Holding Fast

"Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus" 2 Timothy 1:13

July 15, 2008

The Trinitarian Work of Christian Unity

Ephesians 2:11-22

In the Scriptures we might say that we find the overwhelming assumption of the doctrine of the Trinity. Nowhere in the Bible will we find the concise creedal statement, “God is one God eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.” Yet when we study Paul’s letter to the Ephesians we are struck with the clear teaching on the unity of God along with the triune work of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: “there is one body and one Spirit- just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call-one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (4:4-6). In the great doxological sentence of chapter one we find that God the Father accomplishes all things according the counsel of his will (1:11). This purpose is accomplished by redemption through the blood of Christ (1:7). This purpose is applied, sealed, and guaranteed in our hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit (1:13).

This same unified, harmonious work of one God in three persons is found in Ephesians 2:11-22. What is particularly glorious about this passage is that it teaches us that the unity of many believers into one unified body is accomplished by our Triune God. As a body of believers we reflect the image of the Triune God – many members in one body- through the work of the Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As one body we do not lose who we are as individuals any more than Christ loses his personhood in his unity of essence with the Father. We are called to be unified, not uniform. This is part of the great mystery of the Godhead. There is diversity in the persons and functions of the Triune God. But it is diversity with perfect harmony and unity! And this is the work of God in his redeeming power through the Church.

In Ephesians 2:11-22 we find no less than twelve explicit references to the Trinity in twelve verses: five references to Christ – vv. 12, 13(2x), 20,21; five references to God – vv. 12, 16, 18, 19, 22; and two references to the Holy Spirit - vv. 18,22. God the Father has willed and decreed that a holy temple, a great household, a wonderful family be brought together throughout time and all over the world “to the praise of His glorious grace.”

But his children are rebels and sinners. Ephesians 2:11-13 paints a rather grim portrait of our sinful condition before the just and righteous God. We were “gentiles in the flesh,” the “uncircumcision.” We had no claim to an inheritance before God the Father. We had no place at his table. We were separated from Christ, aliens and strangers to the law of God and his covenant promises. We were at war with God, and at war with his people. We were far off, with no rightful access to God. We were without hope and without God in the world.
How might this hostility be abolished? How might these warring brothers be united? How might this sin be atoned? How will the prodigals, aliens, and strangers be brought into the commonwealth of Israel? By the Triune work of God.

First, by the purpose, decree, and power of God (Eph. 1:3-14). This sovereign purpose of God is the overarching theme of Ephesians, and more than that, the whole of God’s Word!
This purpose is accomplished by the work of Christ. In Ephesians 2:13 we see that we were brought near to the holy and just God by the blood of Christ. Jesus Christ made one body by giving up his own body on the cross. He made one new man, reconciling all men to God through the cross. He preached peace first to the Jew (who was near) and then to the Gentile (who was far off.)

This work of Christ is applied by the work of the Holy Spirit. We see in verse 18, while Jesus did
the work of atonement, the Spirit does the work of granting access. We have access to the Father by the indwelling presence of God Himself in us by the Spirit. We are made a “dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” We are a new household; each of his children by the spirit of sonship (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). We are brothers and sisters “eagerly maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (4:3).

As I reflect on Ephesians 2:11-22, I have to ask myself if I typically look at unity in the body through the beautiful Trinitarian lens that Paul gives us in this passage. Try a little exercise with me. Consider a brother or sister in the church you find difficult to get along with. Perhaps they rub you the wrong way, or maybe they have legitimately hurt you in some way. Maybe you have a bone to pick with an elder in the church, or you have issues with the way a fellowship group leader teaches, or how he handled a situation. Now consider him in light of Ephesians 2:11-22 and the work of our Triune God in making both of you one “to the praise of his glorious grace.”

Remember that both of you share a common heritage of sinfulness, exile, separation from Christ, hopelessness, and alienation from God. Without the pure, undeserved grace of Christ, neither of you have any claim to godliness, goodness, nor glory. This tends to level our pride, doesn’t it? Keeps you from “thinking of yourself more highly than you ought” (Romans 12:3).

Next, remember that God chose him before the foundation of the world according to the purpose of His will. God the Father loves this brother as a son and has a glorious redemptive design for his life, and you are part of that design as a member with him of one unified body.

Now reflect of the blood of Christ that was shed to bring both this brother and you near to God. Through the body of Christ, you are now one body. Whatever hostility there is between you, it has been removed by the work of Christ. You were given peace through the cross of Christ. You have both been reconciled to God and this same power is at work to reconcile you to one another.

Consider the reality that you are both members of one household, children in the same family, citizens together of one nation, each fitted into a new structure, a holy temple in the Lord. You are each indwelt by the Spirit of God. The same Spirit that quickened your heart from death to life worked this same regeneration in the heart of your brother! The Spirit in you is the Spirit in Him [are you referring to ‘him’ your brother or ‘Him’ God?...wasn’t sure] and the same Spirit “who searches even the deep things of God” (1 Cor. 2:10). Through this same indwelling Spirit you are together part of the very dwelling place of God.

As we see our lives, our identity, and our relationships through the glorious work of our Triune God, what is it that might impede unity in the body? What human hindrance stands in the way of the decree of God, the blood of Christ, and the work of the Spirit? What sinful struggle or satanic strategy can thwart the harmony and order that is ours through the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. With this Trinitarian vision, heed the call of the Apostle to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

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posted by Erik Braun

January 03, 2008

Thank God for His Gracious Choice

It is Thanksgiving week, one of my favorite times of the year. A time of feasting. There is something wonderful about taking two or three days to eat every kind of glorious dish imaginable (which is better- the turkey leg on Thursday or a thick slice of turkey meat on mayo-enriched Wonder bread on Friday?). A day focusing on giving thanks is fundamentally biblical and distinctively Christian. Thanksgiving as a holiday remains relatively unscathed by the mind-numbing commercialization and secularization of our culture. Christmas is no longer truly Christmas in America, but has become some strange pagan snow festival following the rituals of Halloween in the financial calendar. Thanksgiving is so innately centered upon such a core Christian virtue, that our eucharistic celebration almost defies all attempts at overt commercial defilement.

Yet, there is a silent tension around most tables in the moments before the bird is carved. What are we truly thankful for? Food? Clothing? A three bedroom split plan with two cars and matching kids? To whom is all this thanks given? Do we thank each other? Do we thank ourselves? Our secular commitments thunder forth in that silence, however hard we try to sacramentalize our actions and words around the table. In such secular silence, we must sing forth with all the blessings of the gospel presented to us by Paul in Ephesians 1:3-14. Volumes could be written, and have been, on the wonderful truths strung together by Paul in this incredible 12 verse run on sentence. I will focus on a cardinal doctrine of the Christian faith which is seen by the Apostle as a fountain of blessings to the believer.

We should praise God for his sovereign election. Paul says that we have been �chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world� (verse 4). If you are a Christian, your salvation is not because of �works done by us in righteousness, but according to God�s mercy� (Titus 3:5). We would thank ourselves, if salvation was obtained by our own wisdom or power. But, no thanks to us, it was while we were yet sinners that Christ died for us. In Ephesians 2: 1-3 Paul describes our position outside of the gracious election of God: dead in trespasses and sins, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, living in the passions of the flesh, carrying out the desires of the mind, by nature children of wrath. But it isn�t the voice of a just judge that we hear through the gospel, but rather the calling of a merciful Father. Yes, the doctrine of divine election has rankled many who seek to preserve some degree of human responsibility in the work of salvation. And it should not surprise us that a doctrine that so elevates God and so minimizes human effort should cause chagrin. Nonetheless, praise and thanksgiving should echo through our hearts at the realization of our profound need and God�s wonderful grace in election.

Paul begins here, with God�s gracious sovereign choice, because this is where it all begins for us. It does not begin with us, it begins with God. The Apostle John said it simply and powerfully, �We love because he first loved us� (1 John 4:19). All of the blessings piled up by Paul in these opening verses flow from the sovereign grace of God: adoption, redemption, forgiveness, revelation, inheritance, the seal and deposit of the Holy Spirit. And what is the basis for his choosing? Is the election of God simply some capricious and arbitrary design? No, says Paul, it is according to the �kind intention of his will� (1:5). This doesn�t solve the mystery of God�s design, and mysterious it certainly is from our very limited and human perspective. But, however mysterious and confounding the doctrine of election might be, Paul assures us that it is anchored in goodness and love, which he calls God�s eudokia (good will, good pleasure, or kind intention in the New American Standard).

This thanksgiving I will give thanks to God for his mysterious, and gracious choice of a sinner like me. I will give thanks to God for all the blessings that flow from this fundamental grace. And in all the questions, the struggles, and the trials that face me and the people of God, I will rest in God�s eudokia. I will never fully understand the design of God in all these things, because his thoughts are not my thoughts nor are his ways my ways (Isaiah 55: 8). But, he promises that all things work together for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose, he promises that all things will be to the �praise of his glorious grace�, and he promises that all things will find their place in the merciful and kind intention of the sovereign plan.

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posted by Four Oaks Web Administration

About Me

Pastor of Four Oaks Community Church. Tori, my wife of 12 years, and I have four children that keep us in a state of suspended bliss: Tess, Bo, Emma, and li'l Chloe.

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