Homily 1 — Ephesians 1, verses 1 to 10

“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” [a]

Notice that he uses the word “through” of the Father. But what of it? Are we to say that the Father is inferior? Certainly not.

“To the saints,” he says, “who are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus.” Notice that he calls men with wives and children and household servants “saints.” That these are the people he gives this name to is plain from the end of the letter, when he says, “Wives, submit to your own husbands” (Ephesians 5, verse 22); and again, “Children, obey your parents” (Ephesians 6, verse 1); and, “Servants, be obedient to your masters” (Ephesians 6, verse 5). Think how great the laziness is that has hold of us now, how rare anything like virtue is now, and how great the number of virtuous people must have been then, when even people living in the world could be called “saints and faithful.”

“Grace to you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” “Grace” is his word; and he calls God “Father,” since this name is a sure sign of that gift of grace. How so? Listen to what he says elsewhere: “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Galatians 4, verse 6).

“And from the Lord Jesus Christ.” Because for us human beings Christ was born and appeared in the flesh. [c]

Verse 3: “Blessed be the God,” he says, “and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Notice: “the God” of the one who became flesh; and, whether you like it or not, “the Father” of God the Word.

Verse 3: “Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.”

Here he is alluding to the blessings of the Jews. That too was a blessing, but it was not a spiritual blessing. For how did it go? “May the Lord bless you; he will bless the fruit of your body” (Deuteronomy 7, verse 13); and, “He will bless your going out and your coming in” (Deuteronomy 28, verse 4). But here it is not like that. How, then? “With every spiritual blessing.”

What do you still lack? You have been made immortal, you have been made free, you have been made a son, you have been made righteous, you have been made a brother, you have been made a co-heir; you reign with Christ, you are glorified with Christ; all things have been freely given to you. “How,” he says, “will he not also with him freely give us all things?” (Romans 8, verse 32). Your firstfruits is worshiped by angels, by the cherubim, by the seraphim! What do you still lack? “With every spiritual blessing.” Nothing here belongs to the flesh.

That is why Christ set aside all those former blessings when he said, “In the world you have distress” (John 16, verse 33): to lead us on to these. For just as those who had the things of the flesh could not bear to hear of spiritual things, so those who aim at spiritual things cannot reach them unless they first stand apart from the things of the flesh.

And again, what is a “spiritual blessing in the heavenly places”? It is not on earth, he means, as it was with the Jews: “You will eat the good things of the land” (Isaiah 1, verse 19); “to a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3, verse 8); “The Lord will bless your land” (Deuteronomy 7, verse 13). Here we have nothing of this kind. What do we have, then? “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and I and my Father will come to him and make our home with him” (John 14, verse 23). “Everyone, then, who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock; and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock” (Matthew 7, verses 24 and 25). And what is that rock but those heavenly things that are beyond the reach of every change? [f]

“Everyone, then,” says Christ, “who confesses me before others, I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven; but whoever denies me, I will also deny” (Matthew 10, verses 32 and 33). Again, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5, verse 8). And again, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5, verse 3). And again, “Blessed are you who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for your reward is great in heaven” (Matthew 5, verses 11 and 12). Notice how everywhere he speaks of heaven, and nowhere of the earth or of the things on the earth. And again, “Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3, verse 20). And again, “Do not set your mind on the things that are on the earth, but on the things that are above” (Colossians 3, verse 2).

“In Christ.” That is, this blessing did not come by the hand of Moses, but by Christ Jesus. So we surpass them not only in the kind of blessings we have, but in the Mediator too. As he says in the Letter to the Hebrews as well: “And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, as a testimony to the things that were to be spoken later; but Christ as a Son over his house, whose house we are” (Hebrews 3, verses 5 and 6). [g]

Verse 4: “Just as,” he goes on, “he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love.”

His meaning is something like this: the one through whom he has blessed us is the one through whom he has also chosen us. And so it is he who will give us all those rewards hereafter. He is the very Judge who will say, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25, verse 34). And again, “I desire that where I am, they also may be with me” (John 17, verse 24). This is a point he is eager to prove in almost all his letters: that ours is no new system, but that it had been sketched out in this way from the very first; that it is not the result of any change of purpose, but was in fact God’s own plan of salvation, determined beforehand. And this is a mark of his great care for us.

What is meant by “He chose us in him”? Through faith in him, he means, Christ arranged this for our good before we were born — more than that, before the foundation of the world. And “foundation” is a beautiful word, as though he were pointing to the world as cast down from some vast height. Yes, vast indeed and beyond words is the height of God, so far removed — not in place, but in a nature that cannot be shared. So wide is the distance between creation and Creator! That is a word heretics ought to be ashamed to hear. [h]

But why has he chosen us? “That we should be holy and without blemish before him.” So that when you hear that “he has chosen us,” you will not imagine that faith alone is enough, he goes on to add life and conduct. For this purpose, he says, he has chosen us, and on this condition: “that we should be holy and without blemish.” That was how he chose the Jews in former times too. On what terms? “This nation,” he says, “he has chosen out of all the nations” (Deuteronomy 14, verse 2).

Now if human beings, when they choose, choose what is best, much more does God. In fact, their being chosen is at once a sign of God’s love for humankind and of their own goodness of character; for he would certainly have chosen those who had proved themselves. He himself has made us holy, but we must go on being holy. A holy person is one who has a share in faith; a blameless person is one who leads a life beyond reproach.

Yet it is not simply holiness and blamelessness that he requires, but that we should appear such “before him.” For there are people of holy and blameless character who are counted such only by other people: those who are like whitewashed tombs, and like those who wear sheep’s clothing. It is not people like that he requires, but such as the prophet speaks of: “And according to the cleanness of my hands” (Psalm 18, verse 24). What cleanness? The kind that is clean “in his sight.” He requires a holiness that the eye of God can look on.

Having spoken in this way of their good works, he turns again to his grace. “In love,” he says, “having predestined us.” For this does not come from any toil or any good works of ours, but from love — and yet not from love alone, but from our virtue as well. For if it came from love alone, it would follow that all must be saved; and again, if it were the result of our virtue alone, his coming would have been unnecessary, and the whole plan of salvation too. But it is the result neither of his love alone nor of our virtue, but of both.

“He chose us,” says the apostle; and the one who chooses knows what he is choosing. “In love,” he adds, “having foreordained us”; for virtue would never have saved anyone if there had been no love. Tell me: what good would Paul have gained, how would he have shown what he has shown, if God had not both called him from the beginning and, because he loved him, drawn him to himself?

Besides, his granting us such great privileges was the work of his love, not of our virtue. Our becoming virtuous, believing, and coming near to him — even this, again, was the work of the one who called us himself; and yet, for all that, it is ours as well. But that, when we come near to him, he should grant us privileges so high as to bring us at once out of a state of hostility into adoption as children — this is truly the work of a love beyond all measure.

Verses 4 and 5: “In love,” he says, “having foreordained us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself.” [j]

Do you see that nothing is done without Christ? Nothing without the Father? The one has predestined, the other has brought us near. He adds these words to heighten what has been done, just as he says elsewhere too: “And not only this, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5, verse 11). The blessings given are great indeed, but they are made far greater by being given through Christ; for he did not send any servant, though it was to servants that he sent, but the only Son himself.

Verse 5: “According to the good pleasure,” he goes on, “of his will.”

That is, because he earnestly willed it. This is, so to speak, his earnest desire. For the phrase “good pleasure” everywhere means the will that comes first; for there is also another will. For example, the first will is that sinners should not perish; the second will is that if people become wicked, they will perish. For certainly it is not by necessity that he punishes them, but because he wills it. You can see something of the sort even in Paul’s words, where he says, “I wish that everyone were as I myself am” (First Corinthians 7, verse 7); and again, “I want the younger widows to marry and bear children” (First Timothy 5, verse 14).

By “good pleasure,” then, he means the first will: the earnest will, the will joined to earnest desire, as it is with us. For I will not refuse to use even a rather homely expression, so as to speak clearly to the simpler among you: we ourselves, to express how intent our will is, speak of acting “according to our resolve.” What he means, then, is this: God earnestly aims at our salvation and earnestly desires it. Why, then, does he love us so? Where does such affection come from? From his goodness alone. For grace itself is the fruit of goodness. And for this reason, he says, he has predestined us to adoption as children: this being his will and the object of his earnest wish, that the glory of his grace might be displayed.

“According to the good pleasure of his will,” he goes on.

Verse 6: “To the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”

That the glory of his grace may be displayed, he says, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. Now if this is why he has shown us grace — to the praise of the glory of his grace, and so that he may display his grace — let us remain in it. “To the praise of his glory.” What does this mean? That who should praise him? That who should glorify him? We? Angels? Archangels? Or even the whole creation? And what would that amount to? Nothing. The divine nature knows no need.

Why, then, does he want us to praise and glorify him? So that our love for him may be kindled more fervently within us. He wants nothing we can give him — not our service, not our praise, not anything else — nothing but our salvation. This is his aim in everything he does. And whoever praises and marvels at the grace shown to him will in this way become more devoted and more earnest.

“Which he freely bestowed on us,” he says. He does not say, “which he graciously gave us,” but, “in which he has shown us grace.” That is, he has not only released us from our sins, but has also made us fit objects of his love. [k]

It is as though someone were to take a leper, wasted by sickness and disease, by age, poverty and hunger, and were to turn him all at once into a graceful young man, surpassing all humankind in beauty, with a bright glow shining from his cheeks and eyes whose glances outshone the rays of the sun; and then were to set him in the very flower of his youth, and after that dress him in purple and a diadem and all the clothing of royalty. This is how God has dressed and adorned this soul of ours, clothed it with beauty, and made it an object of his delight and love. Such a soul angels long to look into — yes, archangels, and all the holy ones. Such grace has he poured over us; so dear has he made us to himself. “The King,” says the psalmist, “will greatly desire your beauty” (Psalm 45, verse 11).

Think what insulting words we used to speak before, and look what gracious words we speak now. Wealth no longer charms us, nor the things here below, but only heavenly things, the things in the heavens. When a child has outward beauty, and besides that a grace that runs through everything it says, do we not call it a beautiful child? The faithful are like that.

Look at the words the initiated speak! What could be more beautiful than the mouth that breathes out those wonderful words, and with a pure heart and pure lips, shining with joyful confidence, shares in such a table of the mysteries? What is more beautiful than the words with which we renounce the service of the devil and enlist in the service of Christ — both the confession made before the font and the one made after it? Let those of us who have defiled our baptism think about this, and weep, so that we may be able to set it right again. [m]

Verse 6: “In the Beloved,” he says, “in whom we have our redemption through his blood.”

And how is this? Not only is there this wonder, that he has given his Son, but beyond that, that he has given him in such a way that the Beloved himself should be slain! Yes, and more astonishing still: he has given the Beloved for those who were hated. See how high a value he puts on us! If, when we hated him and were his enemies, he gave the Beloved, what will he not do now, when we have been reconciled by him through grace?

Verse 7: “The forgiveness,” he says, “of our trespasses.” [o]

Again he comes down from high to low: first he spoke of adoption, of holiness, of blamelessness, and then of his suffering. Yet in this he was not lowering his discourse and bringing it down from greater things to lesser. No; rather he was heightening it, and raising it from the lesser to the greater. For nothing is so great as that the blood of this Son should be shed for us. This is greater than the adoption and all the other gifts of grace: that he did not spare even his Son. The forgiveness of sins is great indeed, but this is far greater: that it should be done by the Lord’s blood. To see that this is far greater than everything, look how he cries out here again:

Verses 7 and 8: “According to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us.”

The gifts mentioned above are riches, but this is far more so. “Which,” he says, “he made to abound toward us.” They are both “riches” and “made to abound” — that is, poured out in a measure beyond words. It is impossible to put into words the blessings we have actually experienced. For riches indeed they are, overflowing riches; and he has given in abundance riches not of man but of God, so that in every way they are beyond expressing. And to show us how he gave it in such abundance, he adds:

Verses 8 and 9: “In all wisdom and insight, having made known to us the mystery of his will.”

That is, making us wise and insightful, with what is true wisdom and what is true insight. How astonishing! What friendship! For he tells us his secrets: the mysteries, he says, of his will — as if one were to say, “He has made known to us the things in his heart.” For this is indeed the mystery that is full of all wisdom and insight. What could you name that equals this wisdom? People who were worth nothing — it has found a way to raise them to wealth and abundance. What can equal this wise design? The one who was an enemy, the one who was hated, is lifted up on high in a moment.

And not only this: that it should be done at this particular time was again the work of wisdom, and that it should be done by means of the cross. It would take a long discussion to point out here how all this was the work of wisdom, and how he has made us wise. That is why he repeats the words, “According to his good pleasure, which he purposed in him.”

That is, this is what he desired; this is what he labored for, as one might say, so that he might be able to reveal the mystery to us. What mystery? That he would have man seated on high. And this has come to pass. [q]

Verse 10: “As a plan for the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, even in him.”

Heavenly things, he means, had been cut off from earthly ones. They no longer had one head. As far as the order of creation went, there was one God over all; but as far as the management of one household went, this was not the case, amid the wide spread of pagan error. They had been cut off from obedience to him.

“As a plan,” he says, “for the fullness of the times.” He calls it “the fullness of the times.” Notice how precisely he speaks. And though he points out that the origin, the purpose, the will and the first intention come from the Father, and that the fulfilling and carrying out are done through the agency of the Son, nowhere does he apply to the Son the term “servant.”

“He chose us,” he says, “in him, having foreordained us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself”; and, “to the praise of the glory of his grace, in whom we have redemption through his blood — which he purposed in him, as a plan for the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ.” And nowhere has he called him a servant. But if the word “in” and the word “through” imply a mere servant, look where that leads. At the very beginning of the letter he used the expression “through the will of the Father.” The Father, he means, willed; the Son carried it out. But it does not follow that because the Father willed, the Son is shut out from willing; nor that because the Son carried it out, the Father is deprived of the working. No; the Father and the Son share all things. “For all mine are yours,” he says, “and yours are mine” (John 17, verse 10).

The fullness of the times, then, was his coming. He had done everything, through the ministry of angels, of prophets, and of the law, and nothing came of it. It had almost come to this: that man had been made in vain, brought into the world in vain — or rather, to his ruin. When all were utterly perishing, more fearfully than in the flood, he devised this plan, the plan of grace, so that it might not be in vain, not to no purpose, that man had been created. This is what he calls “the fullness of the times” and “wisdom.” And why? Because at the very moment when they were on the point of perishing, they were rescued.

“That he might sum up,” he says. What does this word “sum up” mean? It means “to knit together.” But let us try to get close to its exact meaning. Among ourselves, in everyday conversation, the word means putting briefly what has been said at length: a short account of things described in detail. [t]

And it has this meaning here. For Christ has gathered up in himself the arrangements carried on over a long period; that is, he has cut them short. For it says, “finishing his word and cutting it short in righteousness” (Romans 9, verse 28). He both took in the former arrangements and added others besides. This is the meaning of “summing up.”

It has another meaning as well. What is it? He has set one and the same head over all — that is, Christ in the flesh — over angels and human beings alike. That is, he has given angels and human beings one and the same government: to the one, the Word who became flesh; to the other, God the Word. It is as one might say of a house that has one part decayed and the other sound, “He has rebuilt the house” — that is, he has made it stronger and laid a firmer foundation. So here too he has brought all under one and the same head. For this is how union will be achieved, this is how a close bond will be achieved: if one and all can be brought under one and the same head, and so have a binding tie of union from above.

Since, then, we have been honored with so great a blessing, so high a privilege, so great a love for humankind, let us not shame our Benefactor; let us not make so great a grace useless. Let us show in ourselves the life of angels, the virtue of angels, the way of life of angels. Yes, I beg and implore you: let all these things turn, not to our judgment or to our condemnation, but to our enjoyment of those good things, which may God grant we may all attain, in Christ Jesus our Lord, with whom, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, strength, and honor forever. Amen. [u]