We Haven't Even Gotten to the Good Part

Who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory (Eph 1:14).

It's the "American Dream." Owning  your own home. In order to make that happen, you scrimp and save to come up with a down payment. 

You write a check for a fraction of the cost which insures you'll pay the rest (or should I say, the bank will pay the rest!).  

It's your financial guarantee.  The down payment is a serious chunk of change.  It shows the seller you're committed.  It shows the seller you're not jacking around.  

You now have skin in the game.  And by committing the cash, you guarantee that one day soon the house will be your home.

Paul tells us that God is serious about His purchase of us.  He's made His down payment.  He's given us His Holy Spirit "who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory" (v14).  

His commitment of His Spirit in the deal is very real.  It shows us He's serious.  It shows us He's not jacking around.  And it lets us know that He has so much in store.

His down payment means we haven't even gotten to the good part yet.

Paul has spent all of Ephesians 1:3-14 reminding us just how good God is to us.  Call it the Tsunami of Blessings.  Once he gets started, he simply can't stop.  

Think that's an overstatement?  In the original language, this is one, long run-on sentence.  

The apostle starts it off by writing about how our heavenly Dad "has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing" (Eph 1:3).  

Not handful of blessings.  But every last stinkin' one of them.  And so it begins.  One blessing.  After another.  After another.  After another.  

Let that tidal wave of God's goodness in Jesus wash over you like.  Let it drench you.  Let it consume you.

These opening verses set the stage for the rest of Paul's letter to his Ephesian friends.  Flip back a few pages of history and you'll see how Jesus used the man from Tarsus to turn this great city upside down (Acts 19).  

Tons of people turning to Jesus.  Bonfires.  Riots.  A dude named Epaphras takes the message of Jesus from Ephesus back to his hometown on Colossae (Col 1:7).  

Pretty soon, a group of spiritual snake oil salesmen dupe the Colossians into believing that Jesus might have been good but He wasn't God.  Uh oh.  Not good.  Not good at all!  

Paul lets them know that Jesus isn't just God but He's more God than we can wrap our brains around (Col 1:15-20).  

The apostle is worried that this heresy might infect the church in Ephesus which is just 100 miles down the road from Colossae.  

So he fires off another letter to the folks there.  He's certain that if we have a clear picture of who Jesus is and the Tsunami of Blessings He's given us, we won't fall for some counterfeit gospel.

Paul has just told us how we're "sealed with the promised Holy Spirit" (Eph 1:13).  He goes on to say that the Third Person of the Trinity is God's "guarantee of our inheritance" (v14).  

He uses the Greek word αρραβων/arrabon, which literally means a down payment or earnest money.  It's legal and technical term that describes the partial payment which promises the future completion of the deal.  

It's that advanced transaction which guarantees the validity of a contract and full purchase price.  If the deal falls through, the potential buyer is out the cash.  

The Father's way of cinching the purchase is by giving His Spirit.  Since the Spirit is just as much God as the other members of the Trinity, God literally gives Himself as His guarantee of our future inheritance.  

That's quite a down payment.

God uses His Spirit so we'll know that what's ahead is stone cold, lead pipe lock.  He's "given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee" (2Cor 1:21-22).  

The Holy Spirit is His way of prepping for those mind-blowing eternal blessings.  "He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee" (2Cor 5:5).  

It's God's way of letting us know that we haven't even gotten to the really good part.

Because of Jesus, we're insured of an "inheritance" (v14).  Paul uses the word κληρονομια/kleronomia.  

This is property passed along in an estate, a gift received when someone has died or a possession given from one to another.  

Just up the page in the middle of this Tsunami of Blessings, Paul reminds us that it's only through our divine Big Brother that our names are even in the will.  "In Him we have obtained an inheritance" (Eph 1:11).  

Paul uses a very similar word!  While there's certainly unbelievable good stuff now as a follower of Jesus, His Tsunami of Blessings has only just begun!

We haven't even gotten to the good part.

Paul's next phrase is a little fuzzy.  The ESV gives it to us as "until we acquire possession of it" (v14).  Some folks who translate the Bible see it as "until God redeems His possession."  

So which is it?  Actually a little bit of both.  We'll acquire it but only because God has bought it for us.  It literally reads "to the redemption of the property."  

God bought us. We belong to Him.  He paid an ENORMOUS price (1Cor 6:20; 7:23). It cost Him His Son. His only Son. His perfect Son. 

While we haven't done anything to receive His grace, it cost Him everything. He bought and paid for us. We're His. 

We have a shadow of this in the Old Testament with God's special selection of the Jews as His chosen people (Dt 7:6; 1Chr 16:13; Ps 33:12; Ps 105:6, 43) as well as the Levites as His personal possession (Num 3:12, 45; 8:14).

The last wave to break in this Tsunami of Blessings is the phrase "to the praise of His glory" (v14).  Sound familiar?  

Well, it should.  We've seen it two other times in this tidal wave of God's grace (Eph 1:6, 12).  

God rightfully deserves all the credit and praise for what He's doing in and through Jesus to save us.  His saving work will result in the greatest ovation the universe has ever heard.  

This whole deal is "to the praise of His glory" (v14).  What's for our good is for His glory. What's for His glory is for our good.

For all that Jesus has done for us there's so much more yet to come.  Like we said, we haven't even gotten to the really good part.

©2013

Jay Jennings