Ephesians 1-3

o Ephesians
+ Was it really written just for the Ephesians? Probably not for three reasons:
# In our earliest and best manuscripts we do not have the words “In Ephesus” which leads us to believe that it is likely that a scribe sometime down the line added the words in parentheses and eventually the parentheses dropped out
# It is not that easy to imagine why the words would not have been there in the original if the was purely to the Ephesians
# Also, it almost seems like he is introducing himself in chapter 3. he would not have had to do this for the Ephesians because he spent THREE YEARS WITH THEM
# There are almost no greetings in the book either. Romans, written to a city to which Paul had never even been, there are tons of greetings!
+ QUESTION: why are those words in there if they are not in the original? They can’t just start pulling things out of the Bible. They have to deal with a marketplace in which people do not understand textual criticism
o Occasion for Ephesians
+ There is a lot of Baptismal imagery in the book which needs an explanation.
# There were certain rituals performed at a baptism back then. One of these was a sermon. You have one such sermon in the Book of Ephesians. Someone heard Paul’s sermon originally preached to a newly baptized convert, and someone told him to write it down and propagate it. So he did in the Book of Ephesians. The whole book is coherent.
# MYQUESTION: how do we know this is one of those sermons? WE have some descriptions, and we know the general concepts included in the sermons. But if we could prove it, we wouldn’t have to talk about theory and speculation. WE’re just trying to explain what we see
+ Theology: Chapter One: Spiritual Blessings in Christ
# Redemption in Christ—yep
# Revelation of God’s Purpose—of course
# WE have been Chosen in Christ before the Creation of the World—I don’t know about that, Paul
* Why is Paul so happy about predestination?
* Paul thinks that apart from God’s predestining love, we would all be lost and dead in our transgressions. That is a fact lady.
* The light came into the world, and the world hated the light.
* Paul’s belief in depravity: we cannot do anything without being regenerated by God
* Jesus: unless you are born again you cannot enter the kingdom
* Without the work of the Holy Spirit, you would be preaching to a cemetery.
# There are a host of questions that go along with this. Check it.
+ Ephesians 2:8: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. “
o Predestination is not Fatalism
+ Q. Did God look into the future, see who was going to believe, and then predestine those people? A. No. He looked into the future and saw that no one was going to believe.
# Our Choice was originally with Adam
+ Of all the nations in the world, God Chose Israel What’s the deal with that? They didn’t earn it. Period. Now apply that to us.
+ We see in Chapter two of Ephesians that our good works are not what with we earn our salvation. Rather, God predestined us to do those works for us to do way long time ago.
+ Romans 9 also talks about Predestination. This is a hard saying.
+ Inspiration is really another form of predestination
o Everything that happens is a result of God either allowing it to happen of causing it to happen
o MY QUESTION: why evil? Hitler? A: demonstrates how inherently evil we as humans are. Be glad that God restrains evil so that we all do not portray our Hitler-like tendencies
+ The ultimate reason that God creates people he knows will reject him is in Romans Ch. 9: we would never understand his love unless we understood his justice. So those people are merely examples! Does God even love those people!? What the heck?! I walk and talk!
+ It’s like a driver’s ed instructor. He doesn’t use the brake, he controls the car by persuading the driver.
o Fairness: it’s unfair for God to choose some people and not to choose others. And that is true, if people deserve to be chosen. But if none of us deserve it, then God can choose whomever he wants.
+ Grace is by definition, undeserved favor.
o HOW DO WE KNOW IF WE ARE CHOSEN? WE never know! So we are never encouraged to think of ourselves as chosen.