Ephesians 1-3
Holy and Blameless
For twenty-five of the thirty years I have served as a pastor I was bi-vocational, meaning I either had a job or was self-employed to help support myself and my family. For many years I was a contractor doing structural steel and hand rail. Before I would bid a job I had to have the blue prints to see what part I needed to do and how that part fit with the rest of the project. In the first page or so in the set of blue prints was a drawing that illustrated what it was that we were building. The drawing was not the finished project. It just showed us what the finished project was to look like.
Ephesians, to me, is like a set of drawings. Paul is describing to us God’s plan. God is building a Holy Temple. Jesus is the corner stone or the foundation. The apostles and the prophets are doing the construction and they are using holy and blameless material. Ephesians 2:19-22
Ephesians 1:3&4 tells us that God planned this before the foundation of the world was put in place. His plan was to build this Holy Temple with people who were holy and blameless. Are you holy and blameless? Neither was I as Chapter 2:1-3 makes clear. But, the verses that follow tell us that although we were dead, and not holy and blameless, we are made alive together with Christ because of God’s love for us. It is God who makes us holy and blameless.
Jesus said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” NASB
Here again, along with John 14:6, in a previous study, we see predestination defined. The previous study is Romans 7-9, The Plan Part 3.*
God has a plan for us to be new creations, that is, holy and blameless based on His love and mercy. He made a way by which we can accept or reject His plan. In this we see the sovereignty of God and the free will of man. If we are to receive forgiveness for our sin and eternal life, the plan must be followed. It is only by the blood Jesus shed for the world on the cross that we can receive God’s grace which results in forgiveness of sins and trespasses and adoption into God’s family as sons. This is the only way we can be holy and blameless. Ephesians 1:5-10 and also 2:4-10.
Having now been made holy and blameless we are transformed into the person God can use according to the plan He prepared for us which we will read about in the next study. For now though, Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” NASB
The same is true for Israel, and more specifically Paul, and the original apostles. Israel was given the Law after they made their commitment to the covenant on Mt Sinai. They were to bring the Law to the world. That was God’s plan. The Law speaks of, and contains, foreshadows of the Christ to come. After Jesus was crucified, raised from the dead, and ascended to heaven to sit on the throne at the right hand of God, the Holy Spirit was given. This marks the coming of the New Covenant, (Jeremiah 31:31-34 & Hebrews 8) and it was the apostles that first brought that message to the world. Ephesians 1:9-23
Those of us who have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior have been adopted as sons and have been made holy and blameless. We are now able to be a part of the Holy Temple God is building and dwells in by His Spirit as He fits us into place.
Are you holy and blameless? God has a plan for you and place for you in His plan. Are you in the place that God has planned for you? The invitation has been extended. Jesus is the Way.
Pastor Dave
*The word “Purpose” found in Ephesians 1:11 means “exposition” or consecrated bread which we discussed in Romans 7-9 The Plan Part 3.