from the Law of Moses (Exo 21:28-30).

According tothis law, if an ox killed someone, then the owner should kill it to remove therisk of anyone else being killed. However, if the owner already knew the ox wasa threat but did nothing and the ox went on to kill someone, then the ownershould also be killed. He would be liable for that person’s death because hecould have prevented it.

In some cases,though, there was a way to avoid this penalty. Someone who represented thedeceased could set an alternative monetary settlement (probably a large one).If the guilty person was able to pay the amount, then he would be freed fromthe death penalty and could return to life as usual.

Redemption is receiving freedom by the payment of aprice.

Life was goodwhen God made the world. People enjoyed close fellowship with him andfriendship with one another. But when our first parents, Adam and Eve, rebelledagainst God’s goodness and guidance. They placed us all under the penalty ofdeath (Rom 5:12). In God’s goodness, he warned this would happen, but weignored his warning (Gen 2:17).

Unlike theowner of an ox who killed someone, we can pay nothing to solve our problem. Noworks that we can do will save us (Eph 2:8-9). We are enslaved to sin with no escape.

We are enslaved to sin with no escape.

Thankfully, God already knew the price required to free us from our slavery and rebellion. In a national election year, we hear politicians promise us many things. They promise us healthcare for all or a more cutting-edge military, for instance. When they make these grand promises, we must ask two questions in return:

• How much will it cost?
• Is it worth it?

The answer tothe first question is often in the billions of dollars, and the answer to thesecond question varies. But here’s my point: how much would it cost God torescue us from sin, and is it worth it?

God knew that thisprice would be the violent, bloody death of Jesus Christ his Son who would liveand die in our place. Yet even though it would cost so much, he did it anyway.

Would you havecreated and chosen people like us to become your children for eternity if youknew it would cost you so much to do it?

God paid the ultimate price, even though you had offendedhim to the maximum degree.

The word sins here means “trespass” or “offence.” We violated God’s purpose for making us. We broke his trust and violated his will in the most painful, offensive way possible. We sinned against the one and only holy and righteous, good and loving God who made us. He made us and had done nothing but good for us, yet we rebelled against him anyway.

He made us and had done nothing but good for us, yet we rebelled against him anyway.

God did notrespond to our rejection and disrespect as we would do. He stepped in – as hehad already planned to do – to become our substitute (1 Pet 2:24). Christ allowed our punishmentto fall on him in the most awful, violent way– the public death of crucifixion.

The OTsacrifices in the Jewish tabernacle and Temple foreshadowed Christ’s death.Christ himself taught that he had come into the world for this very purpose, todie as the price of redemption for us (Matt 20:28; Mark 10:45). Years later, Peterreminded believers that Christ’s death was the payment that freed us from sin (1 Pet 1:18-19).

As the manwhose ox gored another person to death walked free when he paid the set price,so we walk free from the death penalty our sin deserves. For this to happen,God not only chose us, but he paid the ultimate price, a price we would never beable to pay.

Though the price was most expensive, his grace was moreextensive.

By redeeming usfrom the penalty of our sin, God acted according to his nature – a nature markedby grace (Eph 1:7). He is not a vengeful, grudge-holding God who enjoys sendingus to hell. He is just, so he must do so. He cannot excuse or overlook our sin.

Yet, God is so rich with grace that he must also find a way to rescue us from this terrible problem. God is so wealthy with grace that he gives it in an abundant way, not in a clever, stingy, calculated way. The word “abound” means to “super abound” (Eph 1:8). God is “super-rich” with goodness, so rich that he redeemed us.

God is “super-rich” with goodness, so rich that he redeemed us.

Had he been careful and conservative in his approach, he never would have done this. He would have removed us and moved on to other things. Yet his grace is more extensive than the awfulness of your sin. He is so liberal and lavish with his grace that he did the most extravagant and costliest thing ever – redeem you himself through Christ’s death.

God’s goodness,grace, and mercy are so lavish that there was never any question about what hewould do. He would not only want to forgive you, he would make a wayto do it, even though that way would cost him the violent, humiliating,undeserved death of his own precious Son. Yes, God doesn’t start over. Herestores, no matter what the cost.

Through redemption, God is working out a much bigger plan.

By liberatingus from the penalty and power of our sins, God did more than just solve our individualproblem. He moved forward a much bigger plan that he’s been working out fromthe beginning of time in the most wise and skillful way possible (Eph 1:8).

Redemption isnot just about restoring our personal relationship with God. It’s aboutrestoring all things to their original place and purpose. It is a key part inGod’s grand rebuilding plan – rebuilding all of the creation, including ourrelationship with him.

Paul calls thisbig plan that God is working out a mystery, something we would neverknow unless God revealed it to us (Eph 1:9). It’s something that’s been in hismind forever, but we only know it now because he’s told us. No amount ofresearch or exploration would have ever discovered this plan.

This plan isalso “according to his good pleasure” (Eph 1:9), which means it’s what Godreally enjoys. God not only enjoys creating things, but he also enjoys restoringand rebuilding things. He does not look at redemption as an inconvenience to endure.It’s what he really wants to do because he really enjoys it.

When weconsider the cost of our redemption, we might assume that God would bereluctant to do it. But we will not hear God say, “I did that because I hadto.” Instead, we can hear him say, “It’s my greatest pleasure.”

God “purposed”to do this “in himself” (Eph 1:9). No one lobbied him. He decided to do it onhis own, with no outside pressure. We did not deserve to be redeemed, nor did wepersuade him in any way. The eternal, triune God – the Father, Son, and Spirit– acted according to his nature to choose us for himself and to redeem us fromour sins.

We’re living in a very special stage of history.

Here’s the bigpicture. God from eternity past into eternity future is acting like a householdmanager (that’s what “dispensation” means, Eph 1:10). He is governing and managingthe world as we know it today with a specific goal in mind. He does this as apower-of-attorney manages the estate of another person according to thatperson’s written will.

When Paulspeaks of “the fullness of times” (Eph 1:10), he is referring to the timebetween Christ’s first advent (when he came into the world die on the cross forour sins, Gal 4:4-5)and his second advent (when he will establish God’s full and final, eternal anduniversal kingdom in the world and eradicate all presence and influence of sin,Eph 4:30). That time is now. We are living in the middle of this special stagein history when God through Christ is working this all out, one step at a time.

Finally, Paulreveals the punch line, “That he might gather together in one all things inChrist, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in him” (Eph 1:10). Byredeeming us, and everyone else he’ll redeem, he paid the price required torestore the full created world back to his original purpose and more.

What Paul sayshere implies that there was a rebellion against God. At the beginning, thosebeings whom God created rebelled against him as King. We revolted. We disruptedthe order of creation and the harmony in our relationship with God.

Through redemption God is undoing the results of thegreat rebellion.

He is doingthis instead of moving on to something else. He is doing this through whatChrist has done, is doing right now, and will do in thefuture.

Notice, forinstance, how God has redeemed us from the penalty of our sins so that he couldforgive our sins (Eph 1:7).

Then alsonotice how God will still redeem us from the presence of sin in the future (Eph1:14). The “purchased possession” refers to our physical bodies, which will berestored and remade in the end, free from the influence of sin forever (Rom 8:23). This willhappen after Christ returns to the world to rule and reign (Luke 21:28)

Not only is Godrestoring the physical world and human beings back to a right relationship withhim, but he’s doing the same in the spiritual world, in the realm of angels andspirits where a great rebellion also occurred (Isa 14:12-15).

Satan seducedAdam and Eve into sinning (Gen 3:1-6). Even today, Satan and other spiritualbeings somehow influence and seek to interfere with our lives (Eph 6:11-12).We’re part of a long-standing, ongoing, cataclysmic rebellion against God.

Through redemption,God is undoing that rebellion and restoring all creation to his originaldesign. He’s making everything right – physical and spiritual, human andangelic.

Our redemptionis part of God’s massive, sweeping plan to restore permanent order to all hecreated. He has placed us back under the headship or leadership of Christ. Heis restoring us to our place as his royal children and as citizens in hiseternal kingdom.

Because God redeemed us, we should give him the praise hedeserves.

How should we respond to God’sredemption? Paul answers this question in two ways.

The long answer is to read the restof this letter and to do what it says, especially in the second half (Eph 4-6).We should participate faithfully and wholeheartedly in the ministry of thechurch (Eph 4), and we should behave in our relationships – at home and in theworld – in a Christlike, God-honoring way.

The short answer, though, is foundin our passage. Three times Paul says, “to the praise of his glory” (Eph 1:6,12, 14). This phrase teaches us to respond to God’s lavish grace and costlysacrifice by giving him the praise he deserves.

The praise that Paul speaks ofoccurs many times in the OT, especially in Psalms – which was the hymnbook ofIsrael. Psalm 63:3-5is a good example of what this means.

Do we praise God this way? Do theseverses describe the attitude of our hearts towards God? Do they describe theactions of our voice and lips towards him?

As God’s children, we should lookforward to every opportunity we have to praise God in song. On Sunday, forinstance, the singing we do together is just as important as the preaching we hear,the Bible study we do, or the conversations we have with one another.

In fact, Paul brings this up in the second half of this letter when he says, “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” (Eph 5:19).

When we sing praises to God, we should be neither quiet nor shy.

When we sing praises to God, weshould be neither quiet nor shy. We shouldn’t worry about the level of ourmusical abilities or our tendency to hit wrong notes or sing the wrong wordsometimes. We should all sing aloud from our hearts no matter how gifted ortalented we may be. God paid the greatest price for our redemption, so weshould sing.

When we sing as a church, we shouldnot be casual. We should be motivated by the lavish grace of God and the costlysacrifice of Christ. We should “offer him the sacrifice of praise … givingthanks to his name” (Heb13:15). We should also do so during the week!