Eph. 1:3-14
“To the Praise of His Glory”
There are only 12 verses in our passage. But the panoramic view that these verses set before us is grand, majestic and heavenly. It is simply breathtaking! I dare say that these words are a clearest expression of the mind of God Himself! What we have here is a bird’s eye view of the entire span of history from the viewpoint of God Himself in the heavenly throne. Take a look at the scope of this panoramic scene! It spans from eternity (“before the foundation of the world”, v. 4) to the consummation of history (“the fullness of the times”, v. 10). It covers all things--“things in heaven and things on earth” (v. 10). It fact, it includes the Triune God--“the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 3) and Jesus Christ the Son of God and the Holy Spirit (v. 13). It speaks of God’s eternal plan and its historical execution in Jesus Christ and the seal of the Holy Spirit unto the day of consummation. Nothing is left out because Paul in this passage speaks of the eternal plan of God, who works all things after the counsel of His will (v. 11) and the mystery of His will, which purposes to unite all things in Christ (v. 10).
What is all this about? Paul is clear in his answer and he says it three times: “to the praise of His glorious grace” (v. 6); “to the praise of His glory (vv. 12, 14). And these words are placed strategically in this passage for emphasis. For we can divide this passage into three sections along the placement of these phrases: vv. 3-6; vv. 7-12; vv. 13-14. Each of these sections ends pretty much with the phrases in view. This structure shows that whatever is described in each section is “to the praise of His glory”.
Add to this another observation. These three sections are divided not just structurally but thematically as well. The main focus of the first section (vv. 3-6) is the Father’s eternal plan decreed before the foundation of the world in His Son. The main focus of the second section (vv. 7-12) is the historical fulfillment of the Father’s eternal decree in Jesus Christ. The main focus of the third section (vv. 13-14) is the Father’s sealing of God’s people with the Holy Spirit (in Christ) as a pledge of our eternal inheritance. While God the Father is clearly the main actor throughout this section, implied are the activities of the other two Persons of the Trinity: the Son’s historical fulfillment of God’s eternal decree; the Holy Spirit’s work of preservation and protection as the seal of God’s promise. Is Paul saying that all that God the Son and God the Spirit do are to the praise of the Father’s glory? Yes! But we cannot deny that the work of the Son brings glory to the Son Himself as the work of the Holy Spirit brings glory to the Holy Spirit Himself. And the grammatical structure seems to allow the possibility of dual application--to the praise of the Father and the Son and to the praise of the Father and the Spirit; in fact, to the praise of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
What is quite clear is that the work of the Triune God is to the praise of His glorious grace / glory. All that God does is for His own glory and honor. And since God works all things according to the counsel of His will and since His eternal decree covers all things in heaven and on earth, all things that happen in this world is to the praise of His glory! As we begin this New Year, let us be clear about the purpose of our life, which is the very purpose of God Himself: the praise of God’s glory.
Our Westminster Shorter Catechism begins with this most fundamental issue: “What is the chief end of man?” The answer: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” As John Piper points out, this famous question presupposes another question: “What is the chief end of God?” The answer? “The chief end of God is to glorify Himself and to enjoy Himself forever.” This sounds awfully selfish even to us, to us who make up arguably the most egocentric culture and generation of all time. How self-centered our generation is can be seen even by the evolution (or devolution?) of magazine titles, as someone observed: from “Time” and “World” to “People” to “Us” to “Self”. But even in our egocentric culture, when someone says, “I am going to live for myself! From now on, everything is going to be about me, myself and I!” we feel that something is quite wrong with that kind of approach to life. Then how can it be OK for God to exist and do everything for His own glory? As John Piper points out insightfully, not only is it OK for God to exist for His own glory but He is also obligated to do so. Why? Because He is the most absolute and supreme Good. If righteousness is to acknowledge and uphold that which is truly good, then God, who is most righteous, must do all things to glorify Himself because He is the supreme Good. We cannot live that way because the value of our interest and our honor are relative and derivative at best. Who among us can say that his interest and his good are more valuable than other people's? There can be no contest between God and us. We are but finite creatures, here for a moment and gone in the next. God is the self-existing, eternal, self-sufficient, all-glorious God, the Creator and Lord of all. So the ultimate goal of His existence, the ultimate purpose of everything He does from eternity to eternity, is, and must be, for His own glory and honor!
But observe carefully what Paul says: “to the praise of His glory”. God does all things not only for His own glory but also for the praise of His glory! What is the difference? “To the praise of His glory” tells us that, when God does all things, He does them not only for His own sense of accomplishment and delight but also for the praise and adoration from His creatures and creation. Without a doubt, when God created all things, it was to His own enjoyment: “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31). But all of His creation was to bring praise and honor to Him as well: “O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth” (Ps. 8:1); “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork” (Ps. 19:1)! It is clear that there is a mandate incumbent on all of His creation to praise the Creator:
“Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens…! Praise the LORD from the earth, you great sea creatures and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word! Mountains and all hills, fruit trees and all cedars! Beasts and all livestock, creeping things and flying birds! Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! Young men and maidens together, old men and children! Let them praise the name of the LORD, for his name alone is exalted; his majesty is above earth and heaven” (Ps. 148:3-4, 7-13)!
Do you hear the call to all creation to praise God the Creator? Therefore, it is the chief end of man to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever! Of course, our praise does not, and cannot, add to His already all-sufficient glory! We can only acknowledge what is already complete and all-glorious. But notice how the Westminster divines conjoined our responsibility of glorifying God and our privilege of enjoying Him forever! If God is the absolute, purest Good, then we cannot glorify Him without enjoying Him at the same time! Glorifying God, who is the absolute Good, cannot be a burden. Glorifying God must be the most enjoyable and satisfying and fulfilling thing we can ever do, especially because we are made in the image of God. We are like an adapter, which was uniquely made for a particular cell phone model and for it only! We are completely useless unless we are hooked up to that particular model. This analogy fails because the cell phone needs the adapter as much as the other way round. It is easy to see that the all-sufficient, self-existing, all-glorious God does not need us in the way we need Him! But the point of the analogy is clear, I hope: we cannot be what we are created to be apart from God, apart from glorifying our God and Creator. Moreover, we cannot experience true joy without glorifying Him!
This is not so hard to understand, is it? When you find a good book--a really, really good book!--which has so much valuable information in it, which has so much wisdom, which is so intriguing and fascinating as to make you stay up all night and sill leave you wanting more in the morning, which makes you feel like your mind and heart and will are being enriched and nurtured with the turning of every page, [when we find a book like that] how fortunate we feel! When we get a vacation after many months of hard work and go out to the Grand Canyon or to the Yellowstone National Park and soak in the majesty and beauty of the breathtaking view before our eyes, don’t we feel happy and exultant? If so, how much more pleasant and satisfying it must be to behold God’s glory! For those things are but mere sparks popping out of the campfire, a few streaks of sunbeam emanating from the sun! They are but little droppings of God’s beauty and glory and majesty. For God is the incomparable Sun, the everlasting Campfire! If we see God face to face, we shall never tire of beholding God’s glory! For His glory is infinite and it will be revealed to us in its infinite variation from wonder to wonder.
But do you see what kind of glory Paul is talking about in our passage? The glory of God, which Paul portrays and enumerates before us, is not about some inherent attributes of God in and of themselves. As we saw, they are worthy of our praise and adoration, wonder and amazement. And it is in acknowledging these attributes of God and glorifying Him for them that we find true fulfillment and satisfaction. But the glory of God, which Paul depicts before us, is particularly and specifically the glory of His grace, the glory of His saving grace! The work, which God does to the praise of His glory, is the work of our salvation! The work of God, which Paul describes in this passage, which was conceived in the eternal plan of God, which spans from eternity to consummation, which involves all three Persons of the Trinity and their almighty power and wisdom and will, which has in view the summing up of all things in Christ Jesus, is the work of our redemption!
· God the Father decreed our redemption in Christ before the foundation of the world: the Father chose us unto holiness and predestined us unto adoption as sons to the praise of His glorious grace! All that God had done from creation throughout the Old Testament was unto this purpose—to save us in Jesus Christ!
· God the Son accomplished our salvation in history through His precious blood. He delivered us from the punishment of our sin by offering His life as the Atonement for our sins. Through the shedding of His blood, we have been set free from “the guilt of sin, the condemning wrath, the curse of the moral law..., from this present evil world, bondage to Satan, and dominion of sin; from the evil of afflictions, the sting of death, the victory of the grave and everlasting damnation” (WCF, 20:1). But the redemption He won for us is much more. His salvation is cosmic in scope, which is unto the summing up of all things in Him! This marvelous salvation is to the praise of His glory!
· God the Spirit as a pledge of our eternal inheritance preserves and protects the people of God unto the consummation of our salvation.
How marvelous is this thought! God of all glory has decided from eternity that He would be most pleased when He is glorified for the salvation of His people, for our salvation! And Paul sets before us the glory of God, the glory of His grace. Why? So that we may offer praise to His glory! For it was to the praise of His glory that God has decreed and accomplished our salvation. And to the praise of His glory God will bring our redemption to its marvelous completion!
But Paul does not just stop at showing us the glory of God. In the next section he goes on to pray that we may know the glory of His grace in its various benefits for us. This is where Christian education and ministry differ from any other types of education: prayer. Why is it not enough just to teach, just to be concerned with improving the communication skills to teach better? Why does Paul pray? Because there is “knowing” and there is “knowing”. The knowledge of the glory of God is not the kind of knowledge that we get tested on on a piece of paper or bluebook. Just because we can articulate the biblical doctrines, can we say that we really know them? This is not to say anything against the value of knowing something clearly enough to articulate. Especially when it comes to biblical doctrines, we should know them clearly and well not just so that we ourselves do not get confused about them but also so that we may teach and share with others. After all, what knowledge, I ask you, is more important than the knowledge of God and His Word? Is there any knowledge upon which our eternal destiny hinges as well as the very meaning and purpose of our life and everything we do? Shouldn’t we be certain and clear about what the Word of God teaches about God and us? We must study the Word, not just read it casually. And in studying and meditating the Word, we must apply all the faculties of the mind and heart and will to grasp it better and more and deeper because of the sheer supreme value of the Word of God.
But we must never forget that biblical doctrines, the knowledge of the glory of God, is given to us in this special revelation not just so that we can understand it with our mind; it is given to us ultimately so that we may believe it with all of our heart and live by it every moment in every aspect of our life. This is the reason that Paul does not stop simply at speaking of the glory of God. He goes on to pray for the eyes of our hearts to be enlightened, that we may know (v. 18), know truly and savingly, that is. Whether we know truly and savingly makes all the difference. As James says, even the demons know and believe God enough to shudder. But their knowledge of God (and dare we say, their faith?) does not produce a spirit of worship and love and joyful obedience to God. Why not? Because of their sin and utterly corrupted nature! This is why Paul could not just teach; he had to pray for our saving understanding of what he taught. For we too are corrupted with sin. It is not “natural” for us to seek God. In fact, our inclination is to do the opposite. Although we knew God, we did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. Instead, we exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles; we exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator (Rom. 1:21ff). “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 1:14). It is only when we are regenerated by the Spirit of Christ that we can know truly and believe savingly. Paul’s prayer shows how utterly incapable we are to do so on our own: it is impossible without the work of the Holy Spirit. So Paul could not depend on his words alone, though his words were written down under the Spirit’s inspiration. Paul had to pray for the Spirit to illuminate our hearts.
But this work of the Holy Spirit is not something that we need only at the time of our regeneration. Remember: Paul was offering this prayer (vv. 15ff) for the Ephesians, who were already Christians. Even after our regeneration, even after becoming Christian, we continue to need the Spirit’s work of enlightening our minds to grasp the truth of God in a saving manner. When the Spirit gives us that new birth from above, we receive the capacity to know savingly and believe genuinely. But this doesn’t mean that our actual knowledge and faith are made perfect once for all! We are in constant need of continual growth and enrichment. And especially when sin gets in the way, which still remain in us though not in control of us, it can weaken our assurance and shake our confidence in God and His Word and the promises contained in it. Oh, how we need the illuminating light of the Holy Spirit to cast away the darkness of our ignorance and let the light of heaven shine upon our souls with wisdom and understanding and conviction and joy! Even the greatest of Christians need this illuminating work of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the greater their maturity, the greater would be the awareness of their desperate need and their dependence on the Spirit! Christian maturity is not measured by self-reliance independent of God; rather, Christian maturity is measured by our dependence on God, to do all things with the very strength and wisdom of God. And through His word God promises that He would give us all these things according to the bountiful riches of His grace.
But Paul does not stop there at praying, either. He goes on
to give specific directions and commands in the second half of the letter (Chs. 4ff). What are these commands about? They are the
tangible ways in which we acknowledge God's glory and bring glory to Him! So
Paul begins the command section with these words: “I therefore, a prisoner for
the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which
you have been called…” (4:1). God’s glorified in our saving
faith in Him. God is also glorified when we walk in a manner worthy of
His calling. This calling is the first thing, for which Paul prayed that we
would know (
Do you see? God is glorified not only by what He has done for us but also by what He is doing in us! Yes, God is glorified in that He chose us and predestined us to redemption, and that in Christ and outside of us. But God is also glorified in that He makes us walk in a manner worthy of His calling, as His glory is reflected in His image-bearers. God is glorified as we lay down our old self with its sinful practices and put on a new self in righteousness and holiness of the truth. God is glorified as we lay aside falsehood and start speaking truth (4:25); as we stop stealing and start working with our hands and share with those in need (4:28); as our bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander are replaced with kindness, tender-heartedness, mutual forgiveness in the likeness of Christ (vv. 31-32).
So then, the ultimate meaning and purpose of these commands should be seen in the light of God's glory. When we are confronted with the choice between obeying God's commands and doing otherwise, what is at stake? The glory of God! What is at stake is the glory of God, who has decreed our redemption before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before Him. What, then, does it mean to obey God's command? It is choosing the glory of God over our self-indulgence at every moment of decision; choosing the glory of God over our lust of the eyes, our lust of the flesh and our boastful pride of life; choosing the glory of God over our sinful curiosity to turn to the channel and to click on that website and to go where we ought not to go; choosing God’s glory over our obsession with petty, fleeting pleasures, which crash down on us with regrets and miserable consequences; choosing God's glory over our pride, our ego, our agenda, etc.; choosing God's glory over our fear of men; choosing God's glory over the inclinations and practices of our old self; choosing God's glory over the convenience of lie and excuse; choosing God's glory over laziness and idle living; choosing God's glory over our self-pity and our grumbling, angry, unforgiving spirit!
Do you see the glory of God in your life? Do you see the
glory of God in the
That is the glory of God we see in Paul, isn’t it? Remember: Paul was in prison when he wrote this letter. Can you connect his circumstances with the glory of his words? When you read his words, can you imagine that he was in prison, chained and beaten? How could these marvelous words flow out of someone in such a dismal condition, the words which spoke of and exalted God’s glory? That is the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is how the glory of God is to be manifested in our life. Yes, we feel the effects of our sin. We see the suffering and misery of this fallen world in our lives. But
It is not God’s intention to reveal the fullness of His glory now. We have to wait for that appointed time. Then how is God’s glory revealed now? It is revealed in the going forth of gospel, as it saves sinners on its way, as it builds up and equips the saints for the work of service unto the measure of the full stature of Jesus Christ. It is revealed in the confident and persevering faith of God’s people in their glorious triune God. God is glorified when we place our trust in God’s eternal and irrevocable decree for our salvation—our election unto holiness and our predestination unto adoption as sons. This is happening in your life, isn’t it, though slow it may be at times? As He predestined us to be adopted as sons, doesn’t the Holy Spirit testify to your spirit that you are God’s children, and that, even when we find ourselves in the darkest moments of our life? Even when things look so hopeless, we cannot give up and we cannot be bitter toward God. Instead, we thrust ourselves at our heavenly Father and lay all our cares and burdens at His feet! And isn’t this the work of the Holy Spirit, testifying to us that we are His children? Isn’t that the work of God, who is not letting us go? Isn’t that why we are here, giving thanks to the Father for the forgiveness we have in Jesus Christ? And we being here together—isn’t it a manifestation and assurance that God will indeed sum up all things in Jesus Christ as people from many tribes and tongues and nations and peoples are brought together in the name of Jesus Christ, even in this small congregation?
Brothers and sisters, God will not fail in bringing glory and praise to Himself. And we have been invited to participate in that glorious work, which cannot fail. May we all resolve in our hearts, as we begin this New Year, to be conformed to the image of our God, who does all things unto His own glory! May it be our greatest desire to do all things likewise, to the praise of His glory, by believing and trusting in what God has planned and accomplished for us in Jesus Christ and what He is doing through the presence and work of the Holy Spirit; by walking in a manner worthy of His glory. Let us be faithful in all these until that day when we shall stand before the presence of His glory, surveying all of history and realize how perfectly and wonderfully God has fulfilled all that He has decreed to the praise of His glorious grace! And we shall burst out in eternal praise for the wonders of His grace! we shall be satisfied without measure when we see His glory! We shall be satisfied with Him as we were created to that end! Let us begin now in that glorious enterprise! Amen.
© Copyright 2008 by Jeong Woo "James" Lee
All Rights Reserved.