Introduction: The Mystery of the Human Will
You may not have heard of Sisyphus. He was the legendary king of Corinth who, for his misdeeds in life, was condemned in Hades to roll a great rock to the top of a high hill, but, whenever he reached the summit, the rock always toppled over and rolled back to the bottom. So Sisyphus’s labour was eternally futile. But the existentialist philosophers of the Twentieth century picked on this figure from Greek myth as archetypal of the human condition: condemned to meaninglessness, in a universe in which there is no God, humanity may nevertheless bring meaning to life by the exercise of the human will – by determining to keep pushing that rock up to the top of the hill, however often it tumbles back down to the bottom. It is an heroic, if ultimately unsatisfactory, image—to give life meaning by an act of the human will. . . although I suspect that many of us are closer to that position than we may realise.
The
human will is a strange thing, isn’t it? We have all got one and they are all
distinct from one another. And they are all pretty strong, I think you will
agree – even if in the matter of New Year resolutions that may not seem to be
the case! In fact, I think we could almost portray human society like this: a mass
of little arrows pointing in all directions, each representing a separate human
will.
And at times those wills collide.
We find ourselves in confrontation with one another, crashing into other people. And, even if I’m not on a collision course with someone else, I may feel extremely frustrated with my circumstances, because they don’t conform to how my will would like them to be. And we do try to make sense of our lives by the expression of our own wills, doing what we set ourselves to do with all the will-power we have.
Well, our passage this morning, Ephesians 1:1-14, concerns the will, but it focuses not on our confused and conflicting human wills, but on the will of God. We notice, first, that God has a will.
1. God’s Will
It’s mentioned in the first verse of the passage: ‘Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God.’ (Indeed, the fact that you and I have wills is one of the things that make us like God.) The will is a God-like thing. Now, from verses 3 to 14 of this passage, it’s all one sentence in the original Greek, the longest sentence in the New Testament. It’s a great paeon of praise that tumbles out of Paul with no great grammatical coherence – which is not rare in Paul. It’s clear that God’s will was uppermost in Paul’s mind as he wrote. Look at the words he uses.
Verse 4:
He chose us . . .
Verse 5:
He predestined us . . . in accordance with His pleasure and will.
Verse 9:
And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Christ . . .
And then, again, in verse 11:
In Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will . . .
(a) God has a will and, if it is God’s will, then it will be established. Over all our wills, there is one will that cannot fail. You and I can set our hearts on all sorts of things in life, and we may or may not achieve them. I don’t know if you think that you have achieved the things you want to do in life? Or that you are achieving them? Or that you will achieve them? But if there is a God and He has a will for this universe, then it is absolutely certain His will will come about. It will be established.
So what is this will of God’s? Well, our passage tells us
(b) It concerns Jesus. Look, please at vv 9-10.
And He made know to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
‘. . . the mystery of His will . . .’ – The human will is a mystery sometimes, isn’t it? We find ourselves saying to someone we’re negotiating with, “What is it you really want here?” But God has made His will clear:
And He made know to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.
When
the Greeks did sums in Maths, they put the total, not at the bottom as we do
(that is, those of us who can still do sums in this electronic age), but at the
top. When God does His final computation and brings everything together, it
will be all under Jesus. He will be its head, the One for Whom it was created
in the first place. There is a Grand Unifying Theory behind the universe, but
it does not concern the movement and mass of particles. It concerns Jesus. That
is God’s will: that His son Jesus should rule over His creation. We are not
actually heading towards chaos. The laws of thermodynamics will not ultimately
triumph. We are heading towards Christ, and the triumph will be God’s. Do you
see the refrain? At the beginning of
verse 6:
. . . to the praise of His glorious grace. . .
and at the end of verse 12:
. . . for the praise of His glory.
and how does the passage end? Verse 14:
. . . to the praise of His glory.
The universe was created to please God and it will finally be to His praise. Its present, chaotic state is due to our human rebellion against God, and that causes many not to praise God, but to doubt He even exists. But eventually there will be no doubt at all as to Who is in charge, and all the praise and the glory will go to Him.
But what are we to make of God’s will? Well, consider our second heading –
2. The greatest blessing is for my will to be aligned with God’s will.
See how Paul starts his prayer:
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
In the verses that follow he explains what he means by being blessed . . . in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. And he summarises in verses 11 and 12:
In
Him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him
who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order
that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of His
glory.
In other words, each of us, each of our wills, can be incorporated into the great and unstoppable will of God.
How can this disordered and suffering and grief-ridden world be brought back into line with the will of its Creator? By our individual wills being aligned, one by one, with His will. The renewal of society begins with the conversion of the individual. But notice:
(a) It takes God to do that. Look at verse 4:
For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight.
Notice Who is the subject to the active verbs in these verses.
. . . He chose us . . . (v.4)
. . . He predestined us . . . (v.5)
. . . He has freely given us . . . (v.6)
. . . He lavished on us . . . (v.8)
. . . He made known to us . . . (v.9)
God is the One at work here, not human beings. The human will cannot be changed by an effort of the human will. We cannot make our lives meaningful by our own effort. We have no purchase point. It is like trying to steer a motionless boat without paddle or pole or line, without any contact with the water or the bank or the bottom. No. It has got to be the work of the Creator. He has to step in. Paul is not telling us how to make ourselves better people. He is telling us about a God Who loves to save people, and to give their lives meaning.
And He does that by bringing us back into relationship with Himself, so
(b) It means relationship.
In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will – to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves. (vv. 4c-6)
It concerns the love a father has for his children. It is not merely a different philosophy, a new conviction about the truth, a change of mind. It is a new relationship. It is not a signature on a contract. It is a handshake – no, more than that: it is a hug, an embrace. Love being met by love.
And for that to happen there has to be forgiveness, so
(c) It requires forgiveness.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. (vv.7-8)
At huge expense to Himself, God gave up His own Son in order that we might become His sons and daughters. So Jesus paid the price by His own death for all the guilt and sin and evil of my life.
Forgiveness is at the root of all lasting human relationship. We have to be forgiven by our friends, by our husbands and by our wives, by our parents and by our children, and, above all, if we are to have a relationship with Him, by our God. Otherwise my wilfulness, my selfishness, destroys all relationship. Are you finding it hard to forgive someone? Then remember what you have been forgiven:
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins . . . (v. 7)
When we grasp that, we will cease grudging our forgiveness to others, and relationships can flourish.
And then, finally,
(d) It is focussed on the future: God looks forward to a destiny for creation.
And He made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment – to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ. (vv. 9-10)
It will be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment. Because God looks forward, I must look forward too, through and beyond my own death, past the threat of a nuclear winter, to the goal God has for all creation. It is the only perspective that will free me from the tyranny of the present. I suspect this was easier for earlier, less comfortable ages. Our present life is so comfortable, so secure, so prosperous, so free of pain and inconvenience, that we find it hard to lift our eyes from immediate goals and present delights. How many of us entered a New Year this week with any thought that this could turn out to be the year of our death? Or the year of Christ’s return? If we’re honest, we’re all expecting to reach 2003, aren’t we? And we sense it is somehow morbid to think in any other way. But this passage speaks of a moment when eternity will break in on time, because time will have reached its fulfilment. and the real Ruler of time and space and eternity will be revealed and we will all stand before Him. For some that will be a moment more awful than their worst nightmares, the moment of truth to be dreaded to the utmost. But for others it will be a wonderful, longed-for moment of blissful consummation, like a wedding night, described in the last sentence of the passage.
Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, Who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of His glory. (vv. 13b-14)
‘. . . the redemption of those who are God’s possession . . .’ The believer belongs to God, and He is coming for us. Not because we have earned it or deserved it, but because, from the unfathomable nature of His love, He has chosen us. Among all the nations of the earth there is one race with no visible distinction of appearance or language or ethnicity. They are those in whom God’s Spirit has already taken up residence, marking believers, sealing them, as God’s own, ready for a great moment yet to come.
Are you looking forward to it?
2. So what about us? What about me?
You may have noticed that Paul switched from using the first person plural (‘we’ and ‘us’) in verses 3-12 to the second person plural (‘you’) in verses 13-14:
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, Who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of His glory.
In the context of the latter he is shifting from talking abut the Jews (of whom he was one) to the Gentiles (who most of his readers would have been). And most of us here today, I guess, are Gentiles and not Jews, so it would be appropriate to apply these final verses particularly to ourselves. What gives our lives meaning and purpose? Are we like Sisyphus, futilely determined to give our lives meaning by the exercise of our own wills with all the costs that involves? Or will it be God’s will that makes my life meaningful? That is why we baptised Molly today, because we want her life to count . . . in eternity. Not just the life of a superior animal, however cultured, however intelligent, however glamorous she might grow up to be on this earth. But the life of a child of God, reaching beyond time into eternity, and being His instrument for good while here on earth, awaiting that moment when Jesus Himself will claim her for His own.
Perhaps you know that it is not true for you at the moment, but you would like to think about taking it further. Then ponder verse 13.
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.
We have to hear (and no-one present here today can say they haven’t, because that is what I am—all too feebly—talking to you about at this moment) and believe – trust God to be truthful. He does the rest. He draws us into His will, bending our will to His, putting His Spirit into our hearts, and touching our lives with glory.
If we know it is already true of us, then let’s be thrilled with the rest of verses 13 and 14:
Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, Who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession – to the praise of His glory.
We are safe, we are sealed, we are guaranteed, and let’s hope that 2002 will be the year He comes to claim His possession.
Amen.
(All scripture quoted is from the New International Version of the Bible unless otherwise stated.)